Who am I blog

I define myself in many aspects. If I could describe myself in a couple words I would say that I’m a devoted athlete, a smart student, and a good friend. I have played basketball my whole life and it is very important to me. I have practiced the game and embraced it my whole life. I know lots about the game and have continually studied throughout my life. I play a major role on my high school team and it has impacted my life greatly not only with the experiences on the court but it has also taught me life lessons off the court as well. Basketball has taught me lessons like controlling my anger, work with others, and patience. Without those lessons, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
I have also learned what it means to be a student. It takes hard work and dedication. Something that is not easy but if you have the determination you can become a good student. I am still striving to become a good student and trying to become as serious as I need to be. Hopefully it will be part of me someday.
I would also call myself I good friend. I care a lot about my friends and would do anything for them. I would want them to know that I am always there to listen to them or help them through anything. I have learned in my life that people greatly appreciate you being there for them or even giving them a small laugh when they are down.
The characters in speak define themselves in different ways. Heather for example defines that she is all bout herself when she doesn’t reach a hand out to Melinda when it is obvious that Melinda is struggling but she still only pays attention to her needs. Ivy however notices Melinda and shows that she is a very caring person and tries to grow onto Melinda. Melinda however, is a sensitive person and pays a lot of attention to what people say.

Blog 1

Yesterday in my Great Books class, we discussed freedom over security and also the book called Little Brother where the main character in the book deals with many of these issues. We were then asked how these two topics apply to our class and how we could utilize them in real life. When I was first asked this question I was very skeptical of how the conversation and the book would truly affect me. But as I started to look deeper at our classes’ conversation I started to realize that this topic means a lot to us. It helps us take what we have read in literature and apply it to our lives. In the book Little Brother the main character fights for his freedoms of privacy from homeland security. We have seen battles in real life on whether it is right to take away certain freedoms for the safety of everyone. By doing this activity I have learned to apply literature from what I read and use it in the world around me. This also helps me better understand the world around me and makes me more aware of what is going on in my world.

The Dumbest Generation

I think the article points out some very serious concerns about my young generation, but I also think some of the examples are very far fetched and don’t accurately the whole generation. I think there are many more students who do very well in school and study hard and get good grades. There may be more distractions as students nowadays but there are also more resources. Kids didn’t used to be able to do Internet research and able to look things up in minutes rather than go to the library and have to make a day of it. Today we also have the ability to type papers on computers making them much faster than writing a research paper with just a piece of lined paper and a pencil. I also have friends, including myself, who are able to do their homework with their myspace or facebook page up and do fine with splitting up time for both social life and schoolwork. Kids also ask the question, “When will I use this when I grow up?. If a student does not feel like the subject truly matters or affects them, then they are certainly not going to try as hard at it as a subject they feel matters. There are a lot of things that go into how a kid does in school today. You cannot count out the whole generation just because it seems like there are more distractions today.

Tocqueville questions

2. Why does a society devoted to equal opportunity weaken each individual?

A society devoted to equal opportunity usually weakens the individual. This happens because there is such a huge push for everyone to be equal that many of the people at the top are pushed down to level the playing field. Alexis De Tocqueville expresses this in his writing when he writes, “The same equality which allows each man to entertain vast hopes makes each man by himself weak” In this quote Tocqueville is stating how the same equality that makes man free to do what he wants also makes him weak because every man has the ability to do the same and compete with him. The competition of equality is what makes the single man weak. Because with competition comes failure.

5. Does Tocqueville think Americans are restless because they don’t know what they want or because what they want is not attainable.

I believe that Tocqueville thinks Americans are restless because they what they want is not always attainable. They fear that they may never be able to get everything that they want. Tocqueville exemplifies this in his writing when he states,” Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet are in such a rush to snatch any that come within their reach, as if expecting to stop living before they have relished them.” In this quote, Tocqueville is expressing how Americans never are content and will always continue to want the next thing and the next thing in fear that they will never have what they want or what they need.

Revolutionaries vs Aristocracy

Compare the behavior of the empowered peasants to the behavior of the previous ruling class. How do they (the revolutionaries and aristocracy) deal with personal appeals. Remember the Marquis and think of the treatment of Darnay’s arguments.

The behavior of the ruling peasants is not that different from the previous ruling class. Both powers are very cruel and killed many people. The ruling power that was previously in power was very cruel and left many to starve and die. The new empowered peasants say they are for the people but yet they are killing many people now. If you look at the Marquis and when he was previously in power you see that he is not very understanding and not willing to listen to the peasants’ pleas. The empowered peasants are also similar because they did not listen to Darnay’s arguments and went back and captured him.

Questions on Tale Of Two Cities

1. For how long has the man in Jarvis Lorry’s thoughts been buried?
- His thoughts have been buried for eighteen years.

2. What else do we know of this man who has been “buried”?
- We know that he is a banker from Tellsons Bank, which is in London, England. He is on his way to Paris on business.

3. What are the two conditions concerning Dr. Manette?
- He is very old and sick and he hasn’t been in the real world for a long time and doesn’t know who his daughter is.

4. Who are the proprietors of the wine-shop?
- The owners of the wine shop are Monsieur and Madame Defarge.

5. Why does Defarge show Dr. Manette to the “Jacques”?
-It means he will show him to

6. What is Dr. Manette doing when they enter his room?
-He is making woman’s shoes of the popular style even though he has never seen them before.

7. What does Dr. Manette say his name is? What is the significance of what he says?
- He says One hundred and Five, North Tower.

Do we care what people think of us and can we control it?

I know from my own experiences, that we as humans are self-conscious. Most of us care about what others think about us. Why do we? It is just natural human instinct to want people to like us which means we care about what they think of us. We all want to be liked and wanted which is why we strive out for friends. In order to get friends you need to have people who think highly of you and want you around.
People can easily control what others think about them. We can control the way we dress, what we say, or the way we act. One example of the way we control what people think about us is that you can dress in popular clothing styles to make people think you are cool or to fit in with a group.
There are also things we can’t control though. One thing we cannot control is our talent. We can obviously not all be star athletes. But usually people have at least one thing they are really good at and sometimes influence the people we make friends with.