Things Fall Apart Connection #3

Okay so you’re probably wondering why it’s #3 and not #2. Well basically, we had the option last week of writing #2 or doing a survey for the same amount of points; I decided to do the survey. So I didn’t have to do #2. So um… yeah. Anyways, let’s get started.

So I’m up to like… chapter 19 of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and I’ve found a lot of connections with the whole ‘assimilation’ of the tribespeople. It’s remarkably similar to the assimilation of the Native Americans.

Now, I’m going to say this right now: I’m from Native American descent on my mom’s side of the family, so I know quite a lot about my heritage; specifically my own tribe’s history. I’m 1/8th Potawatomi, a tribe that originally resided in the northwest region of the US. When the colonists arrived and began to try and assimilate them into Christianity, many of the Potawatomi’s faith was changed to Christianity.

When the colonists wanted to populate our land, some of the Potawatomi people obliged and were sent off to the east of the continent. However, one particular tribe of Potawatomi refused to budge. Thus, the colonists chose not to recognize them as an official tribe. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Clinton signed a bill that would finally recognize this tribe of the Potawatomi as an official tribe. I am apart of this tribe, and ever since I became an official citizen of it, I’ve taken great pride of my heritage. I’m also a lot more defensive about stereotypical and racist comments towards the Native Americans. Of course, I’m not going to go into detail about that.

I made this connection because the African tribespeople and the Native Americans are remarkably similar when it comes to dealing with the colonists. Not only were they assimilated into Christianity, but they lost some–if not all–of their original faith, as well.

Blogiography – Chapter 2: 1st Grade

Okay so um… through first to fifth grade, I can’t really remember much; it’s all really fuzzy to me. Not to mention that I can’t really remember when each field trip was in what grade and such. Bleh. Well, I guess I’ll just answer a few questions, then.

My teacher was, again, Mrs. Hawkins. I was with the same classmates as I was in Kindergarten, so because I was so devious in Kindergarten, I was still tormented by bullying left and right. Of course, I don’t blame them; all kids at that age are quite myopic.

So much bullying as made me a really angry, crude-languaged person. It’s also rendered me timid and quiet; I became socially awkward over the years. It was just another reason for kids to tease and bully me; they were always incendiary when it came to interacting with me. Although it’s died down over the years, there are still remnants of teasing, dissing and verbal abuse; I take it all in stride though, even though I DO get emotionally hurt on the inside. I choose not to show my emotions; I bottle them up and it leads to disastrous results. Nowadays, whenever I’m bothered too much by someone, I accost towards them. I yell at them, and once I’m finished, I have an emotional breakdown. Of course, whenever I yell at someone, it only makes the situation pejorative. Hahaha, I’m a huge wreck.

Anyways, on with the story.

I mostly wore t-shirts and jeans; I wasn’t really that ‘fashionable’ kind of person way back then. My mom was also a bargain hunter; she rarely went to places like American Eagle. Those places were too expensive for clothes, and they still are today. I mostly got my clothes from Wal-Mart or Target.

I wasn’t really jealous of anyone or anything. Well… actually, maybe I was jealous of the kids in the class who actually had friends, let alone a small posse of kids. Yeah, I didn’t have that many friends throughout Kindergarten and up. I never really had a good friend until third grade. But I’ll save that story for later.

I don’t really remember if this was in first grade or not, but at one point, my family and I were getting ready to go up to Delaware for our yearly trip to see family. My sister was playing with a sleeping bag; dangling over the ledge of the third floor balcony and seeing if my brother and I could grab it before she pulled it up. It all happened so fast; it’s a blur to me. All I remember is that I ran into a jutted out corner, and I split my upper lip. No, you read that correctly: I split my upper lip. The trip was delayed because my parents had to rush me to a hospital. I then had to get stitches while I was still awake with just a towel over my eyes so I wouldn’t see the needle and flip out. Needless to say… It was painful. VERY painful. After getting stitches, they put a band-aid over my lip and I was sent back to my parents. Then, we finally made our way up to Delaware to see my grandparents and cousins and such. Overall, it was a good trip. I don’t think I got in the ocean with my lip, though; it probably would have been too painful, even with the stitches and all. … But, the mental image of the brackish water undulating with each wave is quite the halcyon one.
My grandmother had a friend who was a nurse; we went to go see her to get my stitches removed when my lip was healed. I can’t remember if they removed my stitches or not; all I know is that my stitches were eventually gone.

As for birthdays, um… well, I can’t recall what year I got it, but I got my first ever handheld game console, or even a game console alone. It was a GameBoy Color, and it was yellow. I still have it; I think I may sell it someday. God knows how much those things go for today in the video games market or whatever. … However, I am quite attached to the thing; it’s kinda like a childhood talisman… Anyways, this was also probably when I first played Pokemon; I forget if it was this time of my life or earlier. I just know for a fact that the game was Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition. MAN I LOVED THAT GAME. I STILL DO. That’s pretty much how I became an avid video gamer.

Um. Yeah. So that’s it.

OH YEAH, and this is the ‘theme’ song for this chapter:

“Passing By” by Yiruma

As for the picture:

Amen.

Views from the Couch

On a somewhat serious note today because of a conversation the other day:

I am sure every girl can recall, at least once as a child,  coming home and telling their parents, uncle, aunt or grandparent about a boy who had pulled her hair, hit her, teased her, pushed her or committed some other playground crime.  I will bet money that most of those, if not all, will tell you that they were told “Oh, that just means he likes you”.  I never really thought much about it before having a daughter of my own.  I find it appalling that this line of bullshit is still being fed to young children.  Look, if you want to tell your child that being verbally and/or physically abused is an acceptable sign of affection, i urge you to rethink your parenting strategy.  If you try and feed MY daughter that crap, you better…

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Shenanigans with Sofie: Skyrim

So I got Skyrim for Christmas. Well, my brother did. I immediately got addicted to it.

My character is like… a level 30-something High Elf. But like every game, I came across a few glitches while I was playing it.

The Flying Horse

Well, I was riding on my horse to the mine near Winterhold. When I got near the entrance and dismounted, my horse suddenly went flying across the map, over a hill, and died from the fall. I had to restart from my last game. Stupid horse.

OKAY SO IT HAPPENED TO ME AGAIN. This time I was walking up to an undiscovered Fort near Winterhold. Once I got to the top of the hill, I dismounted and my horse went flying again.

PHYSICS?
HAHA THAT’S REALLY FUNNY.

The Walking, ‘Dead’ Lydia

So I was fighting a giant and Lydia leaped into the fray. She immediately got sent flying more than 100 feet in the air. Once I killed the giant, I looked for her. She was lying ‘dead’ in a stream. I hovered my crosshairs over her body and it said:

Talk
Lydia

I turned around to walk off, but when I turned around to check to see if she was really dead, she was standing up to follow me. OH NO SHE’S A ZOMBIE OH NOOOOOO.

Meeko: The Dead, Sliding Dog

So I came across that one dog, Meeko. He’s the dog whose owner died to rockjoint or whatever. Anyways, he was a huge help when it came to killing enemies. Except giants.

I was shooting a giant with my bow and arrows from a high enough place so he wouldn’t get to me. Then Meeko ran in and started attacking  the giant, and said giant proceeded to whale on him. Ugh.
Once I killed the giant, I looked over in Meeko’s general direction, and he was laying there, dead.

“NOOOO MEEKO NOOOOO ;____;”

I ran over to him and, just like Lydia, when I hovered my crosshairs over him, it said:

Talk
Meeko

Intrigued, I decided to talk to him. He made no noises, like he was  actually dead. But the dialog box came up, and I told him to go home. He then started sliding away on the ground, still in the ‘dead’ position. So I chased after him and told him to follow me. For a good five minutes, I ran around and watched him slide around on the ground after me, still in said ‘dead’ position. When I fast traveled to Solitude, the glitch fixed itself. Meeko was back to his old, annoying, barking self.

Character Resume for World Lit

BLUH.

Blogiography – Chapter 1: Kindergarten

Man I don’t know about you guys but Valentines Day is a huge downer for me. Not only is everyone sucking face as I walk down the hallways but I always feel left out and lonely. Guh. Stupid holiday.

Anyways so I have to write like a ‘Blogiography’ about my life for World Lit, using up to ten vocab words in a single vocab unit. Sound easy? I suppose. But it has to be 600 words. And add a song AND A PICTURE to it, too. Ugh.
Welp. I’d better get started.

Many people think that their education began in Preschool. I, on the other hand, think that it starts in Kindergarten.

It was the first day of going to Murdock Elementary, and I was as shy and as timid as I could be. The outside of the school looked banal, so I was sure that things wouldn’t be very interesting. My teacher was Mrs. Hawkins, an old, short woman. However, she was extremely kind to me and the other children. Anyways, it was the first day, and my dad came to meet the teacher. When we walked into the room together, I immediately hid behind my dad’s leg and clung to him, smiling shyly. When Mrs. Hawkins greeted me warmly, I was quite taciturn; I hid behind my dad’s leg and covered my face with his pant leg, still smiling. At that time, I wore glasses, and so did Mrs. Hawkins. Nonetheless, when she pointed that out, I still shied away. I warmed up to her quite quickly, however; and when I noticed the small ‘kitchen play set’ nearby, I immediately ran over to play with it.

As weeks passed, one day came when Mrs. Hawkins coherently stated that we would get a class pet. Ecstatic, we all began to babble about what it could possibly be; the very idea of getting a class pet was quite a largesse. Me being naive at the time, I immediately had the assumption that it was going to be a puppy. Hahaha. Oh man. I was so stupid.
Instead, we got a gerbil. The whole class eventually voted on a name: Kiara. Fascinated, I always wanted to hold her, so I resorted to picking her up while she was in her little cardboard tube… she was tenable enough when inside of it. 99.99% of the time, I wouldn’t get caught. But one time I got caught. I couldn’t hold Kiara for a week. Stupid assistant teacher lady.

I was quite the silent child; I eschewed from most of the kids in my class. I mostly played by myself on the playground, or with a few kids. I was also a very strange kid to be around. Thinking I could get attention, I acted strangely. I would growl like a dog (I still facepalm at that to this very day), and lick people. I swear, I was insane when I was a wee child. Instead of getting the good kind of attention, I got the negative kind. My insatiable need to be acknowledged by my peers caused me great grief. I became the object of people’s abusive words and mocking, not to mention the laughing stock of Kindergarten that would impact me in the long run. I’ll have to admit, kids in Kindergarten were quite carping when it came to kids that were ‘different’, in a sense. If I could go back in time, then I would go back to when I was younger, and I would act differently so I wouldn’t have to deal with so much bullying as I do now.

There are a few kids who I still see in the hallways nowadays; kids that were in the same class as I was in Kindergarten. Most of them are troublemakers, and they still are. I’m not going to give any last names, but some were named Joseph, Gabe, and Kyle. Those particular three had their own “gang” going on in Kindergarten. They were a tightly-knit group of friends, and I was occasionally the butt of their jokes and bullying antics. They were… quite invidious, to say the least. This was because I tried to emulate what they did; I wanted to be ‘popular’ like them. Of course, I did it the wrong way. Hence why I was bullied by them occasionally.

My life didn’t dramatically change until the Third Grade, but we’ll get to that part later.

As for the picture:

And as for the song, it would be ‘Art in Me’ by Jars of Clay.

Things Fall Apart Connection

So we have to do this real life connection with this book called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It has to be like… three hundred words long.

SO! Let’s get started.

 

There are a few connections I can make with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The book talks about the trials and tribulations of Okonkwo, a powerful man among the people of Umuofia, a tribe in Nigeria.

One of the connections I can make is my life and Ikemefuna’s life. Because his father killed an Umuofia woman, he, along with a virgin girl, must be taken into the Umuofia tribe to atone for it. Once Ikemefuna is taken in by Okonkwo, his life hits many rough spots. Okonkwo is a man that is afraid of weakness, because his late father was lazy and always owed debts to many neighbors. Not wanting to be like him, Okonkwo resorts to a bad attitude, overwhelming discipline, and being a general killjoy. Ikemefuna is very timid and scared at first because he’s in a new tribe, and Okonkwo responds by threatening words and gestures to shape him up.

My life has been riddled with hardships and rough times when it comes to family. I don’t want to go into detail, but my father was pretty strict with me whenever I did something wrong. But, unlike Okonkwo, my father rarely resorted to brute force. Nonetheless, I’ve had to deal with many rough patches in my life because of silly choices I made; not because I was scared or afraid. Or maybe I was. I can’t remember. My point is, my life has been rough, just like Ikemefuna’s was. He and I had some strict fathers/father figures, and this is why I can make this connection with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Troy Movie Review for World Lit

Okay so apparently I have to write some movie review for that one movie called Troy. Yanno, the one with Brad Pitt as Achilles and Orlando Bloom playing as Paris? Yeah, that one.

ANYWAYS let’s get started. I can’t guarantee that it will be a quality review; we only watched a few clips of it. THANKS, TEACHER.

Troy is one of the most iconic, classic movies of the 21st century to date; save for a few other, unmentionable movie titles. Not only are the characters dynamic, but they are played by well-known and famous actors that really know how to bring their characters to life. The classic tale of prince Paris and Helen of Troy is brought to life on the big screen, as we explore the trials and tribulations of Achilles, the ‘tragic hero’ of the story.

Not only are the actors amazing, but the special effects are positively fantastic and awe-inspiring. For example, there’s the scene where Achilles kills the champion of Thessaly, Boagrius, by a simple stab through the shoulder. Not only does Achilles leap into the air with inhuman strength, but the effects that the producers used to look like he had stabbed Boagrius was phenomenal.

However, there are some details that the producers missed. For example, Chryseis, another prisoner of the Greeks–and a priestess of Apollo–was never in the movie. Neither was her father, Chryses. But to make up for this, the producers had Achilles desecrate the temple of Apollo, angering the sun god and causing many deaths on the Greeks’ side. Although they changed the storyline a tad, they still made up for it with the stunning effects and fantastic acting.

Oedipus Anticipation Guide

Okay so I had to do this thing for my World Lit class and this blog is basically for all of my World Lit stuff. So uh. Yeah. :U

Before    After

A            ______    1.  It is possible to escape or trick fate.

A            ______    2.  If we truly know ourselves, nothing bad will ever

happen to us.

D           _______   3.  We should not attempt to justify our actions, good or

bad.

D           _______   4.  Family secrets are best kept as just that – secrets.

A           _______   5.  We are what we do.

D           _______   6.  If we are in charge, we are exempt from

consequences.

A           _______   7.  We should try to better our community, even if we must

change ourselves.

A           _______   8.  Society places the sins of the parents on the heads of

the children.

A           _______   9.  There is more than one way to see.

D         _______   10. It is better to place blame on those around us than to

look inside ourselves.

A         _______   11. We should play the hand that we are dealt.

D         _______   12. There are no coincidences.

D         _______   13. All types of pride are evil.

A         _______   14. Insolence breeds the tyrant.

D         _______   15. We should submit ourselves to fate.