Assignment Five: Sam Clark

I’m no fool. I’ve read my David Foster Wallace. I’ve traveled the world. If you want me to, I can quote back prose about what a passive form of entertainment Television (yes, it merits a capital “t”) is, how it’s singlehandedly destroyed the American ethos. But I’m no monkey, paid with good grades to mindlessly quote back opinions soon forgotten. Instead, I will tell a story of a good translator, a great man, and a friend never to be forgotten. When I first found Georges, he was barely human, curled up in a ball in one of those television lounges which were popular in Grenada at the time. I needed a translator, and, with his countless hours spent watching American television, Georges fit the bill. I hired him at once. At first, our relationship was fraught with strife. Georges had to return to his studio each night to watch Television. To break him of this addiction, this affliction, I stole his Television and bribed the members of all the Grenadian Television clubs not to let him in. At first, he resisted, saying that I was abridging his rights as a free man. Day and night he cried out for his Television, tearing his clothes, wringing his hands, consumed in a feverish nightmare. But soon he gave in. The spirit of the Television was driven into swine running off a cliff. Georges was free. Though it does not do so directly, I think Geoges’ story answers all three of the posed questions. Goodnight Georges! May God have mercy on your soul!   

Assignment Three: Sam Clark

I’ll never forget the moment I joined my brothers in the Québécois Independence Force (QIF). I traveled day and night, night and day, sunset to sundown, sundown to sunup, midnight to twilight, twilight to midnight, to reach the great city of my brothers: Quebec. It was my first time abroad, first time out all alone. Some nights, before I reached the city, the coldness crept up upon me like a doubt in the existence of reality, sinking its teeth into me as a great cat devouring its prey. When I finally stood on the doorstep I was told to find, my letter of recommendation shaking in my freezing hand, I was a broken man, done with humanity. My conversation with my grandfather, an elderly Quebecer, flashed before my mind. He told me to go north. To fight for Quebec’s freedom. Was it a mistake? Should I turn back? But then the door opened, and my QIF brothers took me in. They gave me a purpose. They showed me the truth. They taught me to fight for, as we Québécois put it, liberté, égalité, et fraternité. I threw away my mother tongue; at the QIF we speak only Québécois French, the truest of all languages. The QIF changed my life, my culture, my entire personality. If you wish to join please contact me directly.

Assignment 5: Anne Nombe

Look, I don't mean to offend anyone because I know how much Americans love their films, but I hate movies. 

Well, let me take that back. I don't hate all movies I just hate most movies. That might just be because my parents take us to watch movies like Boss Baby and Nine Lives all the time, to cater to my little sister. The only good movie we went to see this whole year was that Spider-man one. Homecoming, I believe it was? That was the best movie I've seen in a long time. Good plot, good diversity, good characters (my three main criteria in anything I watch), and not a total waste of two hours like the other two I mentioned were. 

So I don't like movies, but TV shows are alright. Mostly because I can choose those. I can get comfortable watching How to Get Away With Murder (which is going to have new episodes out soon) for hours on end. If you're going to take my time away from YouTube, Tumblr, and/or JotterPad, you better have a good reason. HTGAWM is a pretty dang good one. 

Outside of watching that and a few other shows of my choice on Netflix, I'm usually not watching TV because I'm too busy writing instead. 

Assignment 4: Anne Nombe

It's hard being an immigrant. It's even harder when you're the first U.S. born child of immigrants.

Growing up, I never really realized how different my family was from your average "Johnsons" next door. We were taught to be polite. We were encouraged to study harder than our peers. We were obligated to refer to adults with respect, no matter if they told us not to. 

(You have no idea how painful it is for me when an adult asks me to call them by their first name. I can always hear my dad lecturing me in the back of my mind.) 

All those things were fine and dandy, and it wasn’t like no one else was doing them either, but it must have been around my sixth-grade and onwards when I started to notice what was really different. The ideal set of someone raised in the "Democratic Republic" of Congo to be a church-goer, a closed-book, and a penny-pincher was as close to your typical American teenager's as the North and South Poles. Disagreements were bound to happen, and happen they did. 

My parents come from a very conservative country where disagreeing with your parents is met with a belt. My parents never really hit us unless we did something pretty bad (lying, breaking something we were told not to touch, etc.), and even then, punishment was largely withheld to ear pulling, so I wasn't aware of a majority of these cultural standards. However, young, American kids quickly learn to argue. 

I was no different.

My dad saying I couldn't go to a friend's birthday party because he was a boy is probably one of the biggest disputes my father and I have ever had. It must have been in sixth grade, when we were all sitting at the dinner table. Children usually don't speak much at the table in my country, but I had remembered receiving an invitation earlier. So I asked my dad about it. 

Needless to say, once my friend's sex came up, the answer was no. I asked why not. My dad said, "Because you can't go to a boy's birthday party. Why are you making friends with boys?" 

I was angry. I was dumbfounded. I had no idea why there was some cultural bias in my family against boys—everyone was past the cooties phase!—or why suddenly I wasn't allowed to talk to the boys who I had been allowed to talk to in elementary school and before. 

As the sassy, enraged sixth-grader I was, I blurted out in front of my mom, dad, older brother, and younger sister: 

"But you have friends who are girls!" 

I was promptly whooped. 

But that wasn't the only time I had a "sassy" mouth, and the older I got, the more places our viewpoints diverged. I didn't get whooped every time (there's a certain age where that just subsides to threats), but each and every time, I was struck by how different my dad and I were. During my middle school years, I thought that I was always right in these arguments. I was the American, I was the one experiencing being in an American school, and they had no reason to tell me anything about my life if they hadn't grown up the way I had.

But as a mature high schooler, I've begun to see where I was wrong. I'm young and my dad is old(er). Sometimes a teen's ideas are not the best ones, and sometimes it's better for us to listen than to argue things we've never experienced, like, say, navigating the job pool or going to college. 

Still, my own ideas and aspirations are not ones that will be so easily shaken by my father's word alone. Even to this day, I argue and argue until my voice goes hoarse and I'm told to shut up over why I have to clean and wash dishes when we have visitors and my brother doesn't have to do anything. I don't stop at the first threat when it comes to discussing why I'd rather put all my effort into a medical career I'm passionate in rather than just going with nursing because it's practical. I insist that me dying my hair is not a product of my American "assimilation" and that my arguments—or as dad calls them, "bad behavior"—has nothing to do with my "American friends".

And I would go to the ends of the earth proving to my dad that going to a middle school boy's birthday party doesn't automatically end in relationships that distract a middle school girl from school.

[End Note: This ended up being much longer than I intended.]

Assignment 3: Anne Nombe

People outside of the United States are really different from you and me. No, I did not say "really not that different from you and me", I said, "they are different from you and me".

I guess I'm lucky in the regards that I don't have to step far outside of my house to be in a foreign country. My family largely hails from the DRC down in Africa, and when we have family events such as Thanksgiving dinners and such, I am immersed in a culture that I do not experience (to an extreme extent) every day. During these social events, I'm taught time and time again that there are very distinct differences between your average Congolese person and an American-born like me. And even the average Congolese person is different from his fellow average Congolese people, because there are so many different tribes, customs, and languages. 

Interacting with foreigners has taught me more than this, though. Probably the most important thing I've learned is that even though we have our differences, if we don't make an effort to understand them, find some common ground, and have a civil conversation, we stay divided. It's kind of like your stereotypical high school hierarchy in the movies. You don’t see the jocks interacting with the nerds or the goths prancing around with the preps. That's why in those cliché films, no one understands each other. And why the cliché motive is to break social boundaries. And as cliché as this all sounds, if more people followed these clichés in real life, I believe we could build much stronger ties across social classes, races, and ethnicities. 

Rather than admonishing things for being different, embracing other people's cultures and differences gives us a better world view and more compassion for the people around us. I know that I've personally grown more culturally aware by attempting to do such, and I pray that even more people will learn to do the same.

Assignment Four: Katie Chen

I like to think my parents and I have a pretty good relationship. I don't think we've ever had an argument where we end up yelling at each other over something we disagree on, so I guess that's a good thing. More recently, however, the biggest problem my mom and I have disagreed on is that she thinks that I work too much. It's not just doing homework and assignments for an extended period of time, but actually going to my job and feeling overworked. 

I know it's only natural for most teenagers to have some sort of rebellious nature with their parents, with gaining more and more independence as you grow up, but this might be the biggest issue where we have differing opinions. My mother feels that I work way too much and am overworking myself. I, on the other hand, feel both physically and mentally capable of working 18-20 hours a week. A main reason I work this many hours is to fund my trips abroad and have some spending money for when I need it. She feels worried that I won't have time to do other things, whereas I constantly reassure her that I have excellent time management and am able to have room in my busy schedule for extracurricular activities, etc. Finally, after weeks of back and forth deliberation, we came to a compromise: I would reduce my working hours to only 10-15 hours a week and create time just to relax and stay at home.  

Assignment Three: Katie Chen

I've lived in the same house, in the same neighborhood, in the same city my entire life. But, I have traveled a number of times throughout the years. Although I've never been west of the Mississippi River in the United States, I have visited Canada, China (on multiple occasions), most of the Northeastern part of America, and most recently, France. The Canada and Northeast visits I remember vaguely, with only pictures and tacky souvenirs to help spur my memory. I do remember that the trip felt rushed, seeing as we went with family friends and a travel touring group and they tried to pack visits to Boston, Philadelphia, D.C., New York, Niagara Falls, Quebec, and Montreal into just ten short days. I was only 11 years old at the time, and even though it wasn't my first time traveling out of the country, it made me realize that our world is so big, and I've seen so little of it.
Definitely the most influential of my travels are my multiple trips to China to see my extended family. These trips led to me finding an identity, and embracing my Asian heritage, and being proud of my cultural background.
Most recently, this past summer, I participated in the Lexington-Deauville Sister Cities Exchange, where I stayed with a French student in France for three weeks, and then she stayed with me in Lexington for three weeks. Those three weeks in France were some of the most culturally enriching experiences I have had. Not only did it drastically improve my French speaking and listening skills, it also taught so much about a country I didn't know much about. Staying with a host family, rather than just going to the touristy places, enabled me to experience a whole other side of a foreign country, and it only furthered my interest in French language and culture.

Assignment Five: Maggie Anderson

       I watched quite a bit of TV until very recently. Last spring (halfway through spring break) our TV package was changed (down with Spectrum) without warning to include drastically fewer channels. These channels included many shows I watched most days. This was probably at least in part a good thing for a time, as I wasted less time on it, but I soon found a replacement. Now, I often watch Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert on youtube. This still takes less time and I find I am more attentive to my work. Before I would often multi-task, doing homework while watching TV. This ended over the summer when my mother read The Teenage Brain. I blame you for this.
     Now the only show my family watches is People of Earth on TBS every Monday. We also choose usually an older show to watch on DVD on Sunday nights, currently Foyle's War.
      I can't say whether the attention given to the Emmy's compared to that given to the Nobel Prizes in our society is a good thing, but it's expected and an accurate depiction of our priorities.

Assignment Four: Maggie Anderson

         As I have grown, I have changed or evolved my positions on many topics, most without realizing I even held the first opinion. As a small child I feel that my thoughts weren't guided by my parents or community as much as they were nonexistent on many topics, simply because I had no experience with those things. I believe that many children are like this, intolerant and conservative in their opinions as they haven't been exposed to enough of the world. They can't be blamed for this, as they are doing what people of all ages do, deriving their opinions from their experiences. They just have less to work with. If I heard about something, I was more likely to recoil from it as I had no prior knowledge and chances are, I hadn't even really encountered it, just learned second or third hand of its existence.
       As I have gained more experience of the world around me, these things seem less alien because I encounter them more and more. This means I am also less likely to chide away from new things I hear of second or third hand, as I have the experience of realizing over time that newly learned of phenomena aren't as strange or repellant as they seem at first. I find that this mainly happens with things affecting the country as a whole, other countries, or the world, as these things are unlikely to significantly touch the life of a young person in Kentucky.
   

Assignment 6: Create Your Own Adventure (College)

What interests you? What is your point of exigence? What's on your mind?  What do you want to chat about? Rant about? Learn about? What intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science, or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you: 

'Cause really, isn't it all about you? <wink wink nudge nudge>

This response allows you to discuss something that is important to you and to demonstrate how you think about intellectual problems. This is an exercise in creative and critical thinking. It also provides a platform for you to convey your enthusiasm for learning. What excites you about this intellectual experience? How did the experience challenge your preconceptions? How did it impact your way of thinking? What was your reaction? How did it change your perspective?

Ready...

Go!

Due Sunday, October 1st at 11:59 pm

October 15 is last day to make up Blogs 1-8

Assignment Four: Sam Clark

When I was in the business of trading money for souls, upon this passage I relied:  

“I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I take vengeance on them.”

It’s from the Bible. Ezekiel 25:17. In the business, I thought that I was the LORD and that the “them,” the “they,” the “others,” were rightfully subject to my vengeance, pawns in an infinite jest. Now I know better, or at least pretend to know better.

Before entering our line of work, my theories of life tended upon the logical, that which can be comprehended. My proofs for God were worldly and exacting, the theories of a mathematician relying upon his intellect. Take, for example, this excerpt from my early work:

“Upon our minds inescapable, fundamental limits exist. We cannot think in five dimensions, understand infinity, or comprehend chaos. Why? We did not place these limits upon ourselves, nor do we desire to be limited (as our consumeristic culture clearly illustrates) by anything at all. If gods were we, we’d gain not from limits upon our power. So the source of these limits is unintelligible, unhuman. It emerges from the numinous, the divine majesty which is God.”  

What a fool I was. My languages drips from the polished prudishness of the self-righteously intelligent. This next instance of my writing is slightly better, though it maintains its arrogant air.

“If free will exists, then it does not exist. Though it may sound like a tautology, the statement’s contradictions are its salvation. Since the choice between predestination and free will was never bestowed upon us, we cannot rightfully say that we have true freedom to pick our choices. The most vital of choices, that between free will and predestination, was predetermined. Of course, free will does exist. A determinist would argue that the world consists of scientific principles which coalesce into a so-called ‘theory of everything.’ Nonsense. If such were true, then one could plug the ‘theory of everything’ into a supercomputer to determine the future. But to work, the computer must factor in human reactions to the knowledge of the future, then modify its result accordingly. Unfortunately, this creates another, similar issue. Now, the computer must factor in human responses to the new future it created based on human responses to the original future it predicted. This creates an infinite cycle impossible to complete, rendering the machine useless and the future undetermined.”

Though better than my earlier work, this piece is still remarkably lacking, still much too pretentious. Georges (as described in my second post) prompted my thinking. His death was its culmination. I now know how to write well, how to write fully, how to live. Real writing looks like this:

“Asadhakf snmaskal mjfdsknka d akjsdnoifjsdgl agpospfkglm qkklamskf askfg lkanf teilsjkf”

Such is the true language of God.

Assignment Two: Andrew Rogers

Some books I have read in the past year are, but not limited to...


1. Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William Shirer

2. The Teenage Brain by Amy Ellis Nut

3. Enemy at the Gates by William Craig

4. Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher

5. 1493 by Charles C. Craig

6. The Bible by God

Assignment 5. Olivia Klee

   Right now, as I'm writing this, I'm waiting for the newest episode of Blue Bloods to come on. Not because I learn a lot from watching it, not because I experience a dramatic change in perspective after every episode, not because I don't have anything else to do, but because I'm addicted. To what exactly, I'm not sure. The suspense, the drama, the jump scares, the touchy feely makes-me-tear-up parts, I don't know.
    I do know, however, that my addiction needs controlling. Some nights, there is nothing I would like more than to avoid all responsibility by watching a Law and Order marathon. But I know (from experience) that wasting all that time really doesn't make me feel better in the end. TV actually intensifies my stress because the whole time I'm watching, I have this list of responsibilities running relentlessly in the back of my mind, and then when I'm done I feel the crushing weight of procrastination threatening to make my life a failure. Maybe that's just me being overly Type-A and unable to relax, but it's the truth.
     So why do I still watch TV? Frankly, I like the drama. I'm a human being that enjoys connecting with humanity through stories. And as long as I complete my "have-to's" before my "want-to's" then I allow myself to watch whatever TV I find interesting. Sometimes it proves a true waste of time, like when I watched this horrible health documentary that basically said ALL food causes cancer and the only thing safe is green beans. Correction: organic green beans. But there's something to be said for a beautiful plot that makes you laugh, cry, or ponder while watching, a movie that reveals a truth that sticks with you forever. For example, when Sandra Bullock said in Soul Surfer, "I don't know why terrible things happen, but I do know that something good is going to come out of this." I watched that movie when I was ten and still have not forgotten that line. That was worth my time.

Assignment 4. Olivia Klee

        The day I step out of my mother's house will be the last day I make my bed. This futile chore has plagued me since early childhood. As soon as my feet hit the floor every morning, I would turn around and start struggling with the covers. Never daring to leave a pillow unfluffed or a blanket wrinkled, I diligently made my bed for years. And don't get me wrong, I won the parent lottery. My folks are nice people; they just have this strange passion for making our house, specifically my room, look like something out of Southern Living magazine.
        During my teenage years busy schedules and decreased surveillance by my parents has lessened the burden to where I only make it when I'm told at least once. Perhaps someday I will learn to appreciate the futile act of making the bed only to get back in it at day's end, but until then I will resist.

Assignment One: Andrew Rogers

My name is Andrew Rogers.

My goals for this year is to pass my classes with preferably at least a B. I would also like to participate in different extracurricular activities and be successful in musical opportunities.

My most meaningful part of my summer vacation was my family's trip to North Carolina where we visited my Uncle and his family. My Dad and I were able to attend the PGA Championship in Quail Hollow and we visited Carowinds, home of Fury 325, my new favorite coaster. If I could have a superpower it would be the ability to teleport or to stop time.

I am a percussionist for the Henry Clay Adv. Percussion Ensemble and Wind Ensemble. My favorite subject is History, especially war history. I'm passionate about all sports. I love to watch the Atlanta Falcons, UK in both basketball and football, and Liverpool FC. I play Ultimate Frisbee in a local league in Lexington and I enjoy golfing. I'm crazy about roller coasters. I was a member of American Coaster Enthusiasts and my coaster count is 110. My record for most rides on a coaster in one day is 32 on Thunderhead at Dollywood. Like I said before my current favorite roller coaster is Fury 325.

These are my two favorite websites

www.chickenonaraft.com
www.staggeringbeauty.com

This is a picture of Fury 325

Assignment 5: For the Love and Hate of Television

The Emmy Awards (aired recently) are kind of a big deal. Not a big deal in that life-altering-kind-of-way, but a big deal in the sense that a lot of celebrities dress up, that a lot of companies pay more money in advertisements, and a lot of people stop watching reruns.

The Emmys are not the only award extravaganza of the season though. During the first week of October, without the advertising, paparazzi, or celebrities, the Nobel Prizes are announced. But how many people are listening? With the Emmys comes television's fall lineup, but what does the common person get after the announcement of the Nobel Prize in physics?

So, what are your thoughts? Choose one or two or all of the following prompts:

Why do you watch TV? Why do you not? What shows do you love or hate?

Does TV provide a good form of entertainment? Is it just a convenient delivery system for advertisers to send their messages to the masses? Is it an inane use of time? Can it be all three?

What does it say about our society that the Emmy's have so much glitz and attention and the Nobel Prizes are quietly announced in the news? Is this bad? Good? Appropriate?

Check out these sites for more information:

Turn off your TV

Television and Health

Positive Benefits of TV on Toddlers and Children

Due Sunday September 24th at 11:59 pm

October 15 is last day to make up Blogs 1-8

Assignment 2: Olivia

Assignment 2:

Here are the books I read in the last 12 months:

1.     The Brain that Changes Itself

2.     The Teenage Brain

3.     The Brain’s Way of Healing

4.     Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives

5.     The Bible (The Gospel, Esther, and Philippians)

6.     Fly Pushing: The Theory and Practice of Drosophila Genetics