Space Poetry. Literally!

                                                                        Venus
                                                                                                                             
                    Mercury                                                                                                  Earth

                            Everything                                                Revolves                                     Mars 
Pluto
                                                                   SUN                                                           Jupiter


        Neptune              Around                                                   THE                   Saturn

                                                                      Uranus

English 1080 recap

I enjoyed English 1080.  Through class discussions about poems we read, I was able to better understand how to analyze them and to find deeper meanings.  I learned that by hearing how others perceived a meaning in a poem it is easier to make sense of how I perceive it.  I also learned a lot about how to analyze short stories.  I had never really considered setting to be very important in a story, other than where the story physically takes place, until this class.  I learned that setting, and other aspects of short stories all relate to the stories deeper meaning.  I think that getting students to blog is a very good idea.  It is a way of having students informally share what they learn in the course.  A blog seems very casual and does not seem like a heavy homework activity, so it is easy to do.

Flash Fiction

He woke up. It was 11:30am. Today was the day he would conquer the Cliffside trail.  This trail was traitorous and notoriously dangerous later in the day due to high winds.  He had a late night and had over slept. This wasn’t going to stop him.  He went to the kitchen and grabbed a bite to eat and loaded his bike and gear into his old civic.  Then he hopped onto the freeway going to meet up with another fellow rider.

The adventurer pulled up to the trail head and assembled his bike.  Because he hadn’t slept the night before he decided to rest his eyes and lay down on the car hood.  An hour later he awoke but his friend had not yet arrived.  His phone was dead when he tried to call him.  So he waited another hour.

His friend was stuck in traffic due to an accident on the highway.  He was near the front of the line and could over hear the firemen’s radios crackling at the scene.  They told him he would be waiting there a while.  It was very windy even just on the highway.  He could only imagine how bad it would be on the trail.  After several attempts to reach his friend at the trail failed, he gave up. He hoped his friend wouldn’t try to pedal the trail this late in the day.

It was now 3pm.  He had been waiting for an hour and a half.  He wanted to beat the trail and assumed his friend was not coming.  He got on his bike and tore down the trail.  Dodging trees and roots while keeping in mind the huge drop-offs to his side was not easy.  Especially while tired and having the wind trying to tip you over.  His technique was off and he became easily frustrated when roots got the better of him.  He was nearing ‘The Ridge’.  A narrow path with 30 foot drops on either side.  Because he was no longer enjoying the ride he decided to get it done as fast as possible.  An overcorrection on the loose dirt was all it took.

The fireman approached the friend in the car.  He said that they were done and they just needed the tow truck to clear the road.  As the fireman was walking away, his radio crackled.  There had been an accident on the mountain.  He overheard a biker had fallen off ‘The Ridge’.  The firefighters all ran onto the truck and sped off. 

Open Letter

Dear Mr. Bonham

I can’t believe I went through 8 years of playing the drums without hearing about you!  It wasn’t until 2009 that another fellow drummer introduced me to your work.  When I listened to some Led Zeppelin tracks such as ‘Fool in the Rain’ and your variations of ‘Moby Dick’, I was amazed and in awe!  You have to be one of the most talented drummers I have ever heard.   

Your ability to keep time and play the shuffle has cost me countless hours of sweat, blood and unsuccessful attempts trying to replicate ‘Fool in the Rain’.  I have a feeling you threw that samba beat in there just so no one could replicate the drum track of this song!

I was terribly saddened when I realized you had passed away.  I was also saddened to learn you had gone long before I was even born.  You won’t be able to read this, but I would still like to say on behalf of most all drummers and myself that you have been an inspiration to all of us.

Rock On!      

Nate

Allegory

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave can be compared to the Hollywood film, The Matrix.  Both stories involve two unseen or unknown worlds.   The character in the Matrix is introduced into the actual world, not the one he had been living in.  The main character in The Cave was introduced to the world outside the cave.  Both characters learned of a new world that they had never known.  Both stories deal with ‘the real world’.  There are some differences between the two stories however.  In The Cave, the character is released into the outside world to discover how much it has changed and sees all of the fascinating new things.  His friends who have not seen any of it cannot comprehend what he is telling them about the good world outside.  In The Matrix the character is living in a world that is better than the real world.  The ‘real’ world has been destroyed and the character is hit with a hard realization of this destroyed world.  There are many lessons to be learned from these stories.  Just because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.  Very often we ignore or disregard unseen problems until we actually see them for ourselves.  Sometimes we also don’t believe others or believe in things because we can’t understand them.  Just because we can’t comprehend certain things, does not mean they don’t exist.  I think the Matrix symbolizes a place to hide from reality if we do not lie something, kind of avoiding a problem.  I think the cave symbolizes a place of ignorance.  Outside of the cave are things that we could never have imagined, but in the cave we choose not to believe them.           

News Article

Mail keeps getting lost: House Number Flip linked to mail loss!

There have been several cases in the greater Toronto area of letters getting lost in the mail.  These complaints however, have all come from the same person.  The complaints started coming to police headquarters in downtown Toronto about 4 weeks ago.  Police first disregarded these complaints claiming that the missing letters were probably just held up due to a recent hurricane.  The man, who shall remain anonymous, went to police headquarters after several weeks of not receiving his mail.  He demanded that the police due something.  Police began to grow suspicious about the missing post and told the man they would investigate.  After weeks of contacting the post office, police were unable to find any reason why his mail was getting lost.  They sent him a letter apologizing for not being of more assistance. 

Days later an off duty police officer noticed a pile of letters piling up on a porch of a house across the street.  Police executed a raid on the house not knowing what to expect.  When they stormed the house they discovered the house was vacant and all of the man’s missing mail was piled on the porch and on the other side of the door.  While police were bagging the mail for evidence the man emerged from the adjacent house.  He was ecstatic to learn that his mail had been found.  Police examined the house numbers and discovered the vacant house' number ‘9’ had flipped during the recent storm changing it into a number ‘6’.  They found the man’s house number was ‘9’.  When questioned why his house said ‘9’ as well, he said he saw the adjacent house said ‘6’ so he changed his to ‘9’  so the post carriers would not get confused by two of the same numbers.  A repair man was called to fix both house numbers.                       

Spoken word and Sign Language poetry

       
There is something about listening to a poem that makes the experience more interesting and enjoyable than just reading it yourself. Through listening to a spoken poem, the listener can understand the reader’s emotion and the speaker can express his or her feeling better. Both spoken and written poetry tell a story and have a meaning, but it can sometimes be easier to analyze a written poem. The reader can see the words of the poem in front of themselves and re read it if necessary. On the other hand it may only take one time listening to it, taking in the speakers tone and emotion, to get an understanding of the poem.



Sign language, written and spoken word poetry all have meanings, but watching a sign language poem, you can see the flowing of emotion. Every sign seems to flow into the next creating a lot of emotion in poems especially by Peter Cook. It can be difficult for people who don’t know sign language to understand the whole meaning of the poem while it is being translated, but by watching the 'speakers' movement and facial emotion, a deeper meaning and respect for the poem can be found.

Product review. Giant Rincon

  
Depending on what type of biking you are into, the Giant Rincon may be the bike for you. I have been using this bike for a couple of years and haven't had many problems with it. Even when I pushed this bike past its limits it still performed for the most part.



This bike is a cross country bike and a good one at that. It is very light weight for its price range. The handle bar and seat position make this bike very comfortable and I have had no problems going on 50km flat trail rides. The 100mm suspension is acceptable for this bike, however if you ride on a rocky trail, your wrists might feel it. It is definitely worth paying a few extra dollars to buy the disc brake version. You do not want to be riding on a cliff side trail in the rain with V brakes, trust me. This bike shifts very well and you can leave fellow riders in the dust on cross country rides. I began riding downhill and free ride trails with this bike and it has held up well. The seat position is a little high and may make you feel nervous going down steep hills. I would not take this bike off drops more than 3 feet as it is an XC bike, and from my own experience.  However if you do crash on drops around 5 feet this bike can handle it! The Giant Rincon held up great for me until I bought a bike built for the discipline of downhill.

Pros; Light weight, comfortable, durable, a great bike if you’re on a budget ($500-$1000)



Cons; V brake version can be nerve-wracking in the rain for new riders, seat position is a little high for steep descents, 100mm suspension fork may be a little small for rocky trails.



Bottom line this bike is a great beginner bike for those interested in the sport of mountain biking. Starting with an XC bike can lead you to several other mountain biking disciplines.

Image from http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-ca/bikes/model/rincon.disc.white/5398/41496/

Poem Theft

The Ballpark

Brian Frisch

The bat cracks, as clean as the break

of a ripe limb from a douglas fir.

Under the lights, the arc of the ball in flight

decorates the night sky.

Shamrock green grass, freshly cut,

leaving lines as sharp as a checkerboard.

This is a lawn. Precise. It stands

as erect and proud as a four-star general saluting

his heroic men and women with a tear in his eye.

The stadium itself, attractive

as a one-hundred-year-old Cathedral in a city where the white money is

going...going...gone.

For these majestic parks are not limited to just baseball.

Grandmothers are happy here.

They become newborn children who never left their crafted rooms.

Here they can see the most perfectly painted

clear blue ceiling.

Oh, what's the score you say?

Ask grandma, she'll probably know.

But baseball is the last thing on my mind.

The   park

          as clean as the break

a  limb from a douglas fir.

Under the the acre

the night sky.

Shamrock green grass  

This is a lawn. Precise. It stands

 attractive

as a one-hundred-year-old city

going

For these majestic parks

happy here.

 the most perfectly painted

clear blue ceiling.

http://home.earthlink.net/~sscutchen/baseball/Poetry/the_ballpark.htm

Blog assignment 3

Computer Use

You come home and walk straight to your laptop.

If you have an older model that would be called a desktop

You push the

         

Hurry Up!

Technology is never fast enough 

The background of you and your friends comes up

As icons slowly appear where you left them

You ignore updates and warnings

‘Your system might be at risk’

Oh well!

Click the small blue 'e' or the sly orange animal icon

                                

You wait.

Click.

Wait

Nothing.

Click click

Wait

STILL NOTHING!

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

‘We are sorry this program is not responding’

Your whole day is ruined!

You can’t go outside or do something productive

Because you NEED to check out what’s going on with your friends…

Who it would seem, are also unable to go outside because of social networking

You start to regret all of that clicking

As twenty Google pages appear

Muttering under your breath at how the computer is so dumb for opening all of them

You finally are able to see what your friends have been doing!

You stare at the screen, re-clicking ‘top stories’ and ‘most recent’

After half an hour of refreshing pages you still have found nothing interesting

You finally have the sense to power off and go do something productive

The computer smiles as it goes to sleep

Knowing

 You’ll be back within an hour to do it all again

image from http://www.geeksailor.com/mozilla-firefox-3/

Poetry and Music

'Knee deep' Zac Brown Band

Gonna put the the world away for a minute

Pretend I don't live in it

Sunshine gonna wash my blues away

 Had sweet love but I lost it

She got too close so I fought her

Now I'm lost in the world trying to find me a better way

Wishing I was knee deep in the water somewhere

Got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair

Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise there's a fire in the sky

Never been so happy

Never felt so high

And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

Wrote a note said be back in a minute

Bought a boat and I sailed off in it

Don't think anybody gonna miss me anyway

Mind on a permanent vacation

The ocean is my only medication

Wishing my condition ain't ever gonna go away

Cause now I'm knee deep in the water somewhere

Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair

Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise there's a fire in the sky

 Never been so happy

Never felt so high

And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

This champagne shore washing over me

It's a sweet sweet life living by the salty sea

One day you could be as lost as me

Change you're geography

Maybe you might be

Knee deep in the water somewhere

Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair

Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise there's a fire in the sky

Never been so happy

Never felt so high

And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

Come on in the water it's nice

Find yourself a little slice

Grab a backpack a lunch

You never know until you try

When you lose yourself

You find the key to paradise

 http://www.lyricsty.com/zac-brown-band-knee-deep-lyrics.html

 http://youtu.be/qTU0p3_ra5A

When I listened to this song I first noticed the 4/4 time.  It is easy to ‘feel the beat’ and tap your foot to this song.  When I found a copy of the lyrics and read them as I listened to the song.  I realized each verse, or stanza, had three lines and for the most part the rhyme scheme for the verses was A A B.  The second verse does not follow this pattern, but when it is sung the artist sings the final word very quickly as if to make it follow the same pattern.  The song pattern follows a two verses, chorus, two verse, and chorus pattern.   

In this song I think the speaker is speaking to anyone who is going through tough or stressful times who need to take a break.  The lyrics are upbeat and positive.  There are several examples of poetic language in this song.  During the chorus there is talk about being knee deep in the ocean, with blue sky and a breeze blowing wind through hair.  This gave me a good mental image, and I could really picture what it would be like there.  There are also examples of alliteration in the chorus.  Several words in the chorus start with the same letters.  “…in the water some where” and “Blue sky breeze blowing…”  By adding alliteration to the chorus it makes the song catchier.  There are also a couple of examples of personification.  In the first line of the first stanza the singer talks about putting the world away for a minute.  You can’t actually put the world away for a minute but you can stop caring about your worries for a little while. 

I wasn’t sure what song to pick for this blog entry, so I just started listening to my music until I found this one.  While I was on the road for work in the summer this song would be on the radio a lot.  Eventually it became one of my favourite songs.  I like it because it is really laid back and relaxing.  It talks about ignoring the problems of the world and just relaxing for a little while.  I like the imagery of this song because I can imagine exactly what it looks like, being on a beach with a nice breeze.  I also like how it talks about being on a vacation, and the ocean being the only medication.  I felt like this when I first got to university, I wished it was summer and I was back biking in the mountains.  No matter what my problems are, biking always makes me relax.  I like how the song talks about being so relaxed that the only worry is if the tide will come in to where he is sitting.                    

Flowers have sprouted

The sparrows sing cheerfully

Cool mornings warm nights

There once was some meat on my plate

I thought the steak and ribs were just great

But I got indigestion

It was ugly no question

It wasn’t the best meal for a date

I think the format of limericks, AABBA, does influence them being comical.  I find that the first two lines are longer in length and lead into the story of the poem.  The third and fourth lines are short and have the comical aspect to the story.  Wrapping up the story with a longer line like the first two lines and ending with the same sound as those lines also adds to the comical nature of the poem.  Limericks seem witty to me because you have to be able to tell a story in five lines where three lines end in one sound, and two lines end in another.

There is just something about the format;

Longer line A

Longer line A

Shorter line B

Shorter line B

Longer line A

that makes these poems seem comical.      

1st blog

This is a test run to see if the blog is working.