Self Search

Google searching shows that the Internet basically doesn't know who I am. It's kind of nice but the results I got were a bit strange to me. Here were some of the results:

-random Facebook pages with Kelly Brickey as the user
-countless sites for some Kelly Brickey who tunes pianos in Boise, Idaho and/or Mountainair, New Mexico
-a 1990 graduate of Pacific High School in Pacific, Missouri
-an executive director of a Downs Syndrome Awareness group in East Tennessee

Once I added Righetti to the search words, I found a couple links about my involvement on the volleyball team from Santa Maria Times. In the same search, I also found a quick snippet of a site regarding the kids who got a perfect score on the CAHSEE test.

Besides that, it's pretty much just random from there on out.

Thinking Outside The Box...

In Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", he takes the symbolism and metaphors from the men shackled in a cave to represent the need for the search of knowledge. As the men become more comfortable in their chains, they come to think that what they see in the fire's shadows are the reality of life. One prisoner is finally let out into the light to discover what they don't know, which is actually the real world itself. Even though the light of the sun (otherwise known as the truth in life) is bright at first, he soon adapts and goes back to tell everyone about his new discovery. They reject him due to their ignorance in the matter and unfortunately, the one prisoner is killed. Every aspect in the writing is a symbol to relate to our lives as searching humans. The shackles show the restraint we have thrown upon us in our environment of learning, whether it be school or influential people. The cave is the reality we adopt to our senses. It is the world in which we see what we want to see and block everything else out that doesn't matter to us. It resembles the ignorance towards knowledge we have in our own perspectives. Being outside the cave represent the world of ideas. This world is a place to get lost in and can be overwhelming at first glance. But it is the realm of knowledge that needs to be questioned and discovered in order to truly understand reality for what it is. Plato wrote this story to show that the search of knowledge may be a difficult journey, but it is worth looking for in the whole picture.

Sartre's "No Exit", on the other hand, discusses the lack of knowledge in humans is due to the reliance of other people. He uses his characters' circumstances to portray an isolation of the world and having to rely on what people say. Being in their "hell" is not the typical version of this place; it is the psychological prison we are put in if we don't expand our social horizons. Depending on the same people all the time results in a vicious cycle that can never be left. Sartre wanted to use his story to show people to be open-minded in new situations involving people they had never seen or known before. It demonstrates how being in one state of mind with the same surroundings can cause an ignorance in itself. "Hell is other people," is just his way of saying don't get sucked into the cliche swing of things. Be opportunistic and discover the other side of the spectrum of knowledge. Taking risks and being open to new ideas from different people is just apart of the intellectual journey.

Although both authors use their narratives to reveal the constraints in the journey of knowledge, they have different approaches in emotions and reasons. Plato takes the savage look on the issue by putting "prisoners" in a cave and bounding them in shackles. They have no way out because they are locked up in this rock shelter. The prisoners themselves really have no reasoning to how they got there; it's just the norm for them. They also aren't miserable as their minds decay just sitting there. Sartre traps his characters in a room with specific details that all represent the hatred of the characters. They are stuck in this hellish room with each other and determine pretty quickly that it's only horrible because they are forced to be with one another. Their differences mirror the evil that lurks in their souls and brings out the true sinners they are. For Plato, the search for discovery depends on questioning and wondering beyond the environment you are currently in. Sartre, on the other hand, believes depending on others is the death of a dream for seeing true reality. They both stress, though, that finding out everything there is to know about the world is important to survival in the world beyond what we think we know.

AP Lit Term: Parody

Dictionary definition of parody: an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic relief.


Real-talk definition: some new variation of a work that pokes fun at the original version in some way.

Although I have never personally made one of these, many people make their living off of parodies. They occur in all kinds of different media including music, television shows, and pictures. When I hear the word 'parody', I think of all the over-the-top examples used on a daily basis.


Here, for example, is a parody of Twilight made by the Jersey Shore cast on Jimmy Kimmel Live:



A person who is known for their parodies is Weird Al Yankovic. He has albums filled with songs that he dubbed the lyrics to in order to make fun of the original. One of his most famous ones was a variation of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire. His version, below, is called "White and Nerdy":



Even Saturday Night Live is known for their sometimes controversial parodies of TV shows:



A parody is important in not only a literature point of view, but also as a part of the entertainment aspects. It helps relate different ideas to bring together one central point.

The BIG Question: Take Two

Here we go again:


What are the psychological and physiological factors that create our experience of being alive and living as ourselves?

Literature Analysis #3.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

1. Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys are stuck on a deserted island after their evacuation plane crashed. After they all come together, they decide to be a unit with Ralph as their leader and Jack as the alternative. They like their time of freedom from adults for a few days, but when one of their signal fires goes awry and burns a portion of the forest down, they realize that their main objective should be saving. The younger boys in the group start to become scared of the beasts within the island, claiming the most dangerous one lives in the sea during the day. Their fear ensues when the twins on watch find a parachute and believe it to be the beast. When they go on a search to see where this creature lies, Ralph and Jack disagree on what to do with the situation. Jack takes the majority off to his new "tribe", while Ralph is stuck with a smaller group. In spite of Jack's new leadership, his tribe kills a pig and puts its head on top of a stick as a symbol. One of the boys, Simon, has an unusual encounter with it, claiming it as the "lord of the flies". This also makes him realize that there is an evil spirit inside each of them. As Simon comes to tell the others about this epiphany, Ralph and his friend, Piggy, beat Simon to his death. Jack comes to fight them for committing such a horrible crime; during the fight, a boy named Roger rolls a huge boulder that ends up killing Piggy. The hunt to kill Ralph ensues as he hides away from his attackers in the jungle. Jack and his followers burn the forest down to make Ralph evacuate to the beach. Soon as he does, Ralph faints, figuring that he will be killed soon. As he awakes, he finds a naval officer has come due to the sight of fire. The other boys soon arrive to kill Ralph, but instead, find the officer and begin to break down. They all start to cry because they know, now, they can return home.

2. One of the biggest themes in this novel about a civilization of young boys is losing their youth and sense of innocence. At the beginning of the story, they enjoy their time away from their parents by doing careless activities. They play games and have fun because they don't have any parents to tell them what to do or how to live. As the days drag on, they become weary and start developing a savage lifestyle. They begin to plot and kill each other due to the insanity they feel from their distance of reality. The symbol that plainly shows their loss of innocence is when they put the pig head on a stick and use it as an idol. It displays their change in attitude and their significant loss of purity.

3. The tone of Golding's narration worsens as the story goes on. He has a twisted view on the plot and it makes for a dark and savage tone. He is also very deceptive in his voice and violent when it comes to describing the actions between the boys.

- “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!
- "Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!"
- "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"

4. The five literary devices are:
Symbolism
- "The conch glimmered … a white blob against the place where the sun would rise. He pushed back his mop."
- "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don't keep a fire going?"
- "My specs!...One sides broken"

Foreshadowing
- "There was no light left save that of the stars."
- "Ralph was aware of the heat for the first time that day…an unusual heat."
- "There isn't a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone."

Diction
- "The crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words … but the tearing of teeth and claws."
- "The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."
- "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling."

Imagery
- "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble."
- "Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea."
- "The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist."

Characterization
- "He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat…looked up through thick spectacles."
- "He was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness."
- "You could see now that he might make a boxer…but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil."
   

The Big Question.

Given this challenge, I have been trying to create a question that I have ever wondered about. There are so many to choose from. But this time, I'm going to go the psychological route.

How does our mind automatically connect to the body or person we are? How can we know if our conscious truly guides us to who we want to be or who we think we are?

Thoughts...

Hamlet & Performative Utterance: Take 2.

     Hamlet is a young man who knows that he wants revenge out of anger and spite; his only problem is he doesn’t know if he can deal with his emotional state along the way. He takes situations and critically over analyzes them to the fullest extent. He talks ideas to death within his personal speeches; he goes back and forth between his options until his mind is burdened by any result. This method of performance utterance and self-overhearing involved throughout the play, Hamlet, is a way to relate to the growth in being of the title character and develop an understanding for why he does (or doesn’t) follow through in his decisions. The way Hamlet speaks has a great impact on his plans and how his actions affect everything surrounding him, including his own story. Self-overhearing, in the context of my life and Hamlet’s, leads to destruction and can break down an issue to the breaking point. Many people take their thoughts and feelings into account and study them for theories, such as Austin and Bloom did. Talking things through, mentally and physically, can bring new life to the said action and give everything a reason to let it be or not to be.

Emotions weigh heavily on Hamlet’s decisions; he constantly is speculating on how to jump on his plan for revenge or even his next comeback with an enemy. His numerous self-talks contemplate the subjects from suicide to murder and how he must persevere in what he thinks he needs to do in order to reach a stable, even place of mind. Throughout his use of performative utterances, he realizes the power of action in his words. He develops an understanding for the impact of the forces (as explained in Austin’s theory) and realizes how his words may reflect and create consequences for other people. With this, Hamlet sets his goals where he thinks they should be at, but doesn’t conquer them right away. His soliloquies of self-overhearing give him a feel for himself and in those epiphanies, he grows into the person he strives towards throughout the actions he ends up choosing over saying. The story emphasizes the ideas in Hamlet’s head and without these thoughts, the other characters would have no meaning and the plot would be a one-dimensional portrayal of life. If the conversations Hamlet had alone were held secretly in his mind, there would be no suspense or second guessing in what Hamlet may do to Claudius or how he feels about himself. Performative utterance gives Hamlet a way to speak and display what he does, in spite of what others may not approve of.

Everyone has that little voice inside their head, guiding them to do the right thing or taking them to the next step. Conscience does throw in its own two cents about what it thinks is right and wrong, but it ultimately depends on the other half of analyzing the situation at hand. Hamlet uses his theory of self-overhearing against his original plans; he breaks them down to a tiresome state and ends up just using the contemplation as an excuse to get things done quicker. Although I am very determined in my goals, I can’t talk them up if I want to get them accomplished. The more I don’t think about certain things, the more effort I put towards them and end up doing what I said I was going to in my mind. Self-overhearing destroys my train of true thought and creates high expectations to live up to the actions that are usually let down very easily. Talking through the tasks I need to get done to myself ruins the chances of them actually happening. On the other hand, discussing things with another individual makes me want to prove myself to that person and helps me achieve what I claimed to do. Finding reason through others instead of keeping to myself encourages me to do what I had set out to do in words. Self-overhearing can be a form of self-help, but in terms for most, can also be a form of self-destruction.

When Hamlet was introduced at the beginning of the play, he was a manic, depressed teenager who just thought if he put his mind to something and swore to it, it would eventually be accomplished. He went through the ups and downs by talking to himself with performative utterance, trying to find out the real meaning in his words. It took time to realize the extent of his words and how only saying them doesn’t bring any force; action must be made to accomplish the task at hand. Self-overhearing contributes to the contemplation of it all and can drive a person mad with true intentions by what they say. Words said in the mind or aloud influence the problem at stake and can make a person wander around what they truly want to get done. The real world doesn’t depend on only the things people say they are going to do soon; it also matters on how the force of those words can be achieved. With everything running through the conscious mind, actions truly do speak louder than words with intention.

AP Exam Essay-Language.

     Language is the way humans communicate with each other and affects details surrounding a story. It influences reactions and plot lines with the context it implies and provides a flowing string of events. Both Hamlet by Shakespeare and Beowulf by Anonymous have their own way of telling epic adventures and events, but their different usage of language shows how the poems play out in different manner. Hamlet has a more melancholy and deep tone while Beowulf is enthusiastic and filled with doom. The diction Hamlet uses in his conversations and soliloquies are very emotional; Beowulf's wording is descriptive in an epic way. Even though both stories use foreshadowing, Beowulf describes it in actions and Hamlet conveys it during dialog. Language can control everything, whether it be for an epic hero like Beowulf or protagonist such as Hamlet.
     When a message is sent, it is the tone that determines what information really comes across. Hamlet is a story about a young man who is out to get revenge and in the process, becomes angsty and depressed with other situations around him. His emotional tone is prevalent in his soliloquies and shows the vulnerable side to the protagonist. "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them," questions Hamlet, determining whether to move on in his life when trouble has come his way. Beowulf, on the other hand, is exhilarated when danger looks him in the face. The narrator, encouraging, said, "Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail would soon meet with the menace underwater. It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe," and began the epic action to follow. Tone influenced how the characters felt and gave an insight to how they thought.
     Hamlet is a man of many words; he goes through each problem thoroughly in his mind and even talks to himself to decide what to do next. The prolonged thoughts are displayed in a rambling yet intense use of diction. "O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d, His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world," Hamlet would proclaim out of complete anger and confusion. His lengthy descriptions of his thoughts differed than the epic one of Beowulf. Beowulf wasn't afraid and faced everything that came his way without, as a hero should. "Grendel is no braver, no stronger than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not, easy as it would be," he said, showing his defying words that gave confidence instead of fear. Words make or break whether a character is as strong as a hero or an average person.
     Foreshadowing can give away a story with subtle hints and lead to the climax of the somewhat unexpected. Although Hamlet and Beowulf use it towards the idea of death, the characters' way of implying it are subtle in their own ways. Hamlet, again, plays everything out in soliloquies and secret plans for revenge. Hamlet basically told the end of the poem when he said, "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift, As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge." His anger toward the situation and his language pertain to later events and how it could result in other acts of hate. Beowulf foreshadows death with a funeral: "They stretched their beloved lord in his boat, laid out by the mast, amidships, the great ring-giver. Far-fetched treasures were piled upon him, and precious gear." Having a prescience of the events that are lay ahead determine what will be the result in the protagonist's journey---good or bad.
     Every element involved in language develops the characters and begins a chain reaction in the making of a story. Language is the beginning to any kind of storytelling and can shape a person into an epic hero or a supporting role. In Hamlet, the saddening tone, wordy diction, and foreshadowing in dialect form give Hamlet the role as a typical young man facing adversity. He is a mixed up guy trying to face the problems as best he can. Beowulf, on the other hand, shows great strength and bravery in the hero of Beowulf, within the same elements. The parts of language make up a whole which, in turn, can make a man out of a boy or a boy out of a man.

What I Have Learned So Far...

One of the biggest topics we've covered this year has been all about the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. We broke it down line by line to figure out the true meaning behind it and why it is considered a different story for any reader. We unraveled the context of Shakespeare's language and read in between the lines to determine how details such as tone, style, and irony could create such a dramatic plot line. Because there are so many interpretations of what the true meaning behind the play is, I found two different cartoon versions to help demonstrate different views.

Veggietales is a kids program that focuses on values and virtues. It took the lighter route and put a silly touch on the story. Their rendition is called Omelet and although it is vaguely similar to the real version, it tries to bring out a good side of the story.



Another version that stays closer to the actual events is The Simpsons. Their take focuses on the main action points of the play but puts their own usage of comedy for a more entertaining look.



Hamlet was definitely a great story full of dramatic events and having it in mind for future reference will always be resourceful.

Roy Christopher and Others

Today, during third and fourth period, our AP classes had the opportunity to engage in an educational chat with Roy Christopher and other guests. The details of new and old technology were discussed and how they affect our generation and others to come.

Notes: Pre-Chat

- "The medium is the message," is a symbolistic way to say that it's all about perspective when a message is delivered
- Writing is a self-expressed way to tell a story or pass on tradition
- Marshalling (borrowing to make whole or complete) could be used in technology or in hip-hop (remix sampling)

Notes: During Chat

- Christopher went from the BMX world of interest to web design from friend influence
- started out as just a hobby of writing; taken over by the Internet sensation
- analog v.s. digital- both are a struggle and a natural idea but more of a struggle due to the threats of procrastination
- Christopher's path: BMX articles -> new media/science -> wrote and self-published book for websites
- "remix culture"- way to mix different cultures together and giving access to everyone interested or involved; adds to the new generation
- pop culture could be considered a blue print for the 21rst century culture
- advent horizons: new discoveries in technology that create a sensation and develop the next generation's idea on technology (TV in the 50's-60's, web in the 80's-90's)
- "analog scaffolding": taking the last idea and taking it to the next satep or beyond
- the medium may be surpassed with the new technology that we have now
- "program or be programmed": learn the background to technology to control outcome of its future; having more knowledge will prepare us for more information
- digital conquering other things like TV and cell phones
- advent horizons: challenge- to excel past old ideas and create new steps forward
                                  opportunity- teach the ones before us about how to control the concepts
- never disregard the value in past technology; can help develop new ideas for the future
- older generations do not trust younger ones about their knowledge and understanding for the new technology
- our generation shouldn't be embarrassed but should embrace the knowledge we own about computers, TV, websites, cell phones, etc.
- older generations should trust our judgement in a sense because we grew up around gadgets and it is like our second nature to understand it in different ways
- multitasking: more of a myth or made up concept; motivation if all focus is only on one project or idea; multiple goals cause for confusion, stress, procrastination, etc.
- digital native v.s. digital immigrant: natives may grow older and turn into immigrants or tourists but the digital label will always remain; the concept of digital is forever embedded in someone once they go to that side of technology
- we all have to shift to the learning of digital ideas soon because the future holds an advancement in that category
- collaborating online is an easy way to receive feedback quick and develop certain concepts as a whole
- "DIY aspect": chance for younger generation to make individual opportunities and create jobs to better the technological world ahead; more on your own work instead of going to someone else for ideas
- future is not bleak for those who embrace what technology has in store for us

The most important or relevant information are the point highlighted in bold font. These points in the conversation can help me to safely say that things like the internet and cell phones are in our favor. They will contribute to events later on in life, but eventually will be overlooked by the new advances in technology made someday.