Winter Break

My winter break was much more relaxed than normally.  This is because for the last couple of years, I have traveled out of the state for most of the break.  However, this year I did not because I am going on a cruise for spring break.  I was ecstatic for winter break to start because I was exhausted from waking up early for the past two weeks and I needed to be able to sleep in.  I slept a lot during break.  It was very relaxing and it was nice to not have to get up early for a change.  Before Christmas Eve, I did almost nothing.  I watched TV, ate,and slept which is what I am good at doing.  On Christmas Eve, my family and I went to our church to celebrate the holiday.  My best friend Drew Taylor went to the same service as us, which was interesting.  He only goes to my church for Christmas service, therefore; it was exciting to see him there.  After the service my family and I went to dinner at Eddie Merlot's.  Eddie Merlot's is the fanciest restaurant I have ever been to.  I stuffed my face with filet mignon, salad, bread, coke, and banana's foster.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  I did not eat for 36 hours after that meal because I was so full with the fantastic food.

Christmas came and I did not ask for much.  I received gift cards, a north face, and two tickets to the Bengals game on new year's day.  I was very pleased.  My other family members came over and we ate dinner and socialized.  I slept a lot more after Christmas as well.  I went to a volleyball open gym which got offered me a little exercise ut other than that I was a slug.  I did nothing until the Bengals game on New Years Day.  The Bengals lost in dramatic fassion, but ended up making the playoffs for the third time in the last 20 years.  Then yesterday, I actually had to do work.  I worked on my math packet and went to volleyball to get ready for today.  Overall i had an enjoyable winter break.

Thanksgiving

My Thansgiving was fairly unproductive and boring.  On Tuesday night I had volleyball practice from 5-7 p.m. I had a few injuries from practice and I was sore for the next couple of days.  That night my friend Drew came over and we played COD MW3, watched television, and ate. I slept a lot that night because I was tired from volleyball and a long week at school.  I woke up around 10 a.m. and watched television for most of the day.  My brother and his friend were already plotting their Black Friday attack of Target.  They wanted me to drive them and I said sure because I had nothing better to do.  Wednesday was a lazy day and nothing got accomplished.  Thursday was Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is the best holiday in the world because you get to eat a lot, watch football, and sleep.  These are the three best things in any guy's life and it is all wrapped up in one convient holiday.   My aunt and my grandma came over to my house for Thanksgiving dinner.  For dinner we had: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, rolls, brussel sprouts, apple pie, and pumpkin pie.  I was full after the dinner, therefore it was time for football.  All the teams that I wanted to win did not.  I usually watch football with my dad, but this year everybody came and watched football with us.  This however turned out to be unfortunate for me because I could not have my favorite seat.  I had to sit on the ground which was not fun.  The next three days were a blur so I will just give the interesting parts.  I took Jake and his friend Black Friday shopping.  We went to Steak n' Shake at 2 in the morning.  My aunt and her roomate came over the next day and we watched OSU lose which was a terrible feeling.  On Sunday, I watched the Bengals win in an exciting close game.  

A Modest Proposal Questions

1.  He makes the author of A Modest Proposal come off as witty and very intelectual.  He shows that the author knows how to solve all of Ireland's problems, but on the othere hand he is doing it sarcasticly.

2.The author's real thesis is that the people of Ireland need to do better to provide for themselves and take a stand against England.  If they keep living the way they are, they will surely die.

3.I detect differences between the propser and the author when he suggests that we eat the babies as the solution to the problem.  That was absurd so I knew he had to be joking.  This is the point of the story where it starts to get ironic.

4.A lot of people are singled out including old people, young children, and England.  He does not like the beggers at all.  He thinks they should be doing something better with their life.  The Irish are also to blame because they are not doing anything about their current situation.  His alligence lies with Ireland but he is becoming fed up with the people there.  He identifies himself as poor, but not a begger.

5.The essay does give some serious proposals such as saying that Ireland needs to get their act together if they want to survive into the next decade.

6.  This is organized by age of solution.  First he talks about babies, then young children, and then old people.  The purpose of the last paragraph  is to say that if he could help out he could, but he is poor so he unfortunately he can't.

7.  swift's piece is very successful.  I do ot think that the satire becomes overpowering, it strengthens the moment.  I think that it has a big enough impact because this is the first time that we hear an actual solution.

8.I have no idea about the different types of satire, but I know he used satire threoughout the essay explaining to use some ridiculous solutions.

9.It is an understatement because the proposal is not modest at all, it is a very radical proposal.  It is verbal irony for the same reason.

10.  Throughout the essay there is irony.  Especially when he is coming up with "solutions" to the problems of babies and the elderly.  This is also how he uses sarcasm.  It works out very well.

11.It is telling Ireland that they need to fight back in order for them to get what they want.  England is suppossed to be the big guys and Ireland the weaklings.  It also has something to do with civil rights.

Logos:  When is talking about the number of people in Ireland and explaining how the population breaks down by age and gender.

Pathos:  There is not that many places he uses pathos, but one place is when he is suggesting that we eat babies.

Ethos:  The last paragraph he is using ethos.

I want a wife responses

1. Does this essay have an explicitly stated thesis? If so, what is it? If you believe the thesis is implied, paraphrase it in your own words. 

 -No, this essay does not have a stated thesis.  I believe the thesis is that she wants someone to do everything a wife does for her.

2. Throughout the essay, Brady repeats the words “I want a wife.” What is the effect of this repetition?

 -The effect of this repetition is that it tells the reader everything a wife does that men take for granted.  It shows them that there are a lot of responsibilities that a wife has.

3. Brady never uses the personal pronouns he or she to refer to the wife she defines. Why not? 

 -She never uses personal pronouns because she does not actually want a wife, these are just the responsibilities that she has as a wife.

4. Do you think Brady really wants the kind of wife she describes—does this ideal spouse

actually exist? Explain why you think Brady wrote this essay. 

 -She probably would like to have a wife that does everything stated in the essay.  This ideal spouse does not exist, but when you love someone enough they come pretty close to it.  I think Brady wrote this essay because she is tired of having the womanily responsibilities around the home and wants to go to school to learn and be higher up in society.

 5. How does Brady define what it means to be a “wife”? How does she organize the many services a wife provides her husband and family? What do you think of Brady’s characterization of a wife and her responsibilities? How do you think she wants her readers to respond to this characterization? Why?

 -Brady defines it to be a wife as doing things around the home such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children.  She organizes the services a wife provides chronologically in what needs to be done first, second, etc.  Her characterization of a wife is pretty spot on.  She wants readers to resond in a sympathetic way and feel sorry for women by portraying them as slaves.

6. Write a letter to Brady responding to “I Want a Wife.” Let her know what you admire or don’t admire about the essay and the extent to which you consider it effective and/or persuasive. 

-Dear Mrs. Brady, I personally didn't admire your essay, I somewhat took offense to it as a guy.  I think you should stop complaining about your responsibilities as a woman and as a wife and get back in the kitchen to make some sandwiches. 
This is the way society is, so you should get use to it because it isn't going to change.  This is still true today, 40 years later.  I did however find it effective on weaker people.  They could feel sorry for women and try and do something about it.  It was clever how you used satire to say that you don't really want a wife.  Goodbye, Ben  

7. Write your own piece entitled “I Want a/an X.” You can use Brady’s essay as a model, and in the process, imitate some of her stylistic techniques. Or, alternatively, write an essay about the role of a “wife” in the early twenty-first century, explaining how a wife’s responsibilities complement and are complemented by those of a spouse.

-I want a sister. I want a sister that obsesses about how she looks every second of every day trying to impress her so called “friends”.  I want a sister that screams and yells at the top of her lungs when she doesn’t get what she wants.  I would love it if my sister did that; I would think to myself “She is handling her problems like such an adult right now.”  I want a sister that dresses like a stripper at school and thinks that she is more important then everybody else.  I want a sister that will make me food at a moment’s notice and will do anything I say.  I want a sister that doesn’t think independently an thinks what everybody else is thinking.  I want a sister that is dumb, that gets bad grades in school and doesn’t even care about them because someday they will marry some rich guy and grades won’t matter then.  That is the kind of sister I would be proud of.

LIGHTSWITCH!!!

A light switch is a very useful tool.  It makes turning on and off lights a breeze.  Without the light switch we would have to spend an extra ten seconds looking for another way to turn on or off a light.  Ten whole seconds!  That is too much time to be spending, looking for a way to turn on or off a light.  I bet Thomas Edison would be amazed with what we can do from his simple invention.  We have whole shows just dedicated on light and Edison was the first person to invent the incandescent light bulb.  The way a light switch works is that when the light switch is on the circuitry is all connected and the electricity can flow, when it is off then there becomes a break in the circuits which cuts off the flow of electricity.  It is a very cool invention that people take for granted every day.

HALLOWEEN!

One Halloween evening, I was walking through a cemetery and tripped on a tombstone.  When I got to my feet, I noticed that when I fell, I accidently moved the top of the grave.  I went over to put the top back on, but when I looked in the grave, there was nothing there!  Suddenly, something tapped me on the shoulder.  As I turned around in fear, I was terrified to find a zombie.  I ran from the cemetery as fast as my feet could carry me and returned to the safety of my house.  The house was set up for Halloween so it had fake blood, candy, and pumpkins everywhere.   My brother tried to scare me when I came in the house my saying boo, and while wearing an evil looking monster mask.  It did not work as usual, so I went to the kitchen to get some pumpkin pie.    I got on the computer and went on YouTube.  As I was watching a hilarious video my computer sparked and died as an orange ghost flew out of the monitor.  I was done with scary Halloween stuff for the day, so I decided to go to sleep.  The End

Letter from a Birmingham Jail They say/ I say

1.  In the first paragraph they are saying that MLK's statement was "unwise and untimely" but then MLK comes back and says "Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas.".  He is saying that he does not have to respond to every critic that comes his way and he is right.

2.On the bottom paragraph of the second page, it is talking about how the action of MLK and his associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely.  He comes back saying that the new Birmingham administration  must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act.  They are talking about the upcoming election for the mayor of Birmingham.

3.In the middle of page 3, they are saying that they express a great deal of anxiety over the black people's willingness to break laws.  MLK fires back stating that there are two types of laws: just and unjust.  He is basically explaining that the "laws" that his people are breaking are unjust so it should not be held against them.

4.In the first paragraph on the fourth page, they are saying that what they are doing is just and there is nothing the black community can do.  He says that he wants people to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right.  He also wants them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.  He wants the African-Americans to be treated equally because it is morally right.

5.In the first paragraph of page six, they are saying that the activity in Birmingham as extreme.  MLK says that he is disappointed that the fellow clergymen would see his nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist.  He is saying that the clergymen is taking his nonviolent approach to solve an enormous issue as extreme and that is not the case at all.