Project Reflection

I found out that if our homework was to read the book of our choice and do the project that we choose, it would be much easier because we are willing to do it and we are happy to do it. We chose books that we would read on a daily basis and instead of reading purely for enjoyment, we get a grade while enjoying reading it. The key point in successfully finishing and doing this project is only to choose a book that you like and to just read it casually while making a project on something you like. I didn't spend much hard work in reading the book because I enjoyed reading the book and find it fun. However, the start of the book was kind of painful. The book doesn't have a hook, or at least it doesn't work on me, that grabs me to keep me reading in the beginning. However, towards the end of the book, when it gets more intense, it grabs my attention and it became easy to continue reading. I spend a lot of time working on my project and I enjoy making the project. I am kind of proud of my project because I feel like my profile on Winston Smith was in great detailed and I have spent a great deal of time researching and making the profile and files look legit. I think this project is worthwhile because by letting we choose the book, we can read a book that we enjoy and it's our own choice and by regulating the reading difficulty we are still learning. Also, the weekly reading check and analysis let us further understand the novel in a more critical way.

911

911 is a very terrible event that marked the largest terrorist attack on the mainland of the United States of America. On September 11, when people were watching the news about a plane that flew into Twin Tower, another air plane flew in Twin Tower on live stream. For the viewers, it is devastating and horrible. However, for people who have lost their dear friends and families during the incident have a really strong personal sense of anger and resentment against the terrorist. These people crave massive retaliation because the terrorists have done the unspeakable to them and they seek revenge. For people watching live news at home, people are dying inside the building and it is nothing like how it is on news. Real people, colleagues, friends, random person who is delivering mail, and every people in the building are dying at any second. There are many speculations that after the death of Osama Bin Laden, there will be a power vacuum in AL-Qaeda and there will be a lot of extremest and or Bin Laden's close friend or assistant that will plan a big terrorist attack, bigger than 911, to prove their worth to be the new leader. It might be a even more dangerous place for the next following years.

Jargon

Jargon is terms used in a specific activity, profession, or secret code used between people. Usually people use jargons so it's easier to communicate and easier to pronounce. Also, some uses jargons for connection and link between people to feel like they are part of the same thing. Jargons are also used for secrecy, so other people who doesn't need to know the information would not know. For example, teenagers now aday uses jargon commonly known as slang for a number of different reason. One reason being that they feel closer and more connected to their identity when using slang. Another reason might be that they don't want their parents to know exactly what they are talking about. Drug dealers and crackheads uses street names for drugs so the police wouldn't know what they are selling or even what they are talking about. For example, marijuana is referred to a wide variety of ways, such as sweet mary jane, the buddha, and weed. Some drugs' street names are so common because their professional name are too hard to pronounce such as MDMA now known mostly as ecstasy. Some mountain climbing terms used are short-roped, and it refers to assisting someone injured during a mountain climbing expedition, and reppal, meaning to descend off a steep slide by a rope and repelling against the wall in small back-eject.

Risk for a Reason

There are different behaviors that will emerge at a time of danger or crisis. For example, one might risk his or her own life to save another person, sometimes a stranger or sometimes someone very close. Or, one might save himself first before trying to save others. Also, there are people who doesn't risk any chance of getting hurt or risk their life in trying to help other people in need of help. People says, at a time of crisis,it's when one show their true self. For example, if you have a friend you feel really close to; they might ignore you and only save themselves at a time of crisis. It is really not their fault because it's human instinct to do whatever it takes to survive and avoid harmful behaviors. However, it is also human nature to save another person without thinking but just doing it out of selflessness. However, there are people who save people only for the benefit of the result of saving the person. Usually at a time of crisis, people doesn't have much time to think it through. Maybe people doesn't think about how risky the behavior is and it's because they have miscalculated the cost-benefit analysis that they risk their life to save other. That is why usually when there is an abundant of time to make a decision, less people risk their life in saving another person. WHen a person save another person out of pure selflessness, that is altruism, and our society praises altruism because it is a quality we want to be implanted in everyone's mind.

Why Take Risks!?

Mountain climbers take risks because they like the feeling of adrenaline rush. Just like many activities that requires a chance of risk, participants enjoy taking risks because they enjoy the fact that there is a chance that they might lose. People get addicted to taking risks because they are addicted to the good feeling when they take a bet and the sudden adrenaline rush fills them with pleasure. Just like gamblers, they are actually not addicted to winning or getting a huge amount of money because what end up happening is that they lose all their money but still come back every year after getting their paycheck to lose them all again. This is because they are addicted to the losing of the game. They came for fun, for risk, and the minute they set their bets and leave their money, there is a chance they might lose it all, and the sudden adrenaline rush fills them with joy and excitement. You often see gamblers laughing after they have lost a couple thousand because they feel like they have had a huge amount of enjoyment and they won't cash in until they lose everything. This applies to mountain climbers too. Although dead mountain climbers don't live to tell how exciting it is to lose it all, one reason mountain climber go climb higher and higher mountains is not just because they want to prove that they can conquer a high mountain, but rather the adrenaline that kicks in when they are in such dangerous situation.

Cause and Effect

Stories are basically a chain of cause and effects relating to each other that moves the story. Just like life, it's composed of series of events that interrelated to each other so that after one action is performed, it will cause another to happen and that action would be the causation of another event. The causation and effect of events are predetermined by your personality and other's personality. While others' personality determines what they will do,  their action causes you to act in a way that suits your personality the best. In a short story, author use a variety of different techniques and focus on different part of the story. While one might focus on the effect of one or more actions, others would focus and discuss the causation of one ore more causes. There are also authors who focus on the whole chain of causes and effects and these are ways to help us understand the story and relate to it. Cause and effects in life are complex chains so complex that it's impossible to figure out because it takes on everything that happened in the world. The Butterfly Effect is the explanation of cause and effect in life. While one butterfly flaps its wings in one place, a chain of reaction, or cause and effect, might cause a tornado to occur somewhere halfway across the globe. However, short stories tend to simplify this chain into the most simple form, sometimes even to where there's only one line of cause and effect.

Compare Disasters

Krakauer's story is different from the all three of Titanic's account. The first one is the R.M.S Titanic. The author of this account is not even part of the event so his point of view would be third person and his sources would be second hand and first hand from a variety of different sources. This made a whole lot of difference because any feelings and opinions in this account would very much not be the author's but would be a collection of different sources he got from. Also, because he is not involved in the event, he would not include as much feelings and personal thoughts into the account as Krakauer. The second one from the fireman would be more related to Krakauer's because the fireman actually was involved in this terrible incident and is one of the victims just like Krakauer is in his conquest to the top of the world. However, this is a bit different because their view on the subject matter might be different. Yes they both think that what happened was utterly terrible but because Krakauer is a trained journalist and he is trained to keep his thoughts in a minimum level, there was less feelings involved and the writing was more professional. However, the fireman wasn't trained to write professional articles, so he obviously included more personal feelings and less fact.

Partipation

The role of a journalist should not be bias, they shouldn't include their personal thoughts and opinion to persuade or have an effect on the reader in any way possible. However, it is almost impossible to be absolutely objective without any influences. Participatory journalism is even more so because the journalist is involved in the event. No matter how uninvolved he is, he is always more involved then a random reporter reporting the event because he actually took part in it. When one is part of an event and he is to write about it, it is nearly impossible to not put thoughts and opinions in it even though he might not mean it because when you describe the situation you are using your own judgement because you were there and that's a first hand source. In the case of John, he was a participatory journalist that witnessed a terrible event of his team member dying. This tragic event led to him filling the article with his own ideas and opinions because it is just too stunning. Some have argued that participatory journalism is questionable and should be abolished because journalist in this field will often include their own personal thoughts and opinions that might sway the article in a certain way or might persuade the audience rather than simply informing real facts and this might be a problem.

RISK

Risk is very pleasurable because when a person takes risk, he is flooded with adrenalin and the feeling is very pleasurable. Also, one of the best feelings when can get is the feeling when you have risked something and you win the bet because there is a chance you might lose the bet but the moment you win the bet you feel good. It's what makes human human. Many decisions we make is based a risk taking and analysis, we take what's the outcome and we take what we might lose if we lose the bet and then we analyze if we should take the risk. Because we have spent energy analyzing and deciding what's the best to do, winning the bet would mean that we didn't waste our hardwork and that's why we get the good feeling, also that we have made the right decision. However, because teens are less likely to calculate the risk because we are young and ruthless. Younger people tend to make mistakes in taking risks and they will be extra careful with taking risks. However, for most teenagers, although we have never face and real big deal loss from taking risk, we only enjoyed the good feeling from making the right decision where we didn't think much about it. That is why young people tend to take more and more dangerous risks than adult. This is because we are using the trial and error reasoning. We only stop taking risks when something had really gone wrong last time we take risks, and that usually never happens, Smart people learns from other's mistake while teenagers learn from its own mistakes.

Free Write

If I am going to choose to have a dog, I would choose a dog that could protect me and is loyal to me. This would be my criteria because I think it would be cool to have a dog that will fight off other dogs because I'm afraid of dogs. Also, I want it to be loyal so even if it's too powerful I wouldn't have to be afraid, I would actually be happy if it became more powerful. Dogs are a lot like monkeys but I wouldn't want to keep a monkey as a pet because of a few reasons.First, they don't look cool or cute; monkeys are ugly and hairy. Secondly, monkeys are very noisy and they are big and messy. These are the two primary reasons why I wouldn't keep a monkey as a pet. People being hairy are mostly from genetic reasons and that means if a person is hairy, his/her parents are most likely be hairy too. Genes are very complicated and scientists now have no fully understand how it worked and what ever single strand are for. The causation of cancer from radiation is when the particles go into your body and knocks off parts of your DNA and that strand would mutate. People that mutate through radiation happened a lot for generations after Japan got nuked by the United States of America because the DNA blueprints of parents have been messed up and their kids' genes would be messed up too. During the World War II, most battles happened in the sky and are called dogfights. The pilots shot down but still alive sometimes would have their injured parts amputated to avoid infections. Now the technology is very advanced and people doesn't have to amputate body parts just because of a few bullet wound. People even have plastic surgery done even for the public and is now a very profitable business in China. However, in China, many people fake their doctor certificate and they practice plastic surgery while knowing nothing about it so many mistakes and death occurs.

A Challenge

I enjoy some kinds of challenge. However, i especially hated when it is clearly impossible to beat or it would take a really long time to beat the challenge. Usually when I encounter challenges too difficult or too time-wasting, I just give up once I think there's no hope or it's going to take a long time. However, I really like the feeling of beating a challenge that at first you think it's possible. I think the feeling is really great when you are faced with a challenge, mentally or physically, and you overcome it through hard work, never give in attitude, and     talent. Base on the descriptions, I would conclude that the challenges I like would be challenges hard enough for me to think it's impossible for just a little while in the beginning and just easy enough for me to solve before I get tired and sick of it. I usually always prefer mental challenges because during the physical challenges you get tired and sore and that would make me lose morale and the time for me to want to try will shorten significantly. However, mental challenges that are more challenging and difficult can be very frustrating and cause anger and for me, sweating. That is why sometimes I get really angry when I can't solve a problem because I become very hot inside. Usually I like game challenges because I take a great deal of enjoyment while trying to solve the puzzle or trying to beat the game.

Highwayman

A highwayman is a person that is a kind of pirate but he hijacks cars with guns. They stand in front of cars or jump in front of cars on highways with their guns and hijack rides.What happened to the Highwayman in the story about the highwayman is that he is forbidden to love a girl that is the landowner's daughter. It is very similar to Frank's situation because he is forbid by the nurses and nuns to speak to, laugh with, or any communication with girl next room, Patricia for reason's such as the spreading of germs or that they shouldn't express praise to any aspect of England. Toward the end of the story, Frank was sent to another place, away from Patricia as a punishment for talking to her. This is also similar to the highwayman situation because Frank doesn't know what happened next and the highwayman is not allowed to go to Patricia as a punishment for his crime. I think Seamus' conclusion is reasonable in that aspect, that they are separated and forbid to communicate in any form with each other, which indirectly means no relationship can happen between them. However, it is even worse in Frank's case because he and her both has disease that was incurable at that time so not only are they not allowed to experience love but they are also fighting death constantly. It's can be a romantic story because Frank likes Patricia and Patricia and there's an outside force trying to put a stop to their affection to each other and that is the conflict to all romances.