Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Honners blog

I recently read the book Animal farm for school, and i noticed that the author, George Orwell, develops the plot and theme of the book using the many literary devises including characterization, Mood, and Allegory.
In Animal Farm two who played big parts in the story were Snowball and Napoleon. Snowball and Napoleon were two pigs on the farm who became automatic leaders of the animals because of their intelligence and ideas for how they would build their new society. But although they both wanted to be leader they couldn't be more different from each other. Snowball was the idealist leader, he was always coming up with ideas to better the lives of the animals, including a windmill that would power farm machinery and provide heating and running water in each animals stall. Napoleon however was more of a shady character . He would rarely voice his ideas, or speak up in meetings, except to disagree with snowballs ideas. Napoleon wanted to have all the power, he drove Snowball out of the farm and became the leader. I think that the author used the characters of Snowball and Napoleon to illustrate two views of human nature. Snowballs character symbolizes that humans have good intentions, and Napoleons character symbolizes that humans are inherently bad, and are easily corrupted.
The mood of the story changes throughout the book. In the beginning of the story the mood is happy, and focuses on the rebellion against humans, and freedom and new beginnings. After hearing the oldest animal on the farm speak of how animals are constantly oppressed and mistreated by humans, the animals rebelled against their owners and drove them out of the farm and took control of it themselves. When the animals first became free they discarded all the cruelty's practiced by humans, and started their new perfect society, were all animals are equal. but as the the story progresses, the pigs, who were in charge of running slowly took the other animals rights away, and brainwashing them into thinking that they were much better of then when humans still owned the farm, when in reality they were being treated much worse.
Another literary device that was used was allegory. Allegory means the symbolism that the author is trying to convey through the characters and plot of the story. I noticed this in animal farm in the references to communist society's. The main similarity i noticed was that the character Napoleon assumes power of animal farm and becomes an all powerful dictator who used propaganda to make him seem like a perfect leader so he could easily control the other animals.
Literary techniques are important in writing because they add details that make the writing more informative and interesting. Literary techniques are also helpful to me, because they help me be more informative in my writing, and have a better understanding of the books i read.











Voting scandals

Since votes have been tapered with in past elections, and 2008 elections right around the corner, the issue of voting and voting rights are much more of a concern that usual. Two voting scandals in particular are the Acorn scandal and voter suppression. Acorn is a group that helps people in the lower class and minorities register to vote, and making voting easier for them. The scandal started when John McCain mentioned in a debate that most of the new registrations were bogus. The voter suppression scandal has been occurring recently in many states. It is happening because people are being taken off the voter rolls and are made unable to register again, and in rigged voting machines that will automatically cast the vote for a certain candidate even when the voter is voting for the other. The differences between the two are that the Acorn scandal was just an exaggeration of the truth and really not a serious scandal at all, because only a tiny percentage of the registrations were false and it is not Acorn's job to discard votes in the first place. The Voter suppression is the real problem and it will make voting more difficult for minorities in America, and will prevent people from voting for who they want to.



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Monday, October 20, 2008

Historical debates

I noticed while watching the presidential and vice presidential debates that the candidates would always steer away from answering the questions, and start talking about someone completely different. Sarah Palin did this the most, during the vice presidential debate and in interviews in general. She would start all of her questions with " I'm just a small town hockey mom" or "Senator McCain and i are both mavericks" This was really frustrating because they would not get to the point, and give a straight answer.
I also noticed a connection between the Obama/McCain debates and the Kennedy/Nixon debates of 1960. The similarity i noticed was the difference in opinions of people who watched the debate or heard it on the radio. People who watched the debate not only heard the presidential candidates opinions, they saw how they were acting when they were giving their responses. Richard Nixon looked awful, and stuttered repeatedly, and Kennedy was calm and collected, and had a good speaking voice So the viewers though that Kennedy had won outright. But the people who listened to the debate on the radio could not see how the candidates were acting though Nixon had won, or that it was a tie. I have noticed that people ( my parents in particular) agree that you cant get as much out of the debates if you just listen to them, because the way the candidate act tells a lot about them.

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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The internet and democracy

I think the internet plays a big role in democracy and politics because it is the first place people go to to get information in modern America, and because of the internet people can get the latest news much more easily. But rumors are also spread via the internet so a lot of the information is false and can change peoples opinions without them knowing that what they are reading is not true.

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

News paper reflection

The part of my news paper project that i liked the best was our title, because it was creative and unique.I also though that my group did a good job on their articles, because we put a lot of effort into them, and made sure they were well written.
What i did not like was the layout of our news paper, because we had a few empty spaces, and we could have put more time into it.
The process that my group took to do our paper was first we completed our seprate articles, then we started working on the layout of our paper, then we put in our articles and pictures and made it look professional by adding pull quotes and captions for our pictures.

Photography

Rule of thirds Link

This picture is a good example of the rule of thirds because the picture was taken so that the flower is on one of the points of the guidelines that are used to take the picture. That made the flower stand out from the back ground, and the the whole picture look more interesting

Depth of field Link

This picture is a good example of depth of field because the background is out of focus, and the dog in the fore ground is in focus and it sands out more. the picture was also so it shows only half of the dogs face which make it more interesting to look at.

Eyes, color, fill the frame Link

The photographer of this picture captured the color in the leaves very well, and made them stand out from the dark background.

Interesting lighting Link

In this photograph the light hits one side of a castle wall and creates an interesting contrast with the light and the dark parts of the picture.

Eye level Link

This picture is a good example of eye level photography, because the photographer got down so they were at the same level as the cat so the photograph looks like its more from the perspective of the cat.





















Thursday, October 9, 2008

Lincoln Douglas debate







After reading the 6th of Abraham Lincoln and Frederic Douglas's debate, i learned about what their stances on slavery were, and how similar it was to the modern presidential debates.
In the debate they talked about their opinions on weather slavery should be allowed in the United states, and about what Slaves natural rights should be, and are they equal to white people.
Lincoln had a very strong opinion on this subject. his view was that their should be no slaves in any of the states in America, and that black should be treated equally to whites."I will add this, that if there be any man who does not believe that slavery is wrong in the three aspects which I have mentioned, or in any one of them, that man is misplaced, and ought to leave us."
Douglas however, believed in popular sovereignty, which meant that each state should chose their own laws. In Douglas's way, slavery would be allowed in certain states, but he never specifies if he is for or against slavery."I hold that under the Constitution of the United States, each State of this Union has a right to do as it pleases on the subject of slavery."
One similarity i noticed between the Lincoln Douglas debates and the 2008 presidential and vice presidential debates was they always contradict each other. Douglas said that Lincoln was not being truthful about his opinions on slavery, and McCain is always contradicting Obama, by saying that he will increase taxes, when he actually wants to lower taxes for the lower class and small businesses, and increasing taxes for people who can afford them.



Lincoln Douglas senatorial debate 6 http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/debate6.htm

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Demographs and Politics

One thing that i have been wondering about involving demographics is how exact are they? because there are probably people who are not accounted for, or who are not U.S. citizens. i think it would be interesting to find out how exact they are.
The outcome of the presidential debates are strongly impacted by demographics, because the states with more young people and mixed races are more likely to support Obama, and older white people with conservative backgrounds are often McCain supporters. It also depends on the voting history of the state, and the amount of people who are registered to vote.


Presidential election 08 demographics