Poppin My Collar

This video speaks to me because it has a very good message. I believe the message the group Three Six Mafia was trying to portray was that dreams can come true if you work hard at it. This song is one of my favorites because it has a sweet beat to it and suggestive lyrics which makes a lot of sense when analyzing them. What I thought was quite interesting was when they switched from being old to young throughout the song. It reminds me that whatever age you are you can strive to what you want to be just as what those kids did in the beginning of the music video as they tried to sell their candy merchandise. They were working hard to make an honest days work in order to pay for their "piece of mind" as they so called it. When they use the term "poppin my collar" I believe they're referring to being successful. When I get older I hope that I'll be "poppin my collar" until I die.

Good Use of Judgement

This video was a trailer for the sequel to the movie jackass. I had just finished watching the movie and the stunts and pranks they pull are very disgusting and hilarious at the same time. After viewing Jackass 2 it made me want to try some deadly stunts just for fun and laughs, but unfortunately for me it was three in the morning and I was tired so I went to sleep instead. Just as I was about to go to bed I started to think if the movie made me want to do a stunt what would happen to others who've watched it? Even though the video warned its viewers not to re-attempt anything preformed in the movie I'm sure plenty of people have tried and have gotten seriously injured. Which poses the question, are moviemakers creating suitable movies for viewers? After watching Jackass 2 I'd have to answer that question by agreeing that moviemakers aren't setting a good example to the public.

Myself Against I

Sometimes when you want to achieve your personal best you get overwhelmed of the competition you're facing. You might even have the idea that when you reach your personal best you could beat some of the toughest opponents or players of professional level. That may lead you astray from your original goal of key word your personal best. If you focus on yourself instead of your opponents then you'll teach yourself new things. You can learn alot more about how you play and how you can make yourself better. According to a writer of the book "Personal Best," Marc Woods says,"In beating cancer as a teenager, I may have lost a leg, but I gained a new respect for life and a second chance. My experience taught me to approach life in a different way. It taught me to measure myself against my potential and not against others. It taught me about personal responsibility. It taught me that life is about being the best person you can be." Which is indeed a valuable lesson. When you finally do reach what you think is your personal best then you'll find maybe you could be better than your toughest opponents, but not always. The thought of determining yourself to be better than someone is not thoroughly becoming your personal best, so don't just limit yourself to comparing to others.

Peace By Inches

(excuse the cussing)
This video relates to my essential question because it contains words of wisdom that teaches me about life and hard work. It helps me to realize and actually value the amount of an inch. The coach is speaking to his players because they're losing a football game and he thinks they're in "hell." He believes that in order to come out of "hell" they're going the have to crawl inch by inch. This relates exactly to my essential question because if I'm trying to reach where I've set my goal upon I'll have to work in the same metaphorical term that coach used, "inch by inch" to make it to where I want to be. "On this team fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch because we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the f***ing difference between winning or losing." When you think about it as a whole you begin to imagine yourself putting all the effort you can for something so small, an inch. Then again your one inch closer to where you need to be and if you continue to fight for all these inches then your outcome will be victorious. "In any fight it's the guy who's willing to die who's going to win that inch. I know I'm not going to have any life in me because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch because that's what living is." His philosophy of fighting for an inch is truly inspirational because he shoves the fact in your mind that fighting for just one inch isn't going to be easy you're going to have to kill the guy who's fighting with you just so you can have that inch. He mentioned something important earlier that every second and every inch matters in a game or in life whether you believe it or not. He said, "Life is this game of inches...The margin for error is so small. One half a step too late or too early you don't quite make it. One half a second too slow too fast you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us." All it is, is a matter of who's going to win the most inches. If I want to achieve my personal best it would take more than just practice, it also takes execution when it matters. With the correct balance between determination and optimism you'll with out a doubt obtain those inches.

Adah Eyes

Sunrise Tantalize, evil eyes hypnotize: that is the morning Congo pink. Any morning, every morning. Blossomy rose-color birdsong air streaked sour with breakfast cookfires. A wide red plank of dirt – the so called road – flat – out in front of us, continuous in theory from here to somewhere distant. But the way I see it through my Adah eyes it is a flat plank clipped into pieces, rectangles and trapezoids, by the skinny black – line shadows of tall palm trunks. Through Adah eyes, oh the world is a-boggle with colors and shapes competing for a half-brain’s attention. (30).

Through my Adah eye’s I see a sunny day’s surprise. Faster than any sunrise. I plan to rewind my Mondays. Slowly forget Sundays. Sundays forget slowly. From here to there walk on this colorless path they call direction. Encompassed by leaves, they own me. Surrounded by this concrete mess. I swear, you don’t know me. I walk with a limp in my step, but that doesn’t slow me. Let’s walk to class. Will you be my valentine? I just couldn’t let this opportunity pass. Before you judge what you’ve accepted, let’s watch now as enemies break bread. I’m a silent rebel in the heat of battle. Losing interest in me leaves me in shackles. Already the scene is calm and serene. If you hear my opinion you’ll assume I’m obscene. You do what’s okay, but what I do is based from what I say.

Poinsonwood Bible Girls

Background: Mrs. Watson asked us to give our opinions on each of the roles the children Leah, Ruth May, Rachel and Adah will have in the Poinsonwood Bible.

Leah, I believe will play the role as the suck up religious follower. She'll always wants to be with her father and win over his attention to her in order to be just like him when she grows up. Her role may also be to mirror her father and be there so that the father can present her with more religious thoughts and passages.

Ruth May will be important as she plays the opinion giver in the story and helps us (as the reader) by providing us with key details in the book about each characters actions and thoughts. She can also be the middle person who helps end rising tensions that break out since the Price family has moved to Africa.

Rachel's role would be to act like the tourist, and have the attitude like she "wishes she could be back home" type of daughter. Sometimes in the book she seems like she doesn't even want to be in Africa in the first place. I predict as well that she'll be the snotty, vain "blonde" girl who always compares herself to the Africans of the Congo.

Adah I'm curious to see how her handicap and gift would play a exciting role in the Poinsonwood Bible. Although she doesn't seem to be the most outgoing and most looked upon daughter in the household I think there's more that meets the eye with Adah.

Poisonwood Bible Quotes

Leah

"The education of his family's souls is never far from my father's thoughts. He often says he views himself as the captain of a sinking mess of female minds," (36).

I found this quote significant because it tells a lot of the background of the father. In the book we notice he's a very religious follower of God. It's interesting though how the author would frame this sentence to say that "...he views himself as the captain of a sinking mess of female minds," Does that mean he doesn't appreciate and respect woman as equals? Maybe it's the fact he's surrounded by females that has him somewhat uncomfortable. Sometimes the father's morals and thoughts are sometimes questionable because we know he's a preacher of the words of the Lord, but can we hold him to stay reliable?


"'Because, Leah, the Lord helps those that help themselves.' 'Oh!' I cried, my heart rushing to my throat, for of course I had known that. If only I could ever bring forth all that I knew quickly enough to suit Father," (37).

When I first read this quote I imagined Leah to respond in a very sarcastic tone. Then again seeing that she's grown up with her father always teaching her religious lessons I'm thinking she's learned to respect him by now. Then I read the last line, "If only I could ever bring forth all that I knew quickly enough to suit Father," which tells me she tries hard to impress him by showing her understanding of his religious lessons. Although it may sound harsh, I view Leah as a "suck up" to her father to gain his approval. Compared to the rest of his daughters, Adah for example, isn't as favored upon as Leah.


Rachel

"Of course, everyone kept staring at me, as they always do here. I am the most extreme blonde imaginable. I have sapphire-blue eyes, white eyelashes, and platinum blonde hair that falls to my waist. It is so fine I have to use Breck Special Formulated and don't care to think what I'll do when my one bottle that Father allowed runs out," (47-48).

From this quote we learn a lot about the character Rachel. Unlike the rest of the daughters she's not the most modest. She's taking this whole experience of moving to Africa in the wrong way. She acts like she was forced to live there as if she was abandoned. She views herself at a higher rank as well, standing above the Congo natives. She imagines herself as a "queen" in a sense introducing a whole different world to the Africans.

"Yet, for all her slaving over a hot stove, two million miles away. He just mostly stared out at the river, where no one was fixing to get dunked that day, whatsoever... every one of them no doubt thinking he's king of the world," (49).

Since the day the Price family arrived to the Congo the father seemed to have a major impact on the lives of the Africans. He dictates their whole culture and assumes they'll all listen and follow his demands of changing religion and the way they dress etc. It'd be interesting to find out the African perspective in the story I'm predicting that Mama Mwanza will give the Price family a native view of their impact on them.

Ruth May

"They used to be white but now they're dirt-color. Anything that ever was white is not white here. That is not a color you see. Even a white flower opening up on a bush just looks doomed for this world," (50).

I thought this quote was very deep and meaningful. It possessed a lot of possible ideas as well as possible meanings. "Even a white flower opening up on a bush just looks doomed for this world," my first impression was that it was speaking metaphorically about the Price's new experience moving to the Congo and living in this new environment. As I read the second part of the last line, "doomed for this world," it'd made me think again. What would make the author say such a thing, that a white flower would make a bush looked doomed for this world, just wouldn't make sense. Maybe he was inferring that a new influence in a metaphorical relation to the flower, the Price family to the Congo, the bush. It might be a positive experience or a negative one depending on how the inhabitants of the Congo accept them.


"'Do I have to tell you girls ever single minute don't stare!' But now Mama looks too. Sometimes she says to us or just herself, Now Tata Zinsana is the one missing all the fingers, isn't he? Or she'll say, That big gouter like a goose egg under her chin, that's how I remember Mama Nguza. Father said,'They are living in darkness. Broken in body and soul, and don't even see how they could be healed," (53).

This gives us a lot of information about the thoughts and ideas of the experience the Price's are undergoing currently. This allows us to get inside their heads of their feelings for the people they're interacting with on a daily basis. For one thing we know that the parents as well as the daughters don't view the Africans as high as themselves because of their physical disfigure and unfortunate conditions. You can tell even though the father is trying to help them I receive this negative vibe about him. Especially about the line, "They are living in darkness. Broken in body and soul, and don't even see how they could be healed," Maybe that's what I dislike about the father. He assumes that his teachings are always correct and thinks he's helping this race to become "manageable".

Adah

"When I finish reading a book from front to back, I read it back to front. It is a different book, back to front, and you can learn new things from it. It from things new learn can you and front to back book different a is it?" (57).

It's interesting to learn about the character Adah. She is a new and different character that stands out above the rest of the other three sisters . Adah brings something to this story that is out of the ordinary it makes me curious as to what her role is as a character in this fascinating story. I also looked at this quote in a metaphorical sense as if Adah was talking about herself of what you could learn from her. In my opinion she relates herself to a book and how she reads it. If you get to know Adah by just her appearance then you won't understand her. On the other hand if you get to know her thoughts and personality you'll find she's a very unique and bright individual.

"...Serene as the Virgin Mother in her barnful of shepherds and scabby livestock, one amazing, beautiful thing: a large, oval white platter painted with delicate blue forget-me-nots, bone china, so fine that sunlight passes through it. Its origin is unfathomable. If we forgot ourselves we might worship it," (61).

At first when looking through this quote I didn't quite understand the appearance of this object that seems very valuable and idolized to be described in such a manner. When looking up the definition for forget-me-nots and unfathomable I've learned about flowers and origins that just can't be discovered. It's appalling how they describe this platter, although the author does a great job of illustrating it's importance to the Price family, "If we forgot ourselves we might worship it." I thought the significance of this quote would carry on and have a bigger role in the story. The last line got me to think a little more. "If we forgot ourselves we might worship it," meaning how religious their family is. It seems that all the father talks about is religion and passages from the bible, so I thought this quote was being directed towards him.

"This is our permanent order: Leah, Ruth May, Rachel, Adah. Neither chronological nor alphabetical but it rarely varies, unless Ruth May gets distracted and falls out of line," (62).

By learning the this order it helped me get a better understanding of where each person lies in the "ranks" of the household. It was kind of assumed that Adah would be the last person in the order because of her misfunctioning. Although it was surprising to learn that there was even an order because I'd imagine that the parents who offer the "word of God" would have such shallow intentions.

Leah

"None of us spoke. For Adah that's normal, of course, and for that very reason she often gets accused when none of us speaks up. And truthfully, if any of us was disposed to use curse words, it would be Adah, who could not care less about sin and salvation," (66).

This quote relates to the quote up above how the daughters are viewed and ranked. This enforces the reasons why the family looks down upon Adah because in the story as soon as someone curses it becomes a major deal in the household. It's interesting to learn what Adah's views are on sin and salvation that she doesn't really care to much about it when her whole family is pretty into religion being their purpose in Africa.

"I remember running to throw my arms around Mother's knees when he regaled her with words and worse for curtains unclosed or slips showing - the sins of womanhood. We could see early on that all grown-ups aren't equally immune to damage," (68).

This quote helps build my case that the father is very strong dictator in the family. Since he's the only man of the household he's given such a demanding figure. The mother doesn't have too much of a say in how things are run in the household because all their teachings come straight from the bible. This relates directly to the quote, "...all grown-ups aren't equally immune to damage." This quote is a great example of how the mother is viewed by the father as well because he views women in general as unequals, "sins of womanhood." Sometimes he looks down upon them as well like he assumes they're bound to sin and just waits for them to prove he's right. This passage also helps inform the reader that it's not only the children that receive punishment it's also at times the mother.