Journal #20

The Circle of Life
Nants ingonyama bagithi baba [There comes a lion]
Sithi uhhmm ingonyama [Oh yes, it's a lion]
Nants ingonyama bagithi baba [There comes a lion]
Sithi uhhmm ingonyama [Oh yes, it's a lion]
Ingonyama
Siyo Nqoba [We're going to conquer]
Ingonyama
Ingonyama nengw' enamabaal [It's a lion and a tiger]
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (Se-to-kwa!)
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (Asana)
From the day we arrive on the planet
And, blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round
It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life
[FS:] It's The Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

This is a popular song from the well known film, "The Lion King."  I believe that this song perfectly illustrates "The Circle of Life."  It speaks of, well sings of I suppose, the beginning steps in life.  "From the day we arrive on the planet" is our immediate first amount of time alive.  This is unique from other passages about "The Circle of Life" because it's not as technical.  It doesn't go from the egg to the baby to the child to adolescent and to teenager to adult and finally elder.  It speaks more of what life is about, it's more in depth about the emotional side of life and it's purpose.  "Through despair and hope, through faith and live, till we find our place" this line is about how life isn't easy.  It's a struggle and always will be.  There is always a purpose and we just have to work and persevere until we find it.  "Till we find our place, on the path unwinding, in the circle, The Circle of Life."


Works Cited 
"The Lion King, Circle Of Life Lyrics | from "Classic Disney"" The Lion King * Circle Of Life Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/circleoflife.htm>. 

Journal #20

Tea to the Tee
A blanket deep blue covers their faces
Anticipation fierce, spreading the night
A long time waited to sink the cases
Wait no longer, they would put up a fight

What would they say and do when in morning
Covered in dew, their beloved tea gone!
Flung in the sea, covered by the splashing
Water to wood, it would rot for their wrong

What kind of evil man can take away
From one of his brothers so easily?
Forcing men into forging their own way
He would only smirk and cackle cruelly

Who do we speak so harshly of you ask?
Your king. The man you give your loyalty
"A different man with different tasks!"
Of course you quickly spout with certainty

What a fool of a man you are! Blinded!
The facts are certain! Without doubt they are
Many women, children, and men grinded
Bit by bit because of your 'sinless' Czar

Now comes the time for men their sins to reap
The pain we have all felt they all shall keep
For better or worse, our country will be
And start with a simple task: dump this tea!

Journal #18

As I pondered the multitude of eyes beaming at me from the magnificent creature I began to wonder.  How does an eye work?  What complex functions take place in order for such a magnificent system to complete its specific jobs?  It had never occurred to me to begin to think about how intricately and diversely an eye has to function.  This lead me to begin to wonder how extremely complicated ophthalmology must be.  I vaguely remember back in fourth grade learning about how an eyeball functioned and later getting the opportunity to dissect a real cows eye, too.  Of course I was only in fourth grade so we only ever scratched the surface of the extremely complex infrastructure that is an eyeball.  There is also the fact that all that occurred over six years ago, as well.  I have forgotten pretty much everything that I learned about eyeballs from enrichment class back in fourth grade by now.  Now that such a beautiful set of white orbs were staring at me I could not help wonder what was it that I learned about the iris, or the cornea?  What exactly did the pupil do?  I was overwhelmed with the astonishingly powerful drive to learn everything I could about such a complex structure.  I wanted to know how such a small little thing could do so much in such little time?  How could these balls of some type of tissue provide so much and none of us really even know how?  Imagine going just a day with out your eyes and having to rely completely on your four other senses?  That is just not something I would want to do.  I was beginning to feel guilty for my lack of appreciation for my eyes. From now on I was going to attempt to understand my eyes so that I could better show my respect for them and all they have done for me in my upcoming future.  All because I had began to pondered the multitude of eyes beaming at me from the magnificent creature.

Journal #17

As the light blue fuzz feathered through the warm current of air purring from the heating vent, I realized something.  I had left my oven on!  Early this morning, as the pale white frost had yet to melt away off of the prickly green grass, I arose from my bed with one thought in mind.  Food.  I began to fantasize about fluffy yellow eggs with chewy pink ham.  I pictured my delicate egg and ham masterpiece sandwiched artfully between a soft lightly browned bagel.  Bagel's are my favorite thing to eat my savory ham and eggs on.  Here is why:  If you are to put ham and eggs on just toast, a few problems can easily arise.  Such as, the bread gets so very crumbly.  You'll be going in for you first bite to begin a brand-new day and then the toasted brown fluff's off joy begin to crumble all over you!  If you have long luscious locks, like me,  the crumbs become lodged in your hair for the rest of the day!  The possibility of the crumbs getting on your starchy, freshly pressed clothes (or even in them) is possible, too!  If you eat the donut-y globs of joy, the problem is simply impossible!  Your freshly done hair, smelling of aussie hairspray, is safe, and your perfectly matched and organized outfit remains impeccable!  Next, I began to think about my mothers ooey, gooey, and sweet cinnamon rolls.  I could almost smell the savory sent of cinnamon floating up to her room from the kitchen!  Wait....I really could!  That was the unmistakable sent of cinnamon lofting up and entering my nose!  I awkwardly rose out of my bed and proceeded to walk/run to the kitchen as fast as my tired-body could!  I entered the kitchen just as my beautiful mother was leaving the house.  "Honey, the rolls are in the oven! Take them out in three minutes!  Do not forget to turn the oven off before you leave!"  And this is how this earth-shattering problem arose...

Journal #16

Most people tend to stay with the social 'norm' when it come to clothing choice.  Most people wear their Victoria's Secret name brand, their Uggs, or Vera Bradley.  The guys stick to Jordan, Nike, Polo, etc.  It's not that people don't necessarily want to get away from the social 'norm', I think a lot of people just struggle to think for themselves.  There's of course all the people who do indeed want to be just like everyone else and never stray from society's idea of 'okay'.  There are of course a few people who are able to think for themselves and like doing their own thing.  There is a girl who no longer attends here, but when she did it was very evident that she had an extremely strong sense of style and fashion.  Everyday she would show up in something different and completely unlike anything anyone else had on.  Her hair was also always very different as well.  She dyed it differently from anyway anyone else would and would style it in unique ways that other girls had never even considered.  Peoples reaction would always differ from the next.  Some people would think that it was crazy and to weird.  They wouldn't understand why she would ever stray from social normality.  They were the people that can't think outside of the box, who only ever wore or acted like or did what someone else had already deemed was cool.  Then you had other people that had the up most respects for this girl for her ability to think outside of the box.  Some of us don't even recognize that they have this little box and that they never even leave it.  So when someone, like this girl, shows them what it is like to get out of this box, it is very interesting and received well.  She would wear dressed and cardigans and high socks and unique shoes that a lot of us didn't even know existed or would ever be though to put together.   

Journal #15

Okay.  So the prompt for this blog is to describe someone you greatly miss and how you stay in touch.  That list of people is very very long for me.  For example, my friend Cassie in Florida, Morgan at Eastern, my Grandpa Upstairs, then of course my two older brothers.  One lives in Texas and the other attends Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri.  All of these people are extremely important to me and I miss their presence in my every day life.  I can't say that I miss any one of them more than the next, but I get to see some of them less than others.  I saw Taylor last Tuesday when I went and visited Ozark on a college visit, and he has informed me he will be home again in the next few weeks, I probably text him and face time him a few times a week.  I'll call him a lot of the time, too, just because.  My friends Cassie goes to college in Florida and really I only get to see her when she comes home at Christmas.  She's studying to be a missionary so is gone to other countries a lot more than the normal lass.  Morgan began going to Eastern this year and I miss her so very much.  She became one of my best friends during the second semester of last year, then of course she graduated.  I should really stop befriending seniors.  They always leave, sadly.  I've seen her a few times since she left, but it's never enough.  She has a long Christmas break, though.  This is a very good thing.  Out of all of these people, my brother Adam I see the least.  He moved to Texas at the end of the summer.  He'd been in Illinois his entire life; he went to high school and college here and was literally beginning to com-bust because he was so antsy living here.  Initially after he left I didn't notice his absence too much.  Of course I missed him, but once school started I was so busy I didn't have too much time to think about much, any who.  Then, about a month into school I realized I missed my brother and I couldn't go and give him hug just because when I got home, I couldn't just talk to him for a few hours about life, I couldn't get help on my homework.  I called him and talked to him for about 2 hours about life and such and since then I email him probably every other day and call him usually once a week.  

"The Pit and Pendulum" and Romanticism

     The definition of the Romanticism period is to be 'in touch' with one's self.  People went more with their gut feeling and their emotions than with their scientific educations.  They believed that nature was superior to civilization.  The writer personified innocence and imagination in their characters at this time.  "After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum.  It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution..." (Poe 263).  This is a quote from the short story written by Edgar Allen Poe that goes by that name of "The Pit and Pendulum".  This quote speaks of 'voices merging' and a 'dreamy' hum.  It 'conveys' things to the characters 'soul'.  These things all represent the Romanticism period because of it's very laid back and in-touch-with-your-soul way of being told.  This is just one quote from this story that conveys its time period.  "The Pit and Pendulum" emulates the Romanticism period in that it is very innocent, soulful, doesn't speak of science, and represents love and imagination.  
  "He who has never swooned, is not he who finds strange palaces and wildly familiar faces in coals that glow; is not he who beholds floating in midair the sad visions that the many may not view; is not he who ponders over the perfume of some novel flower-is not he whose brain grows bewildered with the meaning of some musical cadence which has never before arrested his attention." (Poe 265).  A prominent characteristic in the Romanticism period is that of imagination.  A lot of writers turned from their scientific and structured ways and found that writing of what could not be was much more their style.  For example Poe speaks of "is not he who beholds floating in midair the sad visions that the many may not view".  Floating in midair is physically impossible due to our little friend called gravity, but during the Romanticism period people began to entertain the simple thought of what-if.  During the Rationalism period, people never thought about what-if.  They only contemplated about their scientific findings and what those could lead to.  Once the Romanticism period came about, people began to wonder and imagine what-if the impossible were possible.  
  One of the characteristics that is very noticeable about "The Pit and Pendulum" is not what is there, but actually what is not.  Something very important about the Romanticism period when it first came about was it' lack of science and religion and, frankly, rules.  People began to think more about getting in touch with their soul and their 'purpose'.  They became much less concerned with reality and making sure what they were doing and writing was emulating God and much more worried about nature, innocence, and the 'higher truth'.  "...that seems to "stand for" a metaphysical situation in an ambiguous way that suggests its "dreamy," "indeterminate" nature. In this story we find the most explicit statement in Poe's fiction of his sense of the blurry line between dream and reality." (May)  This quote explains mainly how Poe is very good at conveying that his character is not really sure where the line of reality and dream falls.  He is in a limbo state where he is very in touch with his soul.  He doesn't put this in religious terms, however, it's more of an inner-self soul, then a God-gave-me-this-and-I-will-praise-him soul.  
    The Romanticism Period was very imaginative, nature-oriented, dreamy, and non-scientific; these characteristics all describe "The Pit and Pendulum" very well.  Edgar Allen Poe gives his character a very dreamy aura.  From his cell, he determines a lot of things, such as that he must orient himself as to attempt to get himself out of where ever he is, but, unlike a character from a possible Rationalist writer, this character uses no scientific method to make these decision or religious back up.  Rather he uses his dreamy and imaginative intuitions.  He uses his gut-feelings.  Does following his gut feelings get him very far?  Not necessarily, but that is irrelevant as of now.  Poe is very imaginative through out the short story and it is emulated through his character in multiple instances.  He is not scientific, speaks never of religion, but of his fuzzy-feelings, imagination, and his soul.

May, Charlie E. "Dreams and Reality in the Story." Infobase Learning - Login. Bloom's Literary Reference, 1991. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://www.fofweb.com/Lit/default.asp>.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "The Pit and Pendulum." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 120-24. Print.

Journal #14

Once, when I was a measly little Junior at Pleasant Plains High School, I was assigned a worksheet by the name of "sentence study."  The Dread Pirate Langley had assigned it.  You would think the 'Dread Pirate' part of that class would be what would scare me.  Nope.  Something much, much, much worse.  GRAMMAR.  You heard me.  That stuff we learned back in elementary school and middle school?  Yeah, terrifies me.  So I was assigned this worksheet, right?  It had a front and a back and only two questions on it.  Once The Dead Pirate had handed it to me, my hands began to shake from simply having physical contact with such horror.  The words all blurred together and I began to feel dizzy.  Next thing I knew I was passed out on the floor from the shear horror of the whole situation.  I began to dream of weird and unfathomable things...things that had never even occurred to me to be possible!  The paper I had been holding began to have new words appear!  Words like 'noun', 'adjective', 'adverb clause', and 'prepositional phrase'.  The thing with these words, though, was that they didn't stay stationary on the page like most words that I'd ever encountered had, they jumped out at me as if they were alive!  As if they had minds of their own!  Now, at this point in my life, I couldn't help but believe this would be the up-most scariest thing I would ever experience.  Parts of speech that were able to hurdle off the page right at you?  Not okay.  After a few minutes of these mysterious hurdling-words jumping out at me and causing me to pee my pants a few times, I woke up from this terrifying dream.  I let a sigh of relief go as I realized I was finally safe and away from the strange word-creatures.  I was still in The Dread Pirate's classroom, but it appeared class had gone on while I'd passed out on the floor.  It seemed that they were going over some sentence studies on The Dread Pirates high-tech smart board.  There was one sentence on the board that already had so many colors under lining, circling,  and parentheses-ing it I could barely take it.  Then before I could even get my notebook out, these colors began to come together and slowly but surely merged off of the smart board and began to form a gargantuan grammar-yelling blob.  My only though, "I WANT THE HURDLING-WORDS."