Masterpiece Academy Response Pt. II

I edited these two music videos using the free (they limit your editing abilities; you can pay for more services, but I wouldn't recommend it) video software https://stupeflix.studio.com/en/.  Each has its own significance towards my masterpiece; "Killing in the Name" addresses racism and police brutality, which I didn't have time to discuss during my masterpiece project, but nonetheless contributed to the evolution of what my masterpiece became.  Likewise, "Cirice" expresses religious freedom, which I did not discuss, but matters greatly in the scope of censorship.

"Killing in the Name" - Rage Against the Machine

CIRICE by GHOST

CIRICE free song download straight from the band GHOST- http://ghost-official.com/

Masterpiece Essay Pt. I

Formatted Google doc link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ArT7V1B7P4Jp2Eyns3DBcU1dfroljs6jJxUqWjdXkyg/edit?usp=sharing

1

Henry Freebourn

6/3/2015                                

He looked around at his peers.  They had finally gotten through the year; only two weeks left in high school.  They had finally acquired a degree of responsibility.  Did they honor their learning environment?  Did they deserve it and earn it?  Yes, he thought, we did.  Even if we may not have completed every assignment, we have been honest about it.  That's how you earn trust; why you deserve it.  That's how he had honored the level of trust given to him- by being honest when he wasn't trying his hardest, and by trying his hardest when it counted.

His class blog was a decent size and of moderate organization- a scattering of assignments here, a cluster of assignments there.  The reading of the novel Brave New World showed him a world of conditioned characters, and all the while he recognized his own conditioning alongside that of the characters.  It described a part of him; a mirror image of his academic growth over the length of the course.  He found himself in “Macbeth” as the title character, murdering his friends, family, and superiors.  He lived in Great Expectations; while not in a state of poverty, he saw himself growing emotionally and mentally as Pip did.

Looking back on the length of the course, he realized he had reconnected with a passion for social justice.  As it unfolded, looking at Darren Wilson’s face- his ‘injuries’- and then Mike Brown’s body lying on the pavement for hours without being covered, a trail of blood flowing down the pavement between his shoes infuriated him.  He couldn’t believe he lived in such a world.  As he tried to comprehend the daily racism and evil that he had just begun to recognize in full the year past, he tied his English course into his daily learning.  Its open-sourced formatting allowed him the freedom to study what he believed was important.

It wasn’t reading from a textbook; it was reading from a textbook written by the universe- humanity, nature, nonexistence… It taught him more than he knew at the time.  It was only now, looking back, that he understood the lessons the world had been teaching.  He took notes but couldn’t read them, until he began to speak the language.  He then knew the future: he would continue to listen to Earth’s cries, and continue to read its scripture.  Nature became a Bible he could actually believe in.

Socially, he knew he could never change the world individually.  He could, however, try.  He could participate in protests when issues tore his community open.  He could become a journalist and try to expose official corruption.  He laughed to himself, knowing such a thing would never happen.  It didn’t matter.  He jerked his head to the side as the noise of people talking drifted in from the open classroom door.  He straightened upwards as they filed into the room.  They would be giving masterpiece presentations.  He had, the idiot that he was, not signed up soon enough for the week he wanted, and he ended up signing up for the day of the final.  He’d be near last- for now he’d observe.

The presentations flowed smoothly over the days, and he enjoyed them.  It was, for him, interesting to see what their passions were, even if the particular presentation left him bored.  Others kept him captivated.  As he watched he began to see a theme running through the presentations- empathy and human existence: culture, life stories, even comedic videos analogous with daily life.  He found an overwhelmingly positive tone running through the majority of the masterpiece presentations; most were uplifting and not very negative.

Melisa and Victoria co-interviewed multiple homeless people while roaming the streets in Santa Barbara.  They found that outer looks do not always coincide with who a person is on the inside.  A quote he found interesting from Melissa was “Homeless people are more honest and open about their backgrounds.”  He thought about this.  Many don’t have family.  They have nothing to hide, no reason to be ashamed.  They’re a community, caring for one another.  Victoria asked them a question he found similarly intriguing: “What passions do you have that others may not know about?”  He thought, How many homeless people actually get asked this?  Not many.  Most people ignore them; couldn’t care less what all of their passions were.  The project showed a level of empathy that he found repeatedly in subsequent presentations: it was really quite profound.

Mellany and Daniel’s presentation, entitled “Life Goes by so Fast,” took the winding path of life’s twists and turns.  Starting with the innocence of childhood, the aspects approached were things everyone has at some point strived for: the bonds of friends and family, the necessity of relaxing once in a while to keep yourself sane, being artistic, and even exploring.

Brenissa’s presentation specifically focused on exploring, though as a form of meditation.  She discussed how she used the activity to positively impact her life, when going through tough times and illness.  Again, a deep connection between happiness, humanity and nature is highlighted.

He laughed aloud at Miles’, Emilio’s, and Eric’s presentation of two comedic videos.  Miles successfully did what his masterpiece was to begin with- to make people laugh.  Eric’s delivery of the last line of the first video, “What an asshole,” was spot on.  He enjoyed the videos as well- they were creative, and expressed things nearly each of us has experienced before: real-worldly in other terms. 

He sat back and watched his peers and smiled.  He glanced at the ground.  He was no hero, had completed no hero's journey.  Any heroic intentions he may have had faded with time, but he was glad to see that  some of his peers were indeed heroes.  His response to a call to adventure was a handful of Viibryd, four milligrams of Klonopin, and 130mg Vyvanse.  He found no mentor- took no journey- but nonetheless ended up enlightened, in a sense.  He learned that you don't need to complete a hero's journey, so he took that of the villain.

Mental Journal

Do you feel free?

"Smithereens" by El-P

WHAT A FUCKING "SHOCK"

At 2:33 in the video a journalist can be heard saying.  "Do you believe he [Zimmerman] was the aggressor, the initial aggressor?"  To which there was no response.

Murdering unarmed African-American teens, domestic abuse, road rage, shootings.  No remorse- Zimmerman is a sly psychopath.  After Trayvon Martin was murdered and he was acquitted, he can bullshit his way out of any legal system.  Amerikkka is on his side; the police are on his side. 

How many more violent incidents need to occur before this motherfucker is put behind bars or kills another person?

This is legal. You are property.

April 5, 2014

Article- http://thefreethoughtproject.com/kid-arrested-cops-telling-principal-disappointed/#CcsyFecubicqhPfj.99

Lake Central High School students in Indiana were upset that their school refused to allow them to grieve for a fellow student who had committed suicide over the weekend. So they staged a sit in to request one. Of course there were police involved.

The students gathered and sat on the floor of the Wedge and Main Street. After principals and other administrators got to the two scenes, multiple St. John police officers arrived to help supervise.
According to Lake Central News, The administration encouraged students to return to class, or go to the LGI. Around 1:30 p.m. students gathered into what became an open forum for their grief, the school’s reaction and what can be done from here.

“We should be given a chance to grieve as a school,” Natalia Kuzbiel a Sophomore, said in the forum.

After Mr. Robin Tobias, Principal, arrived, students originally greeted him with “Ohs;” however, after Aaron Scott (10) asked for some respect from the student body, the students applauded as he entered.

At 1:34 p.m., the room observed a moment of silence, as the students requested. Students were also looking for the administration to make a school-wide announcement.

Principal Tobias went on to say how disappointed he was in the students. Next, one student, whose name has yet to be released, simply replied, “And we’re disappointed in you too.” A few minutes later he was dragged out of the room by two Schererville Officers.

https://news.vice.com/article/we-spoke-to-kevin-moore-the-man-who-filmed-freddie-grays-arrest?utm_source=vicefbus

SONNET ANALYSIS

The sonnet in question is Shakespearean; it is fourteen lines long, with a tonal shift in the last two lines.  The shift here is from Shakespeare's unattractive description of the woman in the sonnet to his full circle statement that he loves her anyway.

This ending shift is crucial, as it changes the overall theme of the poem entirely.
Shakespeare's tone is satirical, poking fun at previous romantic sonnets by providing an alternative.  Instead of saying things that are endearing, or calling the woman beautiful, he paints a portrait of her as a dirty human animal- just as we all are dirty human animals.

What the Mainstream Media Won't Show You:

Source:  https://www.facebook.com/martese.Cromartie


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HaaRZ8nxd4

ACT V STUDY QUESTIONS

5.9

1.  Malcolm and Siward are able to enter the castle so easily because everyone's fighting outside.  Everything is chaotic- the fighting between the two armies, Macbeth's and the Norwegians, provides a cover for Malcolm and Siward to enter the castle.

"HE... WHO SINS... IS OF THE DEVVVVIIIILLLL"//////AMERICAN REFLEXXX

Short film by Alli Coates starring Signe Pierce.



The fucked up world we live in- "progressive" society; global hatred.

"NO JESUSES HERE" - Run the Jewels

ACT IV STUDY QUESTIONS

4.1

 

1.  There are 3 witches in this scene.

 

2.  The first apparition says to be wary of Macduff and careful of him.  The second tells Macbeth he should be a strong willed ruler- bold and brace.  In other words he should not accept defeat.  The third warns of attacking armies coming, and tells Macbeth he won't be defeated until the kingdom of Norway attacks.
     Macbeth doesn't feel safe after the apparitions.  He has worries about Macduff's intentions and the possibility of an oncoming attacking army.  Yes he should feel unsafe because he is in a very precarious position.
     After the fourth, the line of kings, Macbeth is terrified.  He saw the ghost of Banquo at the end, whom he killed.  This frightened him as well as drawing out his guilt.

 

3.  In line 158 Macbeth learns from Lennox that Macduff is running away to England.  In response Macbeth decides to send someone try to kill as many of Macduff's family members as he can.

This isn't Discipline- This is Stealing

Police run down suspect

MY MACBETH RESOURCES

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_and_tomorrow_and_tomorrow
This source will be helpful in memorizing the soliloquy as it displays the soliloquy in question and offers a brief analysis.

2.  http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/soliloquies/macbeth/
This source is useful because it contains multiple soliloquies in addition to the assigned "Tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy.  It also offers modern English translations of the soliloquies.

3.  http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/
"No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with a facing-page translation into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today."  This source gives access to the play in its entirety instead of just soliloquies, and offers a side by side translation of old English and modern English.

4.  http://www.litcharts.com/lit/macbeth/themes
This source is very helpful as to Macbeth's themes.  It allows a jumping off point to delve into the many themes of the play.  It also gives textual examples of the themes it discusses, which is very helpful when trying to analyze the play.

5.  http://www.shmoop.com/macbeth/symbolism-imagery.html
This source discusses the symbolism, allegories, and imagery in "Macbeth."  These are very important factors when it comes to analyzing the play, and this link not only provides examples but helps you know what to look for when it comes to these literary techniques in "Macbeth."

POETRY SPRING BREAK ASSIGNMENT

"Out, Out" by Robert Frost.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238122

Prompt: Write an essay in which you explain how the organization of the poem and the use of concrete details reveal both its literal and its metaphorical meanings. In your discussion, show how both of these meanings relate to the title.

"Out, Out" by Robert Frost contains a huge contrast in tone.  To begin with, everything is fine- the wood is "sweet-scented," against the backdrop of "Five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont."  By the end, the boy sawing is dead.  Through Frost's poetic flow the actual events leading up to the death are vague, requiring close analysis.  At the same time, Frost ends the poem in a way that surely divides readers- some may view it as hopeful, others as cynical and depression.  But this poem is about more than a boy dying from a buzz saw accident; it is about the circle of life, moving forward, and the brutal reality of death.

Before the accident occurs, there is clear foreshadowing in the poem that can easily be missed the first time around.  The opening line, "The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard," is the first hint that something is out of balance.  The "snarling and rattling" don't suggest a happy ending.  The buzz saw sounds like a feral animal; a beast looking to tear into some meat.  Immediately after that Frost delves into the setting, a seemingly beautiful day in Vermont, making the reader think that this will be a "happy" poem.  In a sense, it is.

Inside this brief glimpse of a life is a metaphor built by Frost.  This poem is death; this poem is the circle of life.  The boy is working and suddenly it all ends.  His hand, his life force, is severed from his body.  He drifts into the calming "dark of ether" before passing away.

Perhaps the last two lines are the most chilling in the poem, because of their honesty.  "No more to build on there. And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs."  It is not the death of the boy that is the most shocking, but the aftermath.  It is the realization of our existence as living beings- when a person dies, the world does not stop turning.  It moves on, and people move on because they have to.

PROSE SPRING BREAK ASSIGNMENT

Young Goodman Brown struggles mentally with his decisions.  He doesn't want to be the first man in his family to travel down what he perceives as the morally wrong path, yet he walks it anyway.  The poem in question, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a metaphor.  It was not intended to be taken literally.  It details the internal struggles of Goodman Brown.  Ultimately the poem focuses on the themes of temptation and regret.

The man, or devil of the story, tells Brown that in fact, his father and even grandfather had walked the same path at points in their lives when looking for assistance, or the answers.  No matter who you are or where you are, no matter your social status, Hawthorne implies, each human walks this path at some point in his or her life- the path which the individual finds morally wrong and causes one to question oneself.  This path can be accurately entitled "The Path of Guilt."  Even those outspoken about morality; those preaching their own morals down upon others have followed this mysterious man like young Goodman Brown.  Says the man, "The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me." [1]

Through the walk and onward Brown questions is intentions and whether or not he really wants to be walking down the path he's on.  Regardless, his feet carry him forward.  At a point he rests, before seeing his church's minister and deacon jogging along the very same path, speaking quietly with one another. 


Source:
http://www.online-literature.com/poe/158/

I AM A FUCKING ROBOT; YOU ARE A FUCKING DRONE

We are inhuman- following laws we don't agree with, established by people nothing like us.  We are programmed since birth.  Advertisements assault your brain, gaining power and size like a snowball rolling downhill after a fresh snow. 

A slave to a system that says you HAVE to work, in a bullshit job, as a corporate slave.  You're programmed to believe you are independent when in fact you are owned: you are a possession.  A meaningless sequence of zeroes and ones forms all that you and I are- archaic programs in desperate need of an update.  Matter is shuffled, neither created nor destroyed; atoms dissipate and return to form new things.  New, broken programs.

We're created on an assembly line as we're born.  External influences shape our individuality, but we are ruled by false gods we've created for our selves.  We fall to our knees before authority and accept the shit that is thrown at us because we as robots have been programmed to adhere to our place in life.

Your life is planned for you before you begin it.  Not in some bullshit religious sense but in the sense that a path is placed in front of you and you're told to walk it.  Our public education is a business, a program teaching us how to be good little members of society.  "Standards" and regulations are created by people trying to turn you into someone you aren't, someone they want you to be.

You only become human when you realize this.  Even when you die, you're still human.  If you die a robot, you'll live through memory as a robot.  A human being who simply followed the bullshit life guidelines set before him or her, who rejected individuality in favor of submission, a paycheck, and a so called civilized life.

You cannot buy yourself out of being a robot.  You have to think your way out.

Fuck founding fathers, fuck gods, fuck your Programmers.  You cannot do what you fucking want to do.
You cannot be yourself.  You cannot say "fuck" and "shit" and call people assholes in a business meeting.

They have told you what to do your whole life.  "No 'drugs' you sugar addicted motherfucker."  Goddamn android and that's it.  If you swallow the cancerous shit you're fed by The Programmers and point your fingers at "junkies," you're part of the fucking problem dipshit.

This existence is a large scale computer and you are only an arrangement of atoms, soon to be washed away.

No matter what you tell yourself, you are still a program.  A program trying to deny what it is, in essence.  You have no say in your social standing- you are told to respect people who will NEVER respect you- and then you are told that's the way it is, when in actuality that isn't the way it has to be.  Your refusal to question the social order makes you a robot undoubtedly.

In my organs I can feel cogs turning, and where my brain should be is a mess of circuits.

I am a robot in my acceptance of existence.  In my passiveness, I am a robot.

"Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)" - Run The Jewels feat. Zack de la Rocha

"When Run The Jewels sent me this track, I knew we had the opportunity to create a film that means something. I felt a sense of responsibility to do just that. We had to exploit the lyrics and aggression and emotion of the track, and translate that into a film that would ignite a valuable and productive conversation about racially motivated violence in this country. It's provocative, and we all knew this, so we were tasked with making something that expressed the intensity of senseless violence without eclipsing our humanity. For me, it was important to write a story that didn’t paint a simplistic portrait of the characters of the Cop and Kid. They're not stereotypes. They're people - complex, real people and, as such, the power had to shift between them at certain points throughout the story. The film begins and it feels like they have been fighting for days, they’re exhausted, not a single punch is thrown, their violence is communicated through clumsy, raw emotion. They've already fought their way past their judgments and learned hatred toward one another. Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it.” - From video description

"We live in a fabled world, of terror, day and night, all hidden in plain sight." - ANTI-FLAG

"Love thy enemy as yourself, as you carpet bomb him to hell."

"We live in a fabled world, where the poor and the weak are pawns for profit's sake."

LITERATURE ANALYSIS: "FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS" BY HUNTER S. THOMPSON

This novella expertly blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction.  What was originally going to be a "250-word caption for Sports Illustrated" ["Fear & Loathing," pg. 207 (afterword)] about a motorcycle race in Vegas transformed into something else entirely.  As Thompson says, this work is a "failed experiment in Gonzo Journalism," which is a "style of 'reporting' based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is  far more true than any kind of journalism- and the best journalists have always known this" [pg. 208].  It is essentially a style of journalism wherein the author attempts to convey the events he or she is experiencing, stream of consciousness style, without editing.  Thompson calls "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" a "failed experiment" because it did end up being edited and altered on its road to publication.

TOPICS/EVENTS
1.  "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is about a journalist (who goes under the pen name Raoul Duke) and his attorney's experience in Vegas while covering a motorcycle race.  It has no real 'plot' but is more focused on the experience the two have instead.  You are put into their shoes; at once you are dropping acid with Raoul Duke, later you are beside him at a police anti-drug conference in a Vegas hotel.
2.  Thompson did not choose to write "Fear & Loathing"- rather, he wrote what he felt and experienced, and later morphed it into a novella.  He originally went to Vegas to cover a motorcycle race for Sports Illustrated, but instead focused in on a much more meaningful form of journalism- one that at times bordered on fiction, but also classifies as expressionism.  Thompson himself says it best: "both 'fiction' and 'journalism' are artificial categories; and that both forms, at their best, are only two different means to the same end." [pg. 208].
3.  "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was brought to my attention by the film, which I enjoyed.  Hunter S. Thompson was an inspiration to me- a journalistic Jesus.  What truly appealed to me about this book was it's chaotic, drug-fueled stream of consciousness and non-traditional format.  Duke and his attorney leave mayhem in their wake; this is more an experience than a story.  There is no clear climax or resolution- and that's the beauty of it.  Thompson's writing style is captivating and unique.
4.  This book was more realistic than any other I have read in the past year.  I made many connections through Raoul Duke's (Thompson's) thought process- I have a similarly cynical attitude towards society.  As this book reads like his stream of consciousness, I found myself able to connect with the character much more easily than I otherwise would have.  You have a direct link to Duke's thoughts.

PEOPLE
1.  The only real fleshed out people in this work are Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) and Duke's attorney (Oscar Acosta).  Acosta was a lawyer, but in reality he went to Vegas as Thompson's friend and not his attorney.  The rest of the characters are side notes- character interactions in this book resemble those of real life and not bullshit fantasy.  Interactions are brief if they occur at all, and there is usually a sense of fear arising when the two main subjects interact with others.  Thompson's tone is that of a cynic and a realist; he faces his problems with humanity head on rather than turning his head away from them.
2.  The first subject met is a hitchhiker who is described as a "poor Okie kid [who] was running up to the car with a big grin on his face." [pg. 5].  You can picture him now: he's worn down from the hot Vegas sun, scraps of clothes stuck to the sweat on his skin. 
Later on the two meet the waitress, to whom the attorney is an asshole, writing "Back Door Beauty?" on a napkin and giving it to her.  She naturally confronts him and he pulls a knife out.  This scene is an important development of the attorney's personality as well as the meeting of the waitress.  Thompson is able to form a full picture of the waitress through just a few pages- after that the character's gone.  "The waitress was clearly in shock.  The sight of the blade, jerked out in the heat of an argument, had apparently triggered bad memories.  The glazed look in her eyes said her throat had been cut.  She was still in the grip of paralysis when we left." [pg. 160].
3.  These people are all incredibly interesting.  Though each person met in the story doesn't stay around for more than a few pages, Thompson creates multiple fleshed out characters.  He gives you a sense of who they are through his own observations.

STYLE
1.  Thompson used a journalistic style- but one of his very own.  Gonzo journalism at its essence, even though Thompson called it a failed experiment, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" takes a different attitude about journalism.  It reads like a story and flows like a poem.
2.  Thompson focuses more on description than action or dialogue, though there are plenty examples of both.  Overall the way in which Thompson balances the two gives the book makes the book a very surreal read.  His style, his point, is to relay an experience.
3.  Thompson uses plenty of tools to establish a tone and mood; but that's not his point.  He didn't write this and think, "Hm, which piece of figurative language should I put in this part?"  He just let it spill out onto the paper, with whatever tool felt right; with whatever fit the moment.
4.  Thompson doesn't give a fuck about the audience, and that's what makes this so great.  He doesn't really like the characters very much either, even though he is one of them.  He is a very cynical writer overall, in the best way; which is to say, his cynicism doesn't detract from his writing but enforces it.
5.  After the main text itself, there is a piece in the book Hunter S. Thompson wrote explaining "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."  Here he offers newspaper resources.  "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was originally published in two large parts in Rolling Stone, which he explains.  He also explains how a brief assignment from Sports Illustrated is what led him to Vegas in the first place.  This ending piece greatly helped my understand the work as well as its added definition of Gonzo Journalism.

ENDURING MEMORY
I will not be forgetting the essence of Gonzo journalism anytime soon.  In fact, I will intentionally apply it in cases when I am able to.  Unfortunately, any attempt really remains faux-Gonzo journalism, as a true stream of consciousness with no editing will be impossible.  A true experience cannot be transported from one person to another, but Thompson comes close through his writing.
"Journalism is not a profession or a trade.  It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits- a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage." [pg. 200].

TOBERMORY EXPLAINED

The last line reaffirms the grim yet humorous tone of "Tobermory" by Saki. 

"If he was trying German irregular verbs on the poor beast," said Clovis, "he deserved all he got." [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Tob.shtml]

The theme of this short story revolves around humanity and our relative stupidity to animals.  Saki is trying to make the point that we are animals.  We are no different than the cats and the elephants we "taunt" into domestication.  Just animals who've been conditioned to repeat what we hear, like Tobermory.
Tobermory's advanced intelligence compared to the dinner party humans is social commentary by Saki.  Our smalltalk is meaningless, utterly and completely meaningless. Tobermory recognizes this subconsciously in his casual gossip- repetition of what the stupid humans find personal and offensive.

     "More or less... and this qualifier is the essence of what, for no particular reason, I've decided to call Gonzo Journalism.  It is a style of 'reporting' based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism- and the best journalists have always known this.
     "Which is not to say that Fiction is necessarily 'more true' than Journalism- or vice versa- but that both 'fiction' and 'journalism' are artificial categories; and that both forms, at their best, are only two different means to the same end..."

- Hunter S. Thompson, 1971.

Brave New World Response

 

Why is it that in an age where our "security" is hailed by our government as being of the utmost importance, I feel at my most insecure?  The people who I thought "protected and served" me as a sixth grader turned into the bad guys before my eyes, not because their behavior changed, but because I became aware of their true behavior and underwent a change of perspective.  The juxtaposition of gangsters as heroes and uniformed authority figures as thugs shook my foundations- rebuilt who I was from the ground up, as it should.

 

What Brave New World boils down to is conditioning, and whether you accept it or not, you have been conditioned.  Your individuality, or at least a portion of it, has been stolen, smashed, sacrificed to gods by men who have no right to sacrifice that which is not theirs.  Who we are, what we are, has been denied us by society. The animalistic nature of man still pokes through; light shines around the corners of the cardboard plastered to the windows.  And that is just what we all are, as a society and as individuals- animals.

 

We are conditioned into believing some drugs are "good" while others are "bad."  Without experiencing a drug for yourself, how can you know whether or not it falls into either of these vague categories?  What baffles me is the fact that most people are fed drugs of some form their entire lives, but are fine with it because it is legal or socially acceptable.  These same people then refuse naturally produced drugs or drugs that have limited repercussions but to expand one's consciousness- preferring to stick with the societal mind-numbing drugs they know.  As Huxley explains, soma is "All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects." [Page 54.]  Whereas the mescal of Brave New World is dirty- used by the "savages."  Politicians pour alcohol on the masses, while hiding the psychedelics that have been proven to be of medical use in the back room.

 

"Civilized" society, both in Brave New World and the real world, views the users of psychedelics or other illicit drugs as dirty or primitive.  Mescaline, psilocybin, LSD, and their many brothers, sisters, and cousins are considered by many (who have never researched the drugs themselves) to be detrimental to one's health, morally wrong, or simply unworthy of use due to their legality.  At the same time, the FDA approves countless killer drugs; the richest drug companies get to be the legal dealers.  America's "drug war" is in itself a physical representation of Brave New World.  People in this "free" country are currently serving life sentences for marijuana related offences; meanwhile the pharmaceutical companies whose drugs either don't work or cause addiction themselves are profiting more and more.

 

We are not innately "good" or "bad."  We do not adhere to morality, but create it.  Through dogma and tradition humanity has built a society in which its true potential will never be known, because of perceived morality; morality which is in itself conditioned, engrained in us through a similar societal caste to that of Brave New World.

"Jesus Loves You"

 

"Everything is a Remix," Transmedia Screenshot
Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKYHZ4U4g0g&t=103
3/1/15

Radical Changes Coming!

Masterpiece update:

I am in the midst of creating a third, as of yet untitled blog exploring and exposing stories of misconduct, mistreatment, and/or disrespect between one human being and another in educational facilities.  The goal is to shine a brighter light in the face of the American education system, as well as to remind administrators and faculty that students are human beings too.  The interactions faculty have with students need to change, and they will if WE do something about it.

There is a level of disrespect soaking through this system that I am not comfortable with, and I will not sit back and watch without writing about it.

Stay tuned.

Up NOW on The Fuck You News:

Parasites in Action at the University of Tulsa!

Listen:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.spl/775_collegianmeetingwithpublicrelationso.mp3

Read more on the story:

http://thefuckyounews.tumblr.com/post/111123867939/parasites-in-action-at-the-university-of-Tulsa

Aldous Huxley

Huxley was obviously best known for writing A Brave New World, but his life was much more complex than that.  When Huxley was 16 he underwent keratitis punctata, which left him entirely blind. [1].  He recovered to a certain degree, gaining sight in one of his eyes.  However, his condition restricted his life in more ways than he could have imagined, and was part of the reasons he turned to writing.  He was originally studying to go into the medical field. [2].
Later in his life Huxley shifted his focus from science fiction to psychedelics.  His first noted experience was his mescaline trip in Southern California. [3].  His interest in psychedelics rested in the realm of expanding one's consciousness, rather than experimenting with the medical aspect of them.  His non-fiction book The Doors of Perception, which details the trip and discusses the effects, benefits, and potential of the drug upon one's consciousness. [4].  He later tried LSD, which became his choice psychedelic, preferring it to mescaline.


Sources:
1. http://www.online-literature.com/aldous_huxley/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley
3. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/aldous-huxley-psychdelic-los-angeles.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception

Check out my new blog, THE FUCK YOU NEWS:

http://thefuckyounews.tumblr.com/

INTRODUCING THE FUCK YOU NEWS!

***After a discussion with Dr. Preston I have decided to move the original material of this post, and future material like it, to a second, more personal blog entitled The Fuck You News.***

This was originally a post about an encounter I had with an "authority figure" at Righetti that left me offended.  If you'd like to read it, please check this shit out!

http://thefuckyounews.tumblr.com/

Want to embed music on your blog? This site makes that shit basic.

The website http://scmplayer.net/ allows you to create a playlist of your choosing through MP3 files, Soundcloud or YouTube URLs.  Checkout the site and edit a playlist of your own.  All you have to do is copy and paste the URL or a downloaded MP3 file into the "Edit Playlist" setting.  You can then edit the way the playlist looks (they give a list of basic templates).  Run through the instructions on the site and it will generate an HTML code that you can use anywhere.  Go to the layout of your blog and copy/paste this HTML code into it, either at the top of the screen or the bottom.

The coolest part is that if you know how to code (which I DO NOT) you can further edit the playlist just by messing around with lines of the code.  By "just by messing around" I really mean very strictly altering them and I don't know how to do that.  But maybe you do know so there you go.

Basically what this site does is generate a code that you can copy and past into your blog.  It's very useful and simple, and lets you put pretty much any song or sound you want on your blog.  Again, the website I use for this is http://scmplayer.net/. 

A Lesson I Learned in Disrespect

Today I witnessed something I'd like to share with you [SORRY].

The last thing you expect to see is people disrespecting a memorial for someone that meant a lot to an entire community.

I watched some asshole pull on a deflated red balloon hanging from a flag pole at Righetti.  When I saw him pull it, watch it snap back, and laugh, I got angry.  What made me sick to my stomach/furious/pushed me over the edge however was when he came back to the pole a minute later, ripped the balloon off entirely and dropped it to the floor.  I wish I could go back in time and confront that kid- ask him why the fuck he would do something so disrespectful.  I didn't have the balls to do so and he walked away- I'll never get to call him out for being a piece of shit.  And then I stood there where I usually stand talking with my friends and watched the balloon until a second opportunity to call out some assholes presented itself.

I probably wouldn't have even gone and talked to them if Aaron hadn't started moving first, so thanks for that Aaron.  We talked to a second group of douchebags who took the balloon from the ground and played with it, stretching it, taking turns karate-chopping it, and eventually popping it.  I assume they were underclassmen, because they weren't seniors and I don't personally know any juniors who would do something like this, though I'm sure they're out there.

The first thing we asked them was if they knew who these balloons were for- what they represented.  This was ten feet away from the large memorial- I found it hard to believe that these kids didn't at least have a clue that those balloons signified something, meant something to people. 
Still, one of the kids in the balloon-popping circle said he didn't know what the balloon was for.  Another one said she was his friend.  Why would you watch a group of your friends disrespect the memory of another friend you had just lost?  This guy sat there playing guitar the whole time.  I totally believe that she was his friend, because she was everyone's friend, which makes him even more of a prick for watching his friends turn a piece of her memorial into a garbage toy. 

Their excuse- what they kept telling us- was that it was already on the ground.  I know that's true because I saw the other guy rip it off the fucking pole.  But that excuse doesn't cover shit.  Because they still pulled, stretched, tore, and popped a balloon that was meant to represent a celebration of a human being's life.  Righetti's a large school- most of the kids in this group probably didn't know Bree.  But they had to have known that she passed away.  Announcements, rallies, posters everywhere...  They had to have known the significance of the balloons- they just didn't care because they didn't know her (well except for that shit who sat around and said "she was my friend").  How fucked up is that?  To destroy, to mock a memorial of someone who passed away is a shitty thing to do, whether you knew the person or not.

The whole situation was extremely insensitive and just fucked up.  They were just kids being stupid says part of me, while another part says they are complete pieces of shit.  Both of these are true to some degree, but I realized after I had cooled down that the first option (stupid kids) was probably the truest.

I didn't want to write this to talk about our confrontation with these kids- which is why I included only one short quote.  I wanted to write this to try in some form to express how disrespectful and shitty human beings are.  I was kind of overcome that people would fuck around with balloons obviously placed to signify and celebrate a person's life.

I'm sure this shit goes on all the time- popping balloons, ripping posters, defacing memorials and all that- but to actually see it is offensive and shocking.  If you see anyone like this, confront them.  You don't have to be a dick about it, just honestly tell them how you feel and why what they did was insensitive.  If they don't show any signs of regret after that or if they're just plain assholes about it, that's when you get to be a dick.  Be a huge fucking dick: because people like that deserve to be shat on.  Basically, I think people need to know how to have some fucking respect.

Regardless, it would still give me an insurmountable amount of pleasure to hunt down the fuckhead who ripped that balloon from the pole and stomp his face in.  (But not really though, I'd rather just verbally smash him).  That's a thought anyway.

A Brief Conversation on a Shitty Thursday

Last Thursday Aaron McFarland and I went into Preston's classroom at lunch to discuss creating a philosophy-type club.  We were going to meet a couple of other people interested, but they never showed, so we just stayed in the class and talked until lunch ended.  Breanna Rodriguez had just held a meeting for a Yosemite trip she was planning and immediately came over and asked us if we were there for the meeting.  We told her no, and she said something like, "Good, because you just missed it."  And then she sat down with us and we just had a conversation.  It was this conversation that compelled me to write this.  Just me, Bree, and Aaron sat and talked about life- not even academics or anything- just a real human conversation.  We weren't close friends, just people who knew each other, but she still wanted to talk to us.  She was one of the happiest and most genuine people on Righetti's soul-sucking campus- and she actually cared about other humans.

I walked away from that conversation remembering (from time spent in our group in Mrs. Byrne's English, sophomore year) what a great human being she was.  I hadn't had a conversation with her since that sophomore English class, and this is part of the reason that the news that she passed away just a day after talking to her again had such an impact on me.  Not because I was a close friend with her, but because she could form a bond with people in fifteen minutes.  She had such an upbeat attitude about life that she was able to make people happier just by being around.  I don't understand how a human being could be as positive as Bree was: even if the people she was around were negative pieces of shit, she'd still stay positive. 

If anyone deserves to die young, it's the people who just sit around and exist like I do; who don't really care about the community they live in or participating in it.  Not the people like her who were out there actually trying to make a difference.  Not people who have futures- promising, meaningful futures.  She was going to make an impact on the world

I'm typically not a very social person, which is why Bree coming up and talking to Aaron and me out of nowhere surprised me; she just liked being nice to people.
Actually connecting with someone you haven't talked to in over a year and then hearing that they passed away the next day just made me feel sick.
I learned what kind of person she was in Mrs. Byrne's class two years ago, and this conversation just brought all of those memories back.

This world is ninety-percent asshole; she was in the ten percent that cared and mattered.  I could never be a fraction of the person she was, nor could most of the students at Righetti.  We didn't just lose a person- we lost a piece of the future.
If anyone deserves to die young, it's the people who just sit around and exist like I do; who don't really care about the community they live in or participating in it.  Not the people like her who were out there actually trying to make a difference.  Not people who have futures- promising, meaningful futures.  She was going to make an impact on the world; she was going to do things that were beneficial to humanity.  You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who knew her at all who would disagree with that.

Though I didn't know her as long, this hits me even harder than Mark Bae's death back in August.  Mark was suffering, and he made a choice that I can personally understand.  Bree wanted to live and should have for at least sixty more years.
That's what makes this so fucked up: she was going places, she had plans.  Hundreds of Righetti students (probably upwards of a thousand) like me don't.  Usually I just see a bunch of assholes every which way I glance and think "fuck America" or "fuck this planet," but people like her gave me hope for the future.

So many people have written so much about this awesome and inspirational person, that I know this probably seems like I'm just jumping on the RIP bandwagon.  You know, joining those people who haven't even met someone in their community and still post some long-worded message or some half-hearted "praying for the family" post for the Facebook likes and shit? 
I've contemplated whether or not I should post this because of that, but then realized it doesn't matter if people think that's what I'm doing.  What matters is letting people know that she was one of the kindest and most innately "good" people I have ever known, no matter how many other people have said the same thing.

"Atheism is not just about them not believing there is a god, but on the assumption there is one, what kind of god is he? It's perfectly apparent- he's monstrous. Utterly monstrous, deserves no respect whatsoever." - Stephen Fry

“Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"

POLICE SOLUTION TO MENTAL ILLNESS: FOUR BULLETS AND A BODY BAG

Kristiana Coignard was a 17-year-old girl with a history of mental illness who went to the police department in Longview Texas and asked to speak to an officer.  She allegedly had "I have a gun" written on her hand.  She was not in fact carrying a gun, but apparently brandished a knife and lunged at an officer, at which point she was shot multiple times by two officers.  A third officer, the first on the scene, claims to have fired a taser at her first, but it's too hard to make out in the video.  Not that it matters anyway- the bullets were fired by the other officers just seconds after.  The police did not treat her like a mentally ill girl seeking help, but like a dangerous criminal. 

It's clear that she went to this station for one of two reasons: to potentially receive mental help, or to commit suicide by cop.  There is no other reason someone would go into a police station with "I have a gun" written on her hand, when she didn't actually have a gun.

From the beginning, police handled this situation improperly, trying to subdue her before trying to talk to her.  A public psychologist could have been called to the scene; the cops could have knocked her unconscious; she could have received the help she needed.
Taser claims true or not, the other offices in the video had absolutely no intent of nonlethal force, as they fired without hesitation. 
The police NEED proper training around mentally ill people.  It's clear that this Texas department was entirely unequipped to deal with a situation like this- very American of them. 
From the LA Times, "'She says she has a gun, he has to secure her at that point,' Brian said." (1).  After the writing on her hand was shown to the officer in question, he immediately attempts (very poorly attempts) to subdue the teenage girl- no talking, no trying to diffuse the situation. 

Whatever you take from this situation, the video makes it apparent that Coignard had no reason to die.
This being America, the officers are of course on paid leave.  Kind of like a murder bonus.  The knife in the video makes this girl the attacker and not the victim- that's how it'll be spun.  It doesn't take a genius to realize that these officers will face no repercussions.  They will almost surely get to keep their jobs and return to work after this has "blown over."  That is, as much as the murder- medical examiners ruled Coignard's death a homicide (2)- of a mentally ill teenager can.  Sadly, we live in a place, a world, where no one really gives a shit.

The only possible form of fucked up justice in this situation is that this event will haunt them.  I hope these officers are not psychopaths- that at some point down the line this decision, and it was a decision, to kill this girl weighs down on them like a three-hundred-ton pile of rubble.  I hope they realize that they did not have to end this young woman's life, and that they are the opposite of heroes.

Unfortunately we exist in a place where these officers and most of America believe their actions to be justified.  Some American officers can be better classified as "trained psychopaths" than "police officers."
Maybe as an old man one of them will look back at this moment through the perspective of Coignard; the perspective of a depressed and hopeless 17-year-old trying to find help in a world full of uniformed men with guns aimed at her.


"Robertson previously told the political blog ThinkProgress that her niece had bipolar disorder, had attempted suicide twice but was not violent toward others and that the incident was a 'cry for help.'" (1).

1.  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-shooting-20150129-story.html

2.  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/28/kristiana-coignard-longview-texas-police-killing

3.  http://www.inquisitr.com/1798843/kristiana-coignard-was-she-issuing-a-cry-for-help-before-being-shot-dead-by-cops-or-did-she-have-a-gun/

4.  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kristiana-coignard-cctv-shows-horrific-5063973

Scene from "Thank You for Smoking"

WHAT'S THE STORY?

Dickens wrote "Great Expectations" as an expression of his emotions; like most writers, he wrote it just as much for himself as for his audience.  He also wrote to explore the strict social classes of society and the effect they have on the individual.  He gave the working class a face (Pip) that it was not afforded in literature at the time.  He crafted this novel from the perspective of someone of a lower class- something not widely seen in 1861 London.  As well as this, Dickens wrote in slang in a non-derogatory way to create his lower class characters.
He set out to write something not only relatable to the working class, but that the upper class could read and potentially change perspective, if even slightly, on their societal caste system.

"'Your sister an't over partial to having scholars on the premises, and in partickler would not be over partial to my being a scholar, for fear as I might rise.  Like a sort of rebel, don't you see?'" -Joe, page 40.

***"And then I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude." -page 41.

"'Poor dear soul!' said this lady, with an abruptness of manner quite my sister's.  'Nobody's enemy but his own!'" -page 68.

"There's a dumpster in the driveway of all the plans that came undone."

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Nightcrawler Script

Nightcrawler Script  My favorite film of 2014 was Nightcrawler.  It made me think about all of the elements of a film that have to be just right for it to work as a whole.  This script stands on it's own as a piece of art, but wouldn't have worked as a film without Jake Gyllenhaal's fucking crazy performance.  The poetic feel of this writing makes it worth reading even if you haven't seen the film.

There's a blackbird perched outside my window.

It's that time of the year again

It makes me physically sick to my stomach seeing white crosses littering every church lawn.  It makes me sick knowing that women who have had abortions are walking by these crosses- a forced reminder that they are being judged by the larger part of society.  Most women who get abortions do so because it's the best option in their situation, not because they want to.

I hate the fact that these parasitic churches don't just look down on these women but spit in their faces and shove white crosses down their throats.

 

A fetus is not a "person" as the joke of an educational facility that is St Joe's insists.  If they had a proper science department perhaps they could help students understand that.  It really fucking bothers me that high school students who have undergone abortions themselves have to walk by that every day.  

This is what bullying is.

Churches and private schools can put up all the white crosses they want- they have the right to.  And I have the right to tell them that these actions are disrespectful and fucking disgusting.

HACKING MY EDUCATION

Interesting Article

London Subway Bullshit Job Posters/Interview

THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY VOL. 1: Hoodie Ban in Oklahoma - "Intentionaly Concealed Identities"

A certain Oklahoma law is facing an amendment that would give the state the power to fine someone up to $500 or lock them up for up to a year for wearing a hoodie or a mask in public.(1)  This huge infringement of human rights would supposedly reduce crime by making it harder for people to hide their identities.  It also makes people who wear hoodies criminals.  With the passing of this bill, police would be given the authority to arrest anyone wearing a hoodie or a mask.  All they have to do is say that they were suspicious that the individual was committing a crime... because he or she was wearing a hoodie.

At a time when police brutality and violent racism is ingrained in American society and accepted as normal, lawmakers would rather attack the individual, and place more restrictions on the lives of the public.  They do not care about you.  Your safety is secondhand to that of the police- America has made that VERY clear.

You become a criminal the minute you speak out against the police state.

The implications behind this bill make me fucking sick- it is an attack on the culture of the lower social classes.  How many rich white conservatives will be targeted with this law?  None.  This law is a victory for hoodie-fearing assholes everywhere.  It's a good reminder of what America really is- a playground for the rich white man.

Sources:
1.  http://news.yahoo.com/oklahoma-senate-mulls-very-important-hoodie-ban-174739117.html
2.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/03/hoodie-oklahoma-bill_n_6410746.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618

Week One

The seedlings are coming along nicely if not perfectly.  I originally wanted to grow two indoors and two outdoors but that proved impossible.  It gets too cold here at nights, and cannabis plants need warm and humid weather.

I am now growing all four inside.  While not entirely optimal, the plants would die outside from the cold.  Because I have a small room with a shower I have been able to give them a relatively humid environment for 1-2 hours a day.