I'm Gonna Make a Blog You Can't Refuse.

                                Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why? Who is the "target audience?" What are the clues (words, images, sounds, etc.)? What "tools of persuasions" are used? What part of the story is not being told? What group/s does this empower? What group/s does it disempower? This poster is from the World Wildlife Fund and was created to gain support to help endangered animals specifically the tiger. It was released in India where the superstition of a tiger claw bringing good luck is common. This can information can be gathered from the words displayed on the poster.  The poster tries to create empathy for the Tigers and some logic to undermine the belief in the superstition. The story not being told is if this superstition is part of the culture and whether there needs to be a debate on which is more important, preservation of animals or ...

Now if you do not know where this slogan is from, it is from George Orwell's 1984 . I will be trying to explain what I believe the government of this fictional world was trying to tell the people with this poster. These posters were hung everywhere to let you know Big Brother was Watching you and the government, ruled by Big Brother, was monitoring your every movement and whatever you do will be seen. It erases any sense of privacy and if someone is thinking about doing something bad they are already committing a thoughtcrime and will be arrested by the thought police. This slogan tells all people who look at it that they are in the simple sense being watched. By 1984 it seems that many people have already adjusted to being watched and this slogan is just their to remind them if they forget. It is hard to imagine what it would be like if the world today was like 1984 and we had these posters on every street corner. So whenever you think or do something just remember, BIG BROTHE...

At the end of Much Ado About Nothing the story ends on a very happy note, but there is still a remaining cliffhanger, WHAT HAPPENED TO DON JOHN THE BASTARD? Here are some theories: 1. A happily ever after ending, Don John brings his army but it is easily crushed by the might of Don Pedro and John is then punished for his treasonous acts. 2. A tragedy. Don John brings his armies and wages a years long war against those of Don Pedro. Claudio and Benedick fight bravely trying to save their kingdom, but eventually there own bravery takes their lives. Beatrice and Hero mourn for the loss of their husbands and could commit suicide. Leonato sees his own territory annexed into that of Don John and he is immersed into a land of poverty and eventual death. Don Pedro barely wins against his brother, but stares at a kingdom of destruction and personal loss. Since the story has no epilogue it, what happens after is entirely up to imagination of the reader.

Explain why the ending of the play proves that it is a comedy, and give specific examples from the play. What would have had to happen instead were this play a tragedy? Whether the play is a tragedy or comedy can be determined by numerous characteristics, but the most simple way to tell the difference is by the ending. In a comedy the ending usually has a wedding, a new birth, the antagonist changes their ways or is punished and leaves the audience with a reminder that life is good. In a tragedy the ending is more tragic, usually with death and the opposite of a comedy. Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by Shakespeare and is a comedy because it is a fairly lighthearted play. There are jokes inserted throughout all the lines and the ending especially proves it. The antagonist is assumed to be dealt with at the end ( pg98 line 121-128 Messenger: My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina. Benedick: Think not on him till to-morro...

Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something that the characters in the story do not. Dramatic Irony is extremely present in the Much Ado About Nothing. A motif in the play is deception, and the case where the reader knows who is behind the mask but the character does not occurs frequently. An example of dramatic irony is on page 20 line 80-93. Pedro is deceiving Hero and pretending to be Claudio. The audience knows whom Pedro is pretending to be, but Hero does not. The second example of dramatic irony is on page 48-49. Don John creates a plan for Claudio to see Hero being disloyal and being with another man. Claudio believes it to be true, but as the reader you know that it is simply just Borachio and Margaret.  The third example of dramatic irony is on page 22 when Beatrice and Benedick are talking at the ball. Benedick is masked and believes that his identity is unknown, but the audience and Beatrice know who he is. Beatrice then cons Benedick knowing it is him by sa...

For the next few weeks the blog posts will be based on Shakespeare's play, " Much Ado About Nothing." Unfortunately we are reading the Pelican Shakespeare published by Penguin Books instead of watching a movie version: There's two to choose from!: The prompt for this blogpost is: Choose a challenging passage from Act I, and  follow the action . Explain your process of following the action and then write the passage in your own words using contemporary English. The beginning of Much Ado About Nothing is the most challenging to follow the action because many of the characters are on stage and speaking. At times it becomes difficult to tell who is talking and to whom they talking too. My plan to follow the action was to pay more attention to the script and what is going on. Lines 87-111 Leonato: My niece, you will not go mad from catching Benedick. Beatrice: No, not if January were to become hot. Messenger: Don Pedro has arrived. (Don Pedro, Claudio, a...

Did the Sea of Flames really protect Marie-Laure? The Sea of Flames is a stone that is supposed to bring incredible luck and life to the holder but unfortunate events and bad luck to those they love. Whether this was true or not is really based on whether you believe in the supernatural. It could definitely seem like the stone was using it's powers as Marie-Laure had lived in building that failed to collapse and her father and great-uncle where arrested. But this was the time where being arrested was common and everyone was in fear of it. I believe that Marie-Laure survived by just being smart about how to go about things and her loved ones just happened to fall under the dark side of the Nazi regime. I think that the stone did very little to determine the events and was just a superstitious item to give hope and greed to the person who had it. When Marie-Laure dropped the stone in the water everything got back to normal, but that was just coincidence (again something that is d...

Ignorance is most likely the theme of the book. It is backed up by the blindness of the main characters Werner and Marie-Laure. Marie-Laure is actually blind and Werner is figuratively blind. Marie-Laure is able to sense her surroundings and is extremely observant, but is unable to actually see the world around her with her eyes. Werner has sight and notices that things are slightly, but fails to predict what is going on in the bigger picture. Both of these characters are curious. Marie-Laure is extremely curious about the world but is ignorant about what things actually look like, having to leave that to her imagination.  Werner is curious about his radio and how things like that works. His curiosity with this has, unbeknownst to him, put him into the heart of a great war. He fails to see the bigger picture of this and sees the pieces little by little. This theme of ignorance is also supported by the constant appearance of numbers throughout the book. For Marie-Laure, she must ...

This week, on Thursday, we learned about imagery. Find an example of imagery in the book, quote it, and explain how it appeals to your senses. Imagery is important and common in this book and this one excerpt from page 33 when Werner's radio first works really stuck out to me, "A piano chases the violins. Then woodwinds. The strings sprint, woodwinds fluttering behind. More instuments join in. Flutes? Harps? the song races, seems to loop back over itself." This appeases my senses because it provides auditory, visual, and tactile feelings in my imagination. I can hear the orchestra start with a few instruments, the music going at a fast pace. Every instrument like the flutes and the strings slowly adding to the speeding pace. I can see a piano player furiously beating the keys, not missing a single note. The friction between teh bow and the strings that produces the clear sound of the violin. The flutists constantly refilling their lungs to shoot air through the me...

I interviewed Dawn Callaway and her husband Scott Repass. They are the owners of a couple local cafes and bars in Houston. They had many interesting stories from how they got a Kool-Aid man to why they opened their first bar, Poison Girl. These stories were interesitng because they were evidence that proved how each one of their buisnesses has a little part of them. They chose the decor to something they really like or because it reminded them of a fond memory at some place. They chose to open their buisnesses to have them merge and become one with the community they are in.  I thought that the interview itself went well because even though we didn't use the full time we planned, we got many interesting stories and facts that none of us, or at least I, didnt know before. We had one small hiccup, but I feel that if we did a better inspection of the equipment maybe it would not have happend. Luckily, it did not stop us or have any large or any affect on the interview. Since ...

It has been a recent topic in Houston on what the fate of the "8th Wonder of the World," otherwise known as the Astrodome, will be. But while the Astrodome's fate is blurred, a new "wonder of the world" will take its name. A craft brewery, called 8th Wonder Brewery, uses the Astrodome's nickname for its small scale brews. The brewery is in Old Chinatown east of downtown Houston in today’s EaDo (East Downtown) district and is referencing Houston's achievement and is part of the recent growth in the number of craft breweries in Houston. These craft breweries differentiates themselves from macrobreweries, like Miller and Coors, by brewing on a smaller scale. While the microbreweries produce a large amount of one brew, a craft brewery produces less of multiple brews. This allows them to experiment with new techniques and ingredients.   I thought this was interesting because the Astrodome has been in the news a lot recently and this article caught my e...

Traffic Stop Video   Alex Landau is an African American man and was adopted by white parents. He was grown up in a household were the color of one's skin didn't matter. His viewpoint didn't change until one day, when he was with a friend, he was pulled over by a white officer. He was asked to step out of the car and he thought nothing of this since there was two other officers watching nearby. When he stepped out, the officer searched him and then searched his friend, who was white. his friend had some weed and then the officer handcuffed him and continued to search the car and people. Alex asked if they had a warrant and the officers punched him in the face and beat him up. When he was yelling he wasn't going for a gun after an officer accused him of it, another officer held a gun to his head and Alex passed out. He was brought in and had to have medical attention to heal his wounds, This event changed his and his parents viewpoints on skin color and the world. So...

Persepolis gave me a new perspective on Iranians and the war there. The story was entertaining and informative, making me interested as well as feeling glad that I read this book. Being a graphic novel the comics made it seem a little more cartoonish and made the images formulated in my mind less brutal. The book covers a large period of time and in this time period there is political turmoil, war, discrimination, rebellion, and much more. The many topics it includes makes it feel more like real life because in life we do not have one theme throughout our life we have many things that happen. This book also gave me a little insight on what it was like to be an insider during this time in Iran. I liked this because without it I am just, and still am, an outsider looking in. My judgments and assumptions are based on research that I have gathered and this book helps keep my mind open to an insiders point of view.

God is portrayed to appear in Marjane's dreams. God has the shape of a man and mostly consists of white solid color, with minimal details that make out his outline, beard, and face. He comes to Marjane to speak to her when she wants to be a prophet and helps her in times of need. God appears and has a discussion with Marjane every night, until she cuts God out of her life. Gods looks are compared to Marx, with Marx's beard a bit more wavy than God. God is vital to the story, for God is part of Marjane's early dreams and later helps her out again when she is lost. God acted as a messenger between her and her family. Marjane believes that when her mom prayed for her to God, God would make it happen. God is important to the overall story because while Marjane talked with God and God helped her, the entire revolution that changed her life was for a god. 

When Marjane left Iran, the first time, she left thinking that this was just a temporary move (pg. 152). She was not prepared to leave her home and family when she did and when she hit rock bottom, the sentimentality and homesickness came back and she went home to Iran (pg. 145). When she came back to Iran it was a transition to a familiar yet a new strange way of life. It wasn't the exact same Iran she had left, but one with enough familiarity. With her family, and memories, Marjane felt at home. As time went by the restrictions that did not affect Marjane as a child came into affect. For example when she and Reza were trying to be together in the first part of their relationship (pg.  290), she realized how restrictive the law and the strong religious presence in Iran was. She learned that in order to be free she had to leave Iran with the intent of leaving permanently, to create a home of her own, only coming back to visit not to stay. The price for this, as Marjane sai...

During the time Marjane's Uncle Anoosh was released, the people in the prisons who did something against the shah were considered hero's and to to the children everyone wanted a family member to be one. Anoosh was in prison for working with his uncle, Fereydoon, and was released after nine years. Marjane was happy to hear the stories of her uncle, and have a hero she could talk about to her friends. Anoosh like Marjane because he thought it was important that she does not forget her family's memory and she listened to him with interest. His fondness for her can be seen by him giving  Marjane a bread swan, an uncle and a nephew, and when he asks for Marjane to be his only visitor. Marjane is the last person to see Anoosh before his execution and probably learns or confirms her belief that the newspaper lies when they labeled Anoosh as a Russian spy. Their relationship was important for the both of them and Anoosh's memory is carried on by Marjane.