Winter Poem!

Winter Plague

Watch it fall, and land in peace.

Coming down with elegance,

It envelops the landscape

Graceful crystals accumulate,

Forming a white silky blanket.

One that secretly blinds the soul

With its sophisticated, white beauty.

Happiness fills towns everywhere

It’s a wonderful season.

Hot chocolate, with warm fires,

Sledding, ice skating and gifts,

A wonderful atmosphere

It surrounds the world.

At least that’s what you believe.

The world is big,

The world is diverse

And most of the world

Is under a curse

We live in blissful warmth,

We don’t fear the freezing cold.

If only the poor lived the same

Then maybe, we would be at peace.

But while we sit and laugh,

Others fall like the snow.

Because winter is nothing more

Than a plague in disguise.

That’s my rough draft. Any sort of advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!J

Thanksgiving Stuff!

I like thanksgiving. Even though I think it’s a dumb holiday I like the feeling of being with may family. I’m also a big fan of food. I eat when I have nothing else to do. But for this blog I’m not supposed to write about food, I have to write about someone in the class that I’m thankful for.

I’ll start by saying that I like everyone in the class. Well, maybe I don’t like everyone but there isn’t anybody I dislike.  I haven’t really gotten to know anyone that sits more than 2 seats away from me.  So I guess the people that I’m most thankful for are my peeps Cyerra, Kate, Faith, and Simon. If it wasn’t for them, American Lit wouldn’t be as fun.

Kate and Cyerra have been friends of mine since last year. Theyre pretty cool females. Kate is extremely smart and always has good advice for you. Cyerra is different from any other person I’ve met. She’s really cool and funny and she does things that I think are really weird but I like her.

Simon and Faith are both people I met here in American lit. Faith seems to be an interesting person; I hardly ever talk to her but she’s always really chill. Simon on the other hand is a rather hyper little person. He’s good at so many things and his card tricks always make things fun.

Well these are the guys I’m thankful for. I don’t know what else to say so sayonara.  

Arado

I cried in pain as Satan sickeningly regurgitated the brains that he had just pulled out of my skull. By the time he poured hot acid down my esophagus, I could no longer feel pain. My guts had been turned in rabid flesh eating centipedes. I stood up on what remained of my extremities and began to hollow out my already beaten corpse that bear nothing but a heart.  I was able to remove a handful of the vile, parasitic creatures that dominated my body before my knees suddenly shattered under the weight of my rotted, decaying cadaver like plump tomatoes being demolished by boulders. I had lost my mind in despair. I could noting but watch myself die slowly. The only thing I could think to do was crawl up the cobble stone path that led to the only thing I had left, my hope. After all, hope is what dies last in a person. Right before a human dies, they close their eyes as they fall into a state of unconsciousness, hoping that someone will help them while they’re in oblivion. I began making my way up the trail only to find that my fingers dissolved as they made contact with the hard rock. But I wasn’t going to give up, even if I was nothing but an empty eye socket by the time I reached the dearly needed wisp of hope. Again, I tried moving forward but all I did was make my fingers vanish like the memories of my early childhood. All I could do now was wait for death to take me. I shut my eyes, hoping that death would be fast. When I woke up I was back home in my farm house with the most painful headache I’d ever had. My plow was on the floor next to me covered in blood. I knew I should have placed it on the platform more carefully, this wasn’t the first time I knocked my head on it.

slavery

Slavery, the cause of many wars, internally or externally. Slavery seems to have existed forever. How did it begin? Who was the first slave ever? Who was the first person to ever enslave someone? When someone mentions slaves the first thing that comes to my mind is a weary looking person who looks as if he suffers more in one day than an ordinary person does in a lifetime.

            Those slaves that I picture are probably non-existent in the US. I’m sure there are still plenty of hard laboring slaves in some small third world countries around the world but the US still has people who work their @$$es of like slaves. There are people who have to work two jobs to bring food to the table and put a roof over their family’s head. They aren’t considered slaves because they aren’t property of the man in charge but they’re working just as hard as the slaves from the past. There are even people who enslave themselves.

            People nowadays deprive themselves of fun. They’re slaves to their own minds, not doing fun and exciting when nothing is holding them back. Some might hold back on thing they desire because of the fear of getting criticized for it. And then there are those people who do things to fit in. They might do something that they’re completely against just so can be like everyone else; putting themselves through pain and even humiliating themselves to get attention. In my opinion these people are like slaves. But if you think about it, it doesn’t make sense; if they’re doing something because they want to fit in they’re doing it because they want to, not because they have to. So it isn’t really a form of slavery is it? They have a choice; they have the ability to discontinue whatever they were doing that made them seem like slaves.

SALEM! WITCH CRAFT! AND CHUCK NORRIS?

The Salem witch trials ended on January 1693 when Chuck Norris happened to be walking through Salem and was accused of witchcraft.

            According to www.salemwitchtrials.com the witch trials began because of fear among the puritans who believed that god was punishing them for their sins. Some of the things that fueled these fears were recent smallpox outbreaks and Indian attacks on the colonies. There is no evidence to support the belief that witches actually existed in Salem but a few women were believed to be fortune tellers and voodoo doll makers.

            There is actually no proof of John Proctor and Abigail having an affair.  According to the website john was 60 years old at the time and Abigail was only about 12. They also lived about 8 miles apart from each other. The love story was just added to make the movie and the book more intense.

Im an American!

I must have been about 8 yrs old. I was waiting in the car with my older sister while my mom finished packing our lunch for school. My sister was talking about Mexico saying how she wanted to go but couldn’t. At the time I didn’t know why she couldn’t go to Mexico and come back legally.

When my mom got back in the car I asked my mom why they couldn’t go to their home country and come back without having to cross the border illegally. She explained the whole citizenship and racism thing to me but I was stupid at the time so I didn’t really understand what she meant. Finally my sister mad it all clear to me by saying “You’re a gringo Maury. You were born here so you’re an American can come back and forth.”

            That was the first time I was referred to as American. I was raised as a Mexican but I had grown up to be an American. I realized the meaning of the term “American” varies from culture to culture. In poverty stricken nations people want to be “American” so they can have the opportunity to live a wealthier life and provide their children with a better chance to succeed in life. People from better off nations come here to get the freedom that the constitution promises. But in the end, almost everyone migrate here to start a new life.

Conflicts between different groups have been a reoccurring theme in history since the beginning of time. Conflicts can be sparked by the tiniest insult towards another’s beliefs or preferences. The bad thing is that one person always starts the problem, the opposing sides of the argument both play a role in the fight and in most cases someone wins. Sometimes the arguments just end because the people realize that a huge fight isn’t worth the trouble. But in both instances, everyone gets affected by the results of conflict.

For example Abigail started the problems in Salem when she was caught doing witchcraft. When she was accusing everyone else it was her vs. the accused. But in the end both she and the people being persecuted all suffered from the incident. Many people lost their lives from persecution and Elizabeth had to flee because of the paranoia caused by her false claims.

john protor.. hero or stooge.

In my opinion John is the only hero in the whole play. There are a few others like Rebecca who are goo people but don’t really do any heroic acts. And then there are all those fools who take people’s lives based on ignorant beliefs and false statements. Those are the bad guys in this story, the people who live safely throughout the story without the fear of getting persecuted.

            Anyways, back to John. John did some wrong when he had his affair with Abigail but he’s a human, a young male human being. And at least he confesses his sin to his wife. That’s the only thing that matters, that he was semi-loyal to his wife. But the thing that really made him loyal was that he gave up his own life to prevent the “witch Hunt” from gaining more power and getting out of hand. He was a well respected man in town and if he were to plead guilty to witch-craft everyone would believe in it.

            He resisted being able to live with his wife for many years ahead and got himself hung. All for a good cause of course. Because he resisted he didn’t get his confession posted out in front of the church and he didn’t give his family a bad name. in the end he was loyal to his friends and his wife, that’s the only thing that mattered to him. That’s what made john a hero.

GOD???

Obviously everyone has the right to practice any religion, they are free to go about believing in even the most ignorant ideas, but sometimes religion goes too far. Jonathan Edward’s way of explaining the wrath of God was quite gruesome; in fact it might have been a little psychologically disturbing for the people following the puritan religion at the time.

            It actually seems as though the religion was made to help the new world progress at a super quick rate. The followers did basically nothing but preach and work hard day after day for their whole life. This is possibly the best way for a new colony to expand and progress. And this was enforced through the fear of getting attacked by the fearsome, cruel, sinister, and cold hearted being they knew as God.

            To them God is unforgiving. He can send anyone to the depths of hell out of sheer pleasure and he’s able to destroy anything that upsets him or gets in his way. He is easily stronger than any living thing in earth. No man can possibly withstand his power. His arrow is always pointing in your heart and he’s constantly watching every single human looking for a reason to put them out of their misery.

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Graffiti has been around in my neighborhood for a longer time than I’ve been alive. It was always a nuisance to most people but for young adults and teens it was a beautiful type of art. It was an art that expressed infinite ideas. There were millions of different types of styles, color schemes, patterns, lines, designs and such. A (graffiti) writer was greatly appreciated by the people of newer generations. Graffiti was great because it allowed teens to express themselves through art on an unlimited amount of canvas.

For many writers graffiti was a hobby, it was a good source of fun. Some did it because they had problems at home or school so they relieved their stress by decorating the streets of our neighborhoods with their art. Maybe some were never praised for doing anything good so they showed off their artistic side using creative lettering and flamboyant colors to cover roof tops, bill boards and even trains. And for the most dedicated taggers it was a way of life. It was like a drug made especially for them. These people painted 24/7 and were well known amongst the many fans of this artistic crime.

Eventually these great artists grew too old for the game. They could no longer “get up”, due to fear of getting caught, and were quickly forgotten. These great artists had had their chance to illuminate the Gage Park neighborhood. Now it was the younger generations turn.

My generation (the group people near my age) started getting into it at around seventh grade. The few of us who started to enjoy graffiti at an earlier age were into it for the same reason as the older ones. By the end of eighth, however, almost all of the kids in my neighborhood started “tagging”   not because they enjoyed the art, but because they thought it was cool. The young teens must have recognized that graffiti writers were well known and considered “cool” for doing dangerous and daring things like “hitting up” an illegal wall. These young teens started displaying their own writing on walls, vandalizing any piece of property that didn’t belong to them, showing no respect. They recklessly went over all of the beautiful art, stamping their vandalism over pieces that had taken years of practice, and a lot of talent, to perfect. That’s how my neighborhood slowly faded from being covered illegal art to vandalism. There goes the neighborhood.

about me

              Hey, my name is Mauricio. My parents tell me I was born on May 16, 1995 but they lie to me all the time. I usually dislike school but evey once in a while something fun happens. I love to paint on walls using spray paint (not illegally), people call it vandalism but to me its a hobby, a way of life. Im not much of an athlete but i do love to play soccer and swim regularly even though im pretty bad at both. I like to pretend Im Japanese and I hate the fact that some guy made a movie about me, called it "The Dark Knight", and got rich and famous off of it.
             Apart from my fantasy life I enjoy hanging out with friends after school, on weeknds and during vacation, although I do think that being a loner isnt bad either. My favorite state is Washington and I plan on moving there by next year and living with my older sister free to do whatever I want. My mom doesnt let me eat fast food too often but I've eaten enough to know that Wendy's is my favorite place.
            mmhhhh let's see.... ah music preferences! I like to listen to screamo, heavy death metal, brutal death metal, emocore/post hardcore, and underground rap. Oh and jazz, it helps my sleeping disorder. im the biggest procrastinater you'll ever meet but i get things done eventually. I plan on being trilingual by the end of the year (japanese, spanish, and english). Books aren't my thing but I enjoyed survey Lit last year I'm sure I'll enjoy American. I'm really protective towards things that I care about such as my family, art, screamo music, friends etc... thats all I have to say about myself for now.