Description of a Picture

I am going to describe this picture http://www.floresyplantas.net/wp-content/uploads/Vladimir-Kush_6-1.jpg.

When I look at this picture, I first notice the strange texture of the water/tree.  It definitely is water, but it has the texture of a tree.  Then I notice the man in the middle of the picture.  He is using two oars to guide himself while the current/tree is moving with him.  After that, I finally noticed the trees.  There are two trees and one stump.  The trees are melting into the current/tree.  Last, but not least, I realized I had an overwhelming sense of the color green. 

Almost every picture has a purpose or a meaning.  I think this picture is trying to say that man can control his/her fate.  If man decides to destroy the environment, then that would be his own choice.  But from that environment-destroying, he will also suffer.  The first part, man can control his/her fate, was derived from the oars.  The man in the picture can control which way he wants to go and how fast he wants to get there.  I got the second part about destroying the environment from the tree stump.  The man might have cut that tree down to make his boat, but by doing that, he gets rid of the shade.  By getting rid of the shade, he suffers from the heat. 

I think the overall color of green is there for a few reasons.  The first reason is to keep the picture monotone.  The painter, Vladimir Kush, didn’t want the viewer to become too attracted to this picture.   Kush probably wanted for the viewer to be able to look at the picture and think about its meaning, instead of looking at it just because it looked good.  The second reason for the overall color of green is to let the viewer be able to look at the picture and get the mood of time and uncertainty.  For most people, green means environment, time, and uncertainty.  The final reason of the green color is to make the red color of the trees stand out.  It tells the reader the environment is very important.

There are two reasons that the texture of the water is like a tree and currents.  The first reason is that Vladimir Kush is trying to show nature is a big part of life.  Man has to learn to live and cooperate with nature.  The second reason is that the currents are the currents of life.  The currents are shaped like a trees rings to resemble life.  If a tree grows well, then the rings are thick.  If a tree doesn't grow well, then the rings are thin. Life is also sometimes great and sometimes horrible.

I like Vladimir Kush’s work.  Every piece has a purpose that is easily noticeable.  It makes it easier to be able to appreciate his work instead of just pondering what it means.  Most other artists' work aren't like that.  A person has to stare at it for ten minutes without realizing much except, “Oh, that bird is interesting”.  In my opinion, this picture is one of Vladimir's best.

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, provides a very unique look into the future of the world.  It's really sad to see a world without books.  Books are one of the most important things that drive today's society forward.  Without books or other sources of information, we would all become "mindless sheep", like the people in the book.  The government has complete and utter control over the people, which makes it a dictatorship.  Books provide conflicting theories which, supposedly, make the society less peaceful.

The real reason the government doesn't want people to read books is probably because they don't want people to know that they are in a dictatorship.  If one person knows about the dictatorship, then they will write a book about it, then most of the population will know.  The population will then attempt to overthrow the government.  The government completely eliminates that possibility by getting rid of books.


Bradbury always writes for purpose.  When he wrote Farenheit  451, I think he was trying to explain to the world one of two things.  First, the people of the world are mindless sheep.  This may seem a bit "off", but really, the people of the world know little of what the governments are doing.  The second thing Bradbury might be trying to say is that books are a vital part of today's society and without books, we would all become mindless sheep.  Overall, Fahrenheit 451 is a very well written book that serves a just and logical purpose.

My Swim Meet

Today was the day of the swim meet.  It started with waking up at 8:00 in the morning, which was really early for the average 10:30 wake up time of summer.  I was really groggy and upset for waking up so early.  I had to get to agoura high school by 9:00, so I woke up pretty late already.  I ate breakfast, which was a glass of milk and a peanut butter and nutella sandwich.  We then drove towards the pool at agoura.  On the way there, we were ticketed by a police because our car registration was out of date, which made us a little late.

When I finally got there, we started warm-up, the coach gave me a team suit which he said we had to wear.  It was really tight.  I got in the water, which was the perfect temperature at about 85 degrees.  Then, we did some warm-ups and a relay, which we won.  After all of that, we were ready for the main events.  I won two, fifty and a hundred yard freestyle, and got second place in a fifty and hundred yard backstroke.  It was exhilarating when I raced against six other people and won. 

After my first actual event, I started to wonder why I didn't want to come to this swim meet in the first place.  After a while of sitting and wondering, it struck me.   The waiting was excruciatingly agonizing.  While a person is waiting, he would have to sit in the burning sun for a long time with nothing to do but to watch the swimmers swim in the nice, cold water.  Overall, this experience was very rewarding, but I would not like to do it again.

Another Description of Someone I Know (I Can't think of anything so I will create an imaginary person)

Dom Stryker was a very intriguing man.  He was a midget, about 3 foot five at the age of eighteen.  Because of his midgetry, his skin always had folds in it which made him like an old and fat man.  There were folds covering the top half of his eyes, and therefore he could never see people's faces unless he looked up.  His hands were small, but pudgy, much like a baby's hand with a lot more wrinkles.  A side effect of the midgetry was that his hair was gone.  When someone looks down at Dom, all they see is a wide expanse of pudgy, foldy skin.

Because of all the skin, he looked like a very grumpy man.  In truth, he was actually very friendly.  But the seclusion suited him well.  He wasn't very good at talking with people and he didn't like people staring at his deformity.  He lived far away from society, in a old cabin at the edge of a forest.  He lived there because he despised technology.  The new gadgetry (cell phones, ipods, etc.) were just too complicated and frustrating to work with.  He had a few friends, including the squirrel next door and the beaver on the other side of the forest, and he talked with them often.  He ate the fruits and vegetables in the forest, as well as the occasional deer.  And that is the strange life of Dom Stryker.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time starts when the protagonist, Christopher, finds a dead dog in the lawn of one of his neighbor's houses. He then goes on a search to find the culprit behind this murder. So he starts by, like, talking to all the houses behind his neighbor's house and finds out that no one knows about it. The actual neighbor just doesn't want to talk about it. Then there was Then he figured out that his mom was still alive because he looked in his dad's bedroom and and found out that his dad was the man who killed the dog. Thus ends my plot point by point analysis.

Okay, the book was quite a good book because the author really made it a good imitation of an autistic person, and that it was interesting seeing the world through the eyes of an autistic person and that made it interesting. (Editor's note - Agh! Do not use the word "interesting!") Um... and the author When Christopher finally found his mom, I found it strange that his mom didn't really care about him tenderly, but just knew all his interests and didn't care about him as a son.

I found it interesting (ugh!!!) that Christopher could think of his math test while he was in such a big crisis. To him, the math test was calming. I was a bit confused when he and his mom traveled back to his dad's house back to live, but then I realized that his mom didn't like his dad anymore.

Christopher has no friends. This is something of huge importance, because it demonstrates his detachment from society, and his sheer and utter loneliness in the world. He is estranged from his father, his mother has an expressly cool attitude towards him, and there is no one else that truly thinks like he does or can understand his way of thinking. The only exception might be a psychologist at his school, who took care of him and helped him function (at least tangentially) in everyday society.

Christopher may one day be integrated into society and more like an average person, but for now, it doesn't look likely as autism is a permanent condition. Blah blah blah Um.... So ugh his only real companions were his pets, like his dog and his rat. It just goes to demonstrate how he can't relate to humans. He thinks in a completely logical fashion, but this causes him to be completely baffled by the notion of emotion.

I can't think of anything so i'm thinking right now, um... I'm rummaging through my head for more things to say so that I can talk about more things to talk about the book. The fact that he goes on a search for the reason/murderer behind the dog's death shows that he can really relate to animals more than people.

I'm thinking again and still thinking. and Oh, The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time is an unusual book in that it comes expressly from the viewpoint of an autistic person's mind. Still thinking and rummaging through my head and thinking and thinking and still thinking and still looking through my head for something to talk about. And now I'm trying to talk faster so that Hans can't keep up with me.

Okay, Mark Haddon is quite an interesting writer becuase he sometimes puts in pictures and riddles and math problems to demonstrate all that is going on in Christopher's head. I think that Haddon has had to have experience with autistic kids to have bee able to write a book like this.

And now I'm flipping through the text.... I really like how Christopher explains himself every time he does something. It's way he uses the word "because" a lot. For example, this part says: "I like this bit _because_ science can always explain...." His actions are basically just a string of "becauses" and this illustrates his completely rational behavior.

 For a logically thinking person, it's very strange the way he looks at cars. If he sees yellow cars, he has a bad day, and if he sees a string of red cars, then it's a good day. For a purely logical person, these are moments of irrational behavior completely at odds with the rest of his mind.

When he has to relax or calm down, he always returns to mathematics. He does cubes in his head. This is a great book for psychologists for them to figure out how autistic people think. Of course, this might not actually be an accurate representation of what an autistic person really thinks, but only what Haddon's perception of them is.

Christopher wants to become a scientist, and obviously there are many social obstacles and other hurdles to overcome before he can do so. But the fact that he went to London all by himself and wrote a book to boot means that there's not a lot he can't do if he just sets his mind to it.

An Experience I Might Have Had When I Was Small (A experience I didn't have but I'm going to write about it anyways.)

I've always had a fear of spinning uncontrollably.  It was not so much a fear like a fear of the dark, but more like a fear of death.  The first time I figured out that I had this fear was when I was tossed around by my Dad, while spinning.  I sat in a corner of the house for the rest of the day, thinking what would happen if I spun too long.  Then I grew up, and I realized that nothing would really happen to me, but the fear was always there.  It stayed until one day, my dad bought a spinning chair.  

When I first looked at it, it looked like a normal chair, but there was something off about it.  Maybe it was the foreboding black color, maybe it was the tiny wheels on the bottom of it, I will never know.  But when I looked at it, I had a feeling of deĵa vu.  I didn't know where it came from, so I got on the chair to try it out.  Then I realized what was so different about this chair.  It moved.  It didn't just move, it spun.  I tried to get off, but it was too late.  It already started spinning because of my weight.  I decided to close my eyes until it was over.  It was over in a few seconds.  I started getting off, but suddenly, my sister ran past and spun the chair really fast.  My blood rushed to my head and I started screaming.  Moments later, the chair stopped again.  I wasn't dead!  I finally opened my eyes again.  Then my sister ran past the chair again and made it start spinning yet again.  I didn't realize it at first, I was only conscious of the blurs of colors around me.  They were so pretty.  My mind wandered off the colors and focused on the strange feeling of sideways gravity.  This feeling was actually quite exhilarating.  I started laughing, but then I was stopped dead in my tracks.  I was spinning.  I could't breath for a few moments, but then my mind was again focused on the breathtaking blurs of colors and the thrilling sideways gravity.  When the chair finally stopped spinning again, I was soaked in sweat.  I realized that spinning was actually quite fun and exciting, and my fear finally left.

Revision of Yesterday's Post

"Looking for Alaska", by John Green is one of the best books a teenager will ever read.  It really shows the life of an average teenager in boarding school, aside from the pranks, and shows how to cope with the "labyrinth of suffering", which is life.

From the start, "Looking for Alaska" draws you in.  Green makes the teenager's, Miles Halter's, life so complex and realistic, that the book becomes very difficult to put the book down.  Even the friends of Miles are captivating.  There's The Colonel, who is a mischievous, loyal-to-friends prankster.  He really helps Miles through his toughest times.  Then there's Alaska, the unpredictable, fun-loving, much wooed girl of the story.  She stole Miles's heart and played a big part in Miles's life.  After Alaska died, and Miles and The Colonel went on a search to find the reason of her death, the reader is motivated to continue reading until he finds out the reason of Alaska's death and the answer to the question that builds the book, "how do we get out of this labyrinth of suffering".  This is a truly phenomenal book, so take a chance and step out into the great perhaps.

Looking for Alaska

John Green really does a spectacular job of writing novels, and "Looking for Alaska" is no exception.  The way he sets up the chapters really sets it apart from other books.  Green starts the book out with a very minimalist page with one lowercase word in the middle, before.  That word gets readers thinking about what lies in wait for them after the before.  After that page, the reader finds himself looking at, instead of chapters, how many days "before".  For example, the first chapter is "one hundred thirty-six days before".

From the start, "Looking for Alaska" draws you in.  Green takes a teenager's life, Miles Halter, and makes it so amusing hilarious, exciting, sad, and romantic that you can't put it down until the book is finished.  Even the friends of Miles are captivating.  There's The Colonel, who is a mischievous, loyal-to-friends prankster.  Then there's Alaska, the unpredictable, fun-loving, much wooed girl of the story.  After Alaska dies, and Miles and The Colonel go on a search to find the reason,  the reader is motivated to continue reading until he finds out the reason of Alaska's death and the answer to the Question that builds the book, "how do we get out of this labyrinth of suffering".  This is a truly phenomenal book, so take a chance and step out into the "Great perhaps".

The Microsoft Tablet Won't do Well in This Market

I read this article,  http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/29/technology/microsoft_analyst_meeting/index.htm,  and I think that Microsoft's tablet isn't going to be very successful.


Microsoft got the idea to make a tablet when Apple came out with their iPad.  The tablet industry started growing and Microsoft knew that it was very important to make a tablet.

There are a few reasons I don't think Microsoft's tablet will do well.  First and foremost, Microsoft doesn't have the best reputation of creating the most sleek devices.  This will cause a lot of hesitation among consumers.  They will probably think of the failure of Vista and compare it to the Windows 7 thats running on the new tablet.  Another reason I think the new tablet won't do well is that it is a newcomer into a market that is populated by the iPad.  Many consumers would want to stick with the iPad, which has already proven itself to be a very good tablet.  Also, a lot of people also don't like Windows 7.  It is very prone to viruses and is sometimes very slow and CPU-consuming.  I don't think that the new tablet from Microsoft will fair very well in the tablet market.

Hello

Ok, so I read to 2.7 of this  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sense-data/.


The person who wrote this had very similar thoughts as I do, but on a much greater degree.  I only talked about colors perception varying between people, but the author of this passage said that shapes, perspective, color, etc. perception also varied between people.  Even the part about color is different.  He said that an object doesn't actually have color.  It's the light that has color.


I find his point of view extremely unbelievable.  The only part that is believable is the color perception.  I don't agree with the "nothing has a color" point either.  If nothing had a color, then how does the light choose what color the object is going to be?  It would probably keep changing colors if it had no absolute color.  Also the shape perception is impossible too.  If a person saw a rectangular prism, but it was really a sphere, then the person would have been able to tell be feeling it.  There would be no angles.  The depth perception theory has very little flaws and is pretty believable.  If the person sees depth a certain way, then everything would be like that and it would be a perfect world.  I did not understand the part about hallucination.  It's easy to see what the author means for the time gap theory, but it is obviously not true.  Everyone only sees the light of objects.  So if we see the light of a distant star that just died, we are technically still seeing the star.  Double vision is caused because we have two eyes.  I really don't agree with sense-data.