12.22 - Mythology

Mythology is the stories a group of people have told about the creation of the world as it is now. it is important because the myths are the group's beliefs about how things came to be, and form the traditions and religions of that group. Today, mythology still affects people, through religion and, for example, holiday traditions e.g Santa Claus.

12.20 - Right to Protest?

I think they have every right to protest. They aren't harming anyone or anything, so I don't see why it is such a problem for people to let them stay to make their point. And being in Lincoln Park is better than on sidewalks or in the streets, so I believe they should be able to stay where they are.

12.16 - Foreshadowings

Throughout the story, he thinks things, and then they happen, for example just before he is hung he thinks about how he could escape, and after he hangs he "escapes" in exactly that way, also, while he is, he predicts how they will shoot at him, and they do exactly what he thinks.
"...He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten, and he knew that he was rising toward the surface--knew it with reluctance, for he was now very comfortable..."

"...he was awakened--ages later, it seemed to him--by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fulness--of congestion. These sensations were unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment..." and "...in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery heart, without material substance.." both suggest he is dead.

12.12 - Floating Turbines

I think they should build the turbines. The article doesn't mention any environmental hazards, and the energy harvested would only do good. If they were far off the coast, they wouldn't be what some would call an "eyesore" so I think it is a good idea.

12.8 - Pran's Story

I think Pran was put in a camp and worked to near starvation.

12.6 - Occupy Maine

Noble Cause. I believe that what the occupiers are doing is for a good reason. While it may be unpleasant to look at, the people bothered by it probably either don't know what they stand for, or don't care. And while it may seem to have become a "homeless camp" I don't see why the homeless shouldn't be able to have opinions as well, while using the resources available to them in the park.

12.2 - Winter Activity

My favorite winter "activity" is having snowball fights. It never ends well, but it's fun. I also like being inside during the winter, drinking hot chocolate or reading or hanging out with my friends. I like these best because they don't require anything in order to do them, and they are still loads of fun.

11.30 - My Word

At this moment I would not say my life could be described as any of these words. My life is not exciting, but not dull, and is decidedly unorganized. I would like my life to be exciting and adventurous, but such things are hard to achieve living in South Portland.

11.28 - The Monkey's Paw

The story begins with a family, an old couple and their son, sitting by the fire and playing chess in the evening. They are visited shortly after the game ends by a sergeant-major, who begins to tell them stories of far off places, peoples, war and plagues. The old man replies to his tales by wishing aloud that he could go to India, to which the sergeant major warns against, which raises the subject of some story about a monkey's paw, one he shows to the family. The sergeant-major explains that it had a spell put on it by a fakir in India, to grant three men three wishes, to show that fate should be left as it was. When asked whether he had three wishes, the sergeant-major confirmed, but not happily. He aslo explained that he had come by the paw because the first man's third wish had been for death. After being asked whether he would have had his wishes, the sergeant-major threw the paw onto the fire in an attempt to destroy it, but the old man took it up and asked that he might have it if the sergeant-major didn't want it. After such events, the sergeant-major takes his leave, and the story proceeds to show that the family thinks the monkey's paw is just a tale, and they think nothing of it, but still, the old man wishes on it for £200 with which to pay off their house. The son left and the couple went on to bed. The next morning, the family continues in their disbelief of the talisman, and the son, Herbert, goes off to work. Later in the day over dinner, the wife notices a well-dressed man fussing over whether to approach the house or not, and she realizes it may be related to the £200. Hoping to make a good impression, she removes and hides her apron and answers the door, where she is greeted with an unpleasant surprise. Her son Herbert was caught in the machinery at work, and died. As compensation, the company gave the family £200. Days later, as the wife cries one night, the idea comes to her to wish on the monkey's paw for her son back alive. The old man knows to be wary, but his wife is hysterical for grief of her son, so she commands him to wish, and he does in fear of her. During the night, as the couple lies awake unable to sleep, there comes a knock at the door. Knowing it is her son, the woman tries to rush downstairs, only to be stopped by her husband. However, she breaks free and hurries to open the door. Unable to reach the bolt, she calls for her husband to help her, but instead he goes to find the paw, wishing his son gone before the woman could open the door, which she opens anyway, only to find empty street.

11.21 - Culture Shock

having met exchange students here at SoPo, I would say this is pretty good information. The advice to ask Americans things and learn how to use English is particularly good. I would only add that they should be worried about not being liked, because almost everyone is interested in meeting new people and learning about different cultures.

11.15 - Penn Law Change

I believe the law should be changed. Sexual abuse is illegal, and therefore, it should be reported to law enforcers and government officials.

11.8 - American Culture- Funny in Farsi

It seems that food was a somewhat difficult part of American culture for Firoozeh to adjust to. I say this because in the book she and her family fall into step with most of the other parts of America culture, but they held on to their preference for Iranian dishes. She writes a lot about how despite her father trying everything he could, they still found it unsatisfactory.

11.4 - Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate mass slaughtering of a specific racial, political, or religious group. One example of a genocide is the Rwanda genocide in 1994.

11.2 - The Giant's Garden Story

This story is about a Giant and his garden. In the beginning of the story, the Giant has been away for seven years visiting a friend, and all the children in the town play in his garden after school, because it is very beautiful. But then the Giant returns and he doesn't like the children to play in his garden, so he builds a wall around it and posts a sign to keep ou the children, which saddens them because they have no where else to play. Because the Giant is selfish, Spring, Summer, and Autumn punish him by not returning to his garden. So it is always Winter there, and the weather is terrible and cold, and all the while the children look for a way back into the garden. But then, the next Spring, the Giants wakes to a bird singing outside his window, because the children found a way back into the garden. And because the children returned to the garden, the trees bloomed and the flowers grew and Winter left all but one corner, where one of the children was too little to climb into the tree and have it bloom. And that made the Giant sad, so he went out and picked up the child and put him in the tree, which showed the other children that he wasn't selfish and cruel anymore, and the Giant knocked down the wall so they were allowed to play in the garden from then on. But the little boy the Giant helped never came back, and no one knew who he was. But then, years later, the boy came back to the garden, when the Giant was very old. And the Giant happily ran out to him. But when he reached him, he saw the marks of nails in his hands and feet, and the Giant wanted to know who had done it so he could hurt whoever had done it to him. But the little boy told him they were marks of Love, and that he had come to take the Giant to his garde, Paradise. And the next day the children came and found the Giant dead under the tree, covered in white flowers.

10.31 - Behavior Change

I don't ever recall having to change my behavior very considerably. I suppose everyone has to change theirs daily, but in what ways I couldn't really say, because you do it subconsciously.

10.27 - Civivc Center Cont.

My opinion did not change. Since my original opinion was against the renovations, this article only helped strengthen my first opinion, by bringing to light reasons against the project.

10.25 - Young Hunters

I don't hink we should allow children to hunt with firearms, because as is evident from the article, even if they know how to use a firearm, they are children, and will fiddle or make mistakes that could put themselves in danger. I think there should just ba an age limit on who can hunt, so young people can still have the chance, but within reason, say after 15, you can start.

10.21 - My Favorite Season

I like autumn most of all. I love the colors of the leaves, and my favorite holiday, Halloween is in fall. I also like the temperatures. I don't like summer as much, or spring, because it's too warm for me, and winter is cold. Beyond that, I don't know why I like fall. I just like it.

10.19 - The Lottery Story

To begin, the story described the people gathering, staring with all the children waiting for their parents. The boys gathered smooth stones and played while the girls stood and talked. Then the men came, and shortly after, the women. When the families were all there, the parents called to their children, and they stood together, and waited for Mr. Summers to arrive with the lottery box. The story goes into great detail about the town's value of tradition, and the importance of the old black lottery box. When it is established that everyone is there, or at least someone representing each family, Mr. Summers began to say the last names of each family, and the person representing each family went up when called to select a piece of paper from the black box. While all this was going on, some of the people were talking about other towns that had given up the lottery, which the people thought was ridiculous. Once each family had a piece of paper, they unfolded them and found out who had one with a marking. A man named Bill Hutchinson was the one that ended up having the marked piece, but his wife wasn't happy, and argued that it wasn't fair, and that they should go again and take more time. Mr. Summers dismisses her protests and proceeds to ask Bill Hutchinson how many people are in his family. Then each member of the Hutchinson family draws a piece of paper, the two children, the baby, Mrs. Hutchinson and Bill. When they unfold their papers, we find that Mrs. Hutchinson has the marked piece. When the village learned she had it, they all went and collected the stones the boys had collected earlier, and stoned her, as she protested. One might assume this is a tradition to either keep down the population of the town, or as a human sacrifice of sorts for the towns prosperity.

10.17 - Personal Beliefs

I think it does similarly, though not in exactly the same way. Both are small towns that are influenced by the same things, though differently due to the large difference in time and abilities.

10.13 - George's Statement

I don't agree. It seems to me that if you find such a person you could go to college and they would still be interested in you. And if they weren't, you would know they weren't "the one", and you would have a college education. Also, I feel education is more important that finding people that are interested in you. But the book is set in the early 1900s, so people probably had different views on matters then.

10.11 - Job Creation

I agree with Obama's plan. It seems to me that construction, while not everyone's ideal job, would be a reasonable way of improving the state of America, both physically and job-wise. There doesn't appear to be a much better option at this time, so I think we might as well give his plan a try.

10.6 - Casinos

I would probably vote no on question two, and definitely vote no on three. I would vote no, if i were able to vote, because I feel like Maine is a vacation destination because of the nature and parks we have here, and that adding a casino would decrease that appeal for the outdoors, and thus decrease their value. It seems to me that it has the capability to create a domino effect that would eventually make Maine less appealing. But, I cannot vote, and I don't actually have very much information about the issue. Perhaps if I knew more, my opinion might be different.

10.4 - Culture

One aspect of culture that affects Grover's Corners is that of education. It affects the people because everyone in the town attended the same school, and has something they learned that they do, e.g. Dr. Gibbs is a doctor, meaning he had to attend school and medical college. It also signifies that the majority of the people there are around the same level of intelligence within the town. Education affects people in South Portland as well, though in different ways. Education affects most towns in the world, in fact. It affects so many places, include SoPo and Graver's Corners because the citizens' awareness of the world relies on the educations they received. And people's awareness of the world affects how they, in turn, affect the world.

9.30 - Grover's Corners Culture

Th culture of Grover's Corners is mostly just average small town life. The big factors that affect them is the church, and the changes in relationships between the citizens. For example, the women in the chorus gossiped about the town drunk, and people often get married, which affects the whole town. Another factor is whatever goes on in the grocery stores, which the book mentioned people try to go into at least once a day.

9.28 - City Law Rights

I think cities do have the right to counter laws made by the state. However, I believe such laws should be made with a reason, like someone doing something legal that resulted in a dangerous situation. For example, fireworks not being allowed in a city such as Portland, with people living quite close, seems reasonable. But I think they should at least give the citizens a chance to prove nothing unfortunate will occur before creating a law opposite that of the state.

9.26 - Cultural Influence

One thing in American culture that affects my behavior is the media. (I often make pop culture references, though sadly not everyone realizes it...) It also affects the way I dress sometimes and every once in a while the music I listen to. However, I believe I am a relatively independent thinker, so Not everything affects my actions greatly.

9.22 - Time Capsule

If I were to make a time capsule, I would include an iPod, with current popular music on it (e.g. Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, etc.) a map of the school, a yearbook, maybe a kindle with popular books downloaded. That way, people in the future could see how much the school changed, and the differences in fashion and hairstyles. They could also see what was popular entertainment now.

9.20 - Single-Gender Classrooms

I don't think it should be done at SPHS. I do, however, think that it would be good for the elementary and middle schools. I think this because it would give students a chance to become confident and grow, without being distracted. But I don't think high schoolers need it, because we have had a chance to become more mature and thusly less distracting for the opposite gender. So if we all had a chance to become confident in our classes and learn in our gender-specific styles, then we could also learn from the other gender, and their styles and ideas, in a more mature environment. It would also give us the chance to become comfortable in a mixed environment, to prepare for the rest of our lives.

9.16 - Civic Center Renovations

I do not think the renovation of the Civic Center is necessary. The Civic Center seems good enough to me, though I have never been inside, so it would be hard for me to form an opinion that would matter. However, I disagree with the idea. A lot of people go to the Civic Center now, so it probably serves the purpose well enough. However, a cleaning job and some new paint might be a good thing.

9.13 - American Culture

Some things I found surprising about American culture was the author's interpretation of American casualness and what we will NOT find "offensive." Though it was also very true in that aspect. It also describes the importance of time here very well, if a bit exaggerated. However, I found most of the information to be quite accurate. The only other particularly surprising thing was the realization that American culture is so relaxed.

9.12.11 - My Culture

My culture is an Irish-American New England/Midwestern culture mix. My family and I observe American holidays, and follow American principles and morales. We celebrate our Irish heritage with Irish-American holidays, and eat Irish dishes on occasion. We are also influenced by new England culture because we live here, and by Midwestern culture because it is where we are from. For example, we enjoy chowders and sea food, but root for the Chicago bears.