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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Happieness and the American Dream



Happiness is one of the most commonly contemplated subjects in the world. Everyone wants to be happy, but there is no set way of achieving it. Some people try to attain it through adventure and achievements, like climbing a mountain or completing a bucket list. Other people try to buy things that will make them happiness, which is the origin of the phrase money cannot buy happiness. Both of these strategies can work, but rarely create permanent happiness, which raises the question, what can?
The idea of happiness is closely related to an idea that is labeled the American dream. The first publicized mention of this idea was in the declaration of independence which said that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I personally believe that what the authors of the declaration of independence meant by that was that every citizen of the United States could attempt to attain happiness in any way they see fit, even though it may not even be possible to fully attain it. In the United States we have the ability to gain what we need, and the opportunity to attain happiness.
Now back to my original question, what can provide permanent happiness? There are probably thousands of theories, each as likely as the last. In the Euphio Question by Kurt Vonnegut, he writes about one possible theory of attaining happiness through technology. Here is a passage from his short story, The gadget is, I think, what a lot of people vaguely foresaw as the crowning achievement of civilization: an electronic something-or-other, cheap, easily mass-produced, that can, at the flick of a switch, provide tranquility. In the Euphio Question Vonnegut also explains how perfect happiness, would necessarily create a utopia either as he says in this passage; The question is not whether euphio works. It does. The question is, rather, whether or not America is to enter a new and distressing phase of history where men no longer pursue happiness but buy it. I think what Vonnegut means by this is that since pursuing happiness is to a lot of people the meaning of life, what life would be without it.
One of the reasons I think perfect happiness is unachievable is in its name. In almost every single way imaginable, perfection cannot be fully attained. There is always some way to improve. You could make a more accurate measurement, run a lap faster, buy a better phone or gadget and you could still do better. As in Nathaniel Hawthornes, The Birthmark he writes, The momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present. What I think Hawthornes meant by this was that attempted to achieve full perfection, when he had what was already very near perfection, and paid the price for it.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Name: Alec
Topic: Darin



    The country is a great place to live if you enjoy the things Darin Krone does. Dirtbiking, Four-wheeling and airsoft fights are much more fun in the country than in a neighborhood. Living in the country is not without its drawbacks though. Overall though the country is a great place for a person like Darin.
    Darin Lives in the country, which is very beneficial for some of his hobbies, but makes hanging out with friends much harder because he can not walk or bike to his friends house like most people. He hangs out with his friends via Xbox instead.
    “I live in the country, so I can’t go to my friend’s house and hang out very often.”, Said Darin” instead of actually meeting up with them, we play on Xbox. It’s easier than getting my parents to drive me to there house.”
    When Darin is not playing Xbox with his friends he has several other hobbies. He likes playing airsoft and riding dirtbike and four-wheeler, especially at his cabin. This is one of his more memorable experiences while four-wheeling at his cabin.
    During fall break we went to our cabin up north by Park Rapids”, said Darin” On Sunday it snowed an inch or two and we hadn’t brought any winter clothes. Even though we were freezing we took our four- wheelers out. Every time we turned, we slid in the snow. I almost rolled it once. We could only ride for a half an hour at a time before we got too cold and had to go in.”
    Darin also likes playing basketball in organized teams. He has been playing for multiple years and it is his favorite sport. It is difficult to play in the country because there are no courts to practice on, but he play in organized leagues anyway. This is his favorite basketball game he can remember.
    It was the season of 2013, we were facing Anoka and they were a really short team,” Said Darin,” We won 40-10 and I had scored a lot of points because they didn’t have a good defense. I also had a lot of assists. Overall it was a really easy game.”
    Basketball continues to be Darin’s favorite sport today. He plays on both the Buffalo Community Middle School basketball team and the Buffalo traveling basketball team.
    “Basketball requires a huge amount of hand-eye coordination and effort,”said Darin.”It takes a long time to get really good.”
    As you can see Darin Krone is a very interesting person. He has a variety of hobbies and many other things he likes to do. He plays many sports, including basketball and football, which he greatly enjoys. So as you can see a country setting is perfect for a person like Darin.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Stranger final post

In the book the Stranger, one of the most pivotal points is when Meursault shoots the Arab. This is the main event causing Meursault's imprisonment and execution. It is also one of the moments that defines what kind of person Meursault is. If this event had not occurred in the book it would be a lot less exciting book, and we would not have understood Meursault as well because we probably never seen how he reacts in a crisis. For a human, in a crisis it is barely possible if not impossible to not show any emotion. You  could become panicked, concentrated, tense, or any of a long list of emotions, but Meursault remains emotionless and comments on how warm it is.  This was probably the second closest Meursault came to showing emotion in the book, the other time was before his execution when he finally found meaning in something which was his own death.
          If Meursault had not shot the Arab I think there could have been two different outcomes. One could have been a very short end to the book with the Arab stabbing Meursault and with him dying. The other outcome could have been Meursault escapes with none or minor injuries and eventually marrying Marie and continuing his life as it had been before his conflict with the Arabs. If Meursault after confronting the Arab had died the meaning to the story would have been similar in a way to how the story ended with the original outcome of the confrontation. If Meursault had been killed by the Arab it could have been interpreted to support Camus’s theory of absurdism. To most people Meursault’s life would have seemed to have no meaning if he died that early in the book. He never seemed to care about anything and no one seemed to care about him except a handful of people who seemed to care about him more as a tool than a friend, but if you looked deeper into Meursault’s personality even at that point in the story you could still find some meaning in Meursault’s life. The other possible outcome of if Meursault had not shot the Arab is a lot harder to predict because Camus could have come up with any number of possible outcomes and morals of the story but they probably would have all would have had something to do with absurdism, and Meursault finally finding meaning in something.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Me as a reader

Ever  since I was able to read to myself I have always like reading for recreation. I think the reason I like to read now was probably was because of my parent s reading to me when I was to young to read to my self. Sometimes I used to make my parents or younger brother sit down so I could go through a book and pretend I could read it, making up the story as I went. Eventually when I did know how to read, I would actually read to my little brothers sometimes. As they got older they became less interested in me reading so I would read to myself instead. I slowly worked my up through different types of books, from picture books, To simple chapter books, to more complicate novels.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

truth blog

"The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty.", Tim O'Brien

            The truth is not always written in stone, but it is often mistaken to be. The truth in any event varies depending on what you experienced of an event. To fully understand the truth of an event you would have to witness the event from everyone there's perspective, and then figure out who saw what actually happened for. Even if you could do that you could not be sure if the perspective you chose was right, or if they were right, but missed some details. This is why jurors in a court do not make their decisions based on the word of one witness, because one witness could not see every detail of the whole event. That's why I believe that there is a truth in historical events, but it is not humanly possible to find. The only truth that we can find are the ones authors make up in fiction, because the view of their character or characters is the only view of that event, where as non-fiction writers have to try and find a set truth of an event instead of being able to make one up. So in some ways fiction is more truthful than non-fiction, but it is true to the authors truth instead of reality.  http://files.meetup.com/423109/How%20to%20Tell%20A%20True%20War%20Story_Tim%20O%27Brien.pdf

“Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.”, Tim O,Brien

            So as you can see the truth, pertaining to real life events, is not simple at all. It can vary between any two people who witness an event, and it is impossible to find the perfect truth. Only in fiction or in extremely rare events can you find a perfect truth, or near perfect truth.