Honors History Blog #4

1. Discuss your successes as an honors student this past semester.
->As an honors student, my biggest success would be balancing all the work that needed to be done while being out sick and attempting to keep up to date with everything that was going on during class and all of the work from the decaf class as well. I managed to (somehow) keep up with all (if not most of) the work that was expected of me. Other successes would be learning more about historical events than I already knew, and managing to make essays sound like there was actually a point to reading them.

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you do this past semester of honors over again.
->Not been sick as much! I missed so much work that I feel like it was almost pointless for me to be in class when I was in the first place, since I often missed out on the starts and ends of assignments and kind of just walked in while they were in progress. I could also try and communicate with Randy better about what kind of work that I missed and how I could get it done while keeping up with the decaf work.

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester.
->Basically, everything that I listed above. BE THERE! It would help if I were in class more often. Also, I should focus on my work a little more instead of goofing off all the time, which I'll often do when I feel unmotivated (which is a lot when I'm sick). I think I'll also try and make sure I look through more sources for the historical work, especially when I am not present to learn about it.

4. If you could choose any parts of literature and history for our honors work, what would you pick and why?
->I would pick the terrible yet awesome fanfiction My Immortal. Insanity aside, I would totally pick Twilight. Why would I curse our class with reading such a terrible piece of literature? So we can take the story, find what's wrong with it, and make it better. It would be an impossible undertaking, yes, but it would be one that we, as Randy's honors students, would be able to do to cure the world of this dreaded Twi-hard disease!

...okay note to self never do blog entries while slightly hyper. I'm done now.

Nature Reading - Desert Solitaire

(did you know that I was always spelling that 'Solitare'?)

Wilderness. The word itself is music.

Desert Solitaire is a story that only concerns itself with passion - passion for the world around it, passion for a dislike of the things that it dislikes, and a passion for the story it has to tell. At many points in the novel, Abbey is faced with the ongoing struggle between civilization and wilderness. Abbey has an undying love for the natural world around him, and thus tends to reject the civilized world that so many other people chose to live in. However, the life in the wilderness is also a refreshing break from this civilization, so there is no doubt that Abbey begins to struggle between the choice of what he loves and what he loathes and fears.

Abbey has a love for the wilderness that is unrequited and endless in its bounds. He feels that nature is peaceful and should be left in peace, left so that people in the years to come can appreciate its beauty and elements for what it really is, instead of what it has been molded to be. During his stay in Moab, Utah, watching over the Arches National Monument, Abbey bonds with nature in a way that not many people would even consider. He becomes a part of it through a theory which he tests by - of all things - throwing a rock at and killing a rabbit. What makes it worse is that this was merely an experiment he performed to try and determine his place in the world that was around him, to find a place of belonging in a world of solitude.

I try but I cannot feel any sense of guilt. I examine my soul: white as snow. Check my hands: not a trace of blood. No longer do I feel so isolated from the sparse and furtive life around me, a stranger from another world. I have entered into this one. We are kindred all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, the trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails, all of them, all of us. Long live diversity, long live the earth!
Rejoicing in my innocence and power I stride down the trail beneath the elephantine forms of melting sandstone, past the stark shadows of Double Arch. The experiment was a complete success; it will never be necessary to perform it again.
-Page 34

Blog #26- The Prospect of Competition

As of the day I am typing this, I am unsure where I can possibly enter an art piece that has a more symbolic meaning. It would not be wise, however, to enter it in anything until after the exhibition, in case the physical copy is needed at the exhibition and our exhibition's dates and needs conflict with the contest or exhibition or wherever it happens to end up. However, I have looked into some possible ideas for contests.

Prospectus: 12th Annual All Media Juried Online International Art Exhibition

Entry Fees:
A fee of $25 must accompany up to five slides or jpegs/tiffs; $5 for each additional. No maximum. Checks or POSTAL Money Orders or for artists outside the U.S. send an International POSTAL Money Order or a Cashier’s Check in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. Bank, payable to: Upstream People Gallery. Western Union via www.westernunion.com or cash (where possible) may also be used. PayPal may be used with payments made to: shows@upstreampeoplegallery.com, with $2.00 added to cover PayPal's fee or $27 entry fee. Later entries after postmark deadline is $30; Later entries with PayPal is $32.
Forms are on the link.
Deadlines too.
There don't seem to be any visible requirements...
So thus I can't evaluate my work against them...

Cue Loony Toons "Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!"