John Gardner’s letter

The pure fact that John responded to theses students considering how many emails and mail he probably gets is awesome and that he spent the time and effort to write them back and comment on their essays is amazing. He talks about the difference between Grendel and Beowulf, and their philosophies. I thought it was really cool how we as readers and only observers can only assume so much about the meaning and context of any book. This is especially cool because we get to hear from the author himself and how he actually thinks.

He says that the ideas he put in his book are not necessarily his own and I thought that was cool just because we assume so much about an author by what he writes. I feel like John Gardner wanted to kinda go outside the mainstream and write Grendel after reading Beowulf to give it a little more meaning. Beowulf is just pure grit and there is not too much meaning behind it where as Grendel had philosophical and symbolic meanings. For goodness sake; in Beowulf, Grendel is looked at as solely a monster who needed to die. Well John turned that around and changed the view point and I found that super interesting that instead of just seeing Grendel as a monster, he made him more than that. Kinda like what the book talks about with existentialism.

How To Make a Peppermint Mocha

Materials Needed:

• Coffee cup
• 2 espresso shots
• 2 tbs. of Mocha powder
• 2 tbs. of Peppermint syrup
• Seamed Whole Milk

Step1:

Prepare a cup with a sleeve and a lid. This will help you be efficient and will enable you to be ready to mix all the ingredients together.

Step 2:

Add 2 tablespoons of mocha powder into the cup you have prepared in step 1.

Step 3:

Brew two shots of espresso and pour into your cup. Make sure they are fresh shots that have not been sitting out for a while because this will ensure the flavor of the coffee as well has retain the heat better.

Step 4:

In a metal pitcher pour whole milk about half way up and steam it. This can be a tricky process so make sure to use a thermometer so that you do not burn the milk. The temperature should reach between 140 and 160. Make sure that you create froth. Froth is the fat from the milk which is usually bubbly and creamy. This helps the milk heat up quicker and retain its heat.

Step 5:

After you have steamed your milk, added your mocha and espresso it is time to mix in the peppermint syrup. Measure out 2 tablespoons of peppermint syrup and pour it into your cup. You should now have espresso, mocha, and peppermint syrup in your cup.

Step 6:

Finally, add your seamed milk holding back the froth on top until the very end. Be sure to mix your drink thoroughly  to dissolve all the mocha and achieve a nice even solution. Add desired amount of whip cream and garnish on top to make it look pretty. TA-DA Peppermint Mocha

Come visit me at Sweet Eugene’s: House of Java:)

Jan Wnek 1828 – 1869

Jan Wnek was raised on a farm in Poland with his family. He was very good at carpentry and had a very artistic eye. He sculpted religious figures out of wood and would later build a gliding machine out of ash wood and linen. The glider was named Loty, which also translates to “flights” and had a wing span of about 26 feet long. Wnek would show off his gliding machine at church carnivals and events and was known around town as the man who could fly. (flying machines).

Jan Wnek was a man who was originally inspired by birds. Before the Wright Brothers he was the first man to catch a glimpse of flight. Although he only created a glider that used the upward drafts of hills he was the first man to experiment in this field. His passion for flight was short lived though. (smv6x2) Failing to fully understand the physics behind flight, Jan Wnek died in 1869 due to a gliding accident, leaving his wife and 3 children. (wikipedia)

http://www.flyingmachines.org/wnek.html

Jan Wnek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Wnęk

Quotes!!!

Zen Pencils- “Invictus”

Almost There

December 23rd

Stuck on Stupid: Sons of Zion

I really like this song because first of all it makes me feeling like I’m on a beach with a nice cold margarita in my hand living life like a goddess. Second of all this song makes me happy because its about someone getting over their ex who breaks up with him. He talks about how he is so glad it is over and that he is happier without her in her life. I like this song because after a bad relationship there is a point when you get over that person and it feels so good to not “give a F**** any more” about that other person who hurt you in the end.

This song is super peppy and happy because after all once you get that feeling of getting over someone you feel like a weight it lifted off your solders. This song makes me remember how people don’t really matter as long as you are happy and you find someone that makes you happy and if the person you though was the one turns out not to be then move on. It always sucks to get dumped but that just means it wasn’t meant to be and that there is someone out there for you who is the one. I know that sounds so cliche but I know others feel the same things but won’t admit to it. Love sucks but love shouldn’t hurt it should make you happy and if someone hurts that happiness then they are not worth your time. So BYE BYE!

PS: sorry for ranting a little in this but personally this stupid relationship is happening to me…gross

You had me, baby … you had me good

‘Cause I was foolish, stuck on stupid,

Scared of losing then I lost

You left me, baby … shoulda known you would

You left me wounded, disillusioned, Mass confusion as you walked out the door

A Said I’m not gonna lie, had me shook for awhile I picked myself off of the floor, floor

Then I opened my eyes, saw them beautiful smiles

Don’t give a f**k anymore …

Chorus: All alone and the party’s on

Girl I’m so glad that it’s over  …

Nice to have known ya  …

But I got to go ‘cause the  Party’s on and me life is golden, Girl I’m so glad that it’s over  …

Nice to have known ya, yeah  Now you want me back (ba da, ba da, ba da)

Say, you want me back (ba da, ba da, ba da)

I hope it makes you angry to see me doing good Girl, you brought it on yourself, can’t blame nobody else for nothin’, nothin’ yeah

There goes our love it’s gone and faded

I bet you wished that you had waited Look at the picture you have painted It ain’t no Monet, baby Repeat

Pre-Chorus: (A, G) Repeat Chorus:

Hahaha, alright bruddahs, Isreal style come and tell ya Now me tell you, why you lie to me now You breakin’ me down Me thought you was the one No ha’ fi come wear me crown But now me see things so clear And no longer you’re here Fi the girl around the world me have a loving to share

Now you want me back (ba da, ba da, ba da)  Say, you want me back (ba da, ba da, ba da)

Tim O’Brien Interview

O’ Brien’s goal in having a fictional book was to sort out the important details of his experience into only thing things that really would have an impact on his audience. He put himself in there and made it seem realistic because he wanted the reader to actually feel like it was real and feel all that he went though. I think he achieved that goal for me. O’ Brien talked about how he thinks the best way to tell a war time experience is through a story. By doing so I think he has achieved his goal in that he makes it seem more realistic by not giving us the insignificant details of everyday war life. We understand the actual pain and suffering these men endured in the Vietnam war more so when we hear it in a story form instead of in hard facts.

Tim O’ Brien didn’t expect his book to become this popular and widely read on all age levels. His man target was people that were 25 years of age and up. He is clearly against wars and you can tell that he is happy that a younger audience has picked up his book. Because younger people are reading this book he says that it is a good thing so that they see how their actions affect other people. He mentions an analogy that if you shoot a little boy you don’t just kill him but you start a fight with his parents and his friends and everyone around that one person. He explained how there are ripple effects to everything you do and that with a younger audience reading it he will be able to teach them that through his writing.

Larry Miller

This guy basically talks about all that personally happened to him during the war. He joined the marines at 18 because that’s what he though he was suppose to do. His bother had joined and his uncles so he only thought it was right for him to join as well. They went into many war and battles where the odds were not in their favor. They were sometimes out numbered by a thousand or so men. From my knowledge of the Vietnam war I can only conclude that even if the odds were in our favor we would still face a humongous challenge. The Vietnamese used gorilla warfare which meant that they didn’t play fairly.

I can only imagine with the uncertainty of when you were going to get attached and in what method would just eat someone alive. The idea of going into a foreign county and there being traps everywhere would be terrifying. Larry Miller is a brave man and everyone who was in the Vietnam war. Often times we as a country have looked over the Vietnam war because of the sheer fact that we didn’t really come out on top like we always have in the past. My grandfather was in the Vietnam war and you can still the the effects it had on him and how emotionally and physically scaring that war was. We should be so proud of our Vietnam veterans because they went through hell in Vietnam and we can’t even begin to imagine it.

” If you’re gonna be a bear, be a grizzly.” – Larry Miller

November 15, 1956 Elvis makes movie debut in Love Me Tender

On this date I was not born quite yet but a very popular widely known man named Elvis Aaron Presley started in a the movie “Love Me Tender” that premiered in New York City at the Paramount Theater. This movie was originally suppose to be called “The Reno Brothers” but they changed it to “Love Me Tender” after Reno sings a song in the movie. Elvis was very popular at this point in his career. He started his career with Sun Records in Memphis in 1954 with the release of this first album “Elvis Presley” which shot up to the top of the charts as the most popular music at the time.

Elvis Presley was conceded to be a bad influence – rebellious, vulgar, and incompetent – for mixing county, blues, and gospel all togethter. He performed scandalously with the swaying of his hips. When he appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” they censored out his body from the hips down so they wouldn’t offend any of the viewers. For many people, Elvis was a provocative musician, for others, a teen idol for cool rebels. Elvis Presley had many people looking at him with both negative and positive views.

I personally got to visit Elvis’s house and see the decretive gates that lead into it and it was a super cool experience. It is amazing how one individual and his music can make such a big impact on everyones life. There is not one person that you could ask who wouldn’t know who Elvis is. Elvis was an American Idol and is still one today. There are a few people important enough to make a mark on peoples lives and he did so with his music. W.O.W! Thats impressive to me!

Leonard Bernstein says “Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything – music, language, clothes, it’s a whole new social revolution – the 60’s comes from it. Because of him a man like me barely knows his musical grammar anymore.”

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/elvis-presley/biography

http://www.elvis.net/whattheysay/theysayframe.html

Zen Pencils

These two are my favorite cartoons that I read off this sight. The cartoons themselves are super cute and I just fell in love with them. The first cartoon looks like it connects to the second one that’s why I picked them both.

The first one is about how when you fall for someone, anything, too fast you can get hurt and then from that moment on you keep your heart locked away and you don’t give it to anyone else. In the end it says that “To love at all is to be vulnerable.”

The second one is about love also but it is about how if you love someone let them go. The two characters try life without each other and it doesn’t seem to go well. In the end it says that if they come back to you they are yours to keep.

I loved both of these because I have felt this way before in both instances. In the first cartoon about loving someone spoke to me because I’ve been through relationships where I have been naive and have gotten used and hurt. There has been many of times where I have gotten into relationships for the sake of having someone and it has always come back to hurt me. So I’ve done what the cartoon portrayed as locking your heart and feelings away and not letting anyone have the key. I have had a hard time trussing people after the relationships I’ve been. So this cartoon really hit me especially when it says that love is vulnerability.

In the second cartoon about letting someone go if you really love them. This spoke to me because there have been times in my life that I’ve had to say goodbye even though I didn’t want to. Whether that is with a boyfriend or one of my best friends its always hard to let them go. When I am faced with that obstacles I have always told myself that if it is meant to be than we will find each other again, but until then we’d have to go our separate ways. I love that when the girl and boy in the cartoon are separated their worlds are not the same without each other and at the end they get back together and it says that “if they come back…they’er yours”

http://zenpencils.com/comic/103-c-s-lewis-to-love-at-all/

http://zenpencils.com/comic/156-if-you-love-someone-set-them-free/

San Antonio High school Football players Target Referee

I saw this clip on the news that showed two high school football players deliberately attacking a referee out of no where. One of the players came from behind and knocked the ref down and the other one nailed him head first into the back. The attack was deliberate which could only mean one thing: They had planed it before the play stated. You can see in the video that the attack was meant to harm the ref. Earlier in the game, two other players were ejected due to unsportsmanlike conduct. Some of the other players claimed that the assistant coach said “That guy needs to pay for cheating us!”. The San Antonio team seems to be fully at fault here, however, some of the players claimed that the referee was using racist inappropriate language. The players are suspended from football, the school, and are under strict investigation for their heinous crime.

I am not sure what to think about the whole situation. When I first say this on the news my initial thoughts was “WOW! what idiots, I hope they don’t get to play football ever again”. I was initially mad at the players, and I still don’t think what they did was okay or handled correctly, but if the referee was using racist inappropriate languege I could understand the motives of their actions. Now I’m not justifying what they did but I am saying that they might not have done it for no reason. I think that the players definitely messed up big time considering how they just decided to attack an unarmed defenceless man from behind. As a football player you should NEVER attack a ref intentionally. They players were dumb to think that they could do what they did and no one see it. For goodness sake everyone knows that the coaches record all games to play back and watch for things that they and their players could do better. I think that the two boys are rightfully punished for their actions because they could have handled the situation a whole lot better if the ref was using foul language toward them. They are still investigating so unfortunately I do not know what is the verdict yet, or who did or said what.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/referee-pummeled-two-texas-high-school-football-players-was-fill-n424346