Long term edits that were actually established a long time ago.

I started a new blog. I didn't think I'd use it as much as this one, but as it would turn out, I like it a lot more. So, you should go follow that one instead. http://whithappens.blogspot.com

The Shapes We Take

People don't change on the inside, they only fool themselves sometimes.

Okay I know this is going to sound EXTREMELY nerdy, but get over it. When I was reading the Odyssey I found what I believe to be the coolest passage ever!

" 'Ah, Goddess,' the cool tactician countered, 'you're so hard for a mortal man to know on sight, however shrewd he is - the shapes you take are endless!' "

So I was wondering....what shapes do we take?

I often ask myself if I really, truly know who I am. All too often we allow ourselves to be dependent on others opinions, judgements, and criticisms, and we allow THOSE to define our being. We are told to be ourselves and not to let anyone change that, but the people we surround ourselves with DO change us, whether it be positive or negative. It seems that the two cancel each other out. We have to be ourselves, but as people we change. So what are we left with then? I think we are left with choice and everything else follows it. When we think about it, life is built up of a serious of choices and we change because of those choices. The shapes we take are dependent on choice alone. We choose who we surround ourselves with, how we behave, why our behavior changes in different environments, etc. In my opinion, the shapes we take are just different aspects of ourselves.

The shapes we take are natural. Our shapes define us. My shapes make up my being.

Unplugging From Life's Distractions

"Peace comes from within, do not seek it without." - Buddha

     On November 1, 2010 I took the initiative to take a step closer to finding liberation, peace, and balance in my life. Starting that very day, I chose to leave behind all the distractions that seem to govern us for a full week. Social networking sites, text messaging, music, television, and unnecessary time spent on computers and all other convenient technological advances were abandoned as I embraced life head-on. Day one was utter panic. As the weary day dragged on, my empty pockets were met by shaking hands begging for buttons to press or touch screens to slide. Is that not the most pathetic thing you’ve ever heard? How sad to think that an overwhelming majority of our youth is a slave to the technology that was created with the intent to make our lives simpler. My solution to my devastating, dismal endemic? To convert all the time spent on my distractions to meditation, yoga, and a personal soul-healing by delving into the complexities of religions and focusing on my education. Throughout the remainder of the week, I lived my life. I breathed, I spoke, and most importantly, I paid particular attention to the monotonous robots I call classmates. Observing that the only emotions they knew how to show were via emoticons, my determination to reach my goal grew stronger. As each day passed, my desire to stray to Facebook or start up multiple conversations on my cell phone became less and less popular. By the end of the week, my understanding of religion grew as I searched as many different things as I could. Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Muslim, and Baptist were the religious ideas that I had the opportunity to explore. All too often, people become offended when any religion other than their own is brought up, but can we be honest? If you’re offended by just the mention of beliefs varying from your own, you don’t understand your own belief system well enough. Part of the reason I wanted to study religion was to motivate myself to desire a better understanding of my own beliefs, or at least what I’ve been taught to believe. Rest assured my efforts were not in vain. I shared my thoughts with several in my church organization and was commended for my intellect. Focusing on my education was not at all as hard as I previously conceived, all I needed was a change of goals. My current straight A’s owe their credit to this priority reexamination. My liberation goal was reached by finding that freedom is a reward for doing what you have to do. My peace goal was accomplished every time I meditated and it stayed with me as I focused on the important things in life. Balance was achieved when I realized that I am more than capable of juggling a social life, a 4.0, and every nick and cranny in between. Although it wasn’t in my set goals, my communication skills improved after abandoning the cyber world. I unplugged. I enjoyed every minute of it. Even when I found myself aching for music or an update to my current status, I had the benefit of self discipline that was to my advantage in the end. I would strongly recommend unplugging yourself from the distractions of our modern day world. I found the remuneration incredulously gratifying. Think about how much of your life is spent bothering yourself about everyone else’s life! Live your own! No amount of words can describe the content and balance felt. Try it out, comment with your experience, and hopefully we can all unplug a little more.

    

Research/Persuasive Essay

     A hooded figure silently observes one of the king’s men from a hidden perch in a tree. He swiftly and silently draws an arrow across his bow and pulls back. A swish stirs the air as the shadow releases the arrow and sends a breathtaking pain to the man below. As frightening and quiet as the whisper of death, the figure drops to the ground, collects any and all valuables the innocent man was carrying and disappears. The money is then equally distributed among commoners… This is the legend of Robin Hood, but is his legacy remembered in a wrong manner? Is Robin Hood good or bad? Are his actions by any means just? Robin Hood is recognized as a hero to most people. Despite his publicity, Robin cannot be labeled as the “good guy” he’s a criminal. The things that make Robin Hood the “bad guy” are as follows: he’s the face of socialism, he doesn’t rob just money he robs value, and he deliberately disobeys his authorities.      Robin Hood was a nickname. The man who took most of the credit for the Robin Hood legend was Roger Godberd. Roger began his crimes when the Barons revolted. During the revolt, two opposing sides were in existence: Barons vs. Royalty. Roger chose to side with the Barons, throughout the revolt the idea of equality of wealth took root in his mind. His main goal in equalizing money was to eliminate authority and end poverty. Though his original intentions may have been heroic, his outcome was one of the first well known acts of socialism. Socialism, by dictionary definition, is a theory or system of social organization that advocates the besting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc, in the community as a whole. Roger was one of the first to launch a new way of thinking, but it wasn’t for society’s benefit.
     As Ayn Rand so philosophically writes, “Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce…Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.” She is saying that money comes to those who put forth value into the world. Money doesn’t just come to you, you have to work for it. What the legend of Robin Hood is teaching people is that they don’t have to work for their wealth. Let’s take a modern day example like Bill Gates. He created half of the world we so heavily rely on through technological advances and in return he was rewarded with money. Dollars follow value. Depending on the amount of value you put out into the world, the more money will follow. Rand also states, “Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor.” This is an indirect way of stating that others have followed the most well known act of Robin Hood. The legend has created a confusion of how we should act when it comes to value and that mindset is further defying man’s capability to think. Besides bringing about the act of socialism, Roger was notorious for disregarding the monarchy.
     Roger began his mischief in 1265. He spent four years living, or rather hiding, in Sherwood Forest where he defied authorities. The truth of the legend is that Roger wasn’t around during the time of Richard the Lionheart as the Disney cartoon so inaccurately demonstrates. The monarchs in that time period were Henry III and his son, Edward I. The authorities were actually terrified of Roger because criminal activities had never been so high. The infamous Sheriff of Nottingham character was also founded on a real person. Reginald de Grey was a great military leader and one of the youngest sheriffs ever, as well as a dedicated parliamentarian. During the Barons’ Revolt, Grey sided with the Royalty and further terminated the previous friendship he and Roger had shared. Old records show evidence that Roger and Reginald used to hunt together and even got in trouble once for shooting the King’s deer. As disappointing as it may be to Robin’s fans, the sheriff was one of the leading causes as to how Roger was caught in 1272. Reginald devoted a majority of his time spent as the Nottingham Sheriff to involve himself in the man hunt to capture Roger. Another truth of the legend is that there was no evidence of a Maid Marian in existence (another disappointment to the hopeless romantics). Roger Godberd, or the first Robin Hood, disobeyed authorities for years before justice was finally brought about.
     Through the effervescent span of time, men have created, destroyed, built, conquered, and defied the value that each of us were meant to accomplish. Ignore my lack of originality, but everyone was born to accomplish something. No matter how drastic or how miniscule, our purpose is none other than to create value for the benefit of mankind. Let us not be misled by incompetence nor blinded by pride. Those who wish to condone such disproportionate retributions are further condoning an inadequate creation. When the hooded figure again drops from the branches, he will have no support. The politics of this defiant, non-thinker have been revealed and will continue to be revealed as history repeats itself. But among the ears of those this topic has reached, a newfound wisdom is uncovered, leaving Robin Hood alone to await his trial and execution.

Neil Gaiman's Rules on Writing

1. Write.
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you've never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinions you respect and who like the kind of thing that it is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they're almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

Alternate Universe

Erm...I've interrupted my "monk week" to post this, but it's important. In Creative Writing, my teacher, Mr. Dowdle, assigned us to create our own world or alternate universe. I need opinions ensuring that my structure is original and capable of usage for a short story. Comment with your opinions! :)

• Shadows are dangerous and deceitful
• Dark = security & light = place of fear (reversing the usual pure vs. evil symbolism)
• Shadows can think, feel, and act
• Shadows commit crimes and the host is found guilty
• The shadows are incapable of any/everything when they can't exist. (in the dark)

In my world, shadows are dangerous and deceitful. Dark becomes a place of security while the light is feared. The more time that shadows spend in existence (or in the light because that’s the only way they can exist) the more time they have to plot what they are going to do to ruin their host. The shadows are generally evil and only a specific group of people have shadows that have the ability to leave them, think, and feel. Besides the group of people whose shadows can leave them, the rest of society is unaware of the possibility. When a shadow leaves its host, it uses their silhouette to their advantage to create problems for the host. (i.e.: the shadow robs a bank, but the person to whom the shadow belonged to is arrested.) The groups who are limited by their shadows are people who have committed an unforgivable crime involving the creation or destruction of a human life

Dear God, Rain Me Unity.

The silence is nearly tangible in the small classroom. The unorganized rows of desks sit crooked and its occupants aren’t showing much sign of life either. These cheap, makeshift desks are littered with different kinds of graffiti. I run my fingers across the unique carvings, negative designs, cartoons, famous quotes, and all manner of drawings. My thoughts invade my mind...I know I belong in this school. I know I deserve the best education I can get. I didn’t sit through eight years acquiring a private education to NOT end up here. I love this school, I love that each and every person you come in contact with is so original and different. This school is a place of artists. But lately, it’s felt like just a normal high school. In the past year, Karl G. Maeser Prepatory Academy has more than tripled in size, going from a little over 200 students to over 600. I watch everyone at lunch and see all the clichés. Where do I fit in? Do I want to fit in? No, but lately it’s been hard not to desire being normal. What happened to the little gutted bowling alley? I’m worried that moving to our new building is too much change for me. I don’t want to let go of Maeser, but I don’t want to stay right now. I feel like I’m in an average high school doing three times the work everyone else has to do. I really miss the old Maeser. I watch people zone in and out of sleep as the monotone story drags on. Then out of nowhere, a soothing, mellow, white noise patters its way across our tin rooftop. The sudden downpour captivated everyone’s attention and we sat in silence listening to the drops ricochet off our tattered tin roof. The whole class was as alert as I’d ever seen. Every student was sitting up straight in their chair, eyes darting back and forth glancing at one another and the teacher fell silent. For a moment we all just listened. The raindrops sounded so large and heavy as they continued their dance across our old rooftop. The teacher stood up from the chair he’d been planted in for the past hour and shut his laptop. We watched him as he carefully put down his pencil. The orchestra of God’s tears grew louder and louder until it crocheted into a deafening blast of overwhelming sound. I watched as he looked up and quietly and calmly said, “Let’s go.” Then a huge smile broke the tension as he grinned from ear to ear. His suit jacket and tie went flying behind him as we all ran out the back door and into the rain. I watched 19 students, who just minutes before couldn't care less about each others names, ran, danced, skipped, and splashed in the symphony of rhythm. In just 30 short seconds, we were all soaked to the bone and violently shaking from the cold, but every single one of us was smiling bigger than I’d seen this whole school year. As we trickled back into our class, we all huddled in a circle in the centre of the room, using each others body heat to stay warm. In these few minutes I felt the old Maeser. I felt a school that wasn’t limited by things as dumb as clichés and popularity. I watched a class become unified by something as simple as the rain. Maybe this year won’t be as difficult as I had previously believed…maybe all these new students really do belong in this incredible place of knowledge. Maybe we’ll gradually get the unified environment we had last year. I hope it rains more often. I love the sound of our old, tin rooftop.