Number Games

     Everyday, I hear the same few classmates complaining about how low their grades are because their just teachers are unfair. To you shallow people, and I think you know who you are (though you won't be reading this), stop. Just stop. Your fanaticism over your cume is your greatest fault. Your unrelenting drive to beat my GPA will eventually be the death of you. Or will it? After all, if you let your numbers define who you are, you are living a non-human life. You aren't experiencing what it means to learn, to live. You are only fulfilling your parents and teacher's expectations, and while the act is admirable, it is far less so than learning, not for your future's sake, but for personal enjoyment and want. The one who learns for another is a fool, a hypocrite, a fake. True knowledge exists only in the way that we want it to, not because it is required to be.
     Your grade is fair, dear complainer, as your actions and words have justified it. Your incentive for apathy is holding you back, and will do so until your dying day. Meanwhile, you become defensive at the slightest mention that you do not, in fact, deserve the number grade that you have, the rank and the credit you have "earned" due to the above. Your work ethic, you claim, is great,but in fact it is just that. It is a work ethic, not a learn ethic. For those of you who spit facts back, I have little reverence. I cannot accept that you wish to do well. However, when the two coexist in one body, an essential colossus of learning is spawned. There are very few; I am not one. Nobody I know is one, so why even bother continuing to talk about it? There is a difference between a person of wisdom and a person of knowledge, of learning. Your learning should not exist in merely an academic setting. One must carry what is developed in the classroom into life, and more importantly, bring learning to your feeble lives, for it will give them strength. Take notice of your thoughts. See just where they take you, and maybe, just maybe, you will escape your fate of numerical suicide.

On The Birth of Charles Dickens

     Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens in Landport at Portsea. In case you didn't notice, that makes today his 200th birthday. I randomly came across this fact while reading a comparison of he and Twain which was actually quite interesting, but consider the odds of my finding this. If my calculations are correct, it is a one in 73800 chance that I find out his birthday on exactly his 200th birthday.

     I am not the biggest Dickens fan, although I have blogged about his lifestyle; I've only ever read his Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. While I did enjoy it, and it was one of the best books we read freshman year, I have never read any of his other works. I'm pretty sure A Tale of Two Cities is in the Junior curriculum, however, I don't know if that applies to the AP class. One thing in particular I liked about Great Expectations was Dickens' ability to present and alter characters. Pip's moral persona changes so rapidly throughout the novel that it adds energy to the piece. While he is one of the few that actually changes, the rest of the characters' personalities are placed carefully and in accordance to the plot, the theme, and most importantly, to Pip. Dickens is revered as a master of the English language at the level of Shakespeare and Twain, and in celebration of his 200th birthday, I dedicate this post to him.

First Impressions of Townie

     I am actually having trouble reading this book. I can't concentrate on much of what Dubus is saying because I feel as if the story isn't going anywhere. Granted, I'm only 46 pages in, but I think something key about memoirs is that their plot inches along. It happened in The Tender Bar. As well. The plot just doesn't move. It takes so long to get going, then you only have a moment of enjoyment for the last 50-100 pages you've read.
     The reason I enjoyed The Tender Bar so much was because of the constant, beautiful language that Moehringer used. It made you forget about how slow the story actually was, and when one finally arrived at one of the high points, it would overwhelm them. This changes with Townie because Dubus' linguistic skills are not even close to that of Moehringer's. They are wildly pedestrian; he describes his already boring life with your average writer's word choice. Moehringer talked constantly about how he expanded his vocabulary; Dubus does no such thing. While Dubus is still talented, I feel as if he is writing to write if that makes sense. He seems as if he's taken the joy of the act out of the work. It is as if he takes away his artistic integrity. As I continue to trudge through Townie, I may choose to follow up to this. Maybe not. We will see.

Facebook is Using You

Here is the link to the article.

     The author of this article did something interesting: she implied pathos. She made you feel emotional about the subject although she wrote using only logos and ethos. It makes you want to scream and kick something. She illustrates a miserable paradox: you can't expect to use the internet without being put at some sort of disadvantage, but you still can't not use the internet or you won't be able to function as efficiently because of this age of instant information. This really ticks me off because it shows that big corporations are controlling our lives, and not just because of the mass of time you spend on it for no reason. It is not okay. I will not have Facebook make my life decisions for me. I am my own person, and I will not be raised to die by some dirty, money-filthy pig sitting behind a desk. So here is what we do: create a movement to ban the tracking of web data, rendering us immune to online red-lining. This will be a serious problem unless someone does something big. Will it hurt the economy? Yes, but will it save you, reader? Heck yeah. Take a stand for yourself because God knows nobody else will.
     Actually, this article was a pretty rich example of logos and ethos. It argued using (seemingly) valid points, and presented ideas that a fairly seasoned reader wouldn't know or realize. I felt strongly that the article was correct, which means that she did her job, and did it well. I have a natural distrust of big-game corporations such as Facebook and Google, but that doesn't stop me from using them. I'm writing this using Google Chrome, and was on Facebook an hour ago. This scares me a bit, knowing that every move I make is being recorded, analyzed, and judged by people who I'm sure believe themselves to be better than I am. Sure, many people are eating out of the palm of your hand, but I am not.

Is GPS All in Our Heads?

Here is the link to the article.

     I chose this article because it has much to do with the last post I made. Humans are not only losing social skills, but now they are losing basic survival skills. If there was some sort of apocalypse, the ones without the GPSes would be the only survivors. During my driving hours about a year ago, the instructor had me drive someone home, and even though I knew exactly where he lived because we are old friends, she insisted on plugging it into the GPS, "just in case." People's faith in themselves is diminishing past the point of return. I much agree with the article; humans need to experience navigation for themselves, and I personally believe they need to be cognitive of it at a very young age to develop the skill. There are really no upsides to using a GPS other than showing you exactly where you need to go, so why not actually use your head and think about the route you need to take? Another incident of mass indolence.
     I liked the language of the article very much. Actually, it's not that I enjoyed the language so much, but instead I liked a specific analogy. Julia Frankenstein said, while describing the lack of information displayed on a GPS map, "Developing a cognitive map from this reduced information is a bit like trying to get an entire musical piece from a few notes." Beautiful! A GPS is the equivalent of a condensed score! Someone hit the Mr. Ketchen soundboard! This was a very interesting read. I am beginning, through this blog, to finally comprehend the magnitude of human incompetence in life.

Quantum Cryptography Comes to Smart Phones

Here is the link to the article.

     Have you ever seen a person doing something absolutely idiotic with a smartphone? I sure have. I think that the idea of a smartphone is actually quite stupid. A smartphone takes away from your life. I have some crappy phone with a slide out keyboard that I use every now and then. I also have an iPod touch, second generation. I bought it with the mindset that all the apps and the ease of music navigation would be worth it. I mainly bought it, however, because it was around the time that everyone started getting them. If I had known how useless they actually are, I would have put my money I worked hard to earn to better use. Nowadays, the only thing I use my iPod Touch for is my book app (which is actually awesome, it has all the classics you could think of; it claims some 23,000+ books, but I would still prefer a kindle) and as a clock. I use my sister's old green iPod for music, but mainly listen on Spotify on my computer. The unneeded distractions spawned by smart phones don't seem to be going away, or anywhere for that matter, so instead of arguing with the feeble people who use them, I will instead talk about the article.
     The author relied on logos mostly in an attempt to warn the infidels of their blessed iPhone's shortcomings. That is actually quite ironic as people with iPhones probably don't read SI. And not Sports Illustrated. As these foolish people continue to place their trust in the fact that nobody can hack it because it's their phone, more and more are being robbed. It is sort of sad I think; the poor people too stupid to realize it are playing prey to sleazy people. These thieves are real threats, and people are too caught up in their iLightSabers to take heed. None of this would've happened if we didn't have smart phones in the first place. They are a way for pompous people to flaunt their wealth. Nobody needs one, especially high schoolers.  There is nothing important enough happening in anyone's lives at Hanover to constitute the number of Twitter followers they think they deserve. News flash, you are a boring, miserable, shallow person! Nobody should willingly pay attention to your status updates, profile picture changes, and relationship statuses. I see a fair number of my classmates on their iPhones in class constantly. They are repeat offenders; some even sit in the class with their iPhones in their laps, blatantly disrespecting their teachers, classmates, and making themselves look bad. If you had an actual emergency, excuse yourself from class and make a call in the office. Just because you think what you will be drinking Friday night is more important than your schoolwork doesn't mean that it actually is. In short, smart phones are a dehumanizing society and creating emotional, ethical, and social issues. They are unnecessary and should be disposed of accordingly.

Memoir Take Two: Townie

Townie by Andre Dubus III.