Free Post 2:5

All my friends are obsessed with school. I don't get it. Everyone seems to spend all their time doing stuff for school now and after they finish they are so tired that they dont't want to do anything! I don't like it! Haha, people spend so much time on it that i have to remind them that staying up until 2 doing homework that is worth 4 points is not the way to do it! They get so stressed out, and then sometimes i think "why don't i feel this way? Shouldn't i have work to do too? What is wrong with me"?.We turn in the same quality of work but i don't get all stressed out about it. I don't know what is going on.

A lot of the time I go home and finish my homework really fast and then i just chill. I don't like it sometimes because i know that i can bee doing more for school that i need to do but then i just let it go and relax. Maybe that is my problem, i should give myself so much time every night to do homework where even when i finish i should keep doing something so that i can make sure that i am doing all that i can every night and i feel like i am working as hard as everyone else. I like that idea! 

Early English Lit???

Early English literature was called written in Old English, it was also called Anglo Saxon literature. This was the earliest kind of English literature . It took place from about 450-1100. The kinds of work that were popular were Epic Poems, chronicles, sermons, and riddles. Oral tradition was a big part of Old English Lit, that is why there are only about 400 remaining manuscripts from that time period. Early English Lit was really focused on Heroes. You can find them in almost any piece of Anglo Saxon literature that you can find. They seemed to be very entertaining. The works that remain from the Anglo Saxons are also affected by religion. The Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity upon their arrival in England and this had an effect on their writings.

The Anglo Saxons used various literary devices, such as alliteration, using a ton of vowels, and alliterative verse. Alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration to bring lines of poetry together, as opposed to devices like Rhyme or Syllables. Alliteration is the repetition of a particular sound throughout a piece. It is difficult to explain but like if i said, "the wind will bend if you tend to the mend". there would be alliteration, it would be that -ind sound.  Theses are important literary devices that are used in Old English. Old English is the earliest form of English Literature.

Researcherrr

Government surveillance has gone too far, the American People’s privacy is no longer protected like it was supposed to be. The Fourth Amendment protects everybody’s right to privacy, or at least it is supposed to. Government agencies such as the NSA have way too much freedom on how they collect information or how much information they collect. They are able to do whatever they want with it too, “even if there were strict restrictions against viewing the information that was collected through “espionage” or any sort of illegal collection of information, it would not matter. If there were restrictions than the NSA would have to investigate in order to prosecute people, and through this investigation they would have access to the information and so it would be pointless”(Stallman). There is not much to be done about the information that has already been collected, regardless of how much it is. “The state’s surveillance staff will misuse the data for personal reasons too. Some NSA agents use U.S. surveillance systems to track their lovers- past, present, or wished-for- in a practice called “LoveINT.” “(Stallman). This is the worrying part about all of this mess; NSA agents can track anything about you as if you were a threat to the country, but simply because they want to.

Before the argument against excessive government surveillance is made, it is important to remember that it is excessive surveillance that is the problem. The government being able to monitor the American people is not a bad thing when done correctly. “For the state to find criminals, it needs to be able to investigate specific crimes, or specific suspected planned crimes, under a court order. With the internet, the power to tap phone conversations would naturally extend to the power to tap internet connections. This power is easy to abuse for political reasons, but it is also necessary. Fortunately, this won’t make it possible to find whistleblowers after the fact”(Stallman). The government invades personal privacy rights, but it is also important to note that “Corporations are not people, and are not entitled to human rights”(Stallman). The government uses this as an excuse to monitor entire corporations, instead of individual people. The excess surveillance of the American people is wrong, but some is necessary.

“The description of a world without any rights to privacy would be close to that of the dystopia described in George Orwell’s “1984”.”(Nocera). The government would have total access to everyone’s personal business and it would create a very uncomfortable position for everybody. We also give up a lot of freedom. “… if citizens don’t have basic privacies- firm protections against the search and seizure of your private communications… , Americans will become careful about what they say that can be misunderstood and misinterpreted, and then too careful about what they say that can be understood. The inevitable end of surveillance is self-censorship”(Noonan). Not only do Americans lose their rights to privacy, but surveillance itself will come to an end, according to Peggy Noonan. So if the government really does want to be able to collect whatever information they want, (in a completely legal manor that doesn’t involve how they already do it) than abolishing privacy altogether is not the correct action. It is important to think about how much worse the problem could be, and where it could be leading to, as it could be an important factor in the argument that surveillance in America is in excess and it is in violation of peoples’ human rights.

            Finally, “the government now has access to phone conversations, text messages, e-mail, pretty much anything that Americans use to communicate with one another that is electronic, the government is able to access”(ACLU). This alone is not a problem, it is good for the government to be able to closely monitor persons of interest, but not whoever they please. Recent discoveries such as the information that the former NSA analyst Edward Snowden has revealed has brought to light how much the government actually watches people, most of which pose no threat to the country. There should be some sort of Democratic Process to determine whether it is necessary to collect information about a certain person, or to monitor that person or group of people. Without some sort of regulation on who the government is allowed to monitor the excessive collection of information of innocent citizens will continue, and it is bad because it violates the right to privacy that every American citizen is given in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

In conclusion, the excess surveillance of citizens that pose no direct threat to the security of the country is wrong and is happening too much in the country. It violates the Fourth Amendment that gives American citizens a right to privacy. People that mean the country harm have forfeited all of the rights that they are given by the countries legislation, therefore it is not a violation of anything to monitor those citizens as closely as possible in order to provide for the protection of the country. However, right now the NSA and agencies like it are able to collect whatever information they want about anybody and it is very difficult to place restrictions on them because it is difficult to determine whether someone is a threat to the country. But there are cases that involve excess surveillance of people that pose no threat to the country at all, that is the real problem.

Works Cited

Nocera, Joe. "A World Without Privacy." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2007. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

Noonan, Peggy. "What We Lose If We Give up Privacy." WSJ 13 Aug. 2013: n. pag. 
     Print. 

"Privacy in America." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 
     2013. <https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/ 
     privacy-america-computers-phones-privacy>. 

Stallman, Richard. "Stallman: How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?" Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 12 Oct. 0013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

Free Post. 2:4

Do you know what I have concluded about iPhones? They are very cheaply made and only seem better than say Androids because everybody has one, or a mac, or some other type of Apple device. A huge reason that people get them over and over again is because when apple first came out with the iPhone  it basically started the age of the full touchscreen smartphone. They were better than anything else when they first came out because there wasn't anything like it. And now, because everyone has one, or something Apple, no one wants to switch because all of their stuff( music, movies, etc.) is on iTunes and they don't want to get away from that. Apple has basically made people dependent on their products to where it is like completely starting over if you want to switch to something else. They have done this with programs such as iMessage that only work with other iPhones. It is terrible, people just don't realize how much better life could be outside of Apple.

Apple products look great. Everybody loves that new, slick, smooth look that iPhones and Macs have. There is only one problem with that, they seem to like it so much that they completely ignore how broken they are. If you haven't noticed, there are hundreds of iPhone repair places, everywhere you go you will be able to find one. Why? Because iPhones are made of the cheapest materials, and put together by the lowest bidder. Most likely, they could not spend less on the mass production of iPhones and Apple products. They are super-easy to smash and super-expensive to fix. Sure, they look great and what they say about them on the commercials about how they are so fast and what not is terrific; but whenever you get it and it accidentally falls from your hand and the screen shatters and you have to pay 100 bucks to fix it and the phone glitches constantly, you will wish that you had invested in a phone that really works.

Class Analysis Blog 2:2

This year so far, I have not been the most efficient reader, nor the most organized, but I am getting it done. This year, Ms. Duke has given us a great opportunity to manage our reading well and read in small increments every night. Even though i haven't taken full opportunity of Ms. Duke's generosity, i have been able to improve on my time management skills this year so far. Even though it seems like they are still very poor, which they are, I have improved. I have been able to somewhat pace myself in my work but i do still need significant improvement.

My work this week hasn't gone exactly as planned. Some days i was extremely productive, and some days  i did not do a thing. It shouldn't be that way at all, i got all of my work done however. I found that the days that when we were productive in class i was not productive at home. It was weird, most nights i found myself reading a few pages getting bored and stopping. But there were a couple nights where i read for a solid 2 hours each night, I don't know, i guess i just kind of worked whenever i felt like it. My "strategy" worked but i need not to use it anymore.

Free Post 2:2

Homecoming weekend was pretty fun, but homecoming week was so weirdly last minute that I almost forgot my costume everyday. So what happened was the weekend before, i went to the mall to find 3 costumes. I walked out with 1... The only thing that i could find was a batman shirt and mask that i wore for superhero day. The other two costumes i scrapped together from what i had in my closet. But that wasn't even the best part, the best part was the decrease in effort of my teachers(excluding Ms. Duke) to control the class. It was great, i was able to spend most of the week doing whatever i needed to get done in class. It was magnificent, and the weekend was not bad either.

The weekend was awesome. It all started Friday at 3:30. I got home, then i realized, "i have two cutouts in my back yard that somehow have to end up on the track". It took me about 20 minutes to find 3 people to come help me grab them. And after that, i got to stand on a glorified step-stool and attempt to tape a huge banner that we made to the roof of Penniman Hall. I was able to escape to Popeyes however and avoid a majority of the confusion and aggravation that was no doubt coming my way providing that i had stayed. However, the football game that night was awesome! We won and everyone was so excited because of the Homecoming Queen announcement. It was a great night to be surrounded with friends. And then the dance was really fun compared to the previous years homecoming dances. the DJ was terrific! My friends and I had a great time! And it ended perfectly with nice slow day full of homework and sleep.

Post WWII Europe 2:1

   

         After World War II, people, especially in Europe, were mortified. The expression that everyone rallied behind after the war was "Never Again". It symbolized the universal yearning to avoid another world war. Europe, which contained some of the most developed countries in the world, was ripped apart during this war. Also, many European countries were in debt to the United States and they could not afford to rebuild themselves. Thousands of people were homeless, and unemployment was very high. The weakness of the government actually led to a push for communism, as was the case with Greece. Along with that push for communism came a fear that the Soviet Union would take advantage of the weakness if the Western European states like Greece, and try to aid communist revolutionaries to overthrow democratic governments. Europe was in very bad shape, and it needed help.

        After the war, huge tracts of land in Europe were reduced to rubble, borders were being redrawn and there were many funerals to take place. Approximately four percent of the world's population were killed in this war, 80 million people died. Not only was Europe in ruins, but there were efforts made to significantly limit the war-making abilities of the axis powers. War crimes trials took place in Europe and Asia, leading to many executions and prison sentences. Europe as a whole was in shambles after the war, but in the countries that were included in the Axis Powers the death and destruction is worse. These countries, even after the war were completely dismantled and in some cases flattened. The point of these actions was to make it impossible for these countries to raise an army, and they were somewhat successful.

New buildings (right) rise out of the ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, on March 11, 1946. These single story homes built along a hard-surfaced highway are part of the program by the Japanese government to rebuild devastated sections of the country. At left background are damaged buildings whose masonry withstood the effects of the first atomic bomb ever detonated as a weapon.(AP Photo/Charles P. Gorry) # 

"World War II: After the War." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. 
     <http://www.theatlantic.com/>. 

Carleton University Center for European Studies (CES). “EU Learning."
The Reconstruction of Europe Web.  28. Oct. 2013

Concepts. 2:1

Doublespeak- Doublespeak is whenever you are forced by authority to believe two contradictory ideas. in 1984  the citizens are forced to believe whatever they are told, much of which contradicts other things that they are told. Today, in America, doublespeak still occurs. Micheal Kammen writes in his essay, "People of Paradox" he discusses how the american people somewhat participate in this doublespeak and how "American politicians must be all things to all people”.(Kammen 34) He talks about how Americans are fed different ideas and we sort of accept them because we are told to. Doublespeak is a way for a governmnet to have some type of control over the people, by forcing them to believe what they tell them. In no way is it as bad as in 1984, but it is still present in America. 

Newspeak- Newspeak is an invention by the governing body of Oceania that is created in order to remove thought and meaning from words. The thought behind it is to remove all of the thought associated with everyday life so that thoughtcrime is literally impossible. The government of Oceania is effectively trying to take all of the thought and creativity out of the citizens' lives. Oddly, sort of the same thing goes on in reality, but in reverse. I think that, accidentally, when we text we shorten our words and it does take the meaning from them. It reduces some of the conversations that we have to just a meaningless exchange of words, and much of the time what is said doesn't mean what it was intended to mean and that never ends well. We accidentally take the meaning out of our words, and this is one of the things that Oceania does to control people...

Paradox- In 1984, there are a few paradoxes that are actually the slogan of the party. "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", and "Ignorance is Strength". A paradox is an idea that contradicts itself in a weird way. In the novel, "War is Peace" is the Party's way of making the citizens believe that only through war can the country be at peace. There are examples of paradoxes in everyday life that are becoming bigger and bigger parts of life. We are not forced to believe them however, but we choose to sometimes. That seems to be a theme throughout America, we choose to do things that others are forced to do as a method of their government to control them.