The Bucket List 12/20-12/24

If I could do anything before I died I would have a list eight miles long. Not kidding. But here are a few of them anyway. You’re welcome. I would probably travel all over the world, especially Japan. I love Japan. As far as the places where I would travel goes, I would probably go where my past ancestors have been. This includes Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, that place where the Dutch came from and Germany.  Maybe I would travel to a bunch of other places if I got around to it. But I’ll still need time to finish the rest of my eight mile list. Before I start pushing up daises I should probably go around and visit my friends. Might be a good idea. Another thing I would do is a lot of stupid stuff. This would include stunts, hang gliding, climbing very tall mountains (maybe Everest), cliff jumping, parachuting, and a bunch of other risky stuff. Any suggestions? Next I would probably sell some stuff so there are no expenses for my family to pick up after I’m gone. Just the stuff I don’t like though. If anything I would give my family and close friends the things I did like. One of the very last things I would have to do would have to be traveling to the place I want to die. Kind of sounds funny coming from me. But the place I would really like to be is Japan. I know, I know, Japan again? Yes, Japan deal with it. I think I would be nice looking at the cherry blossoms in a park or something. But then again I can do that is Washington DC. There are a lot of other stuff I would really like to do before I take an eternal nap but like I said that list eight miles long. It would take forever to name them all. I just names some of the things I would really, really want to do. But first I really need to get money to do those things. It would suck if I couldn’t do any of those things.

Why I Don't Have a Hamster 12/20-12/24

I remember when I was about four years old my family had offered to baby sit my cousin Dana’s hamster while her and my aunt, uncle and second cousin are away. I at first thought that we were keeping the little furry hamster forever. But then my mother told me that we were only baby-sitting it.  I cried a little. But then after a little kicking and screaming, hissy fit routine I finally settled down. I was a horrible spoiled little brat I’ll have to admit. My mother instructed not to take it out of the cage unless she was there. Can you guess what I did? Yes I pulled it out of the cage thinking “Oh she’ll never catch me.” Wrong! She found me in my room trying to get the little creature out from under my bed. She yelled at me and I cried yet again . . . loudly, very loudly. She finally said that if I did it again I would have to speak to my dad about this. Speaking to my dad about something I had done was bad news. So this time while it was in its little travel ball thingy I took it out and tried to play dress up with it. The hamster was way too big for my Barbie dress up clothes.  Man that thing was fat. Of course it bit me and I set it down next to the TV stand.  The hamster decided to run away from me for whatever reason and hid behind the TV. Try as I might I could not reach far enough to pull it from behind the TV. I ended up pushing the TV over with a crash. Then I put the hamster back in the cage and running up stairs so my mother wouldn’t catch me. Well she caught me anyway as you might have guessed. I had to explain to my father why I broke the TV and why I disobeyed my mother. I got a mild sentence of going to bed early. Stupid hamster.

12/20-12/24 December Plans

During the month of December my family does many things. My birthday is December seventh so we usually celebrate that first . . . obviously. Usually like the day after that we go and pick out a nice Christmas tree.  I always did like that nice pine smell. It takes me back. Soon after the youngest in the family would decorate the tree while the rest of the family messes with him or her. I am so glad I am not the youngest child in the family any longer. After that the family shops for each other in secret. We’re ninja’s, if you haven’t noticed, so we are very sneaky. Pretty much we all try to hide our presents from each other. We all end up failing at that except for my parents. To this day I do not know how they hide those presents. For the life of me I cannot figure out how they manage to hide all those presents without any of us little children finding them. It is truly ridiculous. When it gets closer and closer to Christmas we start breaking out the eggnog. God that stuff is good. It used to be on Christmas Eve I had to go to bed. This is mostly because I’m the youngest and I have to preserve my innocence or something like that. But now that we have a child in the family younger than I am, I can actually help with the deceiving process. You know . . . where you write the nose to Santa and set the presents around the tree. I hope I get to eat the cookies because the cookies my step mom makes are amazing! But I really can’t wait to see every open their presents from me. I really hope they like them because I really had no idea what to get anyone this year.

Online Publishing 12/13-12/17

What have you learned about yourself as a writer since you've been in this course? Describe your writing process. What do you like to write about? What do you not like to write about? What impact, if any has this class had on your writing?

When I first took Online Publishing I thought, “Oh god, this is going to blow so much.” But then when I finally started to write articles and blogs and such my writing skills started to improve. I used to pu5t sentences together like I was trying to sew . . . and I can’t sew worth crap. Now I can actually make a decent four hundred word paragraph without trying. Well I try a little bit, that much I can say. Usually when I write something I go through it twice. I do this because I want to make my paragraph better, maybe put in some fancy words, maybe a little razzle dazzle if you know what I mean. Now that this course is almost over I can go over it four times or more. With two editors I can edit my work and then go over it to see if there is any “Razzle Dazzle” I want to add to it by chance. Also there has been this story I have been trying to get started to for some time. Now I have four chapters of my story in and it’s actually good. I feel like I have a sense of accomplishment because of this and I am extremely proud. To be honest I actually wish I could take this class a second time because I think it’s so awesome. In fact that last statement was not an opinion, that last statement was a fact. To be clear this was the boringest blog I have ever typed in my entire life. Congratulations Mr. Currin. Eat that for breakfast you beautiful person you.

What is Beauty? 12/13-12/17

Beauty. It comes in all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t have to be a woman nor does it have to be a man. It doesn’t even have to be a person or a thing. It can be anything in the world. It can even be an act or the way someone does something. It can be anything that appeals to you senses. Personally the best example is the photograph I have posted right next to this blog. I have always love this picture, especially since in japan, a geisha is the ultimate symbol of beauty. Everything they do is beautiful. The way the housed are built, the scenery, the clothing, everything.  They are possibly the most beautiful people on the planet. They’re calligraphy is beautiful even. To be quite honest I even find their religion beautiful.  It’s just their entire being is beautiful. But off the subject of the beauty of Japanese culture.  To be honest different things are beautiful to different people. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Like I said I can be anyone or anything in this world that can be beautiful. One trash can be another man’s treasure. I know this because most of the stuff in my room someone has thrown away or tried to get rid of in some way at one point or another. Yes it was all clean but I have to admit I like weird stuff. I am a very weird person, but some people like me because if it. I’m not sure what exactly they with my freakiness but it is just their perception of beauty. It’s just something you find pleasing to one of your senses. I’m sorry I’m blabbing on and on about this but I really need to get this blog to three hundred words. And guess what, I made it. Eat that for breakfast you beautiful person you.

Poem Responce

 Counting (first stanza)

By Douglas Goetsch

I'd walk close to buildings counting

bricks, run my finger in the grout

till it grew hot and numb. Bricks

in a row, rows on a floor, multiply

floors, buildings, blocks in the city.

I knew there were numbers for everything--

tires piled in mountains at the dump,

cars on the interstate to Maine,

pine needles blanketing the shoulder of the road,

bubbles in my white summer spit.

I dreamed of counting the galaxies

of freckles on Laura MacNally,

touching each one--she loves me,

she loves me not--right on up her leg,

my pulse beating away at the sea

wall of my skin, my breath

inhaling odd, exhaling even.

This part of a poem seems to show some sort of confusion of the senses. It seems as if the poet long for the flesh of another human being but at the same time resents the human race. The writer’s mind seems to be spinning as if on some sort of druggie trip. To be quite honest the way it’s layered it be a sort of dream. Either that or in some way he is dreaming of traveling the beautiful body that is mother earth. Just saying. There are so many meanings to this poem its making my head spin! He might just be comparing the exotic beauty of a woman to the common beauty of his surroundings. One thing is for sure, he is definitely showing some love. He’s also showing a sort of confusion. Perhaps he was confused about the new feeling he has for this person. Then again he might be on his death bed and trying to take in natural beauties in his everyday life if which he may never see again. These are many, many possibilities that could be a meaning to this poem. Who knows, this poem could mean something completely different to someone else. This is just my own opinion; it doesn’t mean it’s the only opinion.

When I was little, my friends and I used to play with Barbie’s. It was awful and I regret every moment of it. If I could go back in time I would slap that Barbie doll out of my little hand and scream “NO, NO BAD!” and run away. Just kidding, but seriously I am really disappointed in my child hood. Other than Barbie’s me and my friends liked to play hide-and-go-seek tag. Good times. At that time I was really good at hiding . . . I’m not very good at that now because I’m too big. What a downer. But pretty much we would all desert one child as we all ran away and hid. We didn’t even have a safe base. If you were the last to be caught, you won. I was very good at winning. That really isn’t the case now-a-days. Yet another downer. When I was little I also liked to steal things. I was such a little kleptomaniac. Goof times. I would steal toys from my friends and candy from stores and gas stations. I didn’t understand they had video cameras. I just thought it was some sort of magic I had to hide from. Wow I cannot believe I turned out ok. A little sarcastic, but still ok. The point is I was a really messed up kid. I’m still a messed up kid! I’m sure most of you would agree with me. I have nice friends. My best friend was a real brat, she liked to steal my toys too. I still so disappointed in my childhood.