Those Were the Blogs of Our Lives

Wow. To echo what I said in my first blog from the beginning of the school year, "You have NO idea what it took to get here!" The process that went into making my blogs is fascinating in retrospect, seeing how I worked whatever was influencing me at the time into my blog. I doubt anyone remembers much about my personal development across the year, but I can see clearly stages of my own development worked into individual blogs. For example, I stated that I had a closet full of legos in my second blog about Boo Radley, very similar to something I talked about much at the beginning of the year.

I can also see how I worked things that I experienced in middle school into my posts. The blog about Scout mentions how I wrote a speech about NCLB. Something which was probably still pretty recent in my mind at the time. Something that keeps coming up over and over again is how I read War and Peace though. It seems every other blog I wrote had something about how I compared The Count of Monte Cristo with War and Peace, or Great Expectations with War and Peace. its a shame I used Bon Jovi instead of War and Peace for Romeo and Juliet.

It also illustrates the personality I tried to put into my blog. Like that time I talked about crushing tiny rebellions in my titanium fist in the "The skill I've learned" blog. Though I must be honest, that blog feels in retrospect like I was praising my knowledge of TvTropes foremost. Also, there's that "Formal vs. informal diction" post, which really conveys a lot of information about myself. It also actually contained deep information that makes perfect sense if you have the same background as I do. Of course, lets face it, I don't think there's anyone who would possibly be reading this blog who would say that truly.

Indeed, I think the culmination of this whole blog assignment was to express me and my personality. This blog represents a chunk of me in the form of writing. Its more than a bunch of hurried and rushed assignments written for school, its something I poured my figurative soul into to create a gigantic screaming beast which cry's, "I, am, AARON!" There were many good times to be had across the year, and I enjoyed the writing of many a blog post before, trying to inscribe a deeper bit of myself into it. Surprisingly, I haven't made a single Queen reference yet this entire blog, so I must say that the song lyrics which describe this project and my feeling for it are put perfectly here,

"Those were the days of our lives
When bad things in life were so few
Those days are all gone now, but one thing is true,
When I look, and I find,
I still love you."

Oh yes, I forgot one more element of this blog: Its over. This is the last time I will have to make a deadline at such a ridiculous last moment that the rate of my fingers typing is so fast that I swear I see barely a blur. The last time I'll wake up at 11:37 the night it's due thinking, "Oh, CARP!" It'll be swell, but as they say, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

-Aaron

My memorable assignment

My most memorable assignment was actually one I hate hated. however, the blog states it should be memorable that shows our talents. I believe it did that. The assignment of course, was when we had to write a paper about naming a colour after something. Of course, I misunderstood the assignment and thought we had to write a paper naming the colour after yourself. Thus, I had to think of a justification for naming my colour Aaron. Naturally I did my fallback, and worked under the guise of Aaron Incorporated, or AaronINC.

Of course, that was extremely punny. I was writing about naming it after my company, but it was also AaronINC as in Aaron ink. The funny thing is I wrote it before school hurridly on a piece of notebook paper and totally didn't realize the pun until after I wrote it. I thought it was terrible, and when we read them in groups I thought mine was horrendous. Then Mathew got ahold of it. Ignoring my protests, he turned it in for the contest in class, and somehow I won with that terrible piece. It may seem contradictory, but looking back I'm pretty proud of my ability to rushingly write something and somehow despite the bad quality of the writing win a contest. However, the main thing I will always be proud of, the climax of this blog, the entire purpose of my love for that assignment, is that accidental pun. Oh yeah Aaron, I had no idea you could be such a punster without even realizing it. Aaron ink. Genius. Good job Aaron.

-Humbly yours, Aaron

My feelings on poetry

Indeed, I believe most people have had experiences with that word. The dreaded "P" word. I am of course speaking about poetry.

I think poetry is famous because of the wide depth of emotions it is capable of bringing about. In middle school my class was often given poems to read, and the intended meanings were extremely diverse. One poem, for example, would be trying to call you to action about something the poet considers important. Another would simply be trying to be clever. I unfortunately, am not always interested in said poems because often I don't agree with the opinion the author of the poem is trying to convey. My favorite poems are usually the ones that make me smile.

I mean, sure "doom and gloom" are supposed to be great for my age group, (or so they tell me) but poems that make me laugh, such as the likes of Shel Silverstein's can be both enjoyable, and if a poet works hard enough, also still have that underlying message. That's where real positive value comes from reading poetry, when you can enjoy it, and you get something about of it. Sometimes, simply laughing at something is an excellent way to help yourself.

Honestly though, I'm not all fond of poetry in general. Call me shallow, but I find many people's opinions of worth of some poems as extravagant at best. Still, if they wish to read something, its their descision.

-Aaron

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

There are many conflicts present throughout Romeo and Juliet. The one I am choosing to focus on is the conflict between Romeo and Tybalt. Romeo crashes the party at the Capulet establishment and is discovered by Tybalt. Though he cannot attack him then because Capulet forbids it, he later searches Romeo out. Tybalt then comes and challenges Romeo. However, Mercutio steps in in his place and is ultimately stricken down. This leads Romeo to get revenge by killing Tybalt. This conflict is person vs. person, seeing as it is between Romeo and Tybalt, but it also extends to family vs. family because Tybalt's reasoning for attacking Romeo is because of the feud between their two houses. This conflict is important because it shows the lengths Tybalt and his house are willing to go through to attack the Montagues, showing the huge amount of hate between the houses and later showing how powerful the force of the death of Romeo and Juliet to stop the fighting.

This conflcit can be related to because we always have someone who really annoys us. They may not know, or are even doing it on purpose, but they are still really exasperating. Oftentimes in real life this can lead us to violence or insults trying to get away from that one person. However, I think the play shows a good representation of how this is a bad idea, and how resorting to this only makes things worse and sometimes hurts those around you as well.

Overall, stabbing your enemies isn't always the best idea.

-Aaron

Romeo and Juliet and culture

The story of Romeo and Juliet is something engraved deep within culture today. Movies, books, and all forms of entertainment have many references to it. Some are more abstract, such as Don't Fear the Reaper, mentioning the deaths of the characters. Others are more direct, such as Bon Jovi's "I'd die for You"
stating:

"In a world that don't know Romeo & Juliet
Boy meets girl and promises we can't forget
We are cast from Eden's gate with no regrets
Into the fire we cry

I'd die for you
I'd cry for you
I'd do anything
I'd lie for you
You know its true
Baby I'd die for you"

or Dire straits "Romeo and Juliet" about, you guessed it, Romeo and Juliet!

Personally I find it really funny and ironic because so many forms of media portray Romeo and Juliet as a beautiful love story about two people willing to do anything for one another, including dying. I personally thought the story had other themes related to the folly of infatuation. Romeo was quite literally just as deeply in "love" with another girl literally the day before he even realized Juliet existed, and yet they decide marriage is a great idea? However, another part of me is sad, because sometimes I do think that all society values today is attractiveness and that liking how someone looks is just as good as love. Perhaps its always been that way, but I can only interpret as my own mind dictates.

Referecing obscure Bon Jovi songs... where is this blog going? I think the direction was more amusing when I blabbered on about War and Peace.

-Aaron

My connections with the characters of Romeo and Juliet

I think I can connect with a few aspects of many characters, but on the other hand I have a hard time connecting with the way the characters deal with their lives. In particular I would focus on the emotions felt by the characters. Even more specifically, Romeo. Romeo is completely infautuated with Rosaline, a girl he barely knows. I think almost everyone can connect with a feeling of desire for one person, especially as one grows through the teenage years. Indeed, often a simple desire can turn your life to paste as you dwell on it, and if you are convinced that said person will never "love" you back, its easy to feel like its the end of the world. How could I ever "love" again if this truly beautiful person doesn't care for me? Now that I have seen them, no substitute will ever be acceptable. Naturally I can also connect with the part afterwards where Romeo completely forgets about his old love and moves on. In one sense, it the end of a world, a world you created in your mind where everythings is great, then it dissolves in one fluid motion (no pun intended) just as fast as it arrived.

I believe that reading at home is a good way to see what you're going to talk about in class, but honestly I don't really find the need to work really hard to understand difficult concepts because I know we'll talk about them in class. I do the reading, get the general plot, and try to understand what's being said, but if I can't figure it out I usually just wait to see what the teacher has to say about it. As such, the reading in class is extremely useful for getting a clear picture of whats going on. I would also say as I read more Shakespeare it is indeed becoming easier to understand the next part.

-Aaron

Message of Great Expectations

My feelings on the message of the book are pretty simple. They relate to the key word of the title. Expectations.

Throughout your life, you always have desires. You want this, or you want that. Often, its really superficial what you want. As children, you also often have great senses of self-entitlement. You think you deserve this, or you deserve that. Maybe you think your parents ought to buy you this, or you deserve to go hang out with your friends. No matter how big or small, you expect things to turn your way. However, often what you want isn't whats really best for you. You can spend a long time pursuing something only to discover its not what you wanted, or that you've actually destroyed your life in the process. The book is about the comparison between what you expect, and what you actually recieve. What the book is saying about that idea is that you need to watch out, because many times what you want is not the best thing for you. You need to ponder and consider what you're life choices will do to you.

Anyways, that's it fairly simple.

-Aaron