Response to Sam's Response About a Painting

         I am responding to Sam Everett's thoughts on this painting. According to Sam's post, he said the woman in the painting had met this guy at a social gathering in a restaurant. In the restaurant, they talked, and realized they were communicating very well, and because of that they decided to go the guy's apartment to have sexual intercourse in bed. Sam suggested that the woman immediately had deep feelings toward the stranger she randomly bedded. She woke up the next morning only to find a bowl of fruit, and a note on the bed. She read the note:

 

“Dear Maria… erm, Mary,

            Although we had a great time last night, I don’t feel like there is any connection between you and me.  What happened was a mistake, and to be honest Marina… so sorry, Mary, anyway, I had way too much wine, and I actually forgot I was married to a very beautiful wife who I love now just as much as the day I married her. There is nothing special I see in you.  I’m sure your special someone is out there waiting for you to find him, I just have to tell you that he is not I.  My wife will be returning shortly, and I hope for the good of both of us that you will exit my apartment the moment you finish reading this.  Good bye forever Meredith... I mean Mary.

Sincerely,

John

P.S.  Please don’t eat the fruit, it is for my wife”

Even though this letter is hilarious, I do not think it's accurate. The way I see it, the woman in the painting received a letter from either a family member or her husband's friend saying that her husband died in war. When she realized she had lost her love she cried and threw stuff around the room, like that fruit bowl lying on the bed. She opened the window to have the fresh breeze in her face calm her emotions down. She then picked up the note and read it again because she could not believe it said her husband was dead. You can tell a lot about the expression on her face, and in her facial expression in the picture she doesn't seem to excited. She looks shocked and a little scared, so I know that whatever is happening it is a bad situation.

Qfwfq

We read a story about salamander in the pre-historic times named Qfwfq. Qfwfq was dating this lizard named Lll. One day he introduced her to his old aquatic uncle, N’ba N’ga. But after meeting him Lll wanted to go see him frequently, until one day she dumped Qfwfq and went with N’ba N’ga. This following quote explains the thought in Qfwfq’s head after she recently left him:

“They all had something, I know, that made them somehow superior to me, sublime, something that made me, compared to them, mediocre. And yet I wouldn’t have traded places with any of them.”

This quote is very important to show that even though Lll abandoned Qfwfq to go with his mature uncle N’ba N’ga, Qfwfq didn’t go into depression. Lll and N’ba N’ga were going to reproduce and have offspring. By doing that, they were going to create a new type of species. Qfwfq knew that his bright future was stolen from him, and that Lll will no longer be a lizard. But despite of the fact that he had been humiliated, he was still proud of being who he was – even if it won’t help him survive.

In this other story we read, Qfwfq had evolved into a dinosaur. He believed to be the last one of his kind, and had survived on his own for many years. One day he met with another group of organisms known as “The New Ones,” he later joined them. Almost everyone in their herd feared dinosaurs, and because they hadn’t seen one in years, they did not realize that Qfwfq was a dinosaur – instead they referred to him as “The Ugly One.” There was one day where he heard one of the new ones yell out, “The dinosaurs are coming back!” This next quote was exactly what Qfwfq felt when he heard those words:

“My species wasn’t extinct, I would be able to join my brothers, take up my old life! But the memory of the old life that returned to my mind was the endless series of defeats, of flights, of dangers; to begin again meant perhaps only a temporary extension of that death pain, the return to a phase I thought had already ended. Now, here in the village, I had achieved a kind of new tranquility, and I was sorry to lose it.”

This quote says a lot about Qfwfq’s situation. This is a point in his life where he does not know if he was satisfied with his old life or with his new one. At first the thought of him returning back to his life in the past was a relief, a lot better than what he had now. But then he thought of it longer and realized that his old life was terrible. He did not want to go back to an endless series defeats, flights, and dangers. The life he used to live gave him emotional suffering, he had lost Lll. The life he was living in now wasn’t all that bad, except that the new ones feared his kind. His relationship with them would not be the same if he revealed who he truly was. He had no idea what they would do to him. And so, Qfwfq was left with a tough decision.

At the end of the story, Qfwfq had to leave the new ones. He had a relationship with someone named Fern-flower, even though he still had feelings for her. This quote explains how Qfwfq was feeling as he was leaving his tribe:

            “I looked around: the village that had seen me arrive as a stranger I could now rightfully call mine, and I could call Fern-flower mine, in the only way a Dinosaur could call mine. For this, with a silent wave, I said goodbye to Fern-flower, left the village, and went off forever.”

             This quote describes the scene, and it makes it clear that Qfwfq will never return to the new ones. It seems as if Qfwfq keeps messing up relationships he has with others, first Lll left him, and now he had to leave Fern-flower and the new ones all because he couldn’t live up to people’s expectations. It’s good that Qfwfq has his own goals, but if he is having trouble reaching them, then instead of repeating his mistake he should change. That’s the only way for him to obtain what he’s looking for.

Response: Does It matter if you Gay Or Bi? Lesbian Or Straight?

I am responding to a quote by Lhadze Bosiljevac on a topic that sometimes bothers me.

"Everywhere we go, someone is arguing about same sex marriage or someone being bi. We as Americans have our own rights as citizens to make our own choices about who our mate is. Same sex marriage should be legal and the legislation  has no right to say that people who love each other, even if they are of the same sex, cannot be married."

         I strongly agree with her in this quote. People have rights, and by violating those rights you are also arguing against the constitution. If a person decides that he or she is attracted to others of the same sex, then so be it. Nobody, not even the most powerful person on Earth can come between another person's feelings. But the one thing that really pisses me of is people that use the word gay as an insult. I've heard the words fag, lesbian, gay, and queer being use to offends somebody. Homo phobics using the word gay as if it was a bad thing to be. Being gay is not bad, it's a way of life that people choose to live, just like being a vegetarian. I've had friends who I've heard use the word gay to describe things they don't like. "FAG!!!," "EEEEWWWW THAT'S SO GAY!" I have been hearing these phrases ever since I was in fourth grade. I don't care if you're a homophobic, people just need to shut their mouths. When I was younger, I used to say these things a lot. But it was because everyone around me said it, and I guess I was peer pressured into believing in nonsense. But as people grow, their brains develop and so do their thoughts.
          I also hate it when the parents of someone get angry when their son or daughter tell them that they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Sometimes the father, mother, or even both parents can't get over the fact that their son or daughter is gay. They can usually tend to over react and separate from their family, only because their son/daughter decides to live a different lifestyle. That doesn't only affect the son/daughter's relationship with the parents, it also affects every other relative. One simple decision can tear apart a whole family, all just because people cannot be open-minded. What if being gay was a common thing? What if everyone was gay and marriage with the opposite sex was not legal in every country. I guess that's what the gay community feels. I think everybody has the right to be what they want to be, I don't believe you need someone to be telling you what's right and what's wrong; if you know what works for you, and if it makes you happy; then it's the right thing to do. I just think people need to grow up..
   

I Don't Need Religion

             I respect everybody’s beliefs, but what I don’t respect are people that are insisting you in what to believe. There’s a huge difference between telling, and explaining. Anyone can tell you to believe something without giving you an explanation for why you have to believe it. That’s the problem with religion, no one can explain. If so, then why do many people believe it? There is no point in believing in something that will not ever help you in anything. It might give those who believe an optimistic sensation every time they go to church or pray, but that’s not getting me into college. Some people say that when you pray, you’re communicating with God. God must be death, because when I tried praying for my sick uncle in Mexico, the next thing I know is he’s dead. If there is a God out there, I hate him. I told my mom I was atheist, and she got upset and asked me why. I EXPLAINED to her that there is no possible way for a “human being” to create everything in the universe out of nothing. It would’ve been funny if it was real though, he makes the dinosaurs and then spends his lifetime running away from his own creation. There aren’t any fossils of God. After that we began debating. Everything she said, no matter what it was, I backfired it with science.

            Some people deny an idea without even thinking about it. It’s vey important for people to think about everyone’s thoughts, because if people aren’t even trying, then we would have to live this way until our own ways of life kill us all. A while ago, I heard about this pope who actually denied the holocaust. This made me dislike the pope because not only did he get the obvious facts wrong, he also enraged a lot of jews.

            But as I said, I respect everyone’s beliefs (except for the pope’s). No matter how absurd and impossible they might sound, I only hope for people to respect mines.

Quickwrite: Are Humans Evolving? If So - Evloving Into What?

            Organisms have been developing ever since the first one came to be. After the age of the dinosaurs, came the apes; and for millions of years, those apes had slowly been developing into homosapiens. Other living things, like birds, have also been developing in their feathers, wings, and beaks. Humans changed over the past million years, and it would make no sense for us to suddenly stop developing. Almost every living thing goes through evolution, and there is no doubt for me that humans are still changing.
             We may not be aware that we are still evolving, but all our changes will be revealed in thousands if not millions of years from now. Evolution is mostly caused by environmental changes, mating, and mutation. If the climate of a place was to dramatically change, it would mean that organisms in that area would have to change their ways of living to get used to the new climate. For example, if the temperature was at thirty degrees fahrenheit almost every day of the month, living creatures would have to adjust to the changes by either building new shelter to keep themselves warm, or traveling to different lands where the weather is more comfortable. If they choose to migrate to a better land, their bodies would slowly gain stamina and condition from all the walking. Their feet might even transform into a better shape made for traveling, and from there, all there new genes will be passed on to future offspring.
              Mutation is another thing that can cause evolution. When organisms reproduce, one of the offspring may be born differently, and when that "different" creature produces, his or her babies will most likely be just like their father/mother. That will trigger a change in species, and in the future there may be a whole new different species, made by another group of species. Any of this can happen to humans. Once humans run out of fossil fuels, they will be force to travel by foot at least until the government releases alternative energy. There also has been many different cases in which children are born with conjoined body parts, and even conjoined twins. There may be a possibility that these types of people may affect what the human race will look like in a million years or so.
             So what are humans evolving into? Maybe we'll end up looking like an animal that exists today. Or maybe apes will evolve into different types of humans, and the current human race will become extinct. What if this whole thing is just a cycle? What if fish evolve into land creatures? No one will ever know, no one except for the last human of our kind.

Quickwrite: Is Bob Still a Person!?

              If Bob gets ran over by a bus one day, and has to replace his old crippled arms and legs with fake plastic ones, Bob is still a person and Bob is still Bob. If Bob gets ran over by a second bus and has live as a head for the rest of his life, Bob is still a person and Bob is still Bob. If for some reason Bob manages to get ran over by a third bus and has to live as a brain for the rest of his life, Bob is still a person and Bob is still Bob. If then Bob is ran over by a fourth bus and has to live as cells and DNA particles until he is cloned, Bob is no longer a human being, and Bob will not be himself anymore. No matter what happens to him, Bob will remain a human being despite of his physical changes.
          
              If Bob's arms and legs are replaced with plastic ones, he obviously hasn't changed much. His thoughts and memories are the same, although his thoughts about life have. It's the same thing when he is a head, he only changes physically. When Bob lives as a brain, he still has the same thoughts and the same memories, even though he looks totally different than other humans. Scientists would have connected his brain to a computer so that they can actually see everything that's running through Bob's mind. By doing this, Bob would be able to communicate with others through his thoughts - even if Bob has private thoughts. However, when Bob is hit by a fourth bus and has to be cloned, that clone is not a person, and it is definitely not Bob anymore. The reason for this is because anything that has to be made in a laboratory that involves tests, chemicals, and machines is most likely to not be a real person. A person is made naturally, not in labs. And if Bob is cloned, he is no longer a person. If Bob is not a person anymore, then i guess you can easily say that he is no longer Bob. There can only be one Bob, only one human being with its own emotions and characteristics that no other human (or thing) can have. I doesn't matter if Bob's clone has the same memories as the real Bob, the clone is just a copy made in a lab. So when it gets to the point where Bob has to be remade, Bob is not a person, and Bob is not Bob.

Response to Debate

          The topic in which I debated about was about alternative energy versus fossil fuel. We wanted to know if alternative energy would be able to successfully replace unnatural oils, gasses, and chemicals that aren't exactly environmentally friendly. Both teams (pro and con) gathered the information needed to debate, and prepared for the battle. Elton and I were on the pro side, we believed that it was possible to ban fossil fuels and introduce alternative energy to the world. Aakash and Andy were on the con side, they believed it was impossible to live on alternative energy, they would rather stick our current source of energy.

             One thing said by the con side was that there wont be enough energy for the whole country. They were talking about how the U.S. does not depend on much natural energy, and if we get rid of fossil fuels and use more and more energy we will quickly run out. One thing we could have said to fight back to that was, "but the thing about alternative energy is that you can never run out because it is renewable. Natural energy can be reused over and over again so that we wont run out. Since alternative energy can be recycled, other countries will no longer be fighting for their energy - and that means no wars." After the debate I knew that everyone could tell that both team didn't prepare so much, we weren't exactly ready. We could have fought back to their statement by saying that, but we didn't because we weren't prepared :(. Aakash and Andy weren't so excited about being in the con side, at first they didn't care, but later they told Elton and I that they wanted to be on the pro side, but that was after we all agreed in our places. Maybe that was one of the reasons why the con side wasn't exactly ready. The pro side could have been a lot better, all we had to do to win the debate was write down good, specific questions that could have been asked to support our side. We also could have written more of our ideas in our intro statement, rather than quotes from other people.

            After the debate was over, after we confused each other with words, both teams strongly agreed that we had the worst debate out of the whole class. We both said we could have done a lot better, we probably even confused the people listening to this horrible debate. I don't even believe what we did out there deserves to be called a debate. Well, at least we each know that next time we try to debate, we should probably review our statements, practice, and be more aware of how much time we have to debate.