The Truth and Emily Dickinson - Second Quarter Readings

In the second quarter of our American Literature class, we read a few poems by the renowned Emily Dickinson, and one in particular caught my attention: Tell all the Truth but Tell it slant.

I liked it because the poem's telling us that truth should be approached in a sort of indirect way, and at a gradual pace rather than to approach it directly and all at once because, as I interpret it, humans have a weak "perception" and truth is such a big thing to reveal and so if approached directly, we wouldn't be able to fully understand or even begin to fully comprehend it. In the same way, a slant truth is like to explaining what lightning is to a child to appease their fear; it's "kind" and can sometimes be a bit far-fetched. After all, when children ask where babies come from don't most adults tell them the overused story of having a stork deliver them to the waiting parents? It's far-fetched and it doesn't make sense - to an adult, that is. To a child however, the story is instilled in their minds until they are older enough to fully understand just where or how babies are made. 

Thus, Emily Dickinson's "Tell all the Truth but Tell it slant" is a poem that focuses mostly on "truth", and how it should be introduced in a gradual process and approached in an indirect way, because it's either too disturbing or deep for a simple man to understand. 

What is Success?

Oxford Dictionary defines success as an accomplishment of an aim or purpose, and that is true in many cases. In some cases, success is more of a feeling of accomplishment, like a sense of fulfillment. Success to some is finally being able to ride a bike without the training wheels, or it can be qualifying for the Olympics. or even getting an A for a test on a subject one's been struggling with for so many weeks.

To me, success is being able to achieve one's goal and the process of going through to achieve that is what is most important to him/her. It's quite like building a habit; you have to push yourself and force yourself to do that one habit so that it becomes one. If you want to train your dog, you can't just quit after one session when your dog sits. No, it doesn't work that way. You have to sacrifice your own time and effort, and keep training your dog until it becomes a habit. Or until he sits every time you command it to. 

Success is sacrifice; it's being able to appreciate every single sweat or tear made that got you to where you are now. For me, it was getting all As at my new school as a new student, and it took time and lots of effort to catch up with all the work but that is where I am now, and as I look back on it, it gives me a sense of fulfilment, and that is what success is to me.  

Parsons: The New School For Design

It's in New York City, it's where renowned fashion designers like Donna Karan and Anna Sui went to, and did I mention? It's in New York City. Yes, it's Parsons The New School For Design. It's strategically located in one of the liveliest cities in the world and would you look at their building? Doesn't it just scream, "Look at me. I'm fashionable." Ok, I might be exaggerating a little but hey, going to a university like it is bound to take you to places. I mean, look where Alexander Wu is now. 

I don't plan on pursuing a fashion degree, but if I ever planned to in the near future, Parsons is definitely on my list. It has a good reputation, and look at their building. I would love to go to a school that looked like this. Even the building itself is fashionable and trendy.

While most people think of Parsons as a school for future fashion designers, the school itself offers majors like BA in Fine Arts to Environmental Science. Parsons also has extensive, state-of-the-art facilities readily available for students 24/7 because, according to their President, Parsons, like New York City, never sleeps. That would be great, especially for students who have a tendency to cram everything at like, 2 AM in the morning. 

Satirical Cartoons

This satirical cartoon is about "Halloween" for American adults, and while kids find beings like ghosts or headless horse riders scary, some Americans find the idea of paying more for things like Obama-care scary. You'll find this cartoon here. 

The Fountain of Youth and other misc. magical things

So a few days ago our American Literature class read the story of Dr. Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and it was an amusing story because of how the "test subjects" responded to the water from the fabled "Fountain of Youth". In the story were four friends of Dr. Heidegger's: Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne. All four of them were once at the height of their glory days, though soon became obscure and infamous from all their deeds in their youth. 

But back to the point. The point is, Dr. Heidegger used this experiment on the four elderly friends to see the extent of the power of the water from the Fountain of Youth and just how a typical human being would react when given a second chance to relive their youth. The water was proven quite powerful when the 50 year-old rose magically returned to its former bloom when it fell into the water; it also turned his friends back into their youthful and beautiful selves. The funny thing is, while the four friends had turned young, the mirror showed a different aspect: they were the same old people in the mirror. 

Anyway, the four "test subjects" didn't exactly use the water wisely because almost instantly, they began to squabble and fight over Widow Wycherly. Just like old times. Amidst their struggle to gain the upper hand, they had knocked over the table, and with it, the vase containing the water from the Fountain of Youth. BAM! Just like that, they slowly felt their old age coming back to them and they were mostly horrified. 

The four foolhardy friends then planned to find the legendary Fountain of Youth, with vain hopes of becoming young once again. The lesson of this story is how human nature is quite weak, because when given a chance to relive a time in their lives, they would make the same mistakes.

bubble trouble

You might get the impression that I'll be writing about either bubbles or witchcraft. Wrong. Then again chemistry might go along the lines of those two things, since it's all about mixing the chemicals right and some reactions are bound to release fumes or bubbles. But I'm getting off track.

I'm going to write about my science fair project, which is due in about 6 weeks and I still haven't the time/motivation to do anything about it. Whoops. Anyways, I'll be doing an experiment on the intelligence of fish, or if goldfish can actually learn to memorize things. It's kind of like B.F. Skinner's on the concept of "reinforcement", except the fish are going to have to discern which colored cup has the food after a week of repeated exercises. I'm using this experiment because biology's a science that I find really interesting, though I think chemistry is just as interesting. But anyhow, I picked biology this year because for the past two years all my projects were chemistry-related so I thought it'd be good to change it up a little bit in my senior year.

So here is where you can read about how my experiment works and I'll most probably write about it when the time comes.

The Tale of Olaudah Equiano

So in our American Literature class, we've been reading a short excerpt about a former slave: Olaudah Equiano. Interestingly, the excerpt is actually an autobiography of his. You can read more about him on this site, but for the most part, Oluadah was a normal 11 year-old kid growing up in West Africa when one unfortunate incident led to his kidnapping into slavery. He had a good life as a slave in his continent, but that all came to an abrupt end when he was sent onboard a slave ship (where he experienced and saw many unspeakable things). 

From then on Oluadah worked in a ship, a barber shop, and then went on to become a free man with all the money he saved in those 3 years! He also learned how to read and write along the way, and spent 20 years travelling the world. Oluadah was also a prominent figure in the movement to abolish slavery, which influenced later African-American movements. He published his autobiography, 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano' in 1789 and had a family before passing away in 1797.

food + Italian is love

Hello fellow bloggers! I'm Arielle and today I'm going to write about one thing that I absolutely like to look at: blogs featuring food and anything Italian. Italy is probably one of my top countries to visit and it's mostly because of the Lizzie McGuire movie I saw when I was 6. One blog I really like is Parla Food. The posts on that site are so lovely to look at and read. 

I've always found Rome (aka the City of Love) so interesting because of their historic background and the fact that most of their buildings date way back into the times of Caesar Augustus and the gladiators. And their food is just so appealing to look at, even more when one tastes it. Sadly, I have yet to visit the city and taste what the "originals" are like but hopefully that'll change this summer.