Poetry Project
The Perspective of Truth
Truth is different when you look at it from the ceiling.
Although some say that
The truth is in the eye of the beholder,
They forget the fact that it
Cannot be held.
If you look at it like the white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home,
In the trim on the bottom half of the wall,
It looks like a giant climb to get to the top of truth,
And break out of the room
If you look at it like the shadows on the walls,
How they always see it from different perspectives
Because when the sun shines through that little window
The shadows have no choice but to follow it,
It looks a spinning room full to the brim with
Confusion and misunderstanding.
And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.
And in the end...
When the sun stops shining for the shadows,
The entire room will be filled with the darkness.
It knows more about itself than anything and anyone else.
Yet it still does not understand how everything
Else perceives it.
For truly, truth is alone.
Truth is different when you look at it from the ceiling.
Although some say that
The truth is in the eye of the beholder,
They forget the fact that it
Cannot be held.
If you look at it like the white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home,
In the trim on the bottom half of the wall,
It looks like a giant climb to get to the top of truth,
And break out of the room
If you look at it like the shadows on the walls,
How they always see it from different perspectives
Because when the sun shines through that little window
The shadows have no choice but to follow it,
It looks a spinning room full to the brim with
Confusion and misunderstanding.
And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.
And in the end...
When the sun stops shining for the shadows,
The entire room will be filled with the darkness.
It knows more about itself than anything and anyone else.
Yet it still does not understand how everything
Else perceives it.
For truly, truth is alone.
Project Reflection
As a learner and a student, my perspective on certain subjects is constantly being refined and changed, as a teenager, my ideas are constantly being shut down, and accepted, as a poet, my universe is created by those perspectives and those ideas, and even though some are shut down, and some are changed, my universe stays original.
My poem has been more than refined, changed, even redone throughout this process of the project, it started out as a poem about two brothers, truth and lies, and how they couldn't exist without each other. “Truth had a brother, he was deceitful and haggard, lies was his title and a never ending battle raged between them”.
By the end it ended up about all the different ways you could look at truth and the different perspectives of it. All throughout the process of this poem, I was trying to find some way to make it all make sense and come together in the end, and having it talk about the two brothers and then randomly switch over to the perspective of truth half way through did not add to the understanding portion of the poem.
So this left me with a choice, I had to pick either keeping my poem about the two brothers, or changing it to just about the perspective of truth. So the latter was chosen, and my poem was changed to “The Perspective Of Truth”. I feel like my perspective throughout my poem has shifted, more sophisticated than the first draft, but also more creative and revised, it was more creative because i spent a lot of time working on the metaphors and similes that were put into it and made it seem a lot more like beautiful work. It was also more creative and revised because the whole idea of my poem and the perspective of truth was revised to the point that I believed was perfectly suiting for the exhibition and the topics we were studying.
It became more sophisticated because of lines that were changed like this “On the floor with the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall”.This line was from the first draft of my poem and had many criticisms when critiqued by my peers and by my teacher, saying that it didn't make sense and that it didn't go with the flow of the rest of the poem, which I agreed with so I changed it to “In the trim on the bottom half of the wall”. Which makes a ton more sense and went with the flow quite well. This is an example of refining my poem in order to make it more flowy and easier for the reader to understand. It also became more sophisticated through changing the paragraph form, as an example, in the first draft all the lines were right next to each other with no breaks, I:E---
“Truth is different when you look at it from the ceiling.
although some say that
the truth is in the eye of the beholder,
yet they forget the fact that it
cannot be held.”
But by the time I hit the third draft it had been formed and shaped to be easy to read format and added emphasis to some parts that I wanted to add it on. I:E---
“And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.”
So through the process of this poem I have grown as a poet in a way of maturing with my writing and revising my work more than I used to.
One of the three most important changes that I made to my poem was making it easy for the audience to understand what I was trying to convey, as an example in the first draft of my poem I had started a stanza by saying “If you look at it like a white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home on the floor with the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall, it looks like a giant leap to get to the top, and realize what the truth actually is.” I am using this example for two reasons, one is that the part where I talk about the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall it does not make sense for the reader and takes a while to realize what I am trying to say. The second reason is that when I talk about the mouse “leaping” to reach the top of truth it does not make sense because trying to picture a mouse jumping directly up just doesn't work.
For the final draft I changed it to “If you look at it like the white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home, In the trim on the bottom half of the wall, It looks like a giant climb to get to the top of truth, and break out of the room”. As the reader can see I changed the part about the upside down bowl to the “plagiarized home”. I changed this because I liked the idea about having the same hole that all the mice in the movies and in the cartoons have, and it made a lot more sense. I also changed the part about the “leap” of truth to a climb to make it seem more realistic.
Another of the big changes that I made to my final draft from the first one was the formatting of it all, with the first draft I had just left all of the lines together and no paragraph breaks or line spacing / font size changes all throughout the poem, it was just one big brick of poetry
I.E:
(it looks like a giant leap to get to the top,
and realize what the truth actually is.
If you look at it like a bird perching on his branch in the
top left corner of the shadowy room,
it looks like a big fall with nothing to catch you on the way down.
And there is no telling that when the white mouse jumps to
the top of the truth it will actually understand it.)
This was not good for my poem because I couldn't emphasize the parts that I wanted to, and it also made it harder for the reader to understand because it was disorganized and cluttered. But by the end of the project and in my final draft I had changed it to something that was very much more organized and easier for the reader to comprehend.
I.E:
(Because when the sun shines through that little window
The shadows have no choice but to follow it,
It looks a spinning room full to the brim with
Confusion and misunderstanding.
And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.
And in the end…)
This made it easier for the reader to understand because when all of your stanzas and all of the words in your poem are in one brick, it is hard to get through the whole thing without losing your place or having your eyes hurt, it is better to give your eyes a break and make line breaks and good spacing, this makes the poem seem more enjoyable and easier to read.
The final change that I made to my poem in order to add to the final-ness of it was changing the part that says “If you look at it like a bird perching on his branch in the top left corner of the shadowy room, it looks like a big fall with nothing to catch you on the way down”. to “If you look at it like the shadows on the walls, How they always see it from different perspectives because when the sun shines through that little window the shadows have no choice but to follow it, It looks a spinning room full to the brim with confusion and misunderstanding”.
I changed this because I thought the part with the bird wasn't as relevant as it could have been to my poem and how the bird was falling didn't make as much sense because birds have wings and it seems like it would just fly. I also didn't like this stanza because how I said the top left corner didn't make sense either plus, mice are courageous creators and white stands for good, which I liked, but since I had not specified what color the bird was it didn't have very much symbolism, maybe if I had said it was a dove or a crow it would have made more sense. Changing this improved my poem by adding to the effect of the darkness and the light V.s dark metaphor that I was trying to get across.
,
My poem has been more than refined, changed, even redone throughout this process of the project, it started out as a poem about two brothers, truth and lies, and how they couldn't exist without each other. “Truth had a brother, he was deceitful and haggard, lies was his title and a never ending battle raged between them”.
By the end it ended up about all the different ways you could look at truth and the different perspectives of it. All throughout the process of this poem, I was trying to find some way to make it all make sense and come together in the end, and having it talk about the two brothers and then randomly switch over to the perspective of truth half way through did not add to the understanding portion of the poem.
So this left me with a choice, I had to pick either keeping my poem about the two brothers, or changing it to just about the perspective of truth. So the latter was chosen, and my poem was changed to “The Perspective Of Truth”. I feel like my perspective throughout my poem has shifted, more sophisticated than the first draft, but also more creative and revised, it was more creative because i spent a lot of time working on the metaphors and similes that were put into it and made it seem a lot more like beautiful work. It was also more creative and revised because the whole idea of my poem and the perspective of truth was revised to the point that I believed was perfectly suiting for the exhibition and the topics we were studying.
It became more sophisticated because of lines that were changed like this “On the floor with the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall”.This line was from the first draft of my poem and had many criticisms when critiqued by my peers and by my teacher, saying that it didn't make sense and that it didn't go with the flow of the rest of the poem, which I agreed with so I changed it to “In the trim on the bottom half of the wall”. Which makes a ton more sense and went with the flow quite well. This is an example of refining my poem in order to make it more flowy and easier for the reader to understand. It also became more sophisticated through changing the paragraph form, as an example, in the first draft all the lines were right next to each other with no breaks, I:E---
“Truth is different when you look at it from the ceiling.
although some say that
the truth is in the eye of the beholder,
yet they forget the fact that it
cannot be held.”
But by the time I hit the third draft it had been formed and shaped to be easy to read format and added emphasis to some parts that I wanted to add it on. I:E---
“And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.”
So through the process of this poem I have grown as a poet in a way of maturing with my writing and revising my work more than I used to.
One of the three most important changes that I made to my poem was making it easy for the audience to understand what I was trying to convey, as an example in the first draft of my poem I had started a stanza by saying “If you look at it like a white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home on the floor with the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall, it looks like a giant leap to get to the top, and realize what the truth actually is.” I am using this example for two reasons, one is that the part where I talk about the upside down bowl shaped hole in the wall it does not make sense for the reader and takes a while to realize what I am trying to say. The second reason is that when I talk about the mouse “leaping” to reach the top of truth it does not make sense because trying to picture a mouse jumping directly up just doesn't work.
For the final draft I changed it to “If you look at it like the white mouse sitting in his plagiarized home, In the trim on the bottom half of the wall, It looks like a giant climb to get to the top of truth, and break out of the room”. As the reader can see I changed the part about the upside down bowl to the “plagiarized home”. I changed this because I liked the idea about having the same hole that all the mice in the movies and in the cartoons have, and it made a lot more sense. I also changed the part about the “leap” of truth to a climb to make it seem more realistic.
Another of the big changes that I made to my final draft from the first one was the formatting of it all, with the first draft I had just left all of the lines together and no paragraph breaks or line spacing / font size changes all throughout the poem, it was just one big brick of poetry
I.E:
(it looks like a giant leap to get to the top,
and realize what the truth actually is.
If you look at it like a bird perching on his branch in the
top left corner of the shadowy room,
it looks like a big fall with nothing to catch you on the way down.
And there is no telling that when the white mouse jumps to
the top of the truth it will actually understand it.)
This was not good for my poem because I couldn't emphasize the parts that I wanted to, and it also made it harder for the reader to understand because it was disorganized and cluttered. But by the end of the project and in my final draft I had changed it to something that was very much more organized and easier for the reader to comprehend.
I.E:
(Because when the sun shines through that little window
The shadows have no choice but to follow it,
It looks a spinning room full to the brim with
Confusion and misunderstanding.
And in the end…
There is still no telling that when the white mouse climbs to
The top of the truth he will actually understand it.
And in the end…)
This made it easier for the reader to understand because when all of your stanzas and all of the words in your poem are in one brick, it is hard to get through the whole thing without losing your place or having your eyes hurt, it is better to give your eyes a break and make line breaks and good spacing, this makes the poem seem more enjoyable and easier to read.
The final change that I made to my poem in order to add to the final-ness of it was changing the part that says “If you look at it like a bird perching on his branch in the top left corner of the shadowy room, it looks like a big fall with nothing to catch you on the way down”. to “If you look at it like the shadows on the walls, How they always see it from different perspectives because when the sun shines through that little window the shadows have no choice but to follow it, It looks a spinning room full to the brim with confusion and misunderstanding”.
I changed this because I thought the part with the bird wasn't as relevant as it could have been to my poem and how the bird was falling didn't make as much sense because birds have wings and it seems like it would just fly. I also didn't like this stanza because how I said the top left corner didn't make sense either plus, mice are courageous creators and white stands for good, which I liked, but since I had not specified what color the bird was it didn't have very much symbolism, maybe if I had said it was a dove or a crow it would have made more sense. Changing this improved my poem by adding to the effect of the darkness and the light V.s dark metaphor that I was trying to get across.
,
Project reflection, Globalization project.
In this project students of Animas high school spent six weeks researching and studying globalization, these study's included research notes, analyzing political cartoons, drawing our own political cartoons, writing essays and many other parts to a good project. Each student chose one topic to work with and get to know really well so that they could get to the main part of this project, which was getting to the point where we all knew our topic enough that we could basically become experts on it. Near the end of this project after countless hours of work, we all created a political cartoon on our subject, and also a Op Ed paper. Both of these were meant to get our own opinion across about the subject that we chose.
I think that my interpretation of globalization has completely changed over the course of this project, at the start i felt that globalization was the bees knees, but now i'm not so sure that that is true. After doing lots of research on my topic of globalization (Which was how technology was effecting social interactions) I feel like some forms of globalization are not actually that helpful to mankind and do not need to be a part of our worldly integration systems. Even though many parts of globalization are actually really helpful to mankind, some of them need to be abolished.
I think that during my cartoon my style didn't change as much as I thought it would, at the beginning, I had basically the same idea between my cartoons, and that was the earth in the middle and something to support it on the outside. The only thing that really changed in my cartoon as that something to support it on the outsides, in the beginning I had a bench with people that looked like zombies on it looking at their phones, but by the end I changed that idea to a tower with lots of american flags on it and a highway going underneath. And all of the cars and the tower was controlled by large tech companies like Apple,HP,and Windows.
I feel like since I was passionate about this project and the subject that I chose, my writing style differed in a way of becoming more of my opinion instead of just the points I was trying to get across. This not only happened because I was passionate about the project, but because I really wanted to feel good about this paper and I really wanted to get a good grade on it. My writing style was more of my opinion in not only a way of my opinion on my topic, but also in a way of trying to get my point across, i felt that if i put more of myself into the paper it would seem more like a personal connection instead of just a paper, which people find it easier to connect to.
Anish Wells
The Electro Globe
Imagine a world that is entirely based off of technology. Social networking is the only kind of interaction that people get. Humans rely entirely on the computers that are in their pockets for information and school, or the ones in front of them for many other sources of research. The brisk sent of chemicals and human hormones fill the air, the sound of fans and cooling systems can be heard everywhere, this is the Electro globe, the world that society is coming to. the world that YOU, as society's guinea pig, are coming to.
Life is getting easier and easier with all of the tech today, not only is this is an opinion, but a fact. “It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.” -Tom Clancy. Technology is not only used in a way to do your research, or a way to talk to your friends; in this day and age, tech is basically used as a human’s brain. We have computers that can fit in your pocket and can basically find anything and any source of information in 7 seconds or less. Now, this all sounds pretty good right? Well let’s look at the other side of the argument. Even though technology may be helping us in many ways, it appears to be creating difficulties with social interaction, and social integration. It seems that in this day and age people get in car accidents because of texting, and little kids can't form a decent conversation with adults because they are too plugged in. These are just a few of the effects from the Electro globe.
The average young American now spends practically every waking minute using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones. And because so many of them are multitasking, they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours. “I feel like my days would be boring without it,” said Francisco Sepulveda, a 14-year-old Bronx eighth grader who uses his smart phone to surf the Web, watch videos, listen to music — and send or receive about 500 texts a day. (New york times. Tamar Lewin)
But to be honest with you, we’re all a bunch of co-dependents, I can't just blame America or my generation for this! Of the top 10 internet sites in the world (as measured by unique monthly visitors), eight of them are American-owned, I’m talking about Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Wikipedia. Yet 81% of the users responsible for all this traffic come from outside the United States. So maybe technology is actually HELPING us to integrate with other countries? This proves that Globalization is in full force. And that we need the rest of the world just as much as they need us. At least when it comes to the internet. By looking at this, it only more provides evidence that Globalization is not only part of the world that we think we are in, it is also a part of the Electro globe.
There was a time when Coca-Cola was the hallmark of all global companies, selling its soft drinks in almost every country, in virtually every language and in every way. But now the world is used to McDonald's selling hamburgers in Moscow, while Toyota trucks roam the cold ground of Russia, and Sony televisions occupy a central location in homes worldwide. This is the golden age for business, commerce and trade. Never before in the history of the world has there been such an opportunity to sell as many goods to as many people as there is right now. This is, in a nutshell, the process of integration.
Technology IS effecting the way that humans interact and integrate with each other, not only in a way of not being to communicate without being socially awkward or impaired, but also by ways of war and weaponry. Another part of society today is; If a certain country or group of countries becomes massively technologically advanced in ways of weapons, other countries will become scared and eventually try to become as or more technologically advanced in a way that they can basically annihilate part of the globe. This theory has been proven by The Cold War between the U.S and Soviet Russia. This is (based off my hypothesis) also a very big part of the Electro globe
In a world that is based off of technology, it seems that the only kind of interaction between humans would be on social networking sites, texts, video chats, live chats and other sites that don’t involve actual interaction. This is the Electro globe, where technology has impaired the average humans social interaction skills to a point where they almost don't exist any more. The Electroglobe has created wars that are entirely based off of technologic weapons, and are fought only and completely by technologic soldiers. The Electro globe has created a system where if one part goes down, so does the rest. The Electro globe has integrated the world as we knew it to an extent that was never thought of. The Electroglobe has made some things better, and some things very….very much worse. So as a conclusion to my paper here, I would like to just ask the reader one question…... Does it work?
Work Cited
Clancy, Tom. "Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
Greenfield, Susan. "Modern Technology Is Changing the Way Our Brains Work, Says Neuroscientist." Mail Online. Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/, 21 May 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"Impact of Technology Change,Social Change,Sociology Guide." Guide, Sociology. Sociology Guide, 2014. http://www.sociologyguide.com Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Lewin, Tamar. "If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online." New York times. N.p., 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Pentronic, Stephen. "Daily Reckoning." Daily Reckoning. Stephen Pentronic, 7 Feb. 2014. http://dailyreckoning.com Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION." World, Trade Organization. WTO. Http://www.wto.org/, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
In this project students of Animas high school spent six weeks researching and studying globalization, these study's included research notes, analyzing political cartoons, drawing our own political cartoons, writing essays and many other parts to a good project. Each student chose one topic to work with and get to know really well so that they could get to the main part of this project, which was getting to the point where we all knew our topic enough that we could basically become experts on it. Near the end of this project after countless hours of work, we all created a political cartoon on our subject, and also a Op Ed paper. Both of these were meant to get our own opinion across about the subject that we chose.
I think that my interpretation of globalization has completely changed over the course of this project, at the start i felt that globalization was the bees knees, but now i'm not so sure that that is true. After doing lots of research on my topic of globalization (Which was how technology was effecting social interactions) I feel like some forms of globalization are not actually that helpful to mankind and do not need to be a part of our worldly integration systems. Even though many parts of globalization are actually really helpful to mankind, some of them need to be abolished.
I think that during my cartoon my style didn't change as much as I thought it would, at the beginning, I had basically the same idea between my cartoons, and that was the earth in the middle and something to support it on the outside. The only thing that really changed in my cartoon as that something to support it on the outsides, in the beginning I had a bench with people that looked like zombies on it looking at their phones, but by the end I changed that idea to a tower with lots of american flags on it and a highway going underneath. And all of the cars and the tower was controlled by large tech companies like Apple,HP,and Windows.
I feel like since I was passionate about this project and the subject that I chose, my writing style differed in a way of becoming more of my opinion instead of just the points I was trying to get across. This not only happened because I was passionate about the project, but because I really wanted to feel good about this paper and I really wanted to get a good grade on it. My writing style was more of my opinion in not only a way of my opinion on my topic, but also in a way of trying to get my point across, i felt that if i put more of myself into the paper it would seem more like a personal connection instead of just a paper, which people find it easier to connect to.
Anish Wells
The Electro Globe
Imagine a world that is entirely based off of technology. Social networking is the only kind of interaction that people get. Humans rely entirely on the computers that are in their pockets for information and school, or the ones in front of them for many other sources of research. The brisk sent of chemicals and human hormones fill the air, the sound of fans and cooling systems can be heard everywhere, this is the Electro globe, the world that society is coming to. the world that YOU, as society's guinea pig, are coming to.
Life is getting easier and easier with all of the tech today, not only is this is an opinion, but a fact. “It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.” -Tom Clancy. Technology is not only used in a way to do your research, or a way to talk to your friends; in this day and age, tech is basically used as a human’s brain. We have computers that can fit in your pocket and can basically find anything and any source of information in 7 seconds or less. Now, this all sounds pretty good right? Well let’s look at the other side of the argument. Even though technology may be helping us in many ways, it appears to be creating difficulties with social interaction, and social integration. It seems that in this day and age people get in car accidents because of texting, and little kids can't form a decent conversation with adults because they are too plugged in. These are just a few of the effects from the Electro globe.
The average young American now spends practically every waking minute using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones. And because so many of them are multitasking, they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours. “I feel like my days would be boring without it,” said Francisco Sepulveda, a 14-year-old Bronx eighth grader who uses his smart phone to surf the Web, watch videos, listen to music — and send or receive about 500 texts a day. (New york times. Tamar Lewin)
But to be honest with you, we’re all a bunch of co-dependents, I can't just blame America or my generation for this! Of the top 10 internet sites in the world (as measured by unique monthly visitors), eight of them are American-owned, I’m talking about Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Wikipedia. Yet 81% of the users responsible for all this traffic come from outside the United States. So maybe technology is actually HELPING us to integrate with other countries? This proves that Globalization is in full force. And that we need the rest of the world just as much as they need us. At least when it comes to the internet. By looking at this, it only more provides evidence that Globalization is not only part of the world that we think we are in, it is also a part of the Electro globe.
There was a time when Coca-Cola was the hallmark of all global companies, selling its soft drinks in almost every country, in virtually every language and in every way. But now the world is used to McDonald's selling hamburgers in Moscow, while Toyota trucks roam the cold ground of Russia, and Sony televisions occupy a central location in homes worldwide. This is the golden age for business, commerce and trade. Never before in the history of the world has there been such an opportunity to sell as many goods to as many people as there is right now. This is, in a nutshell, the process of integration.
Technology IS effecting the way that humans interact and integrate with each other, not only in a way of not being to communicate without being socially awkward or impaired, but also by ways of war and weaponry. Another part of society today is; If a certain country or group of countries becomes massively technologically advanced in ways of weapons, other countries will become scared and eventually try to become as or more technologically advanced in a way that they can basically annihilate part of the globe. This theory has been proven by The Cold War between the U.S and Soviet Russia. This is (based off my hypothesis) also a very big part of the Electro globe
In a world that is based off of technology, it seems that the only kind of interaction between humans would be on social networking sites, texts, video chats, live chats and other sites that don’t involve actual interaction. This is the Electro globe, where technology has impaired the average humans social interaction skills to a point where they almost don't exist any more. The Electroglobe has created wars that are entirely based off of technologic weapons, and are fought only and completely by technologic soldiers. The Electro globe has created a system where if one part goes down, so does the rest. The Electro globe has integrated the world as we knew it to an extent that was never thought of. The Electroglobe has made some things better, and some things very….very much worse. So as a conclusion to my paper here, I would like to just ask the reader one question…... Does it work?
Work Cited
Clancy, Tom. "Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
Greenfield, Susan. "Modern Technology Is Changing the Way Our Brains Work, Says Neuroscientist." Mail Online. Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/, 21 May 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"Impact of Technology Change,Social Change,Sociology Guide." Guide, Sociology. Sociology Guide, 2014. http://www.sociologyguide.com Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Lewin, Tamar. "If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online." New York times. N.p., 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Pentronic, Stephen. "Daily Reckoning." Daily Reckoning. Stephen Pentronic, 7 Feb. 2014. http://dailyreckoning.com Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION." World, Trade Organization. WTO. Http://www.wto.org/, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Watch the video of all he veterans below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIhxjnVNN8g
The Tonkin Incident.
Although the Tonkin incident was considered “unprovoked” by American arguments, evidence shows that Vietnamese fishing boats were harassed by American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Evidence is provided by many documents proving this point.
Conceded argument.
Even though the U.S destroyers were in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, there was no need for them to be attacked by the Vietcong. Vietnamese officials could have told the destroyers to leave before attacking, or even just asked why the Americans were there in the first place, to help solve the problem nonviolently.Yet, if a nation was in a situation where a more powerful nation than the less powerful one was pressuring it by showing its muscles right next to where the nation was placed, it would probably not react so kindly. It is possible the U.S military was trying to strike fear into the minds and hearts of the vietnamese people. Like a way of warning them not to embrace communism.
Although the attack by Vietnamese boats on U.S destroyers was said to be unprovoked, evidence in “The Real Story”, a conversation between Robert Anderson, the U.S Secretary of Treasury, and American President Lyndon Johnson, gives an example: “Administration officials were unwilling to admit that the U.S Navy destroyers may have been engaged in proactive military action against North Vietnam.” (Document 3). This shows that there might have been a more realistic story than the one told by Administration officials, one that is tells the truth about the Tonkin Incident. Questions that come to mind when discussing this are; Why was the U.S destroyer in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Tonkin in the first place? It could have been a threat towards the Vietnamese people who were moving toward the communist side of the argument. What was this “proactive engagement” that the President and Secretary of Treasury mention? Could it have been an attack that happened and was kept secret?
Emphasized argument #1.
1964, the major issue of capitalism versus communism is at its high point, civilians and the American public are becoming more and more heated about the topic. Some Americans such as McGeorge Bundy, an elected official, sent letters to the President, trying to get some form of their opinion across. In one particular letter Mcgeorge states “The right course is to continue to strengthen our struggle against the communist terror”. (Document 4). This implied that he believed the attack on the Gulf of Tonkin was the right thing to do because it would help stop communism from spreading in the east. In my opinion, the American people are confusing their opinions about the Gulf of Tonkin, with the struggle against communism.
Analysis
By close reading a document on the Tonkin Incident, it seems interesting that the cables sent by Captain Herrick, skipper of the U.S destroyer that was attacked, give no actual sighting of the ship that ”attacked” them. In a record of the cables, it states that Captain Herrick says, “The reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that the sonarman was hearing the ships own propeller beat”.
Also he states that: “No actual visual sightings by the Maddox”. (Document 7) Implies that the whole incident could have just been a miscalculation and actually didn't happen at all.
Emphasized argument #2
Although the U.S said that the attack on the Vietnamese boats was unprovoked, even more evidence for the other point of view provided by Document Number 9, by the spokesman of the Vietnamese army and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, provides a different point of view, clearly stating, “In the night of July 31-August 1, the U.S imperialists again sent a destroyer to encroach upon North Vietnam's territorial waters in Quang Binh province”.
Based on the evidence shown in this document, a U.S warship had been cruising for two days, The first and second of August 1964, between Hon Mat island (Nghe An) and Hon Me island (Thanh Hoa) to intimidate fishing boats, openly infringing upon vietnamese territorial waters. In the afternoon of August 2, it encountered Vietnamese patrol boats. In face of the provocations by U.S military, the Vietnamese patrol ships took action to defend their territorial waters. Afterwards, the patrol ships returned their bases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIhxjnVNN8g
The Tonkin Incident.
Although the Tonkin incident was considered “unprovoked” by American arguments, evidence shows that Vietnamese fishing boats were harassed by American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Evidence is provided by many documents proving this point.
Conceded argument.
Even though the U.S destroyers were in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, there was no need for them to be attacked by the Vietcong. Vietnamese officials could have told the destroyers to leave before attacking, or even just asked why the Americans were there in the first place, to help solve the problem nonviolently.Yet, if a nation was in a situation where a more powerful nation than the less powerful one was pressuring it by showing its muscles right next to where the nation was placed, it would probably not react so kindly. It is possible the U.S military was trying to strike fear into the minds and hearts of the vietnamese people. Like a way of warning them not to embrace communism.
Although the attack by Vietnamese boats on U.S destroyers was said to be unprovoked, evidence in “The Real Story”, a conversation between Robert Anderson, the U.S Secretary of Treasury, and American President Lyndon Johnson, gives an example: “Administration officials were unwilling to admit that the U.S Navy destroyers may have been engaged in proactive military action against North Vietnam.” (Document 3). This shows that there might have been a more realistic story than the one told by Administration officials, one that is tells the truth about the Tonkin Incident. Questions that come to mind when discussing this are; Why was the U.S destroyer in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Tonkin in the first place? It could have been a threat towards the Vietnamese people who were moving toward the communist side of the argument. What was this “proactive engagement” that the President and Secretary of Treasury mention? Could it have been an attack that happened and was kept secret?
Emphasized argument #1.
1964, the major issue of capitalism versus communism is at its high point, civilians and the American public are becoming more and more heated about the topic. Some Americans such as McGeorge Bundy, an elected official, sent letters to the President, trying to get some form of their opinion across. In one particular letter Mcgeorge states “The right course is to continue to strengthen our struggle against the communist terror”. (Document 4). This implied that he believed the attack on the Gulf of Tonkin was the right thing to do because it would help stop communism from spreading in the east. In my opinion, the American people are confusing their opinions about the Gulf of Tonkin, with the struggle against communism.
Analysis
By close reading a document on the Tonkin Incident, it seems interesting that the cables sent by Captain Herrick, skipper of the U.S destroyer that was attacked, give no actual sighting of the ship that ”attacked” them. In a record of the cables, it states that Captain Herrick says, “The reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that the sonarman was hearing the ships own propeller beat”.
Also he states that: “No actual visual sightings by the Maddox”. (Document 7) Implies that the whole incident could have just been a miscalculation and actually didn't happen at all.
Emphasized argument #2
Although the U.S said that the attack on the Vietnamese boats was unprovoked, even more evidence for the other point of view provided by Document Number 9, by the spokesman of the Vietnamese army and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, provides a different point of view, clearly stating, “In the night of July 31-August 1, the U.S imperialists again sent a destroyer to encroach upon North Vietnam's territorial waters in Quang Binh province”.
Based on the evidence shown in this document, a U.S warship had been cruising for two days, The first and second of August 1964, between Hon Mat island (Nghe An) and Hon Me island (Thanh Hoa) to intimidate fishing boats, openly infringing upon vietnamese territorial waters. In the afternoon of August 2, it encountered Vietnamese patrol boats. In face of the provocations by U.S military, the Vietnamese patrol ships took action to defend their territorial waters. Afterwards, the patrol ships returned their bases.
Veterans history project. (Vietnam Project)
Project reflection; Veterans History Project
Leading up to this project,we did numerous tasks that helped us prepare for the actual in class writing, and interview. One of these tasks was another in class writing about the bombing of Dresden. In this in class writing we watched a movie, and read several documents to discover what actually happened in this incident and then we were told to pick a opinion and write about it during one class period. After that, we went on a field trip to ignacio and were talked to by Rod Grove, a veteran and part of the Ute colorguard. Then we did a role preference notecard which was just us telling stephen which role we would want in the project that we were about to start. Then we did the Tonkin notes, which were the documents that were were basing our opinion off of. We read those and took notes on a worksheet that stephen handed out. After that we did a gallery walk critique which was just critiquing other piers work by doing a gallery walk and reading one paragraph from each student's paper.Then we did a seminar on the book The Things We Carried, after reading a couple chapters. Then, after all of that, we wrote our in class essays about the Gulf of Tonkin.
1)
My role in this process was the communicator, I was the one who would contact the veteran and schedule all of the meetings, interviews, and i would gather the biographical data.
2)I feel like I succeeded so much in my role because I love to talk to people and talking / interviewing is my strong point. I find it easy to talk to people and in front of crowds so just having to do that for this project was a good role for me. I do not feel that i did anything wrong in this project, although at the beginning of the first interview that we did I forgot that Ellie (our logistics worker) had to state the first part with the names and we ended up completely having to redo our interview because of that and some other reasons. If I were offered another role I would not take it, I liked the one I had.
3) something that stuck with me throughout this project was when my veteran was talking about his post-war life and he stated that you have to live with your devils, (devils being memorys) and that if you don’t embrace them they will kill you. I do not feel like my truth of wa changed when i was working with my veteran, as much as it did when writing the paper. That changed my perspective on who was in the right and who was in the wrong during this war.
I think that out of all of the historical thinking skills that we worked on during this project, sourcing was the hardest for me because at first I had the sourcing for the project done the way that stephen wanted us to do it, but then when my mother and father proofread it they told me to change it to adding footnotes and then the description at the bottom. After that, it was the day before the paper was due and steven told me to change it back again because it was wrong. I think that out of all the historical thinking skills that we used in this project, close reading was probably my favorite and the one that I did the best on. I feel that I did the best on this because I like looking deeper into things and this was an opportunity to look deeper into the text and think about it critically.
One of the major changes I made to my paper was rewriting my second to last paragraph completely, I did this because I didn’t like the style that that paragraph had and it didn't work to well with all of my other paragraphs and my paper overall. The way that I had to do that was to persevere through the night staying up late and working on my paper. Another big change that I made was getting all of my spelling and grammar to be up to par because it was really bad the day before the paper was due and I had to fix it all up. Again I just had to persevere through the night. This affects my reader because the higher quality my grammer and my paper in general is, the easier it is going to be for the reader to read and understand it.
Project reflection; Veterans History Project
Leading up to this project,we did numerous tasks that helped us prepare for the actual in class writing, and interview. One of these tasks was another in class writing about the bombing of Dresden. In this in class writing we watched a movie, and read several documents to discover what actually happened in this incident and then we were told to pick a opinion and write about it during one class period. After that, we went on a field trip to ignacio and were talked to by Rod Grove, a veteran and part of the Ute colorguard. Then we did a role preference notecard which was just us telling stephen which role we would want in the project that we were about to start. Then we did the Tonkin notes, which were the documents that were were basing our opinion off of. We read those and took notes on a worksheet that stephen handed out. After that we did a gallery walk critique which was just critiquing other piers work by doing a gallery walk and reading one paragraph from each student's paper.Then we did a seminar on the book The Things We Carried, after reading a couple chapters. Then, after all of that, we wrote our in class essays about the Gulf of Tonkin.
1)
My role in this process was the communicator, I was the one who would contact the veteran and schedule all of the meetings, interviews, and i would gather the biographical data.
2)I feel like I succeeded so much in my role because I love to talk to people and talking / interviewing is my strong point. I find it easy to talk to people and in front of crowds so just having to do that for this project was a good role for me. I do not feel that i did anything wrong in this project, although at the beginning of the first interview that we did I forgot that Ellie (our logistics worker) had to state the first part with the names and we ended up completely having to redo our interview because of that and some other reasons. If I were offered another role I would not take it, I liked the one I had.
3) something that stuck with me throughout this project was when my veteran was talking about his post-war life and he stated that you have to live with your devils, (devils being memorys) and that if you don’t embrace them they will kill you. I do not feel like my truth of wa changed when i was working with my veteran, as much as it did when writing the paper. That changed my perspective on who was in the right and who was in the wrong during this war.
I think that out of all of the historical thinking skills that we worked on during this project, sourcing was the hardest for me because at first I had the sourcing for the project done the way that stephen wanted us to do it, but then when my mother and father proofread it they told me to change it to adding footnotes and then the description at the bottom. After that, it was the day before the paper was due and steven told me to change it back again because it was wrong. I think that out of all the historical thinking skills that we used in this project, close reading was probably my favorite and the one that I did the best on. I feel that I did the best on this because I like looking deeper into things and this was an opportunity to look deeper into the text and think about it critically.
One of the major changes I made to my paper was rewriting my second to last paragraph completely, I did this because I didn’t like the style that that paragraph had and it didn't work to well with all of my other paragraphs and my paper overall. The way that I had to do that was to persevere through the night staying up late and working on my paper. Another big change that I made was getting all of my spelling and grammar to be up to par because it was really bad the day before the paper was due and I had to fix it all up. Again I just had to persevere through the night. This affects my reader because the higher quality my grammer and my paper in general is, the easier it is going to be for the reader to read and understand it.
WWI Creative Historians
Short story. The Greek
By Anish Wells.
September 25, 1896.
A baby boy is born. The mother, Anastasia Elpis dies while in childbirth. Her last words were “Keep him safe” which brought the father, Kallias Elpis to tears. All the while their new son was staring at the mother with seafoam blue eyes that did not fit his face. Not yet able to think, he did not understand what was happening, he also did not understand that this moment would scar him for the rest of his life.
June 16, 1902.
A six year old boy is playing a game of find and catch, a rough version of hide and seek. He is the last one that was still hiding. The day before he built a hidden shelter on the beach, knowing that he was going to play the game he was playing today. He chose to build this shelter on the beach because he loved the sea, and was obsessed with the greek god Poseidon. He would spend a lot of his time in class studying greek mythology, and he was excited that these were his roots.
February 9, 1912.
A sixteen year old boy is in a fight with a 30 year old man who looks and smells as if he just crawled out of tartarus itself. They are throwing punches left and right, a kind of aimless battering like two male seals fighting over dominance. The older man seems to be losing bad, it seems as if every punch he throws goes right through the boy and misses. They are fighting because the man called the boy’s father a failure.
August 3 1915.
A nineteen year old man is taking care of his father, who has come down with a terrible sickness. It is raining outside and the air smells of wet dog. The father, Kallias Elpis looks at his son and wonders if this will be the last time that he ever see’s him. As the father’s breath becomes more and more faint, he tells his son that he want’s him to join the military. The son is shocked, he always hated the military and with all the news coming up about Serbia and Austria Hungary he was worried that he might be drafted...But this, his own father wanting him to join sent chills down his spine.
He looked at his father with dark blue, almost black eyes. He had heard that his eyes were lighter when he was a child but he didn’t believe it...How could something so prominent change in so little time? How could his father want him to enlist? He knows that he needs his son to take care of him! Plus he couldn't enlist, he knew nothing about war, he had never even shot a gun before, and he definitely wasn't the strongest man on the island.
After a long and terrible fight, the father coughed himself to sleep, his breaths taken at a unexpected beat like a song without rhythm. The son who was supposed to be helping his father felt more like he was killing him. He couldn't join the military, but he couldn't resist his father. This man had raised him and taught him everything he knew, how could he betray him now? That night the son packed his things and left, without words to his father, leaving his entire life, and the people he loved behind him.
The next morning he was part of the military, he was given lots of options for which branches he wanted to join, many of which he wondered why they even had. He signed up for the navy, which didn't seem that bad, he had always loved the ocean and so this seemed like a good opportunity for him to experience it first hand. His paper said he would ship off in ten days, and he was to report the the recruitment office tomorrow to get his uniform and his pack.
10 days later...
Abdures Elpis, a twenty year old man walks down the train station, going to the train that will take him to his destiny. He was having second thought’s earlier that day, almost wanting to run away from everything and responsibility and go live in a cave. But he pulled himself together, just like he always did. “Train six...Train six.” He thought to himself as he walked down the long hallway. Trains were new to Abdures, he had seen them before but he had never really been on one, When he was young a couple of friends and him had tried to sneak on one but were caught and forced to clean the carts on the train.
Luckily they hadn't told his father...His father, he’d tried to not think about him in the last couple of days but it was hard to keep so many memories suppressed, so many thoughts, some good, and some bad.
The muffled voice of a conductor broke his thoughts, He couldn't hear it very well but from what he could hear this was his train. He boarded and sat next to a man who looked just about as young as him if not younger. The man was skinny, but looked like he did not respond well to being bullied. His hair was dark brown and he had a tan outfit on, looking like he just got out of a job. Abdures looked around the cart and was amazed, these men looked just as scared as he did. The man next to him turned with a sarcastic slump and said “Huh, were more like boys than men.” Abdures turned, “Ha, you got that one right.”
The man smiled, A kind of wicked cheeky grin like he just stole your wallet and replaced it with a mouse trap. His teeth looked grimy, but then again so did everybody elses nowadays. “I'm Adam” He said, “Adam Jerome.” “Nice to meet you.” Abdures says. On the entire train ride the two men talked, Abdures learned that this was the other man’s first time on a train also and they both were amazed by it.
While they were talking Abdures noticed the man's ticket. It said TC176. The same as his. “Hey!” Abdures said excitedly, You're going to TC176, that’s where i'm going to! “Ha! would you look at that!” Adam said, “I guess we’ll be Dien’ together then.” Abdures laughed. It felt good to laugh, He hadn’t laughed in a while.
12 Days later.
Left, under, jump, dodge. Abdures was doing good today, he had completed the training course in less than 20 seconds; that's more than half of what the next best score was. He had been training non stop for the last 10 days, at first he was a little bit shaky, he had been hit by lots of the obstacles. He had tripped, slipped, and hit the ground so many times that he couldn't count em’.
But now he was winning, and boy did he love winning; He got this feeling of pure strength and adrenaline. This kind of fiery, lightning like energy. Now he didn’t even have to think about the course, he knew every corner and crevice, every plank and fence... He could do it blindfolded.
In the shooting range he was good also, there had been a contest for a MAS 1873 revolver that he had won. All the other men had the standard Ruby pistol which was decent but definitely didn’t have the precision that the MAS had. He had won it by shooting a card from one hundred meters. It felt good carrying the MAS, it was like a sense of accomplishment that you could hold.
He was supposed to ship out to the military base 2 days ago but it had been postponed because the car convoy that was taking the troops was ambushed and destroyed. But now he was off. He had received his note that his car would be here today so he should pack his things, shave, and put on his uniform.
Adam was going to the same place, a small military camp in Areopoli. Abdures had never been to Areopoli before, in fact he had never been outside of his island , but he had heard lots of thing’s about the outside world, all of the different foods and clothing, the different styles and cultures, he was surprised at how excited he was to drive over there.
After the drive Abdures was informed to go to the TC176 office building. Adam and him walked over, all the while talking about the drive. When they got there they went to their rooms, or more of beds with a small wall around them, and got settled in.
2 month’s later.
After the training that they had gone threw, Adam and Abdures were very prepared, they had spent the last twelve months on the ocean, learning everything they could possibly learn about boats, ships, and..well the ocean. They had spent countless hours working on the “pride of the hellenic navy” as their commander called it. The Lemnos.
Every man that had worked on this ship and that had gone threw the training could have been the captain but he had already been “hand picked” by the the commander. Captain John Price, was his name. He was an arrogant American man with jet black hair. He didn’t do the training and he didn’t know anything compared to some of the other men, such as Abdures.
None of the crew liked him and he was oblivious to that, always thinking that he was the best at everything. Abdures probably hated him the most, constant competition…The man was always telling Abdures what to do even though he was the exact same rank! He was selected because his father was the captain of the Lemnos’s predecessor.
One day, Abdures and some of the guys on the crew were playing a harmless joke on Price, covering him in some of the reserve shaving cream while he was sleeping. When he woke up he was so mad that he decided to go to the commander, he said that it was a sign that the men did not respect him, and that they should be punished. Lucky he didn’t know who had one it to him so they got off scott free.
“Today is the day.” Abdures thought as he walked down the gangway, “This is how it begin’s..” He boarded the ship and went to his cabin. This is what he had been training for in the last two months, this moment of this day. He had been put on the job of repair, it wasn’t the best job because you didn’t get to see the sun that often, you mostly had to stay below decks and work on the engine but at least it was better than cleaning crew or chef.
Adam was put on coal crew, which was not the best job, unless it was a cold day, Abdures guessed that he spent most his time shoveling coal which would be exhausting labour. Plus sitting in the hot coal room all day with hot clothes on, he didn’t know how Adam was gonna do it.
3 months later.
The last three month’s had been thrilling and crazy, the Lemnos hadn’t been to any battles but that definitely didn’t mean nobody died. There had been a terrible sickness going around, Typhoid. The flies were bad around the ship, at first Abdures was weirded out by it, it seems like there would not be flies over the ocean, but then he realized they weren't over the ocean they had followed the ship and had multiplied by hundreds.
The flies would get into the mens wounds and make them unsanitary, not that they were sanitary in the first place..but they made them worse. Causing lots of bad diseases and terrible coughing fits. Some of the men would even cough up blood.
Abdures had become much more of a hardened man, he had been spending most of his time working out in his cabin because there wasn’t much more to do and he had become much stronger, he drank rum with his friends when he got the chance and sometimes they would gamble, mostly with rations because money didn't make much of a difference out on the ocean.
He also spent a lot of his time wondering about his dad, and he regretted leaving him alone the overwhelming urge to jump ship and swim home consumed him. He would have these day’s where he just would feel terrible not because of sickness but because of regret, it became more of a thing the more and more he would think about his dad. He wished he could just forget about it but blocking the memory completely didn’t seem to work at all.
It was June 5th, 1915, The day was warm and the air smelt crisp, like a crack of a whip would smell, the Lemnos had been making its way toward russia for the last month, and was near approaching… They were about a day's sail from the Suez canal, the only way to get from Greece to Russia in the great water. They were transporting guns and food which they had been given by Italy on their stop there.
The days seemed to be getting longer...And hotter it was like the sun was getting bigger every day. Abdures had forgot the feeling of being on solid land because he had been on the ocean to long. But none of that mattered because they were there, the Suez canal was on the horizon and fast approaching.
It was June 6 1915, abdures was on watch duty and was tired, he had spent the last day working and doing hard labour on the Lemnos. The day was just about at an end, the sun set a beautiful sacrebleu and purple. The air smelt of fresh food and seawater, but wait...No it didn’t the smell was changing it was becoming more metallic...Almost like…..Blood. It was everywhere the entire sea looked like it was a can of tomato juice, and there were things, dead things in the water. Not just soldiers but animals, and even women and children! Their lifeless bodies floating bloated and deformed.
At first Abdures thought he was dreaming he pinched himself hundreds of times and even hit his head against one of the metal doors, but then he realized that he wasn't dreaming and that these were real people, well they were real people now they were just all the things that Abdures feared, Death, not seeing his father again abandoning his crewmates. These thoughts almost brought him to tears, his eyes fogging up like a pair of glasses being breathed on.
Abdures had to warn the captain… He sprinted down the ship, almost running into every door, wall and person that was in front of him. He had no energy by the time he got to the captains quarters, Dead...The people in the water...were in danger..He said in short raspy breaths as he burst into the captains room, waking him in a startle. The last thing that Abdures remembered was falling to the ground, his eyes going yellow and then black.
July 14th, 1929.
Abdures sat in his home on the island, his wife Nikias Elpis was teaching their four year old daughter, Anastasia Elpis how to make Graham Gemn, Abdures’s favorite food. Abdures was thinking about the war and how when he had returned home his father had passed away. He had remembered the tears that had been shed because of his father and he remembered the memories of when he was a child. Abdures was a thirty two year old man, he had his regrets but right then he realized he was content with his life, and he didn’t wish it to change at all..
By Anish Wells.
September 25, 1896.
A baby boy is born. The mother, Anastasia Elpis dies while in childbirth. Her last words were “Keep him safe” which brought the father, Kallias Elpis to tears. All the while their new son was staring at the mother with seafoam blue eyes that did not fit his face. Not yet able to think, he did not understand what was happening, he also did not understand that this moment would scar him for the rest of his life.
June 16, 1902.
A six year old boy is playing a game of find and catch, a rough version of hide and seek. He is the last one that was still hiding. The day before he built a hidden shelter on the beach, knowing that he was going to play the game he was playing today. He chose to build this shelter on the beach because he loved the sea, and was obsessed with the greek god Poseidon. He would spend a lot of his time in class studying greek mythology, and he was excited that these were his roots.
February 9, 1912.
A sixteen year old boy is in a fight with a 30 year old man who looks and smells as if he just crawled out of tartarus itself. They are throwing punches left and right, a kind of aimless battering like two male seals fighting over dominance. The older man seems to be losing bad, it seems as if every punch he throws goes right through the boy and misses. They are fighting because the man called the boy’s father a failure.
August 3 1915.
A nineteen year old man is taking care of his father, who has come down with a terrible sickness. It is raining outside and the air smells of wet dog. The father, Kallias Elpis looks at his son and wonders if this will be the last time that he ever see’s him. As the father’s breath becomes more and more faint, he tells his son that he want’s him to join the military. The son is shocked, he always hated the military and with all the news coming up about Serbia and Austria Hungary he was worried that he might be drafted...But this, his own father wanting him to join sent chills down his spine.
He looked at his father with dark blue, almost black eyes. He had heard that his eyes were lighter when he was a child but he didn’t believe it...How could something so prominent change in so little time? How could his father want him to enlist? He knows that he needs his son to take care of him! Plus he couldn't enlist, he knew nothing about war, he had never even shot a gun before, and he definitely wasn't the strongest man on the island.
After a long and terrible fight, the father coughed himself to sleep, his breaths taken at a unexpected beat like a song without rhythm. The son who was supposed to be helping his father felt more like he was killing him. He couldn't join the military, but he couldn't resist his father. This man had raised him and taught him everything he knew, how could he betray him now? That night the son packed his things and left, without words to his father, leaving his entire life, and the people he loved behind him.
The next morning he was part of the military, he was given lots of options for which branches he wanted to join, many of which he wondered why they even had. He signed up for the navy, which didn't seem that bad, he had always loved the ocean and so this seemed like a good opportunity for him to experience it first hand. His paper said he would ship off in ten days, and he was to report the the recruitment office tomorrow to get his uniform and his pack.
10 days later...
Abdures Elpis, a twenty year old man walks down the train station, going to the train that will take him to his destiny. He was having second thought’s earlier that day, almost wanting to run away from everything and responsibility and go live in a cave. But he pulled himself together, just like he always did. “Train six...Train six.” He thought to himself as he walked down the long hallway. Trains were new to Abdures, he had seen them before but he had never really been on one, When he was young a couple of friends and him had tried to sneak on one but were caught and forced to clean the carts on the train.
Luckily they hadn't told his father...His father, he’d tried to not think about him in the last couple of days but it was hard to keep so many memories suppressed, so many thoughts, some good, and some bad.
The muffled voice of a conductor broke his thoughts, He couldn't hear it very well but from what he could hear this was his train. He boarded and sat next to a man who looked just about as young as him if not younger. The man was skinny, but looked like he did not respond well to being bullied. His hair was dark brown and he had a tan outfit on, looking like he just got out of a job. Abdures looked around the cart and was amazed, these men looked just as scared as he did. The man next to him turned with a sarcastic slump and said “Huh, were more like boys than men.” Abdures turned, “Ha, you got that one right.”
The man smiled, A kind of wicked cheeky grin like he just stole your wallet and replaced it with a mouse trap. His teeth looked grimy, but then again so did everybody elses nowadays. “I'm Adam” He said, “Adam Jerome.” “Nice to meet you.” Abdures says. On the entire train ride the two men talked, Abdures learned that this was the other man’s first time on a train also and they both were amazed by it.
While they were talking Abdures noticed the man's ticket. It said TC176. The same as his. “Hey!” Abdures said excitedly, You're going to TC176, that’s where i'm going to! “Ha! would you look at that!” Adam said, “I guess we’ll be Dien’ together then.” Abdures laughed. It felt good to laugh, He hadn’t laughed in a while.
12 Days later.
Left, under, jump, dodge. Abdures was doing good today, he had completed the training course in less than 20 seconds; that's more than half of what the next best score was. He had been training non stop for the last 10 days, at first he was a little bit shaky, he had been hit by lots of the obstacles. He had tripped, slipped, and hit the ground so many times that he couldn't count em’.
But now he was winning, and boy did he love winning; He got this feeling of pure strength and adrenaline. This kind of fiery, lightning like energy. Now he didn’t even have to think about the course, he knew every corner and crevice, every plank and fence... He could do it blindfolded.
In the shooting range he was good also, there had been a contest for a MAS 1873 revolver that he had won. All the other men had the standard Ruby pistol which was decent but definitely didn’t have the precision that the MAS had. He had won it by shooting a card from one hundred meters. It felt good carrying the MAS, it was like a sense of accomplishment that you could hold.
He was supposed to ship out to the military base 2 days ago but it had been postponed because the car convoy that was taking the troops was ambushed and destroyed. But now he was off. He had received his note that his car would be here today so he should pack his things, shave, and put on his uniform.
Adam was going to the same place, a small military camp in Areopoli. Abdures had never been to Areopoli before, in fact he had never been outside of his island , but he had heard lots of thing’s about the outside world, all of the different foods and clothing, the different styles and cultures, he was surprised at how excited he was to drive over there.
After the drive Abdures was informed to go to the TC176 office building. Adam and him walked over, all the while talking about the drive. When they got there they went to their rooms, or more of beds with a small wall around them, and got settled in.
2 month’s later.
After the training that they had gone threw, Adam and Abdures were very prepared, they had spent the last twelve months on the ocean, learning everything they could possibly learn about boats, ships, and..well the ocean. They had spent countless hours working on the “pride of the hellenic navy” as their commander called it. The Lemnos.
Every man that had worked on this ship and that had gone threw the training could have been the captain but he had already been “hand picked” by the the commander. Captain John Price, was his name. He was an arrogant American man with jet black hair. He didn’t do the training and he didn’t know anything compared to some of the other men, such as Abdures.
None of the crew liked him and he was oblivious to that, always thinking that he was the best at everything. Abdures probably hated him the most, constant competition…The man was always telling Abdures what to do even though he was the exact same rank! He was selected because his father was the captain of the Lemnos’s predecessor.
One day, Abdures and some of the guys on the crew were playing a harmless joke on Price, covering him in some of the reserve shaving cream while he was sleeping. When he woke up he was so mad that he decided to go to the commander, he said that it was a sign that the men did not respect him, and that they should be punished. Lucky he didn’t know who had one it to him so they got off scott free.
“Today is the day.” Abdures thought as he walked down the gangway, “This is how it begin’s..” He boarded the ship and went to his cabin. This is what he had been training for in the last two months, this moment of this day. He had been put on the job of repair, it wasn’t the best job because you didn’t get to see the sun that often, you mostly had to stay below decks and work on the engine but at least it was better than cleaning crew or chef.
Adam was put on coal crew, which was not the best job, unless it was a cold day, Abdures guessed that he spent most his time shoveling coal which would be exhausting labour. Plus sitting in the hot coal room all day with hot clothes on, he didn’t know how Adam was gonna do it.
3 months later.
The last three month’s had been thrilling and crazy, the Lemnos hadn’t been to any battles but that definitely didn’t mean nobody died. There had been a terrible sickness going around, Typhoid. The flies were bad around the ship, at first Abdures was weirded out by it, it seems like there would not be flies over the ocean, but then he realized they weren't over the ocean they had followed the ship and had multiplied by hundreds.
The flies would get into the mens wounds and make them unsanitary, not that they were sanitary in the first place..but they made them worse. Causing lots of bad diseases and terrible coughing fits. Some of the men would even cough up blood.
Abdures had become much more of a hardened man, he had been spending most of his time working out in his cabin because there wasn’t much more to do and he had become much stronger, he drank rum with his friends when he got the chance and sometimes they would gamble, mostly with rations because money didn't make much of a difference out on the ocean.
He also spent a lot of his time wondering about his dad, and he regretted leaving him alone the overwhelming urge to jump ship and swim home consumed him. He would have these day’s where he just would feel terrible not because of sickness but because of regret, it became more of a thing the more and more he would think about his dad. He wished he could just forget about it but blocking the memory completely didn’t seem to work at all.
It was June 5th, 1915, The day was warm and the air smelt crisp, like a crack of a whip would smell, the Lemnos had been making its way toward russia for the last month, and was near approaching… They were about a day's sail from the Suez canal, the only way to get from Greece to Russia in the great water. They were transporting guns and food which they had been given by Italy on their stop there.
The days seemed to be getting longer...And hotter it was like the sun was getting bigger every day. Abdures had forgot the feeling of being on solid land because he had been on the ocean to long. But none of that mattered because they were there, the Suez canal was on the horizon and fast approaching.
It was June 6 1915, abdures was on watch duty and was tired, he had spent the last day working and doing hard labour on the Lemnos. The day was just about at an end, the sun set a beautiful sacrebleu and purple. The air smelt of fresh food and seawater, but wait...No it didn’t the smell was changing it was becoming more metallic...Almost like…..Blood. It was everywhere the entire sea looked like it was a can of tomato juice, and there were things, dead things in the water. Not just soldiers but animals, and even women and children! Their lifeless bodies floating bloated and deformed.
At first Abdures thought he was dreaming he pinched himself hundreds of times and even hit his head against one of the metal doors, but then he realized that he wasn't dreaming and that these were real people, well they were real people now they were just all the things that Abdures feared, Death, not seeing his father again abandoning his crewmates. These thoughts almost brought him to tears, his eyes fogging up like a pair of glasses being breathed on.
Abdures had to warn the captain… He sprinted down the ship, almost running into every door, wall and person that was in front of him. He had no energy by the time he got to the captains quarters, Dead...The people in the water...were in danger..He said in short raspy breaths as he burst into the captains room, waking him in a startle. The last thing that Abdures remembered was falling to the ground, his eyes going yellow and then black.
July 14th, 1929.
Abdures sat in his home on the island, his wife Nikias Elpis was teaching their four year old daughter, Anastasia Elpis how to make Graham Gemn, Abdures’s favorite food. Abdures was thinking about the war and how when he had returned home his father had passed away. He had remembered the tears that had been shed because of his father and he remembered the memories of when he was a child. Abdures was a thirty two year old man, he had his regrets but right then he realized he was content with his life, and he didn’t wish it to change at all..
Reflection.
1)
The project that we were doing was the “creative historian research short story.” This project was about combining historical detail, facts, and research with a made up short story. The premise of this story was within the world war one era and was supposed to be based off of real facts. In the process of learning these facts for our short stories, we first learned about the acronym MANIA….Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Imperialism, and Assassination. After that we went into groups and discussed what we wanted our short stories to be about and what the details were for our stories. The next week was spent writing and revising our stories.
2)
I feel that my story shows strength in plot, because it was one of the main parts that I focused on when writing. “A baby boy is born. The mother, Anastasia Elpis dies while in childbirth. Her last words were “Keep him safe” which brought the father, Kallias Elpis to tears. All the while their new son was staring at the mother with seafoam blue eyes that did not fit his face. Not yet able to think, he did not understand what was happening, he also did not understand that this moment would scar him for the rest of his life.” That is a quote from my story that I feel shows the plot the best.
3)
I feel like out of all the literary parts of my story, the hardest part that I faced was historical integration because I did not do the best research that I could have done on the historical part. I feel like I could improve on this weakness by doing better research on the integration factor and work more on the parts where my story was weak, plus maybe I could ask a pier to help me or even a teacher. Also I could try going to the library and looking at some books about WW1.
4)
One of the major revisions I made to my story was changing everything about the HMS Dreadnought, at first I had my main character join the british navy and serve on the british ship HMS Dreadnought, but then It came to my attention that there were no greek soldiers that worked on the HMS Dreadnought. The second main revision that I made on my story was making my main characters father die at the end. When I started I was going to have the boy come home to his father and they would have a emotional resolution, but by the end I thought that it would be more dramatic if the father just died completely.
1)
The project that we were doing was the “creative historian research short story.” This project was about combining historical detail, facts, and research with a made up short story. The premise of this story was within the world war one era and was supposed to be based off of real facts. In the process of learning these facts for our short stories, we first learned about the acronym MANIA….Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Imperialism, and Assassination. After that we went into groups and discussed what we wanted our short stories to be about and what the details were for our stories. The next week was spent writing and revising our stories.
2)
I feel that my story shows strength in plot, because it was one of the main parts that I focused on when writing. “A baby boy is born. The mother, Anastasia Elpis dies while in childbirth. Her last words were “Keep him safe” which brought the father, Kallias Elpis to tears. All the while their new son was staring at the mother with seafoam blue eyes that did not fit his face. Not yet able to think, he did not understand what was happening, he also did not understand that this moment would scar him for the rest of his life.” That is a quote from my story that I feel shows the plot the best.
3)
I feel like out of all the literary parts of my story, the hardest part that I faced was historical integration because I did not do the best research that I could have done on the historical part. I feel like I could improve on this weakness by doing better research on the integration factor and work more on the parts where my story was weak, plus maybe I could ask a pier to help me or even a teacher. Also I could try going to the library and looking at some books about WW1.
4)
One of the major revisions I made to my story was changing everything about the HMS Dreadnought, at first I had my main character join the british navy and serve on the british ship HMS Dreadnought, but then It came to my attention that there were no greek soldiers that worked on the HMS Dreadnought. The second main revision that I made on my story was making my main characters father die at the end. When I started I was going to have the boy come home to his father and they would have a emotional resolution, but by the end I thought that it would be more dramatic if the father just died completely.