A Year in Words

Few will complete this assignment (cough* cough* Senioritis)....

And even fewer will read this post,

But I just wanted to share a few words of advice for anyone willing to read this (if you don't read it don't comment).


Advice Pro-tip Numero uno (Number 1)

1. Always keep questioning!!

If we do not remain curious then we do not remain fully human. QUESTION EVERYTHING, never settle for the easy answer, and if you go spewing your opinion (I am quite guilty of this), then at least make the pretense of knowing what you're talking about


Advice Pro-tip Nombre deux

2. The greatest people in life are good at two key things: Procrastination, and Quitting.

This may seem irrational and even illogical, but when thought about it makes sense. The most successful in the world only quit when an endeavor is no longer favourable, or no longer makes sense. They no not quit because it becomes difficult, they quit because it would be more beneficial to start over.

The same is true about procrastinating. They are not the typical "Damn...I have homwork...meh, I'll do it later" type, they procrastinate only when they are unsure how to continue and wait to gauge how future events will play out.


Advice Pro-tip "I've run out of foreign languages" Number 3

3. Taking the easy road out will never reward the best outcome.

This is a motto I live by. I have never, ever taken the easy road out. It can be stressful, annoying and sometimes dangerous, but the reward is worth it.



And now for some random stories...


Location: Iceland
Age: 7 years old

Upon rental of a 4x4 my family drove around the entire Icelandic island; however, not without incident. Our vehicle caught a volcanic sand burm at speed and spun the car 180* onto an inclined slope. The vehicle (with us inside) almost rolled...unluckily we were in the middle of nowhere (basically all of Iceland), yet luckily there were 2 hydroline workers who towed us out with a truck.






Location: Maldivian Atoll, Indian Ocean: Island of Kuramati
Age: 8 years old

I swam in the middle of a large baitball (large congregation of fish near the surface) being attacked by sharks...yeah so that was fun.

Later in the trip I was caught around the neck with coarse rope and was almost lynched...

and finally My knee was stung in volume be a sea anemone, which killed the melanin (skin pigment) for 2 years.

An American Dream

The original American dream was similar to the "perfect family" of Victorian times. This is a family in which the head of the house is an alpha-male, his wife is a housewife, and he has 2 children: a daughter and a son. They all live in their own house with perfect etiquette and knightly manners. However, over the years the meaning of the American dream has changed. Later, it meant a well paying job and a house. As of late, it has a closer relation to the ownership of modern technology and less about owning a house. And while this is a change, both have one thing in common: wealth. Many people commonly mistake being upper-class with being wealthy. Personally, I have seen plenty of upper-class poor people and conversely, lower-class rich people. Class is all about etiquette and manner, and is only related to wealth because of socioeconomics. Wealth itself, is just the ownership of large quantities of material matter, and states nothing of politeness.

Talk of such wealth brings up a new point of how Americans view differences in wealth. The very poor, living in poverty are often viewed as freeloaders (unless they have a mental or physical disability). The extremely wealthy are viewed as insidious, sucking the life out of every day people, no matter how hard they worked or what their original situation was. The only wealth respected by the majority of people is in between. This group is often called middle-class in mistake (don't make me start on my previous lecture again), but should more accurately be called median-income families.

Personally, I have no wish to demonize the extremely wealthy. As far as I'm concerned, if the money was earned because of their hard work, who am I to say they can't be rewarded. As for the extremely poor, some certainly need help to get back on their feet, but many are also freeloaders (30% of people on welfare use some type of drug). Coming from a upper median-income family, I'm sure my personal bias affects my writings; however, I plan to create my own American dream.

Hieroglyphics, or Whitman's Journal?

Part 1:

Starting with the leather bound cover, it immediately becomes apparent that the journal has a more complex closure than a regular one. It features a double fold with a leather tag conjoining the two sides folded over the scripture. Upon examination of the the the papers inside, it's easy to see that the journal was used for multiple purposes besides journal keeping. Included in the pages are anything from contacts, to places and ideas for new texts. Christ, and the religion of Christianity is brought up several times, which would lead to the assumption he was a believer in the faith of Christianity. There also appears to be some sort of running commentary with an imaginary person, and also some sort of seal or stamp.

 Finally, comes the paper itself. It looks to be of a higher quality most likely of British origin; based upon the grain and the yellowing of the pages (color was most likely a cream color originally) it can be determined that the journal was most likely manufactured in the mid 1800s.

Part 2:

Well, I was right about the whole contact thing...and about him using the journal to plan out potential texts. However, I did not realize the seal was a congressional mark, which I found to be of interest. I also had no idea that Walt Whitman had something of a man-crush on Abraham Lincoln (I originally thought it was just an imaginary person, tuns out it was Lincoln), or that he created his own religion, now THAT is something to tell at a cocktail party. 

The next fact of interest was his use of the spanish word "Libertard," meaning liberty in English. Why he chose to use a Spanish word? Absolutely no idea. And apparently, the source had no idea either. I did not mention anything about libertard during my original analysis, but I just thought it was an extremely interesting choice. 

Finally, my analysis of the journal itself. The journal was indeed leather bound, though there was no specific mention of the paper's origin, it would appear the journal was manufactured during the mid 1800s.