The medium is the message

In the story the The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow there is much more detail and suspense than in the movie. The characters and their roles are very different. For instance in the story Crane is a school teacher interested in witch craft and other marvels and in the movie he is a constable who fears witch craftery and thinks that the horse man isn't real. There is much more of a story in the movie and much more detail and less action in the story.

1. Inveterate; establised
2.  Stripling; a youth
3.  Reverberated; to recoil
4.  Hessian Trooper; German soldier
5.  Propensity; natural inclination
6.  Spectre
7.  Bossom 
8.  Cognomen
9.  Torrent
10.  Vicinity
11.  Formidable
12.  Potentates
13.  Ingeniously
14.  Incessant
15.  Abode
16.  Reverie
17.   Eeplot
18. Gambol; to play

Slippery Slope: They were talking about weapons in Syria.

Ad Nauseam: Obama and Romney both were repeating themselves the whole time to get their different points across.

Ad Hominem: Romney attacked Obama saying that he didn't travel to Israel when he visited the Middle East which I thought was irrelevant to what Obama was saying
Post hac ergo propter hoc: guns for security:

Ad Numeron: Obama and Romney both kept referring to numbers to support their points. 

Circular in Demonstrando: In the beginning of the debate Obama and Romney kept going back and forth discussing Iraq

Argumentum ad antiquitatum: Obama said that the military has always been that way, we dont need it

I can't quite find words for the note at the beginning of Sleepy Hollow. I read it in my head with a voice much like a voice over of Vincent Price or the narroator in A Christmas Carol. 

"FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS
OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER."

The line itself is almost enchanting.

 

Vocabulary #8

flout: to openly disregard 
 caveat: a notice or warning
 blazon: to proclaim widely
 filch: to steal casually 
 fractious: bad tempered; easily irritated
 equitable: fair or impartial
 autonomy: self governing
 addendum: in addition
 amnesty: forgiveness for a pass offense
 axiomatic: self-evident; unquestionable
 extricate: free from constraint or difficulty
 soporific: medicine inducing sleep
 scathing: critical or scornful.
 unwieldy: diffucult to carry or move because of size.
 vapid: boring; not stimulating or challenging 
 prognosticate: foretell a future event
 sepulchral: gloomy or dismal
 salutary: positive effect; beneficial
 straitlaced: exaggeratedly proper
 scourge: a whipped used as punishment
 precept: A rule used to regulate.
 transient: impermanent 

Literature Analysis

General : The Kite Runner is an auto biography that tells the story of a boy that grew up in    Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul and later moves to America with his father at the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through soviet invasion. He is raised by his father (Baba) a highly respected man who is seemingly more impressed by their servant's Hazara son, Hassan, who is Amir's companion. Among many things they do together they participated in kite running. A highly honorable event in Afghanistan where boys compete to be the last kite flying by cutting each others strings with their own. When Amir has cut the last kite Hassan runs to retrieve it. "For you a thousand times over." The last kite cut is a high honor. Amir walks up to find Hassan corned in an alley by Assef and friends. He hears them say that Hassan is nothing but a servant to Amir. When Hassan is raped, Amir says nothing and walks away. Later he runs up to Hassan and pretends nothing has happened. He becomes disgusted by seeing him after the fact and decides that now one of them must go. Especially ow that Baba has found pride in him. He plants money and watch given to him by his father in Hassan's quarters and when confronted Hassan admits he had stolen it.    explains they can no longer live there. The story then skips to hears after in a truck escaping to Pakistan. 2 years later they arive in California. Where Baba works at a gas station and Amir graduates high school and begins college. They had taken to selling junk at a flea market where they reunite with a general and other people from home. Amir over time takes a liking to the general's daughter and eventually takes her hand in marriage. They unsuccesfully try to concieve a child. Babe is diagnosed with cancer and refuses treatments. He dies nobel and strong and takes with him most of Amir's confidence.  Amir goes back to afghanistan to see his father's old friend, Rhahim khan. Who goes on to explain Hassan's death and how Amir might rescue the son. Once Amir arrives upon the orphanage Assef recognizes and beats him Sohrab saves him with a sling shot just as Hassan had done. After Amir recovers he finds out that it will be more dificult to adopt Sohrab without being to prove the death of his parents. Before Amir explains his plan to adopt him Sohrab attempts suicide and does not talk after. Soraya is very pleased to have Sohrab because she could not bare chiulderen of her own. Once Amir has taken Sohrab to California he remains with drawn. One day they go to a park where other afghans are playing . Amir shows Sohrab to fly a kite and cuts another with a trick Hassan always loved. Sohrab smiles and Amir runs the kite for him.

The theme was a search for redemption. Amir's quest to do so is the heart of the novel. He shows it in his nature once he begins feeling he needs to make Baba proud of him. His search mostly stems from his guilt from betraying Hassan. The moral standard he must meet to earn his redemption is also told in the begining when Baba tell Rhahm khan " a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything". As a boy he does not have courage. Once he has grown and is given something to stand for (Sohrab) he finds courage and redeems himself.

The tone seems to be irony.  After Baba's emphasis on honor and principles he too betrayed his closest friend Rhahim Khan by leaving without him to America. Amir falls in love with a woman who wants to be a teacher to benefit those who do not yet understand, while Amir had made fun and took advantage of Hassan's lack of knowledge. Amir revolves and sacrifices so much of his life thinking his father doesn't like him, when they have all that is to be had in the world. When they have little and Amir is no longer sweating over impressing his father Baba shows his love and gives his all for Amir's wedding. Again irony is shown when Assef loses his eye by Sohrab after Hassan had threatened it so many years ago. It is also shown when Amir receives a scar on his lip just like Hassan's after his surgery. 

Study Strategy

Study 2 vocab lists a day. Spend time with flash cards and a study buddy one day this week. Send quizzing texts to class mates.

Vocab list 1

Adumbrate: To Report or represent an outline; Indicate faintly; Foreshadow or symbolize; Overshadow

Apotheosis: The highest point of something, Climax

Ascetic: Characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence.

Bauble: A small, showy trinket or decoration. Something of no importance or worth

Beguile: Charm or Enchant. Trick

Burgeon: To grow or increase rapidly

Complement: A thing that completes or brings to perfection

Contumacious: Stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority

Curmudgeon: A bad-tempered or surly person

Didactic: Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.

What I expect from this class

I am taking this class this year because I struggled with all the work in honors English first semester last year and didn't want to take AP English this year. What I expect from this class is the obvious, to pass it. I love English. I've always had a passion for reading and writing. So naturally, I hope to also grow from this class. I think the blog is a great way for us to learn and stay connected. However, blogging was my main struggle and complaint before I switched out of Honors English. I have a respect for Dr. Preston and enjoy the way he words things. I've really lagged with my blog posts. I haven't started many of them and left several unfinished in my drafts folder but I expect to put more effort in from here on out.

Aha moment.

My "aha" moment? Shoot. In all honesty, this class kicks my ass. The journal writes as well as the questions just asked by Dr. Preston are absolutely brilliant. Leaves me struggling for words and my mind wandering; however, more often than not I can't seem to gather up all my thoughts and put them to paper. My "aha" moment would have to be the day we were assigned the journal write for how we might explain our favorite music to a deaf person. Later that day I had an encounter with a girl roughly my age who happened to be deaf.( I explained all this in my comment on that journal write for whoever may be reading this and is curious as to what I'm so vaguely explaining.) As soon as I connected with that moment I started jotting down notes on a piece of scratch paper that I ended up filling to staple into my journal later. Which I am looking forward to finding because I can't seem to remember what I did with it but I'll post that on my blog once I do. There have been several other interesting subjects and words spoken that have lingered in the back of my mind and opened my eyes. This stuck out in particular though because I really connected with it. I found my train of thought and trailed it all through out my paper. It made me realize what Dr. Preston was expecting for us to take from this class and how satisfying it feels to really challenge yourself with a thought and complete it to the best of your ability.