Monday, October 29, 2012


  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

Sunday, October 28, 2012

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.

 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

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 

Friday, October 5, 2012

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. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

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.