Saturday, December 18, 2010
Collisions and Motion WebAssign
Will anyone help with WebAssign? I'm having trouble with #3. I don't want to have to complete this WebAssign before 10 PM tonight (that's when my flight leaves). I told Mr. Rose that I would be leaving on Friday night for my trip to South Africa, and luckily I have time to do the WebAssign because last night's flight was cancelled. I should not have to complete my WebAssign before 10 PM tonight. That's much less time than other students are being given. This WebAssign should be due at 11 PM the night before school starts again (after break).
Airlines
British Airways cancelled our flight from DC to Johannesburg (stopping in London). They won't refund it unless we cancel our return flight. They should be able to give a refund or credit with the airline without canceling the return flight. There should be a law that requires airlines to give refunds or credits without canceling return flights. I've heard arguments like, "Oh, they treat it as one booking. That's why." I'm sorry, but that doesn't cut it. If you have to make your system work better to comply with that law, then a lot of good will have been done by the law, and a lot of computer programmers and engineers will have a good problem to work on: allowing airlines to keep track of flights, not trips. If I cancel one leg of my trip, I should not have to cancel the rest of it to receive a refund or credit with the airline.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
What's the Best Way to Create Music?
So, I think a good amount about the best way to write songs - sitting at a piano with blank sheet music is inefficient, and from the tiny bit of software I've used, it can't be that intuitive. What if you had some instrumentalists and singers walk into a room with a few video cameras and like 10 microphones and then just brainstorm some stuff on the spot? Then you'd have some awesome audio engineers tagging and organizing the footage and sound as it comes in, and you'd have computers transcribing it into music writing and film editing software. This way, the musicians wouldn't have to worry about writing the music down, and they wouldn't have to worry about sound quality, which mic to use, or what the lighting is like - they can just hang out and brainstorm some great stuff - what do you think?
Friday, January 1, 2010
A Great New Post
Well, we're here at the beginning of 2010, and I'm thinking that I don't really have much to write about, but I feel like that might not be true. My English teacher likes to point out that writing is a great way to bring forth ideas that might not have come to the conscious parts of our brains otherwise - that concept is more enjoyable to practice here than it is during school. Maybe I'm just rebellious.
As I said, I don't think I have too much to talk about in this blog post; I might just want to have a post dating later than November '09 - one feels a need to keep their blog updated, even though one doesn't have many followers or much of an audience other than oneself. That's alright, though - writing is nice.
As I said, I don't think I have too much to talk about in this blog post; I might just want to have a post dating later than November '09 - one feels a need to keep their blog updated, even though one doesn't have many followers or much of an audience other than oneself. That's alright, though - writing is nice.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Running in the Family: A Reflection on a Beautiful Memoir
I wrote this response log tonight for English 10.
Daniel Perkes
Period One
Ms. Orser
November 17, 2009
Running in the Family: A Reflection on a Beautiful Memoir
Running in the Family was written by Michael Ondaatje in 1982
For my regional novel, I chose Running in the Family, a wonderfully crafted memoir by Michael Ondaatje, writer of The English Patient. The book is about Ondaatje’s travels to Ceylon, on the island of Sri Lanka. Probably the funniest image I recall from the novel is when he writes about his grandmother, Lalla. “Lalla’s great claim to fame was that she was the first woman in Ceylon to have a mastectomy. It turned out to be unnecessary but she always claimed to support modern science…. the false breast would never be still for long.” (Page 123) I think that this story really shows that although there are a decent number of clichés and expected descriptions in this book (like smoking on a porch or using a shotgun to rid a house of a snake), it is ultimately an enchanting and rewarding reading experience that brings the reader into a new realm and allows you to enjoy the laughter and smell the smells of Ondaatje’s Sri Lanka. For example, the chapter entitled Lunch Conversation (Pages 105 to 109) is merely an account of a family member who’s telling a story that’s very confusing by virtue of its many generations and confusing family relationships. Again, I enjoyed reading this part of the book, as well as the cavalcades of Lalla’s fake breasts (she went through a few).
Another feature of Running in the Family that I’d like to mention is the perfect storytelling places that Ondaatje describes eloquently. In the chapter Jaffna Afternoons, he writes, “The walls, painted in recent years a warm rose-red, stretch awesome distances away to my left to my right and up towards a white ceiling. When the Dutch first built this house egg white was used to paint the walls.” (Page 24) This was a description of the old governor’s home in Jaffna, at the northern tip of Sri Lanka. Ondaatje later goes on to say that the morning had “been spent with my sister and my Aunt Phyllis trying to trace the maze of relationships in our ancestry.” (Page 25) The rest of that short chapter tells about how the stories were told, and how rich their experience was as they sat in the huge old building.
In conclusion, Running in the Family is a beautiful book about a family that’s as interesting and unique as the landscapes and experiences they go through in their lives. From fake body parts to floods and from cobras to silly photos, the Ondaatje family was wild, witty, humorous, intelligent, and vibrant. Michael Ondaatje makes a great point on page 179: He says that “during certain hours, at certain years in our lives, we see ourselves as remnants from the earlier generations that were destroyed.” I think that this quote is significant because he’s saying that we must view ourselves as pieces of our ancestors; new and unique, but also containing traits and traditions that have been in our families for years.
Daniel Perkes
Period One
Ms. Orser
November 17, 2009
Running in the Family: A Reflection on a Beautiful Memoir
Running in the Family was written by Michael Ondaatje in 1982
For my regional novel, I chose Running in the Family, a wonderfully crafted memoir by Michael Ondaatje, writer of The English Patient. The book is about Ondaatje’s travels to Ceylon, on the island of Sri Lanka. Probably the funniest image I recall from the novel is when he writes about his grandmother, Lalla. “Lalla’s great claim to fame was that she was the first woman in Ceylon to have a mastectomy. It turned out to be unnecessary but she always claimed to support modern science…. the false breast would never be still for long.” (Page 123) I think that this story really shows that although there are a decent number of clichés and expected descriptions in this book (like smoking on a porch or using a shotgun to rid a house of a snake), it is ultimately an enchanting and rewarding reading experience that brings the reader into a new realm and allows you to enjoy the laughter and smell the smells of Ondaatje’s Sri Lanka. For example, the chapter entitled Lunch Conversation (Pages 105 to 109) is merely an account of a family member who’s telling a story that’s very confusing by virtue of its many generations and confusing family relationships. Again, I enjoyed reading this part of the book, as well as the cavalcades of Lalla’s fake breasts (she went through a few).
Another feature of Running in the Family that I’d like to mention is the perfect storytelling places that Ondaatje describes eloquently. In the chapter Jaffna Afternoons, he writes, “The walls, painted in recent years a warm rose-red, stretch awesome distances away to my left to my right and up towards a white ceiling. When the Dutch first built this house egg white was used to paint the walls.” (Page 24) This was a description of the old governor’s home in Jaffna, at the northern tip of Sri Lanka. Ondaatje later goes on to say that the morning had “been spent with my sister and my Aunt Phyllis trying to trace the maze of relationships in our ancestry.” (Page 25) The rest of that short chapter tells about how the stories were told, and how rich their experience was as they sat in the huge old building.
In conclusion, Running in the Family is a beautiful book about a family that’s as interesting and unique as the landscapes and experiences they go through in their lives. From fake body parts to floods and from cobras to silly photos, the Ondaatje family was wild, witty, humorous, intelligent, and vibrant. Michael Ondaatje makes a great point on page 179: He says that “during certain hours, at certain years in our lives, we see ourselves as remnants from the earlier generations that were destroyed.” I think that this quote is significant because he’s saying that we must view ourselves as pieces of our ancestors; new and unique, but also containing traits and traditions that have been in our families for years.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Why Do We Blog?
I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with concerts, shows, and things of that nature.
What I'd like to discuss briefly today is motivation. For example, why do we blog? Maybe we blog for attention - we crave the minds of our readers, and the pleasure they get as they laugh or learn from our writing. Or maybe we're bored. I know that browsing the Internet does have its lulls. Does blogging give us something to do when we need an activity? Maybe so.
I think that I blog because I like the feeling of being part of a modern method of expression. I'd like to think I brighten someone's day a little bit when they read my posts. It's my mark on the Internet, and the world (in a small way).
So how about you? Why do you blog? If not, then why don't you blog? Do it!
:P
What I'd like to discuss briefly today is motivation. For example, why do we blog? Maybe we blog for attention - we crave the minds of our readers, and the pleasure they get as they laugh or learn from our writing. Or maybe we're bored. I know that browsing the Internet does have its lulls. Does blogging give us something to do when we need an activity? Maybe so.
I think that I blog because I like the feeling of being part of a modern method of expression. I'd like to think I brighten someone's day a little bit when they read my posts. It's my mark on the Internet, and the world (in a small way).
So how about you? Why do you blog? If not, then why don't you blog? Do it!
:P
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Uploading Music Videos
So, I just uploaded a video to YouTube (musicman0494) in which I sang "Fireflies" by Owl City. The reason I occasionally will post one or two videos of me singing is that I enjoy it, and I think that some people enjoy hearing it (although I do tend to drive my family crazy sometimes). What are your feelings about video uploading? Do you use sites other than YouTube? What types of videos do you post?
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