Assignment #5

The media mostly portrays unrealistic images of male and female models, and it has given society a unhealthy vision of ‘perfect physical beauty’. Women are supposed to have extremely skinny and tan bodies, their faces painted with a ridiculous array of cosmetic products, and squeezed into tiny designer clothing. Men should be well build, tall, and also dressed in designer clothing. The public is constantly bombarded with images of unhealthily skinny and snotty girls. Shows such as ‘Sweet Sixteen’ and the like are, in my opinion, a bad influence on the youths behavior due to the young girls who behave in immature and unacceptable ways to get what they want, and I have personally seen the effects of this. Also, the respect for women is virtually gone. Even though we are in the age of Information, and we advance in technology at incredible speeds, I find that society in the sense of morality has retrogressed. There used to be a moral code of chivalry, an age of gentlemen not too long ago. But this has diminished in the recent past. Every person is a individual, with their own unique personalities and traits, and their appearance should represent that uniqueness.

Assignment 10

The stories setting is in a modern day Asian city. A deaf mute teen aged girl struggles to fit in and is bullied and harassed, especially by a teen aged girl who plays the piano, because of her disability but more so because of her ‘ludacris’ attempt to learn to play the violin(external conflict). A possibly deaf street violinist acts as her mentor and keeps her motivated. He also gives her a violin. She doesn’t understand why she is different from others(internal conflict). Her mentor makes her realize that its not important to be like everyone else. The climax would be the classical music contest. The main character appears last minute to give her performance after the rival pianist girl. And she played Canon so beautifully, it leaves the audience sitting in awe. The irony of the story is that a deaf mute girl was able to master the violin and possibly won the contest, even though everything seemed to be put against her succeeding.

Assignment 2

Sir Phillip Sidney

Birth date: November 30th, 1554

Date of death: October 17th, 1586

Sir Phillip Sidney was a famous poet, courier, soldier during the Elizabethan Age. As a prominent figure during that time he wrote several literary works, such as Astrophil and Stella, The Defence of Poetry, and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.

He was born in Penshurst, Kent. His mother was the daughter of the 1st Duke of Northumberland. Sidney actually dedicated his longest word, The Arcadia, to his sister, Mary. Which she later reworked into The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. He attended the Shrewsbury School and the Christ Church in Oxford.

In 1572, as a highly educated and much travelled man, he travelled to France to assist in negotiating a marriage between Elizabeth I and the Duc D’Alencon. Following this event, he spent the next several years traveling Europe and meeting prominent European politicians and intellectuals.

Sidney was a militant Protestant both through his heritage and personal experience. One of his goals was a Protestant effort against the Roman Catholic Church and Spain. After having failed several times to persuade individuals in power to consider a assault on Spain, he was finally given the opportunity to do so when he was appointed governor of Flushing in the Netherlands. In July of 1586, he led a successful raid on Spain near Axel. Later that year, he was shot in the thigh at the Battle of Zutphen.

Sir Philip Sidney died twenty-six days later, and was returned to London to be interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral on February 16th 1587.

 

 

I would consider Richard Dawkins as a Renaissance Man. He is a British ethologyist, has a Doctor of Science degree in Evolutionary Biology, and is a popular science writer who wrote 9 books as a sole author. He was named one of Time magazines 100 most influential people in the world in 2007 and received the first Deschner Award for “Contributing extraordinarily to the secular, scientific, and humanistic cause” that same year. He has also acquired several other Awards over the years.

He is known for his advocacy of atheism and rationalism, criticism of religion, and has great knowledge of Christian Theology. He is also the Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

English Web Blog

I think that this blog for English should be an interesting project. This is one step closer to a 21st century classroom.

It’ll be fun I’m sure.