A Bronx Tale(Groups)

What are all the groups that Collogero belongs to? (Think in terms of the circles exercise we did in class.) Would you put him in Sonny’s crew, or would you put him and Sonny in their own crew? What is Collogero’s Master Status? Why do you think so? Do you think his master status changes throughout the movie?

Collogero, or C., belongs to his family, his friends, being italian, his school, and he and Sonny's own group. They are definentely in their own group, which is kind of mentioned in the movie, with Sonny telling him that he doesn't want C. to be like him. It's much more of a one on one experience between the two, with Sonny being a surrogate father. Overall, I think his master status is his family, specifically being his father's son. I don't think it ever changes, because it's just too much part of who he is. He struggles with this, yes, but I think that it's always a defining part of him, specifically the "Wasted Talent" bit.

Fascination with death.

Why is it that we, as a culture, as a SPECIES, have a fascination with death? We're paranoid about it, we have countless rituals for it, thousands of movies and books about it. The human race seems to be obssessed with the fact that some day, we are all going to die.

Some want to prolong that moment. Some want to live on that edge of live and death. And some take death in to their own hands, to give it out, or to end theirs quicker. I've never heard of another animal doing this, intentionally killing itself. Most animals seem to go about life without a real thought about death. But we have myths about ghosts, zombies, vampires, everything that symbolizes death.

I read a book once, a fictional account of dragons. One of the things I remember most about the book was that they mentioned something about dragons not knowing hot to fight back against extinction, because it never occured to them to have to. As the biggest baddest predators around, so nobody messed with them. See, that's not humans. We've gotten to the top by way of invention and cleverness. We're the hunters now, but our genes still remember the feeling of being somewhere on the middle with a wood spear, and the paranoia that went with it. It's like we feel threatened by the existence of other species. We're not going to be pushed off, so damnit sorry pandas, we've gotta get rid of you.

I mean, jesus, we've got snuff films which can show you the death of others anytime you want. How...Just, I mean. Think about that. How CRAZY is that? You can have someone's death replayed over and over at your fingertips. It's like a god-complex, literally. You're controlling someone's life, in a way. Though it's a digital form, and they've already died. But that's rational, I think this goes much more subconciously.

One of the reasons that I've always wanted to meet an alien race was because I wanted to know if suciude was heard of in their race. Is it a human thing? Or maybe an intelligent life thing. Would another intelligent species be as paranoid and obsessed with death as we are? Would they be more practical, like some animals who just eat their dead, because hey, it's food. Or more spiritual and have their own version of religious views of the dead?

I cannot even imagine....

Okay, I don't get angry easily. Anyone who knows me, knows this. I am patient, I am forgiving. But when I am angry, I tend to....get very angry. Many of you(Probably all) have heard of the NIU tragedy. It's a tragedy, and a horrible thing to happen. My mom's ex boyfriends son goes there(We're still close to them.) and was in the lecture hall next door.

This is not what I'm angry about. What I'm angry about is this.

godhatesfags.com

This site makes me want to vomit. If I wasn't already feeling sick, I would be now. The people who believe in this, and who made that site are to me, trash. The rule of freedom of speech goes so far, and so does the freedom of religion. They are picketing at NIU, saying it was a good thing what happened, because god is angry about gays, and that's why they died. They say it's a good thing. They have done this for hurricanes, and storms, and anything.

I cannot even begin to understand this. Part of me wants to cry, which is rare. People are so pathetic that they would stoop to this level. It's like laughing in the face of those victim's families and then grinding salt in to their wounds. Their website is just vile vicious slander, of the worst kind. They picket their funerals. They picket soldier's funerals. They believe themselves to be the world's last hope, special, and they are damning us all.

This blows my mind, the sheer ignorance. It just makes me sad. Not for them, because I have nowhere near the amount of patience or forgiveness for this. I don't think anyone could, not even Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr. I feel sad for the countless amounts of victims that have been slandered by these people.

I don't know why I decided to make this, but it seemed right. As if people should know about these guys.

Men and Women

Here's a prime example of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an actual class assignment:The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right.As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, alsosending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back-and-forth.Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion hasbeen reached."The following was actually turned in by two of his English students: Rebecca and Gary.THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a yearago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay.The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

( Gary)Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mother ship launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F**KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!"

(Rebecca)Asshole.

(Gary)Bitch!

(Rebecca)F**K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!

(Gary)In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

(TEACHER)A+ - I really liked this one.

This is from a chain letter I got, and unlike most chain letters, I thought this was awesome. I don't know if it actually happened, or someone just made it up. Even if they did, it still gets the point across. It's funny, which helps. It's about the differences between the sexes, though presented in a way that everyone can understand it.

Though it may be a little on the extreme example side, it still does get the point across that though we are the same species and all, there is a lot of difference between the two sexes. You see some differences in sexes in some other species like female lions being the hunters and the males just...relaxing. But there are alot of species where it seems that they are much more similar then we are. Was this part of our evolution, the mentality difference, and it once served a purpose, or does it still serve one? If so, what are the downsides to this? You'd think having a group of people with different priorities would be a bad idea in the wild, where you're not at the top of the food chain.

Yes We Can(No False Hope)

In this video, made by Will.I.Am, after he saw a speech by Barrack Obama, there's a line where Barrack says "We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope, but in the unlikely story of America, there has never been anything false about hope."

I think that this is an incredibly interesting thing to say, because it applies to hope in general, not just in america. Is there ever anything false about hope? Is it ever not realistic to have hope? He makes some pretty bold claims, with his Yes We Can slogan in this speech. Some people would say he's unrealistic. And some would say he's inspiring.

Is there any difference between the two, when it comes to hope? I guess it could just be how you look at it, with the cup being half full, or half empty. Some of our greatest leaders have said some bold things. Kennedy said we'd go to the moon, and so we did, though not in his lifetime. Maybe things are only unrealistic because we let them be, and we need someone to say "It is possible."

Maybe that's the only way to evolve, as humanity. To solve our problems.