Thankful For A Classmate

      Over this weekend I was able to reflect on a lot of things to be thankful for such as my family, friends, education, etc. In school, there are many classmates I am extremely grateful for having because without them, school would be boring and tedious. In philosophy, the person I really owe thanking is Shayne. If it weren’t for Shayne, I have no idea how I would get through the group work. I wouldn’t know who to write a Facebook message to asking what the homework was. He’s also a pretty cool guy, sharing my interests such as the African American Heart Monitor and bike riding to name a few. So this is pretty cheesy, I’ll stop now. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Cormac McCarthy,

            You seem to be a very dedicated author based off the book we read in class and what we overall learned about you in philosophy. I like how you use real experience to help you write your novels, it gives it a sense of realism that a person can relate to. You are able to use your knowledge and turn it into influential works of fiction which is something to admire because very few people can say they have gotten that far. The fact that you have the same last name as my favorite teacher in the whole world only makes you a much more notable person.

            While your novels are very unique and original, they can be confusing. Well I guess just “The Road” since that is the only book I’ve read that was written by you. The lack of grammar and sentence structure made it a little hard to follow. At some points I wasn’t sure of whether the book was mentioning an actual happening in the present, a flashback, or a thought. If this would have been clearer, the book would be much more lucid and comprehensible. Other than that, “The Road” was a very remarkable and outstanding narrative.

Defend the Poet (Charles Bukowski)

        When it comes to Charles Bukowski, people either seem to love him or hate him. In my opinion, although he might be somewhat of a nut case, I do lean more towards the liking him than hating him. The stories and poems he write are not written out of complete randomness. In fact, Bukowski himself has mentioned that when writing you “don’t try”. He is trying to say that when you are trying to write whatever it may be, you have to just wait for it. All of Bukowski’s writing is therefore written based off his experiences and knowledge. He does not seem to write a lot on happiness as we saw when reading “Dinosauria, We”. He writes the crude truth, well at least version of it. We might be able to assume that he has such a pessimistic view on life due to his pretty depressing life which consisted of an abusive father, continuous love affairs, and no real sense of what he wanted to do. He thought of writing as a way to keep himself from going insane at his post office job. Overall, while the views that Bukowski has are certainly different and odd, they do contain a sort of truth in them. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, the people who think and see outside the box, are the ones who tend to more knowledgeable and educated than the ones who stay stuck thinking inside the box.

A Direction the Class Needs

       The first thing that popped into my head when what type of direction a classroom needs I started thinking about literally going towards somewhere north, south, west, or east. This random thought eventually turned into a rational idea. I started thinking how it would be pretty cool if classes were more broad when it came to its environment. The worst part about the word classroom is room. The fact that it confines you to only one certain area and space is its downfall. A class should be able to be outside, inside, in between wherever it best fits. If I’m learning about the environment, I don’t understand why I can’t go outside and see it myself with my own eyes instead of turning pages and writing a paper based off what I’m reading. It’s not just about being more hands on but also about being more open minded to what a class can be. A class does not have to just consist of fifty minutes in a room but it can also expand into spending fifty minutes walking in a neighborhood, taking photos, analyzing your environment, etc. By doing this, a class will have more of an appeal and more importantly, it might actually become something to look forward to.