#Preston is Simon Cowell and I didn't choke on stage!

What are the REAL causes for death?

Waking up this morning I intended to have a nice day with clouds in the air and no new work being thrown at me. I had no idea that I would be changing my BIG question today. Last semester we were told to choose a big question and I chose "Is death like a domino effect? Meaning does one death cause others." I intentionally thought of this question because my father passed away in November 2015 and then my grandpa passed away in January 2016. To me, at that time, it seemed as if their deaths were related in a way. The only thought coursing through my mind, during my grandfather's funeral, was If my dad didn't die, would my grandpa still be here? I guess you can say that I haven't dealt with their deaths so it makes me upset when I don't see them in family reunions. My BIG question was special to me in a way to find closure. I found closure in a way to the point where my BIG question doesn't seem to excite me anymore. I found a BIG question to go through in which I'll share my thoughts of the REAL cause of death.


WHAT ARE THE REAL CAUSES FOR DEATH?

Death has many causes; murder, drugs, alcohol, being electrocuted, etc. These deaths are very common so no need to go through each one and explain. I'm curious about the uncommon deaths, the deaths that has no reason to it. In June 2013, Harold and Ruth died within 11 hours of one another. In July, Les and Helen brown died within a day of each other. Last year Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016 and her mother died December 28, 2016. Of course there was a 'reason' to that Carrie died of a cardiac arrest and her mother died of a brain issue. But those other four deaths, Harold, Ruth, Les and Helen, are mysterious.

Who has heard of broken heart syndrome? For those that haven't heard of it, let's take a moment and imagine a couple meeting at 20 years old. They fall madly in love with each other and spend 50 years married together. They had everything; kids, a house, a billion memories, etc. Sadly the lady grows ill dies on her 71st birthday and the man, healthy, dies 10 hours after her. Why does he die? He died of grief, their souls intertwined closely that they couldn't be pulled apart or died of a broken heart as most heard of. When you get married the priest says "Till death do you apart" but clearly part/ or all of their soul dies. Here is a cause for death.

Who here has watched or heard of 13 reasons why? Spoiler alert the main character, Hannah, kills herself. She slit her wrists and bled to death on the last episode. Everyone knows that that was the cause of her death but that isn't just it. Hannah slit her wrists for reasons. Everyone in the show, besides Clay at times, was ganging up on her. They were spreading rumors about her on how 'easy' she was. Nobody was there for her when she needed them so all  these thoughts caught up to her which slowly killed her inside and eventually killed her physically. We can relate her death to deaths of students/ people like us, young. They have no help and here we are not paying attention to them.

I have came up with a conclusion that deaths aren't just murder, suicide, etc. It is all up to how you or a person are psychologically. Nothing but what you feel/think causes you to kill yourself, or kill others. A  

We eat social media for breakfast

-I timed myself for 25 minutes and was only able to get 2 paragraphs done because I was thinking of how to place everything and how to actually make it a decent essay. There was a lot of deleting and editing.-

DP's essay tells the truth about social media this day. I am a narcissistic sharer of food myself, yet we both do it for different intentions. For Dr. Preston, his intention was to still share a meal with his daughter who wasn't there, while others intentions (mine included) are to just share a picture on social media to show that we are still a person online. It isn't the fact that the food is yummy or unique, it is just the fact of posting a picture online. The world is a narcissistic place now whose only interest is showing the world that we still post things, no matter how stupid the post are. DP's essay, however, had more than meets the eye in the text explaining it.

The tone of the essay was very relaxed and casual. It was as though the author was talking to his child as he was writing it or that was the message he sent her. The author's diction is again like everyday language. It seemed like it was written on the spot and it wasn't researched like other essays are. I believe that the author wanted his diction and tone as it is, so the essay can be understood by all ages. The author's syntax corresponded with his diction quite well. It allowed for the sentences to be placed in the perfect spot, corresponding with the other sentences. 

Option 1 Essay

In the very beginning of the school year, we read “The right to your opinion”, in which we learned that we don’t exactly have the right to our own opinion. I translate opinion to the word tone seeing as they both resemble each other in a way. Ray Bradbury wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451, the main character in the novel was Guy Montag yet there were other characters such as; Clarisse McClellan, Beatty (the Firemen Chief) and Guy’s wife Mildred. Bradbury had different tones with each of his characters, with Montag it was a motivational type of tone. It resembled a sort of “Come on Montag! You do you!” For Mildred, it was more of a snobby tone, seeing as Mildred thought she was better than others and only her life mattered. But for Clarisse and Beatty? What was Bradbury’s tone for those two?

First off, Clarisse and Beatty are complete opposites throughout the entire book. We, the readers, only met Clarisse for a few pages but we noticed how she was different than the rest of the characters. In the very beginning of the book, Clarisse and Montag were talking and she said something like, “I’m different than the other students. While they ask how something is done, I ask why it is done.” Bradbury’s tone with Clarisse was professional and clear. I believe that Bradbury wanted Clarisse to act like an adult but he didn’t want to make her an adult, seeing as the adults in the book seem brainwashed by society. Bradbury’s tone for Clarisse was very friendly because, I believe, that he wanted the readers to enjoy listening to her so that she would be a great role model to Montag to get him out of his enclosed box. No matter how much Bradbury’s tone was pleasant towards Clarisse, he wasn’t pleasant to other character.

Bradbury's tone with Beatty had a different route. The tone with Beatty seemed as if it were foreshadowing to something evil, how right he was. The tone was meant for us to be cautious of Beatty because Beatty was the main source of the book burning in the book. We, the readers, were meant to not trust him so the author's tone was very much welcomed. Beatty liked to confuse Montag with his strange riddles and reciting poetry. Beatty was the true version of an antagonist seeing as the way he was brought into the story seemed to get us with shivers of disgust. 

THE CHASE IS ON!

1. Why did the Hound attack Montag?
2. How did Montag defend himself?
3. What did Montag realize about Beatty?
4. Where did Montag go?
5. What happened when Montag crossed the street?

1.The hound attacked Montag because it was commanded to, in case Montag ran away, yet I feel that now the hound attacked Montag because not only is Montag running but he killed Beatty.

2. Montag defended himself by attacking the hound with the fire gun! He burned that thing to ash.

3. Montag realized that Beatty wanted to die, if he didn't want to die then Beatty would've shut his face up and pleaded for Montag to let him go.

4. Monag first went to the backyard to find SOME books (stupid Mildred didn't find all of them) and then limped his way away.

5. When Montag crossed the street he could hear sirens going off so he 'ran' to the alley. He heard footsteps so he planned to stay there shortly. He checked his pockets and found money and his seashell. In the seashell he heard the alert to look for him.

1. Mildred is acting more like a spoiled brat who doesn't want to eat her vegetables, yet in this problem she doesn't want to understand books. Montag, however, is acting like a little kid on Christmas, he wants to understand books and read! Faber is Cindy Lou and Mildred is the Grinch/Grouch.

2. There is a war happening so something big will happen. I honestly feel that it's just a background to make the story feel real but the bombers will show up later in the story.

3. Professor Faber is a man Montag met at the park who has books. However continuing on with Part 2, Faber is a new friend that Montag has. Faber is going to teach him about understanding books.

4. Montag felt that his boundaries weren't being respected, the commercials were invading his thoughts and he didn't have his peace and quiet. 

5. Faber makes  3 important facts on books; quality texture of information, leisure to digest it,  and the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two. Faber compares books to life. Books are just the difficulties of life out to paper, but his society doesn't want difficulties of life. His society wants everyone equal and all things 'evil' gone.

6. The small green metal object is a two way earpiece. It is sort of like a Bluetooth earpiece that lets you speak and listen, even when you're not in the same room.

7. I believe that the television shows in their society is sadistic. The white clowns chop each others limbs and people laugh. Their television shows are very bland and it's trying to find humor in pain.

8. I felt that Mrs. Phelps cried because "Dover Beach"  was talking about true love and she doesn't have that. She understood poetry (once, this one time) and she felt her emotions understand the words because that's her life, not true love.

9.At the end of Part II, the firemen end up at his house because Mildred called in the book fiasco! 

College/ Universities Rally?

Today the juniors (class of 2018) went to a college day for higher education week in the Wilson gym. I honestly feel that most people only went to it so they didn't have to be in class. I saw most of the kids just walking around the booths and playing on their phones. They just wasted their precious time by doing nothing instead of looking for potential colleges.

I visited the Cal Poly, UC Davis, UC Merced, University of Idaho, Fresno State and the SBCF. I only visited these schools because I plan to major in Agricultural education and Agricultural business and these schools have agricultural programs. I got to learn more things from the different booths. For example, most colleges make you take 2 years of basic credential such as math, English and science, however Cal Poly doesn't. They let you just dive into the many things in agricultural that you want to. They're motto is "Learning by doing" just like FFA's motto is "Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve." Cal Poly focuses on hands on activities and most of ( I believe all of them) the majors they have always ends up with a job. I loved hearing new things from these different universities and can't wait to see what college has in store.