home sweet home

there's no place like home for the holidays. ok, so that's cheesy, and i guess i kinda stole it from a song. anyway... i'm finally home, and i couldn't be any happier.  granted i'm gonna miss all my college friends, and yes, even chem labs, but i'm still really glad to be home.  after a 5+ hour drive home, it feels good to have my own room, and be back in my own house.  

biology, chemistry

biology....is a pain...wow...chemistry...is by far my favorite subject [no thanks to my high school teacher].

it's snowing.

oh yeah, it's snowing.  we got about 2" last night, pretty sweet, huh?  i know, you're all jealous.  i'm pretty excited, not gonna lie.  today would be awesome, if i didn't kinda tick off one of my very good friends last night.  so even if that person isn't going to read this, i'm sorry.  i'm very sorry.

it's raining...

It's raining; gross.  It's raining, but it's not quite warm and it's not quite cold.  It's right in the middle.  Which is annoying.  this is western NY, after Halloween, it's supposed to be snowing non-stop.  Whatever.  Wet pant legs are by far my biggest pet peeve [yup, they even top the list before my brother.]  

Since I've mentioned pet peeves, let's dive into some of my other quirks.  

I don't like being in a classroom alone, especially the lecture hall.

Boats scare me.  I think I'm going to fall off and drown, even if I'm wearing a life jacket.

Waffle and chocolate ice cream sandwiches are the best desserts you can make in a dining hall.

...more to come later.

halloween.

Apparently once you get to college, Halloween becomes cool again.  Granted I didn't get into the spirit or dress up, I did claim to be a "high school student" when asked the question 'what are you?'  Whatever... People actually dress up, or down, which ever you like.  There's fun, safe activities... like the haunted house in the gym, where they broke a window.  Or you can drive to the next town over and pay for their haunted house, where they make you walk thru and dark hallway and up and down stairs with strobe lights.  See; fun and safe.

One thing they don't do around here though, is goosey night.  Or, uh, mischief night.  No one calls it goosey night, except for me, and I don't even know where I got that term from.

tuesday.

normally i'm not a fan of tuesdays, since i have every class plus my uber boring biology lab, but today was unusually better.  why? 

well if you were thinking it had something to do with the fact that we got out of chemistry early, that might be it.  

     if you were thinking it had something to do with the fact that we got a break during sociology,       that might be it.  

    if you were thinking it had something to do with the fact that we watched a video in english so       i didn't have to listen to my teacher's annoying voice for 50 minutes, that might be it.  

but all in all, it's because today is the first official snowfall of the season.  ok, so it's not sticking and it's not even that cold, but it's still snow.  and i love that.  

welcome to college life 4.

Well we are now past the one month mark, and low and behold, I am actually starting to enjoy it here.  My parents brought up the Jeep last weekend, which has already proved itself useful.  So I'm pretty happy about that.  Today my friends and I are planning a trip into the next town over to go to not-Wal*Mart and Wegman's.  I'm pretty excited; not gonna lie.

Classes have been going pretty well so far.  I've successfully passed all three of my exams so far.  That's the funny thing about college, they don't call it a test, but rather an exam.  Whatever, they're still annoying.  

English is.....well it's english.  It makes me miss last year's AP Lang like crazy.  Sociology is pretty cool, my teacher never ceases to surprise us.  Biology is not as hard as I thought it would be.  The only down side is this one lab project that we're doing.  We have to grow plants for the entire semester and chart their growth and lots of other stuff.  Oh joy.  By far, my favorite class has to be Chemistry.  Not only do we get to blow things up in class, but on Thursday mornings when I have to be in lab by 8:20, at least there is an extremely cute TA to help us out.  Hehe, yeahhhh...

Well, life of a college student, enough said.  I've off to breakfast now, then going shopping later.  Fun fun.

welcome to college life 3.

First of all, thanks for the comments, they make me feel better.  Second of all, these last two days have been excellent.  Each day just keeps getting better and better.  That's not to say that I can't wait to go home and see my family and friends, and of course, my Joseph.  But I'm doing a lot better here.  Today was good.  This morning, one of my floormates asked if I wear colored contacts, I said no, she said that was "impressive".  Implying that I have nice eyes, not a bad way to start out the day.

But the icing on the cake has to be this: next weekend is parents' weekend and my parents are bringing up my car.  Ok, well it's not actually my car, it's my dad's car.  But he's getting a new truck for work so I can have his Jeep [which by the way is the best car in the entire world.].  The fact that my parents are going to sell Fratelli [what I have affectionately named my truck] doesn't bother me all that much.  A Jeep is going to be so much easier to parallel park than my tank of a truck.  So now I won't be stuck in the middle of Nowhere, NY.  Awesome.  And I can go to WalMart.  Even better.

There's so much to do here, so now I'm off to see Get Smart for $2, can't beat that!

welcome to college life 2.

well things seem to be getting a little better.  I no longer wake up with the thought of "oh crap, I'm still here."  No, instead I wake up thinking "yes, one day closer to going home."  Still not the best outlook on life, but hey, I felt content before 11:00 this morning, we're making progress.

One thing I've learned, however; is that college students master the art of multi tasking.  Now I'm not just saying texting your buddy while you watch tv.  No, we college students are able to: do laundry, homework, blogging, and IMing....all at one time.  No joke.  

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that all dark, stormy, rainy, heavy clouds....really do come with a silver lining.  Yeah, that sounds good.

welcome to college life.

So if you ask me how I'm doing, my answer can vary in a number of different directions.  If I've just come from Biology, I'll tell you that I'm coming home in October and not coming back.  If you ask me after Chemistry, I'll tell you that I think I'm going to enjoy my classes.  If you ask me after Sociology, I'll tell you that my teacher reminds me of Mrs. Henry, acting like Mr. Ryan.  And if you ask me after English, er rather Writing II, I'll tell you that it should be a breeze compared to AP Lang.  Not that I'm complaining, but rather thanking Ms H for the excellent job she did in preparing me for this year's English class.

Yes, I still feel homesick, and yes, I miss my friends terribly, but I guess I'm starting to realize that life moves on, and things will change.  I'm not happy about it, but it's there.  

One good thing has come out of this college thing so far...corporalcadet.  Look him up on YouTube and I guarantee you'll be laughing.  I know I was.

Hope everyone else is having a better time than I am. 

These things will change...

As I sit here in my room three days before I embark on a new chapter of my life, the new Taylor Swift song is playing on my itunes.  Go ahead, think I'm lame for starting out my newest post like that, but it's ok.  I haven't been on this site since the end of school and then I started to realize, I have this blog that I can put to good use.  What is that good use you ask?  Well I don't exactly know yet, but hopefully I'm going to figure it out soon.

I think the reason for this post right now is to thank all my friends for being the most amazing friends anyone could ever ask for.  They have helped me through so much and I just want to thank them all for that.  I don't know if any of them are going to read this but that's ok because it's still here, and I think that's all that matters.

I'm not going to go through each person and list how they've helped me over the years.  First of all, that's immensely cliche.  Second of all, that's immensely unsafe.  So instead I'm going to write a few thank yous, if you think they apply to you, then good, and thank you.  And if you think they don't apply to you, then find one that does, although most of these will apply to everyone.  Ok, here goes...

Thank you for being there when I need to confess things.

Thank you for helping me with homework when I almost feel like crying from feeling so stupid.

Thank you for always talking to me in class no matter how mean you think I'm being that day.

Thank you for forgiving me when I make sarcastic comments about pretty much anything.

Thank you for making me feel wanted by asking me to buy lunch with you everyday.

Thank you for always getting excited when I brought oreos to calc.

Thank you for calling me at 11:30 at night when you had questions about Lang.

Thank you for driving around with me to deliver cookies and graffiti everyone's cars. 

Thank you for trusting me to drive you to school even in the middle of winter, with the ice, that one time.

Thank you for the Converse, I'm pretty sure they're coming to school with me.

Thank you for the cute black shoes that I borrowed every month, they're coming to school with me too.

Thank you for making me feel like a 10 even after mock trial competitions.

Thank you for making me feel like part of a family. [this is to all the mockers.]

Thank you for being a Snowboard Warrior with me.

Thank you for exposing me to those ridiculous movies that I loved.

Thank you for never judging and always being honest no matter what.

thank you for being you.

I love you all no matter where life takes us.  Always remember that.

Spreading the Word...

Spreading the word...check this out for some random Curtis-ness. [it's actually his job, enjoy!]

I predict...

Upon reading the article, The Two Futures: A.P. 632 and 1894, I can't help but notice more and more similarities between the two books. I can clearly remember reading 1984 and thinking to myself how similar the two stories are. I also remember comparing the two story lines and characters between the two novels. They are both very similar and extremely different at the same time.

These two novels were written at different times and depict two futuristic societies situated in different times, however they are still very similar to each other, and another novel of the same genre, entitled We by Evgenii Zamiatin. Orwell claims that Huxley must have plagiarized ideas for Brave New World from this novel, however, it was confirmed by a common acquaintance of the two that " 'Drieu la Rochelle told me the other day that in course of a conversation with Huxley he asked him whether he had read We; he had not read it which proves these ideas are in the air we breathe,' " (122). Thus proving that we all take ideas from some common place that isn't exactly known.

One main idea in both novels is the caste system. In Huxley's novel, the people of this utopia are created that way. They are created to be put into different levels of living. In Orwell's novel it is slightly different. They are naturally born, instead of 'grown', but are still placed into certain levels of society. As this article states "Furthermore, the highest caste in a future dictatorship, whether along Orwell's lines or Huxley's own, can never be ''tame"-- that is, it can never be fully conditioned and brainwashed in the way the lower castes can, because the administrative caste must always retain the capacity to new and unexpected situation," (120-121). After reading these novels, especially the caste system in Brave New World, I feel grateful to be in what I consider the higher level of knowledge. One time, not too long ago, I was able to figure something out with cognitive reasoning and I felt thankful that I was able to understand it.

Another theme shared between the two novels is the end of individualism. I would like to think of myself as an individual, I mean, my friends always tell me that there is no one else quite like me. In bother "Huxley's and Orwell's future states are alike in abominating nothing more than the individual, and the plots of both novels are fundamentally accounts of how individuals or potential individuals are destroyed, exiled, or made to conform," (126). I find it so upsetting when people change and conform to society. They stop being themselves and start being who others want them to be. In this case, others are the governing bodies of their worlds.

To tie up some loose ends, Brave New World and 1984 are extremely similar in many aspects. They share ideas of utopia societies that have gone awry because of a few rebellious characters. Both societies deal with extreme caste systems that deal with many different levels of intelligence, etc. There are also issues dealing with conforming to society in both of these novels. As similar as I originally thought these two novels are, they each have their own ideas that are specific to each author.

1st is the worst, 2nd is the best

I believe in second chances. Anyone can say that but I truly believe in it. Personal experiences have told me that you can start over, not every person will be mean, not every teacher excludes extra credit, not every sport will hurt you. Ok, so I'm making generalizations here, but in life don't we have to do that every now and then? [fallacies? probably]. Anyway...ever heard the saying "first is the worst, second is the best?" Well that's something I believe in. Sometimes things don't work out the first time because one piece of the puzzle was missing, something didn't fit quite right. Sometimes you need to take a step back and think about what could be fixed. Friendships, problems, relationships, they can all be evaluated and given a second chance.


There was one year that I simply could not stand to be around one of my friends. We never really talked about it but we could both tell that we weren't getting along very well. I knew that we needed to spend some time apart and I think she knew it as well. Luckily for us, the schedule makers at the middle school were on the ball and knew that we needed this break. They put us in different classes and we only saw each other in the hallways. Perfect, I remember thinking. After a while of this "separation" we realized how silly we both were being by getting on each other's nerves. After that year we were in classes together again, on and off for a few years. To this day we are still just as close as we were that first time. This rekindled friendship was our second chance, and we've both taken advantage of it. She's once again one of my best friends, the shoulder to cry on, the first person I would call if I needed something.


Other times I've given people second chances, and third, fourth, fifth, but after a while there's a limit to how many chances you can give a person. Many years ago I had a fight with one of my friends that indirectly put me into a fight with another one of my friends. This was the spark that ignited the fire of the end of a friendship that was never really rekindled. I will always have the countless memories of trips to the mall, swim meets, the pool, and the giant box of goldfish crackers. I've tried to give this person the second chance he deserves, but respect is a two way street. It's like this, I've built the fire pit, set up the wood, gotten the water bucket just in case, because my dad's a firefighter ya know. Now all that's left is to rekindle the fire. The matches are set out on the picnic table, now it's your turn. It's your job to light that fire, because I'm done trying. I've given you the second chance that I think you deserve. Just know that the door will always be open, the matches will always be left out, even in the rain.


Sometimes you aren't given a second chance and that's when you really start to regret things that have happened. After a loved one passes, there's always guilt to be felt. Unfortunately it usually falls on the ones who don't deserve it. I've only ever said this out loud once, but after my grandma died I seriously thought it was my fault. I was in 7th grade so I still didn't understand everything, as I still don't. Even years later I can still think of things that I know I wanted to tell her but I never got the chance to. I missed out on my second chance to tell her things, but the more I think about it, I really haven't. I believe that she's still here. My guardian angel.


Which leads me to my next example of second chances. [ok so it might be a little random but in my head it makes sense]. Freshman year was a bad year for me. After two accidents on horseback, or rather being thrown off horseback, I was terrified by horses. I could be around them but ask me to hold the rope or even get on one, and I was outta there. Until I was given my second chance. I moved to a new barn where I was taught a new way or riding and loving horses. And let me tell you, it was a great feeling. I was given that second chance and I took advantage of it.


Second chances don't always come around so when you're given one you should take full advantage of it. Before you know it, time will fly by and chances will be gone. From past experiences I've learned that every bad occurrence can be turned into a good one. That every cloud really does have a silver lining. And that second chances don't always come around and even though the first may be the worst, sometimes the second truly is the best.

Mail order babies? What is this world coming to...?

In reading Brave New World, the reader can glimpse into the future and see what could happen if society continues in the direction it is headed. "Until a few years ago, making a baby boy or a baby girl was pretty much a hit-or-miss affair. Not anymore," (Lemonick). What a true statement. With new developments in science it is becoming easier and easier to create children rather than leave it all up to chance. One critic commented that it will soon become like choosing a car with a checklist of options on a couple's new "designer baby." Although genetically engineering children has its positives in the medical world, flaws exist because the individual personality has the potential to override these advances.

With these new advances we need to ask the question: where should we draw the line? "As medicine redraws the map of what's possible when it comes to making children, we all have an interest in asking how far we should be allowed to go," (Gibbs). In Brave New World, everything about each individual person is carefully controlled when they are constructed. They are 'born' into a caste system society where everyone knows their place, or their ranking, in life. Everything is controlled from what a person will look like to their mental capacity. No one thinks for themselves, but only believes what they are told over and over again through Hypnopadia. One thing that is not taken into account is individual personality.

Scientists are probably jumping for joy that they can now identify in the earliest stages of development about a dozen of the most serious genetic diseases. This will greatly help in the medical field, but there are so many other variables to consider. Personality of each individual person, as of right now, cannot be created. "The gene or combination of genes responsible for most of our physical and mental attributes hasn't even been identified yet, making the moot the idea of engineering genes in or out of a fetus," (Lemonick). Personality, attitude, opinions, these are all mental capacities and this cannot be controlled by genetics. Parents may select their ideal traits for their child but the human mind is a complicated place. It has the potential to do anything, to think anyway it wants, to override any 'programing' it wants.

Someone once noted how extraordinary it is, that scientists know more about the surface of the moon than they do the surface of the human brain. The complex workings of this vital organ are still a very big mystery to us all. It is, however, the switchboard that controls the body, and therefore has the ability to create a personality to override any advances in science. In the foreword to the 1946 edition of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley said "...Great is truth, but even greater from a practical point of view is silence about truth..." The truth is, flaws exist in every society no matter how perfect it may seem on paper. The same can be said about a person.

Parents may pick out the 'perfect' traits for their child. Blond or brown hair, blue or green eyes, tall or short, tan in the sun or burn, all these options, too many options. These advances in science will have its benefits such as ruling out various genetic diseases and helping children have a healthier life, but that is where the line should be drawn. Parents shouldn't go around thinking they can create a child any way they want it. A computer can be created from a checklist with things like screen size, memory, processor speed. New software can be installed on a computer that can override its previous programming. Children are far from computers, but individual personality has the potential to override all the predetermined factors and show the flaws that are present in any system.

what's wrong with this picture??

Works Cited

Gibbs, Nancy. "Wanted: Someone to Play God." Time 3 March 2008: 68.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/jgr/lowres/jgrn482l.jpg

http://www.eugenics.net/papers/quotes.html

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2006.

Lemonick, Michael D. "Designer Babies." Time 11 January 1999. 7 March 2008. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,989987,00.html