Zack Antar
Mrs. Reinertsen
Guys & Lit
February 4 2009

A Civil Action Review

Dreamer

“She’s got a condition of the heart, a heart condition, so as a kid she had to adapt to smarter living.”

“But she still dreams after she woke, tight hold on that hope, sometimes it can seem so cold do what you gotta do to cope.”

Two lines from the song Dreamer by Atmosphere (MPLS born and raised) that I have been listening to religiously for the past couple weeks. This song is about a woman who has a kid, at age 18. The dad isn’t very helpful. The mom has to work extra shifts just to keep food on the table. Then two years later she is pregnant with the same guy. The dad wanted to help out, so she let him move in. Now she has to feed four mouths. She tells the careless father to find a job. And he leaves them again.

I think this song is seriously amazing. It caught my ear one day when my iTunes was on shuffle. I didn’t really think much of the lyrics at the time, but I looked them up, and I think it’s a really strong message. Regardless if people listen to the song because of the messages or because they think it has a good ring to it, Atmosphere is getting their point across. I think that’s the beauty of music. The rest of the album is like this song, all of them have something to do with relationships. I’d like to ask them about the album.

(We should listen and analyze their songs later in the year when we study poetry)

Philosophy of a teenager

Orange. Is it a flavor? Is it a color? Is it a fruit? Is it technically just a word, with a definition that happens to be all three? Isn’t weird that somewhere along the path of the creation of the English language, that orange took those meanings? Maybe in some parallel universe orange is the word for Satan, and the converse. Imagine buying Satan flavored candy, or painting your walls Satan, or eating a Satan. Same applies to every word. What if the laws of nature had the same principal? In some parallel universe there was no such thing as friction, and we would slide to kingdom come, or if atoms didn’t bond correctly. If human beings weren’t the dominant species, what if mice ruled the world? Would the try and catch and kill us? Would they still have wars? Would they discriminate against each other? Would they have religion? Or do these all have to do with human behavior and brain function. What if we didn’t live on Earth? If we were just single cell organisms on Mars, would all those be true? Would philosophy still exist? Would language exist? How about time? Would time be of the essence? Will it be that way in time? Does life cycle between the planets? Would I have to do this blog? Would we finally find out what perpetual motion is? Would we know the ever burning question of who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? I deny ever taking it.

Life

The human body is an amazing system. We have a central nerve system. Chemicals in our brain send signals everywhere. Our brain knows when to pick something up. We also retain a ton of information. I think the coolest thing is habit. Habit is just special in every way. Routine. What ever you want to call it. Like when you get home from school. You walk in the door. Kick off your shoes. Put your backpack in the living room. Go watch tv. Get something to eat. Turn off the tv. Go find your backpack. Open up your laptop. Procrastinate on Facebook. Work up the nerve to do some homework. Get bored. Go watch more tv. Finish your homework. Eat dinner. Go back on Facebook. Go upstairs. Crawl into bed. Start reading The Road. Get bored. Start texting. Get tired. Fall asleep.
WAKE UP your mom calls
Okay.
NOW.
Okay.
Ten minutes pass.
Wake up.
Coming down.
Wake up.
Muster up some energy to get out of bed. Find some clothes. Go down stairs. Take a shower. Put on clothes. Eat breakfast. Go to school. Go to class. Get bored. Get home. Repeat process until light and creamy.

Stress. Ah yes! We all know it. We all hate it. We all experience it on a weekly basis. Whether it's with friends or school. The best kind is when they are combined. Oh!! God I love it when I have a crammed night of school work! I just cannot get enough. The best part about it is you hardly get sleep at night as is. The total of three hours a night really get my heart racing. Oh no, not as if I liked the lack of sleep. That's not why it races. It's the adrenaline. Yep, makes your hands shake, and stops pain. Or as Danny would put it, you will do what ever you have to, to survive in extreme circumstances. You know another thing I love? The "insert" key on a keyboard. Because you will always push it at the least beneficial time. It'll sneak up on you too. You'll be typing and all of the sudden nothing will make sense. You'll look up in the top part of the keyboard and see this tiny glowing light staring you in the face. It always looks so smug. In that matter, where did the idea for a tiny green light come from? I wonder if there is a patent on it? Does that guy/girl make money on each keyboard? But my absolute favorite thing about being stressed is, it gives so much determination to finish your assignment quickly so you can sleep. ZZZZZZZZZ...."list"-Zach Groffsky

College Application

Life seems so planned out. We always know what we’re doing. As a child, we wanted to be some acclaimed profession. As a teenager, we want to be something that will help change the world. But with all these thought out plans for life we leave out the most important thing, experiences. What would you remember more, acing a test on the "Odyssey", or reading the ridiculous comments of Ken Clark (a.k.a. superman)? We are so hell-bent on reaching this goal of ours that we let the littlest and most important things go past us. We’re 16 years old, and they have us worrying about college. It's not right. After observing a certain Guys and Lit class of mine, we’re all still obviously kids on the inside, and shouldn't be molding ourselves based upon what colleges want. Don't limit or overshoot who you are. You will never attain what you seek; you will only seek more once you've attained it. It's this whole vicious cycle of let downs that will eventually cause total malfunction of the brain. Stop, being so uptight about being perfect. Enough talk about what you aspire to be, or what college legacy you will fulfill. Start realizing that you are who you are and nothing will change that, not the college you go to, or the clothes you wear. Not even when kids in tenth grade accidentally mistake your name for Superman's. That’s right I went there Ken Clark. So take a step back from your life, everyone, and look at what you've got. Because when it all comes down to it, even if every college turns you down, and you have no friends and, you're homeless, you will always have your thoughts and experiences. This my friends is what colleges should look for.

Squirrels are worthless

I looked up the symbolic aspects of animals, for articles to do my blog, and i found a web site. After scrolling down the page of what looks like a list of exhibits at the zoo. I stumbled upon the squirrel. And it's significance is that it teaches preparedness and foresight. I agree and disagree with this. First of all. Squirrels are in fact the most useless animals on earth. The only thing they are good for is food for a another animal. Every morning, I walk to my car and a squirrel pops out of my garbage can. My garbage can is plastic, and there are holes chewed into it by the squirrels. But squirrels aren't all bad. I do agree with the article. They do help with being prepared. Every morning I have to be cautious when I pass my garbage can, not knowing how many squirrels will pop out at me. They are apparently supposed to help with foresight as well. Last summer I was barefoot in my back yard when all of the sudden I felt a sharp shooting pain in my foot. Guess what? I stepped on a squirrels jaw. So now I foresee stepping on another squirrel jaw. Ironic right?