This semesters future

I could sit here and stay up late and try and catch up on all of the work I missed, but I think there is not any value to it because I am not feeling too well right now and my effort will most likely not be 100%. I am struggling in a couple of my other classes, including this one, obviously, and I am taking small steps and trying to improve. Baseball is also taking some of my time but I will agree that these are lame excuses and it is unacceptable. I am having trouble finding motivation this year along with a lot of my colleagues that I have collaborated with. But, I need to overcome that and work. "Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them"- Washington Irving. I recently found this quote when I was having trouble with baseball and how the coaching staff was taking care of things.... which I will say I do not agree with. But I can also apply this quote to anything and use it to help find my motivation. Last thing, just because my posts are not up to date and it looks like I just sit in the corner and do not participate, I really do think about all of the things that we do in class and out of class and everything is very interesting to me. So with that, I will find my motivation and show that I take the things that we do in class and think about them by posting more on my blog. No exceptions.

Masterpiece in progress

So, my masterpiece is on the go. My topic is baseball as you all may know, and I am umpiring little league and learning how it all goes down. I am also collaborating with my dad every once in a while at home about certain aspects of umpiring that will be helpful for me to understand and take to the field. My dad umpires football for the PAC-12 conference and is working his way up to the NFL. He and I are both working to get to the next level but he is more advanced which can help me a lot. I am also researching certain aspects of professional baseball umpiring and learning from there. I am enjoying the experience so far and wish to continue and learn a lot. 

Huxley Essay

    Conformity, in today's society, seems to be the only way to be socially accepted. Many people struggle with conformity in society but often question themselves as to why. One character who exhibits this trait is Bernard in Audis Huxley's Brave New World. Huxley shows us that everyone is different even with a utopian society, and Bernard personifies this idea.
   
 

    

Seeking Mentor

There are plenty of mentors out there for my masterpiece including my dad and my boss for umpiring. My dad, being a sports official, can relate to the criticism from the mistakes he's made in officiating football. Although he officiates football and I umpire baseball, he goes through the same process. He is a great mentor because he officiates at high level, and is working his way to the NFL. He has shared a lot of his experiences with me and they have helped me so far. My boss alone is my mentor as well in which he helps me with the mechanics and rules of the game of baseball. Although I have those two mentors, I would like to have a mentor who is at a higher league in baseball umpiring. I would talk to him about his experiences and what I should do differently so that I can be better and possibly move up from league to league. 

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was born on July 26th, 1894, In England. Huxley came from a smart family and was the third of 4 children. His whole family was successful so he was pretty much bound to be as well. His brother was a biologist and he was known for his theories of evolution. His grandfather was a naturalist and was known as "Darwin's bulldog". His father was a writer and his mother was related to a famous poet. Soon after Huxley graduated Hillside school, he was traumatized by the death of his mother and sister. After this, he decided to follow his brothers' footsteps by going to Eaton and then Oxford University. By the time he was 16 he got keratitis and was blind for two years which disqualified him from serving in WW1. Soon after he recovered he graduated with a First in English Literature and taught it at Oxford University. By 1915, his literary life began as he joined the circle of Lady Ottoline Morell at Garsington Manor. Here he met many famous writers and was very influenced which led him to his successful writing career. 

Vocabulary #7

Circumlocution - noun an indirect way of expressing something; a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things
Classicism - noun a movement in literature and art during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that favored rationality and restraint and strict forms
Cliché- An overused expression. A sentence or phrase usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea.
Climax - noun the decisive moment in a novel or play; arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness; the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding; the most severe stage of a disease; the moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse; verb end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
Colloquialism - noun a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech
Comedy - noun light and humorous drama with a happy ending; a comic incident or series of incidents
Conflict - noun an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals); an incompatibility of dates or events; opposition between two simultaneous but incompatible feelings; opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot); a state of opposition between persons or ideas or interests; a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war; a disagreement or argument about something important; verb go against, as of rules and laws; be in conflict
Connotation - noun an idea that is implied or suggested; what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression
Contrast - noun the act of distinguishing by comparing differences; the range of optical density and tone on a photographic negative or print (or the extent to which adjacent areas on a television screen differ in brightness); the perceptual effect of the juxtaposition of very different colors; the opposition or dissimilarity of things that are compared; a conceptual separation or distinction; verb put in opposition to show or emphasize differences; to show differences when compared; be different
Denotation - noun the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to; the act of indicating or pointing out by name
Denouement - noun the final resolution of the main complication of a literary or dramatic work; the outcome of a complex sequence of events
Dialect - noun the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people
Dialectics - noun a rationale for dialectical materialism based on change through the conflict of opposing forces
Dichotomy - noun being twofold; a classification into two opposed parts or subclasses
Diction - noun the manner in which something is expressed in words; the articulation of speech regarded from the point of view of its intelligibility to the audience
Didactic - adj. instructive (especially excessively)
Dogmatic - adj. characterized by assertion of unproved or unprovable principles; relating to or involving dogma; of or pertaining to or characteristic of a doctrine or code of beliefs accepted as authoritative
Elegy - noun a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
Epic - adj. very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale); constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic; noun a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
Epigram - noun a witty saying

Hacking my Education

This semester I want to put a little more work in than I did last semester. I want to stay more involved and make sure I get more work done. The biggest thing I want to focus on is my masterpiece in which I want to expand on. I also am also  interested in seeing my classmates masterpieces and how they come out. I am also interested in the novels we will be reading. Another thing I hope for that we did last semester is class discussions and collaborations. The discussion/collaborations help me understand what it is we are talking about a lot more which helps me in the long run. They are beneficial because I am able to listen to others ideas and interpretations. I am curious to see how this semester will go but I hope it's fun.