Winter Love

I would like to decorate this silence,
but my house grows only cleaner
and more plain. The glass chimes I hung
over the register ring a little
when the heat goes on.
I waited too long to drink my tea.
It was not hot. It was only warm.

- Linda Gregg

Soul of a Storm

She has the soul of a storm and the freedom of the wind.
She has eyes like the stars with moonshine within.
With the strength of the sea and lightning in her toes
She dances on the breeze of change wherever she goes.
Hotter than a volcano and deeper than the oceans
A whirling, swirling myriad of feelings & emotions.
She is daughter of the earth, primordially inspired.
She is water, she is wood. She is earth. She is fire!

-Ms Moem

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-Robert Frost

To Kill a Mockingbird - A Book to Learn From

Harper Lee’s To Kill and Mockingbird is an engrossing and thought provoking story of morals seen through the eyes of a young girl, who we have much to learn from. It is a wonderfully realistic work of historical fiction set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Innocence is a big theme in this book, and having the story told from a young person’s point of view is part of that, as is the title. It is a sin to hurt something that had done you no harm and is simply there for the sake of beauty. A mockingbird is an example of this, because mockingbirds don’t hurt other birds of animals, they just make beautiful music. They are innocent. The killing of a Mockingbird represents the killing of an innocent person, a victim of unnecessary violence and injustice. The story is about an innocent child growing up in a hard time

“Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.” -Atticus Finch (Ch. 10 To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." -Maudie Atkinson (Ch. 10 To Kill a Mockingbird)

The analogy of killing a Mockingbird representing the killing of an innocent person is subtle but understandable.

Scout (Jean Louise Finch) was 6 years old at the beginning of the story. Scout, her older brother Jem, and her friend Dill were obsessed with their mysterious neighbor, Arthur (Boo) Radley. They had many rumors about the Radleys, and played games involving them. They were young and curious, and it was their way of entertaining themselves. They tried to get him to come out of his house, and eventually they tried to break in and were almost caught. It was a rather silly thing to do, but they were curious and young enough that they didn’t think of that.

Later in the story, Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, and Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, defended him in court. Atticus pointed out that Mayella’s father, Robert Ewell, was probably the one who hurt her. Tom Robinson was convicted even though the evidence was in his favor. It seems the jury was racist against Tom, as he was black. Tom Robinson was innocent and no on was willing to listen. Tom Robinson was killed trying to escape jail. He was the mockingbird who got killed.

Robert Ewell attacked Scout and Jem on their way back from a school event, to get at Atticus for defending Tom Robinson in court and telling people that Robert Ewell must have been the one to hurt Mayella. They were saved by none other than Boo Radley. Scout was 9 years old at this point and Jem 13. They were young and innocent, and they were at the heart of terrible conflict. They survived, unlike Tom Robinson, but if Robert Ewell succeeded in killing them, they would have been two more Mockingbirds to be killed.

This book makes the unjust conviction of Tom Robinson and white people’s attitude towards black people more significant than they would have been coming from an older person's point of view. Scout does understand that people do discriminate against black people, but she doesn’t really understand why. In her innocence, Scout sees things from a more or less untainted point of view. No one is born with a dislike of any particular people group, but they are born with a sense of right and wrong that can either stay or get twisted by the social standards and opinions. Scout is not someone who just accepts these things and moves on because they haven’t been ingrained in her mind yet. She’s always struggling with questions and morals. Throughout the story Scout asks Atticus to explain many things she doesn’t understand, because she was young and hadn't encountered them yet.

Scout grew up over the course of the story, becoming more of a young lady, under her aunt’s teaching and example. She started to understand and accept more. The book comes full circle after the killing of Tom Robinson, the Mockingbird, when Scout and Jem are nearly killed. They would have been two more dead Mockingbirds. The point of this story is that innocent people are hurt killed sometimes, and what we have to do is keep trying to do our best. We must stand up to the injustice to try and prevent it, because by fighting it, we might someday overcome it.
“It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay so never quite eradicated.” -Dumbledore

By Aurora J. A. Pass

After the Winter

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.

 

By Claude McKay

The Pleasures Of Friendship

The pleasures of friendship are exquisite,
How pleasant to go to a friend on a visit!
I go to my friend, we walk on the grass,
And the hours and moments like minutes pass.

-by Stevie Smith

I Must Resent 2016

2016 made me cry, plain and simple. I know it's been a while, but I wasn't able to do this sooner. I cried for Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher, and Anton Yelchin. I won't forget them, but they will be some of the people I mourn for in the years to come. I ran though 2017 without much trouble... Bring it 2018.

 

Plastic - Destroyer of the Earth

Plastic could be the downfall of our environment. Plastic is useful, but haven’t you ever wondered what happens to it when you throw it away? You probably think it goes to the landfill. Well it does… at first. Then it flies away and settles in the ocean.

Plastic is collected by ocean currents. It is taken to the middle of the ocean where it forms a garbage patch, or it washes up on beaches like the ones on Maldives. Maldives is an island in the Indian Ocean, and they have beaches of plastic. Plastic collects, and it doesn’t ever go away. It’s not biodegradable, it doesn’t dissolve, and it doesn’t just disappear.

You're probably wondering, “Why can’t we just recycle it?” Well here’s why: there are so many different types of plastic, that companies can’t recycle it all. It’s too confusing, because there are too many different types of plastic. Some products even contain more than one type of plastic. A few plastic making companies won’t recycle their plastics.

Doubtlessly you're wondering why plastic in the oceans is that big of a deal. The truth is that plastic attracts organic toxins. The animals, such as fish, in the ocean mistake it for food. The toxins are not good for the fish. They store the toxins in the fatty part of their bodies, then we eat the fish. Everybody gets to eat plastic and toxins, but you don’t really want to get sick from the toxins in your fish.

The average American family uses approximately one thousand five hundred plastic bags in one year. There is enough plastic on this planet, and we don’t need more. A solution to the plastic problem, would be to keep melting down all the plastic and remolding it. If you would like to help, use reusable bags for shopping, buy things that aren't individually wrapped, and stop putting plastic in the trash. Even though recycling isn’t the best, it’s better than not recycling. regulations and laws could help with this. Companies could make their products out of only one type of plastic, making it easier to reuse. If you have an idea about how to conserve plastic usage talk to state representatives or legislators. Tell the world your ideas!

By Aurora J. A. Pass

October Sky Movie Review

October Sky is a movie about a boy, Homer Hickman, and his friends, who worked to build a small working rocket. The movie is set in Coalwood, West Virginia in October 1957, when the news of the Soviet Union’s satellite, Sputnik 1, being successfully launched reaches Coalwood. Everyone watches the satellite cross the night sky, and afterwards Homer becomes inspired. Homer plans to build a rocket and enter the science fair. Everyone thinks he’s crazy when he teams up with Quentin Wilson, the school's math geek, who seems to know quite a bit about rockets. With the help of a few of his other friends they try their hand at building rockets and called themselves “The Rocket Boys”. His teacher Miss Riley is very supportive of his ambitions.

They fail several times, and later they are accused of starting a forest fire with one of their stray rockets. His father gets injured in an accident while working at the local coal mine, and Homer stops his school to work at the coal mine to support his family. Later, when his father is recovered, Homer is re-inspired by a Rocket Science book Miss Riley gave him, and he teaches himself the math needed to find a rocket’s trajectory. He then proves to the police that his rocket did not set the fire because the fire was to far away.

He returns to school, and he and his friends return to rocket making. They win the science fair, and Homer takes their rocket to the national science fair in Indianapolis. He wins the national science fair and returns home, a hero.

I liked this movie. It was very interesting, and I liked that it was based on a true story. This movie is well done and captivating. I liked Miss Riley a lot. She was a very happy and supportive character. The Rocket Boys are funny but determined. Homer is a smart, strong willed, and inspiring character.

I liked the movie because it was interesting. I find movies about science interesting, and I also like the story equality to it. I like documentaries, but I like movies that are based on true stories but are told in story form. October Sky is a story. I thought it was cool, and I would recommend it to a lot of people

If a Tree Falls in the Forest - Does it Make a Noise?

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear does it make a noise? I believe that is does because the other option is just too (there's no other word for it) weird. Galileo disagrees with me, as does the rest of the scientific world. The reason I mention Galileo is because he was the first to suggest the strange concept that trees don't make noise unless someone is there to hear it.

First off, what is noise; what is sound? Sound is a wave, a vibration of the air. This is usually known as, you guessed it, a sound wave. These waves then vibrate the ear drum, the information is sent to the brain, and the brain interprets the information. This is known as sound.

Galileo said that if there is no one there to interpret these waves, they aren't sound. In other words, when a tree falls it creates a type of wave. Galileo said that eardrums are part of the process of making sound. If ears plus waves equals sound, then waves with no ears are just waves, not sound. So, calling these waves "sound waves" is false.

Now here's my argument. Since waves are needed to make sound, if someone were there when said tree fell, they would hear the thump. Since ears are not needed to make the waves, then the waves are still made. Therefore, there is a possibility of sound being heard. So, in my eyes (or shall is say, ears), that means the falling tree does make what we call sound.

I believe my philosophy to be sensible, if not scientifically correct. I suppose, it really depends on your definition of sound. Is sound what happens when the waves collide with your eardrums, making them vibrate, or is sound the actual waves even before they hit your eardrum? This is an intriguing and puzzling subject, yet it seams so simple. What do you think? What is your definition of sound?



Sources:
Zoom: How Everything Moves: From Atoms and Galaxies to Blizzards and Bees By Bob Berman, Page 223, First Edition Hardcover, Published in 2014 by Little, Brown and Company

By Aurora J. A. Pass

The Zen of Python

This poem is can be found on Python by typing into your Python Terminal: import this

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

by Tim Peters

Fossils

Older than books,

than scrolls,

older

than the first

tales told

or the

first words

spoken

are the stories

in forests that

turned to

stone

in ice walls

that trapped the

mammoth

in the long

bones of

dinosaurs--

the fossil

stories that begin

Once upon a time

by Lilian Moore

Spring

One of four siblings,
the youngest of course.
Or am I the oldest?
Not really sure.

I bring new life
and herald the warmth,
but hay fever, too,
is in my source.

Autumn has color
but tinged with decay.
Some call her Fall.
I think she's OK.

Not like my bother,
cold in his breath.
Winter his name,
in darkness brings death.

Summer's the one
that gets all the glory,
but brush fires and sunburn
are in her story.

So, season of choice,
who will win?
The one with potential,
of course; it's Spring

By Martin Taylor

Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.     His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

Do You Know Aslan?

…said Eustace, “But who is Aslan? Do you know him?”

“Well- he knows me,” said Edmund…

-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Why does Edmund say that Aslan knows him but he doesn’t know Aslan? The Chronicles of Narnia are an allegory for parts of the Bible, and it is most pronounced in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan represents Jesus, the stone table represents the cross where Jesus/Aslan died. You

get the point. Eustace meets Aslan when he is a dragon, and Aslan helps him turn back into a boy.

I think I can make a comparison with the Bible in what Edmund says. Edmund says that Aslan knows him, but he doesn't say that he knows Aslan. God knows everyone. He created everyone, but the lines get fuzzy when it come to you knowing God.

For instance, I believe that there is a God, that there is only one God, but I wouldn’t say that I know God. I would say that I know there is a god, but do I know God as a person, as a being? Not really. God has no beginning and no end, God is eternal, God is creator of Heaven and Earth, and humans don’t really have the ability to comprehend that. I think this is what C. S. Lewis is getting at in this piece of the story. That’s why Edmund says that Aslan knows him, but Edmund doesn't really know Aslan.

By Aurora J. A. Pass

C. S. Lewis and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. C. S. Lewis is a writer, poet, and author of the popular book series, "The Chronicles of Narnia." He was best friends with J. R. R. Tolkien, and they both worked at Oxford University.

C. S. Lewis and his scholarly friends formed a sort of literary analysis group called the Inklings. The people who attended were J. R. R. Tolkien, Nevill Coghill, Lord David Cecil, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis. C. S. Lewis married Joy Davidman in 1956. He died on the 22 of November, 1963.

While he was alive, C. S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. One of those is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, published in 1952. The first edition of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had 223 pages, which I think is cool to know. The US edition of the book has 52,038 words. It was the third book to published in the seven book series, though the order in which people chose to read the Chronicles varies. It is the fifth book chronologically in the story. So, some people chose to read it in that order. I haven't read all the books yet, and therefore I don't have an opinion on what order they go in yet.

Sources:

• "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader>.

• "C. S. Lewis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis>.

By Aurora J. A. Pass

Dr. Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel was a cartoonist, writer, and animator. He is best known for writing and illustrating children's books, and he is most widely known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss, which he adopted during his university studies at Dartmouth College and the University of Oxford. Over his lifetime, he wrote a few of the most popular children's book ever.

Born in March of 1904, Geisel left Oxford in 1927 and worked for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications, as an illustrator and cartoonist. He was married twice. He married Helen Geisel in 1927 . She died in 1967, and he married Audrey Dimond in 1968.

Photo taken in 1957

Dr. Seuss’s best-selling book is “Green Eggs and Ham” published in 1960, with 8,143,088 copies sold by 2001. “The Cat in the Hat”, published in 1957, is his second best-selling book, with 7,220,982 copies sold by 2001. The third best-selling Dr. Seuss book is“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”, which was published in 1960, and sold 6,164,454 copies sold by 2001. “Oh the Places You’ll Go” was published in 1991 and was the most rapid selling of all Dr. Seuss’s books and came in fifth on the list of his best-selling books. It is also one of my favorites.

Dr. Seuss died in 1991. Four years later, University of California’s library building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of him.

Dr. Seuss wrote most of his books in Anapestic tetrameter. Usually each line in Anapestic tetrameter is made up of four anapestic metrical feet, and each of these has two unstressed syllables and then a stressed syllable. Many poets and writers believe it is a reason that Dr. Seuss’s books were such crowd-pleasers. I think another reason for the success of Dr. Seuss’s books is his bright and fun drawings.

Dr. Seuss’s stories are funny, and it’s fun to read things that rhyme. His artwork is colorful and eye-catching. The things in his drawings are usually droopy and rounded, giving him his very own style. You can usually compare the objects in his drawings to ones in real life, but he gives them their own bent and drooping look. His characters are usually rounded and sometimes furry, and his animals and creatures are often much bigger or smaller than usual, with added legs and other adaptations.

So many people love Dr. Seuss’s stories, and they are still told to children all the time. I think these unique and exciting books will continue to be read for a long time to come. I will certainly always have little bits and pieces stuck in my head, such as “I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam-I-Am.”


Bibliography:

• "Top 10 Highest Selling Dr. Seuss Books." #AmReading, www.amreading.com/2016/07/02/top-10-highest-selling-dr-seuss-books
• "Dr. Seuss." Wikimedia Foundation, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss>.

By Aurora J. A. Pass

Pirates of Penzance

The Pirates of Penzance is a musical, a comedy, and a romance. It is also known as “The Slave of Duty”. Arthur Sullivan wrote the music for the play with the help of W. S. Gilbert working on vocals.

The musical was first performed December 31, 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York. It premiered in London on April 3, 1880, in the Opera Comique. They ran a total of 363 performances at the Opera Comique.

A general synopsis is that a young man named Frederic is apprenticed to a pirate. His father planned to apprentice him to a pilot, but by the mistake of his nurse, Ruth, he ends up apprenticed to a band of pirates known as the Pirates, until his 21st birthday.

Richard Temple as Pirate King in
the first production of The Pirates of Penzance
at the Opéra Comique, London.
Engraving by M. Stretch from
The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News,
June 26th 1880

He turns 21 and ventures off on land, planning to kill the pirates if he sees them again, because that's what any respectable gentlemen would do. He sees a group of young maidens when he comes ashore, and sneaks up on them. He falls in love with one of them, Mabel. The pirates sneak up and say that are going to marry all the girls. The girls’ father, the Major General, gets there and tells the pirates to leave his daughters because he is an Orphan and he has no family. The pirates, having a weak spot for orphans, give up and let them go.

Later, at the house of the Major General, the Major General is feeling guilty about lying to the pirates about being an orphan. The police men show up and offer to arrest the pirates. The girls are happy about this and tell them to go and do it.

Frederic sits in the garden alone. Ruth and the Pirate King sneak up on him and tell him that he is still one of them, because he was born on the 29th of February in leap year, and so according to birthdays he's only 5. Frederic tells Mabel, and she pleads for himself to stay, but he leaves, being bound by his sense of duty.

Frederic tells the pirates that the Major General was lying about being an orphan, and they plot to kill him. They go sneaking up to kill him. The pirates leap out to attack, and the police defend the Major General. There is a scuffle and the police eventually win. The police get ready to kill the pirates, but Ruth pleads with them and tells them that the pirates are all “Nobleman who have gone wrong.” The Major General is impressed, and he forgives them. All is forgotten, and Mabel and Frederic are reunited, and the Major General marries his daughters to the Noble Pirates.

As you can see it is a truly hilarious and ridiculously romantic work of art. I liked it because it had a bit of a Pirates of the Caribbean feel to it. The pirates in both stories are tricksters and have ridiculous senses of humor.

Sources:

• "The Pirates of Penzance." Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Penzance
• The Pirates of Penzance. Dir. Wilford Leach. By Wilford Leach and William Elliott. Prod. Joseph Papp. Perf. Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, and Linda Ronstadt. Universal Pictures, 1983.
• Sullivan, Arthur Seymour, and Wilford Schwenck Gilbert. The Pirates of Penzance. New York: A.W. Tams Music Library, n.d. N. pag. Print.
• "The Pirates of Penzance by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan." Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, http://gsarchive.net/pirates/html/

By Aurora J. A. Pass

Living Without Plastic

I just wanted to share these websites with anyone out there who's listening. I have been trying my best to not use plastic, that I know will eventually end up in the Ocean. Here are some websites on living without plastic and other people who don't use plastic.

The websites:
The Zero-Waist Chef
Life Without Plastic
Plastic Pollution Coalition
The Plastic Pollution Coalition's "No Straw Please" Pledge