vocab sentences obtuse-wistful

the boy was very obtuse when it came to school work, and received strait c's no matter how hard he tired to work.
the donkey was onerous and bit me and refused to move even while whipping it
the teacher used his essay as a paradigm for the rest of the class which inflated his ego a great deal
our rash decision making lead to ridicule by students and anger from teachers.
i had been running for so long i was forced to take a short respite
i was rife with anger after finding out my two best friends had been talking about me behind my back
we were somnolent after a long night of studding together and ended up nodding off during 2nd period
trying to have a serious discussion with a child is almost impossible because of their tangential thinking, one moment you are talking about consequences, the next they are distracted by a butterfly.
the used car salesman unctuous manner made me wary of buying anything from him
the girl was so vapid i knew i would never be able to talk with her about anything remontly meaningful.
thinking of seattle makes me feel wistful about going home, i miss my friends and family very much.

poem about challenge

On Seeing the  Elgin Marbles

BY JOHN KEATS

My spirit is too weak—mortality

   Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,

   And each imagined pinnacle and steep

Of godlike hardship tells me I must die

Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.

   Yet ’tis a gentle luxury to weep

   That I have not the cloudy winds to keep

Fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye.

Such dim-conceived glories of the brain

   Bring round the heart an undescribable feud;

So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,

   That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude

Wasting of old time—with a billowy main—

   A sun—a shadow of a magnitude.

 the mood of the poem is humbled and tired of chanlenges  it is shown in figurative language. his spirit is not literally too weak. it does not literally weigh on him during sleep. the Elgin Marbles are famous Greek sculptures. they got their name from the Englishman who stole them in the 17th century. i think this speaker thought he was an important man but upon looking at this statue he realized how un-important he actually is.
the tone of the poem is influenced by the rhyme scheme. the poem clearly rhymes but the rhyme scheme changes. i think he chose ti do this to signify a change in the view of the speaker. "bring round the heart" i think the " i have not the cloudy winds to keep is in reference to the fact that he does not want to hold onto something, and he wants to see the world in from a new view.

ps. im not sure how this would fit in but i noticed a lot of mentions to things doing with nature, sun, eagles, cloudy winds, mornings eye etc.

what is symbolism? the alchemist

what is symbolism?
Symbolism is something that stands for something else. an underlying meaning.
3 symbols in the alchemist
1) The wind. the wind is a symbol in the alchemist. it is a symbol for freedom and possibilities and adventure.
2) unum and thurm


The space needle
For me the space needle means home. it means something i have grown up with all my life, and being able to see it on the skyline almost every day. it means folklife, which is  festival i go to almost every year. it means seeing friends. it means seeing family, especially ones that travel to Seattle for the for the time and want to see the iconic building. thinking about the space needle makes me miss my home and my family and my friends and my cat and the sound of rain and sunshine and amazingly green grass and the places and parks and streets i grew up with. thinking about the space needle makes me really really sad. it also means my phone background. it is something i can identify myself with in this world. especially when i away from home. like now. I have only ever been up in the space needle maybe 5 times in my life time. but when i think about it i get so goddamn nostalgic, and fuck shit whore i miss my friends.
For other people the space needle also may mean Seattle. but in a different more surface way. it might mean Starbucks and hipsters and rain. maybe it means where a distant relative lives. it might mean the world fair. it might mean smoking weed.

the alchemist discussion questions. part 1

I think that this statement is true. As she got older you become more focused on what is realistic, and actually liable to happen. I think the force is at least in part, pressure by society. People believe less and less as they get older that anything is possible. They think that in order to become successful they have to conform to society. “in the long run, what people think about bakers and shepherds becomes more important for them then their personal legends” -23. Another reason people abandon their personal legends is because they think what they have is plenty. Like Mechizedek says, “I can’t help you if you feel you’ve got enough sheep”. To be completely successful, you have to keep pushing for more and more. Santiago helped the shop keeper understand that. The shop keeper kept on pushing to make his business better and better and it expanded once he did that. You can’t achieve your personal legend when you settle for mediocrity. “The crystal merchant awoke with the day, and felt the same anxiety that he felt every morning” -44. The crystal merchant had not achieved his personal legend, and was therefore, unfulfilled.

The language of the world is how you can communicate with someone. It is different from spoken language because it can cross language boundaries. Omens and sensing things are definitely involved you have to be able to spot them. Like the boy was able to spot that the crystal merchant had to make a decision, so he began to clean his glasses without waiting for a response. You cannot question it while you are speaking it, you might not even notice it is happening, like the boy and the candy seller. A fascination with words and pictures can make you forget the universal language because you cannot notice when you are speaking it. The boy had been speaking it to his sheep all along but once he was in a different situation, still doing the same thing, he was shocked by it. “He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things he had already experienced, and weren’t new, but that he had never perceived before” -43. He hadn’t realized he was speaking the universal language until he did it with the candy seller.  If you cannot understand the universal language, you cannot understand the world. 

Vocabulary 3 Exercise 1- match

1. The werewolf tried to  conceal  the truth about himself from his human girlfriend, but she found out the truth anyway.-obfuscate

2. His  daily  workload in the kitchen consisted of some very  banal  chores, such as peeling 50 pounds of potatoes for dinner.- quotidian

3. Victoria’s last boyfriend was so overly  attentive  that he made her feel suffocated.

4. The results from our scientific experiment surprised us because they were so different from what we expected, but then we realized the  abnormality was caused by our faulty equipment.-aberration

5. Carl had schemed to keep Georgia out of the house until it was time to go to her surprise party by taking her to a movie, but his plan was  ruined when Georgia said she had already seen all of the movies in the local movie theater.-foiled

6. It was rather  bold  of that gentleman to interrupt the wedding and object to the marriage, especially because he wasn’t even invited.-presumptous

7. Yes, he seems like an especially  antagonistic  fellow; I saw him get out of the car and yell at another wedding guest who was pulling into the same parking spot.-pugnacious

8. Amanda was an  ebullient  woman who was always the life of the party and the center of attention.-solicitous

9. Elizabeth Smart is a girl who was  kidnapped  as a fourteen year-old and was kept in captivity for nine months.-abducted

10. Gertrude did not trust Charlie after she found out that he had started such   untrue  rumors about her.-mendacious

11. In the days after the hurricane there was a  lack  of gasoline, and we could not fill up our gas tank because they were rationing it.-dearth

12. The doctor made a such a  convincing  argument to the other doctors at the hospital that they decided to follow his advice.- cogent

13. Google is one of the  giants  of the technology industry. - behemoth

14. The conference schedule gave us a  break  at noon which gave me enough time to have a quick lunch with my friend across the street. haitus

15. Corbin did not like that this new boy had  stolen  his girlfriend’s attentions.

16. Belinda was  totally unaware  of the fact that the teacher was waiting for her to stop texting because she was absorbed in the fight she was having with her mother via text.-oblivious

17. Billy, with his reckless and rebellious attitude,  highlights  the submissive and innocent Anne.- foils

18. In the movie The Lion King, Simba  revels in  his freedom away from his pride (a group of lions that sticks together) but realizes his responsibility is to return to save his family from his uncle’s evil tyranny.-relish

19. It is only through the  generosity  of the Bluth family that T.B.A., an illness that affects millions of people, will finally be vanquished.-largess

20. Eddie felt like he was giving  perfect  answers to the questions in his job interview and was feeling very confident-- maybe, in fact, too confident, because he tried to make a joke that he did not pull off well.-impeccable

21. In his book The Magus, John Fowles gives a rich picture of the island of Mycenae, complete with Greece-blue skies,  breezes  carrying the smell of salt over the hills, and mysterious green foliage recalling ancient history.- zephyr

22. Mala suffered terrible  exclusion  from the social scene in high school because kids were cruel and her timidness made her an easy target for mockery.- ostracism

23. Bridget resented Heather because she was such a  brown-noser  and was always sucking up to Ms. Flannery.-toady

24. Her parents wanted her to settle down with a nice boy, but she preferred the  migratory  and decentralized life of a bohemian.- nomadic

25. The home-made candy had overboiled and was now too  syrupy  to be handled properly.- viscous

alchemist discussion questions- part 1

I know that this is a Greek myth about a very handsome man called narcissus who was very vain. He was so vain that he stared at his refection all day long in a lake just looking at himself. Over time he fell deeply in love with himself. One day, when he couldn't stand to just look at his beauty anymore, he dove into the lake, and drowned to death.

The traditional interpretation is that narcissus deserved to die because of his vanity. He was self-centered was only able to be happy when thinking about himself.  This story is meant to be a warning to other people, to not be vain like narcissus, because it only leads to trouble.

I think that the relationship between the re-telling of narcissus  and the alchemist is about finding people to help you. The lake and narcissus made each other happy. They may have been vain and imperfect things but they brought each other joy. They saw their own beauty reflected on other surface and only then were able to see themselves. I think it also has to do with the soul of the world. When you stare into the soul of the world, it stares right back at you. And if you hurt yourself you hurt the soul of the world with you. Everything is connected and your decisions have an impact on every other thing. As the king said “there is a force that wants you to realize your personal legend” (29). The reason that that force is around, is because when you achieve your personal legend you help yourself, also help the soul of the world. Many people help the shepherded along in his story and help to direct his quest, the king, the gypsy, the store keeper.  Even the thief steals from him helps him to be stronger because only after being stolen from he realized that he could “”choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer looking for treasure.” (42)  

The boy comes from Spain but most of the book takes place in Egypt. I think one of the reasons that the author did this was to help signal a big change. He had to re-learn everything he knew and adapt to the new place. Egypt is also a romanticized land. Of impossible feats, the pyramids, of erratic floods that can destroy everything you have, the Nile, and of great, long lost, treasures. Spain is viewed as a more plushy country. It has fantastic weather and beautiful women. The contrast between Spain and Egypt also highlights just how much he gave up for his personal legend.

            Her introduction brings up his role in society. “if you know how to read, why are you just a shepherd” (6) the words “just a shepherd” show a lot. It shows that he is low on the totem pole in society. It also shows about how if he really wanted to, he could have done something others would have labeled as “more important” or gain him more respect or money. He is a shepherd because he loves to travel. It shows that he is already in touch with his personal legend a lot more than many other people are. He has already begun to do things just for the sake of making himself happy. Which, as the king points out, is very rare.

The boy’s original motive was to become rich. He finds the treasure. The story would most likely feel a little incomplete without it. I think the fact that he travels all the way too Egypt then all the way back helps you to understand that it isn't about the money, it’s about the journey you take. Of course the money doesn't hurt, but I think that if the boy had come to the end of his travels, only to find nothing, I don’t think he would be very disappointed.

vocab sentences #3

abduct- to take someone
aberration- an anomaly, something or someone that is different or suprising
behemoth- gigantic
cogent- something that is obviously right. and makes sense.
dearth- a differencicy of a necessity
foil-to ruin someones plans
hiatus- a pause in something
impeccable- very good, perfect
largess- a present
mendacious- being untruthful
nomadic- moving around and not living in the same place
obfuscate- to complicate things so that they become unclear.
oblivious-  being out of it and  not in the moment.
ostacism- being exiled from society or a group
presumtous- assuming something about someone
pugnacious- easily angered
quotidian- something that happens regualarly
relish- to get pleasure out of something
solicitous- ardent
toady- brown noser
usurp-take power
viscous-gelatinous
vivacious- a lot of energy, happy
zephyr- a gentle breeze