A second goodbye.

Just an update, I think I'm going to reach 1000 views by tonight! Thanks for the 'support' guys!

Also, I just felt like I had to mention, that I have currently made 50 cents off my ads, which is pretty stellar. In a couple more clicks I'll be able to go to the dollar store and get something nice! ohboyohboy! ;)

Peace, this time for real,

Henry

Goodbye.

Epic Rap Battles of SH5

"Encore, do you want more..." - Numb, Remix by JayZ and Linkin Park

 So with over 800 views to my blog (which were probably mostly me refreshing the page to edit my work), I felt indebted to make a final bonus blog for all you dedicated followers/leechers. I present to you:

 Epic Rap Battles of SH5

Here's a beat to go along with it, if you suddenly have the irresistible urge to spit these lyrics out loud: *NEW* Beast violin rap instrumental!

  Epic Rap Battles of SH5

Billy's daughter:

Yo yo, mike check, check it,

Dad, I think you've lost it a bit,

Ever since that plane crash you’ve been talkin nonsense lickety split

I love you dad, and I know you love me too,

But im afraid this relationship’s going become overdue,

Why you in this cold house with no slippers or shoes,

It’s like you have no common sense,  your feet are deathly blue,

First this, then you start speaking ballyhoo,

Dad, if you keep this up, you’re going to be eschewed!

Tellin your story in NYC,

People just think your mad, that’s a guarantee,

So do yourself a favour, just stop with the madness,

This isn’t Sparta, all this is just sadness.

NEW BEAT> enter, Billy R-dizzle Pilgram

Hey, Hey, Hey, Check it, Pilgram west side represent, uh, *nods head* uh.

Stop

The hate

On fate.

I’ll go to NYC if I like,

Spread the truth cause it’s right,

Life’s all about the inevitability,

I don’t care about my credibility,

And don’t start tellin me it was the plane crash,

That caused me to go start talkin, cause that’s straight up trash,

So stop being so uptight, talkin in spite,

I just felt that back then, the time wasn’t ripe.

Uh. Unh. Yea. Check it.

Hand it off to my homies on the west side, Traufmadizzle, where you at? <lynn pet peeve;)

NEW BEAT> enter, Traufmadorian Shady

Uh, unh, west side represent,

Chorus:

Here’s where I’m at,

 Here’s where I’m at,

There’s nowhere else I’d be,

Cuz fate’s the referee,

I was destined to be here since the beginnings of time,

To be here telling you about fate, just spittin my rhymes,

Think of it like amber, you’re just bugs trapped in it.

Don’t even think of altering your life, you were born to befit,

Humans, Humans, always crying out rubbish

“We’re all going to die in 2012”, you scream?

Would you all calm down and eat some ice-cream?

Cause I know what happens: a trauf pilot presses the wrong button. JUST SAYING.

Fate's real.

Y'all just wont admit.
So I’m calling quits.

...I knew this was going to happen anyways.

This will be the second last post to this blog.

I'm ending my blog with a bang. You'll see.

But in the meantime, please check out all other aspects of my blog, including the Ads by Google. Especially the ads by google. If they interest you, feel free to click them. This has nothing to do with me making money off every click. nope. nothing.

Please don't spam click, as google will get suspicious and probably ban my website.


Muah, hugs and kisses,



Henry

Not just lions; Ponies, Ligers, and everything in Between - A response to H1 VS H2 3

original blog link: H1 VS H2 3: The Return of the King of the Jungle

Harry, let's talk again. After reading your response to my post on lions, I was compelled to make another response. Again, please don't take anything as offensive, my ideas are only to be considered, not taken personally. S'all good? Ok, moving on.

Well, your first paragraph is slightly confusing in my opinion. Just because Vonnegut's novels are the only ones that you have read which use the "dog barking" phrase, does not mean you should completely associate it to Vonnegut and not give credit to the other authors who use it. I don't think the phrase should be called "a hallmark of Vonnegut" as you worded it. That term is much too strong to describe a phrase that is actually quite common.
Another minor criticism I would like to point out: I didn't see a very strong correlation between what your blog was trying to discuss, and the contents of this first paragraph. I think you veered off a bit in direction and digressed in your arguments. My original post was regarding the specific use of the "dog braking" phrase, and why different animals couldn't be used as well to convey feelings or enhance settings on the book. However, you're first paragraph was discussing how "A dog barked" is a memorable phrase in the novel SH5. I feel that writing your first paragraph on ideas more related to primary topic would have greatly benefited the direction of flow in this blog and its relevance. Nonetheless, you mentioned a very interesting connection regarding image association.

Minor details aside, I want to clarify my intentions when I wrote my "Why Cant a Lion Roar" blog. Harry seemed to have misinterpreted my blog post when he wrote his response. Granted, the purpose of "Far away, a dog barked /a cricket chirped" is to indicate the dead, awkward silence of a situation. However, when I gave my example about the lion, I was referring to using "a lion roared" in a different context. I obviously realize that if an author was to use a roaring lion in a serene moment of the book, the scene would almost definitely be ruined by the picturing of the humongous, vociferous lion in the mind.

What I had meant instead was to use my lion phrase to convey a different set of emotions. Maybe because lions are characterized by their ferociousness and anger, whenever a lion roared in the distance, it could symbolize the tension of a debate that was occurring in the story. Therefore, it didn't necessarily have to be an aggressive lion who roared; it could essentially be any animal performing any action. The lion was just an example in general. Perhaps this entire misunderstanding was my fault, for not explaining properly. I do apologize. But now that you understand what I intended to write, you can see that your argument about lion roars able to be heard 5 miles away is pretty fruitless. Such a stat could only promote the usage of the phrase in a situation where perhaps there was a choleric man in a rage. Then, in that context, one could put, "Meanwhile, a lion roared."

All of these small catch-phrase sentences, if used in the right place and right time in a novel, could surly produce a powerful emotion an author chooses to convey. So down with the trite, lame dog barking. Next time when you (the reader) are writing a creative piece of work, I encourage you to be creative and use a new animal to describe the atmosphere. Just make sure you can justify it when it comes to analysis. :)

Leave RB alone! H1 vs H2 response

Oh hey Mr. Lynn, if you're assessing one of the blog responses for the rubric, please assess this one and count the lion roar response as just a blog post of choice. Thanks!

Original blog link here: H1 VS H2

Harry, first off, please do not take any offense to the following. S'all good? Ok, next thing to mention. Unlike you, I will not be summarizing every idea of yours that I wish to discuss. So for all viewers, if you are confused as to what I am critiquing about, please read Harry's blog thorughly beforehand, because I will not be restating his points. I find this approach to be much more direct and less time-consuming for both the reader and myself.

There are 3 points I'd like to cover through the course of this post. Let's first talk about the first-person narrative. I found your first sentence in your argument to be confusing.

"Rebecca Black's first person narrative really wasn't what we should call "first person narrative." First-person or not, if yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday."

The main concern that I had was that the lyrics you used to support this topic were not in third person at all. Like what Vonnegut did in SH5, Rebecca Black only uses first person in various parts of her song. The beginning describing her personal life is narrated in 1st person; however, Yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday, are simple claims that seem irrelevant to this subject.
You also made a point about connecting to the listeners' thoughts and feelings.

If Rebecca Black was trying to connect to the listeners, she could have tried in a more emotional level.

Keep in mind that Rebecca is trying to connect to a younger audience that has yet to mature. So while these lyrics may seem unrelatable to you, a brilliant academic student in Grade 11, they may connect instantaneously with a 3rd Grader who's stress-free and just looking forward to a Friday. I think the biggest misunderstanding in your claim was in thinking that Black is trying to reach out to listeners like you; instead, I felt that she had the intention to target a different younger, less mature audience. Thus, I believe that her 1st person perspective is still valid, as it still tugs at the heartstrings of young boys and girls, who DO wake up for school, and who DO eat cereal everyday. You are still absolutely right when you claim that her life adversities do not apply to older people, who on the contrary, may think these lyrics are repetitious and bland.

Next up is regarding the various perspectives. First off, I felt that you were being a little too harsh on Rebecca Black. Your post was supposed criticize my connections and ideas, and yet, I felt that you were constantly hashing out on Rebecca Black instead, deploring her, for lack of a better word, 'substandard'  lyrics.
You made a great emphasis on how the rapper choose to use a school bus to convey his emotional excitement. And once again, I have to remind you, these are little kids that are listening to this music. What better way is there to connect to these young people who hop on and off a school bus five days a week? I can see why the rapper would choose to relate using a school bus. Tell me harry, when you were a kid, if you ever took the school bus, did you ever have those days when you just couldn't wait to get home, and you'd jump off the school bus as soon as you could? I think the rapper was trying to recall these nostalgic moments that every child who takes the school bus has felt, and transfer that energy into enjoying the song Friday.

And lastly, there is the concept of fate. I can understand why you would have mixed feeling for this one, Harry, as this idea is quite original and daunting. The major problem I had about your argument for this one was how you focused too much on whether Rebecca Black did or did not have the intentions of incorporating fate, rather than discussing the connection itself. Whether Black intended to make these profound connections does not matter. In class, when we discuss our novels, do you think all of the ideas presented by our peers are those the authors had in their minds when they were writing their books? Definitely not all of them. The joy in every fine piece of artistic medium is how many people can have different interpretations. What matters is how you defend your personal interpretation. In my blog entry, I made a far-fetched connection, as you said. However, I was slightly disappointed in your response because I wanted to read about the flaws in my argument, such as whether I had justified it enough, rather than whether Rebecca Black had intended for this idea to be present in her song lyrics.

So that's my stance. Please don't take anything personally, I really felt that you had some good ideas in your response post to my original post.

Toodles, muah, hugs and kisses,
Henry

RB VS KV

I’ve discovered something extraordinary. But first watch this video:


Now, I present to you…..

How Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Rebecca Black’s Friday are Similar to Each Other

1. The Repetition
This first point is by far the most straightforward connection. After reading SH5, we all know how much Vonnegut likes to use the certain catch-phrase “so it goes”. He uses it one-hundred and sixteen times, to be exact. I haven’t bothered to count up the number of times Rebecca Black says the catchphrase “it’s Friday” in Friday, but it’s a ridiculous, overwhelming amount as well. It is important, however, to distinguish the uses of the repetition. Vonnegut uses “so it goes” every time death occurs. The phrase emphasizes the numbness after so many deaths, until the readers learn to accept each tragedy as “just another occurrence”, and move on. Rebecca Black’s “it’s Friday” phrase serves a different purpose. The constant reiteration enforces the prominent theme of the song: Friday. After four minutes of listening to Friday, listeners get a solid understanding of Black’s excitement and passion for that particular day of the week. Nonetheless, both Vonnegut and Black use repetition to achieve different objective in their media.


2. The Poteweet
Vonnegut’s uses the bird chirp “Poteweet” effectively, especially at the conclusion of SH5, to imply that there really is not anything intelligent left to say after a massacre like Dresden’s. Similarly, when Rebecca Black introduces the lyrics "yesterday was Thursday/ today is Friday/ tomorrow is Saturday/ Sunday comes afterward", she's implying that there is not much left to be said about Friday. Black and Vonnegut can only discuss their ideas to a certain extent, before it is up for their audiences to realize the plainness of the subject matter. When there is nothing significant left to talk about Friday or the bombings of Dresden, Vonnegut and Black both rely on simple lyrics/phrases to hint how everything that needs to be said has already been covered, and that all that is left is for the audience to interpret the information.


3. First-Person Narrative
At key moments in SH5, Vonnegut occasionally reverts to the first-person narrative, which is easily distinguishable from the abundant third person perspective that is used. For example, when Billy is touring the prison camp toilets and notices someone suffering from diarrhea, Vonnegut adds in a small detail saying, “I was the that person [excreting my brains out]”. This writing technique validates Vonnegut’s experiences and reminds the reader that many of the events in SH5 are actually recounts of Vonnegut’s real-life war experiences.

For Rebecca Black’s song, the majority of it is actually first person. Essentially, she is narrating her own life on her lyrics. The first-person narrative is especially dominant in the introduction of the song: “Seven a.m., waking up in the morning, Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs, Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal …”, as Black recounts her own routine life in the form of lyrics. Both Vonnegut and Black use first-person narrative to connect to their audiences more with their own personal life, instead of only referring to an estranged, third person character that may seem too distinct to relate to.


4. Varying Perspectives
There are instances in SH5 when neither Billy’s nor Vonnegut’s view is used. Instead, a different character’s emotions and character flood the pages. An example is Valencia, when she is rushing to the hospital to see Billy. It is only by viewing Valencia’s perspective that readers obtain a true sense of her frantic and hysterical emotional state.

Likewise, Friday does not solely use Rebecca Black’s perspective. Some point in the middle of the song, an interlude interrupts the lyrics depicting Black’s typical day. The interlude showcases an African-American rapper who exudes his enthusiasm for Friday by describing the rush he feels when he is cruising the streets and passing school buses. Although only taking mere seconds in the song, this interlude symbolizes one of the most crucial themes in Friday.

Depicting an African-American adult celebrating exemplifies the universality of Friday. Everywhere around the world, listeners of different ethnicity and varying ages, whether it be teens like Rebecca or adults like the rapper, can relate to Friday. Incorporating a person with a different cultural and social background in the song Friday really accentuates the bigger, more profound hidden themes of the song Friday: universal happiness and acceptance.


5. Fate
Perhaps one of the most essential connections that I made is regarding fate. Fate is a concept that is deeply explored in the novel SH5. The motto written on Pilgram’s office, the Traufmadorian concept about being trapped in amber, and the general nonchalance attitude Billy adapts throughout the novel, all support the notion that we are merely existing, and that there is no use fighting against the unalterable.

Rebecca Black also refers to fate in Friday. She expresses this profound theme by weaving them in her seemingly shallow lyrics.When she is debating which seat to take (Kickin' in the front seat / Sittin' in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up /Which seat can I take), Black is actually exploiting the pretense of free will. Her music video depicts a car with all the seats occupied by her friends except for the middle back seat. Naturally, there is only one outcome that can happen: Rebecca must take the middle back seat. However, Rebecca still decides to challenge fate in her lyrics and point out multiple possibilities when there is actually only one. By doing so, Rebecca Black mocks the idea of fate. The way the story unfolds in the music video and her ultimate decision (she ends up taking the middle back seat) implies that challenging fate is a futile action, and that in life, the inevitable that has already been set in stone is bound to occur. Like Vonnegut’s novel SH5, Friday explores the notion of fate quite extensively.