A&B

LIST [i like] A
1- swimming
2- traveling
3- hoodies
4- whiskey
5- long necklaces
6- foreign cars
7- crocheting
8- texting
9- weather
10- sky
11- skateboarding
12- incense
13- exercise
14- splenda
15- gum
16- coffee
17- summertime
18- sleeping in
19- $
20- family/friends/boyfriend
21- singing
22- magic

LIST [i dislike] B
1- pricks
2- spoiled rich kids
3- pop music
4- sugar
5- carbonation
6- vodka
7- 8:00 classes
8- sexism
9- the prez
10- wars
11- memphis city schools
12- racism
13- gas prices
14- being robbed
15- popcorn
16- religion
17- temperatures below 40degrees
18- reading
19- Mississippi
20- excessive muggy days


A11 [is like] B8
Some people have sexist ideas about skateboarding. Although the number of male skaters far surpasses the number of female, this doesn't mean girls can't skate. It's also assumed that any girl who picks up skateboard is only doing it because her boyfriend does it or she just wants to seem cool; the first time she falls and busts her ass on the concrete she trashes her board never to return to the magical sport. Perhaps this was true back when skateboards first entered the world, but the number of females determined to skate is on the rise.

A4 [is not like] A5
Whiskey and long necklaces are not alike although I might misplace a necklace after drinking too much whiskey. I have liked them both for a long time and cannot decide which I favor more. Whiskey makes me talkative while my long necklaces sometime attract people to talk to me. The two mainly aren't alike because I began drinking long after I began wearing jewlery.

B5 [is like] B7
Carbonation is horrible for my skin and throat while 8:00 classes are horrible for my sleeping schedule. Here's a second comparison- Carbonation is in soft drinks. Most soft drinks contain caffeine. Without caffeine I wouldn't ever make it to my 8:00 classes. A shower usually wakes me up halfway, but a fat cup of coffee finishes the process.


Writing Commonalities
I have the ability to find a correlation between any two objects, activities, or beliefs. Although it's not necessarily a direct connection, in the end I can always relate them. It's much harder for me to describe how two unrelated things are different other than the obvious. This may be because I can find too many similarities which obstructs me from decifering their differences. I also like using big words. I like to sound intelligent. Eloquent vocabulary takes up space, but I always make sure I know what the words mean. Otherwise that defeats the purpose. Sometimes I have trouble elaborating for pages and pages. I can get jumpy in my essays as well. Oh wait, I'm doing it again.

A-HA

My a-ha moment would probably be when I realized I want to be a meteorologist. I don't care how hard it's going to be to reach this goal because I'm pretty damn determined. Finding a grad school that's close is going to be a tad difficult though. I refuse to go to Mississippi State.

Anyway.... I pretty much came to this realization at a young age. I always liked being outside even though I get horrible allergies come springtime (or cats). But I deal with it; being outdoors is just too stupifying sometimes. I love the sunrise, the sunset, the clouds, the colors, the sun's rays streaking across the skyline or slipping through the thick clouds. It's just incredible. Then I've always wanted to know how the sky worked. Why's it blue? How can you predict the temperature? How do you measure the wind? Anything about the sky and weather, I had to know. And I still do. Dave Brown, here I come.

Earliest Memory

I haven’t always been a daredevil when it comes to amusement parks. But now if you show me a new, insane, twisted thrill ride to get on, I’ll be sure to do whatever is necessary in order to do so. I have to admit, though, some of those extreme, ultimate rides like Six Flags’s Mr. Freeze and the Mid-South Fair’s Sling Shot required me to psych myself up quite a bit beforehand. But in the end I always managed to conquer whatever doubts or fears I had in my mind. There is one out of an abundance of memories early in my childhood in which the “psyching uppage” particularly stands out.

When I was five, I was already about forty-eight inches tall. It just so happened that the height prerequisite for admission to any of the rides at the Mid-South Fair/Libertyland collaboration was just that. I was ecstatic. There was one ride I had longed to get on ever since I could walk--the Ring of Fire. Sure, now that I look back on it, it is not so terrifying in appearance, but just take a minute to imagine that massive loop at the mere age of five. Pretty intense, huh? My mom was a thrill-seeker like me, but I suppose that is how genes usually work. She agreed to ride the Ring of Fire with me though she had already been on it a million times. I worked up the courage and finally boarded the ride.

It started slowly, so I was soon overcome with a feeling of both comfort and reassurance. My mom was already screaming like she does on every other thrill ride. Suddenly I remembered how I had seen the people dangling upside down, yelling at the top of their lungs all the years prior. I tried my best to suppress the thought as the ride crept higher and higher while moving from side to side along the circular track. The higher we would go in the loop, the more the butterflies tickled my stomach. Eventually we made a revolution around the entire loop. It wasn’t so bad after all; I had conquered yet another ride. Everyone around me was shouting.
They were having a great time and so was I.

Another memory soon inched its way into my mind before the ride was over. I had completely forgotten that the operators of the ride like to hold people upside down at the top of the ring indefinitely. This one I could not suppress, and it scared the hell out of me. Then it happened. It seemed as though we were hanging up there forever. I wasn’t used to staying upside down; generally rides just do not do that.

As I looked down at the crowd of unknown faces, I began to feel the pole that I had tightly clenched between my hands all of sudden become slippery. The rest of my accomplices continued their shrieking. Even my mom did not notice the slippery situation at hand; her yelps just meshed with all the others. My miniature five-year-old frame was too small to be properly contained in the ride. I was not even touching the black, padded seat anymore. Knowing this, I held on for dear life hoping that the operators would soon quit unintentionally tormenting me. The ride did not appear to have the over-the-shoulders security harnesses as other loop-di-loop rides do. I came to find that these were later installed. But the thought of slipping out of the Ring of Fire haunts my memory forever. That was the day I literally almost died on a ride at the fair.

Family Ritual

Every year my family comes together from all parts of the country for one reason--Halloween. It is only the best holiday of the year. Sure, Thanksgiving and Christmas are jolly and filling, but Halloween by far surpasses them both. There is a completely different mood around the end of October. Some find it creepy and evil, but my relatives cannot get enough of this fine particular fun-filled evening.

We all dress up and deck my grandparents' house in all the most outrageous decorations we can get our hands on--glow-in-the-dark spider webs, skeletons, zombies, spiders that chase you, crystal balls with talking heads inside, and fog machines. We definitely also have the festive thriller music and bowls choc full of gobs and gobs of sweet, sour, gooey, chewy, chocolately, nutty, minty, dilectable candies.

Since we do not get together around the remainder of the year's holidays, my family goes ahead and celebrates them on the thirty-first as well. The kids get all the candy their hearts so desire while the adults cheerfully booze it up near my grandparents' wet bar in the living room. Although turkey is not our main dish for our partial Thanksgiving dinner, everyone leaves so full that loosening their belts is a must. Since it is also a partial family Christmas, all members receive a few gifts in addition. The little ones get the most, of course. Everyone leaves happy.

Things Fall Apart Reflection

Chinua Achbe’s Things Fall Apart is an African tale based on the lives of the Ibo peoples and the changes which come about in their villages, but more specifically for a bold man named Okonkwo. There are two definite sides visible in the text: the colonizing British and the already colonized Nigerians. The Africans clearly do not want to be colonized by the British, but the British apparently see things much differently, ultimately leading to major conflict.

In the village of Umuofia the people are well established and have their own accepted ways of life. They worship and fear many gods and spirits such as Agbala, Ani, Ekwensu, and Ogwugwu in addition to each inhabitant’s personal chi. The head god of all Ibo gods is Chukwu, who is believed to be their version of Jesus Christ. The priests and priestesses advise the people and take care of birth and death issues and everything else imaginable to simply appease the gods. There appear to be extremely high birth rates and infant mortality rates which are generally hard on the women, specifically Okonkwo’s third wife, Ekwefi. On average the men have approximately 15 to 20 children in a lifetime. The gods decide whether the children will survive or perish within the first six years of life. Ogwugwu is the evil spirit which the villagers consider to be the reason for so many of the children’s illnesses and deaths; it possesses them to be reborn to the same mother over and over again only to die young over and over again.

When Okonkwo unintentionally kills a young boy he, his three wives, and children are exiled for seven years to his motherland, Mbanta. Luckily he has a good friend back in Umuofia named Obierika who takes care of his yams after his compound there is burned to the ground. When Okonkwo and his family return from the exile, he comes to find things have changed considerably. The white man is no longer a leper named Amadi. The British have come to settle.

The imperial British first come to surrounding villages such as Abame. They shoot the villagers in the midst of participating in the local market completely catching them off guard. Okonkwo is severely angered by what he heard of this, but deems all those specific Nigerians to be fools for not having their guns and machetes on hand. Soon enough, the British make their way to Umuofia, first establishing a church. Ironically the people allow the church one plot of land—the Evil Forest. Their way of life is somewhat shifted when they come to realize this land is not so evil at all. A handful of the villagers decide to leave the clan when they see that the British peoples, especially the head of the church, Mr. Kiaga, are not dead within a week of its building. The things this handful once believed of spirits, gods, and evils were beginning to seem false and unnecessary. Mr. Kiaga and a man named Mr. Brown offer them religious enlightenment and instruction. They teach them the word of God, not of false the gods which were presently embodied in pieces of wood and stone. These villagers now know the Lord and his son who they refer to as Jesu Kristi.

Okonkwo and numerous stronger believers refuse to give in and accept the teachings of this Mr. Kiaga, Mr. Brown, or those of Mr. Brown’s successor, Reverend James Smith. There is soon continuous conflict because these Nigerians simply do not desire to have their values and beliefs tarnished by the white man’s religion. They neither know what Christianity is nor do they honestly care. I think this is still typical of older generations today. No elder wants his firm views to be threatened or changed just because another person claims it is right. I say, to each his own opinion, belief, and ideology.

It is such a travesty that the British were as ruthless as they were in coming and taking over the Ibo people who they feel are “primitive” and must be educated which the book later explains. These people already have set ways which clearly work for their culture. Why would the British want to come in and annihilate their heritage? Why would they try to eradicate their customs and their ways of life? Religious enlightenment is one thing. The instructors followed the ways of God unconditionally by treating their students humanely. But as far as the District Commissioner and the undesired court systems they organized in Nigeria, it’s just an abomination. I have no doubt in my mind that although the characters do not seem like they truly existed, the devastation of this situation is completely factual.

For centuries the dilemma has been Black versus White, so unfortunately this comes as no surprise. Things Fall Apart for the most part accurately presents the roots of this ongoing confrontation presented as the Ibos of Nigeria versus the power-hungry imperialist British.

The Black Death

Have you ever heard the children’s nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie?” How about the term “Black Death?” Well, guess what? The two are directly related. By examining the widespread death, economic disaster, and social distress created by the Black Death during the Medieval period, the devastation of this pandemic disease is more easily understood.
The Black Death of the 14th century, famous for holding the highest death toll from any non-viral epidemic, wiped out between one- and two-thirds of the European population. (Black Death.html) The popular aforementioned chant “Ring Around the Rosie” was created to describe the widespread death among the inhabitants. It is as follows:
“Because of The first line evokes the round red rash that would break out on the skin of plague victims. The second line’s ‘pocket full of posies’ would have been a pocket in the garment of a victim filled with something fragrant, such as flowers that aimed to conceal the smell from the sores and the dying people. A second creative explanation for this line is that it referred to the purported belief that fresh-smelling flowers, nosegays, and pomanders would purify the air around them thus warding off disease. A third possibility
includes the idea that ‘posies’ are derived from an Old English word for pus, in which case the pocket would be referring to the swelling sore. ‘Ashes, ashes’ would refer to when people alive and dead were gathered up into piles and lit on fire in a belief that burning the diseased bodies would not allow the disease to spread. Several alternate endings to the song exist, one being: ‘atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down,’ interpreted as invoking the sneezing before ‘we all fall down,’ the eventual succumbing to death.” (Ring A Ring O’ Roses.html)
Some regions suffered more than others. For example, in only one year 45 to 75 percent of Florence Italy collapsed while 60 percent of Venice was wiped out in a period of 18 months (with a daily rate of five hundred to six hundred deaths at the peak). There was a 50 percent mortality rate at Avignon. “Long-term population loss was also instructive. Urban populations recovered quickly, in some cases within a couple of years, through immigration from the countryside because of increased opportunities in the cities. Rural population though, recovered itself slowly, for peasants left their farms for the cities.” (Knox 15.html)
A second aspect is the disaster which the Plague placed on the economy. “Malnutrition, poverty, disease and hunger, coupled with war, growing inflation and other economic concerns made Europe in the mid-fourteenth century ripe for tragedy… Economic historians like Fernand Braudel have concluded that Black Death exacerbated a recession in the European economy that had been under way since the beginning of the century. As a consequence, social and economic change greatly accelerated during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.” (Black Death.html)
In the cities, financial business became warped when debtors, their families, and their kinsmen nearly all fell victims to the plague. The creditors no longer had a means of collection. Consequently, the money was lost. Special machinery and mills would cease to run properly, but only a handful of townsmen could repair them. These men would most often be found dead due to the Black Death. Little or no construction was being done due to the loss of workers. Towns became desperate for this work to be completed and proposed excellent pay. The short-term effects of the rigorous labor shortage were increasing wages. The prices of numerous goods lowered in accordance with the mortality. To put it simply, the standard of living for the living went up. (Knox 16.html)
In the countryside, whole villages and farms felt the plague’s wrath as well. The only remaining survivors saw no point in sticking around, so they up and left these abandoned places. By the early 1400s Norwegian seamen rediscovered some of these villages and farms in Greenland only to find the remaining untamed cattle wandering aimlessly. Entire families died leaving whole homes barren. The remaining landlords were left to deal with labor shortages. Because of this shortage, they ceased to release their Serfs. (Knox 16.html) “As a result of depopulation, the nature of farming in some areas changed. In middle England, there was a move away from arable to pastoral farming which was less labour intensive. Lords leased out their land because rents had fallen and land that had been left was taken up and used to meet costs. Consequently, many labourers enjoyed higher standards of living and lords enjoyed greater profits, despite higher costs.” (Economy After Black Death.html)
Serfs wanted to get away from their lords so that they might enjoy the beauty of life amidst the grimness of death surrounding them. They left all the tilled land, crops, and animals as they were so those things eventually just died. (Knox 16.html)
There was no real law enforcement, so the people did as they pleased. “Bechini” were a group who ransacked houses, killed and sexually assaulted people. They wore red robes and masks which concealed all but their eyes. (Black Death: 1347-1350.html)
As far as social distress is concerned, it didn’t matter which social group a person was in or how much money they had when the Black Death hit; it was seemingly unstoppable. This is evidence that there was much social distress during that day and time. “The noted Florentine historian, Villani, wrote this: ‘And many lands and cities were made desolate. And the plague lasted until __________’ Villani left a blank at the end of the sentence, planning to fill in a date after the plague had abated. He never did. Villani died in 1348 from the plague.” (Knox 18.html)
Schools and other educational facilities closed due to the mass loss of life. At Cambridge University 16 out of the 40 professors fell victim. In the churches, priests, bishops, and successors all died leaving no one to hear the remaining populations confessions. The people were left in hopelessness. There was a lack of religion at this point because nobody could figure out why God would allow such terrible things to transpire. (Knox 18.html) “The plague was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church, Europe’s predominant religious institution at the time, and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews, Muslims, foreigners, beggars and lepers. The uncertainty of daily survival created a general mood of morbidity influencing people to live for the moment.” (Black Death.html)
Many also assumed the end of the world was near. Courts and city counsels closed as well. Wills could not be proved genuine since there were so many. A name could be borrowed at any time for a quick profit from the remnants of the economy. (Knox.html) “Normal people were tormented by the threat of death, causing them to change their views on leisure, work, and art. Even children suffered.” (Black Death.html)
By now it is quite evident that the 14th century’s Black Death was indeed a mass surrounding of “black death.” After taking a look at the widespread death, economic disaster, and social distress, the ghastly epidemic could only bring back a plethora of horrific memories.

Foreign Mud Writing Assignment

According to Wikipedia, author Maurice Stewart Collis (1889-1973) was an apparent history buff during the course of his life. With this knowledge it is no surprise to find that the majority if not all of his published works are largely based on historical matters. Take Foreign Mud for example. Although the text is not a primary source, being that Collis was not living during the time frame highlighted, he managed to find first-hand accounts from those actually living in the period of Anglo-Chinese conflict. These documents, which could be articles from newspapers like the Chinese Repository, journals of those secretly assisting in the opium trade, or official letters transferred between countries, are carefully pieced together for effect and innumerably quoted throughout the book. As a whole Collis does not appear to take the side of either the British or the Chinese; he remains neutral, letting the reader alone decide which country seems to be more “in the right.” To the reader’s advantage, he fully expands on the views of both sides.
Collis takes the point of view of both the British and the Chinese, which allows the novel to be more intellectually challenging. He is basically saying to his audience, “Here’s what went down. Now you decide for yourself. Who was right? Were the consequences and penalties fair?”

The conflicts begin while Britain’s Lord Napier serves time in China to assist with the trade and foreign matters. The Chinese are so meticulous and uneasy about all the foreign merchants trying to establish trade with them, so Napier has to deal with all sorts of ridiculous Chinese rules and edicts constantly being issued. He is renamed Laboriously Vile because he is highly disproved of by the majority of the Chinese officials. But soon Napier falls extremely ill and dies a sudden, unexpected death.

Not long afterwards (December 1838, to be exact), the Chinese emperor appoints a native called Lin Tse-hsu as Imperial Commissioner. His job is to aid in the overthrowing of the drug traffic since the foreign devils refuse to cease delivering his poor citizens the addictive foreign mud regardless of edicts, fines, and a strangling. Lin’s answer to the emperor was this: “All could be accomplished by pressure; the Europeans at Canton were wholly in the power of the Empire; …they could be overawed and frightened into delivering up the whole store of their opium, both at Lintin and afloat; …they could be forced into a written undertaking to deal in opium no more [because if convicted in Chinese Courts, strangulation was in order].” (Collis 204-205) Commissioner Lin follows through these views with which the emperor is well pleased. Captain Elliot, the British’s current Chief Superintendent at Macao, is pressured by Lin to surrender all of the smuggled drug. Twenty-thousand chests are eventually surrendered, Lin disposes all of it by dissolving it in water which basically just empties out into the harbor. Then as promised, the port of Canton is reopened for trade.

Later a Chinese man is killed on shore while English and American sailors are present. Commissioner Lin makes it of the utmost importance that China be compensated for this loss by the loss of another. Trials are held, Thomas Tidder is found guilty of murder, but there is no hard evidence to ensure his conviction is fair. For this reason the captain refuses to allow the Chinese to take one of his men. “Captain Elliot, whose main duty had become the safe-guarding of all British subjects, held is to be unsafe for any of them to remain at Macao…On 21 August [1839] he issued a public notice advising the British to cross the bay to Hongkong and take refuge there on the merchant fleet…It was a great shock for such people to be told, in the hottest month of the year, to abandon their luxurious homes at a moment’s notice… [But] they were afraid to fall into Lin’s hands, knowing him to be elated by his recent success.” (Collis 243-244)

Eventually all the arising conflicts in China make their way back to Parliament in the form of letters and accidental leakage. The public soon becomes fully aware of the drug traffic and the Whigs and Tories go head to head for days in the great Commons debate. Each party does its best to appoint eloquent and persuasive persons to speak on matters such as morality, fairness, and war.

Ultimately there is a war. Actually quite a few wars are tied together and named in history as the Anglo-Chinese Opium Wars. The Chinese try and stand firm, but the British artillery and warships are far too overpowering. Captain Elliot is dismissed and succeeded by Sir Henry Pottinger who carries out all the goals Britain had intended on having accomplished once the wars had concluded. On 14 August 1841 demands had begun to be met: “[The Treaty of Nanking] was a dictated peace and forced the Chinese to grant everything the British had been asking for from the time of Lord Macartney in the eighteenth century, as well as give satisfaction for Lin’s seizure of the opium…Hongkong was ceded to the British Crown absolutely. In addition… Treaty Ports were opened--Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai--where British merchants could reside with their wives permanently…and without being obliged to buy and sell through Hong merchants.” (Collis 307) Obviously enough, these were very detailed demands, but the Chinese fulfilled them nonetheless. They now respected British power, and the British soon began to enjoy the luxuries and comfort of living on true foreign mud.

To wrap it up, I cannot help but reiterate the fact that Collis has introduced these specifically selected occurrences during the time of the Opium Wars in such a non-biased and neutral manner. There is an abundance of factual evidence in the accounts collected. He does not give his personal opinion, which I would find almost impossible to accomplish within such a sizeable book.