Chocolate Pretzel Rejection

       Our friendship was strong from the start- I had every intention to get closer and closer with you every day, and so I did. I had grown up knowing you from all of our family birthdays and holidays.You took my breath away at first bite, with your sweet, charming outside that gave the impression of being in heaven. You were a smothered chocolate goodness that will never be forgotten. Healer of the soul, calmer of the emotions, and relaxer of the mind. Do you remember when we were reunited at the Superbowl? I ran up to you before anyone could take you out of my reach for their egocentric selves. My heart leaps out of it's chest every time my mouth meets your delicious milk chocolate exterior, sending mass signals of joy straight through my bones. We have a bond, you and I. You have always been there to comfort me and satisfy my craving. But.  .  .

       Denial stricken. Despite your rich fullness, you enclosed a temperamental center. Subtly twisted, salty, full of carbs. It was obvious enough yet I was too drawn in to accept it. Deceitfully "perfect", you always had your consequences- you weren't as you were made out to be. You always reassured me using lies. "Eat me and you will feel great about yourself," is what you used to tell me. Easy enough to believe until the calories start adding on. As disappointing as you were, I could not escape your presence. You were all around me, beckoning towards me, whispering sweet nothings to my stomach which was only to growl in agony as a response. Time and time again I had relapses of needing you, wanting nothing until you were back in my arms.
       Unfortunately, we were slowly being separated, torn apart by Indoor Track. But once I had gotten know Track, life simplified. I had made friends with colorful and vivid fruits. Firm and bright vegetables. Tender and seasoned meats. Thinning glasses of natural and sweet water. My horizon had expanded to a furthermore width of variety and style. Who knew it would come so habitual to make intelligent decisions! I have discovered a new and profound dearness to these healthy friends. Friends who don't lie about what they will do for me. Friends who work their hardest to help me benefit. Supportive. Tasty. Truthful. 

Pranks 'n Revenge

Do you have any ideas on how to get back at my sister? Every year on April Fools Day she comes up with some new and creative way to prank me. Some may say I’m not that hard to prank, but she still gets me! She is a trouble maker, I swear. Last year she got me all freaked out that someone may break into the house and come into my room and take me. In the middle of the night I woke up screaming because she grabbed my arm while I was mid-dream. Scary stuff! So this year I’m thinking of pranking like a pro. I like to call this sweet thing “revenge”. This will be good.

            I've been searching some ideas of revenge April Fools pranks on the internet and I ended up finding some awesome ideas. Here is a link of what I found. My favorite prank is to hide an alarm clock in her room in a place that she’ll never think of looking and set it for three in the morning. This way she won’t be able to sleep until she turns it off- which is pure genius. Props to whoever thought of that! Another good one I've seen is to make a fake copy of an important piece of paper or a project for school that she has and replace it with the real one. Then I can spill my drink on it and make her flip out because her hard work is ruined. Is that too cruel?

            Revenge in general is a cruel thing. Its human nature to want to get back at someone for doing something nasty they do to you, but is it really worth it? Does it make you better than that person to get back at them? Unfortunately no but it is good for a laugh! If not a laugh, it’s useful for a pick-me-up. I have a lot of mixed emotions about revenge because of this. Personally, I feel remorse when I do something that may hurt someone else, although it’s difficult to fight off the urge to “punish” them. It’s this very human nature quality that links to selfishness. Let’s face it, we all put ourselves first. Why should we care what others feel when we can please ourselves?

 This is my view of Hamlet’s thoughts in Hamlet by Shakespeare. Hamlet is a prince who’s father has recently passed away of “unknown causes”. Hamlet saw his father’s ghost, who told Hamlet that he was murdered by his uncle for the hand of the queen and the power. If I were him, I would be far beyond mad. Guess what he decides to do about it? Good guess, revenge! If his uncle had poisoned his father, he will take the life of his uncle as payback. I completely understand his motive and reasoning but is it right to take a life for a life? According to Hammurabi's Code, it was considered fair and just to have an equal punishment. This seems a little far, how about forgiveness? I wouldn't expect him to make amends with his uncle but to take his life is another story. I've heard rumors about that ending of this play and I am still excited to read it for myself. Knowing Shakespeare, it will be bloody and everyone will die. Here is video a  I found of the big fight scene from Hamlet in search of some action and fighting from the play. Comment with any opinions or ideas of revenge or pranks, thanks guys!

Dr. Suess, Huckleberry Finn, Shrek, What's the Difference?

Satire is a funny thing, literally. Definition wise it is an exaggeration, ridicule, or irony about a real person, place or thing. Some examples are parodies, jokes, songs, books, and other things like that; it's a technique to create humor.
      There's quite a few techniques of satire- exaggeration, incongruity, parody, and reversal. Some of these were already listed above. Exaggeration is to increase beyond the normal for effect. Ever hear a little kid who didn't want to do something that their parent asked them, so they just whined and made up any and every illness they could think of to get out of? Well, that was exaggeration. Incongruity is when two unlike people or objects are together in a story. I can't think of a random example of that one so think of one yourself, lazy. A parody is to imitate (seriously) in order to make fun of something. If you feel you absolutely must see a parody of rap battles from history, click on this link here. If you do, I warn you, the language isn't completely friendly, but isn't overly vulgar either. Another, kinder link is right  here. Ever read doctor  Reversal is a sudden, observable switch of fortune in the story. Go buy a new, expensive sports car with all the money you won from the lottery last week. That would make you happy, yay! Be careful, because as soon as you drive out of the parking lot, you will be smashed by a semi truck. Now that my friends, is reversal.
       The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain so very long ago. That whole novel is satirical in that it uses all four of those techniques. If you've read it, you would know that Tom Sawyer has a vivid imagination. He thinks that himself and the boys are robbers and part of a cult when really, they're just pretending to steal things. The difference between Huck and Jim- where to start? First of all Huck is a white boy who goes to school and is taught about the Bible. He's still innocent and immature. Jim on the other hand is an African American slave. He has seen human cruelty and torture which has made him learn the evils of the world. He is also uneducated and extremely superstitious. This difference shows the incongruity between them. The so-called "duke and king" are odd characters. At one of the towns they travel to, they put on a play of Shakespeare's. The whole act is a parody because they mock out the play. Last but not least, when Huck went from the widow to the wild, that was a HUGE reversal. He was originally at a nice, safe place where people took care of him to trying survive on his own.
       Now for the fun part of this blog. Shrek the movie has so many satirical components. Characters like Cinderella, Snow White, Pinoccio, Three Blind Mice, Big Bad Wolf, Gingy, and such are parts of real fairy tales. In Shrek, they are satirized with parody. None of the characters actually did those things in their fairy tales, but it did make a funny movie. Incongruity is when Shrek finds Fiona. They fall in love, but they have such drastically different personalities that it doesn't seem like it would work. But it does because, as we all know, Fiona is an ogre too. SPOILER ALERT! Hope I didn't ruin that for anyone, but come on. It's been out for 10 years now, you should already have seen it. Last but not least: Here's my favorite scene from Shrek with Gingy in a parody. Enjoy!