FINAL BLOG POST

Blog Reflection.

` As far as homework goes this blog is pretty good. Its an innovative way of doing homework that I so far have not seen.

Overall I feel I neglected my blog at some times and at other times really let it thrive, and I feel this is a good reflection of my reading life this year. I found that I dont read enough partially because I don’t have enough good books, I found that whenever Ms.Rear would assign a book my blog would grow. However when I was left to recreational reading I would be stuck reading the same old books or an occasional National Geographic. I found that I need to seek out more books and increase my literary veterancy. Especially with the looming cloud of High School reading which does come with it’s own silver linings of course.

I would not say I benefitted short term physically from this blog because even though it is very innovative I found myself going to bed at twelve on sunday nights. I would say I definitely Benefitted mentally. Since I had to type this. Typing, for me takes longer than scribbling down a page in my notebook so this made it easier to come up with new ideas about the subject matter. The blog also benefitted my teacher Ms.Rear because she didn't have to try decipher my handwriting.

Writing online can be liberating, you can instantly share your blog and it's easy to quickly access resources. Yet I often found myself distracted when I was writing a blog because a viral youtube video was two clicks away. Writing online however is a great way to get information out and project an opinion to an audience easily.

I feel I could keep up a blog or a vlog If I had a subject to create content for.I think making a vlog would be a fun experiment maybe one that could be extra credit in following years. I find it hard to write for fun on something unless I’m interested or passionate about it. I think it would be much easier to talk about something but that of course is just a personal preference. I thought that this overall was a good experience and if it had not been homework with a due date then I would have been much more optimistic about it. This was fun and it is much better than the usual soul crushing homework that is force fed to me by the other subjects, Thanks

Sincerely Jasper

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Recently I have been reading the book the Virgin Suicides. I’m only on chapter two but from the information I have gathered so far this book is about a family of five repressed girls who all eventually commit suicide. The whole story is  told from the eyes of boys who obsess over them. This book touches on gender inequalities in the second chapter which is the chapter I read most recently.

This issues manifests itself in Cecilia’s diary, Cecilia was the first sister to commit suicide, her diary was found by the family plumber and it was passed on to the boys who had been watching the events unfold which included Cecilia’s death. While reading the diary the boys are overcome with sympathy for Cecilia and the repression she had to deal with which was caused by her parents and the lifestyle of being a girl in her environment. The book states that they felt like girls like reading this and enlightened the boys by personifying females. Which in the book had previously shown that the boys were mostly interested in the physical aspects of the Lisbon sisters.

The boys learned something from Cecilia’s death. The author makes it a subtle detail. Yet I felt that this theme could be continued, every death could reveal something about reality to the boys or make them come of age. This is just a theory but I feel it could possibly happen in this story.

I’ve recently been reading a book titled “mythology” by Chip Kidd and Peter Ross. This book is about one of the most prolific DC illustrators ever Peter Ross. This book follows his journey from fan to creator. Often his books about Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman etc. are allegories in which superheroes are vessels of Ross’ ideas about life and world issues.

Peter uses his artistic capabilities to tell stories with characters we all know but at the same time makes us contemplate ideas and issues. Theres plenty of this in comics and graphic novels but I’ve never seen this done in a biographical style. Showing what goes into the making of the book the modeling the wax sculptures and the painting. There are documentaries on the making of movies and books that document the writing of books, but I’ve never seen this done with a literary form thats as underrepresented as comics and graphic novels.

In this book Peter is working on a series that focuses on superman. In these books superman doesn’t fight any supervillains, theres no Lex Luthors or Jokers. He tries to combat larger problems ones like world hunger or the oppression of specific religions and ethnicities. It turns out Superman is no match for Third world corruption and the distrust instilled by the sight of such a concentrated power. When he makes this he strays away from classic Superhero storytelling. This gamble causes some to doubt Peter, but he makes it anyway and auctions the original artwork for UNICEF. Looking inside the mind of a man who risks his career and passion is thrilling and if you're interested in the subject matter I definitely recommend this book.

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I’ve recently been reading a book titled “mythology” by Chip Kidd and Peter Ross. This book is about one of the most prolific DC illustrators ever Peter Ross. This book follows his journey from fan to creator. Often his books about Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman etc. are allegories in which superheroes are vessels of Ross’ ideas about life and world issues.

Peter uses his artistic capabilities to tell stories with characters we all know but at the same time makes us contemplate ideas and issues. Theres plenty of this in comics and graphic novels but I’ve never seen this done in a biographical style. Showing what goes into the making of the book the modeling the wax sculptures and the painting. There are documentaries on the making of movies and books that document the writing of books, but I’ve never seen this done with a literary form thats as underrepresented as comics and graphic novels.

In this book Peter is working on a series that focuses on superman. In these books superman doesn’t fight any supervillains, theres no Lex Luthors or Jokers. He tries to combat larger problems ones like world hunger or the oppression of specific religions and ethnicities. It turns out Superman is no match for Third world corruption and the distrust instilled by the sight of such a concentrated power. When he makes this he strays away from classic Superhero storytelling. This gamble causes some to doubt Peter, but he makes it anyway and auctions the original artwork for UNICEF. Looking inside the mind of a man who risks his career and passion is thrilling and if you're interested in the subject matter I definitely recommend this book.

Blog Comment

I just read Doren’s post on the return of the measles due to the “anti vaxers” movement. I feel that this is a great example of how some people trust themselves or their beliefs instead of proven facts. Often these people are trying to be open minded but it just shows their ignorance. Having grown up in two places where this sort of attitude towards raising their kids is very prevalent (San Francisco and gentrified Brooklyn).

I can connect Dorens statement to a National Geographic article I read recently titled “The War on Science” i talked about the anti vaxers and other issues that we have today with ignorance such as the denial of global warming and other environmental issues. In this article they tested scientists who researched global warming, in these interviews they asked basic scientific questions. they timed how long it took for each scientist to answer the question correctly. They found that the more improbable ones took much longer for the scientists to answer because it went against common sense.Anti vaxing is just one of these problems but taken to the extreme. This practice among parents could be hurting kids and has led to a rise in preventable diseases across the U.S.

I recently read David’s blog (http://davidsblogo.blogspot.com/) where I found the response to social issues assignment. This one in particular featured the book Flowers for Algernon This is one of my favorite books and in David’s response it highlights (one of the most prevalent) issues of disabled people's plights when it comes to being taken advantage of.

David outlines this issue in the book with a well executed vocabulary that allow even someone who hasn’t read the book to understand David’s thoughts and opinions on the book. You could really see these attributes when David draws the readers attention to the bakers. The bakers took advantage of Charlie multiple times throughout the story. Most people would think they would be the antagonists in the story but davids paragraph makes us second guess that. After Charlies Surgery (which increases his intelligence drastically) the Bakers despise Charlie since the positions have flipped. This David states shows more about their character, but I think it actually shows more about Charlie’s. This shows how Charlie still keeps a certain set of morales that defined his living before the surgery. He still looks for their approval even though even they admit in a certain way to being lesser than him, and when he doesn’t find it Charlie is hurt.

Later in David’s response he explains how it might be hard for a mentally disabled person to tell who is a friend and who is an enemy. This can  be true but it also shed light on what I think to be an even bigger part of the plot in this book, Which is the smarter you become the more unhappy or untrustful you become. These bakers took advantage of Charlie when his obliviousness was profitable. Charlie was not hurt by this at all in fact he cherished the praise, this didn’t cause him any harm rather it was him missing out on an opportunity that would add to his bank but not to his character. When Charlie gets smarter the bakers distrust him and feel threatened by him, In the end Charlie was more alone,

By taking advantage of Charlie the Bakers were actually hurting themselves in the long run, karma wasn’t kind to them and the bakers who were making profits off Charlie were eventually found out. Davids response offers insights into an awesome book, these insights can be built upon especially from the angle David is observing the book.