Blog of Blogs

Blogging this year was quite helpful. What benefited me most was how we had to blog every week. Keeping up with the blog and constantly thinking about my reading really helped me. By blogging every week, my writing also improved. I read my very first blog post the other day. Compared to my more recent ones, it had a lot less thought in it. My blog posts gradually improved so I almost think of my blog as a scrapbook where you can see how my handwriting or drawing improved. I also benefited from commenting on blogs. When writing the posts, I had to think about how many people could potentially read them and it improved the way I wrote. I also enjoyed commenting on other people’s posts because it gave me a chance to read other people’s writing in my own age group and see how the styles differ. I was also able to find some ideas that would work well in my posts.

Writing online allows for the possibility for people other than my teachers and classmates to read my writing, and it creates a different style since the blogger knows others can read it. It creates a more connectable tone. I know that my parents and a few of my friends’ parents have read my blog and knowing that changed the way I wrote. This is not better nor worse, simply different. Writing in a notebook is also different because you have complete ownership of it, but a blog, however, is open to the world. Google owns it. I technically own the blog, but Google could take it at any time. It is different in a notebook where you know that it is safe unless you are a mighty forgetful person. The one thing that is similar between a notebook and a blog, at least in this case, is that both are graded. That also affects the style of writing. Writing online can be liberating because it allows the freedom of connecting with friends and sharing ideas. Blogs allow people to be free and allow their ideas to be spread around the world (not like anyone in another country would read my blog, however, they could).  Writing on a blog is also limiting for the writer because they are not free to say whatever they would like because they know that others could read it. It is exposed to the world.

I believe that teenagers use sites like facebook vigorously. It is unnatural for children to be on the computer for so long talking and sharing pictures with their friends and family. The things people do on facebook all can be done over the phone or in person and I do not approve whatsoever. Students use facebook to say things that they would not say to someone’s face, and I think this is mostly bad. When someone does not want to say something to a person, it often means that what they would say is not kind. This is why facebook is used as a way to be disrespectful to others. I do not plan on getting a facebook, unless I am absent for more than three days and desperately need the homework.

I think that blogging is a marvelous idea. Blogs are a way for others to read your writing as well as a new experience of writing for the blogger. I do enjoy blogs quite a bit. If I were to make a new blog, it would consist mostly of poetry. I have a website with a few poems on it, however, this is no blog. I believe that I will keep up this blog. I do not expect to have time in high school to write every week, but whenever I must do a book report or essay for school, I shall post it. This is partly because it is a good way to store material so that if my computer breaks down, I can reach my old posts from any other computer. It will also bring me great joy to view these book responses in 30 years. As I said before, blogs are like electronic scrapbooks.

Paper Moon and Animal Farm

In “Paper Moon”, Long Boy and Addie go on the road and do business, which is cheating people for money. At one point, Long Boy makes a horrific mistake and the two must rapidly escape. “Animal Farm” is about a farm where the animals take over in a large and ever growing rebellion. In each book, the main characters cause the losses for other people for a cause they believe to be right.

Addie and Long Boy believe that they are doing what is right for them. They make a fortune using people to get money. They are not doing what is fair to most people, because they are not treating those people fairly. However, it is fair to them because they are the ones making the profit. The people that Long Boy and Addie cheat lose much money and/or goods such as cotton because of them. Sometimes they sell them faulty items or items that they have unknowingly already bought. Most people in the story, as well as those who read it, do not think that what they are doing is right, that they are stealing. However, they make a large profit out of this business, as it is their full-time job. They would surely have doubts about what they were doing if they believed it to be wrong.

Similarly, the animals in “Animal Farm” also hurt others for a cause they think is right. Most people believe and are taught that war is wrong. However, the animals believed it right enough to feel the need to fight in order to take over the farm. The humans obviously did not think that the rebellion was the correct thing to do, but those animals did. They caused the loss of land, and a job loss for many farm staff to help a rebellion that they thought would improve the world. In my opinion, I think they are correct. Those people who lost their farm may not see the long term consequences. With animals taking over, people would die out. In the story, the animals seem to know how to do everything that the humans did to take over the farm, but realistically, the humans would no longer create such an impact, and therefore the earth would be used less harshly. Would a tiger use fossil fuels? Would insects destroy entire forests within minutes? I thought not.

The main idea of “Paper Moon” and “Animal Farm” is that the main characters or group of characters use other people for a cause they think is right. But does this make it right? I think that this makes it right to those people. Right and wrong cannot be proven, so something can only be right or wrong when people (or animals) believe it is. These books use their plots to explain why a few criminals wreak havoc: to pursue what they think is right.

Paper Moon

I am now reading a book called “Paper Moon”. It is about Addie Pray, an orphan who rides around with her “daddy”, also known as Long Boy and “does business”.  They cheat people out of their money for a living. But at one stop, Long Boy winds up in suspicion for the illegal transporting of alcohol. Addie does not realize how she has been changed by this business of hers and how it could change how successful she will become.

Addie and Long Boy do awfully well with their business. They can pick up 600 dollars at a time! But did Long Boy ever consider the future of Addie?  She is so used to business by age 11, once she is off on her own, it will be the only thing she knows. But this could hurt poor Addie. She needs to know that there is more to do in life than steal people’s money without them knowing. She is living on risk, and that is not healthy for a person, let alone a child of only 11. I hope that Long Boy will change his ways, as he seems like a good role model, but he is teaching little Addie to lie and cheat for money. I do not think this is right.

When Long Boy gets caught trying to exchange whiskey during the alcohol ban, he is charged for transporting illegal goods.  This could make not only him, but also Addie realize that this is a risky business, and as Addie grows up, she is liable to be caught in deep trouble. Because of this possibility, it is not healthy for her to keep living like this. This business is Long Boy’s only job that he must continue with. But Addie, she has potential. She is uneducated, but it is not too late for school, and she is very smart. But once she is alone in the world with no skills except robbing people of their money, this business is what she may naturally do. Addie may be benefited by this experience of being in trouble for doing business. Many people today are in this difficult situation as well. People with not a lot of money do not often get a good education because of the state of their neighborhood schools. Not getting a good education can lead to getting a low-paying job and that person’s kids will be stuck with the same ill-fortune. They are stuck in a poverty loop just because they were raised as so.

Without realizing it, Long Boy has been halting Addie’s chance of success as an adult by allowing her to help him do business. If he had or began to expose her to the life of a more fair businessperson or put her in school, she would be more likely to become successful and be in much less risk of going to prison.  She could have most certainly benefited from an education, but by getting caught, she and Long Boy are both learning how different their lives should be.