“Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound.”

“He was playing his life.”

“He played that which we could never forget.”

Everyone likes music. It might not be a genre that everyone else likes, but everybody has some type of music that they like and can relate to. In this scene from the book, Night, Elie Wiesel, Juliek is performing a farewell piece to Elie and all of the others around them. Through his performance alone, Juliek was able to express his feelings and give hope to his fellow prisoners. This scene relates to me because, music has been an important factor in my life since I was young. I started taking my first piano lessons when i was six, and I’ve continued to play the piano ever since. Being able to perform for others is a satisfying experience, and I hope that one day, one of my performances could have an effect on someone as meaningful as Juliek’s dying performance for the prisoners.

                                                      – Tom

Free at Last?

“His last words were my name.”

“He had called out to me and I had not answered.”

I did not weep, it pained me that I could not weep.”

“And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!…”

Being a son helped me easily relate to this scene in Elie Wiesel’s “Night”. It wasn’t until after this scene that I changed my views on a certain person that is extremely close to me.  My father and I have some sort of a love hate relationship. There were times where I could no longer stand my father, and he could no longer stand me. Maybe it’s because I don’t live up to his expectations and I always fail and disappoint him. It got to the point where I no longer cared for him and if he died I wouldn’t feel any sadness. I would’ve felt like a heavy burden has suddenly been lifted off my shoulders and have a feeling of freedom. However, it got to the point where it was so bad that because of me, my father cried. A man like my father never cries. I have never ever seen him cry. He didn’t even cry at the death of his brother. Well, maybe a single tear when he heard the news. But that was about it. When he cried I felt a little sadness but my hate and anger at him has yet to cease. It wasn’t until I read this scene in the book where I started feeling sadness for my father. Eliezer and his father were so close to the end, they almost made it. If one of them hadn’t given up they both could have been freed. When his father died my reaction was, “Wow, what if my father left me…” I can’t imagine my life without him. No matter how much I can’t stand him, it just didn’t feel right if my father was all of a sudden gone. My father and I have been through so much together. Our love hate relationship and our fights, but yet we are still pretty close. I don’t want my life to turn out like Elie Wiesel and his father. I want to make it to the end with my dad. I’m almost out of high school now. Soon I’ll graduate and I will move on with my life. Still, I will probably look to my father for advice.  Now I know that whatever my father does it’s all for me. Everything he does, all of his sacrifices are just so that I can have a better life than him. That’s exactly what he told me. Almost all the time this is what he says to me, “Ethan just try to work harder, so you can have a more successful life than mine.” Now I know. After reading this scene I just can’t imagine where I would be without my father. I probably would have gone down the drain. Now I no longer feel hatred for him, even though there are times that he still annoys me or irks me, I know that he’s doing it just for me. He annoys me because he cares. I guess I need my father to burden me, if he doesn’t, then who knows where I would be. So I don’t really want my freedom yet. This is a burden that I am now willing to carry.

-Ethan

 when your father helps…

Lost in the Action

“It was good that I had forgotten all that. And I was glad that Rabbi Eliahu continued to search for his beloved son” (91).

“And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed” (91).

“Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Elahu’s son has done” (91).

 

In our English class, we read the book, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel. It is about the “Final Solution” that Hitler has planned for the Jews, which was to exterminate them all and leave one superior race, the Aryans. During this scene, Eliezer and his dad have just reunited after being lost during the long march. Eliezer and his dad both gave each other the strength they needed to prolong the dreadful march. The did this by always talking and giving positive thoughts to one another. This is a very loving scene where they even argued who should sleep first. After a while, they remembered to never fall asleep during this period because they will never wake up again. Eliezer and his dad trust each other and have a very good relationship. In contrast, however, Rabbi Eliahu and his son have been separated and Eliahu desperately tries to find his son. This scene affected me because my father and I have been close ever since my childhood. But, instead of the father-son relationship every kid should have, Eliahu’s son betrays him. I could never imagine anyone letting their dad, who has cared and helped them their whole lives, die. Throughout the march, he has been trying to take care of his father, who could not keep up with the group. Elihau’s son wanted to “free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (91). This scene has also taught me how desperate people have become during the Holocaust. Throughout these times, people would do drastic things to try to survive. I will always care for my parents even though it may be hard. Although Eliahu’s son has betrayed him, he still shows how much he loves his son to try to find him through the harsh conditions. Throughout the whole book, it was very emotional to see Eliezer and his dad always looking for each other and making sure they are comfortable. Later on in the story, Eliezer’s dad dies after all the suffering he has been through. However, Eliezer “did not weep” because he was “out of tears” (112).

This book has taught me many things and that I should cherish the freedom that I have currently. Also it has taught me to care even more for my parents and elders. A father-son relationship should never break and should be locked in the memories in the child, and the father. Although one will struggle, they should try their hardest to the very end to care for their family.

A Knife and a Spoon

“‘Here, take this knife,’ he said. ‘I won’t need it anymore. You may find it
useful. Also take this spoon. Don’t sell it. Quickly! Go ahead, take what
I’m giving you!’
My inheritance…
‘Don’t talk like that, Father.’”

 Reading Night made me realize how dear your parents are to you, especially during the scene when Eliezer’s father gave his son his knife and spoon. It might not seem like a significant scene to some people, but to me, It was the most impacting moment to me. My Dad moved from my mom, my two sisters, and me a few months ago. When he announced that to us, we were all distraught. I was the only boy in the family, and usually my dad would take care of the house all by himself but I’d occasionally help him with chores of my own. He’d mow the lawn, take care of the pond, and made sure the house was in tip top condition overall. Now that he moved away, he told me I had to be the man of the house. Being a young adult already, I wasn’t as distraught as my mom, who has been with him for 35 years of her life, and my little sister, because I had him for 16 years of my life and he was there for my childhood already. Now, I have to make sure the house runs smoothly, and I never realized how hard he worked to keep the family happy and going. He gave me a list of things to be checked on and that was it. During all this I was like, “whatever,” and didn’t really realize the magnitude of the responsibility he was giving to me. When he left, I just did all the things he assigned and didn’t look twice at anything. Then, when Mr. Theriault gave me the book Night, I thought to myself, “Oh this is the book everyone’s been talking about. It probably won’t be anything special.” Then while reading it, I have never felt so wrong in my life. When Eliezer’s dad gave him the knife and spoon, I realized that that was the same thing my dad did to me. He gave Eliezer his responsibilities and the role of becoming his own man and showing that he doesn’t need his dad anymore. My dad trusted me with taking care of my mom and sister and that I needed to be good to my her because it’s an emotional time, and most of all, he trusted me to become my own man. My dad told me this, but I took him for granted. He also told me he’s no longer going to be here to clean up after me so I now have to take care of myself. This scene made me miss him so much after that because I realized how much I love and miss him. When Eliezer was looking for his dad after, it tore me to pieces because I also felt lost and confused. Now my dad’s in a different state working at least 10 hours a day, sacrificing all of his time and family just so we can pay for my college tuition. I still miss him, and I know he’s suffering more than anyone in my family, because he’s far away from home and his wife and children.

I’d like to thank Mr. Theriault because not only did he give us this book not only just to read it, he gave it to us so we can gain something out of it. All my life I haven’t read any book as inspiring or impacting to me as Night, and I hope everyone in the future gains something as valuable as I gained from reading this masterpiece. If you are reading this Mr. Theriault, I’d like to just say thanks for an awesome year, and even though you might not even like me, I would just like to say you are by far the coolest English teacher I ever had.

-Sy

Eating at Gen Korean BBQ

If you want a nice place to enjoy some extremely delicious Korean BBQ Buffet, Gen is the place to go! We highly recommend the brisket and my personal favorite, the bulgogi. We have tried almost all the items on the menu and none seemed to pop out with flavor more than the bulgogi. But be warned, make reservations early because if you arrive and ask for a table at the door, you’re in for a long wait time!

REFRAMED: NEVER EQUAL

Food is a necessity for every human being and when it is not there, people die from hunger and starvation. Over the past week, our class has been reading a new book called, “Animal Farm,” by George Orwell. In the book, readers are given and insight of the making, planning, and ending of a historical revolution, but with animals. It starts off as introducing the Manor Farm, run by Mr. Jones.  Every character is introduced and all the animals admit that their lives on the Manor Farm are, “miserable, laborious, and short” (5).

 

Like any revolutions that have occurred in the past, the animal’s revolution, called the Rebellion, started out with people not having enough food. The leader, in this case, Mr. Jones, only gave enough food to, “ as will keep the breath in our bodies” (5).  As the Rebellion ends, Napoleon, takes control of the farm. Napoleon was at first very helpful in the Rebellion, but after he took control, he became a tyrant, like Joseph Stalin. Stalin used his secret police to put terror upon the civilians, while Napoleon used his nine dogs that he educated himself to force the other animals to do his work. The dogs terrorized and even killed anybody that objected Napoleon. This broke one of the Seven Commandments, in which no animal shall kill another animal. Napoleon uses his propaganda creator, Squealer, to persuade the animals that everything is fair and that they are living their lives better than they were before when Mr. Jones was in charge. However, the animals have only received less food rations and more work hours under Napoleon’s control, compared to the other farms controlled by humans. Propaganda is often used during revolution time to the lower class.

 

Animal Farm has taught readers that the main cause of most revolutions is food. For example, the French Revolution and many other historical revolutions started because of the government/tyrant has not given them enough food. Usually, the middle-class, or bourgeois, and any other class above that are the ones that receive the most food, while the lower class suffers. The lower class consists of peasants, workers, civilians, farmers, and slaves. The tyrant usually believes that there actually is no food problem and tells the protesting lower class to go find food, but they don’t know that in reality, there is none and are suffering, while the upper class lives their luxury life. Also, the upper class always objects any changes that will affect their life and only cares about themselves.  One of the Seven Commandments in the story was that, “all animals are equal.” This, however, was never true, as the pigs took more food from the other animals and had the luxury life of the human. They did this because they were the “more educated” ones and they need more food than the other animals. To hide the truth, Napoleon changes the wording of the Seven Commandments until all that is left is, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” In the meeting of the humans and pigs, no one could ever tell which was a pig and which was a man.

 

REFRAMED : Oh Propaganda

Propaganda is not used only during wartime to gain support for the soldiers, but now commonly used as advertisements as a marketing strategy to gain customers. Ads are everywhere. They’re on the TV, billboards, internet, newspaper, magazines, and most likely everywhere you go, you’ll see an ad. Most of these ads are related to the food industry. They have different ads to appeal to different ages and gender. It’s easier to be targeted on the internet, because they can view your search history and get to know you and what you like. Social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube are used to attract people of all ages.  Advertising your product is the number one to attract new customers.

Carl’s Jr. has a unique way of attracting men to buy and eat their food. One of their ads features Kate Upton, a well-known model, eating their new spicy burger, and as she proceeds to eat the burger, it gets hotter and hotter. This technique is used to target a specific gender and is very useful depending on the case. They’ve also hired Kim Kardashian to campaign their new healthy salads. This was used to target young men, but it was also meant for women. By showing a model or someone famous eating food from Carl’s Jr., other women would be eager to eat there and be just like the famous people they saw in the ads. Their ads have attracted many viewers on YouTube, gaining them new customers.

When Victor Kim the member of Quest Crew, the famous dance crew, tweeted that he was going to be in a McDonald’s commercial, his fans were eager to see it. This not only promoted himself and Quest Crew, but also promoted McDonald’s because they just gained millions of Quest Crew fans worldwide that they might’ve not had before. They’ve also hired Lebron James and had a huge success from that one ad. Because the people in these ads use social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, the ads spread like a wildfire and gains more popularity.

Other ads use comedy to attract consumers. Comedy is able to attract any age and gender. It is a more general method, but gained them many customers.

To attract kids, they use toys to attract the kids and have them make their parents go buy food there, because of that one toy. It is easier to tempt kids and appeal to them than it is adults. By attracting one kid, it has made the whole family eat there, and the child might spread the word to his or her friends, causing them to go too.

The food industry also exaggerates or creates a perfect model of their food, making it seem delicious or appealing to the eye, but it is usually a lie and the actual product is not what attracted you in the ad. These false advertisements are also a form of propaganda.

Propaganda is not dead, it is still being used today in the form of advertisements. They appeal, lie, and attract people to get what they want, no matter the cost. Modern day propaganda and social media networks are huge influences to the marketing plans of food industries.

 

Reframed: Tweet

So yesterday and today our class was introduced to Twitter. I mean I know what Twitter is but I never actually used Twitter. To my surprise Twitter is actually very fun, and very interesting.  So these past two days have been very interesting.  We Tweeted about our novel the Count of Monte Cristo. It turned out to be a pretty fun activity. Everyone was talking at once and it was fast paced so I think I will be using Twitter more.

The only downside about Twitter is that I’m new to all of this Tweeting and Hashtag stuff. I’m probably going to get laughed at or whatever for this but its ok I don’t really mind. Hopefully Twitter will be as equally addicting as Facebook so I’ll get the hang of it in no time. To be honest I didn’t really get the hang of Facebook either. Sad life. So once I get the hang of Twitter I think I’ll try and connect our blog site to Twitter and Facebook. If anyone would like to message us or help then please do so so we can improve our blog. Lately it has been quite difficult to relate our food blog to the stuff we learn about in class. Like relating food to Monte Cristo? Yeah its not gonna be very interesting I know. So if anyone would like to message us and give any of their own ideas on how to improve this blog then that would be greatly appreciated.

Anyways, enough about school stuff. Let us talk about food. So every other Saturday night, I go to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with my family. Let me just tell you that late night doughnuts and Trumoo chocolate milk or just coffee is absolutely amazing. Walking into a Krispy Cream store and just seeing the doughnuts go down the ramps and the smell of the cream, it’s like you’re in heaven.

 

Who doesn’t like doughnuts at night? Doughnuts at night are amazing! The smells, the sights, the taste….they are all amazing and just wonderful. The only thing i have to criticize about Krispy Kreme is the lines. Lines! Lines! Lines! Every Krispy Kreme I go to which is not a lot, I mainly go to the one at the Block, they all have lines. These lines are probably the most annoying lines ever. They always wrap around the shop and you spend an hour standing in a line, looking at doughnuts…to me it seems that the people in front of me always take forever and they can never decide what to order. Like seriously, please spend more time in front of me and just look at the doughnuts. It’s not like I’m hungry or anything. So a little advice for people when they go to a crowded place like Krispy Kreme, please try to decide what you would like before you reach the front of the line and annoy the people behind you. The worst was when one time I waited in line, and this couple took forever deciding what to get and then they decided oh they don’t want doughnuts anymore and then leave. -__- But the wait is all worth it when you get your doughnuts.

 

 

 

REFRAMED: New Creations

Over the past few days in my English class, we have been working with quotes that everyone has picked out as their most wise and influential quote. Quotes can be very inspirational and have much insight on life. Our whole class shared our quotes on our new facebook group. Many people might say that food quotes aren’t as inspirational or inspiring, but here are some that I have picked out.

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” George Bernard Shaw

 

For me myself, I love eating, but sometimes, I might eat too much. Food is a wonderful thing that is very diverse and has many different forms/styles that make each dish unique.

“One should eat to live, not live to eat.” – Moliere 

This quote can be interpreted in different ways. However, I believe it means that you shouldn’t take food for granted and only eat enough to satisfy your hunger or daily nutritional value. The part, “not live to eat,” means that you shouldn’t eat unhealthy food. You don’t care how much you eat, but you eat just for yourself. In the end, it is better to “eat to live” and “not live to eat.”

In addition, we have just started to read a new novel, called, “The Count of Monte Cristo.” This book is about a man named Edmond Dantes who at first, lives a wonderful life, with his future wife, Mercedes. However, his future changes and is falsely accused and sent to the prison, Chateau D’If. There, he meets a prisoner that was once a priest, Faria. There, they create a plan to escape the prison through an underground passage, but Faria falls ill and dies. Dantes escapes through a master plan by using his dead body to escape and after that, takes the treasure that Faria has left him. There, he starts his journey of vengeance. At first, Dantes wasn’t sure about what to do, but later he trusted a complete stranger to help him escape.

 

 

This is a modern picture of the prison Dantes was held in, Chateau D’If.

This goes with the whole idea of trying new things, like food. Everybody is scared of trying new things. You never know whether or not it will be good or bad. However, risk taking is very important into succeeding in life. At first, I never tried anything that looked unappetizing or anything that was not what I usually ate. However, after persuasion, I have learned to take risks and try new things. This can also go into cooking, where you will go out of the ordinary in creating a new dish or baking. In fact, many dishes and other foods were created from many people that have decided that they would go out of the ordinary in cooking or making their new product. For myself, I love mixing drinks and different sauces into my foods. For example, I love mixing honey mustard and sweet n’ sour sauce together in sandwiches, fries, or burgers. In addition, I like mixing plain, flat drinks with soda. In the end, always remember to try new things, whether it is food, school, or anything else in life.

 

REFRAMED: Who decides the “Meta”?

What is the “Meta”? Well, for starters it’s the trend, the flow, the unspoken and unquestioned law that surrounds a particular subject in society. For example, in the early years of basketball, the game was usually filled with back and forth shooting and occasional fast-breaks. Nearly all of the basketball community played the game this way, with no questioning of this “Meta” because that’s how they thought the game was suppose to go. But then, one coach by the name of Paul Westhead decided that this wasn’t the way he wanted to play basketball, so he created The System, which revolutionized basketball forever. The System was a name he came up with for the style of basketball where the players would run repeated fast-breaks in order to score as many points as possible before the opposing team could get on defense. This play-style was so new and refreshing, the locals loved it. It was not welcome by the basketball community at first because it wasn’t fool proof, but it became a widely known play-style later on. This just comes to show that anything can sound weird and be rejected at first, but that’s the start of every new trend in human history.

        Fashion is another huge example, I mean, who ever thought having a Mohawk would ever become cool to people who never heard of hair style in their life? Mohawks and other weird hairstyles didn’t just appear out of nowhere, there had to be a person or group that wanted to try something new, and their bravery would either prove to be successful or humiliating.

    This applies to many other things too such as food and art. Food and art fall under the same category sometimes, because creating food is creating art itself. The ingredients of food determine so much about the final outcome, just like what you put in a piece of art. Modern art is very risky with usually low rewards, but an artist in the early 1900s by the name of Marcel Duchamp once put a urinal on a street and rotated it 90 degrees and called it art. He was widely rejected at the time because his idea was crazy and no one wanted to believe it was art. But, later it was deemed a work of art and many replicas were made and put in museums across the nation.

      Life is all about trying new things no matter what society says, because that’s how the human race evolves as a culture and it won’t ever stop so just keep going against the “Meta” and one day you could create the next big thing.