Shooting an Elephant

Sight
1. "He looked suddenly stricken, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralyzed him without knocking him down."
2. "You could see the agony of it jolt his whole body and knock the last remnant of strength from his legs."
3. "The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill."
4. "It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palm-leaf, winding all over a steep hillside.
Sound
5. "The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theater curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats."
6. "When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick-one never does when a shot goes home-but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd."
7. "The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock."

Touch
8. "I felt that I had to put an end to that dreadful noise."
9. "He was dying, very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further,"
10. "It made me vaguely uneasy."

Blog #7

I was posed the question, “How do you handle opposition?” and was given 3 stories as reference. And after reading the stories and thinking about the question, I see this problem from the same way I look at most opposition, from the outside. From an early age a saw that most people acted childish and selfish when it came to problems that directly affected them. I was more upset when people wouldn’t agree or listen just because it might go against what they think is right, I did not want to end up that way. So I asked myself what would help people think more openly about something, to me it was simple. Just stop! Stop talking, stop yelling, stop getting more and more upset, and just look at the problem as if someone had asked your opinion on the situation and it had nothing to do with you; what would you then do or suggest the people involved to do. And in most cases if you can see it from the others point of view you can see their side more clearly, but if one can look at the big picture as if watching others or if easier movie or reading a book. Only then can one see their own faults and hope to change them. In “Handling Room 15” by Katherine Crane I feel that they were looking for a way out, and if they tried to look at it from a far (as they would have to have done at some point to write it out the way they did, provided it was true which I doubt) they might have gone back instead of looking for an out.
In “PSST! Human Capital” by David Brooks, I find I fall into the side of more emphatically astute then book smart he talks about in his writing. I was always the first to put things aside for later but get me going and its hard to stop me. I scored the highest IQ in my school district however I am partially dyslexic, but did not know that at the time, and I did poorly in English mainly spelling, which kept me out of the early AP programs. I have always been a logical thinker and such numbers just made since to me as a child. I have been acting and entertaining since I was 3 and was around more adults the children until I was around 8, I developed an acute since of people and was able to pick up on small nuances and read their emotions more easily. As such I had many admirers for teachers growing up, for I always got along better with adults then kids my own age, and I had a very large vocabulary at a very young age.

Porn

It is hard to make a comment on if porn should be allowed or not allowed on airplanes, because to me it is more than that one topic. By making something a small narrow topic to say yes or no to is misguided. That is how liberties and freedoms are taken away by saying you are not allowed to bring porn on a plane you are saying you do not have to right to carry or own the items of your choice. They would have to check bags and purses because you don’t have a magic porn detector like they have for other hazardous items you might bring on a plane. I do think they should have the right to censor the internet they offer while on planes or the movies and music they have available, just as they have the right to chose the food that is served. But to say you cannot bring it on the plane is taking our rights and liberties from us. Now that being said if the person in question is advertising his porn or showing it around or if he did anything that would be considered not allowed in public, that he should be reprimanded for disturbing the flight or breaking some laws if he or she exposes themselves. If any facility that offers services such as internet or magazines they should have the right to censor the service they offer but that does not mean they can place restrictions on what an adult can bring or have on themselves, provided they are not breaking laws while doing it.

AudioBooks
I have always loved books my dad use to read me stories every night, but I have a hard time reading and remembering what i have read. it seemed strange that i loved books but could never seem to read with ease or retain a large amount of what I read. If I was read to or heard it aloud I would not only be able to remember better but i was able to visualize the story much better, that was my first introduction to the world of audiobooks.
Again i love stories and enjoy learning new and interesting things. i would go to the library all the time and spend hours looking through the list of audiobooks they had to rent. But i soon found it was hard to find an unabridged version of the books and most of the ones I really wanted didn’t even seem to have one. it wasn’t until the mid 90s when a turn was made. one of the most sold and well received audiobooks was Harry Potter and it started more and more authors to allow the books to be performed on audio, for you could not just hire anyone to read a story they had to be able to not only do a full cast of personalities but had to be able to do it in a way to have the listener drawn into the story.
As i listened to books i tried, if i had it, to read along with the audio and my reading was greatly improved. i now have a little girl of my own and my wife and i try to never miss a night of storytelling, but i also try to get her to listen to audiobooks instead of watching TV. She has advanced a long way in just a short time while listening and reading along