Kolin - Human Nature
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Lord of the Flies
I am currently reading a novel called "Lord of the Flies", written by William Golding. I have not gotten very far in the book yet, but I am very interested in the way the story unfolds, which makes me want to continue reading this book. The story is very unique, in that it contains lots of symbolisms for us to discover on our own.
I enjoy reading Lord of the Flies because it tells us how the human nature is like, and how it can be changed easily according to the situation and the atmosphere. William Golding symbolizes the conch as a symbol of leadership and order, and the island that the children are stranded on is based on the Garden of Eden, from Genesis in the Bible. From symbols like these, we can draw conclusion from these evidence, and that is why this book is very interesting to read.
I enjoy reading Lord of the Flies because it tells us how the human nature is like, and how it can be changed easily according to the situation and the atmosphere. William Golding symbolizes the conch as a symbol of leadership and order, and the island that the children are stranded on is based on the Garden of Eden, from Genesis in the Bible. From symbols like these, we can draw conclusion from these evidence, and that is why this book is very interesting to read.
Human Nature
I believe that the human nature is one filled with infinite possibilities. I say this because humans are a species that have evolved and developed over long periods of time. We have evolved over the time of four million years ago, undergoing many different changes until we evolved into who we are now. Even now, we continue to change. Even now, we continue to learn and create new things every day.
The reason we were able to evolve and change is because we started out with nothing. We were born with many curiosities, and we managed to figure out ways to answer the questions that we had. We were able to answer scientific, mathematical, philosophical, technological questions, etc. That is how we managed to continue developing. I am sure that we will continue to advance further, and continue to acquire new knowledge. Gandhi once said,“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” I agree with this quote, because humanity managed to evolve by always challenging ourselves. This is why I believe that the human nature is filled with possibilities.
The reason we were able to evolve and change is because we started out with nothing. We were born with many curiosities, and we managed to figure out ways to answer the questions that we had. We were able to answer scientific, mathematical, philosophical, technological questions, etc. That is how we managed to continue developing. I am sure that we will continue to advance further, and continue to acquire new knowledge. Gandhi once said,“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” I agree with this quote, because humanity managed to evolve by always challenging ourselves. This is why I believe that the human nature is filled with possibilities.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Sunday, October 16, 2016
A Farmer and His Wife
I read a story called “A Farmer and His Wife”. The story is
about a farmer who thinks that his wife is lazy, works slowly, and wastes her
time. Angered by his words, the wife tells the farmer to stay home the next day
and do her work, while she goes out and works in the field. The farmer,
thinking that it will be an easy job, happily accepts. However, the next day,
he has a very hard time, and in the end he apologizes to his wife.
The reason
I like this story so much is because it is very funny, while also teaching us
that the work that we have is no more important than someone else’s and that we
should respect those who work what we don’t. I like how the story progresses
from the farmer having a very clouded vision about his wife’s work to appreciating
and respecting what his wife does for him. The farmer is a round character,
since he goes from being ignorant to being respectful of others. This change in
characteristics is what makes me appreciate this very short story.
Fall Break Free Post
This fall break, I followed my aunt to Alexandria, where she would perform in a orchestra. I did not like to go to concerts when I was younger, but now I do not think they are so bad. However, what was bad was the time I had to wait. I sat in the lounge while my aunt and everyone else practiced in the concert hall. I tried to complete my homework during that time, but I just could not focus. Either way, I sat there, whittling away the time until the show started.
Finally, it was time for the concert, and I joined the crowd as they assembled in the concert hall. The lights dimmed, and the performers all flooded onstage. They gave a short speech, then the conductor came out. Then, the orchestra began to play. It was fascinating to hear all the different sounds of instrument all combined into one. However, the orchestra lasted much shorter than I thought. I was expecting it to last longer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think that I will get to appreciate concerts even more after this.
Finally, it was time for the concert, and I joined the crowd as they assembled in the concert hall. The lights dimmed, and the performers all flooded onstage. They gave a short speech, then the conductor came out. Then, the orchestra began to play. It was fascinating to hear all the different sounds of instrument all combined into one. However, the orchestra lasted much shorter than I thought. I was expecting it to last longer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think that I will get to appreciate concerts even more after this.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Should We Abandon Louisiana? In Some Ways, We Already Have
This article, written by Zack Kopplin, describes the attitude of the media and how they only handle the things that their audience might find enticing or entertaining. After reading, I agree with this article. I think that people should pay more attention to more obscure things, and just because some major incident is insignificant to some people, it doesn't mean that it is insignificant to everyone. A huge number of people lost their lives and their homes during the flood, and there are people who are not even aware of the incident altogether. The people who do know the incident wishes Louisiana to be bulldozed over, because it will be underwater anyways. Now, this is what I want to tell them: "Would you be able to say that if this was your home?" The people of Louisiana are not leaving because they dislike Louisiana: they are leaving because they have no choice. They lost everything in the flood, and they do not need casual insults thrown at them, on top of everything else that has happened to them. I think that we are to blame, because we are the ones that demand "interesting" and "entertaining" topics on the news, instead of ones that are actually important.
The issue is, Louisiana is very prone to coastal erosion. It is stated that one football field of land is eroded every hour, and everything we are doing is only accelerating the rate of erosion. Because of this, it is very expensive to try and stop the coastal erosion from continuing, and it is also very hard to replace the property of all those who are damaged by flooding incidents like this. And because a chance of flood in Louisiana is very low according to historical models, it is hard to predict and prevent these types of flooding. Therefore, whenever a flood hits Louisiana, it takes a lot of resources and effort to rebuild what has been damaged. Because of that, the government is unwilling to try and rebuild. Many people are forced to leave Louisiana, not because they are scared of incidents like these, but because they are unable to rebuild, due to the lack of support the government shows.
I think that we are at fault for these issues, because the problem behind these incidents are all due to global warming. The main cause of coastal erosion is the rising of sea levels. Nowadays, we see on the news that the polar ice caps are melting due to global warming spreading across the world. And who is responsible for global warming? We are. We are the ones that overuse Earth's resources, and we are the ones that release harmful gas into the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer. Use of fossil fuels also frees up cavities underneath the ocean and causes it to collapse, resulting in the intrusion of saltwater. If we want to stop the problem of flooding in Louisiana, we should try to prevent the cause of it, instead of trying to repair. Also, the government would be better off spending their money trying to prevent the disaster instead of using it on things like relocation, because it would mean that we would not have to lose our homes. Like I said earlier: We are not leaving Louisiana because we do not like it; it is because we do not have a choice, and we would much rather be able to preserve our home, rather than abandon it.
The issue is, Louisiana is very prone to coastal erosion. It is stated that one football field of land is eroded every hour, and everything we are doing is only accelerating the rate of erosion. Because of this, it is very expensive to try and stop the coastal erosion from continuing, and it is also very hard to replace the property of all those who are damaged by flooding incidents like this. And because a chance of flood in Louisiana is very low according to historical models, it is hard to predict and prevent these types of flooding. Therefore, whenever a flood hits Louisiana, it takes a lot of resources and effort to rebuild what has been damaged. Because of that, the government is unwilling to try and rebuild. Many people are forced to leave Louisiana, not because they are scared of incidents like these, but because they are unable to rebuild, due to the lack of support the government shows.
I think that we are at fault for these issues, because the problem behind these incidents are all due to global warming. The main cause of coastal erosion is the rising of sea levels. Nowadays, we see on the news that the polar ice caps are melting due to global warming spreading across the world. And who is responsible for global warming? We are. We are the ones that overuse Earth's resources, and we are the ones that release harmful gas into the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer. Use of fossil fuels also frees up cavities underneath the ocean and causes it to collapse, resulting in the intrusion of saltwater. If we want to stop the problem of flooding in Louisiana, we should try to prevent the cause of it, instead of trying to repair. Also, the government would be better off spending their money trying to prevent the disaster instead of using it on things like relocation, because it would mean that we would not have to lose our homes. Like I said earlier: We are not leaving Louisiana because we do not like it; it is because we do not have a choice, and we would much rather be able to preserve our home, rather than abandon it.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Sunday, October 2, 2016
A Letter to God
I read a short story called "A Letter to God" written by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes. It tells of a farmer who is expecting rain for his crops and rejoices, but instead, it turns into a storm and hail, and his crops are ruined. Dismayed, he decides to write a letter to God, asking for 100 pesos so that he can start anew. The man at the post office sees this, and knowing that it was impossible to send a physical letter to God, decides to help him out in secret. However, he was unable to collect 100 pesos, so he puts seventy pesos into an envelope and gives it back to the farmer next day. The farmer, counting the money, then gets angry and rewrites a letter to God, and when the post officer opens it, he finds a letter asking God to send him thirty more pesos, but not by mail, because "the post-office employees are a bunch of crooks."
I decided to write about this story because this story cracked me up when I first read this. At first, I felt sympathy and pity for the farmer, because he lost all his crops in the storm. However, you begin to feel sympathy for the post office employee instead, because when he read the farmer's letter, he could just as easily have dismissed the letter as a joke and discarded it, but he felt bad for the farmer and decided to help him out to the best of his power. However, The farmer gets mad just because he did not get thirty pesos, which makes you lose sympathy for him. The characters are very interesting, because the post office employee shows us that he is very kind and wants to help others, while the farmer is hard-working but does not know how to appreciate others' help. I wrote about this story because I enjoyed it immensely, and I recommend it to you as well.
I decided to write about this story because this story cracked me up when I first read this. At first, I felt sympathy and pity for the farmer, because he lost all his crops in the storm. However, you begin to feel sympathy for the post office employee instead, because when he read the farmer's letter, he could just as easily have dismissed the letter as a joke and discarded it, but he felt bad for the farmer and decided to help him out to the best of his power. However, The farmer gets mad just because he did not get thirty pesos, which makes you lose sympathy for him. The characters are very interesting, because the post office employee shows us that he is very kind and wants to help others, while the farmer is hard-working but does not know how to appreciate others' help. I wrote about this story because I enjoyed it immensely, and I recommend it to you as well.
Free Post
Hi. I am Peppermint, the rabbit that lives in Daniel's house. Now, most people would describe this person as my owner, but I beg to differ. I must clearly be superior to him because he is the one who always brings my food and water, cleans my room, and grooms me. He is just like a butler, although he may be slacking on his work sometimes. This is how my day normally goes.
First thing in the morning, I make sure to make as much noise as possible, so as to wake up Daniel. Like I said, he is very lazy, so I must remember to wake him up so he can carry his duties. He wakes up, brings me my food, dresses up, then leaves for most of the day. During the time he is gone, this person called "aunt" takes care of me. She does a better job than Daniel, but she might be a bit too fond of me. It's very often for her to invade my personal space, but no matter how much I try to tell her to stop, she doesn't listen, so I give up. When she finally puts me back in my room, I can have some free time sleeping until Daniel comes back. He feeds me, and then I go to sleep. That is my everyday life. Thanks for reading. Goodbye.
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