This Blog is for my American Literature class. Have fun reading this page.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
pg. 175-186

1) “Today Dr. Espanto noticed that his Van Gogh screen saver was jittery, the mouse pad upside down – there definitely was something wrong. His Virgen de Guadalupe frame was turned backward. (178)”

This to me he feels like he is upside down. Everything is upside down to him because he is so out of it. He wasn’t with his situation. There is a lot happening around him and he can’t concentrate right. Everything is going crazy and can’t do everything. He needs to take to time to relax.

2) “Bobo: I am awake, I’ve been awake since day one.”

Bobo is saying that he is very alert and he always noticing what’s going on. This quote just stood out me because some people don’t notice things and they think they are, like zoning out. The person that is interviewing him is also trying to make him look bad and just saying and asking him random stuff. Making fun of Americans.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 152 – 174

1) “Wanna B.: A grand prize of one hundred kilos of PRI cigars made of the finest blend of Zapatista tobacco leaves and a round trip for two to the Mayan rain forest in Chiapas – where you’ll stay at the luxurious PEMEX (Please Exit Mildly Except for Xenophobic) Motel” (156).

I thought that the people are making fun of how American game shows by advertising things where people don’t really want to go unless if they are desperate. I do not understand why this is in the book because it is a script from a television show. It do not have anything that relates to him or apart of his life.


2)
Wanna B.:[firecrackers, wheel spin] Here we go: “A self-taught Republican correspondence course for correcting over-reaching tongue action in the face of capital gains

Costestant: [crunch] What is Hisp-my-lips!

This also makes me feel like he is making fun of Americans or they people are making fun of American because they do not put American in a good way. They are amused by how America is and act. I guess he is using this to show that America maybe powerful, not everyone likes them and will respect them.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Yoga Interview with Liz Forkel

When did you first start practicing yoga as student?
o 1997 - generally for all types of little exercises prescribed yoga such as stretches from aerobics stretches
Why did you start?
o Started because of the demand for it for her company because her clients wanted it.
o She had found the vinyasa / power yoga became a hard workout and it had fit her
How has yoga personally helped you?
o She was a hard-core person and she need to mend her injuries, since she gets injured a lot from over use and she had to slow down.
o It had helped her prevent injuries because of becoming more flexible.
What type of yoga are you practicing that is different from when you first began?
o She is practicing Vinyasa / Power yoga but when she first started it was fast pace and she had to slow it down in order for her clients to keep up and also to prevent injuries for her and others
What does yoga offer besides physical benefits?
o It helps clients to work out mental issues.
o They can make their bodies shut down and relax.
o They can be able to feel better about themselves
o Relax and meditate
o Open their body
o Wash out their problems / “kinks”
o Able to center themselves
o They can leave the world behind and shut down everything behind them
o Digestive Better
o Increase blood pressure
o Able to receive all benefits
o Live longer
o Do it anywhere
o Achieve results without breaking them
How does yoga help you spiritually?
o She believes yoga calms the mind and slows the world around a little more
o Teaches to be a happier person and being calm
o Makes people look forward to change practice as the environment changes
What kind do you practice?
o Body Flow
o Vinyasa
Do you include meditation?
o She meditates after class and makes it comfortable and silent
o Empties the mind by being alone in the body and let go everything around them
How is yoga counter cultural?
o At one point it was but not anymore
o Today it’s more of a physical exercise all around us
o From old hippie to Urban set
o Moving into sports
o Any age can do yoga and “not changing anytime soon”
o She believes that its popular because she is in the think of it and sees it all the time and can’t get away from it
How does it help to fill the void or emptiness caused by suburban living?
o Spiritual
o Able to help the community by slowing down
o Organize
o Have a lot thought about what’s around you – once you think about it is worth less and you can let it go
Today Yoga is more popular, do you think it has taken on a more commercial sort of “fitness industry” approach or do you feel that the roots of the practice have been maintained. What do you notice about this shift over the years?
o Commercialized very
o Not only US is changing yoga but India is also changing to make yoga different and fit different people
o She worries about the safety of yoga as in doing poses safely but people will not benefit them
o “Try out and be open to many forms and hopefully will find what works for you.”

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg 131- 151

1) “We are on a dual road now. One leads to the top, the pyramid that is, the convex-shaped tower of corporate letters, “the system” as we used to put it, the other eggs us on, let us slide down the tortuous path to self-knowledge and self-immolation, it is as id all the fiery poems, essays, stories, and novels we have written are now running back and breaking out of their printed half-lives and are tackling up, punishing us for giving them form and voice and exposure” (136).

This quote makes me feel like the person is at two different pathways that lead to heaven and hell. It also means that no matter what you choose in life, it is either choosing the path of heaven or the path to hell. Everyday you choose from the different paths. If you choose heaven, you life will be peaceful and simple but if you choose hell then you would live more complex confusing and not a happy life. Make your choices wisely.


2) “I have no commandments, no books, no way, no rule, you must touch, but it is not me I am really speaking of, you must swim into another with every leaf and wave and wind, the wind itself, the fire itself, the waters raging in the blue eyelash of the heavens, look up, now, you, look up, it is all unraveling, above and below, there is nowhere to stand, nothing to say, or write or act to be” (137).

This quote tells about how he writes. He has no format of teaching people what he knows but just uses putting in random thoughts that sometimes will make sense but other times it will not. He wants people to get know what he is telling them by trying to describe his experiences. It will make them understanf where he is coming from.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 106-130

1) “How to make velas take your wishes to the universe” (110)

This to me means that he wants his wishes to last forever and there will never be an end to wishes, since the universe is huge and no end. Not only him, that wants to know but other people in the Chicana and Chicano Intervention so they too can live happily. The amount of wishes that you have at your birthday will last forever and it will go on forever. Knowing how to do that, would be nice because it would keep everyone alive more.


2) “This was my beginning” (117)

His mom had died and they are her funeral and talking about her and he feels grief and this is his beginning of innocence. His life is just on step closer to be mature. He is also the beginning of his life of people close to him die and he has to accepts that too. People die and others are born, life is a cycle. He will remember his mom forever although he had lost her physically, but mentally he has her inside of her.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 81-105

1) “My Plutomobile” (87)

The Plutomobile runs on things that people can run on but, some of the things he says does not make sense with other things. As people themselves that can run on it or they live by it on some of them. He says “Runs on free on free on free on free” which means on nothing. People can run on nothing but I don’t know how far they can get. They run on things that human beings can run on, it can be their type of fuel.


2) “No matter how many piercing, tattoos, hollers, mosh pits we may deive into, we have the nasty habit of bounding back into our current miasma of meaninglessness, pretty frames of violence from all directions.”

Everywhere is a type of violence, no matter where you look or what people say or do. Anyone can take things in a violence way depending the tone of the voice, their acts, and their appearance. No one can get rid of violence because violence is everything of a teenager because that is how a teenager lives.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 56-80

1) “I am worried about my luggage—one piece with underwear and ironed blue shirt and pants for the big fandango in NYC.” (59)

From what I got from this quotes was sarcasm about his suitcase because he only has only few of things. It seems like he is making fun of people who have almost all of their things in their bags and they are traveling with it. Like how he thinks it’s funny how he can get by with three pieces of clothing while people bring extra clothes for ‘just in case” situations. It shows that he does not take a lot of things when he travels.

2) “La noche was all around me, expect for the tiny light da la tiendita.” (71)

He has been in the dark for a long time and being freezing outside and waiting for the time when he can go inside. It means that the light is the only way he can be free from the darkness that surrounds him. He wants get out of the darkness and be in a place where it’ warm. The light is where he wants to be, which means he is achieving his goal by reaching to the light. Inorder to reach his goal he needs to keep moving foward.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 30-55

1) “Consider getting stoned on potato pancakes” (47)

This quote to me, means like it’s physically impossible to get stoned on potato pancakes just like other “consider…” remarks on this entry. They are all impossible and it doesn’t make sense to people like me although it may make sense to other people. When I found out this author was under the influence of frijol juice, epazote and raw eggs combination it made more sense how this non sense kind of made sense. When he says consider getting stoned on potato pancakes, it would be different interesting to see how that would turn out.

2) “Graceland drifts near Luzon…Los Angles rubbing against Cabo San Lucas” (48)

This is from “The Event and Found Objects after the Blast” he realizes the earth is moving and the lands are all going to be moved together in some sort of way in the future and the lands are going to combined. So this also could mean that the culture of each country would merge into that other countries or cities. He makes a couple of remarks and to me it seems like he thinks that is was is going to happen sometime in the future. He also is saying this because he is stoned.

Comparison Paper

Like people today, in the “White Heron” and Huckleberry Finn, nature offers solace to Sylvia and Huck as they face moral dixlemmas placed upon them by society when Sylvia has to choose between nature and monetary reward and Huck chooses between his relationship with Jim in the wild and the expectation’s society places on him during the time of slavery. Sylvia lives with her grandmother on a farm next to the woods and they do not own a lot of money, but she does not need that because she feels nature is the place where she belongs. Huck travels with a slave, Jim, on the river to get away from society. People today choose to live the way Huck experiences the love of nature because he can escape to nature from society to feel peace and relaxation.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Juan Felipe Herrera – Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler

pg. 5-29
1) “yo’ bad boy lover pill-popin’ games
an’ most of all your fast talkin’ total whack
communicating genius girl self out the door!” (9)

This quote caught me. I think is means that the guy is taking pills and the girl is also taking pills. The pills make them unaware of what they are doing and they do not use their brains as much. They do not know what is coming up next but they don’t care because they are too high to think about it. They make nonsense and they become crazy.

2) “I worry about people who say, “Don’t worry, Baby.” (29)

I feel like I can relate to this quote because from all the small things to the bigger things, I worry about. I also worry about things that may never happen or already has happened. People tell me, don’t worry about it, but I feel like I need to worry about it because other people are not worrying about it. It makes me freak out. Life just makes me freak-out because of so little time and so much to do. Reading this whole part from Don’t worry baby, made me feel like this person really knows how I feel.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

CCC project Questions

Yoga Questions that I am asking my interviewers Liz and Nancy Scholsser:
• When did you first start practicing yoga as student?
• Why did you start?
• How has yoga personally helped you?
• When did you decide to teach yoga and what factors influenced your decision to teach as opposed to being a student?
• What type of yoga are you practicing that is different from when you first began
o Why have you modified your practice?
• What does yoga offer besides physical benefits?
• How does yoga help you spiritually?
• What purpose do you serve?
o Why do you continue to practice yoga?
• What kind do you practice?
• Do you include meditation?
o Why?
• Why did you choose this type of yoga to practice?
• How is yoga counter cultural?
• How does it help to fill the void or emptiness caused by suburban living?
• What changes have you noticed among your clients since they started practicing yoga?
• Today Yoga is more popular, do you think it has taken on a more commercial sort of “fitness industry” approach or do you feel that the roots of the practice have been maintained. What do you notice about this shift over the years?

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Paper #2 Topics

I am comparing "The White Heron" and "Huckleberry Fin"

Monday, May 7, 2007

Sandra Cisnoeros – The House on Mango Street (From the Green book)

pg. 746 – 748

1) “The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make noise and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get. (747)”

The little child is so happy to have a house of her own because she has never had a house where it seems to be constricted and cannot do what ever she wants. She loves having a house of her own because she feels free of everything. She and her family can do whatever they want and not have to pay anyone any money and have to ask someone to fix something for them but not do it. The house on Mango Street is all hers and her families where they can enjoy and have fun.

2) “There. I had to look where she pointed—the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had to nailed on the windows se we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. (748)

The child felt that her house on Mango Street was not special anymore since someone pointed out that she lived in a house where it was falling apart. It made her feel like “nothing” and she wanted to move to a nice place. Having her own house is not exciting anymore. She wants a house where it’s pretty and also her own house so she can say it is her house. She realizes how other people look at her house are not pleased because they do not know where she is coming from an apartment which did not feel like a place to stay but a place where people nag to them all the time. She realizes all the bad things about the house and she wishes her family would move to a nicer hosue.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Annie Dillard – “Seeing”

pg. 700-706

1) “Form and distance, and size were so many meaningless syllables. (700)”
This was saying that seeing is important to people because then people have no depth, shape, and volume of things. So people who can see have an advantage but it gives them advantages for their other senses. Seeing is important to most people those who are not they can do without it because they know they can rely on other senses. People take advantage of things that they have and that others don’t. They will never know unless it is taken away from them.

2). “Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. (704)”
When people use their eyes, most people know what they are thinking about because the eyes tell a lot about people’s thoughts. If someone role’s their eyes people know that he doesn’t like what they are talking about. When people’s eyes are big, people know that he is surprised or amazed and so on. Eyes can be silent words that people have to figure out about the person. The eyes also can be part of the person’s personality depending on what they mostly do.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Annie Dillard – “Seeing”

Pg. 693-700

1) “In flat country I watch every sunset in hopes of seeing the green ray. The green ray is a seldom-seen streak in light that rises form the sun like a spurting fountain a the moment of sunset…” (695)

This person loves to see with her eyes and she notices what happening around her. She likes to see with her eyes because she knows it’s beneficial to her. She wants to see the sunset because it would just be a memory that she would never forget and she would get to capture it with her very own eyes. She likes to notice everything and see everything because she feels like she is missing out.

2) “I’m blind as a bat, sensing only from every direction the echo of my own thin cries.” (700)

She is in the dark and she feels like she can’t use her eyes the way she uses them in the light. She feels better when her eyes are able to see things instead of not knowing where she is and stumbling everywhere. She wants to see what’s around her and so she feels helpless because she can’t see anything that is happening and she doesn’t want to miss out on anything.