In honor of Halloween, I thought I'd post an old story I wrote that was published in the Keller Middle School Literary Magazine 2000 in the year 2000.
An Unforgettable Halloween
Once upon a time on All Hallow's Eve in Autumn, Montana, a boy named Johnny Bumpkin did something he would soon regret. After school that day, he was walking home with his best friend Ted Thompson. Johnny and Ted had been talking about Ms. Agatha Potter. Ms. Agatha Potter was considered the weirdest person on the block. Many people thought she was a witch. As Johnny and Ted were coming close to her house, Ted dared Johnny to stomp all over Ms. Potter's, soon-to-be, prize-winning Texas roses. To look cool, Johnny accepted the challenge, even though he was really scared out of his wits. Johnny casually walking into Ms. Potter's rose garden and squished them into moondust. Johnny left Ms. Potter's rose garden and walked Ted to his house. When he was out of Ted's eyesight, he ran all the way home. He figured it would be the safest place to be.
When Ms. Potter got home, she was both heartbroken and furious. She was heartbroken because she had spent almost all of her time working to make her precious roses perfect for the Annual Montana Fall Festival. She is known for her exquisite roses in every festival she enters. Agatha was born in Texas. She was a natural grower. She was the green thumb of her family. Agatha always enters Texas roses rather than any other type to honor her birthplace. She had been living in Montana for five years now. Even when she moved here, her legacy as a skilled rose-grower followed her.
Ms. Potter had a feeling that it had been a child who had killed her radiant roses, so she put a curse on her Halloween candy. Here's how it goes:
Candy of mine,
Make the child who killed my roses come near,
If he doesn't come willingly,
Make him something people will fear.
When he starts to act like a spoiled brat,
Make him something orange and fat.
Start this curse when he eats,
One of my scrumptious sweets.
Johnny sort of felt bad for what he had done to Ms. Potter's rose garden, but he knew apologizing would ruin his reputation. Johnny didn't ever want to come face to face with Ms. Potter. He was totally scared of the lady. If she ever found out he had ruined her roses, he was afraid of what she would do to him. Before Johnny's parents got divorced, he never would have even dared to enter Ms. Potter's garden. Nowadays he doesn't really care about being the perfect child. His parents were both too busy to acknowledge him at all. Johnny lives with his mother, who is a journalist. She is a very well-known one. His father lives in Helena, Montana and hardly gets to see Johnny. He's an architect. Everyone there loves his work. Johnny felt neglected and unloved by his parents. Johnny considered Ted his family. Ted was always there to support him and give him advice, like a parent. Ted was always fun to hang out with, like the brother he never had.
When Halloween came around, Johnny was hoping for tons of candy. He planned to go trick-or-treating with Ted and some other cool boys. Johnny had decided to dress up like a ghost. Well, his friends came over around 5:00 P.M. to pick him up. Johnny wanted to avoid Ms. Potter's house, but his friends wanted to see what kinds of candy she gave out. "Trick or treat!" said Johnny and his friends. "Oh, what spooky looking costumes!" said Ms. Potter. At about 8:00 P.M., Johnny arrived home. Johnny planned to spend the rest of his evening watching scary movies. Since his mother was home, he had her check his candy bucket before he dug in. She only found a couple of things, and then gave Johnny back his candy bucket. He started to eat his candy piece by piece. Soon he got to a certain scrumptious-looking one. He gobbled it up and absolutely loved it. Suddenly he started acting spoiled rotten. Then, Johnny felt weird. He started transforming into a Pumpkin Monster. He suddenly heard Ms. Potter's voice:
"Johnny Bumpkin turned into a pumpkin on Halloween night.
He went around terrorizing things. Oh, what a fright!"
Johnny's hair turned green, representing a pumpkin stem. His body became plump and orange like a pumpkin. His arms, legs, hands, and feed turned green, but he still had tennis shoes on. Due to the fact that he had to become something people would fear, his pumpkin face became scary and fierce.
He was drawn to Ms. Potter's house by some strange force. He didn't want to go, but he had no choice. Johnny was at her mercy. She asked Johnny why he had squished her roses. Johnny replied, "I wanted to show my best friend, Ted, that I wasn't afraid of going into your garden. He dared me to squish your roses, so I did." "If you make up an appropriate apology, I shall change you back to your normal self," said Ms. Potter. It took Johnny a long time to get it just right. It went something like this:
I must apologize for what I've done.
I must admit it wasn't that fun.
Your roses were your pride and joy.
I shouldn't have treated them like toys.
I've tried my best to show you I care,
But I know what I did was not fair.
I shall stay like this if you like.
You can even keep me as a pet named Spike.
I just wanted you to know,
How sorry I feel, so
Do what you must.
Just don't put me in a pie crust.
Johnny's parents began to pay more attention to him after he and Ms. Potter had won the flower competition in the Annual Montana Fall Festival. Johnny started to feel like he was part of a real family, even though his parents were divorced. Ted and Johnny remained best buds, but Johnny began to go to his parents for some answers instead of Ted.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Proposal For Love Rehabilitation Facilities
Communication is a funny thing. It's interesting how life throws stressful situations at you and it makes your body systems go haywire. It is like the universe is saying something needs to be different in your life.
Sometimes what we want to say has very simple words, but emotions flood and all we can do is yell or string a bunch of irrational words together. Sometimes we cannot communicate our true feelings because the stress of rejection is hanging above our heads. We're afraid of the truth because if it is anything different than what we need it to be, we are afraid that our hearts will break and we will die.
We're also afraid that if the truth is what we need it to be, we will have to break down the walls we've been surrounding ourselves with for years. We will have to let someone into our fortress and we're afraid that if things don't work out, we will also die. Only this death will be worse because we might have to start over on building the walls and we'll be left unprotected facing our sorrow with no barriers.
Love is praised as such a wonderful splendid thing. Yet, love can also kill you. It can break you down and drive you mad. One-sided love without reciprocation can break a heart. Two-sided love that doesn't work out can break two hearts. Friends moving away or friendships ending can make one's heart sad. Therefore, love is a dangerous business. Unless love is successful, there are so many ways in which love can harm or kill you.
Love is a silent killer. It is silent in that sometimes love seems foolish and you feel compelled to hold that hurt inside because you wonder if it was even reasonable to have the feelings you had for someone who wasn't yours.
It is also silent because love is experienced by individuals in different ways. We can only know our own experience of love through how we feel inside. The only one who can experience your breed of butterflies is yourself.
As such, love is a secret to every person. In some sense, love is a solitary experience that might be mutual between a couple and manifests itself inside them in different ways.
In conclusion, love is not a cut and dry issue. Love can be wonderful, but it can also be painful and disappointing.
Love can hinder communication and make rational people irrational.
I believe there should be Love Rehabilitation Facilities where one can get some therapy, self-esteem training, and daily hugs to get them through their mourning period after love has gone bad. Let's face it. Love can turn people crazy and the crazy deserve assistance so they can resume being functional members of society.
Sometimes what we want to say has very simple words, but emotions flood and all we can do is yell or string a bunch of irrational words together. Sometimes we cannot communicate our true feelings because the stress of rejection is hanging above our heads. We're afraid of the truth because if it is anything different than what we need it to be, we are afraid that our hearts will break and we will die.
We're also afraid that if the truth is what we need it to be, we will have to break down the walls we've been surrounding ourselves with for years. We will have to let someone into our fortress and we're afraid that if things don't work out, we will also die. Only this death will be worse because we might have to start over on building the walls and we'll be left unprotected facing our sorrow with no barriers.
Love is praised as such a wonderful splendid thing. Yet, love can also kill you. It can break you down and drive you mad. One-sided love without reciprocation can break a heart. Two-sided love that doesn't work out can break two hearts. Friends moving away or friendships ending can make one's heart sad. Therefore, love is a dangerous business. Unless love is successful, there are so many ways in which love can harm or kill you.
Love is a silent killer. It is silent in that sometimes love seems foolish and you feel compelled to hold that hurt inside because you wonder if it was even reasonable to have the feelings you had for someone who wasn't yours.
It is also silent because love is experienced by individuals in different ways. We can only know our own experience of love through how we feel inside. The only one who can experience your breed of butterflies is yourself.
As such, love is a secret to every person. In some sense, love is a solitary experience that might be mutual between a couple and manifests itself inside them in different ways.
In conclusion, love is not a cut and dry issue. Love can be wonderful, but it can also be painful and disappointing.
Love can hinder communication and make rational people irrational.
I believe there should be Love Rehabilitation Facilities where one can get some therapy, self-esteem training, and daily hugs to get them through their mourning period after love has gone bad. Let's face it. Love can turn people crazy and the crazy deserve assistance so they can resume being functional members of society.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Pumpkin Carols to Sing This Holiday Season: Courtesy of Charles Schulz
Near the beginning of October, I had watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and I caught this casual question posed by Linus Van Pelt. He asked innocently, "Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?" After hearing this quote, I started to feel, in the words of Sally Brown, "robbed" because they do not sing pumpkin carols in the Halloween special. Today, I looked up these so-called Pumpkin Carols on the internet and found out that there was in fact a book of Pumpkin Carols that Schulz wrote based off the tunes of classic Christmas Carols.
My personal favorite carol is "The 12 Days of Halloween". It's awesome. I kept trying to type in my blog the explanation for this preference, but it's not saving. Technical difficulties, I suppose. Briefly: giving sacrifices of trick-or-treaters seems gruesome and love it, owls are trendy because of Harry Potter. I thought Schulz could have incorporated the kite-eating tree as a demonic undead tree instead of any old, dead tree. However, it is definitely awesome in its original vernacular.
Lyrics can be found on this website: http://www.nationallonghouse.org/Resources/Songs/Sg-hallo.html
I realize that Halloween is less commercial than the other holidays. However, that does not prevent us from embracing The Great Pumpkin all year round. Please keep Pumpkin Carols in mind for this short Halloween season.
May your pumpkin patch be most sincere. May your Sweet Babboo offer to sit in a cold pumpkin patch all night watching for The Great Pumpkin with you!! That's dedication! That's sincerity! That's love! All Hail The Great Pumpkin!!
Lyrics can be found on this website: http://www.nationallonghouse.org/Resources/Songs/Sg-hallo.html
I realize that Halloween is less commercial than the other holidays. However, that does not prevent us from embracing The Great Pumpkin all year round. Please keep Pumpkin Carols in mind for this short Halloween season.
May your pumpkin patch be most sincere. May your Sweet Babboo offer to sit in a cold pumpkin patch all night watching for The Great Pumpkin with you!! That's dedication! That's sincerity! That's love! All Hail The Great Pumpkin!!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Passion Required For Greatness
Perhaps, I keep struggling with classes because I don't have a passion for them. I feel like I need passion for something in order to excel at it. I keep running into hiccups when I hit a class that I don't understand and don't want to understand. It feels like my brain puts up a wall and it keeps going blank when I try to practice. It's like my brain is saying, "Hey! I don't want to learn that! I'm not passionate about that. Why waste brain cells on a class I'm not passionate about?"
Granted, this has hit me for a few classes over the years. Sometimes, I've wondered if my mind is blocking me from the paths that aren't in line with my calling. I have always wanted to be a writer. Writing is what I'm passionate about, but it seems like a difficult profession to enter. I submitted a story to a writing contest and it didn't win. I suspect it didn't win because it didn't necessarily fall into a specific genre. I kept wondering what sort of magazine or contest I should submit it to, because it was a science fiction-feminist hybrid. Since I couldn't figure out what to do with it, I posted it on my blog. I'm interested in pursuing writing as a profession, but I generally don't know what to do with the material once I've written it.
I can write, Step A, but not knowing where to send it, Step B, and actually sending it somewhere, Step C, keeps me from being able to pursue a career in writing. Perhaps it is a matter of knowing the write people and getting an editing position in the publishing industry first like in The Proposal. Then, perhaps I can find my own Ryan Reynolds to bribe into marrying me. Needless to say, I love The Proposal. I probably like it so much because it focuses a bit on the publishing industry, which I suspect is the industry for me.
To conclude: Without passion for a subject, it is hard to convince the brain to learn course material. I feel passionate about writing, but I don't know what to do with my material. Lastly, I might want to try to get my foot in the door in the publishing industry as a stepping stone to my dream of being a writer one day. This might be a smart path to take.
There's always hope that my brain will thaw and I'll be able to pull my grade up in my logic design class, but I find myself concerned with the state of my mind at the moment.
Granted, this has hit me for a few classes over the years. Sometimes, I've wondered if my mind is blocking me from the paths that aren't in line with my calling. I have always wanted to be a writer. Writing is what I'm passionate about, but it seems like a difficult profession to enter. I submitted a story to a writing contest and it didn't win. I suspect it didn't win because it didn't necessarily fall into a specific genre. I kept wondering what sort of magazine or contest I should submit it to, because it was a science fiction-feminist hybrid. Since I couldn't figure out what to do with it, I posted it on my blog. I'm interested in pursuing writing as a profession, but I generally don't know what to do with the material once I've written it.
I can write, Step A, but not knowing where to send it, Step B, and actually sending it somewhere, Step C, keeps me from being able to pursue a career in writing. Perhaps it is a matter of knowing the write people and getting an editing position in the publishing industry first like in The Proposal. Then, perhaps I can find my own Ryan Reynolds to bribe into marrying me. Needless to say, I love The Proposal. I probably like it so much because it focuses a bit on the publishing industry, which I suspect is the industry for me.
To conclude: Without passion for a subject, it is hard to convince the brain to learn course material. I feel passionate about writing, but I don't know what to do with my material. Lastly, I might want to try to get my foot in the door in the publishing industry as a stepping stone to my dream of being a writer one day. This might be a smart path to take.
There's always hope that my brain will thaw and I'll be able to pull my grade up in my logic design class, but I find myself concerned with the state of my mind at the moment.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Brain Was Fried, So I Thought I Should Blog
I'm starting to think I'm broken. I noticed back during the last half of my first round of undergraduate education that I would get really stressed out by my schoolwork. And when I got stressed out about my schoolwork, I'd have health issues ranging from unexplained muscular pain, to migraines, and to digestive upset.
As the years have gone on, I keep noticing this continual pattern. I'll try a challenging class that requires me to put a lot of work into it and my health will go sour. I've noticed for a few of these classes, I even try to work on my work and can't because my mind goes blank on multiple occasions. I keep trying, and trying, and trying. But my brain feels fried. Sometimes it feels like my brain is processing so hard that smoke could literally come out of my ears. It wouldn't even surprise me if my head exploded one of these days.
It feels like a no-win situation. When I work as hard as I need to in order to do well in these classes, I run myself into the ground. When I try not to get as stressed out about it, I fail them and my health isn't as bad. Yet, failure is never desirable.
I keep wondering if all of the turmoil I'm going through is worth it. I keep wondering if my brain is done. I dream about going back to high school when I'm already finished with high school and I end up taking classes. It seems like my subconscious is trying to tell me that this college-going is ridiculous.
I mean, I can't say this brain freezing has only happened once or twice. It keeps happening over and over again. I notice that when I'm not in school, I'm less stressed out. But it's not like there's a choice these days: Young people have to be full-time students or else face the wrath of looming loan payments. The only way to keep all the loans at bay is to stay in school and suffer through the carnage of brain death.
In any case, I keep wondering what I'm supposed to do when my brain goes on strike. I can't force it to work if it's being stubborn (at least, not on classwork...seems to be blogging just fine). All I can do is try to do the best I can. Perhaps, it would be in my best interest to job hunt more frequently and try to find a way out of The Big University (aka Prison). But I'm not sure if I'm ready to break out of Alcatraz just yet.
I'll just keep thinking about these things and notice the patterns. I'd like to be happy and I get the impression that school stress is hindering my health and my chances at happiness. Thus, I often consider quitting for my sanity. Yet, I have yet to do so completely. I would like to have a contingency plan in place first before I jump the scholarly ship. It's rarely good to quit anything before you have something else lined up, despite the allure of freedom.
As the years have gone on, I keep noticing this continual pattern. I'll try a challenging class that requires me to put a lot of work into it and my health will go sour. I've noticed for a few of these classes, I even try to work on my work and can't because my mind goes blank on multiple occasions. I keep trying, and trying, and trying. But my brain feels fried. Sometimes it feels like my brain is processing so hard that smoke could literally come out of my ears. It wouldn't even surprise me if my head exploded one of these days.
It feels like a no-win situation. When I work as hard as I need to in order to do well in these classes, I run myself into the ground. When I try not to get as stressed out about it, I fail them and my health isn't as bad. Yet, failure is never desirable.
I keep wondering if all of the turmoil I'm going through is worth it. I keep wondering if my brain is done. I dream about going back to high school when I'm already finished with high school and I end up taking classes. It seems like my subconscious is trying to tell me that this college-going is ridiculous.
I mean, I can't say this brain freezing has only happened once or twice. It keeps happening over and over again. I notice that when I'm not in school, I'm less stressed out. But it's not like there's a choice these days: Young people have to be full-time students or else face the wrath of looming loan payments. The only way to keep all the loans at bay is to stay in school and suffer through the carnage of brain death.
In any case, I keep wondering what I'm supposed to do when my brain goes on strike. I can't force it to work if it's being stubborn (at least, not on classwork...seems to be blogging just fine). All I can do is try to do the best I can. Perhaps, it would be in my best interest to job hunt more frequently and try to find a way out of The Big University (aka Prison). But I'm not sure if I'm ready to break out of Alcatraz just yet.
I'll just keep thinking about these things and notice the patterns. I'd like to be happy and I get the impression that school stress is hindering my health and my chances at happiness. Thus, I often consider quitting for my sanity. Yet, I have yet to do so completely. I would like to have a contingency plan in place first before I jump the scholarly ship. It's rarely good to quit anything before you have something else lined up, despite the allure of freedom.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Book Review: Sex on Six Legs
I've been reading this informative insect book that talks about DNA, gender roles, and various other snid-bits about insect life. It is called Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language From the Insect World and it is written by Marlene Zuk (a biology professor from the University of California, Riverside) in 2011.
I have found this book exceedingly informative and it broadened my perspective on many levels. I didn't realize that humans had such boring biological processes until after I read about the biological processes of insects.
Specifically, I found it fascinating that female insects can do so much in the control of pregnancy. When female insects are mistreated in mating or do not feel the male would help create robust offspring, some female insects are capable of ejecting the male insects sperm (Zuk p.120). Wouldn't that be a cool trick if human women could do that? It would save women from getting pregnant by losers or undesirable partners. It would also eliminate the controversial issue of abortion altogether. Take that, Abortion!
Also, some female insects can attack unwanted sperm with spermicide once it enters their system (Zuk p. 125). That would be a wonderful skill to have in human females as well. It might also be a way to secretly deal with anger issues against men with the men being none the wiser. Die, Sperm, die! It's okay if he pisses me off. I'll just kill his sperm.
I also found it fascinating that male insect sperm is more complex and diverse than male human sperm. There are male insects that have multiple types of sperm (Zuk p. 121-126). There are some insects that have fake sperm that serve as shields once in the female's system (Zuk p. 124-126). These decoys take the blast of female insect spermicide preserving the insect's real sperm from sudden death (Zuk p. 124-125). Furthermore, insect sperm can take on a more hardcore menacing appearance in its battle against other male insect sperm (Zuk p.122). Some insect sperm have spikes and hooks in order to fight other insect sperm in aims of destroying the competition (Zuk p. 122). This makes me picture medieval battles with spiky clubs, shields, and swords.
There are also common misperceptions about insect gender roles. Apparently, many people are under the impression that worker ants and soldier ants are male ants. When, in fact, that role goes to the female ants (Zuk p. 95). That's right. That means that those scary looking soldier ants with pincers on the end of their jaws that are so effective at fighting are the female ants, not the male ants (Zuk p. 95). Furthermore, the worker ants are female ants and not the male ants either (Zuk p. 95). That's right. That means that all this nonsense about how human men are supposed to work and the human women have to stay home has some biological evidence against it. Since other animals function better by the juxtaposition of the aforementioned gender roles (specifically ants, which are practically the most efficient insects alive), it stands to reason that gender roles might be more effective if they were reversed. Ants are more enlightened than humans in this respect.
Another thing I learned from this book was that female insects can have more independence regarding reproduction. When female ants lay eggs, they do not need a male ant to fertilize their eggs (Zuk p. 194). In fact, if the female ant just lays eggs, those ants will hatch as male ants without fertilization (Zuk p. 194). If a female ant is able to mate, she can choose which of her eggs to fertilize and which eggs not to fertilize. This means the female ant has control over whether her offspring are male ants or female ants. Plus, female ants can store the male's sperm for long periods of time and still fertilize the eggs with it later (Zuk p. 122). This means, that she can control when she fertilizes her eggs. This would be a cool skill to have for human women. This would leave the guesswork out of what gender baby the couple was having. The human woman would know exactly what she was having because she decided and controlled the gender herself.
There are downsides to being a female ant, though. If the female worker ant wants to lay eggs, she sometimes cannot get away with it because her sister ants will attack her (Zuk p. 194-196). It depends on how strict the ant colony is about having other eggs in the ant hill. If the ant species is strict, sister ants will smell when a specific female ant is about to lay eggs who isn't the queen, attack, and that's the end of that ant dream. If the ant species is less strict, some female worker ants are able to lay eggs producing sons (Zuk p. 194-195).
There was so much interesting material shown in this book about the various insects. I found it fascinating that there were such bugs that I had never heard of like the squash bee and the bullet ant. Furthermore, there were insects with androgynous appearances for mating like dragonflies (Zuk p. 132). I couldn't cover all of the interesting stuff in this book if I tried.
In any case, I highly recommend this book if you like reading about DNA and insects. I found it a very fascinating read. There was some technical jargon at parts of it, so if you would rather not have to focus on the terminology, perhaps you should steer clear and look for a fiction book instead. I didn't mind reading the species names of the various insects and reading about the chemicals in DNA, but I'm a self-proclaimed nerd and love this stuff.
In the end, I feel a sense of empowerment after reading about the employment opportunities and reproductive independence of female insects. It is nice to know that there are insect species that do not keep the women down, undervaluing their skills and talents in aims of promoting outdated stereotypes. Granted, insects have been around longer than humans. As such, perhaps we women can take solace in the notion that in a billion years, things might be different.
Thought Question: Zuk brought up the idea that football represents the battle of competing sperm to fertilization (Zuk p. 111). I had never thought of it that way before.
My question for you: Does this subliminal representation have anything to do with why men tend to love watching football so much? Think about it.
Work Cited
Zuk, Marlene. Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language From the Insect World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. Print.
I have found this book exceedingly informative and it broadened my perspective on many levels. I didn't realize that humans had such boring biological processes until after I read about the biological processes of insects.
Specifically, I found it fascinating that female insects can do so much in the control of pregnancy. When female insects are mistreated in mating or do not feel the male would help create robust offspring, some female insects are capable of ejecting the male insects sperm (Zuk p.120). Wouldn't that be a cool trick if human women could do that? It would save women from getting pregnant by losers or undesirable partners. It would also eliminate the controversial issue of abortion altogether. Take that, Abortion!
Also, some female insects can attack unwanted sperm with spermicide once it enters their system (Zuk p. 125). That would be a wonderful skill to have in human females as well. It might also be a way to secretly deal with anger issues against men with the men being none the wiser. Die, Sperm, die! It's okay if he pisses me off. I'll just kill his sperm.
I also found it fascinating that male insect sperm is more complex and diverse than male human sperm. There are male insects that have multiple types of sperm (Zuk p. 121-126). There are some insects that have fake sperm that serve as shields once in the female's system (Zuk p. 124-126). These decoys take the blast of female insect spermicide preserving the insect's real sperm from sudden death (Zuk p. 124-125). Furthermore, insect sperm can take on a more hardcore menacing appearance in its battle against other male insect sperm (Zuk p.122). Some insect sperm have spikes and hooks in order to fight other insect sperm in aims of destroying the competition (Zuk p. 122). This makes me picture medieval battles with spiky clubs, shields, and swords.
There are also common misperceptions about insect gender roles. Apparently, many people are under the impression that worker ants and soldier ants are male ants. When, in fact, that role goes to the female ants (Zuk p. 95). That's right. That means that those scary looking soldier ants with pincers on the end of their jaws that are so effective at fighting are the female ants, not the male ants (Zuk p. 95). Furthermore, the worker ants are female ants and not the male ants either (Zuk p. 95). That's right. That means that all this nonsense about how human men are supposed to work and the human women have to stay home has some biological evidence against it. Since other animals function better by the juxtaposition of the aforementioned gender roles (specifically ants, which are practically the most efficient insects alive), it stands to reason that gender roles might be more effective if they were reversed. Ants are more enlightened than humans in this respect.
Another thing I learned from this book was that female insects can have more independence regarding reproduction. When female ants lay eggs, they do not need a male ant to fertilize their eggs (Zuk p. 194). In fact, if the female ant just lays eggs, those ants will hatch as male ants without fertilization (Zuk p. 194). If a female ant is able to mate, she can choose which of her eggs to fertilize and which eggs not to fertilize. This means the female ant has control over whether her offspring are male ants or female ants. Plus, female ants can store the male's sperm for long periods of time and still fertilize the eggs with it later (Zuk p. 122). This means, that she can control when she fertilizes her eggs. This would be a cool skill to have for human women. This would leave the guesswork out of what gender baby the couple was having. The human woman would know exactly what she was having because she decided and controlled the gender herself.
There are downsides to being a female ant, though. If the female worker ant wants to lay eggs, she sometimes cannot get away with it because her sister ants will attack her (Zuk p. 194-196). It depends on how strict the ant colony is about having other eggs in the ant hill. If the ant species is strict, sister ants will smell when a specific female ant is about to lay eggs who isn't the queen, attack, and that's the end of that ant dream. If the ant species is less strict, some female worker ants are able to lay eggs producing sons (Zuk p. 194-195).
There was so much interesting material shown in this book about the various insects. I found it fascinating that there were such bugs that I had never heard of like the squash bee and the bullet ant. Furthermore, there were insects with androgynous appearances for mating like dragonflies (Zuk p. 132). I couldn't cover all of the interesting stuff in this book if I tried.
In any case, I highly recommend this book if you like reading about DNA and insects. I found it a very fascinating read. There was some technical jargon at parts of it, so if you would rather not have to focus on the terminology, perhaps you should steer clear and look for a fiction book instead. I didn't mind reading the species names of the various insects and reading about the chemicals in DNA, but I'm a self-proclaimed nerd and love this stuff.
In the end, I feel a sense of empowerment after reading about the employment opportunities and reproductive independence of female insects. It is nice to know that there are insect species that do not keep the women down, undervaluing their skills and talents in aims of promoting outdated stereotypes. Granted, insects have been around longer than humans. As such, perhaps we women can take solace in the notion that in a billion years, things might be different.
Thought Question: Zuk brought up the idea that football represents the battle of competing sperm to fertilization (Zuk p. 111). I had never thought of it that way before.
My question for you: Does this subliminal representation have anything to do with why men tend to love watching football so much? Think about it.
Work Cited
Zuk, Marlene. Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language From the Insect World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. Print.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Similarities Between Medea and the Evil Queen in Little Snow-White
A short time ago, I finished reading The Medea by Euripides. I had read it a long time ago, but it had a different ring to it with life's growing experience. When one has felt inner rage from the choices of men to pursue other women, it leads to sympathy for the vengeful female character of Medea. It seems so despicable that a husband should discard his wife in aims of the high standard of living provided by a new royal wife. Jason had forsaken Medea to better his position in society and it seems like an insult to injury that he should marry another woman in those pursuits. By present society's standards, this is an ironic play of gender roles. This is ironic because often today women are criticized for being gold-diggers, only out for a high standard of living and riches. In this play, this stereotype is flipped around and represented by the male character Jason.
Even though Jason argues to Medea that he was just choosing to marry a different lady in royalty to help her and his children, the reader is made skeptical of whether what he said was indeed true or just a ploy to stay in Medea's good graces. Given the history that Jason went behind Medea's back and did not consult her in his decision to pursue a royal marriage, it makes his behavior seem underhanded and his word loses merit. Additionally, considering Medea's actions to save Jason in his endeavor to obtain the Golden Fleece, it makes the audience wonder if Jason only married Medea out of a sense of obligation in the first place.
I also realized that there were aspects of The Medea that were strikingly similar to the Little Snow-White tale by the Grimm Brothers. These aspects were especially apparent in the methods of murder employed. Both tales utilized the method of poison for a scornful woman to injure her enemies. Both Medea and the Evil Queen took matters in their own hands by sending ignorant women gifts in guise of harmless messengers. In Little Snow-White, the Evil Queen disguised herself as an old woman selling wares. In The Medea, Medea sent her children bearing the poisoned gifts. The old look feeble and weak, so are not perceived as threatening. The young look innocent and unburdened by the troubles of life, so are also not perceived as threatening.
Both Medea and the Evil Queen were fueled by anger and jealousy. Medea was mad that Jason had taken to a new bed. She felt that by Jason taking a new wife, he was insulting the wedding vows they had made together when him and Medea had married. She felt that she had acted deplorably in order to ease his mind's troubles by killing members of her family and tricking others to do the same. Medea was also jealous that Jason would be with another when she was still around. She wanted Jason for herself and the state of things was driving her mad.
On the other hand, the Evil Queen was mostly jealous that Snow-White was prettier than her and angry that her efforts to kill Snow-White kept being thwarted by others. First, her murder plans were thwarted by a weak minion in the huntsman. To add insult to injury, the huntsman effectively tricked her by bringing her boar organs instead of human ones as proof of Snow-White's demise. Then, there were those infernal dwarfs who kept reviving her rival over and over again.
When you look at it, Medea was a more effective murderess. She only had to send gifts once to kill off her targets. The Evil Queen was sloppy and kept having to go back to kill her target over and over again. In the end, she ended up having to dance herself to death in hot shoes (literally hot). Yet, Medea managed to get away with a dragon-drawn chariot.
Getting back to the similarities: Not only were the motives for murder similar between the murderesses, but so were the means. In The Medea, Medea sent a poisoned dress and a poisoned tiara. In Little Snow-White, the Evil Queen sent bodice lace and a poisoned comb. A poisoned dress and bodice lace are similar in that both are made of fabric and are made to wrap around the body. In The Medea, there is added similarity because the dress is described as "fastening on the unhappy girl's fine flesh" (Euripides line 1163) which is similar to the tight bodice lace that the dwarfs had to cut off Snow-White to restore her ability to breath. Both tiaras and combs go on the head and touch the hair. Further, both the comb and tiara were poisoned in the tales. Thus, the similarity between the murder weapons of the Evil Queen and Medea is assured.
As such, I'm fairly certain that the Grimm Brothers were inspired by Medea when they wrote Little Snow-White. Even so, both stories have their differences and stand alone as being fine pieces of literature wrought with creativity. Therefore, it is good to remember literary works of old and make comparisons with newer works. The reflection of how works were derived often expands our knowledge and perspective on how connected societal beliefs can shape literature. Past literature influences future literature, leading to enhancement when used correctly.
Little Snow-White can be read on http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html.
The Medea I read was translated by Rex Warner, but a different translation can be read on http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/medea.html.
Even though Jason argues to Medea that he was just choosing to marry a different lady in royalty to help her and his children, the reader is made skeptical of whether what he said was indeed true or just a ploy to stay in Medea's good graces. Given the history that Jason went behind Medea's back and did not consult her in his decision to pursue a royal marriage, it makes his behavior seem underhanded and his word loses merit. Additionally, considering Medea's actions to save Jason in his endeavor to obtain the Golden Fleece, it makes the audience wonder if Jason only married Medea out of a sense of obligation in the first place.
I also realized that there were aspects of The Medea that were strikingly similar to the Little Snow-White tale by the Grimm Brothers. These aspects were especially apparent in the methods of murder employed. Both tales utilized the method of poison for a scornful woman to injure her enemies. Both Medea and the Evil Queen took matters in their own hands by sending ignorant women gifts in guise of harmless messengers. In Little Snow-White, the Evil Queen disguised herself as an old woman selling wares. In The Medea, Medea sent her children bearing the poisoned gifts. The old look feeble and weak, so are not perceived as threatening. The young look innocent and unburdened by the troubles of life, so are also not perceived as threatening.
Both Medea and the Evil Queen were fueled by anger and jealousy. Medea was mad that Jason had taken to a new bed. She felt that by Jason taking a new wife, he was insulting the wedding vows they had made together when him and Medea had married. She felt that she had acted deplorably in order to ease his mind's troubles by killing members of her family and tricking others to do the same. Medea was also jealous that Jason would be with another when she was still around. She wanted Jason for herself and the state of things was driving her mad.
On the other hand, the Evil Queen was mostly jealous that Snow-White was prettier than her and angry that her efforts to kill Snow-White kept being thwarted by others. First, her murder plans were thwarted by a weak minion in the huntsman. To add insult to injury, the huntsman effectively tricked her by bringing her boar organs instead of human ones as proof of Snow-White's demise. Then, there were those infernal dwarfs who kept reviving her rival over and over again.
When you look at it, Medea was a more effective murderess. She only had to send gifts once to kill off her targets. The Evil Queen was sloppy and kept having to go back to kill her target over and over again. In the end, she ended up having to dance herself to death in hot shoes (literally hot). Yet, Medea managed to get away with a dragon-drawn chariot.
Getting back to the similarities: Not only were the motives for murder similar between the murderesses, but so were the means. In The Medea, Medea sent a poisoned dress and a poisoned tiara. In Little Snow-White, the Evil Queen sent bodice lace and a poisoned comb. A poisoned dress and bodice lace are similar in that both are made of fabric and are made to wrap around the body. In The Medea, there is added similarity because the dress is described as "fastening on the unhappy girl's fine flesh" (Euripides line 1163) which is similar to the tight bodice lace that the dwarfs had to cut off Snow-White to restore her ability to breath. Both tiaras and combs go on the head and touch the hair. Further, both the comb and tiara were poisoned in the tales. Thus, the similarity between the murder weapons of the Evil Queen and Medea is assured.
As such, I'm fairly certain that the Grimm Brothers were inspired by Medea when they wrote Little Snow-White. Even so, both stories have their differences and stand alone as being fine pieces of literature wrought with creativity. Therefore, it is good to remember literary works of old and make comparisons with newer works. The reflection of how works were derived often expands our knowledge and perspective on how connected societal beliefs can shape literature. Past literature influences future literature, leading to enhancement when used correctly.
Little Snow-White can be read on http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html.
The Medea I read was translated by Rex Warner, but a different translation can be read on http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/medea.html.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Advice, Mental Frame of Time, Dante, and Lumberjack Pants
Two days before my birthday this year, my dad gave me a very wise piece of advice. He said that I should worry about myself and not worry about other people. He said that worrying about other people does not do me any good.
People will do what they want to do. I can't make someone act how I want them to act or make other people make the best decisions. In fact, I cannot know what the best decision is for someone else. Everyone has different values, needs, and whatnot that I can't possibly know. The only person I can know completely is myself.
As such, I will keep trying to put my life together. Maybe if I fix it up to a point of at least semi-satisfaction, then I'll feel better about myself and other aspects of life (like love and sanity) will fall into place.
I have also read somewhere that people tend to focus on the past and future and less so on the present. Given this belief that, "if I fix my life, the future will be brighter" is living in the future. There have been countless works suggesting that living in the present moment is an art and provides more happiness than dwelling on the past and continuing to say internally that, "life will be better when this or that happens".
Yet, reflection on a person's experience in life is inevitable for everyone. Nobody can be desensitized to everything around them and expect to move forward with the same benefits that past experience can offer like the learning of life lessons through mistakes, obstacles, and great victory.
And how can one not wonder at the prosperity of the future? For some people, it's this hope for a better future that gets them through their day. People want their hard work and sustained efforts to be rewarded. Nobody wants to suffer over and over again as if they were in one of Dante's Infernal Circles of Hell. (Well, maybe there are some people who would like that. Controllable fantasies aside, people do not want pain unless there is a gain to be had from such endurance.)
As such, everyone just keeps moving forward in hopes that things will work out. Some might look to a Lord of some kind. Others might just sharpen their saw and put on their Lumberjack pants. But we're all living life to the best of our ability and in the ways that speak to us as individuals.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Peaceful Library Book Renewal
There's nothing like the sense of peace I feel when I can renew a library book that I haven't finished yet. When it gets down to the day the book is due and I'm not done, I will try to renew the book. If I can't, I'll pull a Belle and power read through the book to finish it and return it on time.
I am still reading the book on insects and there is a lot of information to absorb. There is talk of DNA and multiple species. As such, I like to read a little bit, let it sink in, and think about how this information plays into the bigger picture.
I find that there are some books that are suspenseful reads. These books are the kind of books you don't want to put down. Dan Brown books fall into this category. The Twilight series also comes to mind as being a very riveting set of novels.
However, there are also those books that are served better in small portions. These are the books best to gradually read to obtain the most out of them. Charles Dickens novels are sometimes more enjoyable to read in a gradual fashion. In particular, I'm thinking of David Copperfield. That book took me a very long time to read, but it was worth it when everything came together in the end. Informational and self-help books also fall into this category of books for gradual reading.
As such, I am feeling very grateful that I don't have to power read through my library book today. I will be able to focus on reading my textbooks and working on my homework instead. Yay! A part of me is relieved and another part of me is thinking, "Drat!" In any case, back to the homework trenches.
I am still reading the book on insects and there is a lot of information to absorb. There is talk of DNA and multiple species. As such, I like to read a little bit, let it sink in, and think about how this information plays into the bigger picture.
I find that there are some books that are suspenseful reads. These books are the kind of books you don't want to put down. Dan Brown books fall into this category. The Twilight series also comes to mind as being a very riveting set of novels.
However, there are also those books that are served better in small portions. These are the books best to gradually read to obtain the most out of them. Charles Dickens novels are sometimes more enjoyable to read in a gradual fashion. In particular, I'm thinking of David Copperfield. That book took me a very long time to read, but it was worth it when everything came together in the end. Informational and self-help books also fall into this category of books for gradual reading.
As such, I am feeling very grateful that I don't have to power read through my library book today. I will be able to focus on reading my textbooks and working on my homework instead. Yay! A part of me is relieved and another part of me is thinking, "Drat!" In any case, back to the homework trenches.
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