Blue Flame Entry


Prom! What an exciting experience one can have in just one day of laughter, lights, music and high emotions of joy. While walking around being the mastermind of the camera, I took over 400 pictures of people in their zones of laughter and tears. I captured moments that will always stay on the minds of those who were captured in that second, and laid on a piece of high glossy and glowing paper. Being paparazzi was one of the greatest things I could have done at this year’s prom.

My first and last prom was awesome. I knew that I was going to have a great time, because my date was one of the coolest people in the room. I just about flipped out when she replied that she would take flight to this year’s prom. We had so much fun laughing and dancing and taking pictures of everything and everyone. I couldn’t have asked for a better date.

When San Pasqual Academy students dress themselves up in the gorgeous attire they selected up to months before hand, they have the mindset that they know they will look good. Their demeanor and character changes in that exact instant that they see themselves in the mirror and think “man this is cool. I look bomb as hell.” The feeling of achievement and knowing that you look ravishing, is something even I myself will never forget.

Prom for me will always be a never-ending page in my book of life. One that will never turn to quickly and will never get torn out or washed from memories of my loved ones. Because of the great people behind the scenes of the Prom of 2007, I had the opportunity to have an awesome night with some of the greatest people I know.

Thank You

Leroy Daniels -GFA

Irony

…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. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do.
When irony is employed by a writer the true intent of his or her words is covered up or even contradicted by the words that are used. Where is irony employed in this excerpt, and what is Orwell's true intent?

• The irony in this excerpt is that the audience usually would laugh. Orwell in reality doesn't want them to dislike him at all and doesn't really want the audience to laugh when he dies.
  

The use of irony often also presumes there being two audiences who will read or hear the delivery of the ironic phrase differently. One audience will hear only the literal meaning of the words, while another audience will hear the intent that lies beneath. Who are the two audiences to whom Orwell is speaking?

• The two audiences are the British and the Burmese.

Blog #11

This means to me that drama is drama. And the greatest way to stay out of it, is too keep your mouth shut. Nothing can really come to you if you talk or go to it.

Blog #9

I really do agree with this quote, because the world entirly is something that we really need to work on, but there are moments in life where you can really make it seem like one step from heaven.

Class Work- Per.1 5/1/07

5.The Burmese really don’t like him and it really irks and pisses him off because the Burmese really don't know that he wants them all to be totally free from British rule.

6. They all destroy their freedoms by letting there be people who insist on disliking them because sooner or later people are going to get pissed at him too.

7. He had to have known deep down that the things he was doing were wrong, but he wanted to follow the other people who were doing it as well. They are both related because both of them did not know that what they knew was actually right.

8. The older one has some sort of wisdom or insight because he realizes that he was wrong for doing the stuff that he did. On the other hand the younger one just wanted to be liked, and cared too much about his reputation.
9. To do something that is truly wrong instead of doing what you know is right.

10. The horrible and nasty details are completely necessary because it shows in detail how much of a struggle that the elephant had to go through.

Metaphor

But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd… They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd—seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it...


In this passage Orwell uses a series of metaphors: "seemingly the lead actor," "an absurd puppet," "he wears a mask," "a conjurer about to perform a trick." as well as comparing the colonial official to a "posing dummy." Examine this series of metaphors individually as well as collectively in order to find the overarching metaphor for the entire incident.

• 
  These metaphors are basically telling us that the officers are all actors or acting.. They don't really mean what they say or do.

If Orwell is "seemingly the lead actor," who is the audience? What is the 'part' he is playing?
The people in the audience are the Burmese people. The part Orwell is playing is the oppressor.
If he is "an absurd puppet," then who is the puppeteer? Does Orwell as the puppet, have only one person or group pulling his strings, or is there more than one puppet master?

• The puppeteer that is mainly pulling the strings of Orwell is clearly the British government. He has a number of people pulling his strings because the British Government has many people with many high powers
  

How are the metaphors of the "absurd puppet" and the "posing dummy" similar?

• The absurd puppet and the posing dummy are really alike being that there are people who are controlling both puppets.
  

How does his description of himself seemingly the lead actor make this metaphor similar to the "absurd puppet" of the next phrase?

• He is an absurd puppet because there are people who are controlling him, just like a puppet. He is doing things that he wouldn't often do to the Burmese people.
  

How is Orwell's description of the colonial official as 'wearing a mask' similar to his own part in this situation as the "lead actor"?

• 
  He himself is really wearing a mask when he’s portraying the lead actor. He plays parts, that are or sometimes not true, and he has go to make every part seem believable so therefor he has to wear his own actor’s mask.
  

Each of these metaphors has a theatrical basis. In the following paragraph he even states: "The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats." What is the 'theater' in which this 'scene' is being 'played'? What is the 'play'?

• The theater is Burma itself. The play that is being played is the shooting of the elephant.
  

How does Orwell use metaphors in order to describe a people and a situation geographically and culturally unfamiliar understandable to his readers?

• He shows many times that everything is just like a play. He is like the lead actor in places and situations that he has know idea why he is in them.
  

Blog #12 I think that there are so many things that are not really that important. But, there are people who will just show people that they are important!

Blog #7

I do agree that once social change really happens, the people in our lives will finally have something to really deal with. We are living in such a satin driven world, and one way to demolish that is to deal with the issues that we all have socially.

Blog #6

I do agree that humans do mainly just look for themselves when things get rough. But I can also recall many times when I have known people that dont just leave people that they love and go for themselves only. This is what I call people who care. If you care, you would take the time to do something or help someone with something.

1. I have many people that I will miss, but just to name a few, I will miss Karen L, Diana L, Sarah B, Tymbre B, Jasmine Q, Reggie R, Clifton H, Simone H, Rae`shawnna B, Danny C, Jamar N, Ortisha J, Jake (the snake) O lets you kinkos, Rick D, Alanna R, Adriana R, Tony R, Jesus B, and of course by bestest friend Tierra Taylor!
2. My favorite moment would be when I went outside around 12:30am to meet someone out front. I was holding a garbage bag and could barely speak because it was so freaking cold outside. We, talked for a little while, and then called it a night. A night that I will never forget. Thank god that I had a ticket!
3. My favorite class would of course have to be Michael Fenick’s Pep-Band class. It was amazing to watch a well known professional classical guitarist try to keep twenty teenage students on beat and in the same room. There were times when I couldn’t even play my horn, because it was so funny! That was a great tester for Mr. Fenick. I’m certain he won’t ever forget that class. He is one of the teachers that I’m glad that I met here at San Pasqual Academy! He’s a life changing person!
4. One thing that I learned from Kate Malone was that no matter who steps into your life, it will always be just your life. She has seen me be co-dependant, in love, and full of hatred, but has always kept her cool and helped me through some of the hardest times of my life here at SPA. She seems to no the answer to mostly anything you ask her. She has got me obsessed with the brain, and how it works, and I thank her for that. She will continue to change this campus for the better, while kicking out anyone who feels that they want to talk back. She rocks!
5. I would love to be remembered as a person at SPA who took things as they came. Someone who knew that foster kids, were not stupid kids, but people who are some of the strongest people alive. Please remember me by the personal affect that I had on you. I will remember everyone who had a personal affect on me.

Blog #8

I know that disicplining yourslef, is an awesome thing becaues if you can do this, you can do almost anything in life. No matter what i try to do sometimes, i know that i need to do the things that really count in life.