The short stories we've started reading in class are different than most short stories I've read. The "Mystery Stories" in particular seemed more like poems than short stories, they were only a few lines each and had very little cohesion, they made little sense to me. Some of the other shorts were interesting however "Wallet" for example was interesting and funny. Wallet made sense it followed a usual pattern and was cohesive explaining a beginning middle and end that all linked together in a way that made sense.

These shorts just seemed a bit unusual as examples of stories I would have expected shorts or excerpts from great writers like Tolkien or Lovecraft, authors I've learned and taken inspiration form in the past.

The writing techniques and skills in writing down the bones are interesting and useful. I've particularly liked the work on obsessions, how it's better to just give into these things, at least to a certain extent. If you don't give into your obsessions at least a little bit the rest of your writing will suffer. It's always easier to write about something we're obsessed with as well and having and knowing your obsessions could help you get past a writing block or out of a funk.

02/5/2015 weekly blog

It's been very interesting to exchange poems with others in the class. Seeing what they wrote about and how they wrote is rather interesting, and my group members had some good poems. Also having their input on what I wrote is valuable, getting a second opinion on things and another set of eyes to catch error is never a bad thing.

Discussing the Tocqueville poetry has also be enlightening, seeing what other people got from the poems as compared to what I got from them and finding out why they got those messages from the poems.

1/29/2015 weekly blog

        Tocqueville's poetry often seems to me to be referencing the conflict in the third world. Africa, Syria, Lybia, the Middle East, and even the southern Slavic countries. He writes about the people living there, the horrid conditions and the cruelty of soldiers and dictators who run the country by force. He talks of the atrocities people are faced with, families torn apart and killed women and children raped, homeless, or starving.

         He also talks of the ignorance of the US population to the condition of people elsewhere in the world, we here are to self-centered to see the suffering going on elsewhere in the world so caught up in our vanity that it blinds us even to the wrongs here. Problems in the US over striving for un-attainable expectations, social customs and racism.

        The hypocrisy of governments and the corruption within them, he talks of religion, and politics and they way they worm into our society in ways we do not think of. The way our societies expect us to think and act in certain ways to uphold the status quo, rather than think freely for ourselves.

After reading the first several chapters of Writing down the bones and discussing it in class I've thought more about the advice in the book. Most of the advice is really good especially for a beginning writer, lots of good habits and techniques to help you practice and get discipline.

"When you write ,don't say 'I'm going to write a poem.' That attitude will freeze you right away.Sit down with the least expectation of yourself; say, 'I am free to write the worst junk in the world.'"

This kind of attitude is good to get you into the habit of writing, just taking time to practice writing with out a end result other than spend time writing. This will stop your mind from not wanting to write, just like learning to discipline your body through exercise we must build discipline for writing as well.

Poetry packet

The poem in the poetry packet are quite varied in both author and format, some using interesting formats and some interesting topics, like the first poem the Sea grows old in it, or more interesting formatting like "The scent of Verbena". I particularly liked "The sea grows old" the symbolism in that one was interesting with the mention to ancient trilobites and the interesting word choice used came together well that made the poem very interesting.

My name is Jonathon Oliva I am a Simulation Animation, and Gaming major, and a History Minor. I love reading and writing fiction in various genres as well as gaming, art, and music.