Classwork update

Another productive week in class! Even though I was not here on Tuesday due to my AP exam, on Monday I was able to complete five poem emulations in class. Quite frankly these were my best so far so now I'm thinking deeply into how I would like to present my poems. I know I don't want to bore people with all my poems, but I'm still struggling with how to present them. I guess that's a thought for the next couple days.

Happy Mothers day!

A lot has been learned this week. I've learned even more so that for me to meet deadlines I have to be under the gun. I've completed two summarys even though I wanted to compete three this weekend :-( Anyways its still progress. I've also learned that I absolutely love spoken word poetry. I'm feeling inspired after watching a few poetry jam videos. So as far as the rest of my poetry goes that's what I plan on focusing on. Another idea I dabbled with today was perhaps trying to emulate my own poetry. An original poem of course, but to emulate my own work might me a cool touch.

It's Friday....Friday

So far this week has been a mildly productive one. To keep my organization as far as blog posts on track I've begun to blog from my phone. Currently I'm sitting in class without my computer, but still being productive in crafting this post. This week I've added another poem to my collection, and added two more JSTOR articles to the read collection. I'm still struggling very hard to collect the motivation to write the summarys on these, and this Sunday I will for sure being praying to God to help me. In short you could say I'm no longer letting Jesus take the wheel on this one because this one, although moving forward we're  swerving all over the road and quite frankly I'm questioning whether Jesus is a reliable driver on the Pagan Pliny bus.... I think they have some beef. Anyways my goals for this weekend are to get 3 summarys done and at least one poem more.

Notepad of thoughts from the last week which I posted on the wrong blog

People judging one another by the length of a page.
Lights on, shades down.
I could hear the slight hesitation in his words as interest met his fear in what i had to say.
The last chapter of an untold story who's words I'd been dying to hear.
It never ceases to amaze me how skepticism towards love can be washed away inside me by a single person each time we collide.
Its not fair to make someone care again then move on leaving a hurricanes destruction behind inside their heart.
You're poison. Words like those ring through my mind each time your breath intermingles with mine.
Endless hope begins to fill me with your delicate speech, briefly closing the gaps you left in my emotions before. I can feel again, but in the drop of a pin its gone. The soft clink of the metal tears me to shreds as it echoes away leaving me alone in silence. Destruction ensues leaving chaos so great. So silly how easily one small action is nearly capable of dragging me back down that dark cold hole i waited for you in.
You say goodbye and my feet dramatically teeter on the edge of a breakdown. I allowed myself to fall once, and once upon a time everything seemed perfect as my own ignorance created a smoke screen of magnificent beauty who's wispy tendrils spread through my heart staging a picture of utterly perfect happiness. And just like that my fear was forgotten as easily as an autumn leaf is blown from a tree in a chilly wind.

I haven't been able to put together a cohesive poem this week, but I do have a lot of ideas, but none that have come from emulation. Summarys have been hard and to be honest I haven't been keeping up in them. With motivation waning I have 4 backlogged articles waiting to be summarized.

For Mr. Igoe

Really Cool Link

Rush to the deadline

Upon completing my 3rd Jstor article on Friday night it never occurred to me to update my blog. So, a recap of this week: I was influenced to edit my project proposal, I started my collection of poems, and I also completed my third jstor article (link will be posted later, since I'm on my mobile) looking forward I must write my summary and continue my collection of poems. I'm very happy with my change in topic and I'm excited to see where it takes me. Side note: I've taken off one jstor article from my schedule to allow for my poems. Since I've rearranged my timeline and project my deadlines have been easier to meet. I spend my class time outlining my goals and finding my articles and poems for emulation. At night I complete what I planned in class. Overall everything is running smoothly.

The Start Of Something New

So I've begun my creative writing pieces. (link below) I will be updating in that Google Doc for the next three weeks. As of today I have three complete poems, but I still have yet to add the original text to the doc and format it. I'm really liking my project switch to include this creative piece. I've found my deadlines are being surpassed with the amount of work I've put out creatively, granted I still have yet to read my JSTOR article for this week. However I now have a refined presentation of Latin text from the stuff I've been translating in Latin class. (link is also below) Some people asked about the Latin in class for the Midterm presentation and I feel as if now there is some small excerpts the common person could understand. Today in class, i'll brush up my Latin presentation and over the weekend I will read and post my article summary.

Creative Writing Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fZ5hqelNFHF9J9TZlZi-Troko2YH5MdApe-uFJ9upqo/edit?usp=sharing

Latin Excerpt Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1X7BAhiv_mtpGO4M5UywOxNrIhxnl4SpV-5zY8M8SFdo/edit?usp=sharing

INSPIRATION HAS STRUCK!

After watching Callie's presentation today, I realized why I was mildly unfulfilled with my project. As I wrote in my letter earlier this spring, I love creative writing. Although, I want to challenge myself with analytical writing I think I should do creative pieces as well. Pliny The Younger thought the greatest compliment as writer was to be compared to the great minds of writing (Cicero in particular). Pliny's goal was to emulate these authors so perfectly to achieve fame. I think for my project I'm going to switch it into a creative writing exercise as well. I feel like a large part of the problem with me not being able to meet my deadlines is lack of passion. With this creative outlet added in I feel as though I can do a more comprehensive project.

Problem!

There's been a problem with the chronology of my posts. After updating the posts to fix the links the time stamp has changed putting the posts out of order.

As of today, Friday, April 18th, the current order goes in such a manner:

Week 1 Day 2: Posted Tuesday 2pm

It's Almost The Weekend: Posted Thursday 9pm

Midterm Presentation Prep: Posted Friday 10am

Sorry For The Inconvenience!

Week 1, Day 2

Who is Pliny The Younger? Why does that name sound familiar? Who cares about him?  Why is he called "The Younger, how old is he like twelve? These are the questions I've set out to answer this term. Overall, I would like to gain a fuller knowledge about Pliny as a writer. My goal is to find out why he wrote the way he did, what influenced him as a writer, and how does he influence writers in present day. So far, I've read an article on Pliny The Younger in the "Ancient Writers" textbook. A link to the outline I wrote on this article will be below. Also, I have wrote an article summary on a JSTOR article called "Pliny The Younger, Conformist." A link for that article and its summary will also be listed below. Looking forward I have found a new JSTOR article called "The Elder and Younger Pliny on Emperor Worship". For tonight, I will have read this article and a brief summary will be posted to follow.

Ancient Writers Outline: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e1ZU9bF3L9PCSDuvlaM74z0qMGZx94wqfo5z2AsC3WE/edit?usp=sharing

Pliny The Conformist Summary: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_8Jv51Vqf56Zc74xkZ8UZQDV2PwiApS5yBMJ4NxBahU/edit?usp=sharing

Midterm Presentation Prep

What is your essential question?

Q: Is Pliny The Younger’s letters a valid recollection of history/ can he be viewed as a historian. (viewed as historian)

Why or Why not?

Today my goals in class are to find my third JSTOR article and begin to review it. Outside of class, and for the weekend I would like to finish this article and it's summary for Monday. Updates to follow. This week I learned a lot about my work process, not just working on this project alone. After writing a thoroughly unintelligent sounding paper for AP Gov, (I actually tried very hard to write it, and write it well.) I began my second summary to which I found I have a knack for historical writing. My evidence used in my previous summary, Emperor Worship, and analysis was much stronger than that used for my AP Gov paper on the bureaucracy. I feel as if I was able to accomplish my most recent summary quickly and effectively due to the passion I have for the topic. The papers I write for Latin literature tend to involve more of a psychological analysis, where as my AP Gov papers are more cut and dry. After writing my most recent summary and performing an oral presentation in Latin class I was able to determine my essential question. I choose the validity of Pliny as a historian to be my topic, because I get to do a bit of psychoanalysis. It has taken me until today to realize that this is where my passion for writing pieces on Roman literature comes from. One of my favorite things in the past, especially when we were analyzing Virgil, was how the speech (actually speaking aloud) had discrete forms of onomatopoeia that made the listener subconsciously grasp the content. If put the link below to a specific piece, which I worked on and translated this past winter below. Although it's not entirely relevant to Pliny and his work I feel like this link is important to understanding my own personal psychology and my gravitation towards such topics

Virgil Analysis:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kM8fcjh_y2ZP9gUAR7hrJUbHDKTgo2NElvpjRjG2qu8/edit?usp=sharing

Side note: I figured out how to link these blog posts properly! Yay! No more copy and paste.

It's Almost The Weekend!

  As you probably guessed from my excessively enthusiastic title I'm pumped for the oncoming weekend. Perhaps, this excitement is due to the fact that I am a solid day behind on my calender for my project. Although progress has been slow moving as far as output of summaries goes, in finishing my second article and summary this evening, I have discovered a whole new facet of Pliny The Younger to explore.

  This evening I finished reading the article "The Elder and Younger Pliny on Emperor Worship" by Kenneth Scott. My personal opinion on Kenneth, the man doesn't have anything from his own mind interesting and unique to say. Aside from his brief introduction which lasted a page and a half, and his conclusion which was also a page in length, this thirteen page article was just a mass of block quotes with no introductions. (Link Below) Quite frankly, had this been my first article on Pliny The Younger I do not believe I would have gained any insight. Due to the strong background information I had attained I was able to make sense of the highly confusing article, and found some interest in the psychology of Pliny. This article had many quotes from Pliny's speech known as the Panegyricus, a complimentary speech addressed to the emperor Trajan. Since, I've already determined Pliny to be a glorified kiss ass, this article gave me an unintentional look into mind of Pliny. In his speech, Pliny praises Trajan for letting his work as an emperor stand for itself and not forcing worship upon the Romans as he said the old emperor Domitian demanded. It was interesting because it is well know through the historical community that Pliny was seeking fame through the writing and publishing of his careful worded letters. In his letters though Pliny also did not ask for the fame and praise he was hoping to receive. It's almost as if Pliny was reflecting himself and his hopes onto the life of Trajan.

  As stated in my article outline from my last post, Pliny experienced much prosperity under the Emperor Domitian and Pliny also hinted at this. So to attack Domitian so harshly was rather ungrateful. After reading this article I do believe Pliny adored Trajan, but I believe Pliny's adoration came from a bit a jealousy and motivated him to achieve fame in a humble manner similar to Trajan.

The Plinys on Emperor Worship:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/283211

Article Summary:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14b_8aGhHJvDKJXW6CHOn-L_ofXbxtVD22c7o6UjxfKY/edit?usp=sharing