3.1415926535897932384626433832795028 (Blog1)

"I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst from the Cross, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation." -Life of Pi, pg. 36

Wow. Those are some pretty deep words... And they expect all normal teenagers to understand this stuff?

 Personally, I'm the polar opposite of Pi, I don't follow any religion, I'm pretty much an atheist. But in this quote, I agree with him completely. No matter what religion you follow, even just in life, you're always going to come to a point where you doubt your beliefs. You're going to ask yourself, if what I believe in is true, and there's someone looking out for me up there, why are they letting this happen, what did I do to deserve this? No matter what, you're going to face these questions, and it will either make or break your faith.

Regardless of that, Pi also said that in order to continue your life you must move on. You have to push through the hardships and doubts. Doubting everything is not a philosophy that will help you move forwards. Doubting that your God will help you through all the problems in life, or that things all happen for a reason will lead you nowhere. I'm going to assume that he meant it because it would leave you with nothing to believe in, that it would break your spirit and soul to the point of you beginning to doubt everything about yourself.

In relation, it's like when a loved one passes away, or you break up with your partner. You go through the stages of grief. From what I know of the subject (based off a  quick google) there are five stages of grief. First it starts off with denial, then anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. From what I've read, it seems that most people get stuck on the 4th stage, depression.(big surprise there...) This is mostly because in the previous stage they attempt to regain control of their situation. When this fails, they begin to doubt their beliefs, their faith and even themselves. This is a very difficult situation to get out of and many become fixated at this point and never really move past it. Choosing to allow doubt to overcome and consume your life is akin to choosing to immobilize yourself in an attempts to get somewhere.

Now I know you're going to ask, how does this relate, in ANY way to the story? Pi gets stuck on a life boat with a TIGER! That has absolutely NOTHING to do with religion and philosophy! (No? was I close at least?)

Well well well, my dear little Hipsters of the internet, I'll gladly answer your questions. Simply keep those thick-rimmed glasses on your stylish little face and sit tight. (or stand, if sitting's too mainstream)

***SPOILER ALERT***

I want you to picture in your head, you're stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a flimsy little lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. Your entire family has perished and the only reason you survived is because you learned to swim on account of the fact that you were blessed(or cursed)with the name Piscine. Now don't go on to tell me you wouldn't begin to ask yourself, oh I don't know, WHY WAS I PUT IN THIS SITUATION? What did I do to deserve this? It would also only be natural to begin to doubt your religion, your God, maybe even go into the stages of grief on account that, y'know, your entire family is dead?

Shocking, I know.

In any case, this is only my rendition as to how all these things relate. For all I know, there could be no relation and the author just enjoys messing with young teenage brains. Heck, maybe he just wanted to write a story about a tiger on a boat but his publisher made him change it to make it more "relatable" if that's possible for a story about a tiger on a boat and a boy named Pi...


Now that, that's my kind of pie...

My Old Red Truck

This blog is going to be a more serious, tear jerker(at least from my perspective) so bear with me kids.

Ever since I can remember my entire family (mom, dad and two sisters) has gone over to my Grandpa's house for brunch on Sundays. There, we created many happy memories, eating pancakes with syrup and bacon, watching old cartoons and reading mystical stories curled up on my Grandpa's lap. I loved going over and spending time with him.

Now, my Grandpa owened a red pickup truck for the longest time. I loved the colour and smell of that old truck. Looking back I question why I loved it so much, it was old, messy and kind of rusty. I guess it was because it reminded me of my Grandpa. When I was about 10 he sold the old red truck and bought a new grey one. I was very upset about that, so he made me a little wagon out of wood painted the same colour as his old red truck. He would joke about how that would be the car I would learn to drive in, and he promised me he would teach me. Regardless, my Grandpa was always very supportive of me and encouraged me to do well in school and constantly be in search of more knowledge and skill. Even when I was a teenager, he constantly encouraged me to get my driver's license. At least he did, until he passed away on my 16th birthday, on August 26, 2012.

Okay, deep breath Caitlin. Wipe the tears from the monitor, we need to finish this for Mr. Olson.

So when he did pass away, it was tough on my entire family, but mostly on me and my mom. One of my last conversations with him was about how my 16th birthday was coming up, and how I would finally be old enough to go get my G1, and planned to take the test within the week. Naturally, when ever I think about that last conversation; holding onto his frail hand while sitting on his old creeky bed in his little room at the retirement home as he slowly drifted in and out of consiousness, I get very emotional. That, combined with the funeral schedule and the total disbelief of losing him, were the main reasons why I wasn't able to actually go obtain my G1 until November of 2012.

I remember the day I finally went to go take the test like it was yesterday. It was like I was drifting in and our of a nightmare, and it seemed like I was in a haze, drifting in and out of reality. When I sat down, test in hand, everything became too bright and it was hard to focus. I forced myself to concentrate, and finished the test fairly easily. The worst part of the whole experience was having to wait and watch the supervisor correct your test. But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he called me up, congratulated me and gave me my temporary drivers license.

That feeling is exhilarating. I had finally done it, I got my G1, and made my Grandpa proud. That was the moment, I feel, that I finally realized I was growing up. I wasn't some little helpless lost child, I was a strong woman who was capable of great things and could get through even when times got tough.

All in all, I still miss my Grandpa. Whenever I think of him, it'sm almost as if someone ripped off a scab that was just starting to heal. I wonder if I'll ever be able to think about him without cerying, and I hope so. I hope I'll be able to tell my kids stories about how amazing he was and all the amazing memories I have with him. But I feel like he's smiling down at me, and truely is proud of me.

History in English Class...?

The English language is kind of like the gum stuck to the bottom of a restaurant table. Its been around for ages, its everywhere, and people just seem to add more and more to it over time.

From what we've covered in class, I've come to the conclusion that the English language is a very confusing and messed up language. Not only that, but it seems like the people who added words to it were not very original  At the beginning, we had Old English, which started around the Anglo-Saxon invasion in 450 and lasted to around 1100 AD. You might be wondering who the Anglo-Saxons were, so think of big, muscular, war fighting, avenge my fallen comrades by ripping your arms off type people. Most of their language consisted of nouns, with a couple adjectives and verbs and included some common words we use even today, like: wall, man, woman, sheep, cow, day, night, sun, moon and so on. They also spelled things the way they sounded, so there really was no standardization. The major piece of literature that survived from that time period was Beowulf  which is a story about, you guessed it, a big muscular warrior who has to avenge the deaths of hundreds killed by a monster by ripping the it's head and limbs off. This story is an example of an archetype, which is a model person, which everyone wants to be like.

The next period in our language is Middle English, which spanned from 1100-1500 AD. This period  began when the Normans(from France) conquered England and forced their culture upon the Anglo-Saxons. Very soon, it became evident that ruling class spoke Norman French, and the native people spoke old English  Because of this, the native people adopted some of the french terms for different things, and Middle English was born. Because of the new words added to the language, Middle English was very rich in synonyms and a loty of the new words centered around politics, the government and the church, such as: law, Parliament  chivalry and penance. The big piece of literature from this era was written by Chaucer, and was written for the common man and woman. It was called Canterbury Tales, and had no violence. It mainly focused on satire, word play, crude jokes and comedy in general.

Next we move on to the era of Early Modern English  This lasted from 1476-1800 AD. A big improvement in this period was the invention of the printing press, which allowed for more distribution and standardization of the language. The major changes in the vocabulary of this language, was the addition of many new words (you guessed it yet again) stolen from other languages. At this time, England was sending people around the world to explore by ship. Naturally  they began to pick up words used in the places they visited and brought them back to share with the rest of England. These words included: alligator, skate, sugar, sofa, calico, toboggan and moose. At this time, people were beginning to be more sophisticated, and the main literature were sonnets written in the Royal Court. Commoners enjoyed this because it was a way for them to connect with their "celebrities" the royals. There were two main writers at that time who contributed greatly to the sonnet literature, Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote about his love for Penelope Rich(another married royal) and Anne Locke, who wrote sonnets as hymns to god.

Finally, we've come to Modern English. This era started around 1800-present, but personalty I think we should make a new era where we add slang such as grease and YOLO, so we at least have some portion of the language that we came up with ourselves. When the Modern English period began, people started to quit their jobs and become writers. Up until now, most people who wrote literature were only part time writers, and they had to maintain another job to have enough money to write. Now novels were becoming popular, and that shows us that more people were seeking out higher literacy. The major example of writing from this period was Gulliver's Travels, which was a series put out ever other week about a man sailing around the world and having many adventures. There was a lot of satire used in this series, and each addition to the story was just long enough for people to read and anticipate the next chapter.

In conclusion, I really have no idea why the school board decided to force us to learn HISTORY in ENGLISH class, but regardless of that I found it fairly amusing and interesting. Will it ever come up in my day to day life? No, I don't think so, but most of the random facts on the internet will never help me either so I guess I'll live.