The Song Remains the Same.

This is the last blog. Well I got my grade back for my medical malpractice research paper: disappointing. Now everyone will be presenting there projects on whatever it is they have studied for these last few weeks of our senior year of high school. The accumulation of everything we have ever learned will lastly be represented by this final project. Wow. I can't wait to be done with it. For my actual project, I wrote a original screenplay. And original it is. What's unfortunate though is that I haven't finished it and probably won't; considering that my presentation is in about two weeks, and I have suddenly been smacked in the face with laundry list styled myriad of "things to do" before we peace, and I realized that there really isn't much time to complete the screenplay in it's entirety. As of write now, I have 52 pages completed: Hopefully enough for an "a" on the project but certainly not enough to be shot for the silver screen. It's good though. I like it. Slow moving and liberal at first, but transcending into a family driven and deathly vengeance. I don't want to spoil anything. Regarding my presentation, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, but I have a good idea. I have this idea in my head that may be good; good for class involvement, creative, individual, and unique. I don't want to spoil it though, the element of surprise feeds into the whole shebang. I'll leave a hint though. It's a learning experience about screenplays. The presentation is heavy on the project, and not on medical malpractice, (what I researched). What I realized over the five day Memorial Day break, while I was doing everything possible to further myself and my mind from the conforming scholastic community of secondary education, I had an epiphany. It was depressing but still an epiphany. I realized that I have to present the week after prom; that's a bummer. A huge bummer. It's going to be difficult for me, but I'll enjoy the challenge. I'll enjoy it in the most exhausted, head pounding, and nauseating way :) . It's alright though. I'll manage. It'll be fun. Live life and enjoy every moment of it. No matter where you are or who your with. Reiteration: it doesn't matter. Live. Laugh. Love. I can't believe this blog post is turning into me trying to persuade you into happiness. But at the end of the day, I feel like that's all that matters (to me at least). Well, theres about twenty minutes of this period left, and I would like to get back to work so I'm going to retire on this note. Peace and Love baby; I'm out.


-the one and only
CenzDaddy

Week of May 12

Though the research paper leg of our final projects is due this upcoming Friday, I have been spending about 97% of my working time writing my actual screenplay, which I have just been reminded is actually part of the fourth marking period grade rather then that of the final. I'm having a much easier time writing my story; once I begin everyday in class, I just start flowing. It's slow moving, but it's still flowing. When you're writing a screenplay, you feel like you have so much done, and then you go back to take a look at it and you realize after an entire class period of writing you have only added another two pages to your piece. It's a little frustrating, but once the writer get's over that initial hump of shock it's nothing a little patience cannot cure. This blog post is supposed to outline my plans for this upcoming week, but the product of my last weeks work clearly demonstrates that I deviate from what I plan. Even regarding my actual screenplay, the storyline is evolving in a direction that I did not forsee. I will state what I wish to accomplish this week, for I know that there is an important deadline approaching. If it weren't for the research paper being due Friday, I probably would never finish it. So this is my goal: Do the project. The entire thing. I have a page written already, but I'm not sure that it bests fits the voice of the paper I'm trying to write. So that's my plan. Everything that needs to be done to get the research paper in class on Friday. This is my week plan.

"Doin' it and Doin' it and doin' it well"

To start off, I would like to say that I fell a little short of my goals for last week. I think my unplanned trip to RutgersFest on Friday took away from a solid period of work. I have one page of text though, so that's a good start. I keep having doubtful visions of my project though. To be honest, I don't have any solid goals, and it's interefering with my writing. I have found several web based tools for screenwriting though. A screenplay requires a special format that the software on our computers is not designed to use. these web based applications allow for the proper scripting of a screenlplay and will allow me to work on my home computer as well. I can technically work on it from any computer with a web browser and an internet connection. For this week I plan on completing my introduction paragraph of my research paper, and hopefully having a first draft finished as well. If all goes well and I get this work done, then I plan on jumping head first into my final project and throwing some words on paper, if you know what I mean.

What Am I doing

Ok. I've spent a lot of time trying to decide on a project that would be fun to work on, and reasonably completable by the end of the semester. My first thought was to write a novella, because that is something that I have always wanted to do, and I have an idea in my head. But when I sat down and started writing, I realized that in no way would it be possible for me to complete it before the years end. So, I scrachted the idea of novel. This all happened the week before break. I wanted to do a project that I would enjoy working on, not just working to get it done. I thought about doing something about music, and figured that song writing and critiquing those songs would be a good idea. Songwriting is somewhat tied into English and literature, but while researching the actual writing of it, all I could find were informal pieces on how to improve songwriting; nothing I found would be valid sources for a research paper. While on my plane home from my spring break vacation, I tried writing something...in fact anything. With that, i decided that I am going to write a screenplay. Using the plot idea that I had for my original project (the novella), I am going to write a script for the silver screen. My research paper will be based on medical malpractice. My project will be a fictional story involving medical malpractice. My final presentation will be on what it takes to write a screenplay. Thank you and good night.

For the week my plans are...
-To get two or three books on medical malpractice
-To start writing the screenplay

Project 4th Marking Period Project.

For my fourth marking period project, I plan on writing a novella (anywhere between 50-100 pages long). I recently researched how to write in this style. I have some ideas in my head, and have already created a character list. A brief outline of my plans: the story involves a family settled in a very normal surburban town. The family is well respected and loved by the community and each other, but a medical incident involving the mother, tears everything apart. The story is narrated by youngest child Anthony, and documents and discribes the mental and emotional hardships of his family. Due to the new found use of wiki's in our classroom, I plan on uploading all of my research and outlining and writing into a wiki that I will create myself. This will serve for organization and for observation. I tried to start outline last night, and found that it was very difficult to do so. Although I have several ideas in my head, translating it onto paper can be farily challenging. And I have been getting feelings that the plot formulated in my head may be better suited for a screenplay. But I cannot jump to a finished project just yet. I set out to write a novella so that is what I will begin doing.

My plans for the week are

-to create a wiki
-to complete a rough outline of the entire plot
-to upload the outline and character list onto my wiki
-if time allows to start writing my first draft

The song "Fix You", by Coldplay, is possibly (in my opinion) the best song ever written. I just felt like jotting that down.

Things Really Do Fall Apart

This is the second time that I have read the book by Chinua Achebe, the first being my freshmen year in English. I must still say that it is a difficult read. It's written in a broken English like manner; the narration is clearly coming from someone with a foreign grammatical and phenatical background. This is good though, for it makes the book so much more authentic. Once the reader picks through the language style (with the help of an included but still limited glossary at the back of the book), the underlying message is a universal story of greed and power. Look around. It's everywhere and everywhere. And Achebe brings it to us in the form of primitive African tribe, an issue that the majority of us are uneducated about. But you would have to be a blind man not to see it. While reading, I myself was not that interested; the plot was slow moving and the verbal complexity constantly urged me to put the book down. But I had to write this blog, so I stayed the course. A father disregards his sons friendship and love to maintain his social image. This is not suprising. But in the simplicity and innocence of tribal life, it is so much more touching and effective then, lets say, a generic story about a middleclass man struggling with money and his relationships towards his sons (a hint at Death of a Salesman though a great stageplay). It's things like these that we see everyday. But skinny twelve year old boys named Nwoye make everything much more interesting. But regarding something more relevant...greed. Greed dictates the actions of a big chunk of society. Washington State University has a nice publication discussing greed and it's beginnings. From reading this alone, greed is apparently somewhat biological. Human behavior is biological. People behave based on a chemical balancing of the biological and pyschological constructs. Greed is a part of everyone, just to different degrees. It takes a person's mental strength to overcome the temptations of greed, and to emerge from life without the real things that matter falling apart.

Technology is Everywhere

For starters, I figured that I'd throw up Birth of An Idea, the film that me, Ross, Darren, and Jake made for the Apple Insomniac Film Festival, but then got disqualified from for using copyrighted music without giving the required forewarning. I still think we made a kick ass video, and I wanted to see how it would look on a blog :)

When I sat down to blog this morning, I said to myself, "What could I possibly write about today?" And I'm still thinking that right now. I've finished reading all four books for the projects, and I've managed to write most of my previous blogs on subjects related to them, but today I honestly can't think of anything. I'm listening to Andrew WK right now. He's an incredible artist, if you've never heard of him you should check out his work (Party Hard and She is Beautiful are both sweet songs). But anyway, regarding, school, and English and books (you know, all that good fun stuff), I feel some sort of unifying trend represented by all of the books I've read; and I'm sure others in the class may feel the same way. I guess you could think of it like Stanley Milgram's theory of six point relations. Milgram, who is well known for the manipulative Milgram Experiment, did a study demonstrating how everyone is connected through everyone else in the world through a system of six people. For example, I may be friends with a person who is friendly with a man in showbiz, who has a friend in California, who in turn is going out with the daughter of a producer, who is friendly with Judd Apatow, who is recently very close with Seth Rogen. So through six people, I am actually somehow connected to Seth Rogen. This idea seems quite useless, but it is true. So with it in mind, I present a question; can main character Simon in The Sunflower be connected to someone in Herland or even to Alex in a Clockwork Orange? I know that for the most part these books are fictional, but if you use your imagination, it's very possible for them to be connected. Kind of like in Birth of An Idea. If you took the three minutes to watch the prodigal flick, you'll realize how inventor "Cenzo" was connected to Steve "firepits" Jobs simply by a floating piece of paper, and an idea that became a revolution.

...About Me

I love to rant. There are things that come up in conversion that always drive me towards going off on tangents, spitting out my opinions in a sometimes barbaric manner, though I usually keep cool, ranting with utmost sophistication. I think that for me, these common rants are a form of introspection. It's not uncommon to find someone I'm friends with, either from my previous life or my days today, who will make some comment like, "Ha. I love it when Cenzo goes off on his rants." It's just a part of me. It's my personality, my character. Right now, I'm a little confused about where I'm supposed to be. I usually find guidance through music, or abstract art, but recently these methods of relival haven't been working out too well for me. So I have turned to literature. Yes, I've turned to books. To be honest, I'm not fully satisfied by the mandotory collection offered in English, and I have read several of the pieces in my ealier years. But you have to get work done to get the grade you want. But in my scholastic readings I have noticed the prevelant idea of character development. Though each books plot varies greatly from the others, the characters sturggles and development over time, when stripped down to thier primitive forms, are very similar. In A Clockwork Orange estranged main character Alex engages in a full personality change for the better of society, yet destiny drives him back to his original violent self. In The Sunflower Simon Wiesenthal faces a personal struggle, dealing with the forgiveness of a party and a particular man that has treated him in the most unhumanly fashion. In Herland, there is an overall struggle trying to advertise the capabilties and equality of women. I know that this post is turning into a laundry list, but having all the scenerios back to back, fluff free, allows for the best possible comparison. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo faces a personal struggle, trying to protect his own name in the eyes of his community, rather than respecting a brotherly love developed by his very own son. These dilemmas all vary, but If you look at them through "simple goggles", as I like to call them, you will notice that the common trends simply involve characters battling personal issues, centered around a certain protagonist, creating the ambiance that a good novel should. Then you might just say, "Hey I could right a book." And you may just try. Good luck though, because when you sit down and stare at the blank computer screen, a rushing rage will overcome you. Because you may have some great ideas, but no way to communicate them to the computer sitting in front of you. I wish you good luck in your endevours; as Bono says, "One love,"... peace out, and remember just as all characters develop from similar correlating ideas, we are all people and must coexist.

Sunflowers Stand Tall

I started reading The Sunflower, and I am predicting that the book will deal greatly with the ideas of will power, character, and heart. Just from reading the blurb, it appears to be quite an interesting story, and I think it may be true (the name of the main character is the same as the name of the author). The story deals with the relationship of two strangers who firmly support different causes, one of them being the driving force behind the prejudice violent and hate crime of the Holocaust and the other being the victim. And at the end, the social bully asks for the hurt's forgiveness. I do not yet know if he gives it to him, but it brings up a good question. Can anyone possibly find the space in the heart to forgive someone who has hurt them so deeply, emotionally, spiritually, and physically? Can a person honestly let something so crushing walk freely, granting him a vocal pardon? I don't think I could ever forgive someone who tore apart my life and family in such a barbaric way. They say that it's good to forgive and forget, and I do agree with that, but the weight of this particular issue is so heavy, it's so unbelievable, that I don't think it's possible to let it be. I don't have any family ties to the Holocaust; I've just learned about it a lot in school. But if some group of people came into my life, killed my family, mocked and condoned my religion, imprisoned me, and broke me down until all I had left was the deepest darkest sanctuary of my own mind, I would never be able to forgive them. That's what I feel; no Gandhi, Confuscious, or Mother Theresea will ever be able to change my opinion in this aspect of personality. Call me cold, or call me bold. People should stand for what the believe in, regardless of the consequence. And to allow for someone to walk all over you and spit on you and to then say, " Oh don't worry about it buddy, it's ok," is like saying I am the ultimate example of a pushover, a heartless soul of a human being, and as long as violence is ceased, I am willing to be embarrassed and disrespected until the end of time. And when everything's over, the question you should be asking yourself is, do you have your very own face in this generic world?

Untiltled

I've been reading the book The Road, written by the acclaimed Cormac McCarthy (he wrote the book No Country for Old Men). I just wanted to take some timeto note how powerful this book really is. It is the story about a father and son in a post apocalyptic world, and the father goes through great trouble to protect his son and to survive. It shows a parental relationship that cannot be broken by anything; not by hunger, not by sickness, cold fear, undefendable violence. Its written simply, yet descriptively. And though it's not a required reading for this marking period, I am reading it because it is so enjoyable. As I write this post, a song just popped into my head; Father and Son , by the early Cat Stevens. Some may know him as Yusuf Islam, but you should recognize Cat Stevens. Cat was a great political folk artist; his music was innovative, original and moving, and before he went crazy and got exiled from our country, he wrote some very inspirational music and was a artistic icon of pop culture. Though I haven't finished reading The Road, I can make a repelling connection between this book and A Clockwork Orange. In The Road, the world is already torn apart by some unkown evil that has left everyone dead, and those alive are still being hunted. The victims are not just killed; they are tortured in a way unkown to the reader but still quite scary. The father and son are moving down the road, following a torn up map, trying to survive. A Clockwork Orange deals with the crumbling of society from its youth, but at a point where decent and honest living is still in existence. A Clockwork Orange is cold and dark, and I feel that the majority of readers do not connect on a personal level. McCarthy's book demonstrates the strongest of father son relationships, and a lot of people can appriciate that.

Her...Land

To free myself from the depressing depth of A Clockwork Orange, I decided to start Herland, an apparently interesting story on a self sufficient and entirely feminine population. Although short and hopefully easy to read ( I haven't finished yet), Charlotte boringly maintains a passive voice throughout. I would like to have seen a more exciting novel, because for every page I read I remain right here in my seat, unmoved and just reading a boring book. Honestly, It it is so boring. I have to force myself to read, it honestly does not entertain me. But even still, while reading this book, I'm quite amazed by the fact of an entirely female country. You look around, and even though women have gained much more power and respect, there are still a lot of people who look down upon women. Herland does a great job reminding those whole look at women as lesser people (they probably wouldn't read this book anyway) that women are equal and possibly better then men as whole. There I said it; it is possible that women are overall much better people then men. Women can run a country, a business, a family, or anything just as good as men can. And with the elections coming up containing a female candidate, this raises an interesting debate. Though I don't support Hilary's interests, I believe that she is 100% able to run our country. And this is coming from me; I barely follow the political games and races (i try to catch some debates here and there on CNN because all other network programming has been pretty crappy lately). Back to Herland though. Sure it's boring, but not everything in life can be fun. And I appreciate the efforts made to reestablish the high capability of women in society. Also, even though this is completely random, it reminds me of some type of Disney cartoon, where everyone is happy, loving and goodhearted, and living life is simple. Believe or not Herland reminds me of The Lion King. Although the Lion King is fairly depressing, there's something about Herland that keeps bringing up images of the Lion King (the original of course) in my head. Maybe I'll go see it again on Broadway.

growing old.

We were much more creative when we were younger.
Things came so easily, lived life nearly problem free
And I’d hate growing older
When everything you once loved
No longer serves its purpose anymore
This is what it feels like to be withered and old

A boy once said I don’t wanna grow up…Stay young forever
Where your heart and curiosity are the only things that guide you
Were money and material are nothing big as long as you have fun…
And fun consists of everything you can imagine
But now, as we grow old, we realize it’s not the same anymore.

I used to be the good example
Amused by anything, laughing at everything
Now I can’t even pay for gas,
And everything I do reflects the money that I have
And I can’t have fun unless I listen to the man
Follow rules stick to the plan your parents made
Not I though, because I’m still just a kid
I’ve got seventeen years under my belt but I feel like I’m in third grade.

So all you people strapped down by growing old
Take a single minute
Just let your spirit soar
They say we only live once and it’s this once chance or not
So embrace the joys of life and give it everything single thing you’ve got
Because anyone here can count the grey hairs that come with age
But it takes real personality to be expressful and remain.... young.

First Official/Gradeworthy Post... On Youth and Violence

While reading A Clockwork Orange, the idea of violence keeps coming up. Everything this gang of trouble makers does, in someway or another, is driven by lustful and violent urges. They fight, they rape, they steal, they pillage. They do drugs. They have no regard or moral perception towards life or other people. As I continue reading, the direct correlation of the development of violence in fiction to the desensitization of the youth of society becomes more apparent. Without diving in and analyzing any particular character because the passionate violence is horrifically widespread (whether it be within Alex's own gang or any other), its hard to imagine these graphic scenes actaully happening (Stanley Kubrick's movie makes this much easier and discomfortinging though). The youth of our country is highly desensitized towards violence; this is clear in the popularity of movies watched by "tweens" and younger people. Successful entertainment productions all revolve around violence. Rap music is fueled by violence. Movies are driven by violence and action. Even clothing promotes violence. This all might sound very repetitive but it is in fact true. www.capmag.com does a great job in bringing up and discussing the influence of violence on the youth of America. It's quite a smack in the face to anaylize the ethical viewpoints of the future of society. If not for anything else, the article is a good read, for personal knowledge, and brings up many rhetorical questions about violence. I'll get off the soft-core soapbox now.

Something that came to mind...

I was just reading, continuing my excursion into the futuristic world of adolescent hate and violence, and I look outside on the humid winter day. It is Tuesday morning, 9:40 to be exact. I looked to my right, out the big ugly windows of our room and noticed a heavy fog; a depressing fog. A fog so thick I can barely see across the courtyard, twenty five feet away. There is silence here now. I feel like the farther I delve into A Clockwork Orange, the more depressing my actual surroundings become. There is really no reason for me to interpret the fog with such pessimism, but considering the state of thought I am in right now (from reading of course) I'm feeling veddy gloomy.

A Clockwork Orange.... Chapter One

I've just finished reading chapter one of this graphic novella, and I am already disgusted by the behavior of main character Alex and his friends. While reading the scene were the four beat on the old man, I started thinking of common gang violence. The actions portrayed are very realistic and happen all the time, in both urban and suburban settings. This book is a fictional account of a futuristic city state, but aside from the weird fashion and customs everything happening is also going on now. Violence fullfills the lusts of these individuals; and still, the night is young.

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