Folk Song Folks, Yee-Haw

We have been talking about folk songs lately just FYI. A folk song that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style. In class we have read folk songs from chinese literature too. The Chinese folk songs we read were "I Beg of you Chung Tzu" and "Thick Grow the Rush Leaves". Both songs tend to infer meanings of love towards someone. I worked with Malorie B-T-Dubs. 



"I've Been Working on the Railroad"
I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away 

Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the captain shouting
Dinah, blow your horn 

Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn 

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing 

Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Strumming on the old banjo 



This song is from the late 1800's when the rail road was big business. It talks about all the grueling back breaking work that thousands of men did daily on the rail road. The song is like a motivator, stating the obvious hard work done by everyone. It also talks about this Dinah. Not so much a love story here. Dinah was a typical name of an enslaved black woman in those times. Dinah blowing her horn and being in the kitchen would have been a lunch call from here to the workers. Lunch was their break time and no one messes with break time. The "Fie fi, fiddly i o" was just inspirational cheering lyrics. Since these men were men and looked for the "brighter side" of working all day, some verses that involved making love with Dinah were later left out of the original song. The more you know, knowledge is power. 


"Ain't No One Got Time" by Kasey Murphy and Malorie Browning 

Feel the flames of heat as the man steps down
Yelling and forcing us to look like clowns
Communist society rebellion is here
With hypocritical rhymes that fill our ear

Ain't no one got time for trees and flowers
But everyone got time for nice long showers
It's all about you no time for two
Ain't no one got time anymore, dude 

These days isn't about you or me
It's about making your way through society
Drowning in an ocean sulking in food
Puts you in the mood to be straight up rude

Ain't no one got time for trees and flowers

But everyone got time for nice long showers

It's all about you no time for two

Ain't no one got time anymore, dude

Grenades to Kindness

classic.gunauction.com

This week in my novel, A Farewell to Arms, I am on page 120. Fred has been taking some down time with some new friends at the base he's at. The topic of discussion are the medals for the number of wounds one has. Fred makes the comment that he'd rather have wound medals than other war medals. Ettore showed his medals and his wounds. He was hit my a German hand grenade (or potato masher) that blew up his foot. As an officer, Ettore carried his rifle to blend in with regular soldiers so his rank didn't stand out making him an HVT. Simmons asked what it the German was like after Ettore had shot him. He remembers taking his rifle and shooting right back at the boy who threw the grenade. Hitting the kid right in the chest fearing he'd miss his head. But he didn't stay to watch.

In class we have been studying Confucianism. The class has read The Analects. Honestly I like the concept of Confucianism. The concepts of being courteous to one another and showing general kindness and respect for people is something that todays society has lost for the most part. I like how in The Analects knowledge is used for a greater understanding of things and not something just to attain a higher social status. "The Master said, In old days men studied for the sake of self-improvement, nowadays men study in order to impress other people." -Confucius. In relation to Confucianism I wish todays society still reflected that of the society of the 1940's and so on. Working at Fareway (local grocery store) where we are a courteous business its easy to see how generations have changed. When I help out older people they seem to be nicer with more converstaion. With younger people they are much shorter and could care less if I was helping them or not.

Obi Wan Tao'nobi

I have not read from my novel this week. Partly due to last weeks whole "school shooting" mixed with snow days mixed in with all the homework. So with school, homework, non-consistant school days, and 20+ hour work weeks, reading just had to fall short.

www.humordevil.com

This week we've been going over Chinese literature. We've reviewed over Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. On Thursday the class watched a couple clips from Star Wars and compared it to Taoism. Yeah Taoism and Star Wars. Similarities of the two in Star Wars is the "force" which is the power that controlled the Universe. Also, the force is in everything as said by Yoda. It holds power in trees, rocks, grass and more. Taoism is similar to the force and with the elements. In Taoism it is described the Tao is the force that controlled the Universe. Taoism didn't focus so much on human qualities but the elements of nature.  Taoists believed they could see these working through observing nature.  The comparison of the two has similarities, though maybe they weren't meant in Star Wars to be definite meanings of Taoism. It's open to interpretation. So in a way if you follow Taoism you can become a Jedi.

Hebrew, More Like Hebro

martinfrost.ws

The Hebrew literature that we read in class had some similarities to the epic of Gilgamesh. The more obvious similarities is the presence of a god or gods. The god in hebrew literature is a good god who watches over his people if the will praise him. In ancient lit such as in Gilgamesh, there are multiple gods with multiple personalities good or bad. In Gilgamesh the gods are more of a form of society over the mortal humans than in Hebrew literature where God acts as one leader of the mankind.

en.wikipedia.org

This week in A Farewell to Arms, I am on page 112. Frederic has been staying in a hospital in Milan. This hospital in mainly American with nurses and doctors from the states. He spends most of his days in a hot room laying down killing time. Frederic being a sort of flirt that he is has made friends with a nurse, Ms. Gage. Theres been some flirting but big deal because his "love" Ms. Barkley has been transferred to Milan now. Oh snap. Recently he had his leg/knee operated on and now he has minimal use of the crutches. More or less it has been about him getting to spend more time with Ms. Barkley, otherwise known as Catherine Barkley. I hope this Titanic, Notebook, and Twilight love stuff ends soon otherwise this book will help me fall asleep faster than NyQuil. Aside from the some love stuff the novel is pretty interesting. That's saying something for me.

Gilgamesh and Mortars

People today in similar ways differ from people 4,000 years ago. Similar in the fact that certain values have been carried down through different societies and different civilizations. But different in how the values are perceived and how stories are told. Also new values have arose like the value of freedom seen in our everyday life and also the value of having an elected leader rather than a king. People 4,000 years ago, mostly men, were perceived as warriors. Warriors with quests and struggles lead by the gods. Today there is a general equality among the sexes.

afarewelltoarms2009.blogspot.com

en.wikipedia.org

This week in A Farewell to Arms, I have read to page 87. Skipping all the nonsense with Frederic and his supposed girl Ms. Barkley, Frederic was sent to the front. There with his fellow ambulance drives it was they decided to eat. Inside a dugout he sat with the other four guys. Before Frederic could take another bite of cheese a trench mortar hit right on their position. After the explosion and carnage he couldn't move. After he regained some focus, he rolled his head to see Passini without a leg and his other leg dangling by the tendons.  His own knee had mortar shrapnel in it. Most likely the mortar was from a minnenwerfer or a Skoda gun stated earlier by a man named Gavuzzi.

My Cardboard With Paper in It

freebooknotes.com

The title of the novel I chose is A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I chose this novel because it was the most interesting sounding title in the packet of options for novels to be read. The novel is based around the first world war and that sounded the most interesting to me. So far I have read to page forty two. A general summary of whats happened so far is the main character, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, is an American serving in the Italian Army. He travels around the bases which are mainly medical outposts. He moves when the main front moves. The novel is starting to move into a kind of love story because Frederic has met this woman named Ms. Barkley. I personally hope this love story doesn't unfold too much of my interest in this novel might fade. War is interesting, love on the other hand isn't so much. Otherwise the descriptions of war and the dialogue between the soldiers is interesting and entertaining.

Entering A New World

techmansworld.com

My reason for taking this class is due to Individualized Literature being full. I wanted a challenge so I opted to not take Everyday Communications. The course didn't sound like anything I couldn't handle. What I expect to attain from this class is a wider knowledge of literature pieces from authors around the world and not to just re-gain knowledge about American literature styles I already know. If anything else I hope to improve my general reading skills plus I expect to be introduced to new websites as well as online tools as well such as Blogger.