Taut: Tightly drawn, tense, not slack. This knot is what you might call a tautly tied knot. It is very tightly put together. There is not slack in it.

Emaciate: To make abnormally lean or thin by a gradual wasting away of flesh. This poor boy here in the pictuer has unfortunately been emaciated practically to death.

Obviate; to anticipate and prevent or eliminate by effective measures. In this animated picture the artists is trying to obviate the fact that if you try to feed the animals you could end up in a bad situation.

Paucity: Small in quantity. Darfur is said to be a place with a paucity of resources in the sense that many of their people are starving because they don't have foor. They also continue to get killed off because they don't have vaccinations for common diseases so they end up dying.

Obsolete: No longer in general use. All of today's T.V's are going to be upgraded to digital signal thus, making analog T.V's obsolete.

Vocabulary 2-25-08
1 Embezzle (verb)-To misappropriate, or appropriate fraudulently to one’s own use.
2 Emaciate (verb)-To make abnormally lean or thin by a gradual wasting away of flesh. (Starvation)
3 Obsolete (adjective)-No longer in general use. “An obsolete battleship”
4 Obviate (verb)-To anticipate and prevent or eliminate by effective measures.
5 Penchant (noun)- A strong inclination, taste, or liking for something.
6 Paucity (noun)-Small in quantity. “A country with a paucity of resources.”
7 Sycophant (noun)- a self-seeking, servile flatterer. Flatterer, toady.
8 Taut (adjective)- Tightly Drawn, tense, not slack.
9 Tenuous (adjective)-Weak, vague, thin o slender in form
10 Tenacity (noun)-the quality or property of being tenacious. Tending to retain, clinging to another object or surface.

Current Event 2/22/08


Last week there was a huge beef recall (143 Milion pounds) one of the largest beef recalls ever. A food safety expert was talking to a interviwer from npr about how it got out into the public. She said that the main reason why this was discovered is because there was an undercover person from the Humane Society working under cover and she just happened to come across this. However, this check was completely random, they had no suspicions about the place. Now, that they have discovered this they are wondering how many other factories have produced bad beef. As far as they know there could be a second recall.

Acumen- Keen Insight, shrewdness. Teachers are very high level of acumen in the specific subject matter that they teach.

Conciliatory: To regain or try to regain (friendship or goodwill) by pleasant behavior. In this image you can see that both gentlemen are trying to gain the others trust and hand in friendship by the hugging and smiling and acting like they liek each other.

Insurrection; An act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion. In this picture Mr. Shays is an insurrectionist. He is the leader/participant in the Shay's rebellion.

Complicit- Choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act. This man is obviously taking part in a complicit act by attempting to rob this place.

Fidelity- Loyal, accuracy, exactness. When I though aboout one of the definitions of fidelity (loyal) I immediately thought of dogs. They are considered man's best friend and a very loyal friend.

Vocabulary 2-19-08

1 .lucidity- Easily Understood
2 .conciliatory-To regain or try to regain (friendship or goodwill) by pleasant behavior.
3 .countermand-to revoke or cancel
4 .acumen- Keen Insight, shrewdness
5 .insurrection- an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion
6 .fidelity-loyalty, accuracy, exactness
7 .complicit-choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act
8. steadfast-steadily directed, firmly fixed in place or position
9. emancipation-freeing someone from the control of another.
10. bolster-to support with or as with a pillow or cushion

Ellis Orozco
2-15-08
Book Report 2-15-08

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York. Hill and Wang. Copyright 1972, 1985. Translation copyright 2006.

Reason, Type and Setting: I chose to read this book because my mom read it before I did and told me she really liked it at that I’d probably like it. This book is more of and autobiography because it discusses Mr. Wiesel’s days in the concentration camps. My book takes place during the Second World War in the concentration camps.

Plot: This whole book is about this young boy (Wiesel) who ends up going to one of the Nazi concentration camps and he has to experience these horrendous occurrences at a very young age. He has to see people get tortured, burned, etc. It is a very powerful and moving book. It is incredible all the stuff that happens to him and yet he keeps going on and moving from camp to camp.

Character: Elie Weisel is a young innocent boy who is very naïve (like most young boys). He is a very emotional strong kid. He is able to go through some very tough times. Such as seeing his family get killed, yet he continues living with that hope that he’ll get freed (which he does). Elie Weisel is a very powerful and inspirational boy I wish I had the guts and strength to be able to endure what he did and continue going on with life. If anything the plot made Elie a stronger person.

Evaluation; I loved the novel it was very informative and powerful. I felt so terribly reading it but it was so well written that I had to continue going on. I really got attached to the character as the book progressed. It taught me in a sense more about the Holocaust and gave me a holocaust survivor’s perspective. I most certainly would recommend this book to anybody, it is very good. By reading this book I concluded the world has it’s obstacles and you are the one who decides whether you continue on and conquer them or let them conquer you. I never would’ve been able to act in the way he did. He had serious nerve and I respect him for being able to resist the Nazis oppression and hate.

Author, Context and Trivia: Elie Wiesel has written Dawn, Twilight, The Oslo Address, Sages and Dreamers along with many others. I haven’t read any other books by Mr. Wiesel but after reading this I would like to read more of them.

Current Event 2-15

It is a new “Fad” that has been taken in by many of today’s pre-teens. 82 kids between the ages of 6-13 have died from this chocking game. They wanted to experience the dreamlike or floating in space feeling without drugs or alcohol. In the game kids strap a cord or some sort of thing along those lines and strangle themselves to get this “high.” It is very sad that they couldn’t come up with any other better way of entertaining themselves when they get bored.

As you can tell this animation is in a state of sanguine, or cheerfulness. I personally feel as though this is a perfect representaion of the word sanguine because a synonum for the word is cheerful.




Jack nicholson plays a very baleful character in the movie "The Shinning."







The day Randy Rhodes Died was a very austere moment in time that shook the whole rock and roll world.






This man is disseminating these seeds manually throughout his land.







The model of resilient able to overcome people's hate and discrimination to become one of America's most famous and inspirational speaker, and civil rights advocate.






























1. Disseminate (v) - To scatter widely
2. Eloquence (n) - the power of expressing feelings or thoughts in words that impress or move other people
3. Austere (adj) - grave; sober; solemn; serious
4. Baleful (adj) - pernicious/ or sinister
5. Bigot (n) - a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.
6. Relapse (n) - falling back into a former state(v) - to fall back into vice
7. Repudiate (v) - to cast off or disown
8. Resilience (n) - ability to recover completely from illness, depression
9. Sanguine (adj) - cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
10. Renovate (v) - to restore to good condition

I cant remember anything
Cant tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
Im waking up I can not see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god,wake me

Back in the womb its much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But cant look forward to reveal
Look to the time when Ill live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god,wake me
Now the world is gone Im just one
Oh god,help me hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

Making Sense Of American Popular Music

The title of the song I chose to research is called "One" by the band Metallica. This song was released in January of 1989, it is classified as metal/thrash metal. The difference between thrash and metal is the fact that thrash metal is just any riff created with heavy distortion and it usually doesn't have any kind of specific technique. This song was written to expose the true horrors of war. The whole song talks about this book and more specifically the movie "Johnny Got His Gun" an anti war movie created at the end of world war one. In the song they (Metallica) make several references to the world war one veteran that got his arms, legs, and eyes blown out due to a mortar that went off beside him. Not to mention he's also a mute. Throughout the song Johnny learns how to use morse code and tries to communicate with the nurse and tell her to kill him. Unfortunately, he doesn't get hhis wish. It is a very solemn and kind of a downer movie yet it is also a good movie.

The song itself was written by James Hetfield (rythm, and lead vocals) and Lars Ulrich (drummer). This song received a grammy award for best metal song. It has also made the top solos in the world numerous times. In order for Metallica to do the music video for this song they had to buy Johnny got his gun because through a better part of the video they play scenes from Johnny Got His Gun. Below is a link to the music video. (You might have to copy the link below and paste it in a new web page sorry) (The lyrics to my song are posted above where it says Making sense.....)

http://www.last.fm/music/Metallica/+videos/+1-JwW9L_qzqp8

Current Event 2-4-08
It is a terrible enough having to be blind, but to have it affect you and consume you in a long time must be agony. I read up on a man who has been gradually losing his sight over the last 50 years, but that’s not the highlight of my article. After he went completely blind he started seeing all these fanatical images in his head that he hadn’t seen before. For example a civil war soldier appeared in his head very vividly. This is called Charles Bonnet syndrome, where you lose your sight and you start seeing things in their mind. Basically, when you have normal vision or just you can see in genera, you are taking things in for your brain to analyze but, when you go blind your brain can’t take things in therefore it creates its own images based on previous memories. In other words a “memory mash-up.” A compilation of a bunch of your memories to make new ones. Many other blind patients have experienced this too, along with deaf patients just that with them they hear voices of people who have passed on or living.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18549104