Winter Poem, vote for me, cause im trill.

Watch the beautiful snow, sail towards the ground, it is like the white blanket of god, its beauty instills perplexity, they sail towards the ground, where in ages past peoples have gone about their normal lives, occasionally stepping out of the norm, the snow lands upon a tree, I was in New York in October and trees were falling because of snow, not even ducking with you, I used the word duck instead of profanity, for I would never disgrace the lovely blanket of god, if there is a god, I'll probably go to hell, but until then I shall enjoy a reckless, two-faced life I have chosen to live, I am lucky for I haven't dealt with major consequences in over 2 years now, I get away with way more than I should, which probably pisses god off, but I'm okay with that, because I don't believe in god, if the devil is evil and just gets on god's nerves, when I go to hell, I'll tell the devil we should make hell better than heaven, to piss off god, this will give me a good life, and I won't even get in trouble or be damned, for I will already be in hell, that is how I feel about snow, glorious snow.

The Literary Recluse

JD Salinger once stated that a writer needed privacy, and has tried to remain as out of the picture as possible, to much success.  He only comes out when someone infringes on his work too much.  He refuses to have any of his works turned into movies because of how bad the product was of when one of his works was transferred to film.  Besides that he has been "a literary recluse", not publishing a work since 1965 and not giving an interview since 1980.  I respect him and envy him for this, if one can be fulfilled with life and rich and remain out of the public eye they are living truly a great life, being famous is asking for someone to find the skeletons in your closet.  I want nothing more than to be fulfilled, rich, and incognito in life.  I did read in one source however that JD Salinger was a Terminator aficionado and that he had written 2 novels, several novellas, and numerous short stories of Terminator fan fiction.  I thought this was inspirational how art like the Terminator can bring someone as determined as JD Salinger out of their shell.

The Beloved Holden

Holden Caulfield is a character.  I actually felt a lot like him this week.  I had my glasses broken, and then was referred to as a bitch repetitively, but I didn't really care.  I'm different from Holden because I got out of this situation and am getting repaid.  Holden simply gets beat up repetitively and fails endeavors, like paying for a prostitute and not having sex with her, and then getting beaten up by her pimp and getting charged twice.  I like Holden for this reason, I have always had an attraction to people who live troubled lives, which is very bad for my health and for every aspect of my life, and is one of the biggest things that jeopardizes my future success, but thats how I get my kicks, without it I'd be less sane than I am.  I think without this slight bit of excitement I get from hanging out with these people I'd find no will to live, because alone I lead a harmless life, which is boring to me, because I'd have nothing but school, which for the most part is unbearable, i don;t mean to disrespect Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Solomon or Mr. Tsichlis, three teachers who have had long lasting influences on me.  If I was truly courageous I'd probably run away, for a week at least, but I'll probably never do that, which is quite cowardly of me.

My Red Hunting Hat

Until recently in my life I wanted nothing more than an item to be very closely connected to or associated with, and for a time, I did.  From age nine to eleven I wore a number of fedoras, I tried earlier in life and developed unhealthy relationships with many household items, I cried tremendously and was mentally scared when I broke one glass in an identical set of four.  I have now tried to in a conscious way remove myself from many unnecessary earthly items.  I say consciously because I like many of them and enjoy owning them, but I try to depend less and less on them for happiness.  Now I believe that I want my name to be what I am recognized for.  I mean this in the sense that i want my name to be respected and I want everything I say to have integrity simply because I have said it.  I think this is far more healthy and that this will lead to me living a good life in every way. To connect this to The Catcher In The Rye I want to stand out from the deer by my name. I want to be able to recognize other people with good, respected names as well, and I want to surround myself with them and alienate ourselves from those who have names which carry a bad reputation.

Directizzion the Clizzass Nizzeeds

I think the class is moving at a pretty good pace, I very much enjoy our class discussions, but I think it's pretty bad that about five people participate, two of whom are Kirkland.  I'm kidding, Kirkland is fine and has taught me quite a few things in class, but the fact that only five people in a class of thirty something participate is bad.  When people are forced to speak they think it makes them look cool to look like they don't know shizzit about what they're talking about.  I hate that, it pisses me off.  It doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look goofy as hell and stupid.  I think we should do more of the readings in class, not major novels, but reading about something and then discussing it, but I feel like you shouldn't let any of the usual suspects talk and force the people who think being a dumbass is cool talk, pardon me for being blunt about my opinion.  Might I add that the minority is far better than the status quo in this situation.  This is the end of my critiques of the class, I hope eveyrbody had a happy thanks giving.

Thankful for a Classmate

The legendary Christian Cattan.  I could not bear this man's presence two years ago, but now he is not only one of my favorite people in this class, but one of my favorite people in this school.  I enjoy being obnoxious with him, and we share a rancor for some specific people who administrate our lovely school.  I lovingly remember his fabled fight between Christian and some kid who I very much disliked who used to be on Christian and my bus, but he got kicked out.  The kid picked a fight with Christian who fought valianty against him.  At one point Christian pulled the kids head down and then brought his leg above his head and kicked him, i have referred to this move as the "axe kick".  I remember when he supported me at soccer tryouts, something only a true friend would do.  He did not let me live down my laughable attempts at soccer tryouts well into november.  Christian's mom really does not like me for "faking" my manner around adults, which we both find hysterical. All in all, Christian is now a very good friend of mine, and I enjoy all of the classes we have together, and I have more moles than him.

The other Mr. McCarthy.

I find that one of the most prevalent themes in The Road has been the relationship between father and son.  In one of Mr. McCarthy's interviews he said that most of the conversations in the book were taken from real conversations he had had with is son.  He seems to have a very strong uncompromising moral basis, and believes in luck, but is an atheist.  Though he seems to be a very kind man, he apparently is very pessimistic, not even in a depressing way.  In his conversations with his brother, who is very dear to him, they in more cases than not, talk about the end of humanity.  They do this completely in a complacent way, though, and not in a way which is at all spiteful, or sad.  Back to Cormac McCarthy's underlying theme of father and son.  He has great respect for his son, who he treats as an adult.  He has let his son direct a movie even.  I believe that though the book is Man vs. Man and Man vs. Nature a part of the book is Man vs. Self, because much of the book is about how the man only lives for his son, and to help his son, and now that it is clear that the man is dying, he is trying to teach his son the final things he will have to know, before he dies.

Hey Bukowskizzle

Dear Mr. Bukowski,
  You're quite the pessimist, my good sir.  Do you have any faith in humanity, or do you believe the only reason we have existed for so long is our inability to completely eradicate ourselves from the earth?  I feel like humanity will prevail, though it will have incredibly hard trials to face, such as dealing with North Korea and Iran (third-world-istan).  There are already mass efforts of deweaponizing the nations with the most nuclear stockpiles.  Were you hurt as a child?  I find that one's outlook on the world greatly has something to do with one's early developmental years, which i think end at the ripe age of fifteen, which I am yet to acquire.  I feel that once we have had a nuclear war, we cannot forget it.  We have attempted to do this with the Holocaust, but we don't preoccupy ourselves with it.  We can never allow ourselves to not think about nuclear war.  The Holocaust was one of the great blunders of humanity to this day, but nuclear war would be exponentially worse.  Genocide is awful, however human eradication is a step up from that.  I think that humanity has more intellectual power than you credit it for having.  I mean this very respectfully.

Sincerely, Sohrob.
P.S. Humanity is fin-to be hella strong, G.

Father and Son

I believe the relationship between the father and the son in "The Road" is very wholesome, it is replicated very little in our society.  I think that this is bad, but however bad this is, this is the truth.  I personally know more people with weak, bad, or even non-existant relationships with their fathers than people with good relationships with their fathers.  My relationship with my father is very strange.  Both of my parents are married, so I see my father close to a daily basis, him and I have a very good relationship when family members, or his friends are at our house, but when nobody but him, my mother, and I are home, our relationship quickly dwindles.  I get very good grades in school, I have a 4.25 or a 4.0 GPA, but no matter how I do in any of my classes he only cares about my math, which is always my lowest grade.  I am holding a B in my math class currently, with 5 As and one other B, in all honors classes and I am on the verge of house arrest, I mean that sarcastically, not literally.  However at times we have a good relationship regardless of who's at our house, we normally see both poles over the course of a month, from very good, to very bad.  Overall my relationship with my father I would say is above average, but by no means the best.

My disconnection from the physical world.

Many people have items of supreme sentimental value.  Though I, like all other people, have a connection to many of my belongings, none of them do I have an inseverable bond with.  When I was very young everything in my house or that I was close to had sentimental value to me.  I remember crying hysterically when my mother got a new stove.  I was so incredibly sad from the loss of our old one, that I begged the man from Sears to not listen to my mother, all to no avail.  In my bathroom in the first apartment I  lived in there was wallpaper with elephants all over it, and when we moved out, I remember mourning the loss of that wallpaper, taking all of the photographs that I could, even trying to salvage a sample, again, in vain.  Now I am proud to say that none of these losses phase me.  It is much harder to give examples of things you don't care about.  I believe that this is very good for me, leading me to a higher level of wisdom.  If somebody is stripped of all of their belongings and still has direction in their life, they are truly wise, almost enlightened.  I first learned about this philosophy while reading Siddhartha, when Siddhartha lives with Sadhus are a very small group of Indian people who abstain from many worldly pleasures, who wander the country and the wilderness, and live very humbly.  I strive to due this in principal, not so much in practice.

The Moment I realized I was an American

The Moment I realized I was an American is an epiphany I am one hundred percent sure I have had.  When I was younger I hated America, simply because of racism and the atrocities America has committed.  I hated slavery, the fire bombings of Germany, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and America's views on the middle east.  When I was much younger I was very proud to be middle eastern, sadly that has diminished greatly and I loathe that fact.  My hate for America went to the point that I was suspended from school in the 3rd grade for attempting to start a communist revolution.  At some point I realized that America, though not necessarily a great country for the world, is one of the best countries to be a citizen of.  We have freedoms here which much of the world cannot fathom.  We almost have achieved full equality for everyone in almost every part of the country.  I say that because in some places there is still racism, and sexism, but that has been reduced greatly and is actually illegal right now.  America has an incredibly high standard of living, which I, and almost every other American love to indulge in.  I realized I was an American when I realized there was no where in the world I'd rather live in than America.

John Proctor: Heroic Stooge

In my eyes John Proctor is a hero and a stooge because he does things that are heroic even though they make him look foolish in the eyes of the community.  He also does things that are flat out foolish, but those are to be overlooked.  I feel that John's less backward ways of living and views on religion are very good for his town in the long run, because as history has shown us, religion has lost the grip it once had.  There was a time where all of the western world, as well as the middle east, was governed by religion.  Religion lead to many wars and even the dark ages, but now it has far less influence than it once had in our day to day lives.  The society in Salem still is in the shackles of religion, but John has dared to not attend church, and worse, adulterate.  Though I don't condone adultery (or do I?) I believe that this sin is one of the first steps towards lenience in the town of Salem.  John is a freedom fighter, as was George Washington, and even Che Guevara.  I think that the down side to his actions is his reputation as a bad Christian, because he doesn't frequent church, and the repercussion of his sins, which may be revealed later in the play, though honestly they could never be publicly revealed.

Religion holds us back.

I understand that religious is a very touchy subject, though I find it to have held humanity back centuries. Religion has done much less good for humanity, than it has done bad.  The Dark Ages were a product of religion.  The Dark Ages not only didn't allow humanity to further itself, it sent humanity backwards.  Innovations were lost forever, and 500 years were wasted in war, which left many poor and dead, and a handful of families ruling Europe.  Even after the Dark Ages many philosophers' works were stopped and some philosophers were even killed by the church for being "heretics".  Religion also belittles women's role in society, and the rights of women still aren't equal to the rights of men in many parts of the world.  Religion has also led to, or been basis for, many atrocities committed by humanity, such as the Holocaust, the genocide in Sudan, the conflict in Rwanda, a majority of the conflicts southeastern Asia, the Israeli-Palestinian war, and many others.  If humanity never brought religion upon itself it would be far better off than it is today.  Though religion has led to all of these troubles, it did, at one point, help humanity, for it governed people in ages past before there was a legal system to deal with criminals, or sinners.  Overall humanity would be not only better off, but in a stage none of us can imagine. imagine if we lived in 3011, that is how it would feel.

arrival...there goes my neighborhood

My family is almost 100% of the diversity in my neighborhood, and my family is arguably white.  As I believe I've said my parents are both from Iran, making me Iranian.  I live in Lincoln Park, a neighborhood which is unfortunately predominantly one race, which is white.  Due to past problems and misconceptions with and of the other children in my neighborhood I have somewhat deserted my neighborhood and alienated myself from it.  Almost none of the people I surround myself with live in or near my neighborhood, there is only one place I hangout in in Lincoln Park, which is a store I intern at, which is run by asians, who are not the majority in my neighborhood.  My journeys outside of my neighborhood have  lead to me becoming very independent and has lead to me making friends elsewhere in the city, which I believe is good for me, because now I not only see my neighborhood, i see many other neighborhoods.  I make more friends, most of whom I ordinarily wouldn't have met, and have learned more than I ever would from people in my exact circumstance.  I love the fact that I have made all of these friends, and aside from the fact that I don't see them terribly often, there are no downsides to these friendships.  It appears that every decision I have ever made has had a net worth which has been positive.

Introductions

I am Sohrob, a lifelong resident of Chicago.  Both of my parents immigrated to the United States from Iran, either for education, or for political asylum.  I am passionate about most types of music.  Politics intrigue me a lot, and I am considering that as a potential career path, though I am open to many options.  When I was younger I played sports as well as music, though now I have to devote more time to my studies, because my future depends on them more than ever.  I am not religious, though I study it, just to understand what most people in the world hold so highly.  I am not a perfect human being, in fact I'm quite flawed, and I acknowledge all of my flaws because if I don't remember them I can not better them.  I don't take very many things too seriously, though I take honesty very seriously, because I have been raised to hold nothing higher than the truth.  I have learned recently that many more people than we'd like to believe and I try to make up for their actions by being the best human being I can, though I often find myself at a loss.  This is a very brief introduction to who I am, this is in no way my entire essence, so please, don't be critical quite yet.