Vocabulary #3

Vehement- 1: Marked by forceful energy (powerful) a: intensely emotional b: deeply felt/forcibly expressed c: bitterly antagonistic.

In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff was a vehement lover, who became obsessed with the idea of winning his true love back. This picture shows Heathcliff deep in thought on the rough moors. His expression is so full of passion and yet it is terribly bitter at the same time. Cathy broke his heart by discarding his love for status and wealth and that choice changed molded his entire life and to reach a status worthy of Cathy's love became his obsession. Heathcliff is the ultimate image of a vehement lover, with his truly victorian nature.

Blatant- 1: Noisy especially in a vulgar or offensive manner 2: completely obvious, conspicuous, or obtrusive especially in a crass or offensive manner.

Lindsay Lohan's tweets at Samantha Ronson were blatantly a plea for attention. Twitter is a new phenomenon of updating the world with every single move you make. This is a favorite form of communication for celebrities, and especially Lindsay Lohan. Here she is tweeting to her girlfriend Samantha Ronson about how their love for each other is forbidden by Sam's family, but that they will continue to love each other. To tell the world these personal issues of yours, you are very blatant with your individual problems.

Alleged- 1: Asserted to be true or to exist 2: questionably true or o a specified kind 3: accused but not proven or convicted.

In the famous British television series, Footballers' Wives, Joan Collins guest stars as Eva De Wolffe, a wealthy woman who is very much senior to her alleged footballer boyfriend, Paulo. Paulo is the newest member of the team and everyone is perplexed by his relationship with this old woman who he claims to be in love with. Tanya Turner, another footballers' wife starts wooing Paulo and the whole story of him and Eva unravels. It turns out that she adopted many boys when they where young and brainwashed them into thinking that they loved her.

Factoid- 1: an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print 2: a briefly started and usually trivial fact.

In during the trial on Mrs. Leighton's murder, the defense lawyer started spewing many factoids about his client's past to hopefully buy some time. A good defense for someone is to show the jury and the judge that their client is in fact a human still, and it will force them to relate to the person charged.

Flout- 1: to treat with contemptuous disregard (scorn) 2: to indulge in scornful behavior

Governments all over the world have started to look upon smoking with flout and ban it in most public places. The idea of dancing in a smoky disco has become unappealing to people of late, and as more and more medical studies come out showing the side effects of smoking, it becomes less and less glamourous.

Jeremy White's Biography

In class we interviewed our teacher's old friend to get a feel for what kind of person he was, and to get enough information out of him to write a short bio on him.

Jeremy White, a 33-year-old native Sacramentan whose dreams have yet to be completed. White started out as a boy growing up in Sacramento, he made some of his greatest friends, endured a divorce, had big dreams of being a drummer and had a phobia of sharks. As a young boy, Jeremy White had a reoccurring dream, one that would never end well. He would be swimming in a large tank of water and when he would look down, there would be sharks swimming beneath him, waiting to attack. This dream haunted Jeremy all his life and eventually became the underlying pressure in all his decisions made in life.

As a teenager in high school, White started to develop his musical ear due to his good friend pushing him to discover his inner talent. With this support from someone who was dear to him, he gained confidence in his musical ability and decided that music was his dream career. He became a drummer for multiple bands and eventually started touring with some. Life on tour was a hard one; never any stability and Jeremy often wondered if this display of his talent was even worth the worry he went through. During this time in Jeremy’s life, he started getting the reoccurring dream more and more frequently and caused him to finally put an end to his unstable life. He felt like he was swimming in a tank with no lifesaver and just a cloud of sharks, music sharks, about to pounce on him. This made him see the reality of living in the rock star dream, and how demanding that life was and yet he never really got much back from it.

Eventually Jeremy went into the stable life of a financial planner. He realized that what people needed was that support or lifesaver to save them from the sharks, and he wanted to be that. He makes peoples futures stable and creates an environment of safety around his clients. This dream that haunted him throughout his life has decided on some of the most major decisions in his life for him, and he followed. So while this dream made young Jeremy White scream on all of those nights, it truly has helped him see the path in which he sincerely felt more secure going down.

Vocabulary #2

Empathy- 1: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it. 2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings or thoughts of another of either the past or present without having those feelings or thoughts fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.

In the film Bright Star, the two characters Fanny and John Keats, are involved in a deeply victorian romance. Keats is an impoverished poet, and Fanny is an aspiring dressmaker. Keats develops an intense case of tuberculosis and is very weak and ill, but because Fanny has this deep love for him, she empathetically takes care of him and feels a worse pain than him, but in her heart.

Deduct- to take away (an amount) from a total

Workers across the country are having work days deducted each month from their schedules. These are called furlough days, in which an employer makes each employee take an unpaid day off each month to save more money in these times of need. This is an image of someone's work schedule and as you can see, friday the 14th is not a working day, but a furlough day.

Recapitulate- 1a: to restate briefly b: to give new form or expression to 2: to repeat the principle stages or phases of

This is a screen grab from a gossip blog called Posh24. Each week they recapitulate the best dressed celebrities from that week and have the readers vote on who they thought was best dressed. The celebrity photos can be from totally different events, they are just recapitulating which celebrities successfully achieved a glamourous look that week at the various events around the globe. The reader gets to reflect on all of the stars outfits from that week at once and form an opinion of them based on what others are wearing.

Precipitous- 1a: very steep, perpendicular, or overhanging in rise or fall. b: having precipitous sides c: having a very steep ascent

The Grand Canyon is one of the largest and deepest canyons on land. The walls of the Grand Canyon are painted with natures pallet, and are vastly precipitous. It takes one several hours to climb through the switchbacks in order to get up or down the canyon. The high walls of canyon where formed from an ancient river that used to flow through it, now the Colorado river flows straight through the canyons floor.

Incognito- 1: One appearing or living incognito 2: The state or assumed identity of one living or traveling incognito

In the film Vertigo, Kim Novak portrays Madeleine Elster, a young wife obsessed with her great-grandmothers suicide. She ends up committing suicide off a bell tower, and leaves the private detective hired by Madeleine's husband to follow her in shambles. Months later the detective sees a woman very similar to Madeleine walking down the street and it turns out that she never was the real Madeleine Elster, but Judy Barton. She was hired by the husband to cover up the fact that he murdered his actual wife. Judy Barton became Madeleine Elster incognito to cover up a murder. In this picture, the detective is rescuing "Madeleine Elster" from her first attempt at suicide.

Vocabulary #1

guerrilla- 1: a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage.

Che Guevara was the leader of the guerrilla army during the Cuban Revolution. This is an iconic image of him during the Cuban Revolution, this picture of Che has become a sort of symbol of counterculture in society today. Che was the leader of the guerrilla army whose purpose was to over throw the U.S. backed dictatorship, and free Cuba from any ties to the U.S. They succeeded and thus making Che an icon.

tempo - 1 : the rate of speed of a musical piece or passage indicated by one of a series of directions (as largo, presto, or allegro) and often by an exact metronome marking 2 : rate of motion or activity

In the second movement of Mozart's sonata, the tempo called for was allegro. This image demonstrates the tempo in Mozart's Rondo in A minor. This is a graph that was created when a recording of Rondo in A minor was played. It shows how the tempo changes according to the crescendo of the song. Tempo can variate in a song based on how the composer wants the audience to feel when listening.

flourish - 1 : to grow luxuriantly 2 a : to achieve success b : to be in a state of activity or production c : to reach a height of development or influence
During the industrial revolution in the United States, business flourished and created many jobs. This photograph is a prime example of the industrial revolution and it really shows how much the cities flourished. You can see trollies have been built, taking people to new jobs in factories around the city, hundreds of people bustling around the city, and trucks filled with materials that where to be processed in that city. One can almost feel the buzz from this rapidly growing and flourishing center.

symbiosis - 1 : the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms (as in parasitism or commensalism) 2 : a cooperative relationship (as between two persons or groups)

The Swedish House Mafia is a group of three DJs who perform in symbiosis at clubs. This photo shows Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso all working together on one controller. This is a perfect example of symbiosis because it is showing three human beings understanding each other and trying to create something beautiful together, music.

tumult - 1 a : disorderly agitation or milling about of a crowd usually with uproar and confusion of voices b : a turbulent uprising 2 a : violent agitation of mind or feelings b : a violent outburst

Hester Prynne was engulfed by a tumultuous crowd when she stood in front of the angry townspeople for her public punishment. This photo shows an angry society heckling a woman for being human. She was caught in the act of having a lover by becoming pregnant. Society was angry because this was something they tried so hard to repress, passion. This photo shows a hateful and spiteful crowd, crushed together, watching the woman who represents all that is wrong and thus making the event very tumultuous.

Renegade- 1 : a deserter from one faith, cause, or allegiance to another 2 : an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior.

Joan of Arc was a renegade because she was the leader of the Anglican resistance in France.

Repose - 1 a : a state of resting after exertion or strain; especially : rest in sleep b : eternal or heavenly rest

2 a : a place of rest c : a harmony in the arrangement of parts and colors that is restful to the eye 3 a : lack of activity b : cessation or absence of activity, movement, or animation 4 : composure of manner

As Catherine approached the carriage after the ball, she immediately decided that she would repose on the way back to the Mildusk Manor.

Stereotype- 1 : a plate cast from a printing surface 2 : something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment

Antione soon realized that everyone in high school is stereotyped into specific groups.

Tariff- 1 a : a schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods b : a duty or rate of duty imposed in such a schedule 2 : a schedule of rates or charges of a business or a public utility

One of the causes of the American Revolution was the fact that England put outrageously high tariffs on all of the American imports.

Tranquil- 1 a : free from agitation of mind or spirit b : free from disturbance or turmoil 2 : unvarying in aspect

Margaret sat beneath her blessed fir tree in a divine state of tranquility.

Tundra- 1: a level or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions, consists of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil, and has a dominant vegetation of mosses, lichens, herbs, and dwarf shrubs; also : a similar region confined to mountainous areas above timberline

The jackrabbit rapidly burrowed under the tundra's icy soil to escape the hungry wolves.

Unanimous- 1 : being of one mind 2 : formed with or indicating unanimity : having the agreement and consent of all

Cults leaders brainwash their members into thinking unanimously with them.

In Defense of Food

Why do people choose to eat products that are unhealthy for them?
Well, I think it’s either that people don't care about what they eat, or they are not fully aware of the consequences of eating unhealthily. Education is the key for a smart living and healthy society. When people are unaware of how many unnatural chemicals and ingredients are in the chips and candy they buy, they continue to purchase and ingest these unhealthy and potentially unsafe foods. If people are not educated about the effects of these fake and not whole foods, they will slowly poison themselves. The food giants that sell the public these fake foods, realize their demographic and try to make them think they are eating healthy by making labels that claim things that are hardly true. People need to be educated on the problems with the food they eat, and so they can make conscious choices of becoming healthy of staying unhealthy.

What roles/responsibilities does the government have in framing your choices?
Once again the idea of educating the public on the foods that surround us is the responsibility of the government. If people are not aware of the problems around them, how can they be expected to teach themselves? The government needs to guide the public in education and needs to get the ball rolling so to speak with promoting the concept of eating healthy. Thanks to food lobbies that have a strong grip on the government’s opinions of food regulation, they don't implement education programs. The government needs to start sorting out its priorities and understand that the public’s general health is much more important than staying friends with a powerful lobby.