This should be what your blog posts look like!

[NOTE: Ok... so no one, in either English II class, did this. I'll give one more chance on this assignment. It's now due by this Sunday, November 20th, at Noon. Also, it will be worth twice as many points. Please take a few minutes to read the following and do it so you don't lose free points. ~Mr. Webb]

So I've been grading your blogposts (that I'm totally behind on grading) for the last few days, and I stumbled upon, perhaps, the greatest student blog post I've ever seen. This is a MUST-READ, especially for English II students.

Context: In reading Life of Pi, we came across a moment a few weeks ago where an orangutan (named Orange Juice) on a lifeboat saved the life of the protagonist from a lion.* After this happens, the titular character (Pi) says:

Her arms were spread wide open and her short legs were folded together and slightly turned to one side. She looked like a simian Christ on the Cross. Except for her head. She was beheaded.

Using the transitive property of literary symbolism, we saw that there was a connection between Orange Juice and Jesus.

Orange Juice = †-shape

Jesus = †-shape

Therefore, does Orange Juice = Jesus? 

The assignment, then, was to write an analysis on this idea and how this is the case. In all the responses, Betty Liao's writeup was that of a level-100 ROCKSTAR. Unbelievable job with the writing, the ideas, the grammar, and the pictures.

The assignment (due for all English II students by 12:00 noon on Sunday [NOVEMBER 20TH]) is to go to her post and leave a comment. The comment must follow the rules of commenting from earlier in the semester:

1. compliment the writer in a SPECIFIC way.
2. ask a question related to the post.
3. add new information, opinions, or perspectives.

As you're commenting, pay attention to what she did to earn my admiration and try to duplicate that in your own future blog posts as well.

*If you haven't read this book, don't ask—just go and read it yourself.

Are you predisposed to be an Alpha (or Omega)?

Here he comes to save the daaaaaay!

Today, I was catching up on some blogs I follow, and I found this little article that English II students might be interested in:

Two mice meet in a narrow plastic tube that's not wide enough for both of them... One of them must give way. In their earlier encounter, the first mouse exerted its dominance by forcing [the second mouse] to reverse down the tube. This time, things are different; the second mouse pulls rank and the first one backs down... By injecting a single gene into one part of its brain, [Fei] Wang turned the subordinate animal into a dominant one... By manipulating this signalling, he could push mice up or down the social ladder. With an extra dose of GluR4, the mice gained social standing. When they confronted other mice in a cramped plastic tube, they were more likely to force their rivals to retreat, even if they had previously given way. With their new rank, they were also more likely to court female mice with high-pitched ultrasonic songs.

So it sounds like being an alpha or omega animal is a characteristic of which you might be genetically predisposed. What do you think of that? If you had the choice to have an experimental gene like that injected into you so you could become more alpha-like, would you?