"We are all each other's magnitudes and bonds"

          When I first saw this statement, I immediately thought of family. However, Gwendolyn Brooks said "we are all", meaning that the quote pertains to people even beyond the family circle and maybe even beyond the friendship circle as well. And well, I've always believed that "we are all" interconnected, Ms.Brooks. 

         "We all" have a story of someone who affected our lives without them knowing, such as memories of acquaintances or a stranger... that they will never know we have. See, Pancho would never know Caesar would think about him so much. Pancho would also never know why Caesar decided to let him keep his family pictures up in the cell. And most of all, Pancho would never know that he was such an important part of Caesar's life for a while. And as a side note, even the maid lady and Simon would never know they played a part in Caesar's head. 

 And yet they all played their part without them knowing.

          There are so many people that will never know of their bond to you. Nor will you really know of your bond to any of them. With this in mind, there is a certain thread, to even a stranger, that "we all" have, such as: the stranger who stood before you as you waited to tap your NYU ID in, the stranger who pressed a certain floor in the elevator that made you late, or the stranger who went out of their way to hold the elevator door for you just so YOU, a stranger to them, could get in. 

And they all played their part (including you) without them knowing.

          So many small instances that allow us to share,
          at certain magnitudes, 
          and with different bonds. 

Shirley Reyes

Generation Why? OLUWASEUN OLOWOOKERE'S SIX QUESTIONS

1. Does the Facebook software has a rightful impact on this new generation?

2. Why 1.0 people do not use Web 2.0 software in the way 2.0 people do?

3. According to Jason Lanier's point, WHAT HAS BEEN ''LOCKED IN''?

4. How could Lanier's objection will be helpful in this new generation?

5. What is the Lanier's best interest in the article?

6.What is the striking about Zuckerberg's vision of an open internet?

"Don't be 'a writer'. Be writing"

"Don't be 'a writer'. Be writing" - William Faulkner

I love William Faulkner! We read one of his books for my English class in high school! I'm pretty sure it was my favorite book I'd read through high school, which says a lot because we also read The Great Gatsby around the same time. I think Hemingway did a good job of taking Faulkner's advice. He didn't seem to have much of a filter between what he thought and what he said, and I've never read any of Hemingway's work, but if I had to guess, I'd say he just writes his thoughts on paper. Kind of like what I'm doing here. He doesn't try to be a writer, he is a writer, and his writing is a representation of who he is, how he thinks. Granted, he was probably drunk of his ass most of the time, but still. I can't believe I haven't read any of Hemingway yet. I always hear about how I should, especially if I like F. Scott Fitzgerald, which, in case you couldn't tell, I do. I can't write much today. My mind's just been somewhere else this week. I'm trying to focus, but this week, that's a little harder than usual. But I guess that's normal when you break up and that breaks you...isn't it?

-Kate Goodman

"Life is precious, and God, and The Bible"

   "It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a beautiful and savage country lies in between" - Diane Ackerman

   Life is still humanity's great unknown. We may know the origins of life on this planet and have a basic understanding of how our bodies and minds function; but we do not know why we are here. Philosophers and scientists have researched and debated the meaning of life for untold centuries, and we are no closer to an answer now, than we were when we first asked the question.

   Religion, biology, philosophy, chemistry, art... You name it, someone has attempted to answer that great question we all ask, subconsciously or outwardly - "Why are we here?" We seek to learn what our purpose is in this form. Humanity exists, we have consciousness, we are self-aware. How did we come to be, we ask. Creationism? Evolution? Both, or perhaps neither? There is no prayer that will summon the answer. There is no formula that will calculate a solution. The human race my die out tomorrow, or in a billion years, but we may never know the truth. Maybe we are not entitled to an answer. Perhaps, there is no answer.

   Despite our lack of knowledge on the subject, life remains a beautiful reality. That may be all we need to know today.

 - Richard L. Giordano

Heartfelt Confessions

"Nothing is quite so false, in writing, as the heartfelt confession" -Charles D'Ambrosio

Oftentimes, while writing, people can get caught up in the idea that in order to create something of substance, one must inject it full of overly emotive cliches and platitudes. It is not easy to create a piece of writing that conveys a deeply emotional idea without sounding sappy or dramatic. To me, the best writers convey these emotions through hints and context clues littered throughout the piece that imply what they are trying to say without explicitly spelling it out for the reader.

A perfect example of this is Charles D'Ambrosios' "Documents," which touches on the deeply complex and emotional issues within his family without obnoxiously overstating them. He artfully explains the situation rather than how he feels about it, but explains in such a way that the reader picks up on the deep emotional scars that remain.

This belief that less is more is something that can be adapted to any field of writing; say what you mean, and in doing so, convey how you feel with as few words as possible. I find that I sometimes (often) struggle with this in my own writing. I feel that it's incredibly difficult and requires a subtle hand to be able to lead the reader through your story in such a way that information is revealed slowly, piece by piece, so that the reader can reach his own conclusions. What type of language a writer uses has a major impact on what the reader interprets as the meaning. I guess that means you should pick your words wisely.

-Olivia Chodos

Heatfelt Confession

"Nothing is quite so false in writing, as the heartfelt confession"       - Charles D'ambrosio

There are many motifs people may have for writing. Some people write for fun, while others write because they are told to. There are writers that decide to write fiction or nonfiction. No matter why a person writes or what, "nothing is quite so false in writing." But why might this be? I believe it is because when you put words down on a paper or a computer screen, you are thinking and feeling about an idea that interest you or that you might be studying. No one can say to you that what you are thinking and feeling is false. Which is why I agree with Charles D'ambrosio's quote. The meaning of this quote is probably different depending on who is reading it. However, this is my personal interpretation of it.

-Ayleen Gomez 

Heartfelt Confession

A heartfelt anything isn't really true, especially confessions. Truth always comes out when you don't mean it. It's just there. Always looming over. Truth comes out when you're not careful, through anger, disgust, and ignorance. It isn't practiced. That's why most truthful arguments are composed of 75% "I didn't mean that" or "You know what I meant". Truth is careless. It couldn't care less what you meant or how you thought it was going to happen. It came out. Confessions make me think of a priest in church. That's where you say the truth but that's not it. That's a fraction of your day. The truth comes out in the rest of the twenty-four hours. Whether it's sin or virtue, that's the truth. It's an instinct. And to me heartfelt confessions means you thought, constructed, and manipulated your words. You wanted an outcome. You know the emotion it's going to cause. The truth catches you off guard. It horrifies, torments, and follows you. The truth is clumsy and beautifully blunt. That's why everyone associates the truth with childhood. The you with no filter, before you learned to be heartfelt. It's not rosy or precious. It's inconvenient and filled with mistakes. Filled with "um" and "uh". By the way I don't prescribe to the "pure baby" idea. Children are selfish and uncensored. Honest and loved.
- Yandely Almonte

Heartfelt Confessions

"Nothing is quite so false in writing, as the heartfelt confession." Could this be true? I feel like writing is the one way for me to express what is really inside me without the pressure of saying it in a timely manner. I can write and articulate and pinpoint exactly what I feel so that it is clear to others. Many of my heartfelt confessions to my loved ones come in the form of letters. Writing, by nature, allows for the writer to precisely adjust his or her words to get an exact communication of what he or she is thinking.

But maybe it is false. Maybe writing gives us the ability to construct such a fiction of who we are. Our "heartfelt confessions" that we put down in writing are us trying to make sense of our emotions, according to how we want to present ourselves to the world, and to ourselves. Maybe truth lies in the way we act and not what we construct.

Is Charles D'ambrosio suggesting that we live in an alternate reality, never being able to express what we really feel? I was thinking earlier today about this. If we could read each others' minds, many of society's problems would be solved. The knowledge of the smartest person in the world would be my starting point. We would all understand each others' motives and there would be no need for heartfelt confessions, because they would just be known. There would be only honesty, and little need for formal communication, as writing is.

But is writing a heartfelt confession inherently false? Or do we not even understand ourselves enough to communicate our heartfelt confessions accurately? I think honesty must be shown in many ways: through our everyday actions, as well as being formally articulated, strung together in a beautiful way, that more accurately explains our deepest emotions.

-McKenzie Tingey