Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Pedestrian and Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 shows a world filled with rage and anger. The motive driving people are no longer books, but TV and electronics. Similarly The Pedestrian shows a common picture of “zombification” of the people. Both books represent plausible future views of society and mankind.
Both books represent humanities progress and its side effects. By using the power of metaphors and similies, the authors show the reader the “downfall” of the world. The stories take place in the future, where everything is computerized. Like Mr. Mead, Guy Montag` has realized the significance of books. The main personage Mr. Mead is also an outcast who doesn’t believe in TV and modern technology. Although they both are different than the others in their communities, there is a big contrast in their actions. Guy Montag on one side is a person, who shows that he has a strong character and stands up for his rights. While doing his job, he realizes that he has found out that nooks are actually fun to read. Guy starts to understand that he has to fight for the books and in his quest he finds a person, who shares the same values. On the other side, Mr. Mead is a person, who is afraid of breaking the rules and thus he surrenders to the police, without fighting for his ideals. His poetic soul has been destroyed by the harshness of life and therefore he has forfeited to the metal voice.
The two novels Fahrenheit 451 and The Pedestrian show that his kind of perspective could happen in our own time. Not wanting to believe is not the right way. Both books show are examples of what humanity should not do. They are a message to the people that we must learn from them, not just read them. A similar kind of future is truly possible and standing away from it can lead to a big problem in society.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Lance Armstrong


Lance Armstrong was born on 18th of September 1971, in Texas. He began his cycling career when he was only 12 years old. At the age of 16 he became a professional and won the national sprint championship. In 1993 he was the youngest cycler to ever win the world road race championship. This shows his fighting character which I admire the most in him. (Wikipedia) . Many people think that he survived because of a miracle or some extraordinary medicine. The thing that saved him from the death was his strong will and determination to survive. Even though he hasn’t done something extraordinary to help mankind he has given hope to those who are fighting with cancer. He has made an organization which is helping people with all kinds of cancer variations. When he was cured from cancer it wasn’t easy for him to get back and win the Tour de France again. Lance had to input a lot of courage and determination in order to get his cycling form back. After his disease he has released that he can make a change in helping people with cancer. That is why I admire Lance Armstrong and I think that his life is meaningful. . Immanuel Kaunt said that one should do things in a way that treats humanity in way not only as means, but also as an end. This is what Lance is doing at the moment. He has opened an organization that is helping diseased people with all kinds of cancer. Through selling rubber bands with the motto “Live Strong”, and donating his own money he has raised a lot of money for the organization. . Virtue is a balance between excess and deficiency was what Aristotle taught. Also he taught that if can balance those two things and at the end one doesn’t have to search more he has achieved great happiness. Lance Armstrong has done this, because thanks to his courage to survive he is not dead and he is raising excess money to help his organization. Also by riding his bike he has won the Tour de France and achieved a bigger success. Therefore I consider him successful because he has found a balance between deficiency and excess. . After his comeback from the terrible disease Lance Armstrong’s main goal was to help people who don’t have enough money to undergo cancer treatment and survive like he has. That is what the happiness principle states – the more happiness one does to other people, the happier one is. Therefore when the person has filled his life with happiness his life is meaningful. . Many people might say that he has been cured from cancer because he had a lot of money. But that is not true because lance had to take an important decision before he undergoes any treatment. He had to choose between chemotherapy or doing a surgeon that is still experimental. He was a winner and he knew that he had to take a risk in order to survive. . Other people might say that his organization is raising money, but they are not enough because the people diagnose with cancer are more than the money invested in helping these kind of people. That is partially true but part of the money goes to special researches that will help cure everyone from cancer in the near future thanks to Lance Armstrong. And when someone makes people smile and happy his life is meaningful.
Lance Armstrong has achieved many things throughout his life and he is still 36 years old. Also he was born on the same date as him and he is exactly 20 years older than me, which makes me think that I am special like him. And if I have the opportunity to have his strong will and courage I will be the happiest person in the world.

You have a problem with me?


It was a beautiful, sunny Friday morning. Fred and Barney were waking up from the late night partying. barney could feel all of the dancing and shouting from last night echoing in his head and felt like a wreck. On the other hand Fred was full of energy and could not await their departure for the city of Chirpan. Fred’s grandparents had a rancho over there, and it was the first time since the beginning of the year, that Fred decided to go and visit them. He was a little bit of a slacker, leaving everything for the last moment. This was the last weekend before the start of the school year and both Fred and Barney were not very happy about that fact. Barney was a bit too tidy and he did not like disorder in his life, especially connected to his favorite car, his BMW convertible. He could talk about it all day long, without stopping and realizing that nobody listened to him anymore. They were like brothers, but this never stopped them from playing dirty tricks on each other. This year was their last in high school and they were positive that it was going to be their best.
Fred and Barney were from those kinds of people that took life not so serious, but were committed to their school, friends, and most of all their principles. Both of them could explode if something went not according to their plan, which most of the time resulted in fights between them. They did not harm each other, but this act of violence was a simple game of showing of each other’s manliness. Nobody took them seriously, even their friends, and at the end of this “action scene” they all laughed and started making fun.
The amazing journey of Fred and Barney starts with their trip to Chirpan. They take the highway in hopes of a road that does not look as if it was bombarded a few days ago. It was a Saturday morning and Barney already passed the moment of his morning sickness. As they drove along the way, both of them decided, that it was a great time to test the capabilities of the car. Barney was an excellent driver and took driving seriously and he was not from

those kind of people that was going to risk another man’s life. The highway was almost empty and the boys decided that it was about time to push the car more and set a time, which was a record to beat on the return home.
As they were getting closer to Chirpan, Fred could taste his grandmother’s moussaka, a smell permanently stuck in his memory. When they arrived at Fred’s house, they saw that his grandparents were waiting for them in front of the building. They loved Fred so much and always were so passionate when it was a question about his future. The city of Chirpan was a small city, located on the new part of the highway and until recently, it was very populated with young people. With the completion of the new road, which did not pass through the center anymore, brought unemployment and bankruptcy to the citizens, and most of them escaped to the villages in order to support themselves.
Fred and Barney decided to go out and look around town. They drove to the old wine factory, which was a big business in the region, but the money stopped flowing in and it was doomed to exile. As they were driving slowly on the main strip they saw a café, which seemed good enough for a relaxing afternoon coffee. Barney thought that it was a good idea to stop the car at the car park, which was located in the back alley of the café. As he was backing up in reverse he saw a big, black muscle car. It was the very expensive one Mercedez-Benz Cl 63 AMG, which was truly an amazing car. Fred and Barney were huge fans of cars and were over excited when they saw it. This excitement made Barney feel safer when handling his car and probably the cause for the crash. As he was changing to reverse an amazingly beautiful girl passed buy and all of the men in the back alley could not take their eyes off her. Barney forgot that his foot was on the pedal and slammed the back of the car in to the front of the Mercedez.

This was the moment when both of them were scared a lot. As they hurried to see the damage, three huge men came out from the black muscle car. As the two “brothers” saw that, they jumped in the car and left them in smoke. Exiting the street they saw that the Merc was on their tail. Fred had a few friends still left in Chirpan and called the owner of the old wine factory. As they raced against the Mercedez, Fred received instructions to go and hide in the hangar behind the hangar with grape. As Fred and Barney got closer to the designated spot, they could see that they were getting ahead of their chasers. The hiding spot was ideal and remained hidden there for the whole night, just in case.
On the next morning they were looking on the news, in order to see if they have heard about the midnight fiasco on the city streets. Looking through the channels, Fred saw the black Mercedez, which was hit on the left side, realizing that it was the same as last night. As they listened more, they understood that the police officers had caught the bad guys. Fred heard that they tried to bribe the police for speeding, but were caught and now were facing the consequences. The trip to Chirpan was a test for both their capabilities to drive, and survive on their own. Fred and Barney had other plans and decided that it was about time to leave this place, forgotten by any modern development. The two boys were full of adrenalin and were eager to visit Barney’s old hometown and drive the car. Their wish to travel so much, came from Barney’s addiction to his car and high-speed driving.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

My Friends


My friends are one of the best in the world. In the American school where I study, all of the students are like one big family. There are those, who are the outcasts, but most of them are friendly and will not fight each other. The funniest thing is that almost everyone has a nickname. We have people, who are called by animal names: the mole, the beaver, the fox. We have a very exceptional person in our society and his nickname is Nervous. He is a student, who although all of the studying at home, fails to do well in school. Until 11th grade no one knew his real name. A very big part of the school is filled with people, who do not know where is their part in the school. Now my friends and i are the biggest ones in school, we have the most authority. Therefore we now show the right way to the smaller ones and try to preserve the balance in our school. There are those ones, who think that know more than us, but everything comes with experience and have 5 years of it from the American College of Sofia.