First Paragraph

In 1918 the Spanish Flu killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people with over 500 million being affected. Fast forward to today, we are in the midst of a “pandemic” which as known as the Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, or pig flu). Known by its formal scientific name as H1N1. I personally believe that this pandemic has created fear far beyond what it should be.

Intro to Essay

Five point seven, six point zero, five point five, five point three. These are the marks of a figure skater. How does the skater achieve these marks though? Is it because of their technique? How high they can Jump? Their style chice in music? All of this put together is the outcome for the skater in a competition.

Observations from on High

Heeeeeeeelllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooo! Is there anybody here? Where are all the October posts? Most groups have 35 postings! Guess who's not going to be able to demonstrate as much growth and skill on their summatives if they don't kick it up several notches? You aren't! You aren't! Now put that gun down before you shoot yourselves in the other foot.

Second Observational Post

You're on the right track, but you're shortchanging your responses. Too brief. You need to spin out some serious thinking here. You've got good ideas, but they lack development. The conversational style of the comments is starting to develop. That part is good. Start to address the "so what?" in your posts.

First Observation About the Postings

Where the heck is Michael Scott in all of this?

The Shining Houses - Dane Telford

In the short story "The Shining Houses" by Alice Munro, Mrs. Fullerton has lived on the same property for a long time. She has shacks on the property that the community believes gives off a negative view on the neighborhood. I believe if the community does do soemthing about, they have to give or do something for Mrs. Fullerton for compinsation. If not, i think Mrs. Fullerton has the right to do anything to her property.

Two Words - Dane Telford

In the short story "Two Words" by Isabel Allende, two words are given to the colonel, and I believe that the words are either her name, "Belisa Crepusculario", or "You" and "Me."
Evidence showing the words may be her name "Belisa Crepusculario," Is that all throughout the sotry she is referred to both full names, not ever "That Girl" "Ms. Crepusculario " or "Belisa," but always "Belisa Crepusculario." Also because after the colonel is given the words, she leaves, but shortly after the colonel becomes obsessed, and demands to talk to her again.
The second piece of evidence also works for the words "You" and "Me" or "you" and "I," because if he admitted love, the colonel would become obsessed and would try to find her again.
The words that Belisa Crepusculario gave to the colonel, i feel, has to be love related, because he grew obsessed and had to see her again.

Araby - Dane Telford

Statement B
What the boy is going through is very painful, yet I understand what he does and why he does it. Pain has an effect on every decision the boy makes in this story. When he says "eyes were often full of tears" (Joyce 288), he reveals the pain of not being around this girl he admires. He is very interested in the girl, which is obvious through the story, but almsot grows an obsession by the end of it. As an audience we may think this is foolish, or even creepy, but he could not control his feelings. He would wait outside her door, until she woke, and followed her around as much as posible. Closer to the end of story he realizes what he was doing is wrong, and shows maturity. By the end of the story I see him as crossing through adulthood, he went from immature, to mature, and realized what he has done wrong.

Mike's Reponse to "The Shining Houses"

In most circumstances seniority wins, take a workplace setting for instance, if a higher person retires and next most senior person takes that job. So i feel that Mrs. Fullerton is the bigger victim in the story, because of obvious reasons that she was originally there before all of the others. If they didn’t like to look of the neighborhood they shouldn’t have built there. I believe that they only have to right to prevent ugly buildings of being built, not however tearing inaugural property down. I know there may be the fact that they need to advance in look and space. They could just wait for her to die or sell it off to do that, and be respectful.

The Greater Victim in the Story...

The greater victim in the story would have to be Mrs. Fullerton. She was there before the other houses were built and so she did and still very much so, has the right to keep her shacks where they are. It is her land which she bought and although the shacks might make the "community" look less decent they are on her property and she shouln't have to move them unless she has agreed prior to the building of other houses that it would be okay to put a lane it. I feel that Mrs. Fullerton is the victim in the story because just because she is more elderly and may like things a different way than the newer and youger families she shouldn't have to conform with what they like. I don't believe that Mary is a victim because you are entitled to your own opinion. I feel Mary sees Mrs Fullerton in the way I do. Just because Mary is disagreeing with the rest of the families doesn't mean she is a victim because they are her friends and you can have your own opinion. It is possible that Mary is victim with Mrs Fullerton though because that is who she buys her eggs and chicken from. If Mrs Fullerton were to move her shacks to make room for the lane. It may cause her to have to remove some of her apple and cherry trees or vegetables which she made a living off of because the rest of her land has her vegetables.

What are the Two Words?

I have two sets of words which I think Belisa could have told the Colonel. The first two I believe are her first and last name Belisa Crepusculario. Like Mike stated it was repeated so many times in the story. When spoken to, people referred to Belisa as "woman" or "her." They never actually stated her name. These words could become very significant to the Colonel as she was the one who had written his speech and after presenting it to so many citizens of the country and having the citizens believe his speech through the writing of Belisa everytime he thought of the speech he would think of her and the amazing talent she possessed to write such a powerful speech which got him the attention of the citizens.
The second set of words that might have been told to the Colonel could have been a date. Not any date but a specific date in which something could have happened to the and only he knew about it. So he was in shock that Belisa could come up with them and know that those words or that date was indeed significant to him.

Mike's Reponse to "Two Words"

I personally believe that the two words that the Belisa Crepusculario had said to the Colonel, were her name. It had been repeated so many times in the book, and her name even was given a definition in the text. If these to words drove the Colonel mad, it had to be something new and interesting, or a strange combination. Something that he had never heard before, something different to drive him to insanity. He became so bad that his assistant had to go find the girl to snap him out of his trance. The other explanation i would say is the words could be “Te amo” (I love you in Spanish) because the story was written in spanish and translated into english. So i believe that a beautiful and mysterious girl could drive a man crazy by saying i love you. Because i the book was written in spanish I would say that both ideas have good potential.