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Alchemist journal 3 final draft

October 4th, 2012

Garrett Kitchen

True Love has no boundaries

“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his personal legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love.... the love that speaks the Language of the World.”

If you truly love someone you trust them. You trust them to leave and come back, you trust them not to forget you even when you’re not there. Most of all you trust them to believe in your love  and trust that they won’t come to harm. “if he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love...” I think this means, that you know it isn’t true love if your significant other doesn’t trust you to leave and come back or leave and stay honest to the relationship. Although I do think everything has it’s boundaries, it’s limitations. If you leave on a journey and are gone for a few years or if you're gone and you have no contact whatsoever with your true love be it by call, email, letter, or by soul. For example when Santiago is back at the church (towards the end of the book)  he smells Fatima's perfume and feels her kisses, well that is true love. Santiago can be world away, yet still communicate with Fatima.

I think after reading this book I could let someone I truly I love seek out their Personal Legend. I also think that I could only withstand so much separation before I needed to see that person that I love. An example of letting Loved ones seek out their Personal Legend is parents letting their kids move out. Even though it is seen as just growing up when a person moves out of home it is letting go of a lot. Although, I think kids leaving home is a very different type of leaving. That kind of love that you have for your parents and that you have for your True Love are different. The Kind of love you have for your parents and that your parents have for you is the kind that will always be there, no matter what. The kind of love you have for your partner is similar.  If you left your partner for as long as you leave your family, your relationship may have some leftover, but the physical relationship and the soul link will most likely be gone. The significant similarity between the two is that they are both very true and both speak the Language of the World.

Alchemist journal 2 final draft

Garrett Kitchen

9/19/2012

It Is Written

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”(78)

        I think this quote has two meanings. If only one meaning came out of everything, only a few people would get that meaning. The same things mean different things to different people. I am going to write both the meanings I was fortunate enough to see. Even if I only I interpreted the meanings, because That’s what I wanted to see. For showing me these two interpretations.
        I think the first meaning this quote signified is that a higher power wrote the history of the world and our life stories. The second meaning I saw in this quote was that you helped write the history of the world because things you do become history, and your apart of the Soul of the World. Of course if you wrote the history of the world then you're writing your life story, and that’s a part of the soul of the world.
        This applies to Santiago in the sense that God/Soul of the World wrote Santiago’s personal legend, but at the pivotal point in his life he needed to realize his personal legend, When Santiago is reaching his personal legend, it isn’t all the King of Salem, and beginners luck. In fact mainly it’s Santiago fulfilling his personal legend. So in a sense, at least for Santiago he realizes the history of the world and his life story are written by him and God, but doesn’t it say in the book, that we all are a part of the Soul of the World and apart of God? If you think of it in this way, it is all written in the same hand.
        This applies to my life, because everyone wrote the history of the world and each person wrote their own life story along with God and The Soul of the World. If we’re all apart of God and The Soul of the world we are all in a certain sense the same being. No matter what our differences are every human has a primal belief in something whether it is God in any shape or form(s), a higher power, spirituality, or Atheism. Before we come into this world, when we’re in it, and after this world we can all be a part of The Soul of the World. We can all be one with each other. Don’t get me wrong, we obviously are all different, but I’m talking on the deepest/highest plane of spirituality we are all together, united as one. That’s outlook on this whole life changing scrap of knowledge.

Alchemist Journal 1 final draft

Garrett Kitchen

Wednesday, Sept 12th, 2012

The Marvels and Responsibilities of Life

“ The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” (34)

    I have a few dreams and ambitions in life, but it’s hard for me to know which are the “drops of oil’ and which are my marvels of the world. My biggest  goal or dream,(which of all my dreams is the hardest to accomplish) is to go to Harvard and become a lawyer. If I can’t get into Harvard, then i would like to go to an I.V. league college on the East Coast. Going there would most likely get me in with a good law firm, and if I could turn that into a job I could most likely get a steady income going.
    Eventually, I would like to propose to my girlfriend of that time when I’m in love with her, and start a family. All this is subject to change, this is just what I want now, but maybe in a few years I’ll feel different, I realize now that for a lot of people these are the drops of oil on the spoon, which means that all I want to focus on is the drops of oil. For me seeing the marvels of the world is spending time off of work or school, and just doing what I love with the ones I love. I want to travel, and I would like to travel with someone I love.
    To keep the drops on the spoon, and to see the marvels of the world, I need to keep my academics up, and to try my best to always take time to just enjoy myself. To enjoy myself, and stay in contact with my family later on in life. I need to never lose sight of who I truly am, and my outlook on life and the world. I know as I learn new things and grow older I will Change. I know I will change as a person and as a part of the spirit of the world. But I never want to become, one of the people I fear or hate, and I never want to ignore my personal legend. I want to fulfill my personal legend, and live a happy prosperous life in the shoes of whoever I’m going to be.  
   
   

Trash Questions Round two

1. Read the paragraph on pg 149 that begins with, "I learned more than any university could ever teach me."  What do you think about Olivia's perspective about money?  How do you think her experience at the Behala dumpsite has changed her?          I think that Olivia’s perspective on money is sadly true. I think that She uses a great example of money, that it is like water. Although is a disagree when she says money is more important than trust and love to most people. Maybe in Behala it is, but for most people if the trust and love or bond is strong enough it is more important than money. I think that it has changed her for the better and worse. for the better because she got to help unfortunate children and people, ad she now knows the truth about third world countries. It has changed her for the worse because on the other side of that scale she is also scarred by the raw truth of poverty. Another reason Olivia is changed for the worse is that she can never go back to behala, so she most likely feels sad she can’t go back and help more unfortunate children.







2. Read the four newspaper articles on pages 186 - 189.  Which one has the most liberal or anti-Zapanta perspective?  Which one has the most conservative or pro-Zapanta perspective?  Use examples from each article to support your opinion.              I think the university voice is the most anti- Zapanta news article. the Article talks about how this country could mover forward but not until they say goodbye to bad, greedy old men. The author of the article even says he would add this quote to Zapanta’s campaign slogan “The most questionable conscience and the blackest heart”.  I think Star extra is the most pro-Zapanta Article. Although this article is more informational and less opinionated. I also think the Author is blind to the truth that Zapanta is a liar and thief. For example, the author says “All we can say is that we are confident that a breakthrough is imminent.”The author says this about the stolen six million dollar police case. I think this means that the author is confident that the police will catchy the thief and Zapanta will get his justice, the author says this like it is a good thing.







3. Describe the scene at the cemetery during day of the dead. Why do you think the author, Andy Mulligan, would end the book in this setting?        I think Andy Mulligan would end the book in this setting because cemeteries are places of death but also good things like the death is the end of someones life, and the end of the book is at a cemetery a place of death. Understand what I'm trying to say. I also think that  the author would have it be the day of the dead because the day of the dead is a time of remembrance and love of your family that has moved on. I think it was smart of Andy Mulligan to have it be the day of the dead, because the boys find Pia Dante sitting right by her grave. It’s like she coming back to life, on the day of the dead! Even though she was
never actually dead.

Escape from Behala

Escape from Behala

caged in poverty

trapped in the trash

imprisoned by the powerful concrete of corruption

surrounded by rubbish nowhere to go

a soul with a passport

the key to escape

run away from the stupp and the broken dreams

you have solved the mystery

Trash Response Questions

Trash Response Questions

1. Describe the conditions in the prison.  Why do you think children would be locked up there?   The condition in the prison was heinous the government doesn’t give money to the prison so the prison don’t have any air conditioning or fans. Also the prisoners don’t get any food, so their families are camped outside the prison and smuggle them food in when they can. Children would be locked up in the prison because they stole things or fought each other, also the whole system there in the city is completely corrupt.
2. How were Olivia and Gardo able to get a visit with Olondriz?   Olivia and gardo were able to get into the prison to see Olondriz, because Olivia is not a citizen in that country and they were dressed like upper class people. Another reason they got in was for an exceedingly high price of ten thousand pesos, Olivia had to that much because she basically had to bribe the people who run the prison. Gardo also said that Olondriz was his Grandfather and he needed to visit him now.
3. What were the few things that Raphael learned about Rat that he "had never known and never asked about”?  Raphael learned that Rat had a stash of two thousand pesos and counting because Rat wanted to eventually save up enough money to go home, Rat’s actual home. Rat’s actual home is an island called “Sampalo”. Of course two thousand is enough to get there, but Rat would also need enough money for a fishing boat so he could make a living and actually stay there.
4. What does the gardener tell Raphael and Rat?  The gardener tells Raphael and Rat that he has spoke to the vice presidents twice in the twenty two years he has worked there. He also said that multiple police cars have been coming to the house every day. another thing the gardener told the boys was that Jose Angelico had smuggled the Six Million Dollars out in an old fridge that he had replaced.
5. What would you do with six million dollars?  What I would do with Six Million Dollars is give one million to my parents five hundred thousand to my brother and two hundred fifty thousand each to my two Grandmas. fro the rest of the people in my family I'd give one thousand each. by then i would have about four million, nine hundred seventy five thousand dollars left. I would then invest one million in stock, and buy company for up to two point five million. after that i would have about one million two hundred fifty thousand left that i would use for whatever.

The War of Technology

The War of Technology

By Garrett Kitchen

           Which side will you take in the war? The war between Mac and PC! The war between the iPhone 4 and the Droid X, and I want to pick a side in this war. Although the side I should pick, is still unclear. That’s why is searched for an “iPhone 4 vs. Droid X comparison chart” and came up with “iPhone 4 vs. Droid X head to head comparison on a tech site called the “PCWorld”. I’d like to access the Internet, play games, listen to music, and take pictures and video, text, call, and more. All on one of these remarkable Phones (or as my dad likes to call them “Gadgets”). So I ask. Which Smart Phone is the best?   

           What type of physical properties do these phones have? Well let’s find out. The Droid X has a 4.3” display size (screen) versus the iPhone’s 3.5” display. Another major physical property of the display is resolution. The iPhone Tops the Droid X with a crystal clear 640 x 960p, although the Droid X’s 480 x 854p is still pretty clear. The next Physical characteristic that these phones clash for is there cameras. The Droid X has a startling 8MP and 720p video capabilities and for the icing on the cake, a Duel LED flash. The iPhone 4 ha a puny 5Mp camera, but it does have 720p video capabilities, and frankly there is no icing with just LED flash. So hands down the Droid X wins the battle of the Cameras.

            The nest comparison category is memory and software. The iPhone 4 has a speedy 512MB RAM Memory, just like the Droid X. But the Droid X has 8GB on board but it also comes with a 16GB micro SD as the expandable storage, making the Droid X in total come with 32GB of storage. The iPhone on the other hand comes with either 16 or 32 Gigabyte on board storage depending on which one you buy. But the iPhone has no option of expandable storage. So once again it’s a tie. The last but not least software addition is the processor and of course both Phones have a 1GHz processor.

The final comparison category is extras. The Droid X can generate a wifi hotspot when the iPhone 4 cannot, and the Droid X has up to 8 hours of talk in 1 battery life and has 3 microphones, and the iPhone 4 has only 7 hours of talk time and 2 microphones. Both smart phones have a GPS. the iPhone 4 has 225,000 apps in its App Store and the Droid X only has 65,000 int its store. a major plus to the droid x is it has SWYPE technology in its keyboard where the iPhone 4 doesn’t.

When I asked “Which Smart Phone is best?” i didn’t know the answer, but now I do. I choose the Droid X. What really sealed the deal and made me choose the Droid X over The iPhone 4 was the Droid X has a bigger screen, and it’s not an Apple product like the iPhone 4(I’m a PC person). Also like I said previously the Droid X generates a Wifi Hotspot, it has a superior camera, it has one more mic, it has a longer battery , and it has SWYPE technology for the keyboard. There are few things I will miss that the iPhone has like the Droid X has no face time camera, not a lot of on board memory, not as light a the iPhone, and the iPhone appstore has more apps. So overall I chose the Droid X, but others may choose differently.Which side will you fight for in The War of Technology?