Feature Article
edited
Zack Smith
Feature Article: Fighting
In New York City a young counterfeiter (Channing Tatum) i…
Zack Smith
Feature Article: Fighting
In New York City a young counterfeiter (Channing Tatum) is introduced to the world of underground street fighting, where a seasoned scam artist (Terrence Howard) becomes his manager in the bare-knuckle brawl action circuit.
To begin I will enlighten you with some basics of the film without telling all the good parts, so here it is. It starts with a strapping young fellow walking through the New York streets with a box filled with knock off books of Harry Potter and other things like that. He comes to the street where he’s going to sell his stuff and proceeds to do so. A fine young lady comes by and stops to look at the books, she buys one but wants it back due to the fact that it’s a knock off. But Tatum says “all sales are final sorry.” So he goes on to sell his books, when these street thugs come by and tell him that he can’t sell his stuff here anymore. Things get physical and Tatum kicks the crap out of the guys, during all this tom foolery some hooligans come running by and take his money. He chases the kid through the streets, subway, stores and everything in between till the kid gets away. So he goes back to the Asian man who sits in front of his store all day and doesn’t say a word, and supplies him with his goods and gives him what’s left of the money. So as he’s walking home with his box of umbrellas that he obtained from the Asian man outside the store, it starts to rain, with the box over his head and his clothes soaked from the rain he notices someone inside the diner, it’s the thief from earlier. He goes inside to confront him and says I just want my money back and I’ll go my way. But the Terrence had other plans for him after what he saw that day in the street, he found himself a fighter. At first he wanted nothing to do with it and just wanted to go his way, but the lure of money brings him into the underground fight scene where not everything is as it seems.
News Article
edited
Zack Smith
News Article: Swine Flu
Drug stores, around the nation have sold out of surgical ma…
Zack Smith
News Article: Swine Flu
Drug stores, around the nation have sold out of surgical masks. Schools have been closed, sporting events called off, and doctors, hospitals and their phone lines, are jammed. Some of the extra paranoid confess to trying to avoid touching door handles, elevator buttons, and library books. With the number of people being affected by the swine flu rising to 100 people on Thursday, this may be a bigger problem than we anticipated. People are taking extra precautions and gearing up for the worse, maybe even a little overreaction, but still a serious problem. It’s begging to influence the daily lives of thousands of people, even in some states where the flu has yet to be found. In interviews taken around Salt Lake City, Utah some people said they faced a troubling, often internal balancing act over an illness no one seems to know much about. “In Cold Spring, Minn., on the same day a possible case of the flu was identified there, Diane McDonald and her two children had grown ill. Ms. McDonald, like thousands of others around the country, was panic-stricken, and called her doctor, who reassured her that her family’s symptoms did not match those of swine flu.”—New York Times.
In some places, doctors said they have been overwhelmed with patients, some of whom insistently sought tests for the flu but had no cough or fever consistent with it. In another state 49 cases have been confirmed and 16 more were of suspect, some hospitals have reported healthy people returning from vacation in Mexico and going straight from the airport to the emergency room these “worried well” are what some health officials have labeled them as. The city’s public hospitals reported 100 to 135 more patients each day in each emergency room since the outbreak.
A nation suddenly doused, it appeared, in antiseptic hand gel, the worry was nationwide. More than 300 schools closed around the country, sending more than 170,000 students home in 11 states, including the school district in Park City, Utah.
As a child coughed at a department store, people threw stares at the unsuspecting child, then a scolding from a red-faced babysitter, “cover your mouth”. It may not even be as bad as people think this “swine flu” is. It may just diminish and die out within a couple of weeks. But with all the hype this is getting and the reassuring cases of it growing each day, some might even go out and by a bubble for their house armed with antiseptic gel and surgical masks to ward off this outbreak. Or some may go about living there lives normally without remorse. Either way, in the end, it’s in our nature.
My Poems
edited
Zack Smith
Per. 6
Haiku
When it is parked
The car that is on fire
A tire rolls away.
F…
Zack Smith
Per. 6
Haiku
When it is parked
The car that is on fire
A tire rolls away.
Flash Fiction
The Battle
I was caught in the middle of an epic battle between the adolescent hooligans and the authorities of the elder class. Swords swinging, slashing, slaying everything in sight, the terrifying events happening around me left me paralyzed physically and verbally. There was a loud boom and a puff of smoke, out of the smoky mist the scarlet panda was among us. His every move swift and strategically placed with precise meticulousness. Carving his way through the crowd, with me on his shoulder twenty-six arrows ubiquitously placed over his body, and cuts the size of your fist every which way. A sparkling green flicker caught his attention, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
Haiku
There was a quarrel
But I did not interfere
I was on my break.
Haiku
Running through the streets,
Chaos followed by madness
Riots are so fun.
Haiku
The birds chirping loud
I cannot get enough sleep
Work tomorrow, bad.
Poetry180 Poems
edited
Zack Smith
Per. 6
“Poetry180 Poems”
Cartoon Physics, part 1
Nick Flynn
Children under, s…
Zack Smith
Per. 6
“Poetry180 Poems”
Cartoon Physics, part 1
Nick Flynn
Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know that the universe is ever-expanding, inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies swallowed by galaxies, whole solar systems collapsing, all of it acted out in silence. At ten we are still learning the rules of cartoon animation, that if a man draws a door on a rock only he can pass through it. Anyone else who tries will crash into the rock. Ten-year-olds should stick with burning houses, car wrecks, ships going down -- earthbound, tangible disasters, arenas where they can be heroes. You can run back into a burning house, sinking ships have lifeboats, the trucks will come with their ladders, if you jump you will be saved. A child places her hand on the roof of a school bus, & drives across a city of sand. She knows the exact spot it will skid, at which point the bridge will give, who will swim to safety & who will be pulled under by sharks. She will learn that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff he will not fall until he notices his mistake.
I enjoyed reading this because it brings back childhood memories of waking up early and filling my mind with seemingly ruthless innocuous anvils that fall upon bugs bunny’s head. I also enjoyed the word choice in this poem because that’s what sparked the memories I had as a once little tike sitting in front of the television flabbergasted at what these characters do to one another.
Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Robert Bly
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
I enjoy this poem because I enjoy the calm snowy nights. The ones where the snowflakes are thick and lightly falling to the sea of white already plastered to the streets. Maybe you do or you don’t know what I’m talking about, but either way I’m telling you this after a fantastic night of bowling, and going outside to what I described earlier, pure bliss.
The Bat
Theodore Roethke
By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.
He likes the attic of an aging house.
His fingers make a hat about his head.
His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.
He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
I chose this poem strictly because of the word choice, it flows and I like that. But personally I don’t see how that bat has a human face, because when I see a bat I see a bat not a human. Also I like the word amiss and hopefully I can use it in an upcoming writing that I have to write in the vicinity of this page, or the next.
The Partial Explanation
Charles Simic
Seems like a long time Since the waiter took my order. Grimy little luncheonette, The snow falling outside. Seems like it has grown darker Since I last heard the kitchen door Behind my back Since I last noticed Anyone pass on the street. A glass of ice-water Keeps me company At this table I chose myself Upon entering. And a longing, incredible longing to eavesdrop on the conversation of cooks.
I chose this poem because it said “snow falling outside.” And that just got me on the thought another time of what I wrote earlier. Which is good stuff right? Anyway the poem sounds like it is not so fun because the person went to the restaurant and is just hanging out with a glass of water, who does that? There are some weirdo’s out there Mrs. Clark watch out, especially if the only one keeping them company is a glass of water.
Essay
edited
Zack Smith
Essay
I am writing my essay on Brutus’s speech from an excerpt in Julius Caesar by …
Zack Smith
Essay
I am writing my essay on Brutus’s speech from an excerpt in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. In this persuasive piece of writing Brutus mostly uses LOGOS to convince the Romans that Caesars death was for the better of Rome. In terms of persuasiveness I’ll give Brutus his credit where credit is due. The way he talks to them to sway them toward that the assassination of Caesar is for the greater good of Rome.
Throughout his speech Brutus asks the Romans to “believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor”. He then tells them to awaken their senses and censure him in their wisdom. By doing these things Brutus has their undivided attention, so that they do not interrupt him while he speaks during this very poignant time.
In the beginning of the speech Brutus sets a strong and solemn mood. Making sure that everyone is paying attention so that they might be the better judge of what is soon to be said. The words slave, free, fortunate, rejoice, valiant, honor, ambitious, slew, joy, fortune, honor, valor, ambition, death. These are all words used to describe the way Brutus felt towards Caesar. The tone of the speech gets more serious in a way. As he progresses through his speech more people get involved and more emotional the situation gets.
Brutus convinces to the audience to not kill or shun him for what he has done, because he believes it was for Rome. Though he had much love for Caesar, his love for Rome was greater. He states this, a number of times to form repetition in his speech, to hook the audience and reel them in.
Overall I think that this speech was actually very persuading to the Romans and that he used some basic logic against them to his own advantage. Like when he said “Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.” Obviously all the people there are Romans and it would only be logical for no one to respond, but they also might not respond out of fear. Who knows? A new perspective I got from reading this is that if you are a persuasive son of a gun and know how to move the people with your words, which you may get out of being killed, or to cause them to riot. "Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure."- Edward Thorndike
