Coulisse

The overview of this project put simply: We, the class, were divided up into a few groups to do a project that involves something that we learned last quarter of some sort. This way, by putting things up on the internet, we are “Exploding Walls”. See, these barriers that we have — no, had, was the fact that quite plain and simple was that Okay, we have a project to do. We’ll get the grade, get it back, and go on with our lives. Now, we took it to the next level. We’re putting those projects out there, to get feedback, support, and for our work to flood a nice (or not so nice) little (or not so little) thing commonly referred to as the Internet. Now, we’re exploding the walls that have kept us in for so long. Now, we’re putting our blood and sweat (I mean that figuratively) out for the world to see it, right at their fingertips.

I suppose it is worthwhile to post projects online, because people can see how opinionated, talented, and hardworking us 8th graders can be. It’s also worthwhile to brush up on our work because you don’t know who will see the projects, and you’ll want to have it in tip-top shape for presentation, so people will think, Wow, these kids are amazing! Or some wacky praise like that.

Our group, the Twitter group (with the worst name, I must truthfully say), has summed up that our project will be presented in iMove format, made in iMove itself. We also take confidentiality seriously, so we don’t reveal last names, (we have been told that first names are okay) our location, or anything. Okay, now that we got that little bugger out of the way…

As I have so tediously explained before, I was the artist for my group. Yes, I was that blessed little child with the ability to draw at good enough levels that I got the job for drawing about nine slides, until my hand cramped, died, and I had to draw with my left hand. No, that did not actually happen, but I thought my struggle to complete the job through my hand pain needed some exaggeration.

And, because we have not fully completed the project, for lack of time and voices showing up after school, I cannot provide the wonderful and excellent little think we call a link. Well, no, I could provide you with a link, but it just wouldn’t be to our project, for lack of being finished. If we actually do happen to have it up, then I shall be labeled as disknowledgeable (which, don’t get me wrong, is not a real word), and so forth, I will accept that my grade for this post be decreased, but really now. Let’s not kid ourselves. Honest mistake if it’s out there and I have no clue about it.

Drive safely.

We’re basically in the same place in the project that we were about four days ago.  Though, this time we have 1.5 pictures drawn in, but not colored. Those are to be colored and such when we finish the rest of the pictures, which may take some time. Two weeks might not be enough, but hopefully it will be enough for a good amount of work to be completed.

And again:  DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. READ. ANALYZE. THINK. WRITE.

Adding onto the previous post about the project, we are writing a story that has to do with allegory and a utopia. So far, we have a basic outline, and the next few classes the entire thing should be written out. The illustrations should follow soon after, and so on. Also:

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. READ. ANALYZE. THINK. WRITE.

That is all for now.

In chapters 7&8 of Animal Farm by George Orwell, many things occur. For one, Boxer’s health takes a pitfall, and he is to be shipped off to a human hospital. When the van comes, Benjamin reads that on the side of the van are letters that say, “HORSE SLAUGHTER” and things about a gluing company. He gets the other animals, and they yell at Boxer to try to escape, but it was no use; his strength had been decreasing, and he couldn’t get away. Two days later, it was reported that Boxer had died in the hospital. Squealer said that he’d been with Boxer on his deathbed, when the animals told him about what had been written on the side of the van. Squealer quickly denied this and said that a vet had bought the van that once belonged to a slaughterer and had merely forgotten to paint it yet. This made the most sense in the world to the other animals, and they believed every word of it.

Then, a few years later, Clover found the pigs walking on two legs, Napoleon with a whip in his totter. She went to the Seven Commandments and had Benjamin read; “All animals are equal./But some animals are more equal than others.” All of the Commandments, by then, had been changed, to make the pigs look like they hadn’t done any wrong. By then, the pigs were walking around in clothes, smoking pipes, and drinking whiskey, not to mention also eating better than the other animals.

Humans came eventually, and were found playing cards at the table with the pigs, each with a mug of beer at his elbow. One of the farmers, Pilkington, said that he was glad that they were now friends, and he raised a toast to Animal Farm. Then Napoleon took the floor and agreed that he was glad that they were allies, and also happened to mention that many of the ceremonies would be diminished, i.e., the animals walking around the skull of a boar and calling each other “Comrades”. He also mentioned that Animal Farm would once more be called “The Manor Farm.” So he raised a toast, and they went back to their game of cards. The eavesdropping animals didn’t know what to think of the situation, but soon their was a crash, and shouts. Napoleon and Pilkington were having a row because they’d both showed an Ace of the same suit.

This shows a connection to our project on writing a story about allegory because there is some meaning behind the protagonist or the main characters. Our project is not just to write a story, but to illustrate it (that being my job) and also write a summary of the Twitter story that is in the process of being built at the moment.

The penguins that jumped into the pool at the San Francisco zoo, have some strange connections to George Orwell’s Animal Farm. First of all, these six penguins somehow convinced the other 46 penguins to all jump into the pool and swim nonstop for hours on end. The pigs in the story have convinced the other animals that they are the smartest of all, and that they will make the right decisions for all the other animals. Well, that’s a sheer load of baloney.

Then, going back to what Tollini said; “Some of them haven’t swum this much in five years.” The animals at Animal Farm are working twice as much as they used to, just to show that they could achieve as much as Jones was ever able to. This is also hogwash, in my opinion, but that’s not very important at the moment. What’s important is that these penguins are going through similar things that happened in Animal Farm.

When some penguins arrive at San Francisco Zoo, things go haywire. It all started when a zoo in Colorado shut down, so the penguins were sent to the San Francisco Zoo. Once the six penguins arrived, they immediately jumped into the water and started to vigorously swim. The other 46 penguins came out of their burrows to see what all of the ruckus was about.  After no time at all, every single one of those penguins were swimming around in the pool, like it was some race. From dawn to dusk they’d swim (and still are right now, most likely), then pass out.

What is so odd, is that they were a coddled flock. They’d stay inside of their burrows most of the day, and have to be hand fed. Jane Tollini said about it, “Before, it took a grenade to get them out.”

Also, they’d never swam around like this before. Some are swimming more than they’ve ever swam in five years.

Everyone is calling this event very bizarre and unnatural. The zoo keepers are hoping this all stops soon, because everything is almost out of hand for the poor zoo.