"The Fall of the House of Usher"

          "The Fall of the House of Usher" was written by Edgar Allen Poe, it is a very interesting short story. It is about a old man that has been isolated from society, living in a huge and old house surrounded in a decaying, dark forest. Usher and his wife come from a long line of intermarried generations and there mutated family gene's had caught up to them. Usher's wife had died, and Usher was very sick and called his old friend over to help look after himself, the house was very alike Usher, almost as if what Usher was feeling the house would feel the same, which would make sense as when Usher died, the house collapsed.
          As mentioned, this short story was written by Edgar Allen Poe, during the rise of the Gothic era in American literature. The imagery used was the dark, dead forest surrounding the house, the atmosphere was very gloomy and it wasn't very pleasant. It was a isolated house with the people in it had mental issue's, they would never go outside in the sun and were very pale. This was the setting throughout the whole short story, it falls perfectly under the Gothic category.

"Final U.S. troops roll out of Iraq"

          Hello, this week I found a very interesting article in the Los Angeles Times. I found an article that really caught my attention, it was about the U.S troops finally exiting Iraq! On December 18th, the last of the U.S troops finally exited Iraq, which was composed of 28 vehicles. This is a very relevant topic because the Iraq war has been affecting America and its people for the past seven years, it has greatly affected the lives of Americans today and also the depressing economy. Now that the troops are out of Iraq they can all come home to there beloved families. "Each man had survived multiple tours in Iraq. The war that had consumed their military careers was now over in an instant. They felt an enormous sense of completion and closure. But instead of honking the horn and hollering, they played it cool and waved." This war was a very big deal for both the people in it, and the people back home, I'm glad the troops are finally out of there, something that should have been done a very long time ago, perhaps it shouldn't even happened.

"Occupy L.A. targets shipping terminal at Port of Long Beach"

          Hello, this week I found a very interesting article in the Los Angeles Times published by Kate Linthicum. The article is about protestors going and stopping the shipping terminal to stop the economic flow. These protestor's are angry because of the bailouts that only seemed to help big company's instead of the lower and middle class. They targeted the SSA Marine because its been around during many tough economic time's such as Iraq war and its connection to Goldman Sachs, which is a investor of it. "Occupy L.A. demonstrator Michael Novick said protesters chose SSA Marine because "they embody all the ills of this economic regime we live under", this quote shows they are angry at the economy and want to stop the corruption in the government, and they will continue. I found this article important because it has to do with the economy we live in today, which has a great affect on our life.

"The Raven"

          Hello, this week in class we read a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, its called "The Raven". "The Raven" is about a man whose wife had died, he was reading over some books when he heard the door ring. When he answered it, no one was there but a raven flew in. The narrator would ask it questions but it would only respond by saying "nevermore". Eventually he asks if Lenore is in heaven and the raven still answers with "nevermore". This just means that the narrator can never forget about her and the raven showed up to show him that. This poem is a example of a Gothic poem because of the gloomy and dark atmosphere, also because of love and death and tragedy.            

My Favorite Scene

          My favorite scene in the Scarlet Letter would have to be when Dimmsdale was going to die, and he reveals his scarlet letter to Pearl, and Pearl kisses his father's lips. This was my favorite scene, because not only does it bring closure to Chillingworth, but it brings closure to Pearl and Dimmsdale himself, he had a fair good bye with his daughter and everyone knew the truth, even though it cost his life. This was a great ending to a great book, although there was death, there was more importantly, closure.

"Mysterious blasts, slayings suggest covert efforts in Iran"

          Hello everyone, this week I found a very interesting article about the Middle East, particularly Iran and its nuclear projects. As everyone knows Iran is working on nuclear bombs, during this week there was a mysterious blast at one of the nuclear projects site. Observers believe it was a attack from the United States and Israel trying to stop Iran from accomplishing a nuclear bomb to use on either one of them, or if not, both. Iranian officials say the blast was only a accident, which killed 17 people including a founder of Iran;s ballistic missile program, Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam. "It looks like the 21st century form of war," said Patrick Clawson, who directs the Iran Security Initiative at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank. "It does appear that there is a campaign of assassinations and cyber war, as well as the semi-acknowledged campaign of sabotage." As this was said in the article, can this mean we are getting closer and closer to a World War, but this time, on a nuclear scale which can easily destroy the world? I chose this article because it made me think about what are the possibilities of another World War, which effects everyone.