Author: Calla

Personal Response to Brave New World

A couple pages into reading this book I knew it was going to be like something I have never read before. As strange things kept making their way into the chapters, I continued to wonder how these certain topics would make sense in on coming pages. It soon would make sense the more I read, but at the same time it is completely ridiculous. Topics jump back and forth, and things that you wouldn’t think are possible, are. Finishing this book it brought me to the idea on how different our society could really be and the different possibilities of dynamics.

To start, the setting Brave New World focuses on the idea of being a futuristic and idealistic society. As the author focused on the book being a dystopia, the setting had many twists that may or not be possible for the future. As the whole story setting is based off the idea of people being created in labs, with thousands of people looking the same, it carries and effects the whole setting of the book. Through chapters, it continues to mention how there are not to be mothers or fathers, and is frowned upon. Anyone who had become a mother or father on accident in the “normal world”, are sent to a small society fenced off from the world. These fenced off society’s, known as savage reservations, there are normal people, people like us today. People in these reservations get sent there due to punishment, or people grow up there and believe that is the proper way to live.

Lastly, criticism played a very strong role towards all characters throughout this book. There were musts, and if you do not participate in those, then you are off to a savage reservation because you would be counted as “different”. There was a continuous amount of drug usage to contain sexual behavior, as well as an every citizen not being able to choose their own life. It was normal to interact with people in sexual games at a very young age, infants are taught to not like certain things, like flowers for example, just because that is what you must do to keep society straight. There were such drugs known as soma, soma is what people would take to feel happy, and to a certain amount taken, they would have the feelies. Soma would have people ignore the society around them and not notice how terrible it really was, they would feel brainwashed in a way to continue living “happy”.

Overall, this novel has given me an idea how no matter what our society looks like, it is never going to be perfect, because it’s impossible. Nothing is perfect, not even humans, there is always going to be someone to be against any choice made. People are going to be doing other things like soma, to distract themselves to that they can’t pay attention to how awful the real world is.

 

Personal Writing #6

Since I can recall, my dad has always included at least five dogs in our family. Dogs were my closest friends growing up as an only child for the majority of my life. When I was in kindergarten, I recall being the “special helper,” which meant i could bring in “show and tell.” Of course, the other students in my class wanted me to bring one of my dogs. I was known for my dogs growing up, so it was only natural for them to ask. It may not have been the best choice by bringing my Saint Bernard Whisky, but it’s alright. When I was that age, around 6, Whisky weighed about 220 pounds and was up to my shoulder. All the kids in my class gasped when I began to walk in Whiskey with my dad trailing behind me because he was so big. After allowing children to pet him for a few minutes, Whiskey suddenly began to shake and wobble his head. Large canines drool a lot, like Whiskey. As he shook his head, a huge drool flew out of his mouth and landed on a boys forehead. Oh no, I thought, but the boy then said, “That was the greatest thing ever,” wiping the drool with his hand. I’ll just say that I brought in a different dog for “special helper” for the rest of the year.

IRJE #6: Ready Player One

Ready Player One, a book written by Ernest Cline. This novel is based in the future, shares how fast technology has taken over the world, how poverty has made a turn for the worst, and everything is virtual. The main character Wade Watts is a high school student searching for a prize is the Oasis. The Oasis is a virtual reality concept where every citizen, who can afford it, works through, goes to school, and spends their free time playing video games. This is what the world has come too since the Oasis has been invented by James Halliday. Halliday had set up a “scavenger hunt” after his passing in the oasis through multiple games and certain tactics a player is going to have to follow. The winner of this “scavenger hunt” has to find the easter egg, as soon this is found, the certain player is given a crystal key, and as soon as they obtain that key, they win the hunt and win millions upon millions of dollars.

“The next game started out badly for me too. My opponents movements were relentless and precise, and i spent the first few waves just trying to evade him. I was also distracted by the incessant click of his skeletal index finger as he tapped his Flap button” (pg. 83)

I find this book very interesting because of the video games, easy to follow along with and there is never many dull moments. It cool to imagine all the different characters that are part of this book because all the sci-fi and plots involved.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko, February 18th 2023

Personal Writing #5

During last Christmas break at the end of 2021 I went to Mexico with my dad, stepmom, and stepsister. I was so excited to go because I have never been anywhere other then the US. We visited the city of Cancun, and at the start it seemed super different environment and city wise. We arrived at the Cancun airport at 7 o’clock and got a taxi to our hotel. Once we got to the hotel I was so excited. It was a huge hotel with super cool architecture and amazing food, and a lot of drunk people at the moment. We were checking into out room at the front desk, and the first five minuets being there, there was a Karen getting mad that she got a room without a pool and making a big scene, and was being really annoying and rude to the employees.

The next day I got up early because of the jet lag, I was sharing a room with my step sister, so I went out quietly to go watch the sunrise on the beach. It was so beautiful and it was so warm compared to home where it was snowing. I then went and met with my parents for breakfast, and everything was paid for? it was free? the food was amazing i couldn’t believe it. Anyways, i met up with my parents and they said they had something to tell me?, I told them that if they are pregnant I am never coming back home, but good thing that wasn’t the case. Jenn, my stepmom put her hand on the table, and they were engaged, my dad was getting married?, i was so surprised, so much information in a short period of time. But in the end i am so happy to know that our house hold will stay stable for the rest of my years being home.

IRJE: Brave New World

In the dystopian novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, its society is very futuristic from ours today. Humans are created in test tubes and are not carried by mothers anymore. By creating all these humans, they can alter and generate their appearances, caste of power, and the life they will live. Continuing to being able to create thousands of humans at a time, in the future, it is bound to be over population, just like what is happening today.

“The machine turns, turns and must keep on turning forever. It is if death stands still. A thousand millions scrabbled the crust of the earth. The wheels began to turn. In a hundred and fifty years there will be two thousand millions. Stop all the wheels. In a hundred and fifty weeks there are once more only a thousand millions; a thousand thousand thousand men and woman have starved to death.” (pg.36)

There is such a large amount of human production, that they are running out of resources, just like how our world is today. “The machines turn”, refers to the mass production of humans at once that will keep continuing constantly. “Death stands still”, symbolizes that there are not enough human deaths everyday compared to the thousands upon thousands of humans being created. With the state of production and speed, there will be too many people for the earth to hold, and will only continue to grow rapidly. This matches our society today by over population, rapidly running out of resources, and will soon have limited years ahead of us.

Willingham Chapter 5 Reflection

When reading the chapter 5 of “Outsmart Your Brain” By Daniel T. Willingham, it taught me a a couple of things that I should do, but also not do. Things I was actually surprised by, and things that I have noticed already help me. I enjoyed how easy it was to follow along the book, and how it taught me how to efficiently do my work. I feel I have a better understanding and will comprehend texts better if doing the tips he has given.

The thing that surprised me the most was to not highlight you pages or certain parts of the text you are reading. He had mentioned not to do this because you do not know if you are highlighting the correct information. “How can you be sure you are highlighting the most important information” (pg. 93). This was mentioned by him, and after i read it, it made more sense to me. Even though I do mostly highlight key things that I notice, I might not be including the most important part of it, or I might be missing something. The second thing that was helpful, but I did already know, was taking notes. I already take notes depending on how knowledgable I am with the topic or book I am reading about, but it never hurts to have extra notes for later on if you get confused or forget what happened at a specific time in the text. And last is writing a summery after each sub heading. If you right a summery it will help you retain more and understand what is happening. Doing this in the future could really help me in tests to become more aware and efficient with my words to understand. Especially if you have many things to remember at once, writing a small summery on what it is, or what it is about could really help me. And writing something causes your brain to remember better and more efficiently than just reviewing over and over again but still mixing the information up.

Overall, I think I will be doing these tips in the future to help me understand large quantities of information better, and to learn more and more and grow not only my vocabulary, but also my knowledge.

Personal Writing: Skiing

This Winter break I went skiing a lot, and I got to see one of my long time friends, Chloe. I haven’t seen her for about a year because she was on a world travel.We met up in Vernon, which is just outside of Kelowna, on New Years eve at her grandparents house. After a couple of hours, went to the ski resort of Vernon called SilverStar. There was a light show with people skiing down the mountain with flares and lights on them, and after there was nearly a ten minuet show of fireworks.

In the morning, on New Years Day, we headed up to the ski hill early so we could get a full day of skiing in. That was the first day of skiing this year for me, and it was sunny, and blue sky, it was awesome. There was also some fresh powder, so we could go in the trees and the un-groomed runs and they wouldn’t be icy.

I skied for 3 days in a row, the third day being with my dad at Big White, the main hill in Kelowna. But the day at Big White was a struggle, it was so foggy and it was hard to see five feet in front of me. Big White is hard to determine for weather, and it is known for being called Big Whiteout, because of the fog and horrible visibility. Overall I had a great time skiing, and it is always one of my highlights of every year.

IRJE: The Six Crimson Cranes

I am at the end of my book, the princess did find her brothers, and are making their way back home. But there are occurrences of a sea monster, one of the princesses friend sea monsters she met when she fell into the water at the beginning of the book. The princess was found talking to the sea monster, and the kingdom she was captured and taken by had noticed that. She was very looked down upon in the kingdom, they couldn’t tell it was the missing princess because she had a bowl on her head that hid her face. She was not able to talk because of the curse that was put upon her by her step mother, who also put the bowl on her head. The curse of her not talking was if she did say even a single word, one word would kill 1/7 of her brothers. When the kingdom saw her talk to the sea monster, that automatically thought she had a gift, including her cooking. They started treating her different right away, but they still don’t know its the princess.

” I had been moved to one of the big rooms on the floor of the kingdom, instead of the small room under the stairs in the basement.” (pg. 247)

I chose this quotation because it gives a good addition to what I was talking about in the beginning. It just shows how easily people can be treated differently just because the certain person can do something or is part of something.

Unit 1 Essay: Reflection

After writing my term one essay, the feedback mostly consisted of having more quotations. The reason for that it to support my evidence and answers more clearly. It will give the reader a better reason to believe and overall will make my essay better. I also need to work a bit on my organization, my notes were a little messy and a little confusing to follow, so my final product may of been a bit unorganized as well.

A perfect utopia

Having the perfect utopia could have many different outcomes, humans aren’t perfect, and there are many things that we could do to improve. A big thing that is changing the world, not in a good way, is global warming. Humans were the start of it, and continue to make it worse, and if humans started to take stronger actions, then maybe we wouldn’t have to be in the serious position we are in today. So, I think this is a big part of my life, and something I would love to be reassured by, is that we have a long time on this earth. But instead, I am here worrying if I am going to make it to an old age, and have a long healthy life. Another thing that always has me worry is war. I wish that the war countries of this world could just have some sense of sympathy towards human beings and families that have to be brought into war not having a choice, and the end resulting into injury or death. Having war kills thousands if not millions of people, and destroys cities and countries. I don’t see the point to it, and I think whatever country you are born into, you have to keep, and you don’t need anymore. People are just selfish so they decide to bomb a country out of no where just because they just want the power.

Everyone in this world will come across either racism or sexism sometime in their life. It is so simple to solve, and thats just to except anyone and everyone, no matter their race, colour of their skin, sexuality, or gender. But no, humans make it difficult and don’t like people for some unreal reason just because of their personal opinion. People get bullied, judged, and even sometimes killed, just because of the way they look. It just shows how unfair, awful, and harmful humans are.

These two topics are the biggest thing I would see in a perfect utopia, and how different the world would really be if humans weren’t brought up they way that they did.

Six Crimson Cranes: Elizabeth Lim

I started this book, “Six Crimson Cranes”, and it is a kingdom based in the town of Kiata. Shiori, the princess of this kingdom, the only girl of 7, has special magic she can tell no one. Magic is sacred in this kingdom, and if you are found to be using it, you get sent away to a school that reduces your power, and soon causes you to lose it.

Shiori and her 6 older brothers, have a step mother, she doesn’t talk much, and doesn’t involve herself in the kids lives. Shiori’s mother died when she was little, she doesn’t remember much of her, only her brothers do.

Shiori is 17, and forced to marry a prince from another kingdom. Her father and step mother are very persistent to this happening, and Shiori will do anything to stop it.

“I’m not going to enchanter school” I said, the bitterness whether Father would actually exile me, or have me executed, if he found out about my abilities had kept me more nights than i had wished to admit. (pg. 47)

This book is very interesting and I like the storyline to it. It keeps having surprises that I don’t expect, and I do not get bored, which is really important to me. I am excited to keep getting farther into this book, and learning new things.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

Whistler

This summer I went to Whistler. I don’t usually go to Whistler in the summer, I usually go in the winter to go skiing. But, when I went with my dad after coming from my golf tournament in Prince George, it was super hot. We got there, got our hotel room, which I believe was the Four Seasons. And when we were checking in, the reception guy that helped us, told us there was a shooting, and two people died. Most of the restaurant’s were closed because of it. So, for dinner me and my dad had to go to one of the only places open by the time we started walking to the town square, which was a Japanese Restaurant. It was actually really good.

The reason for the shooting was apparently a couple people that came up from Surrey, Vancouver, and tried to take money from a store, and held two people at gunpoint, and continued to kill them.

It was kind of scary to hear, knowing that I was going to stay in that place for the next 2 days. Anyways, the next day we went for breakfast, which was. amazing, and we went on the gondola that took us to the peak to peak at the top of the ski hill.

Other then the first day, it was a good trip, and I love staying at Whistler, it was just very different then from being there in winter when its snowing and cold.

IRJE: Wilder Girls, by Rory Power

I am still continuing Wilder Girls, as I have been getting farther ad farther into the book, it is getting more interesting, and more things that surprise me. One of the main girls, Byatt, goes missing after she had a flare up from the sickness that plays a big part in this book called “The Tox”. Her best friends Hetty and Reese, the main characters, go looking for her, but the only reason that they are “allowed” to leave is because Hetty is on boat shift, the schedule she has be assigned.

Hetty and Reese are terrified to think that Byatt is dead from her flare up. One of the nights they were out looking for her, they see the headmistress, and the head nurse of the clinic, carrying a body bag. They think it is Byatt, but as they wait for them to leave the body bag to go check, Hetty is terrified. They run to the body bag, open it up, it is not Byatt, it is one of the other students that died from one of her flare ups. They are relieved and continue to go back to the school that night.

“My body remembers the shake and the fear as I ran for my life that first time I was out beyond the fence.” (pg. 141.)

This book has a lot of gore which is why it is entertaining to me. It is busy, moves quick, and has different things then i ever could of imagined in a book.

Start of Winter

As we all know, it snowed this week. I love snow, but who doesn’t. I live on the Malahat, so I seem to get more snow than most people in Langford, but i’m not complaining. But when it snows, it snows a lot.

During the snowfall this week, I got about 6-7 inches. Now, I have 6 dogs, and they LOVE the snow. They would stay outside all day if you could, but they would get too cold. My dog, Hank, he is a small French Bulldog, and when he goes in the snow he disappears, and then all of a sudden he will just pop up out of no where in the snow. All my dogs, at the same time, play in the snow.

I have a 2km driveway, so obviously it is pretty good for sledding. So when I want to go sledding, my dad takes a side by side, which is like a big quad. And we attach a sled, or a GT snowracer, and he drives down the driveway, while i’m on the back. But while we are going down the driveway, all 6 of our dogs are following us, because they think we are going somewhere, so they follow. But when we get to the bottom of the driveway, they cant run back up, because they are all too tired. So, I take the 3 small dogs we have and I put them on the sled with me, which is not easy, but we make it work. And than the other 3 big dogs have to either run or walk back up.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

Independent Reading

I am still continuing the book I wrote about in my first IREJ, Wilder girls, by Rory Power. Since I have gotten farther into the book, it has started to get more interesting. The virus that goes around is called the “tox”, and there is a new girl named Reese, that got introduced to the story, she came out of quarantine, after being in there for months. The tox really effected her, and when she came out of quarantine, everyone was surprised to see she was even alive. Continuing on, Hetty, the main character, got a role called Boat Shift. Everyone in the school wants that shift, because you get to go outside of the school. Originally, you are not allowed to leave the school because the head of Raxtor school taught the girls thats its “dangerous”. There are roles that the girls are given like it’s their “education”, they learn how to do that certain thing, and every month the roles change.

” Oh my god” Byatt says, colour drained from her face.

I can’t move, hurt hollowing out my chest. We’ve fought before, but only over rations. It always ends there. Thats the line we stay behind.

Reese blinks, clears her throat. “She’s fine,” she says gruffly. “She’ll be fine.” (pg.45)

Overall, this book is starting to get more interesting, and i’m starting to enjoy reading it. I am excited to see what happens, and if Hetty has any issues with her new role, Boat Shift. Lots of new characters are coming into the book, and things are starting to get kind of creepy.

Golf Achievements

I have been golfing for 2 years now. I played a little when I was younger, but not competitively. Golf is a sport that takes a long time to learn, I have been practicing as much as I can for the time being. I have learned that it takes a lot of precision, technicality, and time. The game is very mentally draining, frustrating, and you want you quit at times, and I have been there and if not, I still am. But since I have been playing, I have had 2 coaches, and the coach I am with now, has changed my game a lot. Since I have been training with him, I went up north to Prince George, and participated in the BC Summer Games. And by the end of the games, I finished second, which was a super big accomplishment for me, and I was proud that I was even able to qualify and compete in this tournament. Since I started playing golf, I have been competing in local tournaments called Callaway Junior Tours, in these tournaments you don’t win anything, and you are pretty much just learning the environment of tournaments. 1 month ago I also won first, at a club championship at Highland Pacific. This was also a highlight of my golfing career so far, because to be thinking I have only been playing 2 years and have completed these achievements, is pretty cool. By the end of my golfing career, I want to try and get a golf scholarship to UBC because they have a super good golf team for girls. I will be training as much as I can to achieve this.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

Comparison of WW1 pieces

In this unit we have been studying the back story about soldiers participating in WW1. And the pieces we either read or watched, all had a lot in common, but also different in their own ways. In all the stories, they talked about the disaster of the war, and how hard it was to actually have to witness the things the soldiers did. They all felt forced to have to serve in the war, and go into combat, just because either their school told them to fight for their country, or they thought it would be “fun” to do with friends, which obviously was the wrong idea. In the 2 texts we read, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Soldiers Home, they had a lot in common with the going home experiences. Them being home, they felt trapped and it feeling different than leaving post war. Overall, these pieces have a lot in common, just depends on what they focus on.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

IRJE: Wilder Girls

The book i’m reading is called Wilder Girls, by Rory Power. As far as I have gotten, and what I have understood so far, the main characters names are Kat and Byatt. And it is based off an all girl school that is placed in the woods. This school that is called Raxter, is an all girls school, and all these girls have grown up to learn that the outdoors is a dangerous place, and if you step outside the fence that is surrounding the school, you are in danger. Which is ironic since their school is literally in the middle of the forest on an island.

The thing that makes the book interesting, is that there is an infectious disease that goes around Raxter school, and is highly contagious. This virus is painful, but not quite deadly, but causes your body to do crazy stuff.

” My first flare up blinded my right eye and fused it shut, and I thought that was all, until something started to grow underneath. A third eyelid, thats what Byatt thought it was. It didn’t hurt. But itched like hell, but I could feel something moving. Thats why I tried to tear it open.” (pg. 15)

These couple sentences stood out to me because you really get the moral of the story behind the disease that goes around. But they also don’t think about it a ton, and it doesn’t seem to bother them enough to care and be worried. They kind of are just used to it and accepted it, which is kind of a sad way to live. But that also reminds of me how we kinda of grew in the past couple years to just accept that fact that COVID-19 was going around. Overall, I am actually excited to get farther into this book, and learn more about the story that is going to happen.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

Soldiers Home Comparison

These two stories are based off the First World War, on individual soldiers that survived to war, if not survived it to an extent. Even though these stories are based on opposing sides of the War, their arrival home is very similar.

Paul Bäumer who died a month before the war ended. Was sent on leave mid war to go and visit home. But he didn’t feel at home. Nothing felt the same and society itself felt different.

Harold Krebs who returned home from the War and survived. As he got home it also felt different. Nothing felt the same, only the simple things, like the placement of objects.

These two soldiers either survived or didn’t, they shared the same emotions towards home. “Nothing had changed in the town” from Krebs, he didn’t feel at home, he felt different. Socially, it felt like no one would listen to him, same emotions shared with Paul. They both did not want to talk about the war, regular people would not understand how awful it really was, and the things that they saw in front of their eyes.

It was tough for Krebs to get comfortable at home, “Had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself” Said by Krebs on the first page. Krebs secretly enjoyed fighting in the War. But he couldn’t say that to anyone, he had to stay quiet. When coming home, he felt un welcomed, and people were not interested in hearing his stories.

Krebs started to share false stories, and lies, that other soldiers experienced, but he personally did not. He did this because he wanted people to be interested and thankful for him, and did that by lying.

Paul and Krebs both share the emotions of coming home. Krebs missed being in combat, and didn’t like being back home, and Paul was out of place and damaged emotionally. They both shared a reaction that was similar, but different meaning, stories, and causes behind it.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

All Quiet on the Western Front

The writer of this book used many things well, but to me I think the one that stood out was setting. Even though it is very different to us, and how we live now, it is crazy to think that this event and disaster actually happened.

The part I enjoyed about this book is that it was very realistic. It really gave me a perspective of how horrible of a tragedy the war really was. It was neat to learn how people lived and how everything worked, because I never really learned any of this before.

When I thought of the setting, I didn’t really know what to picture. But when we talked about it in class it made a lot more sense. It is kind of hard to understand what setting they are in, because we cant exactly see it. So, you need to picture it in your mind and just go with the story that you come up with.

As I was saying about the perspective and realism of the story, this book gives you a great perspective on how the war had happened. The book uses the setting to introduce new things and explain how it happened. But it still is difficult to understand how it is to really face the tragedy of the war. They talk about it in the book, on how Paul went home, and people would ask about the war and wanted details about it. But he just can’t or won’t explain because its hard to answer if you weren’t actually there.

At the beginning of reading the book it was kind of boring because I did not really know what to expect. But after reading a couple chapters, it started to get more realistic. It then made me engaged more, and I actually wanted to keep reading it, and not knowing what comes next.

 

 

About Me

Hey, my name is Calla.

I live in Victoria, and always have. I mostly live with my dad, step mom, and step sister. And with my mom i have one half brother. In my free time i play golf competitively, work, hangout with friends, and watch shows.

In this upcoming year, i would like to learn how to improve my personal writing. And i know i have to read more, even though it’s not my favourite. But i want to learn how to enjoy reading, and how it will help me with the outcome of my work.