Assignment #3

Carlos D. Santiago Bonilla                                                                                         Sept 20,2011

English 3103-092                                                                                            Prof. Maria Badillo

The word oblivion in the devils dictionary means:

OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock. (Bierce)

                                                                                                                                                         The word oblivion in The American Heritage Des Dictionary and Thesaurus means:

Oblivion n. 1. The condition of being completely forgotten. 2. Forgetfulness (Berube 512)

I think I like more the definition of oblivion from the devils dictionary because it says: “The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock.”(Bierce) because the definition that it has is one more poetical and gives a clear meaning at the same time and the basic definition it gives is a storage or a state of mind where the good intentions and all of our hard work is put to rest. When I first saw this definition I realize what my friends meant when they say “Welcome to oblivion” and they use that quote to refer to “El Colegio” because is where sometimes the good intentions and hard work sometimes does not pay off. The dictionary gave a definition that was not very understood since it says that is to be forgotten completely and the definition is not very specific at all. I choose the word oblivion because it gives me this feeling about the end of something but I have never searched it in a dictionary to check if I was right or not. The devils dictionary has the definitions that poet use on their poems and is a lot easier to understand word by word using the devils dictionary than rather start using a normal dictionary that the definitions are very straight and sometimes don’t fit on the poems meanings.

           

Work Cited

Ambrose Bierce. “Oblivion”. The Devils Dictionary. collected as a book in 1906.Yahoo. Web.                                                20 Sept. 2011

Berube, Margery S. The American Heritage Des Dictionary and Thesaurus.New York: Houghton                                                      Mifflin Company, 2005.Print.                                                                                 

Assignment #1

 

Carlos Santiago Bonilla                                                                                  August 16, 2011

INGL3103-092                                                                                                     Prof. Maria Badillo Mendez

Assignment 1

My friend and class mate name is Ryan Santiago. He is eighteen years old and lives in Bayamon Puerto Rico. He told me he wasn’t named after anyone he told me his story of how is name came to be the one he has. Additionally Ryan told me that his father and his aunt were fighting about the name his aunt proposed, Ryan, while his Dad proposed Alexander. In the middle of that argument both of them agreed that his name would be Ryan Alexander Santiago.

We were talking about the English language and I told him ‘that he spoke a really good language’ Ryan told me that he is used to talk in English when he goes to the states and because he studied in an all English school where they charged them a quarter for every Spanish word in every period excluding the Spanish class obviously.

We talk about music and he told me about this band called Camila that is a band from Mexico that plays Latin rock and ballads maybe I will give it a shoot to see if it’s good. After talking for a while about music we ask each other a weird question ‘if you were a crayon what would it be? And why?. He told me that if he were a crayon he would be white because it symbolizes life, happiness and light and that he got a point of view of the color white that is not an absence of color but the abundance of every color. Then after that it came about sports and Ryan told me that his favorite sport to play and watch is American Football. He told me he has been playing American Football since he was twelve years old and that he still plays it today. Why he like this sport because the players in a team considers each other as part of their own family and that it was rough sport on were mind could overcome the opponents size and strength.

In our conversation the topic of movies came up and Ryan told me he liked suspense in a scary movie but he preferred happy endings because they always cheer him up whenever he is sad or hurt. Also we talk about the last movie that we saw and he told me that the last movie he saw was Green Lantern he told me that he liked it because the message from the movies conveys,‘ -the power of will conquers all.’ he told me that the message meant that if we want something one should believe it possible and achieve it and to not let fear prevent us from doing it.

I asked him what he does for fun, on his free time, and he told me he likes to read sometime but right now he isn’t reading and his favorite book is titled “Tuesdays with Morrie”. Also he told me that he likes to play a lot of sports and exercise on his free time.

In addition  he told me that he has some great plan for the futures that are: to earn a doctorate in Physical Education and Biology .Also to become an Orthopedic Surgeon and Fisio Therapist to help the injured and help the athletes to reach their full potentials .To finish our conversation I asked him “How would he describe himself?” Ryan told me “he is a very happy book that many judge by its cover some people just because I play football people think I am though but I am really am a really happy person”.