HAPPINESS

I found Orientation by Orozco to be quite amusing and funny when the new guy was finding out all the shocking backgrounds of the employees. All the descriptions of the employees were odd and seem to make you have an awkward impression of them. The person showing the new guy around talked about the employees’ “not so pleasing side” and didn’t say anything good about them. He talks about the employees’ life that you wouldn’t know just by seeing them a few times. It shows how all people have issues outside of their work. When he got up to the serial killer, I was a bit shocked that they would even hire a serial killer…

I don’t think this is a “normal” orientation and if I was the new person, I would feel uncomfortable hearing the stories. The introducer is revealing secrets about the employees that are not needed to do your job. I wouldn’t have remembered most of their names by the end. Maybe the introducer wants the new guy to fit in more but it would make me feel uncomfortable. I also noticed, the introducer said weird things about the employees but nothing about himself.

As I read the text I kept waiting for the description part to be over. The whole reading was based on describing the office and the people in it. I think the writer wrote the story in this particular way to make the reader feel special. As an outsider we are not supposed to know about the personal lives of the people described in the office. The writer could have just introduced the workers by their names and what branch they are in. However, here the writer did a lot more than a brief introduction. Not only we know the names of the people but we also know very personal and in some cases humiliating facts about the charachters . The serial killer was the very intersting, it made me think aobut my own environment. I could be sitting next to a serial killer and I would not even know. The short story was getting more interesting as the writer was revealing more internal facts about the charachters and it shows that as readers we like to know things that are not always so obvious.

I thought that this picture was interesting.

It shows that happiness is always in front of us.

But we just can’t see it.

-(Shamima Akter)

This is the typical office scene, everyone seems to “love their jobs” and get along with others. This is the same old routine, you come in drink your coffee, say good morning to everyone but later during lunch break you go and gossip about your co-worker’s marriage and on how the husband beats her up (or even a juicier one)  the vice-president’s affair with his secretary. When we think about office working environments we seem to think about large corporations, with elavated floors, offices and lots of small cubicles. We associate this surrounding with stereotypes like  “the hot boss” or “The hot secretary” (with the mini-skirt), or even the “ugly betty”. All of these individuals play a significant character and wish one day in becoming the company’s CEO.

The story “Orientation” narrates a first day at work, i believe that Daniel Orozco introduces the tittle to describe the instructions that we are given on our first day at work. Regardless the job, we always have that person that walk us thru and direct us on how to get designated taks done, that person would also give you a clue on how the other employees are and what rules they have. Orientation means “to direct”, so i assume this is why the tittle ties up with the story. The office brings along the cigarette breaks, the bathroom rumors and gossip but at the end is the same routine: at the end of the day, you are still behind your small cubicle following orders from someone you might admire and wish to become some day or from your annoying explotating boss which you hate to see every day.

As mentioned in class, after reading “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway the night before i went straight to sleep. I didn’t understand the story and was confused but i liked that because i was able to come up with all kinds of bizarre ideas of what the story actually meant. Like everyone else i first thought it was about sex, but out of no where i just thought of the movie twilight as i was reading the story. I kept thinking about how the story would go about as i fell asleep and i ended up dreaming about it. In the dream, my imagination for the meaning of the story was completed. It was a dream about vampires, starring Edward and Bella but this time the roles were reversed and Bella was the vampire and Edward wanted Bella to turn him into one as well. I won’t go into detail but the general idea was when Bella walked out of the shade her skin shimmered a bright silvery white which in my dream was the exact color of how the ‘white hills’ looked like in the distance. and Edwards like “NO!, come back into the shade!” kind of thing. It was absolutely fascinating and because of twilight I’m pretty into vampires and I was really happy when i woke up in the morning cause I felt like I had a nice dream.

Karen Luo

I came across this and thought of the movie, Little Miss Sunshine. =]

-Vanita Chaitu

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/MGQjyGT1-mc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This music video is pretty long and really bizzare, but none the less, it provokes some level of happiness within me. It reminds me of being a reckless, carefree, clueless child. The song itself is quite repetitve. But within the lyrics there is a reminder to leave behind sadness and "try to think of what you want," which, I'll assume, are thoughts of happiness. Aside from all of that, I feel like this music video is rather creative, well done (though simple), and interesting. What do you think/how does it make you feel? 

“So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it’s the hardest to do anything with. That’s about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why.” (Artwood, 299) I must say that after reading “Happy Endings” by Margaret Artwood, it struck me how painfully true everything was.

What I got most out of her closing statement was that every story is virtually the same. The ending is always happy and heartwarming despite the problems that were faced earlier in the story. That is not what she thinks makes a good story and neither do I. It becomes boring and predictable when you see a heartwarming happy ending, but what is truly interesting is a story’s rising action.

When Artwood says “Now try How and Why”, she is contrasting against the typical outcome of a story. “How” and “Why” represent the equation that “What” is made out of. “How” and “Why” make the rising action that gives a story its outstanding characteristics and originality. “How” and “Why” give an endless amount of room to move around so a story can develop into an interesting tale of fortunate and unfortunate events, a process of building relationships, a struggle among protagonists and antagonists, and striving to reach a goal which ultimately ends in a generic ending that ties up the story so the reader/viewer can finish with a smile that he or she knew was going to come from the beginning. What I think Artwood was trying to say was that “How” and “Why” are the most interesting aspects of a story that make up for the bland and ongoing “Whats”.

Hi all,

For Wednesday you will need to read Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” This story is not in our text book.

You can access it by following this link:

Here.

If anyone has a problem getting the story–email me and I can send it to you as a pdf.