Maddie's Journal 6

Madalyn Watts
English 2267
Journal 6

Journal 6

The Mr. Money Mustache article that I chose to read was called: "Great news-Early Retirement Doesn't Mean You'll Stop Working".  It was primarily about what to do after you've retired and how to keep "working" to keep yourself happy and busy.  Regardless of what your definition of work is, weather its growing your company, or helping others grow theirs. or even taking up writing a book!  The work that we should continue doing after we retire shouldn't be because we need the money.  The 2 most vital pieces of advice that I picked up from this article were to make all spending decisions as if the price were $0.00 and to make all work and income decisions as if the wage were $0.00.  He also stresses that if you follow these pieces of advice, that the factors involved will become magically self regulating, and your life should not change very much from your life before your retirement.  Following this lock down, I believe that people are going to have a very hard time managing their money.  Because they have been cooped up in their houses for going on 2 months, people are going to go on rampant spending sprees with no limits and no regrets.  People must realize that though they have been restrained for quite a long time, money is not something that is meant to throw around because you are happy.  Spend time with your family that you have missed so much, go outside like you have wanted to for week on end.  Don't throw your money up in the air and  call it a celebration.  

A person that i have really been watching and admiring during this quarantine is my father.  He has managed to stay busy and productive everyday.  With the exception of a few lazy days, but everyone needs a couple of those every once in a while.  He has taken up new hobbies and become a much more productive person with all pf his free time.  I really wish that I would have taken advantage of my free time initially rather than laying around and doing nothing.  Because now, it is incredibly hard to get myself out of the slump that I put myself in.  But I have been really closely watching my father and he, as soon as he learned about lock down, he began working.  Another thing that I really admire about him is that hes maintained his sense of humor and his patience through this bizarre time.  He has remained the joker of the family, while also keeping sane with all of my family in one house. 

Journal 6 by Steven

The article I read by Mr. Money Mustache was about teaching his son about money, and how he is trying to teach his son how to generate income and how to invest so that his money makes him money. I found this interesting because my grand parents did a similar thing with my sisters and I. My grandparents would pay us for doing odd jobs around the house (stacking firewood, moving large amounts of gravel, etc) and we would keep a account with them (Now that I think about it they were kinda able to create money out of thin air in this way as long as I didn’t spend it). With the recession being an ever looming threat I think that people are going to generally save as much money as they can. This may prove problematic in my work life. I work as a cashier at giant eagle at the moment, and people are going to try and lower the cost of goods by exploiting the store policy where if a product does not ring up at the right price as advertised we give it to the customer for free. The major issue with this is that our store consistently has this problem and with everyone tightening their budget management is going to make a point to check up on all these claims, which slows down your grocery store line.

The person I admire the most during this pandemic is probably my grandfather. I admire him because he decided (to cut off) to not watch as much news during all this. I have seen a lot of different news stories from many different sources but after awhile you begin to see a lot of the political bias news corporation have and how they try to twist the narrative. One example I remember is seeing an abc segment about climate change and you would have thought climate change was about to swallow the world. Although climate change is a serious problem that we are facing, the media shouldn’t fear monger this especially during the pandemic. In fact I am pretty sure the media is practicing double think with some of the narratives they push with the economy. One day they will talk about the hardships of the economic crisis, then talk about how the economy should stay closed because of the virus.The fact that my grandfather decided to turn off the television to stop hearing fear mongering in a time that we are all stuck at home is good in my opinion.

Journal 6- Mitchel Hendricks

Part 1: So I read the article called "Luxury is just another weakness". I learned how luxury can be this amazing thing that everybody wants if they don't already have it. I picked it because I'm guilty of luxury not just for myself, but for my girlfriend Molly. Ever since our first year dating, she convinced me that I shouldn't save my money so much and learn to treat myself every once in a while. So I have and I have also tried to treat her with luxury. Growing up, Molly has not have had the best childhood so since we've started dating, I have tried to the best of my ability to give her the best she could ever have. Sometimes, she has to stop me or vice versa because we treat each other a lot and we both know we don't need everything when we have each other. I think our habits might have to change by cooking at home more, trying to do things and make things at home instead going out and buying it from someone who did all the work.

Part 2: I admire the will to help other people in my manager Frank. I remember scrolling through Facebook one day out of boredom and I was checking everyone's profiles to see how is everyone. I went to check my boss' profile. So I was scrolling through his feed and I found this post he made. Here is the post:
Dear friends in Marion,

I’ve been blessed to grow up in this town.

People in this community have helped support my family since before I was born.

My parents worked their asses off to provide everything I could ever want or need. But we also received a lot of help along the way.

They’ve told me stories of how people in this community gave us something when we desperately needed it the most- Hope.

It truly breaks my heart to see the coronavirus tearing through my hometown, inducing panic and affecting everything along the way.

Kids not being able to go to school. Parents not being able to work. Grocery stores being cleared out. Everyone from factory jobs to the service industry being laid off when they are desperately trying to make ends meet right now. The news headlines getting worse every day.

Now I want to return the favor. I want to offer my help to those friends in need the most. I want to give back what this community gave my family all those years ago- Hope.

There are many good people in this town. People that work hard to provide for their families just like my parents did for me.

Even good, hard-working people need some help from time to time.

If you are one of my friends facing this situation right now, please contact me. I will do what I can to help out.

Even if it’s just a jug of water, some rolls of toilet paper, or a hot meal for your children.

We get by with a little help from our friends.

This touched my heart because even though he is like me where he is quiet but he still has that need to help people.

Journal Six- Dylan Pangborn

Part One:
My favorite Mr. Money Mustache article that I read was called The Real Benefit of Being Rich. The entire piece is tied to the idea of spending money not resulting in happiness. MMM talks about how despite having a great amount of money he lives a relatively modest life deriving his pleasure from being able to go without worrying about not having enough to pay bills. I had always thought about being rich as being as being able to buy whatever you want whenever you want. I had never really considered the idea that if you simply have enough money to live worry free there are an immense number of free things to do that can make you happy. I think that after the lockdown we will see people tend to go towards that idea of having enough to pay your bills while living a cheaper lifestyle. With a sudden recession and people not being able to work we heard a lot about people struggling to pay rent. Perhaps in the aftermath there will be a turn towards spending more conservative purchasing and more preparation for worst case scenarios.

Parks have been a cheap form of entertainment during lockdown

Part Two:

Something that was seemingly small but in my eyes was an little old lady that regularly come into the gas station that I work at donating a dozen bottles of hand sanitizer to us to put out for customers to use. While it wasn't a significant amount of money to buy the gesture helps to keep our community a little bit safer in return. She didn't do it for any other reason than to help keep others safe and that really warms my heart.

Journal 6 - Ciera Yamarick

Part One:
I chose to reflect on "Let The Roaring 2020's Begin" from December 28, 2019 for my Mr. Money Mustache article. It first caught my eye because of the title, since the 1920's is my favorite era. The innovation and the glamour of it all has always been appealing to me, which is why I went to read this article. In this piece of writing, Mr. Money Mustache goes back and appreciates how he's grown and what he's learned from the past decade. We sometimes only focus on going forward into the next stage of the timeline, which is even more appealing for the infamous "Roaring 20's" -- me included. However, he goes back and reminisces on his personal growth and what he's learned. From that, I learned how to continue to be more appreciative of what I have now and also what I've had then. Especially with this quarantine, human interaction with friends and others are to a minimum. It's a measure we unfortunately have to respect, but it's helped me become more appreciative of relationships no matter how important they may be...just like Mr. Money Mustache when he recollects the past decade. This also goes for consumer habits and people in general following this lockdown and pandemic. From Mr. Money Mustache in regards to habits, he says, "Because of all this, the easiest and best way to have a happier and more satisfying life is to figure out what ingredients go into a good day, and start adding those things while subtracting the things that create bad days" (MM). We need to learn to change and continue to social distance from things that dragged us down. We need to become more appreciative and gracious after a time where our lives were controlled by the uncontrollable. We need to change our habits for a better life.

Part 2:
Something that I saw during all of this that I truly admire is from my favorite coffee shop, The Roosevelt Coffeehouse. The owner of these locations attends my church and has become a mentor/role model for me during my years of high school. He got together with other businesses of Columbus to help people out, especially healthcare workers. For every coffee bag someone buys, another bag is sent to a healthcare worker for free...and they've still given out free bags without an initial purchase. With all my family being healthcare workers, I appreciated and admired how much these businesses have taken care of them. Just the little things during this chaos have made a world of a difference.

***This is a picture of The Roosevelt Coffeehouse I mentioned before...before the virus. It shows us to appreciate these simple gatherings that we once had, opposed to now.

Journal Six: Lindsay Euans

Part One:

The Mr. Money Mustache article that I chose to actively read was "How To Slow Down Time and Live Longer" from January 28, 2019. This article caught my attention, because I often reflect on how time seems to move so quickly and that I sometimes do not enjoy moments well enough in the present. From this article, I learned some new ways to spice up the everyday mundane activities like going to the store, commuting to work and school, and just general daily routines by changing them up a little every now and then to experience more out of life in the time we have. Mr. Money Mustache stated, "The years go by and by, but significant new experiences become more and more rare". This definitely resonated with me, because I want to experience a grand amount of things in my life, but in the next few years post college, I could get sucked into the trap of living my life just to work and pay bills and not enjoying it. This article also touched on how we often end up clumping big phases of our life into just categories, like childhood, high school, college, etc. When we start living habitually we "Pavlov" ourselves into not leaving what is convenient and not creating a life that we truly enjoy and feel fulfilled. He also talks about that we are so scared of "doing it right" and fearing failure that we do not move out of our comfort zones. This article definitely made me take a step back to look at my life and see what I could do to make the most out of it. The current pandemic has also made me realize what I took for granted before the lockdown. Following the lockdown, I think consumer habits will definitely need to abandon the stockpiling nonsense that is leaving grocery store isles empty. Overconsumption is a big issue and I think some are doing a good job at realizing you can do so much more with what you already have rather than bringing more in.

Part Two:

Something that I admire from someone during this coronavirus lockdown is actually from a person that I follow on social media and YouTube. This person is Chris Klemens, and he has used his influencer platform for the better during this whole thing. He has used each of his YouTube videos that he has posted during this time to dedicate and donate to a specific charity/foundation that is helping in relief for those who need the most right now. The "influencer" and social media culture can sometimes become a toxic and negative place, but I applaud Chris Klemens for using the large internet following he has for a greater cause and informing his audience.

This is a quote from one of my favorite movies The Princess Diaries. I think it fits well with the article I read from Mr. Money Mustache.

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Mike Lohre

Feedback for Ernest Hemingway Presentation by Ian and Braedon, April 9

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Feedback for E.E. Cummings Presentation, April 7, by Steven and Summer

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E.E. Cummings

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Feedback for William Faulkner by Max and Ciera, Tuesday, April 7 Presentation

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Compare and Contrast - Max

I chose the piece El Toro Rojo to compare and contrast with The Only Rule That Counts. I really enjoyed how both pieces give us inside information into the lives that we see in these stories. Long gives us intimate details of the relationship between him and his best friend. Moore gives us the inside information about bullfighting and some of the mechanics of it. I think this pulls the reader in closer as a result.

The tone in these two stories is very different. The Only Rule That Counts is much longer, and details are developed slower as a result. I think this gives the effect that this story means a lot to Long; he is telling us a painful story about his best friend and he doesn't want to get a single detail wrong. Moore is much quicker with his approach. He places us In Medias Res and wastes no time giving us the action of bullfighting.

Another interesting difference is the perspective. Long's story is in the first person, and it works. We get the personal take on his loss and he reveals the details at his own pace. The shocking ending of his piece would not have had the same effect in the third person. Moore has an interesting choice of a second person point of view. When we become the subject of their story, the action in the story becomes much more real. It makes his work more 3 dimensional because we more closely experience what he is telling us. It also works to make us feel the emotions of whoever this main character is supposed to represent. Moore writes, "In your own life, death has lingered. Your father, for one." There is so much agency in these sentences. I think it really shows how short and sweet writing can be.

compare and contrast: Steven wappenstein

Hello everyone!

The nonfiction story I read was “The Burnt Plane” by John T. Price. In it he describes how he went to his friend’s house (his friend was Jason Murphy) after Jason’s father had died in a plane crash. John had expected the house to be unkept due to this, but to his surprise the house was being cared for by a relative. This relative would often make the boys go and work on old junkers. While they were working Jason showed John the plane that his father died in. Then the two sat down for a while in the plane in a solemn moment of remembrance and looked at the sky. This shares some similar parallels to “The only rule that counts” when the author describes going out into nature and talks with his friend about basically anything on his mind. Both works have the same similarity of the death of a loved one, but their approach to the topic is subtle in a few key ways.

In “The Only Rule That Counts” the story starts off with the character that dies being alive at the beginning then revealing that Jeff died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is a story about how the author regrets not sending a reply to his friends letter, and how he wishes that he would have tried to send him a letter so that he would not have broken “The Only Rule That Counts” which is to live life to its fullest and try to spend time and stay in contact with the people you car about because you never know when or how they will die until it is too late. “We had a lot of catching up to do, and Jeff did his part. That I did not immediately write him back is something that I will regret till the day I die.”

In “The Burnt Plane” the story starts off with the death of Jason’s father, which  also from a plane crash, and deals with how to deal with extreme loss. In this story Jason and John deal with this loss by going to the plane that Mr. Murphy died in and simply sitting there in silence and forgetting about the world together. “Up there the plane skeleton vanished, along with my own until there was nothing but sky.”

If one takes both author’s works into consideration and see what morals could be taken away from these stories you may see a common theme between the two pieces that life should be spent with the people you care about because at some point that may be the most valuable thing they leave you.

CNF CC from Madalyn

Madalyn Watts
English 2267

CNF Compare and Contrast

The first CNF piece that I read was “The Only Rule That Counts”, probably one of my favorite techniques used in this work was the use of a plot twist in the end.  “I lacked the sack to respond to it in kind, and in doing so I’d overlooked the fact that the New York office of his family’s shipping business was in Tower One of the World Trade Center.  It only took a minute to find a website listing the victims of 9/11, and Jeff was on that list.”  I think that this ending brings lot of surprise and emotion to the piece.  For me, the emotion comes from deeper than the surprise, because when you think about it, John Longs failure to write back to Jeff ultimately resulted in him never regaining contact with a friend that he had a very special bond with.  A tremendous feeling of guilt and sadness followed this creative non-fiction for me.

The second work, and perhaps my favorite of the two, was “The Witching Hour” in Four Genres In Brief.  Following the aspiration and desires of a young girl, we find that the only thing she really wants to do is draw a fictional creature, the Aswang.  Seemingly insignificant to the grand scheme of things, we find out at the end that this urge and passion comes from her mother and her love of telling stories.  The theme of persistence and love are two major players in this piece, and they are very well portrayed in my opinion.  Ultimately Aimee does not except the first place prize of a pizza, she requests the third place prize of markers.  Only to turn around and use them to draw what her teacher had destroyed in the first place.  

Compare and Contrast - Karlyn

In reading “The Only Rule That Counts” and “My Papa’s Waltz” I found the major theme of both stories is regret. While both narrators write about something in their life they regret, the two stories are very different. In “The Only Rule That Counts” John Long is the writer/ narrator of the story. He writes about a friend from his past whom he lost touch with as time went on. Most of the story is actually his friend Jeff’s letter to him, talking about his life and him trying to meet up with Long again. Long then tells us that he never responded to the letter, and that is one of his biggest regrets. In the story “My Papa’s Waltz” James Brown writes about a memory of his, that he is not sure is actually real. He writes about this memory of him and his dad dancing together. He talks about how he wrote a novel based on this memory, but it was a fiction novel. His whole thought process throughout the short story is him trying to remember the truth, but only coming up with fiction. This is something that he regrets, not being able to recall what is fiction and what actually happened. The two stories share the theme of regret, but they end on very different notes. Long writes “In a matter of  day’s after Jeff sent me his letter, a million tons of rubble covered a lot of the issues that will forever remain unfinished” (Long 4). One of his beignets regrets is not responding to that letter right away, because Jeff is now dead, and there is no one to respond to. Long writes about something that he is always going to regret. In “My Papa’s Waltz” Brown writes about his regret throughout the whole story, until the end. In which he writes, “That’s fiction. But, in fact it doesn’t matter” (Brown 229). Brown ends his story with him letting go of his regret, saying that it doesn’t matter if what he remembers is fiction, that memory is a happy one, so that’s the one he wants to remember. Both stories are written based on regret, one holds onto that regret because of tragedy, while the other lets it go because of happiness.

Compare and Contrast CNF Exercise- Lindsay Euans

Comparing John Long's "The Only Rule That Counts" and from Four Genres in Brief, "The Mute Sense" by Diane Ackerman, these two authors and stories took a different take on the idea of memory in writing creative nonfiction. Long recalls a specific time in his life and goes in detail about a specific person that goes along with those memories and experiences, whereas Ackerman writes a much shorter recollection of different ways that the sense of smell connects us humans back to places, people, and the general importance smell can have on a person. She did not address a specific place or person in great detail like Long did, but rather encapsulated multiple scenarios in which smell comes into memory.

John Long in his piece, "The Only Rule That Counts" utilizes the technique of writing himself into the creative nonfiction. Although his story focused much on Jeff from their time back at Yosemite in the 70s and later the letter from Jeff in 2000, he goes on to say how he was affected by not responding to Jeff's letter before Jeff unfortunately passed in the 9/11 attacks. He stated, "That I did not immediately write him back is something I will regret till the day I die" (Long). Although it was more about Jeff and their experiences, his own opinions and attitudes towards what happened were also important to how he was affected by Jeff in his life. Another technique he utilized was in ethics and edicts. I assume he changed "Jeff's" name to avoid breaching on someone's personal information because he starts off the essay with, " "Jeff" and I climbed on and off for several summers in Yosemite back in the 1970s" (Long). To me the quotes around Jeff indicate he used a mock name for the story of an actual person and event in his life, often a technique used by other writers as well.

Diane Ackerman in her piece "The Mute Sense" on the other hand used techniques like summarizing. She did not dwell too much on what she individually brought up, rather instead having little overviews of multiple different events. She wrote events like, "...conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the Poconos", "... hours of passion on a moonlit beach in Florida", "...people of all cultures have always been obsessed with smell", "...our early ancestors strolled among the fruits of the earth with noses vigilant and precise" (Ackerman). She used these short summaries to allow the reader to see the images and think of how smell has affected each of us in different ways rather than just her own personal experience.

Compare and contrast- Mitchel

So today, I will comparing "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid and "The only rule that counts" by John Long. Kincaid's "Girl" is about this girl who is constantly being told how and what to do with her life. Long's "The only rule that counts" is about a man who lives life the way he wants and how he regrets not reaching out to his friend, Jeff. The common theme I see between these two stories is life and how you should live it. Life is a gift to us and thus allows us to do with it however we want. So when we see people telling other people how to live their life or etc... It's upsetting because that person is turning another person's life into their own. They can't seem to focus on their own life because they believe others aren't living their lives the right way or they aren't happy with their own lives. The technique between these two are very different. Kincaid's "Girl" is never ending. It's just one long sentence that keeps going and never ends. But "The only rule that counts" starts off as any other writing then drifts off to letter format. "It only took a minute to find a web site listing the victims of 9/11, and Jeff was on that list. In a matter of days after Jeff sent me his letter, a million tons of rubble covered a lot of issues that will forever remain unfinished." To me, this quote hit me the hardest in "The only rule that counts". Because it's one thing to never reach out to someone ever, but it's something different when you find out that an old friend of yours that you haven't seen in years had died. It's this feeling of emptiness and not being able to do the things you wanted. It's sad but crazy and also mind-blowing. "But what if the baker won"t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?" This quote kinda shocked me and made me think about things I don't give much thought to. To me, if you aren't the kind of person who can trust or relax around others then you need to stop and think about what you are doing right now in your life.

Compare and Contrast-Dylan

In both The Only Rule That Counts and The Burnt Plane the main theme being dealt with is personal tragedy. In The Only Rule That Counts we have John who not only has to deal with the memory of a close friend who left his side to take over a business he had no interest in but also the fact that said friend is now dead. On the other hand in The Burnt Plane the narrator himself is dealing with tragedy but the story mostly focuses on his friend Jason dealing with the death of his father. Both stories are written as personal memoirs. This is the easiest way for the writers to inject themselves into their works.
An interesting stylistic choice made in The Only Rule That Counts is that almost the entirety of the story is presented in the form of a letter sent to our narrator John. The letter lulls readers into a sense of security thinking that this is just a tale of a friend that had to grow up until the sentence "When Jeff’s letter fell out of that book last month, I cursed out loud and dove onto
my computer. I’d conveniently forgotten about the letter because I lacked the sack to
respond to it in kind, and in so doing I’d overlooked the fact that the New York office of
his family’s shipping business was in Tower One of the World Trade Center." This style differs from The Burnt Plane where the story is conveyed by a young boy through his thoughts and interactions with his friend Jason. Both styles convey the theme of personal tragedy and the different approaches are useful in conveying that theme for different ages. A young child reading a letter from an old friend would not hold much emotional impact as it seems inauthentic to reality. The sentence "He just ignored me, just like the last time I asked, and the time before that." is very effective in showing how unprepared do confront and deal with tragedy young kids are.

compare and contrast - Ian

I read Joyas Voladoras and The Only Rule That Counts.

There are lots of differences between the two articals. The Only Rule That Counts the articl is about a friend who sent a letter and then was killed in the Attaks on the world trades center on 9/11. It is a story told in first person it shows the emotions and feeling of the naratior. On the other hand. Joyas Voladora is more factual. It is writen about hearts and there sizes. It has a lot of background resech down while The Only Rule That Counts has no resech done. In the Joyas Voladora there is resech on humming birds and whales hearts. The articles are both very well writen but writen in two diffent ways. 

Journal #5

Part 1: The coronavirus has been really eye opening to me.  As more and more cases are found, I am realizing how serious the virus is.  As more things are getting shut down, people losing their jobs and having to file for unemployment, quarantine getting extended another 30 days, and people getting used to the idea of social distancing is all a hard reality to come to.  I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen to our economy after all of this.  I have had to make changes about going to the store when I wanted to, hanging out with friends, purchasing football tickets for OSU’s next football season, being able to get what I need to get at the store, and not being able to finish the rest of my classes on campus this year.  My biggest challenge is not being able to finish my classes on campus this year.  I enjoyed going to my classes and seeing my classmates and professors but now that is no longer an option.  I also am worried about falling behind in some classes as now everything is moved to online.

I miss when me and my friends could make fun memories on campus

Part 2: “One of the great pleasures of writing creative nonfiction is the opportunity it gives you to go from thought to thought, and from one place and time to the next” (pg. 196)

I really like this quote because I agree with it. It really does just allow thoughts to flow after one another, and I think that is so important when trying to write creatively.

What have you guys found to be the mosh hopeful in Four Genres in Brief and why?

CNF Exercise #1 from Summer

This is a picture of me and my best friend during our junior year of high school getting ready to perform in the musical Oklahoma.  One of my favorite things I used to do is perform on stage in high school.  To make memories with everyone in the cast, feel the warm stage lights shine down on you as you are on stage performing, the anxious nervous before you are about to go in, the long, hard practices that consisted of 3 hour dance practices, singing practices, and stage blocking.  I miss all of it.  I miss the idea of working on something for months and then being able to go out and showcase what you and others worked extremely hard on to perform to bring others entertainment.  I really like the idea of a bunch of people coming together to create something perfect and beautiful to show to others so they have enjoyment out of it.  One of the best feelings is after the musical is done and people go out for their bows and the audience is going crazy for the performers that worked endlessly for those in the audience.  When the audience decides to give the cast a standing ovation, little to nothing can match that electricity, excitement, and proudness of yourself as you see what you did for others.  I also will never forget the excitement of getting ready for the show.  Putting on the fun costume that perfectly fits your character, putting on the stage make up so you don’t get washed out by the stage lights, and getting your hair done to perfection.  Getting ready for the show with your friends has a mix of feelings—anxiousness, excitement, hopefulness, and just pure joy.  Performing in the theatre is one of the best things I have ever done in my life.

Compare/Contrast Exercise - Ciera Yamarick

"First Love" by Gary Soto // "The Only Rule That Counts" by John Long

Between these 2 stories, they really used scene/imagery to put the reader in the exact state that they were in. You're able to really feel what happened and from that, you are able to capture the message the author is trying to get across. And within that point, they're both dealing with two complex subjects that are hard to explain with words: death/loss and love. To help explain, they gave anecdotes and experiences to have some understanding of the feelings you will undergo. The writers defined these messages through statement lines that set the story straight. From "First Love" Gary Soto writes, "To know you're in love you have to step outside, walk up the street, and be so alone, so flogged by your separation, that your mind will race your heart and almost win" (Soto). Then from "The Only Rule That Counts" by John Long, "He was betraying the only rule that counts -- to do what excites you" (Long).

These two stories are told from similar perspectives as well, with the speaker describing an experience in regards to another person. "First Love" was the speaker dealing with these new found feelings of love in a romantic relationship while "The Only Rule That Counts" is the speaker dealing with the tragic death of his friend through a letter that he wrote. These two stories were systematically written to deal with larger issues rather than writing a bike or climbing a mountain. These stories demanded feelings like the jitteriness and innocence when you're in a romantic relationship or the helplessness/regret with the death of a friend.

Compare & Contrast CNF Exercise - Mikaela

The Only Rule That Counts and The Mute Sense are both similar in terms of reminiscing on past memories however the manner in which the past events are shared contrast greatly. The Only Rule That Counts does this by sharing the story of one old friend of his while The Mute Sense does this by describing different scents and the memories they bring back. For instance, one story that Diane Ackerman reminisces upon in The Mute Sense is “One scent can be  omentary, and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the Poconos, when wild blueberry bushes teemed with succulent and the opposite sex was as mysterious as space travel…”(Ackerman 226). Here the scent is described followed by the memory. In The Only Rule That Counts, John Long reminisces upon his time with his friend Jeff through a letter Jeff sent to him, “When I think about the old crew and how I live now, I start to drink too much. I never remember being puzzled in the old days, or feeling like I was living someone else’s life” (Long 2). This is a quote taken from Jeff’s letter. Jeff speaks fondly of his life in the past and somewhat remorsefully of the life he lives during the time he writes. 

In terms of overall theme, I would say that The Mute Sense has a lighter message than The Only Rule That Counts. The Mute Sense speaks of rather fond memories upon which scents bring back to life. The Only Rule That Counts appears light throughout the story until the author makes it known that his friend Jeff died on 9/11. Once this is announced to the reader, the message of the story is full of remorse over a beloved old friend and regret of not talking to them sooner.

Compare and Contrast Exercise

El Toro Rojo & The Only Rule that Counts

“But for now, you are watching the instantaneous moment. The crowd held silent by the matador’s lance. You, clutching an empty can of San Miguel, whispering Toro! as if you don’t want the bull to hear.”

The biggest difference in the stories is definitely the approach in which they were told and the tone’s of each. El Toro Rojo was set in a particular point in time and took the readers and put them in the author’s shoes. By the end, he included the first quote, giving the reader a sense being there, and sensory details.

“ It took me several weeks and a dozen phone calls to get an address for Gina, who was living in the Gilbert Islands and working for the Peace Corps. I sent her Jeff’s letter because I though she should know.”

The Only Rule that Counts was told through a general recap then a letter from an old friend that didn’t receive a reply. The author showed a lack of effort in responding, so he did what his friend was trying to do and reached out to an old female acquaintance.

CNF #1 Ian

This is my 1982 Cb750. I bought this bike last year and I have already made so many memories on this motorcycle. When I first got this bike my girlfriend's brother and I started riding together. We started a little group and we rode together almost every day. We decided to sign up and do the Rhino Ride to the wilds as a group. The morning of the ride we all met at my girlfriend's brother's house. We rode an iron pony and met up with everyone who was doing the big ride. There had to have been over 2000 bikes there. We rode in a big group all the way to the wilds. Our group was so big that people were blocking traffic at red lights so we could all get though. It was so much fun to ride in a big group like that. When we got to the wilds we rode the bus around. It was a long bus ride. It was like 100 degrees and we had just done over 100 miles on motorcycles to make it even worse we didn’t even get to see any animals. So after the bus ride we got right back on the bikes and rode home we stopped to get ice cream in Sunbury. When we got off the bike my girlfriend's legs were swollen from being on the bike for so long. I felt really bad that I had asked her to come with us when she had just gotten home from basic training with stress fractures. But she was a trooper and she made it all the way home. That was my first big trip on motorcycles and I can't wait to go on more this summer.

CNF Exercise 1 - Max

I look at the picture that I’ve chosen whenever I need to think of a better time. With this virus going around I’ve been looking at it a lot more often. It’s a picture from my high school trip to Japan. If I could sum up my entire trip to Japan with one word or phrase rather, I think it would be culture shock. There were so many cultural differences that I did not expect going on that trip. When people ask me what my favorite part of my trip to Japan was, no one ever expects to hear me say the deer.

On the third day of the trip, we visited a park in Nara. At the front of the park there were vendors who I assumed were selling some sort of street food. That is until I saw that they were selling large flat discs that didn’t look too appetizing. I turned to my teacher and asked, “Iya sensei, what are those guys selling?” She told me that they were snacks for the deer. I didn’t really understand at the time, but that quickly changed when my friends bought a package of them.

As soon as they opened the package, we were swarmed. Deer from every direction knew what we had. We had no idea about this exchange but it was old hat for them. They had us blocked from every angle and the only way out was to feed them every last bit. I had never been taken hostage by deer before, but I looked around and saw we weren’t the only ones. I heard a group of young girls yelling and laughing as they all jogged away from another pack. We walked past an old man. He went right up to a deer bowed, and the deer bowed back. Like it was his dog. When the man saw that this deer could follow his instruction it was rewarded with a cookie.

I was so amazed by everything happening around me but also overwhelmed. I stepped away from the group for a moment. Incidentally, I stumbled upon a younger deer laying all by itself. It looked peaceful and yet was unbothered by my sudden interruption. I sat down right next to it. It didn’t even flinch. To this day, I have never had a more personal experience with a wild animal. The deer in the states don’t come up to you the same way. I guess it’s because we give them something over than cookies. Deer like the cookies better.