What is Reverse Speech?

I stumbled across this the other day and thought it was pretty interesting..

It has been called the discovery of the 7th sense. The research into this phenomenon has been described as being of "Nobel calibre". It has been featured in numerous publications around the world, and in the United States it became a household name in the late 90s. It is called Reverse Speech, the phenomenon of hidden backward messages in speech. It initially gained worldwide fame in the early 80s as those strange backward messages in rock and roll. Since that time, research has progressed significantly and it is now known to exist in all forms of human speech.

If human speech is recorded and played backwards, mixed amongst the gibberish at regular intervals can be heard very clear statements. These statements usually appear in short sentence form and are nearly always related to the forward speech. It appears constantly throughout language, so much so in fact, that it is believed to be a natural part of our speech processes.

The pioneer and 20 year veteran of this field, Australian David John Oates, describes Reverse Speech as another form of human communication. He states that language is bi-level, forward and reverse. As the human brain constructs the sounds of speech, it forms those sounds in such a way that two messages are delivered simultaneously. One forwards, which is the conscious mind speaking, and the other in reverse, which is the unconscious mind speaking.

The applications of this discovery are exciting. On the surface level, it can act as a sort of Truth Detector as Reverse Speech will usually correct the inconsistencies of forward speech. If a lie is spoken forwards, the truth may be communicated in reverse. If pertinent facts are left out of forward speech these may also be spoken in reverse. It can reveal hidden motive and agenda and other conscious thought processes. At deeper levels, Reverse Speech can reveal thought patterns that are unconscious, including reasons behind behaviour and disease. This information can be used to greatly enhance the therapeutic and healing processes.

Although still a new and emerging field, Reverse Speech is already making its mark felt in many areas. It has been used successfully in business negotiations and corporate mergers as means of providing extra information. In the state of Oregon, it has been used in criminal investigation and its results independently verified by DNA testing in one case.

Reverse Speech has now come back to Australia, where it was initially discovered. If you are looking for a new and challenging career, you might want to consider training and becoming one of the pioneers of this field. If you have an important decision to make or behavioural issue you want address, Reverse Speech may be able to help you too.

Coincidence? Probably not.

I know that being able to memorize fifty things is a bit of an ego boost for some, just knowing that it can easily be accomplished, however I never really knew if it was something that could be applied to real life.. I was wrong.. In one of my classes today, we were talking about Norway and the professor randomly asked when the winter olympics were held in Norway. A few people spewed out some incorrect answers, then someone from the back yelled 1994. I turned around to see Kevin from oral traditions class, and immediately made a correlation between the two in my class. (he was the one that memorized the winter olympic years...) So this was a complete coincidence, well maybe just a 1 in 3 chance, but I was happy to see that our memory demonstrations are being put to good use.

Rough Beginning of my Paper. . .

The African People have always been known as good storytellers, just as the many different peoples around the world who came from traditionally oral cultures and customs. Many African’s today, just like they were hundreds of years ago, continue to live in a primarily oral culture rather than a literary one. The oral traditions in Africa, which originally derived from the beginnings of African cultures, are historically rich art forms that continue to evolve and spread through the ears of our world.
Every human culture has seemed to create a set of oral stories to make sense of what was happening in the world. However, the themes, motifs, narrative meanings, genres, and specific storytelling styles differ from culture to culture. While some stories from Africa may make sense to people from different continents and backgrounds, others will be more foreign and difficult to understand. To be able to relate to the stories, one must gain knowledge on the African storyteller’s values, themes, images, metaphors, narrative structures and plots. To fully understand African traditional storytelling, one must become familiar with the context of the cultures in which a story has derived from.

My Paper Topic:

After going back and forth on different paper topics, I finally decided to write on African Oral Traditions. My father spent a lot of time in Africa when I was growing up and grew close with some of the tribes. Because of this, I have always been fascinated with the culture and people for it is so different that what people are used to in the United States. I found some African quotes that I think are complimentary to my topic.

“…It is only the story that can continue beyond the war and the warrior.
It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters.
It is the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars
into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.
Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story;
rather it is the story that owns us and directs us."

--Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

"I will tell you something about stories....They aren't just entertainment...
They are all we have...to fight off illness and death.
You don't have anything if you don't have the stories."

--Leslie Marmon Silko, epigraph to Ceremony (1977)

The Story

INTRO

The chapter on Traditions in Kane explains that the moment in which mythological tradition is most active is the moment when its orders of knowledge are most focused. That moment is the actual telling of a story. The traditional act of storytelling involves different aspects that make a story more powerful. These include the voice of the narrator, its polyphonic form and the effects that nature, people and the surroundings have on a story, consistency and the replication of the essential patterns of mythology, and finally, improvisation. The main instrument in any story is the voice, which brings the listener away from their current state of reality to the unseen worlds of tribal memory. For our oral presentation, we have each selected various short stories that derived from oral cultures where the tradition of storytelling created a bond between humanity and our relationship with the earth and the world we live.

The Earth on Turtle’s Back

 Before this earth existed, there was only water. The water stretched as far as the eye could see, and in the water lived birds and animals that could swim around. Above the water among the clouds was the sky land. In this land stood a great beautiful tree. It had four white roots that stretched far in every direction and the branches were covered with many fruits and flowers.

 In the sky land lived an ancient chief. One night his young wife had a dream where the great tree was uprooted. The next morning she told her husband about her dream.

 After she told him the story, he nodded and said “My wife, I am sad that you had this dream. However, it is clearly a dream of great power and we must do what we can to make it true. The great tree must be uprooted.”

 The chief called all of the young men together and told them that they must pull up the tree. But the roots were so strong and deep that they could not uproot it. After their failure, the ancient chief wrapped his arms around the tree and bent his knees and strained. At last, with one great effort, the chief uprooted the tree and laid it on its side. The trees roots were so long that they had shot deep into the sky land and created a big hole. The wife of the chief went to the hole, grabbed the tip of a branch for support, and leaned way over to look down. It seemed as though she saw something deep within the hole that glittered like water. She leaned even further to get a better look when her hand slipped from the branch and she fell down, down, down into the hole with only a few seeds in her hand from the branch of the tree.

 Far below in the water, some birds and animals looked up to the sky.

 “Something is falling toward us from the sky!” said one of the birds

“We must do something to help her!”  So two swans flew up. They caught the woman and slowly brought her back down to the water where all the other birds and animals were watching.

 “She is not like us” said one of the animals. “Look, she doesn’t have webbed feet. She will not survive in the water.”

 “Then what shall we do?” said another of the water animals.

 “I know”, said one of the birds, “I have heard that there is earth far below the water. If we dive down and bring up the earth, then she will have a place to stand.”

 So the birds and animals decided that one of them would have to dive down and bring some of the earth back to the surface. One by one they all tried.

 The duck dove down first. He swam down, down, far beneath the surface, but could not reach the earth. Then the beaver tried, he swam down, down, but could not reach the earth either. Then the Loon tried. Swimming with his strong wings. He was gone a long, long time but he too failed to bring up and earth. Soon it seemed that all had tried and failed. Then a small voice spoke. “I will bring up earth or die trying.”

 The animals looked to see that this small voice came from a tiny muskrat. She dove down and down, and swam and swam. She was not as strong or swift as the other, but she was determined.

 She went deep down into the darkness, and still swam deeper. She went so deep that he lungs felt ready to burst. But she swam deeper still. At last as she was becoming unconscious, she reached out one small paw and grasped at the bottom, barely touching the earth before she floated up, almost dead.

 When the other animals saw her break the surface they thought she had failed. Then they saw her right paw was held tightly shut.

 “She has the earth!” They all shouted with delight. “Now where can we put the earth so the woman can stand?”

 “Place it on my back.” Said a deep voice. It was the great turtle who had come up from the depths.

The brought the muskrat to the great turtle and opened her paw over his back. To this day there are marks at the back of the turtles shell which were made by the muskrats paw. The tiny bit of earth fell on the back of the turtle. Almost immediately, the turtles shell and the earth grew larger and larger until they became the whole world.

 The swans lifted the sky woman and placed her on the earth. She stepped onto the bare soil.  The woman dropped the seeds she held tightly in her hand from the great tree, from which trees and grass sprang up. Earth had begun. 

 

 

Oral Presentations

Today I had my group presentation on the Traditions chapter in Kane. For the presentation we were attempting to re-create a traditional feeling of storytelling with native american music in the background. While the guys sitting next to me were telling their stories, I found myself not listening to the words that they were saying but instead I followed what they were reading on their sheets of paper. I realized half way through the presentations that I was depending on the written words rather than the oral presentation itself. After the presentations were over, Sexson asked how everyones presentations were not traditionally oral- that fact being that every single group so far has read from a piece of paper. I agree that this method of telling the story lost some meaning and the connection with the audience, because you are not looking at everyone and becoming engaged with the listeners present.  With that said, I do feel that we portrayed our chapter appropriately, however, if we were to do that same presentation again I would try to memorize my story to create a more traditional act of storytelling. 

Primary and Secondary Orality

Primary orality is a group mentality because it forced people to connect orally with one another.


The secondary orality has forced people to become more connected with themselves. I feel like these images have summed up how I feel each has affected the way people interact with one another and and how people are now forced to interact with themselves.

ONG Chapter 5. Quotes of Interest.

Reading through the chapter, I came across a few quotes that left me thinking, and quite possibly gave me some ideas for my term paper.

pg. 117 'sight is often deceived, hearing serves as guarantee.'

This quote was interesting to me because I would have thought this expression to be the other way around. For sometimes someone hears something and translates the words in their heads in a way that the other person did not mean them to come out. Usually seeing something with your own eyes is more of a guarantee than hearing something that was said by someone else. Nonetheless, intriguing.

pg. 119 "Our attitudes are the ones that have changed, and thus that need to be explained. Why does the original, presumably more 'natural' procedure seem wrong with us? Because we feel the printed words before us as visual units (even though we sound them at least in imagination when we read).
"All test involves sight and sound."

pg. 123 "Manuscript culture had preserved a feeling for a book as a kind of utterance, an occurrence in the course of conversation, rather than as an object."

pg. 134 "Like primary orality, secondary orality has generated a strong group sense, for listening to spoken words forms hearers into a group, a true audience, just as reading written or printed texts turns individuals in on themselves."

"In our age of secondary orality, we are groupminded self-consciously and progmatically. The individual feels that he or she, as an individual, must be socially sensitve. Unlike members of a primary oral culture, who are turned outward because they have had little occasion to turn inward, we are turned outward because we have turned inward."

After reading these two quotes, I feel like this is a topic that I might want to dive into a little further for my paper. The idea of primary orality creating a group, and secondary orality focusing on the individual interests me. Has the secondary orality culture taken us away from a "pack" mentality and created a culture where we are more focused on the individual, hense, making us more aware of others because we have become aware of our own truths? Anways. Not sure if im making any sense of this, or going anywhere, but I am interested in doing some comparing between primary and secondary oral cultures.

Faroese Oral Traditions

In my World Literature class with Prof. Coffey, we have been studying Scandinavian literature and have looked at many of their oral traditions as well. One of the main areas that we have focused on is the oral traditions of the Faroese Islands. While most of Scandinavian cultures still use oral traditions today, I found that the Faroese Island traditions were the most prominent and interesting. If it were not for the act of storytelling, many pieces of literature could have been lost in time because saying something does not finalize it the way that print does. While peices of literature have derived from the oral traditions and stories, some of the oral traditions of the Faroe islands still continue to this day.

Dr. Sexson has explained how it is impossible for the oral and literate cultures to exist in the same place. The interesting thing about the Faroe islands is the fact that the people use orality in one language, and are literate in another. Because there are only a small number of people on the islands, the Faroese do not write books in their own language because not enough people would read them. Because of this fact, they are forced to read and become literate in a different language than they grew up speaking.

Some examples of oral traditions that are used on the Faroese islands include their traditional ballads which are called Kvaeoi. (that word has accents on it that I could not figure out how to do on the computer) These ballads are used in set verse form and usually incorporate repetition, themes and recurring motifs, rythm, music, dance and formulate diction. Sometimes the people perform brandle simple which is the word for a chain or ring dance. In these dances the people will repeat verses over and over in a chant form. The bard, or main voice present in the chant, knows the chant better than anyone in the group and speaks the loudest. If people forget a verse they let the bard continue on without them until they can pick it up again. Another example of one of their oral traditions is the Drunner Verse. This verse is a feroese wedding custom that is a game of exchanging words with the bride and groom, in a playful teasing mannar to poke fun at them. These jokes are usually in reference to making fun of what the couple will do when the wedding party is over.. Another example of their oral culture are the Tattur, or satiric ballads, which strongly express the power of words in their culture.

The Feroese people do not just use their oral traditions during ceremonies, such as their great whale hunt, but they also continue the oral traditions in their own homes. At night, a husband and wife will engage in kvolseta which translates to evening work at home. During this time, the women would knit and their husbands would spin the wheel. While they were knitting, both the husband and wife chant an oral ballad in a sort of whistling while they work manner.

It is interesting to take two classes that are focused on some of the same material because it gives you a better understanding of the same topic through different points of view.

famous greek epithets

• Abantes
  • great-hearted
  • very helpfull

• Achaeans
  • flowing-haired
  • bronzed-armored
  • strong-greaved
  • glancing-eyed
  • far-famed

• Achilles
  • son of Peleus
  • swift-footed (podas ôkus)
  • god-like (dios)
  • shepherd of the people
  • leader of men
  • the great runner

• Aeneas
  • lord of men
  • godlike
  • son of Anchises
  • counselor of the Trojans
  • lord of the Trojans
  • high-hearted
  • likes

• Agamemnon
  • son of Atreus
  • wide-ruling
  • lord of men
  • the lord marshal
  • godlike
  • powerful
  • skilled breaker of horses
  • shepherd of the people
  • brilliant

• Agenor
  • high-hearted

• Aias/Ajax
  • "Great" Aias
  • swift
  • gigantic
  • high-hearted

• Andromache
  • daughter of Eetion
  • white-armed

• Antilochus
  • son of Nestor

• Aphrodite
  • laughing
  • daughter of Zeus
  • goddess of love

• Apollo
  • distant deadly Archer
  • god of the silver bow
  • rouser of armies
  • son of Zeus

• Ares
  • curse of men
  • sacker of cities
  • of the glinting helmet
  • manslaughtering
  • women raping

• Athena
  • Pallas
  • gray-eyed
  • hope of soldiers

• Atreus
  • breaker of horses

• Ariadne
  • lovely-haired

• Artemis
  • the archer-goddess
  • of the golden distaff

• Calypso
  • beautiful nymph
  • softly-braided nymph
  • divine
  • goddess most divinely made
  • lovely nymph
  • beautiful

• Dawn
  • with her rose-red fingers ("rosy-fingered")

• Demeter
  • fair-haired

• Diomedes
  • god-like
  • high-spirited
  • son of Tydeus
  • great spearman
  • horse tamer
  • master of the war cry
  • the powerful

• Hector
  • tall
  • horse tamer
  • shepherd of the people
  • son of Priam
  • of the glinting helmet
  • brilliant
  • man-killing

• Helen
  • long-dressed
  • lovely haired
  • daughter of a noble house

• Hera
  • ox-eyed lady
  • goddess of the white arms

• Hephaestus
  • the famous craftsman
  • the famous lame god

• Hermes
  • messenger
  • son of Zeus
  • giant-killer
  • the strong one

• Iris
  • wind-footed

• Kronos
  • devious-devising
  • all-powerful

• Menelaus
  • red-haired king
  • master of the war-cry
  • fair-haired
  • son of Atreus
  • war-like
  • spear-famed

• Naubolos
  • great-hearted

• Nestor
  • godlike
  • splendid
  • Gerenian charioteer
  • son of Neleus
  • Pylos born king
  • sweet spoken
  • high-hearted

• Odysseus
  • brilliant
  • sacker of cities
  • god-like
  • resourceful ("man of many resources")
  • noble
  • tried
  • wise
  • loved of Zeus
  • great glory of the Aecheans
  • great-hearted
  • master mariner
  • mastermind of war
  • hotheaded
  • versatile

• Onchestos
  • the sacred

• Pandaros
  • Lykaeon's splendid son
  • the strong and blameless son of Lykaon
  • godlike

• Penelope
  • Circumspect

• Patroclus
  • son of Menoitius
  • horseman

• Paris
  • Alexandros
  • godlike
  • son of Priam

• Polites
  • son of Priam

• Polyphemos
  • godlike

• Sarpedon
  • leader of the Lycians

• Sea
  • wine-dark
  • grey

• Thetis
  • lovely-haired
  • silver-footed

• Thersites
  • of the endless speech

• Trojans
  • breakers of horses

• Tydeus
  • driver of horses
  • high-hearted

• Zeus
  • mighty
  • son of Kronos
  • wide-seeing
  • the cloud-gatherer
  • father of gods and men
  • master of the bright lightning

...

The poem was originally shaped like the hour glass we discussed, but for some reason it would not post like one...

Happy Easter!

Easter Wings
by George Herbert

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:

With Thee
O let me rise,
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day Thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.

With Thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day Thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on Thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

TEST REVIEW

Know 

-Ong. Chapters 4,5,6 

-Bruno

-Article on Finnegans Wake

1) Nietzsche says, 'We are all walking DICTIONARIES.'

2)Lull: motion/rotational, no images, non corporeal, ladder, tree

3) What shape does literature use to tell stories? The Triangle and the Box. Literate/Oral

-   mis-en-abyme : into the abyss 

4) Reformation would not have been possible without the rise of the printing press. 

5) Significance of the mandela in reference to Finnegans Wake. (Squaring of the Circle) 

6) The Alphabet makes it possible for us to read, and learning to read democratizes the alphabet. 

7) ONG pg. 142:  'Song is the remembrance of songs sung.'  Gesang ist dazeine: Song is existence

8) ONG pg. 130: 'Print is comfortable with finality.'  finality & closure

9) YATES pg. 224: 'Such a memory...... of a divine men'     ...talking about bruno

10) Alithiometer: truth measure. Truth means not forgetting. Knowledge is remembering what you have forgotten. 

11) Camillo built the seven pillars from salomon's house of wisdom. 

12) What is the epithet that concludes the Illiad? 'tamer of horses'

13) The alphabet was invented 1 time. ONG 88

14) 1 in 3. What are the chances anything will happen?

15) Tai and Robert used their bodies for their memory systems. 

16) What do the 7 steps in Camillo's memory palace represent? 7 pillars represent 7 planets. 

17) FW: 'before writing there was speech and before speech there were gestures.'

18) YATES 188: Lull & Kabala.  Jewish mystical system based on the mystical properties of the Hebrew alphabet. 

19) Both Cyberspace and James Joyce's FW use hypertext. layered language. 

20) The ancient hebrew alphabet does not have vowels. LTRTR - literature

21) YATES 203: Bruno rushes out of the convent. 

22) What monk was burned at the stake? Bruno

23) ONG 126: What is the effect that Tristram Shandy uses to portray silence? Blank Space. 

24)George Herbert's poem "Easter Wings"  visual effect. hourglass shape. 

25) The most notoriously unread book is Finnegan's Wake. 

IN ORDER TO REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO BE DISMEMBERED

I have been stressing a bit because I remember a statement where MS told the class that we were required to know everyone's epithet in the class as well as their first and last names... also, that it is our duties to figure out everyone's first and last name. So I made a list of (almost) everyone's names and epithets.. I am missing three: Kelsey, Charlie and Danielle - sorry I did not find your last names! Here's the list, I hope it helps!

ZACH SMITH- ZA ZEN ZACH
ZACH MORRIS- ZACH OF THE SAVING BELLS
STEVEN OF THE RIVERS
SHANNON ROGERS MCLAUGHLIN- WISE WANDERING SHANNON
PARKER MANN- PARKER OF THE OUTBACK
KYLE KIENITZ- KYLE OF THE SKINNY JEANS
KELSEY ?- KELSEY OF THE FREE RENT
KAYLA KITCHENS- SNAKE HAIR KAYLA
JOHN NAY- JOHN NAY OF THE STRIPED HAT
JOAN GOSS- JOAN GOSSIMER VON GOSS
JARED ZYGARLICKE- JARED OF THE OPEN PLAINS
JAMES KUSHMAN- JAMES THE RAT
HELENA LA FAVE- HELENA OF THE 10,000 LAKES
CHRIS CLARK- CHRIS SCRIBBLES THE SCRIBE
PARKER CONNELL- CHECK MARK PARKER
BRIANNE BARBER- SUMMER BREEZE BRIANNE
BEN STATHIS- KEEN KENNING BEN
BRANDON SPEVACEK- BEARDED BRANDON
CHARLIE ?- TWO TOUNGUE CHARLIE
CARLY PARELIUS- CRAZY COFFEE CARLY
RICH ELBERT- BIG RICH
JANA CURRIE- JANA THE TAMER OF HORSES
KARI BOWLES- CHARISMATIC KARI
KATE BOUDIN- KATE OF THE BEAUTIFUL EYES
LISA HILLER- LISA OF THE LITTLE LEGS
LISA MEYER- LISA THE LUDDITE
MELISSA NEWMAN- SWEET SMILING MELISSA
KEVIN LUBY- BRIGHT EYES KEVIN
ERIN MORTENSON- EMO ERIN
WILLIAM MEZNARICH- WILLY QUIET WILLY
DANIELLE ?- RED DAMSEL DANIELLE
ROBERT LOOMIS- ROBERT OF THE WORDED LIMBS
JEFF SHUTT- DEEP SEA FISHING JEFF
SUTTER STREMEL- SUTTER THE SACKER OF CITIES
TAI KERSTEN- TAUTOLOGIC TAI

My Memory Theatre

My memory theater to remember my 50 ski resorts is my house. I have divided the ski hills up by which state they are located in and have made different rooms in my house the different states. Then I have found objects in my house, such as art, furniture or appliances that I feel fit well with the names of the different resorts. For example: my stove top is Angel Fire, and my oven is Mt. Baker. Also a big ceramic pot I have on top of our TV is Mammoth. I have taken pictures of my different "states", and you will notice all of the white pieces of paper stuck all over my house.. My sister is also forced to learn the 50, because she has to look at them every day too! Here are the photos of my house and my memory theater.

This first image is my bedroom. For my memory theater it includes the states of WY and MT because I have lived in these places most recently so I felt as though I was closest to them, hence, I get to sleep with them every night.

I made my "office" area the east coast. I felt like the curtains that hang down are like fog and when I lived there it was almost always cloudy out! So the states located here are Maine, VT and NH.

I chose to add Oregon, Washington and Some of Utah to my kitchen. Mainly because I felt the appliances were very fitting to some of the names.

In my living room I have some weird artwork that my mom gave me, so I made this room California. For example of the paintings is red, so I made it June because summers in MT are usually very hot.

My last image is also of the living room. I had a cool piece of art that I found to be very calming so I made it heavenly. Also, I know this may be politically incorrect, but I have a cool Native American bag that I got from my grandmother, so I put Squaw Mt over that.

lack of memory

After taking a walk with my dog this morning my sister pointed out the large black cloud of smoke that everyone in Bozeman was talking about by nine this morning. We drove over to that side of town to see what was on fire and realized that it was one of the buildings on main street. I used to work just a block away from the accident, and even though we could see what block the fire was on, I could not figure out what was being burned! This bothered me because I had driven past that block every day for three years on my way to work and still could not remember what buisnesses were in that location! (I obviousely need to work on my memory theatre.) I began by trying to remember what was directly next to my place of work, then the next business over, and so forth.. however, it was not until I saw the pictures that my memory returned and I realized what had been destroyed. This 'blank' I had this morning regarding my lack of memory skills made me realize just how important it is to keep a picture of images in your mind along with all of the information it stores. I hope that Bozeman has a fast recovery, that the people who lost their jobs will be able to find work in this economic crisis, and that the injured/missing persons have a fast recovery.

Connections amongst Classes

After reading some of the other blogs the other day I saw that one student felt as though all of his classes were somewhat connected with one another. After reading it I realized that I completely agree.. All of the teachers make references to books we are reading in our other classes and some even speak about the same topics. In my Eng. 440 class with Prof. Coffey, we just finished reading a Finnish book called the Kalevala. The Kalevala is a collection of many poems that were traditionally performed orally with a kaleva (string instrument) played in the background. Because this book is strongly related to oral traditions, our professor has given us another background on what an oral tradition is and how the Finnish people use oral traditions to pass down their stories and history though these songs performed with the kaleva. Another thing we discussed in this class was flyting, which I found interesting because I had never really gotten into the real meaning of flighting before this semester. Proffesor Coffey's definition of flyting was along the lines of out charming, out singing, facing off or who has the most magic, (as flighting was shown in the Kalevala.) In the Kalevala the example we dicussed as far as flighting is concerned was the debate between the owl and the nightengale, and the two birds we battling to see who was the most powerfull on the stage. This example is similar to all the flighting examples we talked about in our class. When two rappers go at it, arent they just battling to see who is the most powerfull on the stage as well? So as far as saying that all our classes are connected, I can somewhat agree. While all of my classes are not connected with one another, every once in a while teachers discuss similar topics which make class more interesting when you are able to compare and contrast the professors different ideas regarding the same topics.

My Unfrequented Church

When the discussion of unfrequented churches took place in class, I immediately thought of the smallest church I have ever seen. Originally growing up on Coronado Island in San Diego, small churches were very hard to find. However, when I was ten years old my mother thought it was a good idea to try out a smaller town and we moved to Lander, Wyoming. I remember driving past this church when I was very young and thought, "how do people go to church there when only five people could fit!" The church is nestled up against a small hill in the middle of nowhere and I find it to be the most unfrequented not only for its desolate location, but also for the mere fact that hardly any people can fit in it.

I'm probably going to have to tape all these names in random places all over my house because my memory situation does not seem to be as solid as others.. I hope my roomate, my sister, won't mind!

My top 50

Ski Resorts from the States I have lived :

1. Alpine Meadows
2. Bear Mountain
3. Bear Valley Mountain
4. Heavenly
5. June Mountain
6. Kirkwood
7. Mammoth Mountain
8. Mountain High
9. Northstar
10. Snow Summit
11. Squaw Valley
12. Sugar Bowl
13. Alta
14. Beaver Mountain
15. Brian Head
16. Brighton
17. Deer Valley
18. Park City Mountain Resort
19. Powder Mountain
20. Snowbasin
21. Snowbird
22. Solitude
23. Sundance
24. The Canyons
25. Wolf Mountain
26. Grand Targhee
27. Jackson Hole
28. Attitash
29. Bretton Woods
30. Cannon
31. Cranmore
32. Dartmouth
33. Gunstock
34. Loon Mountain
35. Mount Sunapee
36. Pats Peak
37. Ragged Mountain
38. Tenney Mountain
39. Waterville Valley
40. Whaleback Mountain
41. Bromley
42. Jay Peak
43. Killington
44. Mount Snow
45. Okemo
46. Stowe
47. Stratton Mountain
48. Shawnee Peak
49. Sugarloaf
50. Sunday River

smell in relation to memory

The other day in class some people were asked how certain smells triggered a memory in their brain. This very circumstance happened to me a couple years ago in California. I had just had surgery on my nose after a bad accident and had not been able to smell for a couple of weeks. I was walking through a Whole Foods in La Jolla, California when I had a my first "smell" since my surgery. The most bizarre thing about this smell was the fact that it was rather familiar to me. At first I could not put a finger on it but when I realized what it was I was immediately filled with memories. When I turned around I saw my grandmother who I had not seen for over ten years, but immediately could put the face with the same strong smell of perfume I remembered from childhood.

an interesting cabinet of curiosity.....

...

The 7 Liberal Arts of the Liberal Ages:

1. Geometry

2. Grammar

3. Rhetoric

4. Arithmetic

5. Music

6. Astronomy

7. Dialectic 

Out of all the memorable stuff in the classroom the one object that has always stood out to me is the little white design on the cork board by the front door. It has been in that classroom for a couple of years, and every time I have class in there I find myself spacing out and looking at it.It is made from white-out and I always wonder if it was put there during a class period of if someone vandalized after hours just to leave their mark. Whatever the story behind the little white design is, it catches my eye.  For some reason it is very memorable. 

orality

I googled primary and secondary orality and was immediately directed to the wikipedia page on oral traditions.. thought this was interesting. Heres the link: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition  

Primary Orality: Writing and print    Secondary Orality: The electronic age

-Not sure if this is a right definition because in class primary orality was said to involve no writing at all. 

Ephemeral Vs. Stability

-Ephemeral things are transitory, existing only briefly. The Term is typically used to describe things found in nature, but not limited to that. It come from the Greek work ephemeros which literally means "lasting only one day". Some examples of things that could be considered ephemeral include lakes and streams that exist just shortly after snow melt off, magazines, clothing styles, ice sculptures, sand sculptures.. etc.

Basically the opposite of things that are considered to be stable.

9 Muses

The 9 muses represent poetry, arts and science.
-Calliope: Muse of epic song
-Clio: Muse of History
-Euterpe: Muse of lyric song
-Thalia: Muse of comedy and bucolic poetry
-Melpomene: Muse of tragedy
-Terpsichore: Muse of dance
-Erato: Muse of erotic poetry
-Polyhymnia: Muse of sacred song
-Urania: Muse of astrology