My friends and I have grown up riding four-wheelers together and really love to do it.  Between all of us we have a few thousand acres of land, which all connect to each other. We can go just about anywhere in our area without having to worry about whose land we are on. Our property is on Davey hill, in Pittsfield Pa.  Pittsfield is a small little town with not much to do, but, it is famous for the Warren County Fair!

On Sunday March 15^th, five friends and I decided to go on a four-wheeler ride on some new trails, leading to an overlook with huge rocks. Before we started riding we decided to have a picnic lunch so we all rode to our cabin in the middle of the woods to eat. We ate Subway Subs and hung out and talked for a while. After we were finished we headed out and rode for three or four hours.

After riding for a while we ended up stopping and walking for a ½ mile or so in search of the giant overlook. We climbed up some rocks and found it, it looked over a large valley and we could see for miles! We hiked around for a bit before we decided to start making our way back home since it would take us a few hours to get back to the wheelers then home. Once we hiked back to the wheelers we realized that two of the six are almost out of gas. We were in the middle of nowhere with no cell service so we were a little concerned.  We were pretty sure we wouldn’t make it home without any of us running out of gas so we decided that we would take a short cut back to my house, but we would have to cross over property that was not ours, which can be a little risky depending on the owner of it. You never know whose property you might have to cross over, for all we knew it could have been some psycho’s land.

We made it back onto our property, I was in the very rear, the last person and when my one friend turned around to check on me her mouth dropped. I turned around and there was a man on a dirt bike riding so close behind me we could’ve had a conversation, and I had no idea he was even there or who he was!

We originally were going to keep driving away from the guy but decided it was best to stop and see what he wanted. We were all very scared and had no idea who it was due to his enclosed helmet. He drove up to the front of our chain of four wheelers and shut off his bike and took his helmet off. As soon as he took his helmet off, we were all relived, it turned out to be one of our really nice neighbors who heard all of our wheelers and wanted to checkout what was going on. After talking with him for a bit we finished our journey home, and everyone made it there without running out of gas. We all had a lot of fun and I am sure we will be riding together again very soon.

We unfortunately do not have any pictures from this day but here is a picture on our property that I took a different time.

I had this whole thing planned out the second you told us to go somewhere new. I was planning on going up to a little milkshake place in Jamestown. I had heard it was a great place to make memories, so I was going to bring some friends. However, they were available for a little while and the day we got free to head up there, it was closed. After that, everything had shut down and I was quarantined in my house. So, in light of the situation, I’ve decided to write about my trip to the Adirondacks.

            I was 13, and it was the summer going into 8^th grade. I didn’t have any plans for the summer, so my dad decided to surprise my brother and I and take us on a two-week trip. It was a cloudy day, but still fairly hot, and my mom brought Ryan and I to the local McDonalds so we could meet my dad. I remember being iffy about the whole trip. I just wanted to relax at home until school started again, plus, I’d never been a big fan of hiking.

            It’s around an 8-hour trip and for most of it, I watched every single Harry Potter movie back-to-back. We got into Lake Placid late afternoon and we could see the sun setting, the light illuminated the mountains and honestly it must be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. My dad pulled off the road into a small field and my brother and I jumped out of the van, taking pictures on our phones and just gaping at the view. I remember the first thing that hit me was how good it smelled. It’s like when you can smell Spring for the first time after Winter. It was amazing, there was a light breeze as the sky got darker and the air was crisp.

We stayed at a motel by the lake and they rented out peddle-boats. Ryan and I took the first chance we had to go out on the water and harass the ducks. We hopped in and went out as far as we could, he then proceeded to try and push me out of the boat but that’s besides the point. We ran over a sunken log and were convinced we broke the boat, so we raced back to shore and watched the sun finish setting. The motel had small cups of ice that we had to get at the front counter, but we had food and drinks that needed to be refrigerated. I remember my dad sending all of us one at a time every couple hours to get more ice, so they wouldn’t question why one person needed so much ice.

            The next morning, we woke up and went over to the base of the mountains. We were going to hike up Algonquin Peak. As the second highest mountain in New York, it stands at 5114’. We made it about halfway before I started complaining about hiking and sat down for a break. My brother, being way more inclined to be outdoors, went on ahead, with his backpack full of all our snacks and water. My dad waited back for me until I decided to get it over with.

            We started hiking again but didn’t see Ryan anywhere. At this point we were both tired, hot, and thirsty, and Ryan had effectively kidnapped all our supplies. Ironically, as my father got more irritated abut the lack of water, I enjoyed the hike more and started scaling rocks and trees if I got too far ahead of my dad. Eventually we made it to the peak and enjoyed the view for a little before asking round if anyone had seen my brother on the way. Everyone said no, they hadn’t seen him, so we started the decent.

            As we got closer to the bottom, we found a really cool waterfall and I drank out of it since I was pretty effectively desperate at that point. We reached the bottom and got back to the van, and we found Ryan drinking water by the back. He felt bad about getting separated from us, but it had turned out he had taken a wrong turn and climbed an entirely different peak than us. Although it wasn’t the perfect summer trip, I like looking back on it for the most part. I’m still not a big hiker but at least now I know if I do go hiking again, I should carry my own water.

As soon as you said you wanted us to take a trip to a place we’ve never been to, I knew I wanted to go to Barcelona Beach. I texted one of best friends and asked if she wanted to come along. She agreed and we were off to Westfield on Monday.

Barcelona Beach has been a historic point for voyaging for hundreds of years. It is a point of entry to the interior of North America and will eventually take you to the Allegheny- Ohio basin. The Barcelona Lighthouse was built in 1829 to overlook the harbor and was eventually deactivated in 1859. The lighthouse was the first in the world to be powered by natural gas. Another fun fact is that Welch’s Grape Juice company is also located in Westfield.

This trip was an all around first for me. It was the farthest I’ve ever driven without one of my parents present. My first road trip with a friend, all happening during my first global pandemic. I drove to my friend Maddy’s house on Monday around 11. We drove through Jamestown on our way there. I forgot that people in New York are crazy drivers, as we almost got in a few accidents. We drove for an hour and a half and listened to some very good music and screamed. We talked about everything going on at our school and all the drama going around. Finally, we arrived at the beach.

The beach was beautiful. The sky was nice and clear so you could see far across the lake. The top part of the beach is sandy with driftwood. The bottom part closest to the water is very rocky, with little pebbles and pieces of beach glass. As you walk down the beach, the coast is jagged almost. Eventually there is a part where there’s a little stream running through the sand and rocks. It’s almost like a sand bar, only not in the middle of a body of water. As you keep moving down it gets to a gated area where the rich people’s lake houses are and that’s as far down to the left as you can go.

The beach is so calming. The sound of the wind and waves crashing helps relax you. It is a very nice place to go if you’re feeling overwhelmed or sad. It is also chilly, so if you go I recommend wearing a jacket and shoes compatible with sand.

I hope you all are well!

The assignment was to look at the draft you have, hopefully, been constructing after your adventure and come up with 2-3 descriptive sentences to share in today’s comment section, and to write what visual literary methods (cited from the Tyner article) you think you are utilizing and why.

I am excited to see what you all have come up with!

You must have the full assignment posted by the end of the day to receive credit.

Your blog assignment is due at 11:59 on 3/20 to the site with a picture!

Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” was released on the controversial 1965 album, Highway 61 Revisited. The song itself is an eleven minute, ten verse, folk ballad that is lacking a single chorus. It is one of his strange masterpieces. The ballad is a surreal collection of verses: each on a situation between historical and/or fictional characters that all have some relation to the cryptic “Desolation Row.” On a deeper level, the song is about different individuals navigating their own personal struggles and the turmoil of the period the song was released in. The titular “Desolation Row” is an unattainable place of comfort and reason. It is the places that all of the song’s subjects are try to get to.

The first verses sets the tone with surreal yet slightly macabre imagery and allusions. It mentions “they’re selling postcards of the hanging…the circus is in town” (line 1 and 4). Critic, Mark Polzzitti suggested that in his 2000 book, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, that the hanging is reference to the 1920 lynching of three African American men traveling with a circus in Duluth, where Dylan grew up. The lines “And the riot squad they’re restless/ They need somewhere to go” (lines 9 and 10) evokes the societal chaos of the mid 1960s, referencing the militarization of the police in this era. But the pair of lines “As Lady and I look out tonight/ From Desolation Row” (lines 11 and 12) make the case that the narrator is viewing the turmoil in a situation of security and understanding. When Dylan uses the language “Lady and I,” its possible that he is alluding to Lady and the Tramp; saying that as a tramping vagabond, he is removed of the societal turmoil and is in a position to view, understand, and criticize it.

He references the character, Ophelia, from the play, Hamlet. He mentions that “for her I feels so afraid” (line 38) meaning that Dylan is using the character to talk about someone he is worried for and cares about. The lines “her profession is her religion/ her son is her lifelessness” (lines 43 and 44) reference when Hamlet telling Ophelia to leave him and become a nun. This is possibly a metaphor for Dylan pushing this girl out. And the lines “And though her eyes are fixed upon/ Noah’s great rainbow/ She spends her time peeking/ Into Desolation Row” (lines 45-48) suggest that she too is fixated on this “Desolation Row” and the consolation that it brings.

Verse three seems to be about a person who has fallen from grace. The introduction of to the subject of this verse —“Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood/ With his memories in a trunk” (lines 49 and 50) —shows us, the listeners, that the subject was once a intelligent, respectable man but has fallen into shabbiness and irrespectability: Einstein being a intelligent genius, and carrying “his memories in a truck” meaning he is the soul keeper of the memory of his once existing fame and fortune. The line “And he went off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet” (lines 55 and 56) proposes that this man sniffs the glue used to seal drain pipes for a high while reciting to alphabet to show how clever he is. The lines “You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago/ For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row“ (line 59 and 60) solidify the understanding that he once existed in the state of reason (Desolation Row), but now that time only exists in his memories.

This dynamics that play out in the song reflect upon the idea that Desolation Row is representative of a state of reason and resolve that people lack and are fixated on getting. Ideas like this are the kind of ideas that separate Bob Dylan’s work apart from other artists.

Hunter Peterson

Prof. Miller

ENG 102

February 17, 2020

Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion 

an analysis on the in-depth research of the false assumptions within Christianity 

Christianity. The world’s largest religion for hundreds of years with 29.81% (around 2.4 billion individuals) of the worlds population following its beliefs. The story of Jesus, King of the Jews, the son of God, and his life of devotion to God, love for all walks of life, and, most notably, his murder and resurrection as a sign from God that he loves all people is compelling to people of the faith. Confronting Christianity’s author Rebecca McLaughlin dives into not the amazing stories of Jesus and his works while he walked this earth, but rather the questions people have about the faith and most importantly the Christian Bible. 

Christianity is a monotheistic religion, however many people in the world believe that it is not. Christianity believes in three representations of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Judaism and Islam alike don’t agree with this. They think that God is too divine to be represented in a human form like Jesus. But, these are still surface questions that are asked of Christianity. McLaughlin dives into the deeper questions including: Doesn’t Christianity crush diversity? Doesn’t religion hinder morality? Does religion cause violence? How can you take the Bible literally? Isn’t christianity homophobic? Throughout her book she discuses these “hard questions”, as she puts it, in great depth both in the literal sense and the theological sense. To the average person these questions might raise answers of vague stature, but too McLaughlin she takes on this challenge and clears away any possible questions that night arise. 

When tackling into each chapter she starts with a question, which happens to be the chapter title, and include the questions mentioned before. For example, chapter five is title “Doesn’t Religion Cause Violence”? This chapter had the most impact on my views of all religions not just Christianity. She starts the chapter with a claim by a British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1930) which states, 

“ Religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old frieze doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age: but, if so, it will first be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion” (75).

Her choice of quote to start her answer on if religion causes violence seems to lead you down a path of the unexpected. She then makes a point that “people of every major religion have engaged in horrifically violent acts, often appealing to divine mandates for their violence” (75). So is it really religion that cause violence or people that cause violence? Most notably, she references Hitler’s “Christianity” which wasn’t Christianity at all. Her arguments about Hitler drive home the fact that it is unremarkably humans that cause violence rather than religion. Most religion based violence wasn’t religion based, religion was just an avenue for hate filled people to manipulate people into doing what they believed was the right thing. 

Each chapter follows this same pattern of question, related but unsuspected claim, examples, and finally her well planned answer. The chapters flow seamlessly and compliment each other even with conflicting questions. McLaughlin’s most effective writing tool is her compelling sway of her arguments from unanticipated claims all the way back across the playing field to her final more philosophical conclusion. This writing tactic keeps the reader on edge because you never know which way she will side. Overall, McLaughlin has a firm analytical and educated argument for each question she approaches. 

However, this book is not for everyone. To those who enjoy learning new things about the world and how people live, this is a great book. If you are not interested in world religions and ford affairs, this probably isn’t the book for you. To read this book I recommend having interest in this topic to get anything out of it.