British Literature I English 2322 T-TH
February 8th, 2001
Towards the Lights
When sickness lures and boredom looms
A scenery change seems in the making
As the path is laid to the ending gloom
And a journey towards the city seems worth taking
As the wagon* is loaded with pound upon pound [Pickup Truck]
And the springs, they slowly give way
As the switch is then kicked* and makes roaring sound [Key is turned]
Should begin the journey of the day.
Towards the morning sun* on the first few days [to the east]
Along the beautiful southern coast I ride
Then passing through our capital ways* [Washington, D.C.]
With the morning sun now by my side* [to the north]
As the ticker* is chased from her resting point [Speedometer]
Counting higher and higher on her friend below* [Odometer]
Half past four-hundred becomes a stopping anointment
Yet loosing only ten minutes, and proceeding to go
And still more stops will be made, but only whenst of
There are people worth seeing through the way
And in near two thousand miles, five stops of love* [Relatives]
Shalt be taken from day upon day
And so finally it nears, brown sky and all
As the roads turned to bridges and then tunnels
With two giant rivers etched around her for walls
All traffic and people become funneled* [trapped within]
And then as I pay my five dollar toll
And proceed through the belly of the snake* [The Lincoln Tunnel]
I have found three months of my life to be stolen
As in Manhattan I find myself finally awake.
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Luther Elmore
History 1301
Assignment #1
The Conquest of Columbus
"A journal worth exploring"
As noted in the first journal entries Columbus kept of their voyage, he kept two separate accounts of the distances that had been traveled. Looking back in history, this obviously proved favorable to him on the voyage, but one must ask – why? Similar to the time period that we are living in today, there were definite classes of people, whether we choose to acknowledge that today or not. Sailors of the time were certainly of the class of people we would know as ‘blue-collar’ workers, if not a shade below. It was only the admirals of the fleet (and a few select others chosen of the King and Queen) that possessed the intelligence to understand the latitude of this journey. Morals were certainly of importance on this voyage and what better way to keep the projected distance to the ‘Indies’ close to track then to throw out white lies to the crew. As most any modern text, book, or production will parody, our government certainly does not tell us everything that goes on throughout our continued exploration of space for example. They give us projected figures and this is all that we concern ourselves with, because it is what we are told. It gives us the clichéd parental expression that ‘we’re almost there’. Furthermore, it usually keeps us happy and anxiously waiting. I speculate that Columbus was using the same psychology on his crew. Curiously enough, I find it surprising that such information ever went past the King and Queen of Spain and that it is such a tale we can read about today.
Another interesting factor of this story was the way that Columbus described everything that he encountered, and even better, how he had an explanation for most all of it. It was most apparent as they sailed on the voyage and encountered mostly birds, but also crabs, whales, and even drift. Similar to a more modern explorer we know a great deal of, it seems that Columbus was almost acting like Darwin someday would in his classifications. He seemed to have an explanation for every creature that was seen whether it was one known to the Spaniards or not. Humorously enough, every creature that was encountered was believed to be only encountered x-leagues away from land, thus land must have always been nearby. These statements may have been a bit pretentious of Columbus to declare, especially to a man who would challenge a theory as bizarre as say: ‘The Earth if flat’. Nonetheless, it was another tactic to keep the moral of the men up (and most likely of Columbus himself). While Columbus was probably more willing to trade fairly with the natives then his men were, I think it is evident that he was happy to better-deal them. Still, one could argue that the natives, who had been accustomed to such commodities, found it favorable to possess a piece of glass, or a stain colored flag. Unfortunately like most, if not all other conquistadors of the time (if Columbus meets that status), the only thing that the natives lacked was Christian status. I think its safe to say that if we look back in time, problem after problem could have been avoided (especially with native tribes) had the explorers simply left religion alone.
If there was one thing that any one man of this time period wanted to possess, it was power and riches. As noted earlier, the blue-collar status of the sailors most likely led them to believe that they would never be powerful rulers, but this also led them to believe that with riches, they could live similar lifestyles. There’s no disputing the cause of most of the conquistadors of this time period – riches. Riches for them, riches for the country, and almost more importantly, riches for the King and Queen of the era. I am sure that in many of the sailor’s hearts, thoughts of gold and silver were the only things keeping them alive across the Atlantic. Gold led to the later conquering of the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans and most every other tribe of Central and South America. From a different perspective, it only made sense for Columbus to seek such wealth as an explorer. If he was to return to the islands, or seek new land in other places, he would have to return wealth. The America’s would have been of no use to the Spaniards had the commodities available not well exceeded the cost and dangers of the trip.
I found this extract to be very interesting in an overall sense. In the middle of the journal I felt that I was reading a monotonous story, but I suppose that my reading of it was nothing compared to the actual monotony of the voyage. Society enjoys asking the question (youths especially) that if you could go back into time, what time period would you like to live in. To this day I have honestly always answered around the 1450’s. I only wish that I could proposition our President to fund me on such an adventurous journey and to discover lands never found by the world as we know it. Fortunately the King and Queen did not take a republican stance upon this request (as I would now receive) and allowed such a wonderful history to be uncovered. I would love to have seen this article published in Spanish so that I could read it pre-translated. I simply feel that the non-translated details I would notice would add to the visualization of the story. Coincidentally, I feel that visualizing history is what makes it interesting to read.
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Stroke of Good Luck
Words by Klaus Wagner
Music by Kevin Ludlow
Intro
(A) (D/A)
Been bitten by a stroke of good luck
Don't know where - it got me
Cause I feel no pain
Feels good again
Got some meaning now to open my eyes
Feeling good when - I look in the mirror
I kind of like this good luck
Feeling it
Where it takes me
I don't know
Where it leads me
Leave it forever not to be - no
Because I've been bitten by a stroke of good luck
And I - feeling its gonna be another
Good Day - tomorrow
When I go to sleep
And I don't care no more
Cause I'm gonna wake up in the blue skies
We'll be blue again
Where sun will shine
Cause the birds will fly
And I'll feel so damn high
Its good luck and I don't know where it came from
Kinda like that mole on my ass
But I like when its there
See its always clear
Please don't feel
And I feel good inside - outside
(BRIDGE)
(E) (A)
Feeling fair
Living free
Cause it's where everyone needs to be
(D)
Its in a place where they can - see
(A) (D/A)
Forever
And not think about what it would have been
Ohhhhh
Go
Go
Go, Go, Go, Go
Go
Go
Go, Go, Go
TEXT
Kevin - Well I hope that came out
Klaus - Was that fun?
See, that was a jam.
Was that fun or what? [FADE OUT]
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Kevin Ludlow
Greg Hemmingway
SPANISH 312-L
COMPOSICIÓN - EL AEROPUERTO
Muchas cosas están pasando en este aeropuerto. Hay muchas personas differentes y hay muchas cosas ver. Por ejemplo, Pepe está muy atrasado al aeropuerto hoy. Está muy atrasado y es menos orginizado que Luis. Ahora mismo, Luis está enojado mientras Martín y Julia están esperando en la sala de espera. Hay una otra chica en este aeropuerto se llama Loli, y ella es más bonita que Julia. Es muy bueno que Loli esté yendo a Mexico porque Mexico es muy bonita tambien. Loli tiene un sombrero grande y a nos gusta el sombrero de Loli. Es muy malo que Julia le olvide su ropa intima pero está bien porque recomendemos que Julia visite el doctor de cosmetica. Porque el vuelo de Martín está lista salir, recomendemos que Martín mire el tiempo. Hay un hombre muy interesante en el aeropuerto se llama Pepe. A Nos gusta el bigote de Pepe pero Pepe está muy atrasado porque antes del aeropuerto, fumaba mota. Este mañana, Luis se emborracho y ahora está demasiado viajar por avíon.
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On May 16th, 2000 Dave Guezuraga and I launched a new type of model rocket that we had never used before. Dave was the engineer behind this particular rocket and it would seem in hindsight that he crafted the machine rather well. The launch site was set at Zilker park and though the sunset made for some scenic views, it was only the result of us getting there late. As a note, it's usually not a good idea to launch model rockets at night if you expect to find them again.
We had a rather large crew / audience for this particular launch which consisted of Eric Zavesky, Klaus Wagner, Annie Van Zandt, and Dayna McKay. The schedule called for at least one test launch of the Nike Cluster, but time permitting, two would ultimately ensue.
To give a peek into the power of this rocket, this particular rocket flew on D engines, specifically D12-3 engines, but it happened to fly on 3 of them at once! It was roughly equivalent to 24 class A engines.
The Nike Cluster - Launch Number I
 A bottom view showing off its 3 class D engine mounts
Launch Date: May 16th, 2000
Launch Time: 20:18
Launch Location: Zilker Park
Approx Landing Distance: 200 meters
How did we capture this footage?
If you happen to notice the glass looking thing sitting in the middle of the above bottom right picture, it is actually a 10-gallon aquarium. The purpose of having it was so that we could capture the footage that we did. Generally speaking, we would put it directly next to the launch pad with a video camera inside of it. For this particular shoot, the video camera was a Sony Digital 8mm. The aquarium simply helped to protect the camera from being destroyed.
The Nike Cluster - Launch Number II
 The ignitor hits all three D12-3 engines at once
Launch Date: May 16th, 2000
Launch Time: 20:48
Launch Location: Zilker Park
Approx Landing Distance: 200 meters
Notes: Rocket barely recovered. Sustained damage from landing in a tree, lost parachute and nosecone
In the interest of science and exploration, why stop at one launch when you can do two? Truthfully, it was probably not a good idea for us to have gone ahead and launched the Nike Cluster a second time. The sun was almost down and it was apparent that recovering it may be somewhat of a problem. The video camera we used to capture the images happened to have nightvision on it and I suppose we figured we had some sort of an advantage over the night sky. We weren't entirely wrong.
It took about 30 minutes to recover the Nike Cluster from the first launch and have it prepped for launch II. It just so happens there would not be a launch number III.
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Ayer, miré El Mariachi, una peliculá de Robert Rodriquez. Fue una peliculá muy interesante y lo me gusta mucho. Hizo en Mexico cerca de la casa de los padres de Robert Rodriquez en 1992. Robert Rodriquez hizo la peliculá para solo siete mil dolares.
En la peliculá, hay un mariachi (Carlos Gallardo), una chica muy bonita se llama Domino (Consuelo Gómez), y muchos hombres malos. El mariachi es un hombre muy guapo y él toca la guitarra muy bueno. El mariachi es muy similar a un de los hombres malos, Moco, y hay muchos personas que quieren matarse. El mariachi usa muchos armas escaparse de los hombres malos y los especiales efectos de este son muy divertido.
Es verdad que el mariachi es muy guapo, pero Domino es mucho mas bonita que él. Duspues trienta minutos en la peliculá, Domino encanta el mariachi y traiga ayudarlo. Ella trabaja en un bar y le dice que el mariachi puede tocar en el bar.
Recomiendo que todos los personas miren esta peliculá porque es muy bueno y es la prima peliculá de Robert Rodriquez. Es mas bueno si vas a la Universidad de Tejas porque es la escuela de Robert Rodquiez.
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