‘Oryx and Crake: Challenging modern society’

In Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake,” the values of society are consistently being challenged in many different shapes and forms. As seen throughout the entirety of the novel, genetic mutations of plants, animals and humans take place. Society is split between those who work in the compounds, and those who live in the pleeblands. Another aspect of society that is being challenged is the family unit. This is displayed through the Crakers, with whom there is no family unit, and no bond between parent and child. Instead the new child is another member of society who is treated just the same as everyone else. Also, scientists, doctors, and other professionals do not simply try to cure their patients. Instead, they are in fact the people that make everyone sick to begin with. In “Oryx and Crake,” the values of modern society are challenged in a large and bold way through the actions and ideals of their society.

Throughout the novel, many new creatures and species are created due to experimentation and genetic splicing. These species, although they are designed to help provide food or organs to help the entirety of the human race, are not creatures created naturally by God. These animals, such as pigoons, were made by taking pigs and infusing

Frowley 2

them with human stem cells to produce the organ of choice. This can be seen when Jimmy reveals that “The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs in a transgenic knockout pig host,” (Atwood, 25)

Other creatures, such as chickienobs, are animals made solely for the purpose of selling for food and profit. The original animal, in this case a chicken, can not even be seen due to the extreme amounts of modifications done. An example of this comes when Jimmy sees a chickienob for the first time,

Winter Wonderland

Silent Night

Away in a Manger

O’Come all ye Faithful

Joy to the World

The Twelve days of Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Fairtytale of New York

http://www.christmas-songs.net/

I love watching Peanuts’ Christmas shows – here’s a video of my favorite song from Peanuts:

Oh Christmas

The First Noel – by Crash Test Dummies:

The Little Drummer Boy

Frosty the Snowman

Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree

Silver Bells

I’ll be home for Christmas

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus

Do they know it’s Christmas? (Feed the World)

Santa Baby

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

Ok, so a bit of a stretch for a Christmas carol I know, but Frosty the Snowman is a great song. It re-tells the age-old tale of the snowman that came to life one day, and then eventually melted. It is touching and catchy, and if it holds half as much nostalgia with you as it does with me, then I’m sure this will make your list as well.

“Frosty the snowman, was alive as he could be. And the children say he could laugh and play just the same as you and me.”

4- God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

An old classic originating in England, this is a wonderful tune offering us tidings of “comfort and joy”. This is very different sounding than all other Christmas carols, and the music is beautiful.

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman may nothing you dismay! Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day!”

3- Oh Holy Night

Another song celebrating the sort of “religious” aspect of Christmas, but that is not the only reason it is good. The all powerful vocals will constantly blow you away, and there have been some great renditions of it (Josh Groban especially).

“Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear savior’s birth”

2- Sleigh Ride

Sleigh Ride is really just an upbeat, catchy song showing the fun and family oriented side of Christmas. It is sentimental without being sappy, and the tune is very, very catchy. It often gets stuck in my head, but I enjoy it.

“Just here those sleigh bells ring-a-ling ting ting ting-a-ling too, come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!”

1-Winter Wonderland

I absolutely love this song. It not only shows the upside of “winter” but gets you excited for the holiday season, and it is not at all sappy. The tune is extremely catchy, the lyrics are very well-done, and it is just overall a wonderful song. It is actually very similar to “Sleigh Ride”.

“Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin’?”

That’s my list! I hope you enjoy all of those songs this holiday season, and have a very merry Christmas!

There are so many Christmas traditions that people take part in each year, But many of them are traditions that are centered around the adults . Whether it is going to a party with some friends, or to a cabin for a week or two . Sadly even adults that have children tend to call a sitter for a few days or drop them off , because they are going to a party or they are hosting an adult oriented party and children are not allowed to be a part of it . So they get to spend it with the sitter , rather than their parents, if you are or were one of these parents , why not start one of your own traditions with your child .

Instead of going out on the holidays and leaving your child behind , do things together with them . It does not have to be going out and spending money that you may not have . It could be something as simple as baking cookies and decorating them. Or going out and building a snowman or a fort , then having some hot cocoa with marshmallows or whipped cream then watching a movie together while warming up .

It really is the small things that you do with your child during the holidays that they remember and that mean the most to them . One thing that we as parents unfortunately do forget is that , they are only children once in their life, and before you know it your child will be grown and have a child of their own

Thanks to the plenty of snow, rescuers are busy with their work.

People have also made some snowmans.

Police department in Kent say that they have recieved serious and wierd help calls.

Call made to Kent’s police department was next: “I didn’t check for it for 5 hours, but when I went outside to have a smoke, I noticed, that it was gone,” said female caller.

If she was asked who was missing, she answered, snowman was missing.

“My snowman is missing, I thought when it’s cold and icy then noone is interested in it,” continued lady.

Police wasn’t enthusiastic about this call. Someone who really was in trouble, would have needed help at that time. This call was absolutely irresponsible.

IT’S JUST MY OPINION

I seem to feel much better writing than I do speaking. So….I guess I’ll call this my “Get it out of your system blog”.

This time of year seems to bring out the best and the worst of all of us. We have people complaining about colorful lights, decorated trees in the center of town, Manger scenes and just about anything regarding “Christmas” or Christians.

I like color in my holiday lights! White is fine…..but to me it’s just not as much fun! So…please stop dictating what color my lights should be!

I love Christmas trees…..Yep…..I said Christmas trees! I know of no law (political or religious) that states that my tree can’t be called a Christmas tree! Frankly, I don’t consider a Christmas tree as a religious symbol. I see it as a tree that we put up at Christmas. Hey….there’s no reason why every religion can’t have their own tree…..and they could call it whatever they want!

I don’t see Santa Claus as a religious symbol. Nope….I don’t. I see Santa as a loving, jolly man who does not pick out Christians to give gifts to. I can’t recall ever being asked by a Santa what my religious beliefs were.

I’m really not bothered by someone wishing me a Happy Holiday simply because I look at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year as holidays. With the vast religious beliefs out there, I can accept being wished a Happy Holiday instead of a Merry Christmas. I know I celebrate Christmas and it doesn’t matter to me that someone else doesn’t.

However……I am bothered by those who do complain (as previously stated) about my preference in the color of my lights, the music I may be playing and the fact that I may now and again slip and wish someone a “Merry Christmas” instead of that politically correct “Happy Holidays“. (I said I didn’t mind being wished a Happy Holiday, but I’m not perfect and will slip) It’s not wished as an offense…..It’s just an occasional slip of the tongue. I feel that most towns have catered to the desires of all religions who have requested their own representation of their own celebrations.

I once insulted a woman after she asked what I suggested as a non-Christian symbol. I suggested a snowman (yes I said snowman) and she very loudly reprimanded me for suggesting such a obvious Christian symbol. I could not convince this lady that a snowman IS NOT a religious symbol……That we’re talking “snow” here!

I do find that towns who are allowed to be dictated to regarding non-religious symbols should sit back and think. I know of one local town who’s street decorations lights were changed so they would not be offensive to any non Christian group. Go figure that a few colored lights decorating snowflakes, wreaths or snowmen hanging from light poles could be offensive?????

I have never been offended listening to Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, Neil Diamond or any other Jewish singer belting out “Christmas” songs. Does Billy Joel have a Holiday album? I’d listen to it.

I’m not offended by the many Jewish store owners who are smiling at the profits they’re making this time of year. They don’t seem to mind that I’m a Christian shopping in their store.

Where does it end? I can give you a list of things to be miserable about this year. Believe me this is a year I’ll be glad to see end. So why waste time worrying about the small stuff.

One final note:

God Bless Us EVERYONE!

But…..it’s just my opinion.

Oh….and Happy Everything to all!

Sincerely,

Just Me

1. Hang out with your friends. Being with your friends is always a good time and you will never run out of things to do.

2. Build a snowman. A classic way to pass the time and play in the snow.

3. Make hot chocolate. It tastes good.

4. Shovel driveways. It’s great money.

5. Bum it. Lounge around all day and watch TV.

6. If you can’t get a ride to hang out with your friends, calling them and talking to them is then next best thing.

7. Talk to them online. It lets you talk to multiple friends at a time.

8. Play them in an online video game. It’s fun.

9. Snowball fight!

10. Sleep. It’s amazing

Image via Wikipedia

A lot of snow fell recently, it stopped a lot of traffic. It might be a wise idea to think twice prior to doing extra shopping or outings just to make up for the loss of travel time prior to Christmas, that is, unless you work in retail and have some “must do” assignments.

The snowfall benefitted those working for the state or local highway departments, giving many of the workers therein extra hours, and thus, extra pay.

I’m sitting myself in front of a computer, and am able to weed out lesser photo candidates, then post worthy photos to this, my portfolio online. If there had been no snow, I probably would be out and about like everyone else. However, the blessing of snow is causing me to work on things that are online and everywhere, like a good telecommuter should be doing.

This is the time to kick back and leave the grocery shopping to the delivery people, or get gift cards for people when going to the supermarket, or to create handmade gifts like the pinata.

I know, it sounds crazy to a lot of people, like who would want to receive a pinata in the shape of a stocking for Christmas? Excuse me, I know that I sure would. Making a papier-mache project requires only a few days of indoor storage to make properly, and to dry properly. The only materials needed are newspaper, flour, water, as well as time to allow the project to dry.

Then, of course, there is the candy that usually goes inside of the pinata, or the paint or the magazine cutouts or the tissue paper or the gift wrap used to make the pinata look nice. That’s something that we could do during a snowfall, and then, dear telecommuters, we could send the idea back to Mexico, where factory workers could translate the whole project into Spanish, create more accurate and calibrated directions, and then outsource the project to various factories throughout Latin America.

Studying Spanish is something that a person might enjoy doing during a snowfall, being given the opportunity to visit areas within the United States such as certain areas of states like North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, and California where having a 12 grade reading level in the Spanish language as well as the English language is not mandatory, as long as one is willing to work in a restaurant or get a master’s degree.

Then, there’s this book called the Bible, which sort of relates to Christmas. There are four books in the New Testament, four chapters, called the Gospel, which relate the story of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, who the story of Christmas is purportedly the beginning of the life story of. Christianity and the Bible might have at least as much to do with the spirit of the holiday as running around in galoshes or cowboy boots to get to the SUV in order to do mall-crawling or outlet shopping.

Bigfoot became known to early tribes and settlers; he was also present in native traditions and journals of early settlers. Bigfoot’s name derives from the large footprints his trail leaves. Over the decades people give Bigfoot names such as Wauk-Wauk, Oh-Mah, and Saskehavis. Nobody had any interest in Bigfoot until the European Settlers started seeing him. Canada knows Bigfoot as Sasquatch. Bigfoot became largely known in the 1950s when he was sighted by a crew in California (Lamy 4; “Apelike Monsters”).

Most reports describe Bigfoot very similarly. These reports describe Bigfoot as being six to eight feet tall and weighing as much as five hundred pounds. Bigfoot’s hair has been described as covering his entire body and being brown, gray, or black (“Bigfoot,” Encyclopedia Americana 735; Cohen, “Bigfoot” 63). Descriptions of Bigfoot describe him as “having an immense, muscled body” (Lamy 4).

Creatures such as Bigfoot have been reported in all states of the country but ordinary Bigfoot sightings have been “confined to northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho” (Simpson 251-252). “In North America, the greatest number of sightings of Bigfoot have come from the Fraser River Valley, the Strait of Georgia, and Vancouver Island” (“Apelike Creatures”). In 1958, a machine operator, Jerry Crew, in California made casts of a footprint he found, which made the myth popular. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin horseback ride through an area of north California searching for Bigfoot when one appeared in their path, propelling Roger from his horse. Roger got back up and began to film as Bob kept a gun on the creature. The film shows the creature walking away from the camera. The creature “does not appear to be frightened, but it is obvious that it wishes to avoid contact” (“Apelike Creatures”). Scientists say that the creature stands seven feet tall and left footprints seventeen inches long. Unfortunately, Roger Patterson died in 1972 (Lamy 4; “Apelike Monsters”).

Along with Bigfoot, another creature, commonly named Abominable Snowman or the Yeti, may or may not exist. The Abominable Snowman got his name because he and his footprints have been sighted in the snow areas of the Himalayas. In China, they call the Abominable Snowman, yeren (“Apelike Monsters”). “Reports of such a creature have also come from remote parts of China, Siberia, and other parts of Asia” (Cohen, “Abominable Snowman” 12).

Reports describe the creature as being six to eight feet tall and having long hair. His footprints have been as long as sixteen inches. Reports describe the creature as standing and walking upright with his arms stretching to his knees. People who have seen the Abominable Snowman claim that his face resembles those of an ape and human. People describe the Abominable Snowman’s hair to be dark and long. (“Abominable Snowman,” Encyclopedia Americana 43; Cohen, “Abominable Snowman” 13).

Unlike Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman has not been sighted very much. People usually just see his footprints and not the actual being. In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary hunted for the Abominable Snowman with his team; World Book Encyclopedia sponsored the search. After Hillary’s search, he concluded that the Abominable Snowman only existed as a legend and the large footprints could be human or other animal footprints melted by the sun (Nickell 8). Despite calling the Abominable Snowman a legend, they did find hair in a high mountain pass. In April of 1995, Professor Yuan Zhengxin conducted a search for the Abominable Snowman. The professor and his team looked in the Hubei mountain areas. Professor Zhengxin felt very strongly that they could catch a snowman within the first three years, but most of his team left by the first three months with nothing to show for their efforts (“Apelike Monsters”).

Categorized with Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman, the Skunk Ape may exist. The Skunk Ape became known to the residents of Florida “since the early days of that state’s history” (“Apelike Monsters”). The Skunk Ape probably got his name because he supposedly has a bad smell associated with him. The smell of the Skunk Ape resembles “a strong mixture of rotten eggs, manure and an elephant’s cage” (Lamy 16).

The Skunk Ape has been described by law enforcement to be “about 10 feet tall and weighed around 1,000 pounds” (“Apelike Monsters”). People that have tried searching for the Skunk Ape claim he lives in the Everglade swamp. The Skunk Ape supposedly soaks up the smell of the dead animals in the swamp, resulting in the horrid smell that accompanies the creature (“Apelike Monsters”).

Sightings of the Skunk Ape stopped for a while. In 2001 the police department received a letter from an anonymous person. The letter enclosed pictures of a creature, which the sender stated, was loose around and near the Myakka State Park region. She feared the creature may harm her family. When cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, and animal welfare specialist, David Barkasy, analyzed the pictures they concluded that the pictures appeared to be good evidence of the existence of the creature (“Apelike Monsters”).

The existence of these creatures cannot easily be accepted because so little evidence exists. The existing evidence lacks detail and does not help much in verifying or denying the existence of these creatures. People still search for evidence that scientist cannot deny and maybe one day the world will know if creatures such as these really exist or not.

Works Cited

“Abominable Snowman.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia University Press, 2000. 180. General One File. Web. 18 Feb. 2009.

“Abominable Snowman.” Encyclopedia Americana. 2004 ed. Print.

“Apelike Monsters.” Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. Eds. Brad Steiger and Sherry Hanson Steiger. Vol 3. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Virtual Library. Web. 18 Feb. 2009.

“Bigfoot.” The American Heritage Dictionary. 1991 ed. Print.

“Bigfoot.” Encyclopedia Americana. 2004 ed. Print.

Cohen, Daniel. “Abominable Snowman.” World Book. 2002 ed. Print.

Cohen, Daniel. “Bigfoot.” World Book. 2002 ed. Print.

Eason, Cassandra. Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols. Westport, CT: Eason, 2008. Print.

Lamy, Matt. 100 Strangest Unexplained Mysteries. London, England: Capella , 2003. Print.

Loxton, Daniel. “Big foot, Bigger Hoax. (News).” Skeptic (Altadena, CA) 10.1 (Spring 2003): 18. General One File. Web. 20 Feb. 2009.

Loxton, Daniel. “The First Tracks!” Skeptic (Altadena, CA) 10.2 (Summer 2003): 97. General One File. Web. 20 Feb. 2009.

Nickell, Joe. “Sir Edmund Hillary, Explorer, Skeptic (1919-2008). (News and Comment).” Skeptical Inquirer 32.2 (May-June 2008): 8. General One File. 20 Feb. 2009.

Radford, Benjamin. “Georgia Bigfoot Hoax Draws Global Attention (News and Comment).” Skeptical Inquirer 32.6 (Nov.-Dec. 2008): 5. General One File. Web. 20 Feb. 2009.

“Sasquatch.” The American Heritage Dictionary. 1991 ed. Print.

Shackley, Myra. Still Living. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1983. Print.

Simpson, Philip L. “Bigfoot.” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Eds. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol 1. Detriot: St. James Press, 2000. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2009.

2. Bake Cookies for Santa with your kids and/or family. The sweet smell of gingerbread or sugar cookies is sure to bring everyone closer together.

3. Set up the lights around your house. With their wide array of colors and different flash patterns everyone will be amazed at how great they look.

4. You can never forget Rudolph and the reindeer gang. Lay out some carrots and reindeer food (oatmeal balls usually preferred) on your lawn Christmas Eve to fuel those reindeer on their trip across the world.

5. Decorate the house with Christmas Ornaments. Being surrounded by festive decorations will lighten up your spirits and brighten your day.

6. Decorate your Christmas Tree! Cutting it down and then putting it up. It will help your whole family bond and will help to make your neighborhood look better.

7. Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow! Snow makes everyone love Christmas just that much more! Everyone wants a white Christmas and snow is just the thing to perfect the day of Christmas.

8. Build a Snowman! With a carrot for a nose and a top hat it will be the perfect addition to your wintery front yard. People will drive by your house in jealousy wishing they had a snowman so they will go build their own. Soon you will start a chain reaction!

9. Give to Charity. Help those less fortunate than yourselves. Trust me, it will make you feel better about yourself and your community.

10. Last but not least, just be with your family. Let them know that you love them and spend time with them. They will cherish that time im sure of it.