The Perfect Cookie

That perfect cookie. You know the one you just take out of the oven. When the chocolate chip cookie is taken off the cooling rack and the steam is coming off in perfect spirals. The scent it just an overwhelming smell of sweet that just

makes your mouth just want to water. When you break the cookie, some of the perfectly cooked golden brown pieces crumble to the floor while the melted chocolate chips cover everything in a thin layer of brown, chocolaty goodness. When you bite into it, the different textures of the cookie and chocolate combine to make a sweet taste that is hard to describe other than delicious. That’s the perfect cookie.

Journal #3

1. Cite three specific examples of Hodgman’s descriptive imagery that you find to be particularly effective.
1. There were chunks in the can, certainly-big purplish-brown chunks.
2. The meat was dark, dark brown, and it was surrounded by gelatin that was almost black. I knew I would die if I tasted it, so I put it outside for the raccoons.
3. Except for a lingering rancid-fat flavor, the gravy wasn’t beefy, but it tasted primarily like tap water, it wasn’t nauseating either.

2. What do you think Hodgman’s purpose was in writing this essay? What overall message/meaning do you take from the essay?

The purpose of the author writing the essay was to tell the world about the food that we are feeding our animals. She tries to convey the fact that the food is gross and unappealing. She also tells the reader that marketers, are just that; they are people trying to trick pet owners with pretty packaging to buy a product that may neither be healthy nor tasty to our animals. What I took from this essay is to never eat dog food, and also that most of the packages lie to get a person to buy the food.

Journal #2

1. How are the moths in the essay opening different from the moth at the campsite? What do the different moths represent?

In the beginning of the essay, the moths start out as already dead. They were killed by a spider in the web. In the campfire scene, the moths are flying around the campfire, obviously alive. The two moths represent of the two ways a person can take life and showing people how to live life by saying that take the risk and die bright and adventurous.

2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students?

The moths by the fire provide the lesson of taking risks and having fun with life, because you only live once. Also it is about “quality over quantity.” A good quote to describe this is the quote “life is not about how many breaths you take, but by how many moments that take your breath away.”

3. How many references are there to fire in the essay? What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay?

There are about three mentions mentions of fire in the essay. The significance of fire is that it burns up the moths, and that she leaves a candle lit while she sleeps. She leaves the fire burning to try to copy the moth’s life by taking risks.

4. Address how each of the following quotes connect to Dillard’s overall point.

a. “I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

-Jack London

They are saying that they would rather be noticed, the will away in the background dull and unseen, which is much like the author of this essay because the author would rather take risks and have fun than be safe and bored.

b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

-William Butler Yeats

It relates to the essay because they both refer to the idea of being passionate about learning and not just absorbing the information, but understanding it and being inspired by it.

c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”-Franz Kafka

It relates because they both talk about an ax, and how a person needs to approach life full, and not half heartily.

Cowboy's Rough Day

“Rough day Jim?” Noah, the bartender of Shoot’s bar, asks me as he slides the coke across the mahogany bar table. “You don’t even know” I say with a loud sigh.

You see, today something strange happened that made me change

After thinking, I decided I would confront him about the horrible thing he had done to me; it’s time he paid. I searched around the run down town until I saw him leaning against Shoot’s. As I walked towards him, I notice that something is off. “What’s wrong with you,” I said sarcastically. Matt looked up, and to my surprise, when he saw me he smiled. “Jim! How you doing!” he said. “Not good, thanks to you!” I said angrily, seeing a fight in my near future. “Oh man, I’m so sorry about losing your job! I miss our constant bickering!” he said. As he talked, I looked into his eyes, and saw a few tears welling up. He really was sorry about what happened. Maybe the hate was all in my head, and I felt horrible for hating him all this time. We chatted for hours after that, and after he left, I went into the bar. While sitting there drinking my coke, I realized that you really don’t know a person until you talk to them and try to understand, instead of making your own assumptions based on first impressions.my views about people forever. This morning I was riding

my favorite stallion, Misty, around town when I saw everyone is whispering to each other and giving me strange looks. I decided to ask around about the commotion, I came to the knowledge that Matt Burgan was back in town. Normally, news like this is not headline worthy, but the problem was, Matt and I go way back. We hatted each other ever since we first laid eyes on each other, back when we worked together on a corn farm. Usually I just leave people like this alone, but he just made me angry for some reason. I am not sure if it was the looks he would give me or

what, but every day at work we would fight and fight, and sometimes, it just got nasty. It got so bad to the point where one of us had to be fired. That’s when I swore I would get him back for what he did to me

.