Karen Page's Page of Komics: "The Anime Club"

I'm going to use this space to recommend one of my favorite comics of all time, KC Green's The Anime Club. I will warn you now that this comic relies on the reader's ability to relate to it. If you have no prior history with anime and/or had friends who really enjoyed anime, a lot of this comic's charm might be lost on you. Which is damn shame because it's a very enjoyable journey. Especially since it's all too real when it comes to the experiences anime fans have gone through. Who could forget that time you punched someone in the face for talking shit about Card Captor Sakura? The characters seem to be like every fucking anime fan you met or were yourself, from the overly-enthusiastic weaboos to the pretentious douchebags with better taste than you. Anyway, I'd say give it a shot anyway because it does have a plot to it rather than just "haha anime references". It's also fairly short so you don't have much to lose.

The Anime Club revolves around four high schoolers in their own Anime Club: Mort, Mark, Dave, and their newest member, Clyde. Kicked out of Mort's house, the comic starts off with the Anime Club meeting being held at the local library. Mort's choice of entertainment for the meeting is an animated porno, "hentai", lovingly named "Smegma Princess". Unfortunately, the data in the disc is corrupted, giving Dave's computer a virus. A fist fight and a Dave's meltdown later, the club is banned from the library. And thus the quest to find a new meeting location and a refund begins.

My favorite thing about this comic is the outstanding art style. It really carries an old school cartoon look, thick lines, ridiculously dramatic faces, the works. It's almost like something you would find on Nickelodeon. Not only that but you can actually see the artist's improvement over time! We don't often see an artist's progress. We're given the finished, concrete version of their work. Sure, it's important to have consistent quality content but there's something refreshing about seeing where someone started and where they currently are now. (Which is funny because I never keep my old drawings and yet here I am raving about seeing progress on paper.)

Here are some examples of how the visual quality of the artist's content has improved:

From Part 0...

...to Part 1, we can already see a vast improvement.

One of the original strips from Part 0

Compared to Part 4!

The timing, mood, and storytelling have all improved dramatically from the beginning strips! The storytelling stays pretty consistent from Part 1 and on, and the humor is excellent throughout, so it's great ride from start to finish!

If the comic caught your attention, read all 6 parts here! ♥

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Senior Year: The Long Expeted Journey

    As the sun sets on yet another summer evening, it becomes harder and harder to ignore the inevitable: senior year is upon us. While most of my classmates anxiously await the start of the final year of high school, I’m petrified. Suddenly the need for my relatives to know what I’m going to do with my life has become downright intimidating.I have spent the past two weeks, systematically avoiding the topic. Which is actually pretty ironic. If you would have asked the girl in the picture where she wanted to be in the next twelve years, she would have looked you straight in the eye and answered, “I’m going to change the world, or at least settle for world domination. ”
           Many years have passed since I first dreamt of world domination, and, like most things, I grew out of it. Soon my dreams began to take a more attainable shape, by the time I was 10, I had decided I was: (1) NEVER going to lose to Marvin Ayala EVER again; (2) go to Oxford University (or any famous ivy league); (3) say a speech during my graduation; and (4) change the world. As time went by, I started to add to that list. Suddenly, things like getting the full IB Diploma, graduating with a 5.0 GPA, join as many clubs as I can get my hands on and other stereotypical "college ready, college bound' overachiever goals were all I could think about. However, life has a very funny way of helping you reevaluate your goals.
         Suddenly all those things I once thought were a "shoe in" for Ivey League Universities don't seem to matter anymore.To be completely honest, I no longer find people who brag about their almamader impressive. Instead I have completely fallen in love with the idea of attending a liberal arts college, that's not necessarily well known, but genuinely cares about their students.Part of me secretly can not wait to experience what William Deresiewicz  describes as the purpose of college is , "...to assist you to establish communication between mind and the heart, mind and experience, that you become an individual being-a soul." While that sounds all too swell and dandy,  the fact it in a few months in less than 3 months I'll be applying, still renders me cripple.

So what are my goals for senior then?

1) Make the Freshmen fall in love with M.E.S.A
    M.E.S.A is one of those few things I never pictured joining, I always pictured my self more of a verbal competitor. Everything change once I entered Ms. Nguyen's class that fateful Thursday, I was hooked. I met the people who would become my heroes. Suddenly I was submerged to a buffet of opportunities  where I would be to  cater to my competitive needs. Now because  I am perhaps, one of the most selfish person  I know , I never want to see M.E.S.A fall before my very eyes.  Especially after I just met two freshmen boys Darien and Brian,who are the living proof that there is hope for class of 2018. I want to make sure M. E.S.A is to them, what it was for me. So I am going to give everything I got to make sure M.E.S.A remains that society of awesome.
2.) Become Empress of Yearbook (editor)
This is actually one is actually inspired by two people, their names? Rick Rodríguez and Karen Page. Rick taught me that it is possible to be both academic and artsy. Karen taught me that I have to take time to get art. These were probably the greatest editors we have ever had.  However there was one thing missing, the real voice, the real face of Firebaugh, or at least the real  representation of the class of 2015. I want to show that we are more than just Jesus Fuentes, that we are more Randy Heffernan. We are actors, engineers, artists, and academic decathletes. That's what I want to show in this year's yearbook. This is what I want to be shown in for every class.

3)Advance to the second round for Mock Trial and win the Top Scoring Decathlete.
It's been 3 years you guys, these are basically for:
 

4. Finish my comic book.
Because there should be a comic book that follows the life of a super hero slowly losing his immortality to Alzheimer's.
5. Build a giant bra and thong and hang it around school.
Why? Because Mr.Wilson said I would never do it.
6. Become either a Quest bridge or Gates millennium scholar.
Self explanatory.

The rest of my goals are pretty strait forward, stop procrastinating, strait A's, get accepted into college, find a better way to release stress, pass my I.B exams etc. But I mean who doesn't want that right?

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Two Years: A Look Back

August 2, 2012. This is the date in which everything began... Well in this blog for the most part. This writing experiment has now officially been ongoing for two years, a milestone that is noteworthy because I sincerely did not see it getting here. A year maybe, but two I mean come on lets pat ourselves in the back. I have to say there have been moments where this blog has come near to internet irrelevancy, check the post history, but it has kept itself alive like Rocky in that one movie. You know which one I'm talking about. You know the one where he punches this dude, yea that one. Anyways to commemorate this event I give you the collective reaction of all most of the writers on staff. Enjoy. -G&W

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Karen x 7: Name Changes And Why People Need To Chill

I always had a huge fascination with how people named their children. Why, out of all the sounds you can throw onto a child, did you choose this? So, naturally, I would ask my mom why they chose Karen for me.
She told me, "Te pusimos el nombre Karen, porque cuando tu papá estaba joven, se enamoró de su maestra. Pero no puedian estar juntos porque ella era mas mayor de edad. Me dijo cuando estabamos juntos que si tenia una hija, le iba poner Karen."
Basically, my father picked it for me in memory of his old crush on his teacher, according to my mother. My mom would always pick on him, calling her his ex-girlfriend.  I loved it. I never asked my dad for his side of the story because it was so entertaining to me, I didn't want any of the humor or "magic" to be broken. I had such a strong connection with my first name. Everything about it made me happy. The way I had to write the letter "K", three giant sticks heading in different directions. Meaning "torture" or "pure" depending on which era you're looking at. Shortened form of Katherine, becoming 2 syllables, easy to pronounce. Short, sweet, to the point. Simple. It was just right for me.

Too bad everyone's parents seemed to think the same thing because we had around 5 different Karens in each fucking class.

Karen Ramirez, Karen Hernandez, Karen Fombona, and Karen Ruiz. None of them carrying a convenient nickname in their pockets except for Karen Peña in my yearbook class, who's nickname was "Little Karen", because she was two years younger than me. (Firebaugh students flourish with creativity.) There had to be at least 2 Karens per class and I remember being caught by surprise when there was only one Karen in my senior world history class, can you say #blessed? By the end of senior year, whenever I heard the name Karen, I stopped turning around so I wouldn't waste my time finding out they were calling out some other Karen. Caused a lot of trouble when people were actually calling me, haha.

Going into my first semester of college, I had taken a Intro to Japanese class. Soothing, calm, and no clamoring noise of three girls trying to claim the name Karen at once. No awkward turning of heads trying to figure out which Karen they meant, so they wouldn't get an accidental absence on their record. So far so good. Until I hit my first art classes. Two art classes, two Karens in each one. Ruiz in one and Long in the other. Now, I wouldn't mind being in a lecture class and having a thousand Karens because it doesn't matter because none of us will be talking and all we have to do is sign our names on a sheet. But in these very interactive courses with smaller class sizes, getting confused happens. Especially when second semester hits and the three Karen artists got caught in the same 2D foundation class.

But enough about Karen, let's talk about Ramirez. Ramirez is just not a name I identify with. I was never called by it and the only times I used it were for papers. It felt like a student number, just there to sort me away from different Karens. And while I respect my ancestors and my parents for passing it down to me. But it's just that. It was passed onto me and I never fully accepted it.

And now, finally, onto Page. Page is a name I very much identify with. I started an art blog under the name Page for my art commissions, and it just became a norm for others to contact me as Page. In this world I was no longer Karen Ramirez. I was just Page. And what makes me happy is that I chose it for myself because it feels like myself. My closest friends gradually started calling me Page and slowly I'm trying to introduce myself as such. I accept it and would prefer to be called Page rather than Karen or Ramirez. It just became a part of who I am.

The biggest problem with this name change for me is bringing it up to people who only call me Karen. Which, I think is why I even wrote this piece. Whenever I bring it up to not so close friends, they don't understand why I even want to do it in the first place. That's fine. I don't mind if people don't understand but still go along with it. Hell, I don't even care if you slip and call me Karen by accident because it's bound to happen. But I've had people outright refuse to call me Page altogether because it would be an inconvenience for them to have to remember a new name. They won't even try. Being unable to be slightly uncomfortable for .02 seconds to comfort a friend who's trying to go through a process, just doesn't sit right with me. It's big but not everyone feels so attached to their names. Changing your name is a slight change of worlds and, to me, it's a new step in the direction I want to go in my life.

Tl;dr: I'm named after my dad's ex. Life as Karen. I changed my last name. Prefer to be called by it. People change their names. Don't be a dick about it.

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Thoughts That Arise in The Last Minutes of August 1st 2k14

   

   With only roughly less than  ninety minutes left of August 1st, and "Good For Great" by Matt and Kim playing softly in the background, I can't help but feel emotionally overwhelmed by the situation that I have found my self in. Life is happening too fast.

   I guess it's more than that. To be honest I'm really pissed off.  I'm mad at myself for not being able to finish my first blog post, even though I've been working on it for two weeks. I'm mad because I'm too scared to write about my goals. I'm mad for ignoring my friends advice on attending  college work shops. I'm mad because I ignored Dr.Busick's email, for postponing my historiography research. I'm mad because I spent thirty minutes staring at a screen before I actually started writing this. I'm mad because I'm not ready to see the "places I'll go". I'm mad because I stared at the  Common App for one fucking  hour  and deciding that I'll start it tomorrow. I am mad because I  haven't been able to come to terms with the fact that, in less than a year I will no longer attend school with my younger brother. For starting 95% of these sentences with "I'm mad..." That I'm graduating.

    I'm astonished at how eager my friends and classmates are to leave, how easy they can just throw it away. To throw away childhood. To be excited for senior year. Were we not sophomores not too long ago? I used to want this day to happen, I really did. So badly I wanted to see the world.I remember counting down the years until the day would arrive for me to leave. I was such a pretentious little brat when I started high school.  Now that I'm starting the long expect journey, I don't even have the will to open the door.

   To top it all off  I couldn't even plaster on a smile for my little cousins birthday.


 ..... I really don't know when I'll finally "agarro la onda", but hopefully it happens soon. I really want to finish that post.

   

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Gadflies: Philosophy Versus Ideology

This was my very first paper written in college. Not my very best work, but I think I did an adequate job for my initial attempt at a university-level final paper assignment. I did this at the very last minute and I remember the night before it was due very well. I was extremely stressed and panicking because I had run out of ideas to write about. Nonetheless, I survived and turned it in. I got a decent grade for it, so it wasn't that bad.

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Hume's Argument Against Reason in Conclusions of Cause & Effect

           In the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume sets out to show that all knowledge can be derived from experience. Hume takes a particular look at the experience of cause and effect and our knowledge of the relation between the two. It is in the fourth section of the Enquiry that he presents what one commentator (Peter Millican) describes as Hume's “most celebrated argument” concerning the relation of cause and effects. It is obvious that we experience things of which we call causes and other things which effects, but Hume is interested in how and why one can conclude anything at all from such an experience. Hume answers in part two of the fourth section, that conclusions from an experience of seemingly cause and effect, cannot be founded by reasoning. He therefore takes it as his aim to explain and defend this answer throughout the fourth section and the rest of the text. I will therefore argue in this paper that Hume's argument for his solution functions as a viable defense for his solution.              

          Prior to Hume's discussion of cause and effect he makes an important distinction between two kinds of objects of reason. That is to say a distinction between the kind of things that one can reason about. This distinction will aid us in our understanding of Hume's discussion of cause and effect. One kind of object of reason is what Hume calls relation of ideas. By ideas Hume means the less lively and less forcible perceptions of the mind. Ideas are faint copies of another kind of perception of the mind known as impressions which are lively perceptions (such as hearing, seeing, feeling) and are forced upon our minds. Relation of ideas Hume means, “every affirmation, which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain”(4.1) Things that are intuitively certain are things that are known through a direct intellectual grasp, such as our knowledge that 2+2=4. Things that are demonstratively certain are things which can be proven by a sequence of intuitive steps, such as a proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem (that the square of the hypotenuse of a triangle is equal to the square of its two other sides). Relation of ideas are thus objects of reasons which can be known a priori. By a priori I do not mean to imply that there is any innate knowledge in people (recall that ideas are derive from impressions which are derived from experience), but that only that it can be justified without experience.

       The second kind of objects of reason Hume calls matters of fact. Matters of fact are in contrast, a posteriori, that is they can only be learned through experience. They concern ideas in relation to the actual world. For example, it is a matter of fact that words are appearing on the screen of my computer after I press buttons on my keyboard. And it is not a contradiction to suppose that a matter of fact such as this could be otherwise. For it could be the case that I press the buttons on my keyboard and birds start to fly out my computer screen. For this reason Hume thinks that “every matter of fact is still possible” (4.2) since every outcome which we conceive by the mind would have the same “facility and distinctness” (4.2). Therefore, matters of fact cannot be demonstratively or intuitively certain.

                 Now we have sufficient understanding of Hume's distinction of objects of reason to proceed to unravel his enquiry of cause and effect. Hume decides to investigate a little deeper into the nature of the evidence that gives us an assurance of matters of fact. Matters of fact he states are found on relations of cause and effects. Recall, I found that it is a matter of fact that words appear on my computer screen after I pressed keys on my keyboard. And still as I continue to type this paper I am making an on-going inference that there is a connexion between my pressing the keys and words appearing on the screen. But on grounds is this inference made? Hume answers that the connexion between cause and effect is not intuitive and there is a required medium (grounds) from which to make the inference. As this is as Hume says a “new” (4.17) question we should not trust our own “penetration” (4.17) of the question and instead lay out all the different kinds of reasonings and show that none of them make a viable medium for inferences of cause and effect.

                 Hume divides all reasoning into two kinds, demonstrative reasoning and moral reasoning. Demonstrative reasoning is the reasoning concerning relation of ideas. Arguments from this kind of reasoning involve intuitive steps such as, if you recall, my earlier example of Pythagoras’s theorem. Moral reasoning concerns matters of fact and involves uncertain inductive steps. I am using moral reasoning to infer at this moment that words will continue to appear on my screen after I press the keys because that has been the case several times in the past. Therefore, if Hume is to show that our conclusions from experience of cause and effect cannot be derived from reason he will have to show that that these kinds of reasoning are not plausible mediums from which to infer the connexion between cause and effect.

                   Hume first refutes the possibility that the grounds for the inference of cause and effect can be founded on demonstrative reasoning. Demonstrative reasoning if you recall are always certain. That is, a denial of it would imply a contradiction. 2+2=4 can be not be conceived to be any other way or else it would be a contradiction. But as Hume points out, “it implies no contradiction that the course of nature may change” (4.18). For there is no contradiction in supposing that birds may fly out of computer screen after I press on the keys. Such conceptions would seem to oppose the nature of demonstrative reasoning. Another much simpler refutation to this kind of reasoning is that demonstrative reasoning requires no experience, but we need experience in order to infer an effects from its cause. For a person that has never seen a gun could not infer without experience that a bullet will be fired after the trigger is pulled.

                 Hume then continues to investigate whether moral reasoning could be a plausible medium for the inference. We have said that matters of fact are founded on the relations of cause and effects, and that we know that relation from experience. In our ending conclusion we want to be able to say that the future will resemble the past. But in moral reasoning this means, the future will resemble the past, because future has always resemble the past. But this doesn't tell us why the future must still resemble the past. The evidence itself supposes the conclusion which generates a circular argument.

It must follow then that our conclusions from experiences of cause and effects (namely that there is a connexion between the two) cannot be founded on reason. This negative argument (one that derives it conclusion through the negation of the other options) is one that is not only plausible but also perfectly viable if we are to accept Hume's empiricist philosophy. For in order to refute Hume, one would either have to show how relation of ideas and matters of fact do not cover the all objects of reasoning, or prove that there is an object-less reasoning which both exists and is viable solution for making inferences of cause and effect. Otherwise we must accept as Hume does in the fifth section of the Enquiry that we only draw conclusions of cause and effect out of a habit of seeing the events constantly conjoined.

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