#4 This is the hardest blog ever.

   My parents are your ordinary white parents, but no so white they'd be considered rednecks. Yes we own guns, no we don't hunt, yes we fish, no we don't have Duck Dynasty beards, and yes we have a truck (mine), but no we don't blare deep south "hick" music from it or go mudding with it. We are a typical white family and i try to honor that, sometimes, by doing (almost) everything my parents have asked me to do.

   First off, my parents were musically inclined and did band all the way through high school. They wanted me to get into music so I started taking piano lessons in kindergarten. I took lessons all the way up until this year, I had to decide between football and piano and football was the obvious choice. My parents also wanted me to be in band so I joined percussion, but hated it and quit after 8th grade. I tried to honor my parents musical culture but it just wasn't for me.

   In addition, my family likes to stay connected with our extended family as much as possible. I do my best to honor this by giving my grandparents a call ever so often or sending the occasional text to my aunts and uncles to catch up on things. I absolutely love talking with family because I barely get to see them. Family is the key unit in life and without family life is empty. It is these little conversations we have every once in a while that keep us connected until we can see each other during the holidays and it is the moments from the holidays that will be remembered forever. By honoring this for my parents it allows for our families to stay together even though we are so far apart.

   Finally, my family has made a culture of attending the University of Texas in Austin for college. I plan on honoring this by applying there this year. If I don't go to UT I would be the only one to not go there in my family. Everyone, including my brother right now, has gone to UT and I plan on honoring this culture they have created by going there too. I will honor this culture but will create my own identity by finding "who I am" up there.

   Families try to enforce everything on their kids and some may actually stick, like the UT thing and staying connected with family did for me, but some may not fall through the cracks, like the music thing for me. The hard part in life is finding the middle ground of being who your parents want you to be while becoming your own person. My parents are white and we don't have a redneck culture like some may think all white people have. My family doesn't really have any special culture which I think makes us the way we are.
 

Blog #3. Hardest Blog Ever.

   Edgar Allen Poe, the father of all the creepy arts, is a badass because he has an NFL team named after one of his poems (the Baltimore Ravens). Not only is the team named after one of his works but the three mascots are each named after him, one raven is Edgar, another is Allen, and the last one is Poe. This achievement alone makes me idolize him as a writer but because he is the father of all the creepy arts is why I would look at some of his work to get ideas when creating my own scary story.

   Five techniques that Poe used in "Fall of the House of Usher" that I would definitely try to mimic are the use of imagery, personification of the setting, some type of perverse sexual behavior, resurrection, and a vague ending to mess with the reader's imagination.  These five things are what make the story scary/creepy and are definitely what I would take from him and try to use.

   Imagery use is vital to the creepy factor because this is what makes the reader feel like they are actually in the story. Imagery is what messes with the reader's mind because of how real it makes the setting feel. Poe uses imagery in "House of Usher" when he describes the house as its falling to its destruction and makes the reader feel as if they are there with when Madeline rises from the dead and makes Roderick die of fear. Along with imagery is the personification of the setting. Poe personifies the house when it is making all the nosies and is "possessed by the devil" and how the house has "feelings". Imagery and personification of the setting are the two most important factors I would take from Poe.

   Perverse sexual behavior, like incest, in the House of Usher, is a factor that doesn't add to the scare factor but makes the creepy factor go off the charts. Madeline and Roderick were twins but more "more than that". Being more than a sibling to your sibling is just weird and disgusting and defines who Poe is as a writer.  Resurrection adds to both the scare factor and creepy factor. Seeing someone at your doorstep that you just buried would be scary as hell. Roderick was right to be literally scared to death because I would be terrified if that happened and scarred for life because of how creepy that would be. To go along with the creepy factor, the use of a vague ending moves that even farther off the chart. It is unsure who really died and what truly happens at the end of the story. This messes with the reader's mind and imagination which is why I would steal it from him.

   If I had to make a scary story these five techniques would be what I would use for sure. Thanks to Mr. Poe we have the scary stories and movies and a lll different forms of art that follow his original setup.