Since the age of two, I have lived in seven different cities around the world and attended more schools than I could remember, even a few dreaded boarding schools. At the moment, my family moves around often five different cities as a result of my Dad’s work. Because I have been in different international schools since the age of ten, there has not been a city I have traveled to that I did not have the pleasure of a friend to see, or to pick me up from the airport. Strictly speaking, my best friends, or social groups, are not associated with home. My sense of home comes from experiences such biting into the Montana Burger at Shanghai’s Blue Frog Restaurant, driving by the calm and familiar roads of Burnaby, or hearing Asian languages in many public places of Richmond BC. Since these senses of home are not always available to me, I naturally connect to more available senses of home.

I connect to different franchise stores that give me a sense of home. I recall being very disappointed during my first visit to McDonalds in China, and very thrilled when Cold Stone opened in Vancouver. Since I was a young child, I have been eating a lot of McDonalds’ fast food. When the menu was different in China, and when the fries tasted different, my desperation for the familiarity, consistency, and comfort of the fast food franchise, turned into disappointment. Cold Stone Creamery, an ice cream shop, has been a family and friend hang out place for me since I was ten years old. The only other place I have ever seen, and frequently visited a Cold Stone, is in Shanghai. There they would sing the Cold Stone song, while they made customer’s order; enjoying cake batter ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery meant home in Shanghai to me. Now that Cold Stone is in Vancouver; that is no longer the case. Franchises are so important to my senses of cities and homes that ordering different meals at McDonalds, as a result of the pricing and menus, will always remind me exactly where I am. For example, if I were to order Chicken Wings at a McDonald’s store, I would be in Hong Kong. In Vancouver, I always order as little as possible, since it is relatively expensive there. In the United States, I would always order as much as possible, since it is relatively inexpensive. However, if I were in the American state of California, I would never be in McDonalds’, since I would only be at the In-N-Out fast food chain. I may be mistaken about some franchise facts, but because of this, the casual thoughts in my head about franchises only become even more intimate, in connecting myself to certain places in the world that I have been to. I spent five years of my childhood in Burnaby, and I always thought Arby’s fast food restaurants only existed in Burnaby. Whenever I am in the area, I would go feast out on hamburgers and curly fries in Burnaby to remind myself of my childhood. I live in Waterloo now, and recently been in a car crash. The auto shop repairing my car has an Arby’s right across from it. Now Arby’s remind me of both my carefree childhood and my tougher young adulthood.

To me, the physical home refers to a place for sleeping, showering, and making meals. The physical home can be anywhere, and yet, it never gives me the sense of home. What is home without the smell of my mother’s cooking or the sounds of my little brothers playing? To me, consistency defines the feeling or sense of home. Not too long ago, I was the type of person who would be a frequent visitor to big clubs. Now that I think about it, to me, loud music and red bull vodkas are consistent all around the world, more consistent in giving me the sense of home than a physical home. For this reason, instead of cuddling up in a comfortable bed, making my way to the clubs would be the first thing I used to do after arriving at any city. This is my fifth week in Waterloo, Ontario. Home in Waterloo means roommates, bedbugs, packed belongings, and the cold. I am no longer in a city due to coincidences, but as a result of a conscious decision. Every day I work, and build new life experiences without turning to my past senses of home. I hope to discover a new sense of home here, which would not be unique to the city, but unique to myself.

Lopez, J. Kenji. “Serious Eats – Seriouseats.com.” Serious Eats. N.p., 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

MacDonald-Carlson, Helen. “Developing a Sense of Place: Exploring Ideas of Home and Community.” Canadian Children Child Study (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

Su, Calvin. “Blue Frog’s Montana Burger in Shanghai.” 2013. Jpg

The reaction from both my audience and myself to Leslie Silko’s story is that evil must have already existed in the world one way or another. In King’s novel, the “fear and slaughter, disease and blood” recited by the Witch, must have happened before for the witch to know of it (9). The text never assures that the Witch’s story was original; therefore, she merely spread the idea of evil or brought it back to the world.

Here is how I told the story out loud:

“One witch brought evil to the world.”

Immediately, I was interrupted requesting the definition of evil along with the gender of the witch. I defined evil as anything sinful or negative. It is intriguing how the gender of the witch mattered to my audience; maybe it is because Eve was the first to eat the forbidden fruit. It seems as though I took Leslie Silko’s story and compressed it within a short sentence but my story telling style usually starts of broad and goes into detail. After making it clear that the gender is unknown, and that the race of the witch is non-human, I continued with:

She brought evil into the world to win a competition among witches. Other witches would do spells, bubble potions, and the competition was generally friendly and fun. It is assumed that the other witches have had these get-togethers before, while this particular one occurred in a cave. It is also assumed that none of the other witches performed anything that was “evil.”

Yes I did raise my hands to perform the “quote and unquote” gesture.

The Witch of concern performed her trick last, which was horrifying to even the other Witches. They asked her to undo it, but as stories are, they are irreversible. I concluded with “and this is how evil came into the world.”

The most interesting discovery I have made with this story is realizing the power of stories. Stories sound very pleasant, as in bedtime stories. However, stories also communicate thought and memory, the most powerful tools of human beings. That is why totalitarian governments spend so much time dealing with censorship. Critical thinking and the sharing of ideas deals far more damage than simply fighting a regime physically. On the other hand, the potential consequences of planting a scary, sinful, or evil idea in someone’s head are infinite. Sometimes, a string of words can haunt a human being for life; in the same way Thomas King will be forever haunted by the fact, communicated by a story, that his father never shared his existence with his other family members.

Milton, John. A Critical Look at the Role of Responsibility in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Muncaster, Phil. “China’s Censors Censor Press Censorship Report.” • The Register. N.p., 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Technological advances in communication tools go all the way back to the invention of the printing press and even writing itself, however, this post focouses mainly on the World Wide Web’s digital literature.  I agree with Professor Paterson’s idea that technological advances in communications tools have contributed to increased rethinking about the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality. In present times, human beings are constantly being exposed to information. Mass marketing, along with the “technological advances in communication tools” are responsible for this occurrence. Social media in digital literature enables widespread publication, without publishers; this means that every voice can be heard. Voices can be unmonitored or even anonymous. As a result of technological innovations, I am constantly consuming information online through means such as advertisements, conversations, or twitter. Furthermore, it may even be worthy to argue that technological advances do not merely result in a rethinking about the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality, but actually causes a diminishing of the trend. This decrease of categorization is due to the sheer availability and speed of exposure to information and ideas through the Internet.

Hypertext, another form of digital literature, is capable of granting users further research, for ideas and evidence. Hypertext sorts out information through relevance, and gives a user the choice of whether or not they want to pursue the information linked by the hypertext. Digital literature tools such as the hypertext permit more people to understand a broader spectrum of topics and be able to have personal input. For instance, one can rely on the internet to have a good understanding, and form his or her own thoughts on topics such as the environment without needing to have a high level degree in environmental studies through a post secondary education. In fact, I have learnt much more about mathematics off the Internet than I ever had in a classroom. Tools of digital literature create conversation that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. The amount of exposure and information accessible from the World Wide Web can make ownership of ideas hard to manage. Exposure sparks attention, and conversation is possible through the researching of information that leads to new ideas and thoughts.  Property rights can then become an issue if mass information consumers cannot tell if their thoughts and ideas are a hundred percent original.

Technological advances in communication tools may result in a finer line between documenting an original thought, and subconsciously regurgitating an existing idea in communication. Of course, I would quote the person I am borrowing my idea off of in my essays, but how should one handle borrowing a style of speaking, or an influence of an idea? Everybody starts of life with barely enough knowledge to survive, yet, two decades later, many of us are writing essays and blogs. Is there really just one definite line between original thought and plagiarism? One may gain knowledge through experiences but I argue that the majority of “things” people know are learnt from another source. This reminds me of Kim Dotcom, a entrepreneurial tech whom raises the issue of intellectual property through his various business ventures, most notoriously “MegaUpload.” The various tools of digital literature illustrates how technological advances reduce the tradition of divisive and hierarchal  categorization in literature; however, what are the consequences of mass consumption of information? Will it result in less original thought? Additionally, how will citation systems need to improve to keep up with the progress of digital literature?

Please comment and discuss. I hope to make my concern and argument with the issue of “blurred intellectual property” more understandable with the class, especially in relations to Kim Dotcom. Thank you so much for reading 🙂

Geller, Lois. “What If Marketing Were An Olympic Sport?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

Pool, Tim. “Kim Dotcom: The Man Behind Mega.” VICE. N.p., 03 Jan. 2014. Web. Jan.-Feb. 2014.