Word of the Week 10

ecclesiastical

adjective

of or relating to the Christian Church or its clergy.

Source: Conversation I overheard.

I had heard this word uttered before, but I never remembered it for an assignment until I was biking to school today and overheard a person in a white shirt and black pants talking to a teenager and giving him pamphlets. I was waiting at the light to cross when I overheard them talking.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
His interests in the ecclesiastical population was borderline obsessive. 

Fly on the Wall

The clear night unveiled a half moon hovering above the sky as it trailed through the celestial equator, drowning the valley with blue ambiance. 

In downtown San Jose, on the strip of San Fernando Boulevard, neon and LED lighting showered the street in multicolored strobes and flashes. 

They emitted blues and pinks, reds and oranges that bounced off of cars and pedestrians. 

A strong blue hue originating from the Martin Luther King Library on the corner of South 4^th Street and San Fernando flooded university students exiting the glass and steel monolith as they checked their mobiles or chatted with friends.

With the scent of evening dew heavy in the air, hazy clouds hung to their nearest light sources, producing a constellation of dots and dashes as far as the eye could see.

There were the students, talking on their mobiles as they walked towards the light rail tracks on their homeward saunter. 

The transients and homeless carried on, ignoring the vibrant night with jaded eyes as they pushed carts or begged for change on the floors of sidewalks.

A Santa Cruz bound passenger bus zoomed past on the street, stopping in front of the large library as a police squad car stopped to let it park, its front side passenger eyeing the street for any vandals or suspicious activity.

The vehicles driving past on San Fernando blared music, honked at each other while their passengers laughed and joked with their windows down as they sucked in as much of the cool night air as they could.   

Word of the Week #9

Casutic

adjective

Sarcastic in a scathing and bitter way

Source: Internet message board

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
His attitude was caustic, no one wanted to really play with him.

Proposal letter

November 11, 2013

1 Washington Sq,

San Jose, CA 95112

Mr. Nichols,

Water is one of the most important substances to living beings and without it we cannot survive. 

We can desalinate water to make it safe for human consumption, we can create artificial irrigation canals, lakes and reservoirs to feed crops. 

The average person does not fully appreciate how delicate this process is, and how much more work there needs to be done in providing safe drinking water.

My name is Abraham Rodriguez and I have nearly four years of writing experience. 

I wrote for and managed my community college newspaper, the Chabot Spectator and contributed to an automotive website called Hooniverse. 

Following those experiences I interned at the Eastbay Express, a weekly newspaper in Oakland where I had my contributions published. In Spring 2013 I had a short story published in a small literary magazine. 

I have experience working with investigative long form stories.

Water in Silicon Valley is considered by some to actually be heavy water, weighing a .016 parts per million rather than the standard .010. 

My feature story will look at how San Jose gets its water supply and the steps the water authority here takes to makes it safe for consumption. 

It will look at how contamination from the gold rush era will continue to pollute natural water reserves in our area. 

It will talk about the quality of our water compared to other immediate areas in the bay area, like Oakland and San Francisco, and why in some places the water is a milky white.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Abraham Rodriguez

Japanese Internment Mural

In front of the light rail tracks on 2^nd Street and San Fernando, a soldier holds his bolt-action rifle with a cautious posture.

Behind him, a trainload of distressed passengers say goodbye to family and friends before being hauled away.

Every story in the wide bronze and brown mural depicts one aspect of Japanese-American life before World War II and life during the conflict. 

One side has the Mons of families sent to these camps, roundels with creative designs in them that act as family crests.

A train scurries away, disappearing into the left as babies cry in a wooden barrack while a soldier climbs up a tower for his post.

Next to him a pack of Japanese-American soldiers huddle over a fire to keep warm.

Statue Observations

Standing dozens of feet into the air, two marble and copper monoliths stand in an eternal vigil.

Their skin is made out of a honeycomb like webbing of blue plates that together form the rustles of their clothing.

Clark Hall’s angular window facades reflect back rays of bright light that wash into the two statues of John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

A large bang roars over the landscape and alarm bells ring from the construction site nearby as a campus tour idles in front of the two sovereigns.

A brown squirrel scurries through the grass cautiously on the grass as it scans the humans trampling over his scavenging ground.

The statues of Carlos has a blue, red and yellow necklace dangling from his neck along with his bronze medal, a patch saying “Olympic Project for Human Rights”.

He has his right arm tucked away in his back, the fist clenched as his left holds a closed fist wrapped around a black glove high into the air.

He bows his head in anguish, a solemn expression mulling in his face.

The statue of Smith, wearing a gold medal stand holds an olive branch, the roman symbol for peace, encased in a wooden box with a glass door to reveal its contents.

This time, the glove is in his right hand with his fist piercing the sky. 

Word of the Week #8

Word of the Week #8

chagrin
verb

feel distressed or humiliated.

Source: Peter F. Hamilton's Judas Unchained.

In Hamilton's Judas Unchained and the previous book Pandora's Star, humanity has colonized hundreds of worlds. However, just because they have colonized worlds doesn't mean their problems are all over. There are many bleak and terrible moments for the characters in this book, and the distressing feelings continue to mount as the book draws to a close.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
Oscar felt a wave of chagrin fill his insides, the knowledge of his missing wallet robbing him of any fuzzy emotions the philly-cheese steak gave him.

Word of the Week #7

Word of the Week #7

bacchanal
noun

an occasion of wild and drunken revelry.

Source: Peter F. Hamilton's Judas Unchained.

In Hamilton's Judas Unchained and the previous book Pandora's Star, humanity has colonized hundreds of worlds using small wormhole portals to shuttle people between one point in space to another. One character just spent years in the woods and emerged to rent a hotel and feast on food. That was where this was used.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
Louis engaged in a bacchanal of food and drink after his three years in the wilderness.

Mystery Character Edit

His face lies hidden behind a black mask, darker than night that obscures his ghostly pale skin.

Tendrils of wiring and nutrients run across the remains of his charred body, most of it burnt or disintegrated after a fiery clash that nearly killed him before.

Tubes keeping his body animated run the length of his black exterior with a conglomerate of machines at his trunk keeping his necrotic flesh alive through the miracles of technology.

His arms are supported by lattices of webbing and a composite mesh matching his black exterior, a dull black, that supplies the being with earth shattering strength.

The being's charred legs are nothing but burnt trunks of meat hidden by augmented machines that allow him to leap from great distances.

Machines in his core beep and buzz as they struggle to continuously enhance his strength and keep their host alive, their red and blue lights dazzling unsuspecting victims.

The mask, a shiny jet black composite of hard metals and soft lining, is featureless save for a gaping hole where the mouth would be and two sunken in gaps where the eye sockets would be.

Inhuman powers allow him to bend the laws of physics to his will, letting him throw his victims across entire chambers or launch furniture at them.

His footsteps aren’t loud enough to echo in the grey halls of his kingdom, the only telltale sign of his presence being of his slow, wet breath.

Mystery Character

His face lies hidden behind a black mask, darker than night that obscures his ghostly pale face.

Tendrils of wiring and nutrients run across the remains of his charred body, most of it burnt or disintegrated after a fiery clash that nearly killed him before.

The tubes keeping his body alive run the length of his black exterior with a host of machines at his trunk keeping the corpse alive through the miracles of technology.

His arms are lattices of webbing and a composite mesh matching his black exterior, a dull black, that supplies the being with earth shattering strength.

His charred legs are nothing but burnt trunks of meat hidden by augmented machines that allow him to leap from great distances.

Machines located in his core beep and buzz as they struggle to continuously enhance his strength and keep their host alive, their red and blue and white lights shining day in and day out.

His mask, a shiny jet black composite of hard metals and soft lining, is featureless save for a gaping hole where the mouth would be and two sunken in gaps where the eye sockets would be.

His footsteps aren’t loud enough to echo in the grey halls of his kingdom, the only telltale sign of his presence being of his slow, wet breath.

Word Count: 222

Word of the Week #6

Word of the Week #6

congruous
adjective

Corresponding in character or kind; appropriate or harmonious.

Source: Peter F. Hamilton's Judas Unchained.

In Hamilton's Judas Unchained and the previous book Pandora's Star, humanity has colonized hundreds of worlds using small wormhole portals to shuttle people between one point in space to another. Travel is instantaneous. So whenever they look for a world to colonize, they look for qualities that would make it "H-congruous", meaning humans can live and breathe there naturally without the use of technology. It's a key term that isn't quite explained in the book and it isn't an actual scientific term but used widely in his story.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
When humans finally stepped through the Coslay wormhole, they were shocked to find the first ever H-congruous world outside of the Solar System.

Word of the Week #5

Word of the Week #5

Foc's'le
noun

The forecastle, a superstructure in the bow of a merchant ship where the crew is housed; - the spelling is intended to reflect the common pronunciation among seamen.

Source: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

I came across this word by reading Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander", the same book that bares the name of the Russell Crow movie about a seafaring vessel and her commander. The book is written in the style of the 19th Century and a lot of the words used in the book are old fashioned.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:
The man turned towards the foc's'le and saluted his newly appointed senior officer, then proceeded to make his rounds across the deck.

Comparing Media

On Wednesday, Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket made history as it took off for the International Space Station to deliver its new payload capsule.

The flight marks the second private company to enter the realm of space exploration after the decommissioning of the space shuttle fleet and solidifies NASA's new commercial spaceflight initiatives.

Coverage from CNN for Orbital Science's rocket launch was a 5 minute segment that included an interview with a former NASA astronaut.

The anchor, Natalie Allen, starts the segment with a video of the Antares rocket launching into orbit where she spends about 40 seconds on the actual news bit of the launch.

She dives into background information at 47 seconds into the video.

At 1 minute 40 seconds Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and former member of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee is interviewed

The broadcast spent a little bit of time on the actual news, gave some deeper information and knowledge on subject and used Chiao to explain the current condition of the space program to the viewer.

She sources NASA, Orbital Sciences and Leroy Chiao.

The Wall Street Journal had a small tidbit on the Orbital Sciences launch, and was the only one out of the major national print newspapers that included it in any capacity.

Neither of the local newspapers included it in their pages.

The Journal dedicated seven by seven inches of space on page B3 of the business section of the Journal, including a seven by four and a half photo of the rocket taking off from the Wallops Space Center in Virginia with four columns.

This article was about three hundred words long, with a longer online version that doubled its word count.

Despite its page designation, the article by Andy Pasztor was a short blurb on the launch, the company and the new commercial space race between industry players in the United States to shuttle gear and personnel to the International Space Station.

It briefly touched up on the company's hiccups and its main competitor, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, commonly known as SpaceX.

There are no quotes in this print version.

Huffington Post's coverage had four sources, including a tweet from current ISS resident Karen Nyberg.

They used information gathered from Orbital Sciences, the company's executive vice president and retired astronaut Frank Culbertson and NASA.

Finally, a science writer by the name of Seth Borenstein also added to the article.

The Huffington Post article was 645 words long, had links to Orbital Science's company website and the NASA press release.

There was a bit more detail and casualness to the article, a bit more information on Orbital's only other competitor SpaceX and their own delivery system.

It felt a bit more in-depth than the CNN video and the Wall Street Journal blurb.

Sources: Orbital Sciences Rocket Launches Cygnus Spacecraft On Debut Mission To ISS

Word Count = 469

Word of the Week #4

Word of the Week #4

Fraught
adjective

to be filled or destined with something undesirable
causing or creating great stress or anxiety

Source: "Abaddon's Gate" by James S.A. Corey 

 I originally saw this word in the book by James S.A. Corey as the author describes a scene with great fear and dread engulfing everyone in that particular room. There's a tremendous amount of foreboding throughout the entire book at this point, just the idea that something bad will happen and it's pouring out of every character.

To use it in a sentence, I'd say:

Every face in the bomb-rigged bus was fraught, the prickling sensation that death lay minutes away creeping into their faces.

My Favorite Piece of Literature

With a simple, nondescript opening line on page 1, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas sets off his pivotal story of a jaded journalist’s ride into the gaudy world of Las Vegas as he covers the prestigious Mint 400 motorcycle race.


He finds himself in search of a physical manifestation of the american dream while in Las Vegas, a subconscious attempt to cope with his own aging and departure from the mid ninety sixties Hippie culture that had defined his entire generation.


The book is Thompson’s own love letter to the flower generation, a generation he readily identifies with and conceded to being part of while he worked on his first book, Hell’s Angels.


Thompson shows his mastery of the written word by giving us a compelling first person narrative of Duke’s journey into the glitzy and glamorous world of Las Vegas, a city Duke (and in turn Thompson) cannot fully comprehend.


I’m fond of this book in large part to Thompson’s own writing style and his ability to capture the imagination despite his heavy reliance on the first person, a style that usually irks me away from any great story.


Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a book that holds your hand while you witness Duke’s fall into sleep-deprived madness but also one that leaves a lot open to interpretation and debate, where realities shift between hallucinations and subconscious banter of an entire generation.

Word of the Week #3

Word of the Week #3

Fiefdom
(noun)

The estate or domain of a feudal lord.Something over which one dominant person or group exercises control

Source: My J-132 professor's lecture.

My professor was talking about events on campus and gathering information for our own stories and articles when he began to steer us towards the campus side of things and how we can be better observers to develop campus stories.He then uttered this sentence on us:

"By just keeping the reporter's mindset, you can generate ideas easily and jump off from there. With exception to the university corporation [campus maintenance], that's it's own little fiefdom."

Fiefdom to me is synonymous with "kingdom", a large plot of land that people fight over with one appointed leader running the entire show.

All About Me, new lead

The 100 mile drive from Reno to the Black Rock Desert had taken 9 excruciatingly long hours, most of which had been spent in heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Perhaps my greatest experience in these past seven years since graduating High School has been my involvement in the Burning Man community and the two visits I made to the world-famous music festival in the Nevada desert. 

The festival attracts people from all over the world and encourages its attendants to participate in the form of exhibits, music stages or elaborate art cars that wander the Gerlach playa.

Having grown up in the city and in a place like Oakland, travelling to Burning Man as a twenty-something year old with little camping experience was a mind-opening experience that forever transformed my views on the world and people around me.

I learned how to become increasingly self-reliant and found an appreciation for nature and the world around me that I had never felt before in my twenty two year old self.

I met new people from all kinds of walks of life, like German tourists, Russian expatriates, and a Father and Son duo that made the journey to Burning Man every year together from Seattle, Washington to meet up with friends they had made at the festival.

I felt that having been part of the fifty thousand or so attendants that go to Burning Man every year allowed me to grow as a person and gave me a mature perspective on life.

I’m able to understand and empathize with people on a level I would not have been able to before and learned that not all of life’s wonders are found in a museum or a park