The Reading Lunch

I thought the reading lunch was so much fun this year.  I think everyone enjoyed it, and I'm so glad that Dr. D planned it for all of us.  I really like talking about books that I love with other people who feel the same way as I do, and that is exactly what you do at the reading lunch.  I participated both times at the reading lunch this year.  The first time, I lead a discussion for the book Someone Like You.  This discussion was okay, but most people at my table hadn't read the book before which made it kind of hard to discuss our questions.  The second time, I participated in a discussion for The Hunger Games.  This discussion was great because all of the people had read the book and seen the movie, so we compared and contrasted which was cool.  I really enjoyed talking about it to them because most of my friends have only seen the movie and think its amazing, but the movie is missing so much!  I think that you need to have read the book to participate in the discussion because it's a lot more fun that way, and then everyone at the table can participate in the discussion.  I hope that next year we will be able to continue the reading lunch, but have it more than twice a year!

Exam Study Plan

To study for this exam, I am going to make a study guide.  I’m going to start studying Wednesday the 16 because that is the last day we can learn anything new at school.  Each day I will study a different topic and day after day my study guide will form until the day before, when I will review everything that I did the days before.  I think that this is a very good technique, and that many of you reading this should take this method into consideration.  As for time, I don’t have a set time.  I will work until each task is completed for the day. 

Wednesday – Literary Analysis:

I’m going to go over our notes on this, and since Dr. D said, “write a literary analysis essay that synthesizes your thinking about the reading we have done this semester and year.  So you may want to begin thinking about connections you can make between the units we have studied and conclusions you can draw.” I’m going to start thinking and write ideas of what to write. From my notes, I will take important information and put what it important in my study guide.  I will also include my ideas and connections for my literary analysis in my study guide.

Thursday – Research:

I will look over the qualities and notes of research papers in my Norton book.  I will take the information that I found in there to put in my study guide.  (If we get our tests back, I will look over that too.)

Friday – Nervous Conditions:

I will go over my reading guides, theme, character, and other important things like that.  Again, If we get our tests back, I will go over my test.  I will also review irony, symbolism, etc in the book. 

Saturday – Poetry:

I will type up a list of terms for my study guide that we learned, go over my poem book, and test. 

Sunday – Macbeth:

For Macbeth, First I will go over all my drama notes, and make sure I know those.  I will also go over activities and homework that we did, and review each scene and what happened. 

Monday – Since it’s the day before all of our exams, I will just review everything, and it won’t be very stressful because I will for the most part know everything since I have taken a day to study each thing, and now all I have to do is put everything together and review.

Participation of 4th Quarter

I thought that this quarter was probably my best participation I’ve done all year.  I always come to class prepared with everything I need, except one, which was when I forgot my free reading book.  I think that’s not too bad because I just went and got one off of Dr. deGravelles’s shelf to read.  Besides that, I’m always prepared.  I always wait to be dismissed, and I don’t pack up my things before hand.  I also have never left class to go to the bathroom, water, or locker the whole year, so I’m glad I kept that up this quarter.  I check my email and website more than once a day, so I always know what is going on in class.  I also use appropriate email communication including, writing in the subject box.  I turn in all my assignments in at the beginning of the class, and always have it ready whenever Dr. D picks it up.  I have a positive attitude in class, and try to volunteer often.

During class, I listen and take notes when I’m supposed to.  I also comment on almost everything because I have lots to say, and sometimes I feel like it’s only me and one other person who answer questions (this is usually when we are talking about what happened in Macbeth).  For the most part I ask relevant questions at the appropriate times, but sometimes, for example, today I asked Dr. D what are blog posts were when she was about to play the Macbeth movie.  I’m pretty sure that is the only time I’ve asked an irrelevant question though.  I listen to peers questions and comments, and sometimes answer them.  Engaging in side conversation is the hardest one for me.  Whenever I do engage in side conversation, it’s usually me asking a question about what something means or something relevant to what we are doing in class.  Not a question about instructions because I will understand what I’m doing because I listen, but something that’s relevant.  Any other time is usually when Cody or someone else acts funny while acting out Macbeth and I will turn and look at someone and laugh to see if they think its funny too.

In my individual and group work I feel like I’m very focused.  Whenever I get to choose whether to work in a group or solo, I usually choose to go solo because I don’t like whenever I end up having to do all the work, but people still get credit.  If I get to choose my group then it works out better because I will choose people that will actually contribute to whatever we are working on.  I don’t distract others or engage in conversations that aren’t relevant to class because I want to get the work done and not procrastinate.  I will also help the group stay on task.  I follow instructions and always aim for the best we/I can do.

I think that my participation has been the same all year, and not much has changed.  The only thing that I may have gotten better at was answering questions in class.  Overall, I think my participation this quarter was excellent and the best I have done so far. 

Outside Reading Reflection

This year, I have learned to love reading.  In the past I didn't enjoy reading that much, and the only books that I had really enjoyed were The Hunger Games and The Twilight Series.  I have grown as a reader this year, by learning to like more different types of genres.  My favorite are still Chick-Flick, but I did enjoy reading Nervous Conditions which I thought I wasn't going to like at all.  At the beginning of the year I dreaded reading for 150 minutes, but now I enjoy it; especially when I am reading an amazing book.

It had surprised me that I love reading now because I thought I never would.  I guess reading just grew on me like everything else does, and I'm glad it did since I'll be doing a lot of reading throughout the rest of my life.  Finding litterary elements isnt hard for me anymore, and it actually comes naturally now.  I notice things like static and dynamic characters, Irony, foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery without even thinking about it since I have done it so much in class.  I don't really think about the theme often whenver I finish an outside reading book, usually, I just think of the moral of the story.  I should probably start thinking of the theme since that would be good practice for me because we do that all of the time in English class.  Next in my reading, I would like to open my horizons to more genres such as Historical Fiction because I really enjoy reading books about World War II, and it would be good for me since they would be educational.  I would also like to try some mystery books.

Reading Times: Sometime around 5 hours I think, I didn't keep exact time but I read for about an hour a night because I was so into my book "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks.  I finished it this week too.

Macbeth's Thoughts

So much has been happening so fast.  I mean first of all, three witches tell me I'm going to be king.  That sure doesn't happen everyday.  I just have so many thoughts going through my head.  I thought I wasn't going to kill Duncan, well believe me I DIDN'T want too, or maybe I did?  Lady Macbeth persuaded me to, and I tried to tell her I didn't want to, but…but…but she got angry and called me a coward and I, Macbeth, will NOT be called a coward.  I don't know what is going on with Lady Macbeth, and she has been acting strange lately.

It's been hard for me keeping the secret of me killing Duncan.  I feel so guilty, and try not to give it away that I did it, but its getting hard.  I guess it will be worth it now, since I'm king.  What I'm worrying about though, is how the town is taking Duncan's death and people figuring out that I killed Duncan.  It actually is working out pretty well right now though since Duncan's two sons ran off, so that made me king and made them look suspicious.  What I'm not happy about is how Banquo's sons get heir to the throne.  That just doesn't sit well with me.  My son's deserve to be king.  Well, I mean I hope I have sons…because I just wouldn't be able to handle another little Lady Macbeth.  

Writing Reflection

            This year, I have grown as a writer more than I ever thought I could.  We have written many different types of papers, which I think has helped me, and will help me in the future.  Even though I have grown a lot as a writer, I still make mistakes.   My mistakes that I make seem to relate to each other for the most part but are slightly different each time. 

            When I got my Wrap score back I wasn’t too surprised because I have never done outstanding on it.  I got all 3.5’s and 4.0’s, which is what I have gotten every year since I started taking the Wrap.  The only thing that was different this year is that I got more 3.5’s than I usually do, and it was on overall development, support, and sentence fluency.  I think this is because I didn’t have much to say about the topic, and that gave me trouble with developing and supporting my ideas because I usually do well on those areas of writing.  As I go back and read my Wrap, I can see a drastic change in my writing for the better.

            On my literacy Narrative, Dr. deGravelles commented, “I would encourage you to strive for more vivid detail throughout and work on some conventions issues.”  Throughout this paper, I did misuse commas and semicolons.  I think I misused them because in 8^th grade we didn’t do a lot of writing mechanics.  Once Dr. deGravelles had graded our papers, she went over some convention issues we had trouble with which helped me a lot because it included commas and semicolons.  Besides convention errors my paper lacked vivid detail.

            My Profile was one of my best papers I have written this year with almost a perfect score.  Since my last paper, I had no misuses of commas or colons, and my paper had lots of vivid detail.  I was proud to not repeat any mistakes, and overall there were only two main things to be improved.  Dr. deGravelles wrote, “I think your assessment was, for the most part, right on, but I would still like to see more active verbs in your second paragraph.  When you are writing dialogue, watch for repetition of words like “say.”  You use “answer” and “exclaim,” which are more specific.”  These two corrections are similar, and since I only had two issues on this paper, it helped me to be able to really focus on those issues in the next paper I wrote.

            In my Literary Analysis, it seems like I struggled which made me loose motivation as a writer.  Most of my mistakes were careless such as comma and colon issues which I had already been corrected in my Literacy Narrative.  Another careless mistake is I forgot to put my citations in my turnitin version, but included that in my paper version.  This really affected the grade of my paper, since it made me get a D in MLA/citations.  If I would have included my citations I would have gotten an A on this paper rather than a B.  My support and Organization are the only things that I got B’s in which, for the most part, have no problem with since I usually have a lot to say.  This is the same issue I had in my Wrap because in both of these essays I struggled with words to say and ideas to write about.  I still managed which is what gave me a B, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.  Dr. deGravelles said, “Work on using strong transitions that connect each point to your thesis rather than to the plot.  Also, make sure you are fully introducing and analyzing your quotations, and citing them correctly (period always at the very end).”  The transitions I used were strong, but connected to the plot instead of the thesis.  In the next paper, I had issues with analyzing my quotes like I did in this paper.

            My Global Issues Paper was extremely hard for me.  I had trouble with citing correctly, analyzing my quotes, organizing my information.  The bad part was is that you could tell.  Dr. deGravelles wrote, “Makes sure you follow each quote with adequate analysis – most of the words in any paragraph should be yours.  This paper seems a bit less polished than your other work.”  I had the analyzing quote problem in my Literary Analysis.  I also had some semicolon and comma issues like in most papers I have written.  What surprised me was that I had MLA formatting issues, which I have never had before.  My margins weren’t right, and my header wasn’t in times new roman.  This made me mad because that mistake could have easily been avoided.  Most of my mistakes were careless convention and quoting mistakes that I could have fixed if I just spent a little more time on checking and editing with my Norton book. 

            I have learned a lot about myself as a writer this year.  I learned that the more motivation I have, the better the paper I write turns out because it definitely showed.  Even though I can correct most of my mistakes, many of them are repetitive.  Overall on my aspects of writing, I need to work on conventions and sentence structure.  Of course I will still need to keep working and doing well on the other aspects of writing, but the ones I usually get the lowest scores is on conventions and sentence structure.  Next year, I hope to have fewer errors on commas and semicolons, keep up my good use of vivid detail, use better transitions, and analyze all my quotes.

Common Errors List:

1.     Misuse of a Semicolon

- So of course when Mrs. Young announced to us that we would be doing a poem project, and we will have to present in front of my whole class; my stomach dropped.

2.     Analyze Quotations

-       “The war in Germany isn’t right.”

After the quote you need to explain it.  In this instance, you would need to say why he or she thinks that the war in Germany isn’t right and maybe add your opinion.

3.     Repetitive with transitions in dialogue

-       He said, “Okay. Lets go.”  Then she said, “No. I already have plans.”  After he said, “Whatever.”

Instead of saying said, you can say exclaimed, whispered, remarked, answered, replied, etc.

4.     Comma Splice

-      I just met you, this is crazy.

To make this correct you could say:

a)    I just met you. This is crazy.

b)   I just met you; This is crazy.

c)    I just met you, and this is crazy.

5.     Missing Comma

-       As I sat up in bed I realized that I had fallen asleep.

6.     Misspell of a lot

-       alot 

Reading Log: 150 minutes. 69 pages. 13 Reasons Why

If This Was a Movie by Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is a very good writer when it comes to music because when she was in school, she was good in poetry.  That is why I chose to pick one of her songs.  I chose If This Was a Movie because I remember that there was a similie in it.  There are a few caesuras in this song, and here are a couple examples:
1. "Maybe I've been goin' back too much lately
  when time stood still and I had you"

2.  "I know that we could work it out somehow
But if this was a movie you'd be here by now."

3.  "Locked up in your arms and our friends were laughing

'Cause nothing like this ever happened to them."

There are also similies in this song.  Here are a couple examples:

1.  "Sounded like footsteps on my stairs"

2.  "Come back, come back, come back to me like

You would, you would if this was a movie"

3.  "Come back, come back, come back to me like

You could, you could if you just said sorry"

4.  "And I say come back, come back, come back to me like

You would before you said it's not that easy"

There is repetition in the beginning of the chorus, but part of it changes everytime (its a pattern).  You can pull up the lyrics if you would like, but it just switches from "if this was a movie" and "if you just said your sorry".  There is also repitition in the bridge, "If you're out there, if you're somewhere, if you're moving on".  This repetition makes it sound well whenever you say it. 

There is also assonance:

1.  "Last night I heard my own heart beating"

Consonance:

1.  "Sounded like footsteps on my stairs"

2.  "Thinkin' 'bout everythin' we've been through"

3.  "When time stood still and I had you"

Fake Boyfriend

Hello bloggers.  I finished Fake Boyfriend at the beach since it was spring break this week.  The ending was very shocking, but I don’t want to give it away incase someone reading this wants to read it too!  This book reminded me of the Disney movie Prom because of all the drama getting dates, so I made connections to that movie.  I can compare the main blonde hair girl with Vivi because the blonde haired girl was planning Prom and Vivi was mainly planning everything for Jonathan.  They are both very controlling and try not to fall in love with a guy that they don’t want to, but end up doing it anyway. 

When Jonathan was pretending to be Brandon for Prom, I was thinking about how that would never work out now if it was me.  If I was in Isabelle’s situation I would have been taking lots of pictures to post on Facebook and Instagram.  Jonathan comes from an all boys preppy school like Catholic High.  If I went with a guy from Catholic High then people would recognize him in pictures, and talk about how I went with a guy from Catholic High, but then I would be confused because I thought he was Brandon!  Overall this was a good chick flick that I would recommend to girls who like a shocking ending and a fun girly book.

Fake Boyfriend

Fake Boyfriend is an alright right now.  I was hoping that it would pick up faster, but its still a little slow.  I can't decide if I want to drop it or just finish it out.  The girls are all getting excited yet stressed about Prom because of the guy that is acting as Brandon (the fake boy on myspace) is going with Isabelle.  I feel like this plan is really not going to work out. 


I have a couple reasons why I don't think this plan will work.  Vivi is attracted to preppy boys.  Jonathan (the boy filling in for Brandon) is a prep school boy.  Even though Isabelle is preppy, she goes for the bad boy type.  Also, Shawn is still trying to get Isabelle back, and even though Isabelle wants to act like she doesn't like him, she still does.  I think that Vivi is going to start to like Jonathan, and Isabelle and Shawn will get back together because Vivi will be too distracted with Jonathan to care.

Adrienne Rich: Resolution Amid The 'Turbulence' - 10 min

"Fish" Elizabeth Bishop - 25 minutes

"Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde - 20 minutes

Fake Boyfriend - 98 minutes 

"Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde

I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his thumb
in secrect
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if i die
before the morning comes
and my mommas in the bedroom with the door closed.

I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I die before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth about me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

I chose to read and analyze this poem because it was about a 14 year old like me, and I felt like I could maybe relate to the poem.  In this poem, this girl seems very stressed and not happy with herself or life.  All she does is complain, and I don't think she see's any happiness in life.  She talks about "what if I die" "suppose I dies" which leads me to think that she wouldn't mind dying.  There is a lot of "what ifs" and "should haves".  She also seems very distressed.

I believe that the girl in this poem is african american because she says "how come my knees are always so ashy", and african americans usually talk about having ashy knees.  She also says "my skin has betrayed me".  This also leads me to think that she could be of different race because this could mean color of skin.  I also think it could be acne because that is a teenage problem and that is what most of this poem consists of.  She also seems to care a lot about her mom and is upset because her mom isnt there to help her.  She wants her mom to come and help her deal with these teenage problems.  The author makes us feel like we are inside the girls head because it seems just like a mixture of jumbled thoughts.

Poetry

In English, we are starting our poetry unit.  The last time we studied Poetry was in 6th grade and I struggled with it.  We had to write about 10 different types of poems and make a little booklet.  Then we had to present and read these poems out to the class which was quite embarrassing because my poems usually arent that great. I would love to become better at writing poetry over this next quarter because I think it is such a cool way to express your thoughts and feelings, and when it's done right it sounds amazing.

The poetry book that we got in class is really nice, new, and clean; it makes me want to annotate them.  It's interesting to try to figure out a poem because I feel like i'm trying to figure out a puzzle.  It's almost like your trying to crawl into the authors mind to try to figure out his thoughts.  I hope poetry becomes more fun and less of a struggle this quarter so I can focus more on enjoying it.  I also hope that I can become better at writing poems and to be proud of the poems that I write.

150 minutes (The Fish poem and 79 pages in Fake Boyfriend)

Hunger Games and "Out of this World"

On Friday, my friends and I went to go see the Hunger Games!  I was so excited because the hunger games series are my favorite books and the two main guy characters, Gale and Peeta, are very attractive!  We went to the Rave and should have gotten there earlier because we had to sit on the second to first row.  It always hurts my neck to sit that close, but I was just so happy that I got to see the movie.  Thankfully not a lot of people talked in the movie because that is one of my pet peeves.  The best part was that the movie lived up to my expectations.  Normally books are so much better than the movies and I end up not liking the movie, but the makers of this movie did an AMAZING job.  It lived up to my expectations and didn't leave out that much.

On Saturday, we had a Baton Rouge Cotillion dance. The theme was "Out of this World" which is like space themed.  We all got ready at Taylor's house, but Trinity and I got there a little too early because we got to her house and no one was home, so we just sat outside because it was so pretty and made her sadies sign to ask her date.  When everyone got to her house we probably had ten tries of trying to get our glitter eye makeup right.  My outfit was really cool because my shirt lit up to the music.  Most people were dressed in morph suits which made me want one!  It was also beyond crowded to where i litterally could not move at one point.  One weird moment I had was these three bigger guys started circling Maddie, Taylor, and I and started singing to us…it was strange and we couldn't help but laugh.

My weekend

On Friday we threw Taylor a surprise party.  It was at CCL.  Im so proud of our grade for keeping it a secret because  they kept giving hints away.  Of course Taylor didn't know anything because she would never think of us planning something this big!  It was sucha fun party and everyone had a blast.  The cake was delicious and they had pina coladas.  After the party was over we got T-shirts and they were really cool.

Saturday morning I woke up and went to Tumbling.  Hannah Lee (our instructor) accidently came at 10:00 when were supposed to come at 11:00 so she left the gym at 10:45 when we came at 11:00.  She didn't show up until 11:20, but after all of the confusion we started to prepare for Tryouts.  I threw all my tumbling and we practiced the chant, cheer, dance, and jumps.  We tried to get Taylor to throw her backhandspring, but she has mental block.  After we left tumbling I went home and showered and then all my friends came over to get ready for the Elan party  It was western themed so we got all of our western attire on and headed on to the party.  Once we got there, we almost didn't get in because we forgot this white piece of paper we were apparently supposed to bring.  Thankfully, Mrs. Cory saved us and got us in.  Once we got into the party it was fun, but started to get less fun because the DJ started to play a lot of country music.  Then we all went home and went to bed because cheer tryouts were in the morning.

On Sunday, I woke up and was so tired!  I knew I had to push through the tiredness though because I had cheer tryouts at 4:00.  I stretched, warmed up my tumbling, jumps, the dance, and cheer.  My mom had to go get me a new white nike top because I had lost mine.  Then when she got back with the top and I realized that I lost my navy shorts too!  Then she had to go back to the store and buy me those.  I was so nervous at this point because I was in the car on the way there.  When I got there we warmed up and had to go sit in teh locker room to wait our turn.  I was number 30 which I thought was a lucky number because its even.  When I went in, it wasn't nerve racking at all!  I thought I did a great job and so did everyone else.  When I got home I ran to go check the website to see who all made the team…I MADE IT!  I was so relieved and can't wait to get to have an amazing experience this year being a cheerleader.

Fake Boyfriend

This week I started reading Fake Boyfriend.  My friend Taylor recommended this book to me.  So far, it is a typical chick flick book; which is what I enjoy the most!  The main characters are Vivi, Shawn, Isabelle, Lane, and Curtis.  The main girl is Isabelle I think because her boyfriend just broke up with her right before Prom, and so far everything revolves around her.  Her boyfriend and her have been off and on for years apparently.  Shawn (her boyfriend) is described as not good enough for her and a bad boy.  He skips class and likes to party a lot.  Isabelle is the complete opposite, she is valedictorian, preppy, loves school, and has a future.  I feel like you see this in a lot of books and movies.  It’s always either the cheerleader and football player or a girl that’s way too good for the guy. 

When Shawn broke up with Isabelle a month before the Prom I thought about how hard it would be to find another date.  I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have another close guy friend to bring her, so I’m kind of worried for her!  I’m predicting that her friends will create a fake boyfriend on the internet for her because of the name of the book.  Then she will want to bring him to the prom and it will cause a lot of controversy.

150 minutes 1-87 

Everyday a Friday by Joel Osteen

This week I didn't have time to run to Barne's and Noble to get a new free reading book, but I needed to read for 150 minutes.  I looked in my bookshelf of my books, but I had already read all of them.  I decided to go borrow one of my mom's books.  I found Everyday a Friday, and decided to pick it because I like to read books that give advice and thought it would be interesting to see how to make everyday a Friday.  This book is actually really good, and I will probably continue to read it because it has given me advice that I would really like to try to apply to my life.  I thought I should share some things I have learned so far to whoever is reading this for everyone to see what this book is about and get to learn some daily things you can do to be happier.

One story that the author told was about a 92 year old man that was blind.  His wife had just passed away, and he didn't want to live alone, so he decided to move into a senior home.  On the morning of the move, he had a Taxi pick him up and take him to the senior home.  Once he got there, a lady came to show him his new room.  As they were walking to the room, the lady started to describe the room in lots of detail.  In the middle of the description, the old man interupted her and said, "I love it. I love it. I love it."  The lady said, "Sir were not there yet.  You havent seen it.  Hold on a minute, and I'll show it to you."  The man said, "No, you don't have to show it to me.  Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged.  It depends on how my mind is arranged.  Happiness is something you decided ahead of time."  This story really helped me to see that you decide if your happy or not, and you can't just wait around for someone to make you happy.  Everymorning you need to wake up and decide that today you are going to be happy and that something good is going to happen to you today.  Don't let yourself only be happy on the weekend; be happy the whole week because if you don't you have just wasted a day.

150 minutes 94 pages

Track

This week Trinity, Taylor, and I joined track.  We are very excited about it because we love to try new things!  On the first day we tried high jump.  It didn't really work out that well.  We were with really good people who had been doing high jump for years.  It was amazing how high they could go.  We tried as hard as we could to be good at the high jump, but it didn't work.

The next day we tried sprinting, and it worked out a lot better.  I think we will stick with that.  We won't be able to go to track for a while though because of preparing for cheer tryouts.  Today we are going to tumbling, so we won't be able to go to track today.  All of next week we will be at cheer clinic, so we won't be able to go next week either.  People will probably expect us to quit track, but we are going to proove it to them that we will stick to it!

Nervous Conditions 4

This week we read chapters 8, 9, and 10.  In chapters 9 and 10 Nyasha's anorexia and bullemia just goes down hill and gets worse.  Tambu leaves her to go to Sacred Heart (which is a boarding school, so she is away from Nyasha).  This causes Nyasha's condition to get worse since she has no one to tell her problems to or help her with her problems.  I think she starts to be bullemic because that is her way of dealing with the issues she has.  No one notices her condition except Tambu.  But Tambu didn't know it was this bad because she was away at Sacred Heart.  When she came home to the mission to visit, she was terrified at how much thinner nyasha was.  Tambu says she had even grown skeletal.  She also said her arms were, "so frail they looked as though they would snap if she so much as picked up a pen."  She also would stay up all night studying even though it was her vactation.

Nyasha seems sort of psychotic when before and during her scene.  She asks to get in bed with Tambu, but when tambu rolled over she says she just wanted to see if she would let her.  I'm kind of confused by why she did this.  Then she sits on the bed and starts talking very broadly using the words they and it to where the reader doesn't exactly know who or what she is talking about.  You have to look very closely to see, and I think she is talking about the English because she is talking about how they took them away and how they changed them.  Then she talks about how she is evil and won't die which is pretty scary when I imagine it in my head.  The Tambu says, "she crouched like a cat and was ready to spring."  That is when I knew something bad was goig to happen.  She has her scene and tear things up and rips things, but then she starts to get quiet.  She tells Babamukuru, "I don't hate you daddy.  They want me to, but I won't."  This sounds like a scary movie when the child is saying he or they when talking about a ghost or the devil.  I think that that is how we know that the english are bad and brain washing.  I still don't see why the english would want Nyasha to hate Babamukuru though.  If anyone knows the answer, please comment.

Cheer Tryouts

Cheer Tryouts are approaching fast; tryout week starts March 12.  They are many things I need to do to prepare for tryouts.  I need to work on my flexibility, jumps, tumbling, and strength.  I have been stretching every night for my jumps, and the first night I started stretching I realized that I was very tight and should have been stretching the whole off season.  I have also been practicing my tumbling by going to privates and on the trampoline.  I can do a round-off back handspring back handspring.  I have also been practicing my jumps in my back yard. 

I can’t wait for Tryout week, so I can see who all shows up.  Supposedly there are some u-high girls who want to switch to Episcopal, but we don’t know for sure yet.  There are also a lot of incoming freshman trying out I think.  I’m kind of worried that I might not make it, but since I was on it last year and have done competitive I think I have a good chance of making it again.  I’m really excited to get back into cheer (if I make it) because I miss going to practice and my team.  Hopefully I make it because being apart of the cheer team is something I don’t want to miss out on.

Nervous Conditions 3

Over Mardi Gras we were told to read chapters 6 & 7, so that is what I'm going to talk about today!  I finished the whole book, and would right about the heated ending, but I don't want to give it away to anyone who is readng this and hasn't finished it yet.  The fight between Nyasha and Babamukuru didn't surprise me because I could feel things heating up between them.  Nyasha deffinately wanted to fight with Babamukuru though because she really pushed him on, and anyone would have know not to push Babamukuru including her.  What did shock me though was that Babamukuru actually started to physically fight Nyasha!  What kind of father does that to their child?  It made me mad that all of the bystanders waited a while before stopping them.  What Babamukuru did seems like a form of child abuse.  Tambu's comments lead us to infer that Nyasha could have stopped the fight easily, but she just kept going on and on.


In chapter 7, when Tambu is about to go back to the homestead, she doesn't really want to go.  She always wondered why Nhamo never wanted to come home, and now she doesn’t and realizes how bad it is compared to the mission.  She also sees that since she left everything has gone downhill because she used to do everything around the house, but since she isn’t there it doesn’t get done.  She also says the only reason she would want to go there is to see her mother.  There is an arguement between Maiguru and Tambu's mom because Maiguru won't give an opinion on Lucia's case.  Tambu's mom shows lots of signs of jealously by going on and on about why she hates Maiguru (even in front of Nyasha).  She is jealous since both of her children have left her to go to the mission, but really it was Babamukuru who took them.  

Snowmass, Colorado

This year for Mardi Gras break, I went to Snowmass, Colorado.  We have been going here every year for four years, so im very familliar with the village.  I love to ski, and I love the atmosphere of being in the mountains.  Skiing is one of my favorite things to do, and I'm actually good at it.  I really like to challenge myself, so I like to do the jumps, ramps, and half pipe.  This year I started to get really comfortable with it because I landed most of what I tried!  While I was waiting in line to go, I saw another skiier do a 360.  It didn't look that hard, so I thought I'd try it because it was the last day and the worst that could happen was that I would wipe out.  It didn't really work out as I planned it to.  I only did a 180, and I landed it but then as I was going backwards I fell over; it hurt.  I got up and acted like it was nothing because it was quite embarrassing.  My friend asked if I was okay, and I said, "I think I'm done for the day…"  My friend still wanted to ski, so I had to go alone.

To get back to our condo from where we were you had to go down this blue in the middle of no where.  I had gone down it many times before, so I thought it wouldn't be a problem.  As I was skiing, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going because all I could think about was how much pain I was in.  A couple minutes later I realized I had taken a wrong turn because my surroundings didn't look familliar.  I decided to go through a path in the woods to the right because I heard when your lost on the slopes to always go right.  I eventually found my way back to where I was supposed to be and was relieved.  I made it back, so now I am in bed on pain medication typing this story.  All in all it was a great trip.  I'm so thankful that I got hurt on the last day because my dad wasn't so lucky and collided with a snowboarder on the first day (our family tends to get hurt a lot).

Nervous Conditions 2/Research Paper

The week in class we read chapters 2 and 3 in Nervous Conditions.  TsiTsi the author is still bringing us around in circles in the past, but I think that is now over and we will move forward in Chapter 4.  In chapter 3 she finally tells us of how Nhamo dies.  Dr. D has asked us why TsiTsi waited till this long to tell us how, and why she gave so much background information on Nhamo.  I think she gave us so much information because without Nhamo dying the rest of the story would have never happend.  Tambu wouldn't have gotten the chance to go to school and would have been stuck at home untill she got married.  As you can see now this is a major part of her life and the story.  I believe she also waited this long so we would get why she couldn't just go to school in the first place, and how big of a deal this is for her to go to school.

We have also been working on our Research Paper.  If you read my blog from last week then you will know that my topic is the ownership of exotic animals (if you were curious).  Our assignment for this week was to do our peer reviews.  I found it very helpful to do 3 of our classmates and a self review because it was nice to see how other people did their papers.  It gave me ideas on how mine can be better and reminded myself on what mine should have when answering the questions.  This weekend I plan to read my reviews and critiques then sit down and revise and edit because our final draft is due Monday.  I feel like im on the right track, and I am excited to turn it in.

156 minutes of Nervous Conditions (It takes me a long time to read and annotate)
1 hour and 45 minutes of Peer Review

The EHS Theif

About two weeks ago to be exact, peoples belongings started to be gone through.  Some other unlucky students had there stuff stolen.  According to Coach Stevens the popular places where things are stolen are the girls lockerroom and the VPAC dressing room.  Anything from pencil bags, money, and cell phones have been taken.  You might be wondering what the thief is doing with all of this stuff?  Well that is a question to ask the theif.

My friend Sissy and I have been effected by the theif because the theif/theives stole our money out of our backpacks.  During P.E. my friend Lauren set out a trap of a $1.50 cents in quaters laying on the floor in the varsity locker room since this is where most of students belongings have gotten stolen.  Lauren went to walk on the track for 43 minutes and then she came back to the locker room.  Her change was rearranged in another spot in the room, but not taken.  Hopefully we will find the theif soon because I will demand for him to give me my 20 dollars back.  Too many people's belongings have gotten taken and looked through.  Many people are parinoid and carry all their stuff around with them.  I hope the theif is happy because he has maken many people frusterated and angry.

Nervous Conditions 1

This week in English class we started reading Nervous Conditions.  In chapter one for the most part, SiSi talks about her brother Nhamo.  She uses indirect characterization to show us Nhamo's personality.  She describes Nhamo's actions which lead us to infer other things.

I'm going to share a couple quotes to show how SiSi uses indirect characterization to make infererences about Nhamo.  “He would leave something, a few books, a plastic bag, anything as long as there was something, at the shops at the bus terminus, for he was on friendly terms with everybody, so that he could send Netsai to fetch them as soon as he arrived home.”  You can infer that Nahmo thinks he is better than everyone else, and bosses everyone around to make sure they know that he had the power. “Helping in the fields or with the livestock or the firewood, any of the tasks he used to do willingly before he went to the mission, became a bad joke.”  You can infer that Nahmo thinks that since he goes to school and is smart that he is too good to do laboring things.  This also shows that Nahmo is stuck up and only cares about himself.  I feel like people in the real world also work like this.  Once you become smarter than the people around you, you act like you are better than everyone else.

Procrastination

Procrastination -To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.  Everyone procrastinates at some point in their life.  I find that most people procrasinate doing homework, cleaning, or in general doing something that you don't want to do.  If people didn't procrastinate then everyone would get so much done.  Once you start procrastinating, it's hard to stop.  You get so used to saying, "Oh, ill have time to do that later."  But then when later comes you either dont feel like doing it and wish you would have gotten it done earlier, or don't have enough time to do it.


I constantly find myself procrastinating.  My new years resolution was to procratinate less and get more work done.  I have been getting better because I have already done my wordly wise cards, and im doing my blog in study hall right now.  I will be thankful over the weekend when I don't have to do these two things.  Even though I would rather be doing something else in study hall right now, I know that it will pay off in the end.  I will leave some tips on how to not procrastinate at the bottom.
1.  Leave your phone somewhere else where you can't go get it while doing your homework.
2.  Give yourself 10 minute breaks after you finish an assignment, and make sure you set a timer so that 10 minutes doesn't turn into an hour.
3.  Think of how happy you will be later when you don't have to do your work later because it's already done.
4.  USE YOUR TIME WISELY

Research Paper

This week in Dr. deGravelles class we have been in the writing lab working on our Research paper.  I have gotten a lot of work done in the writing lab.  I had thought that I was going to do mine on Animal Cruelty, but that topic was way too broad I figured out after trying to do an outline.  I had to go back to step one, narrow it down, and do a lot more research.  Most of my days in the lab consisted of researching more to add to my outline.  I also made my thesis.

I found it a lot easier making a thesis for this than the literary analysis.  My two hours spent outside of class was spent working on a detailed outline.  This week I plan on putting 15-30 minutes a day or more to do a rough draft.  I think this will be a good plan for me to use my time wisely.   I hope I can stick to my plan so I won't be stressed.

Living In Someone Elses House

This week I have been living in Taylor's house since my parents have been out of town at my sisters dance competition.  It is really fun, but aggarvating living in someone elses house at the same time.  Before you leave you have to pack.  I had to pack a lot because Taylor and I didn't know what we would be doing over the weekend, and I always like to be prepared for anything.

Once you get to the house, it's fun because it's a lot different then living in your house.  They might have siblings, pets to play, or a huge yard to explore!  After a while though, you might start to get aggarvated with the person and want to go back home to your family.  I usually do, but I havent had that feeling yet!  I do miss my dog though.  It's also a lot different doing homework because they have different strategies than you do.  I do my homework half on Saturday and half on Sunday, but this weekend I'm doing my homework all on Sunday because thats the way that Taylor does it.  Overall living with someone else is an experience everyone should be able have because it lets you see how other people do things.

Quotes To Think About

"What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"  I came across this quote on pinterest the other day.  When I read it, I literally sat there and thought about it for a while.  It made me think of how much I WOULD NOT wake up to.  Anyone who is reading this can probably say that they take things for granted.  I know I do.  When you're having a bad day or week or month you probably are thinking, "Why is this happening to me?  It can't get any worse then this." (or something of that matter).  If you really sit down and think of all the wonderful things in you're life, and how many things you're thankful for, things really aren't that bad.

I came across another quote on pinerest that I also wanted to share.  "Ask yourself this question:  'Will this matter a year from now?"  I am the kind of person that gets upset when they can't go to something like dinner with friends or a party.  Well I mean I don't get upset.  It's more of me thinking, "I'm going to miss out!"  I think we all feel this way at a point, and its good to just keep this quote in mind; Because it really won't matter from a year from now, will it?

Research Paper

Hey everyone!  As you all know our next project in english is the reasearch paper on a global issue.  Believe it or not I am actually excited for this paper.  I'm just so happy to be done with my literary analysis because it was really hard, and frusterating.  Anyways, my topic is basically on people owning exotic animals.  I didn't start off with this topic though.  When Coach CoCo first told us we would be doing this project I first thought,"I'm going to do animal cruelty!"  It really interests me, so I decided to go in that direction.  As I started to reasearch, I was getting a lot of info on the owning of exotic animals.  I did some thinking, and asked Coach CoCo.  He thought it was a very good topic too.

For this project, I'm really going to try to not procrastinate and be ahead of the game.  I don't want to stress myself out or anything because I mean no one likes to be stressed out!  I set a goal for this coming week (starting monday) and it is to not procratinate.  Dr. deGravelles prezi of the people climbing up the mountain really helped me get a gist on what I need to be doing.  It also made me to realize that I do not want to be that last person at the bottom of the mountain.  I hope I can fufill these goals that I have for myself do well on this paper!

Dollhouse - 150 minutes - 138 pages 

Snowball

Snowball is one of the annual elan cotillion dances.  There are two cotillions in Baton Rouge which are Elan and Baton Rouge.  You can only belong to one.  I belong to Baton Rouge, and most of my other friends belong to Elan.  I assume that most of you know what it is, so I'm not going to really bore you by going into detail on what it is.  My friends and I were so excited to go to this dance, had everything planned out.  Everyone had a ticket, we were going to wear tennis shoes with our dresses, and make sure to get there on time before they locked the doors.  

As we arrived at the party they asked us if we had our I.D's, and we all did.  We had our bags, phones, and everything we needed.  When we stepped out of the car this lady starts yelling at us, and telling us we couldnt wear tennis shoes.  None of us had any other shoes with us, and it wasn't possible for Sara Alice's dad to bring all of us 7 girls to each of our houses to get heels.  It was also 8:10 and we only had 20 minutes left till they locked the doors.  We jumped back into the car, and our only option was going back to Sara Alice's house to borrow her cousins shoes. Luckily Sara Alice's house wasn't too far away. When we got to the house, we all litterally flew out of the car and ran into the house.  Sara Alice just started throwing shoes at us, so we took them and got back in the car.  As we were putting them on in the car we realized that they were huge on us…oh well.  We got to the party at 8:28 (which I believe should go in the world record book).  The party was kind of a let down anyway, so it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if we would have no gotten there on time.  It was a very memorable experience, and looking back at it all we do is laugh.  It was probably the highlight of the night (between that and Trinity tripping and falling on her face).  Next time, we will read the rule book.  (maybe)

Dollhouse

This week I started to read the book Dollhouse by Kourtney, Khloe, and Kim Kardashian.  I decided to read this book because I love watching the Kardashians and because I had been hearing that it was really good.  Going into the book I thought it was going to be about the three sisters lives, but I was wrong.  It is actually a fictional story with different names, but in some ways it resembles the Kardashian life.

I think the biggest resembleance is Kat Romero (the mom) to Kris Jenner.  They both got remarried after their husbands passed away.  Kat also cares about family a lot, just like Kris.  Kamille is the sister that everyone basically revolves around, and reminded me a lot of Kim.  They have many of the same characteristics such as how Kamille was described at the most beautiful sister, which is how Kim is usually described as.  Kassidy reminded me of Khloe because of her and Kamilles little fights, but they always make up just like Kim and Khloe do in reality.

Dollhouse: 150 minutes - 121 pages