Dear classmates,
This blopg post is going to be about English I, and my tips, tools, and methods for survivng it. My first tip is to always come prepared for class. As long as you have an outside reading book, pencil, notebook, and are ready to learn, you will be fine. Second tip is to always annotate your books, marking vocabulary words in them that you are not aware of the definition, or take mini-notes about things that Dr. D says or y'all are learning. It will come in handy, trust me! One time, I jotted down a side note about one of our wordly wise words, like something Dr. D quickly mentioned, and right before the test I was flipping through my notebook, saw it, and read it. This helped me out once we got the test because it was related to one of the questions on the test, and what do you know? I got it right! My third and last tip is to keep all handouts. Even if you are not an organized person, I would keep these handouts in my laptop, in my folder or locker, or even shoved in the bottom of my backpack (not really). My point is to just KEEP THEM. I say this because one time, one day before we took our poetry test, Dr. D handed out a worksheet about stressed and unstressed syllables on words- how to read them, figure them out, and what they are called. Well it was the end of the day, I was anxious and not paying attention as well as I could have, except I heard her say that it wouldn't be on the test. So I blew off listening about it, but I kept the worksheet because I am a tad OCD and don't like to throw things away. Before we took the poetry test I glanced over that worksheet just incase it was a bonus or anything like that. Turns out there was a 5 point question about it on the test. I freaked out but then, in my mind, I remembered me looking over it and I surprisingly recalled things on the sheet. I got a 4/5 on that question which is better than a 0/5 which I would have recieved if I wouldn't have kept the handout. Those are just a few, great tips about English I you should remember.
Tools and Methods that helped me get through this year in English were quite simple actually. The tools I used were a binder that contained homework, handouts, and notes because I am always neat, a pen because I prefer that over pencil and you have to take test in pen, and my reading books, the in-class book and outside reading book because you never know when you will have just a few minutes to crack open a book and read a few pages. Methods that I thought were helpfully for surving the year- there is just two. Number one, ENGAGE yourself in the class because if you don't then you will not pay attention or learn anything, and that will come back to bite you. Number two, ASK the TEACHER QUESTIONS. I say to ask the teacher because if you talk to your friend during class it looks like you are being disrespectful, and that just puts you on the teachers bad side, and we all don't want that. Right? Another reason I say to ask the teacher is because if you ask the teacher it helps them know that you are tuned in and paying attention, also that you are confused about something, therefore they may be able to exaggerate on it more for the whole class. I hope my tips, tools, and methods help you guys, and they don't only work in English they work in any class!
Good luck and goodbye (because it is my last blog post of the year),
ksparkless77
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Participation during 4th quarter
Good morning,
If I were rating myself 1-10 based on how much I participated in 4th quarter, I would give myself a 9.5/10. That is still a 95% and a high A, woo hoo! The reason I gave myself a 9.5 out of 10 was because there was one time I didn't come to class with an outside reading book and had to borrow one from Dr. D, and one other time I asked to go to the bathroom right before class and didn't get that done before during break. Let's not get into that because that is a whole, other story. Besides those minor misshaps, I have been prepared for English well. I always do my homework and have it ready for the beginning of class the next day, I always have my notebook, class reading book, pens, pencils, and any other materials I may need. I will admit though, I do borrow Terri's highlighters quite often, but that is because I find them highly amuzing. I check my email and assignments daily because I am terrified I will miss an assigment, and those are just give away points (kind of). I know this sounds a little weird, but I enjoy taking notes. So anything Dr. D tells us we need to write down, I'm on top of it! I've learned if I make my notes colorful and fun it is easier to learn them and not make the learning so drab, but that's just me. My class participation is excellent, especially when we were doing poetry because I loved our poetry unit! Sometimes I will ask questions and sometimes I will chime in my opinion or answer to the question. I don't ask questions because I either understand the material being presented to me, or a fellow classmate will ask it.
I grade myself differently when coming to group presentations, group discussions, or really anything where a group is involved! I cannot explain how much I love group work. In group work I feel like so much more is accomplished then if you were just doing it alone, by yourself. I think I get less side-tracked in group work verse self working because in group work you always have people there to pull you back in if you need it. I would grade myself a 10/10 on this subject because I am usually not the one getting side tracked, I am the one pulling people back into the discussion, calling on people who haven't spoken yet, and making sure everyone who has something to say, says it. I think of myself as a teacher sometimes. Lol! If I compare my participation this quarter to previous quarters, I will have to say it varies a bit. First quarter I was extremely prepared, tuned in, but less involved in class discussions. I was like that mainly becuase I didn't know whaat highschool would be like, and I didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with the teacher. Second quarter came around and I was still prepared, doing my homework and all, and starting to get more into class discussions. Third quarter might have been my worst quarter, not grade wise but focused wise. I believe this because we have just come back from Christmas break, and I was to excited to where I had trouble paying attention. Also I believe this was my worst quarter because many breaks broke it up to where I was either lazy becuase we just came back from a break, or jumpy and happy because another break was just right around the corner. I still believe my participation was very good throughout the year compared to other people- no names will be mentioned.
Stay intuned,
ksparkles77
If I were rating myself 1-10 based on how much I participated in 4th quarter, I would give myself a 9.5/10. That is still a 95% and a high A, woo hoo! The reason I gave myself a 9.5 out of 10 was because there was one time I didn't come to class with an outside reading book and had to borrow one from Dr. D, and one other time I asked to go to the bathroom right before class and didn't get that done before during break. Let's not get into that because that is a whole, other story. Besides those minor misshaps, I have been prepared for English well. I always do my homework and have it ready for the beginning of class the next day, I always have my notebook, class reading book, pens, pencils, and any other materials I may need. I will admit though, I do borrow Terri's highlighters quite often, but that is because I find them highly amuzing. I check my email and assignments daily because I am terrified I will miss an assigment, and those are just give away points (kind of). I know this sounds a little weird, but I enjoy taking notes. So anything Dr. D tells us we need to write down, I'm on top of it! I've learned if I make my notes colorful and fun it is easier to learn them and not make the learning so drab, but that's just me. My class participation is excellent, especially when we were doing poetry because I loved our poetry unit! Sometimes I will ask questions and sometimes I will chime in my opinion or answer to the question. I don't ask questions because I either understand the material being presented to me, or a fellow classmate will ask it.
I grade myself differently when coming to group presentations, group discussions, or really anything where a group is involved! I cannot explain how much I love group work. In group work I feel like so much more is accomplished then if you were just doing it alone, by yourself. I think I get less side-tracked in group work verse self working because in group work you always have people there to pull you back in if you need it. I would grade myself a 10/10 on this subject because I am usually not the one getting side tracked, I am the one pulling people back into the discussion, calling on people who haven't spoken yet, and making sure everyone who has something to say, says it. I think of myself as a teacher sometimes. Lol! If I compare my participation this quarter to previous quarters, I will have to say it varies a bit. First quarter I was extremely prepared, tuned in, but less involved in class discussions. I was like that mainly becuase I didn't know whaat highschool would be like, and I didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with the teacher. Second quarter came around and I was still prepared, doing my homework and all, and starting to get more into class discussions. Third quarter might have been my worst quarter, not grade wise but focused wise. I believe this because we have just come back from Christmas break, and I was to excited to where I had trouble paying attention. Also I believe this was my worst quarter because many breaks broke it up to where I was either lazy becuase we just came back from a break, or jumpy and happy because another break was just right around the corner. I still believe my participation was very good throughout the year compared to other people- no names will be mentioned.
Stay intuned,
ksparkles77
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Over the year readings
Hey guys,
It makes me sad to see my freshman year coming to and end, but then I get over-joyed knowing I will be a sophomore next year. I can't wait! This year I have learned a lot from those 150+ minutes every weekend, actually more than I thought I would learn. I learned who my favorite author is, my favorite types of books to read, and my strong points and weak points of writing. Surprisingly I love reading about true stories because I find I can relate to them more than made up ones. I also discovered how much I love reading books that have movies based off of them, preferably Nicholas Sparks books.
One thing I did not do this year with my outside reading is read books that pertained to the English I course. Meaning, I didn't read books that related to literary elements or books about theme. Although, as I read, I have started to take notes in my books. Sometimes I mark vocabulary words I don't know or a foreshadowing moment. Sometimes I might even make connections to my life in general! Next on my reading list after I finish Water for Elephants (which is getting really good by the way), I am going to tackle the summer reading books we were assigned. I already know the category in which I want to read my free read- I think it will be a Nicholas Sparks book, one that I have not read or seen the movie.
Reading Log:
Water for Elephants: 2 hours
Macbeth: 1 hour
Finish the year out strong,
ksparkles77
It makes me sad to see my freshman year coming to and end, but then I get over-joyed knowing I will be a sophomore next year. I can't wait! This year I have learned a lot from those 150+ minutes every weekend, actually more than I thought I would learn. I learned who my favorite author is, my favorite types of books to read, and my strong points and weak points of writing. Surprisingly I love reading about true stories because I find I can relate to them more than made up ones. I also discovered how much I love reading books that have movies based off of them, preferably Nicholas Sparks books.
One thing I did not do this year with my outside reading is read books that pertained to the English I course. Meaning, I didn't read books that related to literary elements or books about theme. Although, as I read, I have started to take notes in my books. Sometimes I mark vocabulary words I don't know or a foreshadowing moment. Sometimes I might even make connections to my life in general! Next on my reading list after I finish Water for Elephants (which is getting really good by the way), I am going to tackle the summer reading books we were assigned. I already know the category in which I want to read my free read- I think it will be a Nicholas Sparks book, one that I have not read or seen the movie.
Reading Log:
Water for Elephants: 2 hours
Macbeth: 1 hour
Finish the year out strong,
ksparkles77
From the perspective of Lady Macbeth
Hello All,
It is I, Lady Macbeth, the one behind the dirty, murderous plots. I wanted to start out thanking those Three Weird Sisters for giving my husband that wonderful vision into the future, I couldn't have done what I, or should I say Macbeth, did without you guys. Secondly, I wanted to say thanks to the guards who had once guarded Duncan's sleeping chambers. I am glad y'all took the wine I offered so easily because if y'all wouldn't have...Well then Macbeth would've had to kill y'all the hard way, and we both know nobody wanted that to happen. Now that Duncan is dead I must persuade Macbeth to strike again, or if he cowards out, I might have to do so. If you are in line in front of my darling husband for the throne you better watch your back and sleep with one eye open.
My goal as future queen is to keep the attitude of feeling no pain when one dies. I don't want to feel bad when Macbeth kills again I have to go in and rub my hands into a wound just to frame others. I want to be able to go into the bed chambers and slaughter the victim leaving them as red as the devil's horns. That is what a strong woman does, and I am a strong woman.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, Lady Macbeth
(ksparkles77)
It is I, Lady Macbeth, the one behind the dirty, murderous plots. I wanted to start out thanking those Three Weird Sisters for giving my husband that wonderful vision into the future, I couldn't have done what I, or should I say Macbeth, did without you guys. Secondly, I wanted to say thanks to the guards who had once guarded Duncan's sleeping chambers. I am glad y'all took the wine I offered so easily because if y'all wouldn't have...Well then Macbeth would've had to kill y'all the hard way, and we both know nobody wanted that to happen. Now that Duncan is dead I must persuade Macbeth to strike again, or if he cowards out, I might have to do so. If you are in line in front of my darling husband for the throne you better watch your back and sleep with one eye open.
My goal as future queen is to keep the attitude of feeling no pain when one dies. I don't want to feel bad when Macbeth kills again I have to go in and rub my hands into a wound just to frame others. I want to be able to go into the bed chambers and slaughter the victim leaving them as red as the devil's horns. That is what a strong woman does, and I am a strong woman.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, Lady Macbeth
(ksparkles77)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Writing WRaP-Up
Throughout the year we have written many
papers about various topics, and I struggle with each one but always have a
finishing paper I am proud of. I am disappointed when I receive my paper with a
grade on it that is not a 100%. Even though a little part of me knew I wouldn’t
get that, I still had hope. I am bad at catching my errors the first time, even
the second time. I learned the hard way, after writing five papers, that I need
to look back on my recent papers that have grades to double, even triple check,
that I have not made the same silly mistakes I made the first couple of times.
Every
paper I write and turn in for a grade I feel like it always has a fragment or a
run-on sentence in it somewhere. No matter how hard I try not to have one, I
always do. I had 3 sentence errors in my literacy narrative, surprisingly none
in my profile, and that might be because my tutor helped me. Another issue I
have is a spelling issue. I told my parents that I got points counted off on my
profile for a spelling error and there jaws dropped. It isn’t like me to have
spelling issues, but I did. Except on my profile essay you commented saying I
spelt the word ‘grey’ wrong, but grey can be spelled ‘gray’ or ‘grey’. I’m not
sure if points were taken off for that, if so, they shouldn’t have. Also on that same paper I made
‘cardiovascular’ two words instead of one. Surprisingly my tutor did not catch
that!
Comparing
my WrAP test scores from this year to last year is kind of embarrassing.
Usually as you get older your scores should get better, but mine decreased in
every category. Last year, when I was in 8th grade, I got the
highest score in the whole grade- straight fives. This year I received 3.5 and
4.0’s all the way across the board. I got it back and was confused. How could I
go from an outstanding score to a mediocre score? It just didn’t make sense. On
my WrAP I received the 3.5’s in support, sentence structure, and mechanics. No
shocker with sentence structure! If I had to guess most of my points were
deducted because of my run-ons or fragments in the writing. I got 4.0’s on
overall development, organization, and word choice. Word choice has always been
a strong suit of mine, as Dr.D has complemented me on in my literary analysis
paper.
Over
the course of the 2011-2012 school year, I have corrected many things; one of
those things being the way I write. I used to do 6th/7th
grade writing just to get by. No adjectives, details, or quotes. Looking back
that is a little pathetic on my part. I am so much better of a writer now and I
am so proud of myself for pushing myself, completing the work, and not giving
up when I could have. The feedback on my papers has displayed me being a
successful writer, especially “My Rap” essay, or literacy narrative. I got four
9.5’s and one 8.5, and if you ask me that is amazing, considering it was our
first paper of the year too! I wish all my papers could have this great of an
outcome. The feedback I received from Dr.D made me feel great also. She said
“Good essay, Katie! You have a significant story that you tell well, using
strong, vivid detail and interesting and appropriate word choices throughout.”
When I read that I knew it would be a good year, and it has, writing in English
wise.
My
main writing errors have come to my attention once again, and I am going to try
my hardest to try to prevent those errors from being in my paper’s next year
also. I do believe I have improved my writing a good bit since 8th
grade because 9th grade English I is a whole lot tougher than the
year before. I wish the students next year the best of luck as I move on to
bigger and better writing with a new teacher and new writing topics. A lot of
memories have been made in Block 2 English that I will never forget. For
example, writing about forced child labor in Uzbekistan. That is a sensitive
topic that I am not going to joke around with. It is a serious problem in this
world and until some action is made towards it, I won’t forget the dangers of
it. My goals for next year are to continue to be a fluent writer and to not
have any misspelled words in any of my papers. Personally I think it looks a
little ridiculous if you can’t spell a word correctly and there are many ways
to figure out how to spell it- a dictionary for example. Another goal I have
set for myself as becoming an English II student is to read more and write
more. Even if it is a simple summary because the more you write the more
practice you have with all of the things I am weak in. Next year I hope we get
to write papers on anything, maybe even a fairytale, like write a fairytale
with our own little twist to it!
Common Errors List
1. Misspelling common words
Ø
Make
sure to use a dictionary or another reference if you aren’t sure how to spell a
word. Always use spell check before submitting a paper.
-Example from Profile: “While leaning
over the marble counter top with his black-grey
hair shagging in his face…” [Grey to gray]
2. MLA Format
Ø
Don’t
forget the heading of your paper is always on the right, Times New Roman 12 pt.
is the correct font and size, double space your paper, make the header and
footer the same font and font size as your paper, set margins of your document
1 inch on all sides, no extra spacing between your title and your paper, and no
special “attention” to your title (like making it a big font, bold, italicized,
and underlined).
-Example
from Profile. I didn’t use the correct spacing, font, or formatting in my final
paper even when we took time to do it in class. Why I did that? I am not even
sure myself.
3. Run-ons and Fragments
Ø
I have
a bad past with fragments and run-ons because they always seem to appear in my
papers. No matter if my parents check it or my tutor, they always form.
-Example
from Literacy Narrative: “My hand started cramping up, the clock started to
move faster and faster, the shuffling of papers and zipping up backpacks in the
background; my WrAP was finally complete and I was the last one. [TO fix this,
I would totally take out the part after the semicolon. Now that I have read it
over and over again, I think it is unneeded.
-Example
from Global Issues paper: “If I was in the Uzbekistan president’s position, I
would keep producing all the cotton we needed I would just get non-labor
machine to do it instead of putting humans in the fields all day.” [To fix
this, I would make it two separate sentences. I would out a period after
‘needed’. Then start my new sentence like, “To allow this to happen, I would just
get…”]
4. Semicolon vs Colon
Ø
In most
papers I write, I use semicolons or colons, turns out I have been using them
wrong all along. A semicolon is used to join two phrases, and takes the place
of a conjunction. These two phrases being connected by the semicolon, if they
are taken apart, must be able to standalone and still make sense.
-Made-up
example: Tom didn’t want to go to math because he had forgotten to do the
homework; however, he didn’t want to miss review for the test either.
Ø
A colon
is used to connect an independent clause to introduce a list of items.
-Made-up
example: Mom handed me a list of items we needed for the trip: Cookies,
goldfish, brownies, milk, apples, and carrot sticks.
5. Difference between To, Two, and Too
Ø
Obviously
two is used when referring to numbers. Too is another word for also, and to is
used when both of those do not apply.
-Made-up
example: I went to the market and bought two oranges too!
6. Missing commas
Ø
Commas
can help to prevent misreading and in this case it is helpful to use a comma
when opening with an introductory element like, because, while, or although.
-Example
from Literacy Narrative: “Throughout the day I tired to finish all my homework
in class so when I got home I could just get started on my WrAP prep. [I would
place the comma after day in this sentence.]
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Aesop Rock: Float analysis
Good afternoon,
The song I chose to analyze for homework was Float by Aesop Rock. Originally I was going to choose a song I knew well, but then I saw the list Dr. D had come up with, so I choose off of there. Why I chose Float, I do not know, it just stuck out to me. The first thing I did when I picked out which song I was going to do was go to YouTube and listen to it. Let me give you all a heads up and say that it is not the kind of rap music you would imagine it to be. It almost reminded me of the dude, Danny, that came and said a few poems to us from poetry slam; it sounded much like that. Anyways, back to the lyrics...
This song consisted of 9 stanza's, and the last one being one line long. The first stanza consists of a rhyming pattern between 'shoestring' and 'mood swing', and also has a repetitive -ective sound on two words. Lastly in stanza 1, "To slit throat" and "four letters in hope" don't rhyme but the (oo) sound is there, making it assonance. Stanza 2 is all about the sounds you make as you say the words. For example, portrait, tortoise, tortured, orbiting, and orchard all have the (or) sound, and when speaking those words, your mouth makes the same shape each time. The last line of stanza 2 has a consonance with "charred child", the (ch) sound in each. When the second line in stanza 2 reads "Inside a tortoise shell, tortured", the singer is referring to the jail sell and giving it a animal characteristic. Also, "orbiting hell's orchard is a metaphor also. Something that stood out to me in stanza 3 was all the double letters that appeared. Canteen, caffeine, villain, hobble, hollow, nozzle, see, and application all have double letters in them, and the funny thing is none of them rhyme. Also in this stanza there is a tad bit of rhyming when it says, "We see intent to re-invent". Stanza 4 was quite odd to me when I first read it because I had to read it multiple times after that to see if there even was any poetic elements. The first line when it reads, "honor modern", my mouth made the same (o) shape for both words. The second line contains imagery, specifically a metaphor, because Bilbo Baggins' stilts do not tip over a Petri dish. The last line in stanza 4 really made me think because I imagine two harps, one being one color and one being another color, but both still playing the same song in harmony. Stanza 5 has many spots where it rhymes, and some are on the same line. Stanza 6 has two rhyme schemes, one is "Atlantis" and "chant is", while another is "sulk" and "bulk". Also in the last line, "cult pulp in bulk", that alone is a tongue twister and assonance with the (ul) sound, just having a different beginning and ending letter. Stanza 7 also contains rhymes, but stanza 7 also gets a bit personal meaning it goes back in time to memories with the mom and sweet wine of father time. In stanza 7 it says, "My fetus breeds as a combine of father time" meaning over the time (years?) her fetus has breaded babies. Stanza 8 is the last "full" stanza and it ends with a repetitional ending of -ation. In this stanza it says "I will be hung in the village square in 5 minutes", I guess that means death for him. The one line in stanza 9 supports this in a way because once you are literally hung, you are just floating there while everyone around you is "drowning" in there tears.
Hope everyone had a joyous spring break,
ksparkles77
The song I chose to analyze for homework was Float by Aesop Rock. Originally I was going to choose a song I knew well, but then I saw the list Dr. D had come up with, so I choose off of there. Why I chose Float, I do not know, it just stuck out to me. The first thing I did when I picked out which song I was going to do was go to YouTube and listen to it. Let me give you all a heads up and say that it is not the kind of rap music you would imagine it to be. It almost reminded me of the dude, Danny, that came and said a few poems to us from poetry slam; it sounded much like that. Anyways, back to the lyrics...
This song consisted of 9 stanza's, and the last one being one line long. The first stanza consists of a rhyming pattern between 'shoestring' and 'mood swing', and also has a repetitive -ective sound on two words. Lastly in stanza 1, "To slit throat" and "four letters in hope" don't rhyme but the (oo) sound is there, making it assonance. Stanza 2 is all about the sounds you make as you say the words. For example, portrait, tortoise, tortured, orbiting, and orchard all have the (or) sound, and when speaking those words, your mouth makes the same shape each time. The last line of stanza 2 has a consonance with "charred child", the (ch) sound in each. When the second line in stanza 2 reads "Inside a tortoise shell, tortured", the singer is referring to the jail sell and giving it a animal characteristic. Also, "orbiting hell's orchard is a metaphor also. Something that stood out to me in stanza 3 was all the double letters that appeared. Canteen, caffeine, villain, hobble, hollow, nozzle, see, and application all have double letters in them, and the funny thing is none of them rhyme. Also in this stanza there is a tad bit of rhyming when it says, "We see intent to re-invent". Stanza 4 was quite odd to me when I first read it because I had to read it multiple times after that to see if there even was any poetic elements. The first line when it reads, "honor modern", my mouth made the same (o) shape for both words. The second line contains imagery, specifically a metaphor, because Bilbo Baggins' stilts do not tip over a Petri dish. The last line in stanza 4 really made me think because I imagine two harps, one being one color and one being another color, but both still playing the same song in harmony. Stanza 5 has many spots where it rhymes, and some are on the same line. Stanza 6 has two rhyme schemes, one is "Atlantis" and "chant is", while another is "sulk" and "bulk". Also in the last line, "cult pulp in bulk", that alone is a tongue twister and assonance with the (ul) sound, just having a different beginning and ending letter. Stanza 7 also contains rhymes, but stanza 7 also gets a bit personal meaning it goes back in time to memories with the mom and sweet wine of father time. In stanza 7 it says, "My fetus breeds as a combine of father time" meaning over the time (years?) her fetus has breaded babies. Stanza 8 is the last "full" stanza and it ends with a repetitional ending of -ation. In this stanza it says "I will be hung in the village square in 5 minutes", I guess that means death for him. The one line in stanza 9 supports this in a way because once you are literally hung, you are just floating there while everyone around you is "drowning" in there tears.
Hope everyone had a joyous spring break,
ksparkles77
Circus Life
Good morning,
I am currently reading Water for Elephants, and if you did not read last week's blog about it, you didn't miss much. I have a good feeling about this book because it isn't a genre I usually choose to read, but it catches my eye because there is a movie based off it! The genre is romantic drama, which to me is quite odd because it is two combined almost. Anyways, I actually got into the book over spring break, and let's just say it's different. You may be wondering why I titled my post "Circus Life", and that is because that's the new life-style Jacob Jankowski gets himself into when he chooses to hop aboard the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth train in the middle of the night.
To catch you guys up, Jacob Jankowski is the main character, and he's quite crazy if you ask me. Jacob decides to get away from all civilization when he looses his parents in a sudden, fatal car crash, and can't take all the after math of the accident. He runs to the boundaries of his town and walks for what seems like ever, until a train abruptly awakens him from behind. Then he makes the quick decision to tag along, and once he goes on there's no coming off. Jacob sees people, animals, and stunts he would never see living in his small, cooped up town. My predicition is that Jacob might love working for the "most spectacular show on Earth", but you cannot just leave your life. You had some sort of job/responsibility there, and now that your gone who will complete them? I doubt Jacob thought that much ahead before making any decisions he made.
Reading Log: 120+ minutes reading Water for Elepants
40-45 minutes analyzing 4 poems
20 minutes analyzing song
See you all at school tomorrow, ksparkles77
I am currently reading Water for Elephants, and if you did not read last week's blog about it, you didn't miss much. I have a good feeling about this book because it isn't a genre I usually choose to read, but it catches my eye because there is a movie based off it! The genre is romantic drama, which to me is quite odd because it is two combined almost. Anyways, I actually got into the book over spring break, and let's just say it's different. You may be wondering why I titled my post "Circus Life", and that is because that's the new life-style Jacob Jankowski gets himself into when he chooses to hop aboard the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth train in the middle of the night.
To catch you guys up, Jacob Jankowski is the main character, and he's quite crazy if you ask me. Jacob decides to get away from all civilization when he looses his parents in a sudden, fatal car crash, and can't take all the after math of the accident. He runs to the boundaries of his town and walks for what seems like ever, until a train abruptly awakens him from behind. Then he makes the quick decision to tag along, and once he goes on there's no coming off. Jacob sees people, animals, and stunts he would never see living in his small, cooped up town. My predicition is that Jacob might love working for the "most spectacular show on Earth", but you cannot just leave your life. You had some sort of job/responsibility there, and now that your gone who will complete them? I doubt Jacob thought that much ahead before making any decisions he made.
Reading Log: 120+ minutes reading Water for Elepants
40-45 minutes analyzing 4 poems
20 minutes analyzing song
See you all at school tomorrow, ksparkles77
Sunday, April 1, 2012
"My Father's Garden" analysis
Hello again,
The poem I chose from section II was "My Father's Garden" written by David Wagoner. Don't let the title mislead you like it did to me. When I first read the title I thought the poem would be about a young child writing about her father's garden. About how it was made up of all these different color flowers and how he even grew some fruit and veggies in the garden. My guess was very wrong; this poem had more to do with metal working than anything else it seemed. This poem was made of four stanzas and had no rhyming scheme. I felt the poem that I read was quite difficult and that made me reread it at least 6 times. It also contained much imagery within the paragraphs. Not much caesura and enjambment was used but there was some. I also had to look up a few words that were not in my vocabulary to help me grasp the reading better.
One of the techniques I came across quite often was personification. I found four examples of personification within my whole, entire poem. I made a connection that I thought was very clever and that not a lot of people would notice right off the bat. The start of stanza 3 reads, "He was called a melter. He tried to keep his brain", and the start of stanza 4 read, "But it melted. His classical learning ran". When I went back and reread the poem for the 3rd or 4th time, I realized that both of these lines had enjambments in them. Not only that but the word before the period was 'melt' with an ending on it (-er, -ed). Another thing about hose lines were the word after the period was 'He or Him' bringing all of our focus back to the father. I found 2 similes in the poem and even found it odd to see a Latin phrase in the text. "magna sine laude" means 'without big praise', and how that fits into that stanza, I'm not quite sure.
There were places in this poem that confused me also. For example, stanza 3, line 2, "From melting in those tyger-mputhed mills". At first I read 'tyger' as the word tiger, then going back I started to doubt myself what it meant. I wanted to be sure it was tiger and not some other odd word I've never heard of. Therefore, I looked it up and there was no definition for the word. I asked myself the question, and even wrote it down, why did Wagoner choose to spell 'tiger' like that? Was it to confuse the reader, because it surely confused me. My best guess to what the theme was was garden's aren't always pretty "flowers" that bloom and smell nice. I came up with this as my theme because in stanza 2 it says, "He would pick flowers for us:...to knock them down". That was the best imagery example I read in the whole poem. Those four lines in stanza 2 were very clear in my head, and those lines actually made me think about what the father's real job was because that descriptive part was not describing real flowers. When I thought about the tone of the poem, I started getting confused because I don't remember learning about tone too much. So, based off my readings and my memory, I wrote down the tone of the poem as being from someone's point of view who knew/knows "him", referring to the father, well; maybe a child of his because this was under the Poems of Childhood section.
I advise anyone who likes imagery or finds it interesting to read this poem because it contains a lot of that, and it is very descriptive.
Geaux poetry,
ksparkles77
The poem I chose from section II was "My Father's Garden" written by David Wagoner. Don't let the title mislead you like it did to me. When I first read the title I thought the poem would be about a young child writing about her father's garden. About how it was made up of all these different color flowers and how he even grew some fruit and veggies in the garden. My guess was very wrong; this poem had more to do with metal working than anything else it seemed. This poem was made of four stanzas and had no rhyming scheme. I felt the poem that I read was quite difficult and that made me reread it at least 6 times. It also contained much imagery within the paragraphs. Not much caesura and enjambment was used but there was some. I also had to look up a few words that were not in my vocabulary to help me grasp the reading better.
One of the techniques I came across quite often was personification. I found four examples of personification within my whole, entire poem. I made a connection that I thought was very clever and that not a lot of people would notice right off the bat. The start of stanza 3 reads, "He was called a melter. He tried to keep his brain", and the start of stanza 4 read, "But it melted. His classical learning ran". When I went back and reread the poem for the 3rd or 4th time, I realized that both of these lines had enjambments in them. Not only that but the word before the period was 'melt' with an ending on it (-er, -ed). Another thing about hose lines were the word after the period was 'He or Him' bringing all of our focus back to the father. I found 2 similes in the poem and even found it odd to see a Latin phrase in the text. "magna sine laude" means 'without big praise', and how that fits into that stanza, I'm not quite sure.
There were places in this poem that confused me also. For example, stanza 3, line 2, "From melting in those tyger-mputhed mills". At first I read 'tyger' as the word tiger, then going back I started to doubt myself what it meant. I wanted to be sure it was tiger and not some other odd word I've never heard of. Therefore, I looked it up and there was no definition for the word. I asked myself the question, and even wrote it down, why did Wagoner choose to spell 'tiger' like that? Was it to confuse the reader, because it surely confused me. My best guess to what the theme was was garden's aren't always pretty "flowers" that bloom and smell nice. I came up with this as my theme because in stanza 2 it says, "He would pick flowers for us:...to knock them down". That was the best imagery example I read in the whole poem. Those four lines in stanza 2 were very clear in my head, and those lines actually made me think about what the father's real job was because that descriptive part was not describing real flowers. When I thought about the tone of the poem, I started getting confused because I don't remember learning about tone too much. So, based off my readings and my memory, I wrote down the tone of the poem as being from someone's point of view who knew/knows "him", referring to the father, well; maybe a child of his because this was under the Poems of Childhood section.
I advise anyone who likes imagery or finds it interesting to read this poem because it contains a lot of that, and it is very descriptive.
Geaux poetry,
ksparkles77
The End
Happy April Fool's day y'all,
I finished my book Lucky One this week, and let me tell you, it was good! I wish that there was a sequel to this book because I would start that immediately. Now that I have read the book I am allowing myself to see the movie as soon as it comes out. Whenever I completed chapter 38 (last chapter) of Lucky One, I was having many mixed feelings. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Keith Clayton, Logan Thibault, Beth and Ben. I turned the page feeling lost and confused, then I saw there was another little section that read: Two Moths Later. This turned my frown upside down because after I read those few pages I discovered what happened to all the characters. Let's just say there was a happy ending for some characters but not all.
The next book on my agenda is another book that has a movie from it. It's called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. So far I have read 2 pages of the Epilogue; I know I'm not that far into it, in fact, barely into it at all. From the reviews I have heard from my mother, it sounds like a thrilling book, but she said it was weird. Anyway, she still recommended it to me and we are going to watch the movie together once I finish it because she happened to read it too. The one thing I am worried about with starting this book is if we are going to be reading a class book the same time as I am reading this book. If so, I will end up putting Water for Elephants on hold and never going back to it. At least that is what happened with The Help.
Less than a week until break,
ksparkles77
Outside Reading:
the Lucky One: 170 minutes
Water for Elephants: 5 minutes
Poetry: 50 minutes (whole week)
I finished my book Lucky One this week, and let me tell you, it was good! I wish that there was a sequel to this book because I would start that immediately. Now that I have read the book I am allowing myself to see the movie as soon as it comes out. Whenever I completed chapter 38 (last chapter) of Lucky One, I was having many mixed feelings. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Keith Clayton, Logan Thibault, Beth and Ben. I turned the page feeling lost and confused, then I saw there was another little section that read: Two Moths Later. This turned my frown upside down because after I read those few pages I discovered what happened to all the characters. Let's just say there was a happy ending for some characters but not all.
The next book on my agenda is another book that has a movie from it. It's called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. So far I have read 2 pages of the Epilogue; I know I'm not that far into it, in fact, barely into it at all. From the reviews I have heard from my mother, it sounds like a thrilling book, but she said it was weird. Anyway, she still recommended it to me and we are going to watch the movie together once I finish it because she happened to read it too. The one thing I am worried about with starting this book is if we are going to be reading a class book the same time as I am reading this book. If so, I will end up putting Water for Elephants on hold and never going back to it. At least that is what happened with The Help.
Less than a week until break,
ksparkles77
Outside Reading:
the Lucky One: 170 minutes
Water for Elephants: 5 minutes
Poetry: 50 minutes (whole week)
Monday, March 26, 2012
The Lucky One: Round 3
Good afternoon,
I barely made the reading requirements this week which might be surprising considering how much I am enjoying my fantastic novel, The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks. It is not quite to the climax of the book, but at some points I have misunderstood, thinking it was the high point of the book when it really is not. You might be wondering how I know it is not the climax, and that is because I have seen the trailer to the movie. The climax is when Thibault spills to Beth why he really walked 1/2 way across the country (and yes I said walked!!). I kind of wish I didn't know how the book was going to turn out, but I do. Even thought the book is so much more detailed and I think I will end up loving the book more than the movie.
I am already planning ahead to read another book by Nicholas Sparks, preferably one that is based off a movie, if it isn't that's okay too! I want to read a romantic novel/mysterious (if there is such thing), so please comment or let me know if you have any suggestions. Or any suggestions in general about a good, intriguing novel! I want to complete the Hunger Games series over the summer, but that all depends how summer reading works. I read the first one and am eager to dive into Catching Fire and Mocking Jay, because if the books are as good as they sound I know I am bound to love them!
Good luck, spring break is almost here~
ksparkles77
Reading:
15-20 minutes of poems (for class)
165 minutes reading free read (The Lucky One)
I barely made the reading requirements this week which might be surprising considering how much I am enjoying my fantastic novel, The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks. It is not quite to the climax of the book, but at some points I have misunderstood, thinking it was the high point of the book when it really is not. You might be wondering how I know it is not the climax, and that is because I have seen the trailer to the movie. The climax is when Thibault spills to Beth why he really walked 1/2 way across the country (and yes I said walked!!). I kind of wish I didn't know how the book was going to turn out, but I do. Even thought the book is so much more detailed and I think I will end up loving the book more than the movie.
I am already planning ahead to read another book by Nicholas Sparks, preferably one that is based off a movie, if it isn't that's okay too! I want to read a romantic novel/mysterious (if there is such thing), so please comment or let me know if you have any suggestions. Or any suggestions in general about a good, intriguing novel! I want to complete the Hunger Games series over the summer, but that all depends how summer reading works. I read the first one and am eager to dive into Catching Fire and Mocking Jay, because if the books are as good as they sound I know I am bound to love them!
Good luck, spring break is almost here~
ksparkles77
Reading:
15-20 minutes of poems (for class)
165 minutes reading free read (The Lucky One)
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Stress
Hi,
Everyone knows what stress is, and know that there is good stress and bad stress. Well the stress I'm under this week is bad stress. I feel like I have so many things to do every night that 24-hours a day just is not enough. I am having a panic about everything, including upcoming events, Sadies, Karnvial Knight, and spring break. I just cannot wait until this weekend because I will know that I have completed most of my tasks. Next week, the week before spring break, I feel as though I will be studying for test every nught. I already know I have one test that week.
There is only one positive thing coming out of this school week, and that is Wednesday is a 1/2 day. Thank you Episcopal!! That 1/2 day will allow me to get ahead in one of my English projects and maybe even read a little. Most of the stress that is brought about me this week is from English class' both my research and my Nervous Conditions projects are due this week. I have started both of them but am worried about presenting. I hop nobody is as nervous and as stressed as me. I wonder why I get like this? Anyways, good luck to everyone this week and next! Spring break is so close, Karnival Knight will be fun, and Sadies will be even more fun!
Xoxo,
ksparkles77
Everyone knows what stress is, and know that there is good stress and bad stress. Well the stress I'm under this week is bad stress. I feel like I have so many things to do every night that 24-hours a day just is not enough. I am having a panic about everything, including upcoming events, Sadies, Karnvial Knight, and spring break. I just cannot wait until this weekend because I will know that I have completed most of my tasks. Next week, the week before spring break, I feel as though I will be studying for test every nught. I already know I have one test that week.
There is only one positive thing coming out of this school week, and that is Wednesday is a 1/2 day. Thank you Episcopal!! That 1/2 day will allow me to get ahead in one of my English projects and maybe even read a little. Most of the stress that is brought about me this week is from English class' both my research and my Nervous Conditions projects are due this week. I have started both of them but am worried about presenting. I hop nobody is as nervous and as stressed as me. I wonder why I get like this? Anyways, good luck to everyone this week and next! Spring break is so close, Karnival Knight will be fun, and Sadies will be even more fun!
Xoxo,
ksparkles77
Sunday, March 18, 2012
1/2 way done
Hello again,
Over the weekend I reached the 1/2 way mark on my great novel, The Lucky One. It is quite rare that I ever find a book that I read this much. I have even taken this book in the car with me while I drove to the grocery with my mom. I have also read it when I wake up every morning and before I go to bed every night. The chapters vary in length, some are 3-4 pages while some are around 17-24 pages long, but I try to read at least 2 in the morning before I start my homework and then 1 in the afternoon or 2 depending on how much homework I have completed.
My book is told from the 3 main characters point of views: Thibault, Beth, and Clayton. Each chapter is a new person's thoughts and ideas about what is going around around them, it isn't as confusing as it sounds. This book was #1 New York Times Bestseller, and now I understand why. It was also made into a movie that I don't think is out yet, but try to read the book first because in my opinion the book is always more detailed, while the movie leaves out some parts. As I read this book I occasionally find Worldly Wise words from our chapter and highlight them, or I will find a concept we have talked about in class and bracket it thinking I'm supposed to do annotations. It never hurts to jot down some notes on the side of your book though! I recommend this book to everyone, boys and girls, you guys would love it!
Try it sometime,
ksparkles77
Over the weekend I reached the 1/2 way mark on my great novel, The Lucky One. It is quite rare that I ever find a book that I read this much. I have even taken this book in the car with me while I drove to the grocery with my mom. I have also read it when I wake up every morning and before I go to bed every night. The chapters vary in length, some are 3-4 pages while some are around 17-24 pages long, but I try to read at least 2 in the morning before I start my homework and then 1 in the afternoon or 2 depending on how much homework I have completed.
My book is told from the 3 main characters point of views: Thibault, Beth, and Clayton. Each chapter is a new person's thoughts and ideas about what is going around around them, it isn't as confusing as it sounds. This book was #1 New York Times Bestseller, and now I understand why. It was also made into a movie that I don't think is out yet, but try to read the book first because in my opinion the book is always more detailed, while the movie leaves out some parts. As I read this book I occasionally find Worldly Wise words from our chapter and highlight them, or I will find a concept we have talked about in class and bracket it thinking I'm supposed to do annotations. It never hurts to jot down some notes on the side of your book though! I recommend this book to everyone, boys and girls, you guys would love it!
Try it sometime,
ksparkles77
4th quarter goals
Good morning,
It is hard to believe that we only have 9 weeks of school left, and even less than that because of Spring Break, days off, and exams. Wow! My freshman year has been very successful academically so far. I haven't made a C this year or even come close to one. I also have been very organized and done 98% of my homework-sometimes I forget. I have checked my email almost everyday like the teachers have warned us to do, and I also study ahead of time for test (learned that the hard way in first quarter). Even though I have accomplished all of those things above, there is always room to get a higher GPA, turn in all homework assignments, or even to make 100% on pop quizzes because I did the homework from the night before. That is why I am setting goals for this quarter, to improve in each class in some way.
I want to set my goals high enough to where I know I can reach them if I give it my all. I don't want to set a goal that is over my head, like 100% in each class, and I don't want a goal to much under my limit, like no C's and D's because that is easy for me and has already happened. One of my wishes that has stuck with me throughout each quarter is to get straight A's, it hasn't happened yet but if I push myself hard enough I think I would get it. I ended 3rd quarter with all A's and 1 B, in World History, and it was .8 off from being an A. Things like that make me so angry because I look back and think, "only if I turned in that assignment on time I wouldn't have lost 2 points and maybe got an A, then all A's could be checked off my list". But no, I received my B because of my actions in the class. Another goal I set at the beginning of the year but have yet to accomplish is to make a 100% on a SNAVOD entry in Latin. If you don't take Latin this will not make sense to you. In Latin we complete these daily entries every night for homework and at the beginning of the class each day, Mrs. Landry will put the correct answer on the board. I have yet to make a 100% and I don't know why because she is basically giving us the answers everyday. So Mrs. Landry picks up the SNAVOD's after every couple entries and gives us a grade on them based on how much is correct. I have gotten 99.5%, 98.75%, and 99.75%, all were so close but no 100%'s. That was only two of my goals for this quarter, but I feel if I tell you all of them you will get board and it would be more than a 2 paragraph blog.
Strive for excellence this quarter so you are able to start the sophomore year off right!
ksparkles77
It is hard to believe that we only have 9 weeks of school left, and even less than that because of Spring Break, days off, and exams. Wow! My freshman year has been very successful academically so far. I haven't made a C this year or even come close to one. I also have been very organized and done 98% of my homework-sometimes I forget. I have checked my email almost everyday like the teachers have warned us to do, and I also study ahead of time for test (learned that the hard way in first quarter). Even though I have accomplished all of those things above, there is always room to get a higher GPA, turn in all homework assignments, or even to make 100% on pop quizzes because I did the homework from the night before. That is why I am setting goals for this quarter, to improve in each class in some way.
I want to set my goals high enough to where I know I can reach them if I give it my all. I don't want to set a goal that is over my head, like 100% in each class, and I don't want a goal to much under my limit, like no C's and D's because that is easy for me and has already happened. One of my wishes that has stuck with me throughout each quarter is to get straight A's, it hasn't happened yet but if I push myself hard enough I think I would get it. I ended 3rd quarter with all A's and 1 B, in World History, and it was .8 off from being an A. Things like that make me so angry because I look back and think, "only if I turned in that assignment on time I wouldn't have lost 2 points and maybe got an A, then all A's could be checked off my list". But no, I received my B because of my actions in the class. Another goal I set at the beginning of the year but have yet to accomplish is to make a 100% on a SNAVOD entry in Latin. If you don't take Latin this will not make sense to you. In Latin we complete these daily entries every night for homework and at the beginning of the class each day, Mrs. Landry will put the correct answer on the board. I have yet to make a 100% and I don't know why because she is basically giving us the answers everyday. So Mrs. Landry picks up the SNAVOD's after every couple entries and gives us a grade on them based on how much is correct. I have gotten 99.5%, 98.75%, and 99.75%, all were so close but no 100%'s. That was only two of my goals for this quarter, but I feel if I tell you all of them you will get board and it would be more than a 2 paragraph blog.
Strive for excellence this quarter so you are able to start the sophomore year off right!
ksparkles77
Sunday, March 11, 2012
When I Grow Up
Hello again,
Whenever I reread the title of blog I sing that old, hip sing by the Pussycat Dolls called When I Grow Up. Actually, I was listening to it and that is how I got the idea to blog about this. Their are many things I wanted to be when I grow up, from vet, to house mom, and even a marine biologist, but now I have narrowed my wide selection of choices to one's that interest me so much more. I love to cook, especially desserts, so I would love to be a baker and own one of the most popular and well-known bakeries in the world, like Buddy from Carlos' Bakery. Buddy has his own show and is located next to the best place on Earth, New York City! The only negative thing is that I would be eating my delicious desserts all day long until I grew obese; maybe I could work on making them less fatty and sugary.
The other choice of job I would like to have is to be a dermatologist. Mainly because I always want people to look and feel their skin and it be sheik and smooth. I have actually already started my duties in the dermatology department, ask Cody Day. I think it would be very interesting to have that job just to see what comes my way. And of course I would want my firm to be successful and well-known to where my lobby is full of people waiting to see me. Maybe in the lobby I can have some fresh pastries made by me, part dessert maker, part dermatologist.
Come and visit, ksparkles77
Whenever I reread the title of blog I sing that old, hip sing by the Pussycat Dolls called When I Grow Up. Actually, I was listening to it and that is how I got the idea to blog about this. Their are many things I wanted to be when I grow up, from vet, to house mom, and even a marine biologist, but now I have narrowed my wide selection of choices to one's that interest me so much more. I love to cook, especially desserts, so I would love to be a baker and own one of the most popular and well-known bakeries in the world, like Buddy from Carlos' Bakery. Buddy has his own show and is located next to the best place on Earth, New York City! The only negative thing is that I would be eating my delicious desserts all day long until I grew obese; maybe I could work on making them less fatty and sugary.
The other choice of job I would like to have is to be a dermatologist. Mainly because I always want people to look and feel their skin and it be sheik and smooth. I have actually already started my duties in the dermatology department, ask Cody Day. I think it would be very interesting to have that job just to see what comes my way. And of course I would want my firm to be successful and well-known to where my lobby is full of people waiting to see me. Maybe in the lobby I can have some fresh pastries made by me, part dessert maker, part dermatologist.
Come and visit, ksparkles77
Lucky One
Hey y'all,
Read 112 pages over the course of 3 hours.
Now that we are finished reading about Tambu's journey through her young hood, and her struggles of feminine life and family, I decided to start a new book today. I had one long flight and one short flight on my home home from the big apple, which was phenomenal by the way. I bought Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks in a side shop at the airport, and I first picked it up because I saw Zac Efron on the cover. Most of y'all might have seen the commercial for a new movie coming out with Zac Efron and this chick. The movie trailer is about the guy (Efron) who is in the army and finds a picture of this beautiful woman in the rubbish after an explosion. He uses clues and back ground to finally trace her down and wants to tell her he found this picture of her that maybe one of her marine corps' friends dropped. Well anyway, it is so far an amazing book and I don't want to stop reading it.
Over the years I have been allowed to pick books that I wanted to read, I have noticed that I have certain books I go for, sort of like my own, special type of book. I go for books that have movies based off of them. I try to read the book before the movie comes out or if it is already out and I haven't seen it yet, I'll still read it then watch the movie after. I prefer books likes this because I like to compare the book I read to the movie and see the differences, similarities, things along those lines. Most of the time I choose the book as being better because the movie will sometimes leave things out to make the movie shorter and more interesting to the audience. One rule I have when choosing these books are to not pick a book that I have already seen the movie. Otherwise, I know what happens and it is not interesting for me as a learned reader.
Read 112 pages over the course of 3 hours.
Goodnight, ksparkles77
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Summer Time: Favorite place in the world
Hello all,
I had nothing else to blog about, so why not summer time? Summer is the best time of the year and I think every body agrees with me on that one. Summer is when you can sleep late and hangout with your friends all night long. It's all about pulling all nighters and having contests to see who can get the tannest. Over the summer I love to go to the beach, but my all time favorite place to be is at my camp in False River. A few years back my grandparents built this camp and they use it and so do we.
We spend most of our time their in the summer because it is so beautiful and while your their it's like nothing else matters. A few of my friends have camps down there also; Melissa Sadler does and now Austin Guarisco does, he's going to love it! This summer, now that i am 15, we are getting jet skis! I jet skied once before with Julia Kuntz at her lake house in Lake Pontchartrain, and let me tell you, it was amazing!! I haven't forgot about it ever since and have been asking my parents for over a year to get me one. So they finally gave in and are buying two this summer. Over the summer, if your ever over in that part of the state call me and stop by because memories are made in False River that you'll never forget.
Come faster summer 2012, please!
ksparkles77
I had nothing else to blog about, so why not summer time? Summer is the best time of the year and I think every body agrees with me on that one. Summer is when you can sleep late and hangout with your friends all night long. It's all about pulling all nighters and having contests to see who can get the tannest. Over the summer I love to go to the beach, but my all time favorite place to be is at my camp in False River. A few years back my grandparents built this camp and they use it and so do we.
We spend most of our time their in the summer because it is so beautiful and while your their it's like nothing else matters. A few of my friends have camps down there also; Melissa Sadler does and now Austin Guarisco does, he's going to love it! This summer, now that i am 15, we are getting jet skis! I jet skied once before with Julia Kuntz at her lake house in Lake Pontchartrain, and let me tell you, it was amazing!! I haven't forgot about it ever since and have been asking my parents for over a year to get me one. So they finally gave in and are buying two this summer. Over the summer, if your ever over in that part of the state call me and stop by because memories are made in False River that you'll never forget.
Come faster summer 2012, please!
ksparkles77
Finally Finished!
Hey guys,
I don't know about you all but I was thrilled to be finished with Nervous Conditions! It was a great read with much suspense and shocking moments. One of the most shocking moments to me had to be the fight between Nyasha and Babamukuru. All I can say about that is one, I'm glad me and my father have a great relationship to where that wouldn't happen, and second, I am so happy I live in the time now to where a father who did that would get arrested in a heart beat. The end of the book was the best in my opinion, along with the middle of the book. I didn't enjoy the beginning that much, I guess because it was about Nhamo's death and I don't like death.
Chapter 10 was a fabulous ending chapter because it tied up some loose ends, and ended well for some characters, not so much for Nyasha though. In a way I am upset chapter 10 was the last chapter because it didn't have a good concluding part. Many of my questions remained unanswered. What happened to Nyasha? Did she ever get out of the hospital and is she covered from her illness? How did Tambu like school? What about the other characters lives: Lucia, Chido, Manini, Tambu's new baby brother? As you can tell I'm that sort of person who likes their questions answered because I don't like to be left wondering.
"Treat others as you want to be treated"
ksparkles77
I don't know about you all but I was thrilled to be finished with Nervous Conditions! It was a great read with much suspense and shocking moments. One of the most shocking moments to me had to be the fight between Nyasha and Babamukuru. All I can say about that is one, I'm glad me and my father have a great relationship to where that wouldn't happen, and second, I am so happy I live in the time now to where a father who did that would get arrested in a heart beat. The end of the book was the best in my opinion, along with the middle of the book. I didn't enjoy the beginning that much, I guess because it was about Nhamo's death and I don't like death.
Chapter 10 was a fabulous ending chapter because it tied up some loose ends, and ended well for some characters, not so much for Nyasha though. In a way I am upset chapter 10 was the last chapter because it didn't have a good concluding part. Many of my questions remained unanswered. What happened to Nyasha? Did she ever get out of the hospital and is she covered from her illness? How did Tambu like school? What about the other characters lives: Lucia, Chido, Manini, Tambu's new baby brother? As you can tell I'm that sort of person who likes their questions answered because I don't like to be left wondering.
"Treat others as you want to be treated"
ksparkles77
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Lovely Lake Tahoe
Aye fellow bloggers,
If you happened to read my post before this you would know that I went skiing over the break and that it was my first experience. When I say my first experience, I mean the first one that I can recall. My parents took us skiing in Colorado when I was 6 and my sisters were 2 and 4; that was a long time ago to where I can't even remember what occurred then, therefore this is my first real skiing trip! My dad's parents and my family went up the the glorious Lake Tahoe, Nevada which happens to lie right on the California-Nevada state line. We stayed at the Reno-Tahoe Harrah's casino and there was much to do there, for adults and children. It was really interesting to stay there because their was a law in California that banned gambling. so some genius constructor built a casino (where gambling occurs) right next to the state line. That meant you could go skiing in California but gambling and live in Nevada. So I guess you could say I went to two different state everyday while on my vacation.
I also enjoyed my trip because I saw my good friend Austin Stewart. Incase you don't know, Austin used to go to Episcopal until he moved to California over the summer, it was a very sad move for his family and his friends. Austin and his family happened to be staying at a ski lodge 3 hotels down from me, so we saw each other everyday and went onto the mountain for a fun filled day. Austin was a snowboarder and for the first time my dad tried to snow board, let's just say a 1/2 day of lessons plus lessons from Austin taught him a lot but left him in much pain. I took a few wipe outs myself while I was skiing and my family got a few laughs from it. If you ever get to go skiing I suggest you go here because it's a lovely, little town. You can walk everywhere, people are so nice, shops are great, and massages are greater. I never wanted to leave this place and consider going back to work one day when I'm grown.
Live, Laugh, &Love Lake Tahoe,
ksparkles77
If you happened to read my post before this you would know that I went skiing over the break and that it was my first experience. When I say my first experience, I mean the first one that I can recall. My parents took us skiing in Colorado when I was 6 and my sisters were 2 and 4; that was a long time ago to where I can't even remember what occurred then, therefore this is my first real skiing trip! My dad's parents and my family went up the the glorious Lake Tahoe, Nevada which happens to lie right on the California-Nevada state line. We stayed at the Reno-Tahoe Harrah's casino and there was much to do there, for adults and children. It was really interesting to stay there because their was a law in California that banned gambling. so some genius constructor built a casino (where gambling occurs) right next to the state line. That meant you could go skiing in California but gambling and live in Nevada. So I guess you could say I went to two different state everyday while on my vacation.
I also enjoyed my trip because I saw my good friend Austin Stewart. Incase you don't know, Austin used to go to Episcopal until he moved to California over the summer, it was a very sad move for his family and his friends. Austin and his family happened to be staying at a ski lodge 3 hotels down from me, so we saw each other everyday and went onto the mountain for a fun filled day. Austin was a snowboarder and for the first time my dad tried to snow board, let's just say a 1/2 day of lessons plus lessons from Austin taught him a lot but left him in much pain. I took a few wipe outs myself while I was skiing and my family got a few laughs from it. If you ever get to go skiing I suggest you go here because it's a lovely, little town. You can walk everywhere, people are so nice, shops are great, and massages are greater. I never wanted to leave this place and consider going back to work one day when I'm grown.
Live, Laugh, &Love Lake Tahoe,
ksparkles77
Mardi Gras Reading
Hey everyone!
I hope everyone is ending their Mardi Gras break well and finishing up any last minute homework like I'm trying to do. I went skiing for the first time this week and it was definitely a sight to see! While I was on my trip I had a few spare minutes here and their to read Nervous Conditions, and let me tell you, it is getting tense! Nyasha and Babamukuru's fight, whoa, when I reached that part of the chapter I was very intrigued. I had started Chapter 6 the Friday before we left for break and since it wasn't a lengthy chapter I finished it quickly. Chapter 7 on the other hand kept me reading for a few days. I'm not quite finished with it yet, about 4 pages left.
I feel like I was piled on with homework over this break, and I was fortunate enough to have time to do most of it. People who went out of the country with no internet access whatsoever, like my dear friend Sarah Haymon, she probably had it rough trying to complete all of our homework because she was gone all of the break. Lucky for Block 2, we don't have English Monday, therefore we have an extra day to complete our assignments. Whew! Third quarter is coming to an end you guys so make sure you aren't slacking now when you need every measly point you can get to keep that A, B, or even C in a class. I wish all of you the best of luck the next two weeks!
XOXO, ksparkles77
Reading Log>>
Nervous Conditions: 205 minutes (Chapter's 6&7, read throughout the whole break).
I hope everyone is ending their Mardi Gras break well and finishing up any last minute homework like I'm trying to do. I went skiing for the first time this week and it was definitely a sight to see! While I was on my trip I had a few spare minutes here and their to read Nervous Conditions, and let me tell you, it is getting tense! Nyasha and Babamukuru's fight, whoa, when I reached that part of the chapter I was very intrigued. I had started Chapter 6 the Friday before we left for break and since it wasn't a lengthy chapter I finished it quickly. Chapter 7 on the other hand kept me reading for a few days. I'm not quite finished with it yet, about 4 pages left.
I feel like I was piled on with homework over this break, and I was fortunate enough to have time to do most of it. People who went out of the country with no internet access whatsoever, like my dear friend Sarah Haymon, she probably had it rough trying to complete all of our homework because she was gone all of the break. Lucky for Block 2, we don't have English Monday, therefore we have an extra day to complete our assignments. Whew! Third quarter is coming to an end you guys so make sure you aren't slacking now when you need every measly point you can get to keep that A, B, or even C in a class. I wish all of you the best of luck the next two weeks!
XOXO, ksparkles77
Reading Log>>
Nervous Conditions: 205 minutes (Chapter's 6&7, read throughout the whole break).
Sunday, February 12, 2012
All about the book
Happy almost Valentine's Day everybody!
It's Sunday night and I bet most of us our cramming in last minute studying for test or making Valentine's desserts to distribute to our friends on Tuesday. Well I spent my weekend reading "Nervous Conditions". I'm one of those people who has to break up my reading times because I cannot sit still and read through 20+ pages without getting a headache or start to doze off. But surprisingly on Saturday night all I did was read through chapter 4 and complete the questions. It only took about 3-3.5 hours total, but it got done. Now all I have to do is read chapter 5 for Wednesday and see what's in store for me next.
As you all know, or should know, the editing part of our paper's aren't due Monday anymore, they are due on Wednesday, then the final draft due Thursday. I don't know about y'all but that helps me greatly because I have so many test at the beginning of this week and that was just another thing added to the list. Can anyone explain to me how I see my peers' comments? Do I go on turnitin.com? (Reply with answer). I'm not gonna spoil chapter 4 for any of you, but if you haven't read it yet you better hurry because it is a good chapter that you don't want to get behind on and end up reading it Monday night in a rush. Same with chapter 5; who wants to be stuck at home on Valentine's night reading? Not me! My family has made dinner plans, and my grandparents are joining us, it's going to be very exciting!
Reading log>> 3 hours on "Nervous Conditions" chapter 4 (along with questions)
Study hard and remember Whitney Houston,
ksparkles77
It's Sunday night and I bet most of us our cramming in last minute studying for test or making Valentine's desserts to distribute to our friends on Tuesday. Well I spent my weekend reading "Nervous Conditions". I'm one of those people who has to break up my reading times because I cannot sit still and read through 20+ pages without getting a headache or start to doze off. But surprisingly on Saturday night all I did was read through chapter 4 and complete the questions. It only took about 3-3.5 hours total, but it got done. Now all I have to do is read chapter 5 for Wednesday and see what's in store for me next.
As you all know, or should know, the editing part of our paper's aren't due Monday anymore, they are due on Wednesday, then the final draft due Thursday. I don't know about y'all but that helps me greatly because I have so many test at the beginning of this week and that was just another thing added to the list. Can anyone explain to me how I see my peers' comments? Do I go on turnitin.com? (Reply with answer). I'm not gonna spoil chapter 4 for any of you, but if you haven't read it yet you better hurry because it is a good chapter that you don't want to get behind on and end up reading it Monday night in a rush. Same with chapter 5; who wants to be stuck at home on Valentine's night reading? Not me! My family has made dinner plans, and my grandparents are joining us, it's going to be very exciting!
Reading log>> 3 hours on "Nervous Conditions" chapter 4 (along with questions)
Study hard and remember Whitney Houston,
ksparkles77
Mardi Gras Madness
Hello everyone,
As you know we are approaching the Mardi Gras break! Are y'all as excited as me? We just have to pull through this last week of school and we will have a nice relaxing break. Their is an upside and a downside to this though. The downside is that we will have to complete homework over the break, so if you don't want to have these responsibilities hanging over your head try to complete them before Friday or even before you leave. The upside to the break is we will have a week of no school, no tests, and we don't have to sit in classrooms for 8 hours, 5 days a week listening to grownups.
We all have task to do this week and one of mine is to finish strong because it is almost the end of the quarter. Wow! 3rd quarter has flown by, better yet all of freshman year has flown by! I'm most definitely going to miss the kind teachers we had this year, but I'm also looking forward to being a sophomore and moving my way up on the toed-um pole of high school. Make sure to try really hard this week and rest up because of the retreat of Thursday to St.James. Who knows what that day will have in store for us!
Go Knights!
ksparkles77
As you know we are approaching the Mardi Gras break! Are y'all as excited as me? We just have to pull through this last week of school and we will have a nice relaxing break. Their is an upside and a downside to this though. The downside is that we will have to complete homework over the break, so if you don't want to have these responsibilities hanging over your head try to complete them before Friday or even before you leave. The upside to the break is we will have a week of no school, no tests, and we don't have to sit in classrooms for 8 hours, 5 days a week listening to grownups.
We all have task to do this week and one of mine is to finish strong because it is almost the end of the quarter. Wow! 3rd quarter has flown by, better yet all of freshman year has flown by! I'm most definitely going to miss the kind teachers we had this year, but I'm also looking forward to being a sophomore and moving my way up on the toed-um pole of high school. Make sure to try really hard this week and rest up because of the retreat of Thursday to St.James. Who knows what that day will have in store for us!
Go Knights!
ksparkles77
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Monday Funday
Hello again,
The title of my blog is a bit sarcastic if you didn't already know. When I say "Monday Funday" I mean the total opposite of that; I mean I dislike Monday's with a passion. I don't like using all my free time on the weekends for school work even though I know it must be done. Even though I am improving on using my time wisely and spreading things out so I don't procrastinate the night before, I still end up with a whole bunch to do on the weekends. For example, this weekend I went nowhere and did nothing because I had so much to do, and it seems like I have done this repetitively! I am so ready for a break.
Another reason I decided to name my blog "Monday Funday" is because I have a World History test tomorrow, and it's a big one too. I have been studying all weekend long and I desperately need an A so I can have an A in the class. One of my goals this quarter/semester is to get all A's at least once because the last time I received all A's was in 6th grade, sadly. I just have to keep motivating myself and telling myself it will all pay out in the end towards college. It is so bizarre to think college is so close! I feel like I have been at Episcopal forever and I never want to leave it, it's my second home (literally).
"Shoot for the moon and even if you don't make it at least you will fall upon the stars"
(I think that's how it goes)
Stay awesome class of 2015, ksparkles77
Ending with a new beginning
Happy Superbowl Sunday everybody!
I hope all of y'all plan to watch the game this evening; it won't hurt to take a little homework break. Well, I don't know about you guys but I haven't done anything this whole weekend except homework, homework, and more homework! I have worked a good 2-3 hours on my rough draft (throughout the whole weekend) and plan on turning it in tonight. I'm looking forward to that because that will be a little bit of weight lifted off my shoulders. The hardest part for me when creating my rough draft was having a good, strong ending. What was y'alls hardest part? I think I ended up finishing well, and whoever gets the opportunity to read my paper can tell me if they agree. I titled my blog "Ending with a new beginning" because we are coming to the end of our research paper, which all of us are probably looking forward too, but we are starting a new class book which is another task tacked on to our to do list.
As of now I am more than half way through chapter two and the book is getting interesting, but still hasn't answered my main question. I really want to know the story behind Nhamo's death. I would like to know how he died, why, and when. I wonder if we are going to find that out early in the book or later on? Another concern I have about this book is is it all about the past? Meaning do we ever catch up to the narrator in present day? I am looking forward to reading this book even though it means I have to pause on my other free read, which was getting really intriguing. For some reason I am not able to read two books at one time because I will get confused and warn out, and that is not good!
Time worked on paper: 2.5 hours
Time reading "Nervous Conditions": 1 hour
Have a good Sunday and just think it's almost Mardi Gras!
Love, ksparkles77
I hope all of y'all plan to watch the game this evening; it won't hurt to take a little homework break. Well, I don't know about you guys but I haven't done anything this whole weekend except homework, homework, and more homework! I have worked a good 2-3 hours on my rough draft (throughout the whole weekend) and plan on turning it in tonight. I'm looking forward to that because that will be a little bit of weight lifted off my shoulders. The hardest part for me when creating my rough draft was having a good, strong ending. What was y'alls hardest part? I think I ended up finishing well, and whoever gets the opportunity to read my paper can tell me if they agree. I titled my blog "Ending with a new beginning" because we are coming to the end of our research paper, which all of us are probably looking forward too, but we are starting a new class book which is another task tacked on to our to do list.
As of now I am more than half way through chapter two and the book is getting interesting, but still hasn't answered my main question. I really want to know the story behind Nhamo's death. I would like to know how he died, why, and when. I wonder if we are going to find that out early in the book or later on? Another concern I have about this book is is it all about the past? Meaning do we ever catch up to the narrator in present day? I am looking forward to reading this book even though it means I have to pause on my other free read, which was getting really intriguing. For some reason I am not able to read two books at one time because I will get confused and warn out, and that is not good!
Time worked on paper: 2.5 hours
Time reading "Nervous Conditions": 1 hour
Have a good Sunday and just think it's almost Mardi Gras!
Love, ksparkles77
Sunday, January 29, 2012
February Favorites
Hello all!
It is almost February and that is my favorite month of the whole year. People who know me probably think it is because my birthday is this month, but that is only part of the reason. The real reason this is my favorite month is because of Mardi Gras break! I look forward to Mardi Gras break because the weather is always nice and my family tries to take a vacation somewhere different every year. For example, this year we are going skiing in the mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nevada. I am over joyed about this vacation because the last time I went skiing was when I was six years old, and my parents signed me up for ski school; it was the most miserable thing ever. My whole family has helped us prepare for this vacation by giving us gift cards to stores that sell skiing gear, and my parents friends have helped us out by lending us some warm clothes to wear while we are there. That is one plus of the February month!
The next reason I love February is Valentine's Day! When you think about the month February, or the word February, what do you think of? I think of the colors red, white, and all different color pinks. I also imagine chocolates and hearts, and especially the word "love". February 14th is the one day you are supposed to set aside everything and be nice and caring towards everyone, telling them how much you appreciate them. Maybe you could even give them some chocolate and sweethearts! Their is also a down side of Valentine's day, and that is if you are single. In a bunch of movies you see people expressing love to each other and everyone is so happy and joyful. Then their are those movies where people sit at home in their bed watching lovey dovey movies and eating chocolates and ice cream that they bought for themselves. I hope none of you all do the second option this year, just enjoy the day and tell everyone you love them, if you mean it. Someone once said to me "This Valentine's Day I'm going to sit at home, watch the Notebook and Valentine's Day the movie and eat strawberry ice cream because it's pink" -Unknown-
Happy almost February,
ksparkles77
Research Work
Good evening,
The weekend is almost over, and if you ask me it went by way too fast! Anyways, I spent my weekend in New Orleans at my grandmothers house where I spent parts of my Saturday and Sunday working on paragraphs of my paper. If I showed you what I accomplished it wouldn't look like much, but to me it is. It is't very detailed at the moment and quotes still need to be added in. It also might help me if I could meet with Dr. D sometime this week and she can help me signal phrase because I'm not to sure on how to do that. When I think of signal phrase I think of trying to fit my quote and author into the sentence/paragraph in an appropriate way that makes sense to the readers.
Another thing I worked on that was related to my research paper was the reading assignment from Norton. Honestly, I don't like reading long sections from the Norton because I find them boring and too lengthy (they use to many words to describe one thing). This reading homework that we had over the weekend though was short and sweet for me! I didn't think the topic was interesting and there was a few words I didn't quite understand so I circled them. Besides that I think it was an impressive paper. You could tell the "student" researched well and sounded like an expert on the topic. One thing that stood out to me in the Norton research paper that I don't do in mine s put the author and source in parentheses. When I state my article title I try to combine it or merge it into the sentence to where the sentence still makes sense and isn't a comma splice or run-on. Should we be putting our sources in our paper, in parentheses, or under our works cited list?
Friday-50minutes, Finished detailed outline (took out some stuff and added in some details) and picked out a new thesis.
Saturday-1hour 10minutes, Picked out quotes I was going to use and started on the MLA format with one paragraph complete.
Sunday-40minutes, Completed two more rough draft paragraphs.
Have a good week,
ksparkles77
The weekend is almost over, and if you ask me it went by way too fast! Anyways, I spent my weekend in New Orleans at my grandmothers house where I spent parts of my Saturday and Sunday working on paragraphs of my paper. If I showed you what I accomplished it wouldn't look like much, but to me it is. It is't very detailed at the moment and quotes still need to be added in. It also might help me if I could meet with Dr. D sometime this week and she can help me signal phrase because I'm not to sure on how to do that. When I think of signal phrase I think of trying to fit my quote and author into the sentence/paragraph in an appropriate way that makes sense to the readers.
Another thing I worked on that was related to my research paper was the reading assignment from Norton. Honestly, I don't like reading long sections from the Norton because I find them boring and too lengthy (they use to many words to describe one thing). This reading homework that we had over the weekend though was short and sweet for me! I didn't think the topic was interesting and there was a few words I didn't quite understand so I circled them. Besides that I think it was an impressive paper. You could tell the "student" researched well and sounded like an expert on the topic. One thing that stood out to me in the Norton research paper that I don't do in mine s put the author and source in parentheses. When I state my article title I try to combine it or merge it into the sentence to where the sentence still makes sense and isn't a comma splice or run-on. Should we be putting our sources in our paper, in parentheses, or under our works cited list?
Friday-50minutes, Finished detailed outline (took out some stuff and added in some details) and picked out a new thesis.
Saturday-1hour 10minutes, Picked out quotes I was going to use and started on the MLA format with one paragraph complete.
Sunday-40minutes, Completed two more rough draft paragraphs.
Have a good week,
ksparkles77
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Restricted Relationships
Afternoon again fellow classmates,
If you have been reading my blog post I thank you and if you happened to read my one labeled "Outcasts", this post is in relation to that one. I am smack dab in the middle of my book right now and I am enjoying it greatly. It is filled with life lessons, stories of people who have gone through rough patches in there lives and now feel "in heaven", and short chapters which I tend to enjoy in a book because it makes the book seem shorter than it really is (it's a mental thing to me). I decided to talk about relationships in my blog post today, but not just any relationships, restricted ones.
You may ask yourself, what does she mean she says restricted relationship?, I just mean a relationship with a loved one that has boundaries, meaning you can't always be together. It can be a boyfriend/girlfriend, wife/husband, sibling, or a best friend. Anyway, in my novel, Neil, the one year inmate, is having trouble with his wife because he is not able to see her 24/7 like he was used too only a few weeks ago. When he got sent off to prison he promised her he would call everyday, write everyday, and that he would have people sending money to her and the children so she wouldn't have to go back to work, all she would have to do is take care of the children. So far Neil has not kept his promise to call everyday, and folks who were supposed to send over money to Linda, Neil's wife, have not, therefore she had to go back to work and is not happy with that. After I read that today it got me to foreshadow on this book. I was wondering to myself, is Linda gonna call for a divorce when Neil gets out or will she stay in the marriage for the sake of her children? Will things ever go back to normal between him and his wife? I guess I will have to read more to find out.
Reading Log:
1/21/12- 65 minutes, 41 pages
1/22/12- 92 minutes, 51 pages
Stay fabulous,
ksparkles77
If you have been reading my blog post I thank you and if you happened to read my one labeled "Outcasts", this post is in relation to that one. I am smack dab in the middle of my book right now and I am enjoying it greatly. It is filled with life lessons, stories of people who have gone through rough patches in there lives and now feel "in heaven", and short chapters which I tend to enjoy in a book because it makes the book seem shorter than it really is (it's a mental thing to me). I decided to talk about relationships in my blog post today, but not just any relationships, restricted ones.
You may ask yourself, what does she mean she says restricted relationship?, I just mean a relationship with a loved one that has boundaries, meaning you can't always be together. It can be a boyfriend/girlfriend, wife/husband, sibling, or a best friend. Anyway, in my novel, Neil, the one year inmate, is having trouble with his wife because he is not able to see her 24/7 like he was used too only a few weeks ago. When he got sent off to prison he promised her he would call everyday, write everyday, and that he would have people sending money to her and the children so she wouldn't have to go back to work, all she would have to do is take care of the children. So far Neil has not kept his promise to call everyday, and folks who were supposed to send over money to Linda, Neil's wife, have not, therefore she had to go back to work and is not happy with that. After I read that today it got me to foreshadow on this book. I was wondering to myself, is Linda gonna call for a divorce when Neil gets out or will she stay in the marriage for the sake of her children? Will things ever go back to normal between him and his wife? I guess I will have to read more to find out.
Reading Log:
1/21/12- 65 minutes, 41 pages
1/22/12- 92 minutes, 51 pages
Stay fabulous,
ksparkles77
Saturday Homework Tips
Happy Saturday Bloggers,
Saturday is my favorite day of the week just because you get to sleep late and go to bed late. It is also the day where I try to accomplish the most school work. Normally, like last year, I would wait until Sunday evening and night to do my homework, and when I tried that at the beginning of the school year this year it was a miserable memory. I remember one Sunday night I was up until 11:00pm doing homework and I could barely sleep that night, plus I had to wake up early to get ready and have time to eat breakfast. I did not want to go through that again, so I told myself Saturday is the day to do it all. And some might be thinking that it's not normal to do your homework on Saturdays because that is the day to hangout with your friends and have sleepovers, and I agree. I also agree that school comes first and I'm not encouraging you to do all your homework on Saturday, I'm just saying get the harder and longer stuff over with on Saturday so that your Sunday isn't as big of a hassle.
For example, on Saturdays (today) I read most of my 150 minutes because I didn't want to take 2 and a half hours of reading out of my day tomorrow, and because I don't have time to read during the week. Also today I accomplished my math spiral and am going to try to finish these to blogs and comments. That means tomorrow I can sleep later, do more social activity, and worry about school less! That sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
ksparkles77
Saturday is my favorite day of the week just because you get to sleep late and go to bed late. It is also the day where I try to accomplish the most school work. Normally, like last year, I would wait until Sunday evening and night to do my homework, and when I tried that at the beginning of the school year this year it was a miserable memory. I remember one Sunday night I was up until 11:00pm doing homework and I could barely sleep that night, plus I had to wake up early to get ready and have time to eat breakfast. I did not want to go through that again, so I told myself Saturday is the day to do it all. And some might be thinking that it's not normal to do your homework on Saturdays because that is the day to hangout with your friends and have sleepovers, and I agree. I also agree that school comes first and I'm not encouraging you to do all your homework on Saturday, I'm just saying get the harder and longer stuff over with on Saturday so that your Sunday isn't as big of a hassle.
For example, on Saturdays (today) I read most of my 150 minutes because I didn't want to take 2 and a half hours of reading out of my day tomorrow, and because I don't have time to read during the week. Also today I accomplished my math spiral and am going to try to finish these to blogs and comments. That means tomorrow I can sleep later, do more social activity, and worry about school less! That sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
ksparkles77
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Outcasts
Happy Tuesday Block 2,
You might read the title of my blog and think I am going to talk about outcasts and how they don't socially or economically fit into the world because that is not true. I am going to talk about my book that my mom and I recently started called In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. This book is a well written book by the man himself, Mr. Neil White. He himself is not a social outcast, but when he goes to prison for writing fraud bank checks the types of people he shares the prison "grounds" with is unreal. You would think in Louisiana that a penitentiary would be a wired in, dead grass area where not a soul smiles. According to Mr. White that is wrong. He roams mostly in the prison commons while on the other side of the yard is leopards. Not the animal leopards but people who have leprosy. Back then leprosy was a disease everyone was afraid of getting and anyone who had leprosy was considered harmful and gross, and sometimes had to change there name and get disinherited by there own family members. I don't know about you but if my family did that to me I would defiantly be heartbroken.
I have a point to my blog, I promise! I am trying to get across to you, as a reader, that just because somebody has a skin disorder, mental disorder, or something that affects the way they grow up, you shouldn't bring them down. This relates back to my book because in my book Neil shows up at this penitentiary ready to serve his one year and get out. Little did he know that he he would be sharing air with leopards and that he would soon become friends with some, even though they were "dangerous" and there disease spread and could kill you. I think Neil did the right thing because those people with disorders are humans just like us and have feelings just like us. If we have friends, family, and a life why can't they?
Thank y'all and have a good rest of the week
LOVE, ksparkles77
<Reading Log>
January 15, 2012: 94 minutes, 50 pages
January 16, 2012: 62 minutes, 34 pages
You might read the title of my blog and think I am going to talk about outcasts and how they don't socially or economically fit into the world because that is not true. I am going to talk about my book that my mom and I recently started called In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. This book is a well written book by the man himself, Mr. Neil White. He himself is not a social outcast, but when he goes to prison for writing fraud bank checks the types of people he shares the prison "grounds" with is unreal. You would think in Louisiana that a penitentiary would be a wired in, dead grass area where not a soul smiles. According to Mr. White that is wrong. He roams mostly in the prison commons while on the other side of the yard is leopards. Not the animal leopards but people who have leprosy. Back then leprosy was a disease everyone was afraid of getting and anyone who had leprosy was considered harmful and gross, and sometimes had to change there name and get disinherited by there own family members. I don't know about you but if my family did that to me I would defiantly be heartbroken.
I have a point to my blog, I promise! I am trying to get across to you, as a reader, that just because somebody has a skin disorder, mental disorder, or something that affects the way they grow up, you shouldn't bring them down. This relates back to my book because in my book Neil shows up at this penitentiary ready to serve his one year and get out. Little did he know that he he would be sharing air with leopards and that he would soon become friends with some, even though they were "dangerous" and there disease spread and could kill you. I think Neil did the right thing because those people with disorders are humans just like us and have feelings just like us. If we have friends, family, and a life why can't they?
Thank y'all and have a good rest of the week
LOVE, ksparkles77
<Reading Log>
January 15, 2012: 94 minutes, 50 pages
January 16, 2012: 62 minutes, 34 pages
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Snowball VS. Hollyball
Good Afternoon fellow bloggers,
Incase you were wondering about the title of my post, Snowball and Hollyball, those are winter dances that an organization known as cotillion puts on each year for the high school and middle school separately. To get in to one of these "groups", Baton Rouge or Elan, you must sign up and send in a photo of yourself. Next they will pull from a big group of names and if your name is pulled you are excepted into one organization. It is very exciting to go to these dances and dress up in theme, but sometime the dances are not enjoyable. For example, in the past month or so I went to Hollyball for Baton Rouge cotillion and last night (January 14) went to Snowball for Elan cotillion. Right now you could be asking yourself how I went to both parties if I am only a member of one cotillion, Baton Rouge? Well why you are in cotillion you are allowed to pay to bring a member to these dances and that is what me and a friend did. Therefore she can take me to all the Elan dances and I can take her to all the Baton Rouge dances. (It might sounds confusing right now, but it really isn't.)
Last night at Snowball, compared to a few weeks ago at Hollyball, the two dances were both different in there own ways. Hollyball, in my opinion, was better and funner then Snowball only because Hollyball was less strict on many rules and we were allowed to wear tennis shoes. Another reason I enjoyed Hollyball over Snowball was because Hollyball's party favor was sweatpants and those are something I would wear more than a red sweatshirt, just because red isn't my color. Baton Rouge cotillion is with the whole high school, 9th-12th, and Elan cotillion used to be 9th and then 10th-12th but that rule was recently changed to 9th and 10th and 11th and 12th. I disagree with that rule only because I liked having all 9th graders at a party for once, and it kind of reminded me of middle school again. If you are not in a cotillion I suggest you sign up for one because the parties have many memories with them and you can ask about anyone that!
Have a safe MLK day,
LOVE, ksparkles77
Incase you were wondering about the title of my post, Snowball and Hollyball, those are winter dances that an organization known as cotillion puts on each year for the high school and middle school separately. To get in to one of these "groups", Baton Rouge or Elan, you must sign up and send in a photo of yourself. Next they will pull from a big group of names and if your name is pulled you are excepted into one organization. It is very exciting to go to these dances and dress up in theme, but sometime the dances are not enjoyable. For example, in the past month or so I went to Hollyball for Baton Rouge cotillion and last night (January 14) went to Snowball for Elan cotillion. Right now you could be asking yourself how I went to both parties if I am only a member of one cotillion, Baton Rouge? Well why you are in cotillion you are allowed to pay to bring a member to these dances and that is what me and a friend did. Therefore she can take me to all the Elan dances and I can take her to all the Baton Rouge dances. (It might sounds confusing right now, but it really isn't.)
Last night at Snowball, compared to a few weeks ago at Hollyball, the two dances were both different in there own ways. Hollyball, in my opinion, was better and funner then Snowball only because Hollyball was less strict on many rules and we were allowed to wear tennis shoes. Another reason I enjoyed Hollyball over Snowball was because Hollyball's party favor was sweatpants and those are something I would wear more than a red sweatshirt, just because red isn't my color. Baton Rouge cotillion is with the whole high school, 9th-12th, and Elan cotillion used to be 9th and then 10th-12th but that rule was recently changed to 9th and 10th and 11th and 12th. I disagree with that rule only because I liked having all 9th graders at a party for once, and it kind of reminded me of middle school again. If you are not in a cotillion I suggest you sign up for one because the parties have many memories with them and you can ask about anyone that!
Have a safe MLK day,
LOVE, ksparkles77
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Spring Break
Hello people who chose to read my blog (and if you do, thanks)!
My blog today is about spring break, my favorite time of the year. The weather is great during this time of year because it allows you to sit out in the sun and not be to hot. You can also go to the beach at this time of year which is a very popular choice for most. If you don't go to the beach some choose to go to Disney World, go on a cruise, or just kick back and relax at home. My favorite thing to do over spring break is go to the beach with my friends and family, getting tan, and meeting new people. It might not sound like fun, but it is!
Last year for spring break my parents let me and my sisters choose where and who we wanted to go to the beach with. We chose Gulf Shores, Alabama and we each brought a friend with us to stay for a week. Let me tell you, a week is a long long time when your having fun in the sun on the beach. By the time I left I was very tan (which I loved so much), but a week after I returned home I was peeling and it was not a pretty sight. So remember to do the smart thing and not where SPF 4, like me, because it can give you skin damage when your older giving you a higher risk of having skin cancer. Nobody wants that! I'm going to end my blog with a question that you can answer by commenting if you choose too. Where should I go to the beach this year?
LOVE, ksparkles77
My blog today is about spring break, my favorite time of the year. The weather is great during this time of year because it allows you to sit out in the sun and not be to hot. You can also go to the beach at this time of year which is a very popular choice for most. If you don't go to the beach some choose to go to Disney World, go on a cruise, or just kick back and relax at home. My favorite thing to do over spring break is go to the beach with my friends and family, getting tan, and meeting new people. It might not sound like fun, but it is!
Last year for spring break my parents let me and my sisters choose where and who we wanted to go to the beach with. We chose Gulf Shores, Alabama and we each brought a friend with us to stay for a week. Let me tell you, a week is a long long time when your having fun in the sun on the beach. By the time I left I was very tan (which I loved so much), but a week after I returned home I was peeling and it was not a pretty sight. So remember to do the smart thing and not where SPF 4, like me, because it can give you skin damage when your older giving you a higher risk of having skin cancer. Nobody wants that! I'm going to end my blog with a question that you can answer by commenting if you choose too. Where should I go to the beach this year?
LOVE, ksparkles77
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