Using my no post for this

- french reading 30 minutes - 40 min in the writing lab - Wake 90 minutes

What I want most in the world

What I really want most in the world is really simple yet impossible for most people. Some people have this ability and when they do they usually don't like it. I want to be able to eat everything and anything without getting fat. I have the metabolism of a dead elephant. It's unfortunate really. Some people (mostly guys) can an entire pizza and not gain a single ounce. For those of you who can do that here is a message: I hate you. Most guys who can do this are always complaining about how they can't put on weight. Oh you poor thing. Could this be classified as a super power? If so, why isn't Marvel making a super hero out of it? Or they could make it into a villain. Someone who shows up to parties, inhales all the food, and leaves. But seriously if there was a pill or injection I could take to obtain this power I'd so do it. NASA should do it. I'd be their guinea pig. I volunteer as tribute hook me up NASA. I'd pay a lot of money to get that injection if I had a lot of money. Do you understand how happy i'd be? I'd have DQ blizzards for breakfast lunch and dinner. I'd be walking around like what is this thing you call salad? What is healthy?

Song

For this blog assignment I chose the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yes I know it's very professional. This childhood classic does in fact have an author who's name is Jane Taylor. Through research I have found that the well know song of our childhood is actually a lot longer than what we know it. But i'm going to do the version that we all know. Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are I noticed that each line has 7 syllables. The pattern is stressed and unstressed which is trochee. This makes it a trochaic septameter. I also noticed that the last and first word of each line compliment each other. In the first line it ends with "star" and the first word of the second line starts with how. Star is kinda stressed and how isn't. This contributes to keeping up with the trocaic septameter. The song is very soothing. It doesn't have any sharp sounds in it. All the sounds are soft and calm. This contributes to the song being a lullaby. It has the same tune as the Alphabet song and Baba blacksheep. If you want to see the whole version of the song click the link http://www.elyrics.net/read/j/jewel-lyrics/twinkle-twinkle-little-star-lyrics.html

Reading response

Last week I read for about 30 minutes of Wake. It's really good so far. The book was boring at first, but now it's picking up a lot more. Things are actually happening now! Yay! I feel like she spent to much time on the whole suspense part because I was getting really bored. I'm glad I kept reading the book though. That's one of the things i'm bad at when it comes to reading. I get bored if there isn't a lot of things going on, and I read really slow. It's a big problem. The length of time it takes for me to read is abnormal. I also reread Split in preparation for the book discussion on Thursday. I noticed things that I didn't before. It's not a real big thinking book like Nervous Conditions so the things I noticed weren't that important. Maybe I didn't notice something new, but I just forgot it and than noticed it. I don't know. I also read a bunch of magazines at the beach if that counts for anything. Reading times 30 minutes- Wake 3-4 hours- Split 1-3 hours- magazines

Writing

I think i'm going to choose my literacy narrative to revise. Out of all my essays i'm must say that my literacy narrative is the weakest. I don't know if it's because I was callow back in the days, but man is that paper bad. I've gotten a lot better about comma splices and fragments, so basically sentence structure was not my forte. I also need to make my points a little bit more clear, and improve the end and beginning. I chose this essay because in the comments Dr. D said I had "the bones of a strong story." All I have to do is improve upon it, and now I know exactly how to do so. In my literacy narrative I had numerous run-ons, comma splices, and just stupid errors. To be honest before Dr. D's class I didn't know what a "comma splice" was. I actually never even heard of it so I bet my middle school essays are chock full of them. I didn't choose my research essay, because most of the errors was in formatting. And my literacy analysis had some sentence structure errors, but not as many as my literacy narrative. But my analysis is also possibly a good candidate for my portfolio.

Jane Goodall's New Book

I can't believe someone as experienced as Jane Goodall would mess up like this, or that she's 78 years old. I don't know wether to blame the editor, her, or the publishers. I would think that a professional book like this would go through a series of edits and they'd probably catch it, but apparently not. She also had a coauthor so you'd think that one of them was bound to catch it or remember to site the information. I wonder if she did it on purpose, but wether she purposely plagiarized or not she still did it. From what i've learned in high school plagiarizing is a serious thing and comes with harsh punishments, and this is just high school! What she did is serious. She probably has to pay a bunch of fines, but I don't think she'll have to go to jail or anything. She IS a 78 year old lady. The authors and publishers already apologized, and said they were going to fix new issues of the book. Wow this is so troublesome. I'm in yearbook and whenever there's a problem it's like Panic Mode Activated. I think they should apologize in person to the original sources that they stole from and not through email, fix the book, and make the apology extremely public like at a press conference or something. I've never been in this position so I don't know how anyone feels, but I think that would be appropriate.

NC yes or no

Wether or not we agree with Nervous Conditions being in the 9th grade syllabus it's still going to be in it. I think it should be in the syllabus. First of all it was a good book, and it was fairly easy to read. Second of all the theme of the book helps answer our question of the year. How does community and culture affect who we are? I have only recently realized that most of the books we've read has to do with this question. Nation was the first book, Lord of the Flies was the second book, and now it's Nervous Conditions. I think this book really helps answer the question because we get to see how people act corresponding to where they live. We all know that different places all have their own culture and way of life, but when a person relocates does their culture come with them? The answer is yes. They take their cultures with them, and this is called cultural diffusion. But does living somewhere else change who you are? In Nervous Conditions we see how Nyasha is greatly affect by moving to England and letting "the englishness" take over her, but she wasn't the only one. Babamukuru also was affected by "the englishness" but in a different way. I guess how moving to a new place changes you is how you let it. Babamukuru and Nyasha were both affected by moving, but they were affected only by their choices. Baba chose to model his house after an English one, and Nyasha chose to let the social society impact her life. This book is a great way to bring new ideas when it comes to answering the million dollar question.

Expectations

Everyone acts differently according to the environment that they are currently in. For example, church. You wouldn't act the same way in church as you would at a football game. Can you imagine if people actually did? Like after the sermon everyone stands up and screams and hollers. I think that'd actually be kind of funny, but back to my point. That behavior wouldn't be very appropriate. Especially in a place where people pray and relax. It's a place of "peace", and fanning wouldn't really contribute to the that factor. I also don't think everyone acts the same way around their peers as they do around teachers. Around teachers everyone is on their best behavior, but around their friends it's a bit different. I have a friend who even talks different, though she doesn't realize it. When she's talking to a teacher she'll be all like "yes ma'am" and everything, but when she's around her friends she'll be like "no you idiot". It's hilarious. I think how you act when you're around your friends is how you really are. when you're around them you don't have to hold anything back or be polite. You're just being yourself, and I think that's why it's so much fun to be around them.

Free Post

Yay free post! This morning I volunteered with the Youth Volunteer Corp to help clean up one of the lakes at LSU. I've never volunteered with them before, but I loved it. At first glance the lake looks pretty clean, but it actually wasn't. We collected over 10 bags of trash in under 5 hours. There were about 2 dozen of us walking around the lake picking up trash. There were so many different things we found. Mostly styrofoam cups, bottles, and cigarettes. But there were also some strange things that we found like a syringe and a crack bag apparently people find those all the time. Like really it's a public place, how do you discretely stick a needle in your arm? Today was a great experience. I met a bunch of new awesome people and we got a bunch of thank yous from people passing us. People would roll down there windows and tell us how they appreciated our work, and bikers and walkers would too. It was really satisfying to hear the praise they were giving us. I felt like a good person, and important. It was just great.

Character

Wow. I'm actually leaving this place, and going with Baba to go to school. Mother isn't happy, but I really don't care. She'll get over it. I wonder where I'll sleep and what everything will be like. I'm so excited and anxious! So many things and emotions are going through my head. This is all too much to take in at once, all these changes. I'll be living like Nhamo did. I can't believe it! This is actually happening. ME. Tambu the daughter of Jeremiah is going to school and getting an education. I'm going to go to school, get a degree, and make my life worth living. I'm finally here in Baba's house. Everything is so nice! Look at there kitchen, it's so different from ours. They have running water and electricity. Oh look it's Anna. She was kind of annoying when we first met, but now she's barely talking to me. Look at all there nice furniture. All this is so much nicer than my house back home. Maiguru is so nice to buy me all these nice clothes. I have a bed now! I don't have to sleep on the kitchen floor, and I don't have to do all the work and chores like I did at home. Why is Nyasha being so rude to her mother? I would never talk to my mom like that. She doesn't know how lucky she is to be Baba and Maiguru's daughter. Wow, this bath tub is the best thing ever. I can choose between hot and cold water. Man this really is the life.

C-layer 1

So basically I just wrote this whole blog, and than I did something weird and it just deleted on me. So here we go again for the second time. This project isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm not gonna lie I really didn't want to do it at first. The book is really good, and it's getting better and better with each chapter. I'm doing the discussions and reading guides. I feel like they both are connected, but I don't know that's just what I think. I was going to do all these little projects, but I changed it to do all reading guides. I just feel like they help me understand the book more and can serve as a study guide in the future. Every week for the discussion we have to bring 3 questions, and also we have to write down a discussion question for the reading guides so I just have to transfer. But sometimes I have more than 3 questions about the book. The discussion sessions are fun. It helps me understand the book better. It's just like class discussions except with less people, and we sit in circles. I'm worried about the last part of the discussion project because what if no one shows up to my book chat? ****If anyone has read Split (it was one of the Young readers choice books over the summer) please come to my book chat! I know you're out there. There will be pizza (yes, that was a bribe). Seriously though come to my book chat.***

Process Evaluation

At first I was dreading this project, but it really wasn't that bad. If you keep up with everything and don't wait until the last minute to do something you'll be fine. I found annotating most difficult, writing the paper most useful, and annotating also being the least useful. I know annotating is important when you have a big research paper and you have a lot of sources, but I just never went back to them they were just there. Well, since everyone did a bad job annotating this year maybe go over that more? I got a lot of feedback from a lot of different people. There were a total of 5 people who edited my paper and I think it was definitely helpful. The editor would catch things or read things differently than I meant it to be so I would go back and make my point more clear. Every time there was a comment on my paper I would look at it and consider making the change to my paper. I was told that organization, word choice, and voice were some good aspects. I worked hard on my paper and throughout the writing process I tried to use different words to not be repetitive or boring. I also tried to keep everything organized and not get off topic. My paper had a lot of different ideas regarding to my topic, but I don't think any of them were really shocking or hard-hitting.  

Reading/Work details 2/24

an hour reading ch. 3 in nervous conditions
45 minutes editing Sarah's paper
30 minutes editing McKenzie's paper
an hour editing papers in class
an hour editing my paper

Reading and Paper Review

Last week before the break: at least 3 hours on my paper.

This week: at least 4 hours rewriting my paper and about and hour and a half reading Nervous Conditions

Research times

Monday: Worked on outline and bibliography at school for an hour and at home for an hour

Tuesday: Finished outline at school and at home 1 hour

Wednesday: Realized I didn't attach the file to my email so I redid it 30-45 minutes

Weekend: Manymanymany hours working on editing bibliography and preparing for drafting

My research topic is how technology affects our generation academically. I chose this topic because I thought it would be interesting to figure out. Obviously technology is changing everything, but I wanted to look further into it. I thought it would be easy to research because the question of technology is everywhere. And I'm definitely affected by it so why not do a research paper on it.  So far I've gotten things that are obvious like there are good things and bad things about technology. Good things being students have more resources and easier access to information. Bad things also come from having easier access to information. The levels of cheating have gone up over the years. Having all this technology affects parts of our brains too. People don't have to remember as much because everyone has a phone and can just google everything. 


My research topic is about how technology is affecting our generation academically. I decided to do my project on this certain topic because I personally am affected by it. I wanted to see exactly how I'm being affected. Obviously everyone and everything is being altered by the new age, so why not do a research paper on it? So far i've gotten information about the positives and negatives about technology. The positives are that students have more access to information and more resources. Before we all had the internet and laptops students would have to do all their research manually. That means going to the library and manually citing all their sources by hand. As you can imagine that was a lot of work. Now all we have to do is put information into a website and it does all the work for you. The negatives also come from having so much access to information. The cheating levels have increased over the years, because it's so much easier to cheat these days. The affects on a more scientific level goes to parts of your brain. People these days don't have to memorize as much information anymore because everyone carries around these devices in their pockets that have answers to all their questions in a matter of seconds. When you don't have to memorize as much information the memorization part of your brain starts to lose function over time. What if one day all of our brains start to lose function? Will we be getting dumber while our devices get smarter? 

Vocab Free post

There once was a little boy who showed his adroit skills when he was around 10 years old. A prodigy happened. He had solved a murder case at the age of 10. When he was 7 his avocation was to read mystery novels, so maybe that's why he was so good at it. But he wasn't doing this all by himself. His grandfather was a detective. You could only imagine how proud he was when his grandson solved that murder case. Since then he has taken the new detective under his wing and trained him to be an extremely skillful man. He was his protege. He has been showing the callow boy to notice everything a good detective would by giving him erudite examples. Such as someones demeanor or tacit things. One December 15th he was called out to investigate some raucous noises coming from an apartment on Bubblegum drive. The affront neighbors had reported that there was a lapse in time when everything was peaceful but now everyday there would be destructive noises from the apartment. When the detective went to go question the rowdy neighbors they were very definitive. Giving yes or no answers. This made him very suspicious. In the end he figured out that the neighbors where just some weird pariahs who liked to throw pots and pans around the house as their avocation. The police station inducted him into the team because they need his extensive skill and knowledge.

Research so far...

I've found out some pretty interesting information so far. For example before cell phones people would know at least 25 phone numbers. Now that we don't have to memorize as much information the memorization part of our brains start to lose function. This got me thinking. Is that why teachers make us memorize random things sometimes? Because sometimes they make us memorize the most pointless things, but maybe there's a value to it after all. This will go under the whole education part of my paper. I've decided that i'm going to touch on 3 main points; social, education, and family. I don't know how i'm going to format my paper. I don't know if I want to do it in sections or what. I have plenty of information to go under education and social affects, but family is kind of tricky. I'm excited to really just get this project over with.

Reading 1/13

I haven't turned in my Heartbeat book yet so I read that in class since I didn't have anything else to read. I gave it another go, and I still didn't like it. Oh well, it's way below my reading level anyways. Everyone who likes One Direction has been freaking out about this new fan fic called "Dark". At first I didn't want to read it, but then I felt out of the loop. And everyone was telling me to read it so i gave into peer pressure. I read the first couple of chapters...than some more...and now I'm hooked. It's a Harry fan fic, except he's a bad boy super protective wrestling trainer. This story makes me feel so forever alone you have no idea. I can only read it on my phone so I decided to get a real book. I was at Target today and went over to the music which is conveniently right next to the books. It took me forever to choose one, but I finally picked out Wake by Amanda Hocking. I saw the trailer while I was listening to Pandora. I think it's about mermaid monsters, but I’m not sure. I'll keep y'all updated on that. I also saw The Fault in Our Stars. I know there has been a lot of hype about that book. Has anyone read it yet?

First post of 2013 (free post)

This is my first post of the new year! There will be many many more...unfortunately...what? Who said that? Anyways, we just got back from Christmas break and I'm still trying to recover from my food coma from the holidays. School is not helping with it. I had a great Christmas break. All of our family from Texas came in for a week and it was great! We ate, saw Wreck it Ralph, ate, watched Christmas movies, and ate some more.
I saw Les Mis over the break. It was the first movie that I saw in 2013. My friend cried the entire time. Enough said. On New Year's eve my friends and I wore our shark onesies and ate. Ice-cream, canes, chips, you name it we ate it. That night my mom dragged me to her friends party. I really just wanted to stay home and watch Law and Order. But at midnight we popped fireworks and the neighbors' fireworks were defected or something. Usually fireworks shoot up into the air and than blow up. No, some of their fireworks blew up 2 feet off the ground. I thought I was going to die. That basically sums up my break. I ate. What'd you do?