My Poem

Well, the first poem I had chosen was Snow Day by Billy Collins but because it was so long, I didn't think that I would have enough time to memorize it. So my second choice was Football by Louis Jenkins. This poem instantly cought my eye because of it's title. I'm a sports guy and I love football so i'm thinking this is the perfect poem. When I read it I was kind of confused because it wasn't all about football. It had a few lines about football but the real meaning was life isn't perfect, but you can make things happen because anything is possible. I can convey the meaning of the poem in his kind of satirical way by moving my voice around and making it interesting to listen to. Also maybe a few hand gestures here and there to emphasize what i'm talking about.

Poems

 Part 1.
1. John Lennon by, Mary Jo Salter
2. Lions by, Sandra McPherson
3. Prison Song by, Alan Dugan
4. Rock and Hawk by, Robinson Jeffers
5. Skunk Hour by, Robert Lowell
Part 2.
I enjoyed Lions and John Lennon out of these five poems. They both were very interesting and the Lions one had some satire in it. The other three I did not like because they were all kind of either boring or depressing or both. I'm most interested in the Lions poem because it was interesting and funny and I would have to choose that one out of the 5 poems above. I connected with it well because of the humor.
Part 3.
 The easiest part of the criteria for me would probably be the physical presence, and the evidence of understanding because I believe I have the ability to do these things well. The hard things for me will be the voice and articulation and the level of difficulty. These will be hard because I sometimes don't talk loud enough and i'm really terrible at memorizing things.
Part 4.
Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem by Gregory Corso.
I would have to say that this was a pretty successful performance because of the difficulty of the poem and the way he acted things out with his hands and body motions.
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins.
I really enjoyed this poem because the reciter recited it very well and it was satirical. It was a very successful performance.
Part 5.
Well, I'm not the biggest fan of poetry, but I like this site. I'm kind of excited for the competition because I don't know what it will be like. I am going to do Snow Day by, Billy Collins.

Lobsters

One thing that I found that was interesting and brought up a new image of how I saw the poem was when someone said maybe the author is trying to relate what is happening to the lobsters to what might eventually end up happing to us. I admit at first I really didn't think much of it and actually I thought it was rather stupid. I mean how could we be plucked out of our homes just to be boiled to death and die? It didn't make much sense to me until I put further thought into it.

When I started putting my head to it I reffered it sort of to my religious beliefs. I'm a christian and as a christian we believe that when Jesus comes he takes us all to heaven. So I sort of accepted that part of the story of that we are taken out of our homes to pretty much die and then go to heaven. I didn't have an explanation for the being cooked to death but the other part made a lot of sense in my mind.

5 part paragraphs

To write a good 5 part paragraph there are several things that you have to do. To start you always need to have a strong topic sentence that says what your going out to prove. The topic sentence should include the title and the author within it. With concrete detail you don't want to over do it. Make sure your quotes are embedded and not to long because this can really lengthen your paragraph. Your quotes should be cited and in chronological order unless there is a reason for them not being. With commentary you want to give YOUR OWN opinion and make sure to NOT use plot summary. Notice how I capitalized those three words because that is something you do not want to do. Just make sure you use good transitions and make sure your conclusion ties in with your topic sentence.

For my next 5 part paragraph there are a few things that I need to improve. First, my transitions were pretty weak. I don't think first, next, and finally are very strong. Also I could have improved my word choice a little bit and that is for sure something I will fix. I also didn't embed my quotes on all of them. I think I did one but didn't get to the other two. Besides those things I believe my paragraph was strong, but my next one will be even better.

Formal diction

This last thursday, a group of friends and I went out to see Paranormal Activity 2 in theatures. The premiere was showing at 12 o' clock midnight, and it was very scary. The bloodcurdling scenes and the intensity of the movie sent us screaming, and kept ourselves intrigued for more. The horror in this movie was quite frightening, and everyone needed comfort within the theature. Including the poor man that passed out infront of us. There were high expectations for this movie, and many believed it had too large of shoes to fill, but it proved most wrong by being quite horrifying. Every scream, pound, and huge sound sent chills through every bodies bones. This was by far one of the most horrendous movies I have ever witnessed.

When my friends and I arrived home at 2 o' clock in the morning, nobody could get the terrifying scenes or the hair-raising screams out of their heads. One miniscule sqeak of a lantern sent us all screaming and running inside. Once inside we thought that everything would be fine, of course it wasn't. As we were on our journey upstairs the cat jumped out and scared us all to death. That night was a terrible night for sleeping because we could not get the images out of our heads, but it was one of the most fun nights of my life. Even today I still get creeped out and even some friends have trouble sleeping.

Slaughterhouse 5

So far in this book it has been pretty good, although kind of slow and boring in some parts. The main character so far is Billy Pilgram who might be mentally confused. He claims he had been abducted by aliens, and he claimed it happened before the huge plane crash in which he was the only survivor. Right now in the book, (i'm only on page 90) they are being captured by Germans in the World War. They are being held in a small room with a bunch of other Americans and Billy keeps having dreams that go back to when he was a kid to whats going to happen in the future. I can relate this book to another World War book I read that my grampa gave me and also TKAM in a way because of the slow start. Both these World War books have a lot of action and swearing in them. They also keep you very interested in them. So far for the project i'm thinking that Mathew Geisler, Nick and I can make a movie. We can include the war parts and some of the flashbacks. We could even include Billy getting abducted by aliens.

JCA

Extending the Theme

The novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" spoke to me in several different ways. The first part of the book was very very boring, and I didn't think I would ever be able to get into it. Finally it started getting better and better and I realized there were some harsh things and some good life lessons. The book really spoke to me and made me really think about life back then.

 First, it kind of showed me how life was back then and how difficult it was for blacks. It showed me everything that they had to go through and made me feel almost mad because I don't think they deserved to go through that. It was really cruel and wrong. It showed me to not take anything for granted and to treat people with respect. I really admired Atticus in this book, even though I pictured him as a wise grandfather than a father. He stood up for what he believed in even when it completely went against the moral beliefs of the town. I admired his willingnesss to stand up for Tom Robinson and at least try to win his case. That taught me to be brave and stand up for whats right.

Second, this book taught me about doing the right thing to do. When Tom Robinson was convicted, the whole town knew he was innocent at the trial, but they just couldn't convict a white man over a black man. Even the judge tried to convince the jury to find Tom Robinson innocent but they just couldn't. They should have convicted Bob Ewell because he was the one that beat up his own daughter but he didn't get in trouble. If they did the right thing then it would have been better for everyone. The free man would be free, life would be better for the Ewell kids because they wouldn't have a drunk and hurtful father, and the town would have one less bad person in their society.

My Boo Radley

My Boo Radley really isn't a person, its more of a thing. My Boo Radley would have to be horror movies. I remember as a little kid always seeing these horror movie trailers on television and not really understanding who would want to watch that sort of thing. I thought the previews were scary but i also thought that it was kind of scary that people would want to watch that sort of thing. The ones that scared me the most were the really bloody ones and ones were they randomly killed people. I thought the kids or adults who watched those were sort of like a devil person and that really scared me. Later on it made more sense to me why they would watch those but as a kid I didn't understand at all. I see now that the main reason people watch those are for the thrill and excitement, but as a little kid that just didn't translate to me. I now have sorta become a fan of horror movies, but I still do not like the really bloody ones.

Blog intro

I see myself as a good reader and a pretty good writer. I enjoy English and want to have fun and get better at it. Personally I don't take a lot of things too seriously because I like to have fun! I need to be good at English and proceed in getting better for colleges to appreciate my resume` more. I think English is really important in your student school career to learn and appreciate the language we speak and to learn about famous writers and their novels. English will help me to become a better person academically and personally by teaching me and showing me that there is a lot more to just English than spelling words and reading easy books. I'm extremely glad that i have the opportunity to do honors English because it gives me the opportunity to be one step ahead of everyone else in the pack (meaning everyone else in our grade), and helps so I can go on to take AP English which will look really good on my college application.