Reading Details

Looking for Alaska and Portfolio work time


4/15- 30 mins., 4/16- 45 mins., 4/17- 55 mins., 4/18- 45 mins., 4/19- 30 mins., 4/20- 55 mins.

Poem

Dark 

and Gloomy

Light

and Bright

Unknowingly known

The obvious secrecy that

keeps us apart

We know not the differences that 

we seem

to bear

Only the truth

we seem

to share

A falsehood thats

true

In this poem I chose to focus on three major techniques. Enjambment, Oxymorons, and Rhyme.

I wanted to try to use enjambment because I have never really tried it before! I have written poems before, but I have never known that that was a possible option! 

I also focused on oxymorons because I really enjoy coming up with those! My friends and I sometimes even have wars by seeing who can come up with the most oxymorons! So that was really fun to do.

The last thing that I focused on was Rhyme. I have always rhymed in my poems but I thought I would make it sound more efficient and formal here. I used an inner rhyme because I feel like the ones at the end of the line sound to "Dr. Suess".

Reading Times:

4/8- 30 mins., 4/9- 45 mins., 4/10- 50 mins., 4/11- 30 mins, 4/12- 60 mins.

 

What I Want

What I want most...that's such a hard thing to decide. There are many things I want, but i do not need. So putting that into perspective, I guess that I would I have to say that I would want my life to go a little smoother. So many people say "make the most of what you have. It doesn't matter if you have nothing, if you think your life is miserable, it will be." That's all extremely true, but the thing is...it gets so tiring.
For once in my live i want to really live...instead of just surviving. I want to make good grades and have my parents be proud of me. I want to be the best friend I can be to all of my friends. I want to be someone that other people admire. Most of all, I want to be someone that I admire.

Song

The song I chose to analyize is Pull Me Down by Mikky Ekko. Here are the lyrics! 
"Oh I heard you were trouble
And you heard I was trouble
But your name is a wave washing over me
No games just a slave to you totally
Cause I don't care about what they say about you virgo
And you don't care about what they say about me virgo
But you know what they say about trouble

Pull me down if you want to
and I hope that you want to
Cause I want to be your man
And I wanna say it loud
You can show me where trouble goes
Tell me secrets only trouble knows
Cause you wanna be my girl
And you wanna say it loud"

The first thing that I notice in this song is how it repeats certain phrases and only changes a few words. I'm not sure if this is an anaphora, but it is very similar to one I think. The song uses personification in the line "tell me secrets only trouble knows". Trouble is being given human traits because trouble can not "know" anything. There is also personification with the phrase "you can show me where trouble goes". Also with this line "no games just a slave to you totally". Personification is the one thing in this song that stands out the most.

Everyday

Right now I am reading a book called Everyday by David Levithan. This by far is one of the best books I have ever read, and I am only 100 or so pages into it. There are two reasons that this book is so amazing. One is the plot. It keeps you thinking. The way that it always keeps you guessing makes you want to read more!
Another way that it's so amazing is the way that Levithan wrote this book. There's two plots. One that is bigger than the other one. This always keeps you wondering which plot will end up the biggest, and if they will ever intertwine. Please read this book...it is amazing!



4/1- 15 mins., 4/2- 30 mins., 4/3- 45 mins., 4/4- 50 mins., 4/5- 30 mins., 4/6- 30 mins.

Revising

I am choosing my literacy narrative to revise. I am choosing this paper because it was the one that I enjoyed writing the most. I also enjoy writing in detail because I can slow down the paper and make it really flow. On this paper the main comment that I got was that I needed to make it more story like. I thuroughly agree with that. I can remember not spending much time on this paper, and I feel that if I spend more time really writing this paper, then I should be able to do just that.
Another comment that I got was that I had repeated mistakes while using commas. I might need to go see Dr. D during tutorial one day to see how we can fix this issue, because most of the time I don't even know I'm using them incorrectly. After I meet with her, hopefully I can resolve that issue. I'm looking forward to revising this paper



Reading Times

3/18- 15 mins.; 3/19- 30 mins.; 3/20- 45 mins.; 3/21- 50 mins.; 3/22- 15 mins.; 3/22- 60 mins.

Jane Goodall

The issue of Jane Goodall's new book "Seeds of Good Hope" is a very big deal. Plaigerism is not a joke. It i a crime, and especially when it is done at this level of severity. What makes this even more severe, is the fact that she used more than a dozen passages without citing, or giving the website credit. To fix this problem, Jane should at either cite the sources that she used, or rewrite the book completely using only her words and no one else's. I feel like this problem could have been avoided.
I find that Jane Goodall did this very suprising. She is very well respected in the scientific world. This could have been avoided by her publishers though. They should have told her that she needed to fix it after their first time reading the book. I feel that we should hold both responsible.

Nervous Conditions

Reading this book was not a usual experience. I have never done something like this in an English class before and it was defienatly interesting. What made this book so different from all the others, is that we didn't talk about it very much. Usually we have discussions in class (we had a few) or did group homework  For this book, everyone kind of did the same thing. Which I feel was a good thing for us to do.
One reason that I feel like this was a good thing, was because we got to choose what we wanted to do. This was helpful because we got to do the things that we enjoyed, and things that we were good at. For example, one thing that we could choose to do was a playlist. I thoroughly enjoy music. Its something that I truly love and hope that I can do something with it in the future. That's why my eyes lit up whenever I saw that that was an option. I feel like this was a relief for everyone.
Another reason that I feel this book helped us with was being independent. We chose our own assignments and did them at our own pace. This was either a relief for some people...or a disaster waiting to happen. It was something that we needed to practice and i'm glad that we had the opportunity to in class this year.
Overall, I feel like you should keep this book in the syllabus. It was a learning experiance for everyone and I feel like its something every freshman should learn. They need to know that now its time for them to take matters into their own hands, and work on their own.

Music

For most people, music is just music. Something you listen to when you're bored, or when you wanna get pumped up or brought down. Music is so much for than that though. Music is an escape. There's nothing better than being in a chaotic room and closing your eyes and putting in headphones and then letting music flow through your ears. Everything else is immediately blocked out. Its like nothing else at that moment matters.
Music also has a huge effect on your mood. If you put on a really fast and upbeat song, odds are your mood will become the same! The same thing will happen if you but on a slow depressing song. Its more than just a few musical notes that you're hearing, there;s a whole psychological level behind music that most people don't even see.

Nayasha

From the point of view of Nayasha:


I have just returned from England and it feels so strange to be home. England was so busy! Now I am back in Rhodesia and it feels so weird. I feel like I may have picked up a few bad habits while I was gone. Babamukuru keeps telling me how disrespectful I am being. I do not mean to! I guess I just come off disrespectful. Also, I feel like Tambu and I's relationship is a bit distant. It's like she doesn't even act like she wants to be around me anymore! It makes me very sad.

Babamukuru hit me...I cant believe it. How could my precious father lay a hand on his own daughter. Yes...I agree that maybe I deserved a bit of a talking to...but I do not deserve to be hit! That crosses a line. I also feel like this scared everyone. Especially my mother. This hurts me to see how much I am hurting everyone. I just wish people would see that.



2/25-30 mins.; 2/26-15 mins.; 2/27-50 mins.; 2/28-30 mins.; 2/29-50 mins.

the first c layer

For the first C layer of my layered project, I did 5 reading guides and the characterization map. The reading guides were much harder than I expected. For Lord of the Flies we did not have to find all of the quotes and explain them. That took a lot more time than I expected. Also, they were questions that you actually had to think about. The reading guides definitely took up a lot of my time.
The characterization map was actually really fun to make! I like to be creative like that with technology so that was something that I didn't mind doing. This is one reason that I like this project so much. I got to choose what I wanted to do instead of being stuck with something that I would dread doing. I feel like I am doing very well with this project.

Research Paper

This paper was an awful experience for me. It was not a bad assignment at all! In fact, in the beginning, I thoroughly enjoyed researching my topic and learning more about the Holocaust. In the end though, I just got so behind. I've had a terrible few weeks, and this paper just came at the exact wrong time. I so regret not turning it in on time. My final product for my rough draft i feel was very strong (lets be real here. it should be since i took so dang long to do it).

Next time I will definitely make sure to turn all of my stuff in on time. This project was a serious eye opener to me and this will definitely never happen again. I can promise everyone that!

2/18- 15 mins.; 2/19-30 mins.; 2/20-15 mins.; 2/21-50 mins.; 2/23-50 mins.

Reading Details

2/11- 30 mins., 2/12- 25 mins., 2/13- 40 mins., 2/14- 30 mins., 2/15- 50 mins.

Nervous Conditions and Research

Reading times

Research:

1/28- 45 mins., 1/29- 50 mins., 1/30-50 mins., 1/31- 50 mins., 2/1- 50 mins.

Informal and Formal

Hey Madison! I'm doing my research project on why the Germans did what they did to the Jews. I'm interested in this because I've always been interested in the holocaust. Ever since lower school when we were first introduced to it, I've had this fascination of why all of this happened. I always wondered how in the world people could do that to other human beings. It just never made sense to me! That's why I decided for that to be my research project! I wanted to dig deeper! So far, I have learned that not all Germans were as bad as we think! Some of them only pretended to believe in the Nazi ways just to stay alive! It was all about survival back then. I also learned that the Hitler just has a hatred for the Jews, and somehow he made everyone else hate them to.
My topic that I have been researching is "What is the psychological reasoning behind why the Germans persecuted the Jews?" I chose this topic because I have always been intrigued by the second world war. So far, I have learned that that some Germans were innocent, and that Hitler hated all Jews for practically no reason, and he convinced all other Germans to hate them as well.


Reading Times:

Research: 1/22- 30 mins., 1/23- 50 mins., 1/24- 50 mins., 1/25- 120 mins.

Reading Responce

This weekend, I read the book Matched  by Ally Condie. It was actually very good! At night after I would read it, I would lay in my bed and think about what life would be like if we all lived in a world like that. What if the government issued us pills like that and chose who we would marry! I thought about the marrying part the most...what would I do if they made me marry someone I hated? I would probably do everything in my power to get out of it! Maybe run away or disguise myself and go by the name Lulu. I would feel bad for him, but it would probably end up being worse for him if we were actually married...
I also thought about the pills. What if we already have pills like that and I witnessed something that I wasn't supposed to and then I was given a pill to forget! For example...a crime...or an alien or something! I personally would move to another planet if we ever started using pills like that..it's just so scary! Don't you agree?


#lilycatontheprowl


Saturday: 90 mins.

Sunday: 130 mins.

Music

Without music...I honestly don't know where I would be right now! I love it so much that sometimes its all I do! In the mornings, the first thing I do is pull out my phone and press play. Then all the way to school I listen to it. At school when I need help concentrating, I plug in my headphones. It's like when i'm listening to my music, I enter this whole different world. If i'm listening to happy music all happy memories that I've ever had come rushing back, and when I listen to depressing music, all depressing memories come back into mind. My music is the only thing that keeps me calm!
There's this app for computers called Spotify and i swear that it's probably the best thing that has ever happened to me...! On the app, you can pretty much look up any song ever made and make different playlists that you can share with your friends. You can also see what your friends have been listening to lately, and listen to it with them. I update my playlists almost everyday, and now I pay $9 a month for no adds and to be able to use it without wifi! Without it...I would probably hate life. ANYWAYS. You should go check it out, and follow me!


#lilycatontheprowl