Blog Entry #15

Ehrilch describes the cowboys as being tough and rugged on the outside, and for the most part, on the inside. She talks about how they don't really connect towards women, and that they need the women to cook and clean for them. When the cowboys are in a more intimate setting with their wives, they open up more and are more able to connect with the women on a personal level. Ehrilch uses a tone that is informative, but also emotional, which she is basically stating that you can't judge a book by it's cover.

Blog Entry #14

Sante breaks down secrecy and how much it effects our society. Most teenagers and some adults have MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, ect., but what some don't realize is that once it's out there, it's everywhere. A quote I once saw stated, "Once it's on MySpace, it's international," which is extremely true. Anyone around the world can see that you're on MySpace. Even if your profile is set to private, people can still see your profile picture. In this day and age, there is very little secrecy anymore.

Blog Entry #13

Public schools should not teach ethics and personal values. I think that is something that should be taught at home by your parents or family members. However, the staff should inforce honesty and politeness around the school's campus.   

Blog Entry #12

To categorize movies, they're usually put into different genres. Some genres include horror, comedy, and fantasy. Some movies tend to have more than one genre incorporated into them. This keeps the viewer guessing what comes next. The movie, Jennifer's Body, is a Horror/Comedy. By adding more elements to a movie, you're keep the viewer more engaged in what's going on.

HORROR
*Saw 1-7
*Hostel 1&2
*The Last Exorcism

COMEDY
*White Chicks
*Shallow Hal
*The Hangover

FANTASY
*Avatar
*Harry Potter Series
*Lord of the Ring Series

Blog Entry #11

Culminating Writers Profile
1. My expectations about my writing style have increased since class has started because I want to become a better writer, but I don't feel I've made a significant improvement in my writing since this year has begun.
2. As a writer, I believe my strengths are giving examples to get my point across to the reader.
3. I still see a weakness in my thesis statements. I need to work on making them stronger and tying my essay towards the thesis.

Evaluating Your Writing Process
1. To improve my essay I would put more examples and make it deeper.
2. It was easiest to revise my meaning because I knew about my topic, and had personal example to back it up.
3. The biggest problem in writing and revising my essay was making it deeper and more meaningful to society.

Evaluating Your Successes
1. The most successful large scale revision in my essay would be the audience. By reading my essay, you would see who the essay was referring to.
2. I was very descriptive when using my examples about how certain words are used out of context and in schools, but I need work on using other literary elements.
3. I think the audience of my essay understands my point that I was trying to get across because of the examples I gave.

Being Honest With Self
1. The most intimidating part about this essay was how many points it was worth and that it was the first big essay of the school year. I worked hard on the essay and wanted to get my point across .
2. Tuesday's with Morrie influenced my writing a lot because it had meaning and purpose to it and that made me want to have my essay meaninful and have purpose.
3. I tried using a more appropriate vocabulary and used "slang" terms, to describe examples.
4. My peer said that I needed to work on my thesis and tying my whole essay together.
5. I have not seen a significant improvement in my writing yet but throughout this year I hope to see a big improvement.

Blog Entry #10

The feeling of being a "nobody" can be caused by a number of different things. You can feel that you're being ignored by people, unable to relate to people, or have low self esteem. To me, I think being ignored would be the worst thing possible. No one is listening to you or even giving you the time to tell them how you feel. Just by writing this, I feel terrible for people who feel, as if they're a nobody, 'cause you're definitely somebody.

Blog Entry #9

I took away many things after reading Tuesday's with Morrie. One thing was how to live and have a meaningful life. We don't need to have the most up-to-date electronics to have a meaningful life. Being close to your family and friends can lead you to having meaning in your life. Morrie is also conveying how people need to accept death, rather than dread it. Death is a part of everyone's lives, and the earlier you accept that, the easier it'll be to deal with the deaths you'll come in contact with throughout your life.

Blog Entry #8

The word, prejudice, has a negative connotation in my opinion. Prejudice is the judging or being scared of someone or a subject that you don't have full knowledge on. Some of the most common forms of prejudice are racism and homophobia. In my opinion, I have no idea how one can judge someone or be rude to someone because of the color of their skin or who they love. The word prejudice, to me, is also along the lines of ignorance.

Blog Entry #7

In the book, The Secret Life of Bees, the author is trying to make an argument that if you want to do something or find something out, you need to set out and do it for yourself. Lily always wanted to know what had happened to her mother, so she'd always ask her father. He never told her straight up what had happened to her. Lily, who left with Rosaleen, ended up being taken in by the honey makers of the town. What she didn't know was that her mother knew the August Boatwright, the owner of the honey farm. After staying with them for a while, Lily ended up getting the truth about what had happened to her mother.

Blog Entry #6

I think a subject that is described in a negative way is obesity. Some people may see an obese person in the store and immediately feel disgusted. That is not the way things should be. People are so quick to judge based upon looks when you really have no idea what that person's background is. They may have a disease such as hypothyroidism or depression. Even if they don't have any type of diseases, it's still not society's place to judge anyone.

Blog Entry #5

The only question I had about the Box Man was how did the writer know how content he was with his life. Just because he went around collecting boxes and "seemed" content with that lifestyle, doesn't mean that he wouldn't like a change.

Blog Entry #4

iPods Vs. Mp3 players. They're different in the fact they're made by different brands and some have different features. They're the same in the fact they both are capable of doing what they were originally made for, listening to music. Apple's iPods tend to cost more than your average mp3 player. My question is why. Are you paying more for the brand name of Apple, or is the quality better?

Blog Entry #3

Months before even knowing about the summer reading for this class, I saw the movie, "The Secret Life of Bees". Definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen, and when I saw that the book was on the list, I had to read it. The book, written by Sue Monk Kidd, was amazing. The book dealt a lot with racism and the affects of it. The narrator of the book, Lily Owens, learns that she accidentally killed her mother when she was younger. Lily also has to deal with her rude father, T. Ray. Lily and Rosaleen, their black maid, leave and try to find somewhere else to stay. They meet August Boatwright and her family, a black family that makes honey for the town and let's them stay at their house, even though Lily is white. This book showed how discrimination, in any form, is rude and unnecessary and definitely made me look at things from a different point a view, and even though racism is still alive today, it shows how far we've come.

Blog Entry #2

I haven't read many non-fiction books, but I have read Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks. This book's purpose is to be a testimony against drugs. It's a journal about a girl who gets LSD slipped into her drink at a party and ends up becoming an addict and homeless further down the road. I felt like this book could relate to me with the fact that she never had many friends. This journal shows just how bad drugs can mess with your life. During your high school years, the pressure to do drugs and drink alcohol is very high. You just have to choose what is more important to you, "fitting-in", or your life down the road.

Blog Entry #1

I'm basically your average sixteen year old with big dreams. I have a very blunt and honest personality. I plan on going to college to become a mechanical engineer so I can design roller coasters. Lady GaGa inspires me and I plan to meet her one day.