Now for the FINAL BLOG... of the semester.

This blog I missed because.. well I just forgot but while I'm on here, I'm going to make it up.

For the final blog we are suppose to list out what we liked, didn't like, what we would change about the class, etc.  For starters, I definitely liked the short story and Satire Unit.  I thought that we learned a lot about all the different types of devices uses in short stories.  I really like the analysis because even though a short story is obviously short, it still has a lot to off when it comes to theme and meaning.  I like satire because I'm a teenager and I love sarcasm.  Sarcasm consumes teenagers lives so who wouldn't like it.

What I didn't like was the DRAMA unit.  I hate drama especially Shakespeare.  I don't do well with language barriers so I didn't really understand  a lot of whats going on without sparknotes.  I don't do well with drama.

The things that I would change about the class and hope for next semester is communication.  I felt like there was a lack of communication between the students and teacher but everyone was sick so its understandable that things somewhat got lost.  I also hope to see the MWDS more modified.  The ones that we did today in class I thought was a lot better.  I don't understand the point of the history box or the genre box.  I know they are apart of the book but I think they would explain that if it was really important.

Anyways, those were my critics but other than that, I enjoy the class.

Blogging is seriously cramping my style..

Considering I have forgotten to do my blog twice in a row, maybe I should rethink my notification system.  Last week, I missed my blog because of my choir concert so I will blog about that since it was a the cause of me missing it and I just never got around to making it up.

My concert choir was really wonderful.  We had so much going on that entire week and it was amazing.  But when I really thought about it, I was got overwhelmed and sad because I realized that it was my very last Christmas concert in the Dunbar Choir.  I think I even teared up.

There was only one song that was really moving and it really hit my heart because it was all I could think about.  Awakening was about being without music in your life.  I honestly could not live without music.  Music keeps me sane and I look forward to my choir classes every day because I know its my favorite block of my school day.  This concert was just really tear jerking for me and I realized that I don't want to leave. I hope that I will be fortunate enough to participate in choir at college but right now, I'm not sure it that will happen.

I just hope I've made enough memories to last a lifetime.. Or until I can watch my children sing in their High School Choir.

Have No Fear, Satire Is Here.

Since Mr. Mullins didn't give out any suggestions for a blog post this week, I decided to start this post off with a celebratory "Yay!" because my fellow peers, we are done with drama! Or Hamlet at least.  Although I have to admit once I understood what it was about I actually did rather enjoy the play.  I liked the craziness of Hamlet himself and since he was basically Bi-polar, which was exactly how I felt today, I can relate.  Now that Hamlet is out of the way, we will begin Satire.  I am so excited for this unit, section, whatever you want to call it.

It might be that I got to write a satirical paper last year on Wall-E, which ultimately let me watch the adorable Pixar movie about 1500 times.  But I really like satire because you can find it in everything we read, hear, and see.  It's all around us especially in this generation of sarcastic blockheads.  However, it was really interesting to know that even back in the 1800s authors used satire to spice up their books and speeches.

Mark Twain, my new life coach, wrote this awesome "Advice to Youth" speech and I just fell in love with the satire in it.  I thought it enhanced the message of the entire speech which was pretty much telling the younger generations to not do what their elders say.  I loved how it also made fun of their time period and traditions that were expected of the younger generation to carry out.  I just love satire but I'm hoping that this satire unit won't ruin it for me.  Fingers crossed that it will make my love grow even more.

My word of the year for 2012.. I don't think you'll like it.

PAIN. That is the word of the year for me.  While pop culture deemed GIF as their word, I saw it fitting to let my word be pain.  This year has been very hard for me.  It seems like every two years there is something that just makes them not pleasant.  This past year, I experienced a lot of pain.  My dog, who I grew up with, just recently passed away.  I was not accepted in softball-the one place I felt safe at.  Everything just seem wrong with this year but then again everything else was right.  It's very hard to explain but I think with pain comes change, whether it be good or bad change.

I definitely don't think GIF deserves word of the year especially when it has been around since its been around for more than two years.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but should an important word like "word of the year" be something more meaningful and complex?  YOLO or GIF are not word that describe what our world has been through in the last year.  It describes what teenagers and young adults do on their smart phone.  Or it gave them excuses to do something really stupid.

Maybe it's just me and my cold exterior, but I don't agree with these word that were chose for "word of the year."  Pain, growth, and change are word that I chose for me.  But maybe people don't grow from their pain , or change from their growth.  Maybe I'm the odd one out.  Fact is I just don't know anymore.

Drama Drama Drama!

So as we all know this past Tuesday was election day and for the first time, I got to vote.  It was very exciting because I really felt like an adult.  I actually cared this time because I was apart of it.  But leading up to all of this proud voting nonsense was DRAMA.  All the horrible commercials and the endless "He said this ... blah, blah, blah."  It just was full of drama and honestly, I didn't care for any of it which makes me nervous to start this new unit of DRAMA.

Oedipus Rex wasn't a bad read.  I honestly enjoyed the story but now we move into Shakespeare.  Like Mr. Mullins said in class, Shakespeare is definitely an acquired likeness. I really enjoyed Romeo and Juliet in Freshman English but I think that has to do with the fact the Leonardo DiCaprio was playing Romeo.  Othello was a different story.  I could not get into Othello at all.  I remember only the basic plot and I honestly did not care what happened in the play.  Obviously I've heard of Hamlet but I don't know anything about it. It's like a whole different country that I've only heard about but never touched.

I'm pretty much worried about the drama unit because I know I'm not good with drama.  It will definitely take a lot of focus for me to get into Hamlet but hopefully I can.

Fate or Free Will? Whatever Shall I Choose?

Two days ago, I posted on my Facebook about how I wish I could control fate.  I had just auditioned for all-state so it's understandable why I posted this considering my chances of getting in were slim.  My best friend grandmother commented on it and told me "there is no such thing as fate."  I was actually take aback at what she said because I had always believed in fate.  I also believe in free will too but what I didn't understand is why would someone say that fate doesn't exist?  It's a very foreign concept for me and it got me thinking about Oedipus Rex.

Sophocles made sure to make fate play a big role in Oedipus's life.  He used Gods like Apollo who is the God of prophecies in the play to make fate more apparent.  What I wonder was if Oedipus chose to go the other way at the cross road would free will triumph over fate or would fate still find a way to sneak in and ruin the lives of many people.  I think if Oedipus chose the other way at the crossroad then all would be okay and his mother and father did not have to die.  Does that concept apply to people in today's world?

I think it does.  Sometimes I find myself put in situations that I know I was meant to be in to help those around me.  Other situations, I choose to be in because I have the free will to break away from the path that fate has chosen for me.  I like to think that I do have a say in my future but when it comes down to it, does fate influence our free will/choices or do our choices influence our fate?

Writing Papers... Ugh.

Our short story unit has come to a close... about two weeks ago.  The only thing left is to write a paper about one of the stories.  It's Monday and the first rough draft is due tomorrow. At midnight.  I am a proficient procrastinator so I have not even begun my paper... yay.  Right about now I'm getting to the "Okay, I need to work on this paper," but I know from procrastination experience that I'm probably not going to begin this paper until later tonight when I am freaking out about getting it turned in. 

Procrastination is not my friend.  I really hate having this issue almost everytime I write a paper.  I know that if you begin earlier on papers that it will be composed better but I kind of don't believe that.  My serious case of procrastination has led me to some nicely written papers.  Take AP Euro for example.  I didn't write my summer essay until the day before it was due.  I got a 50 out of 50 on it.  I know it doesn't always work like that especially in English class but I always find my mind wander away from my task that I am SUPPOSE to be completing at the time. 

Maybe one day I will actually write a paper a few days before it's due but until then I need to work on this short story unit paper and try to make it as proper and wonderfully written as my history essays.  I like writing history essays.  I don't like writing English papers or essays.  So wish me luck Mr. Mullins because I have no idea how this is going to turn out.

*Above is the picture of me from the 90s trying to write an essay - I age well*

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet.

I have no idea what to blog about right now... We haven't been doing much in my English class so I'm sitting in Newspaper trying to think of something related to English that I can blog about.  It's not working.  Not going to lie, the only thing on my mind right now is getting Taylor Swifts new album that came out TODAY.  But that's not relevant to English class.  I recently discovered twitter and we did tweet last class so thats what I'm going to blog about.

I've noticed since being on Twitter for about three days now that its a lot better than facebook but it still uses slang and nonsophisticated words just like facebook.  With any social media network, this is a problem, but is it a bad thing?  Twitter is used to reach out to millions of people everyday.  If big movie stars like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie start using slang will their followers do the same?  I think they would. 

Maybe Twitter won't be that bad for our population considering most posts only consits of status updates instead of pointless photos and games updates like Facebook show on people's news feed.  Slang isn't that bad during a time when you are talk to friends but what worries me is people won't know how to speak to a professional when being interviewed for a job. 

Hopefully hashtags like #WhatIWrite will improve people's slangs use and writing style.  Hopefully people will be more aware that it's okay to have good vocabulary.  Maybe there is hope for our speech even with the social networking sites.

Books and Their Annoying Endings.

At this point in my academic life I have read a LOT of books.  I recently just finished the newest book in a series I am currently reading and I seriously want to rip up the book and punch it's author in the face because of the way it ended.  I would boycott the rest of this series but I need to know what happens after this unfortunate ending.  Besides my raging anger toward the ending of this book, I noticed that the short stories that we read this past unit in English ending similarly like this book.

We read literary fiction in English and literary authors are known to have abrupt endings that leave people confused and aggravated the everything wasn't wrapped up.  Unfortunately unlike a series, short stories don't continue their stories.  They just end.  I also think that short stories don't connect with their readers as much as regular commercial fiction series do.  I personally find it hard to connect with some short stories because they are short and don't give their readers enough time or description of the characters for them to connect with the story or characters on a first read.  However, when reading the story two or three times, it becomes easier to connect with the stories even if they have abrupt and crappy endings.

I just found it very odd and interesting that I was able to connect commercial and literary fiction together.  They are similar in many ways but usually they are totally different from each other.  Unfortunately, the ending was what connected between the two.

I still want to punch Rick Riordan in the face.

Existawhat?

I have to say that I really enjoyed class on Monday and Wednesday... which was very shocking because I don't think anyone else did.  Even though discussions tend to move forward without me, I really got into the discussion when we started talking about philosophy.  I was introduced to a new way of thinking known as Existentialism.  It's the opposite of what most religions believe in and even though I am Christian, I still found myself really drawn to this subject.  Our actions identify what type of person we are; that is existentialism. After learning about the principles of existentialism, I enjoyed the subject even more because I could relate to the subject.

Many works of literature use existentialism to help define their characters.  "The Guest" was able to use existentialism to define the character Daru.  Two major principles were used in this short story: freedom and alienation.  It would be hard to spot these common themes if the reader did not already know that existentialism was.

Daru is isolated and alone on the hill.  He provides food for students but that is it.  He doesn't deal with anyone personally, only the fact that some people don't have food.  I believe that the author used this principle to depict Daru's character to the reader.  He has a very strong sense of alienation.  He doesn't deal with responsibility, only himself.  However, Daru is forced to deal with responsibility.  An Arab is left on his doorstep and forces Daru to be responsible for someone else's life.   Daru's freedom was threatened at this point and I believe that if anyone was put in that situation then we would do anything to regain our freedom.  Forcing someone to accept responsibility only makes them desperate for their freedom.  You accept the responsibility and then once done with it, you get freedom back but does it really work that way.  At the end of the story, Daru is still held accountable for his role in the Arab's path.  This makes me wonder if anyone is ever re-leaved of the responsibilities forced upon them or do they haunt you?  Based on the story, I'd say they haunt anyone who tries to run away from them.

Hmm... Emotions and Reality Are Never Easy, Are They?

I'm not sure how I feel about this week's short story in English class.  Obviously The Drunkard was funny because it was in the Humor/Irony chapter of my over sized English book but it also hit home on some subjects that sometimes are too raw to talk about.  I don't even know if "raw" is the right word for me to use in others situations, but for me, its appropriate.

I have had some very personal experiences with alcoholics and they are not pretty.  It sometimes feels likes you are opening doors that never end when dealing with alcoholics at their worst.  Unfortunately, alcoholism is a common trait for both sides of my family.  When I read about he young boy begging for his father not to drink, it reminded my of times when I had to do that with my father.  It makes you sober up to reality even if you are not the one drinking and I think this happened with the boy in the story too.  I know what its like to know that your parent won't be getting up in the morning to go to work or when they stumble in at 1 AM promising they are "just fine."  It's a horrid reality that no one should have to experience.

This makes me think of the story when I see what they boy does for his father whether he did it intentionally or not.  When someone puts a child in a situation like that then somehow, someway that person will face consequences just like the father did in the story.  Reality will set in.  There are somethings that are just more important than quenching your own needs and desires.  The father in the story realizes this but only to the boys expense.

This story really hit home.  It reopened a wound only healed on the surface, but at the same time, this story reigns as my favorite because of the message it sends to it's audience.  Maybe I should keep it in mind the next time I have to face an uncomfortable situation with my family because they choose to fulfill their own desires without thinking about possible consequences.

POV: The Positively, Optomistic, and Vendictive Way to Screw with Our Brains

POV. This makes me want to barf only because I have a serious problem staying in one point of view.  I know that all the great authors that ever live were a master at POV but I just don't understand how they do it.  It's like they transform their mind into a world that only speaks in that POV.  It's irritating.  Who would ever go around town thinking, "Katherine likes to go into the book store because she loves to read" when I'm the one going into the bookstore.  If I referred to myself in 3rd person all the time I would go crazy.

We read a short story yesterday in English called "Hills Like White Elephants" and it had a really stange POV.  Hemingway hid his true purpose of the story behind his point of view very well.  I never understood the story until we discussed it in class.  I personally felt detatched from the story because I didn't have any idea of what they were talking about.  Now that I have been told what they are talking about, it's obvious.  With Hemingway's POV in the story, I think you have to pay close attention and acutally read the story multiple times before anyone can know what these two people were talking about.  Any story that uses this POV is going to be difficult.  They require multiple readings and I just don't feel attatched to stories like that.  I like to be in the heads of my characters like with my outside reading book, Pride and Prejudice (which is the best book writen in all of history), Jane Austen uses a 3rd person POV but she enters each characters thoughts and discreetly tells the reader what they are thinking.  I just don't like the way Hemingway's POV connects with the readers.

Hello, My Name is Theme and I am a Literary Device..

Theme is one of those tricky literary devices that always makes my brain hurt too much because I over analyze and think too much.  Sounds like me, right?  Well unfortunately we talked about theme in my English class and let me tell you my head still hurts.  Theme is a touchy subject for me.  I feel like I'm one of those people that tries their best to analyze a story and come up with the great theme for the story and ultimately  fails at it. 

Theme and I have had some rough patches but I can see a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel.  It's really sad because I try so hard to make my theme analysis as good as it can be but then it just flops.  But now that I actually took notes and actually focused on the dreadful subject, I see a bright future for me and theme.  

I don't know if it was actually the principles that helped me understand theme more but what I do know is that once it was explained to me, I could understand it and actually do the work a lot easier.  Now all I have to do is come up with a subject of theme for stories...  which will not be fun since that's that part that I don't ever agree with.  

As of right now, theme is still a mystery to me.  I understand it but it's still like another foreign language to me (which may I might add really sucks to learn).  I hope that when this is all over, I can easily identity and come up with awesome theme sentences but until then theme and I have a lot of strapping in to do because it's going to be a bumpy ride to the finish line. 

Pardon Me Sir, but are You Just Cruel or Truly Evil?

What makes someone evil?  I think that all of us have some kind of evil held inside just waiting for the opportune moment to come out and say "Hello" to the world.  Others hold more than they can carry and others hold very little but is there some supernatural force that determines how much evil is inside of us?   Others may say it's not evil, it's just cruel.  Is there a difference?  In my book... Yes.

The Destructors by Graham Greene is full of evil actions and cruelty displayed by young children toward an old man who cares for an old house.  These boys or to be more specific, the main character Trevor, were not just cruel; they were evil.  For some reason they thought it wise to completely destroy this innocent old man's house.  What I don't understand is why.  They had a ball to play with and they had each other to provide entertainment; they didn't have to destroy this man's house.  Personally, I believe it all comes back to the "Evil v. Cruel" thing I was talking about earlier.

You can be taught how to be cruel.  Others can show you how to kick a cat or beat a dog or steal Twinkies; however, no one can teach someone how to be evil.  The "gang," as they like to call themselves, knew how to be cruel to someone but Trevor, the temporary leader, was born with evil in him.  He was horrid to the old man.  He didn't take money or valuable possessions.  He took the whole house.  That to me, cannot be taught.  Either you are born with a darkness inside of you that creates these ideas that just seem so right but are really so wrong.  Evil can help be apart of people's personalities.  It's impossible to take it away but it is possible to shelter it from the outside world until it drops in for a visit.  I understand the difference between the two, but can you?

Can't College Wait? Doesn't it know I'm Busy?

College.  The word that can excite or scare any senior on the face of the Earth.  It hasn't entirely hit me yet that in 365 days my life will be dramatically changed by the so called place of education.  But it's started to make its move.  Wednesday's English class was full of College and applications and graduation and everything else that I am not ready to face right now.  I know that it's going to come.  But I don't want it to.  I am not good with change.  I don't like the idea of leaving home; however, I'm really excited about it too.  I feel like I'm stuck in Katy Perry's "Hot 'N Cold" song with my future.

I do have some idea of what I want to do.  I'm not the kind of person to flake out on something this important but I will admit that it takes me a while to get motivated to begin projects like this.  It's frightening to I'll leave everyone that I care about behind because I don't want to stay here.  I've always dreamed of the true college experience.  The late night Ramen Noodles for dinner.  The all-nighters in libraries and everything else that comes with being a poor but dedicated college student.  The hard part is the pre-college experience.

I make hard choices all the time, like what lanes I can down to avoid the cookie aisle; I have to say I have some experience in this particular field.  But college is 4 years of my life and I don't know if I can commit to one type of cookie for a major chapter in my life.  It's hard. It sucks. It's life.  I have to face it sooner rather than later.  Wednesday was a major eye opener for me.  It's time to be excited for the future and not hold on to what will be gone in 9 months.  Good news is I have some ideas of where I want to go. I just need to take the next step that I have been avoiding for a very long time.

Literary v. Commercial

I have read a whole lot of books.  I love to read but I never gave much thought to the different kinds of books other that fiction v. nonfiction and everything in between.  Usually when I pick a book, I go for the cute fun looking fiction books that will actually keep me entertain for a while whether it be two days or three weeks.  It's kind of weird know now that there are two different types of fiction books.  I can now look back and categorize the books that I have read into these categories.

Although I have read a lot of books, I tend read Commercial books more than I do Literary books.  Don't get me wrong, I love Literary books and have read plenty of them; there's just something about the Commercial books that draw me in more than the Literary books do.

It weird though because my favorite book of all time, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, leans more toward the Literary side on the Literary v. Commercial spectrum.  Personally, I think I would enjoy the Literary books more if I could just get into them before having to read them for school or watching the movie before reading the book.  Honestly, I would sometimes rather read the deep-filled meaning books more than the sugar coated Commercial books; they just aren't there when I need a good book.

If I were to choose between the two categories, I would pick the Literary books over Commercial books.  I love them both but I prefer the books that people actually have deep discussions about, books that use a wide variety of vocabulary, and books that have multiple meanings to them.  So its official. Literary wins while Commercial falls.