Final Blog!

Writing on this blog every week wasn't something that I ever liked doing at the time, it was a hassle and I tended to just forget to do it. Although looking back on it now, it has been a really good thing for me and helped my writing and understanding of just about everything that was taught to me throughout the year in this class. Reading my blog posts have helped me realize what my writing style is and how it has grown through this short year. It is quite obvious that my time spent on these blogs varied from week to week.

Reading through my old blogs I had some good laughs and was reminded of some of the long, horrible books you put us through Mrs. Gilman. I was also reminded of some of the good books and enjoyable blogs! I liked writing and reading blogs that gave me more freedom to write what I wanted, even though the blog itself is a place where I can write what I want. The Animal Farm post was slightly embarrassing and I'd forgotten about how artistically lacking I am. Those characters were not quite up to par.

A quote that I picked that kind of wraps up my blogs is: "The wastebasket is a writer's best friend." -Isaac Bashevis Singer. I obviously haven't thrown any rough drafts of my blogs away, or even made any rough drafts for my blogs, although found myself deleting and rewriting my entries multiple times. Although the prompt was never challenging, I am never satisfied with what I write, even after the final copy is turned in, or posted. I always know I can write something better, but have to just give in after a while and call it good.

Essay Writing: Challenges and Conquests

Writing essays has never been one of my favorite things, although believe it or not, I've come to feel more confident in my essay writing this year and therefore enjoyed writing them much more. I do think I am well on my way to being an accomplished essayist, but not quite there yet. I still struggle on some categories, but do think that with all the writing help I've gotten this year that I will be a successful writer the rest of my English years. Literary analysis has helped me get a deeper meaning and although is a hassle at the time, really does help in the long run. I've come to search for symbols, figurative language, themes, character development, and so on, naturally now.

After looking and the rubric and then reading over my essay I noticed that I repeatedly made the same mistakes over and over again. I tend to over use the same word because I think that I need to so that it ties into the thesis throughout the entire essay. The repetitiveness is very obvious and makes the flow of the writing choppy. I also find myself writing my essay to someone who hasn't read the book and summarizing the quote after citing it, when really I should be using my own words and ideas. I will edit my essay and work on these things this weekend and hopefully turn in a mistake-free essay Monday!

Summer Reading.

I'm really excited for the books I plan on reading this summer, they've been on my list to read for a while now, I just haven't gotten around to them yet. First and foremost I would like to read It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzinni. Last year a lot of my classmates read this and said how much they loved it, and the plot sounds very funny so it seems like my kind of book. Also, I've read other books by this author and really liked them. Another book I plan on reading is The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I usually like to read the book before I see the movie, although this way it will be the other way around. I thought the movie was great and think the book will be even better.

Fate.

My birthday is March 22nd, and so my horoscope sign is Aries. Aries personalities are independent, and they are often go-getters, leading the way. This partially goes along with my personality as I tend to take the lead in things and also work better and faster independently. Aries are good friends, always looking out for the people closest to them. I would also like to think that this goes along with my personality because I try to stick up for my friends whenever possible. Low tolerance for boredom and lack of patience goes along with Aries, if the excitement is gone from their business idea, they go search for it somewhere else. Once again, I believe this fits for me. I try to have the mindset of "You only live once", and don't usually stick around when I think I would be having more fun somewhere else. It is said that Aries will often lie to get themselves out of a situation, although they are not good liars. This partially makes sense for me because I don't usually lie due to the fact that I'm not a good liar and people can see right through it.

I feel that all the websites I went to to research Aries all had really broad ideas of how their personalities are supposed to be and how they normally act. Many of my findings were true for my personality, although I think it would be the same for most people because it is so wide. In Romeo And Juliet, fate is a major theme. In act 3, Romeo and Juliet are meant to be together and it is fate that he wasn't sentenced to death and that he was just exiled. And eventually will come back for her and they will be together.

Culture Shock

I found that Romeo and Juliet are refrenced to in multiple songs in modern day. One particular popular song currently is Called "Love Story" By Taylor Swift. Here is the music video for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

Extra Credit Reflection.

This year of Honors English has been nothing what I expected. When I signed up for it, it was mainly because I love to write and most of my friends were doing it. It also helps that you are with kids that aren't at school because they have to be, but rather because they want to be. You never know whats going to go down in Mrs. Gilman's classroom. We go from standing in front of the classroom reciting a poem that nobody wants to read and quite honestly I don't think anyone wanted to hear either, to having a pie party. And then there is everything in between; Miles obnoxiously eating his pasta salad, Jack and Tom adding a comment to everything, Evora and Luke fighting, and Michael Lance begging to check annotations. Besides the very entertaining people in this class, we do end up doing some things that don't end up being half bad. The class meetings and group work do tend to make the class more enjoyable, and even out all the horrid essay writing and DGP. I'd say that even after all the hard work, this class is definitely worth it.

Skits!

1.) The first part of the book that I think would make a good scene in a skit is when Pip going to Miss Havisham's house for the very first time. This part of the book was very interesting to read about, and the movie clip you showed on this made me laugh. The character of Miss Havisham would be a fun role to play because of how unique she is in every way and how crazy the things she says to pip are. Characters included would be Pip, Miss Havisham and maybe a few of Miss Havisham's relatives that are at the house.

2.) When Miss Havisham catches on fire. Everything about this just makes it a good scene. It was a very funny part unlike many other boring chapters and I think the class would have a lot of fun acting this out. Pip and Miss Havisham would be the only characters included.

3.) Way back at the very start of the book when Pip first comes across the convict, also known as Magwitch, would be an interesting scene too. Not only would I find it hard for the people acting this out to hold a straight face, but the audience too. I think someone trying to talk like the convict would be funny and Pip running away scared.