Blog 13

1. I am going to write about cohabitating before marriage.
2. I want to know if living together before marriage is detrimental to a couple's relationship.
3. I want my reader to know statistics about living together so that they can understand any risks or benefits that will occur from this action. 

Penn State Forever

Hearing everything that has gone on in the past week makes me sick.  I have grown up my whole life watching Penn State Football.  It is one of the main reasons why I chose Penn State (first of course being the ice cream).  Every Saturday, my family, friends, and I would record the game (because we alwasy had soccer) and watch it later that night.  It was like a weekly party.  It got to the point where if we did not watch Penn State together the weekend was pretty much a bust.  Then in 7th grade, all twenty of us came up to Happy Valley for our first game! It was against the Purdue Boilermakers, and even though they lost the game, the atmosphere was like nothing I have ever felt before.  Since then I have been to a few more games, but being a student here was going to be like nothing else.  Being able to stand the whole game and do all the cheers, get a pompom, and even get thrown when the team got a touchdown was a dream come true.  This was one of the best Penn State seasons I have ever seen, until last week of course. 
This week has been one of the most depressing weeks in my life. Honestly, I did not really pay attention until they included Joe Paterno in the scandal.  As my mom said the other day "It was like he was a member of our family" and it is so true.  It is like he was our grandpa that we saw every Saturday and now he is gone.  I just can not believe that after 61 years on the coaching staff at Penn State they fired him over the phone.  I know that the Board of Trustees was doing what they thought was necessary to protect teh name of the school, but in my opinion the man had already announced his retirement so they should have let him finish the season.  Joe Paterno is an 84 year old man that in my view could not have known all the details.  For my entire life my dad has been saying that he did not like McQueary so I find his aspect in the story very ironic.  I think that he could not possibly have told Joe Paterno all the facts or that Joe Paterno did not know all of the details.  I also think that, after talking to my dad, Sandusky wanted Joe Paterno's job and when Joe Paterno said he was not leaving Sandusky became mad.  My dad proposed that that is why he did such horrible things on Penn State's campus where anyone could have walked in and saw. 
I do not know all of the facts, but I still think that Joe Paterno should have been given the decency of his last home game at Beaver Stadium.  After serving this school for 61 years, he deserved at least that much.
The day I was born Penn State lost to Florida.  I know this because my dad was watching it.  Ever since then I have watched the game every week.  I can name off people like Zach Mills, Dan Connor, Sean Lee, and Paul Posluszny.  People here are upset by the scandal, but most do not feel as hurt as I do.  I feel like I have been betrayed by something that I loved so much, but as my title says "Penn State Forever".  I will never stop supporting my school.  The actions of one sick man can not tarnish the place that especially in the past three months I have grown to love and even now consider my home.  No matter what anyone says,   Penn State is still Happy Valley to me.

Blog 11

For my paper I said that my audience would be parents of children or adults who were planning on have a baby in the future. When I was looking up magazines for parents, all I could find were articles about Baby Shower gifts, baby names, and which items had been recently recalled. I then thought of the fact that people, parents especially, spend their fair share of time in a doctor's office. This made me think that my article on genetic engineering could be in a medical or science magazine. That is when I found Discover Magazine.  In this magazine I did not find an article about the kind of genetic engineering that I want to focus on for my paper, but I did find one article.  It is called "10 Ways Genetically Engineered Microbes Could Help Humanity." http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/06-10-ways-genetically-engineered-microbes-could-help:

1.) The issue of the article is that with cheaper prices and more resources, scientists have been able to experiment with different viruses and bacteria to protect the body from diseases from Cancer and HIV and also to use as fuel replacements and clothing materials. 
2.) The authors' stance on the issue is that it is a great advancement in medicine and that it will only improve more in the future.  They also feel that it will help people all over the world through medical advances and materail and energy advances that can make things more affordable and overrall make the quality of like better for everyone. 
3.) The piece is organized into individual sections where each section described a certain advancement that had been made.  It was also split into larger sections of health and energy.  The authors showed their opinions from their tone and their diction. 
4.) I agree with the writers because the type of genetic engineering that they were talking about is not invasive and it is not playing God like when scientists change embryos.  They type of engineering is purely just a positive way to help the human race. 
5.) I liked that the writer split the article into separate sections to show just how many changes had been made.  One thing that I would have changed would be to add some direct opinions into the article and also to add some quotes from developers/scientists or people that are against science like this.
6.) Even though I liked the article, I do not think I would include many aspects that the writers did.  I will try to use a common diction to theirs, but I will not split it up like they did because that would not work with my topic.  I would also like to include a lot more narrative in my paper.  In the article, the writers just gave the facts of the developments, but I think you can affect readers more if you use some kind of pathos in a paper.  I will also include more statistical information in my paper.  The writers of the article gave fact, but no statistics so it is a weird way for them to try to convey an issue or new idea. 
 

Controversy

Animal Rights:
Leepson, Marc, and Marc Leepson. "Animal Rights." CQ Researcher 24 May 1991: 301-24. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

-  This article talks about all different times of Animal Rights.  First it gave an overview, but then it went into specific topics like should animals have as many rights as humans and animal testing.  Lastly, it goes into a history of laws that have been set up to protect animals and then shows details of the current situation today.  My view on animal rights is that everyone does not have to become a vegetarian, but hunting laws need to be made stricter and that there shoud be no laboratory testing on poor helpless animals. 

Catholic Schools:

Shaffer, Helen B. "Catholic Schools." Editorial Research Reports 1964. Vol. II. Washington: CQ Press, 1964. 561-79. CQ Researcher. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

- This article is from 1964, so it is not very relevant to what I was going to discuss about Catholic schools, but I can still use some of the information.  The article talks about the price of closing Catholic schools, Catholic school's punishments, the increasing amount of students and dropping amount of faculty, the need to modernize the schools, and the education of its religious teachers.  It maily focuses on the funding of schools and whether or not it is worth it to close all catholic schools.  My opinion on Catholic schools is much different than the author because I went to Catholic school.  If I were to choose this topic, I would talk about the positives and negatives of Catholic schools today. 

Movie Ratings:

Hansen, Brian. "Movie Ratings." CQ Researcher 28 Mar. 2003: 273-96. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

- I was trying to pick topics that would interesent me, and movies is definitely one of those topics.  In my dorm I am famous for constantly watching movies.  This article talked about the ratings that have been put on movies.  It discussed the author's view on whether or not the ratings were actually appropriate for the material that would be in the movies.  He also discussed the the highest grossing movies and compared them by what they were rated.  He then went on to discuss if watching higher rating movies had a negative affect on kids temperant and behavior.  Lastly, it talked about the history of movie ratings and how they have changed over the years.  My stance on the issue is that movie ratings are made for a reason.  If you decide to let your children watch adult movies in your home that is your own choice, but you must deal wiith the consequences of that decision.  I think movie theatres should continue to only allow children into a movie if they are old enough. 

Dollars and Cents

The dollar bill is a funny thing because it represents so much, but really it is not much.  It is simply a rectangular sheet of paper.  It is extremely thin and flimsy.  It can also be very easily ripped and becomes a weird texture when it get wet.  The coloring of the dollar bill is a dark green or gray.  Another aspect of the dollar is the face of the man in the middle, the varying pictures on the other side, and the large number printed many times.  The face and number represent how much the piece of paper is worth.  The other numbers on the dollar are to avoid counterfeit.  There are also many patriotic sayings on the bill to show pride for our country.  Lastly there is the year that the dollar was produced which is always interesting and informative. 

Though these different kinds of cents are used for the same purpose as the dollar bill, their appearance is very different.  These coins may be worth less, but really they are more permanent then the dollar.  These coins are all made of medal, some copper some nickel, and many other kinds.  Once the metal in shaped in the right size, amount corresponds to size and metal type, they are all formed into a circle.  Quarters are even given ridges.  After the initial shape is present, each different coin is stamped with a different president's profile and on the other side a different picture.  Some coins are even specific to certain states and have a picture specific to that state on the back.  After that, the amount of the coin is printed, a quote about America, and lastly the year of production. 

Evaluation

After considering many different products, movies, and other types of interesting things to evaluate, I have decided to evaluate The Big Onion.  If you do not know what that is, it is a restaurant in the East Hall Commons.  I think that The Big Onion merits evaluation because I would make my audience Freshman at Penn State or Seniors in High School considering Penn State for school next year.  With this audience, The Big Onion is a very important and current topic.   It will become a large part of a Freshman's life because they will be eating there very frequenlty and it is so convenient.  That is why I thought that students should know about The Big Onion before they experience it. 

I would say that The Big Onion goes into the category of a Fast Food Restaurant.  Although it is not a chain like McDonald's or Wendy's, it has many similar qualities.  Besides the food, it is also a good place to watch sports, study, listen to music, or just hang out with friends.  That is why I think The Big Onion can fit into many categories and be compared to many different places.  In some ways it is like a Starbucks and in other ways it is like a Sports Bar, and those are two very different types of places.  That is why I have decided to just focus on the food aspect so that I can narrow down good criteria. 

As I just said, it is difficult to put The Big Onion into a category, but since I have chosen Fast Food I'm going to give five characteristics of a fast food restaurant that I can use to evaluate The Big Onion.  Five aspects of criteria are the quality of the food, the price, the hours it is open, the conveniece, and the lines.  The quality of the food at The Big Onion is excellent.  The buffalo chicken pizza is delicious on top of them having breakfast, smoothies, hoagies, wraps, salads, and wing and nacho nights.  The price of The Big Onion is unbeatable, especially because the the 60% student discount.  The Big Onion is not open 24/7, but it might as well be.  It is open very early and very late into the night which adds to the convenience of it because it is great for just getting a quick meal.  Other aspects of the convenience is that it is so close to all of the freshman dorms and that it has already made food that you can buy and then bring back to your room if you don't have time to sit and eat.  The one criteria that The Big Onion would fail is the line.  If you go to there at popular eating times or especially wing night or nacho night the line is very long.  That is that one thing that in my opinion The Big Onion should improve. 

As manny of my friends know, I am ALWAYS at The Big Onion so this evaluation might be a little biased, but in my opinion The Big Onion is just so convenient you can not really complain about it.

Making my blog legen...wait for it

  My blog is one word...boring.  When I created the design of my blog, I did not know anything about blogs or this class.  For this reason, I picked one of the first backgrounds I saw.  I also chose a educational background because I did not know how serious the class would be.  Now that I have been in the class for a month a half I realize that my library book background and black text on white background is professional yet not appropriate.  It would be appropriate for the English Writing and Rhetoric classes that I took in high school, but this class is way more relaxed and chill.  This class is more about expressing yourself and not just following rules and I am not used to that.  The good this about the plain text and background though is that it is very easy to read.  Not only because I write very simplistically, but because as I said it is plain boring. 
     I feel that my blog does not express me as a writer or as a person.  It gets the job done of allowing me to write my opinions and get a grade on them, but it could not be more different from me.  Although I never talk in class, I am known for never shutting up outside of class.  My writing, for example the sarcastic tone I used in my personal narrative is very reflective of my personality because when I write I write exactly like I talk, opinions and all.  That is why my blog is functional yet not appropriate.  Reading my sassy opinions on life and literature does not work when the background is stacks of library books. 

......dary....

     When designing my new blog, I chose certain elements that I thought would better represent my personality.  Unlike my personality in class, my personality outside of class is very bubbly and bright and talkative.  That is why my blog is now red, blue, green, pink, and purple.  I also chose the flower background because I thought it was plain, but still very pretty.  I chose the fonts "Creamy Cherry Soda" and "Coming Soon" because they were both very youthful and fun, which is what I like to think of my personality.  Some websites that inspired me to pick my new design are Facebook and Duke Blue Planet.  I like these two websites for two different reasons.  I like Facebook because of its simplicity, and for the opposite reason, I like Duke Blue Planet because of its color and design.  It is a very crowded website full of videos and pictures and different headings, but somehow it still works. 
    The choices I made are meant to consciously contribute to my blog because they make the blog more personable and interesting.  Adding color to the blog makes it more fun and attracts readers to read my blog to see what I have to write about. It allows me to write about whatever I want, and to feel like I have creative freedom.  I feel like if this English 15 class was anything like my other classes this blog would not work well, but because this English class is all about writing for yourself like Anne Lamott said, it works. 

Investigating

1.) Description- It was a cold, dark night in October.  Penn State had just come off a huge win against Ohio State and Happy Valley had been partying all day.  But now it was quiet, too quiet.  The corner of Curtin Rd. and University Dr., usually full of tailgaters, was now empty.  As Officer Weston was doing his rounds of the campus, he could not figure out if this silence was good or bad.  He was hoping it was a good sign, but knew that since Penn State was such a largely populated school that something must be going on.  He figured that kids had gone down to Frat Row, and since it was only 11 o'clock he would have a little bit of free time before he had to start doing his rounds through campus.  As he pulled up to the light on Curtin, he slowly came to a stop at the red light.  While waiting at the light he began to look around the campus.  He looked at Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center.  Both of these buildings had their lights still on.  He thought to himself that other than his kids he had never seen anything more beautiful.  Especially, with the mountains in the background.  Then in an instant the scene changed.  As the light changed to green Officer Weston slowly took his foot off the break and onto the gas.  As the car began to accelerate Weston saw a bright light.  He turned to his right and a Ford Bronco was charging right at him with no sign of slowing down.  He quickly slammed on his breaks, allowing the car to go through the light.  Then he backed up, turned around and changed directions to follow the car up University Dr.  He turned his sirens on and after following the car for a good five minutes the car finally stopped. 
      He got out of his car and walked up to the driver door of the Bronco.  When he saw who the driver was he was not shocked.  It was a boy in his young twenties.  Weston's immediate thought was that the boy was drunk since he drove through a red light and had been heading from Frat Row.  Officer Weston took out his flashlight, or that is what the boy thought.  Really, Officer Weston was testing his BAC.  He was using new technology called the passive alcohol sensor.  It is a new device that can be seen as helpful to police officers, but invasive to the general public so it is a current topic of debate.

2.) Interviews-
- name: Paul Hehn
age: 18
year: Freshman
Quote: "I think it is a very good idea.  It seems to be a safe nonintrusive way for officers to figure out whether a person has been drinking or not."
- name: Shannon Gethard
age: 18
year: Freshman
Quote: "I think that while it is going to be very beneficial in helping to decrease drunk driving because people are not going to want to risk it, but when it comes to student privacy she does not really agree with the process.  It's annoying, but it's beneficial."
- name: Drew Renn
age: 21
year: Junior
Quote: "I think it is a good thing.  I think you should never mix drinking and driving.  I am very against drunk driving. I am 21, the other day I had one beer and I waited. When you mix consuming alcohol and drinking you are not thinking."

3.) Facts:
Newspaper Article: Project Zero Tolerance (September 22, 2011)
     Facts: Several Studies conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concluded that passive alcohol sensors increase detection of alcohol by nearly 50 percent.
              - State College area police are actively promoting this new enforcement initiative to remind young drivers that DUI enforcement is focusing on them.  The "Have you Seen the Light?" advertising campaign is aimed at persuading would-be drinking drivers that they should change their behavior or risk arrest.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8460734
     Facts:  Measurements could be taken much more easily and quickly with the passive sensor, whose readings correlated very strongly (r = .87) with the evidentiary device. Moreover, for criterion blood alcohol concentration levels ranging from 100 mg/dL to 20 mg/dL, a large proportion of motorists could be accurately identified as being above or below the criterion, with relatively few false-negative or false-positive identification
              - The use of passive alcohol sensors at sobriety checkpoints should allow motorists to be processed very quickly with minimal inconvenience.

4.) Two Areas:
         1.) Drunk Driving- I want to figure out more of the facts and risks so I can have better details and support in my paper
         2.) Other Devices- Compare the Passive Alcohol Test to other techniques that police officers use. 

  
 

#1 Party School

The issue of the article was about partying schools.  The main focus of the article was State College, Pennsylvania because Penn State was named the number one party school in 2009, but the speaker's also discuss other schools.  Some subtopics that were discussed in the article were the amount that people drink, the school's plan to reduce drinking, and the tragedies that have occurred due to drinking. 

The reason that this issue was being investigated was because problems with drinking at universities has grown significantly in the past few decades.  The researchers were trying to show the typical lifestyle of college students at a party school. 

The audience that the speakers are trying to reach are students that are in college and parents or any adults.  The speakers are addressing college students because they are trying to inform them about college life and warning them about the dangers that can come with drinking.  The article was for parents and adults because it informs them how college has changed and what their children are being exposed to right now. 

Some facts and details that the speakers talked about were the details that were included in the prologue from the woman's house.  Other details were the kids on the drunk bus, the fact that kids now drink mostly hard liquor instead of beer, the unniversities plans to stop partying like the setting up of late night at the HUB, and that win or lose there are parties.  Some facts that they included were that the limit for binge drinking for girls is four drinks and for boys is five drinks.  Also, the fact that half the students at Penn State binge drink on the weekend.  For the most part, the article was very lighthearted, but when the speaker brought up the details of the boy's death and tragic deaths at other schools it changed to be very depressing. 

The conclusion of the article is that drinking is still around in college, but that since the tragic accidents of students have occurred, students have become safer.  It was also discussed how when Graham Spanier became president of the school he tried to get rid of Penn State's reputation and got booed.  It is not his goal to make kids safer and inform them on the dangers of drinking, and not to pretend like drinking does not happen.  

Research that was included in the report were the statistics of the amount of drinking that students do.  There were a lot of interviews throughout the report, but some that stand out in my memory are the pizza delivery man talking about his broken jaw, the fraternity boy, the business owner saying that he liked the students, the drunk 21 year old at the tailgate, and the freshmen getting on the bus and discussing how they weren't slutty until college.  Some professionals that spoke were the police officer and Graham Spanier's speech when he first became president.  All of the facts and interviews allowed for the report to become more detailed and for humor to be added to a serious topic. 

Some narrative techniques that are used in the report are details, a specific topic, multiple viewpoints of the topic, and obviously dialogue and humor.  The speakers also used pathos to try to get the students listening to be safer drinkers by telling them sad stories about drinking. 

I wish that the report had been a little bit shorter, but overrall I really enjoyed it.  I thought that the speakers, whether intentionally or unintentionally, included a lot of humor into the report by interviewing drunk kids.  I also loved the section titles.  "I'm not as think as you drunk I am" was my favorite.  I literally laughed out loud when I read it.  Some things that I did not like about the report was that since you had to listen to it instead of read it, it was pretty hard to focus on it at points.  I also thought that the section about down town businesses could have been shorter or more interesting.  Some thing that I would have liked to learn more about in the story are more comparisons of Penn State and other schools that explain what makes Penn State a party school. 

Bird by Bird

Now that I have finally finished reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, it is hard for me to pick specific scenes that stick out in my mind.  I would definitely have to say that certain scenes like when she described the school lunch, when she talked about gardening and the vineyard, and when she described the death of her friend Pammy and her other friends' baby Brice dying definitely stayed with me.  I loved how descriptive she was in all these scenes.  Some overrall ideas that stayed with me are what Lamott said about taking a break to get rid of writer's block, using a lot of details, and not writing to become famous, but writing to express yourself and because you love it. 
 
Two pieces of advice that Lamott Used that will definitely stay with me are how to stop writer's block and why to write like I just mentioned.  Since I have no desire to become a writer, I have always just written when I was assigned to, but now I understand that I should write for myself not for my peers or even for my teachers.  I feel that that will release some pressure and even maybe make her other tip easier.  Her other tips of how to get rid of writers' block really appealed to me.  I feel like her one idea of writer a couple paragraphs or at least breaking the paper up makes it seem a lot less threatening and manageable.  It allows you to think clearly because you are thinking about the now and not the future. 

I think that I was moved by these two pieces because I thought that they would relate well to my writing and the problems that I go through when I get a new assignment.  Every time I get an assignment I spent a majority of my time finding other things to do to procrastinate.  Then, it is the day before the assignment is due and I write it because I have to.  Now I know that instead of facing the assignment as torture I can make it something for myself and even maybe see a good grade as a personal achievement.  I also know that if I start an assignment early and write it in sections it will be much easier to write.  Instead of waiting until the last day and having to write a five page paper, I can break it up and then it will not be as much torture. 

Some writing techniques that Lamott used to make me interested in her ideas and consider putting these two into my techniques for writing papers are her use of flashback and detail.  While reading the entire book, I would just wait until I could read another story about Sam or Pammy.  Not that I didn't think Lamott's ideas were interesting, but for the most past I was more interested in how she applied her ideas to life to show examples.  Her use of flashback and good stories allowed her to get her point of writing techniques and beliefs across while adding some aspects of writing that would make her readers interested in herself and her book.  Reading this book was the best of both worlds (If you're confused those worlds are writing tools and entertainment!). 

Confessions of a Bad Teacher

Elements of memoir that were being employed by John Owens in "Confessions of a Bad Teacher" are by choosing an important moment in his life, his telling of a personal nonfiction story, and his use of description and dialogue.  Owens had a successful career as a publisher, but he chose to write about a time in his life where he was not very successful, but made a difference in his life.  He chose the personal, true story of his experience with poor inner city children because even though it was not his most financially successful time, it was the moment in his life when he realized not to judge people by their appearances and by their social status, culture, and upbringing.  The last element of description and dialogue was my favorite part of the story.  I also enjoyed his use of humor.  One example from the text is when a student yells "I'd bring Pringles!"  It is such a simple sentence, but I thought it made the story so much better.  I also enjoyed his adjectives when he was describing other characters like the indian man and the heavy principal.

In summary, I think this story was about personnal triumph versus what is expected from others.  On the outside, this appears to be a story about how unfair the New York school districts rules and principals can be, but I think it is so much more.  The story is about how a man that had no experience with the cultures and lifestyles of the children in a poor high school was able to ignore the negative criticism he received and made a difference in children's lives.  Though he did decide to leave teaching, he had not given up when the children were rude and disruptive.  He worked hard and learned how to relate to his students.  And, in the scene when he finally leaves the children show their appreciation by getting him a cake and asking him to tie one of their ties one last time.  

Some of the main tensions and conflicts in the story are between Owens and Ms. P and between Owens and his students like Africah and Natasha.  The conflict is present between Owens and Ms. P because all principals in the district are rude to the teachers.  It is known that they are looking for teachers that they can give "U's" to.  The conflict between him and Ms. P is also present because of his conflict with the students.  When Owens first has confrontations with Africah and Natasha and her crew he does not know how to handle them.  He never successfully deals with Natasha, but he finds a way to calm down Africah by rapping lyrics to a song she knows and making her enjoy class.  His resolution is in the end of the story when he leaves the principal and his students but has learned a lot about life. 

The point of the story is that you should never judge anything before you experience it. Or at least that's what I think the point is.  I think that if he had judged his students or if he had listened to the man that told him to run Owens never would have experienced this life changing year.  He did not listen to the man and he decided to try things out for himself.  He did not judge the people in the school before he had gotten a chance to experience it for himself. 

The story is relevant because schools like the one that Owens taught at are still around.  It is also relevant because Owens talks of his experience teaching and many kids my age are trying to decide what they want to study.  Also, like Owen, my peers and I are new to a school and are meeting new people.  It is also very important that we give all people a chance and do not judge others from their appearance, culture, or from what other people say. 

Owens' intended audience is any person who is thinking of whether or not they should make a change in their life or try a new experience.  It can be directed at people of all ages which makes it a ery universal story.  Though Owens' direct case is that he is starting at a new school, the main theme of the paper can be transitioned to many different situations. 

Some strong narrative techniques that Owens used are humor, description, and dialogue.  Like I said earlier, I think that Owens use of description to allow the reader to imagine his characters is very detailed and makes his story more interesting.  His use of dialogue adds a new level to his story by revealing his characters in other ways.  These two elements and his use of humor make the reader stay interested in the story and make a reader want to find out what happens in the end. 

Owens transitions his paper by separating it into sections.  These include his interview for the job, his first class, his second class, when he leaves, and even one scene that flashes back to when he first met Ms. P.  These sections and their titles make it easier for readers to follow the storyline of the paper. 

First Lunch

As if being a freshman wasn't hard enough, Alexis had to start school after moving just a week before.  Because of her father's job, her entire family had made the long trip from New Mexico to Wisconsin.  This meant that Alexis was going to know no one at her school.  She was nervous about her classes, but she knew that she at least could sit silently and listen to the teacher talking.  She was most worried about her first lunch.  Alexis had always been a very shy, awkward, and lanky girl.  At her old school, it had taken her years to warm up to all of the kids in her grade.  She had finally had a couple best friends when her dad told her about the move. She cried for months, but when August 20th came she packed up the car and drove the 20 hours to Wisconsin.

After a week of unpacking, it was time for Alexis to go school.  She picked out her first day of school out fit, which consisted of a new tank top and shorts (a bribe for the move) and got on the bus.  When she got to school she received her schedule and saw that lunch was her first class.  Even though she was not sure if she would talk to kids in her classes, she had secretly hoped that some girl would try to talk to her knowing that she was the new girl adn they could sit together.  So after a very stressful homeroom, Alexis made her way towards the cafeteria.

After Alexis got a stale bagel, a brown banana, and some delicious tator tots she got an ice cold chocolate milk and turned to where the students were sitting.  On the right she saw fancy booth looking tables.  She saw an open table in the corner so she tried to make her way towards the blue booth only made for two people.  As she entered the cut off section, a couple of larger football players ran right into her screaming "Seniors only...Stupid Freshman."  Alexis had never been so embarassed in her entire life.  As she looked into teh section again she now saw that not only were all of the students staring at her but they were all broken into their cliques...one table was obviously the play kids, then there were the jocks and the sluts, and then the nerds.  Alexis felt so stupid for not realizing that these kids obviously knew each other. 

When Alexis was finally able to feel her legs again, she tried to go right next to the booths.  She decided that it might be smart if she observed the people before she sat, but she didnt want anyone to think she was staring at them.  She decided to go next to the tables where she could get some ketchup and just pretend she was going to use it on her potatoes.  As she pumped the ketchup Alexis observed the second section of tables.  She saw the same cliques that she had seen in the senior section only younger looking.  She didn't know if they were Sophomores or Juniors, but she knew they were not Freshman. Then, while she was still looking at the tables she heard a girl's voice behind her, "Do you think you have enough ketchup?"  Alexis looked down to realize that she had poured too much ketchup and it had fallen right over the sides of the cup in her hands and was now pouring down her arm.  She turned around to face the girl and could feel how red and hot her cheeks were.  Then she realized that the girl was 4 foot 8 and had huge curly brown hair.  She was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and docs.  The girls friendly eyes and big smile somehow made Alexis feel more comfortable in the situation.  "Trying to figure out the cafeteria? Are you a Freshman?" said the girl.  Alexis just looked at her.  Finally, she replied "yes and yes. I'm so confused."  The girl smiled again. "I'm a Freshman, too. My name's Lucy. You can come sit with me if you want.  My sister is a senior here and she told me where the Freshman are supposed to sit."  Alexis finally felt relief. "That would be so great. My name's Alexis." Luct replied "Here. Follow me!" 

When Lucy walked Alexis over the Freshman section (the complete opposite side of the cafeteria), Alexis was introduced to two girls named Holly and Mary.  They were from Lucy's middle school and were very friendly to Alexis.  Looking back, Alexis is still embarrassed when Lucy brings up the ketchup incident, but now that Lucy, Holly, and Mary were her best friends and she sat with them everyday at lunch, she could see how it was funny and she now appreciated it because if she had not made embarrasing accidents she would have never asked to sit these girls who are now such important parts of her life.

Past Writings

The one thing that I hate about English is writing.  It is not that I am a bad writer, it is just that hearing about an assignment that I will have to write or present to a class makes me so nervous.  Some of my past strengths that can be seen from my grade and high school writing is that writing comes naturally to me, that I have a very wide range of vocabulary, and that I have had very excellent teachers.  I consider myself blessed that I have been given the gift of writing without trying very hard.  I am definitely not an amazing writer like John Steinbeck or Jane Austen, but I have always been able to write without struggling.  After I pick a topic or research, the rest of the paper seems to flow very smoothly.  My vocabulary is another aspect that has always come easily to me.  Since my grade school and high school english classes required us to learn new vocabulary most of it has stuck with me.  That leads me to the last strength which is that i have had some pretty awesome teachers.  My eigth grade teacher really pushed myself and the other kids in my grade by making us write more thatn we ever had including my first research paper.  After him, my freshman and sophomore teacher seem mediocre, but Mrs. Simzak, my junior and senior year teacher, was awesome.  She pushed me to write and expand my vocabulary on every paper I wrote.  She also prepared me for the AP exam by making me write about 20 essays in the month of April.  In April I was not too thrilled, but the results were very rewarding so I now am okay with all the work. 

Some of my weaknesses in my writing have been that I can be very self-conscience, I hate my writing, my writing is very informal, and I have a hard time choosing a topic.  Ever since I was very young, I have always hated my writing.  My least favorite part is having to read my writing out loud, but it has gotten so bad that I will not even proofread most of my papers because I know that I will be negative about it.  My next weakness of being very informal has hurt me in many of my classes in high school, especially my two year history course.  Though the teacher loved me, she could not get past the fact that my writing was not the style a history paper could be, and after a lot of trying, I still could not change my style.  The last weakness of choosing a topic is one main reason why i hate writing courses.  Many teachers think that they are being nice by allowing students to choose a topic to write about, but for me that is torture.  I need some kind of direction or guide to help me or I will think that any topic I want to write about is stupid. 

I would like to improve to a place where I can be secure in my writing.  I wish that I could speak my mind and feel free to write how I feel, but I am very self-doubting.  I hope that soon I can become comfortable enough that I will be able to write what I want and say what I want without worrying about what other people think.  Some things that I can do or learn to make this improvement are to keep practicing.  I know that I will never be comfortable speaking or writing for others unless I continue to speak and write.  Hopefully, the more I practice the better and more comfortable I will become.  A book that inspire me to become more comfortable in my writing and speaking is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  Some quotes from the book  can be found here http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/569.Khaled_Hosseini .  The book is very easy to read and also has a very deep meaning.  It makes me want to be able to make a difference in the world with my writing.  Another example is in the movie "The Princess Diaries".  Many quotes found here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247638/quotes ) may seem stupid to a lot of people, but "The Princess Diaries" is my childhood (I am actually watching it right now. That's why I thought of it).  Without "The Princess Diaries" I would never have sang "Catch a Falling" or quoted "get off the grass" in four different languages.  The songs in the movie are also very inspirational.  Overrall, I think the movie is great for people of all ages.  This inspires me because it has been seen by so many people and so many people can quote it.  I can not even imagine walking down the street and hearing people quoting my writing, but it would be epic.

I would say that I think this class is going to be my favorite or I will enjoy every assignment, but the truth is every time I get a new assignment I will be very sad.  I am hoping that once I find out how you grade papers I will find my groove and hopefully I can then make this a pain free first semester.