My Poem and I

   The poem that I am memorizing is called "Immortal Sails", by Alfred Noyes. m Alfred Noyes also wrote the poem, "The Highway Man". 
   This poem is about two people who love each other and they want to to everything they can with each other before they die.  This poem really speaks to me when it says that, "It is not time that makes eternity. Love and an hour may quite out span the years..."  I believe that this is completely true.  Its like the saying, time flies when you're having fun.
   The connotation in this poem is just amazing as well.  The words make it seem like the sunset, and the gates of heaven are right in front of you.  This poem also has a lot of meaning hidden within the lines.  After reading it a few times, I realized that the true meaning behind the poem is that you should not waste what little time you have with the people you love and that you never know when something could happen.

Poetry

Part 1:

• Keeping things whole
• Do not go gentle into that good night
• Echo
• Invictus
• Immortal Sails

Part 2:

• I liked the poem, "Immortal Sails", because it's simple yet complex.  It also speaks of last farewells.  Every word is chosen perfectly
•  I did not like the poem, "Keeping things Whole", it was too short and simple for m.
• I would choose "Immortal Sails"
• I have written poems along the same lines as this one, but none were as carefully crafted as this

Part 3:

• Giving a feeling of confidence to the audience and speaking in a loud and clear tone
• Doing a poem that has more stanzas and lines
• The student must use a loud confident voice and must not overact the poem. Very few gestures are needed.  You also want to read a poem with diverse language and themes.

Part 4:

• I watched "Writ on the steps of Puerto Rico Harlem".  The performer used the right amount of motion and spoke with a loud confidence.  H also used facial expressions and changed the tone of his voice to fit the mood.
• "Pied Beauty" was done without too many movements and actions.  The speaker did a good job of projecting her voice as well.

Part 5:

• I think that this competition could either be very challenging or very easy depending on how you prepare for it.  With good preparation all could go smoothly, on the other hand you can choose not to practice and fail.

Lobsters Should Fight Back

One of the more interesting points that was brought up during the discussion was how the flame under the pot was thought to be a comparison to hell.  This would set things in motion and eventually be our demise.  I thought this was an interesting point because the author only said 'the flame beneath the pot' and everyone automatically assumed he was referring to hell.
   I now have a new perspective on the poem.  When I first read it, I did not assume that the author was talking about hell, but merely events in nature that set things in motion.  I also thought that the author might even be referring to pollution in a way.

Too many paragraphs and not enough skills

   One of the most frequent weakness is the inability to properly embed your quotes.  Many people add pg. and don't add an text to the beginning or just say, "and she said".  I can become tiresome listening to the same mistakes over and over again.  Another common mistake is the process of proofreading.  As you listen to people read you hear them constantly correcting grammar and spelling and unnoticed punctuation errors. 
Some of the major skills that are needed for writing a five part paragraph are the ability to write a persuasive paragraph and the ability to go into a book and find certain quotes that match up with what you are saying.

   Personally I need to work on annotating my book as I go so that I don't have to search for quotes when I need them.  Also I feel like I put too much input on my own feelings about the book.  I need to learn to only put in observations and fact about what I have read and seen.

The Monster Madness Mile Swim Competition

This week I swam at a very prestigious event known as the monster madness mile.  The competition is a race between several swimmers who are racing for the honor of first place.  Everyone who participates receives a shirt and monster mile cap with a small payment of thirty dollars.  In this event I place second along with several of my close friends who came in right behind me.  The time that had elapsed since I had left was 21:37.40, a most respectable time.

My outside reading

      The book I am reading is Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut.  I find this novel to be very...'interesting'.  It is definitely one of the stranger books that I've read.  In this novel there doesn't really seem to be a plot or anything resembling a plot.  The story bounces around from one place in time to the next without any real connection.  When comparing this novel to a personal favorite of mine, the Cradleland Series, you notice how the Cradleland novels have defined plots and subplots and characters.  This is not the case with Slaughterhouse 5.  My group is planning on making some kind of video for our creative project.

Extending the Theme

   The novel really spoke to me about life and growing up and learning to deal with tragedies and other unexpected things.  One of the things that you learn from the novel is that sometimes things happen and you can't do anything about it.  Sure it might really suck but you have to learn to live with it. 
   One lesson that I learned from Jem and Scout is that no matter how much someone else's views differ from yours you can never judge them on what they say for that is what they believe.  It doesn't matter how horrible they appear, they could be an extremely brilliant person.
   I can relate to some of Scout's experiances since I have two Uncles who are lawyers, however I have never seen them in court, but I can understand where she is coming from and I can see how a child could get the wrong impression about their parent if they were seen questioning a witness.

My Boo Radley

    One person who has helped to shape me and make me who I am today is Mr. Pendergrast.  He he was my orchestra conductor from sixth grade and halfway through eighth grade.  In eighth grade he died in the the hospital.  I am not sure of the exact cause, I believe numerous things had gone wrong during a surgery.
    Mr. Pendergrast taught us about about being in a group and how to come together perfectly.  Some of the things you just never forget about him were his sports similes, how he would compare football or baseball to playing the violin or cello.  When I first heard about Mr. Pendergrast I was just a little fourth grader barely able to produce a sound from my mysterious instrument.  It wasn't until fifth grade that I saw him for the first time at a strings festival. I saw him conducting the middle school orchestra and thought to myself that one day that would be me up there.  The next year I finally got to meet him, he was my first middle school teacher.  I was just a little sixth grader terrified of the new school and all of its inhabitants.  But when we started to play I was instantly calmed.  Throughout the next two years our class grew with Mr. Pendergrast and I believe he grew with us.  That was what I looked forward to every morning as I got on the bus and rode to school, I worried about the tests and the grades I would get, but I always new that no matter what I would always just keep playing.  He taught me that, that special kind of perseverance.  Mr. Pendergrast truly shaped me into who I am today.

First Real Blog

As a reader and a writer I love fiction and almost all types of fantasy and make-believe.  I am the type of student that will get work done.  As an english student I am fairly good at poetry and fictious wrighting.  Someone who follows my blog would expect to see new ideas and different techniques in wrighting.  I feel I will 'enlighten' the onlign world with my figurative analogies and colorful stories.  The meaning of english is to learn to comunicate with the world and to be able to wright with full capabilility.

Oh yeah

whoo-hoo