The Finale

The final blog, where it all will end. I find that the blogs I write didn't really have a meaning at first, just wanted to get it done, but then I figured that if I kept doing just that, well, my grade wouldn't be great, I should put some effort or feeling into what I do. That is why this last blog will have as much effort as I should have put into it. That is what I feel should have been done with all my blogs, each of the blogs should have had effort put into them, straight from the beginning. My blogs mean this to me, that I should have worked harder than I did, and for that I will work hard on this final blog, as hard as I can. The blogs of the past signify my ignorance and how much of a slacker I truly am, but I should not be that way, that can just bring about unhappiness. I truly can't believe at how much I procrastinated this year, but since I can't go back on it I shall go forward. I also can't believe that the year went as fast as it did, it felt as if it kind of just flew by. I can tell though, even if I procrastinated and slacked off, some of the writing techniques from the year stuck, I don't just carelessly write stuff down anymore, I think about my words. My word choices from now on shall be better then they were before, I will think about the most sophisticated and intricate way to use words that I can. Plus my analyzation skills have increased, I can now see the deeper meanings in things clearer, I believe I can just skip the paraphrasing, but just to make sure I will keep doing that. It's like one of the universal truths, "work harder and you will be rewarded," even if that may not be a universal truth. Maybe it's just like the, "never give up at something if its hard, just try harder," or maybe the, "hard work pays off," maybe not... But what I'm saying is that, if I work harder than just slacking off, I should be able to achieve my dreams! Or that's what people want me to think, but what I'm really saying is that even if you don't feel like working hard, just try hard anyways, it may pay off in the long run, don't take the easy road. That is what all of my blogs from this year have told me, when I read them they just seemed so pitiful, it brought tears to my eyes. It was like my blogs were crying out to me, calling for help for a better writer, a writer not like me. It was as if I was not good enough to write, even as an assignment, I felt ashamed to have even written something like that. That is why from this point on I will work harder at blogs! And maybe some other stuff too... But mostly blogs.

Memorable Assignment

My most memorable english assignment would have to be, The Importance of Being Earnest essay. I wouldn't say that I was proud of the assignment though, nothing really stands out if I try to think about something I was proud about doing. But I can remember that it was the one that I enjoyed writing about the most, with all of their jokes. But I would say runner up would have to be Romeo & Juliet if I had the same prompt, but I didn't.

The Importance of Being Earnest essay was a essay I really enjoyed writing about because you could think about all of their jokes while doing it. Thinking back on it makes me smile sometimes, if I remember the right part. It is as if you can picture Algernon and Cecily having fun, then Jack showing up, or the other way around with Gwendolen and Jack. Also how the ending is such a happy ending, even though it shouldn't have been so abrupt, the ending was happy, but too many coincidences.

Poetry

When I think of poetry, I think of it as a sort of... mellow way of showing people what you think a lesson in life is about. But of course it can be shown in all sorts of ways. One of my poetry experiences that has been good, would have to be one that was kind of comical. It has shown me a new way of showing humor, it was pretty interesting actually. I can't recall it too well but it let me get a view on, what ever it was, since I can't remember, but it helped my life at the time, I think I was around the age of 5.

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, the story takes a turn for the worst in the play during the battle with Mercutio, Romeo, and Tybalt. This part in the play shows how misfortune has a role in how the story develops. This scene has shown that the misfortune of meeting someone at the wrong place has a big impact on how it may affect the participants, like in the end with Paris and Romeo, it has the same concept. This can also extend to real life and show how one may meet and find their destined one like Romeo and Juliet, or one may find a new enemy by showing off skills.

Just like in the play, I have had some people come to dislike me just because I am better than them at some things. Like when I played baseball, I was better than someone else on my team, all they did was try and get me in trouble, or kicked off the team. I tried not to let it bother me but it really is hard to ignore when it happened every practice, or nearly every practice. In the end I just didn't really feel up to playing baseball so that solved some of the issues, but he still dislikes me to this day, I guess its just an after effect.

Romeo and Juliet EVERYWHERE?!

One of the places I can remember something about Romeo and Juliet is in West Side Story. It has the same portrayal of two star-crossed lovers, but I don't remember if they take their life. But both households are alike in dignity, where they spill civil blood which makes their civil hands unclean. Where the lovers take their life because of a long lasting grudge, that ends in the two having to make up.

Connections

In Romeo & Juliet many of the decisions that Tybalt make remind me of my brother, often being hostile to me. Like in the beginning where he came in sword unsheathed, I felt like it was like my brother who usually tackles me whenever we meet. Whenever my brother did tackle me, I took it the wrong way and in return acted hostile back so we always ended up fighting, just like the two houses whenever they meet. These ideas of a constant conflict and two factions ready for battle at any time is a great idea, it can lead to many problems for two star-crossed lovers.

Reading at home and then doing annotations or covering the material at school is much easier and I can get much more out of it. Because of the unusual style of Shakespeare, I often am puzzled at what the meaning is, like the final line in the prologue, I had to look up what it meant in order to figure it out. But because we read it in class and cover the reading there as well as at home, I can get both feelings, the feeling of puzzlement, and the feeling of knowledge to an unusual writing style. So in my opinion I feel as if it is both easier and a better way of reading a book and getting to understand it, if it was something like Great Expectations where we annotated at home, it took a lot of time, so this is a good way to ease up on time consumption for reading.

Dickens' Message

The message that Charles Dickens is trying to show through Great Expectations is that life isn't all about money, fame, or status. Life is all about being content with yourself and living a life that you feel is suitable for yourself rather than forcing yourself to live an unhappy life. One shouldn't be ashamed of the house they live in if they are content, if one wishes for more then what they already have, and if they have a life that they could live contently, then why pursue more? That is one of the main reasons this book was wrote in my opinion, life is meant to be more of enjoyed than it is to be forced labor and dislike the life you live.

Thoughts on reading

My thoughts on reading were that... I guess I have to sympathize for pip a little bit but the way he dug himself into the endings, he kind of deserved it. But I have to admit Charles Dickens is a really good author and really brought out the endings in my opinion. I might be saying this just because Pip really deserved it but Dickens was a great writer. But one of the aspects that I would have to say that I wish had changed earlier was when Pip realized all the bad he had done, but then had some twist to where he couldn't go back and fix it.

When I read the book outside of class I didn't really have a habit or pattern I went across with, it was more lax and did it whenever I felt like it type of reading. Like if I had time I would read it or something or maybe just do a whole different thing first, so I guess I never had a scheduled time for reading. But I do try not to read too late, because if I go to sleep right after I usually end up forgetting whatever just happened. So my main goal is to read from when I get home to before I get ready for bed.

Connections

One of the stories I have heard that can be connected to Great Expectations in the way of Becoming a Gentleman is Cinderella. Well... I guess its not a Gentleman but more of a Lady. Pip goes from a nothing laborer to become a Gentleman, one that has money and power. It is some how like Cinderella but of the opposite gender, Cinderella is working in poor and dirty clothes, and then meets the prince and becomes a lady.

Cinderella is one of the ones that has had the many hardships that come by and through but it may not be like Pip because Pip doesn't get the girl he was aiming for, where Cinderella did. Estella just straight up refuses Pip and the prince in Cinderella wants to find her and marry her. But in the respect that they had changed from being nothing to being something is true and that is how I connected these two stories.

Pip Quote

Pip in this quote is referring to life, where a person builds his life link by link, or day by day. Pip has from this time thought about his life compared to miss Havisham's, when he thinks of how illiterate Joe is to Miss Havisham, he gets embarrassed. This has changed Pip as he wants to grow up in a different way, he wants to be more like Miss Havisham and less of a poor boy with little education, he would rather have more education and less embarrassing moments. This day in his life has greatly impacted Pip's life in a negative way, changing his attitude completely.

I never really had a select day to start my "chain" or started developing the person I am now, but I think when I started this "chain" was when I was little, my most memorable times was in baseball. Baseball has given me my friends and has shown that if someone doesn't have teamwork or friendship, they won't really succeed in life.

Great Expectation Questions

One of the many questions I had was that they used dialogue that not many people use now. Like, when they talked about the convicts were around the battery, or near the battery, I didn't know what they were talking about. Also I still don't know what they are talking about because I keep searching it up and it says that its and electrical cartridge, I don't think they used electricity back in dickens' day. So anyone who can answer and clarify my question please tell me what a battery is.

Group Collaboration

My Paragraph hasn't changed that much ever since my group members read my paragraph, the transitions need a little bit of tweaking but other than that everything seems to be in order. The transitions are alright when you wrap it from the introduction and the conclusion since both of them don't have the same and exact wording and is very flexible while getting the message across.

New in my Paragraph

What is new in my paragraph is basically all of the commentary, I haven't said Bunbury about 3 times and the rest of it is just about the subject the Concrete Detail revolves around. It is about the trivialities in life, trivialities in marriage, and the minor details within those subjects.

Dishonesty

Dishonesty sometimes holds a major role in humor, like some people may use sarcasm but others can just lie straight off and make humorous remarks that can turn into gossip. Being dishonest is one of the things comedians do, they make up stories and can also make stuff up about someone in the crowd if they are on stage and making jokes. But dishonesty is at its worst in the way of social institutions, like marriage for example, a married man lies about whether or not he is married just to pick someone up. Or maybe dishonesty can be used for religion and social class, dishonesty works in the same way for both, one can lie about ones class/religion in order to not be discriminated against, like a group of people who are a higher class and are all a different religion.

Also as Wilde shows in his play, The Importance of being Earnest, Wilde shows how high class citizens in the 19/18th century acted out their lives and their pursuit of pleasure. Wilde is showing a satirical view on high class people where they pursuit only pleasure and do not work at all, they always make an excuse to skip work. Take Algernon as an example, he actually tells people he needs to be somewhere to "miss an appointment" where no one in modern day society would say that. Wilde has shown how back then people had just viewed life, in the play life, as a big pleasure, maybe they didn't actually view it that way, but in the play, they were dishonest everyday just to pursue pleasure.

AF Evaluation

1. Melanie (Power Point): Melanie did a very good job at separating and reorganizing all the components of the novel and who did what parts. I also liked how she gave a separate section for Clover and Boxer where she described them and how boxer was betrayed for his loyalty.

2. Sean (Comic): Sean shows in his comic how each animal eventually notices their own ignorance and sees the selfishness of the pigs.

3. Zach (Song): I like how Zach actually wrote what he thought each part meant instead of just posting the video and letting everyone think of what it meant for themselves. He describes the tune as a somber representation of the corruption of power.

4. Alena (Movie Trailer): Alena described her understanding of the book creatively, The way the book was portrayed was easily understood and I like how they had a doll for every character in the book (or almost every).

5. Will (Comic): In my opinion I say will rushed his comic or didn't spend enough time on it, I don't think he tried at all to portray what had happened, but at least you saw that the pigs came into power even though you don't know how.

6. Leah (Comic): I like how Leah actually described what the pigs meant, that portrays most of the book and shows how the pigs don't actually mean most of what they say.

7. Kayla (Social Pyramid): Kayla did her project very creatively, I think it was one of the most original projects, she describes how each candidate-for-leader's views were and who would be in what sort of class, it was very well done.

8. Sara (Picture): Sara had a nice view of things where the pigs were all nice and cuddly up on the hilltop living lives nice and well when the animals are down on the bottom in the rainy area, it shows how bad the lives had become since Napolean came into power.

9. Katie (Picture): The picture was very creative, have to be honest, wasn't very well made but it was very creative, I could see clearly though at how Napolean was easily tricked into taking fake money.

10. Olivia (Haiku): I don't really understand the point of her haiku, it was like we get that Jones was despised but what comes after? I actually get the last line but the middle one doesn't make too much sense with the rest of it in my mind.

I think my animal farm project could have been a lot better, it was too rushed and I should have taken A LOT more time on it, but when I was doing it all I could think about is it being done. Now I kind of regret it and I know I should have spent more time on it, also I saw some of the ones were done in less time than mine, they weren't really all that great, they didn't portray the literary elements as well as I did, but I didn't portray as well as most people.

Animal farm project

This picture represents the order of the story where at first it was Old Major talking about his dream and what the revolution is going to be about, or that it will be coming up. The next is a picture of the animals chasing away the humans and taking the farm away from them. After the humans were chased the animals created new rules and that is what the next picture represents. So on and so forth they live out their lives in peace and prosperity until the windmill gets destroyed by heavy wins and discourages all the animals. That is when the beginning of the troubles started, Napolean started being more of a dictator, and then from then on he started ruling the farm by changing rules, then near the end where the animals got to be just as bad or worse than when they started. Being conned out of most things, getting tricked, and Napolean making agreements with the Humans ruined the purpose of the revolution.