Tracker Update: Psychological Setting

       Lately, there have been many events that have shifted the psychological setting of the island.  From fires, to hunting, to dancing, it seems like everywhere the boys go on the island, there is a new mood.  Sometimes the boys are filled with id, and thier actions are controlled by the devil.  Other times, the boys seem positive and upbeat, and are excited to work together.
      

“‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’

Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind.

‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’” 152

The boys are overcome with id. The devil is lurking in them, and they are acting like complete savages. The mood is almost horror movie-like.

“This is what I thought. We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued.” The passionate noise of agreement from the assembly hit him like a wave and he lost his thread. He thought again. “We want to be rescued; and of course we shall be rescued.” 37
 This is from the very beginning of the book- chpt 2. Very different from now.Even though everyone is a little scared, they have faith that they will be rescued, and are trying to hope for the best. They figure that while they are on the island, they should have fun and make the most of it.

"And they keep runnuing off.  You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?  “Except the hunters. Well, the littluns are hopeless. The older ones aren’t much better. D’you see? All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing.”  50

This is when the division of task starts to become a problem. Ralph and Simon are the only ones taking the shelters seriously. Everyone else is “hunting” or playing and swimming, and they are going to wish they had worked on the shelters once they really need a place to stay.  The mood is selfish.

“The twins shared their identical laughter, then remembered the darkness and other things and glanced round uneasily. The flames, busy about the tent, drew their eyes back again.” 97
The two boys know they should be focussing on the fire after failing to stay up at night and watch it, but they are still scared and distracted by everything else around them.  This is not only a problem for the twins, but a main conflict of Ralph's.  He has trouble staying foccused and remembering his goals. 

Reading Reflection

Nation

In Defense of Food

Split

Looking after Lily

Girl with a Pearl Earring

The Memory Keeper's Daughter- still working on this one

       Well, this is quite sad.  I always knew that I wasn't a big reader, but I didn't realize how little I read until now.  I have learned that I like intimate books with characters that I can connect to and that have deep feelings expressed in the book.  I have also found that while annotating does take extra time, it really helps me to comprehend and understand the book better.
       All of my books this semester have been excellent, except for Looking after Lily.  It was pretty good, but it got really boring at times.  This was probably a result of me reading it over a long period of time, so the story line got broken up.  Never in my 14 years of life have I read a  fantasy book.  My best friend loves to read, and this is her favorite genre.  Every time I ask her suggestion on a new book to read, she rambles off a list of about 7 fantasy/mythological books that I can't seem to make myself read.  So, my goal for this semester is to read a fantasy book.  I have decided that the next book I read will be of that genre.  Hopefully, I will be introduced into a new array of books that I enjoy!  Also, I would like to push myself to read more books.  One way that I can do that is reading more than the 150 minutes every week, and when we are reading a book in class, continue reading another book.  I hope that next semester, I can grow into a better reader.

Literacy Narrative- 12/6- 30 minutes
LOTF- 12/1- 40 minutes, 30 pages
          - 12/3- 30 minutes, 18 pages
          - 12/4- 25 minutes, 15 pages
          - 12/5- 40 minutes, 30 pages
Total- 165 minutes, 93 pages

Reading Times

Lord of the Flies:
12/2/12 1 hour, 30 minutes, 30 pages

Focus Tracking: Psychological Setting

       While tracking an element of the book every time I read may be tedious and annoying, it helps me keep on track when I am reading, and focus on specific things so I don't get distracted.  My topic is Psychological setting.  I chose this topic because I find it interesting to observe how people react when they are put in certain situations or circumstances.

       I have found that throughout the book, it seems like the psychological setting changes when conflicts arise and diminish.  As soon as a conflict starts, tensions builds, and as a result, arguments are created.  On the contrary, when conflicts are resolved, the psychological setting changes, and suddenly everyone is more accepting of other's ideas, and people work well together.  As an example, in chapter 2, they are trying to make a fire.  The boys know that to be rescued, they need fire. And not just fire, they also need smoke. Everyone is very tense trying to get the fire right. When they realize their fire isn't good enough, they are upset because they won’t get rescued. But when they get a good fire going again, they have new hope and are very excited.  Here are some quotes from pages 41-44 that support that.  

“The flame flapped higher and the boys broke into a cheer.”..... “That was no good. There wasn’t any smoke. Only flame.”.... “At the sight of the flames and the irresistible course of the fire, the boys broke into shrill, excited cheering.”

Lord of the Flies by William Golding:
11/19- 31 pages, 50 minutes
11/21- 25 pages, 40 minutes
11/23- 36 pages, 60 minutes
Toal- 92 pages, 150 minutes

Semester 1 Exam

       I cannot believe that we are almost to exams!  It seems like just yesterday that the second quarter was starting, and our teachers well telling us to make sure to get off on the right foot and turn in all our assignments.  Middle school exams weren't too bad, but I don't know how they will compare to high school exams.  However, I have learned how to study and I'm confident that if I study and do my work, I will do well.
       This semester in English has been good, and we have certainly learned a lot.  I know that the exam will have a lot of writing about it, just like the test.  I feel good about literary analysis because we have been doing that throughout middle school.  I think that I will need to review the short stories- maybe read over them or discuss the plot a little just to refresh my memory.  Also, it would be helpful if we discussed literary elements again.  Finally, I would like to know how we are going to be tested on summer reading, and I plan on reviewing that in and out of class.

LOTF Intro in Class

       When Dr. D first said get on the floor without your binders, you could tell our class was excited.  Maybe a little too excited.  She warned us that even though we didn't have our stuff, we still had to work, but our class kind of took that warning lightly.  We started off in chaos.  Everyone was talking over each other trying to come up with a plan.  Somehow, we came to an agreement that we need a leader(s), and we tried to complete the task of choosing them.  Still, we were talking over each other, and we tried to vote a couple of times, but that didn't work.   Then, Aaron got a stapler, and it was named the talking stapler.  Finally, our savior.  Or so we thought.  Sadly, the talking stapler didn't really work, and we were back to square one: no leaders, and no plan.  Every one was annoyed, and we were all blaming each other.  A group succeeded from our island nation, and I'm not really sure what they did after that.  Then the rest of the boys and girls divided, and it seemed like the boys were going hunt for food and look for water.  The girls, still trying to gain control, were hopeless, and figured we should make housing and watch the kids.
       Now, all of these plans were not finalized, so if this was real, I'm not sure if these tasks would be carried out.  Our island nation would probably be divided in some way- the boys doing their thing on one side, and the girls on the other.  Would the boys really come to our aid and bring back food?  That is a question that may never be answered.  Eventually, I think they would have realized they needed us and that we needed them, and we would have worked together. 

Reading:

11/7/12- The Memory Keeper's Daughter- 10 minutes, 5 pages
11/10/12- Lord of the Flies- 2 hours, 20 minutes, 32 pages

Total- 2 hours, 30 minutes, 37 pages

Free Post:City

      Finally, we have reached our championship season.  Two meets, the most important ones of the year, to prove all of our hard work has paid off.  Sixteen races; that's all I have left.  And for some who don't final in their events, its less.  That's counting two individual races and two relays, each swum twice over the course of two days.  Eight races at city, and eight at state.
       Today, we had prelims at city.  As I walked in the building, the familiar smell of chlorine fell over me.  Excitement filled my body.  Chatter between teammates traveled to my ears, and I was ready to do work.  I was expecting to be really nervous, but the little nerves I had only helped me.  I finaled in both my events, barely missing top 8, and have to settle for consolation finals.  In total this season, I have 12 races left.  Four tomorrow, and eight at state.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will win the consolation finals, and place 9th in my individual events.  I swam really well today, hopefully better tomorrow, and I can't wait to swim my heart out at state. 

      

Reading Response

       I started a new book this week called The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  I have read the first two chapters, and so far it is really good, but sad.  It starts off on a cold night, and a couple are talking and getting excited about their baby that will be born soon.  But later that night, Norah, the mom, goes into labor early, and has twins: one beautiful, healthy boy, and one girl with Down Syndrome, which will cause her to have problems in the future.  The husband is a doctor, and delivers the children, but when he delivers the girl, he gives her to the nurse and doesn't tell his wife.  It is not until later that night that he tells his wife that they had a girl that died at birth, but really he told the nurse to bring the baby to an institute. 
       I can understand why he doesn't want to tell the wife, because his sister had Down Syndrome, and he doesn't want to see her suffer like his mom did watching the child grow up.  But, I think that he should have told the wife as soon as she woke up out of labor, and they should've made a decision together.  Even if they didn't feel like they couldn't take care of the baby and needed to send it to another home, that would've been fine if they had disscussed it.  I would not like to have my husband keep a secret like that from me.
       I think that trust is one of the most important things in a relationship.  You have to be able to trust that your husband or wife is telling you the truth all the time, and that is something that should be established early on in the relationship.  Also, you need to be able to trust your spouse with your money, because many couples get into fights over that.  Finally, there should be the highest level of trust that your wife or husband won't go cheat on you.  That is the purpose of marriage, so that you are bound together forever.  I hope that this couple figures this out and are able to trust eachother in the future.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards:

10/29/12- 10 mins, 3 pgs
10/30/12- 10 mins, 6 pgs
10/31/12- 10 mins, 7 pgs
11/1/12- 10 mins, 6 pgs
11/3/12- 1 hour, 30 pgs
11/4/12- 50 mins, 26 pgs

Total: 2 hours and 30 minutes, 78 pages

Short Stories

       When we started this short story unit, I was not excited, but overall the stories have been pretty good!  My favorite was "Waltz of a Fat Man," and when Dr. D told us to read three more, I wasn't really sure what to annotate for.  I guess that's kind of the point of the assignment, but I feel that when you have something specific to read for, it makes it more interesting.  The three stories I read were "The Sniper", "Araby", and "The Endless Streetcar Ride into the Night, and the Tinfoil Noose."

       I liked "The Sniper" a lot, but the only thing I found interesting about it was that he accidentally shot his brother.  "Araby" was really confusing- I didn't follow it or like it at all.  I think there may have been two story lines, but I honestly couldn't even tell.  However, I did enjoy "The Endless Streetcar Ride into the Night, and the Tinfoil Noose".  Despite the long title, the story is rather short, and it is about a boy who goes on a double date, but it is a blind date.  The first part of the story is about how we are all born normal, but how some people turn out to be extraordinary and successful in life, and others stay normal, and the second part is about the date.  The story is in first person, and he says that everyone has that moment when the light of truth shines on them, and he got his shining moment on the blind date.  I guess he was trying to say that when these extraordinary people get their shining light of truth, it turns into something great, but his just ended in a bad date.  

       When describing the events leading up to and during the date, the author uses characterization to create these two sides of Scott.  One before the date, and one after.  When Scott is getting ready, he says, "That night I set out wearing my magnificent electric blue sport coat....My pleated gray flannel sacks began just below my breastbone and indeed chafed my armpits.  High-belted cascading down finally to grasp my ankles in a vise-like grip.  My tie, indeed one of my most prized possessions....It was of a beautiful silky fabric, silvery pearly colored...Hand-painted upon it was a magnificent blood-red snail.  He is very confident about his outfit, but then one his date, he gets the shining moment that his date hates his outfit, and him, and he says, "My new shoes are like bowling balls with laces.  My great tie that Aunt Glenn gave me is two feet wide, hanging down the the floor like some crinkly tinfoil noose.  My beautiful had-painted snail is seven feet high, sitting up on my shoulder, burping.  Great Scott! It is all clear to me in the searing white light of truth."

       "I'M THE BLIND DATE."

Short Stories:

The Endless Streetcar Ride into the Night, and the Tinfoil Noose: 30 minutes, 6 pages

The Sniper: 25 minutes, 4 pages

Hills Like White Elephants: 30 minutes, 4 pages

Total: 1 hour, 25 minutes, 14 pages

Reading Times

Girl With a Pearl Earring: 10/17- 120 minutes, 53 pages, 10/21- 30 minutes, 23 pages
Total: 150 minutes, 76 pages

Short Story Literary Element: Theme in Harrison Beregeron

       I have noticed that most of the short stories we have read so far have ended in death.  Some slow and painful, others abrupt.  The second description of death is what happens in "Harrison Bergeron".  The Handicapper General cannot seem to make Harrison keep his handicaps on, those which are supposed to make him "equal".  But Harrison takes control of the room, taking off the handicaps of the ballernina, lifting her into the air, and of the musicians, forcing them to play music.  Harisson, the "emperor," and the ballerina, his "emperess," are almost touching the ceiling kissing.  After hagling from the Handicapper General, Harrison refuses to come down, and is then shot with a double-barreled ten-guage shot gun.  It seems that the only way the general can make harrison equal is to kill him, because the handicaps just don't work on him.
       But let's rewind a bit.  While reading this story, many questions are raised whose answers help to proclaim the theme of this short story.  Why must everything be equal in the first place?  This story is set in the future in a distopia society.  Society seems to think that everybody must be equal and fair.  The story begins with the words, "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.  But are they really equal?  To the reader, things certainly do not seem equal.  If you are smart, you have to wear a device that makes loud sounds that disrupt your thoughts, and if you're strong and athletic, you are required by law to wear a canvas handicap bag with birdshot in it.  The average people don't have anything to help them be smarter or more athletic, only the exceptional are punnished. 
       When George considers taking his handicaps off, he says to Hazel, "If I tried to get away with it, then other people'd get awy with it- and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else.  You wouldn't like that, would you?"  She replies, "I'd hate it."  This society thinks that by having the handicaps, everyone is equal.  But they're really not.  The bags are only making the strong stronger, and the government transmitters are making the smart even dumber than the average.  In reality, nothing can ever be perfectly equal.  And by trying to make things equal, we are taking away the joy in life.  People with gifts and talents should be able to share those with others without jealousy, and also use their gifts and talents to help those that struggle.  That is a better way to try to make things "equal".

Reading:

Short Stories- 36 pages, 120 minutes
The Girl With a Pearl Earring- 21 pages, 30 minutes

First Quarter Evaluation

       Man, has the first quarter gone by quickly!  I remember all of the high schoolers telling us that high school goes by quickly, but I didn't think the very beginning would!  So far, Engish class has been really good.  I forgot my materials a couple of times at first, but now, I'm pretty consistent about bringing my belongings to class.  I have never packed up early in class because we are always busy!  I feel like I am doing well at taking notes when Dr. D lectures and I contribute appropriatley to class discussions.  This year, I am participating more in class.  I think that is due to the fact that I find our discussions more interesting than those that we had last year.  I really  like the group work that we have done so far, and I believe that the groups that I have been in have worked well together, and we stayed on task most of the time.  The only thing that I think I need to work on in the second quarter is not falling asleep in class.  I know that I always do on Fridays since I have swim practice in the morning.  I find myself falling asleep other times too, and I should probably take note of what time of the day it is that we have class, so I can see when I am the sleepiest. 
       My goal for the second quarter is to not fall alseep in class.  I know that when I find myself falling asleep, and I start to answer more questions, it helps to wake me up, so maybe I will try to participate even more in class.  Also, I am becoming more confident in my writing, and I want to do even better on our next few assignments.  I know we have learned a lot, and I want to put my knowledge to good use!  I really enjoy blogging, and I hope we have more interesting posts to come.

Reading Times

Short Stories- 75 minutes- 13 pages

The Girl With a Pearl Earring- 75 minutes- 42 pages

Total: 150 minutes, 55 pages

Reading Plot: Split

       Over the summer, I read Split for one of my summer reading books.  It was one of my favorite books, and defanitley the best book I read this summer.  I think that the reason I liked it so much was because most of the book was the rising action, and you were just waiting and waiting for the climax.  It seemed like it would never come, and in some books, it could get boring, but the author gave you just enough hints to keep you interested.
       In the beginning of the book, the author explains that Jace lives with his abusive father and his mom in Chicago, and his older brother Christian lives in Albuquerque   One of the events in the rising action is when Jace leaves to go live with his brother.  Another is all of the emails and calls that Jace and his mom secretly have to try to plan to get her out of the house.  Jace also has a girlfriend in Albuquerque while also dealing with legal issues because he hit his former girlfriend in Chicago.  The climax is when Jace and Christian drive 19 hours to Chicago to get their mom, but she won't leave because she is too scared.  The falling action is when the two brothers drive home together and talk about what they are feeling. When they get home, the two brothers try to make the best of their lives even though their mom isn't with them.

The Girl With a Pearl Earring:
9/24- 10 minutes
9/25- 25 minutes
9/26- 20 minutes
9/27- 10 minutes
9/28- 40 minutes
Total- 105 minutes- 76 pages

"To Build a Fire"- 45 minutes- 17 pages

Writing Poem

I am going to write a haiku about my present writing.  I don't really make plans for my writing- especially my blog posts, I kind of just let it flow.  I really enjoy writing blogs because all I have to do is write down my feelings what I'm thinking about at the time.  So here it is!


I let my thoughts flow.

Think about what I'm writing.

Writing what I think.

Litteracy Narrative Process

       When I wrote my first draft of my litteracy narrative, I looked at it and thought, "This is awful."  I was really unhappy with it, so I asked my mom to read over it and give me a few quick suggestions.  I changed a few things, and I was making some progress, but it was late so I went to bed.  Then next day, I read my sister's litteracy narrative, and at first it made me feel even worse about mine, but then I used hers as an example to make mine better.  I kept working at it, changing this and that, until I was satisfied.  The next day we got into our narrative groups, mine composed of me, Matthew, and Mary Beth.  Mary Beth read hers first, and it was really good.  We gave her some good feedback, and then I read mine.  I was a little hesitant to read it because compared to Mary Beth's, I didn't think mine was so good.  But when I read my litteracy narrative, I realized that it was acutally good in it's own way! 
       I have been working hard to use all of the suggestions that Mary Beth and Matthew gave me, and hopefully I will turn out victorious over this assignment.  I am going to work some more on developing the strong, emphatic turning points in my essay, so that they are even more dramatic.  I want to get across to the reader that once these turning points happened, things changed, and my life was better.  I think that I should be more confident in my writing because I know that when I really did down deep, I am acutally a decent writer. 

Reading:

Girl With a Pearl Earring: 9/23/12- 45 minutes
Litteracy Narrative- 1 hour, 45 Minutes

Total- 150 minutes

Swimming

       This year, our swim team's goal is be the Division 3 State Champions.  Last year, Episcopal got the Runner-Up title, finishing only 50 points behind Vandebilt Catholic.  Throughout the sesason last year, we weren't really thinking about state, much less being runner-ups.  We were mainly focussed on improving our times and just doing our best.  But one practice, the girls had a meeting with our coach and he basically told us we had a shot at winning state or being runner-ups.  We were all shocked.  He told us that we probably wouldn't win, but if everything ended up right, we could maybe get runner up.  With a few weeks left in the season, we all worked hard in practice.  We had a good city meet and got runer-up to St. Joseph's Academy.  But then the biggest meet of the season came- State.  We all swam well in prelims, and that night, our coaches called the girls into their hotel room to talk.  Coach Alex said that he was looking at the results of how we did in prelims and how the other teams did, and told us we had a legitemate chance at getting runner-up.  All of us were really excited because at the meeting during the season, we were kind of doubting him, not really sure if we could bring home a title.  That night, he showed us the times and places on paper and we realized we could really do it.  We swam our hearts out at finals the next morning, and after the last event, we waited for them to announce the team scores.  The announcers went backwards, but eventually they said, "Episcopal- Runner-Ups".  Our whole team was freaking out- even the guys who had placed lower, but were still excited for us.  I still can see and remember the feeling of excitement we all had.  I think that we may have been more excited then Vandebilt, just becasue going into it, we weren't really expecting to win a title since we were such a small team.  It was a great feeling, but hopefully this year, it will be even better.
       Since about February, our entire team's minds have been on doing even better this year- Winning State.  We realized that to do that, we would have to train harder and make every single practice count.  Over the summer, we had practice 3 times a week, which we had never done before.  It was really fun to get a head-start on the season, but the training was really hard.  We had our first real practice on Orientation day, and I was so excited for the season to finally be here.  This year, we are trying to become closer as a team, so we had a sleepover at someone's house, and we decorated our locker rooms.  We have name tags on our lockers that say our name and Episcopal Swimming, we have a sign that says, "Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering."  We also have a bulliten board with each one of our goal's on it.  It is really good to see our goals everyday before practice, and always have our team goal of winning state in our minds.  Practice is tough, but I know that every second of it will be worth it when state comes and we swim our hardest, proving all of our hard work we've been doing since the beginning of summer.  Hopefully we will come out victorious, with the Division 3 State Championship title.  And may I add, the girls at Episcopal have never done that before.  Ever.  But this year, we will.
      

Reading Response 9/16

OK, so I finished Looking After Lily this week! Yay!  At the end of the book, Haywood and Lily do have a romantic moment like I predicted in my last blog (That's right- I'm good!), however, Haywood goes a bit too far by kissing Lily and getting all over her, and she gets mad.  I don't blame her- I wouldn't want someone doing that to me if I'm married.  She's technically not cheating because she's not the one persuing the other person, but If I was her husband, I would be mad at Haywood!  I think it's really stupid that people cheat on their boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, and husbands.  It's like if you want to be with someone else, then tell your current "significant other" and break up with them!  It's so frustrating, and once you've been cheating on, I can imagine how hard it would be to trust people.  But, at the very end of the book, Shot, Haywood's brother, and Lily's wife, comes back from jail and he and his wife and daughter go off to live their own life as a family. Happy Ending!

After I finished the book, I realized I still had 35 minutes of reading left, so I started Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  I'm only a little bit into into it, but so far the main character, Griet, is told that she has to move to a Catholic family's house to work as a maid.  She needs to make money, because her father can't work as a tile painter as he lost his eyes when a kiln exploded.  So far, she is handling the move well, but I know if I was in her situation I wouldn't be.  My mom always says, "Dru, what are you going to do when you go to college?"  First of all, I'm quite the lazy person.  I hate doing dishes, yardwork, and cleaning, so I'm not really sure how I'm going to survive unless I'm rich and have a maid that lives in my house and a yard man.;)  Also, I am very close with my family, and moving out for college seems early enough, but from what I've observed, it seems like Grieta is even younger than that.  It will be interesting to see how she does on her own, and I'm excited to read the rest of this book!

Reading time Total 150 minutes:

Looking after Lily:
9/13/- 10 minutes
9/15- 45 minutes
6/16- 1 hour
115 minutes, 95 pages

Girl With a Pearl Earring:
9/16- 35 minutes, 18 pages

Literacy Narrative

       When Dr. D. first gave us the assignment of writitng a litteracy narrative I was overwhelmed, and quite frankly, scared.  My thought process went something like this: "Oh my gosh, this is our first real writing assignment in her classs!"  "She's gonna grade us so hard!" What if I fail?" "I don't even consider myself as a reader of writer; I don't particularly enjoy either." "What in the world am I going to write about?!"  However, when she told us to take out a sheet of paper and list things that we have written or read that have impacted us in some way, I started to become more calm and less afraid.  There were a few options on my list that would work, but the one that I am going with, as of right now, is a paper I wrote last year about balancing school and sports.  I will have to look back in my writing portfolio, but I'm pretty sure I wrote two papers on this subject- one was a research paper, and the other my own personal story.

       As I wrote the narrative on balancing school and swimming, I really had to reflect on my life then and act as an outside observer on my own life.  That was a hard thing to do at first, because I mean, who wants to admit that they're wrong or that something in their life isn't "right".  Anyway, what was going on in my life at that time was that I was putting too much of my time and energy and focus into swimming, and not enough into school.  My grades were not necesarilly suffering, but I was finding myslef a lot more stressed, a lot less happy, and completely bored by school.  I was always a person who enjoyed school, and one day I was in my bedroom doing homework, and I realized that I didn't like school anymore.  I was miserable from the time the first bell rang until I got to the pool, and once I left, I was miserable again.  I knew that I needed to change, so I asked my mom what to do and she said, "Change your attitude".  It was that simple.  From then on, I was back to my old self.  That simple thing; that simple idea; that simple word, called attitude, makes a difference; not only in school and sports, but in every aspect of your life.  Once I reflected on myself and wrote that paper, I knew that I had just unlocked a tool that will help me for the rest of my life: CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE.

Reading Response 9/9/12

       While I was reading, there were many times that the topic of Lily, Haywood's sister in law, came up.  Haywood and Lily have been traveling as vagabonds together, stopping occasionally in towns, trying to find a suitable place to live.  Lily and Shot, her husband who is in jail, are still married, yet recently, Haywood has been attracted to her.  Haywood is very confused and thinks to himself, "She was my brother's wife.  I never for one instant forgot it.  To allow any feelings at all was dangerous.  Yet, she had an easy way about her, easy to watch, and relaxing in a way I couldn't help......I wanted to gather up handfuls of her hair and bury my face in it, or just run my knuckle back behind the velvet of her earlobe." 

      After I read this, I started to notice many other times in the book when Haywood was showing affection for Lily.  It starts to raise some questions- Is this appropriate?  What would Shot think if he found out?  Why are they both falling in love when they know they shouldn't be?  I think that these are all questions that Haywood is trying to answer for himself right now.  I know that sometimes people are attracted to others, even if they know they're married, but it seems like these two really go together, like they're meant to be.  It almost feels like the author is trying to make it seem like Lily is still single, and turn this into a love story.  However, I'm sure if Shot ever found out that his wife and brother have a "thing," the author would play up the whole new storyline of a fight over Lily.  I'm interested to see the way this book pans out and I hope to finish it soon!

Reading Time- Looking After Lily Total:150 minutes

9/5- 11 minutes
9/9- 35 minutes
9/9- 64 minutes
110 minutes- 57 pgs.

Plus...

Norton Narratives:
9/9- 40 minutes

Response to Comments

Dr. D's comment: Dru, you should think about taking Ethics with Chaplain Charlie deGravelles next year. That course includes visits to Angola prison, where he has been doing ministry and outreach work for many years. There are also some truly powerful pieces of writing that have come out of Angola over the years.

Tyler's comment: Dru, that was amazing. Literally I have the same problem at my house.Both of my parents are catholic and my mom Is always talking about going to church more even though on some sundays she "too tired" like the rest of the family. When my Nana was sick I prayed every night for tho get better, until I found out one day after school that she had passed. I could not believe that I prayed so hard for nothing and God let me down. After that I had some doubts in God. I finally realized that this happened for the best and It was her time. Some nights I find myself dreaming about her and I still playing our games like she was still alive.

       Thanks, Dr. D, for you're suggestion! That's a good idea, and something that I will definitely think about!  I won't be taking any religion classes this year because of choir, but once I get some more room in my schedule, I will need to meet my religion requirements, and that sounds like something I would really enjoy.  I have a friend who took that class last year, and I think she really liked it.  Also, do you know of any books/pieces of writing from Angola that I could read?  Thanks for you're comment!

       Tyler, I'm sorry to hear about you're Nana's passing.  I know that sometimes it feels like God lets us down, but think of all the many ways that he never does and causes great things!  Where do you go to church?  I go to St. Aloyisious and on Sundays we have youth group at 6:45 and Gabrielle goes too!  You should come sometime! It's so much easier to connect with than just the normal mass.

Reading Response

       Throughout my reading this week, a major event happened in Looking After Lily and it was definatley the most interesting part of the book so far, causing me to think a lot.  Haywood Beatty, the main character goes to a horse race with a couple of friends and he makes a bet.  Well, like usually in books, Haywood looses the bet and he's not around to pay up, so his friends give the man his horse instead of money.  When he finds out that his beloved horse, Mollie is gone, he is heartbroken.  He says, "All I wanted was Mollie back.  I needed her back.  A man without a horse ain't no kind of man at all."  Haywood gets in a fight with the people that are trying to take Mollie away from him and wakes up in prison the next day. 

       The next chapter is Haywood vividly describing his time in jail.  It is quite disturbing to be told what jail is like.  I feel really bad for him because all he did was get in a fight and now he's in jail and the guard taunts him all the time.  Haywood spends a lot of time thinking about what he has done to get himself into prison and trying to plan his life once he gets out.  I guess that really is the point of jail, but it seems like there's only so much thinking you can do.  Haywood is only in there for 2 months and he seems like he's going crazy, so I can't imagine what it would be like to be sentenced for life.  The prisoners must get really bored, but they say that people do bad things when they're bored. 

       Luckily, if some prisoners are good, they get to interact with people outside of jail doing community service and things like that.  I saw on tv during the hurricane that they had good prisoners helping pass out sandbags to people in need.  I think that is a much more effective way to get people to change their ways than sticking them in a cell and telling them to think about their actions for 30 years.  I think it would be an interesting experience to go visit a jail and talk to some of the prisoners about serving their time.  It would also be rewarding to go do ministry work at a jail, and maybe I can do that one day.  I think that if you give people many ways to change, they will eventually find one that works for them and milk it for all it's worth.  I think that these ways are much more effective than sitting there thinking.

Reading from 2 weeks ago,  Looking after Lily: Dr. D, you said I could do this because I forgot!

8/20- 20 minutes
8/21- 20 minutes
8/26- 110 minutes
150 minutes, 106 pages

Reading from last week, Looking after Lily:

8/27- 10 minutes
8/29- 35 minutes
8/30- 30 minutes
9/1- 30 minutes
9/2- 30 minutes
9/3- 15 minutes

150 minutes, 81 pages

Hurricane Isaac

       When we first got out of school on Monday afternoon, everyone was excited because we got to miss two days of school, and by the way things looked, the hurricane wouldn't phase us too badly.  One of my dad's favorite things to do is to sit on our screened porch and watch a storm come in, so our whole family went sit on our outdoor furniture and watched the hurricane.  Within ten minutes, our outlooks on the hurricane had changed drastically.  The news started creating more hype about the storm, saying it would be really bad, maybe even worse than hurricane Gustav.  As we watched limbs on the trees in our yard crack and fall to the soft, soaked grass and the rain steadily increase to a horizontal downpour, we started to wonder how bad this storm would be.

       After about a half an hour, we went inside and started thinking about where the trees around our house were.  My parents were saying that there were two big trees by my room that may fall, so I shouldn't sleep there.  There are also a few trees by our living room that could fall onto our house, so we were told to stay out of there.  My dad said, "If this hurricane gets really bad, the best place to be is actually under the dining room table".  At first we thought he was joking, but quickly realized he was being serious.  Sitting on our screened porch, I realized how powerless we were in the face of a hurricane.  I mean, there was nothing we could do right then to protect ourselves from this monster.  We had already gotten the generator out, filled up numerous gas tanks, bought bottled water, batteries, and food, and scoped out our house for safe places to be if trees started falling.  We had prepared, and all we could do was watch our enemy slowly approach our house, worrying about if we would be OK.  Luckily, hurricane Isaac was kind to us, only causing a few limbs down in our yard, and a lot of leaves and twigs.  After the storm had passed all my mom could keep saying is, "We are so thankful that nothing bad happened to us", and she was right.

Reading Response- Looking After Lily

       The first day that Dr. D told us to get out our books and read, I didn't have a book.  So I proceeded to go to the library to quickly find a book and make my way back to class.  I grabbed a book off the fiction shelf, read the inside cover and figured if it wasn't good, I only had to read it for 10 minutes and I would find a new book later.  When I got back to the classroom and started reading it, I ended up liking it!

       I'm not very far into this book, but I'm pretty sure that one of the major themes will be forgetting and letting go.When Haywood finally gets out of jail, his younger brother tells him to look after his pregnant wife Lily.  All Haywood wants to do once he gets out of jail is get out of Bastrop County, but now he has Lily coming with him.  They gather the little money they have and set out to San Antonio.  The two have many struggles along the way, not suprising, considering the two are 20 and 16 years old.  Haywood may be out of jail, but his younger brother is not, and he has to accept that to make a better life for himself.  When Lilly and Haywood find a place to stay, Haywood sets off to find a job and isn't back for 29 days.  He kind-of forgets to tell Lily where he is becuase he is so focussed on finding a job.  It is sad that Haywood almost has to force himself to forget about his brother and Lily so that he can find work and create a better life for himself and eventually Lily and the baby.

In Defense of Praying, A Catholic Teenager's Manifesto

       I am Catholic, as is most everyone on my mom's side of our family.  We get together as a family a lot and almost always the topic of church comes up.  My grandmother is a strict Catholic and goes to church every Sunday, and sometimes once or twice more throughout the week.  It is kind of pitiful to realize that she goes to church that much, but sometimes our family "can't make it" once a week on Sunday.  The truth is, we can make it to church, we just have to make it one of our priorities.

       With the busy life of school, sports, and homework, the goal of going to church three times a week, or even once a week seems unattainable.  Sometimes, we give in and don't go to church, and then end up not even thinking about God for the rest of the day.  The least we can do is pray for a few minutes.  However, most people have the same excuse.  "I don't have time".  But really all it takes is a few seconds.  You don't have to write a 10 page letter to God in you're mind.  It can be a simple, "Thanks God", when something pleases you.   At night, I get stressed because I am already tired from a long day of school and swimming, and then I have a pile of homework to do.  I have found that if I can surrender even five minutes of my precious time to God to pray and meditate, it keeps me so less stressed.  I have been working on praying more, and it really has helped me in more ways than I have imagined.

In Defense of Food

       At the beginning of the summer, my sister started reading In Defense of Food and it was so bad and confusing that she stopped reading it and read her other books first.  After I heard her experience, I was dreading reading it so I put it off until the end of the summer too.  As school got closer, I realized I needed to start reading it so I wouldn't run out of time.

       It took me a while to get into In Defense of Food because the beginning seemed really repetitive.  I knew that I had to read it, so I figured I might as well try to take something out of it.  As soon as I began really paying attention to what the author was saying and trying to relate it to my own life, the book was way more enjoyable!  Now, I'm actually glad that we had to read In Defense of Food, because I can relate the lessons that I learned to my life, and I know that eating healthy can help me do better in school and swimming!

1st Free Post

       Well, this is my blog! At first when I read the routines handout and it said everything about the blog, I was really confused!  I didn't really understand exactly what we had to do so the blogging assignments seemed really scary.  Now that I have my blog set up and I understand what is expected of us, I think that blogging could be really fun!! I've never blogged before but I like writing on Facebook so I think this could be kind of cool.

       I am not the kind of person who enjoys writing 10 page essays about a book, or anything of that matter, so I think that blogging will be a more exciting and interesting way of sharing my thoughts about things.  I hope that Dr. D will give us appealing blogging assignments so that this will be fun instead of just something that we have to do because the teacher told you to.  I can't wait to see what this English class is all about, and I hope our class is fun and that we have a good year!