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
Sunday, September 30, 2012
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.
I let my thoughts flow.
Think about what I'm writing.
Writing what I think.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
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
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.
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.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
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
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.
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.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
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
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.
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.
Monday, September 3, 2012
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
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
Sunday, September 2, 2012
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.
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.
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