The Conclusion

I feel like most of my blogs were written about what I know. Most of that very vague. I never really went into detail about anything. A couple of blogs made me think. Especially the blog about Romeo and dreams. That was probably the most fun I had had writing a blog all year long. I don't enjoy blogging because I don't like giving people the chance to critique my bad writing. I know if I really applied myself to writing I could do awesome, but it just seems like too much effort. A lot of people I know call me an over acheiver, but I will never see myself as one. I usually try to do the minimum amount of work to get myself at least a B. Next year I plan on applying myself more to my writing. I don't want to be embarrassed of my writing anymore. While looking back at my blogs I noticed that many of them are about how bad my writing is and how I wish I could fix it. (Blah, blah,blah) I think so many things over ride my need for school. In the blogs where I write about how bad a writer I am, I seem so clueless and I didn't find that it truely helped me at all like it was supposed to. Sometimes I think it's harder for me to write because the topics are always to dull and I never really want to think about the subject. It's so much easier to write about things I know and fully understand. For instance, writing about our summer reading list was a blast. I love to read and knew exactly what to say. Just thinking about that blog makes me excited to get every single one of those books and read them. If I was asked to write an essay on one of those books I could write a lot because they really interest me. I think the commentary for an essay like that would be a lot easier because, trust me, I have much to say about the books I read. I always drive my sister crazy telling her about the books I read...I also love talking to her about the books when we have both read them. One day I hope I can be a great writer and I can really look back and be thankful I took this class even though I never really wanted to... It was my most dreaded class and still is. The challenge of this class drives me crazy, but it also makes me want to suceed and be like "WOW! I can do anything!" Next year I will get an A in honors english. That would be a great confidence booster. I'm glad I took the challege with this class and as of now when I think of this class it's going to make me think of how I really could have done better on things I didn't do so great on, but it only motivates me to do better next year. "Men's best successess come after their dissapointments." Henry Ward Beecher. I may have dissapointed myself this year, but I will not let that happen again.

Essay Writing

Even though we have been writing essays all year long I am still not confindent in my writing. I am much better at writing a good thesis, but thinking of good commentary is hard for me. I always want to use concrete detail; probably because it is so much easier. Annalyzing is also easier, but putting it into an essay is tough. I think I might take a writing class over the summer to help me next year with honors english 10.

When writing my essay I hardly ever have very good transitioning sentences, which breaks the flow of reading it. Like I said, I also have a hard time writing commentary. I could also improve on my hooks. I am sure there are other things I could improve on that would take my "B" essay to and "A" essay, but I dont know what all the other problems are.

Summer Reading List

The two books that are at the top of my summer reading list are Burned by P.C cast and kristen cast and Mockingjay by Suzanne collins. The first book listed as been out for a while and I have been meaning to buy it. I think it is the 5th book in Marked series. The series in about vampyres(That's how it is spelled in the book.)When I bought the first book it was meant as a present for Ahlora, but after she finished it, it was just collecting dust on her shelf, so I decided to borrow it from her. After the first book I was hooked, but not as much as I am hooked to the Hunger Game series. After I read the first book I had a deep desire to read the next. It was like torture waiting for the next novel to be released. I am really looking forward to Mockingjay to be released.(It comes out in August!!! YAY!!) I would try to explain the story line myself, but it is way to confusing. I wouldn't know where to start. I also plan on reading many other books because reading is my favorite hobby.

Theme and Motif: dreams

The dreams that I usually have that could actually have an affect on my reality is my mom getting mad at me for not telling her something. Just this week I dreamt that I hadn't told my mom that there was a half day and a meet on Saturday, so of course she starts yelling at me and telling me how I never tell her anything in advance. Dreams like these feel so real to me that when I actually thought about telling my mom the next day I thought I had, but later on remember that, no I had not informed her. To avoid the confrentation in my dream I told my mom in advance things that were going on in my life that week. Sometimes I have other dreams about boys or just weird things that make no sense, but I still think they all have some sort of impact on my life.

Romeo and I are alike in this way. No matter what kind of dream I have I think it has something to do with my actual life. One time I had a dream about this guy, so I thought well maybe I subcounsiouly like him and I don't know it or maybe he likes me and I should be avoiding it. Kind of how my dreams are my fate, in a way. Like Romeo thinks his dream about the party will eventually cause his death.

culture shock

This movie takes a more modern twist on Rome and Juliet by refering back to the play. Juliet is now sought for advice, through a wall. I think that this modern twist makes the story of Romeo and Juliet's love more interesting and romantic. If their really is a wall in Italy where people write letters to Juilet that would also show the timelessness of Romeo and Juliet's love.

English

English, what used to be one of my favorite classes has turned into a challenge for me. I knew it was going to be tough, but not my hardest class, besides science that is. I've almost never heard any of the terms like annotating and motif before I was in this class. And DGP is a whole other story. The writing part of it can be fun if it is on my own terms, I wish we did more creative writing instead of writing about how we feel about so and so novel/play. I am not the greatest writer. I still haven't fully grasped the concept of commentary. Maybe it's because I can be lazy at times and it's just easier to right a summary. I worked really hard on my last essay though. It was probably the hardest to right because I felt like the reading was held out to long making it hard for me to remember all of the symbols, motifs, and themes. I can still enjoy the class because the people are very interesting and a good group overall. I know this class will help me in the long run and thats why I am taking it. My future is important to me and any time I hear the word honors or AP in front of a class it just makes me think: FUTURE LIFE.

skit prep

Three parts of the book that stick out to me the most is the first time Pip meets Miss Havisham, when Biddy and Pip walk through the garden, and when Miss Havisham takes the blame for the way Estella is.
The first scene is Pip walking into a room with a creepy old lady all dressed in white, for a wedding, with candles all around. The clocks are stopped and there is no natural light. This would be an interesting skit because it would be entertaining seeing the emotion that Pip has towards Miss Havisham. It is also an important part of the book. It goes with the theme of "first times." The theme is present through out the whole book, making this an important scene.
Another scene I would want to see is Pip and Biddy walking through the garden and Biddy totally seeing through Pip. Biddy reads Pip like a book. She knows him that well. I think it would be a good scene because Biddy portrays another side of herself by being rude to Pip, even if it is just telling him the truth.
The last scene would scene shoes another side of Miss Havisham because she gets on her knees crying out to Pip about how she knows what she has done. I think she feels shame in what she has done and feels bad for Pip.
There are also other interesting scenes, but those are the few I could remember off the top of my head.

question 2

"You acted nobly, my boy," said he. "Noble Pip! And I have never forgot it." (317) 39
Why did something that happened so long ago effect the convict so much that he had to return the favor by giving up his life and actually working?

question

(246) ch. 30 "Casting my eyes along the street at a certain point in my progress, I beheld Trabb's boy approaching, lashing himself with an empty blue bag. Deeming that a serene and unconscious contemplation of him would be best beseen me, I advanced with the expression of countenance, and was rather congratulating myself on my seccess, when suddently the knees of Trabb's boy smote together, his hair uprose, his cap fell off, he trembled violently in every limb, staggered out into the rod and crying to the populace, "Hold me! I'm so frightened!" feigned to be in paroxysm of terror and contrition, occasioned by the dignity of my appereance. As I every mark of extreme humiliation, he prostrated himself in the dust." The Trabb boy continues to follow Pip and do the same with, but next time he yells out, "Don't know yah, don't know yah, 'pon my soul, don't know yah."

Why was Trabb's boy making fun of Pip?

picture

I chose this photo to signify the new friendship between Pip and Herbert. This friendship is very important for Pip to have because he had lost Joe as a friend and Biddy as someone to confide in. Joe was his best friend and Biddy was like his personal shrink and teacher. Herbert can help Pip accept his new life easier by being his new friend to confide in but he does not completely filling the roll of Biddy. The friendship between the two also brings Pip to Matthew Pocket, who is to be Pip's new teacher and Herbert's dad. This new friendship is also a motif of life changing days.

Great Expectations

Pip's experience at Ms. Havishams change his life. It was the first link. She changed his life by bringing Estella into Pip's life. Estella made him feel like crud for being who he was. It is not his fault that he is of lower class than her, but she sure makes him feel bad for it. It may have also given Pip reason to try to be of a higher class so that he can impress Estella to win her over. Also, even if Pip does not realize it, Ms. Havisham showed him that he has more than just Joe, Ms. Havisham cares about him. This day changed his life because he found an interest in Estella and he refuses to forget her. It is easy to understand that just one day can change your life forever.

The day that changed my life was when I started at Holy Family. I went in there with a lazy attitude. I didn't care about school at all. But as soon as I walked in the classroom door everyone was busy with work. Everyone cared. It made me feel pressured to care, as if it was weird not to care. Peer pressure won me over and from that day since I have been pressured to get good grades and do the best work I can.

Importance of Being Earnest paragraph

Coming up with something to write for my paragraph has been very difficult. Our body paragraphs are high, medium, and low dishonesty and it is very hard to find much about medium dishonesty. I want to make the point of why the levels of dishonesty are so important and why Wilde uses them in his play. In my paragraph I am going to use several lines from the play as a concrete details to describe the medium level of dishonesty. After that I want to state some of my opinions on the medium level of dishonesty. I do not have enough detail for my paragraph yet and some ideas would be great.

Victorian Research

As I read the play, The Importance of Being Earnest I notice many similarites between the play and my research on the vitorian era. Woman in the Victorian Era had one goal in life and that was marriage to a man with a good social class. Cecily and Gwendolen are following that victorian stereotype because they are both looking for marriages. Cecily is having such a hard time finding a marriage that she makes one up in her diary. Gwedolen, on the other had is having a hard time finding someone because her the man she marries has to live up to her mothers expectations. The fact that Gwedolen's mother is taking the duty of finding her daughter a husband was also common in the Victorian Era. Most marriages in the higher classes were not out of love, but out of the social class and the amount of money the man has. In Gwendolen's place she is not aloud to marry "Ernest" because he was found in a leather bag as a baby, and that does not live up to Lady Bracknell's standards.

It is also stereotypical for higher class people to be snobby in the Victorian Era. Algeron is a great example in the book of someone of such a high class that he is rude. He is so rich that he thinks he can just rip up his bills and nothing will happen to him. He also thinks that he can say what ever he wants to say and do whatever he wants to do. He often comments Jack's outfits and does whatever he wants by going to Jack's house without his permission. Those are only two bits of information that I have learned and compared to the Victorian Era. There are many more examples in the book.

New Year's resolutions

This year my biggest focus is school. My new year resolution is to focus more on school than my social life. My inspiration is the realisation that school is everything. It's my future. I want to keep my grades up. I want all A's. The highest A I can get in each class. I plan on trying my hardest for put school first. For me that is really hard to do because my social life is pretty much everything for me, but I know school is more important in the long run.

My plan is to get an organizer and write down all of my homework and the classes that I could work on. I also plan on informing my friends about what I am going to do and my plans, so that they understand that I still want to hang out but I want to get my school work done because it is much more important to me than anything else.

animal farm poem

The Revision of Commands
by Julia McNamara

No animal in England is free
so rebellion it shall be
You take our produce everyday.
Equality we say
The overthrow of the human race
is what you get for this disgrace.


We have now rebelled
New commands we must now tell
Whatever goes upon two legs is enemy
but not now
no not for me
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend
but not when I slaughter you towards the end

No animal shall wear clothes
because everyone knows
animals shall not wear clothes
But alas we have lied again
It is okay to wear clothes, they bring no sin

No animal shall sleep in a bed
with sheets that is
never question us,
never quiz
No animals shall drink alcohol,
to excess
We revised the rule for the best

No animal shall kill any other animal
without cause
The revision of the commands has no flaws
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others
Sorry again I lied we are nothing like brothers
We changed the rules oh, yes we did
We are power hungry because we are pigs

No animal in England is free
so rebellion on you pigs is how it should be
But we shall not break the commands
because we are trstworthy as you can see
Rebellion it shalt no be.
You are human now and out efforts are lost
but for trusting you we now pay the cost.

Amanda Fernandez "Unknown Girl in the Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton

"Unknown Girl In The Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton, performed by Amanda Fernandez was exhilarating. When Amanda was performing the poem she made it feel like you were actually there in the ward with the girl. Amanda read the poem like a story and not in a sing song way. She told the story that went with the poem very well. All the imagery in the poem was very vivid. I enjoyed watching her perform. I watched at least 5 other performances and Amanda's was the best. She conveyed the poem better than the other performers, that must have been why she was in the top performances. She had a great physical presence and great voice and articulation also. This poem told a great story

The poem was about a teenage girl who had just given birth to a child. She loved the child and wanted to keep the child, but had no one to keep the child with. The father had left them both and the child was up for adoption. The poem shifts from her being happy for having to being upset with the doctors for scolding her. At the begining of the peom she says the childs lips are like animals and that hunger is not wrong at first, but I think she is talking about herself and the "hunger" and lust that she had for the man she had sex with to produce the child. She knew she had sinned when she had sex and then got pregnant without a father to care for the child. She loves the child, obviously, but can not care for it so she hands the child off to another family so that the child can have a better life. I think the message for this poem was to do the right thing and that mistakes happen, but you can always fix them in some way.

mockingbird motif

After reading the novel To Kill a Mockingbird I understood the meaning of motif more than I did before reading the novel. I know a motif is a reoccurring symbol in the book, but now I better understand how to look for a motif. Though, it was not hard to find in this novel because the motif is stated in the title.

The "mockingbird motif" in the novel is innocence. When Atticus says it is a sin to kill a mockingbird he means that it is wrong to kill something that has done nothing wrong. The themes in To Kill a Mockingbird were racism and predujice towards others. Tom Robison and Arthur Radley are both good examples of the themes and they both tie into the mockingbird motif. Tom is judged by his color and everything he does has to do with his color/race. Tom is judged unfairly by others becuase of the stories people have made up. People in Maycomb were always saying how he ate cats and only came out at night, when, in reality, he stayed in his house becuase he was scared of the outside world and his brother, Nathan Radley. Another thing that is predujice in the novel is the way men treat woman. Woman must be lady-like. They must wear dresses. It is wrong to cuss in front of them and woman can not be involved in the jury or any other type of government. I believe that everyone should be treated like equals and that that was the message the other was trying to portray with the novel.

Life Lessons

When I first started school I was accepted and everyone liked me, but who wouldn't I was only five, but as I grew older it seemed that others were "maturing" faster than me. I remember I was only in fifth grade and many kids were "going out" and kissing. I was still playing with my toys and running around the playground doing anything. I lost many friends that year because I was considered weird. People shunned me where every I went. Well, most people anyway. I had a few close friends. So, when I switched schools I decided I needed a new start. I tried to changed everything about myself. I didn't want to be that child that no one liked. My mom noticed that I was acting different and told me, "Julia, you shouldn't care so much about what others think." I still till this day care what everyone around me says and thinks about me, but then again who doesn't.

This is my second new start. Highschool. It is was a huge change. So many more people to care about every move I make, what I look like, and what kind of grades I have. I know I'm not like everyone else and sometimes that bothers me. Sometimes I wish I was "normal." Whatever normal is. It's really to bad I want this,but it's true. I have toned it down quite a bit now and I am definantly more stable than I was in elementarty school. I also know that people don't really care that much about how I look and what I do, but everytime someone gives me a put down I remember what my mom said and keeps telling me. I also remember one other thing my mom and dad both say. Lifes not always fair. I think both of those quotes are great life lessons. You honestly shouldn't care what others think because the truth is they really don't care that much and you truly aren't that important to them. I think people only say mean things so that they feel better for themselves and it isn't fair that people say mean things just to make themselves feel of more importance, but thats life.

best friend...late because my computer has a virus

"I'm dancing with myself. Oh, oh, I'm dancing with myself!" I began to sing.
"Your so weird, Julia. I love you anyway," said Emmelia. Boy, I sure have a weird friend. It's odd how alike we are, thought Emmelia. We both begin to belt out "Dancing with myself". Emmelia and I both enjoy being crazy people.
We are at Lions Park. One of our favorite places to go when she stays over. We are attracting a lot of attention, but we don't care. This often happens. We are now heading home, back to 5th ave. As we walk through my front door, we decide to check our emails.
"Julia are you insane? Honestly, what were you thinking?" I had no idea what she was going on about. I didn't realize she had been reading my emails. "Why would you talk to somone you don't even know. It suprises me how dumb you can be sometimes."
"What, it's harmless. It's not like they know where I live or anything." There she goes again I thought. What is she thinking? How could she put herself in harm? What if something terrible happens to her? Someone could hurt her, stalk her down, or who knows what else. These are the types of thoughts running through Emmelia's mind as she reads my conversation with this stranger. After she yells at me we get on with the rest of our day.



Emmelia is a very beautiful person. Inside and out. She has long, brown, curly hair, brown eyes, and a child like face. She can look innocient, daring, and strong all at the same time. She knows how to take care of herself most of the time. She also knows how to take care of the others around her. When she was reading my emails and telling me how dumb I was being, she brought out her mothering side. Emmelia is a responsible person who likes to keep her close friends safe and out of trouble. We both make mistakes, some more stupid then others, but she is the best at solving the things she gets into. But I'm always there for her when she needs me, just like she is always there for me. Her caring personality is what makes her so mother-like. I know we'll be friends for decades.

earliest memory

I was five or six and I was outside playing with my younger sister. Oh, we used to have the most fun ever. This was when we lived in Rochester. I miss that house. It was so lovely, especially our backyard. I lived on six acres. My backyard had three giant apple trees, a giant pear tree, and tons of grapes. I loved those grapes. The grapes covered this circular wood frame that was like a fort. So, while my sister and I were playing in the field, with tall, green grass, it began to rain. My sister and I rushed to the grapes and hid in our grape "house". It rained for at least an hour. My sister and I didn't usually play house. We liked to pretend we were living in the stone ages. That was our favorite game. The grapes were our cave. When we were playing the grapes were our food and, the leaves and grass were our beds. To make our beds we went out into the field, the rain had stopped by now, and grabbed as much grass as out tiny hands could get. We would crawl back into our "cave" and lay the grass down so that it was in a rectangular shape. When there was enough grass for one large bed we started to pick the leaves from the grape vines and lay them on top of the grass, sort of like a bed sheet. I suppose that isn't really like the stone ages but, to us it was. We were young, we didn't really know much then. After we made our beds we would pick the grapes and eat our dinner. The game usually stopped there because we'd get bored. We probably ran back into the house then, or maybe we checked on the pigs to see if the rain hadn't bothered them to much.

Looking back on that memory reminds me of how much fun it was being a child. You didn't have anything to worry about. I wish I could go back to that. Starting highschool has given me many worries and responsibilites. I have to worry about every grade I recieve and that can be very frustrating. I am really interested in getting into a great college, that also worries me. Everything counts now. Don't you just wish you could go back in time and be a worry free child again? I'll never understand why so many teenagers want to grow up so fast. Maybe being a teenager is just that bad. I won't know until I am fully grown, will I?