comments

Riley:Hits and Misses Q4W5
Bea:Arguments

thoughts

1. Women are more compassionate and less violent than men.

I am going to attempt to not rant about this. If I do, please forgive me.
In no way are women more compassionate and less violent than men. Women are people in the same way men are people. They each have their own personalities. Some women may be compassionate and nonviolent. Other women may be heartless. Either way, they are not inherently one way just because they're women. This statement is basically saying that men are evil. I know quite a few men who aren't evil. I can't even say how many times I've heard people say to me, "You're funny, for a girl," "Wow its so cool that you aren't fashion obsessed like most girls," or even, "OMG you like to go on roller coasters? But you're a girl!" But therein lies the overarching problem in society. We cannot seem to separate ourselves from the biases that govern us.

2. Sometimes you have to do things other people consider wrong to get ahead.

I'm going to have to say neither on this one, mostly because I can look at it in more than one way. On one hand, there are plenty of things one might have to do to get ahead that are wrong. On the other hand, there's always more than one way to get ahead. The wrong thing is probably the easy way out. If you want to get the highest grade on a test, you can either study or you can cheat. Cheating is wrong, but in no way can you say "I had no other option." But in another sense, you can look at Robin Hood. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In that case, the people it helped outweighed the people it hurt. But then again, Robin Hood didn't steal to the point where the rich people were suddenly poor. They were still rich. So in a way, he didn't even hurt them that much. But still, stealing is wrong
I suppose that doing something wrong is just wrong, and we shouldn't do it. I guess one just has to think about how important getting ahead is to them.

hits and misses

I've grown more this year as a writer than I ever have before. The main reason for that is that I've had to tighten the reins on a lot of things. A good example of this is the Research Paper.. In no way could I be lax about anything. I had to watch for things I wouldn't have to worry about in, say, a personal narrative, or a blog post. I struggled with the Research Paper, and, in some ways, the Literary Analysis, in the sense that I had to step outside of my comfort zone. I wasn't as free.
I know that these assignments and their corresponding struggles helped me because of this Purple Hibiscus paper I just wrote. About a week after I said I was going to write it, I almost backed out and took the test. But I went ahead and started to write it, and I realized that I was using techniques I had learned in the other papers. I made an outline, similar to the one I used for my research paper. I embedded quotes. It was far less stressful than I anticipated. If I had tried to write this paper, unguided, at the beginning of this year, it would have been disastrous, but now, things are looking better.

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Bea:Who is my family? Response
John:What have you learned in your teens?

reading strategies

Although this isn't the hardest book I've ever read, I have had to learn some new strategies to get through this. I guess one of the main things that I've had to do while reading this book that I generally don't have to do is reread things on my own. I've read passages, said, "ok I have absolutely no idea what just happened," and reread it until I figured it out.

I've found that annotations really help me do this. If I'm having trouble connecting something, I can look at previous annotations rather than having to search through half a book. It makes it easier, and it also helps me notice things I would not notice otherwise. Finally, I think discussing the book with my tablemates has helped me quite a bit. They notice things that I don't notice, clarify things that I was confused about, and I can do that for them.

NY Times

101. How often do you cry?

I'm just going to say straight-up that I cry a lot. If I feel any extreme emotion, I'm probably going to start crying. It's just who I am. I also seem to get into cry-worthy situations more than most people. Movies and books make me wail. When my parents are angry at me, I cry. When I'm frustrated, I cry. When I'm tired, or stressed, or worried, I cry.
I feel like I cry this much because I just feel better after I've cried for awhile. I feel like it takes some of the pressure off. It doesn't explain why I cry when I'm really happy, or relieved, but it explains most of it. I read somewhere that crying is unscientific, that there shouldn't be any correlation between emotion and overproduction in tear glands, but here I am. It probably irritates my friends that I cry so much, but I don't think it's going to change.

comments

James:Political News Story
John:News Article

political response

Brexit: What would 'no deal' look like?

When looking for an article, I was searching through CNN politics for something that appealed to me. All I could find was healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. I didn't want to write about healthcare, and, moreover, I didn't want to write about Trump, so CNN wasn't much help. Then I turned to BBC and looked in their US politics section. Still, all I found was healthcare and Trump. I decided that if I were to write about something that wasn't healthcare or Trump, I would have to leave the US. So I did. I looked in UK politics, and that was how I wound up with an article about the Article 50 negotiations.
Simply put, the Article 50 negotiations are the negotiations taking place in the UK after Brexit. There are three main issues that need to be addressed. They are:

1. The Exit Agreement. This is outstanding payments and relocation of EU bases that were in the UK. Technical stuff.
2. Trade agreements. This article states that "It is not yet clear whether trade will feature in the Article 50 talks," but trade agreements would talk about how leaving the EU would cause trade problems.
3. Transition Agreement. The UK wants to be gone by March 2019, or, the bare minimum of the Article 50 time frame. But the Prime minister says, "No one wants a cliff hanger," and that she would prefer a "phased process of implementation." I would have to do a little more research to be able to explain this fully.

A lack of agreement in the Article 50 negotiations would basically mean full separation, or, as BBC put it, "red tape." Passports would be required. A license to trade in other countries would be needed for each individual country; an EU license would no longer work. They would fall back onto World Trade Organization policies. Passporting agencies in London that could once operate around all of the EU (channeling lots of money into London) would suddenly be confined to London. They would lose free trading rights with their biggest trade partner: Ireland. In short, the UK would lose €60bn should a "no deal" scenario happen.

It is too soon to know what the UK and the EU will do, but I am sure that a "no deal" scenario would wreak havoc on both parties. They will both lose money, trading opportunities, and straight-up convenience. What I believe is that a deal will be made, but it may take the full two years. Neither party really wants a "no deal," but neither party wants to bend either. And I do think that if the UK is unhappy with the terms, they will walk away before they agree to it, no matter the consequences. And I think that this will cause issues in the future that the UK is not able to see, because they may need those advantages the EU can give them in the future, and they won't have them.

comments

James: Learning Reflection
Riley:My Progress Q1 W4

free post

Dear Hair,

I'm sorry for all of the times that I cut you. It must hurt, doesn't it? I refer to you as "dead ends," and I chop you off.  I'm sorry for all the times I burn you, to take the curl out of you or to put special curls back in. Does that hurt? Does it hurt when I tie you up and pull you around? Does it hurt when I stick metal bars in there to hold you back?

Just know, dear hair, that no matter what I do to you, I will always, always love you. Because no matter what I do to make you look different, you're part of what makes me me. And I will always respect that.

With love,

Laura

literacy reflection

Writing has always been something that has been a little bit of a breeze for me. It was something I had always done because I wanted to, and I incorporated any school writing into that. But at this year has gone by, I have been forced to shift my focus from low-key personal narratives to formal research projects, which has been hard for me. Usually, I can make my writing flow purely because I like writing. But since I'm not as much of a fan of research papers, that insurance left, and I was forced to find other ways to make things work.

In terms of reading, not much has changed. I'm a little better at reading poetry than I used to be, but other than that, I'm still reading my books for six and a half hours every week and just enjoying it. The only thing that was different was when Dr. D gave me Arcadia. It's really hard, and even though it's an eighth of the usual size of my books, it's taking me ten times as long. But I think that reading a book like this is good for me because half the time when I'm reading I just read a book a night and I don't get anything out of it but the plot. This book forces me to slow down and think, something a lot of other books don't do.

comments

Wyatt: Affirmative Action
Ryan:My Video Games

comments

Jett: Song Analysis
Trevor: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen analysis

free post

This post is totally random but I had nothing else to write about so... here goes.

I'm having mixed emotions about my coffee habit. A lot of you know that I drink a giant Yeti full of coffee every day, and on the weekends I literally drink a stream of coffee from wakeup-4pm, unless I have a meet. My problem is, I read everywhere that coffee addictions are bad bad bad. But I don't think mine's an addiction, because I've skipped coffee before and I was able to function just as well.

Is it really a coffee habit if I'm not dependent? I'm not sure. Is it possible to drink as much coffee as me and not become dependent? Still not sure. Am I causing myself trouble in the future by doing this? Even more not sure. But all I know is that coffee tastes really really good, and I don't want to stop drinking it. So coffee addictions aside, I think I'm going to keep on drinking it.

song

She Loves You by the Beatles.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/shelovesyou.html

I have determined that analyzing  poetry is not my strong suit. That said, I think a couple of these "techniques" I found might be a little shaky, but I think that's mostly left to how its interpreted.
I found several different techniques in this song, but the most unusual one I found was anaphora. When I think of anaphora, I usually think of a pledge, or an oath. "We will do this. We will do that. We will honor this. We will pledge to do that." And et cetera. But this anaphora is smooth, very different from the harsh anaphora I'd seen before. It's the repetition of the phrase "she loves you" at the beginning of every other line in all but three verses, when it say, "She loves you/and you know that can't be bad/she said she loves you/and you know you should be glad."
Another thing that goes on is sibilance. This occurs every time the words "She says she loves you" are sung. (She says she loves you). There is a hyperbole when they sing "she almost lost her mind." I know this doesn't count because it's end rhyme, but the rhyme scheme is ABAB for all standard verses and the chorus. the intro, bridge, and conclusion don't follow this pattern.
The last two things are the ones I consider to be really shaky. This is because it is left entirely to how a person looks at these words. The first is euphony in the verses. In verse one, they sing, "You think you lost your love/Well I saw her yesterday." I hear this as euphony because of the "oo" and "eh" sounds that are repeated and because of the sibilance in line one. And although the words themselves can be viewed as sad, the syllables are smooth. And the last thing I noticed was personification. This is when they sing, "Pride can hurt you too." I view this as personification, because I think they're referencing the fact that the person who they're singing to hurt the girl. I think that it's a karma thing.

But then again, its all based on the connotation.

comments

Alex: Fair Warning Is going to be rough :( I'm so sorry
James: Poem

Poem

I used end rhyme, rhyme scheme, and this is a narrative. This isn't on the list of poetry terms, but this poem is a limerick. Or really two limericks put together I guess.

I was walking along a beach

Eating a little peach

Thinking of times

When there were no more rhymes

For me to use in my speech.

When the time came I was ready

I could keep my voice quite steady

I feared I would fail

Speaking with no avail?

But in truth it was over already

A Strange Story Full of Vocab Words

I'm just going to apologize for this before you even read it....

One day, after taking a slew of tests, I walked along the road on the way to the inception of a friend of mine. Although she had reckless tendencies, she was accepted into a sorority. On the way, I met a wandering rogue who desperately craved some excitement, for he too had just taken a large haul of tests. I conceded that I would rather go do something fun than go to a dull inception, so I canceled my rendezvous with my friend (which caused a great deal of strife between us).
We sauntered along until we saw a funny little man soliciting sky diving sessions. We recklessly went and did it. Halfway through the sky, I discovered that my parachute was faux! What a grievance. I was certainly in jeopardy. Did they not know that selling faux parachutes was prohibited?
Luckily, the rogue saved me. When we landed, we went on a crusade against the man that gave me the faux chute. We indicted him of attempted murder, and that resulted in the seizure of his license to sell parachutes, and his incarceration.

comments

Mak: Whatever this is
Caroline:ATDPTI

ATDPTI

The kindness of this human race never ceases to amaze me. I feel like with the news and the media and everything else, we focus on the bad people too much.

Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian captures this kindness when his new friends at Reardan help him out. Penelope shows true empathy in several spots, and even defies her own father's hatred of Indians.

Even when everyone else around her is being racist, she still pulls through for Junior. That thought has stuck with me throughout all of this book.

Research

What I have learned about research through this project is mainly credibility of sources. I have determined that sources I once considered trustworthy may not be, and that certain sources I considered untrustworthy may be usable after all. Apparently, wikipedia is actually useful if I check the "references" and "bibliography" sections. I can look at those sources and get my information from them.
I also learned that my notecards weren't necessarily going to be even. Out of seven sources, I'm not going to have exactly 5 cards per source. I will probably have 10 for one and 3 for another and that's okay. Some of my sources were light in information but nevertheless were crucial to my paper.
So, in short, I learned to lighten up a bit. Lightening up allowed me to be less tense and to do my best.

comments

Sydney: Wednesday
James: Free Post

free post

Something I am unable to comprehend about this world is the obsession we have with scented candles, pluggable scents, and straight up febreze. Honestly. If you think your house smells bad, why don't you use a neutralizer instead of making your house smell like a garden? I, personally, am allergic to most scents, so when people do that I'm stuck over here feeling like I have the flu while everyone else is saying, "wow! It smells nice in here!" 

The teachers at Episcopal are very understanding of this, and Dr. Fenske will unplug her lavender thing and Dr. D will blow out her candles(very appreciated), but it's very rare. My own grandmother keeps the things in every outlet in her house, and every time I go up there I get sick. She always forgets. My aunt always forgets and douses herself in perfume to the point where if I'm in the same room as her I have sneezing/coughing fits every 5 minutes. And even my best friend's mother forgets sometimes (but it's very rare; she usually remembers) and tries to give me some of that "essential oil" stuff.

I don't get offended by it, because I know that it's truly a rare allergy. "Allergic to Febreze? Give me a break." But sometimes I can't help but wonder: is it necessary? Does it really smell that badly in here?

Response to ATDPTI

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is really good. I tried to think of some better word to describe it, but that was all I could come up with. It's just...good. It captures some real world problems while still capturing the teen spirit. (not the deodorant or the song. the abstract concept of what it means to be a teen). It's good because it's inspiring, funny, and well-written. 

Although I'm not sure about some of the innuendos in this book, I suppose that they are necessary. This book can be very dismal at some points, and some of those references just make me giggle a little. It's part of what I appreciate about this book. Even when it seems like nothing can go right for him, there's a joke thrown in there that will at least make me chuckle.

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John: Looking Back
Jack: Improving Second Semester

Last Semester

Last semester, I learned several important things. I learned that asking for help is something we all need to do, and that it did not make me less of a person to do so.  I discovered that I will not always be able to do everything by myself.
I also learned that I should rid myself of the people that aren't my true friends, and those that make me feel badly about myself. I learned that I shouldn't have to make myself feel "pretty" around my true friends, because if they were really true, they wouldn't care. I also learned that I was overlooking people in my life that have been true to me that I was too blind to see.
I learned that sometimes you can be given incorrect advice and sometimes you need to follow your heart. For example, I was told that I needed to stop doing things for other people so much and to do things for myself. But I realized that when I did things for other people, it made ME happy.
I didn't really learn any new study habits or anything, but I learned how to make myself happier. And that, my friends, is something that should never be underrated.

Topic

My research question is "Why is Japan's religious structure so unique?" I knew I wanted to do something religion based, because it's always been something that's fascinated me, but this is sort of where my sources took me. I started out with Eastern Religions, and then I went towards the Japanese religion of Shinto and how Chinese religions affected it, but it didn't feel right. The issue was, Japanese religion is weird. Only 2% of Japanese folk are devout followers of one religion. Most people mix together a bunch of different religions.
I think that this is because the Japanese feel like they shouldn't have to suffer because of their religion. For example, the indigenous religion of Japan is Shinto. In Shinto, when you die, there are no death rites. In fact, when you die, you are considered "impure" and must be disposed of so that you stop polluting the harmony of this world. In Buddhism, death is celebrated as a passing into a world without suffering. But Buddhism thinks that life is suffering, so they have no birth rites. Shinto, however, believes that bringing people into this world is a joyful addition to the harmony of the planet. Thus, most Japanese do Shinto birth rites and Buddhist death rites. On top of all this, neither of those religions have big wedding ceremonies, unlike, say, Christianity, so many Japanese will have Christian weddings. They also celebrate Xmas, and it is considered one of the most romantic days of the year. The government claims to be Shinto, but there are too many references to Confucian principles to count.

comments

James: Research Project
John: Free Post

Research Update.

This research project is going pretty well for me. I really like my topic, which makes this more interesting for me. My topic is the religious structure in Japan.
What I am struggling with is sources. I have good sources, but also have some completely irrelevant sources. Somehow, I cited a source from "Arabian Nights." My topic is Japan, not Arabia! It's gotten better. I'm not struggling with the evaluation/notecard aspect, though.

The Good Things About 2016

Hey, 2016 was a rough year. But here's a really long list of things that happened just to make ya smile. :)

January was the month for animals. South Africa (finally) banned leopard hunting. The FBI started investigating animal cruelty cases. Japan built some special turtle tunnels so they wouldn't get caught on the train tracks. (It's pretty cool. If you want to read about it, go here.)

In February, a firefighter paid a family's late electrical bill so that they could keep their son on life support. The risk of HPV was found to be lowered by vaccine.

In March, Beverly Cleary turned 100, even though she was certain she would only make it to 80. The Chicago Cubs went to hang out with actual bear cubs at the Chicago Zoo, which is just kind of cute.

In April, a 9-year-old reporter called out her haters, saying, "I didn't get this job at nine years old so people would think I'm CUTE. John Hamm went on Sesame Street. That one speaks for itself.

In May, studies revealed that suicide rates reduced by half for people older than 20.

In June, a homeless kid helped carry a guy's groceries, and the man started a GoFundMe page for the kid and his mother that raised over $250,000. A girl who was paralyzed because of a stray bullet incident graduated with honors.

In July, a children's hospital in Michigan used "Pokemon Go" to help get their patients out of bed. 50 million tree saplings were planted in a single day. A barber decided to give free haircuts out to the homeless. A philanthropist plants random $100 bills around her city. The Boston Marathon bombing amputee climbs a mountain. 

In August, a girl trapped in rubble for 17 hours is finally rescued. A couple that won Domino's "free pizza for a year" donated it all to a youth homeless shelter. A 100 year old lady completes a 100 yard dash. An olympic medalist sells his medal to pay for a kid's cancer treatment.

In September, a Florida State football player chose to sit with a boy that was sitting alone when their team went to visit that school. A bus driver saves all his kids from a burning bus. 

In October, a baby elephant 'rescued' her caretaker from the pool. The caretaker was just cleaning the pond, but its still cute. 

In November, Kit Kat donated a car full of kit kats to a guy whose kit kat was stolen. An Ontario court uses a service dog to calm kids down so they can testify.

In December, a dog visited a hospital to say goodbye to his owner. A little girl facing cancer recieved hundreds of Xmas cards.

It was a rough year, sure, but America pulled through it.

Also, most of the info on this list came from the NY Times and the Daily Hive.