Coming of Age Novel Response

          I finished reading "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" and the theme of friendship is still strong, Arnold always stuck by his lifelong friend Rowdy. Even after Rowdy hurt him and and yelled at him, he always believed that he was still friends with Rowdy. He knew that Rowdy was and would always will be his protector. The theme of fitting in seemed to fade away once Arnold joins the basketball team, he worries less about how people feel about him, and more about the games, Rowdy, and his family. His family is poor so he has some difficulty going to and coming from school, paying for lunch, and buying clothes. 

Coming of Age Reading Response

          Some of the themes in "The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian" are friendship and fitting in. Arnold transfers from the school on his reservation called Wellpint, to a school off the reservation called Reardan. This is show of bravery because after he transfers, everyone on his reservation (including his best friend Rowdy) hate him because they think of him as a traitor for leaving the reservation. Arnold was an outcast in Reardan for a while and on his reservation.

          Friendship is a theme in "The Absolution True Diary of A Part-Time Indian" because Arnold and Rowdy were best friends for their whole lives until Arnold goes to Reardan, then Rowdy gets mad at him for going there and doesn't speak to him for a long time. After the second basketball game between Arnold and Rowdy's schools, Rowdy decides to pay Arnold a visit and play some basketball with him. They become friends again and play basketball throughout the whole night and didn't want to stop playing at all.

          Fitting in is a theme because when Arnold first goes to Reardan, he knew absolutely no one and people kept making fun of him for being Indian. He eventually starts to make friends after he punched Roger in the face (weird way to make friends), he also gets a girlfriend who is bulimic. His tribe on the reservation hates him with a passion for leaving them.

          Arnold eventually got what he wanted in his life. He also made a lot of friends in his time at Reardan.

Marijuana Is Legal in Connecticut

          Marijuana has been legalized in Connecticut for medical reasons only. The senate voted 21 to 13 in favor of the bills passing after 10 hours of debating. Pharmacists with special licenses will be dispensing it to people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. Connecticut and 16 other states (including the District of Columbia) have Marijuana legalized. I agree with this decision in the fact that it for medical purposes only. This is meant only to help people with certain diseases, not to have it abused by people who just want to get high.

          Since Marijuana is being used for medical reasons, there should be any problems for the most part. Some people are probably gonna try to fake prescriptions to get the marijuana, but they will probably will get caught by the pharmacist. You don't have to worry about the customers overdosing because it is nearly impossible, the amount of marijuana it takes to overdose is enormous. You can give the customer all they need for the rest of their lives and it still might not be enough to overdose.

          I think it is great that an infamous drug can be used to treat people with serious diseases. I would like to know how marijuana helps improve the condition of the people with the diseases. Maybe other states will follow Connecticut's example and legalize marijuana themselves. The whole United States of America should legalize marijuana for its medical purposes because it doesn't have much harm in itself. If all of the United States legalized marijuana, then more people with the diseases could be treated and be health again.

          Hopefully people in Connecticut will start a chain of marijuana legalization and people can be treat for the diseases they have. I wonder what other diseases marijuana could be used to treat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/us/connecticut-passes-marijuana-bill.html?_r=1&hpw

Don't Plagiarize, It's Not Right

• What did the student do wrong? What could he/she have done to include the source correctly?

          The student could have cite there source to give the author credit or he could have paraphrased it into his own words.

• Write a sentence using the original source correctly; use a quotation or paraphrase.

          The night sky in this painting has swirling clouds, very bright stars, and a lite up moon.

• What are at least 3 ways to avoid plagiarizing?

1. Cite your source

2. Paraphrase

3. Quote the author

Student Blog Response

          I like Gabe C's post on the article Pythons Attack the Everglades. He stated everything he learned in the article. He goes back and adds the details that were necessary to show where in the article he got the information from. He paraphrased all the information he put into the blog post and he cited his sources when he didn't paraphrase. 

          Another blog post I liked was from Wolfe E. I liked his post on the poem Starry Starry Night by Don McLean and Harlem by Langston Hughes. He talks about how studying poetry is hard and it requires a lot of work to decipher. I like how he voices his opinion about dreams and how somethings are more important than dreams.

          I could improve my blog posts from these by organizing more and making it easier to tell what each section of the post is about. I also want to show my thoughts better and give my opinion on things confidently. I think I could learn a lot from other people's blogs and I should learn from examples.

Much Ado About Nothing Review

          We went to go see the play Much Ado About Nothing earlier this week. I loved this play, it had a combination of humor and seriousness. It took place in the 1920's where soldiers were returning from World War I. The props used always fit with the scene and sometimes added some feeling to the scene. The lighting on the big circle was used well because it turned red sometimes so it looked like it was night time, it was partially covered to look like a moon, also, it had light shown on it to look like it was a bedchamber window. The music was used well because the characters were aware of the band playing the music. The costumes were always changing with the scenes, they always fit along with what was going in the scene at the time. This play did everything right when it comes to preforming a play. 

My Favorite and Most Disliked Characters In Romeo and Juliet

          My favorite character in Romeo and Juliet is Mercutio. He is my favorite character because he has really deep thoughts and is really good at trying to make people feel better when they are sad. He is a really good motivational speaker. Mercutio sometimes gets lost in his words and that shows that he always has something to say. He is very thoughtful and descriptive with his speeches. He is not afraid to express his opinion and his desires when he feels they need to be expressed. 


          My least favorite person in Romeo and Juliet is Tybalt. I like him the least because he is really judgmental, he wanted Romeo and Benvolio thrown out of the party that Capulet threw. He thought that they were there solely to make trouble and be a nuisance. He seems like he really only cares about how much he hates the Montagues. 

Letter About Romeo and Juliet

Dear Friend,

          I have been reading Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and it is fantastic! There are so many puns that are so funny. The text itself is a little hard to understand, but thankfully there are translations to some words on the opposite page to make it easier to understand. The Montagues and the Capulets are bitter enemies and they insult each other whenever they come across each other's paths. They use a lot of vile insults against each other. There are many characters in the book, the characters in each act are listed at the beginning of the act. 


          From reading some of Romeo and Juliet, a piece of advice I can give you is, to use the translations on the opposite page to help you understand what Shakespeare is saying. It is really hard to understand it unless you know a lot about the old English they use because you never hear these terms anymore and they are confusing. It was definitely confusing to me and a lot of other people I know who read it as well. They should make a new version of Romeo and Juliet where it has modern day terms and is easy to understand.


          I feel that this book has deep meaning and will show some very common problems from that time period. It will also show a very deep love story about two lovers on different sides of a war. I wonder how the story goes after they kill themselves, or does it just end there?

Sonnet 27 Response

          We read Sonnet #27 by Shakespeare in class recently. It is about a man that goes to bed exhausted and dreams. He is tired all thee time, at night because his mind can't rest because of his dreams, in the day because he has to do hard work. He dreams of things far away from where he lives. He says that there is a darkness that blind people can see, where his soul can see when someones "shadow" is in his sightless view. This seems to me that this is he is describing how he feels dreams are like, something everyone can see through darkness even if they're unable to see. He says that his dreams take him far away from where he lives and works.

          Shakespeare says that his dreams make the night look and feel new. This makes me think that the night is a timeless beauty that never people never get bored of seeing. He says that for himself and someone else, there is no peace of mind. I think this is because they can't stop thinking about each other and they both have a lot of work to do during the day. He loves this person so much that even while asleep he tires himself, thinking of this person.

          I think this sonnet relates to life now because some people might feel like this too. Some people might be so madly in love that they cannot rest because they are thinking of one person constantly while they work or sleep. Also I think that it could also be the other way around, someone could hate someone so much that they cannot sleep because of how much they focus on the one person they hate. It is a matter of how the person affects your life and how you react to it.

Sonnet

School

As much as I don’t want to go, I must

To get the grades I need to graduate

To get that diploma for which I lust

To get out of school on the exact date

I really want to leave this horrid place

And go out and have fun with my great friends

The extremely long school year ends without haste

Before school year ends, we must tie loose ends

Summer cannot come fast enough for me

When it does it passes by too quickly

People in summer have no time to meet

For half the time we get, we spend sickly

Please get me out of this wretched kid trap

And let us stay in a place to play taps

Michelangelo poem

You made the world beautiful
With your works of art
The statues
The paintings

No one was as great as you
Not even Leonardo
He might have tried
But he tried in vain

The David,
The Creation of Eve,
Just two of your famous works
And there are many more where those came from

Goodbye to you Michelangelo
You were and are venerated by many people

Michelangelo

"The Creation of Eve" by Michelangelo

          Michelangelo was born on March 6th, 1475 in Florence, Italy. He made many works such as "The Creation of Eve" and "The David". Many of his works are in the Sistine Chapel. His works are mainly from parts of the Bible. He was rivals with another famous artist, maybe you've heard of him, Leonardo Da Vinchi. Michelangelo was also an inspiration to Raphael. Michelangelo died on February 18th, 1564.

          The painting "The Creation of Eve" is cracked in some places, I think this helps show how old this painting and how long ago this was painted. The colors are dull which shows the mood of the painting. Eve is begging God for something and he's explaining something to her (I don't know Bible stories because I'm not Christian). God is the only one in clothes, i guess he doesn't want Adam and Eve to start with anything. 

          I think this shows that even when we are in desperate need of something, people won't let us have them, even when they have enough to spare. This is different because this takes place before money was really important  and all they needed was food, clothing, and shelter, all of which they do not appear to have. I think that shows modern day homeless people, they don't have food and shelter, so they beg for it from people who are better dressed and fed.

          After researching Michelangelo, I really want to go to Italy and see his work in the Sistine Chapel. I want to see this painting in person, I want to see if it looks the same online or if it's more cracked in person.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Again)

          I have continued reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One thing I noticed while reading was that Doyle get really descriptive in the story The Blue Carbuncle while describing a hat that is part of Holmes' latest case. He describes every feature of the hat, even the stains and smells. While reading the description, it was like I had the hat with me and I could see exactly what it looked like. He even went as far as to describe the little marks from a pen that was used to keep the hat looking a little bit better.


          Doyle also describes people's reactions well, like when Holmes is asking a salesman who sells geese, he gets really mad for absolutely no reason, he really goes into detail about how the person spoke when he was asked questions. Doyle did a great job with how in depth he went with the descriptions, he didn't go overboard and bore the readers and he didn't leave the readers clueless of where the story is or what is happening.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Again)

        I have been reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and haven't gotten much farther in it, I've not been able to read much this week. From what I have read though, I can see that Doyle has used the theme of revenge in one of the stories. The story he used the theme of revenge in is The Five Orange Pips, where his new client's family has been receiving threats from the old terror group, the K.K.K. His father and uncle had both received threat letter containing pips from an orange. a while after they get them, they end up dead, when the bodies are found, they always look like an accident, but it was just members from the K.K.K assassinating them. When Holmes' client gets the letter, he is assassinated and Holmes' goes into a fit of rage and swears revenge on them, the story ends there.

         Something I think Doyle did well in the book is that he describes everything that is happening to the people Holmes' is talking to or that Holmes is trying to help. He shows how they react to everything Holmes says that shocks them and that makes them realize something. He emphasizes the clients reactions and their realizations. He makes the reader see how the person reacts rather than just read it.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

          I have been reading "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" over the break. I think one of themes in this book is betrayal. This theme only appears in one of the stories I've read so far. It's the second or third story in the book.

          The betrayal in that story is that a stepfather goes incognito as a man that works in a post office and pretends to fall in love with his stepdaughter and makes her swear to wait for him to return once he goes missing. He only betrayed her because he didn't want her to interact with any other men because he's antisocial and overprotective.

          I think it's interesting that the author decided to make the book in the perspective of Sherlock Holmes' sidekick, Watson. It makes it so that you get an up close look at Holmes' entire process of problem solving. It gives you a look at what it's like to be friends with Holmes and hear his amazing deductions explained. This makes the stories a little more realistic because you know what it's like to be on the sidelines.