What I Did Over Break?

Over break I didn't really do much, which is exactlly what I wanted to do. Monday thru Wednesday all I mostly did was SAT prep for the upcoming SAT this Saturday and I worked on my UC and CSU applications. On Thursday as we all know it was Thanksgiving, so I spent the day with my family. The dinner that my Grandmother prepared was amazing my favorite part of the dinner was the candied sweet potatoes (cooked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, cane sugar, and marshmellows). After dinner I took a short nap and got suited for BLACK FRIDAY! For all of those who don't know Black Friday is the national day for sells in all stores. Ever since I was little my mother and I have went to Black Friday sales together, I really enjoy Black Friday I think that there should be a Black Friday in December right after Christmas. For Black Friday my mother, her friend, and I went to Wal-Mart because of the electronic sale they were having. I got a laptop and my mother got a E-Book and a HUGE HUGE television (personally I really don't care for a bigger television but whatever makes my mommy happy). Throughout the weekend I worked on my Tea Party essay it took me a really long time to write that essay but I pushed through and I think I did a really good job.

Final Tragedy Creation

This week in English class we turned in our tragedy creations. Originally for my tragedy creation I was going to make an alter ego photograph, but there were way too many complications with the alter ego photograph, so I thought of another idea that composed of me writing a poem and recording myself actually performing the poem. Unfortunately there were complications with the sound quality from the sound so I decided that I would just get tragic photographs and place some type of sad music with the sad photographs so that the audience that saw the small video that I made would have so type of sorrow to take away from the film. Then while I was watching my short video I thought it would be nice to add the poem I originally wrote to the end of my video to really take my message home. Overall I thought that my final project was amazing. I really loved the ending result I thought I did a very good job and I am extremely proud of myself.

Tragedy Essay

This week in class we had a lot of time to work on our tragedy essays. I really enjoyed the day that we got to have people read our essays. I felt like I got a lot of feedback with what I can change to make my essay flow better. I was placed in a group with Leah, Lauren, Serena, and Alex and they all gave me really good feedback with grammatical errors, flow, and the overall organization of my essay. With their essays I tried to read it like someone that has never been in our class to make sure that their essays made sense and that they had a good explanation for why they did or didn’t agree with an author’s point of view. I think that reading their essays gave me inspiration to change my essay.

Tragedy Essay: November 5, 2010

This week in class our rough draft essays for our Tragedy essay was due. The rubic for our essay was to reflect on other authors opinion and explain how we felt about the authors opinion and compare it to our opinion on what tragedy was. My basic opinion on tragedy was basically the same as Aristotle’s that tragedy happened to someone not necessarily a person that is a part of a royal family but has an arrogant behavior and falls from power because of their actions and receives a punishment that does not fit their crime. Throughout the essay I tried to prove my point my using other authors articles for evidence. Overall I think that my essay is very strong but I feel like there is not enough of my opinion in the essay. In past essays I have not had a lot of evidence with other readings, so with this essay I made sure to add a lot of evidence but I feel like it is the bulk of MY ESSAY. For my final draft I want to add more of my opinion and find a way to subtract some detail that doesn't need to be added.

Tragedy Project

This week in school we were introduced to our tragedy project and tragedy essay. My idea for my tragic project is to take a alter ego photo. I think that photography can represent tragedy very well if you have a story and purpose behind it. My idea for my photo is to have an alter ego with myself. I want to have one part of my self being the rich royal person and the other side of me being the peasant or fallen person. Aristotle describes tragedy as being a well known or royal person has made their fallen from their arrogant ways that is caused by themselves and receive a punishment that is to severe for their crime. So that is why one part of me is the royal side and then other is more like the peasant, I also want to make it look like the royal side of me will be stepping on the peasant side of me. I found a you tube video that is going to show how to create the alter ego photography.

Oedipus: October 22, 2010

This week in class we finished reading the Greek play Oedipus. A tragic tell about a man's fall from power. While reading this play I saw a lot of myself in Oedipus, mostly with the way that he was at the top of the world then how he just fell from power so fast. It really made me think of myself because sometimes I think that I can climb my way to the top then fall because of my arrogant ways. I never want to achieve all that I want in life then just fall from that power because of something like arrogance and my selfishness towards other people. If I do in fact become a judge or some high powered lawyer that I dream to become, I hope I still remain as down to earth as I am now and that I help my community in any way that I can. And I don't want to give back financially I want to give back with my time and energy. I think that if you just give back financially you don't really contribute all that you can you just think money excuses you from really giving back. So to keep myself from the arrogance that Oedipus had I want to give back and do all I can from my community with time and energy.

All I Ask: October 15, 2010

This week in class I finished my first book for the Independent Reading Project. My first book was “All I Asked” a black romance novel written by Barbara Keaton. When I first started to read “All I Ask” I thought Wow this is a really great book until I got to the middle of “All I Ask” I thought this whole book is extremely predictable because it follows that black romance formula. The black romance formula is a woman is bitter because of a previous break up so she is angry at all men, so when she meets a man she ignores their existence, but one day the right man comes along which she rejects but the man likes her so much that he doesn’t stop trying to get her attention, finally the woman goes on the date with a man and they both slowly fall in love with each other, after a short period of time of knowing each other the man and the woman fall madly in love and find that they cannot live without each other, then they get engaged, and soon after have the wedding of their dreams. In “All I Ask” it uses this very formula Deborah Anderson “Deb” a woman that has just broke up with her college boyfriend Mario meets Darrin Wilson a friend of a friend at a party, when Deb first meets Darrin she ignores the fact that he even exist, until the bump into each other at a restaurant and finally exchange phone numbers, when they finally go on a date both Darrin and Deb find that they are each other’s soul mate and wish to never part from each other. Soon after meeting each other Darrin proposes to Deb and they get married and have a happily ever after. I thought Barbara Keaton made her book so predictable and a huge cliché of black romance novels. If Keaton would have added a twist like embracing the fact that Darrin thought his ex-girlfriend Traci was calling him and made her pop at the same time that Deb came over and Deb and Darrin temporarily broke up. I think some type of wrong turn would make this book excited and known to more people.