Monday, December 19, 2011

Do I get along with my parents?

Funny you ask that the day after I heard my dad mutter (something) kids :P I say "something" because I didn't hear the first word, but I can imagine what it was. It's also funny that you ask this question when you have "bane" as a vocabulary word. It is REALLY awkward that one of the words is "wanton" ... I do hope no one uses that word in their blog response o.o I do get along with my parents for the most part. Did you know that my dad finds most of our vocabulary words vapid? He knows most of them already! My mom is another story. She hardly knows any of the words. If my parents and I had a shouting match like many households do, that would be an EXTREME aberration as I would never scream at my parents. Protest and argue? Yes, but not scream at them in a fury.

On a side note, this sentence will put you in a quandary:

If bananas are yellow and Bob is yellow, then Bob is a banana, and if Billy is yellow, then Billy is also a banana, and because Billy is also a bean, then Bob is a bean, and since Bob is also a lemon, then Billy is a lemon too, and because court overruled the fact that Bob was a banana, then Billy is also not a banana, and therefore, Billy was a former banana but still is is a yellow bean lemon.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Gothic Liturature

1. Supernatural events:

This is shown in Wuthering Heights when Lockwood has the "dream" about Catherine's ghost grabbing him. It is not explained and just raises questions, especially because Heathcliff starts talking to the "imaginary" ghost. This adds to the mystery and may or may not be explained later in the story.

2. Setting in a "Castle"

The mansion is pretty similar to a castle.  It is secluded and large, holding many secrets, which also contributes to the mood of foreign mystery. Since Lockwood is an outsider, the story seems like you are removed from the story and yet in it, as you are in the same mansion. It's like it's playing around you, but you are not part of it, as the little world apart from society does not fit with Lockwood, or rather, he does not fit with it.

Monday, December 5, 2011

If I could be any animal, I would be...

...some sort of bird of prey owned by a very nice human. Why? Because I want to fly and not worry about being eaten by some hawk or something and maybe catch lunch in my afternoon flights. I'd want to be owned by a human because I'm so languid, so having someone provide food and shelter for me would make life so much easier and lazier. Plus, I wouldn't have to stress about surviving all the time. I wouldn't be some hapless eagle whose nest fell out of a tree or whose butt froze in the cold. I'd have a heater and air conditioning!

Monday, November 21, 2011

My favorite TV show is...

My favorite TV show is MYTHBUSTERS! This is because it is informational and entertaining at the same time. Since there is such a profuse amount of myths in the world, the Mythbusters will never run out of myths to test. Early on in Mythbusters's history, "Scottie," one of the testers, was replaced by Grant. I'm not sure why that happened, but it's possible she abdicated her position as a Mythbuster so she could do other things with her life.

Monday, November 14, 2011

I wish I was there when...

I wish I was there when Dr. Bill found out the day was not a half day, but a full day, and that his band practice would have to be canceled. Dr. Bill's band practices are sacrosanct; nothing should prevent anyone from going to the hallowed practices. So, when the announcement came on that a tangential plan would happen involving a full day instead of half, Dr. Bill flipped out. I wish I could have seen him flipping out.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Common Tools: Vocabulary

Stephen King told us to never make our writing pieces "better" by adding fancy words, because it just makes the writing sound confusing. In his examples, the words were too fancy and even if they sounded intelligent, I felt like they were trying too hard. I thought that Kings's piece on vocabulary was really humorous, especially when he was talking about Johnny "pushing"... you know. All his comparisons were amusing, and that fun quality to it helps me remember it. I found I tend to find synonyms to words I am using, though that is usually when I start to repeat the word too much (hah I was going to say "often" after thinking "much," but then again, "often" isn't very complex), so perhaps I should stop doing that. I am guilty of right clicking and looking up synonyms on Word. But then again, then my essay would be really repetitive. I'll probably just not find complex words unless I've repeated it a bajillion time. I think this little excerpt will help my writing a lot because people could understand my writing better and I don't have to go stressing on sounding intelligent.

Monday, October 24, 2011

If I was a crayon...

I personally like the black crayon best. Black is mysterious and makes an awesome contrast when bright colors are used with a black background. You can also outline with it, and it's not actually a color. I'd use that color most if I drew with crayons, but I don't because I much prefer pencils. If I wanted to use myself, I'd be black. But I don't use crayons much. That is why I would be white. No one ever uses white. I wouldn't have to deal with over zealous toddlers holding the crayons too hard and breaking me in half, or mashing my head against the paper... unless I was the toddler. I used white even when it was unnecessary. Now, I feel I have made this discussion garrulous by going on and on about my preference on crayons. I'll stop now. By the way, you missed the day I brought cookies. I had one for you :(

Friday, October 14, 2011

The Uncle Oren Metaphor

I liked the metaphor Stephen King provided; however, I do think he took a little long to tell it to us. I didn't think we needed the exact details of how he chose a screwdriver and how Oren used it. The metaphor comparing a tool box to the wealth of techniques we use to write makes it easier to write whenever since instead of thinking about an assignment as a whole, we can think about the different elements of writing that we bring around with us in our heads. It metaphor helps us realize that writing can be a "divide and conquer" type activities, focusing on the different types of "tools" like grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, substance, literary devices, and other elements used in writing. This passage, along with the others, will affect my reading and writing for the rest of my life.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

If I was the president of the United States...

I would not have America be filled with ubiquitous torture. I was merely thinking about death eaters in class as the first vocabulary word, capitulate, made me think about how they tortured people, making them beg for mercy. From there, I just thought it would be cool to make all the sentences based off of my first one. So no, I do not want to torture people. If I was president, I would do my best to have people's lives be torture free. I have a rail against the treatment of the poor and homeless, so if I was president, I would try to fix the homelessness and poverty problem. There are just too many people living on the streets of cities like NYC. This is one of the reasons why I hate going to the city. It depresses me whenever I walk past a homeless person. Of course, there are a bunch of other things whong with America as well, but it would take a book to write that. See? I'm not a psychotic torturer. 

Friday, October 7, 2011

My Theses


Miss Brill’s loneliness led her to her denial of how friendless and disliked she was, as shown when she convinces herself of her importance in her made up play, when she makes herself out to be a wonderful, well liked actress, and when she doesn't admit to herself that she is hurt by the young couples' comments.

Monday, October 3, 2011

If I could be doing anything right now, it would be...

...doing magic obviously. Who wouldn't want to be able to do things with the flick of a wand, as long as it's all benign magic and not something like torturing animals or causing world-wide panic. That would not be good. Of course, if there was magic, then we may find ourselves in a quagmire if someone live Voldy came up and tried to kill everyone, but I suppose some people could use some more magic to counteract Voldy's extremely non-pacific-chaos-inducing-terror magic.

Monday, September 26, 2011

My favorite childhood game...

One of my favorite childhood games was Bomberman on the SNES. I remember playing it with my family, or with family friends at get-togethers, controlling my bomberman into a maelstrom of exploding bombs. I can just imagine myself being obdurate at convincing my dad or anyone else to play with me. I still play the game now on the wii with my little sisters. I usually kick their butts, but oh well, they are younger.

Monday, September 19, 2011

My favorite Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks movie...

Apparently, all my favorite movies are from Warner Bros. Oh well. My favorite Disney/Pixar movie is How To Train Your Dragon. This is because I LOVE (friendly) DRAGONS! If I ever got to ride a dragon, I would be so ebullient, I think my cheeks would hurt from smiling. Yes, I may find it slightly daunting since I would fear falling off of the dragon, but I think the pay off is worth the risk.

Monday, September 12, 2011

If I won the lottery...

If I won the lottery, at first, I would balk at the fact that, out of millions of people, it was ME that won, and, even though nearly impossible, I beat the odds. Then, my house would probably be a cacophony of different pitches of screeching and thumping as my mom, two little sisters, and I started screaming our heads off and jumping up and down. I have no idea what my dad would be doing then.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

On Vocabulary:

I do not like studying vocabulary much at all. I find it boring since it is just straight memorization and requires no deeper thinking, but just (in my opinion), passive reading of definitions or tedious activities aimed at drilling the definitions into our heads. No matter how much I dislike it, I do find it important, at least in the beginning years when we learn more basic, common words. As we get into high school and college, when we start to learn words like discombobulated (just the first complex word to pop into my head) it get to be less important since the use of these words are rarer and many people can live productive lives without knowing some of the obscure words. You can always just ask someone what the word meant unless you are too proud to admit you don't know what it means. In that case, you can torture yourself with knowing words no body uses just in case somebody does use it. If the word is in a book or you encounter it in daily life, you can always just look it up in a dictionary.