Better poem

You know how I said I can't write a serious poem? Well, thanks to my daily dosage of 60 milligrams 'o Vyvanse, I can. Haha! Haha! Haha!

So anyway, I chose to write a Megan-style prolonged poem in preparation for the poetry unit (which we may or may not do) last night. I tried to incorperate a lot of romantic symbolism into this one, and some more metaphors and symiles and such. And by the way, NO THESAURUS. I never use a thesaurus. It's all from my big vocabulary! You know, isn't there a lot of ironyin the sense that I was in WordMasters, Write Away, a handful of spelling bees, and I got sat down here in normal-level Language Arts? Well, at least I have an Honors reccomendation for next year, but so does every other kid, so screw me feeling special. Anyway, here is my ten-minute masterpiece. Please do comment, and enjoy.

Behold.


Emotional Roller Coaster

I wake up in a silver car
On a coaster I’ve seen somewhere before
I don’t know how I got here,
But this is where I am.
Seatbelt won’t eject
Can’t see where the tracks end
We’re going for a ride.
It’s traveling up the hill
Moving a little slowly
Still don’t really know where I am
A familiar face next to me
He says “hello”
That boy is a beautiful swan
Long pale arms like tree branches
Lengthy blonde hair past his shoulders
And eyes a pale blue like the morning’s clouds
Just as we reach the top,
The sun starts to set
Maybe I’ll stay here for a minute
I look at the boy
When our gaze locks, he looks away
I do the same in disgust
Is it for myself or the boy?
Too late to think now,
We are dropping fast
Hold on tight
Feel the adrenaline
It burns so much, but I feel like I need it
It distracts me from wondering how I got here
It’s short but sweet
Painful at the same time
But now it’s over
The boy leans in for a kiss
We turn our heads to the right
Getting closer
Roller coaster turns right
Our heads butt instead.
Roller coaster turns left
He cuts me with a knife.
From a pocket, he pulls a bandage
His touch is so soft
It makes the stinging evaporate to mist
But now we’re going upside down
I close my eyes tight
I feel a sensation
Halfway through the loop, I drop from my seat
Never felt anything more painful.
The ride comes to a halt
Allowing me to get back onWithout hesitation, I do.
Then I see that there is only one silver car.
The boy isn’t there
Just some luxurious seating
As I step inside, it feels empty
The car starts moving on the tracks
It twists around a couple of times
I feel nothing
Out of thin air, the boy reappears from the shadows
Has he come back for me?
Or maybe to enjoy the ride?
Intensely the roller coaster is zooming forward
I’m scared
The shimmering railing is all I have to hold on to
The emotion that I once hung on to has numbed
I see the boy staring at me again
Now I know where I am.
As soon as I find my sense of direction
The silver tracks continue no more
Now we’re falling
Falling
Falling
Falling
And we never stop

"The People Could Fly" essay

Free Falling

____Have you ever dreamt of flying? In the short African fable “The People Could Fly” by Virginia Hamilton, the people with the purest souls really could fly. The slaves thought that flying was a sacred gift, and the idea soon worked its way into their religion. Even though Virginia Hamilton’s story “The People Could Fly” is a tale of African folklore, it has a lot of spiritual meaning not only to blacks, but to all races as well.
____In this romantic short story, a wise old man from Africa along with many other of his African comrades are taken from their homeland to be slaves in America. The wise and pure knew magic, and had wings like a blackbird's which would enable them to fly. These wings represent freedom. However, when they are taken in to slavery, they are stripped of their freedom, and therefore, their wings. They are forced to live a cruel life where all hope for their race is dead. Sarah, a mother who once possessed the gift of flight, was living her worst nightmare when the Overseer whipped her infant because it was crying. Toby helped her to escape from this evil man’s clutches by instructing her to fly again. “Go, as you know how to go!” he exclaimed, and after Toby chanted some magic words, she flew away from the white Overseer with her beloved baby in her arms. Later, he helped many others fly away from the torture. As the Overseer was about to kill Toby, he used his magic to fly away along with every slave in the plantation. Soaring away to happiness was the life symbolism which appears in the end of literature in the romantic mode.
____Even though “The People Could Fly” is based on African beliefs and myths, it is very similar to the popular religion Christianity. Flying away from the plantation is like going to Heaven. In Christianity, the people who resisted sin and ordained the word of God were accepted into the gates of Heaven, the perfect paradise. Along with that, Toby can be compared to Jesus, the son of God. Like Toby from “The People Could Fly,” Jesus saved innocents from terrible fates with miracles. Even though they are from two very different origins, these two religions are rather similar.
____Another part of African religion that connects to this story is the art of music. According to www.negrospirituals.com, negroes often expressed their faith through hymns, or spiritual songs. Even in modern times, African-Americans sing in Christian Gospels. This is a tradition which started way back in the day. Toby’s magic words “Kum…yali, kum buba tambe” are really from a negro folk song called “Song of Solomon.” This was sung in the slavery period and accurately depicts what Sarah is going through in the story. “Black lady fell down on the ground, kum buba yali, kum buba tambe. Threw her body all around, kum konka yali, kum konka tambe.” There is a good chance that Virginia Hamilton took Sarah’s character and Toby’s chant from this song.
____Black history and the slavery period are very important pieces of the black culture. Even if you are from a different faith or race, you may learn something about life if you analyze the morals carefully. A good place to start is Virginia Hamilton’s “The People Could Fly.”

Transformation ("The Ugly Duckling" essay)

Transformation

____Everybody possesses a quality about themselves that just isn’t right. Your hair might be the wrong color, your feet could be too big, or maybe you stutter whenever you try to speak. As they say, nobody’s perfect. So why do people beat themselves up about these qualities? The answer is simple; so, they can fit in with society. Having trouble fitting in is exactly the situation that the cygnet is stuck in in the story “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen.
____In this story, the cygnet is born a misfit in a nest of ducks. All the ducklings are prettier than him, and he is treated as an outcast by everyone just because of his physical appearance. Here is where the theme, Man versus Society, comes into play. It is here where society begins to nip at his self esteem.
____Even though it has an ironic theme to it, “The Ugly Duckling” is in the mode of romance. The swan is a romantic symbol which symbolizes transformation, and that is what takes place in this fairy tale. The protagonist, the cygnet, was tortured in his childhood, but he wouldn’t let that get the best of him. He turned out to evolve into a beautiful, respected swan, and swam off with his family in peace. That shows that just because something is wrong with you in your youth, it can change in the future.
____Other stories share this moral as well. In the story Cinderella, a girl is treated like a slave. Everyone hated her, and she never felt beautiful, just like the cygnet. Then she transformed into the most beautiful thing of all! This story compares to The Ugly Duckling a lot because similar things happen to the main character and they’re both romantic fairy tales. However, not only stories can be compared to this story.
____Real-life examples often portray the idea of transformation from the child’s tale. In Prentice Hall’s “Literature,” it is stated that Hans Christian Andersen wrote autobiographies periodically throughout his life. Andersen believed these autobiographies were necessary to display how far he had come. They talked about growing up as a peasant and expressed the struggle achieving success in his later life. This man likes his characters to be individuals, like him. In fact, “The Ugly Duckling” was very symbolic to his life! When he was young, there was so little respect in the world for him because he was considered unattractive. On top of that, he struggled with dyslexia, a reading handicap, while trying to become a writer, but he broke through the strife. He became one of the most famous authors in history. Even though his death occurred thirteen and a half decades ago, his fame and his literature still live in all of us.
____You can easily connect Andersen’s life to his fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling.” For example, the cygnet is unnamed in the fable. This may be because the ugly duckling is really Hans Christian Anderson. That is one of the most important pieces of symbolism in the story. Andersen’s symbolism is the glue that holds the pages together. Who knows? Maybe “The Ugly Duckling” is really another autobiography behind the mask of a fairy tale.
____Almost everybody has heard the age-old saying which says that everybody should be themselves if they want to acceptance in this world. It was that little moral which earned Hans Christian Andersen his long, successful life. All he wanted was to fit in, but when he chose to express himself instead of hiding behind a fake personality, he got more than he bargained for and rose above the rest. Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” shows that beauty comes naturally if you accept the person you really are even if nobody else will.

Mythbusters - George Bishops: LEAVE KAITLYN ALONE!

From my YouTube video "Mythbusters - George Bishops". Unfortunately, it cut off during the Leave Kaitlyn Alone part, but I am going to redo it without the explanation of the "contreversy" which pressured me to make the video. This remake will be titled "LEAVE KAITLYN ALONE!" and will be more centered on the video which it is parodied on ("LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" by Chris Crocker). For example, I will be in a white T-shirt and lying on a tan sheet. Anyway, here is the script.

How dare anyone out there make fun of Kaitlyn after all she’s been through. She went through Grimace, appeared on the internet in a bear mask, and now some guy named George Bishops is claiming to be her boyfriend and she doesn’t even know him. All you people care about is gossip and calling her weird. She’s attention deficit! And what you don’t realize is that Kaitlyn out there making all these lip sync videos for you and all you do is write a bunch of crap about her. She doesn’t even have a Facebook OR a boyfriend. She gives and gives and gives but all you people want is more, more, more, more, more… Leave her alone! You’re lucky she even performed for you! Leave Kaitlyn alone, please. Perez Hilton talked about professionalism and said if Kaitlyn was a professional, she would have pulled it off no matter what. Speaking of “professionalism,” what kind of a professional publicly busts her when she’s going through a hard time? Leave Kaitlyn alone, please. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Leave Kaitlyn alone RIGHT NOW. I mean it. Anyone who believes George Bishops, you deal with Angry Mitchell, because Kaitlyn is single right now. Leave her alone!

Here is a link to the original video, "Mythbusters - George Bishops": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMylqEM4GJQ

"The Lie" essay

Balance of Order

Kurt Vonnegut portrays a moral society in his short story “The Lie.” He does this by using a private boys’ school as his setting and calls it perfect. This shows that he has a lot of respect for order in this world, because fancy prep schools like the one in this story display a lot of strictness. In fact, the element of order can be found throughout the piece. However, chaos mixes into the story soon, and it causes a lot of trouble for the main character. “The Lie” by Kurt

Vonnegut shows that lying is never the right thing to do.
Whitehill School for Boys is just beginning to accept black students into the mix, and a good example of the order in the story lies here. The white students share no hate or bias against their colored classmates, which shows that they have a lot of self-control. The school’s name, Whitehill, does carry symbolism that whites are what to be expected in this school. Even though there is a lot of order in this piece, chaos is everywhere, and it can’t be stopped. The event of chaos is what makes this story interesting.

What would you do if you were forced to live a lie? In “The Lie,” Eli Remenzel is expected to

attend a school founded by his family. All boys who are members of the Remenzel family have attended this school. The young boy disdains this type of education, but applies anyway because his father believes that is what’s best for him. However, Eli does not pass Whitehill’s acceptance exams. When his father hears of this dreadful news, he rips up his test results and lies to permit his son to attend. Before he does this, the story even labels it as chaos. On page 39, it says “The chaos that followed this statement was not only emotional. It was real as well.”

The reality of this is that lying gets you nowhere in life. Sylvia, Eli’s elegant mother, was scared for her son because she knew of the “hideous trap Eli had caught himself in.” She was definitely right! Eventually, when Mr. Remenzel confesses of his wrongdoings, Eli shows very much resent. He has been hurt; torn at the heart from his trusted parent’s betrayal. Not only did Mr. Remenzel lie to the school board, but he lied to his own son as well. He apologizes to Eli, and promises that he should attend Whitehill no more. With that, the story is over, but if it were continued, it would most likely take Eli a while to forgive his father for his lie.

Chaos and order need balance, but in this story, one man goes too far. He hurts his son deeply with a lie he has forced him to live. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “The Lie” teaches that lying is never the answer.

Poem for group

Glowing Soul

Through heaven and hell,
There is a light.
Through thick and thin,
It burns bright.
With its prideful glow,
Passion ignites.
The glow of the soul is the only thing
That guides us through the fog of life.
Everybody loves someone,
If it dies, it cuts like a knife.
However, when all hope is lost,
The soul passes the strife.
Others are found
Safe and sound
Makes you feel whole.
Love and loss are boundaries to cross,
Just follow the glowing soul.

The Necklace Essay by Kaitlyn

In the short story “The Necklace” by the French author Guy de Maupassant, an egotistical woman by the name of Madame Mathilde Loisel envies the rich. Even though she has a kind husband, she takes him along with everything else she has for granted because they aren't high enough class for her. Many women are similar, selfish people just like Mathilde. If they read "The Necklace," maybe they would understand a little more. People need to learn not to be self-absorbed.


Many women today are egocentric, caring for nothing but their own selves. In my life, my grandfather's wife, Ariel O'Hera, is an egotist. She leaves my grandfather to suffer while using his money to buy designer things and travel...WITHOUT HIM! I can compare Ariel to Madame Mathilde Loisel because she is selfish as well. She pushes her huband out of his way so she can get whatever she wants. He got her a ball invitation, but she refused to go unless he bought her a fancy gown. Hadn't he gone through enough trouble already?!? A lot of husbands wouldn't even try to get to the ball. He must have tried for weeks to get invited since they are a mere clerk's family! And when she lost her friend's necklace, it was HIM that did most of the work to pay for a new one. Both of these women are incredibly rude, and don't deserve such kind husbands.

The struggle to afford the nechlace was her fall. Her tragic flaw was being so selfish and foolish, not simply being honest that she had lost it, because soon after her poverty years, Madame Forestier tells her that the neckace was worth only 500 francs, a tiny percentage of what she had paid to replace it! Worst of all, she blamed her suffering on the innocent woman! Envy is not the answer to anyone's problems. As expressed in this short story, it digs you in a deeper hole. Respect that other people are more fortunate than you, and that you are more fortunate than others. Mathilde takes everything for granted. Even ten years of being poor didn't teach her any respect. We don't need stubborn people like her in this world. They are weighing us down; not letting us progress in anything. All they do is try to get their way.

This is in the tragic mode because it follows the mode line. It starts in chaos when Mathilde's husband tries to get her to go to the ball while she refuses to go without luxury. She rises to power when she goes to the ball and is the most beautiful woman there. Her flaw is when she is to self-absorbed to be honest to her friend, and her fall is her poverty. The loss is the loss of 10 years.

Some women in this world are very egotistical and envious. Mathilde Loisel suffered for her egotism, and she deserved it! "The Necklace" shows this. Maybe if the self-centered people read this short story, they would realize that they are wrong and correct themselves before it is too late.

Journal 1/19/10

An example of one of the three short stories my class read for Language Arts that reflects the Man VS Himself theme is the story "The Necklace." In "The Necklace," a woman named Mathilde is very egotistical and envies the rich. Her kind and selfless husband makes a nice gestire to Mathilde and gets her a very rare ball invitation. She makes him buy her an expensive gown, then demands jewels. She ends up borrowing some jewelry from a very high-class friend of hers. She attended the ball with the diamond necklace she had borrowed and lost it after the ball. She and her husband purchased a similar one, which caused them to live in poverty for ten years. Later, the rich lady told her that the necklace she had borrowed was worth far less then the one she and her spouse had replaced it with. Then Mathilde blamed her misfortune on the rich lady! This is clearly themed with Man VS Himself. If Mathilde had not been so egotistical and jelous, she wouldn't have dug herself in this hole. It was a terrible fate.

Writing Goals for Today

For today, I know that I need to expand my ideas. I know I can do this, because I am the most creative person I know!

Journal 1/18/10

In Jack London’s “To Build A Fire,” the ironic theme is “Man VS Wild.” Even though the mode in “To Build A Fire” is tragedy, it shows the theme. The man is trapped in a blizzard and dies. The wild conquers the man. His life is stolen. Jack London adapted this theme perfectly into the story! The other ironic themes are Man VS Man, Man VS Society, and Man VS Himself. Try to see if you can find these themes in other short stories!