Omar: The next time you're in a public place such as a coffeehouse, park, or a store observe the people around you. Pick a person, couple, or a group and imagine what their lives might be like.

    I picked a person I saw at the physical therapist. She was a middle aged woman who did not look very happy. I believe that she lived in the north at the beginning of her life but then moved down to the south for her husband's job and wasn't happy since it was so much hotter. Everytime it gets hot she gets grumpy and mad that she lives in Louisiana.
    She also has  two children who are both in college. She misses them terribly and wants them to move back. She had just bought a dog and found out she was allergic to it but she doesn't want to give it away since it such sweet animal . She is going to live with her allergy.

Writing Center

     I went to the writing center for the literary analysis. I don't ever know where to put commas when I am writing so I wanted to focus on that. It was really helpful because the person told me what I did most often and for me to look for that again. I also wanted to look at my word choice for a couple of the sentences.
     Even though I liked it so much, I don't think I will go back more than the one time required next semester because now that I know what I tend to miss a lot I can focus on those things since I know how to edit a little bit better now. The writing center is a very good resource for the schol because it really does help.

Reading Log

Lord of the Flies Reading Focus project   12-9-13   2 hours

Reading Log

Lord of the Flies      11/27/13       1 hour 15 minutes
Lord of the Flies      11/29/13       1 hour

Reading Log

11-15-13 Lord of the Flies    2 hours

Chihuahuas

       I don't have anything to write about so I am just going to rant about my dog. I have a chihuahua and his name is Aldo. He is really cute but he is bad too. We call him the "stealth pooper" because he secretly poops in the house. If you call his name he scurries up with a guilty look on his face and you know he has pooped somewhere or chewed up something important.
     When I lose my phone, the first place to look is in his bed. I can't even count how many times I have found my phone in his bed the past month. He likes to hoard things. He thinks that other animals are toys that we have bought him and tries to return them when he tires of them. He also hoards stuffed animals. He has a tiny bed but it looks like a mountain because he piles toys on top of each other and then climbs up the mountain he made. There are so many other things that he has done that are irritating but he is a really sweet animal which trumps the irritation with him because he can tell when you are sad and will come up to you and try to cheer you up.
     I guess I wouldn't classify him as a dog, he is a creature. He is not a rat nor a dog or cat. He is something that is just indescribable except by the word creature.

Blog Prompt

Write about evil:write about one interpretation of it and then write about how you see this interpretation

     When thinking of evil, some don't think monsters or killers, they think of people in general. They believe that everyone has evil inside them. It only matters if you embrace it or not. The people who are able to hold their evil at arm's length are strong because they aren't falling into one of the natural things about humans. They believe that those who have embraced it should be kept at bay but they should also be helped because it takes a lot of effort to keep the evil locked away and some people just aren't strong enough. Basically what they are saying is that evil is natural and you have to work at keeping away.
     I don't necessarily think that this view is wrong but I also don't think it is right. I feel like there are different types of evil in the world and you can't categorize them all into one idea. Everyone has their own view points on evil which just makes that many more explanations that are right because that singular person when they think of an explanation they are thinking of the evil they have witnessed and no one is able to embrace all of the evil in the world to make an explanation up for that because that would just drive them mad.

The Lord of the Flies and Reading Log

The English class started to read The Lord of the Flies recently and I have found it a very interesting book. It really confused me at first because the author doesn't just straight out state important information, but instead he hides under more story. Going over it in class was really helpful for me because I hadn't understood what was going on until then.

I hope that I enjoy the book, but I also think that I will have trouble understanding it along the way. I will really have to read each part and analyze them for something important that might make the book. Overall the first set of annotations weren't very hard but they also weren't very deep. I am hoping to do the next set and then find some time to reread the first and second chapters to add annotations.

11/7/13       literary analysis      45 minutes

11/8/13       literary analysis      30 minutes

11/9/13       The Lord of the Flies    45 minutes

Deserted Island

In class last week, we pretended we were left deserted on an island and tried to find what we would do. If we were actually deserted on  an island, I don't think the class would survive. A lot of people were trying to take charge and move everyone into groups. The organizational grouping was a good idea because it helped prioritize the important things and make sure they would get done.

Personally, I didn't really find much to say during this whole exchange because everything important was already being said. Everyone was shouting out ideas and hoping to be heard at first, and the talking stick made it worse. Te talking stick was a bad idea because they never work and only end up in more noise. The exchange wasn't very organized but key points were taken down.

Reading Log

10/30/13      Worked on thesis for Literary Analysis     45 mintues
10/31/13       Mapped out characters of Literary Analysis story    15 mintues
11/1/13         Outline of Literary Analysis                     1 hour and 15 minutes

First Day of Soccer

       Today was the first day of high school soccer. I was very nervous and am still nervous about it. When I went I realized that it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Everyone was very nice and Coach was very supportive. He knows about my shin splints and is encouraging me to start slow and easy. The support from him really helped calm down my nerves.
       Today was an easy practice due to the fact that it was the first practice. We climbed over the fence to get to the baseball field to practice and then went to warm up. After warming up we were instructed to get a ball and dribble around. My favorite part of the practice was when we played possession. Sadly it ended though, which led to starting to play defense against offense. Overall the practice was fun and I am excited for the new season to begin.

Reading Log

8/24/13      Short Stories         90 minutes
8/27/13      The Sphinx's Queen     60 minutes

The Child's Story by Charles Dickens

     I just read The Child's Story by Charles Dickens. I thought it was kind of confusing because the traveller would follow a path and would meet a friend each time. Every time he moved on his new friend would be older than the last one. I figured maybe when his friend disappeared he just moved onto the next spot and aged while the traveller was walking but it never confirmed if it was the same person.
     The ending was just as confusing as the rest of the story. I understood it, but then I didn't. The traveller's grandchild ended up being the one to tell the story and all of the friends were the family that was surrounding the grandfather. Now that I have written out what happened I understand it more but I still think that the friends were all the same people but the child at the end made it seem like it wasn't.

Personal Questions and Reading Log

- Why have I recently stuck to happy books?
- Why can't I finish a book once I get to the sad part?
- What would it be like to live somewhere other than Baton Rouge?


8/11/13     Five Summers by Una LaMarche      2.25 hours
8/13/13     Five Summers by Una LaMarche      1 hour

Reading Log

10/2     Siddhartha     1 hour
10/4     Short Stories(to study)     1 hour and 15 minutes

reading log

9/27/13     A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris      50 minutes
9/28/13     A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris      70 minutes

My Short Story Plot

       My short story follows a set of twins named Carina and Callie Machete. Carina, the narrator, is an all around sweet person but she is a little too loyal and trusting. Callie has a lot of problems with being a good kid and she is always over shadowed by her perfect twin. Callie had to go through a lot and Carina is really worried about her since she really cares about her sister. One day Carina catches Callie trying to hide a dead body but doesn't call the police because all she is worried about is that her sister gets back to normal. She doesn't tell Callie she saw but instead investigates why Callie would murder someone.
      As Carina is investigating she finds many things about herself that she had never known. Callie and Carina form a special bond as the next few weeks pass because Carina is trying to get to know her sister in order to find out why she is piling bodies up in the woods and burning them. Carina ends up finding out that Callie had been getting these letters from a anonymous person telling her that she had to kill all of these people unless she wanted her family to die. Callie had started to receive theses letters about two years ago when she was fourteen and they started her transition into the unstable girl she is now. Carina finally decides to tell Callie that she knows and together they find out who the senders are and finish all of the drama once in for all.

Reaction to the short stories

          All of the short stories that we read in class were extremely strange. I didn't really understand what any of them were about while reading them. The only time I really got what they were about was when we went over them in class. I am not sure if I am reading and annotating the stories wrong which is making me unable to understand the stories.
 I didn't really enjoy reading the short stories that we read for homework. I don't think I would enjoy reading any short stories because they just end and don't go on. The reason why I love to read is because it goes on and then is able to have sequels so that way it doesn't just abruptly end. I hope that I will find a short story in the book we are reading from that I actually like.

Forgive my Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

       This week I read Forgive my Fins by Tera Lynn Childs. I thought it was going to be a really idiotic book but it was the only one I had and I needed to do my independent reading. After reading the first couple pages of the book, I found myself getting into the book because in all honesty ever since I was little I have always loved the thoughts of mermaids being real. In the very first couple pages the author makes it obvious that Lily is a mermaid but she can't let anyone figure out seeing as how she is afraid they could somehow hurt her kingdom.
       The fact that she is a mermaid isn't  the only reason why I liked the book though; there was also a bit of a cliche love story going on. In all books you read you end up hearing how the girl realizes that the quintessential bad boy isn't so bad after all and they fall in love which is basically what happened in this book except for the fact that she accidentally bonds with him which is kind of like mermaid marriage. She obviously does not want to be bonded to him due to the fact that she thinks she is in love with a swimmer at her school who recently broke up with his girlfriend of 2 years. Lily has to go through a journey of trying to get her dad who is the mermaid king to separate them all the while Quince, the bad boy, is trying to get her to fall in love with him.


Reading Log
9/21/13   Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs      2 hours

Carina's Point of View

      I am really worried about Callie, my twin sister. She walked in to the house early this morning looking like she had just come out of a fight. When I asked her about it she just answered," I fell." I could tell she hadn't fallen though. She had fingernail marks all along her face. She was carrying a gun also. I guess I should probably just leave her to it since she is the one who decided to get into fighting and drugs but I can't help but worry abut my other half.
     "Carina! Carina!" my best friend is calling to me while shaking me. I guess I fell asleep in Math but I couldn't help it because I was up all night worried about Callie and trying to convince my parents that she was home since we promised we would always cover for each other even though she was the only one who needed covering for since my parents trusted me. I gathered my binders and got up when the class ended, leaving my thoughts in the classroom.

The Best Night of your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando

     When I was reading The Best Night of your (pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando all I could think about was how horrible the formatting was. The font was really boring and gave me a headache just looking at it because of how smashed together it looked and I just wasn't able to concentrate. It took me forever just to move from page to page and the two hours I read over the week felt like they lasted forever and I always found myself trying to make up excuses to give myself on why I needed to stop reading.
      I thought it was going to just be a fun book but when the two hours ended I went straight to the back of the book to see how it ended and just stopped reading the book. I really disliked the book because it was really boring and way too serious for a book about a high school scavenger hunt for seniors, whose years were about to end. The main character seemed really full of herself too so when I was reading it, I just didn't see the point to any of what she was thinking.

Reading Log
The Best Night of your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando          2 hours     9/12/13

E- book

     I am usually pretty shy towards people so having my writing go into the e- book is making me really nervous. It makes me nervous because I can be scared to just talk to people I don't know so having to post my writing is going to be even more scary. I am also afraid that if I look back at it later on I am just going to look at it and think about how horribly written it is.
    I don't really know about what type of designs and additions I would like to add to my narrative. I am not that creative when it comes to anything like this so this is going to be a challenge for me. I feel like I might want to change the font to something less proper than Times New Roman. I am looking forward to seeing the e- book and seeing if it ends up coming out looking nice.

Does this dog have rabies?

Walking into the pet store, I immediately saw an animal that caught my eye. It was a fluffy, white havenese puppy that was asleep in its caged in area, ignoring the rest of the litter. As I walked closer to it I realized that it was foaming at the mouth and I quickly asked the store owner, "Does this puppy have rabies?"
"Not that I know of. Let me come check," she quickly replied while running over there.
"I really hope she doesn't because I am interested in buying her. She is too great of a dog to have to be put down!"
Finally getting there, she looks down at the puppy,"She seems to be foaming but it looks like it is just drool so she should be in the clear, but I will call out my boss who knows a lot about rabies and can tell you if the dog has it."
"Alright that sounds good and I am crossing my fingers."
An old, bald man walks out, clearly having been sleeping and slowly strolls over to the kennel area telling the worker to go work in the back, leaving me and him to inspect the puppy.
"Does she have rabies?" I quickly ask once he is in hearing range.
He gets his finger and wipes the foam at the puppy's mouth off and the inspects it while answering, "No, just a bad case of drool."
"Yay! I will take her then. How much does she cost?"
"She only costs $20 since we are trying to get rid of this litter due to a new one being expected to come in at any moment so you can just go pay in the back area and take your new puppy home."
I walk up to the cash register with my new puppy in my hand and quickly pay for her and then I leave hoping to never have to come back to that pet store since the owner didn't even seem to care if she might have rabies.

Reading Log

9/05/13   Literacy narrative    1 hour
9/04/13   Literacy narrative    half an hour
9/02/13   The Amanda Project by Amanda Valentino and Melissa Kantor     1 hour

What I am struggling in for my literacy narrative

        Working on my literacy narrative I struggled coming up with ideas for my topic and then expanding on it once I found it. It took me a while to find my topic to write my literacy narrative about. In class we made lists for different topics which matched with what a literacy narrative was about but even after reading through all of my lists I didn't have anything that I could successfully write about for more than a page and a half so I decided to make an idea web which is where I found my topic. After making the idea web I was able to choose my topic quite quickly and then the only thing I needed to work on was expanding on that. I once again found myself turning to an idea web in order to come up with ideas to expand on and was able to connect my one story with another which automatically added much more density to my paper and I seemed to have few problems on filling up the required pages after that.
        After writing my narrative and reading it I realized that I didn't include too much vivid detail and I was struggling on that front. I am still having trouble with finding where I can include this vivid detail and I hoping that I can figure it out. Whenever I try to write the vivid detail it always comes out looking too forced and out of place and messes up with the flow of the whole paper so I that is one thing that I am really going to have to work on revising in my paper.

"Write or Wrong Identity" literacy narrative

         Earlier this week I read a literacy narrative given the title, Write or Wrong Identity, it was well written but I personally did not like it. I felt like the narrative went a little to much into depth and would start on one story but quickly move to the next. It was well written and the transitions were particularly excellent but I could not handle all of the information that was jam packed into one narrative. I didn't understand why the author kept going on and didn't end it sooner so the whole time I was reading it I was just waiting for it to end.
         After finishing the narrative I was surprised that it had gone on so long to only made one point. The author could have made the point with just one of her stories and not gone through out almost her whole life. I guess I am making it sound like it was a horrible literacy narrative when I know that it must have been liked to be put in a book specifically to give you good examples of a literacy narrative but I just didn't appreciate the length and uninteresting facts of the narrative.

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han

       This past week I started reading Burn for Burn by Jenny Han. It is an interesting book about three girls who both have reasons for revenge. Lillia wants to get back at her best friend, Alex, for supposedly having a romance with her little sister who is only a freshman while he is a senior and the little sister had always thought of him as a big brother. Mary comes back to Jar Island after having been gone for years to get revenge on a boy she left for. She is back and she has lost weight and looks better than ever and wants revenge to the point where he doesn't have any friends. Kat wants revenge on Lillia's best friend because she is the reason why Kat has been an outcast for all of high school. Kat has reasons to hate all three of those people so she sets up an agreement between the three of them where they help each other get revenge.
       While I was reading I was very surprised at what came out of the shadows. The reason Mary came out is the worse out of all of them. She faced death for what the boy did and she has a reason for wanting revenge. Lillia is the only one of them who faces guilt through out almost the whole fiasco which is surprising since Kat sees her a some kind of evil witch. Kat has a few reasons for wanting revenge but not enough for revenge.


Burn for Burn        Jenny Han         2.2 hours

First time playing soccer in weeks

        For the past week or two I have not been able to play soccer on my team because my coach doesn't want me to get hurt, but it is really upsetting to me because soccer is my favorite sport and always helps me think. Over the past few weekends I was going to the games but I was only allowed to watch which was very painful because all I really wanted to do was to go play. This past weekend we had another scrimmage where we played the U-16 boys for my club, Capital City United. In this game I finally came up with the courage to ask my coach if I was even going to play and if I could. He surprised me by telling me I could go warm up to play but I could not get hurt out there.
      Playing for that little amount of time was amazing. Before when we were lining up I was literally jumping up and down because I had no idea how I was going to play. When I got out there my team mates supported me and they told me it doesn't matter how I played then because they knew that by the tournament in Houston I would be back to playing how I usually do. I felt supported and at the point I couldn't care less how I played as long as I got to play.

The Elite by Kiera Cass

      Right now I am reading The Elite by Kiera Cass. It is the second book of the series, The Selection. The first book was called The Selection. It was about a teenager, America Singer, who gets chosen to fight for the marriage of the prince, Maxon. She is forced to leave her home and boyfriend, Aspen. The only upside is that her family receives money for each week she is there. She is outright rude to the prince and tells him that she is not competing for the marriage but only wants to stay so that way her family can be fed. He makes a deal with her saying that he will keep her in. But she doesn't know what to do when she starts to get closer to the prince. In the second book it involves her having to choose between her old boyfriend who came to work for the palace as a guard or choose to fight for the prince.
      If I was America I would tell the prince about the conflictions she was having in order to see if he actually cared about her too or if it was just a one sided relationship.If he didn't care enough to want to convince her to be with him then she would know to choose Aspen. Both of the boys make you care deeply for them and you are secretly rooting for both. Maxon may have a temper at times but you can tell that he truly cares for America since he tells her secrets of the palace that nobody knows and information about him. Aspen is always there for her when Maxon is being a jerk though, so you never know who you want to side with.

Book	Author	Time
The Elite	Kiera Cass	2 hours

Concerns for this year

         Coming into ninth grade I was very worried about the amount of work I would have because of what I was hearing. On the first day I was still really stressed out and worried but as the day progressed I started to enjoy it more. I am still very concerned about the workload since I have already had a little trouble keeping up but so far I have been up to task it is just taking a while to get used to it.
          I am also worried about sports. I run cross country and play soccer. The team I play on outside of school is CCU United. My coach, Coach Chris, has told me to sit out of contact activities due to my injuries so that way I can play in the tournament on Labor day weekend in Houston, TX. I am worried that when I go back to play I will have not gotten used to playing yet since I have not been allowed to play. So far this year I have only been able to make it to one cross country practice because every time I run my injuries act up causing me to not be able to go to practice the next day because I don't want to injure myself more. My injuries have gotten a lot better though which is keeping optimistic because I ran today without any pain and I am very happy. I hope that I will be able to keep up in sports this year while also handling my homework.

Reading Log

8/14/13           Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick            3.5 hours

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

    This week I read Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick. I always read the last page first but none of the pages before so that I have more insight on what happens and I can see if it is a sad book but at the same time I still don’t know exactly what happens in the end and I still have to try and figure it out. What made me choose the book was that the whole summary about the book was about how she wore 3 dresses and they made her beautiful and how she had to go though her new life while knowing that it was all fake but still acting like it wasn’t. Something that surprised me was that most of the characters are actually dead and no one knows who let them stay on Earth and the end of the book is when they tell you that all of the characters are actually dead but that they will never know how or who put them there.
    I had stopped reading for a while because I just wasn’t interested in any books anymore and every time I would start to read I would just stop on the 2nd chapter. After reading this book I have found my interest in reading again. I think the reason why I didn’t want to read anymore was because I had stopped reading the last page and I was always afraid that the ending would disappoint me by being sad or just ending without having a sequel so I just decided it would better to just not read so I wouldn’t be disappointed. This book was an exceptional book because at Paul Rudnick was able to relate to everyday life while also putting mystery and fiction into the book so you never knew what was going to happen next which is what made me decide to start reading again.