Wired Magazine Article "Gone"

What surprised me about this article is that so much can be found out about a person through use of the internet. Also the idea that someone would want to escape the world and lose their identity is very interesting to me. Some questions I have are why would someone want to go through all of this? I feel that in today's digital world it isn't easy to disappear. Once you put something on the internet it is their forever. Everything that you might have put somewhere would be hard to keep up with and hard to track. This article relates to into the Wild because its about someone that basically leaves everything behind, and leaves the life they have known and vanishes in the world. This relates to Gatsby because when people try to create a new identity, that normally includes changing names and the name in this article is like the same name that Gatsby had before he changed his identity. This can relate to Invisible Man because the idea of leaving everything you are familiar with, and going into a new place is apparent in this article and invisible man.

Blog Post 3- Mexico Drug Violence Kills 30,000 In Four Years

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/mexico-drug-violence-kill_n_798111.html

In Mexico, more than 30,000 people have been killed in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon started a crackdown against drug cartels in 2006. The La Familia cartl in western Mexico has been weakened because there were recent arrests and deaths of some of the gang members. The weakening of this criminal group has promoted some of the members has put false ambitions of the members to help the people of Michoacan. The real motives of these criminals is to terrorize and rob those people.

The questions I have, are why all of a sudden the government is starting to crack down on the drug cartels? and why they didn't do it sooner? Another question I have, is how all of these people are being killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12012425

The large amounts of people being killed are the people that were involved with the drug cartel, and not necessarily the victims.

Blog post 2-The Man Behind the New ‘Nutcracker’ in Town

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/arts/dance/17ratmansky.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

There is a new version of the Nutcracker for the American Ballet Theater. It will be opening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday. Many children associate this Ballet with Christmas. The person in charge of this didn't celebrate Christmas as a child but he celebrated New years. They did have presents on that night, but it was a big deal that they didnt celebrate the holiday.This will be the third time that he will be working on the Nutcracker.

Questions I have are why the is being started at this theater now?What kinda of experience does Alexei Ratmansky in the theathers?

I think that the Nutcracker will be a big success this season.

http://entertainment.newsplurk.com/2010/12/man-behind-new-in-town.html

Blog Post 1- ABC Weather Anchor Heidi Jones Suspended For Attempted Rape Lie

Weather women Heidi Jones was suspended from WABC - Tv for filing a false police report. She alleged that she was the victim of an attempted rape. She went to Manhattan's 6th precinct during late November and said that she had been attacked in September by a Hispanic man. She said this happened while she was jogging in Central Park. She made up the story that she was dragged away off her jogging path and he tried to rape her. But then there was a witness near by that scared him off. Her stories didnt go together, but her lawyer says that people shouldnt jump to conclusions.

Questions I have about this article, is why would she make up this rape attack?What would she get out of it?

http://www.fameblab.com/2010/12/17/abc-weather-anchor-heidi-jones-suspended-for-attempted-rape-lie/

Heidi Jones claims that the guy that raped her, had been stalking her for a while.

Theme #3 Reflection

1. How did you do with this Theme? How did you feel about how you thought you did compared to the grade you received? What did you do well?

I did average with this theme. I thought I would have gotten a better grade then what i received. I really liked the ideas I for this poem, but i lost a lot of points for style and imagery. What I did well, was the way that I organized my poem, and using allusions.

2. What are some opportunity areas for you with your writing? (specific to FCA's)

Some opportunity areas for my writing are developing my ideas more and expanding on my thoughts. Being more descriptive, and making my writing more interesting are also some opportunity areas for my writing.

3. What can you improve for next time? (Overall- process, amount of time, etc.)

For next time, I can improve on developing my thoughts, and spend more time brainstorming.

Blog Post 3-Confucius Peace Prize: China To Award Nobel Rival

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/confucius-peace-prize-china_n_793610.html

China has created its own peace prize, that is rivaling the Nobel committee. The Nobel Committee is honoring an imprisoned Chinese dissident. China has talked badly about Liu Xiaobo as well as his supporters. Liu is serving a 11 year jail sentence, and is being prevented from attending the ceremony for the Confucius Peace Prize. This award was created and promoted to show peace among China, and to go against the Nobel committee.

Questions that are raised, are why is an imprisoned person being honored by other people? Why was Lui imprisoned in the first place?

I appears that the Confucius Peace prize is supposed to promote the viewpoint of peace throughout China. This article slightly contradicts my opinion because the Chairman of Taiwan's Nationalist party was selected to win the award.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-as-china-confucius-prize,0,653495.story

Vocab words

dissident- a person who opposes official policy, esp that of an authoritarian state.

vilified- to speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner.

disparaging- regarded or represented as being of little worth

Blog Post 2- Aretha Franklin Has Cancer, Family Confirms

http://www.popeater.com/2010/12/08/aretha-franklin-cancer/

A family friend to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has announced that she is battling cancer. There are some reports that the cancer she is dealing with is pancreatic cancer, and it is also reported that she has less than a year to live. Those are National Enquirer stories so people should not believe that right away, even though they have correctly reported other celebrity battles with cancer. Aretha Franklin went through with surgery last week that was successful. She has been dealing with a lot things from her personal injury which caused her to cancel tour dates to her battle with cancer.

If there were some complications with Aretha Franklins first visit because of the fall, will that interfere with treating her cancer? Another question that comes to mind is what was the actual surgery that was performed on Aretha? I think that because everything is so public with what is going on, it would be beneficial for others to know exactly what she is going through.

i think that it is very possible that Aretha Franklin has Pancreatic cancer, because it is not very likely for people to just make things up. While it is not a good thing, there are many that support this idea as the truth so far.

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpps/news/local_news/aretha-franklin-has-cancer,-fox-2-confirms_10996869

Blog Post 1-World Festival of Black Arts Announces Lineup

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/world-festival-of-black-arts-announces-lineup/?scp=1&sq=Black%20Arts%20&st=cse

Taking place in Senegal, until December 31 is the World Festival of Black Arts. This festival started taking place in 1966 and this year will be the third festival. The theme of this festival is described as African Renaissance. That is defined as "the Africa we want to create for tomorrow." The type of arts that will be present are concerts, films, a book fair, fashion shows, photography, and more. The purpose of this festival is to promote the independence of many of the African Nations.

Something that is not clear in the article is how often the World Festival occurs. My question is why is the World Festival of Black arts so infrequent? This is something that I have never heard about before, and I feel like it would better promote the ideas of growth of the nations if it was held more often. Another question that comes to mind is how is the location chosen? I am wondering if this is a large or small event, because maybe not a lot of people would be able to afford to travel to Senegal for a free event.

The World festival of Black arts seems to also promote and support other cultures. While it is an African event, there are many other nations present, so it seems that everyone is included and that anyone can come no matter where you are from.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/third-ever-world-festival_n_793601.html#s201735

IM prologue

In this photo, I see an African American man, in the basement of somewhere. He is sitting in a chair, and above him there are hundreds of lights. He is in a room that is kind of messy but its his living space. There are so many things hanging everywhere, on the ceiling, and in random places. This tells me that Jack the main character of Invisible man lives here. And this was his hole that he lives in. Because of all the stuff that is in the room it seems that he is cozy and he enjoy living there. It is a lot different from what I expected. It tells me that he enjoys being by himself in this place and even though you can see any facial expressions he looks like he is satisfied.

Blog Post #3

Blog post 2

Veterans day

This is an interview about how someone who served the country just found out that his grandfather also served. She found out from her fathers relatives a lot of facts, and learned about his personality and other things. Joseph W. Rounseville , was involved in the Tet Offensive in 1968 after enlisting in the Army at the age of 17. Unfortunately, he gave the ultimate sacrifice and was killed in action.

Questions I have are how do people find out about their history from a long time ago? Are there veterans that arent accounted for that people don't know are in their family?

Joseph W Rounseville, was in a leadership position and had a great influence on history.

IRP Blog Post 1

Quotable: Finally a Foolproof Plan to Stop Vick

This article seems to be about ways to stop Vick from being a successful player. If he plays the whole game, then there less of a chance of him being successful the whole game. The way he plays makes him prone to injury, and that is a concern. Some ways to prevent him from being injured is to throw away the ball, go out of bounds, and go down before taking a hit.

Questions that I have about this article are what is the style of play that makes Vick so prone to injury? Why do people want him to be unsuccessful?

Vick hasn't been injured yet, and the people that know him best, and the best ways to prevent that are the people who formarlly coached him.

IM Introduction, Ellison Bio, and UbD Post

Where IM started and how it became a 581 page novel

economics, geography,sociology that influenced Ellisons writing.

One day Ralph Ellison just wrote down the words " I am an invisible man." down on paper. Eventually that sentence transformed into a novel within seven years. Ralph Ellison wanted the novel to be a work of art he wanted to reveal the truths about the African American experience without making it seem like the average novel on that topic. He wanted to show what it was like being black and American, and describe the barriers that were put up because of race, religion, the color of your skin. Another factor that could have influenced Ellisons writing could have been his father who wanted to be a real American, and then wanted that for his son. Ralph Ellison growing up in Alabama and going to the Tuskegee Institute an all black college, deffinitly had an affect on what he wrote about. He wrote about being thrown out of an all black college, which can lead into which community he was accepted into, being an African american but potentially not being accepted by the black community.

Theme 2 Reflection

This theme I did not do as well as I had hoped to, but i realize that the grade I received is close to the grade I deserved. I didn't have a lot of detail and content in this theme which could have been the major factor in my grade. What I did well was coming up with a character and personality to go along with the character.

Some opportunity areas for my writing are still adding more content and being more indepth in reviewing the theme before turning it in. Also not being repetitive and having more facts related to the story could have made the paper better.

What I can improve on for next time would be to make more connections to the story and to not be light on including facts and meaningful content.

Theme 1 Reflection

1. On theme number 1 I feel like I did really well with this theme, and I enjoyed writing it and reading the finished product. My first draft of my college essay received the grade that it deserved, and I feel as though i made substantial changes that earned me the second grade. I worked hard to make my college essay better and the original essay and the final draft showed improvement. What I did well was taking the prompt and answering it in a creative way. I told a story about myself, and even though I had to come up with the topic that I really wanted to talk about, once I knew what I was writing about the content came fairly easily.

2. Some opportunity areas in my writing is through the content. I have an idea but putting it on paper is not always the easiest part. Other opportunity areas is also with being indepth in my content and not repeating ideas, because that can de value what I am saying.

3. What I can improve for next time is to do more drafts originally rather then rushing to make the paper perfect. Putting more detail and less repetition can also improve my writing.

the Great Gatsby Final Project

1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScaZyNmZJo

2. Analyzing the Great Gatsby shows that living the “good life” speaks to the idea that greed is dangerous, exterior perceptions are deceiving, and love can be destructive.

3. A brief overview of your project: what were you trying to show? How?

We are trying to show that Myrtle, Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby all show aspects of their good life. We show that greed, perception and love are big factors in living the good life. Perception is shown mostly through the characters Gatsby and Jordan, Love is shown through again Gatsby and Daisy and other main characters. Greed is shown through Tom, Daisy and Gatsby as they try to obtain wealth and love.

4. I used imovie for my project and I really enjoy it. I would use it again because it is user friendly, but you can do alot with it. Each time you make an imovie you can add different elements just like any web 2.0 tool. The only downside is that only one person would be able to work on the imovie at a time.

5. What went well was coming up with the content for the project, what could be changed for next time was being more organized in terms of what was going to be added into the project.

IR Project #1-Digital Storytelling

A Farewell to Arms

By: Ernest Hemingway

http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=2832015

The overall jist behind my project was to show the different characters and the plot, and how the characters developed during the course of the story. I used scrapblog.com and made a scrapbook. I was trying to show about my book the events that the main characters Frederic and Catherine went through. My two most meaningful parts of my project are the character pages, and the plot descriptions, because when you learn a little bit about the character it is easier to understand the plot, and the rest of the project.

I like using scrapblog because it is a very interesting way to tell a story and you can basically add in anything that you want to it. I have used scrapblog before for other projects, but I learned that you can put you can include music, pictures and video; and they can all be used to enhance the project and to better tell a story. I like synthesizing the book in this manner, because it is almost like a literal retelling because it is in a book format. It is easier to understand the summary of the book because of the formatting.

Overall, I did enjoy the novel I chose. This is because there were a lot of unexpected things that happened throughout the story. Normally for novels written for this time period, especially written by Ernest Hemingway. Normally his novels portray the female characters negatively, but I like the way he portrays Catherine, because she is a strong individual unlike what people might expect. I would read another novel similar to this for marking period 2 because I enjoy reading love stories but this one has a twist.

Chapter 9- Gatsby Reflections

" What does it mean to live the 'good life'?"

In context of The Great Gatsby, living the good life means to have parties, friends, and having an interesting lifestyle. Gatsby lived the good life because he constantly had parties and people over his house, he had large amounts of money, alcohol, and women. Gatsby's life started to go down hill once he started pursuing Daisy further and after the accident that resulted in Myrtles death. Most of the characters in The Great Gatsby that are talked about the most lived the good life in one way or another. Tom and Daisy lived the good life because they had a nice house, cars, and they had eachother who were both wealthy and successful. They also had a daughter that would grow up and hopefully continue that life style. Myrtle was under the impression that George Wilson would be able to provide for her and would be able to give her everything she wants. George Wilson didn't reach that point of having the good life, and didn't have a lot of money but knew people that had it. In terms of the 1920s over all this is what the good life was about. People were striving to achieve the American Dream. Money, Cars, Fun , Friends, were the basis of the good life. Because of prohibition people went to speakeasies to drink and listen to jazz. Though this aspect of the good life was illegal in the 1920's people still wanted some way to enjoy their life. In my life to live the good life is a lot less superficial, to me living the good life means to be surrounded by family and friends and people that care about you. Also to be worry free most of the time, and being able to have fun is also part of the good life. Later on in life, to be successful, happy, and with a loving family will be what i hope to have in order to live the good life.

Gatsby- Chapter 3

To me, the good life means to be care free a lot of the time. To have a lot of freedoms to do whatever you want and not to worry about there being consequenes of your actions. To live the good life can include, spending money, going to social gatherings. But they can also be as simple as having time to spend with your family, and having a good relationship with them. Having friends and people that care about you, being in good health can also be representative of the good life.

Compared to the life of people in the 1920s i think that it could be a more superficial time back then. Going to parties, spending money, and making money i think could have been the basis of the good life. Having a beautiful house, cars, and family can also be representative of the good life in the 1920s. However you want to live can be your definition of the good life, everyone has their own opinions of what they want in life. Some people want the most extravagant things, and others are happy with the simple things in life.

UbD & F. Scott Fitzgerald

Some themes that I expect to read about are aspirations and goals. Other themes also include love and relationships, alcohol problems, mental health and marriage and family. These themes were major points in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life so they will be the most present in his writing. " The theme of aspiration in an American setting, defines the classic American novel." Some of the important elements of background knowledge are the setting and where the stories take place. Other important elements are the emotions that go along with what the characters are going through. I feel that with all that went on in Fitzgerald’s life, it greatly affects what he writes about, and his attitude towards life. Fitzgerald joining the army and dropping out of Princeton was the first major event that triggered the path he took in his life. His relationship with his wife Zelda, definitely had a negative impact on his life, and affects the tone in his writing as well.

Independent Reading- MP1

A Farewell To Arms
Ernest Hemingway

Pages/Chapters Due...

9.30: 1-112 - Chapter I- Chapter XVIII
10.18: 113-226- Chapter XVIII- Chapter XXXI
10.28 (project due today as well):227-332 Chapter XXXI to end

Setting : The setting starts off in a little village in Italy,then it moves to the town of Gorizia

Characters: The Narrator Lieutenant Henry, Catherine Barkley ( love interest), Rinaldi( the surgeon), A priest, Helen ( a nurse), Passani and Gordini, Gavuzzi and Manera,( ambulance drivers), Miss Gage and Mrs. Walker( nurses in Milan), Miss Van Campen,Dr. Valentini,

Plot/Topic:During World War I era, Lieutenant Henry lives in a small village in italy and then moves to Gorizia. While he is there he meets the priest, Rinaldi who he is friends with and Catherine and Helen; both nurses. Henry starts to spend time with Catherine and they both seem to like each other. Henry gets sick and misses Catherine. His main objective is to spend as much time with Catherine as possible. When Henry gets to Pavla he comes close to death. Passani dies from a bomb, and the other driver Gordini is injured. The other ambulance drivers take Henry to get his leg treated. Henry and all others involved in that situation were injured and killed not because they were heroic but because they were looking for food. The priest visits Henry while he is injured and they have a conversation about the war, and why Henry doesn't like it. Henry is sent to Milan so he can receive better care. While Henry is in Milan he further realizes that he is in love with Catherine. Henry gets an surgery done on his leg, it was his idea to have his leg amputated. Henry gets sick from the operation. Eventually he starts walking again, and continues to spend time with Catherine in Milan.

Theme/ Main Point: the effects that the war has on peoples personalities, Catherine and Henry seem to like each other and like keeping each other company to focus on other things other than the war. Their like for each other turns to love.

The Setting now is Milan.

Henry and Catherine decide that they are pretty close to being married without actually being married. Catherine makes a vow to Henry to be faithful to him even though they are not together. Henry is able to walk again, and is walking on crutches.

Henry meets some more people Ralph Simmons and Edgar Saunders while he was travelling in Milan.Henry also meets Helen Ferguson when they go to the races. And the supposed hero.

During the summer Henry and Catherine spend some more time together.

Hills Like White Elephants

In "Hills Like White Elephants", by Ernest Hemingway, the story takes place at a train station in Spain. The conversation that goes back and forth is between an American man, and a girl named Jig. On a hot day, the two characters enjoy a few drinks and look out at the hills. The conversation quickly switched over from talking about drinking to an operation that Jig must have. The American man is trying to convince Jig that it is nothing, and that she shouldn't be worried, and she seems very naive about the whole situation. You can assume that they are talking about Jig having an abortion, through the conversation they are having. After they go back and forth on the decision, Jig tries to convince the American that she is fine; even though she might not want to go through with the abortion.

What is Your Flavor?

The types of stories I like to watch are comedy, drama and horror. I like comedy because i like to be amused sometimes and I like to laugh. Comedy can sometimes relate more to real life because it is based off of humor that the average person might have. Comedy shows, movies, and stories can bring people together because most people like to laugh. Unless somebody doesn't have a sense of humor then comedy can relate to everybody.

Drama can be an exaggeration of things that go on in real life, but it is nice reading those types of stories because you know that it could be worse.

The horror genre can be interesting because horror stories tend to have a lot of suspense. It keeps you interested and puts you on edge. Most of the time horror stories are fiction so you know they would really happen in real life.