Reflective Essay

Reflective Essay

he first quarter of my high school life went by in a ‘snap.’ I remember clearly my first full day of school like it was yesterday, walking in to second period English class and sitting down on a chair up front. I reminisce my first thought of the class room, “woah it’s dark,” and the tingly feeling I got thinking about it. The teacher came in and we started talking about the usual class expectations, and when we started talking about our goals i wondered how much i can actually learn from this class.
And now that’s in been a quarter I have learned countless material that i fell has strengthened my writing. Looking back at my previous work, and the work i have done in the first quarter I have seen many differences. Not only that but these differences are mostly differed in my blog posts. This is probably because these blog post that I do have a fun feeling to them and have this connection with me.
Blogging is one of the things that has really helped me in my writing. Not only was it fun to blog, it was easy to write about free topics. My first free subject blog post “Forgetting” came me instantly as something i really wanted to write about, and as was typing it I had this t.v screen in my mind giving me sharp details on everything that was going on. It hadn’t even been 7 minutes before i finished typing the whole 400-ish words; that was one assignment done.

From my writings before writing freely was something I haven’t had the privilege to do, but this blogging stuff has given me the opportunity to share my feelings on the topics I want to write about. Allowing me to write freely has also improved my way of thinking and planning skills. When i write freely i feel like i have the chance to interact with my topic and truly pull out the full extent of my ideas. This then leads planning, where i have to plan the subject out in my mind or on a piece of paper. I have also overcome my hatred on the usual dislike of the feeling of writing a essay under pressure and having to do a planning diagram with it. I now realize if i really do want to write about this topic, planning is one of the most important steps that i must do in order to write a clear flowing story.

Unfortunately there is no limit to learn from blogging. Typing an assigned blog post have also given me a chance to really find a topic that i want to write about, and most of the topics that I Want to write is based on what i do in my daily life. When i find something interesting in my life, no matter what it is, watching a movie, having a bad dream, waking up to a cold morning, leaving school, my mind always captures all these memories that remind me of my ‘excitement’ during these situations. This habit of mine started recently like in the beginning of seventh grade, and i think the reason why i do this, is because i want to memorize a special situation really well to reflect on it later. Luckily for me, writing about these situations is the one thing I’m sure i can do, but to be able to write them goo I would have to stop procrastinating and think about the situation more thou roughly before i write it. To me, blogging seems to have increased my habit of remembering these situations as well, because be it any reason I do feel like i can recall these memories better now than before i started high school.

There are well... many times where i do get stuck on my writing though. I always tend to get stuck when i try to make a sentences in a paragraph flow together so the ideas don’t get stuck together with other not so connecting ones. Connecting paragraphs have also got me stuck too the same way i get stuck connecting sentences. Writer’s block to me is a huge mind block that blocks my ideas that are rocketing out of the think tube and trying to break the the mind block to get into the idea tubes. Even after writing for the long time I’ve been writing, writer’s block is still something i face frequently in idea flows. When it comes to the free blog posting I almost never run into writer’s block unless the memory that i have of the situation is foggy; the only times when my situation is foggy is when I’m asleep or i don’t feel like it’s the time to be writing. I did find one not very  good solution to writer’s block though.., and it’s stalling. By stalling i mean think about another subject, maybe daydream, and return to the original writing later on. This does sometimes help clear my mind of the block  and allow my ideas to flow again, but it’s not 100% percent successful, barely 50%, and it sometimes gets the flowing ideas in my mind off topic. Even so It has worked for me so far, and kept my blocked writings in the average scale so it can’t be that bad of a way. Even as i wrote this essay i had a writer’s block, and had to stop and go on facebook, how ironic.

For the next quarter I hope i can write stronger blog pots, and clearer essays to start off.I intend to do this by finding a solution to writer’s block, and extracting stronger details from my memory (maybe even take notes once i get that memory feeling). If I do this I’m sure that writing will respond to my blog pots, and essays and burst through yet another barrier to writing. Another goal I have for the second quarter is to work harder on bettering my working methods. The goal is to stop procrastinating on my blog post and do them at the beginning of the week or middle, instead on doing them last second like i”m doing now. I’m not entirely sure i have a way to do this, but i think if i have the strength to wake up earlier in the morning by myself I can overcome the procrastination too.

After i experienced my first quarter and rocking most of my way though I feel like i can actually accomplish my 2 new goals for the second quarter that i set up. If i have the right amount of will power (80% needed), and believing power (20% needed) anything even churchillian (think it means action of day).

Mice&Men

`Of Mice&Men

In the story of Mice&Men all sorts of emerge every new chapter. In the beginning the main characters Lennie and George travel on the road to their new jobs. After running away from their previous workplace; Weed. George is a little man with a big heart; he treats Lennie as if he's a useless fool who he can live without, but deep inside he really needs Lennie. Lennie is a huge guy with a heart that can be as kind and bad-ass as Mufassa (Lion King), but he's mentally retarded. Since George&Lennie have big dreams of living big. The main conflict of the story is Lennie&George (as i see as one character) versus Fate, and this main conflict leads to all the other conflicts that strangles the two of them in the story.

Lennie, one of the perfect two.Mental retardation and his string of fate is strung with problems. During George’s and Lennie’s travel to their new workplace, George explains their bright future for the first time in the book. In the quote:

“Lennie was delighted. “That’s it-that’s it. Now tell how it is with us.

George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. we got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jacks jus’ because we got no place else to go.”(14)

The two of them have each other’s backs. so the two of them should be considered the same character, because they could not live with out each other; they cover up each other’s flaws.. They both need each other, and them being together is what really makes the story interesting to read. In the quote George says that they are special; unlike all the other travelers on the road, they will be the lucky ones who make it big in the world and live a happy life with a alfalfa patch for the bunnies that will live with them till death. I think that because they because they think know they are different, they are challenging their fate, and this leads to other conflicts with other characters in the story

After Lennie and George settle into their new workplace they met the song of the boss, Curley. Curley, is the troublemaker of the story: he hates guys that are bigger than him. When Curley’s eye catches Lennie, he scowls and examines him with hate. Like it does in the quote:  

“Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mind at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy.” (26)

Dealing with Curley is another conflict that George&Lennie run into in their strive for a living.      Curley is the type of character who causes the most trouble for the main character; he clearly shows his hatred toward Lennie just for being a big guy. In the quote it portrays the idea insanely Curley can get just because of his ‘feelings,’ but even if Curley is a big jerk George&Lennie deal with him and for them to do that they are challenging fate.

Toward the end of the story, Lennie meets his bucket. After Lennie’s little accident with Curley’s wife, George makes a hard decision to kill Lennie, because if he didn’t and Curley found out, well everything would have been over. In shows that their fate in the world is not what they think in the quote:

“And George raised the fun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie;s head. The hand shook violently , but his face set out and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of shot rolled up the hills and rowed down again.. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (106)

While George tries to kill Lennie, he feels boundless hesitation to drop the gun and not do it and he shows this by shaking. When George comes to his senses, I think that he realises this is the best option: their is no other way that would work out. And by doing this he is accepting and in a way challenges the fate of what was brought upon Lennie. George accepts their fate by killing Lennie, but he also challenges it by refusing to do it until Lennie speaks his last few honoring words.So till the end, George their fate hoping that a pleasant life will awake for them but it’s all over when Lennie dies.
Since the story contains more than one character, it’s safe to say that there is more than one conflict because a story is not interesting without a conflict. With all these conflicts it’s important to find the main conflict of the story so we can understand the purpose/meaning of the story. The main conflict of this story is Lennie&George as one character because they face the same conflict versus fate. Other conflicts emerge from this main conflict in the sense that, since they are driven by finding their fate they meet a lot of new people and new conflicts emerge because of that. The three quotes from pages, show why that is so. Through their main conflict, the purpose of telling us that life was hard back then, and there was hardships during that period of time (Great Depression) is clearly shown.

Repsonse Post

I found this interesting quote of Devin's blog:

 I always finish my essays last because I feel like procrastinating on those devils. I did that back in middle school. If you read the study guide essays I did over the summer, you will find them not very impressive. Another thing is that my hand writing is sort of messy. The page becomes gray because the words are smudged. Letters are stuck together and everything looks out of place.

I can totally relate with what Devin is saying about his ideals procrastination. In my own experience, when i do my homework, i procrastinate until the last 2 hours before i go to sleep. Even when it comes down to a really important project like the lab report for Higashi's class, I did most of it before i went to bed and woke up to finish it in the morning. Procrastination is seriously a scary thing. But why do we procrastinate? Is it because we don't want to do what we are suppose to, or is it because it feels good?
I think everyone has his or her own different reason to procrastinate. For me, it's cause i don't do what i'm suppose to unless i feel the pressure build up on me. When i don't do my assignments under pressure, my mind is blank (unless it's algebra cuz you barely need to think when you following an equation). On the other hand, when i am under pressure idea zip up in my head one by one telling me step by step everything i need to do, and that's when i feel like i do my best. Every thing goes with the flow: sometimes when i'm typing an essay, my fingers are like on a marathon run, never stopping, until i'm empty.
Although it sounds kind of impressive, it's really a pain in the head to keep up with. It feels like something extremely huge and heavy (like a sumo wrestler!!) is on top of me and the only way to keep it from squishing me is to think. Think!!, until the pressure evaporates suddenly in the air.      
Mhmmm it's a pain, hopes i can change that.

ADvertising LOST: Plot

      Woo!! another lOST post. Lost is a tv show that ended this year 2010. It was an on going tv series for about 4 years, and is in my opinion one of the top 3 shows in the world. In the world of LOST, survivors of a plane crash on a  island fight to survive and defend themselves against the island's mystical feautures. Although the island itslef seems fairly normal, consisting of a luxurious green forests with uhm... polar bears, boars, and science labatories that once belonged to a bunch of scientists called the DHARMA INITiative who studied the island's electromagnitec properites, it can do a bunch of freaky things. In spite of the danger of the island, the survivors fight against another powerful force. This force are humans that lived on the island since ancient times, and their leaders have stopped aging.  They are also a elite force of hunters who believe the island is godlike.
     So in the beginning of Lost, the survivors of body section and the tail section (the head compartment got blasted into the island), desperately try to stay alive and find food while building a shelter on the sand near the ocean. On a day searching for boar to eat, they stumble upon a cave in the forests that seems to have housed the previous survivors on the island probably a long time ago since they were reduced to bones. This cave holds fresh water, a roof, and a excellent place to hide, because it is hidden in trees. After a few of the survivors settle in the cave, a man named Hurley starts to do a roll check using the passenger list from the plane. He discovers that they are not losing anyone but they have another person living with them who was not on the plane. That man who's called Ethen then kidnaps a pregnant woman called Claire.
     Then the sub conflict erupts. Instead of worrying about getting of the island and back home, they are given the information that someone else or some other peolpe are also living on the island and they have captured one of the survivors.
THanxxx to be contiuned..

Pigeon's Natural Toilets

Have you ever sen pigeon poop before? That white wet substance that's glued onto anything it gets it's hands onto? Well of course you have CAUSE IT'S FREAKING EVERYWHERE!! From house roofs to car roofs, sidewalks to track fields, and towns to cities pigeon poop is considered one of the nastiest things on earth and it's just unimaginable how there is. Here are 2 reasons why pigeon poop should be DETAINED.
1. It's nasty. Pigeon poop is seriously just utterly disgusting. The whitish liquid that spurts out of the pigeon's sphinkter is produced after hard hours of digestive fluids breaking down the stuff that pigeons eat. Oh and for a pigeon, the food they eat is nasty too: worms. Worms are the main diet for a bird therefore that diet of a pigeon. Even thinking of a worm makes me sick so looking at digestive worms is a nightmare. Here's a little story that i "heard." "There was once this guy who was enjoying a nice day in the park. It  was a hot day and he was melting so he went to get an ice cream cone. He stopped by a ice cream cart and asked for a scoop of vanilla ice cream. After receiving it he went and sat on a bench. It just so happens that a bird was flying above him and decided it was time to let go. When the guy wasn't looking (for he was checking out some girl), the pigeon pooped and the white poop flew onto the guy's vanilla ice cream and camouflaged with melting vanilla. Then the guy started to lick his ice cream and what happened next is :P." 
2. It's everywhere. Like it or not, pigeons fece without a warning of where they are and what's under them. Also pigeons usually travel in flocks and do everything together like find food, eat food, and of course poop. So if there's a flying flock of pigeons I suggest a run away from it. Sidewalk to sidewalk there is always some trace of pigeon poop. Here's another story that happened to ME, " It was a nice day in Chinatown. After 20 minutes of seat hunting we found a nice parking seat under a luscious green tree. We went into town to buy some groceries and came back to find the car covered in pigeon crap. The top of the car was literally polka dotted, and the sides looked like milk was oozing downward. Surprisingly there was no sign of poop on the nice tree above our car. It was just our Honda SUV that was splattered head to toe with white crap. What a nice day."There should be a toilet place made especially for pigeons to poop in, because falling poop is just not right.