Main Idea of Macbeth: Power

    Power is one of the most significant ideas in Macbeth. All of the characters' longing for power causes a chain reaction, resulting in many deaths. To start with, Macbeth's brief taste of power after the Weird Sisters' prophecy is what drove him to partake in numerous sinful actions to achieve that dream. His actions of violence did result in his gain in power, yet it also drove him to insanity.

    The idea of power is what people yearn for, yet the actual power becomes overwhelming for many and drives them insane. For example, once Lady Macbeth heard of the possibility for her to become queen, she began to fantasize about the magnificent power that comes with the position of being queen. However, once that power was established, she realized a little too late that she wasn't happy with the results.

Reading Log:
-watching Macbeth videos (and making notes) - 5/9/14: 45 min.
-working on world history essay (rough draft & final draft)
                                                         - 5/10/14: 80 min.
Total: 125 min.

Important Quote from Macbeth

"So foul and fair a day I have not yet seen."

     This is a quote from Act I scene I, in which Macbeth is describing the day's mood to Banquo. They have been battling all day, hence the foul portion of that statement, yet they have won all of their battles, resulting in the "fair day." However, this statement could also be taken literally, meaning that the weather could simply be either bad or fair. Fair seems to be a common word used by many advanced writers, including Shakespear and Golding, as it can mean multiple things and is an excellent symbolic item in any literary work.
     "Fair" can mean reasonable, unbiased, done according to the rules, not stormy or cloudy, and sunny or clear. In this quote, Macbeth could either be referring to clear and sunny weather (setting the mood for seemingly positive events to come), or could be referring to their victories in battle. "Foul" can mean disgusting, unappealing, covered in dirt, or possibly a dirty deed. In this quote, Macbeth could be referring to stormy weather, which forshadows negative events to come. However, he could also be referring to events that he is disgusted with himself for performing, such as killing many men.

Reading Log:

 English Portfolio - 5/5/14: 45 min.
Reviewing Macbeth - 35 min.
writing world history book paper - 40 min.
Total: 120 min.

How Music Impacts My Life

     I listen to music ALL the time. When I'm at my house, in my free time, or in the car, I always have my headphones in; listening to whatever music I find most apropos for my mood at the moment. I listen to a myriad of songs by numerous artists, which I have realized is greatly effected by the events of my day, usually subconsciously.   Based off of the events of my day, week, or sometimes even over the past month, my taste for music will change.
      Listening to music may be a great distraction to many, but for me, personally, it has an even deeper meaning. The lyrics of each song can be interpreted by different people in many different ways, based off of their personal emotions. Not only do the lyrics help many to feel connected and understood, but they can also sometimes help someone fully comprehend something that they are going through. Artists release their music into the world not only because they love it, but because they may want to reach out and help someone who is going through a similar situation.
 
Reading Log:
working on Troy book summary: 4/27/14 - 30 min.
working on Troy book summary: 4/28/14 - 20 min.
writing Troy movie script: 4/28/14 - 75 min.
Total: 125 min.

Who We Are

    Lying, betrayal, and violence are all basic parts of human nature. Everyone is capable of committing any of those acts, yet some choose not to. People go through many phases of their lives regarding innocence. Very young children are so naïve that they have not yet developed a clear understanding of what is right vs what is wrong. However, older children go through a phase where they test boundaries. They try to discover what is too far, which varies depending on their environment. Despite the foundation of human nature containing evil, everyone also has a conscience.
    Everyone past a certain age has developed a conscience that lets them know the difference between right and wrong. A person, despite their natural reaction to do whatever benefits them, does have a choice that they are capable of making. Everyone is capable of lying, betraying, and being violent, yet every human being also has a conscience that enables them to either choose to do wrong or right.

Reading Log:
4/13/14 - Nervous Conditions Projects: 20 min.
4/14/14 - Nervous Conditions Projects: 55 min.
4/12/14 - Troy by Adele Geras: 30 min.
4/13/14 - Troy by Adele Geras: 25 min.
Total: 130 min.

Reading Log

2/20/14- working on paper: 25 min.
2/24/14 - working on paper: 45 min.
2/22/14 - studying for poetry test: 30 min.
2/23/14 - reviewing for poetry test: 20 min.
Total: 120 min.

Song Analyzation

"Legendary Lovers"
By Katy Perry

Katy Perry uses vivid detail to create a specific scene.

Poetic Devices Used:

Assonance-
"I never knew I could see something so clearly looking through my third eye
Never knew karma could be so rewarding and bring me to your life
Maybe this is the beginning of something so magical tonight (oh, oh)"

Alliteration-
"tropical temperature"
"come closer"
"never knew"
"see something so"
"legendary lovers"

Euphony is used a lot throughout the entire song.

Sibilance-
"Maybe this is the beginning of something so magical tonight"
"Underneath the blood orange sun
 Say my name like a scripture"

Throughout this song, there is also end rhyme, internal rhyme, and slant rhyme.
The rhyme scheme for the first three stanzas is the following: AABBCCCADAD

Simile-
"Say my name like a scripture
Keep my heart beating like a drum"

Anaphora-
"I" is repeated throughout the song.
"Never knew" is used multiple times at the beginning of many stanzas.
"Legendary lovers, we could be legendary
Legendary lovers, we should be legendary"
"Go down in history
Go down together, into infinity, forever"

Speaker-female lover
Occasion-possibly looking back on the time spent with her lover; maybe remembering how she    imagined it, similar to a fairy tale; like Romeo and Juliet in her mind
Audience-male lover
Purpose-maybe to remind her lover of what they had
Subject-love
Tone-sweet, passionate, positive, mystical

http://www.lyrics.com/legendary-lovers-lyrics-katy-perry.html



Reading Log:
2/14/14 - Writing Valentine's Day Poem (outside of class): 30 min.
2/20/14 - Reading World History Textbook and Answering Questions: 45 min.
2/22/14 - Annotating Song: 45 min.
Total: 120 min.

Reading Log 2/10/14

Reading Log:
2/3/14 - working on draft: 20 min
2/5/14 - ATD: 45 min.
2/6/14 - ATD: 50 min.
2/10/14 - ATD: 10 min.
Total: 125 min.

Research Paper Rough Draft

     I am confident that my rough draft is plenty long enough, but I am not sure that all of the in-text citations are formatted correctly. My paper also has many facts, but I am unsure if some of the facts are useful in backing up my thesis. Also, even if we are just summarizing information from a source, do we still need to cite it in the text?
     I found that actually writing the draft was fairly easy for me. The research, on the other hand, was slightly more difficult. Originally I had only had primary sources, so I had to find a few reliable secondary sources for my project. I found a great site that had a lot of useful information for the background of my report. It had facts about Hitler, World War I and WW II, The Holocaust, and some events after the Holocaust.

Reading Log:
1/28/14 - working on organizing primary sources for paper - 60 min.
1/29/14 - finding some useful primary sources for my paper - 60 min.
2/1/14 - re-organizing detailed outline to include primary sources - 90 min.
2/2/14 - worked on arranging the facts into paragraph form - 45 min.
2/3/14 - finished typing essay - 120 min.
Total: 375 min.

Sneaux Week Free Post

     While outside looked like a wintery wonderland, I stayed inside. I focused on getting my homework done early and spending the rest of the day relaxing. It was an amazing opportunity to get caught up on sleep, so that I would be well-rested for today and its many assignments. For Spanish, the emergency assignment was to make churros, which I enjoyed a lot. Despite their delicious taste, I did sort of almost burn down the house in the process of making them. Not really, but my mom was kind of freaked out about the fact that they were not home and I was going to be frying something in about two inches of highly flammable oil.
     Anyway, this break was fantastic! The only thing that could have made it any better would have been if the teachers had posted all of their assignments at the beginning of the break. Certain days I felt very productive and was eager to get all of my homework done. Once I checked online, though, I realized that there were no more assignments for that day. Feeling a wave of relief, I further developed my relationship with Netflix as I watched about thirty shows. I slept in late, only to wake up and find that a hundred (I'm exaggerating) more assignments had been posted with time limits! So, I rushed to finish my homework on time, and basically watched Netflix the rest of the day.  :)

NHD Project Explanation

     My NHD project is on the responsibility of the citizens of Germany during the Holocaust when the rights of Jews were taken away. I've learned about how the Jews were mistreated while they were in the concentration camps. Through my research, I have also discovered how the German citizens either supported Hitler and his ways or avoided the topic in general. Even though I understand that the citizens were afraid of what Hitler might do to them, if they all stood up against him together, his reign could have come to an end sooner.
    

In the mid-1900s, many of the Jewish faith, along with others, were persecuted for their appearance and beliefs, and were sent to concentration camps under the reign of Adolf Hitler. Frequently, those who spoke out against him were mistreated as well. Nevertheless, this is not an excuse for the citizens of that time frame to turn a blind eye towards the horrendous events that occurred in the concentration camps. It was, and still is, the responsibility of human beings to speak up for the rights of those being persecuted, despite the consequences.

 

Reading Log:

1/23/14 - Research - 60 min.

1/24/14 - Research - 60 min.

Total: 120 min.

 

Reading Log 1/17/14

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian:
1/13/14 - 60 min.
1/14/14 - 40 min.

Revising Annotated Bibliographies:
1/13/14 - 30 min.

Total: 130 min.

My NHD Topic

My National History Day project is on human rights during WWII. Also, my topic includes specifically how it was the German citizens' duty to speak up for Hitler's prisoners at concentration camps during his reign.

This week, my plan for this project involves searching deeper into nearly all of my sources to just check again for any further bias that could effect my project. I may need to remove and replace one source, but I think I will replace it with a book that my writing fellow recommended to me.

Reading Log:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian:
1/11/14 - 50 min.
1/12/14 - 60 min.
1/13/14 - 20 min.

Total: 130 min.

Human Nature

     Human nature, as presented in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, is self-centered and evil. Once you peel back the layers of civilized life, you reach the core of every human being. According to Golding, the center of a human is selfish and savage-like. People, when put in certain situations, care about their needs only. Humans do whatever it takes to survive when put in these kinds of situations.

     In Lord of the Flies, even the most civilized and well-mannered boys turned into savages at some point in the book. Fear of self-harm caused the boys to do things that they wouldn't normally do in a regular, civilized society. The boys in the book were selfish, greedy, and power-hungry. They all did terrible things to ensure that they maintained or bettered their social status. For example, Jack tried to kill Ralph because Ralph was originally voted chief, so whenever Jack claimed himself to be chief later on, Ralph became a serious threat to Jack's authority over the others.

Writing Center Experience

     Ok, well, I haven't been to the Writing Center yet, but I just scheduled an appointment for this Wednesday during my study hall period. I will be bringing in my NHD thesis proposal to get help editing it and fixing some of the writing errors within the paper. I am really looking forward to it, because I think that the appointment will vastly improve my writing skills. I had previously scheduled an appointment well before the Thanksgiving Break, but unfortunately I was unable to go to school that day.

Reading Log:

Lord of the Flies - William Golding:
12/6/13 - 45 min.
12/8/13 - 75 min.

Total: 120 min.

Reading Log 12/2/13

Reading Log

Lord of the Flies

William Golding:

-11/18/13:45 min.

-11/24/13: 45 min.

-11/25/13:30 min.

Total: 120 min.

Thanksgiving Week

First of all, on Friday afternoon, I get to hang out with my friends. After school, we are going to do a myriad of activities, including playing miniature golf! After that, we are going to go out to eat, and go to the movies. We are going to see Catching Fire!!!! This is something that I have been looking forward to since I saw The Hunger Games. They are going to spend the night at my house after that, and the next morning (obviously we will sleep in first, though), we are going shopping! Later that weekend, my family and I are going to our camp for Thanksgiving. I get to go fishing, ride four-wheelers, hike, and hunt. I can't wait for this stress-free week-long vacation, so I will be refreshed and ready to go back to school next Monday!

Blog Prompt

Imagine yourself in a scene from one of your favorite books. Rewrite that scene as if you were the character, with your thoughts streaming throughout the scene. Also, feel free to change any choices made by the original character; remember, this is from your point of view, so what would you do in that situation?

A scene from Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins:
(in the end, where Katniss wakes up in the hovercraft, oblivious to the chaos throughout Panem)

I wake up, finally free from the dreadful restraints. I am still weak, but I manage to prop myself up into a sitting position on my hospital bed. Peeta. Oh no... Peeta? Where is he? I stumble along in the hovercraft looking for someone willing to give me information as to what is going on and where Peeta is. I overhear Haymitch talking to Finnick, and anger and confusion immediately courses through my veins. I burst through the doors acting as a barrier between the others and me. "What is going on?" I ask Haymitch irritably.
 "Well, sweetheart. Had enough of knocking yourself out?" he says sarcastically. I glance over to Finnick, and I remember why I am here.
"Peeta?" I say weakly. Haymitch's hard glare finally weakens as he looks down at the floor.
Before he can say anything, Finnick interrupts, "The Capitol hovercraft got to him before us." All of a sudden, too many images to count flash through my head, of the terrible things that President Snow is having done to Peeta to try to extract information out of him that he doesn't even know. I can feel my throat closing up, and storm off to my bed to grieve in private.

Reading Log:
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins:
11/16/13 - 30 min.

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins:
11/17/13 - 180 min.
11/18/13 - 60 min.

Total: 270 min.

City Meet

So, as some of you know, last weekend the swim team had their City Meet. Since this is my first year on the team, I had never been to one before, and overall it was a great experience. I swam the 100 yard breaststroke, and I dropped 7 seconds from my last time! This new time, 1 min. and 26.4 seconds, put me as the top 16th 100 yard breaststroke swimmer in all of Baton Rouge! I was thrilled that I was going to get to swim in the Championships the next day, but I was even more excited about coming so close to my year's goal (which, when I set it, I didn't realize how insane it was, because I had to drop like thirty seconds from my original time). My goal was to qualify for the State Meet, and in order to do that I would have to swim the 100 yards of breaststroke in 1 min. and 25.96 seconds, which is only .44 seconds faster than my previous time. So, on the day of the Championships, I swam my hardest and I realized that the less than 1/2 a second was not going to be easy to lose, especially being sore from the meet the day before. I did not qualify, but I did learn some valuable lessons. (Sorry if this seems like a mom lecturing you about good things coming from not-so-great events, but it is true.) Anyway, I learned that not succeeding makes the times that you do succeed so much better. With a little more training, I am sure that I will qualify next year, and I think that I will appreciate that success much more, having not achieved that goal so easily.

LOTF Class Activity Reflection

During our "on a deserted island" simulation activity, the first issues discussed were the basics for survival, including food, water, and shelter. In reality, I think that there would eventually, if not immediately, have been multiple students, including myself, who would not act as level-headed as was shown during the activity. Obviously there would be no dry-erase board or paper to design a plan, and I am sure some of us would be hysterical at this point already. In class, all of us were calmly designing individual plans, then discussing them with the others to decide which parts of what plans would be most effective for survival. Even during our class simulation, though, we had disagreements as to who should be the "leader", and which issue should we concern ourselves with first. On an actual deserted island, the reality of being there forever would create such a high amount of tension that it would feel like a suspended weight above your head, ready to flatten you at any moment. This would obviously cause most, if not all of us, to lose our sense of humanity and become savage-like, rendering all possibilities of escape hopeless.

Reading Log:

Lord of the Flies, William Golding:
11/09/13 - 30 min.
11/10/13 - 30 min.

Allegiant, Veronica Roth:
11/04/13 - 30 min.
11/05/13 - 30 min.

Total: 120 min.

Reading Log 11/04/13

Allegiant, Veronica Roth

10/30/13 - 30 min.
10/31/13 - 20 min.
11/01/13 - 45 min.
11/02/13 - 30 min.
11/03/13 - 20 min.

Total: 145 min.