Reading Times

Where the Red Fern Grows 

4/20- 15 min (1-6)

4/18- 40 min (7-24)

4/17- 20 min (25-34)

4/16- 45 min (35-53)

Cover Letter

4/17- 35 min 

I want this and that

I want to be able to own my home and design it however I want to.
to pick out the wall color.
to decide what my pillows look like.
to pick out what food goes in my fridge.
to snuggle in my own king size bed every night.
to turn the temperature up or down when ever I want.
to have the pictures I choose to be framed staring at me in the hallway.
to have multiple rooms to sit and think, or scream and yell.
to have a house where I can decorate every inch of it.
I want a house that I can host my own parties in.
a house where no one yells at me for yelling.
a house where I have my own organized drawers.
a house where I can stay up till as late as I want.
a house where I can cook my own dinner.
I want a house that feels like my home.

Poetry Book- 30 min (pages, 14,15,20,22,23)
Where the Red Fern Grows- 15 min (page 1-7)
Portfolio- 35 min

Laughing Disease

Laughing Disease

When we get started
we just cant stop
my brother starts to smirk
I hide my head in my hands
"Stop!" my mom insists
My brother's eyes get big
start to squint
as a laugh parts his lips
I can't make mine mind
They jump out of my mouth
"Cut it out!" my dad says
we stop for less than a second
brother's eyes catch mine
his lips press tight
tries hard to swallow
hold them down with his breath
I'm doing the same across the table
we open together
dumping laughter on our plates
"Enough!" our parents scream
If we could stop we would
but we can't
this is not voluntary
it's a disease.
We recover in our rooms
eating left-over
giggles in our dreams.

sibilance- started, stop, starts, smirk, hands, stop, insists, eyes, start, squint, parts, lips, less, second, eyes, says, press, swallow, scream, same, across
personification- "They (the laughter) jump out of my mouth"
alliteration/ consonance- "make mine mind, "hide my head in my hands"

_Perks of Being a Wallflower_

   Im almost done with _Perks of Being a Wallflower_. I just finished reading the part of the book where Charlie is discussing prom with Patrick. They talk about the after party in the hotel room Craig rented. They also talk about why Craig and Sam broke up.
  Charlie explains to the readers why this happened and I was not surprised to hear that Craig blatantly cheated on Sam multiple times. I also felt bad for Sam, Craig at least owed her the truth and it took him a while to own up to that.

4/5- 155 min (page 97-182) <<i read in the car>>

Umbrella

   The song Umbrella by Rihanna is about her and a boy. At one point in the song Rihanna says "Baby 'cause in the dark, you can't see shiny cars And that's when you need me there". What I interpreted from this phrase was that she would be there in the times he (whoever she is talking about or to) needed her the most. Rihanna later says "Because when the sun shines, we'll shine together Told you I'll be here forever". What I thought she meant when saying this was that when they are happy they will be together. Also even if they are going through a rough time she will be there.
  During the chorus when Rihanna says "Now that it's raining more than ever Know that we'll still have each other You can stand under my umbrella". When she says this it means that whoever needs her more than ever she will be there to help or at least offer it.

Paper Assesment

  I chose to revise my literacy analysis. I wrote this paper on "The Sniper" by O'Flaherty. When reading the comments peers and Dr. deGravelles wrote on my paper I decided I wanted to revise it. the reason being because it needs work on the good writing traits of Sentence fluency and Organization.
  My paper was jumbled up. I could remember that I had good ideas when writing this paper, but they went clearly stated because nothing flowed or had organization. Dr. D told me I should make my ideas more precise and that I should relate my ideas to my thesis. For example Dr. D. said it would be helpful to bring in language from my thesis statement to guide whoever was reading my paper.

Jane Goodall plagerising

  Jane Goodall's resent plagiarism offense is surprising yet serious. I would have never thought that a trusted well known writer even had the ability to plagiarize. Goodall made a major mistake and claims it was on accident, but if it was on purpose or accident it doesn't matter because you still did it.
  Anyone can make a mistake like plagiarism, but it makes a huge difference just to give a simple source some credit. It also saves you all the stress and press she has to deal with now. Goodall didn't just make this mistake once, she didi it multiple times which is not okay. This also means she didn't take the time and effort to paraphrase and or cite the sources.

Article on Jane Goodall- 30 min
Reading past papers and comments- 50 min
Perks of being a wallflower- 45 min (page 183- 213)
The Boulevard- 30 min

reading/working time

3/17/13
b layer-30 minutes (read 2nd interview and wrote paper)
3/17/13
a layer- 50 minutes (re watched invisible children and wrote paper
3/11/13
c layer- 20 minutes (chapter 6 reading guide
3/16/13
perks of being a wildflower- 30 minutes (page 1-26)
3/17/13
perks f being a wildflower- 20 minutes (page 20-39)

_Nervous Conditions_ on Syllabus

   Im just going to say this book is beneficial in many ways. This book should be on the syllabus for next years 9th grade. The freshman should read this book for a lot of reasons
   For one example this book makes you think about what you have. You also become thankful for the type of community you live in and the family you live with. The people who will read this book get an understanding for the real struggle some people go through. Could you imagine not growing up with an education? Could you imagine not living with your family?
  I know that these questions are hard for me to wrap my head around because I couldn't imagine this. It would be so hard to live like Tambu and Nyasha. This book makes it known that these struggles are real.
  After reading this book I really understood why my parents tell me I'm so thankful. Now when I go home I get a since of why life is so important and everyday you should be thankful.

expectations

    Tambu is expected of many things wherever she goes, but she has different ones depending on if she is at the homestead or at the Mission. She is sometimes tied down with the overwelming emotions that come with her responsibilities and expectations,
    At the homestead if Tambu wants something clean she has to do it herself. For example when she goes home the toilet is dirty. She tells her mom that it is; and she replies by saying, "if you want it clean then clean it yourself. At my home I have to do the occasional chores like feed my dog or make up my bed, but I have never cleaned the toilet. I always have to keep my room tidy and be polite to my family and elders.
    At the Mission, Babamukuru has a maid, Anna, who does most of the chores. Tambu still has to be well mannered and keep her areas clean. Tambu has to stay alert and smart in school. She also has to stay out of trouble so Babamukuru wont be upset with her. At my school I have to uphold the Honor code and that pretty much is set and stone your expectations for school.
     When Tambu doesn't live up to her expectations there are consequences. For example she doesn't want to go to the wedding so she gets 15 lashes. Also along with this Babamukuru gives Anna 2 weeks off and make Tambu take her chores.

Tambu's perspective

  Im pretty excited to be living with Babamukuru and his family. Were about to eat dinner an I don't really know what to expect. Maiguru is serving us a fancy meal, She served Babamukuru first like usual. It was known to be a ritual, But Nyasha was being rude and she just started helping herself to the food before Babamukuru was finished.  This food is delicious I thought, I was wondering why Nyasha wasn't scarfing it down like I was.
   Nyasha is really rude to her parents which is really weird. She doesn't seem to be thankful for the lifestyle and family she has. I mean I should be the ones being rude to my family, were poor, my dad takes my money thats supposed to be for my education, and my brother is dead.

C Layer 1 Evaluation

    My project for C layer 1 were well answered and thought up. I definitely should not procrastinate with C layer 2 because I ended up doing a good bit of the project Thursday night when it was due Friday. Also for C layer 1 I answered my reading guides thoroughly along with all the other projects. The Vocabulary seemed to help me learn the words i didn't know when I was typing up there definitions.
   Also the front of the character bookmark helped in a way that I was noticing what each character did through chapter 5. The back of the character bookmark wasn't helpful because it was practically just the green sheet Dr. D handed out to us in class. The reading guides were helpful because when reading if I passed over a section that I didn't really pay attention to the questions made me look back and find the information.

Nervous Conditions
2/25/13- 60 min (page 58-104)
2/27/13- 30 min (page 105-122)
3/1/13- 10 min (page 123- 129)
3/4/13- 10 min (page 129-138)

Research Paper R17eflection

    I felt that this paper was difficult when we were researching and containing information. You had to be specific with yourself on whether you needed certain cites. Also one factor that played in to whether the cites were useful was if they supported your thesis or answered your research question. After you had the information to obtain those two things everything wasn't that difficult. Honestly you just had to organize and tie your information together with the right formatting and guidelines. Next time I write this paper I will know not to procrastinate and make more notecards. I hate to say this, but I think you (Dr. D) did as much as you could to help us succeed on this paper, work time, optional conferences, comments on rough draft, peer review, and we were aware of the assignment and due date way in advance.
    The comments I got from peer review and you (Dr. D) was mostly that I needed to cite my in text information. Also that I needed to clear up some of my statements that didn't display information or facts clearly.
    My paper seems to be strong in tying my information, paraphrasing, and quotes in to my text to support my thesis statement and to answer my research question. The weakest point was probably the quality of my citations. Although most of them were from databases, some were from uncredible authors and websites.
   There is nothing else to add.

Paper
2/20/13- 50 min (edditing my paper and correcting it with my peer review comments and your comments)
2/21/13- 30 min (adding a conclusion and fixing my citations in abc order)

Nervous Conditions
2/17/13- 30 min (page 35-57)

Reading and Paper times

Nervous Conditions 2/8/13- 120 min (pages 1-34)
Reviewed my paper, added my conclusion, and formatted it in MLA 2/17/13 -40 min

Total- 160 min

Anotated Bibliography

1/30- Found my last source on Ebscohost and cited it
1/31- Annotated my last source (30 min)
2/2- Formatted my Works cited on to word (20 min)
2/3- Double checked over all reflections, summaries, and evaluations (20 min)
2/4- Turned in to turnitin

Reading Detail

Stolen

1/22- 10 min (page 140-147)

1/23- 10 min (page 147-154)

Annotated Bibliography

1/24- 55 min (finding 4 sources and citing them)

1/25- 30 min (annotating 2 sources)

1/25- 55 min (annotating 4 sources)

Total- 160 minutes 

Informal and formal

   Hey Lily Cat,  So I'm doing my topic for Dr. D's annotated bibliography on Apple, Microsofts, and there affects on each other. Im feeling that my research has got me a lot of good information. Most boring websites and databases all say that apple Is a greater company than Microsoft. Duh who would have guessed. I also know that they have affected each other by challenging each other to bring there company to new nights.
   For this Annotated Bibliography, English-World History project I am researching the effect that Apple and Microsoft have on each other. The information that multiple databases have given me is that Microsoft highly affected Apple early on by urging Apple to succeed with greatness above Microsoft. Apple on the other hand has passed up Microsofts great heights and downgraded Microsoft with Apples great, fresh, new products

competitions make me insane

   I am so competitive. I always have to win and if I lose I do not handle it well. Sarah Catherine says that Im so competitive that it affects my daily life and she feels intimidated by me. I just love the satisfaction that you get when you defeat someone. Every sport I have done I have been obsessed with winning and if we lost I would quit the team, or at least wanted to If my dad didn't let me.
   I even love winning little competitions. My dad and I always make bets, mostly because I am this way because of him. For example the other day we were watching TV and a commercial of Venus and Serena Williams, the tennis playing twins, came on. My Dad said that the one on the left was Serena and the one on the right was Venus, my mom and I disagreed. We were looking up picture for hours trying to prove our point. It got so intense we were yelling at each other and My dad would not except the fact that he was wrong until later that night. It was a long night.

Project Progress

    My Annotated Bibliography is coming along slowly but surely. I have 5 annotated citations and 6 citations all together. I am finding good bits of information, but there isn't much information on databases for my topic. Some information I find focus' on the stocks of Apple and Microsoft which isn't helpful information towards my topic.
   This website called seeking alpha has really been a mass of my information. Scholarly authors write these articles on all different topics and I have found multiple ones that relate to mine. I am not worried about procrastinating on this project. I am evenly distributing my assignments so I have enough time to complete each one correctly and thoroughly.


Stolen...1/14- 10 min (page 106-112)
The discovery of the molecular structure of DNA...1/14- 5 min (article)
Stolen…1/15- 10 min (page 112-116)
Stolen…1/16 10 min (page 116-123)
Stolen…1/17 10 min (page 123-127)
Stolen…1/17 10 min (page 127--133)
AB…1/17 30 min (annotated and cited)
Stolen..1/18 10 min (page 133-140)
AB…1/18 15 min (annotated 1 source)
AB...1/20 25 min (cited 3 sources)

_Stolen_ response

    This week I started reading Stolen by Lucy Christopher. This book is a lot like the movie Taken except for a few differences. The main character has been stolen by a boy named Ty. The girl who is stolen goes by the name Gemma. which is a rather peculiar name. She has been stolen at the airport and has been taken by Ty to a foreign land. Gemma does't know where or how they got there
    On the cover of the book there is a butterfly and at the top of every new chapter there is one as well. So far the author hasn't mentioned anything about these delicate creatures but as I dive deeper into this book I thing they will be significant to the plot. I honestly don't know why Ty has stolen Gemma but I guess I will find that out as I read more.

Stolen

1/8- 10 min (page 1-6)
1/9- 45 min (page 6-39)
1/11- 20 min (pages 39-52)
1/13- 70 min (pages 52-108)

My Cousin's Accident

   My cousin Emma recently got in a car accident. She is from Hammond, Louisiana and the accident happened in Amite on an old country road. She was with her friend Christina, and they were coming home from Christina's birthday party. The girls are both in college and are 19 years old. They were pulling up to Christina's apartment after the party around 12. Then a song they liked came on the radio, they pulled out the driveway to ride around to listen to the song. They didn't go far. It was a foggy night and sometime during the song, one of the car wheels hit a stump. The car then flipped into a ditch.
   Christina and Emma were thrown from the car through the windshield, the car was totaled. Christina was holding Emma when she called some friends to bring them to the emergency room. Emma had a fractured scull, a gash an inch wide and an inch deep from her temple down her cheek to her chin. Her jaw and cheek bones were completely crushed and her eyesight and ear may never be the same on that side of her face. Christina escaped the crash with only scrapes, bruises, and only one cut that needed stitches. Emma is a lucky girl who survived a potentially fatal car accident and had no brain damage. No one knows why this happened, but maybe one day something good will come out of it.