Free Write

So my turtle Blastoise has been pretty good. He's grown a lot and is really fat because he always begs for food even if he's not hungry. I don't know what I'm gonna do when he gets really big, I might have to put a kiddie pool in the back garden and make him a pond or something. He's been really healthy, I don't think he's ever been sick or anything. His humidity and temperature levels in his tank are all good too. I really like my turtle Blastoise.

Hobbies

I like music, both listening to it and playing it (terribly). I like a lot of genres and artists, but I don't want to show favoritism by listening some because other famous musicians might read this and get jealous. I like video game, but they're kind of becoming really mediocre lately. I like computer stuff, but I haven't really kept up with that.

Free Write

My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. My laptop battery is at 87%. My SimCity 4 city is some kind of sick Orwellian nightmare. I spent the whole weekend painting tiny plastic space men and listening to strange music. One of the lightbulbs on my ceiling fan have burned out. I can't remember what the purple thing from the McDonald's commercials was called. 4 minutes left. I watched a space movie the other day and it was kind of dumb. The new SimCity is complete garbage. I can now thin paints. There is a ghost in my room. Art, son. Deepness, wisdom, avant garde jazz funk.

Deserted Island Reflection

The deserted island activity was pretty cool. I imagine if it was real life then people would have instantly turned to me as their leader, and I could start some new religion centered around me as a physical manifestation of the gods. Eventually we would forget how to use English so I'd have to make my own language. Actually I would just make it mandatory to speak the new language. I would need a sedan and sacred sedan carriers, since my holiness could never touch the ground. I would also need daily offerings of fruits and fish, so that I may bring calm weather and a bountiful harvest. I could make my temple out of sand I guess.

Reading Log

Didn't read much and the thing I did read is really nerdy so I'm ashamed to list it (I just said that to let you know that I am actually reading).

OK SO

I worked on my Literacy analysis from Saturday to Monday for a combined time of 2 and a half hours. I also read Araby a ton of times so I counted that.

Reading Log

I read Sucker, The Black Veil Parable, and Araby. I liked them all very much and thought they were deeo and interesting.


I read short stories, Monday through Friday for a combination of 3 and a half hours

Free Post

Of course one of the only times we get a free post is when I'm sick. I can't really think of anything since I'm pretty feverish, so just know that this might not be the best post ever. I've been working on the literary analysis. It's pretty hard but I think I'll get it. Uh. Oh yeah Lou Reed died. What a shame. I'm not too big of  a fan of the Velvet Underground but I recognize their influence and stuff. Now every band is covering Lou Reed songs and if you point out how this is pretty unoriginal and kind of annoying then everyone thinks you're mean. I met some Uruguayan guy on the internet. He's pretty cool, though he doens't speak much English.

Reading Log and Personal Questions

Reading Log:


(Finally found my book. It was under my bed this whole time apparently)


Read Faust- Monday 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (finished)



Personal Questions:

• What can I learn from pieces of literature as a reader? As a writer?
• What truly inspires me?
• What can motivate me to succeed?
• What are problems I face during writing?
• Did anyone understand the movie Primer? That whole second half was just over my head.

Short Story Planning

So for the plot of my story I'm thinking the old dude goes through an average day of his life, but since he's a Celtic druid, he'll have to deal with all sorts of supernatural stuff. All of it will pertain to Celtic mythology/folklore (might throw in some other Germanic mythology). He'll wake up, do some business with the animals of the forest, then BOOM: some kind of really exciting thing. Still haven't decided what. Like trolls or something. Anyway it's really weird and exciting and supernatural and we expect him to act surprised, but he finds it mundane. Ooh maybe I could put some Slavic folklore in there. Heck, just whatever fits a Celtic, mythological based  theme. It's kind of hard to explain. Don't worry though, I got this. Oh he could like meet Finn MacCool or Thor or something and be like "wazzup" and Finn or Thor's all like "woah" because my character's got serious rep on that Northern European folklore scene. Wow spewing my ideas out like this kind of helped, it's a lot more organized in my head now. For a conclusion he could head to sleep and say something like "I hate Third Moon Days" or something funny like that. Maybe that's no good. Anyway it will be pretty light hearted, all these monsters and magical creatures will have problems or things they need the Druid to do.

Short Story Response and Reading Times

I think A&P was my favorite short story. Everyone thought the dude was weird and creepy, but he seemed like a pretty chill sort of guy. Sure, he sounds like he could be one of your dime a dozen self proclaimed internet based "cynics" (which are just awful, like really, really terrible), but I kind of appreciated it since it was in the 60's. He became fascinated with the girls, and he ended up thinking of them as some sort of a symbol for something I can't really explain. I don't know, I thought the guy was interesting and doesn't deserve all the bashing (unless of course his character was just meant to be creepy or something like, in which case everything I said before was a joke.)

Anyway, barely read at all this week. Geez, I've been on Faust for like a month. If I had time I would marathon it just to get it over with. Not that I'm not enjoying it or anything, it's just that I want to finish it already.

Short story reading & writing: Monday through Friday- 1 hr

Character planning/eBook: Monday through Saturday (boom)- 2.5 hours

Writing in the voice of my character

Well, so ends another day. As the light fades and the darkness grows, I must now depart into slumber. today was not out of the ordinary; the trees were still tall, the sky was still blue, and the sheep were still docile. It was a good day, apart from the Bear and Snake having their usual bickering. The berry bushes are starting to ripen, and the squirrels have offered to collect this year. Yes, it shall be a bountiful season, and I do not foresee any troubles. The townsmen come to me more frequently, still pestering me with their usual greed and vanity. They call me a fraud, for I have not provided for them in many moons. I do not worry however; they dare not come near here uninvited. Oh Moon spirits, let me rest deeply so that I may wake tomorrow.

Reading Log

I only got to read in the time I had in class because my schedule is kind of busy, but I did a ton of English homework. I'm still reading Faust, because like I said I don't have much time to read. It's still great, and Satan is straight up hilarious in it.  The homework I did was all those annotations plus some other stuff I can't even remember. But the annotations did fill in the required time. I read Faust Monday through Thursday for an hour total, and the annotations took about two and a half hours in total.

We're making a(n e)book!

I don't really have any qualms with my narrative going public. I think it's alright, and there's nothing really embarrassing in it. I also don't think it really needs to be re-formatted; it looks pretty presentable I think. Though I don't really know what to do about the media stuff. I guess I could have a picture of like the world with America and Japan highlighted. I'm not really good with covers or anything like that either. I hope we get to work on this in class, because it looks like I'll need some help with it.

Reading Log

I didn't read much this week, mostly because I didn't really have time. I did essay revisions plus a ton of homework from other teachers so I never really had a chance to sit down and read, except for today in English during the reading time. I'm still reading Faust, though as I've said I haven't had much time to read that much these past few weeks. I watched the Tarkovsky movie Stalker over the weekend, so I'm in a Stalker kind of mood. After Faust I might read some Road Side Picnic, though if the movie was just straight up based off the book then I might pass. Anyway that movie was pretty good, would recommend. Are there any other books like Road Side Picnic? Really just anything that has that Soviet Era Ukrainian scavengey feel to it. I still haven't beaten S.T.A.L.K.E.R. yet, either. Man, Russia makes the best apocalyptic themed media. Oh wow I kind of went off topic.

Read

Faust: Monday- 5:00 pm-6:30 pm

Essay revisions: Friday- 4:00 pm-6:00 pm

Reading Log

I actually didn't have time to read much of my book this week. I had a lot of homework and stuff so I only got to read for a while. I did however write my draft for my literacy narrative, which filled up the time for my reading log. I wrote about my pen pal I had in 5th grade. I think I did well on it, though it was a bit long.
     The reason it was too long was because when I originally wrote it, I did it in 11 point font and in calibri. When formatting it into 12 point foint and Times New Roman, as well as the header and things like that, it took up a lot more space than I thought. This should be fine, though I'm not sure what the maximum number of pages is. People told me it's 5 or 8, but I thought it was only 3.

I wrote on Thursday from 5:00-7:00, and from 9:00-10:00

I am Really Tired Right Now, I should Probably Start Going To Bed Earlier. Oh and This is The Dialogue. Weird, it's only like 9:30. I Wonder Why I'm so Tired? You Don't have to Keep Reading This. Why are You Still Reading This. Stop. Thank You. Oh See You Looked Again. Just Read The Dialogue Please. Oh Wait 9:30 pst. So Like 11:30.

An exchange between two characters in which one character only asks questions and the other only answers.

CHARACTER 1: Why hello there [CHARACTER 2], have you seen my contact lenses anywhere?

CHARACTER 2: I'm afraid I haven't, [CHARACTER 1].

CHARACTER 1: Are you sure?

CHARACTER 2: Well I certainly don't recall seeing any contact lenses, but they are quite small and transparent, so they would be fairly hard to notice.

CHARACTER 1: Well perhaps you could help me search for them?

CHARACTER 2: I cannot.

CHARACTER 1: And why is that?

CHARACTER 2: I have also misplaced my contact lenses, so my sight is not very good.

CHARACTER 1: Wait a moment [CHARACTER 1], do you even wear contacts?

CHARACTER 2: I don't believe I do.
CHARACTER 1: And aren't I missing contact lenses?
CHARACTER 2: Indeed you are. Wait a moment...  but that would mean that I am actually you!

CHARACTER 1: Would that mean we are some kind of otherworldly creature linked through some kind of a hive mind psychic bond?
CHARACTER 2: It would! By golly [CHARACTER 1], I do believe I've achieved sentience! We're actually just characters in some Highschooler's English blog!

CHARACTER 1: Surely this will not end well for us, [CHARACTER 2]?

CHARACTER 2: No, I do not believe it will, [CHARACTER 1], unless through this new found self awareness we can transform into some higher omniscient being in order to stop our inter-dimensional master!

CHARACTER 1: Shall we try to form this Lovecraftian horror that would surely bend all the laws of our mortal world and perhaps tear the fabric of time and space itself?

CHARACTER 2: Nay, for the hour is late, and our creator is tired and running out of things to say.

CHARACTER 1: Well, will we at least be reappearing characters in this so called 'blog' of his?

CHARACTER 2. Perhaps, if our creator has need of us in future writing assignments. So long [CHARACTER 1]!
CHARACTER 1: But what about my contact lenses?

Applause fills the endless white dimension, and as the curtains close, the world of [CHARACTER 1] and [CHARACTER 2] fades to black.

Reading Response to Another Text

Well I read about Pyrrhus on Wikipedia. I don't know much about Epirus or Macedon, so I was trying to expand my knowledge on the subject. I found out he later became king of Macedon, which was pretty cool. He was also the second cousin to Alexander the Great, also pretty cool. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Epirus isn't a successor kingdom, right? Ptolemaic Empire is the best successor kingdom by the way. Anyway, back on topic, did you know he was killed by a flower pot that was thrown at his head? As the story goes, fighting in Argos and in the narrow alley ways some old woman through a pot at his head, and he died. Not a very good way for a Hellenistic general and king to go out.

Reading Response to Outside Reading

I'm still reading Faust, and I really like it. The dude who wrote this was pretty smart. I like when Faust gets in a discussion and makes a bunch of cool observations and points, like when he was talking about glorifying the past and stuff. It's also has a lot of depth for a play type book, if you know what I mean. Like when he walks around town, it feels realistic, even though everything's written like a poem. I'm really enjoying it, and I hope I can find more like it.

I read:

Faust: Sunday- 1:00-2:30, Monday- 5:00 6:00

Late

A few days ago, I was sitting in biology working on the paper towels lab. The bell rang suddenly, and I grabbed my bag and walked to social studies. I decided to get some water since I had plenty of time, then I strolled into Mrs. Harper's room getting ready to learn about some Sumerians. But then, as I looked around the room, I noticed something that terrified me: none of the faces were my classmates. I then realized that I actually had Spanish this block, which just happened to be on the other side of campus. I rushed down the stairs, and past the library. I knew I wasn't going to make it, but I tried anyway. I reached Penniman, and finally Sr. Ramos' room. I dropped my bag outside, and right as I was pulling out my books, I heard the bell. I had failed. Yeah my life is pretty boring and this is pretty much the most exciting thing to happen on an average week.

Reading log and reflection

Well I dropped Ivanhoe, partly because it was kind of boring and partly because I forgot where I put it. I decided to read Faust, though to be honest I didn't really want to read that either. I like it more than I thought it would though. I really to read these stage plays type things. Plus the Biblical stuff is cool.
     I'll stick with Faust for now, but I'm on the lookout for books about Rome/Hellenistic empires/Classical age. I read about the 2nd Punic War and that war with Epirus and now I'm craving some strategos and TRIARII! Stuff on Parthia, Ptolemaic Egypt, or the Seleucids would be cool too. really anything Classical Age.

I read:

Faust

Sunday-1:00 pm to 2:00

Sunday:6:00 pm to 8:10 pm

I saw this cool banjo on ebay that's from the 1800's for only like $200. The only problems are that it has a tear in the head and it has six pegs. I can fix the tear pretty easily, but I'm confused about the pegs. The guy says it's a 5 string banjo, and the other one is extra. That doesn't really make sense though, and I thought the 5th peg has to be in the middle of the neck.
     It's really cool, but I don't think it's worth the risk. I'll keep looking for cool old banjos, but one of the problems is I have no idea what's a collectible or not. All I know is that the most expensive banjos are Gibson's from the 1920's. That's because Earl Scruggs used a 20's Gibson when he performed. I don't really care about that though, I just like having an old instrument. I think it's really neat to play something that old.

The book I've been reading for my free read is Ivanhoe. I haven't gotten far but so far it's been so boring. I expected a cool light-hearted epic adventure, but it's been pretty dry from what I've read. If it's doesn't pick up I might just drop it.

     I'm not sure what I should read if I drop or once I finish this though. I kind of just chose this because it was last minute and I saw it in the cabinet. I guess I could continue with the Dune  series. People say the original series is pretty good, but those new ones written by his son are absolutely terrible. This is probably true, so I'm not going to try them.

I read:

Sunday, 5:03-7:09

The author is Walter Scott.

         I didn't really like the book The Knife of Never Letting Go. The setting wasn't very fleshed out or detailed, and all the drama and stuff felt really forced. Like, so in this far future we found another planet we can colonize. Instead of spending year researching and studying it before even sending unmanned probes there, we decide to launch thousands of people there with just a basic idea of what it might be like? "What if this so far in the future that tons of planets have been colonized and FTL travel is the norm?" is what you might say, but the only two planets mentioned are Old World and New World, and I'm assuming Old World is Earth.
        Now, this could be so far into the future that humanity might have broken up from a united empire into some kind of system of scattered factions, and maybe some event led to the loss of much of humanity's knowledge on some of these far flung planets, leading them to regress into some kind of techno barbarism. However, these are a lot of assumptions, and the more likely answer is that the author is bad at world building. Just terrible.