I write because...

I write because Ms James makes me.

I write because it’s fun writing about what I want to write about.

I write because I don’t like to write.

I write because the colors on the tree turn orange and red.

I write because the song whistles in the wind.

I write because the river flows.

I write because the feeling after is clear and steady.

I write because I get my feelings out.

I write because in order to survive you need good grammar.

I write because I would rather write a paper then give a speech.

I write because I’m told to.

I write because it’s easier.

Readers Response #7 - Article Response #3 - Dave Berry on College

Dave Berry seems like a hilariously funny guy to talk to, just based on his article he wrote on college. The sarcasm in the article such as: "College is consisted of two things that take about 2,000 hours: 1. Things you will need to know in later life (two hours). 2. Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours)." Dave Berry seems to be the type of guy to make a joke out of everything. But to some circumstance I agree with Dave on his quote about not having to actually learn the things for later use in life because when I grow up I have a goal of being an anesthesiologists. Why do I need to learn how to plot a quadrilateral on a 3-dimensional plan and then transform it over the z axis? Dave states in his article that you should major in classes like English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Dave states that, "These are the subjects in which nobody really understands what anybody else is talking about, and which involve virtually no actual facts." When he says this it brings up the thought in my mind that he is actually right... Every other class like Chemistry or Algebra you have to learn steps and facts on how to do it. These subjects involves none of this. If I took anything from this article it would have to be that Dave Berry was a lazy guy in college and was looking for the easy way out. Dave Berry could possibly be my role model. :) 

Reading Response #6 - The Catcher in the Rye

In chapter five Stradlater leaves for his date with a woman named Jane Gallagher. A woman that Holden knows from the past and seems to very protective of Jane. Stradlater asks Holden to write his paper for him because he didn’t have time to write it with his date. Stradlater says simply that the paper had to be able a description of a room or house or something fairly simple. But of course Holden being his own kind of person wrote about a baseball glove that his brother used to write all sorts of quotes, moments, poems, all over it. When Stradlater comes back from his date he immediately reads the paper that he had Holden write for him. He was pissed to see that Holden refused to write what he said to write about and simply says “No wonder your being expelled you can’t even write a simple paper right.”  Stradlater is a mega hypocrite for saying this to Holden: for one Stradlater can’t even write his own paper. Stradlater throws a huge tantrum and rips his notebook up while insulting Holden. This fighting leads to Holden getting bullied to the ground and punched in the nose. Holden bleeding out from his nose leads Stradlater worried that he will get in trouble for hurting Holden; which is ironic because I figured he would have been worried that he actually hurt him not that he would get in trouble for it. I’m very excited to see what happens when Holden actually leaves after winter break.

Drafting Paper - Could video gaming cause people to become more violent?

In my essay I am going to debate if video games are making people more violent.  Most video games nowadays are massively bloody and gory and unfortunately a massive portion of young boys play these games. Could these games cause the young boys to develop a violent adulthood? Also I’m going to talk about the different kinds of video games like PC games, console games, portable electronic games, etc. In my paper I’m going to talk about American events such as Columbine, the incident at the movie theatre and other events and debate if video games were the purpose of these massacres. Talking about video games will be fairly easy for me because I am almost constantly playing something on my phone like angry birds or at home playing Call of Duty.

Reading Response #5 - The Catcher in the Rye

Holden lives in Ossenburg Hall at Pencey Prep and has a roommate named Stradlater; fairly handsome man who is said to be “Good with the ladies.” On the other hand an annoying, pimply fellow by the name of Ackley lives down the hall and bothers Holden as he loves to read alone. Ackley bothers the crap out of Holden the entire third chapter after Holden repeatedly tells him to shut up. For some awkward and weird reason Holden keeps talking about this red hat he has on that has a beak on it. I’m wondering what the hat has to do with any part of this book, or if it’s a metaphor for something else in his life? Close to the end of the third chapter, Stradlater comes into the apartment talking about this girl he met at the football game; her name was Jane Gallagher. Holden apparently knows her from the past as he is eager to go say hello but also scared almost as if he has some secret crush on her. Stradlater is a man with broad shoulders and good hygiene so he doesn’t seem to have trouble with the ladies, this makes Holden very nervous as he gives girls “the time” quite often. “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” Ackley said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.” “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.” Holden says this about this red hat with a beak on it, like I said before, this makes me think like what does the hat actually mean to him? Could  it be a symbol for something in his life that he can’t let go of?

Article Response #1: Is google making us stupid?

Reading about this article really just put me to sleep. I kept finding myself off topic in my mind and having to reread the section due to boredom. The article had some key points in it like when it talks about the patholigists from University of Michigan Medical School and how he states that “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” I found this one of the most interesting parts of the article because I can really connect to this, just reading this article alone I found myself bored and off topic just within the first three or four paragraphs. Also from the article a study at George Mason Univerisity states that "Even the adult mind is very plastic, it  has the ability ro reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions." This is very true in my opinion, the human brain is becoming more and more like a computerized machine and in the future I predict seeing more and more ways to make things easier, for example "Siri."

Mindblown.

Readers Response #4 - Catcher in the Rye

I have started a new book called The Catcher in the Rye. The main character is Holden who tells the story from in a mental institute, which I am really confused about... He goes to Pencey Prep, in the book he talks about how he is failing 4 of his 5 classes and the only one he is passing in is English. Why that matters? I have no clue but I guess he likes English. Holden doesn't apply himself to school at all. He states that he is the fencing teams manager and how he loses all the equipment on a train ride to their match. The headmaster at Pencey Prep later in chapter two asks Holden to drop by his house so they can talk. So when Holden arrives his teacher is laying there in his bed lecturing to Holden about how he needs to play by the rules and how he wont be allowed to come back to this school after the fall term. The teacher tells him "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." Holden is just basically tuning out everything the teacher is telling him and finally just gets fed up with it and walks out in the middle of the teachers lecture about school. Seems to me like this book I am really going to be able to relate to because we both are teenagers and the problems I foreshadow for him in the future are problems I could relate to.

This is a picture that I am imagining the teacher giving Holden a lecture looks like.

Readers Response #3 - Flash Burnout

The book begins by introducing the four people that live in the Hewson's house: Blake, a high school sophomore; Garrett, his older brother; mom, a hospital chaplain; and dad, a medical examiner. Blake and his brother Garrett go to West Park high school together. On the car ride to school, the brothers listen to the school radio and for some reason it seems weird because they are talking about a new DJ; almost like its awkward for some reason. Once they get to school, Blake's girlfriend, Shannon, is upset with him. As a typical woman always does, she overreacted because he had forgotten to call her after dinner. "I can hear her muttering, 'He will rue the day' as she disappears down the hall.” This quote just leaves me itching to know what the climax of this book will be, because already it is showing signs of almost scary incidents waiting to come. This book I feel like I’m going to enjoy more then my last one because it has a side of suspicion to it that leaves me wanting to know what it is about the book that gives it the vibe of almost a dark side to it.

Here is the car that Garrett and Blake drive to school, that Garrett and his dad fixed up.

Readers Response: Quiet Strength

Tony Dungy was a man raised by civil parents, with athletic backgrounds. He writes this book in chronological order through him growing up. He starts with his childhood, where he was a big player in high school playing basketball and football. This book was written to inspire young Christian athletes as it has many references to god and the bible. Tony Dungy is a man of character; a “family man” is what I would call it. During games he said if he faced adversity he would think back to what his father taught him and ask himself “Is raising my voice and overreacting going to be helpful in this situation?” I feel like this book is going to be a very good book for me because just in the start I am interested in how he becomes a not very successful quarterback in college to becoming a legend in NFL and what it takes to become the best. This book is going to inspire me to be the quiet but active player I need to be in college football.

Inspiration:

Something that gets me inspired to write is my past life. My past is the one thing I actually get excited to write about because there are so many stories I have to say and so many stories I can tell people but never have. So when I think of something to write about the first thing that pops into my head is my childhood life. The second thing that pops into my mind is my favorite person in the world; my girlfriend. We have had so many memories in the past year and a half that I'm pretty sure I could write a whole novel about how we have choose to live our lives together.

Reading Response: The Hunger Games

My book starts off with a girl whose name is Katniss Evergreen, and she lives in what is called “District 12.” I am not exactly sure how many Districts there are or why they are fenced in by electric wires. There is also this thing they call the “Reaping.” In the book Katniss says “Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy.” Based on that quote I assume the reaping is some kind of human sacrifice, but not too sure yet.

The narrator is Katniss; she has a mother who is what they call a “healer,” which is basically just a doctor in reality. She has  younger sister, Prim, who is a baker and loves to spend time with her mother. Katniss on the other hand is the hunter and gatherer. She  seems to know what she is doing because she was taught by her father, who died five years ago from coal mining. District 12 is a an area where you are not supposed to be let out of, they have electrical wiring around the whole area so no one can get out. But Katniss crawls underneath a portion of it to hunt and bring food home so they can survive, as their District is very poor. I have only read through the first 43 pages of this book already but I am very interested in learning what the “Reaping” is about and why they call the book a game!

I am…

a son, the middle child, raised on a steep driveway where playing football was impossible

dark black rubber cleats, shoulder pads and a helmet, where the want to be the best started early,

mighty mights, where the fundamentals was taught by dads  

middle school, where the women flocked around gazing at the little boys in football uniforms

The long restless hours spent in the car traveling back and fourth, and back and fourth, many times from St. Louis and back to Springfield. Every other weekend. I never blamed my father for dragging us along on those car rides, but loved them because it was the only time I actually got to see him in my younger days. All it took was one mistake and it changed his life forever, realized what was important in a near death experience.

high school, the place of memories for me:

I come from “You only get out what you give in, if you don’t put effort in, you won’t ever get anything in return,”  and “If you’re not a rower, you’re a sleeper.”

I come from the time period where you make friends and lose friends, where the drive to be the best kicks in when you see upper classmen being scouted by colleges, where learning the fundamentals and basics was essential to get into college

Where I met the woman to keep me in line for many years to come, we started memories together, memories I would never forget, good and bad. We met sophomore year, and now look at us, senior year going strong.

Every Wednesday the girl and I would plan to hangout, that was our day during the school year, we would work on homework together, study, go on runs, or just simply lay and watch some tv with the fam. It was always the day to look forward to.

Work, oh how waking up every day and knowing you have to work a 6 hour shift after being at school for 7 long drooling hours, that got old real fast.

I am the future, the new me, smarter and wiser I hope.