Writing Reflection #8

Web Photo of
Newspaper Blackout Poetry

This week in my Creative Writing class, we created Newspaper Blackout Poetry. I really enjoyed the Newspaper Poetry part where we created poems from the words printed on a newspaper. I disliked the Blackout part, because of the permanent marker fumes! Any who, I found it was easy to create poems with the theme "after a tragedy," because most stories you read in newspapers are tragic. I will admit some of my poems are gruesome and a little bit disturbing, but death and survival is a real life obstacle after a tragedy. I found it challenging to narrow down hundreds of words into a few that make a poem. Also, it was difficult to have three poems that make sense to one common theme. I found I was successful in creating a poem that makes a reader feel something. A reader should feel a mutual feeling of sadness that is reflected through each poem. This style of writing is unique, because you are not writing a full sentence with proper grammar or retelling events but creating something new from already printed words. It is a very difficult process, even though it looks so easy! It is a weird coincidence that I so easily could create three poems involving around tragedies! Does this secretly mean something? Most of my friend's poems reflect their personalities. For example, Ryan a humorous guy created poems that were funny punch lines and then Hugh a nice, lovable guy created poems with his theme being love. I don’t see myself as tragic, but who knows!

Reading Reflection #8

Book: The Lovely Bones

Author: Alice Sebold

Pages Read: 0 - 95

This book was recommended by my English teacher at the beginning of this semester, therefore helping me decide this was the next book I would read. I have already seen the motion picture and from where I am in the story there isn't much difference except more detail. This is a common difference between a book and its movie. The writing style is unique, because it's being told by a fourteen year old girl, Susie, who was murdered in the 70's, who now watches over her friends, family, murderer, and neighbours from heaven. Before, Susie was murdered she was raped and that seen made me cringe. On page 14, Susie expresses, "I felt huge and bloated. I felt like a sea in which he stood and pissed and shat. I felt the corners of my body were turning in on themselves and out, like in cat's cradle, which I played with Lindsey just to make her happy. He started working himself over me." With that much detail you get into the feelings of the character if you wanted to or not. Another thing that is unique in this book is that as a reader we know who the murderer is and his movements after Susie's murder, because Susie watches him from heaven. I am enjoying this book so far, because stories involving murders always intrigue me. Other books I have read that involve murders are The Pretty Little Liars series, The Private series, and The Privileged series. I cannot predict anything, because I have seen the movie, which I wish had waited to see after I had read the book. Oh well, I hope I get more detail from the book than the movie!

Big Band Dance Tonight! (#27)

Tonight, is my school's annual Big Band Dance! What is a Big Band Dance? Well, it's our music programs big fundraiser where a jazz band of each grade level performs a set of jazz music at a social event setting. As grade 12 this year, our jazz band gets two sets, the third last set and than the final set!

You might have heard of some of the songs we are performing:

• YMCA - vocalist chart with costumes and choreography!
• Sweet Caroline
• Mambo #5
• Memory (from the musical Cats) - vocalist chart
• The Wanderer - vocalist chart
• Sing, Sing, Sing
• In the Mood
• Do the Hustle
• AND MUCH MORE!

What makes the evening even better is that the attire is formal! Well for the most part, personally I go full formal! So, everybody dresses really fancy and we all dance on the large dance floor to every song! There are beverages and at 11 food is served, because it's like one big social! This will be my fifth time performing at the Big Band Dance, since every year our high school invites two grade 8 bands from their neighbourhood middle schools.

Some of my friends and I have made it tradition to show up to the social evening in style by stepping out of a stretched SUV limo! My goodness, I can't wait till it's time to start getting ready! Man I am such a girl!

Writing Reflection #7

Comment #1:
http://bingeninjas.blogspot.ca/2012/04/welcome-to-my-world.html?showComment=1335403036626
Comment #2:
http://rodiansinger.blogspot.ca/2012/03/favourite-songs-doodle.html?showComment=1335570875229
Comment #3:
http://noodlingfordummies.blogspot.ca/2012/03/spring-break-in-nutshell.html?showComment=1335572687419

My first Comment was on Spence's post about his plans for the future. He was talking about how he has no idea of his plans after high school, so once again I found it easy to comment, because I too am undecided. One of his options was to become a bum downtown, so I asked if he could stand being dirty? His reply; "Just cause I'm a bum doesn't mean I ain't clean! Hell, I'll be taking water fountain showers down at polo every day I can!" That made me laugh and I like how he replied with an interesting response!

My second comment was on Kaitlin's post of visual puns of her favourite songs. In her post she asked viewers to guess what songs were represented. I couldn't guess one so that led me to comment on her post and ask questions. I asked questions that would help me guess her favourite songs. I am still waiting for an answer, but if I get one I will be able to continue our comment conversation!

My third comment was on Colton's post about Spring break in a nutshell. He talked about how having a school base blog, makes it difficult to go into great detail of some activities you participated in! I totally agreed, because they was definitely one post where I could have elaborated about why I was so not willing to search for Easter Eggs on Easter morning, due to a late night. I find myself commenting on posts that I can agree with, disagree, find interesting, and where I can ask a question.

Reading Reflection #7

Book: Those Girls

By: Sara Lawrence

Read: Finished the book

Those Girls is about a click of rich girls who attend an exclusive boarding school called Stagmount. Stagmount School is on the outskirts of the town of Brighton, Britain. I found the language a tad difficult, because there was a lot of British slang! They did use the term shagging, which I have heard used before! The main character, Jinx, is best friends with a girl named Liberty. The story is about when a new girl, Stella comes to Stagmount and Jinx finds herself being replaced as Liberty's best friend. The main characters are all seventeen and with that being around the same age as me you would think I would have some text to self connections, but not even one!

Here is my list of the text to self differences:

1. Stagmount: private all female school - Sturgeon (my school): public co-ed school
2. Stagmount Girls: rich with daddy's money - Sturgeon Girls: have jobs
3. Stagmount: girls live on grounds - Sturgeon: 3:30 bell run for home!
4. Jinx and Liberty: drink and party hard - Breanne and BFF: occasional drinks at a party
5. Jinx: designers clothes - Breanne: clearance clothes

The end of the story is where there are some much unexpected twists revealed! I will admit that this book did take me a while to get into, but I was very happy I finished it. There were two twists revealed that I hadn't even been remotely close with my assumptions. With that being said, if you are someone who usually assumes correctly the end plot, than read this book you might be surprised that you were caught by two unexpected twists!

Writing Reflection #6

Comment #1:
http://ryanbruce45.blogspot.ca/2012/03/six-word-memoir-3.html?showComment=1334800856908#!/2012/03/six-word-memoir-3.html
Comment #2:
http://samiracwblog.blogspot.ca/2012/04/life-is-too-short-personal-addiction.html?showComment=1334802221936
Comment #3:
http://kathleenskraftyblog.blogspot.ca/2012/04/robb-nash.html?showComment=1335206110940

My first comment was on Ryan's six word memoir about grad, because I connected with him about worries and concerns of grad! Graduation is now only 39 school days away and after that what will I do! Ryan's six word memoir states "Everything related to graduation frightens me" and I think any grad who doesn't know what they want to do after high school will feel the same way! As I finished agreeing with Ryan's opinion, I finished my comment with this question: "Aren't you excited to see what you become and to get away from being treated like just a kid?" Turns out even though grad does indeed frighten me, I am excited for my life afterwards! Hopefully Ryan agrees with me and now the thought of grad will frighten him less.

My second comment was on one of Samira's personal additions, because once again I connected with this post. It was a poem about life. The poem talked about having no regrets, taking chances, and life moves on so live it to the fullest. On Samira's post I asked: "Is there a specific site you find quotes and poems like this one from?" She replied with: "this poem written by me , I like writing poems ,especially poems about life.it's the first poem by me I Posted in blog . the images I just search for poems about life , or life quote." That is so cool, she wrote the poem!! That is what makes a good comment finding out something you didn't previously know about the post and the person who wrote it!

My third comment was on Kathleen's blog on a personal addition about a school assembly we attended. The speaker at the assembly was Robb Nash and Kathleen talked about how Robb Nash had the whole schools attention. I agreed with what Kathleen wrote about how Robb Nash was very insightful and had important information. After agreeing with her I gave my feelings on the assembly! I feel a benefit of commenting is that you can agree or disagree with the post which usually leads to a conversation. It is also interesting to read other people's opinions on your post, so I hope Kathleen will find my opinion interesting or at least be glad I read her post!

Joy of Exams.... (#26)

WARNING TOTAL FREAK OUT MOMENT:

This photo made me laugh and than i started to think...

There is something like 48 days left in my grade twelve year! This will be that last time I will be worrying about high school exams!  I won't ever spend the last five minutes totally freaking out in another high school exam! I won't ever write another French or English writing exam where on the last five minutes my writing starts to look like a kindergartners writing! Than I remember I still have all of my university exams, but still I start writing my last high school exams in one month!

Reading Reflection #6



Book: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages Read: The whole book

A Quote from the book, Mockingjay

This final book in the Hunger Games trilogy definitely wrapped everything up! There are some words in the book that I didn't know their definition. For example emaciated, so I looked it up and it is defined as abnormally thin and weak. I was very sad to read one of my favourite characters died after he had just gotten married to the love of his life! I found it difficult remembering all the specifics of each character, because the names are not common or easy to remember! For example Katniss, the main character, meets lots of people and she will explain who they are, but if they come up later in the story I never remember them. Cressida, Plutarch, Messalla, and Enobaria were some of the names I couldn’t associate what the characters connection to Katniss were second time their names were used. This third book of the Hunger Games has new unexpected twists and surprises brought into the story. I really can wait till the movies of the final two books come out. I can just picture how incredible all the costumes and animation will be. Other people might say this book, is the slowest of all three. When I say slowest of all three I mean people found Mockingjay took them longer to read! Personally, I couldn’t put this book down and didn’t find it a slow read. I found the second book took me the longest to read and that was like five days at tops. All the books were very good and I might just read them all over again!

Writing Reflection #5

This week we colour coded our moments by specific writing techniques we need to include in them. I realized I still have lots of work to do on my moment. For example we need to include a section which specifically where we “show don’t tell.” Show don’t tell is describing things which people can relate to. An example would be instead of saying I am cold, I would describe my hands were at that point where as I ran them under warm water, the water felt burning to my freezing hands! I really need to work on that in my piece. I am happy to say I have caught up on my blog and am excited to see the  number on my visitor count! I wouldn't mind exploring from an education stand point, Facebook a social media that is very popular. Our next project is fan fiction and I had never heard of it until I had googled it. I found this definition on urbandictionary.com:

"Fan fiction is when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work, whether it be a novel, TV show, movie, etc, and create their own story based on it."

Sounds like it will be a very interesting project and I am excited to start!

Reading Reflection #5

Peeta and Katniss in the movie of The Hunger Games

Book: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages Read:  The whole book

Book: Catching Fire (2nd book of The Hunger Games)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages Read: 334/391

This past week I started reading The Hunger Games Trilogy. If I find a good book I will read it in every spare moment. With the first Hunger Games book I finished it in less than 24 hours and then had to see the movie! The book like I previously stated was very good and the movie definitely did it justice. The actors in the movie all matched the descriptions in the book and I found they chose a very good cast. For example from the description in the book of one of the male characters, Peeta, I pictured him as somewhat of looking like a Swiss boy. In the book Collins describes Peeta as having blond hair “that falls in waves over his face,” blue eyes, and a stocky build.  Josh Hutcherson who plays Peeta Mellarck in the movie does somewhat has that image of a Swiss boy and portrayed the perfect Peeta. I just started reading the second book, Catching Fire, and it as just as good as the first one! It had an unexpected twist that I was not expecting! We also learn more about each characters history. For example Peeta and Katniss’ (the female main character) mentor in the 74th Hunger Games, Haymitch. We learn how he won the 50^th Hunger Games and more of his personality. There are parts in this book that do confuse me, but I will continue reading on and find my answer! The reason I am usually confused is, because of the scenes are so detailed and complex that it takes a couple descriptions to get a clear picture in one’s head! The author has done a good job and has created such an excellent story with great detail. I now recommend reading the second book too!

Happy Easter! (#25)

My Sisters Egg Hunt Load (left) and My Egg Hunt Load (right)

This morning my mom woke me up to inform me I am having an Easter egg hunt. I responded with "do I have too?" After 18 years of hunting for eggs I have lost the spark and enthusiasm the hunt used to bring me. My sister on the other hand has not and totally found 3/4 more than I did. You can tell by comparing our containers... I somewhat searched but mostly the "Easter Bunny" told me where I could find half of the eggs that are in my container! This isn't an excuse, but I was still half asleep from my outing the night before!

I hope you all have an enjoyable Easter!

-18 year old who got beat by younger sister in the Easter egg hunt.

Worth the Read! (#24)

The Hunger Games =

So indeed I jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon! IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT! I finished the book in less than 24 hours and now I can not wait to go see the movie! To everyone who said this book was amazing and recommended it, I thank you! It always had me in suspense and there were not any dull spots. For example, usually when you're reading about some type of games, the main character will have long sections where they are just thinking instead of acting. In this book there were never any too long spots where the main character was doing something boring. The action was spread through out the book evenly with lots of suspense and tension. I enjoyed how different this book is, because it's a totally new type of popular adolescent fiction! By that I am referring to it's not about vampires or wizards. It was a good read and I now recommend it to you!

The End has Come.. (#23)

Last night, was the ending of nine seasons of One Tree Hill. The show was two hours and it was magnificent. The first hour was all about the nine years of production. I found out some facts I didn't know about the show. It made me fall in love with the series all over again! For example James Lafferty who plays Nathan was 18 when he started filming One Tree Hill. Also, James Lafferty, Mark Schwahn (creator/ executive producer), and Antwon Tanner (character - Skills) all actually play basketball! When they filmed in Honey Grove, Texas those three men played for hours against local kids. So all the basketball stunts of James Lafferty and Antwon Tanner are them actually just playing their favourite sport! I also found out One Tree Hill singers actually went on two tours and each show was sold. The second tour the singers from One Tree Hill raised money for the troops which we see in season 7. I will miss One Tree Hill, but luckily will have every season to re-watch it over and over! I loved their series finale and think as a whole One Tree Hill had a great nine years!

Personal Thank you to Mark Schwahn who made One Tree Hill happen!!

Mark Schwahn (left) and James Lafferty (right)

The Everlasting Tale of Love! (#22)

Kissed by an Angel Series

I just finished reading the third book in the series Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler. The third book just was released on March 6th and I have been waiting since Christmas to buy it! I started reading it on Sunday and finished Tuesday! I thought it would wrap up the series, but was I ever wrong! Elizabeth Chandler left it with a cliff hanger and now I have to wait for a new book to come out to tie up the loose ends! What I loved about this book is that the ending was totally not what I was suspecting! It definitely took me for a surprise and I love when an author can do that to a reader! This book was awesome and I can not wait till the next one! Hopefully Elizabeth Chandler does write another book!

NOOO! (#21)

All of My Seasons!

I found out earlier this week that something incredibly amazing is ending... On Wednesday, April 4, One Tree Hill is having a two hour series finale! As I was reading the post off the One Tree Hill page on Facebook I could not believe it. I also had to verify with my mom what series finale meant. Turns out it means that after nine seasons, One Tree Hill is ending production of the TV show. I really can't blame them, because nine seasons is quiet a lot. Now what? Well, I will be crying as I watch the last show of my favourite TV series on Wednesday night.