Self-Reflection

            Recently, in Sexuality and Society, we read the interesting tale of The Scarlet Letter, about the complicated relationships of Hester Prynne during colonial times. Shortly after reading The Scarlet Letter, we watched Juno, about the struggles that a girl named Juno has with being pregnant. Our project is loosely based upon both of these stories, mainly the themes we pulled from them. Matt and I chose to base ours off of theme of the main character finding it hard to change, while the world is rapidly changing around them.

            For our project, we wanted to create something that could show our theme very well, and what came to mind was making a stop motion film. Making a stop motion film showed one person (me) staying the same throughout the entirety of the video, while everything else around me, was changing very fast. The process of making the film was rather tedious, but in the end it was worth it.

We didn’t want the film to be the only aspect of our project, so we spent a good amount of time searching for songs that would relate to our topic. At first, we were thinking about using the song at the end of Juno, but that would be too closely related to the movie, so that song was scratched from the list. But, after much more searching we came upon song via Pandora, called Tire Swing by Kimya Dawson. We believe this song was just what we were looking for, the lyrics strongly related to our theme, and the beat was similar to the one at the end of Juno.

Putting the project together on the computer went without toil. But, taking the pictures was extremely tedious, getting the angle correct, working around the city folk, etc. When we had to take the pictures in the night time, the camera acted as if it hadn’t had sleep, and kept capturing blurry pictures, which prolonged our night, but was not a major setback.

With the minor setbacks that we had, I believe we crafted a well put together project, showing our understanding of our theme, as well as making an interesting visual. The project should show via the pictures, how much time we put into this project. The only part I wish we could have done was rather than choosing a song off the Internet to play in the background of our video, was Matt and I each playing a guitar in the background, like the ending of Juno. I believe that would’ve been much more personal, and much more powerful for our project. We couldn’t complete that aspect due to the fact that I have never played a guitar before, and we did not have enough time for me to learn it. And, if we could do it again, I would’ve taken the time from the start of the project to learn at least how to play the chords on the guitar so that we could have added that in, but that’s about it.

• Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque yo pienso es un muy bien PSA, y yo peinso que es un poco comimico tambien. 

• Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo pienso que yo cambiaría los tiempos que nosotros hacemos algas cosas.

https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/reform-our-electoral-college/

from wood polish and rags.

I am from the music who has the shame of not being listened to.

I am from the cracks between the sidewalk,

taking in all of the dirt

never forgetting where it came from.

I'm from the squeaky space in the door and under the floor boards.

I'm from the loud and the soft.

I'm from the confused and the straightforward.

I'm from the old and the new,

being told this and that.

I'm from the close and the distant,

from when my and granddad didn't talk for 12 years.

I'm from the knee my grand mom replaced 3 times,

just to walk. 

In my drawer is an envelope,

saving up hope,

pushing keeping in the good, 

not sure if its in my grasp.

I am from 16 years,

feeling like a blink of an eye.

Through out this school year, I have learned many things to do and not to do. Toward the beginning of the year, I had no idea what I was in for and I did not have the writing skills that I do now. When I look at what I wrote and how I wrote at the beginning of the year, I cringe a little, because I know what I would write now. Another thing at the beginning of the year is that I had the stupid idea of not paying attention or completing homework just because I didn’t feel like it. As the year progressed, I realized that I was flushing my college opportunities down the drain. I had to change, and I started to give my full attention and not goof around nearly as much. When I compare my writing from the beginning of the year to now, I see how much better it has gotten due to simply paying attention and taking the extra time to revise what I wrote.

My first example is from the beginning of the year, the Language Auto-Biography. This is an example of when I did not go back and look at my what I had written. In this Language Auto-Biography, I did not revise. Another thing about this Auto-Biography is that I did not have the writing skills that I do now. When I look over it I read things that are grammatically correct, but could be worded much more maturely and more descriptive. This particular Auto Biography could have had fewer but much longer, more in depth paragraphs.

The next example of my work growing through out the school year is my Poems wiki Assignment. This assignment was in the middle of the year and my writing skills were not at where they are now, but they were much better than the beginning of the year. I had never been that great at making poetry, and I was extremely nervous about writing these poems. I feel the best poem of the ones I created is the Memory Poem. It encompasses deep though, heavy emotion, imagery, and descriptive language. “About to collapse under my impatience, about to explode from building up with anxiety.” This line, I believe, is the best line from the memory poem. I never thought that I could make a poem like this. But with paying attention and asking many questions, I have gotten much better at writing poetry. Another thing I learned about poetry is, it is like writing anything else, you have to go back and revise. When I look at a poem from where I first wrote it based off the top of my head, to what it has become after many revisions, it is so gratifying to see how much better it reads.

One of the later writing assignments, writing chapter 26 of Things Fall Apart, shows how my writing skills have grown. This new chapter is based off the previous chapters and ties into what was going through his head. The chapter is one of the better pieces of writing that I wrote throughout the year. It is very descriptive and well thought out to deal with the plot line already started.

Through out this long year, I have realized that I really need to keep up with my school work and always pay attention and ask questions, even though those may be obvious things, sometimes the obvious is over looked. To develop any skills in writing, like anything else, you must first learn what the teacher has to say by listening to him/her and asking many questions. Toward the beginning I had many things to learn and many habits to pick up. I have successfully learned and picked up most of them. I just need to improve the skills that I have learned and put them into use.

            Whoosh! AHHHH! As the monstrous roller coaster of Kingda Ka takes its turn on the scarred but wanting riders. I am only 11 years old and this is the first roller coaster I’m going to ride! I think I’d rather eat worms than go on this…thing.  I need to find a way out of here but its hard to do when your surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people and my dad and 6 foot brother are right next to me. They both are starring at the roller coaster as if its something they would want to do again and again. I’m looking at it like it’s an insane serial killer. As we moved closer I could see how the riders were literally launched into orbit because I couldn’t see the top of the roller coaster. And they would come down what seemed an eternity later. Supposedly the ride lasts only 30 seconds, think they tell you that so they are able to do what they want to you in the sky. When the people get off the ride they are groggy and look crippled. I tried to tell my dad but to no avail, we stayed in the line. Another thing going on with this ride is when it starts they don’t make a noise, I can hear them talking and poof they cant speak.

I found out that I wasn’t alone. There was another kid my age but much shorter and he was trying to do the same thing with his dad and sister. But his dad actually let him go over to his mom while he and his daughter stayed in line.  Now I figured my dad wasn’t going to miss this or let me do what the other kid did and we were going to all die or become cripples. There had to be at least a thousand people waiting in line all knowing what was coming and yet they had an eager look on their faces. As I looked around I saw that everyone had there eye on the gates that locked you out of the roller coaster except for when the men and women in the blue blazers opened them. We were only a couple groups behind from going onto this death coaster. I had heard in commercials that it was one of the scariest rides in the world, and my mom said that you wouldn’t be able to pay her to go on the ride. She said she would probably look like a ghost at the end and her blood would be at the top of it, wherever the top is.

            As we stepped into the pitch-black seats and the big red bars slammed down and pinned me down into a seat I almost screamed out for help. Then they told my dad to take his glasses off. My dad asked “why do I need to take them off? Not to be rude, just curious.”

            “Because,” The man in the blue blazer said “a couple of weeks ago a woman that cared too much about her looks didn’t want to take her wig off. So when the ride went her wig flew off and got wedged in the ride and t had to be shut down a for a couple of hours. Also the amount of G forces could make them fly off or break”

 What does that mean? I thought to myself, is that some sort of radiation or weapon? It sounds like 50 cent but in superhero form. My stepmom and brother were talking. My stepmom got to sit out on the side but she said “’Have a good ti-“ and that’s all we heard. While my brother, my dad, and I were slingshotted forward and my head was slammed back into the so-called cushioned headrest. All I could see was blurs of the Amazon in the background. But once we hit the top of the 456-foot high green monster everything was in slow motion and I could see absolutely everything in about a mile radius. There were the monkeys jumping on top of a car, some gazelles running out on the sandy plain like a national geographic magazine picture and then swoosh! We were heading straight down toward the ground at an extreme velocity; I could see my end coming once again. I was going to be headlined on the news as boy turns into pancake. In some odd way we turned horizontal and went up a slow hill and landed safely into the landing dock. When we got off I yelled with surprising joy in my voice “I want to go again” as my hair stood on end from the amount of air rushing at me.

­Nick Manton

Iron Stream

Y-Band

English

            Language means many different things. It can be from what words you speak such as English, Spanish, German, etc. Language can also be the way you speak to one another. It’s not an easy thing to describe, because it is not a dialect but it is very similar. It is the wordage choice you use with different sets of people. You can have change between conversation personalities subconsciously or consciously. It can be different between friends, family, fellow employees, etc. Conversation with your friends might use a choice of words like these, “Hey man, what’s up?” While with your employees, the conversation would be much more formal.

            When I am at my dad’s house the conversations last much longer and are usually education, sports, or family related. It is a flow of words and has its serious moments, but then the conversations can be extremely funny with a word here and there while the rest of it is a foursome of cackles and heavy breaths from laughing too much. The conversations not only are educated or hilarious or serious but there is a tone that we use with each other. It seems like a very common way of talking to us but to many other people such as friends who come over to our house and listen to us talk usually are confused at what is being talked about. It can’t be put into words and can only be witnessed. Sometimes we just love to confuse a guest and we do it on purpose.

            “So when are we having dinner?” says my friend Paul.

            “What dinner?” my dad replies with believable wondering voice.

            “You know” Paul replies confused “when you ate in the evening.

            “Huh?” I say going along with my dad.

            “What the f*** Nick!?” Paul’s voice rising in frustration. “Are yous high or something?”

            “I think you’re the one that’s on something” my dad replies matter-of-factly.

            While at my mom’s house the conversations are short and usually pointless. The conversations tend to be a little awkward, not really a flow of words. If you could imagine small talk that’s big, that would describe the way talking goes on in my mom’s house. It does have moments of decent conversation but for the most part it is something like this:

            “Hey Nick.” My mom says uninterestedly “Are you finished your homework?” I could reply that I blew up the school and she wouldn’t notice. But instead I usually reply “No. Not yet.” Then there is a log pause and she either leaves or asks more pointless questions.  Sometimes there can be spurts of actual deep long conversations that really do mean something to someone in this world. The time where there are conversations like those are always over text messages or voicemails.

            Around friends conversations usually happen extremely fast. We go through subjects in matters of minutes and seconds. Using words that probably do not even exist. Sentences that are so improper that every English teacher in this world would want to line up to smack each of us. A conversation listed by subject would look something like this: Sports, Comedy, sports, comedy, video games, school work, and then we all get mad because someone had to mention school.

            We all for the most part will act differently and speak differently depending on the people who are around us. Whether it is with your parents, friend, co-workers, or even your pet. It’s not a bad thing or a good thing it is something that we automatically do. It is an interesting aspect of the brain and I wonder what part of our minds controls this reaction. I haven’t meet a person yet who hasn’t spoken differently around me than when they do with their parents.