its soon christmas break!

WOW I cannot believe how fast this semester went! I am so so so so excited for it to be over and for christmas break to begin. I think the month off that we have will be so great! My classes are all pretty much comming to an end. Most of my classes all we have left to do is the final. Hopefuly i can still stay focused on my school work even tho I am already starting to get a little anxious to get out of school.

my puppy!!!

I have a border collie and I truley believe that it is the best dog in the world! His name is Bear and he is mostly black with some white on him. Now I know the word collie makes some people think of a Lassie dog, but for those of you who don't know what a border collie lookes like, it doesnt look anything like an actual collie. Well at least Bear doesnt. I think he looks more like a lab with longer hair. He is fat because my family cannot say no when he begs them for food(especially my mother!).
All he really does all day is lay around, but he is so good. He will listen to any of us and do what we tell him. He wont eat his food once it is poured in his dish untill we say "okay go ahead." Bear never barks either (which I guess could be considered a bad thing if someone is trying to break in). He has never chewed anything up or ruined anything in out house.
He is also very spoiled though. He has a little girl friend who is a beautiful white German shepard (she is actually a very big dog) and her owner picks Bear up every morning to go to the park and play. Sometimes she will even take him home for the whole day so they can play all day long.
We never had a dog before this and I think this is the most perfect one anyone could ever have! I dont think that any dog in the world could ever recplace him.

Thank You For Not Smoking

I really enjoyed the movie we watched in class Thank You For Not Smoking. I think it had a good story behind it and really enjoyed the actors and the roles they played throughout the movie. Nick, the main character, had a really interesting sense of humor and i really enjoyed watching him interact with his son.
This movie made a lot of good points about arguing correctly and reflected some of the things we have talked about previously in class. I thought Nick did an excellent job throughout the movie arguing his point and even teaching his son how to become a good arguer.
The movie was also made me laugh at times but was somewhat serious as well. I would definitely watch the movie again if I had the chance

WORKING!!!

BLLAAHHHHH!!! Alright I work at Normandie Ridge in the resturaunt part and also in a department called enhanced services. In the resturaunt I waitress and in enhanced services we pretty much do anything for any of the residents in the cottages and apartments. For example, give some showers, give meds, take people to appts, do laundry, take blood pressure, and so much more. I really like both of my jobs at Normandie Ridge. What i don't like though, is working all the time! I mean i know I'm a college kid and should be trying to work as much as I can to earn money but I cannot stand it! I always try to request off for random weekends and days just so I know I will have some time off.
This comming week I work so much and I hate even thinking about it. I work Thursday, Friday, Saturday morning and Saturday night, Sunday morning, the following Monday and Wednesday, and worst of all, Thanksgiving. UGHHH!!! I don't know what I'm going to do. One thing that stresses me out about working so much is that I wont have time to get all my school work done. I look forward to my Saturdays and Sundays off because I can get so much studying and school work accomplished! I guess this weekend I will just have to find some time to squeeze it in.

School

I don't know what it is but I am starting to get so stressed out with school. I think part of it is that I am starting to slack off and I'm stressed that I am going to start doing worse in my classes. It might also be that its getting to the end of the semester and I am just anxious for it to be over. Whatever it is I really hope I stick with my school work until the end of the semester and keep my grades up. When this semester is over I will be so relieved.
On the other hand, this semester has gone by so fast. I mean I'm not complaining at all about it, I am just so surprised. It seemes like just a month ago it was september and we were just starting classes. I try to take advantage of everyday and not only look forward to the big bread because these semesters are just going to keep going faster and faster. I will be done with school before I know it and I want to treasure all the fun moments i have while I'm still in school.

haloween costume

AHH! Ok so I got this halloween costume. I dont really know what to call it but it is pretty cool! haha well the biggest reason i got it was because it comes with this belt and the belt holds a bottle and four shot glasses. Alright I thought that was pretty cool! ha I know I'm a loser. It is a little dress type thing and it came with the belt and the four shot glasses. The dress is green, orange, and red stripes and it looks pretty cool with the belt. Oh but the best part is, I have these brown shiny boots that will match the belt perfectly! haha I cannot wait for halloween. I don't know why I get so excited over little stuff like this, but I do!
My two friends Aaron and Sarah are having a big halloween party at their house on Saturday night! Oh and they have the perfect house for it. Thier house is back in the woods and it is a big house with a pretty big basement. I know already that there will be a lot of people there so thats good! I just hope it doesn't rain. The weather men are already calling for rain Saturday night but I just keep thinking to myself, what do they know? They are usually wrong anyway.
Oh I'm just so excited haha!

Presentations

I'm so glad that i got that presentation overwith! I dont know why but i can't stand talking infront of the class. Even if i have practiced and know my presentation very well i still hate it! My face will get bright red and i can tell that my voice is kind of shakey as well. My hands shake and my body feels like its going to explode. I don't know why either. I mean i feel pretty comfortable around everyone in the class. It's just when i get to the front of the class room and have to start talking.
Maybe it is because i never had a speech class in high school or even at hacc yet. I know for sure that i eventualy have to take one and I am terrified for that day to come. Hopefully it will really help me to become more comfortable talking infront of poeple.

Rain

UGH!!! I can not stand this rain! It makes me tired and miserable, I hate driving in it, it makes it hard to do anything outside, and it is so cold!
It really has to be true that rain makes you tired because i don't think i can take one more day of feeling as tired as I have been feeling from this rain! I feel so lazy and don't want to do anything but curl up in my blanket and go to sleep. I also claim that the rain gives me head aches because I have had a head ache for the past three days.
It is also horrible to drive in! I am so scared that im going to go sliding into the other lane when the roads are so wet. The worst is when it's raining so hard that you can't even see out your window. You have the wind shield wipers on and you still can't see a thing. I also just found out today that my heat doesn't even work in my piece of crap car so when i have to defrost my windows it's cold air that blows into my car.
Another reason I hate the rain is because nobody ever does anything. There is never anything going on and nobody parties when its raining either. You can't do anything outside either unless you want to be soaking wet.

Work

Wow I just got home from a crazy night at work. I work at Normandie Ridge, in dietary. Well, actually they have a resturaunt and i waitress in the resturaunt. It's pretty fun. I really like the people i work with and all the residents. The job itsself is pretty easy too. We always have a problem with people calling off though. It never fails, usually every night when i go into work i find out we are at least one person short. The people that call off all the time never really get in trouble either. I mean when someone calls off because they really need to there is nothing they can do about that but I hate when the same people call off every week. Tonight we were two people short and there was no supervisors on to help us out. It was crazy busy in the resturaunt and we only had two waitresses. It was really stressfull but the other waitress and I did pretty good at getting all of our tables on time.
Oh but this one kid, oh my gosh he makes me so mad, he calls off every single weekend and yet they still put him on the schedule for the next weekend. I hope he soon gets fired because i hate when he screws us over like that. I dont understand why they would want to keep him anyway? AH!!!

Halloween!!!!!!

I am so excited that halloween is right around the corner! When I was little I would love getting dressed up and going out to collect as much candy as i possibly could. Now that I am older I still enjoy getting dressed up. I also enjoy going to haunted houses like the Field of Screams, and the house of Terror.
Even though me and my friends don't go "trick-or-treating" anymore we LOVE having halloween parties! I get so excited to see everyone dressed up! The last two years halloween has been the best "party" holiday ever! This past halloween me and my boyfriend had the BEST COSTUMES EVER! (well at least I thought so) We were "punk rockers" and had tattoos all over us, piercings, tons of make-up, crazy clothing, and tons of jewlery!
I also love going to haunted houses. The Field of Screams is my all time favorite haunted house I think its the scariest one! The hay ride is the best and soooo scary!!! On the other hand, my friends dad owns the House of Terror, so i have to act like i really like that haunted house. I mean i enjoyed going there but i think the Field of Screams was so much scarier.

Burning Bright

Wow, well i can tell why this section of the book is called burning bright! I can't believe Beatty actually burned Montag's house down. I also can't believe that Montag killed the other men in return. I was shocked to read that he killed them and started running away. I didn't expect Montag to do anything like that.
I don't really understand what happened to the hound tho. From what I got out of reading this section was that the hound got Beatty in the leg. But I thought that you would die if the needle from the hound went in you? I mean it explained how he couldnt run right but then towards the end of the book it doensn't say anything else about his leg or how he couldnt walk or run on it.
After i read that part a couple more times it made more sence why he would kill Beatty. Beatty was already going to arrest him for having books and reading them to Millies friends. He also caught Montag with the device in his ear that he was talking to Faber through. Beatty said that he was definitely going to trace the device back to Faber. Montag knew that he couldn't not deal with either on of these two things happening. He then shot Beatty with the fire shooter and killed him. I honestly dont think that Beatty thought Montag was actually going to kill him.

Dover Beach

WOW!! I dont know what it is about poems, but i can not stand them! I mean I enjoy reading them if they sound good and rhyme, but other than that I have the hardest time trying to understand what they mean. Even when I was back in middle school and we would have to analyze a poem and figure out what it meant, I could never get it by myself. I always needed help to understand. I don't know if its the way poems are layed out on paper, or if its how the works all go together, but it is so hard to me to understand what the poem means, or is trying to say to the reader.
Dover beach was confusing to me. I mean I could read all the words but couldn't understand how to analyze it. When I read the Dover "Bitch" I was terribly confused and didn't understand how Anthony Hecht could get all that information out of that one poem. All i really got out of that poem was that the sea use to be calm and peacefull and leter in the peom it brings in sadness.

Olive Garden

Today my family and I went out to eat. This is like a special thing because we, as a family, never go out to eat. We are usually never always home at the same time. One of us are either at school, sports, out shopping, out with friends, or to busy to go out to eat. Today we went to Olive Garden and it was actually really nice! When we got there my family and I were having fun joking around and making fun of eachother (which is usually how we have fun). We only had to wait about 25 minutes to be seated, which I think is good because usually I have always waited around 45 minutes to be sat at Olive Garden. When we finaly got seated, our waiter was on the ball with out waters, salads, and breadsticks. Having a good waiter or waitress usually makes your dinner so much better. Everything extra that we needed, he brought within a minute of us asking for it.
When it was time for us to order, he took our order and even brought out more salad and breadsticks. He was very friendly and funny. I really think he enjoyed his job and serving us. We got our food in a reasonable time but of course were half stuffed already from the all you can eat salad and breadsticks. All of our meals were wonderful! We ended up taking a lot of our food home. This, I thought was surprising, when we asked for boxes, he took each of our plates and put our food in a box for us. We didn't have to do one thing.
I just thought that this was a very good experience. A lot of times you can get stuck with a really nasty waiter or waitress that just doesn't give two craps about who they are serving. I really think this waiter did a fine job and helped my family and I enjoy our dinner.

The Sieve and the Sand

I really enjoyed reading this section of the book. I liked reading about Montag meeting Faber and talking to him about books and seeking help. I also enjoyed when Faber gave Montag the piece to put in his ear so they could talk to each other. Faber could hear everything that happened at Montags house when he was talking to Millie and her two friends. My favorite part of the whole book was when Faber was listening in on the talk that Montag and Beatty were having.
I think Beatty knows almost everything about Montag, how he feels, what he has been up to, and that he doesn't want to be a fire man anymore. When Beatty and Montag were talking Faber kept reminding Montag not to fall for what Beatty was saying. I think Faber was right in his assumption that beatty knew how Montag felt and was trying to get to him.
During their talk Beatty was explaining to Montag how books were bad and the reasons for not reading and being a fireman. Beatty said, on page 107, "Knowledge is power!" This relates back to everything we talked about in the past two classes. The more an individual knows, the more powerful that individual can be. I think what Beatty means is that books include information and knowledge in them. The more books a person reads, the more knowledgable they get and the more powerful they get. Beatty and the other firemen do not want anyone to be powerful or even knowledgable.

First amendment and Fahrenheit

After reading The first section of Fahrenheit, I can see why we discussed the first amendment in class. Throughout the first section I probably thought about the first amentmant about 5 times while I was reading. The big part of the first amendment was about having freedome but you must maintain peace. Peace is the key word. Throughout this reading I thought that the fire men and everyone else who is considered "normal" in the book cared too much about maintaining peace throughout their community.
For example, on page 59 Beatty explained, "You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities uspet and stirred... People want to be happy..Don't we keep them moving dont we give them fun?" Then he later explains how by saying, "Colored people don't like little black sambo. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The ciggarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too."
I think Beatty is using the first amendment as an excuse to say that everyone wants peace and the only way to maintain peace throughout everyone is to make sure everyone is the same and all the "bad" things are eliminated.
Beatty thinks everything that makes anyone unhappy or sad should be destroyed. He believes life would be so much easier and so much better. I don't think this is what the first amendment is saying should be done at all! I just think that the book is using the first amendment as an excuse for the sick characters that want to take the easy way out and make everyone almost the same and somewhat happy.
I'm pretty sure that Guy realizes now (and that clarisse had already figured out a long time ago) that making everyone the same is a horrible idea. That people need to be challenged every day because it helps them learn, it helps them become an individual. Peace can still be maintained even if everyone isn't the same and even if some people disagree on certain things.

Fahrenheit 451

I just finished reading The Hearth and the Salamander and really enjoy this section of the book. This is the second time I am going to be reading this book. I read Fahrenheit in 11th grade. I enjoyed it when I read it in 11th grade but now, reading it for the second time, I am reading certain parts of the book that make more sence and connect the story together.
So far this book is about Guy Montag who is a fire fighter who burns books instead of putting out fires. I really like the character Guy. Throughout this section of the book you can see how he changes and comes to realize how crazy it is to burn books. He says that he doesn't feel happy anymore, he's always mad, he just feels horrible. I think the two things that really made him think about his life and if he is happy or not are Clarrise and when Guy and his crew burned the women with her books.
Clarisse was a very unique character and i really enjoyed reading parts of the book with her in it. She actually reminded me of the girl from Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, Luna lovegood. She just seemed like she was out there and weird, but on the other hand she was very interesting and enjoyable. Even though she seemed weird compared to all the other characters in Fahrenheit, I think she seemed weird because she was actually the only normal character in the book, which made her seem weird. On page 9 she says " I sometimes think drivers don't know what grass is, or flowers, becasue they never see them slowly. If you showed a driver a green blur, oh yes! he'd say, that's grass!" I think by making Clarisse say things like this, the author makes her seem like she really appreciates things and thinks about everything and makes her seems intellegent.
When Guy and his crew burnt the women and her books I think Guy, like any other normal human being, saw her face and it just totally changed his mind and even his life. He understood that if a women would sacrifice her life for a book then why are they so bad that him and his crew must burn them? Or why would his crew want to burn books so bad that they would murder another human being? I think guy realized that he no longer wants to burn books or make a living by being a fire man.
At this point in the book I think Guy is still really confused. I think that he definitely knows he doesn't ever want to burn another book again, or even walk back into the fire house, but I don't think he has a clue about what he is actually going to do about his situation. He seems like he is stuck, scared, confused, hurt, and mad, but committed to finding a way out.


*Some questions i have about this section of the book are: Did Clarisse really die? I dont think it made it very clear if she is dead or not, well at least i couldn't tell. Did Mrs. Montag feel the book that Guy hid under his pillow? Has guy always felt this way about books (always interested in books and never really liked his job)?

Banned books

We have been talking alot about banning books and what books should and shouldn't be banned. I don't believe that books should be banned from libraries. I believe that any person who wants to extend their knowledge by reading a book should be able to choose any book they want to read. Weather it has harsh language, sexual content, or violence, the person reading the book is reading it to gain knowledge of whatever the book is about. There are so many good books that portray at least one of them three "bad" qualities that really are meaningfull books to read.
On the other hand, I think that if a teacher assigns a book to the class and a childs parent doesn't want them reading that book for a certain reason, the teacher should allow that student to read a different book instead. You cant blame parents for wanting to protect their childs innocents. I understand that kids are going to see, hear, and talk about things that no parent wants their child to see, hear, or talk about, but I believe that they do have the right to take a stand and decide whats write for their child.

school

WOW! I really couldn't think of anything to write about today. I might just be having one of them days where my brain isn't working right and i can't come up with anything exciting to write about. The only thing I can think to write about is school. Before this semester started I was dreading comming to school. I really wasn't looking forward to attending HACC and i didn't even want to think about it. I hated high school as well. I didn't really enjoy learning or being stuck in school for 8 hours a day. I was really upset when it got down to the last week of summer and I knew school was right around the corner.
Surprisingly, I am actually excited about how much I enjoy most of my classes and comming to school 4 days a week. I am doing a lot better than i expected in all of my classes and I am also studying more than i thought I ever would. Even though I am studying my ass off, it really doesn't bother me that i spend so much time on school work. It seems like the nighs just fly by whenever i am studying or doing school work. I mean i still make time for a social life, which is very important for most people my age. I feel like i am juggling my school work and my social life in a really good manner though.
When people like my friends, my parents, my recent teachers, or my coworkers ask me how i like school, my response is usually a good one. I mean of course I don't like taking tests and quizes, but who does?

Fair Time

The fair just opened yesterday and i am not excited to go at all. I think this is the first year that there is not one part of me that even wants to go a little. The fair is the same thing over and over again every year. I think it just gets old after so many years. I went to West York my whole life and every september when the fair was open we would get out of school early to go to the fair on student day. Almost everyone from the middle school and high school would either drive or walk over to the fair because the fair was so close. When I was in middle school I would love getting on the rides, that was the only reason I would want to go. Well other than being with all my friends. The fair food is the best too! They have the most best, but fattening food around. It's always the same every year though, same food, same rides, same games, and the same of almost anything else you could think of. I honestly think if they would change some things around then more people would want to go. I understand how long the fair has been going on and its a lot of traditional things that get set up every year, but I still think they should change something about it.
Even though i don't think I'm going to go, if you have never been there you should definitely go! It's an awesome experience and could be a lot of fun.

Writing from the Darkness

I really enjoyed reading this passage. The author was great at explaining how she felt about writing and how she used writing to "escape" from everything else. She pretty much explained at one point in the passage that writing was her was her way out instead of suicide. I wish i had the talent, like the author does in this passage, to clearly explain and express her feelings about writing and how she deals with her problems.
I sometimes feel like I need a "way out" but i dont know how to get there. For example, in this passage she uses writing as her way out. Maybe writing every night in a journal would help me with "finding myself" or just getting away. I feel like my life isn't right, like the author of this passage somewhat explained, I feel like I dont fit in with my family and I'm never happy like I use to be. I always wish that there was something that i could do, that nobody else would know about, that would help me to just "get away."

CLASS DISCUSSION

Even though i didn't say much, i really enjoyed today's discussion in class. There were so many things that i did and didn't agree with. For example, I agree that teachers should be able to teach the way that they want to as long as they meet the criteria. I also agreed with the main subjects that had to be taught. Even though you wont need some of the knowledge your taught from them classes i think its good to be learning whatever you can up until high school. Kind of like training your brain before you would run off and go to college to learn what you then, actualy want to learn. I actualy can't decide what side I'm on about the whole language discussion. I keep thinking totaly different thoughts about language being a manditory class.

"What Should Colleges Teach?"

I totaly disagree with this article. I believe writing and reading are major subjects in a students life. You may never again use your math skills, science skills, or even history skills, but you will always, no matter what use your reading and writing skills. We, as human beings read sommething every day, weather its the news paper or a street sign. We also use our writing skills a lot, between our jobs, our schooling, or even chatting on the internet, writing will be a skill that we will never be able to forget. This is the reason why i think it is such a big deal to teach students the major objectives to writing a good paper. After the teacher has instructed them on ways to being a good writer he/she should then drill these techniques into their head over and over again.
When i was in high school my teachers barely cared what we wrote, as long as it was a certain length. I think I would be a lot farther in writing if my teachers would have pushed me to become a better writer instead of "taking it easy" on me.

What is good writing?

A good piece of writing should have a purpose and i topic that draws the reader in. When writing, you, as the writer should try to make the topic very intesting so you can grasp the attention of your audience. Creativeness, use of emotion, and critical thinking can all help make different kinds of writings interesting. The topic should flow through out the writing but the reader should never lose sight of it. Good writing also has focus which means it is focused on one topic. Lastly, a good piece of writing always has good use of grammar.

What is bad writing?

Bad writing doesn't have a clear topic or has too many topics. The topic should not be boring or very hard to understand. If the writer used the same word or phrase over and over again the reader will get bored wich is also bad writing. Some bad pieces of literature use boring words to describe something that could have been described by using different emotion or creativity. Not having a clear or good purpose will get the reader confused when reading the paper. This is also bad writing.