Last week I responded to Rohksor's blog post about respect and she recently just responded back. This is what she said on her response.

Okay, so I understand what he is saying and it makes sense but I have something to say about that. If they were a close friend to me, why would they disrespect me in the first place? Why would they purposely or even accidentally annoy me? I mean, I think it would be rather pathetic if a friend bugged me and then expected me to forgive them. That to me is considered some 5 star BS.

OK I am Glad that you understand what I was trying to say, but come on you act like all of your friends respect you and never get on your nerves. Here is a question for you, has one of your friends, close or distant, ever said something out of pocket or annoyed you? If so, then have you ever forgiven them or considered forgiving them? If not, do you think did the right thing and do you regret not forgiving them.

It is interesting how you said that if they were a close friend then why would they get on your nerves or disrespect you. I have mixed feelings about this statement because everyone is and should be entitled to make mistakes because we are humans and everybody knows that no one is perfect. If they did something bad by accident and they owned up to it and apologized then you should forgive them because at least they owned up to it. Now if your friend where to have done something bad on purpose the by all means screw them, but hey it is not my life, it is yours, so whatever.

Speak part 3

Yes, I am finally done with the book Speak. The story overall itself was not disappointing it was interesting and I never really lost interest, but me and my group members had some mixed feelings about the ending.

My group members and I agreed that the plot and story was good, but the ending was just like what ever. The book just ended with her standing up against Andy, the boy who raped her at the party, and then receiving an A for her art project, the tree. I just thought the ending was so suttle, like the book just ended. I was very disappointed in this because I felt the ending had much more potential than what was actually written. For example, the scene where she is in the room with Andy could have been so much better and epic, but she just said no, that is it. It is kind of boring when you think about it. She finally stood up for herself, but I don not know I just pictured a much better ending.

While  talking about Andy being the one who raped Melinda at the party, my group members and I discussed why Melinda decided to stay silent and not tell anyone. We agreed that she was scared to say anything because she did not know what other people would say. She also did not really have an idea of how to explain what had happened. This feelings of sadness, fear, and confusion is what lead her to not being able to speak about her rape. She had been having nightmares of him ever since school started and she know that she had to something, but she could not bring herself to talk, but at the end of the day it was Rachelle, her ex best friend, who was first to know what happened. Kind of ironic. All of these feelings built up in her to the point where she could no longer take it anymore. She broke her silence and stood up for herself.

Overall, this is a very good book that I would recommend others to read.

Response to Respect by Rohksor

I saw this quote by Rohksor and I just needed to say something about it.

I hate forgiving, forgetting, and anything of the sort. I get one life and if I waste it forgiving people who do not deserve to be forgiven, then I might as well kill myself and give them my life. If I have to forget what people did to me, I might as well give my self a slow and painful death. So therefore, respecting people would be just as stupid. I will lose respect for people and the point of this blog is to say that if someone gets on your nerves, then lose all respect for them and treat them like the pile of trash that they will become.

Damn I think this is a little harsh. I mean to say that you hate forgiving, forgetting, and anything else like that is one thing, but to say that wasting your time forgiving others is waste of your time and you just kill yourself is just really out there. I understand that forgiving others may be a waste of your time, but really saying u rather kill yourself is just stupid. I also understand that you don't want to forgive or forget what others did, but does that really mean that every person who disrespects you or gets on your nerves you will just lose respect for. For example, if one of your closest friends says something that offends or angers you, then you will not take the time or even consider forgiving them. If that is the case then you will pretty much lose respect for everyone you know because almost everyone you know is bound to disrespect, anger, or offend you in some way or another. I am not trying to tell how to live your life, but I am just saying that you should at least think about forgiving the person. You cant just lose respect for the entire world, but hey its your life so who am I to tell what to do.

Speak part 2

Okay, what can I say, Speak has been a good and interesting book so far. I thought it was going to be a typical high chool book dat was cheesy, corny, and cleshay, but it is not. It is actually something that I can relate to. For example, I can relate to the fact that Melinda has her doubts about herself and her friends because I too have the same doubts and thoughts about my life.

During my group discussion on Thursday there way many high and low points. One low point my group members and I had was when the conversation was basically dead, but Mr. Sutherlandbrought the conversation back to life by posing an interesting question, "So in talking about Melinda having nicknames for the students and teachers, do you think that all kids give nicknames and judge other people?". I responded to his question by stating that I believe every person is entitled to have their nicknames and thoughts about others, but only so many people actually express out these names and thoughts. Melinda does not actually say these names because she is already viewed as weird at school, so if she were to tell people what she thought of them then people would not like her even more. The people who typically speak their thoughts out tend to have a large group of friends who has his or her back. In the case of Melinda has but only one friend Heather, therefore she is most likely not to speak her thoughts.

Another interesting topic that was brought up during the discussion was the fact that Melinda's parents are usually not home and are not really supportive or care about her. I said that the relationship she has with her parents is one of the main reasons why her grades are so low and why she feels lonely most of the time. Her relationship with them is what also leads to her thinking she is worthless and that she sucks. I connect this to socirty because many kids who do not have a strong relationship with their parents are more likely to commit suicide, crimes, and be depressed.

I am looking forward to finishing the book.

Response to Aleah's response to my post.

While trying to find a good blog post to respond to I encountered a post from Aleah that responded to mine and Luis's post about Oakland.

What the hell Alex, are you stupid. If you didn't notice this Oakland is not as violent as people portray it to be.Honestly. I live in West Oakland where there are shootings every know and again, but I've been living there for five going on six years after moving from Berkeley and I've never been Shot at.

Ok first of all I am not stupid because I am only expressing my opinion on the violence in Oakland. Im not saying that of all Oakland is violent, I am merely speaking about what the media portrays about the city of Oakland. I understand that many people are outraged when other people say that Oakland is a violent city and that it is crap because I am also offended when people say that Oakland is crap and violent. Like Luis said Oakland has very nice areas where you can hang out and have fun. Second of all I have been living in Oakland for ten years and I also moved here from Berkeley. In my ten years here I have not seen a person get shot or been shot at myself, but I have heard of people getting shot on televesion. My neighborhood is relatively calm and peaceful so I have not been a direct witness to the violence shown by the media. The whole purpose of the post was not to anger anybody, rather it was intended to express my opinion on how violence and the media has destroyed the look of Oakland. Im just saying that I am tired of hearing about violence because that is what I mostly hear about Oakland. The violence seems to overshadow the good things and that is getting annoying and needs to stop. I want the positives of Oakland to be shown, rather than negatives. I just want Oakland to be seen for the great City it is, like Luis said.

Speak part 1

I have chosen to read the book Speak by Laurie Halson Anderson. So far its been going smoothly and i have been very engaged through the use of post-its for annotations. The post-its are areas where I can keep track of what is happening in the story, ideas that come to my head, and potential questions for discussion. The discussion my group members and I had on Friday was interesting because we shared many of the same ideas and questions.

For example, Kim brought up the topic of how it seems that the people who used to be Melinda's friends are now b**ches and how Melinda seems to also be a b**ch in her on way. She also asked the very same question I was thinking of, what does it really mean to be b**tch, what factors determine if a person is one.
I responded to this by saying that a b**tch is a person who manipulates or uses others, has a mean attitude, and has the tendency to screw over their friends.  My definition of b**tch relates to a couple of characters. Melinda's former best friend, Rachelle relates to my definition because her Melinda used to be friends, but she has now completely screwed her over and has ignored her since arriving in high school. Melinda also falls into my definition because she is using Heather so she wont look like a loner and loser. If she had a group of friends then she probably would have never been friends with Heather.

Another example of how my group members and I had similar ideas was when i asked about the janitor's closet which Melinda had found. I asked if the closet symbolized or represented anything. John responded by saying that the closet represented an area of silence. calmness, and safety where Melinda could hang out in. He said that this closet would protect from the dirty looks and attitudes of high school. This is exactly what I had thought about. I responded to this by explaining how the fact that Melinda is home alone most of the time and she is not very close with her parents is what leads to her being on her own a lot.

Overall the book has been interesting and has not bored me. I look forward to further discussions about the book.

Garcia Girls Essay

Culture, stereotypes, and relationships are a part of our every day lives, but these every day things tend to change and be influenced by the course of our lives. Past events from a period time such as childhood can affect a person's views on relationships. If a person moves countries that can affect their views on culture and your gender and race can affect the stereotypes which you face. In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez culture, stereotypes, and relationships are shown and reflected by the lives of the four sisters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia.

Culture plays an important role in the novel. The story takes place in the United States and the Dominican Republic, where the views on certain subjects differ a lot. For example, in the vignette "Antojos", Yolanda returns back to Dominican Republic and as she is greeted by her family she is looked at in a weird way. Her family, especially the eldest ones pay attention specifically to how she acts and how her Spanish has changed. Lucinda asks Yolanda about her sisters and how they are. She begins to respond,

"In halting Spanish, Yolanda reports on her sisters. When she reverts to English, she is scolded, 'En espanol!' The more she practices, the sooner she'll be back into her native tongue, the aunts insist. Yes, and when she returns to the States, she'll find herself suddenly going blank over some word in English or, like her mother, mixing up some common phrase. This time however Yolanda is not so sure she'll be going back. But that is a secret." (7).

Yolanda has some trouble with her Spanish and that is what leads her relatives to believe that her time in the United States has not done her good. They are considering to keep her in the Dominican Republic in order to tye her back with her Latin roots. In most Latin cultures it is a custom for every family member to be able to speak fluent Spanish and know how things happen in their home country. The eldest family members tend to be the ones that get extremely uptight by staying close to their roots because they have lived their entire lives in their country and they expect to see the younger generations to respect that and keep that tradition going. For the elders, to see the younger generations forgot about their cultures is like a slap to the face fore the elders. It is as if everything they worked and fought for is gone. They lose respect for the younger ones. This what sort of happened between Sofia and her father.

In the vignette "The kiss" the relationship between Sofia and her father is introduced when Sofia decides to have her father's birthday party at her house. It was not planned to be at her house but Sofia insisted, "And yet, she,of all the daughters, did not want to be the absent one because for the first time since she'd run off with her husband six years ago, she and her father were on speaking terms. In fact, the old man had been out to see her - or really to see his grandson - twice." (26). Sofia and her father have not had the best of relationships, but recently they have been speaking to each other. He may be speaking to her because the fact she has a boy or maybe because he has finally let their differences aside. Her father has chosen not to speak to her because as a child she ran way from home with her husband, but I believe that there was more to this story, but the book did not reveal the true source of their dis functional relationship. I think that the overall relationship between men and women has to do with the reason behind this relationship.

In the novel, the overall relationship between men and women is that men tend to be on the top and have the final word in everything while women are to just shut up and listen. This is exemplified when Sofia is forced to stay a year in the Dominican Republic for getting caught with a bag of weed. While in the Dominican Republic, she gets into an abusive relationship with her cousin Manuel. One day he sees her reading a book and he responds by taking it away, "'This,' Manuel Gustavo says, holding the book up like a dirty diaper, 'is junk in your head. You have better things to do.' He tosses the book on the coffee table." (120). This is a clear example of how men in the Dominican Republic tend to abuse their women by not allowing them to read and have an education. Not only does he strip her of her education, but he also strips her clothes off and forces her to have sex with him. Like in the Dominican Republic, many Latin countries tend to have their men on the top and the women on the bottom. It is a sad reality, but men do hold the upper hand and I believe that many women just live their lives with this sad fact, not attempting to change or fight back. Sofia attempted to to fight back against this, but at the end of the day I believe that this relationship in particular is what shapes Sofia into the adult that she is.

In conclusion, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents  tells the compelling story of culture, stereotypes, and relationships through the lives of these four sisters. Culture is reflected by Yolanda's visit back to the Dominican Republic. Relationships are reflected by the relationship between Sofia and her father. Finally, stereotypes are shown by the fact that men are seen as the top dog and are superior to women. Overall, this was a very good and intriguing book.

Garcia Girls # 3

OK so I have finally read the third and final part of the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and I have to say that I am a little disappointed. I am a little disappointed because I feel that the story on an "eh" note like I feel that the ending could have been so much more better. The story just ended like with no real concrete ending. I was also disappointed by the fact that I found this part to be just like the first part in that there is no really feeling or story. It is just basically a description of their childhood and the description is not even that good. I find it to be vague. I did not find a direct connection between the second and third parts. This last part did not help a lot in understanding what had happened later in their lives. For example, the first and second parts focused a good amount of time on the crumbling relationship between Sofia and her father, but there was no clear reason why their relationship was crumbling. I hoped to find that answer in the last part of the story, but I never found that reason Overall I feel that the true story and juicy parts occurred in the second part of the book. That personally was my most favorite part and I feel that the first and third parts were kind of like fillers. I feel that Alvarez intended to end to end the book like that to keep us thinking. I don not think she wanted us to get the whole story.

Regardless of the fact that I did not like the ending it was a good book. I would have to say that it is one  of the better books that I have read. At first I found the whole backwards chronological thing to be confusing, I ended getting used to it and it turned out to be interesting. I really liked it and well besides the ending I did not have much complaints.

Response to Sluts and Pimps

Finally after going through minutes of searching on google reader, I finally found a quote that was worth writing about. Karen wrote about how men are considered pimps and how women are considered sluts.

Why is it that it's okay for males to do these things and talk about it like in raps,etc. but for women it is frowned upon? Some people said because women end up with consequences like for example ending up pregnant. But my brother called her slut for playing them, not taking in any sexual activity. Some other people said because it's more common for a girl to be the ones who are cheated on and get their heart broken and since it's kind of uncommon for guys to get their hearts broken, they get pity. I still don't know why this happens.

I think that part of this answer comes from religion or culture. In many religions, such the Muslim one, it is a custom and tradition for a male to have multiple wives. It is not frowned upon, instead it is celebrated when a man gets his second, third, fourth, and so on wives. But when a women has multiple partners it is not only frowned upon, but it is also punishable.

I think that both men and women should be seen and treated the same way when regarding their relationships and love lives. It is not a person's fault that they have been with many people. Some people have been with many people in attempt to find that right person. I justify this reason to have multiple partners because some people are just unlucky with love and they have to search hard for years to find that right person. It is not like the person wanted multiple partners, it just happened.

At the end of the day there is only really one person who is perfect for you. That person may be right next to you or on the other side of the world. It may take days, weeks, months, years, or decades to find this person. Anyways the moral of this is that there are no pimps and sluts. It is all some five star bull shit that society has filled our heads with.

The issue of violence in Oakland

I am tired of hearing about the on going violence that has destroyed the city of Oakland. People need to grow up and learn how to deal with their problems in a peaceful and formal way. Violence can not be the response to everything because that will only make the cycle of violence continue.

This was really pointed out to me the other day when I was flipping through the TV channels and I came upon this show named gang wars. This show caught my attention in particular because it was talking about the gangs and violence in Oakland. The show specifically focused on the cycle of violence. Whenever one act of of violence was committed it would be responded to by another act of violence. It is a sad truth that many people in Oakland have to deal with. Violence does not solve anything it only brings even more pain and suffering. It is sad to see teens my age getting caught up in this violence. It sickens me to think that they are just throwing away their lives for what a gun, power, females, toughness. I can only imagine what their families think of them. They destroy any chance they have of succeeding in life by getting up in this violence. It may not always be their fault, but still, they cannot fall into the never ending cycle that is violence.

It is difficult to keep yourself out of this cycle of violence. It is only human nature to retaliate against someone when they do something to you. It is an instinct that we all have and I believe that is extremely difficult to resist. It is possible to escape this cycle of violence though, but it is difficult. In order to escape this violence a person must first suck up the pride they have inside of them and except the fact that they will not retaliate in a violent way. The situation must be analyzed and a peaceful solution must be thought of

I believe that through understanding and calm thinking, the violence in Oakland and other places will hopefully decrease.

Garcia Girls Part 2

After reading the second part of How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents I feel more engaged into the story. In the first part I did not feel so engaged because the story of the four girls adulthood was kind of boring. I had no real idea of how the girls got to be how they were as adults, but now after reading the second part I have a much clearer understanding of their lives.

Let me start of by talking about Sofia. In the first part of the story it was sated that Sofia had a rocky relationship with her father, but it was not clear how their relationship became this way. Through reading the second part I think that I am finally starting to see the relationship between her younger years and her relationship with her father as an adult. During one summer she had brought some weed to the house and as she was about to light it up with her sisters, her mother came and Sofia just managed to hide it before her mother saw. It was a fatal mistake because she forgot the weed and later on her mom had discovered it and Sofia admitted to it being hers even though her sisters attempted to also take the blame. She was punished by having to live an entire year in the Dominican Republic. While in the Dominican Republic she completely, she began to dress like the Dominican women and she got into an abusive relationship with Manuel, one of her relatives. She was forced into having sex with him and I believe that this one year she spent in the Dominican Republic is what caused her to runaway which is what made her dad lose respect for her.

I think that when the sisters went to the Dominican Republic they realized how grateful they were to live in the United States because in the Domincan Republic there was heavy sexism towards women. This ties into Latin cultural in general because in Latin cultural there is the idea that men are dominant force and women are supposed to obey them at all times. In many cases the men are abusive and often cheat on their wives. I believe that the girls in the Dominican Republic look up to the sisters and I think that they want to be like them. To be able to experience the American life.

Overall, I find the second part of the story to be much more engaging and interesting than the first part. Reading the second part has helped to understand the story as a whole.

While looking through Google Reader I fell on this quote from Shiyun,

Does our image really matter that much in our lives? I think that we are too focused in our appearances rather than our who we really are. I started to realize that most of us care about being liked by others around us or wants to be praised for their looks. In Mrs. Corbally's class, I  have learned a lot about the feeling that people have for their image. I was really surprised when I watched the videos about being too fat or people that are suffering through anorexia thought so much about their weight. It gave me a whole different perspective of this matter that I have never thought about.

I one hundred percent agree with what Shiyun has said in this quote because my perception of image has changed after I saw the films about image and eating in Mrs. Corbally"s class. At first I thought Image was something that all people worried about, but I never thought for some people was everything and they were willing to go to extreme measures to obtain this image. These films opened my eyes to how the media perceives the ideal image and how many teenagers, not so far from my age, have had issues with their image. I used to always think that anorexia was just a physical disease, but it also a phychological disease. Looking at these people who are a little older or younger than me really hits me because that could have possibly been me.

I do believe that image plays an important role in our lives, but people can try to look past image and look at something much more deep. I feel that if a person gets caught up too much in their image then are much more pron to developing anorexia, bulimia, and other diseases. That is why I think it is important to be conscious about your image, but not to the point where you go crazy. I also feel that we, as friends of people who have these problems can help by supporting them

Free write about mind trap

Wendsday during English we received a mind trap that was very open to interpretation. The topic was about a group of friends who always went to the sauna, but one day Dave was found dead in the sauna and the autopsy did not reveal anything about his death. The only information that was given was that Abe listened to his headphones, Bud read magazines, Dave just talked about his girlfriend, and Carl brought a thermos filled with ice water. This is my interpretation of what really happened to Dave.

Carl had grown extremely tired and annoying of Dave always talking about his girlfriend. The ironic part of that was that Carl had an affair with Dave's girlfriend. He could not stand Dave's bragging and he knew that the only way he would have his girlfriend all to himself was to take Dave out for good. That day Abe, Bud, Carl, and Dave decided to go to the sauna as usual. Abe and Bud were to busy and distracted to notice what was about to happen. While Dave was blabbering about his girlfriend, Carl slowly opened his thermos and pulled out a knife that he had carved out of the ice right before they went inside. While the other two were distracted, Carl lunged himself to Dave and covered his mouth and stabbed him right through the heart. Dave fell to the ground and Carl walked back to where he was. The steam from the sauna quickly covered up the body of Dave. The other two had notice a thing until they left and noticed that Dave was no where to be found. They went back inside only to find the lifeless body of Dave on the ground.

The police was called and a detective arrived. The detective processed to access the crime scene, but no evidence was found. She then asked the others if they knew anything, but there were no clues. The autopsy did not reveal anything about the murder because The ice knife that was used to kill him melted thous leaving no evidence behind. With no evidence or leads the case was closed. Carl had pulled off the perfect murder.

First Impreesions of "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents"

So far I find "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accents" to be an interesting stoy. It is different from other stories I have read because it doesnt go in chronological order. Instead it goes from the present to the past. Kind of a like a flashback, but except this falshback is large and is basically how the book/story is orginized.

By just reading the first section I can already kind of see a theme going on in the story. The theme that I am seeing is the relationship between men and women. The author, Julia Alvarez, attempts to convey this realtionship between men and women through the life of Sofia.

In the vignette or chapter "The kiss" I can an introduction to Sofia's father and the realtionship he hols with Sofia. The vignettes sates that Sofia and her father do not have a very good relationship. They have barely begun to talk again when the vignette takes place. Sofia attempts to rebuild her relationship by having her father's birthday party at her house. We also get a look at Sofias past in this vignette. She ran away when she was young and had multiple boyfriends which she slept with. When her father learned this he swore that he would never speak to her again. I think this whole situation foreshadows or in this books case it preshadows to Sofias past with her father. I believe that Sofai was abused by her father and that is what leads to her dating issues.

Another theme that I find so far is the way in which Dominican Republicans view life in the us. For example, in the vignette "Antojo" when Yolanda returns from the United States her family views her in a different. They take the fact that she had not come back to the Dominican Republic in so long as a sign that she was losing her ties to her roots and cultural.

Overall thr Garcias is an interesting book that I look for ward to finishing.

Reflective Essay

Writing up blog posts for English class has been an extremely different way of writing that I am used to from a conventional English course. They are different from the typical English paper because a typical English paper is usually centered on a one specific topic, where as a blog post has much more flexibility. There is really no limit or restrictions to what I can right of, but with such flexibility some issues arise.

One issue that I find about having such an open ended piece of writing is that I more prone to being redundant or wordy in my writing. This is exemplified when I was responding to Keiland's free write about swag,

"You start at 5 "swag points and the highest you can go is 150." This is confusing me because I mean not sure what actually do you mean when you say everybody starts with 5 points. Are you saying that swag is like a game in which the purpose is to collect the most points possible? What are these 5 points exactly for? How did you even come up with 5 points to start and then 150 words to end? It makes no sense

This quote from my blog reflects how I can get redundant and wordy. For instance I start out by asking what these 5 points are for, but I repeat this very same question twice in this tiny excerpt. I also state that I am confused, but again I repeat myself in the very same excerpt. Not only do I repeat my self, but by reading this after a while I notice that this way too wordy and I could probably cut have of the words out of it and still get my point out.

Another issue that I encounter with the openness of the assignment is that when I respond to my peer's blog spots I end up finding myself writing things that do not really respond to the quote, it is more like I'm am just writing to get it done. This happened to me while I was responding to Vy's post about Ms. Valdez,

“Another way in which Ms. Valdez made class so memorable was that whenever someone said something deep or good she would always respond by saying, "ooh" or "interesting, say more." This was so funny because whenever she said this we would all crack up and she would just look at us with a smirk on her face. We all ended up using her line whenever someone just said something that made us think. Those were good times.”

What I had written in this excerpt was not really a straight on response to Vy's post rather it was some random Bull sh*t that was put together into some commentary. I encounter this problem many times when I am reaching the end of my writing, but I have not yet reached the word count required. When I do this I am not just cheating on my work, but rather I am cheating myself because I am not practicing my writing. If one day I need to look back at my posts and write an essay using what I wrote then I am in a bad situation because everything that I had typed was all bull sh*t.

Although I may encounter many problems during my writing process I find some positives about doing weekly posts. One positive that I found about the weekly blog posts is that I get the opportunity to practice my analytical writing. For example, writing my Night Essay helped to to practice on items that I had worked on last year such as commentary, CD integration and most importantly developing a strong thesis statement. Not only did writing this essay assist me in analyzing a text and writing something about it, but it also helped to look at books at a different way. Before, I used to read a book and try to look for a central or theme or idea, but this essay was different because instead of looking for a central theme, I am looking for a central conflict. Looking for this conflict made me realize the many different types of conflicts that a story can have.

Another positive that I find about doing weekly blog posts is that I get to respond to other people's blog posts. These responses can actually help the person who is being responded to improve their writing. This is shown when I responded to Leah's post about fashion.

“I disagree when she said about if you feel black it doesn't mean that you are black because skin color determine your race. We are all the same, just because someone sags their pants and wears a baggy t-shirt it doesn't mean that they are black. It doesn't mean anything, it is just a fashion choice. There is no reason at all that race should be tied into with fashion.”

In this excerpt I disagreed with what she had said about certain cultures or races having their own fashion or look. Disagreeing with her mostly likely made her realize that maybe what she had said was incorrect. I was not the only one who responded to her post though, many other people also responded. Since so may people had responded Mr. Sutherlnad told us in class that Leah had found our responses to be helpful and she was going to take our ideas and advice when she writes her next post.

Overall I find writing weekly blog posts to have their ups and downs. They can bring up issues such as redundancy and clutter, but they can also help me to practice my own writing and help others with their writing. I do believe that writing posts has helped me to become a stronger, so going into this new quarter I feel much more confident about my writing.

Night Essay: Elie and his father

There are many problems people face on a daily basis. These conflicts can range from person against person to person against the supernatural. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel struggles with his relationship with his father. He has conflicting feelings about him, but in the end he realizes the amount of love he has for him.

Elie has his moments in which he believes his father is in the way. For instance, when they are caught in the blizzard, Elie wanted to just give up and die but he realized that his father was stopping him from doing that, “My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me... He was running at my side, out of breath, at the end of his strength, as his wit's end. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support,” (82). Elie was ready to give up, but the presence of his father kept him alive. At that very moment he thought that his father should have let him die, but then he realizes that if he died his father would also die. Elie was the only one keeping his father alive. He could not bare the fact of letting himself and his father dying. The love he had deep down for him kicked in and they both survived. Towards the end of the story when Elie is yet again trying to keep his father a live a thought runs through his head, “'If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival and only worry about myself' Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever,” (101). Elie felt that it was pointless to keep his father alive. He was tired of it and wanted to only worry about himself, but as soon as he thought this, he regretted it He realized that he loved his father too much to let him go, he could never live with that thought. He knew that he meant too much so he continued to assist him.

Elie witnesses how his father is treated and how badly in shape he is in. Elie attempts to do something but it is ineffective, but when they returned to the camp and his father was beat he did nothing at all, “ I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck before my very eyes... I had look and said nothing... Had I changed so much then? So quickly? Now remorse began to gnaw at me. I thought only: I shall never forgive them for that,” (37). Elie had witnessed his father being beaten and he just stood there motionless. It was simply because he had fear; he did not know what to do. He thought of his father as strong man, but when he was in need Elie was no where to be found. He proved to himself and his father that he was just as defenseless as his father was. Later on the story Elie's father tells him that he has been beaten by his neighbors, “Eliezer... Eliezer... tell them not to hit me... I haven't done anything... Why do they keep hitting me?” (104). Yet again Elie witnesses his father being treated like trash, yet this time he actually does something. He confronts his father's neighbors, but to no results. He might not have been able to stop his father from being tortures, but he proved to himself that he was willing to fight for his father till the very end.

By the end of the story, his father is struggling to stay alive, he is weak, but Elie refuses to let him die. He tries everything to keep him alive, “I knew that he must not drink. But he pleaded with me for so long that I gave in. Water was the worst poison he could have, but what else could I do for him? With water, without water, it would be all over soon anyway,” (104). He knew that water was not the best thing for his father, but it was all he could give to his father. Even though there was not much more he could, he just could not let him die. They had been through too much. Elie had finally taped into the true love he had for father, but it was too late, he was already dying.

Thought the entire story Elie and his father have a rocky relationship. Elie overcome the negative thoughts he had and focused on keeping him alive as long as he could. He gave every bit of his heart and soul into him. He proved that nothing was going to stop him from showing the true love he had for his father.

Response to Shiyun's friendship

I found this interesting quote while reading through Shiyun's post about friendship

In the dictionary friends is defined as a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. This is equivalent to what I think friend is, but I kind of disagree with the meaning that they give in the dictionary. It does not fully define what this word mean. To me, friend is defined as a person that we treasure, appreciate, and someone who we think is trustworthy. It is also someone that we can ask for help and support.

I agree with this definition for friends and I also agree with Shiyun when she says that a friend is also a person who we treasure, appreciate and trust. I fortunately can say that I have a good group of friends who I can mess around with, but who I can still trust. I cant say the same thing for other people. A "True Friend" can be easily confused for a person who just is Friends with you for a certain reason. They do not care about you or feelings. Therefore they are not a "True Friend". There will always be people who you admire and trust, that is a true friend, but there are also people who come into your life and just walk right out the next instance.

Even though I have some very good friends, I still think that friendship is a bunch of five star bulls***. I believe this because at the end of the day, no matter how many good friends you have, you are still on your own. In reality it is your life and you choose your own path. Your friends wont be there for you through the toughest moments in your life. Friendship is important.but it is not the whole world. Friends are a good thing only when they are the right people who will support you. Even though I believe that friendship is a bunch of BS it is still important to socialize with people.

Freewrite bout school

I personally find school to be boring and a waste of time. I think this of school for many reasons.

One reason why I find school boring and a waste of time is that some teachers just pile me with an abundant amount of homework, notes and lectures. They put no creativity or effort into making class fun at all. This is extremely boring because there is no room for flexibility at all. It is just the teacher blabbering while the students take notes. I feel that these teachers are a waste of time because I don not learn in a lecture, direct instruction type of classroom environment. Not only do I not learn from them but there never seems to be a way to somehow persuade them into incorporating some creativity into the class. Overall these kinds of teachers make up a good chunk of my reason of thinking school is boring.

Another reason I find that school boring and a waste of my time is that there is just so much work to do sometimes. How can teachers expect you to do so much work and be prepared for a test at the same time. I do not see how that is possible without working super hard and pulling an all niter. But even you manage to finish all the work and prepare for the test you will still be tired from all the time and effort put into the work. Not only is there is so much work, but most of the time I found the work to be useless and time consuming. I find it useless because I found it to be very ineffective at helping me to learn the material. I find it to be time consuming just for the simple fact that it takes me forever to do my homework or classwork. Overall I have a very negative attitude towards school.

Even though my overall feeling of school is negative there are also some positives that come from it. Some of those positives are meeting new people and get to experience and learn new things.

Response to Vy's post about Ms.Valdez

While reading through Vy's post about Ms. Valdez and English class last year I found a quote that basically completely summarized Ms. Valdez's class.

"She just wanted us to express ourselves as a student and help us find the bigger meaning in everything. One of the best thing about class was whenever anyone in the class would say something deep or say something she likes, she would go “mmmmm interesting” or “oooh i like! say more.”Freshman English would not be the same without Valdez and without her it would not be so memorable." 

I one-hundred percent agree with Vy because I do believe that without Ms. Valdez English class would have not been that memorable. Ms. Valdez was a very good teacher, she was the type of teacher who would make kids think outside the box. She would want us to not only to analyze a quote literally but to also analyze it in more figurative way. We had to connect what the quote was saying to an overall theme in our world. She was a very hard grader and would give tough comments and feed back. No matter how good your essay was you never seem to get higher than a B. Only a few people were actually able to get an A on her essays.

Another way in which Ms. Valdez made class so memorable was that whenever someone said something deep or good she would always respond by saying, "ooh" or "interesting, say more." This was so funny because whenever she said this we would all crack up and she would just look at us with a smirk on her face. We all ended up using her line whenever someone just said something that made us think. Those were good times. It is such a shame that she had to leave, but at least they replaced her with a good teacher (Mr. Sutherland). I will never forget those good times. :)

During class on Wednesday Mr. Sutherland showed us a picture of a woman sitting in a room, next to a window reading a letter. We were supposed to do a quick write about what we thought was going on the picture. We had to come with like a story about who the letter was from, what did it say, and how did she end up in the room. This what i wrote in class.

The year is 1776 and the setting is England. The woman in the picture is named Elizabeth. She is twenty-five years old and has been madly in love with a fine young gentleman named George. Unfortunely George was sent to service in the Colonies a couple of years ago. Ever since then him and Elizabeth have been exchanging letters. It has been a couple of months since Elizabeth has last heard from George. Then one late Autumn afternoon, Elizabeth received a letter a letter not saying who it was from. She quickly took the letter and ran upstairs to her bedroom. She kneeled down next to the window, hoping that the light would help her to read. She slowly opened the letter hoping it was from George, but she was wrong. It was not from George, but it was from the British military. The letter read, "Dear Elizabeth, We truly are sorry for being the informers of bad news, but your husband has benn killed while on duty." She immediately dropped the letter and broke into tears.e

She cried and cried for hours. She could not believe that he was gone. She had loved him for so long and so much. The pain was indescribable. She locked herself in her room. It was as if her heart was hit with the force of 10,00 fists. Her heart was shattered into a million pieces. She could no longer take it. Her pain and sorrow was too much for her. She got up and jumped out the window.

Essay on the character of Q

Q hides behind other people and is afraid to show his true colors.

In the Aquatic Uncle, Q and his family live on the surface while his Uncle N'ba N'ga still lives underwater. Q's family does not like N'ba N'ga. Later on the story he falls in love with a female named lil who happens to live on the ground, but unlike Q she was born on land. Q is ashamed to tell her that his uncle lives underwater and at the end she ends up leaving him. Q is depressed: "They all had something. I know that made them somehow superior to me, sublime, something that made me, compared to them mediocre." (82) Q realizes that he should have just told lil about his uncle. Maybe telling her would have made things better. The whole time he was afraid to tell her the truth.

In The Dinosaurs, Q is the lone dinosaur left. He's been surviving many years on his own; he decides to resurface. He comes into contact with a new species called the New Ones. They do not realize that he is a dinosaur and accept him into their community. One day he encounters a young female drinking from a spring. He thinks to himself: "if I wanted to save myself, I should tear her limb from limb at once: Start it all over again... I would never imagined it was possible to talk like that with non-Dinosaurs, and I was tense and mostly silent."(98). At first Q believes that the female will fear him, but instead she calmly notices him and begins a conversation. He is amazed by how calm she is. He never thought that non-Dinosaurs would talk to him like that. Since he knows that she views him as a non-Dinosaur, he decides not to reveal his true identity. He hides behind the fact that the New Ones are accepting him.

Later on in the story Q recalls how the New Ones would tell stories about how vicious the Dinosaurs were. Q feels extremely uncomfortable with this, but he keeps his mouth shout: "I always felt like a Dinosaur in the midst of enemies, and every evening when they started telling stories of the Dinosaurs, legends handed down from generation to generation, I hung back in the shadow, my nerves on the edge."(100). Q just sat there like an imbecile while the New Ones were giving the incorrect story of the Dinosaurs. This whole time he hid behind other people, without saying anything. He was terrified to show his true self because he knew that if the New Ones were to know who he was then they would never look at him in the same way. They would forever fear him. This proves how Q hides when the situation is difficult.

Response to Keiland's Swag

Wle reading through Keiland's post on swag i found this quote that made me think "What the hell are you thinking?"

So now i know a lot of people will read this and try to make me " swag down" and try to make me do small things to go against what i said. But it will not happen. Every 1 works up to how much swag you can gain. You start at 5 "swag points" and the highest you can go is 150 . To learn how to "swag up" or "swag down" ask me:)

OK first of all no one cares about your swag. If you have swag that is cool, but you do not have to go all around the world telling them you got swag. I mean is it really that much of a shock that you got swag? How can you really define swag? Who defines swag and how did you come up with this definition of Swag?

Second of all, at the end of your post you state that: "You start at 5 "swag points and the highest you can go is 150." This is confusing me because I mean not sure what actually do you mean when you say everybody starts with 5 points. Are you saying that swag is like a game in which the purpose is to collect the most points possible? What are these 5 points exactly for? How did you even come up with 5 points to start and then 150 words to end? It makes no sense. I don't see how these points apply to swag at all. Swag is not a game and its not about points. Its about what you wear and how you carry yourself. You can get swag from another person or you can have your own personal swag. It is just a matter of how you address or carry yourself. It has nothing to do at all with points.

While Reading Aleah's post about fashion I found this quote that made me think about how certain styles are connected to certain. It is also brought up the question of who should be able to wear what?

I think fashion is an expression of who you are, I;m not saying every white person who wants to, try and dress black I'm not saying that. But I think styles have to fit you inside and out. Just because you may feel like your black doesn't mean you are. I'm not being racist but still.

I completely agree with what Aleah is saying in this quote about how fashion should represent you because I believe that no matter your race, gender, or age you should be able to wear whatever you want. If a person thinks that a certain type of clothing is more comfortable than another type then they should be able to wear it. Fashion is just another in which can express. If a person a gangsta then they should gansta and if a person is emo then they should dress emo. There is no limit to how what a person can wear. People should be able to show their true colors without being judged or afraid of what others might say. A person should not be judged for what they wear, it is a free country. Judging people for what they wear just shows the insecurity that this person has.

I disagree when she said about if you feel black t doesnt mean that you are black because skin color determine your race. We are all the same, just because someone sags their pants and wears a baggy t-shirt it doesnt mean that they are black. It doesnt mean anything, it is just a fashion choice. There is no reason at all that race should be tied into with fashion.

Free write on nonviolence in our community

            Every day I wake up and see on the news that someone got killed, shot, or robbed. It is always something negative and it always seems to be in the Oakland/Alameda area. I am tired of living in a city that is known as one of the most dangerous cities in the US. Every day I step out of my house with the fear that I may never get to see my family ever again. No one should ever have to live with that fear.

           Whenever something bad and violent happens people react to it with more violence. For example, when Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a Bart police officer; people went out on the streets to protest. Many of these people did not even know who Oscar Grant was. They just took his death as an excuse to go out on the streets and cause trouble. This violence was useless; it did not do anything, things were not made better, if anything things were made worse. With no consideration or respect for the young man's parents these people vandalized police cars and local stores. The family of Oscar Grant had to come out in public and ask the people to stop the violence. His mother said that this is not how she wanted the death of her son to be remembered. She did not want people to cause any more trouble. The violence eventually stopped, but people kept protesting his death.

         Instead of using violence, people could follow the examples of great public leaders such as Gandhi, Mother Terissa, or Martin Luther King Jr. These people fought for people's rights in nonviolent ways. Gandhi fought for the rights of Indians, Mother Terissa fought for woman's rights and Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the rights of African-Americans. All of these leaders did not use violence, but instead they used their words to persuade and convince other people to fight for their causes. This same concept could be used and incorporated today to solve and prevent future problems from occurring. Instead of using violence we can work together to fix problems that affect us and our community. Together we can work on projects that raise awareness about problems that we all face. We can help stop the violence that keeps us locked in our houses fearing about what might happen.

           Like Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you want to see.” In order to make that change I think that we should come together as one strong community. We are all each others brothers and sisters and we should look out for each other. What is the point of fighting or killing each other for dumb reasons such as my street is better than yours or I represent this color. There is no point in this. The only thing it is good for is for tearing up families and causing harm to innocent people. We should look pass our differences and look ahead to a better future. Would like your children and grand children to live in a place where they are likely to be harmed. I know I would not. That is why we have set our differences apart and work on making this place better for us, our children and grand children.

Elijah and I opening statement

         The death penalty is an extremely controversial topic. It has been said that the death penalty is just as wrong as what the person who is receiving the death penalty did. Most people that receive the death penalty have committed murder or another serious crime. Killing this person is pointless because they have already committed the crime. Does killing a person bring the person that they killed back to life, no it does not. This person committed murder which is ac rime, but using the death penalty is basically murder. So basically we are committing a crime by killing this criminal. Killing a person is morally and ethically wrong. This is clearly stated in a quote by Thurgood Marshall JD, late justice of the US Supreme . He sates: “[Capital punishment] violates the Eighth Amendment because it is morally unacceptable to the people  of the United States at this time in their history.” This quote shows us that the death penalty is morally unacceptable. Killing a person for punishment does justify the fact that you are taking a person’s life. Who is to say that we wont just kill a person if they commit less greater crime. What bis to say we will not take advantage of this power to kill a person who has committed a crime. What’s the point of killing them; what is done is done. People gotta leave the past in the past. Killing a person due to the fact that they killed someone only shows that you are willing to go down to their level. It only shows that you are no better than them. There are better ways of dealing with this person. They should just be thrown into jail for the rest of their lives to reflect on what they did. They should just rot in there.

Response to Tony's Lin Quote

While reading through Tony Lin's response to the Odd Girl piece, I read a quote that related much to what I had said in my reflection of this piece.

I think people bully others sometimes for entertainment, because someone is different, trying to be cool, or just trying to fit in with everyone else. They might want to hurt their peers because the person might have done something stupid or just are different for them.

 I agree with what Tony is saying in this quote because I personally know many people who have bullied others for the simple fact that they want to fit into a certain group of people. I also have had people bully me for the fact that I was little different, but how does help a person to fit in. All this does is hurt the person emotionally, mentally, and physically. The concept of karma (what goes around comes around) can be easily be applied in this situation. The person who initiated the bullied may find himself being bullied by the same group of people he/she was trying to fit in. It is basically a cycle, one person bullies a person which leads to other people bullying each other. It is an endless cycle, but there are things that can be done to help slow down the cycle and prevent other people from falling into this cycle. For example, the ASTI constitution is a great source of ways to slow down bullying. The ASTI constitution was made for and by the students. I believe that the ASTI constitution is very easy to follow. It consists of rules on what not to do. This rules are not the hardest thing in the world to follow. I believe the constitution can almost eliminate bullying from ASTI but as long as there are differences between people and people wanting to fit in there will always be bullying. It is something that is in our daily lives, but we have to learn how to look past this and look ahead towards the future and positive things in life. We cannot allow ourselves to drown in the never ending cycle that is bullying.

"Just Kidding" and 'Ganging Up' reflection

After reading 'Just Kidding' and 'Ganging Up' I thought about about the many times I have been bullied and how I took that anger of bullying to bully others. As a child going through elementary and middle school I went through a lot of things. I was bullied consistently and I was excluded from groups. I felt horrible because I felt as though there was something wrong with me which caused people to make fun of me. I was hurt physically, mentally, and emotionally. I began to develop a fear of going to school because I no longer wanted to be bullied. I was afraid to think to think or dress differently than others because I knew that I would be made fun of. I developed a hate for certain people. I kept these thoughts and feelings bottled up inside of me, but when I entered high school these feelings and thoughts came out of me. I began to bully others, who I know would not do anything back. I joined in groups where we made fun of people. The one true thing in life that I hated, bullying, was what I was doing. I was turning into those very same people that I hated so much during elementary and middle school. I did not realize what I was doing until I noticed that I was truly hurting other people's feelings. I had become a bully, no different from the ones that I had hated in the past. When ASTI did the bullying workshops I realized the amount of people's feelings I had hurt as a result of my bullying. I had also realized that the reason why I bullied others was because I was bullied once and it hurt me deeply. Most of the statements that were related to being bullied and bullying others were true for me. When I noticed this I quickly changed my ways and stopped bullying others. I apologized to those I had bullied, but for many others it is too late to apologize. Some people take bullying too far and cause others to hurt themselves and want to kill themselves. They have been multiple cases in which bullying has resulted in the suicides of multiple people who could no longer take this bullying. The only solution they could think of to stop the bullying was to kill themselves. I do not believe that bullying comes from anger or hatred of a certain person,rather it comes from the fear of being bullied yourself.