Halloween

One dark and rainy Halloween ...

One dark and rainy Halloween I sat home angrily chewing on a Snickers. Both my parents left for the night and its down pouring and too cold to go outside. Thunder rumbled the house while lightning lit up the spooky bare trees in the yard. I stared out the monstrous window into the black night. The rain pounded against the window as I turned up the volume to the TV. My eyes drifted back to the Corpse Bride movie, bored out of my mind. I whipped out my phone, maybe to find a friend to hang out with. I send out a message, an "invalid" message comes back. I try again, nothing. 

"That’s never happened,” I say to myself. A loud crash comes from outside. I look around the room and out the window, nothing is different, just my mind going to insane conclusions, I guess. I glance down to my phone again, the screen flashes on and off with the "salt and pepper" screen. I slap my phone thinking that would fix it, and then it turns off for good. My heart sinks and my eyes become wide. My legs jumble towards the home phone, my fingers fumble over my dad's cell phone number, nothing. I try my mom’s number, nothing again. I whip my head from side to side around the room, everything seems normal, and I don’t know what to do. 

"Just like a horror movie, which aren’t real" I mumble to myself. I try to relax my thoughts by watching more of my movie. The rain seems to come down harder and harder; I turn on the volume to drown out the noise from the rain. The volume goes back down. I turn it back up and it just goes right back down; its like i'm battling with technology. My heart sinks down even farther; I'm too frightened to even function. The TV begins to go fuzzy and goes black. The only light on is above the kitchen sink and that begins to flicker. The power in the house begins to go on and off, playing with my thoughts and emotions. 

I squeeze my eyes close hoping this will just end. I stumble towards the door and fall out onto my porch. I lift myself up and run into the streets. The rain is just a light mist now and trick-or-treaters roam the streets. I take a second to recover my thoughts. Panic is written across my face I look around. Children are still smiling and skipping through the streets, my thoughts are in a huge blur. I look back at my house, nothing is different. I look at other houses, nothing is different, but its what is on the inside that is playing mind games with me. I drop to my knees at the edge of my lawn and curl my legs to my chest and wait until my parents pull into the driveway.

TU Tuesday

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.

this article starts in a bar in Albany as zombies were "lurching, limping undead," and started to dance as a flash mob. the strong vocabulary was used to show how far flash mobs have come and how versatile they have came. From " a performance of the "Hallelujah" Chorus at Crossgates Mall" to "students boogied in their new student union at Ohio State." Flash mobs aren't just an exuberant act anymore! they have used it for advertisement and fundraising for charities. the article is trying to show the new possibilities and how flash mobs have been popping up everywhere.

even the title "Once avant-garde" shows how new and radical the trend is. "As a familiar synthesized riff began to percolate from the bar's speakers, the zombies started to dance." the vocabulary and description paints an image in your mind and excites you to see what will happen next.

Pull at least FIVE words or phrases out, define them, describe their effect, and tell what the overall impact those words or phrases give to the piece as a whole while incorporating into the post the textual evidence you pulled out from it to define.

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Once-avant-garde-the-flash-mob-matures-2233487.php

1. As a familiar synthesized riff began
riff: a melodic phrase

2. may have tickled a memory
tickled: to excite amusement

3. Call it the maturation of the flash mob
maturation: the process of becoming mature

4. But a grimmer component of the trend

grimmer: ghastly character

 

5. began to percolate from the bar's speakers

percolate: to become active

 

6. Once avant-garde

avant-garde: those artists, writers, musicians, etc, whose techniques and ideas are markedly experimental; radical.

 

The Polar Express

My mom's favorite holiday is Christmas, and she LOVES it. In our basement we have huge boxes of Christmas decorations and every year we bring them upstairs to decorate the whole house. We have snowmen line up and down the stairs, tinsel wrapped around the banister, little Santa’s scattered everywhere and a HUGE Christmas tree incrusted with ornaments. We watch every Christmas movie we can find and just enjoy the holidays. When I was younger, my mom would read the polar express to my brother and I while we sit with hot cocoa mugs in our hands. We even have an ornament of the polar express to hang on our Christmas tree.

L = La Sierra University

http://www.lasierra.edu/index.php?id=1874

Five reasons I want to go to attend this school
1. the classes are 20 students or less, giving more attention to each student
2. there are strong athletic teams which I would like to join
3. It is in California, where the snow storms aren't as severe
4. it offers a Master of Arts and has its own gallery
5. they offer many scholarships

Three reasons I don't like this school
1. it is really far away from home
2. they are very strong about the Christian Faith, even though I am not very religious
3. there are only three sports to choose from for women

colleges website

http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/alpha/

Vintage Photo

http://www.old-picture.com/american-history-1900-1930s/Balancing-Act.htm
"Balancing Act"

When I think of the 1920's I always think of the new inventions, the flappers, and thrive of America at the time. America just seemed unstoppable with its growing wall street and the luxurious life people seemed to live. Even with the ban of alcohol, couples still went to Speakeasies in their new car and big fur coats. In the picture, the scenery of the city showed how industrialized it was because of the city fog shown. Flappers took the streets showing how strong and beautiful women can be at the same time.

"He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at me with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made me think of a charging bull." - Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at me with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made me think of a charging bull. I stared back at him giving an is-that-all-you-got look.
I strutted towards him "excuse me, is there a problem?" I stated. He stood there about 4 feet away as people began to get off their bar stools and circled around us. I crossed my arms, pushing out my biceps, keeping my distance. The man started to grind his teeth together.
"Didn’t think so" I said as a started to turn back around to my chair. I felt the floor shake with every step he took towards me, I spun around to find him eye-to-eye, well more like eye-to-chest, with me. I slowly looked up to meet his fiery stare.
"You think you could get away with this?" he finally spoke. I could picture is nostrils blowing out rings of smoke just like a cartoon bull would. I knew what I did and apparently so did him. The room became quiet; every person curious to see what will take place.
"First, I don’t know what you’re talking about and second, let’s pretend this never happened and stop this madness so you don’t look like a fool." I smirked. The crowd glanced from his face back to mine, waiting for something to happen. He stepped back and put his hands into his pockets.
"Okay" he said, everyone around us began to make their way back to their seats. I looked around and started back to my chair. The floor shook as I slowly walked; I felt a gorilla hand grab my shoulder. There I was facing the bull and out went the lights.

tu tuesday blog

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

http://blog.timesunion.com/aimee/

Saying that not getting enough sleep can cause stimulation to hunger, weight gain, and not having the best food choices, these are all long term effects that can occur to a person. Aimee Geraci never stated any short term effects besides having a better mood. " your body is stressed and responds by making more cortisol... cortisol simply stimulates hunger and disrupts your ability to metabolize carbohydrates, therefore increasing blood sugar levels, insulin production and body fat storage." this seems to show that one thing leads to another and getting a little less sleep than normal can cause so many drastic problems. I was also wondering, what if you take naps throughout the day? Would that counter the affect of less nightly sleep? This article is easy to relate to because of our high school schedules and how early we have to wake up. However, everyone age differs for the amount of sleep needed. "Without adequate rest (seven or more hours a night), your body is stressed." that amount of sleep may only be referring to her age group instead of a high school student.

Haiku: What adventures does your future hold?

sun absorbs the day greedy, never stopping time
'til death do us part

TU Tuesday

http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/vanity-thy-name-is-dmv/14956/

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.  And, develop FIVE factual, interpretive, and evaluative questions for further exploration of the topic(s).

Personally, I have pretty bad eye-sight. I can see peoples faces and I know who they are, but I cannot read anything from a distance! Eyesight changes as you get older so why would you take that out of the DMV test? since I don't drive and haven't gotten my license yet, I think the most important part of renewing your license is to check your eyesight!  "The state has apparently decided to put the policy on hold" probably because of all the reactions and the use of common sense kicks in. Connecting that drivers can "simply affirm on a form that their vision is good enough to drive without glasses, or that they need corrective lenses" and that most people try to "deny our imperfections" most drivers will not be honest just to show that they don't need glasses to drive or that they have "perfect" vision. I believe this is only in for money because "millions of dollars are at stake" and New York needs to increase their profits and boost their economy.

1. Has the number of car crashes in the states that removed the eye test gone up?
2. are we only in this because of our bad economy?
3. if a person has glasses, how could you force them to wear them when driving?
4. what states also removed the eye test? have they gained more money then before?
5. how is it a criminal penalty for lying about your eyesight?

opinion prompt 4 – You should avoid using plastic bags!

I believe we should stop using plastic bags. The plastic bags are destroying our earth and last years in our garbage dumps. I think it would be better to have reusable bags as a requirement when you walk into Price Chopper or Hannaford. I understand that you could reuse the plastic bag as a garbage bag or to carry your items but how many times would you use and reuse one plastic bag? If it’s filled with garbage I would never reuse that bag! The reusable bags are a great idea and come with great designs! Just think of all the plastic bags we saved from going into the ocean! I always think of the movie Happy Feet because it sends a big message to stop throwing garbage into the oceans because it affects the animals in their natural habitats. I agree with this because we could easy use more reusable bags then plastic bags. From my experiences, the reusable bag can hold just has much as about three plastic bags could! They are also easier to carry instead of the plastic digging into your palm. Price Chopper has tried to push using reusable bags more then plastic because it takes off about 5 cents per bag that you bring in yourself! One reusable bag can help take out so much trash out of the oceans; everyone should at least own one!