"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." The "memorable day" Pip is talking about is the day he went to Miss Havisham's house. Since she is of a higher class it was a different place for Pip. Both Miss Havisham and Estella were convincing Pip that he was common and since Pip liked Estella so much he was trying to be uncommon. Since he was trying to be uncommon, he didn't want to apprentice Joe anymore because blacksmith was a lower class regular job. He likes this girl that doesn't even treat him well so much that it puts his life to an abrupt halt.

The day that started my chain was about four years ago. My dad and my brother got into a fight for reasons I didn't know which I later found out about. Life was good before that day. Our family was good, sports were good, and it couldn't have been any better. When they got in the fight my brother and dad were so mad at each other that my dad kicked my brother out of the house and he was only sixteen. That one night changed the rest of my life. This was right when my baseball team was doing really good so baseball kept me occupied and happy, but every once in a while David would screw up and it was pretty hard to function. Within that two year span there were so manny ups and downs, thorns and flowers, that I could have sworn I was on a roller coaster.

Group Collaboration

We are writing an essay on topic number two. That is the topic about dishonesty. There are many forms of dishonesty in the play. Some do the action of dishonesty to have fun, some use it to keep there social status, and some do it because they think it will make there life easier. That's what I am going to write about. I am going to write about how different characters use different types of dishonesty in the play. Algernon uses dishonesty to have fun and lighten up his life a little bit. For instance when he says he is Jacks brother he is just doing that to go bunburying. Augusta uses dishonesty to try and keep herself proper and look rich. You can tell this because she is always talking proper and the way it describes her. Lastly Jack uses dishonesty so he can basically live two different lives. One in the country, and one in the city. He is Jack in the country and Ernest in the city. In our thesis we stated how the dishonesty in the play is related to the Victorian Age.

The importance of being earnest/ Victorian research

In the play "The Importance of Being Earnest" the words and lines are very plane. All of the humor is very dry, because all of these things people would only find funny in the Victorian age (with the exception of a few people in the present day). I say this because present day is very different than when Queen Victoria ruled. How the people were supposed to act was different, how they talked was different, and the irony was different. When I was doing the Victorian age research I found out about all of these things, and how much different they are than today.
A large difference is marriage. If I would have read the play without the Victorian research I would have been lost. I say this because when Jack purposed to Gwendolen and Gwendolen's mom found out, she literally interviewed Jack to see if he was right for Gwendolen, because back then it was all about money and social class but now it is about really wanting to be married to someone not because of their money (sometimes). Another thing is how they act. Aunt Augusta is very proper. She speaks like she is very rich, like when she says "Oh I just got back from crumpets and tea." It sounds like something a rich person would say. And the only reason she was talking like that is because of her social class, and the fact that she wanted to fit in which in the Victorian era was a large deal. The last thing is that every little pun has something to do with the deeper meaning of era. They aren't just witty puns but puns making fun of the time they were living in.

New Years Resolution

It was a fun year full of sports, school, and just hanging out with friends. As everybody has noticed high school is about ten times harder than middle school and the sports opportunities are more abundant. I like to stay active and always have an organized sport that I am playing, so this year I tried out cross country and I didn't play basketball last year, but I did this year. That is exactly my problem. Practice is everyday till 5:30 for every sport so by the time I get home it is 6 and I don't feel like doing anything, and it has reflected in my grades. My new years resolution is to be a better student althlete.

My dad always tells me that school is my job and whenever he sees my report card and doesn't like it he says "You are a STUDENT athlete", and he says it with an extra emphasis on the student part. My dad is right. The chances of me going pro in a sport are 1 in 1,000,000, but if I have good grades, colleges will be calling me for my academics and maybe my sports. I just have to balance my time better. The main thing that will be a great contributor to being a better student is to get a better night sleep. If I get a better nights sleep then I will have more energy to do my homework after practice. Another thing I need to do is to not play as much video games. I don't play that much, but in the time I am playing video games, I could be studying for a test of hitting a bucket of baseballs. And the last thing is to eat more protein. Protein and carbohydrates give you energy, but if you have too much it can make you feel sluggish and tired. All of these things can contribute to my new years resolution, and that is to be a better STUDENT athlete.

Animal farm project

The words are around the outside of the pig drawing and the colors don't come up very well.

Abuse of language poem.

In the animal farm
there aren't many smart animals
besides the sheep
it was like taking candy from a baby

The pigs use words to rule
pigs,
clever
witty
smart

Bird says, " I don't like the 2 legs bad 4 legs good summarization.
I only have 2 feet and 2 wings
pig convinces, " your wings are an organ so they count as legs"
birds convinced

Some rule with strength and leadership
the pigs use words to rule
pigs,
manipulators
reconfigures
twisters

Poetry out loud performances

Will Farley recited a poem titled "Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams. The poem was weird. It stated how the person in the poem stood naked in front of his mirror and waved his shirt around while singing softly to himself. Will's performance was magnificent. He kept the audience interested with his funny facial expressions and change in voice but they were necessary and not over the top or silly. The level of difficulty could have been a little harder because the poem was pretty short and a third grader could have read all of the words.

Will does a great job of putting himself in the poem so that when he says it you actually think the poem was written about him. You can tell that he knows the true meaning of the poem because he puts extra delays and emphasis on the important parts like when he says he is meant to be lonely, he slows the poem down. Also he made the audience laugh. After Will's performance I give him overall an 11 out of 12, he did awesome!

Mockingbird Motif

In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee the motif of mockingbird is introduced. When Atticus tells scout about killing a mockingbird he says how it is not right to kill a mockingbird because it is innocent. This motif shows up several times in the book. Tom Robinson, a local black man who is accused of rape, could possibly be innocent or guilty. There is no evidence that Tom is guilty so it leaves you to believe that Tom is innocent. Tom ends up getting shot 17 times and dies trying to escape from prison. Tom is innocent and was killed (mockingbird).
Another example of the mockingbird motif is Scout and Jem. Atticus (Scout and Jems dad) was defending Tom Robinson and the guy who wanted Tom to be convicted (Bob Ewell) swore to Atticus that he would get him back for defending Tom. One night when Scout and Jem are walking home from a play, Bob attacked Scout and Jem when they did nothing wrong.
The mockingbird motif shows up several times in this book because of all of the people that are innocent and killed/attacked