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Charles-Anticipating Our Next Book

MD-Failure 

Hits and Misses

My biggest miss if you will is most definitely the research paper. Not because I thought that it was hard more or less just because it was such a drag to write about. Because it was such a drag for me I feel that personally I did not learn everything I could have. Another large but not the worst miss is the blog post about writing a poem. I personally do not like writing poetry or really cliche poetry. However, if the poem interests me I can really enjoy poetry. On the other hand having me write a poem is something that not only is stretching something that I can do but is genuinely difficult and requires me to sit down for a long time.
My greatest hit is the Literary Analysis on Lord of the Flies. I feel like not only did I grow as an English student but I also grew as a writer. I thought that sense I was given the freedom to go in the direction and take this as deep as I wanted to that I was able to find something that I really enjoyed writing about. Another hit would be my blog post about my personal narrative. I actually really enjoyed writing about this because it made me think deeper than most other things. Unfortunately it spiraled into me just ranting but I still find it to be one of my most successful pieces of writing.

My Personal narrative that is most likely garbo

By me responding to this I am going to write about this prompt don't really know if that is what is wanted or not but I don't really care I'm doing it. By the way I am going to respond to multiple prompts making on reflection. (22 14 27 21) not in that order. This will be a message type of dealio to older me and younger me if he could read it.

Dear  younger Alexander Morgan Harlan, you will soon learn that family is more important than you think. For most of your younger years you will try and be that lone wolf that you always wanted to b because honestly you don't want to have to rely on people. STOP that as soon as you possibly can, because me oh my will it cripple your social life. Be open and weird don't be afraid of being what you actually are the people that stick around and put up with you will become such close friends that they are pretty much a part of your family. Do your work because it will pay off by not having all hell rain down on you when your parents see you have 37 outstanding assignments in Latin. Also don't make the point that you have a high B because that gets you grounded for a while and that sucks. Listen to your parents when they tell you that if you every want to try anything illegal to ask them first so they know to be expecting a call for help. 

Dear older Alexander Morgan Harlan, remember those old people you thought belonged in a museum? Well now you should know that you are also one of those prehistoric people. Don't do what everyone did to you as a child and assume because you were born in a new generation that you are just like the rest of the people in your generation. NO not everyone born in the twenty first century will grow up and be able to become a technology wizard. Also don't assume that just because they look like the do insane amounts of drugs that they actually do use drugs. Trust me if you don't recall that it really sucked. Remember all of those people  that accepted you for who you really are. Yup if they weren't your family they are now. They will help you through tough times now just like they did your eight grade year.

Prompts

What do older generations misunderstand about yours? 

Who is your family? 

What have you learned in your teens?

How do you define ‘family’?

Purple Hibiscus strategies

While reading Purple Hibiscus I tried to go into the book as open minded as I possibly could so that the read would be as easy and painless as possible. However that worked for about two chapters. Once that idea ran its course I immediately slowed down when it came to reading. The strategy that I am using now is that I should read everything as if my life depends on me grasping at every detail. In case you could not notice I do not like being forced to read and I like to read at my own pace. However by doing this I have forced myself to read deeper into the book and forced myself to want to know what comes next, and try and make this book that doesn't make a lot of sense to me make any sort of sense.

One of the largest challenges that I have encountered would most definitely be the fact that there are times where I just don't care. Now I know that is not exactly a good thing to write about but if I'm being completely honest I do not find this book to be all that entertaining. My lack of caring for the actual plot of the book and me caring more for lets see if I can make sense out of this. I feel like I have this problem because I am trying to understand it in modern society.

Comments

Charles-Political Article

Trevor-Last Weekend

Prepare to be triggered

Stay with me here as this article isn't super recent but still recent enough for it to have a political value. This article is of course about gun control and the authors opinion about gun control. I personally agree with the author in that having much more restrictive gun laws wouldn't do much good since criminals would now be the only people with "guns of war" and the civilized people would not have anything to defend themselves with. Do not get me wrong here I think that purchasing an assault rifle to defend an apartment is a little over the edge. I think there is something much more fit for that type of home defense.
As the author states most mass shootings take place in a "gun free zone" according to the author by making it harder to purchase a firearm would drastically increase the amount of gun free zone thereby increasing the danger that everyday pedestrians are in. The author does not go into very much detail about background checks and a mental scan to make sure that you are mentally and morally able to own a firearm. As for my opinion on that is really that I do not really have one just that people should use common sense and not sell firearms to people that are blind and etc.

Comments

Charles-Free Post

MD-3/4 added sugar or 3/4 added salt?

Me as a English student

Myself Alexander Harlan am by no way a stellar English student. Yeah sure I can read some semi advanced books but all in all I'd say I'm just average. I know the general rules of when to capitalize things and when it is appropriate to restate the noun or just use a pronoun. Never have I felt that I am an advanced English student. However, I am perfectly content with that because what I lack in English knowledge I make up for in knowledge of other things. Most of it may be useless knowledge but hey the more you know.
Me as a student in general is wavy if that is an acceptable adjective. Sometimes I will be completely driven to do something and other times or in the matter of seconds rather I could be completely blown out and feel as if I will just put it off. Some of my peers tell me that it is normal but I am not exactly sure of that. Feel free to tell me if you also feel like that. It is as if I have school to do but I want to do something else but I have nothing else to do I want to do anything else than what people want me to do.

Saint Patrick's day

Saint Patrick's day might have just been one of my favorite days in my entire life. I got to catch up with old friends and make new ones. While all at the same time being able to calm down and unwind.I saw a lot of people I didn't want to but also did want to. A lot of people weren't exactly in control of themselves as you could say but it was really funny. For example I saw two guys freak out and start throwing punches at each other.

I honestly don't think I have ever had as much fun in the span of maybe 10 hours in a long time. These types of  people are the people that everyone needs to start hanging around the type of people that you can relate to and can't wait to be around again. Not only do you want to just hang out or something like that but when you are around them they just generally brighten up your day.

Comments

Charles-Free Post

Trevor-Free post about mardi gras break

Free Post

This post is in relation to the other post that we have to do which I want to think of a song of my own but most of the music I listen to either has some sort of sexual connotation or has some not so school friendly words. Which is most unfortunate because I want to get these done before Monday so I don't have to do them tomorrow night. However now that a day has passed and I am now writing this in study hall. I was thinking maybe I could do a clean song but then I might  be pushing the school friendly part of it. So all in all I think that if I'm going to do this it's going to be half done if I can't really use the songs I want to use but whatever I suppose.
I one day wish that writing things like this will come easy to me. I know that I have written about this before but it really is something that I would like to be able to do with ease. However although I may not like doing blogs with a topic that limits me to something they are helpful. It is most unfortunate when I can't think of a topic because then I feel as if my work isn't my best. As the new year started I tried to make it to where all of the work that I do is to the best of my ability.

Comments

MD-Orchestra

Charles-Poem

Fair Warning Is going to be rough :( I'm so sorry

Seriously I have no clue what this was to start or what this has become. I also kinda ran out of ideas for the other ideas so its mostly rhyme.

Big boy Bobby,
Should have seen such sights.
This site packed a big bite such a bite wasn't even right.
Such is the struggles to make such a poem so long.
Apparently all Alex's poetry skills went out the window.
You'd think with all of the rap I listen to I'd be able to make a poem in a snap and a clap.
This poem is so bad it might just make you mad or maybe a little sad.
Seriously snap some for this isn't actually that easy as you can clearly tell.
If I read this aloud shhh some would say,
Speak up some other would say.

Alliteration, Sibilance, internal rhyme

Vocab

I had a query on what was going on so to continue in my grandfathers legacy I probed around. Unfortunately all I found was some empty space and some change. Guess that's what happens when you look in between the cushions on a couch. Well I don't exactly know what I was expecting. Maybe a better blog idea but nope. Looks like I'm sticking to some eh blog posts. Wish I could come up with ideas as good and as fast as others.
Funny part of this blog is actually spent a lot of time querying what it is I should write about. Unfortunately for you the reader I lost a lot of my motivation and just decided that I was going to close my eyes and do the three words that I scrolled too. I wish Logic was one of the words I landed on because then I could have made some super trippy references but nope.

ATDPTI response 2

I am starting to enjoy the book more I am starting to get annoyed be the author really trying to push the idea that he is a funny guy. I like jokes every now in then but when there is basically one every paragraph it starts to really bother me. I am not exactly sure if this comes later or not but can we get a better description of this kid that junior punched in the face.
I feel that the author is spending to much time make these jokes than really showing the story. I hope that the author spices up his writing style. I really liked it at first but then it got really kind of boring to be completely honest. I know it doesn't seem like I am enjoying the book but the book itself is good but I think the mechanics of it need some work.

Research

Something that I have learned about over the time that we have been doing research is that when you think you have enough sources get a couple more. This happened to me not once but twice where I went back and checked sources that when I first saw them thought was amazing. However, when I went back and checked them for credibility they went down the drain. It seemed like I would always have 9 sources (funny thing I only ended with 9).
Something that I would like to learn more about is synthesizing information because currently my information is just there in a cluster really. I would like to learn this not only to improve the quality of my writing for research papers but just in general it would be a good thing to know. Nobody wants to read a page long blob of information that you could of just stated in around 2 sentences.

Comments

MD-Skill(s)Z I have learned

Charles-Research 

ATDPI

The book has not really started to interest me yet however it shows a lot of promise. I can really appreciate the jokes that the author makes. I do really hope this book does start to pickup for me because seeing as we will have to do a lot of things with this book and if I do not enjoy it then they will all be a drag. Hopefully it picks up after junior goes to the new school.
I haven't annotated anything in the book yet but I have some mental annotations because some of the things that I have read so far seem relatively important. I am still holding out hope for this book because of how highly rated it is. If it truly is as good as they have said then I shouldn't have any sort of problem reading this after it picks up for me.

Free post

I honestly have no clue what to write about so I figured i'll just write about something that I enjoy. That something is being away from school and on a break. I'll just go with the longest break because it is a double edged sword. It is great because you get all of this time away from school and you are practically stress free. Then all of the sudden you are forced to go back to school and start this cycle over again.
Summer is kind of a confusing topic for me however because I have a love hate relationship with summer. I love when it first starts because honestly I'm glad I don't have to do anything for at least one whole month. However after that month is over I start finding myself getting extremely bored and wanting to do something again. Which draws me back to wanting some sort of routine for my day but not school. Little weird in my opinion but it is what it is.

comments

Charles-Research Topic

Jett-My Topic

My topic

My topic is what was the motive of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Although most people will say that it was to save the Roman republic there are in fact many more than that. An example would consist of the punishment for the death of Pompey. Now as random as this may seem Julius Caesar is the reason that Pompey fled out of Rome and died. Although far fetched the facts do show that Pompey was extremely favored by the people.
Although a lot of people may be thinking why should we care well to that I would say almost everyone knows something about this. Although it might not mean practically anything to people that don't really take a care into ancient Roman history but this doesn't only affect Rome it affects so many others by this being the start of the fall of Rome.

Something I learned about myself

Something I learned about myself as a person and as a student last semester is that I need to find the drive to do things. Doesn't matter if it is for school or not but I have noticed that i may have motivation to do something then I almost immediately lose that motivation. I see this in my school work as well as in my personal life. I always have known that I was lazy but this gets to the point where it is bothering me a lot.
How this will be applied to this semester is by making me have all my assignments on time. It will also give me some sort of drive to do better in school. As much as it bothers me to say this and that I can openly admit that I don't put enough effort into school as I should. It also will help me to stop procrastinating for everything I do because once I stop doing that I will have then found motivation.

Research Project

My research project is going okay I cannot be completely honest and say that it has been a cake walk but it has not been something that makes me want to bang my head against a wall yet. I say yet because note cards will most likely be a whole new story because I'm not exactly sure what all of my topics for my note cards will be. My only general idea for my note cards is what the multiple motives for assassination of Caesar might have been. 

If anyone could please give me some sort of guidance as to what to do that would be absolutely amazing. I am in a struggle on what to do in the way of note cards by now. As you can currently see i wrote the first paragraph at a different time than I wrote the different one because now i do want to smash my head against a wall. I personally cannot wait for this project to be a thing in the past that I can joke about and then realize that I made a fatal mistake.