Friday, May 10, 2013

Significant Moment In My Life

I would say the most significant moment in my life so far has been volunteering at Kamp Dovetail. Kamp Dovetail is a camp for children with special needs. When I first volunteered there I tended to be judgmental at first glance and pretty indifferent towards others. While I was there I realized that all the kids aren't different then us. They all like having fun and spending time with friends just like us. It's easy to notice the differences between people but if you look hard enough it's pretty easy to see that we are all more of the same. This experience has helped build relationships around me and has given me different insight to how to relate with others.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sweat

I believe the theme in sweat to be 'You reap what you sow'. Throughout the story Delia Jones would slave away at her job, cleaning the clothes of others while her husband abused her both verbally and physically, was a complete deadbeat, and went out of his way to ruin Delia's life. For the most part when Delia was abused she kept her temper in check and went about her business. This angered her husband Sykes and he continued to try and anger her by showing off his mistress in front of her and keeping a rattlesnake in the house to frighten her. Throughout all of this Delia stayed strong and did her best to continue on with her work. Eventually Sykes became so angry at her that he put the snake in her clothes that she had to was in order to poison her actually ends up biting him and Delia escaping unscathed. With bad intentions come bad consequences.

Friday, April 26, 2013

This I Believe


I believe in commitment. Commitment is the true show of caring and loyalty to others and it is a trait that I fear is becoming scarce. To be committed to someone means to love that person and stand by them no matter what. Being committed to someone sometimes means to sacrifice time and personal desires to support them. In being committed these actions are not done out of obligation to the person but out of devotion and love towards them. I believe in serving others needs to the best of my ability. Whenever people need help I believe it is the duty of people to help them out as best as we can. I also believe in helping them the right way and helping people in the ways they need to be helped. I believe in permanently solving problems instead of just looking for temporary fixes. I believe in my church. I believe that wherever I fall short I have a community to fall back on because my church loves me and is committed to me as much as they possibly can be. I believe that whenever I need help I will always be provided for because it is promised by God that I will be provided for. Whenever I truly need help God will reach out to me and help me stay on the path of righteousness. I believe this because not only because it is promised to me but because it has happened before. I believe in an undying love that will always reach out to me because God gave up his son to have a relationship with me. We don’t deserve the relationship with God we have all been promised through Christ Jesus but we get it all the same because of God’s love. I believe in grace. I believe that we should be thankful for everything moment in our lives because every moment is an opportunity to feel joy despite all of our sufferings, to improve ourselves as humans, to reach out to those who need a friend, and to love the way we have been loved by God. Every day is an opportunity to share a love that is to vast to possibly imagine and every day I am joyous to have that opportunity.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I believe

I believe in God because he believes in me.
I believe in competion because without that we can't strive to be the best we can be.
I believe in art because without it we cannot express our culture.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston

There are many way to react in terrorism type situations. People can react in fear, they can become angry, they can be overcome by grief, and they can shut down and quit. The tragedy that happened in Boston leaves me full of sorrow. I don't find myself angry at whoever set up this attack because I am too focused on the people who were affected in the explosions. I am sad that the victims of the explosions will not be remembered like the people who set up the explosions. The people responsible for this will have their names remembered but the victims will be an after thought in the eyes of the media and to those who watch it. I see people across our country in what appears to me in fake mourning. I'm sad that people my age are concerned about the likes they get on facebook and instagram and the re tweets and favorites they get from twitter when they post things like #PrayForBoston instead of actually praying for Boston and finding ways they can help. Every time things like the explosions or shootings happen people act upset and angry but they never act on the emotions they want to show. So in a way I guess I'm more upset of what will come in the next days, weeks, months, and years, because to forget about these things that happened is just as disturbing as the act itself.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Blog 3

In the film I think you can more clearly see mans inhumanity towards man because it is acted out right in front of you on the screen. There are multiple shots during the movie seeing people dead rotting in the streets and people living amongst that. You see people being gunned down in the streets shot like rabid dogs. You see Jews enslaved by the Nazis to build things. In the book it is described but its hard to picture what he describes because I grew up in a time where these actions are so unimaginable, and so unheard of I can't bring myself to want to picture what happened. However through the movie there are people who help the people who are in need. They help Wladyslaw survive the Nazis, escape the ghetto, and provide for him as he attempts to get through the holocaust. Without the help of others he never would have survived and that unfortunately was not seen very much in Night. There is a positive that is more easily seen in The Pianist than in Night.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Vocab 4 Blog

While skulking into the courtroom the boy felt as if the walls of the hall were converging in on him. While sitting waiting to hear what his sentence would be his finite attention span caused him to day dream of all the things that might happen to him and juvie and he became very scared. Up until this point he felt invulnerable to the law but now he felt at the mercy of the seemingly malevolent jury and the apparently omniscient judge. Attempting to act nonchalant the boy would look anywhere but the intimidating jury. After what seemed like eternity he was expunged of his community service sentence the jury gave him after a venial offense. It was uncanny how many times he was able to get away with his petty crimes.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Pianist Blog 1

I think the situations that both Elie Wiesel and Wladyslaw Szpilman were similar in the beginning but quickly change in nature. Wlad and Elie seemed to be very family oriented people. And both Elie and Wlad are devastated when they were separated from their families. However where their circumstances change significantly is the amount of outside help Wlad was able to recieve versus what Elie had to endure. Elie was put into the concentration camps where he could recieve no help from outsiders and non jews. Despite how tough it would be to deal with the situation Wlad was put in Elie had it much tougher. With Elie having his Dad for most the time he was there that probably helped him but his dad eventually became more of a liability. For both people they attempted to keep a low profile and do their best to get through the worst hell imaginable.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Night #1

P1
Ms Schacter I believe served as a warning from God just like Moishe the beadle was to the Jews. Similar to Moishe she saw the horror the group was about to go through and warned them and just like Moishe they ignored her. The fire she screamed of happened to be where Jews were burned alive by th hundreds.
P2
Elie had a gold crown in his mouth. Gold being a valuable metal was searched for in peoples mouths. I think the Germans were attempting to strip all the value they could from the jews to help fund their terror.

Friday, March 8, 2013

What Do I Know about the Holocaust

I know that the Holocaust that occurred in Nazi Germany consisted of finding Jews and placing them in concentration camps that were absolute hell. And when the concentration camps were full Jews were killed brutally. Sometimes Jews were killed before even getting to concentration camps.

IMAGE 1
Trapped, caged, tattered clothes, depressing, barbed wire, bleak.
Keyword: Prisoner

IMAGE 2
Cramped, Tight spaces, hungry, starved, unhealthy, frail, weak, dirty.
Keyword: Ghastly

IMAGE 3
Glasses, frames, Abundance.
Keyword: It's a bunch of glasses for god-sake how am I supposed to get a keyword out of that?

Image 4
Death, Fear, Distraught, Uncertainty, Despair, Pain, Lost hope
Keyword: Suffering

Jewish prisoners in the Holocaust were malnourished, ghastly, and suffered the worst kind of hell imaginable on this earth.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Reflection Blog

I have been overall pleased with the effort I have put in this semester. I have been doing my work and getting good enough grades which is nice. I don't think the class blog is helpful for me because I never use it. I follow Ms. Spriggs on twitter. I found the narrative assignment to be rather annoying because of the length requirement. I think in a story the length of it should be determined when quality writing stops. The scholarship assignment was good because it is a practical assignment where we actually get something out of the assignment in the form of possible scholarship money

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Final Blog

In the end of my book Ishmael Beah is rehabilitated and taken away from the war that surrounded him. However if I didn't know this before I started reading the book I don't know that I would have guessed that. Every part of his life he described seemed so tortured and dangerous. This is truly a testament to how hard some people have to fight and solider on just to stay alive. Ishmael is definitely one of the strongest people I have ever read about and I can't express how truly inspired I am by his perseverance, and forgiveness that he displays at the conclusion of my book.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soilder Blog 1

Ishmael Beah definitely had a tortured childhood. I can't imagine anything worse than being taken away from your family and being forced to fight a war and kill children just like yourself. Villages in Africa fear him because of all the other boy soldiers that invade and destroy their homes. I can't imagine a worse or more alienated situation than what he went through. I like the book so far because of its intriguing story line and masterful story telling style. It is easy to follow along with what the author is sharing and the conflict throughout the book makes you want to read more. I think Ishmeal gets rescued from his circustances after some long episodes of suffering but is able to recover from what happened to him