27. Indigenous things

There are many things indigenous to around this area. One of the first things that pops into my mind when I think of Springfield is, duh, Abraham Lincoln. You can not turn a corner without seeing his face everywhere! I am even in a group on facebook called, "You know you are from Illinois when..." and one of the 'whens' is, you know you are from Illinois..."When you go out of town and see a Lincoln memorial, you curl into the fetal position, saying, "...He's ...EVERYWHERE!!". I like this because, it is so true. I am pretty sure the majority of my elementary and middle school field trips were to Lincoln sites. So that is definately got to be the number one on the list of things indigenous to the Springfield area. The next one would have to be horseshoes. Now, I am a vegetarian and I do not eat horseshoes, but my sister loves them and hates it when she goes to a restaraunt somewhere else that looks like they would have horseshoes on the menu and they do not. I obviously do not care, but still. Horseshoes are a big thing around here, and my family in Ohio think that horseshoes are the coolest things because they are something they do not have in Ohio. Another thing that is indigenous to around here has got to be the weather. You never know what to expect here, it is crazy. And it is not even crazy in a fun way, more like an obnoxious way. One day it will be great outside and shorts and a t shirt weather, and the next day, you have to get out your winter coat. I hate it so much. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that a few years ago when we got that tornado in March, we got a blizzard the next day. ..Yea. I mean really? Is our weather really that messed up? Apparently. And all I can say is I would rather be in Florida year round.

26. Thanksgiving break memoirs

Well I actually had a pretty sucky Thanksgiving break this weekend. So I really did not have a chance to grow emotionally. On Thursday, we had family come over to our house to eat lunch. It was fun, sure, but no emotional growth for sure. Then Friday I woke up early to go shopping for Black Friday. It was fun too, we went a few stores and got a few things but again, nothing really that great that would make me grow emotionally. I got a bunch of clothes and a few DVD's but nothing monumental. Then, Saturday, I did not really do much. I did not eat that much on Thanksgiving because a lot of the stuff that was made had some meat in it or was made with chicken broth. So I was not like, dragging all weekend like some people were. Also the leftovers were not that great really. At around six-ish, my mom, my sister, my sister's friend, my sister's friends' mom, my sister's friend's sister, my aunt, my two cousins and I (wow that was a mouthful) (or in this case a handful) went to see that 3-D version of A Christmas Carol. I think that if I did happen to create a part of a memoir all weekend, that it had to have been because of the movie. It was just horrible. Really, it was super lame. The emotional growth I underwent was pretty much just growing in the fact that I will never see that movie or recommend it ever again. Then on Sunday, we woke up early, went to church, then we went to the mall. We shopped for a little bit but did not find much, so we ate lunch at the foodcourt. Subway to be specific. Then we shopped a little more and I ended up getting a shirt and jacket from Zumiez and then we went home. That was the end of my weekend, and I was all out of chances to have emotional growth. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

25. Reviews of Literaty Criticisms

Alright, before I get started on the commentation of the two literary reviews of The Red Badge of Courage, I think it is best I give my own. Personally, I did not like the book at all. There is no way anyone could get me to read this book on my own. Now since I had to read it for school, I did not really have a choice and just had to bear with it. But come on, it was a slow moving, basically a documentary, story about war. I know for some people war might be a very interesting thing for them to read about, but most certainly it is not interesting to me in the slightest. While I support soldiers for what they do for our country, yadda, yadda, I would really rather not read about it.
Okay, so, the two literary criticisms that Mr. Langley gave our class to read about The Red Badge of Courage were extremely lengthy and hard to concentrate on. However, while they were hard to read, when you finally did concentrate hard enough to read the information in them, they actually had some good, useful information. My favorite part from either of the reviews was this:"Surprisingly little has been made of the fact that Henry's "wound," the red badge of "courage" which marks the turning point in his character development, comes neither from the enemy nor even from a random unidentifiable bullet: it comes from one of his own men, a soldier fleeing wildly, as Henry did, and who perceives Henry as merely another opposing force, another competitor. In this pivotal moment, Henry is attempting to communicate; however, he cannot see that his attempt has only one meaning in the lexicon of men each battling for his own survival: he is a threat to the soldier. And as a consequence, Henry receives the one response which makes sense: the man floors him with a single, vicious blow from his rifle-used, by a man in his most primitively competitive frame of mind, as a club."
I like this because I agree with it alot. Before Henry got what I would consider a wake up call, when the man hit him in the head with the butt of his rifle, he was not serious about the war. It seemed like after this happened is when things started getting better, like the bit from the review points out.

24. Red Badge of Courage chapters 9-20

I do not think that these several chapters were a reflective of realism and the first set were. In chapters nine through twenty, Henry went to war several more times. The difference was that now, Henry was not running away like he did before, he instead was being very brave and fighting hard the whole time. Henry could now be considered a hero in a sense, since he was fighting and being courageous instead of fleeing and being a coward. At one point, he was so into the battle that he was shooting and reloading over and over agian so fast that he did not realize when the battle was over and the enemy was gone, and he just kept shooting until he heard another soldier laughing at him. This was a very important moment for many reasons. First of all, the kind of bravery that Henry's actions showed here made his officers take notice of him and see that maybe Henry is capable of more and better things than anyone had originally thought. The fact that the people who were in charge of Henry and who he looked up to thought highly of Henry now gave him a sense of pride and job well done, and boosted his confidence many times over. He felt like an entirely new soldier, tenfold better than before. While this was a very encouraging moment for Henry, another moment later on was not as reassuring. Henry overheard a general ask an officer if he could spare a unit, and the officer reliped saying that if he had to spare a unit it would have to be the 304th, because they fight very poorly. This would not be so bad if the 304th unit was any other unit, but it happened to be the one Henry was in. When he heard this, Henry was very upset and offended to say the least. Later on, while walking, a soldier walking with Henry and Wilson falls and drops the flag. Henry standing next to him picked up the flag and kept walking with it.

23. Red Badge of Courage chapters 1-8

Last night I was reading chapters one through eight in our newest book, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. I knew that this was a war book, and honestly, I hate war books. I hate history all together and anything to do with it. This made it very difficult to give this book a chance. But I knew I had to read it so I just sat down and read it. I am not going to say something like this book surprised me and I actually loved it! Because I did not. It was pretty boring to me but I read it anyways. What I got out of it was that Henry went to war against his mom's hopes and told her he would not do anything she would be ashamed of. While he was there, before he actually started fighting, he started freaking out thinking he would run from the war when the moment came. He started feeling very self conscious for thinking like this, so he asked someone else if they would ever run from the war. The other soldier basically said that he would do whatever the rest of the soldiers did, whether they ran or stayed to fight, he would do what they did. This made Henry feel a little bit better about his feelings. He asked another person when he started feeling self conscious again, but this time the other person said that he would not run, he would stay and fight. This made Henry feel really bad. One day, the war began, and in the heat of the moment Henry did not run. He went with the other soldiers and fought. The most of them survived when it was over and they were all very excited. As they got back from fighting, they heard that they had to fight again. This time, Henry was scared so he ran. As he ran past a person of importance up on his horse he overheard the man say that the enemy was being held back. Now Henry was relieved, yet ashamed that he ran. He walked past this gnarly man missing body parts and bleeding. When that man asked Henry where he was injured, Henry felt horrible because he was a coward and ran away.

22. Veterans Day Field Trip

On Friday, November 13th, our entire school went on a field trip to several different places. I almost missed it, because my mom scheduled me to get the flu shot in the early afternoon, and there was no way for me to leave the field trip early then come back, so I was just going to have to miss the entire day. I definitely did not want to do that because I would have had to do a huge packet to make up for it. Luckily I convinced my mother to reschedule and I did not have to miss the field trip. And I am really glad I did not miss it. In the morning we got on several buses by A1 classes (I like my A1 class so I got lucky and had a fun bus ride all day). Now, I do not know the names of all the places so bear with me. The first place we went was this place with a few helicopters and tanks out front. Before we got to see these we went inside and took a tour of the inside of this castle-like building that was like a mini museum on the inside, then after that we got to see the stuff outside. After that we went to all the monuments. There we got to look at all the different memorials from all the different wars. This was probably my favorite spot of the day, even though we had to answer questions in a packet. We got to do a crayon rubbing of a soldiers name and that was cool. Then we went to another place but the only thing I remember from there was a giant who knows what and going to a firehouse. After that we went to lunch, I went to Subway. Yummy. Then we all got back on the bus and went to Camp Butler. There we got a flower and a card to fill out. We picked out a veteran tombstone and put the flower on it, then wrote down a few pieces of information about that veteran. When we got back to school we had about 10 minutes left due to a half hour bus ride that should have taken 15 minutes but we were stuck behind a tractor thing the entire way. All in all it was a cool field trip.

21. A dream I've had that seemed real

If I am ever asked about a dream I always go back to the same dream. I had it when I was about four or five years old. I am not sure why I remember it so vividly or why it had stuck in my memory for so very long, but it has. All I remember after the dream was waking up scared. To start it off, I went to bed and went to sleep. At some point during the night I fell into a dream that I would remember for the next eleven or so years, probably more. This may be a little hard to follow, but bear with me. So, I was a little kid (the age I was at the time of the dream) and all I knew was that my aunt was after me. I was the little pig, she was the big bad wolf. Her son, my younger cousin, was also a big bad wolf, but on a smaller scale. Either way I was running from them, trying to escape any way I could. It started off just running. Then, I was in my preschool running. I ran into a familiar room and tried hiding in a fold up cabinet. It seemed that as soon as the big bad wolves entered the room, I suddenly appeared in my aunt's (yes the same aunt that was chasing me) house. I was at the front door and frantic. So I ran into the kitchen and thought it would be smart to hid under their kitchen table. Well, the table was tall, had very thin legs, and had no table cloth. I am not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to hide there, since they could very easily see me, but I did. As soon they walked through the front door, I was panicking again, but I remained quiet. I could see from my place under the table that they were walking towards me. I heard by cousin say, "mom, she's in here". The last thing I remember seeing was big furry legs bending down slowing, and then a horrid wolf face grinning evilly saying, "Ive got you now"

20. My Favorite Tall Tale

My favorite tall tale out of all the ones I have ever heard has got to be Brier Rabbit and the Tar Baby. I am not sure why I like it so much, it may be because it was the only tall tale that I ever heard that was not about some macho guy? I do not know. But either way, Brier Rabbit and the Tar Baby was the best! In case you do not know what it is about, basically it is this rabbit, and he is hanging out in the forest or wherever rabbits chill out at. All of a sudden this fox sees the rabbit and decided he wanted to eat the rabbit. So, the fox got this ingenius idea to make a baby out of tar to capture the rabbit. (Why a rabbit would be attracted to a baby figure I have no idea) but, it worked, and the rabbit got stuck to this baby shaped mound of tar. Then when the fox took it back to his cave or whatever, he took the rabbit and was deciding how to go about eating him. The rabbit said something like, "Do whatever you want to me, just please do not throw me into the briers." Or something along those lines. And the rabbit just kept pleading with the fox not to throw him in the brier patch. Think about this, if you have complete control over someone and they ask you NOT to do something, what do you usually want to do? Whatever they are asking you not to do right? Of course. So, needless to say, the fox was like, "Oh, the rabbit does not want me to throw him in the briers, so naturally I will!" And when he did, the rabbit escaped because lo and behold, that where he was born and raised...in the briers. So I am not sure what the moral of this story is, but I know that if I am ever in the hands of a fox waiting to eat me, I will most definately plead for him to not throw me in the briers because hey, a few pokes here and there is better than being eaten right??

19. Vengeance

Vengeance: infliction of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person; violent revenge; the desire for revenge; curse; imprecation. Basically...vengeance is when someone does something bad to you, so you get mad and try to get back at them. I do not know about you, but I love revenge. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is an old saying and I agree with it. If someone does something to you that is not right, justice has its place. I know there is a saying that if someone wrongs you that you should turn the other cheek, and offer the other to be hurt as well. This to me does not make sense? Karma is sort of like the earth's justice I guess you could say. I do not believe in karma per say, because, really, how can the earth know when someone does something bad then get them back for it? It can't... So, I think that most of the time if vengeance was not saught, yet occured, chances are it was either caused by any given action of the person or just a coincidence. Say someone stole ten dollars from me but I did not know who it was. Two days later they get pulled over for speeding and get a ticket. Was that karma? No, that was a result of their choice to speed. Vengeance is like taking the idea of karma, and using it yourself. Now say that same person stole that same ten dollars and I knew who it was... I would most definately get back at them. Chances are, it would be much more clever than stealing ten dollars. I know whenever my sister ever does anything to me and I get revenge, it is always HILARIOUS because I am great at it and it usually involves emberassing her. But I am not a mean sister, just a fair one who thinks revenge is great!

18. My Biggest Fear

I am not sure if I have one big fear in particular, in fact, I am usually pretty brave about stuff and will not let anything get to me, ask my friends. But if I had to narrow it down, my top two would be heights and public speaking. Heights is probably the worst for me. I did not used to be afraid of heights?...until September 11. I am not sure why that made me leery of heights, but I am pretty sure it is because it was in airplanes, up in the air, etc. I guess it could be combined with planes, because ever since then, it has been quite the challenge getting me onto a plane. Let me tell you, I am a mess the entire time we are in the air. I absoultely HATE it! But like I said, it is not just plane heigth, it is being on anything higher than about 10 feet. On our eigth grade feild trip to Chicago, our class went to the top of the Sears Tower, and we all had to go. Oh my gosh, it was horrible. I did not walk around, I basically stood by the elevator the entire time. Public speaking on the other hand, is not really a fear I get to avoid as easily. If it is something like a 10 second thing is history or whatever then it is no big deal.. But speeches? No way. Hate em. This fear is probably more common than the heights one, and more self explanitory, so I will let it speak for itself. What I do not understand, is why the most common fear, is of dying. I know religious people will say they are not afraid of dying because they go to a better place, but what about nonreligious people? Even then death should not really be that frightening? I mean, it is inevitable? The only sure thing in life is death. So why is it such a big deal? We live, we die. I do not see anything in that to be afraid of. If anything, life is more frightening than death! I just don't get it. But hey, that's just me.

17. Peaceful Protest

Peaceful protest. Is that an oxymoron? Peaceful....protest....? They sound like opposites to me. However, I strongly agree with the idea of protesting. When there is something that you do not agree with, stand up for it! Your point of view is just as important as the view of the person who created the issue you are protesting. Besides, when in modern times would a 'peaceful protest' work, huh? Where is saying please and thank you gonna get you? Not very far if you are protesting something big. There are many things I would just LOVE to protest against. One of them would be the amount of homework that juniors get. I know that certain classes are required and whatnot, but why can't some of the classes be spread out a little better between grades? I know that most of us juniors are bogged down every single night, and that is so not cool. A lot of the homework we get, is just busy work pretty much and it is quite a cause for protest! But really, is there such a thing as peaceful protest? I kind of doubt it...I mean, there may be certain instances where a protest is not dramatized, so therefore it may seem peaceful, but I am sure the for the person protesting whatever it may be, inside their head the protest is actually not peaceful at all. I know that is true for me whenever I am bugging my parents about something that they will not budge on. In these cases, protesting against something my parents are doing, or are not doing, etc, I may take a more peaceful approach to seem respectful in hopes they will agree with me, but in my head, I want to tell them everything I am thinking which would definitely not end up being peaceful. However, I have found that taking a peaceful approach to arguments with my parents usually results in a better outcome.

16. Self Reflection and Taking a Break from Society

I think that self reflection is a good idea. Personally I do not think I have ever done it, but I am not sure. I could have done it but not thought to myself, "Oh, I am self reflecting right now." I think that self reflection is like when you think about what you are doing as a person and what your priorities are. Self reflecting while you have a lot of stuff going on is probably not a good idea because you would be distracted and not be able to accurately reflect on yourself. If someone were to seriously want to self reflect, they should do like Thoreau wrote about and maybe take a day or so to do something relaxing and not have anything distracting to bother them while they think.
Taking a break from society could be important to some people, but not to me. One of Thoreau's quotes that I came across last night that I really like was something along the lines of 'I have never found a companion as compatible as solitude'. That is not a direct quote but it is pretty close. I think this could be true, because I am a believer in the fact that the only person you can really trust is yourself. But that is beside the point. This quote really relates to taking a break from society because it reinforces the fact that being alone is a good thing.
Taking a break from society for me would include no school, no homework, and no hanging out with my friends. Honestly that sounds pretty nice. The only thing that I might miss would be hanging out with my friends, but no homework or school sounds very nice. It is overwhelming most of the time with the countless hours I spend on it and the many hours of sleep I lose over it. I think that the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring breaks are all like miniature versions of a break

15. Reading for Fun

Reading can be fun, when it is for fun and there is not any connection between the book and a class or a project. I used to read all the time for fun, but this year has gotten way to hectic for me to have time to just relax and read a book. When I did read for fun though, I would read things like James Patterson, Clive Cussler, and other authors who wrote mysteries. James Patterson was definitely my favorite. He has so many great books and the thing about them that I love so much is that they are so good, that you can read them more than once without getting bored with it! Normally I like books that are realistic and not like science fiction, but Patterson has a series called Maximum Ride, and the books are about a family of mutated orphans who live together, and use their abilities such as wings and other more individual things to...protect the world, basically. I know it sounds lame, it sounds lame even to me as I typed it, but honestly, they are such good books. I would also recommend Sail by Patterson, it is also really good. Another favorite author of mine, but I have not read since probably freshman year is Dee Henderson. The cool thing about her books are that are personable and easy to relate to. Her Negotiator series is about the O'Malley family who live in Chicago. It is a seven book series and I loved every one of them a lot. Like I said before, I enjoy leisurely reading, but I have not been able to do so as much as I would like to so far this school year because of all the homework I have had. If I had the free time, I would probably spend it reading some good mystery books, unfortunately I do not. So for now, reading for fun will have to wait.

14. The Ideal U.S.

The ideal United States...well, here is a topic I could go on about for a while. Let's see, if you don't have blond hair and blue eyes or if you are Jewish, your outta here! No just kidding, I'm not Hitler. But if I could create a perfect United States according to my preference, it would be awesome. There would be a list of rules that everyone would abide to.

-Rule number one: Everyone must be awesome. No exceptions.

-Rule number two: Everyone must be vegetarians and kind to animals.

-Rule number three: Everyone must love awesome music and listen to it all the time.

-Rule number four: (which isnt really a rule, more of a suggestion) Everyone should be able to play some kind of musical instrument, prefferably guitar, acoustic or electric, doesn't matter. Also, people should be playing said instruments all the time.

-Rule number five: The government would consist of myself, Christopher Drew, Hayley Williams, Jeremy Davis, Taylor York, Josh and Zac Farro, Jason Mraz, Andrew de Torrez, and Jonny Craig. If you do not know who these people are, well then you are breaking rule number three.

-Rule number 6: May 21st of every year, every citizen is required to get me a birthday present.

-Rule number 7: No violence is allowed. What is the purpose? Violence just makes messes and does not fix anything, so keep it nice please. :)

-Rule number 8: The age limitation for piercings should be 15, not 18. Then whenever someone wanted to get, oh, I don't know, a lip ring for example, they would not be hindered by their parents saying no.

-Rule number 9: No Spanish allowed! Especially bogus tests that students are not prepared for ahead of time.

-Rule number 10: (final rule as of now) No school on Mondays. Ever. End of story.

So these 10 rules would be the rules for my individual ideal United States, and I can only wish that any of these would be passed, because they are perhaps a little bit bias in my favor. But the journal topic was the ideal U.S., and this is deffinately what mine would look like.

13. My Favorite... Band

My favorite band EVER in the world for all eternity is Paramore. Words cannot describe how much I love them! And they are not like all the other bands I like, that are good and I like them a lot, but would not say they are my favorite, Paramore is the real deal. They have been my favorite band for about three years now so it is not like a passing fad like some other people's favorite bands are. One day their favorite band is totally different from yesterday's favorite band. I own a good amount of Paramore merchandise actually: a huge poster, all three of their albums, a shirt from Hot Topic, and a shirt from one of their concerts I went to this summer. Paramore's first album was released in 2005, and was called All We Know. Since then, they have released two more c.d.'s. In 2007, they released an album called Riot!, and on September 29, 2009, they released Brand New Eyes. While I can easily say that Paramore is my favorite band, I could never ever declare one of their albums my favorite, or even one of their songs. This is probably because each and every song is sooooo amazing. Even their demo songs, which are not on a c.d., are great. The band members include singer Hayley Williams, guitarists Josh Farro and Taylor York (previously Jeremy Davis) and drummer Zac Farro. They are all so completely talented that when you put them all together what you get is utter perfection. I cannot remember ever loving a band so much as Paramore. All of their songs have awesome lyrics, no matter if they are a fast upbeat song, or a slower more emotional song. I really do not think my description of them gives them justice or anything close, so your best bet if you are reading this right now, whoever you are, open a new tab and go to YouTube and listen to them, you will NOT be dissapointed. Some of the songs of theirs that would best exemplify their sound are Pressure (from All We Know), Careful (from Brand New Eyes), and Miracle (from Riot).

12. The Declaration of ANIMAL Independence

I think that all animals should be free to wander around with out the threat of someone trying to kill and eat them. If you put yourself in their shoes (or hooves or paws), you would most likely rather not have that constant fear of suddenly being shot or having your head chopped off just to feed a human. I am a vegetarian obviously, I am not just saying this without the actions to back it up. For animal independence, ALL animals would be safe from unnatural death, not just the 'cute' ones people have as pets. Think about it. You would not eat a puppy or kitten would you? Of course not! So what makes a deer or cow or chicken any different?? Nothing. Just because they are not domesticated that does not mean that they are any different from household pets. It is almost hypocritical to eat the 'accepted' or 'normal' meats, and scorn those in Japan or China or wherever they eat dogs because all animals should be treated equally! I am not saying we as people should hold them to human standards, because they shouldn't be. But we should at least give them the respect they deserve as our living counterparts on earth. Also in this declaration, I would like to make the point that it is completely fine to not eat meat, in fact, it is healthier. Your body cleanses itself of toxins from the meats after a while of not eating them, which is such a good thing. Omitting meat can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and can be preventetive of heart disease. Plus, eating meat is allowing for animal mistreatment. Mass marketers and animal farms often subject their animals to horrible treatment which when done to a human being would be considered abuse and torture. These animals should not be treated in such ways, they have feelings, they have nerve endings. That is what this declaration is all about, treated animals with respect and letting them be free!

11. logic/reason vs. emotion

The whole saying, "listen to your heart" is dumb to me. I find that logic and reasoning is way more reliable for support than emotion. Your heart does not control all of your thoughts and ideas does it? No, your brain does. So why would someone 'listen' to a red organ that pumps blood instead of a huge system that controls your entire body and thoughts? Logic and reason can win a trial in court, while emotion cannot. Sure, you can be passionate about the case, but what good is that passion if you have no reasoning to back it up? When some people use emotion to solve a problem or make a decision, it is not really there heart, but more of a selfish decision. Anyone can say that their heart told them one way was better than another or that their heart guided them to do something, but if you think through a situation logically, you are more likely to make the better decision because of the pros and cons that would come out while you thought about it. For support purposes, logic and reason are going to be more believable than emotion. For example, you are trying to support your choice to get a lip ring. If someone were to take the 'emotion' route, they would say something like, "I REALLY want it, it looks so cool and I can tell it is the right thing for me to do!" Now who has parents that would fall for that? No one? At least close to no one. If you were to approach the topic more logically, you could say, "Mom, Dad, I have thought about it and weighed the situation and I think I could handle it. We could look up some information online and see the best way to go about it. I could pay for it and take care of it, and if we end up not liking it, well then we can just take it out and pretend like it never happened." If you were a parent, which route would you most likely appreciate better and listen to? The logic one right?

10. School Spirit

School spirit is a great thing to have. It gives you a sense of pride almost when you show school spirit. Even if you do not particularly like your school, most likely if you are with people from other schools bashing yours, you would not be able to help but stand up for your school. The school you attend is an indirect reflection of yourself, so if someone says something negative against your school, it is almost like them saying something negative about you personally. When it comes to Pleasant Plains High School, I would say that as a whole, we have a lot of school spirit. This has been proven this past week as all the classes got super competitive, and we have had such a large turnout of class participation every day, spirit day being the most participated in event. I would bet that more students and their families than not show up to the football game tonight, and most students will probably come to the homecoming dance. I am in student council, so that pretty much is a give-away that I posses at least some school spirit. Every representative in student council has school spirit, because if we didn't, then we would not spend our time attending meetings for the school, or decorating for the dances, or doing many of the other things we spend our time doing to better the school. At the football games is where the school spirit shows the most as a whole. More last year than this year, but it is still present. Last year we went all out, even at the away games. I remember taking the fan bus to a game against the Havana ducks, and we had a 'sea of red' and every time we got a touchdown, Devon Moore would throw up a hunting duck decoy and we would all pretend to shoot it. This year, along with homecoming week, I went to homecoming. I didn't really want to that much, but I did and showed school spirit I guess? Yep!

9. Ethics and Values

1 Bravery- courage

2 Focus- staying on topic

3 Forgiveness- not focusing on others wrongdoings

4 Generosity- sharing well

5 Self Control- restraint

6 Humor- keep things lively

7 Loyalty- trustworthy

8 Reliability- dependable

9 Organization- keeping things in place

10 Sincerity- expressing honest feelings or opinions

11 Diligence- perseverance

12 Cooperation- able to comply

13 Patience- camly waiting

These are important values that I plan to be working on for the assignment. My ethics and values now are not much different than this list, I just need to be held accountable for carrying these out better.

Ethics and values are different for every person. They are as individual as fingerprints. The values of a devoted Catholic person will most assuredly be dramatically different from those of prostitute or a criminal (duh). This is an extreme example of the differences, but it is present everywhere, just maybe not as obvious.

I think that one of my main values, which I do not really need a lot of help in is honesty. Brute and straightforward. I will always (well, pretty much always) be extremely honest. I will tell it like it is, even if that means the persons hears what they don't want to. I am not gonna sugar coat anything for someone who wants my honest opinion. Like my fourth grade teacher taught us, and I think this is why I feel so strongly about telling the truth no matter how much it hurts, if someone asks you an honest question, it is only fair to give them an honest answer. There have been several instances where someone asks me a question and I felt obligated to tell them the truth, even if it was not what they wanted to hear, they were better off in the long run having someone tell them the truth. In return, I like it when people tell me the truth, whether it be what I want to hear or not, or if I THINK it is what I want to hear, I appreciate the honesty. It says more about a person when they can tell you the truth, because anyone could lie to you, it takes a real friend to tell you the truth even when it's not the greatest news. That is why I have honesty as one of my main values.

8. Partners

Sometimes working with a partner can be beneficial, while sometimes it is not helpful. For some people, they work better with someone to depend on to take part of the load and for others they prefer to work alone so they know that they deserve the grade they get and it's not on account of anyone else's error.


I'm the kind of person who is indifferent when it comes to partner work. I do not care if I work alone, and I do not care if I have a partner. It usually does not matter to me. There have been times where partner work has helped me, has hurt me, and has just been...work with a partner.


Just about a week ago, Hallie and I worked as partners for a history project. We both knew that with each other as partners we were sure to do a good job on the project since both of us make it a point to do well in school. We also knew that with each other as our partner, neither of us would have to carry significantly more work than the other. It ended up running smoothly as we each had our own tasks, and the final product, our board game Pirates or Privateers, ended up being really cool.

There was one time my freshmen year that my partner did not prove to be as cohesive as Hallie was. I do not remember the specifics of the project in my engineering class (intro to engineering) but I do remember that my partner, who was from New Berlin, ended up doing next to nothing on our project and I was mad that even though we got an A, I had to do all the work for that A and my partner got to slack off the whole time.

Sometimes, partners don't hurt or help necessarily, they just aid in comprehension. I know that in my precalculus class, we work with a partner almost every day to do some practice problems. I find this very helpful, because if I don't understand a certain concept, my parnter can usually help me understand it, and vice versa.

7. Organized Religion

Organized religion can mean different things to everyone who hears the name. To some it can be appealing, while to others it is repulsive and unattractive. I grew up in a religious family, so the topic of organized religion is not new to me at all, and does not bother me in the slightest when I hear those words like it may to some people. West Side Christian Church is the church I attend when I go. I think it is a nice church, it has a persuasive preacher and a good band. There are many other churches around Springfield and Pleasant Plains, but I have never been to any of them besides West Side (other than my grandparent's church in Beardstown, but we have only gone there a few times on holidays). Because I have only ever attended one church, I can not really state any opinions of any of the other churches. I am also not very knowledgeable on the view of other religions. I know there are Christian, Catholic, Methodist, Jewish, Presbyterian, and all of the Middle Eastern and Asian religions like Islamic, Buddist, and Hindu, but other than that I am not aware of other religions. I think that organized religion can usually be a good thing, but not always. There are some churchs or religions that will threaten or kill people if they do not follow that specific religion and its ideas. There is not a lot of that in America, but more in the Middle Eastern area.


Religion is important to so many people in one way or another. Agree with it or not, it can affect you and the way you look at certain situations. For most religious people, their religion is a big part of their lives. It can help them through a tough time when it seems like there is no one else there but God. To others, it is not important whatesoever, sometimes even offensive. I feel bad for those who can't be open to religion and see what it can do for them, because until they experience it for themselves, how will they ever know what its like or how it can feel? And even if they do try it out a few times, that won't give them a full understanding of what's going on. It seems to me like atheists or agnostic people make hasty judgements without doing their research, because if one of them took the time to look deeper into religion and what its based on, they would be suprised.

6. Blame

Blame: to hold responsible; find fault with; an act of attributing fault; censure; reproof. That is the actual definition of blame. A less formal definition would be: when someone fears they will be in trouble for something and they point fingers to someone else to reflect the attention off themselves. This concept is very common, even in everyday life. It was especially common when we are children. We never wanted to get in trouble with our parents, so if something bad were to happen and we knew we could get it trouble for it, we would blame someone else right away. The classic line in every movie where two kids break something and their parents come in on it is, "HE(or she) DID IT!" in unison with the fingers pointed to each other. This basically represents the blame that goes on now as teenagers and adults, only more juvenile than what we do. As we get older, it is easier to blame someone else in my opinion. Our lies are less noticeable and it is not always easy to tell if the blamed person is actually guilty or not. Blame can also provide a reputation for someone, or even reflect that person's reputation. Now, at our particular lunch, if something goes 'missing' or is messed with, everyone tends to blame me whether I did it or not. This is because I have quite a reputation built up that would usually qualify me as the first person to go to in these situations. And I am proud of this reputation! Unless, that is, I did not actually do it sometime, then I still get blamed and it gets difficult to convince them that it was not my doing. In fact, if anything in general ever goes wrong, it is usually blamed on me. I tend to be the source of bad luck amongst my friends. So what I am trying to say, is everyone blames, and everyone gets blamed. It is one of those things you just can't really avoid. Sometimes it can be harmless, but for more important matters, it really counts.

5. My True Colors Personality

There are four main personalities, and they are each associated with a color. There is orange, gold, green, and blue. Orange people are spontaneous, fun loving, courageous, and not so bound by rules or authority. Gold people are very organized and pretty much the opposite of orange people. If you are green, it means you are a logical thinker, scientific, and analytical. Blue people are generally emotional and creative, to sum it up.

When I took the true colors test last year in Mr. Tadla's health class, my main color was orange, and the secondary color was green. When I took it a few days ago, I was surprised to see that blue was my first color and orange was my secondary color. The test said that the blue personality had characteristics of a heart-felt communicator, compassionate, emotional, and they bring out the best in others. I do not think I am a blue at all. I am not a good communicator, not compassionate at all, and not emotional at all. I am not sure how I got these results since they do not describe me in the slightest. I think that the results I got from health class were more appropriate for me. I think I am very much a orange and green person. Orange is more spontaneous, courageous, persuasive, and resourceful. I think that those characteristics fit me better than the blue do. Green being my secondary color, is also close to my personality at some points. In certain situations it is neccesary for me to be logical and analytical (like green), when most of the time I am very undecisive and random (like orange).

When I previously had taken the test, it was a layout where there was 4 words and you had to number them one through four in order of which fit you best. I think that the results from this style would be more accurate than answering just yes or no to a question. While this version of the true colors test is not quite as accurate in my opinion, it is still interesting to think about your personality.

4. They way I identify/categorize people.

I think that the way I identify people is the general way people get identified. There are different identifications at different places. At school, there is the largest variety of people to categorize. There are jocks, geeks, preps, scenes, emos, rednecks, and the leftovers who do not really fit into a specific category. At this school, the categories are not set in stone, due to the small size. However, there are some people who are undeniably in one category. Take the freshman this year for example. I have noticed several people, girls and guys, who would traditionally fall into the 'emo' category, or emo posers, which are just annoying but that is a different story. There are a few sparse scene girls, and perhaps one, maybe two goths. I put these three categories together because they can sometimes be confused for one another, even though they are dramatically different. Another category would be jocks, which is not too extreme at Pleasant Plains because most of the athletes are involve in other things and could put placed in another category as well. Preps however, they are pretty obvious in each grade. They are easy to spot from a mile away. Rednecks, well, there are definitely a good number of them at our school, but that is expected. Even though there can sometimes be cookie cutter ideas of people, they could be very different from what you initially expect. That is where the saying, 'you can't judge a book by its cover' comes in. For some people, this saying can be applied, while for others, they are just as they seem. Another way we categorize people is by wealth. It seems like the more money you have, the better you are, and vice versa. This is could be worse than judging people by what they look like, because a lot of the time, people are born into their money or lack there of and can not get out of their category until they have the opportunity to get a job. It is known that a first impression is established within the first fifteen seconds of meeting someone. This makes it difficult to get a good idea of who someone is without looking at the outside. While I try not to judge people based on how they dress or their apparent monetary status, it is hard to avoid it.

3. What it would be like to lose everything.

To lose everything would be one of the worst possible things to happen in my opinion. It would be so devastating that I would not know what to do. I would probably feel very scared and pretty lost. If losing everything included just house, car, and other possessions, I do not think it would be nearly as bad as if it included family as well. Just thinking about losing everything is hard to think about, so I can not even imagine how mortifying it would be if it actually occurred like it did to Anne Bradstreet. However, Bradstreet was very religious and knew that God could get her through anything and keep her strong for she knew that her earthly possessions were not nearly as important as her relationship with God, which she could not simply lose in a house fire. Her story sort of gives me more peace when I contemplate the thought of losing everything suddenly. I like to think that if God were to take everything away from me, He would also take care of me and keep me strong. It would be hard no doubt, but faith would be enough if that was all I had. There are also a few different approaches that could be taken to deal with the loss. One way would be to be openly remorseful and not hold anything back. The alternative would be keeping yourself composed among other people and letting it go when you were alone. I do not think one of these options is better than the other, it would just depend on the person or personality. I myself would most likely gravitate towards the inner remorse based on my own personality and some past situations. However, I can not be entirely sure how I would react to that specific situation seeing as I have never actually lost everything, which I am most definately glad about, and for the time being, I chose not to think too hard about it would really be like for that to happen.

2. The importance of written or documented rules

It seems like there are rules for everything these days. Some are written down, and some are just understood. When rules are written down, they generally are followed more precisely. There are several pros to writting down rules that one hopes to enforce. If there is an actual place where someone can refer back to a rule, it is much easier to hold someone accountable when they have been accused of breaking said rule. Alternatively, rules that are just assumed or understood are easier to break and there is less evidence against someone when they break the rule, for there is no actual documentation, just word of mouth. The main reason rules should be written down is because if they are not, they will most likely be broken more often with fewer consequences. If there were no rules or punishments for breaking the rules, people would run around doing whatever they want and no one would be able to tell them not to. America's set of rules ultimately comes from the Constitution. The enforcers of these rules are police officers, judges, and anyone else in an authoritative position. For Christians, rules come from the Bible in the form of the Ten Commandments. There is punishment for breaking the rules, but it is not exactly definite due to grace, mercy, et cetera. The enforcer of these rules would be, well, God. In any given household, there are sets of rules, each unique depending on the family. Most of the time there are not written rules for a family, so they are simply understood. This makes it a little more difficult for the enforcers of the rules, the parents, especially if they do not agree on the rules. Behavior expectations are much more clear for everyone involved when rules are established and even more so when they are recorded in the form of a law or constitution or contract. There is a saying "ignorance of the law excuses no man", which refers to the notion a person may not plead innocent just because they are unaware of a law. If a law exsists, people are responsible for knowing it and acting accordingly.

1. How the World Was Made

This particular story exemplifies Native American literature very well. It shows the different ideas that provide a background for their stories. At the beginning of the story, a water beetle volunteers to look at what is under the water that they inhabit. This is a small example of hospitality from the beetle. The Cherokee country is very mountainous, which in this story is revealed to be due to a great buzzard flying around, and when his wings would flap they would create mountains and valleys. The sun was set in place by the animals by testing out different 'hand-breadths' until they placed it at the perfect height.

There are several more examples like this that show how the world was tweaked until everything was in perfect working order. I think that these examples show that the inhabitants of the world at the time really cared what would happen in the future and sort of planned ahead as they created what we know now as our earth.

Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea

There are several symbols in The Old Man and the Sea, but the most prevalent to me was Santiago's infatuation with Joe DiMaggio. Not only did Santiago follow his baseball career, he looked up to DiMaggio like a hero. He would always compare his situation to DiMaggio's, or think things through like he thought Joe would. Constantly Santiago would even wonder if what he was doing would make DiMaggio proud of him for his strength or courage. Santiago several times mentioned that during his career that DiMaggio had a bone spur yet worked through it. Whenever Santiago would come across a new challenge he would relate it to the bone spur. Basically, DiMaggio was a symbol of admiration and inspiration for the old man.