Over the trimester, the quality of my writing
has definitely improved.I’ve been incorporating
more literary elements. One good literary element in my recent blog is
imagery.It states: “Waking up in that
daze, eyes unable to open, impossible to move even in the slightest movement,
the annoying noise of the alarm in the background, the only safe place seems to
be under the covers.”The
maturity level of my writing has dramatically increased along with my
vocabulary. I’ve learned a lot of advanced-level words and writing techniques,
therefore, I’m putting them into my writing. One good word that I learned
recently is: deprivation. I didn’t have
these assets at the beginning of the trimester.I elaborate a lot more now to add necessary detail, as you can see
because my more recent post is a lot longer with more detail.In the beginning of the trimester, my writing
was very short and simplistic, almost like a text message.I have developed into a writer that uses more
elaborate writing which appeals to emotions and senses.The imagery I stated in the beginning of this
paragraph is a good example of how my recent writing appeals to emotions and
senses.There’s not a single sentence in
my old blog post that even has the possibility to appeal to emotions and/or
senses.Also, my transitions flow better
by using transition sentences rather than just moving on to my next
thought.As you can see in my recent
blog, I use transition sentences such as: “To address the first point.”Some of my lines in my old writing don’t even
make sense.As you can see in my old
blog post, the two long lines I highlighted take a few times to read in order
to make some sense of them.Also, I used
to use very boring words such as: “great” and “strong”.Overall, I have just become a more mature,
advanced writer.
Questions
One thing
I struggled with while blogging was making myself blog every week.I did this by making sure I did it in class
so I wouldn’t have to do it at home because that’s when I didn’t want to do
it.One strength I had while blogging
was that I could blog very quickly.It didn’t
take me much time to conduct a quality blog.I didn’t even get close to meeting my reading goal.I used goodreads.com to rate books that I’ve
read in the past.I would say I improved
more as a writer, but as a reader, I became a more efficient, faster
reader.
Most of us are familiar with the Miami (FL) football scandal. Miami is believed to have cheated by paying players to play which violates NCAA rules. People don't have the facts straight. Some people have no idea what they're talking about. Miami did not cheat. One person in the Miami football organization cheated. Just because one person cheated, doesn't mean everybody cheated. You can get more information on this scandal here.
You see, society overreacts to everything. We take everything one step too far. The Miami football scandal perfectly represents our society. We hear that Miley Cyrus was hired for a music video in Juicy J's new album and she twerked in the video, so, she's pregnant? No. "Hey everyone, I saw Bob in the halls talking to Mary, so Bob likes Mary!" You see what I mean? Those examples might not be the best examples, but my point is that society gets ideas in their head, advances those ideas, and the finished product is something completely different than reality. We jump to conclusions, and it's just not right. We meaning myself, too. I'm a victim of taking things too far and jumping to conclusions as well.
So, no, the Miami football organization did not cheat. One member of the organization cheated. In order for them to cheat, every single member of their organization would have to cheat in some way, shape or form. Also, if Miami did cheat, it didn't help them out any. Miami-14 Florida State-41. Wait, so Florida State won by 100?
We all hate waking up at 6 am, 5:30 am, some even earlier just to arrive at school before the morning bell rings. The effects of waking up this early are more significant than you may think.
First of all, high school students need 9 hours of sleep to perform at their full potential. Only 20% of high school students are getting 9 hours of sleep each school night. This leaves 80% not performing the best that they are able to perform. Teachers, superintendents, principals, etc put so much pressure on the students to get a 4.0 GPA, perfect test scores at the end of the year to make our school look good, to be so kind to everyone, etc...etc...etc...they need to stop being so ignorant and look at it from the students' perspective. During the years of transitioning from a child to an adult, our bodies make a change that alters are sleep patterns. The sleep patterns make it very difficult to fall asleep before 11 pm. Therefore, if we get the necessary 9 hours of sleep, we're sleeping until 8 am. That's basically sleeping right through first bell! If the start time gets delayed until 9 am, students can sleep from 11-8 and easily make it to school on time and also perform to the best of their abilities.
Students are falling asleep in class. I don't think I've ever gone through a full bell and not seen at least one student, whether it's myself or a peer, fall asleep mid-class. As lack of sleep builds up and we're forced to get up before dawn, our bodies have to make up for that lack of sleep somehow. Sleeping in class is what we resort to doing. Because students are either very tired or they're literally sleeping, it's impossible to concentrate in class which results in bad grades because we didn't learn what we're tested on. It seems to me like the school system doesn't care if the kids are learning or not, they just want to get through the day as quickly and easily as possible.
Attendance rates decrease as a result of early start times. Students are oversleeping because when all that lack of sleep adds up, their bodies simply don't allow them to awaken. They're either arriving tardy or completely blowing off the day all together. A later start time would help solve this problem. In 1996, the University of Minnesota enforced a rule where no classes could start before 8:45 am. Before that rule, they were aloud to start at 7:15. As a result of a later start time, their attendance rates went up by 8%. Now, 8% may not seem like a large percentage but get this: Over one school year, if Mason's attendance rates went up, about 50,000 more counts of attendance would be in place. Basically, 50,000 more kids at school over one school year!
Sleep deprivation comes with some health risks. These health risks aren't just a sore throat, an overnight cold, a 3-day stomach virus. These health risks are very major diagnostics such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, fatigue & inactivity which all together, these things can lead to depression. All of these things can be solved by a later start time, but they can be solved once they're already in place. Every day that we have the school schedule that we have, these risks increase. How ignorant can our school system get?
The people that believe high school should stick with their start times bring up their opinions through two main points: students' sleep habits will adapt so they won't get any more sleep, and secondly that the students won't be prepared for the future in the work force because businesses start early. To address the first point, Idaho High School had a school year where they did a lot of studies to figure out the relationship between academic performance and sleep habits. One thing they did was start school one hour and 15 minutes later. 87% of the students reported getting at least one hour extra of sleep as a result of starting school later because they could sleep in. So, that proves the point wrong that that students will just adjust their sleep habits and go to bed later instead of going to bed at the same time and sleeping in later. To address the second point, what is not preparing students for the future is not allowing them to get a proper high school education! Students are getting C's when they're highly capable of getting A's because their bodies are not allowing them to perform to the best of their abilities, they're missing school, and they can't focus in class because too much sleep deprivation is taking place. That is what's not preparing us for the future! So many doors to opportunity are closed as a result of too early of schools start times yet our school tries to preach to us to keep as many doors to opportunity open as possible. Hey, um, preacher, do you realize you're the one that's closing a lot of our doors? I'm not saying students aren't responsible for themselves, but our school, with such an early start time, is putting us in a situation every single day where it's very hard to keep our A game on.
My last point is that when we start so early, we're waking up, arriving at school, and going through most of first bell all in the dark. It makes it very hard to awaken. With a later start time, we get up in the bright sun which makes it a lot easier to prepare for the day ahead of us.
Overall, with a later start time, our school environment would be a lot more productive, successful, and overall a better community. Many schools have realized how the benefits of starting school later greatly outweigh the benefits of having an early first bell. Our school needs to step out of our ignorance bubble and join the high-rising trend. Our first bell must be pushed back.
The video below basically sums up what I stated in my post, but if you're one that doesn't enjoy reading but does enjoy watching videos, just watch the video. It has the same message.
Just last week, Dusty Baker, the Reds head coach and manager was fired. Despite the Reds' regular season success, they could not get into the post season. This wasn't the first time with Dusty Baker that this happened. It seems like this is his norm. Because of this, the Reds released him. I strongly agree with the Reds' decision.
Dusty Baker is not worthy of being the manager of a professional baseball team. Maybe a janitor, but definitately not the manager/coach. He doesn't make logical decisions, which leads to losses. He keeps pitchers in for way too long, allowing the other team to rack up runs. He drops down players that are some of the best athletes on the team, he waits until the end of the season to call up the fastest player in all of baseball, etc. He has no "baseball" sense. The Reds finally came to their senses.
In an article publshed by ESPN it states, " Baker said he felt "very helpless" as the offense went into a slump and the rotation fell apart." Read that again. That's just not something a coach should say. That's not something a manager should say. That's giving up on your team. If you're just going to quit, you might as well fire yourself because you're not worth anything. Instead of saying he's very helpless, he should say, "We're not in the best situation, but I am working with the players to get out of it." But, nope. Dusty just says there's not hope.
I completely agree with the Reds' decision to fire Dusty Baker. He's not manager-worthy. Thank you, Reds, for coming to your senses.
In class, we read a short story called The Necklace. I liked the message of this story. It taught that it is necessary to be comfortable with yourself. Don't try to be someone your not.
The main character in the story got an invitation to a formal party. She didn't want to go to this party because it would be full of rich people and she was not rich. She didn't feel she would fit in. She told her husband she wasn't going to go to this party because she didn't have any clothes that would be formal enough to go to this party. Her husband bought her nice clothes. She then felt that it was not complete. She needed some sort of jewel. She didn't have the money to purchase one, so she borrowed a jewel necklace from her friend. She loved it and felt that she would now fit in at the formal. She went to the party and loved it. She ended up losing the necklace, and spent 10 years working to get the money to purchase a new one just like it to give back to her friend. After all that hard work, it turns out that the necklace was counterfeit, or had fake jewels. It was only worth about 300 francs whereas the one she bought was 36,000 francs.
Basically, just because the main character wasn't comfortable with herself, she wasted 10 years working to repay her loss. If she was comfortable in her own skin she would have been fine, and none of the tragedy would have occurred.
I read a poem entitled Life Struggles. I'm going to break it down sentence by sentence.
"Life is the sum of experiences that we encounter as we go through life." This line basically defines life in a very short sentence. Every thing that we experience has a different effect on the course of our life. All of these experiences add up to create one overall thing called life. Life changes as we encounter new events.
"Day to day struggles and triumphs are experienced by all of the world's creatures." This line lets us know that we're not alone when we face a challenge in life. Humans face many challenges in life, you're not the only one. Humans aren't the only ones either because animals and all other living things also face challenges!
"As human beings, when we encounter a challenge, we have the freedom to choose how to react." This line shows us as humans that there's not a set in stone way to deal with a struggle in life, but, whatever decision we make better be the best because it was our decision, not someone else's.
"Everyone decision that we make leads us down a different road." This line is telling us that even the smallest decisions alter and adjust your life path. No one travels on the same road because noone makes the same exact decisions.
"We will never come to exactly the same crossroads." Like I said, noone travels on the same road. We can't make decisions based upon what the people around us due just because you want to be on the same path as them. They didn't make the exact same decisions as you in the past, so it's pointless to try to be like them by making the same decisions. You won't end up at the exact some crossroads, or destination.
"Every decision that we make has significance." You may not think that everything has impact on your life, but it does. Even the smallest of things. They all lead to another thing which leads to another thing which ends up leading to something very important. The small decisions lead you to and make the big decisions.
"The tiniest decisions reverberates throughout the entire universe." This line is trying to teach us that our decisions don't just affect us. They affect our friends, our loved ones, and even people you've never met before.
Overall, this poem is pretty straight forward. It doesn't take too much analysis to understand, but it is a very heavy poem. Very deep is an easier way to put it. It's short and sweet, getting right to the point. It pretty much sums life up in seven sentences.
I just picked up the book Toughness by Jay Bilas and have just read the synopsis and a few pages. I predict this book, obviously, to be about toughness...but specifacally about what toughness really is, how to acheive proper toughness, and how this will better you as a person.
Two questions I have for the author are: How do you know your definition of toughness is the real one? Why is your form of toughness the best form of toughness?
Text to text connection: Judging from the summary and a few pages, this book seems like it will have an overall central theme similar to that of the book One Shot at Forever. I know One Shot at Forever teaches about overcoming obstacles in life with toughness, so I'm predicting the book Toughness will be very similar in regards to theme.
Text to self connection: I can relate to this book because over my baseball career, a main thing I have focused on is developing proper mental toughness. I strive to become this most mentally tough player that ever steps foot on the field. The reason that great mental toughness is such a big deal to me is because baseball is 75% mental and 25% physical. If you look at professional athletes, not all of theme are great athletes. I listened to a reporter interview Reds' first baseman Joey Votto. In the interview, Votto emphasized that he was not a great athlete through high school. He was below average on the baseball field, but he had a passion for the game. Somehow, as he puts it,"I have to find an edge. I have to develop something within me that noone else has." He goes on to explain that mental toughness is what eventually gave him that edge. He is now one of the best first basemen in baseball. Joey Votto is a great person to look up to in my eyes, so every day I work to become tougher mentally than I was the day before. This book is all about becoming tougher mentally so it should be very easy to relate and connect to.
Text to world connection: There's a lot of injuries that are on sports news because, well, it's football season. I hear guys on sportscenter claim that the toughness of players these days is awful compared to players of "their time." This book can connect to these stories because they're all about toughness. Here is a website where you can find out more about the book and it also allows you to order the book directly from their website because I know this post makes you want to read it so badly.
I strongly recommend the book Night by Elie Wiesel. Night is a non-fiction story about a boy named Elie (who tells the story) and his Jewish family. It describes how their lives were during the Jewish Holocaust. The book shows the troubles that Jewish families went through such as separation from family members, starvation, and abuse. Kids literally saw their parents die in front of them, or they were forced to say their last words to their close friends/family members as they were then burned.
This book really affected me because as I was reading about the troubles Jews went through during that time period, it made me realize how good/easy we have life these days. People aren't executing mass amounts of people for no good reason.
I recommend this book mainly because I always hear people complaining about life. "I hate life", "I wanna kill myself." These words are thrown out like the word "the." This book will make you come to your senses about the luxuries we live in. It is a great read for anyone. This is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read, so I recommend it to you because you never know, it may change your life. Even just a little bit. A little bit is better than nothing.
Below is a video clip of Oprah Winfrey interviewing the author of this book, Elie Wiesel. They visit the concentration camp Elie spent most of his time at during the Jewish Holocaust.
The book One Shot at Forever has a very strong message the author is trying to convey. That message is that bonding with the people around you can be what changes your life for the better. I know this is a common theme with a lot of books/movies, but the author of One Shot at Forever, Chris Ballard goes into great detail about this theme. In the beginning of the book, there were no bonds between players or coaches. The theme didn't start developing until Coach Sweet became the coach of the baseball team. Once he did that, the team started really liking Coach Sweet. He started friendships with the players; he was basically everyone's best friend, but also their coach. He'd have them over to play cards or just for dinner every once in a while. By the end of the story, the bonds between the players and also with Coach Sweet are what makes the story so sweet. The author gets as close to directly stating the theme without actually directly stating it. A line from the synopsis perfectly states the theme: "A testament to the power of high school sports, One Shot at Forever reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town." This line gives the reader a little hint of the theme, or the central message the story will have. It identifies that the main part to the story is the relationships between everyone of the town of Macon.
Most people have just watched the movie, The Blind Side. I recommend reading the book as well. It almost seems like a whole different story than the movie. The book just has more details that are essential if you want to enjoy the story. The attention to detail in the book makes you appreciate the story better than the movie. In case you haven't seen or read The Blind Side, it is about an African-American male named Michael who ultimately goes from poverty to riches. He is adopted by a very wealthy white family. Michael turns his life around by focusing on schoolwork and football. The journey he takes to success is very...interesting. What do I mean by this? That's for you to find out. I strongly recommend reading The Blind Side. It's one of those books that doesn't allow you to put it down until you read from start to finish.
I read an anonymously written article titled Too Much Technology-How to Detach From it.This article was very interesting. It explained how much technology, specifically electronic devices, are used in the world. The author stated his opinion which was that people need to unplug, cut back, on the amount of technology being used. He/She offered ways to successfully break away from technology for a little bit. He/She also explained the advantages of doing so. It was a pretty long article, the author's point was very strong and aggressive. It was an influential read.
The reason One Shot at Forever was a phenomenal book is due to the perfect development of the characters throughout the text. The characters develop in such a way that I felt as if I were one of the characters in the book. Every character is very unique in his/her own way. Over the course of the story, many characters change. Everyone matures throughout the course of the story. As more obstacles come up, the characters become tougher. They fight harder and longer than they did in the beginning of the story. If the characters did not change, half of their achievements would not have been reached.
The following article gives you a little "sniff" of One Shot at Forever. After reading the article, you can expect what to read about in the book.
