School’s Out – Updates

Okay, so school just got out like three days ago for me, and summer’s ahead. I love summer.

I’ve decided that I should start using my blog again; I never really stopped, I just haven’t had the time to update it. My junior year was the most busiest school year of my life, I do believe…Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it…Anyways, summer’s here and I am really really hoping that I will have time to enjoy and relax. I doubt it, but you never know.

I just went through my entire blog and updatted every single post. There are now little lines next to introductions to posts and everything is just a touch more uniform and organized, how I like it. Going through my whole blog and reading my past…makes me miss everything so much. I miss Magic Pens, and my old blog, and I wish I had transferred over all of the comments. I missed quite a few, but I got most, so it’s okay. I also really hope that I will come to love this new blog just as much as my old and that I will get some more readers. In Magic Pens I was used to having anywhere from 5-10 readers on each post and receiving many comments and feeback. This blog barely gets 5 pageviews at all and I am left to feel so alone…

I plan to post some more essays I wrote over this year, make some more minor updates, and perhaps start creative writing again!

Classroom Terror or Electronic Godsend?

I continue to praise Minot High School, even through my English assignments…

This is an argumentative essay that was required to include documented research and not persuade the reader to a certain point, but to merely state a problem and a possible solution. I chose what I thought to be a simple topic: cell phone use in school.

A minute electrical device could save a life in the case of an emergency, create persistent distractions that causes a student’s grades to drop, interrupt classes with an array of annoying sounds, violate personal privacy, help keep track of time and events, and even act as a tool to cheat in school, and everyone has one in his pocket. A necessity in most people’s lives, the cellular phone contributes to modern society adding to the list of valuable tools available. Yet school boards disagree with each other on policies to regulate cell phone use in school; some argue that students should be trusted with the freedom to possess cell, while others state that the devices should never reside on school grounds. With so many teens possessing a cell phone, schools should create a fair policy to deal with the popular technology.

Individual Importance

My Saturdays have been occupied with Ready Writing UILs quite often now…I attended another UIL competition, this time at MacArthur High School on January 31, 2009. This was one of the bigger contests with a stricter competition, or so I was told by my teachers and instructors. I believe there were about 56 contestants at this Ready Writing competition, and I placed 6th. I admit this essay is the worst that I have written so far and I am really not pleased with it. I struggled with it more, and just know that it can be improved in so many ways. The topic I chose is listed followed by the essay I wrote.

“It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and everyone who works is scrubbing in some part.”
-Henry David Thoreau, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906)

As time proceeds and the future becomes the past, the world is constantly changing. Mountains rise from the flat plains they once were. Oceans split apart lands, destroying continents, but creating new ones. Trees loom and fall while flowers blossom and die. The world grows and dies in a constant cycle that continues to repeat itself time and time again. Along with the world, mankind has endured time’s challenges and has changed and grown. Humanity, however, is not trapped within a cycle doomed to repeat itself. With unique individuals each working to improve his own life, culture is created and knowledge is shared to aid the development of mankind and the world. Mankind’s development has become an art, and everyone who works applies his own stroke of color.

Pressured to Succeed

You will not believe how much we write in my English class…I haven’t even been posting all of it. This was an essay we were to write after reading “Too Much Pressure,” written by Colleen Wenke. It deals with cheating in schools. At least it’s a better topic than politics…

After carefully monitoring her grades throughout the semester and struggling to put full effort into each of her projects and all of her completed homework, an overachieving student destined for the Ivy Leagues finds herself facing a major obstacle. Although she had studied the night before, the multiple-choice test resting upon her desk that glared back at her now seemed to mock her, eating away any focus she could create. Racing thoughts of college, parents, teachers, counselors…too many thoughts cluttered her mind with each passing minute being pounded into her ear by the ticking of the clock against the wall behind her. She could not fail this test, she could not get a B, she could not upset her parents, and she could not give up her chance at a potential college. So many factors depended on whether or not she shaded a circle marked “A,” “B,” “C,” or “D.” Willing to sacrifice just a bit of integrity in order to save her future life plans, she glances to the tattered piece of paper in her pocket and mindlessly fills in the bubbles as if reading an instruction manual.

Spirit of Service

Another assignment to analyze Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Address…Oh joy. This time we were to read an article in the New York Times, summarize it, then give our thoughts. The article is cited at the bottom of the essay.

In this “new era of responsibility,” President, Barack Obama, has explained the personal engagement needed to solve the nation’s problems through his Inaugural Address. With an ailing economy, weakening school systems, and energy crisis, followed by numerous disasters and emergencies, he brought to attention the troubled state the nation has fallen into. With this awakening, he brought hope, however, introducing his ideas to help and the new responsibilities each citizen should carry out.

Delivering Hope

We’ve been spending a lot of time in English analyzing Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Address. It’s really annoying to me, personally. I have no interest in politics and really didn’t know who I preffered into office…but we’re breaking down every word he says, piece by piece. Anyways, this assignment was to just write an introduction as if we were going to write an analytical essay on his Inauguration Address, so I didn’t write the actual essay, just the introduction.

A cold and frigid morning, millions were anxious to hear from their newly elected leader. After speaking the sacred oath, Barack Obama, chosen to become the first African American President of the United States of America, still had many words to speak. The moments were writing themselves in the history books and each word and idea he expressed needed to change the world, or at least the thoughts of its people. He was America’s inspiration after all, and her citizens were waiting to hear his voice. The styles of his phrases, the choices of his words, and the organization of the ideas that made up his fore coming speech had been carefully examined with a single purpose in mind. Using his skill of rhetoric, Barack Obama was expected to deliver hope to the world.

From One Border to the Other

Any of you interested on reading about my new school? We had an English assignment to write an essay comparing two things so I compared Minot High School with my new school, William Howard Taft High.

Adjusting from one high school to another can bring many challenges because of the many differences. Moving to San Antonio, Texas, from Minot, North Dakota, has introduced many new experiences to my life, and although adjusting to living just a few miles from the border of Canada to that of Mexico can be difficult, not everything is so foreign. Overlooking my past school, Minot High School, and my new exposure, William Howard Taft High School, many similarities and differences come to view.

Revealing Selfish Murderers

We read The Crucible by Arthur Miller and my English class, then watched the movie. Afterwards we had an assignment to write an essay on how the movie shows something more clearly than the play. This is the essay that I wrote.

As the camera fades out leaving the lone figure silhouetted in the solitary spotlight, the music swells to a dramatic climax leaving the audience breathless. Vivid imagery and compelling music that touches the soul thrusts the viewer into the heart of the story allowing them to see the pains, feel the joys, and truly understand the story. Books can have the same effect on a person but do so in a much different manner. When Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible was shifted from stage to screen he was given the opportunity to use film’s advantages to fully express his points once more. One point that is more easily seen in the film is the constant self-saving motivation that many of the villagers have, driving them to continue their murderous lies.

My Thoughts – A Cry For Help – January 10, 2008

I feel like a failure…bottom-line, and I feel like everything I care about and work hard at…dies…I don’t know what it is. There’s just been WAY too many things for me to deal with at the moment…

I really really kind of want…need someone to read this…I really need some feedback and this…dead silence…is killing me. Please, people! I need Magic Pens! …

Rhetoric, the Dominant Conqueror

Attended another UIL writing competition today…(I am an official member of the Ready Writing team here at Taft High School now.) This competition was at Medina Valley High School. Ah, there’s so much to say about it…but basically, the topics this time were REALLY hard and I took the first hour (out of two) just analyzing them. I didn’t have a topic chosen by the first hour! Mostly everybody was done by then; one person was finished within the first half hour. Three went from my school (27 participants in total,) and all three of us were the only ones there after an hour and we took both hours. When I was finished I returned to the Cafeteria and told my English teacher that my essay was even worse than last time and I just did really bad. I didn’t think I had much of a chance. She reminded me that’s what I said last time when I got third place, but I assured her that I did a lot worse this time…Well we waited for 5 hours for results…The two others from my school got 7th and 10th place, but I got 1st! I was so shocked… On my scoring sheet, I got a perfect on every category. But I realized I forgot the comma in my title, (I can’t believe I did that! I realized it right after I turned it in…) so they scribbled out the perfect for punctuation and took off a point. Still 1st place though. Anyways, my essay is after the topic. Reading it now, I still think it needs a lot of work, and I should have done a lot of things, but I got 1st, so I’m satisfied.

Topic: “The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of the rhetoric than to any other force.”
-Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Mein Kampf

Use force on a man and he may follow for a year, but feed his mind with your ideas and he will follow for life. Speech has been known to be one of mankind’s most valuable tools and treasures, but when sharpened, can be more powerful than any other force. Many memorable leaders throughout history have caused action from their mastership of rhetoric, bringing change to the world through persuasive speeches and convincing words. New leaders continue to arise even to this day, using their sharp tongues to control our minds and manipulate our thoughts. Control people’s minds and you control the world.