Journal # (something)

The Things They Carried, By Tim O'Brien

1. Rat (Bob) Kiley (the medic)

"carried a canvas satchel filled with morphine and plasma and malaria tablets and surgical tape and comic books and all the things a medic must carry, including M&Ms for especially bad wounds for a total of 20 pounds." (page 5)

2. Chapter: How to Tell a True War Story

a) When his friend, Curt Lemon, died, Rat personally wrote a letter to Lemon's sister for his condolences. it shows he was very close and cared very much for his friend. By the way Tim O'Brien describes this, Rat thoroughly wrote about his adventures with Curt Lemon, both happy and serious. (pages 67-68)

b) When the sister didn't reply back to Rat, he called her a "cooze." This word is far more obscene than *ahem*...female dog. The book stated,"He's [Rat Kiley] 19 years old- it's too much for him- so he looks at you with those big sad killer eyes and says cooze, because his friend is dead, and because it's so incredibly sad and true: she never wrote back." (pages 68-69) The impression I get from this, is how he uses words to cope with the loss and the grief of the war. It shows that he is still "only human."

c)How Curt Lemon died also showed Rat's personality. "...Giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing a silly game they invented..." (pages 69-70) The book states Rat is 19 years old; still a kid according to the other soldiers. At the time, Rat and Curt were goofing around playing a game with a smoke grenade, while the unit was camping out in a deep jungle. The land was booby-trapped with things like Toe Popper and Bouncing Betties, yet the time seemed like "not even war" to the two boys.

3. Insight

Character: Rat Kiley was an ordinary person, thrown into an extraordinary (in a bad way) position. He tried to make the best of things, and had a good heart.

War: The place changes people; there are somethings that cannot be unseen or un-experienced. War is ugly, and has no morality. In the chapter, "How to Tell a True War Story," it says that any war story that has a moral, or makes you feel uplifted at the end, is a lie.

Life: People can be essentially good. They are just thrown into situations where there are no obvious answers, such as war. Events like war bring out the worst in people, causing them to kill other men. However, this doesn't mean every person is emotionless. They can still be careless, goofy, angry, humorous, loving.

Metaphor Poem Debrief

It was easy to explain what a metaphor was. It took a little more thought, though, to come up with an example. So to top it off, we were assigned to write our own metaphor poem THEN create a video illustrating it. Insane isn't it? It was fun anyway. :D

Originally I chose to compare myself with fireworks- because of the variety of colors and sparks, as well as the loads of energy they give off when lit up. I realized later that it would be difficult to film this because it was already February and fireworks in this time (especially aerials) are illegal.

The true reason why I picked a t-shirt as my metaphor was because the due date for writing the poem was inching closer, and I didn't have one yet. I was actually talking on the phone to Shaneika about it (it was about the same time as Ecybermission) and I was clearly stressing out while pacing my room. I was just listing off items I saw, and a t-shirt was one of them. As I thought more closely about the possible adjectives of a t-shirt, I figured that it suited me well.

My poem used a lot of describing words.. adjectives to show how I am most like a t-shirt. Comforting, belonging, laughs, creativity. While shooting my video I kept in mind that I wanted to have a voice over, so for most of the parts I needed to relay the message without sound. I didn't changed angles for the shots as much as I wanted to, but with what I had, I was able to insert some special effects that made up for the lack of angles. Also, in the video, the lighting was pretty good all the way through... well except for the ending, but I actually needed it dark to show the light contrast coming from my shirt.

I learned that I should probably choose a backup or plan B for the next project I have to do- so that when one doesn't work out, I won't spend as much time at square one again. Also, using media I now am better at using copyright free clips of music to make my own background sounds. Now that I think about it, writing poetry is really hard if it is forced... I mean, I did want to write a good poem, but I've never written a 'real' one before, so this was a big step. I sat at my desk at home looking at a piece of paper for at least half an hour, with only my name on it. I give credit to those famous poets. They are great for actually coming up with all those literary elements in their poems. (I wonder if they talk like that too.. hmmmm :D )

Metaphor Poems- Journal 31

1. The Road Not Taken

By: Robert Frost

http://www.ketzle.com/frost/roadnot.htm

2. Life is but a Dream

By: Lewis Carroll

http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/life_is_but_a_dream.html

3. Shirt

By: Carl Sandburg

http://carl-sandburg.com/shirt.htm

4. Defense of Fort McHenry (The Stars and Stripes Forever)

By: Francis Scott Key

http://poemhunter.com/poem/defence-of-fort-mchenry-the-stars-and-stripes-fo/

5. Self Metaphor Poem

Journal #27: Brainstorming Metaphor Poem

Mulan (the only asian Disney Princess, haha): Mulan's characteristics pretty much line up with mine. She is a brave, self-relient, and independent individual. She is an outspoken teenager that is a bit clumsy at times too. Mulan works hard, and is true to her heart (yeah, I know there's a song in the movie with this :D )

[and as a bonus, she's chinese... Yay! :D ]

T-Shirt: I think this would be an easier metaphor to film, although it took me a while to brainstorm how I am a t-shirt. T-shirts can be fun and creative, funny, or made to make a specific statement. They can show people that the person wearing it belongs to a group (and this relates to me by how I talk to people and make them feel welcome), for sports or a club. They are very common, yet they are practical and vary in many different ways to make each unique.

Journal #25-"My Vocabulary History"

Assess your own vocabulary. What are your strong points; what are your weak points when it comes to the trait of Word Choice in your writing and reading?

My strong points in vocabulary would have to be finding the right word to put into my paper. Most of the time I can find words that fit the audience level and make sense in the work. However, my weak points are using words I don't already know. I also don't like looking words up in the dictionary because I don't practice it frequently enough.

Describe how you have studied vocabulary in the past. What kinds of class activities and assignments have you experienced to work on your word choice?

In my seventh and eighth grade English classes, we worked on word choice by receiving about 10 vocabulary words per week. Throughout the week we would spend sometime in class using the words in sentences. When the week was done we would take a short quiz- but the words would have been familiar to most of us as we had read them through our literature piece within that same week.

Describe how you, personally, learn new words. Give a specific example of how you have learned a new word recently.

I learn new words spontaneously. I don't usually go out to find new words to expand my vocabulary, on my own. New words come up in reading material or just in conversations. After I have read or heard the word, I would ask someone or "Google" it on a site, like Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Recently I have learned the word 'decimate'. I heard in on the news when they were describing the damage that was caused by the destruction in Haiti. I asked my mom- who is a fifth grade school teacher. She said it was the magnitude of damage- the huge scale on what was destroyed. I figured out the spelling, and checked on an online dictionary afterwards.

What are your specific vocabulary/word choice goals? How many new words would you like to learn this semester? What will be your evidence that you “own them” and can use them in your speaking and writing?

My specific word choice goal is to use at least one third of the words, that we learn in our English class this quarter, in my everyday conversations. This semester I would like to learn at least 20 new vocabulary words- words that I actually understand. My evidence of using the new vocabulary word is that there will be more 'higher thinking' words popping up into my essays and everyday life. I'll use them in my speaking- because using big word correctly make me feel smart. :)

Looking Past the Pyrotechnics

New Year's Eve! This is an event I look forward to all year because is a time for my family to get together and catch up on what's been happening in each other's lives. More importantly, I look forward to lighting a fuse, then scampering behind the wall to watch the half blinding red, blue, and green bursts of light that come from the tiny upright cylinder. The little rushes I get from being able to play with fire excite me the most. Fireworks. They end the old year with a 'BANG', while- according to Chinese traditions- scare away the evil spirits for the New Year.

At about five o'clock, we drive to Kaimuki, to begin the celebration with my mom's side of the family. At five o'clock this New Year's Eve I was nowhere near the car ride to my aunty's house. Instead, I had been sitting on this cushy motor coach seat, complete with an emergency bathroom, for four hours (and counting). I wouldn't be getting off for another three hours, when it was planned for us to arrive in Phoenix. Yes that's right, you heard me, Phoenix, Arizona.

Moanalua High School's marching band was chosen to prestigiously represent the State of Hawaii in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl Parade. We left Hawaii on Christmas Day- a pretty epic start to our trip- with plans to go sightseeing on the days leading up to the Fiesta Bowl Parade. Its purpose was more for fun, but also to get our bodies adapted to the colder environment we were going to marching in. The bus ride started from Anaheim, California, where we had marched in Disneyland.

Looking out of the bus window, I see the long stretch of road in front and behind us, with the occasional green mile marker signs on the side. Back in the bus almost everyone was knocked out in sleep, as no one had ever ridden a vehicle for nearly that long. Looking back outside of the window I didn’t really notice the lack of natural scenery anymore. My mind shifted as I though of flashbacks of the past year.

The day at Magic Island Beach Park when they called my intermediate school’s name for first place in the research category was exciting. Two of my friends and I had worked on the poster board until three A.M. the night before the actual competition due to our lack of time management. I remember the first day at summer school. I didn’t know any one there, but eventually I was able to make a couple new friends to make my transition into high school easier. When school started I enrolled in a program called ‘Mene Mac’, which suited to my interests in technology. I joined marching band and, through all the sweat and hard work, made it through the long instructions of learning the basics during rookie week.

It was incredible. I hadn't really had the chance to look back on all the great experiences I went through in the past year. It just seemed to have left me as quickly as it came. Even though this year I would be over 2,000 miles away from home, I knew that I would be able to still celebrate the ending of the new year, and coming of the new. New Year's isn't just about the displays of neon colored fireworks- it's about reminiscing and learning from all the events that have happened, making your life special.