Jotted Letters

Book Reviews for this Nine Weeks

2009-12-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

Last of the Breed by Louis L'amour was the best book I have read this semester. The main thing that intrested me was the outdoor perspective of the books he writes and in this book. I absolutely love being in the woods in the winter time. The cool crisp air, the clean feel of the snow, and the absolutely beautiful view up on my mountain entice me to keep this longing for the outdoors. (635 pgs.) 3 books.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin: I didn't like this book the first time I looked at it. But, it grew on me as I began to understand the stand she took through the plot and story of this book. Chopin's talent in writing is shown with how much symbolizm she can cram into a single paragraph and even a sentence. My views on women in the civil rights movement during the Victorian Age changed drastically after seeing the whole picture and how much women suffered before actual rights. 1 Book
The Call of the Wild by Jack London interested me mainly because of the historical context and the setting. With the setting close to the arctic circle survival was obviously an aspect of this plot. I love any book that incorporates the outdoors into the setting, and brings out the knowledge and wisdom these pioneers needed when they were out in the deep wilderness.

Argumentation Blog 2

2009-12-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

In the editorial Neglected Warriors by the New York times, the rate of active duty soldiers and even veteran soldiers has almost doubled since 2007. Congress is saying that they are working hard on prevention measures to decrease this rate.

I agree that prevention measures should be taken but that they should have been in place long before the issue even arrived. The suicide of our own soldiers is likely to turn epidemic with the emotions of war involved. If prevention measures have been placed before now this issue would not have risen.

Lots of Exercise, Little Loss in Weight.

2009-11-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

Research has shown that if you exercise then you loose weight, but a program for 10 obese Americans were put on a program where they exercised and didn't change their diet. One would expect that they lost a large amount of fat but the average weight loss was 7 lb. and some only lost half that amount.

I disagree with this claim that exercising outright is the solution to gaining a slimmer body. In order to gain a slimmer, healthier, and trimmer body you have to also adjust your lifestyle. If 10 more obese Americans were to start exercising with a healthier diet and lifestyle then they would feel healthier, have a better attitude, and would enjoy a whole different lifestyle.

Sentence a Day #10

2009-10-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

The flies were his only friends--little excited beings--who didn't care about the stale food or cool climate of his cell.
From The Broker by John Grisham

The use of an appositive phrase separated by unusual dashes reflect his lonliness in his cell.

My Sentence:

The hunter tracked his prey-he would feast--using only the trail of blood to find the kill.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Sentence a Day #9

2009-10-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

At six the following morning, the vice president was driven in his usual armed caravan to the CIA head-quarters at Langley. From The Broker by John Grisham

An appositive phrase at the beginning of the sentence describes the time the president was driven.

My Sentence:

At nine the past morning, the hunter drew down on the beast he had made such a brilliant shot on.

Sentence a Day #8

2009-10-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

What a moment!

From The Broker by John Grisham

The short exclamation is very efficient in showing a character's attitude towards a subject or event.

My sentence:

What a shot!

Sentence a Day #7

2009-10-12T18:33:00.001-07:00

His Sentence:

What a mess!

From The Broker by John Grisham

The use of a short exclamation emphasizes shortly and simply a mess.

My Sentence:

It's a kill!

Sentence a Day #6

2009-10-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

They slept that night in a tiny country inn--eight closet-sized rooms--that had been in the same family since Roman times. From The Broker by John Grisham.

The use of an appositive phrase separated with dashes brings out the phrase emphasizing the country inn.

My Sentence:

The deer flinched in pain--the arrow gliding through the lungs and heart--and the hunter relaxed after a great shot.

Sentence a Day #5

2009-10-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

Some documents-doctored but still classified-were smuggled out by a Hubbard mole who was reporting everything to his superiors.

From The Broker by John Grisham.

The use of dashes to bring out the appositive phrase by the unusual syntax.

My Sentence:

The weapon of choice- a compound bow with razor sharp broad heads-was about to reach its full potential.

Sentence a Day #4

2009-10-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

He listened to it from time to time, understood not a single word, and worked hard to convince himself that he could master the language.

From The Broker by John Grisham.

He uses an appositive phrase to emphasize the attitude the character has towards the language he is learning.

My sentence:

The hunter sat still, not moving a single muscle, eager to draw down on the beast that expected nothing.

Sentence a Day #3

2009-10-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

Joel soaked in the quaint little shops--the tabaccheria with racks of newspapers blocking the door, the farmacia with its neon green cross, the butcher with all manner of hams hanging in he window, and of course the tiny sidewalk cafes where all tables were taken with people who appeared content to sit and read and gossip and sip espresso for hours.

From The Broker by John Grisham.

His use of epistrophe in the repetition of the clauses emphasises Joel's frustration of being locked up for 6 years and noting all of the "normal" people living "normal" lives.

My sentence:

The couple would like the appliances, and the furniture, and the telivision, and the oven, and the fridge, and most of all, a low price.

Sentence a Day #2

2009-10-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:

He couldn't blame her. It was his fault. Everything.

From The Broker by John Grisham.

The short choppy sentences reflect frustration and even anger in the character's voice.

My Sentence:

The pain was excruciating. Piercing. Far greater than expected.

Sentence a Day Sentence #1

2009-09-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

His Sentence:
Inside the room, a large, square, windowless place known unofficially as the bunker, the Director was sitting alone, looking blankly at a large screen upon which the face of Congressman Aaron Lake was frozen.
from The Brethren by John Grisham.

A longer sentence using parallel structure and shorter appositive phrases to emulate the Director's loneliness and seclusion in his determination in looking at his suspect.

My Sentence:
At the ballpark, a diamond shaped, brightly lit, enormous stadium with an atmosphere of entertainment, the baseball players fought for 2 hours through nine grueling innings with the purpose of beating the other team by scoring as many runs as possible.

My Sense: Symphony

2009-06-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

My life is and has been surrounded by music. I took 7 years of piano, learned how to play the violin by ear, and became 1st chair trombone this year in band. So the sense of symphony has been around me all my life, symphony comes naturally to me as I have been a musician all of my life.

So I am a musician which as said by Daniel Pink is a sense of the right brain. Music forms my personality and thinking into a balanced, equal, and united mind.

I have more of a balanced mind rather than "left-brained or right-brained", I have more of a balanced mind or brain. I plan on keeping my mind balanced by staying into music and drawing.

So basically, I'm a balanced person.

Of Mice and Men

2009-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

George and Lennie have a relationship that no one in this time has heard of; they live, they work, and they help each other. George has grown fond of Lennie mainly because Lennie needs him to take care of him, without George Lennie would panic and probably be killed.

This is a beautiful novel showing how hard the Great Depression was on people that lived like George and Lennie, even to find a job was hard enough and to get paid a fair amount for the work they did was unheard of. But they managed to scrape by with the force that has kept America from falling to its knees many times over, hope and dreams.

They both have a dream to have they're own farm one day, to live off the fat of the land, and to lay back and relax knowing that they are in control of their destiny which is a huge factor compared to where they are.

John Steinbeck did a great job in portraying the life of two traveling men in the early depression.

Reflection of my Sophomore Year

2009-05-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

This year has been a quick, long, fast, and drug out year. I have learned many things this year that I did not think I would have had that privilege of learning. I am looking ever more ahead to college and even my carreer after that, I know that I will use many of the things that I have learned.
The best quality or gift that I have gained this year is the ability to think through things unlike I have been before, thanks to all my teachers for working with me all year and I hope everybody has a good summer!!!

Without Fail by Lee Child

2009-05-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Lee Child is one of the most acclaimed thriller novel writers out there. He gives amazing detail along with plenty of action to keep a reader hooked throughout the story.

Child uses a constant shift between Jack Reacher, the main character, and whoever is against him in any way or form. This shift keeps the reader informed from both points of view, through Jack's eyes and the villain's eyes.

Without Fail is an astonishingly thrilling novel about assasinating the Vice President elect, the only thing is that the assasins didn't count on Jack Reacher being in he mix.

-- Post From My iPhone

My Favorite Tech Tool

2009-04-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

The best and favorite "in class" tool of this age is the blog! Blogger is a way to communicate with and read what people are doing and what they think about the world. Blogs help many people get attention and get noticed in a world that it takes quite a lot of time and effort.

Blogging helps students and teachers collaborate on different assignments and other ideas or documents they need to work on together as a class, or as an individual.

Spring Break

2009-04-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

This year's spring break was not my best, even though I traveled to the tip of Florida, met Mickey Mouse, and survived the longest bus ride of my life. I have to admit, I had fun at Adventure Island on the Hulk in the front row.

But besides that, the only fun was at the fantasmic show, which was amazing... Videos were projected on huge streams of water and a magnificent firework show afterwards.

So to finish, this spring break was not the best, this spring break was awesome.

Anthem

2009-03-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Equality 7-2521 is a man with dreams in a place where dreams should not exist. His hope in that he is different helps him and others out of this dreadful place. He dared to love the woman of his choice in a world where love would cause death.

He thrived on love and hope and his knowledge that he was different and that difference was not neccesarily a terrible thing. He learned for the first time since he was born, he actually learned and wanted to learn more and more as his experiments in the deep cavern became more and more ambiguous.

Equalities hope shone like a light through the darkness of the city, and he found a way out and he and the Golden One lived forever and ever.

Echo Burning by Lee Child

2009-03-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Jack Reacher is a 40 year old drifter, and now he is in trouble for concussing a cop in a bar for marking his shirt up. In this thriller Lee Child jumps from one person in a scene to another back to the first person throughout the book. This keeps a reader clung to figuring out what and who is doing what at what time.

This technique of keeping a reader hooked and making them think they know what is going on when later they find out that what they are thinking is wrong, is absolutely awesome. He brings life to an absolute thriller novel that has brought me to read every one of his books.

(2 Books, 456 pgs)

My Perfect World

2009-03-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

A perfect world, does such a world exist? As I ask myself this question several thoughts run through my head; Is this possible?, Is there a perfect world?, To have a perfect world what is there that is possible to perfect?

I ran these through my head for a spell and came up with an answer that startled me. There is not such a thing, nothing and nobody can be perfected to a point that the world they exist in is perfect. Where there are humans or anything, if given any thought, perfection is simply out of reach.

Unless, yes there is one exception, and that is if your "Utopia" is a dream and nothing more.

Persuader

2009-02-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Jack Reacher is the Persuader, he is an ex-military cop and now, a drifter. One day on a busy street in Boston, he confronts an old dead problem that has been thriving for a decade. Lee Child is an expert at starting in the middle of the action, and then flashing back again and again to keep you hooked.

Jack Reacher is not a person anybody would want to mess with, he is an amazing fighter and an over-all beast. On his mission to finally end this problem thought long dead, 3 federal agents die, and he gains revenge for himself and for his past.

(2 Books, 497 pgs)

Call of the Wild

2009-02-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Buck took many different stands against foes he did not know existed. He learned in order to survive he had to stand up for what he knew was right and sometimes just plain wrong. Buck stood for his team; he knew he had to learn fast if he wanted to live to to learn from his mistakes.

Buck had many different abilities that made him superior to the other dogs so this made him a threat to many of the pack leaders that despised him. Buck made an excellent sled dog, he was made for the trail.

Antigone

2009-02-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

Antigone was a book where the main character took many major stands. She loved her brothers and just because he was fighting for the other side, they wouldn't bury him. Antigone took a stand against this and she changed the life of a very crucial person named Creon.
I admire Antigone for taking this stand and standing up for what she believed was right. In her case as in many others, this stand led to her death or "negative consequences".

Taking a Stand

2009-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

Like in Antigone, one day I took a stand for what was right. One day, a drastically long and drug out day, in sixth grade I was walking lazily to my seventh period class for the last subject of the day looking for an excuse to go home. All of the sudden a mentally challenged kid in the fifth grade couldn't get off of the floor because an older bully had knocked him over out of his wheel chair and scattered all of his books over the hall. I took the situation into my own hands and helped him into his chair and got all of his books for him. After I got him to class I walked up to the bully and pinned him, a six foot seventh grader, up against the wall and said that that guy couldn't help himself off the ground and how helpless he must feel on the ground like that, and that I thought that he needed to see how that felt. So I proceeded to wipe up the hall with his face and went along to class, a coach that had seen the whole thing caught my eye and winked at me saying that I did the right thing.

I'm a Sophmoore 1/2!

2008-12-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

Overall my sophmoore year has really been an awakening to what I can do in the classroom, in band, and in athletics. I've got a 4.0 gpa, ran a 5:16 mile, and I'm also going to beat Preston at All-Region.

Thanks to all of my teachers for giving me a great 1st semester and I am really looking forward to a great Christmas break! I have learned so much this year, especially in math, goodness, I'm just wondering how these nerds who made this up sat down and actually...made this up!

Well, overall this semester has been a great one!
Thanks to all of my teachers!

Does Fate Control You?

2008-12-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

Fate has been considered a constant threat for ages and people think a lot of the time it controls them. I on the other hand think that you as a person can control your future by what you choose to do. God gave us the choice to do good or to do bad, as in disobey him.

I could walk out of my house tomorrow and get hit by a bullet from a hunter's gun shot 4 miles away and that could be considered fate, but I still could've waited a few seconds and not been hit by the bullet.

In the book Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, fate was a constant threat to all of the characters in this play, especially Julius Caesar himself. Fate was shown to us in two ways in the book: Where the soothsayer fortold the "Ides of March", and where Caesar's wife invisioned his death by the conspirators.

So does fate control you, or do you control your own fate?

Caius Cassius

2008-12-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Cassius was a very pushy leader especially when it came to the assassination of Caesar in 44 A.D. He pushed all of his colleagues into thinking Caesar was a tyrant trying to take over Rome. He knew how to get what he wanted, to lie about Caesar and to convince Casca, Cinna, Decius Brutus, Caius Ligarius, Metellus Cimber, Trebonius, and most of all, Caesar's close friend, Marcus Brutus.
Cassius weaved and moved cunningly around to convince these noblemen that Caesar, a great leader, was a tyrant, willing to kill anybody in his way to rule Rome. He knew to get his way in convincing noble men like Marcus Brutus to kill Caesar, he would have to bend the truth. Told by Cassius, these noblemen tricked and condemned Caesar to death by stabing him over 100 times.
Dieing a bloody death, Caesar moved every Roman's heart against these noblemen, they killed every conspirator, no matter their status.

When I was the Win-Win Kid

2008-11-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago, I was a Win-Win kid. I was the go to guy, the guy who people looked up to with pride and knew that they could ask me of anything. People called me "Will, greater than anything that has ever lived." They explained to people that didn't know of me and my talent of healing and all knowing knowledge like they were kids talking about how cool the last episode of superman was.
Yes, for a while, I was the Win-Win kid. Now, I am building back up to the dramatic plunge that I took during the 7th grade. Nobody knew I was the Win-Win kid, I became the new kid at Batesville. I was no longer the go to guy, the guy who people could depend on, all that is past now, and will never known of again.

The Day I was Pro-Active

2008-11-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

Like in Sean Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, one day I was actually proactive. One day, a drastically long and drug out day, in sixth grade I was walking lazily to my seventh period class for the last subject of the day looking for an excuse to go home. All of the sudden a mentally challenged kid in the fifth grade couldn't get off of the floor because an older bully had knocked him over out of his wheel chair and scattered all of his books over the hall. I took the situation into my own hands and helped him into his chair and got all of his books for him. After I got him to class I walked up to the bully and pinned him, a six foot seventh grader, up against the wall and said that that guy couldn't help himself off the ground and how helpless he must feel on the ground like that, and that I thought that he needed to see how that felt. So I proceeded to wipe up the hall with his face and went along to class, a coach that had seen the whole thing caught my eye and winked at me saying that I did the right thing.

(Also one of my anecdotes)

White Lightning

2008-09-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

The long dark streets of Rome are often not as lonely as they look. In the shadows, things, people lurking for someone to saunter their way taking the short way home, but where there are villains, there are heroes. In the long dark alleys of darkness, only one thing shines, white lightning. Armed only with his martial artist skills and his staff of lightning, he rescues the innocent men, women, and children from the burglars. White lightning is the savior of the darkness, he resurrects the light and relieves the minds of the peaceful, the kind, the lighthearted so they they may gallantly walk and play wherever they please. He ties them up and throws them into the river that leads on forever and ever. These innocent men, citizens of the ancient city, can saunter and stroll through the parks and streets as they please. They will live forever in peace with the cape of white lightning flowing over them.

Sci-Fi

2008-09-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Science Fiction is a very interesting topic of discussion, the Invisible Man by H. G. Wells has really re lit my interest in this genre. I think we should try as hard as possible to make all of the wonderful and crazy things that happen in Sci-Fi a reality.

Letter to the President

2008-09-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Mr. President, I think that we need a person that will think about the economy while still handling the problems of foreign affairs. We need to stay in Iraq until it is clear that what happened in Vietnam won't happen again, also, we need to cut the spending of the economy and resort to better fuels and invest in renewable resources as an alternate and maybe someday soon, the main source of energy that is cheap, and can be produced easily.