my...name?

Well, it's homecoming week.

Yup.

Hundreds of colorful kids trying to make it to class. Oh shoot! I forgot to do that worksheet.

It's cool, just do it at tutorial. But I was going to play nine square! It's okay, Beckman ruins it anyway.

Day=RUINED.

Try to incorporate a red ribbon in your costume! (insert Yao Ming meme)

Want to be my twin? Oh that's cool, you're being quintuplets. NO. BIG. DEAL! But is it really?

Hold up, where are the eighth graders? Oh yeah, Mo Ranch.

You just realized that one year of your life flew by.

Oh, shoot! Here comes Coach Richard. Hide your gum!

Too late, lunch duty.

Camille, what's the difference between preterite and imperfect tense?

Ermahgerd. Gonna fail this quiz.

Barton, does basketball start at 5 today?

*ring ring*

Mom we have practice from 5 to 7. Can you pick me up?

Long night.

I still have to do my blog posts, too. I love to put in things to make Trevor chuckle, but sometimes I just don't give a toss.

I was expecting some candy today, maybe she forgot. nbd. But a zero out of two? Really? Good thing I did the bonus notes.

I hope mom didn't make quinoa.

I hate that stuff.

When is Christmas? (give me a second while I check my new calendar on OS X Mavericks. It's pretty cool)

52 days until Christmas. what? I bet there will be a ton of new Vsauce videos by then.

Was I talking about hoco week?  Pong, lol. I had a pretty ridiculous costume though.

Ok, I am itching to check out all my friends' revines.

Do it for the vine?

Nah, I do it for me.

Short Story Reading Response

In Sucker, Carson McCullers uses darkness to symbolize how Pete feels, especially after he is rejected by Maybelle. There is frequent darkness in the bedroom when Pete and Sucker are talking, and there is mention of Maybelle smoking in the basement, a notoriously dark place. The impulsive  and hateful acts of Pete throughout the story made me feel uncomfortable. As I am typing this, I also am starting to think that he is bipolar. One minute he is at an unexpected zenith, the next he is despondent. Woah, too much? Time to go home.
 The way Pete takes out his anger on defenseless Sucker tells me that just one girl (or boy) can have a hugely negative impact on someone. He got so caught up in trying to impress the beautiful Maybelle, and when he didn't succeed, he took it all out on Sucker. In the end, Sucker moved on. He made new friends, and acted and looked different.

Lone Survivor) 1 hr
Test corrections) 30 mins
Coming up with homecoming outfit ideas) 30 mins
Short story annotations) <1 hr

Hmmm...

   I understand that this is a broad and somewhat unanswerable question, but why is society the way it is? Why do people do things the way they do and why do other people respond differently? I have always been interested in these types of philosophical questions of life and want to learn more about them over the course of the year.
  Also, why do I like certain types of books like mystery and action? Of course I am a guy so I don't expect to be reading Fifty Shades of Gray, but I wonder what draws me to that style.

Maximum Ride- 30 mins
Siddhartha- 1 hr. 30 mins

Reading Times

Siddhartha) 1 hr
Maximum Ride) 1 hr

Plot

3rd person

Exposition-

Chad and Donovan are introduced as they traverse through the October wilderness. Chad is new in the small Oregon town on the outskirts of Salem, and Donovan has befriended him. They decide to go camping in the forest over fall break.

Rising Action-

After a while, they stumble upon a cave. Both are interested and want to explore. They make the mistake of going deeper and deeper into the cave. At the bottom of the cave, the two find an iron door welded into the rock. They find a hidden lever that unlocks the door. Inside is millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs.
The story is flipped to downtown Salem, where prosperous drug dealers are alerted of the opening of the vault. They send men to investigate.

Climax-

The men arrive at the cave and the boys are forced to hide. Eventually, they are found.

Falling Action-


Chad and Donovan are taken to a warehouse and questioned separately. The criminals know that both boys are innocent, but they can't take the risk. They will have to be executed. Two men take them out in the middle of the night to do the job, but Chad pulls out a pocket knife and kills the men in heroic fashion. The boys bolt for town, but the blindfolds they were wearing have disoriented them. Luckily, Donovan is a skilled outdoorsman and is able to navigate out of the woods. By the time, they reach the edge of town, morning has broken and two search parties have been sent. One made up of local police, one of the drug dealers. The two parties meet up and a firefight ensues. The police are victorious, and are alerted that the boys have been found. They tell of their discovery of the drugs and forensics lead to the capture of the drug ring, which turns out is one of the biggest in the country. The boys are heroes.

Reading Response

     I have really enjoyed all of the short stories we have read over the past few weeks. They have all been very different and each one had a certain aspect of it that made me enjoy it. However, my favorite one was the first one we read: Harrison Bergeron.
     The whole idea of the dystopian society in Harrison Bergeron made me wonder if one day America will be like that, which scares me. I thoroughly enjoy our class discussions and feel that they help me understand the deeper meaning of the story. I want to continue to read short stories!

Siddharta) Saturday- 30 mins
Siddharta) Sunday- 30 mins

Maximum Ride

I've recently started a new book called Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. In the past, I have read James Patterson books and liked them, so I thought I would give this series a try. In the first two hours of this book, the main characters are introduced. They are a family of mutant kids that were made by mad scientists in a lab in California. After escaping and living reclusive lives in the wilderness, Angel, the youngest child, is kidnapped and brought back to the lab for further testing.

My first impressions of this book is that it is going to be filled with fast-paced action from cover to cover. I hope that this is the case, because that is right up my alley. Surprisingly, this was hard to put down, and I was wondering what would become of innocent Angel. I like how James Patterson's books have short chapters; never more than about five pages, but can be as short as one. Each one of the children are unique, and definitely not flat characters.

Sunday) 1 hr
Monday) 1hr