At the beginning of the year until the day finally came, the mission trip was mentioned many times. It got on my nerves because it sounded like it was about forcing us to do work and be happy about it. I thought it was going to be slavery with a side of shoehorned happiness. At least, that's how it sounded.
On day one, we traveled a 12-hour bus ride. We made three pitstops; two at gas stations and one at a Sonic. Apparently, something happened with one of the cars that followed us, which slowed down the trip. Once we got there, we had dinner and moved into our cabins. The rest of the days were pretty simple, going from breakfast in the morning to working until 4:00 PM (with a noon lunch) to having dinner at 6:00 PM to going bed at 11:00 PM at the latest. However, each day had rain, and the day before we left had too much rain for us to work in. The trip back was also 12 hours, and we made four pitstops. The first one was at a college that some people wanted to go to, the second and forth one at gas stations, and the third one at a Wendy's and McDonald's. We made it home at 10:30 PM.
The trip overall was great, and much better than it was made out to be. It was a pleasent experience, and I hope to do something like it again next year.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
First Semester Thoughts
In the first semester, some of the biggest things I did were joining cross country, being in the Eurydice play and participating in the Halloween food drive.
In cross country, we had a meet once every Saturday where my fellow runners and I would run for two or three miles against other school. During the first meet, however, I was the only one to show. Also, I seemed to be the first high-schooler from CES to run that particular run, which I thought was pretty cool.
In Eurydice, I played as the Loud Stone, which was one of three stones that lived in the Underworld. The other ones were the Big Stone and the Little Stone. During the rehersals, we came up with a backstory for Little Stone and Loud Stone, which involved Loud being Little's servant in life. Little then poisoned Loud when she was dying of a sickness so that Loud would have to serve her in the afterlife for all eternity. This was never mentioned in the play, but only hinted at with me being at Little's side at all times, and even sometimes forcefully pushed down so Little could assert her dominance over me. And, in case you were wondering, Little Stone was played by Alex Vining. I got a lot of praise in the play for my performance, for which I'm grateful. It was overall a fun play to be in, and I'm excited for Beauty in the Beast this March, in which I'll be playing as Mousier D'Arque.
The last big event I was in first semester was the Halloween food drive held by Key Club. I was glad that it wasn't exclusively for Key Club because I was hoping to join. And, I did. It was pretty much driving around in a neighborhood until 8 PM, but it was still fun nonetheless. I dressed up as Godzilla, my favorite movie character ever, and actually got a conversation out of it. Some members of the team that I was with happened to be into Godzilla, and we got to talk about the movies he had and the monsters he fought. It was definitely a fun chat, but there were other things that happened during the drive. For example, when we visited a group of kids, they took my friend's bow and arrow and threatened us with it. Thankfully it didn't end with anyone getting hut, but it did seem kind of rude of them in my opinion. Then there was another moment when we visited an old man's house, and when we were asked what school we were getting food for, but since neither of us honestly knew, he got suspicious. Ignoring those moments, we got plenty of canned goods in the end, and I'm happy to know that we got to help some people get the food they needed.
Overall, the first semester had its fun moments and its dull moments. I hope for the best for next semester.
In cross country, we had a meet once every Saturday where my fellow runners and I would run for two or three miles against other school. During the first meet, however, I was the only one to show. Also, I seemed to be the first high-schooler from CES to run that particular run, which I thought was pretty cool.
In Eurydice, I played as the Loud Stone, which was one of three stones that lived in the Underworld. The other ones were the Big Stone and the Little Stone. During the rehersals, we came up with a backstory for Little Stone and Loud Stone, which involved Loud being Little's servant in life. Little then poisoned Loud when she was dying of a sickness so that Loud would have to serve her in the afterlife for all eternity. This was never mentioned in the play, but only hinted at with me being at Little's side at all times, and even sometimes forcefully pushed down so Little could assert her dominance over me. And, in case you were wondering, Little Stone was played by Alex Vining. I got a lot of praise in the play for my performance, for which I'm grateful. It was overall a fun play to be in, and I'm excited for Beauty in the Beast this March, in which I'll be playing as Mousier D'Arque.
The last big event I was in first semester was the Halloween food drive held by Key Club. I was glad that it wasn't exclusively for Key Club because I was hoping to join. And, I did. It was pretty much driving around in a neighborhood until 8 PM, but it was still fun nonetheless. I dressed up as Godzilla, my favorite movie character ever, and actually got a conversation out of it. Some members of the team that I was with happened to be into Godzilla, and we got to talk about the movies he had and the monsters he fought. It was definitely a fun chat, but there were other things that happened during the drive. For example, when we visited a group of kids, they took my friend's bow and arrow and threatened us with it. Thankfully it didn't end with anyone getting hut, but it did seem kind of rude of them in my opinion. Then there was another moment when we visited an old man's house, and when we were asked what school we were getting food for, but since neither of us honestly knew, he got suspicious. Ignoring those moments, we got plenty of canned goods in the end, and I'm happy to know that we got to help some people get the food they needed.
Overall, the first semester had its fun moments and its dull moments. I hope for the best for next semester.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
"A Man Without a Country" Title Analysis
When we were assigned to read "A Man Without a Country," I was kind of confused about a title. I wasn't sure how a single person could even own an entire state by themselves, let alone a whole country. So I was hoping that reading it would shed some light on its meaning. And, at first, it didn't. All I got from reading it at first was random subjects all over the place... until I read it even further. I realized that this was about all of the biggest problems in America and the world. It's called "A Man Without a Country" because he is ashamed of mankind as a whole.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Vonnegut Quiz
The sentence that I chose was untrue, but it was very true at the same time. It doesn't literally mean 100 years, but it does mean Joe has a lot of time.
Criticisms:
describe how long it means
how is it true and untrue at the same time?
or a short amount of time
Friday, December 5, 2014
Vonnegut Question
Of the six options we had, I chose the first one. That first one was: "What rhetorical stradegy does Vonnegut employ in order to appeal to his reader?"
In "A Man Without a Country," he uses a sarcactically humerous approach to keep the reader interested and entertained throughout the story. However, he sometimes uses a more serious tone when he needs to.
In terms of examples, some of his humerous style is known in Chapter 3; Page 24, where he says "I'm kidding" at the end of each sentence. Another example is the page before it, when he tells the "funniest joke in the world," which is: "Last night I dreamed of eating flannel cakes. When I woke up, the blanket was gone!"
An example of his more serious style would be on Chapter 2; Page 17, when he says: "Evolution can go to hell," "We wounded this life-supporting planet," and other statements like that. However, he says that Earth is the only life-supporting planet in the Milky Way. That must mean he doesn't believe in extraterrestrial life. This... concerns me.
As I was saying, his stradegy really is an effective one and if I ever write any literature in the future, I'll try it out myself.
In "A Man Without a Country," he uses a sarcactically humerous approach to keep the reader interested and entertained throughout the story. However, he sometimes uses a more serious tone when he needs to.
In terms of examples, some of his humerous style is known in Chapter 3; Page 24, where he says "I'm kidding" at the end of each sentence. Another example is the page before it, when he tells the "funniest joke in the world," which is: "Last night I dreamed of eating flannel cakes. When I woke up, the blanket was gone!"
An example of his more serious style would be on Chapter 2; Page 17, when he says: "Evolution can go to hell," "We wounded this life-supporting planet," and other statements like that. However, he says that Earth is the only life-supporting planet in the Milky Way. That must mean he doesn't believe in extraterrestrial life. This... concerns me.
As I was saying, his stradegy really is an effective one and if I ever write any literature in the future, I'll try it out myself.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thoughts on Labor Day
My thoughts on Labor Day are... mixed. Don't get me wrong. I like to have an extra day off during the weekend, but it just seems like something is missing during Labor Day. Not to mention the it passes by EXTREMELY fast for me. Honestly, I don't like national holidays that much. Not that I'm against my country (if anything, it's the opposite), but I like holidays that allow me to be free, and to have all of the stores and restaurants closed makes it just a complete bummer. Labor Day is no exception. But, since this one is about giving all of the workers in the world an extra day off for all of their hard work, I guess I have to let that slide. So, in my opinion, Labor Day is a good holiday, and it's a great way to show appreciation to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country, and I'm thankful for that.
First Day of School
It was the second Thursday of August and I was at Christ Episcopal Church with several other people. There, I would see which classmates would stay, return, leave and be introduced to school. We did usual church stuff and rode the bus to school after that. When we made it to CES, we got to find out our post-lunch classes. Mine were Speech II (Dr. Fox) and Studio Art (Mrs. Sparkman-Boyd). The next day, we found out about our pre-lunch classes, mine being Chemistry (Mr. Soto), Geometry (Ms. Burkenstock), English II (Mr. McElveen), American History (Mr. Henson) and PE II (Mrs. Dessaur). I was worried about some classes that I haven't heard of, but they weren't bad at all when I went to them for the first time. And they are still great classes. Last year was sort of mediocre. There were good classes, some even great, but they were all usually in separate buildings, so the traveling from one class to another was quite repetitive. This year, it's mostly at the high school building, and I was fine with that. I had little to no idea on what to expect this year, but I guess it met what little expectations I might have had. Overall, this year looks like it's going to be a good year!
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