Introduction:
This independent reading assignment was assigned to us in the second quarter.  It was on our independent reading book, which each student got to chose for themselves.  This project was only challenging if you forgot to read your book, which I didn't.


Independent Reading Assignment:
The book that I read for my independent reading assignment was Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allen Poe (E.A. Poe).   E.A. Poe is considered to be the father of the detective fiction genre, and also revolutionized science fiction.  His stories are better known for being chilling, and having plots that are twisted and confusing until you see it unravel like a lithe snake.  He wrote short stories so that the reader had time to absorb every detail before moving on.

            Since E.A. Poe wrote short stories, I will summarize one of my favorite ones, which is called William Wilson.  There are two main characters in this story, William Wilson, and some other person whose name you never find out.  William is a tyrant of a child who always bullies other children into doing what he wants.  Then he meets this other child who stood up to him.  He hurt this child and made a big mistake.

            From that point on the child becomes a shadow of William.  He starts to walk, sleep, and eat like William.  The only thing that he couldn’t do exactly like William is speak because of the fact that his voice is very faint.  He could still get the infractions and tones of how he spoke, however, which created a very disturbing thing for William to see and hear.  As they grew older this other child kept on shadowing William.  Then William ran to another country to escape this child, and found himself cheating at poker in a rich Frenchman’s in Paris.  But right before he is about to cheat the Frenchman out of all of his money, a stranger barges in and explains how William is cheating. 

            After this William goes mad with rage and chases down the stranger, only to find out it is the boy from his childhood.  This young man still had the same way of speaking and this pushed William further over the edge.  William pulled out his sword and kills this person, and then the now man pronounces that he has just killed himself and turns into a mirror.  William falls to the ground, dead.

            This is the kind of story that E.A. Poe creates.  It is twisted and interesting at the same time.  The conflict is mainly person vs. person because William doesn’t know that this other boy is him until the very end, at which point it becomes person vs. self.  My favorite character would have to be William because of the fact that he didn’t snap earlier.  The only thing that I would expect anybody to get out of this story is that you should make sure you know the way you act and like it, before you go insane.

            I couldn’t really relate to anything in this story because I have always liked how I acted.  I have always been very cool-headed(mostly), and I think that my personality completely goes against such a story of dementedness.

            Having said that, I loved this story.  E.A. Poe uses such detailed verbs when he writes so that you can almost taste, feel, and smell everything around you.  He writes as though you are part of the character and so that the reader can really relate to the trauma that these characters go through.  I wouldn’t change anything about this story, and all of it is fantastic.   I would like to recommend this book to teens or young adults who like to feel their spine tingle with the sensation of horror that comes with E.A. Poe’s writing.

Introduction:
The journals where an element of this years english class that took a long time to complete.  It was made up of different entries that where made to answer questions posed to us by Ms. Dunn.  These are my favorite journal entries of the year.

Journals:
How important is it to fit in?

            Fitting in is a funny thing.  Fitting in really depends on what party you are trying to fit in to, and how you want people to see you, as a person.  Someone might be trying to get in to the jocks, or might be a geek.  Who knows.  All I can say for sure is that everyone fits in somewhere, and finding that somewhere is a very important part of life.

 

What makes someone an adult?

            What makes someone an adult is mainly mindset and circumstance.  If you have to care and provide for a family in some way, then you are an adult.  If you look at the world and think of how you have to fight for your place in it, then you are an adult.  Being an “Adult” has nothing to do with your age, it only has to do with how you treat obstacles that try to overcome you.

 

What is a “hero”?  How would you define it?

            Being a hero is every Childs dream.  What they don’t realize is that a hero doesn’t necessarily need superpowers, all they need is something to fight for, and risk their lives for.  Firefighters are hero’s, the military is filled with hero’s, and everyone who has ever risked something for what is right, or what they believe in, is a hero.

 

A time when I exceeded someone’s expectations.

            In case you didn’t know, my favorite thing ever is playing ice hockey.  I love the way that your skates slide over the ice, I love how it is hard enough that you have to give 100% all the time, and I love that skill takes a backseat to the ability to try your hardest.  That’s me.  My puck skills are bordering on terrible, but I always give 100% effort.  Also, I’m fast.  I don’t mean slightly fast, I mean I can catch up to my teammates even after they get a solid head start.  Teammates, coaches, and parents have always recognized me as a person who will never stop going.  This year, I got an award for this hard work.  I got an award that goes only to one person in the entire hockey club, and is awarded for leadership, dedication, and just being an overall good hockey player.  This award has been the highpoint of my hockey life, and when I got it, I felt like I had earned it, and that it was going to look great on my wall!

In all of my time at SLA, I've never (purposely) turned in an incomplete project. Tomorrow marks a milestone for me. 

Walking, thinking, dreaming and believing

Seeing, living, and not planning on leaving

Friends, enemy’s, love, hate,  Its all life

A future, a date, maybe a wife

 

and yet people tend to get upset

they cry moan, bid, and they bet

to me that’s a life, not so well spent

 

We come, and we go,

Only god will know

Were here, and gone

All we can do, is say so long

 

But trough and trough,

Its all but true

Its not just a lie

What we have,

Just wont die

 

Walking, thinking, dreaming and believing

Seeing, living and not planning on leaving

Friends, love, I’ts more than life

Kids, a job, and my lovely wife

 

Theres no need to get upset

Because I say, and I bet

My life, was well spent

I was in a bad mood but mr chase cheered me up by helping me with my essay.
that is all.
:]

I have a wave of terrible ideas that all seem like good ideas and I can't make it stop!!!... on another note



KIMMY THE OWL IS STILL JUDGING YOU!!!

I have been working my ass off all weekend... Just barely got my Math in, just barely got my capstone in... Gotta finish a presentation today for Engineering tomorrow... then finish my history for tomorrow... But I also have work today... And tomorrow I have work too... And now this is due Thursday... This is just not working out in my favor. I wish I could miss work... Ugh. I'm listening to a really great song.

Exploring feels different when you have a camera.

because I don't graduate in like 2 weeks.

Anyway I haven't posted in ages, so here's an update on my life.
I'm still madly in love with the guy Shaquor who is, an complete asshole.
I haven't talked to him in months but I guess that says a lot huh?

Anyway prom was fun. Ocean City was epic.
College is coming. I'm going to Howard or Arcadia.

Cursed out Howard to send me my FA packet.

I LOVE SHAQUOR.

What else?

oh yes, Grandma moved up here! I'm so happy about that.
That is all. SHAQUOR <33333

My favorite statistics benchmark was when we did a benchmark investigating correlation. For the benchmark we had to investigate a problem. I decided to do my project on the graduation rate in Philadelphia and the possible things that could affect the graduation rate.  Some of the possibilities that i chose was the attendance of the students, the amount of low-income students, the amount of students that are non-English speaking, the number of suspensions, the neighborhood that school is located in, and the demographic make up of the school.  I decided to do this project for our quarter two benchmark because Philadelphia itself seems to be experiencing problems within their school system. The average graduation rate for the School District of Philadelphia is 63%. I investigated all 60 public high schools in Philadelphia.

 

 

 

I learned while doing this benchmark is that the sla core values are heavily correlated to my benchmark. I started with inquiry by coming up with questions such as what affects the graduation rate?. My next step I did required research. So with the variables I came up with I researched for each of the 60 high schools in the Philadelphia area. Presentation was that I analyzed all my data in a word document and used graphs to show how these different variables had a negative or positive affect on the schools graduation rate. Collaboration was used in my benchmark for a few of the graduation rates I had worked with a peer to come up with. We worked together because we were both investigating Philadelphia’s high school graduation rates but we had different variables. So collaboratively we helped each other find the graduation rates. I presented my benchmark by doing a word document with graphs and my calculations of each variable. My calculations included the mean, median, mode, min, max, correlation, spread, and standard devation.  These are all things that we have learned over the year when working with univariate and bivariate data.  The last core value is reflection and at the end of the project I wrote a conclusion about what work still has to be done in the School District of Philadelphia and I even gave possible solutions to the problems.

The correlation between the graduation rate and the amount of suspensions is a strong linear negative correlation. The fewer amounts of suspensions you have the higher the graduation rate will be. For the simple fact when students are suspended they miss school, and when you miss school you miss work. I think this is a reliable source to use when you trying to find out how much a school suspensions may affect their overall graduation rate.

 

June 14th is almost here. I hope that everyone said everything they needed to say. Because for some things facebook just don't cut it and graduation isn't so far away.

Toma la prueba y toma una foto (screenshot)

My boyfriend won me a $200 Coach wallet from a crane machine in Atlantic City yesterday.

It cost him $4 to play the game.

Holy shit I love him.

<3

Yesterday, I was up in North Jersey by the beach with my future roommate and one of our friends that we're going to school with. We decided to take a day trip to Seaside Heights, but we were all hungry so we stopped at a Burger King. I had to use the restroom before we left, and I didn't know that my two friends went into the play room so I went out to the car. I was leaning on the hood on the phone with my friend Michael telling him I was outside when I saw it happen. I screamed "Michael, get the fuck out here I have to call 911 right away!"

There were three lanes and a one way exit. Let me see if I can find you a picture of the intersection:

In case you can't read it, it says that the black arrow is the car and the red arrow is the motorcycle.

What had happened was, the girl in the car all the way in the right lane cut across to the far left but was going the wrong way into a one way exit. The man on the motorcycle did not have time to stop and his bike began to go out of control as he tried to swerve not to hit her but he couldn't help himself. His bike went into the car and then he flew off and went flying into the back drivers side of the car. He hit his face and went flying into the street. Thank god the man had a helmet on. The girl was probably about 18 or 19. The man was lying on the ground yelling that he couldn't move his legs. He yelled at the girl "why would you do that?" She just stared, dumbfounded and embarrassed. I was kneeling next to the man on the phone with 911 as they were trying to figure out where I was. I had no idea so I read the closest green sign that had "Rt. 88" on it. As they transferred me to dispatch I began to hear the sirens. I told the man it would be okay. At this time there were multiple people around me making sure the man was okay. The girl that had hit him started crying and yelling that people were ignorant. I turned around and replied "I don't care where the fuck you're from, you don't cut over 3 lanes without knowing your fucking surroundings."

I spoke to the police and they thanked me and told me I would be contacted for witness statements because I was the only witness.
I hope to god that man is okay.

I will be doing a essay on my word issue for a topic that was presented to me in class today called "You and the world". I picked the world issue of teens in high school and as well as middle school dropping out because of many reasons. What i discover so far is that teens not only drop out because of their friends but as well as home trouble like running away or because they just give up or because they just don't care. 

One thing i wonder about is why can't they just go back to school and try to make up the time that they lost when they couldn't go to school and still try to get their important education. My plan for moving on is to fine charts and graphs on giving me the numbers so i can see how many people exactly 

Dairy Entry #2

    Guns, money, gangs, sex, power. Is that what everyone wants out of life? That’s not what i want. I want to get get married become a lawyer, raise a family. My husband and I will be able to take care of our family.
    Everyone wants tattoo’s or pericings. I want them too, but not for the same reasons. Why does everyone have the same tattoos? Same cloths? Same hair styles?  Most girls have weave, fake nails, fake body. My question is, why can’t you be yourself.

Journal Entry 12/17

    I’ve always wanted to be the girl that always a had a hot boyfriend that was everything. I always wanted to feel loved and held tightly. But that never happen. I had plenty of boyfriends, but none really fit my “list”. I always wanted a boyfriend, that was just like the husband of a Tyler Perry movie.     
    I got the reputation of being a boyfriend stealer at school. Thats not true. If your boyfriend loves you he wouldn’t leave you. Thats not all, I get along better with guys. I don’t really like girls.

Until June 14th is killing me... Wish it was here already so I don't have to be up all extra early...

I am choosing to create a wind chime. And sound is produced by the artist blowing through the holes at the top of the chime. The wind that I will produce will create waves throughout the wind chime and the walls of the chime will affect the pitch. Based on my understanding,  I am changing the pitch in my instrument by blowing through different holes which all would create different wavelengths. The physical characteristics that are important are that each pipe has to be a different length to produce a different sound. I will be using PVC pipe, duct tape, and pennies to create my wind chime. My plan for constructing this would be to hopefully use the time Ms. Echols allows me in class and if not then I would use my own spare time after school.

1. How is sound produced by this instrument (now that you know more about sound, please try to refer specifically to the energy transfer and vibrations)?

Well, for guitar, it's easy to understand how the sound is made, by hitting the strings of the guitar, you transfer energy and the strings vibrate to make specific pitches depending on the string played and the fret held down. To change the pitch, you have to use the frets, each fret down, starting from the top, changes the pitch by one half-step, so the first fret on an E string would give you an F note, and the second would give you an F sharp. The most important physical characteristic of a guitar is the hole in the body that lets the sound actually come off of the guitar. I'll be using wood, of course, and probably nails to help me make the little things that tune the strings, and I'm not sure of what to do for the frets. I'm going to be playing it with my fingers, as I think a pick is more or less unnecessary. I really just wanna know what I have to turn in when it's due.

Instrument - String
Originated - Portugal
Has four strings and guitar shaped body
Family- Chordophone
The sound is produced by plucking and strumming the strings. The strings then vibrate and are amplified by the resonating body.
To build a Ukulele, I plan on using a small box as that base, like a tissue box, or cigar box or shoe box, but WOODEN. I'd also need wood for the neck, bridge, fingerboard, saddle and nut, and braces.