The End.

My blog started as just another assignment, and turned into somewhere where I could put my own spin on assignments and analyses that normally would be deviod of personality. It's a place where ideas from school intersect with my ideas from outside of academics. I used this place to talk about things we did in class, with my opinion and thoughts mixed in. I don't always like to stick to the template of schoolwork, and I really enjoy being able to talk about the things that we are doing freely. Sometimes all a certain assignment needs for clarity is a bit of reflection. When we relate things to the world and what I care about, it makes it that much more interesting. Things with music lyrics or pieces of art that we do separate from our daily tasks are the most meaningful to me, and provide the most interesting blog opportunity. That's what a blog is, after all. A place to vent your ideas, opinions, and views to the world so people have a better idea of who you are and what kind of person you strive to be. You can criticize, praise, judge, and preach, but "If you're not speaking the truth, you might as well not be saying ish." (Macklemore - I said Hey) Our beliefs and opinions make the core of our being and without them, we are just another face in the crowd. The things that differentiate us from everyone else are the most important in the world. I am someone who has very firm beliefs, and stands up for what I think is right. This blog is important because it allows you to give your views on something that is not usually discussed out of class. The fact that we can do something like this is a great thing. 

I really can't stress the importance of outside materials relevant to the current issues in English enough. Connecting our lives to school is one of the only ways I know to make subjects truly interesting and engaging. My blog is a place to glimpse who I am outside of the classroom.

Memorable Assignment

My most memorable assignment(s) have to be the extra credit movies that I produce with classmates. We generally only have enough time to get a very short movie filmed and edited the day before class. The rush and planning is fun, and filming is always a task. Having people to collaborate with on a creative assignment makes it more bearable.

The last movie we made was filmed and edited in about 3 hours, and I'm proud of it because it incorporated skills I learned outside of class with my academics. I got to use many different programs that I taught myself to complete the movie, and I think it turned out decent for the amount of time put into it. It would have helped to have a higher quality camera, but we ha to make do with what we had.

A Good Experience With Poetry

Poetry to me is a way of expressing your ideas through an almost musical arrangement of words and phrases. Poetry has a lot in common with music, it has certain structure, rhythm, and different styles that appeal to different people. Poetry makes me think about the idea or concept being voiced and is one of the most effective ways of expressing yourself that I am aware of, simply because there are no rules.

Conflict in RandJ

One conflict that isn't present until later in the play, but is just as important is Friar Lawrence's internal conflict. The Friar struggles with the decision to marry Romeo and Juliet because one one hand, it may bring the families closer together as he points out when he mentions that such a marriage would get rid of the rancor between the two houses. On the other hand, Romeo has just come out of a relationship and thrown himself headlong into a brand new one without any rational thought concerning where it might lead. The Friar makes up his mind to marry the two teens and that decision influences his actions throughout the rest of the play.
   This influence can be seen when the Friar gives the "poison" to Juliet to assist her in both getting out of her planned marriage to Paris and getting her back together with Romeo. Indeed, the Friar throws himself wholeheartedly into the task, personally carrying out the bulk of the work involved. As we know, the union between Romeo and Juliet has tragic consequences, but at the time, the Friar was unaware of these and his actions shape the path that the play travels from the beginning of his commitment to the very end, while the repercussions grow with every page.

Romeo and Juliet: It's Everywhere.

Romeo and Juliet has a hand in many modern love stories in Hollywood and in today's literature and music. A good example of this is the song Romeo and Juliet by The Killers. The song is a musical composition about the play. The lyrics are modified to fit the time period, and the music fits the band's style, giving the song a modern appeal. The song has sad and somewhat sentimental tone to it, and it fits the feeling of the play quite nicely. The fact that the band dedicated a whole track to this play is proof of its continued influence of modern culture.

Connecting with Romeo and Juliet

As for the characters in Romeo and Juliet, it's difficult to compare myself to any of them because like most fictional characters, their life and personality is grossly overexaggerated for the good of entertainment. If I had to pick one, Romeo would be my choice because like him, I find myself feeling sorry for myself and whining a bit more often than I should. Also similar to Romeo, I will always have someone to calm me down and get my spirits up.

Reading at home without having to take annotations is a much more efficient process than Great Expectations. I find that I am reading on time and understanding what is there for me to read. I can read knowing that we are going to go over the material and I will have a chance to annotate after the fact. This provides a calmer reading experience and I actually enjoy reading chapters now.

Reading Great Expectations

Reading Great Expectations was a task for me, partly because I had to interrupt my reading every few moments to insert a sticky note for annotationg. As a result, I spent less time focusing on the content of the novel and more time scanning for things I could annotate for. Dickens took a very long time to come to his point, and used more extraneous details than I would like. The book seemed like it was devoid of emotion for the most part, and while you were reading, you felt like an impartial deity watching over events with a cold eye. It was hard to feel any emotions for the characters, and the plot seemed like it could have used more action and examples of the theme.

I read whenever I had time, whether it was on the soccer bus at 10:30 or after school in the library. I read more for the assignment than for enjoyment, and that's generally not the case for "assigned" reading. I felt like the annotation system promoted skimming and skipping sections. As discussed in the previous paragraph, it detracted from the overall experience of reading and throughout the reading, I felt like just stopping annotations and simply reading the book itself. Hopefully units in the future will have a different structure regarding annotations and discussions.