Greta is Great spelled wrong.

anybody notice?

i was really bored and couldnt sleep so i came on here just to see what was going on. this is really sad. all our blogs are totally abandoned. and wierdos keep leaving comments on mine. so i was just writing to see if there was anybody out there who would notice that this one little lonely post was here past like january. so you dont need to respond as long as you read this at least there is some hope that all our little suburb middle school work at least made one person pay attention or think.

How i learn and what i expect.

    My learning in language arts has to be totally hands on.  Like doing things and talking about them.  I can’t just sit and write and flesh out my own ideas by myself.  I have to have someone else’s to help spark my own stream of thinking.  It is a long list of things that will help me to learn some being: discussion, technology, just talking about stuff, and having activities based around what I am trying to write about.  The things I can’t learn from are: Sitting alone and writing, partner writing, writing summary’s, writing about other writing.  I just won’t be able to think for myself if I have to do that all the time.  My mind will just adapt to other people’s way of thinking and I will conform to the rest of the crowd and no one will read what I write.  Or if I just have to write by myself it will be so boring you would be paying attention to the pencil shavings floating around on it rather then the actual writing.

What I expect for next year is pretty much all of the above but not on such a specific level.  I know there will be some of what I can’t learn from because that is how other people learn but I can handle a little of that.  I just don’t want the entire class every day in 9th grade to consist of me walking in, sitting down, and trying to concentrate on writing by myself.  That just wouldn’t work for me.  I would end up having a less open mind then from when I started and I do not want to go backwards in my education.

personal curriculum #1

This is one of my personal curriculum projects:

 In this “project” my goal was to explore different types of writing.  I changed my plans so I could do it more thoroughly and be able to at least say I learned something.  The three books that this is on are: The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, and The diary of Anne Frank by (obviously) Anne Frank.  I didn’t actually read the entire Audacity book, actually I didn’t get a fourth of the way through it.  In my opinion it was boring and wasting my time and I didn’t feel like I could gain something from it.  Twilight had a much different effect.  It became my favorite book very quickly and pulled me in so there was no way I could stop reading it.  Anne Frank I also read the whole thing and it also interested me a lot having had a grandma in Germany during WW2.  I’m not going to describe the contents of these books to you because this essay wasn’t meant for you to learn something it was meant for me to show you that I learned something.

            The first book I (partially) read was the Audacity of Hope.  This book in short bored me out of my mind.  From what I could actually pay attention to it was a book basically about Barack Obama as a senator and his political views on society.   I think the reason it bored me so much is frankly, I really don’t give a crap what Barack Obama’s ideas on politics are.  I really don’t like politics that much in general and maybe I was just being bitter about that but I thoroughly don’t think I could dislike a book more then that one.  This book I think was more for him to find interesting then anyone else.  I know this because during an ELT project I was writing mostly about my own views and realized that the only person who REALLY found them interesting enough to read a book about them would be myself.  So maybe that is why I hated the book so much, because it reminded me that I had tried to write that way and it blew up in my face.  It was a scary reminder of the fact that I can’t write for my life or at least not that way.

            The second book I read, or more like devoured, was Twilight.  This paragraph is pretty much completely biased because of the fact that I am seriously in love with this book.  Oh well.  This book amazed me in two ways.  One was obviously the amazing content and everything that happens in it, and also how much it distracted me from my real life.  Honestly, during the time I was reading this if I wasn’t actually reading it which was mostly 4 to 5 hours at a time I was thinking about getting to read it.  And getting to find out what happens next.  I am truly amazed at how an author can keep you (for lack of a better word) hooked at the same time as developing the characters so well you feel like you know everything about and what will happen to them.  This book was so elaborately written that it seemed as if it could be totally real.  Or maybe if you didn’t believe that it could be you still wished with all your heart that it was.  It was like you knew what they would do in every situation but the situations were so complicated and unexpected you were never bored.  This book really inspired me to in my own writing to do the same thing with characters and situations or at least to try it and see what I can come up with.

            The last book I chose for this project was the Diaries of Anne Frank.  This book kind of scared me in the sense that the “author” never meant anyone to read it.  It even said somewhere in the book she thought it would be really embarrassing as well as uninteresting if someone else were to read it.  I think the reason why so many people read this book was because it was so brutally honest.  You knew that nothing in it was exaggerated because why would you lie to yourself?  It also kind of spooked me because I felt guilty reading a fellow teenagers thoughts that were never meant to be seen.  I also was intrigued by it because of the fact that she is so like me and other teenagers but in an entirely different situation.  All I can really say is how amazing the honesty in this book was.

            In this essay again I say it is not meant for you to learn something (whoever you may be) but meant for me to show you that I did learn something.  I think what I learned here was as follows:  Anyone can write a book and find some way for it to be published (proven by The Audacity of Hope), but what matters is the influence it has on other people.  If the book totally occupied your mind and made you think about other realities or its characters or even just the ideas presented within it, that is what makes a good book (like Twilight).  And also that the more honest or at least if you make it seem like it is or could be true the more people want to read it (like in Anne Frank).  Some more conclusions I have drawn from these books: The Audacity of Hope- I will never ever write a book on my political views no matter how much money I am offered or how much I want to be president for the soul reason that I don’t want some 8^th grade kid trashing it after they tried to read it.  Twilight- Some people are just better at writing then others naturally, I know this because I could never come up with something as imaginative and amazing as this book.  Anne Frank-  If I ever wanted to leave someone a lot of money I should give them the rights to a diary of myself locked in an attic house for 2 and a half years with Nazi’s trying to kill me and my family.  Maybe this entire essay is entirely biased, and maybe it is really controversial, and maybe I included too many of my own opinions in it, but I still think it gets the point across of what I’ve learned.

parents

Has anyone ever noticed how weird parents are?  That was a stupid question to ask because everyone at some point thinks that their parents are stupid…and they are sometimes but it’s still weird to think that they are real people.  Seriously, why do they have to have lives outside of us?  Their kids, it’s weird to think that they actually have feelings.  I like to think my parents are aliens just there to tell me to do my homework.  It is pretty sad to think how much we take for granted from them but we all do it.  I guess it must be worth it in some way we don’t understand.  I definetely wouldn’t pay the bills and nag on someone unless I got something out of it.  It makes you wonder how important you are to them.  When you think about it its like how am I worth being unappreciated?  What have I ever done that is so great to deserve my parents love?  I don’t get it.  And I probably won’t until I have kids of my own and do all that for them.  I know I don’t really have to be thinking about this.  But I’m really kind of writing this because I think I owe my parents at least this paragraph because of how ungrateful and bratty I have been throughout my life.  I’m not saying this makes up for it but it at least makes me feel like I’ve done something to make up for it.

book review on twilight

 Twilight:

497 pages

5 hardest words on a random page:

endearment

pivotal

grudgingly

unrelentingly

chivalry

            This book was amazing.  It is my new favorite book but this review isn’t supposed to just praise it so if I do please forgive me.  It had this odd reality scheme that was both confusing and endearing.  It made you want to keep reading but there were certain parts that most books have that this one lacked.  Like in a lot of books it describes when the main character eats and does normal everyday activities like that.  In this book it seemed like if it had things like that it would only slow things down. The book is already lengthy and if it did have these things I think a lot would be taken away from it.  I haven’t been able to figure out what makes some books slow and now I think maybe that is part of it.  I really don’t care when the character eats or goes to the bathroom.  I’d rather hear about her infatuation with someone who wants to drink her blood.  So in a way the books “flaw” only makes it more unique and fun to read.

            I read this book in 2 days flat.  I don’t know how anyone could just read it a chapter at a time.  At certain parts I literally had adrenaline pumping through my veins.  The sheer suspense is enough to make you want to scream.  It is NEVER slow, boring, or routine.  You are always longing to have it when you are away.  I’m serious you have separation anxiety from just a pile of paper!  I have come to the uncertain conclusion that this is because of the characters.  They aren’t developed in the sense that you know all about their past but more like you know what they would do in future situations.  This does not make it predictable like you may think because the situations are so odd there is no way you could imagine them yourself.  The characters are portrayed more like you know them.  Not personally but kind of like how we try and find out about ourselves but more like we know them better then we do ourselves.  You know how they feel about other characters and how they deal with things.  On a physical level, the characters aren’t very drawn out.  You do get an idea of what they may look like but it gives you room to elaborate yourself.  You have the option of making them look like what you want them to.

            As much as I like this book it frustrates me.  It’s like I want to know what happens next but it makes me uneasy if I read it too fast because then it will be over.  It’s pretty amusing but still unnerving.  I honestly don’t know how the author could have dreamed up such an elaborate plot for her first book.  Seriously her imagination is amazing to me.  I didn’t know that one person could dream up such complicated themes.  I really think this book is extremely appealing to so many readers because of its theme of vampires.  I don’t care if I’m stereotyping when I say this because I truly do believe it.  EVERY girl loves vampires.  Young or old, smart or stupid, tall or short, EVERY girl has a thing for vampires.  So yes using that theme to attract readers is sort of “cheating” but it doesn’t take away from how well this book is written.  Just to even imagine a clan of vampires living in a small rainy town is exciting.  It is a very feminine book in that sense.  I’ve caught myself daydreaming about what happened in this book.  Embarrassing as it is it’s true.  I think the theme is the biggest reason why people are drawn to this book.

            Another aspect of this book was that it was actually pretty challenging.  I am a good reader but in this I found I had to go back to read sentences over again and I think I even looked up a word or two.  I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but it annoyed me because it just slowed me down.  I didn’t like having to pay so much attention but then if I didn’t I felt like I was missing something.  I usually read things that are way to easy for me just so I don’t have to concentrate on it too much.  But this one was kind of bittersweet. In the sense that I had to pay attention to get the whole story, but if I didn’t get the whole story I was mad at myself so I went back and read stuff over again.  To put it simply this book was perfect in it’s frustration.

this is my wikispace thing

This is the link to what I’ve done so far this week. http://discoveryisms.wikispaces.com/page/diff/Gretaism?v=3698496

No one has a life.

You may or may not have noticed that I always say how I don't have a life.  And I really don't because if I did I wouldn't have time to write about how I don't.  I often do weird things because I get so bored but that's beside the point.  The point is no onw really has a life.  People like Mia Hamm have lives centered around their sports but you never hear about them having (successful) marriages or family.  I was watching Scrubs last night and it was where J.D. and Turke had no lives they just stayed at home playing go fish.  Really we don't have lives.  The only people that do don't have the support to keep them.  Like the crazy ravers who drink a lot can't keep jobs long enough to support their constant partying, so that doesn't last long.  I realize now that the majority of my (worth reading) posts really do depress the people who read them.  So sorry but I'm not doing on purpose. 

Tim it was my idea first!!!!

This may not be amusing to me but it is to me so too bad.  This is the conversation I am hearing that I choose to type.  It might be kind of choppy but it will be funny.  And it will be really hard to understand and follow.  But oh well.

    Yeah *girly laughing* superhit.  Sit.  What was it?  Just forget it. Okay.  Dude.  

      It tricks you it doesn't really work. *typing sounds* * silence other then the typing* Has anybody seen borat?  It's so stupid.  Its funny though. Yeah but its stupid.  Dude.  Mr. Wilkoff? How do I get it to manage? 

No it's not.  Pickles.  Are you still obsessed with rock music?  Suck 44, Blink-one eighty poo, Fartell?  That one's the best.  *abnoxious laughing*  Uh oh sorry an error has been found.  An error has been found again.  *girly voice* No! don't do this to me!  What are you doing.  Were thinking of band names to make fun of.  How bout instead of 3days grace its pee on grace. (Now they attempt to make up a stupid name for My Chemical Romance but fail because they are the most amazing band in the world).  You guys are boring.  Thats what she said.  Make machine gun noises.  How about we just blow up nick's computer beacuse his music sucks.  How about we just blow up Nick? Ok.  

Wisconsin got beat by UNB (more boring basketball yammering).  Were gonna blow up nick?  Yeah.  Can I help?  Yeah.

*more typing* *this is sad we have nothing to talk about and there is like 30 kids in here*  Layne you have a footprint on the back of yoour shirt.  Greta, Greta, Your asian friend is attracted to me.  Sick.  *everyone is laughing abnoxiously but they are talking to quietly so i don't know what were saying*  

I'm kind of irratated right now *in a very girly voice*

Dude get your hand away.  

Eww I keep shedding!  

I'm not that pale anymore, I'm getting tanner.

What is the other one? What starts with a p and ends with an orn? Popcorn! (talking with mr. wilkoff about the what starts with f and ends with uck, Firetruck!)

ANybody else want starbucks right now? YEAH!  

Its the best game ever.  Yeah.  What?  Yeah.  Except for once when I (drowned out by)

My sister hates that station.  93.3 IS my station I love it.  Yeah its good.  Taking back sunday only has one CD?  Yeah. Oh.  Oh my gosh!  Single file just signed with the same people who signed My Chem and Greenday.  I hate Greenday.  I just don't like American Idiot .  I like Kerplunck and stuff.  Yeah.

I get to see my neice soon!!! And get tan!  

Okay I'm done now this is really hard to follow but some of it is at least mildly amusing and because I am too utterly exhausted and frustrated and unhappy to write anything else I am going to post it okay?  I don't need you permission.

This would be a cool protest

This did not really happen but the problems and facts in it are true.

This is a paper written from a student photography major at DU. He was 20 years old when he wrote this. This paper was meant to accompany a project for his photography class to take a picture of something meaningful.

Sheila Porter. She started it all. I am writing this paper along with my project for this class. But I would like you to know that it was not me that put all the work in. Sheila Porter was who I took the picture of. She was the one who did something meaningful. She did it all. All this paper is meant to do is make it known to at least one other person in the world what she did.

She said that over her summer vacation she planned to go to Washington D.C. She had found some kind of public park jsut south of the white house and gotten the right permits to station herself there for the entire summer. She spent money she had saved since she was 6 years old on a costom made steel cage meant to look like a jail cell. She planned to have it shipped to that park and set up with her inside of it. She planned on staying in there for 60 days. Her mom was going with her to take her food and blankets and whatever she needed. She would only leave the cell to use the restroom in the nearby port-o-potty for visitors.

My first question was obviusly what would possibly provoke someone to do something like this. I went searching around her blog until I found the post that started it all.

The post included this word for word:

I recently watched an Oprah show about child molestors. They had some guy from the child exploitation foundation or something like that. They were talking about how only 1/3 child molesters don't register. If they get caught and have not been registered it is only a misdemeanor. The other 2/3 usually don't get very long in jail. They said this one guy in Virginia molested to 6 year olds and only spent 60 DAYS IN JAIL! And after that they sent him to a rehab center for another month and he had to register and he was free to go. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! He freaking raped two kids! Anyone who does something that horrible should be in prison for life.  No second chances.  No excuses.  60 days??? Thats not even a full summer vacation!  Sure we'd have to build a lot more prisons but I'm sure people would rather spend their tax dollars on that.  Especially when we've got so much of it going to stupid ear tags like lumber mills.  I bet most americans would even agree to pay MORE tax dollars if it means protecting the future generations.  I don't know how the government can look over things like this.  Child abuse and molestation is no longer a crime, it is an epidemic.  

This post shocked me.  So what if it was written by a high school freshman it was still amazing to me.  How could this be happening to our country?  Why wasn't anybody doing anything about it until now?  And why did the person who stood up and noticed was only just starting high school?!  What is wrong with this country.  The post went further to say that she beleived in the phrase from the Declaration of Independance that "those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action".  It amazed me that since someone who had very little ability but realized that no one else would, took it upon herself to take action.  She was holding the most amazing protest I had ever heard of.  I hadn't actually heard of many protests but hers infatuated me.  She was representing the man who had been cut slack when she beleived no one who did something like that should get none.  She was stationing herself in the town where most of the government affairs are taken care of.  So, I figured I at least owed it to her to be at her protest.  I took the money I had been saving up and flew to Washington D.C. I was there the day they set up her cage with her inside it.  They used an extremely strong metal so no weirdo's could bother her at night.  All that was in there was a blanket and a pillow on the ground.  I met her and told her this story.  She seemed like a totally normal teenager like I remembered being.  She liked bands and thought dirty things were funny because she was in high school and from then on your mind is permanently in the gutter.  I took a picture and wished her the best.  Then I left.    

I kept track of her day to day journal from her blog that her mom had been working on.  She would write it down and her mom would copy it online.  One day there was no blog-journal.  I figured her mom had just gotten behind.  I watched the news that night.  On July 17th , 2007 about 2:30 in the morning, a strange man approached the makeshift jail cell and shot Sheila Porter once in the head.  She died almost instantly.  They knew all that because there was a video camera nearby for the visitors.  After that congress passed a law that every registered child molester and any future ones would spend life in jail.  It took an innocent child's life to finally spurr the protection of the chldren of america.  So that is my paper.  I just wanted to tell her story.

Book Review (didn’t know how to post to ning)

The 5 people you meet in heaven, by Mitch Albom

5 hardest words on a page: porous, cowardice, tourniquet, emerged, surrendered

Pages in book: 196

Review:

I think this books main idea was that everyone and everything is connected. You don’t understand it as much in the beginning but in the end it becomes extremely clear that everything in the book leads up to that idea.  It illustrates that somehow you are connected to even the people you don’t meet.  An example in the book is:  When Eddie was in the war he thought he saw a shadow in a fire, like a child, he went in.  Because of this his liutenant shot him in the knee so he wouldn’t be killed.  He did not get to the shadow so the little girl Tala died.  She waited for him in heaven to be his 5th person.  That is just one idea the book brings about how closely knit we are.

 This book didn’t really delve into too much about any of the characters besides Eddie so I will try to make as much sense of the other important ones as I can because I can’t really go into much more detail about Eddie as the author did.  Marguerite, Eddie’s wife.  She lived her life loving her husband.  She didn’t have too much of a career and molded her life around being with Eddie.  They met at around 16 and like most old marriages were kind of forced together in a way.  Up until the end she never really had a life other than around her husband.

The old woman at the diner (Emile’s wife), Ruby.  She was another example of the typical wife in those times before the fiminism movement.  She supported and loved her husband until the day he died and left an amusement park with her name on it.  (Another example of them all being connected).  She was a waitress at a diner most of her life.  She was the person who explained to Eddie his father’s life and death.  She was portrayed as a very calm and patient person.

Something that amazing in this book is how calm and mellow everyone in heaven is shown as.  Being not very religous anyways this book opened doors to my mind and left me with the most annoyingly nagging question. What does happen after we die?  This question has haunted me since I finished the book and frankly I’m tired of it!  But it also made me realize how much fun it would be to write something like this.  To totally make up what you think will happen after we die and beleive in it with all your heart.  This book also makes me think that people who read it also have this nagging question and are forced to create their own beleif of what happens after we die or believe in the idea of the book itself.  Granted I’m not saying it makes you plan out your death but it does make you think.