Hehe My First Not Required Post

I can now feel free to post whatever I want on this blog because I'm not in AP Comp anymore so now as silly as it sounds I feel a little less nervous about posting to it. I'm sure Mrs. Cardona is reading this about ready to die saying, "you could have been ding that this whole time!" I know I could have but now it isn't graded so I feel less pressure to always be writing something witty. I'm the kind of person who just writes about what I know and if by chance I say something witty it's a total accident. Oh and here's a picture of cute puppy!

I've been waiting to feel okay about posting random stuff like this and now I do and I will continue to do so.

Poem Ideas

Stuff to Talk about:
CRJ's
BLA Groups
Vocabulary
Free Write Friday
Papers
Power Writing
Mixed Tapes
Thank You for Smoking
2 million Minutes
Class Discussions
Presentations involving Costumes
FINALS!

BLA Review

My group read The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine and I was not a fan. Her argument was that women's brains are different than men's. I felt that her argument was well supported by facts and logic and that's about it. She lacked any sort of personal writing style. She was straight forward and it read more like a textbook then a persuasive argument. It's like she assumed that anyone who read the book already believed that she was right. She didn't spend much time showing her reader that she had the authority to talk about this subject. She opens with the fact that she is well educated and that's about the only time you hear about her credentials. She also lacks any personal interest in her clients who she talks about as examples in her book. When she talks about them she uses this awful detached tone that makes her seem like a mean person and only cares about how these people better her argument which only hurts her credibility more in my opinion. Also instead of explaining terms as she goes she decided to put a 4 page glossary in the front of her book. I did not like this. It was confusing to try to figure out the technical terms and what context she was using them in it. It was definitely not an easy read. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to people who are truly not interested in brains and brain chemistry because you will find it to be a difficult and boring read.

A letter to Myself

Dear Middle School Megan,
Middle schoolers suck. It's okay to hate middle school. Everyone is awkward and immature and doesn't have a lot of self confidence. That girl Birttany from Harper creek stay far, far away. Otherwise one day she'll slam your head in a locker, and now you can't say I didn't warn you. I think carefully about who you choose to be friends with. Don't be so consider with who's cool and not and just think about if their a good person or not. Don't spend so much time worrying about what others think of you especially in Michigan, your going to move after seventh grade anyway. Take the time to talk to the kids who don't have any friends and you know who they are. Step up and step out. Don't follow the crowd and don't let people bully you in to think you have to fit in. When you get to Minnesota talk. Don't sit in the back and be quite, it's not good for you and it just sucks. Talk to the kids at youth group. I know they seem weird, and they are, but they end up being some of your best friends and you end up going to the same college as one of them. Don't let the fact that they see closed off keep you from talking to them and that goes for the kids at school. Keep in touch with Dannie and Sara when you move, you'll miss them a lot.

I guess that's kind of all the advice I have. Just stay strong, be who you are don't and never let anyone treat you poorly, stand up for yourself.

Senior You

Video Analysis

Topic:
I picked the topic of humanities. I picked this general topic because I've always been very passionate about what I can do help people in need. I immediately thought of world hunger and how so many kids, 22,000, are dying everyday from hunger-related illness. For six years now I've been working with my youth group to raise awareness about this issue and already knew a lot of facts and information about. I presented world hunger as an overwhelming problem, one that often people say they can't do anything about. Then I show them that a dollar a day can feed a child. Then consider what they're spending a dollar on and if they could give that one item up they could feed a kid. So my argument is that we can put a dent in world hunger by giving up one one-dollar item and donate it to those in need.

Photos: My photos of posters are signs that kids in my youth group made to hold on a street corner and raise awareness. The photos of kids I used are all photos of kids I know except two. They are all photos of kids I meet on my missions trip to New York. You'll notice I didn't use a single picture where the kid looked awful. My goal was to use more "happy" kid pictures to show that a dollar can bring these kids hope. I also set it up so the problem (globally picture) is presented, with the kids it affects, then the overwhelming number of kids that die, showing that sometimes it seems like the problem is so big you can't  really help which is why my next pictures show that a simple dollar can feed a child for a day. Then I show the silly things we spend a dollar on then a kid who could be feed with this dollar. This show truly how easy it to make a difference by simply giving up a coke for day and giving to child in need instead. Lastly, I used some creative pictures to propose the the question "what will you spend your money on?" I wanted to leave with people thinking how easy it would be to make a difference. I didn't want them to fell guilty and overwhelmed but empowered and that they can make a difference in a very simple way.

Music: I picked "waiting on the world to change" by John Mayer. I thought this song fit my topic and more of an optimistic feel. I want to make sure people felt like they could go out and help, not super guilty and like they're horrible people. I wanted the music to be like the pictures and give off an idea of hope rather then doom like many hunger commercials out there.

My Amazing Video

My Christmas Break

This could have possibly been a the worst Christmas break my family has ever had. It actually started before Christmas break. I found out that I had an ear infection, again, and the doctor said it was one of the worst ones she seen in a very long time, which was just dandy. Then my dad found he had a couple of kidney stone which he's had before and he's never had any trouble passing them this time, however, they were huge so he had to have surgery. His surgery didn't go very well he and he had almost every complication possible with the surgery and a week and a half in the hospital which all meant that are family spent the most of our break in the hospital including Christmas. My dad end up having to have another surgery and we got to spend eight hours playing scrabble I won once, my brother won 14 times and my mom won zero times, in case you don't want to do math that's 15 games of scrabble. I now know more two letter words than I ever thought possible. Overall I'm grateful that my dad's okay but it was more of two weeks of stress then a break but at least he's home.