The Junk Drawer

Reflection of my Sophmore Year

2009-05-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Personally I really dislike high school and can't wait to be in college. I'm ready to be around more mature people who don't start drama just for the heck of it. I hate that we have so much homework but I guess that is just part of school. Maybe next year will be better. I enjoy being around friends but there is just too much stress to handle sometimes. This year has flew by! Two more! Some people just don't know when to keep their mouth shut and can be very hurtful or annoying at times. I need this summer break.

Of Mice and Men

2009-05-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

Shooting your best friend is the hardest thing in the world to do. Sometimes it is for the better.

George and Lennie travel together in hope of earning enough money to buy their own land and "live off the fatta the land." Lennie is a built man with the mind of a child. He does not realize how to be gentle. Lennie kills without knowing. George has taken care of Lennie for years on end. Now that Lennie has accidentally killed Curley's wife something has to be done. Unfortunately this action is very hard.

I loved this book. This book was very easy to understand and follow. The book was laid out scene by scene and very easy to understand. No missed details to leave you in the dark. I thought that what happened in the end was the best thing to do. Even though that action would definitely scar someone for life. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

House on Mango Streeet

2009-05-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Growing up in rough neighborhood is never any fun. Esperanza grew up in a rough neighborhood and met all sorts of people. She made many friends and then lost half of them because they all moved around.

I could not follow this book. I'm not sure why this book is required of high school students to read. I did not enjoy this book at all. It could not hold my attention. I know this book is about her life as she grew up in a rough neighborhood but truthfully it was not that interesting. It sounds like a typical neighborhood. You are always going to have bad people in the world. I would not recommend this book unless you enjoy reading about someones life in brief details.

The Giver Review

2009-05-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Jonas is used to everything being perfect. Until one day his whole world came crashing down. Being The Receiver of Memory is not all it is cracked up to be. Maybe being the Receiver of Memory is not that honorable at all.

The Giver is not my favorite book. I found this book really strange. I don't like the ending either. I hate being left in the dark on an ending. Lois Lowery leaves you hanging. I like to know what happens to the characters after they go through all that trouble to get there. Although I did not enjoy the book, I did find some good points. Being left in the dark is good for a little while. Controlling the environment and people's minds will not work forever. And Everybody should live their life how they want to live it. I would recommend this book because Lois Lowery has some very good and interesting points throughout the story.

Animal Farm

2009-04-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Talking Animals? IMPOSSIBLE!!

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a compelling story about animals who band together and overthrow their master in a rebellion.

I did not fully understand this book's parallelism with the Russian Revolution. I understood the story of the animals taking over and I enjoyed reading that but i could never put two and two together. I could not tell what was happening during the war and with the characters.

The theme I got from the story was that power corrupts people. This story is very effective and shows what happens when people or animals in this case are naive and blinded and allow someone to gradually take over and not doing anything. I recommend this book to everybody in high school and older who can understand the motive.

My Favorite Techie Tool

2009-04-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Techie Tool would have to be the blogs. The blogs provide us with an excellent way to exercise our creative writing abilities. The blogs also provide us with a way of communication with friends and family by telling the stories of our day, vacations, and memories. Also, they give us an opportunity to be recognized for our creative writing abilities by someone that may give us an opportunity to be a professional writer. Writing can relieve stress, help keep our thoughts straight, and remember what we did over the years. Kind of like an online journal. For me writing relieves stress and keeps me occupied when I have absolutely nothing to do. I really enjoy using the blogs.

Anthem

2009-04-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

Why do the good die young? In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2527 has dreams of breaking the barrier of their brainwashed civilization. He knows there is more to the world than what they are being taught. Equality describes humans at the age of forty-five being the "Ancient Ones." In our society forty-five is around middle aged. Not having the will to live will drastically shorten the life of mankind.

Hunted

2009-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

"A shape materialized at the edge of the meadow, just inside the shadows of the trees. I could see his body because the moonlight caught the smooth, chiseled lines of his skin.

I stopped cold. Something about this dream didn't seem right.

"You hesitate, my love?"

At the sound of Kalona's voice, a shiver passed through my body and a terrible, mocking laughter whispered through the leaves of the trees."

Zoey Redbird is not an average teenage girl. She is now a powerful fledgling and now she is being hunted by a fallen angel who is absolutely gorgeous and almost irresistible. Zoey MUST resist him. The fate of the House of Night is in her hands.

I absolutely love this series! My opinion is that this series is the new Twilight Series. With all the epic details and the vivid words are almost like a movie. I have gotten to where I don't see the words as I read this series. I see a movie. This book is the latest of the series and is absolutely wonderful! I highly recommend this series! Make sure you start at the beginning or you will get very confused!

Hunted is the fifth book in the series!

Spring Break!!

2009-04-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Disney World!! I felt like a little girl once again as I walked through the gate to Disney World. I felt as if I was a princess late to a ball walking through the legendary castle in Magic Kingdom! (and of course Will was my gorgeous Prince Charming!) At night the fireworks were absolutely amazing!

However, as a teenager, I enjoyed Universal Studios more. There were name brand stores that contained a variety of clothing which made me extremely happy! In Disney World all the stores had nothing but Mickey Mouse inventory. I think i can do without Mickey Mouse for a little while. In Universal Studios, Will and I rode the amazing Hulk roller coaster, the exciting Dueling Dragons roller coaster, and Ripsaw Falls!

I also got to meet Wills older sister Charity! I was excited! I had heard so much about her and she sounded just like me! She gave Will and me their Express Passes! So then Will, Will's nephew Baily, and I went and rode a bunch of thrill rides!! I had a blast!

Anthem Review

2009-03-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Anthem is quite confusing when reading the first couple of pages. When I figured out that there was no "I" in their language or thinking, the book made a little more sense to me. I both dislike and like this story. I dislike this story because of the ending. I want to know more about what they did after they found the house from the Unmentionable times. I liked this story because of Equality 7-2521's rebellion. He chose to love The Golden One even when he was not supposed to and he developed the reuse of the lightbulb which caused him to be rejected in front of the World Council. This story shows the importance of freedom and individuality. I really enjoyed Anthem by Ayn Rand.

Untamed Review

2009-03-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

The House of Night series is my new Twilight Series, but not as intense. Truthfully I like the Twilight Series better but the House of Night series runs a close second. Zoey Redbird is a unique fledgling at the House of Night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is gifted with the affinity for all five elements, Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit. She is very unique. No other fledgling, or a type of freshman, has every been that gifted. Untamed is the fourth book in the series, and like all of the others, is amazing. There is constant suspense and even romance. The perfect combination! I recommend this book to every girl who enjoyed the twilight series and even to the ones that did not like the series. Besides Twilight, this is the best series I have ever read.

338 pages.

To Perfect My World.....

2009-03-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Is there a way to perfect my world? There are several ways but the majority lies under the category of Dictatorship. I am by no means going to be a dictator. The world we live in is not perfect by any means but is better than most. I personally do not think that I could perfect this world. In order to gain Utopia there must be Dystopia. Therefore my world could never be perfect. To achieve Utopia I must overcome the Dystopia, which then could cause more Dystopia. For example, in the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 lived in a supposed to be Utopia. The World Council is basically a dictator who controlls everybody. They end up taking the will from people. The civilians have no will to live because they have taken their freedom and have nothing to look forward to. Eventually, when trying to overcome Dystopia, I would be taking the freedom away from the people and controlling what they can and cannot do, which is wrong! There is no way to perfect my world without it leading to dictatorship.

Kiss Review

2009-03-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

How would you like to be a medical experiment without even knowing? Within the last week or two I have read the novel Kiss by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy. Shauna (the main character) has had a very rough life. She had a major car accident that put her in to a coma and made her brother half brain dead. When she wakes up from the accident six weeks later she cannot remember anything from the past six months! That would be awful! This book is full of suspense that never ends! I did not want to put this book down! She later finds out that her well trusted friends we actually her worst nightmares. I could not imagine finding that out for myself. On her long journey of trying to regain her memory she finds out interesting/heartbreaking/major eye-opening facts.

SPOILER!!!!!

In the end of the book she finds out that Wayne (her supposed to be boyfriend) tried killing her in that dreadful car accident and Patrice, her dads wife, planted her car and her apartment with Ecstasy. Then told the doctors to inject some her her blood stream to make it look like the accident was all her fault. In reality, her dad's company's faculty tried to kill Shauna by hiring hit men to set up the accident. I was shocked! She ends up surviving all of her harsh treatment and finding her "true" love and getting back in the family! Happy endings are my favorite!

322 pages

The Secret Life of Bees

2009-02-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

Love can be found in the strangest places. Lily Owens in relation to our theme "Taking a Stand" took a stand against her father and the legal system in this heartwarming story. When Lily found the house of three beekeeping sisters, that took her in like family. What Lily did not know is that they held the key to her mothers past. Her mother was killed when she was little. I absolutely loved this story. This inspired me greatly. This story also taught me that every cloud has a silver lining. Lily went through very tough times but never gave up.

Call of the Wild Review

2009-02-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Life just is not fair!! Living it up in the sunny Santa Clara Valley then being forced to pull a heavy sled for thousands of miles is not fair at all but Buck made the best of this adventure. Through thick and thin Buck held his ground and took stands for what he believed in even though lives were taken. I enjoyed this adventure story immensely. Some parts in this story were a little hard to understand but other than that this book was great! I am a dog lover so this story touched me in some ways. I am against animal cruelty so when Buck was abused I wanted to show the people who abused him what that felt like to be hit with a club and to see how much they liked it. Seeing the soft side of Buck come out when John Thorton took Buck in was admirable especially after being treated cruelly by other people. This showed me that even though times are tough there is always a better outcome.

Antigone Review

2009-02-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

In this play, Antigone was denied the right to bury her brother which in Greek times was an honor and one of the very few rights women had. I really enjoyed this play by Sophocles. I admire Antigone for standing up for what she believed in. In our society today standing up for what you believe in is becoming very difficult. I also greatly admire Haemon for standing up to his father. That takes great courage. I felt sorry for Creon at the end of the play when Creon realized that he was responsible for Antigone, his son Haemon, and his wife's death and that he would carry that excruciating guilt for the rest of his life. That would be enough to put me over the edge.

Taking a Stand

2009-01-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

In my eighth grade year I was a Stepper. Being a stepper for the most part was fun but there was nothing but drama the whole year. The older girls got to where they thought that they could boss me around and single me out because I was the littlest girl on the team and could do the moves that they could not do. When we were learning our "cowboy dance" with our cowboy hats two of the girls decided that they would criticize me on every move I made.
"Point your toes! That's not right! That turn was awful! Your jumps need to be higher!"
After a while I started to ignore them and apparently they noticed because they decided to get a little more personal with their remarks.
"Corey you need to lose weight. You won't ever get it right. You can't do your turns right because you are too fat! The only reason you have been going out with Will for a year is because you are too ugly to get another guy."
There are more comments but I cannot put them on here because of the vulgarity of some of the words. I finally asked them nicely to please stop but they continued with their comments but took them to a new level. Finally I told one of the captains and she said that she would talk to the girls then later inform Mrs. Wilson. That did not stop the comments. The girls would call me names while I was walking down the hallway and they somehow got my cell phone number and was leaving nasty voice messages. I realized that I had to stop this myself. During one of the next few practices I had one of the captains in the stalls listening to what they were telling me. I finally just yelled at them.
"This has to stop now! I don't know what you get out of making fun of me and other girls. All you are doing is trying to make yourselves look better because you are jealous of me and others. This is going to stop now! If the comments continue I will get the law involved and my uncle is a lawyer."
When I finished I walked out of the bathroom. The captain went and told Mrs. Wilson what had happened and the girls were almost expelled. The girls did not come and apologize to me but they did stop. This situation was very difficult for me. To this day I am very insecure from that incident but I am glad I made a stand because matters would have just gotten worse. Abusing people verbally is very hurtful and WRONG!!

Reflection of My Sophmore Year

2008-12-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well....so far my sophmore year has been been ok. I have had more homework than ever before. I like high school and learning but I would rather spend my time at home doing what I want to do. I like most of my teachers so that's a plus. I would like to have the club meetings during channel one instead of lunch. That way we could have more time to eat and talk to friends. If the meetings were during channel one I would be in more clubs than just Beta club. High school is ok. I'm just not a big fan of homework everynight.

Julius Caesar Leardership

2008-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Cassius was a good leader in the book Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. He is not the typical good-hearted leader. He manipulated the people around him. When Cassius was trying to manipulate Brutus into joining his conspiracy against Caesar, Brutus was quite disturbed by Cassius. Brutus finally gave in when Cassius reminds Brutus of his noble ancestry and of the expectations of his fellow Romans in Act 1 scene 2. Joining Cassius, the confused Brutus was still unsure of what to do. To accomplish his goal of removing Caesar from power, he resorts to using his keen insight into human nature to deceive Brutus by means of a long and passionate argument in Act 4 scene 3.

Thinking Win-Win

2008-11-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

My sister and I tend to fight 24/7. Most of the time the fights are over stupid things like who takes a bath in the morning or who gets to use the computer. The other day we were fighting over the mirror in the bathroom and the thought of win-win situation popped in my head. Instead of shoving her over and taking the mirror for myself I kindly asked her to take one step to the right. That worked out perfectly we were both able to share the mirror with plenty of elbow room to do our hair and make-up!

7 Habits

2008-11-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

While reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens I have realized that being proactive is the best way to live. Being proactive will help me get along with others and not lash out on people. Lately, I probably haven't been the sweetest person and I apologize. The past few days I have lashed out on a particular person, which we all know and love, and I feel horrible about it. Proactive is better than being reactive. Being reactive is basically acting upon impulse, which can get you into trouble fast. I have learned to make choices based on values not on impulse. We cannot control what happens but we can control how to respond to situations. Such situations like a girl is flirting with your boyfriend. The girlfriend can choose to confront the girl who is flirting with her boyfriend and tell her off or calmly talk to her about what she is doing and how she should stop. The proactive choice is to confront the girl that is flirting with her boyfriend in a calm manner and talk to her about what she s doing. Like the example in the book, proactive people are like water, you can shake them up all you want and they will not explode. Unlike reactive people, who are like soda cans, who will lash out on people without warning. Being proactive is a very rewarding lifestyle.

2008-09-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Never fear Miranda is here! Miranda Isabelle Collins is the main character in my sci-fi world. her three most admirable traits are beauty, accuracy, and determination. Miranda is about five feet five inches tall. She has blonde hair, brown eyes, and the body of a goddess. Miranda is drop dead goreous. Miranda works out for about two hours a day getting fit to keep up with the advancing villains. She uses the latest make-up and hair products to feel her best. Miranda is an assasin. she loves her job even though it means ending someone's life. She has to keep the alien race secret from the humans. Some aliens are like todays anarchists. They beleive that its better that they are known which isn't true. If they are known then war of the worlds might occur because of experimentations and other harsh means. Her job is to take out any alien who tries to expose their race and humans who are fixed on the idea that aliens exist. In order to hit her target everytime she has to practice everyday. She practices before she works out every day for about an hour or so. Miranda has to be very accurate. She has to take out her target everytime. If she is seen while she is in the act of taking out her target she could be killed so she has to be quick and silent. Assasins must be accurate at all times. In the event of her missing a target she might be killed while reloading because by then the people below would have heard the shot. New police man might suspect she is a murderer because they have not been told. Determination is also a quality of great assasins. The world is in her hands. She has great motivation therefore determination to keep the world safe. Miranda Isabelle Collins will never quit until she reaches her goals.

Sci-Fi as a Genre to Promote or not to Promote?

2008-09-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

In Pre-AP English 10 we read The Time Machine by H.G Wells. This novel is very...interesting. The adventures described in this novel were hard to follow. I enjoyed what i understood though. The adventures held my attention. The time traveler met some interesting people. Both the species described were descendants from humans. I liked the theme in the story. He was able to time travel but then he realizes that time traveling might not have been such a good idea. I like the Majority of science fiction media, however i don't like the cheesy movies like Alien vs. Predator. I promote science fiction as a genre because they have thrilling adventures and encounter new people, technology, and difficult situations!

Letter to the Next President

2008-09-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

This November will hold one of the most memorable elections in the history of the United States. If I was eligable to vote in this upcoming election I would vote for the candidate who is most appealing to me. His goals consist of monitoring government spending, lowering taxes, a plan for ending the war in Iraq, getting our troops home safetly, and well thought out plans for school. I would vote for John McCain.