Free write week 13- My family

For this weeks blog I have decided to write about my family. I would consider my family somewhat unique because I have eight siblings.  I have seven brothers and one sister. I am the youngest out all the kids. It was pretty crazy when I was growing up, and everyone still lived at my house, especially during the summer time, because there would always be a million people at my house. The worst thing about having a bunch of people at my house, was how there would never be any food at the house because all my siblings or there friends would eat everything, it was awful. Also not to mention that I was the smallest so I got last dibs on everything anyways. My sibling’s names are George, Paul, Terry, Luke, Jamie, Courtney, Phil, and Kevin. Now a days it is very rare that all of us are ever together at the same time due to the fact everyone lives in different places, the last time we all together was probably three years ago at Christmas.  However having all my siblings live in different places does have its advantages.  My brother Terry lives in Florida, My brother Phil lives in Hawaii, and my brother Kevin lives in California. These Three places are all my favorite vacation spots, so whenever I want to go to one of these places I have a free place to stay, which is pretty sweet. Also since I do not get to see all my siblings that often, I feel it gives me something to look forward too always.  This summer is going to be weird for me because for the first time in my life it is just going to be me at my house, since all the rest of my siblings have moved out. I think it is going to pretty weird since I am so used to a noisy house full of people, but now it is just going to be and my mom. I think it is going to be strange, but I might like having the house to myself, because at least now I wont have any one bossing me around all time.(363).

Free write Week 13 (Pirates much).

For this weeks blog I have decided to write about my favorite movie of all time Pirates of the Caribbean. Now I really love all four of the films in the series but I would have to say the first one “curse of the Black pearl” is my favorite of the 4.  Followed by the third movie, then the second one, and finally the fourth one. My favorite character in the Pirates movie would easily be Captain Jack Sparrow. Captain Jack is by far the greatest character ever invented in a film, he is so hilarious and crafty no one can ever beat him he is simply the best. My favorite line that Captain Jack Sparrow says is when ever he about to escape from a dangerous situation he always says “ this is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow” and then he always does a crazy getaway right after he says this. I have several favorite Captain Jack moments, but if I had to pick one I would say the first time he is introduced in the first film, when he sails in on a sinking ship, and right as the ship sinks he simultaneously lands on a boat dock. My most hated character in the film is easily Elizabeth Swan because in the second film she tricks captain Jack and leaves him to eaten alive by the Kraken (giant sea monster) this scene really made me upset and hate Elizabeth Swan forever.  Another thing I love about the movie is the music, I can not get enough of it, my favorite is the theme song. I literally watch this movie every night before I go to bed, I hope by the end of the school year I will have almost every line in the movie memorized. I also really want to get a pirates tattoo. I want to get the gold medallion tattooed on my wrist since that would be the only cool place to get it; however getting tattoos on your wrist is usually not a good place to get it, so I will probably never get it L. However I did get the medallion from Disney world, so I guess that’s the second best thing. I heard they are making a 5^th movie, which would be awesome, I really hope they do so I can see more of Captain Jack Sparrow (405). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7m5Int1hAA&feature=related- best scene 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZzHXQP08g- Best quote 

Research Strategies

I have a few different writing strategies I use when I have to do writing assignments for my classes. However it depends on what the writing assignment is. For example for my U.S History class this semester I have to write a six-page paper on a book I am reading “A strange Stirrings” and since I already have a topic for the paper which is to compare women rights from the book to todays standards. So what I do since I have the topic and I have to use a book, I use the same strategy as Rodriguez when she talks about using post it notes. As I read the book whenever I find a quote that fits with my topic I will mark it down, so when I start to write the paper I can go back and easily find it. I kind of use a similar technique when I have to do research assignments, like in my Com class last semester when ever I had to do a speech, I would first start by picking a topic to write about, and then research it first and find good sources, to make sure, that I will be able to find enough info to write a paper/speech about it. For this class I knew we were going to have to write a research paper, so I picked a movie “Blood Diamond” which I knew would have a bunch of good sources, since it is about events that have actually happened in the world. This is really the only planning type strategies I use, I just make sure before I start my paper or pick my topic I will be able to find support for my topic. Now when I am actually writing my papers, I do the same thing no matter what class or what I am writing. I find a comfortable spot as Rodriguez talks about, which is the library for me because it is quite and no distractions.  Now I find a big empty table and rent a laptop, since I do not have my own computer, and I work all the way through till I finish my assignment, also like Rodriguez talks about how she cannot work for a couple hours each day she has to do it all at once I am the same way, I just like to get in and finish it, I cant do it piece by piece. For my research strategies I keep it simple I make sure I can find support for my topic and then I write my paper all at once. So I guess my only tip to people would be, make sure when you pick your topic you can find good support for it. (456)

Reader response

I have always had a love hate relationship with close readings. The reason for this is because I like when, I do close readings and understand them, but when I have to do a close reading and have no idea what the text is talking about I hate them. However since we went into some details this week in class about close readings, hopefully not knowing what is going on will not happen as much. This week we learned about annotating the text we are reading, look for patterns, to ask questions about the text, and also look for underlying themes and meanings.These tips helped me this week for example when we read the story “Hills like white Elephants” , when I first read this I had no idea what was going on, but when I went back and looked for patterns in the story I found some information that helped me figure out what the story was  about, which was how the man in the story kept saying you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to and how he mentioned a operation needed to be done this lead me to believe the story was about abortion which it was. I liked doing the close reading on this story, but for the other ones we read in class I had a bit more trouble with, like the Lottery, Oates’ story, and the yellow wall paper, I did not really get how to do a close reading with these text, because I felt they were just stories, but then we had the discussion in class and I saw how everyone in the class was talking about the deeper meanings of the stories, which I just did not see.  However I did feel I did a good job with the response part and making connections with some of the stories, for example I connected ‘the Lottery” with a South Park episode. But overall it is clear I still need some work on my close reading skills, but after this week of class, I definitely y feel more comfortable with close readings and how to do them.(358)

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/164633/condoms-and-ritualistic-sacrifice here's the link to the south park episode that makes fun of the lottery