Journal 10

We should have our vocabulary assignment set back to Wednesday.   I believe that the assignment should be moved because most of the students in our English class are not caught up on their blogs.  I have heard numerous people say that they are not caught up, and I took a look at a few of the students blogs and realized that a lot of the blogs that were assigned  are no where to be found.  The feeling of getting more homework, and not being done with the previous homework is not a good feeling.  It is like being held back by your homework, and you can not move on until you complete what  has been assigned.  If you are constantly behind, you are doing previous homework, and you are being assigned homework, and once you get done with previous assignment, you are still held back by the assignments that were assigned when you were making up the previous assignments.  The other reason I have for suspending our homework for Wednesday is that, it gives us more time to finish our homework.  I heard some students saying that they did not want to delay the homework.  Well, if it was delayed, than we have until Friday to get the assignment finished.  That gives us flexibility because if we were swamped with homework, which is likely, we do not have to get English done.  If we do not have homework, which is possible, than we can do the homework soon as possible, so that we get the assignment out of the way. It gives us flexibility to when we have to get our assignment done.  It is nice to because we do not have to stress about it until Thursday night or we do not have to stress about it at all.  Now I know that our assignment will be moved to Wednesday, so I will try to get the assignment done before so that on Wednesday I do not get as much homework.

Journal 9

Well, when people get emotional I tend to try and stay away because I just do not want to say anything that will offend anybody.  If I know the person pretty well, than I will try and cheer them up but saying something.
Last night, my old schools baseball team lost in the regional championship.  I go to the games because my dad coaches and I enjoy being around some of the kids, and my friend is also there.  They  lost the game when they should have won.  They were playing very well throughout the whole game and they were winning two to one in the sixth inning.  The other team scored two runs in the inning and we never got the runs back.  We had our best hitter on deck when the last out was made and I guarantee we would have at least tied the score.
There are two players that I am pretty close to.  One of the kids name is Michael, and he is the brother of my best friend who also comes to the game.  It was really hard to see them lose, because I will not be able to see them as much.  It was also hard for them because it was the last game for them.  They did not show as much emotion as I thought, but they were still disappointed when they lost.  I gave them each nucks, and told them that they had a great year.  It was hard for me to be rational because I was just as emotional as them.  I wanted to see them go to state, but that did not happen.  I told them that it was nice to be around them and  it was going to be hard to not have them around anymore.  They kind of helped me out by saying they would come to the practices and game next year, so I will still be able to see them and I go to Michaels house a lot so I will still be able to hang out with him.

Journal 8

Autumn, or fall as some people like to call it is a beautiful season.  It is pretty when all the leaves fall of the trees and you begin to get those orange, red, and all the different colors on the ground.  It is kind of bittersweet because when fall comes, summer goes.  You begin to see the hot weather disappear and the colder weather starts to creep in.  I love summer that is why it is kind of hard for me to realize that it is fall.  I like the warm weather and that leaves.  However when fall comes you know that it is football time, and postseason time for baseball.  Those are things that I always look forward too.
One story that I always remember about the season of autumn, is that my family would always go to my grandparents house.  When we were there we would rake all the leaves into one big pile, which took about an hour because one, it was such a big yard and two my sisters and I took a lot of breaks.  However, it was so much fun when we got all the leaves into one big pile and then we would jump into the leaf pile.    One game that we always played was, I would bring my football and throw it into the leaf pile and then two people would jump in and try and find the football.  Whoever found it first and ran back to the house won.  We would rake the leaves back up and do it over and over.  I am not going to lie, I was probably the best, but I am not going to gloat about it.
The season of autumn, like I said earlier is very bittersweet.  Cold weather and school are in session, but with autumn comes the beautiful sites and football season.  It is probably tied for second on my favorite season, behind summer and tied with spring.

Crucible Act 4

First of all I want to talk about how amusing reading the story Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" was.  I do not think that you (Mr. Langley) were there when we read this story, but we listened to the story on the big computer screen and it was so loud.  Jonathan Edwards was constantly yelling, practically throughout the whole story, and I could not help but to laugh.  It was like this man had woken up on the wrong side of the bad, and everybody around him was in danger of getting yelled at.  He was going on a rampage.
In both stories people were getting away from God in a way.  In "Sinners in the hands of an angry God", people were starting to lean away from God and the church, and by doing this, the church took the task of getting them back by the threat of fear.  They intimidated them in ways to come back to God.  In the Crucible, the characters started going astray from God and started dealing with witch craft.  In both stories, the people in each community began to go away from God and they tried things that they should not have, which ended up getting them in trouble, especially in the Crucible.  In both stories, they share the same message in that if you confess to your sins you will be saved from hell.  I would have to disagree with that though.  Just because you confess to what you have done wrong does not guarantee a path to heaven for you.  You have to believe that God is the one and only.  It does help to confess what you have done wrong, but that is not the only thing that you have to do to receive eternal life.
One quick resemblence in a character that I see, is that Jonathan Edwards and Abigail both scare people in order to try and get what they want.

Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! She goes to Betty and roughly sits her up. Now, you-sit up and stop this! (Miller 18).

She is very demanding in the way she talks to Betty during this time.  It is understandable howerver, because she does not want to get in trouble.  Whereas, Jonathan Edwards is just blowing smoke because he is mad at everybody and he has nothing to hide, like Abigail does.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Glencoe Literature. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2010. Print.

Journal 7

Bullying is something that goes on in every school.  It does not just happen in schools, it happens all around the world inside and outside of schools.  It is really unfortunate to have bullies, but it is real and it happens everyday.
Bullying has more an effect on the victim than it does on the   person doing the bullying.  You really do not see the bully crying or upset after he  gives someone a swirly.  I think that an affect on a bully is that he feels better about himself after he destroys a kids life.  For some reason, the bully has to beat someone up to make himself feel good.  I do not know why he has to do this, because I do not consider myself a bully, but for some reason by beating a kid up the bully feels like he is on top of the world.  It makes him feel like he is dominate.
Now on the opposite side of things, the victim is the one who is emotionally and physically destroyed by a bully.  You mostly think of bullying as someone getting a swirly, but bullying can be anything.  It can be as small as saying you are stupid, or something like that.  The victim is truly the one who is affected by the situation.  He not only gets the pain of whatever the bully does to him, but he also gets the embarrassment of people finding out.  It is really sad to think about how that person must feel.  I really have never had nothing traumatic ever happen, so I can not even imagine the pain he must go through.  He will never feel the same about himself for a long time, and possibly ever.  It is a scar that he will live with for the rest of his life.  Bullying does affect two people, both in different ways, but when people think about bullying they usually think of the victim getting victimized.

The Crucible-Human Nature

What is human nature?  I honestly have heard the word a million time, but I reall do not know what the true meaning of human-nature is.  So what did I do?  I looked it up online.  Human nature is the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind, especially in contrast with other living things. For dummies like me, I still did not fully comprehend it, but the best explanation in simple terms is how we (I believe our mind, but I will just say we) react to certain situations.  It is like what we do on an everyday basis and how we react to comments good or bad that are thrown at us.
A major human nature "thing" is when something happens and the blame is put on you.  What is the first thing you do when something like this happen.  You try and find a way to put the blame on something or somebody else.  You always do it, you may not say it, but you always think of ways to get the blame off of you.  It is human nature to do that sort of thing, because nobody wants to get in trouble or to be at fault.
The first thing that pops up into my head was how people seemed to blame everything on witch craft.  It could have been the smallest thing, but people were always trying to find a way to put the blame on something else, in this case, it happens to be witch craft.  The first example of this was when the reader found out the news of Betty and how she is now ill.  "I'd not call it sick; the Devil's touch is heavier than sick.  It's death, y'know, it's death drivin' into them, forked and hoofed." (Miller 13).  Right away Mr. Putnam believes that it is witch craft that she is affected by.  It literally takes all but a few quotes from him to find out what he blames the situation on.  Going along with this, but in the other way is how Parris feels. "Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft.  I know that you-you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me.  We cannot leap to witchcraft.  They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." (Miller 14).  The first thing that I believe Parris thinks, is that he does not want his daughter to have this topic called upon her.  Then he realizes that his name will be affected by Betty, if indeed she is infected with witch craft.  It is like a parent watching over their kid.  A parent will do anything to protect their children.  Parris is a little selfish when he thinks about himself instead of Betty, but they watch out for their children.
Another instance, was when the doll had the needle stuck in the chest.  People did not know the facts, but were quick to jump on the situation, that they blamed on witch craft right away, and it seemed like everybody was going crazy (Miller 115-120).  People have tendencies to do this, which if you think about it, is pretty awful, but it is human nature.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.

Journal 6

Well, if you blame somebody for something he or she did not do, than a lot of things could come back to haunt you.  For one thing, that person will definitely not like you from now on.  If you say something that he or she did not do, than it would be telling them that they are the dumbest person ever.  What do you expect as a response to that?  If you expect them to like you still, than maybe you are the dumbest person, but you should expect them to hate you.  Another setback that could come with lying about someone else, is that your reputation could be affected by this in a negative way.  If somebody finds out that you lied about someone or something, than that could come back to hurt you.  Word will get around that you lied about someone, and people will begin calling you a liar and they will not believe you in the future.  There is nothing worse than not being trusted by other people.  Soon it is like people do not want to be around you and pretty soon you will not have any friends.
Another major problem about lying about another person is that one, that person will feel really bad that you just made something up about them.  Two, people may not know that the person is lying and they will take what they said for the truth and they will view the other person a lot differently.  That person that was lied about may never be able to regain what he had if people think that what was said was true, and they will be devastated by what happened.  Either way, if it is a lie it will hurt both people, so you may as well not make up a rumor that can be spread.  It will either come back to haunt you, or it will haunt the person possibly for the rest of their life, so just do not say it.

Crucible Act 2

The true colors test was a test that we took in health when we were freshmen.  I remember I picked orange because all the other guys picked orange and I did not want to look stupid being different.  So when we took the test the other day I was not surprised to see that my color had changed.  I went from being orange to gold, and after reading and hearing what gold was, I knew that was where I belonged.  We gold, tend to be the organizers (My True Colors).  We keep everything going on track and provide a schedule for what needs to happen.  We also tend to have a little bid of the obsessive compulsive disorder, and that is truely where I fit under.  There are three other colors besides gold, there is green, blue, and orange, like I said earlier.  The green people tend to be the ones that know they are right.  They like to look at the facts of everything, and from that they get their knowledge.  Then there is the blue people, who tend to be the compassionate type of people.  They do not like when people get into arguments, and they want everybody to get along.  They also like to give hugs (just saying).  The last color is orange.  They tend to be the people that just go get the task done.  They are not shy and Caleb Harney is a perfect example of this color (My True Colors).  He fits the bill perfectly for the group of orange.
The first character that I am showing their colors is Abigail.  Abigail is a little confusing on which color is her dominate, but the two colors that I believe she possesses are blue and orange.  She is definitely orange because of when she was dancing, in the woods, the dancing was associated with witch craft, but she keeps on denying that it had nothing to do with witch craft.  "We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.  And there's the whole of it." (Miller 10). Just like what you (Mr. Langley) said about Caleb.  They know that they are not right, but they argue with the other person for a long time period that they end up just giving up and that is how they win.  The other color associated with Abigail is blue.  I think blue is a love color.  Marry is head over heels for John Proctor. (Miller 150).  She loves him even though she is not loved back.
Mary Warren is a blue.  The one thing that I remember about when we were discussing the description of the characters is that blues wanted to make everything right.  They did not want to have any arguments or any enemies.  Mary did that in court, when Elizabeth was said to be doing witch craft.  Mary quickly jumped in and stopped all of that discussion, because she did not want Elizabeth mad at her, and because she knew that Elizabeth had nothing to do with witch craft.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

My True Colors. My True Colors, Inc. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://www.mytruecolors.com/truecolormeaning.asp>.

Journal 5

Punishments tend to vary from household to household.  It really depends on the kid and the parents.  If the kid is an overall good kid than is it really a good idea to punish him severly.  You have to punish them for what they do but if he is a good kid, start small and then get bigger.  If it is a bad kid who tends to not follow the rules at any time, than you should punish them more severly.  I really think that it all depends on the kid and parents, going back to what I said earlier.
Punishment for overall good kid:  So say the kid is a good kid, who follows the rules, but somehow manages to slip up once.  I think that if it is the first time, a warning or a talk with parents about what he did is good.  If he keeps breaking the rules, than you can get into taking phones, no facebook, and no video games.
Punishment for overall bad kid:  If a kid is constantly screwing around and breaking the rules than you have already passed the warning stage.  You have given him the warning, so it is time to move on and get more serious.  I do think that taking phones, internet, video games, etc. is a fair punishment.  What do kids love most these days?  They love facebook, texting, and all of the technology types of things.  So to punish that kid take away what he loves.  If you punish him with things that are not very serious or things that he does not care about than what lesson are you teaching him?  You mess up, but we do not care is basically what you are telling him.  You have to get to what he loves, so that he will realize that what he is doing is not okay.  If you take away things he loves, than he will stop getting in trouble because he does not want to lose those belongings anymore.

Crucible Act 1

Before I get started on the blog, I want to say that I was very confused with all that was going on in the Crucible.  I followed a little bit of it, but when all the characters started coming in and talking at once, I got lost with what was saying.  So there may be some things that I interpreted a whole different way than what the actual meaning of a certain text, response, or quote was.
As it starts off, I understand that Mr. Parris is praying for Betty, his ten year old daughter.  She is supposedly deamed to have witch craft, but right away you can tell that it favors Puritan style writing, in that he was praying (Miller 7-8). If the Puritans took the Bible as the exact word of God, and followed it to a "T", than the Puritans would have prayed for help, just as Mr. Parris prayed for help on his daughter Betty. "Reverend Parris is praying now, and, though we cannot hear his words, a sense of his confusion hangs about him.  He mumbles, then seems about to weep; then he weeps, then prays again; but his daughter does not stir on the bed." (Miller 8).  Another quick thing that I noticed is that the government that the Crucible displays is a Theocracy, rule by God through some sort of religious officials.  Understanding that the Puritans wanted to simplify the word of God, they must have had the same type of government as the people and community have in this story.  God was the central focus in both the puritan community and the community of the story.  Everything they did revolved around the central aspect of God.
One thing that I did not quite understand was the whole witch craft topic.  I did not understand as to why they talked about witchcraft so much.  The Bible says not do have anything to do with witch craft and if the puritans took the Bible as how to follow God than surely they would not have had anything to do with this topic.  In Psalms 34:7 it says that "God's angels guard those who honor the Lord and rescues them from danger."  You do not need help from satan, or anything involved with satan, so the Puritans would not have associated themselves with witchcraft.  That is a difference from the people in this story.  Betty, Abigail, and the maid for Parris, and Tituba went out in the forest and associated themselves with witch craft.  That is what the Bible says not to do, therefore that is definitely a difference between them and the Puritans.  I am not sure if the Puritans called anybody for having witch craft, but they definitely did not "do" witch craft.
I was not real fond of Mr. Parris.  I did not like how he conducted himself.  He did not want to put his name at risk by letting everyone know that Betty could possibly be possessed with witch craft. He was focused on himself instead of the health of his daughter.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006. Print.

Journal Four

Traveling is something you have to do in order to get to your destination.  Wherever you are going, whether it be Florida, California, New York or wherever, you have to either get in the car or get on a plane to get to the place you want to go.  If you are taking a plane, it is not so bad, because I enjoy traveling via an airplane, but if you are traveling in a car for say over ten hours, well that is not so enjoyable.
When I was in eighth grade, our family took a vacation to St. Petersburg, Florida.  We were all excited to go, because we had not been to Florida for a few years, and we were excited to get out of the cold weather and into the warm weather.  Unfortunately, we had to travel in the car for sixteen hours or so, with three sister and two parents.  It got very cramped inside the car, because we had our luggage, and people need space.  So as we took off, we were very excited because we felt Florida was so close, but yet it was going to seem like forever until we got there.  So as we took off, we were making plans, what was the first thing we were going to do, are we going to the beach or pool first?  About an hour into the trip, we began asking the question, are we almost there yet?  The same answer for the next twelve hours, was no.  We began to get very tired, cramped, and angry at each other, because we were so tired of the being in the car, and we just wanted to be on the beach.  We finally got to Florida and we were all excited and it felt good to stretch your legs.  Traveling is not fun.  You get so excited about where you are going, that you forget that you have a long time until you get there.

Puritans vs. Mayflower

So as I started to get going on the new story we had to read.  I recognized the title and remembered that I had read this story before.  It may not have been the exact story, but I remember reading this story at my old school, which helps me a little bit because at least I have a background of what is going on in the story.
This story is about the pilgrims, who wanted to separate from the Church of England.  At first I thought that they were the exact opposite of the puritans who wanted to purify the church.  Then I thought that to purify the Church of England, the puritans would have to separate from the church.  So I believe that these two groups were in common beliefs.
Last class we talked about the Providence of God (to provide), and I noticed that in this story they mentioned the Providence of God.  "...they resolved to bear up again for the Cape and thought themselves happy to get out of those dangers before night overtook them, as by God's good Providence they did." (Bradford 65).  We really went into detail about how Go provided so much for Mary Rowlandson, and now we begin to see the same things in this story.  I do not know much about sailing, but when there is a storm, the last place you want to be is in the ocean, and the pilgrims got out of it due to God's providence.  With this blessing that God gave them, they quickly began to thanks him.  "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element." (Bradford 65).
When the Indians and Pilgrims began to meet each other they began to grow a close bond.  They were grateful for one another, and they made rules for each other (Bradford, 67). There were six rules, but it made me think of the ten commandments.  Even though the Indians and the pilgrims made six "commandments", and God had ten commandments, I believe that this is a reference from the Bible, in putting down guidelines to what you can and can not do.  One of the commandments that was similar to the rules, was do not steal.  That is how it is said in the Bible, but in the rules it is said that if anything is taken that it shall be restored.  The other one that I found is do not covet your neibors valuables.  In the story it is a little different, but I believe that the same meaning is implied.
One last thing that reminded me of the Puritans writing was that the story was similar to a journal.  It was like this in the last story, but it had headings as to what was going on which is very similar to how a journal would be.

Bradford, William. "from of Plymouth Plantation". Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 64-67. Print.

Journal Three

Yesterday, I went to the bank to make a deposit.  I am really not for sure why I went into the bank, because I could have gone through the drive-thru, but I went in instead.  What was to come was highly unfortunate.
So I was waiting in line to make my deposit.  It was a very long line and unfortunately the air-conditioning was out.  Finally, after a half an hour wait, I was next in line, when all the sudden I heart shots.  Boom! Boom! "Get on the ground."  There were about five guys with guns threatening to kill us if we did not do what they said.  They told us to give up our electronic devices and to sit along the wall.  Well, being the rebel I am, I told them I left my phone at home.  Stupid of them, they believed me.  They took all of us to a room upstairs, while they took the bank manager to the vault.  We were in the room for a while with a man watching us, so I could not take out my phone and call for help.  Right when everything was going right for them, a little setback came.  The manager was not giving them the combination to the vault, so the man that was watching us left, and a new guy came.  However, during this time, there was a thirty second time period that no one was watching us.  I immediately called 911, and told them we were being held hostage at the Illinois State bank.  I got the phone call done before the new man got into the room.  It was just a matter of time before the cops got here and we would all be saved.  The cops arrived but could not come in due to the fact that the men were armed.  So now it was the hostages time to shine.  We all ganged up on the man, knocked him out and took his weapon.  I fired the weapon at each mans leg and injured them.  The cops came in secured the man, and we were all safe.