American Literature: "A Rose for Emily" Insight

American Literature: "A Rose for Emily" Insight: "A Rose for Emily" Insight From your first-draft and second-draft reading, you jotted down questions, connections, ideas, and more that y...
     The assignment is to pick an idea or question from your reading bookmark or second draft and really go in depth to discover and disclose the real information behind the comment. 
   To be fair, I did not really follow these directions. I wrote down the events in order to see the time frame these events fell under. 
   However, off the top of my mind, One thing I want to go a little further in depth on would be in the comment made by the author about her rather loose minded aunt. "People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last," (519). I believe the reason he put this comment in the story, was so that a little doubt would linger in your mind as you read. Even as you read, you would see ulterior motives that may or may not be present. The author cares to mention the relationship between her father and Miss Emily in the story as well, though perhaps not the way you'd normally see a father-daughter relationship. "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a  spraddled silhouette in the forefront, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip..."(519 to 520). So when Miss Emily dies, and they have firmly buried her, the curious townsfolk decide to break open the enclosed upstairs. In the bed they find her 'boyfriend' Homer, the gay construction foreman, and a single silver hair on the indented pillow next to his long dead body. 
    I believe Miss Emily was as crazy as her great-aunt. And the body is the dead cold truth.

 

American Literature: Aging Gracefully: prepping for Hawthorne

American Literature: Aging Gracefully: prepping for Hawthorne: "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"  written by Nathaniel Hawthorne      What do you like most about being the age you are right now?  What as...

American Literature: Aging Gracefully: prepping for Hawthorne

American Literature: Aging Gracefully: prepping for Hawthorne: "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"  written by Nathaniel Hawthorne      What do you like most about being the age you are right now?  What as...

 What I like most about being my age? I like the ease of life. Having a house and food that I have a direct right to. Despite the fact that I have to work to pay for some of the food, and that I have to maintain the house I live it. What I am looking forward to as I get older is having a full time job where I can earn a quality amount of money and I can see how I handle the challenges of life that every adult has to accept in order to live. What I am not looking forward to is the inconvieniences of less free time and a lot more sleepless nights worrying over the said challenges in ever adults life. How should age be measured? I don't quite see the point in this question . . . age does not have anything to do with life other than the age you can accept responsibility. You are as old as you want to be. Id have to say behavior.


Tori Hermsen

American Literature: "I Hear America Singing"

American Literature: "I Hear America Singing": Mash It Up!   We read and discussed Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" as well as Langston Hughes's "I, Too."  Type your modern vers...

   I hear the farmer, running his plow, singing in tune to the beating machine.
I hear the teacher guiding young minds, leading a chorus of youthful exuberance.
I hear the mechanic, doing his work, singing alone, happy and free.
I hear the fireman, saving a life, breathing his words in hopes of survival
I hear the judge, staying true, staying right, sing to America
I hear the daughter, a families reason to be, sing a song quite out of key.
I hear the son, protector and heir, singing his song for all to hear.
I hear the mother, leader and lover, singing and quaint peace.
I hear the father, supporter and true, singing for pride.
I hear the guard, hiding an endangered light, singing in sacrifice.
I hear the policeman, cleaning the street, singing his prisoners to sleep
I hear the star, modeling young lives, singing for cause,
I hear the student, learning for life, singing for a future
  I hear America, strong and true singing her song in different colors and hues.

    The poems each have their own spin, and while I had to use Whit's as a reference mine still has a little bit of Langston's message inside. They all have America included, and they both talk about how the country either sees or shows or speaks her opinion.
    The poems differ by the way they are put together, and the final message behind them. Whit talked about how the country was put together. Langston talked about his treatment and his hope for the future, and I talked about the different personalities inside America and their contribution to the future.

American Literature: Unit 1: Creation Story You've completed your read...

American Literature: Unit 1:  Creation Story
You've completed your read...: Unit 1:  Creation Story You've completed your reading of the Iroquois's myth "The World on the Turtle's Back."  Choose one of the two opt...

American Literature: Unit 1: Creation Story You've completed your read...

Tori Hermsen 

American Literature: Unit 1:  Creation Story
You've completed your read...: Unit 1:  Creation Story You've completed your reading of the Iroquois's myth "The World on the Turtle's Back."  Choose one of the two opt...
2.  The twins in this myth represent "two ways of the world which are in all people" - the "straight mind" and the "crooked mind."  Write your reflection  in which you agree or disagree with this view of human character.  Support your opinion with examples.

In this story the two twin do represent different types of mental statuses. Such as a normal person like you or I could have a stray thought to cause some minor damage to a person we don't particularly care for. Like say, one of my old babysitters; but we are typically a good natured type of person. Then you have the truly twisted people who think of nothing but revenge and how to get the upper hand. Like say, the Left handed Twin.
The Right Handed Twin did have a slightly twisted side, because if he had been true to himself, he wouldn't have lied about his one weakness, it would have remained a fair fight throughout the rest of eternity between the twins.
The Left Handed Twin did do some real good, making sure to keep the population down of the animals his brother had created, and then telling the truth. In my own opinion, I don't honestly believe he had been as truly evil as the rest of my classmates believe him to be. Honestly, the Grandmother wouldn't have favored an evil child over a truly good one, so I do think some of this story is left out, or meant to be left to the imagination of the reader, in either case, this story does have some complex thought and some inner soul searching if you think about this story in the correct way.

Unexpected Latin Remix

The other day I was downloading a music on my iPod and I came across a song that I wanted so clicked download with out looking at the words in parenthesis. I continued browsing for more songs while it downloaded. When it was finally finished I went and listened to it and it was in English so I figured it was all in English. I continued browsing for more songs and about half way through the song a guy jumped in and started seeing in Spanish. Confused I went and looked at the name and it said "Official Latin Remix" so I kept it.

When the FFA went to the state convention, we saw many people and things. It only stands to reason that in Ames we would hear some people speaking Spanish. We were on our way to the convention hall, we had just gotten out of the elevator in our hotel, and we heard someone speaking a foreign language. Immediately we recognized it as Spanish. We all looked at each other and kinda laughed, because they were talking so fast, we could hear little snippits of the conversation, but we could recognize some of the words they were saying! It was amusing, hearing how fast they could speak and still understand what the other was saying! It kinda blew my mind! I hope someday I will be able to talk that fast!

Shopping

Me and my mom were shopping two weekends ago when we ran into a mother and daughter. The mother was talking to her daughter in spanish and was telling her that she could only get one of the three shirts that she had picked out. They walked away and later we met them at the check out again and my mom asked me what they were saying and I couldn't tell because they were talking fast and I didn't recognize the words.

World War 1

World War 1

Today in World History we were talking about World War 1. Mr. Huegel told us that the Germans didn't want the U.S. in the war so they sent Mexico a coded letter telling them to attack the United States. Thinking about that, if Mexico would have attacked us think about how history would have changed, think about how the relationship of the U.S. and Mexico would be today. Things would be so much different and I'm glad they didn't attack us because we are so close to them and we have a lot of common.

Spanish music

Every other day I have study hall with Jenna Beitz. She usually plays music off of her Ipod while we do our homework. One day while her Ipod was on shuffle, a spanish song came on. The song "El beso del Final" was playing and we were wondering if all spanish songs were the same type and beat, so we looked them up. I liked the music we heard, it sounds different then our (besides the language). It had a different beat, some was more up beat than ours and they seem to have more emotion in their songs than ours.

Spanish

Me and my brother always talk Spanish when we don't wish for anyone in the room to know what we are saying.  It infuriates my other brother because he says this is America so if I want to speak Spanish I should go down to mexico and speak it there.  Randomly I will also talk Spanish to my dad and he will counter that with some German he learned in his youth.  This is maddening to me because whenever I ask him to teach me some he refuses and yet when I make him made with Spanish I offer to teach him some but he ultimately refuses that to.

Spanish people shopping

On Sunday I had to work. I was at the register and checking out this hispanic family. They had a couple pairs of clothes and some food. It was hard to understand cause when working the register you have to try to make the customer feel welcome and make small talk with them. They spoke in Spanish the whole time and I only understood alittle of it. I heard some words that we have learned and kinda was able to pick out what they may have been talking about to their kids.

I work at the Golden Stardust.  My and Jose wash dishes there. Our boss, Jim, gives each of us Hispanic names. I am Manuel. Jose is Carlos. Alaina Feltes is Rosarita. Jim says we are his Mexican workers. The End.

Mexican Food

My family and I were at someone house last Monday and they were making food and one thing the made was a Mexican food and i forgot what they called it but it looked weird. I didn't want to try it because I don't like a lot of different foods. Like Chinese, Mexican, or stuff like that. They insist that I try it, they said, "It tastes better than it looks." So I decided to just try it so they would shut up. When I tried it I made sure I had something to drink close by. I tasted it and it didn't taste bad but it's not something I could eat a lot of or eat very often if I would eat it again. That was probably the first thing I ever tried that was like really Mexican besides like tacos and chips and dip.

So for my blogs I just googled hispanic to get an idea of what to blog about and this website for hispanic heritage. Its a cool website that lets you look at the history and people in the spanish world. there is even a memory game on it.  Yes it is designed for younger kinds but the first time I played the game the word sandia came up and without even having to look at the picture I knew what it was.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/index.htm
And another game that I have found to do to study my spanish Is the free rice game. which is fun. but you already have that one on your website! which is how I found it!(:

My little brothers were watching Dora one time and it was Dora's birthday on that particular episode and at the very end they sang happy birthday. It was the happy birthday that we sing in class but they added more to it kinda like how we do with ours sometimes. I thought it was interesting because I knew a few of the words but I didn't know enough to fully understand the context of what they were singing.

My little brother Preston just turned four! one day I was doing my Spanish homework and he was like sissy I want to learn your words. Which he normally says when I'm doing homework and I told him they are not just normally words mom and dad speak but he was insistant I teach him new words. So I taught him to say hola me llamo Preston. It took him forever to figure out and keep in his mind exactly what to say but he got the hang of it after awhile and ran around the house saying it. Since then I have taught him a few words but he doesn't really remember them. I have been teaching him colors lately but I lose his attention quickly. ):

 My new favorite Spanish song is Danza Kuduro by Don Omar. It's a really up beat song with lots of girls in the music video, but thats besides the point. The first time I had heard this song was at a Cedar Rapids Kernals game. A Hispanic player for the Kernals had it as his warm up song. Whenever he was up I was up dancing. Haley didn't like that too much. The song translates like this put your hands up moving only the hips turn half around dance the Kuduro don't lose your breath now because this has just started Move your head dance the Kuduro. It's a great song I would recommend that everyone listen to it.

Black Ops

Me and Martinez play a game called Call of Duty Black Ops, which takes place during the cold war and in parts of Cuba.  Before taking Spanish class I had no idea what they were saying, but now I know what the Cubans were saying.  In the game, people yell, "Sacalo Papeles!"  which means get the paper, but I have no idea why they would say that.  I can also understand lots of other Spanish sayings in the game and I am glad I can understand it.  (I can't upload a picture from my computer it says error so here is a link.) BLACK OPS