Final Reflection Blog Post

This roller coaster symbolizes how I feel when I am reading. I love to read and do it just about everyday as long as I'm not swamped with other schoolwork. Whenever I have down time I like to just pick up a book and go into a fantasy world somewhere far off... that is until reality comes knocking on my door and lets me know that its midnight and I haven't even started my homework. The second we got assigned The Color of Water early on in the year I thought I was going to dread it but it was a good book, so it didn't bother me so much. I loved how this year one of our assignments was to read a book that I got to choose, not one that I was assigned. That was probably the best part about English this year.

To be honest, I really, really, really don't like blogging. I feel like it is pointless and doesn't serve any purpose. Like, why do I have to write and reflect about a book I just read? Why does it matter what other people think about my thoughts on a certain subject? My point is, it doesn't! I think blogging was just a way to get us to try and advance our diction, syntax, and overall literature abilities. I would rather have just wrote and essay every two weeks instead of blogging because I love reading but blogging... it sucks.

This picture of a jigsaw puzzle is what I chose to symbolize my freshman year. Freshman year was probably the best, and the most stressful, year of my life so far. I've learned a lot from my family, friends, and teachers throughout the year. Coming into high school and hearing what freshman year would be like was a lot different than what it was actually like. I also thought I would make a bunch of new friends, and I did make some but I still not sure that some of my teachers know my name... It's just a lot different than expected. I have grown a lot from the beginning of the year to now, I've learned a bunch of new ways to take on high school and the world in general. One of the things that I'm going to try doing for year is to stop procrastinating as much as I did this year and try to balance fun with school a little more.

World War Z continued...

So, I finished World War Z last week and let me tell you the book was absolutely fantastic and if you ever get a chance I would definitely recommend that you read it, and if you like it then watch the movie, preferably in that order. So what happened in the rest of the book...

After basically the entire world became infected with the disease, South Africa devised a plan to small enclosures called safe zones and to populate safer territories. Many people also went to the cold regions of the world as zombies can't function there. Even if they were safe from the zombies many people died due to the freezing temperatures and the lack of supplies.

The United States eventually made a safe zone to the west of the Rocky Mountains where all the uninfected citizens would go and help in the effort against the disease.

A few years after the outbreak began a conference of all the worlds leaders was held off the coast of Hawaii. Many of the leaders thought that the remainder of the human race could just wait it out but the U.S. thought that the best idea would be to start going on the offensive. Their plan works and they take back the U.S. from the zombies.

Ten years after the Zombie War ended, there were still millions of zombies alive, well "alive", on the ocean floor and many of the countries are forced to remake their borders due to the creation of new infected zones. Most countries are on their knees and with much of the human civilization gone the goal is to protect whatever we have left.

I thought that this book was great although I probably would have enjoyed it more if watched the movie after I read the book because I could anticipate everything that was going to happen in the book. But, either way I would recommend this book to anyone who likes apocalyptic type stories.

Here's the trailer for the movie if anyone is interested

Columnist Blog Post

I chose to analyze the column "Something to Remember for Thanksgiving" by Mary Schmich.

1. How does the author want the reader to feel while reading the column?

I think that Schmich wants the readers to feel nostalgic. The author is talking about a happy moment that happened during her childhood. "The day was sticky hot, and somewhere outside came the bell of the ice cream man." Most people will be able to relate to a similar moment that happened to them in their childhood and she is trying to make them yearn to have that one moment and their childhood happen again.

2. What does the author want the reader to realize?

I think the author wants the reader to realize that how much money you have and can afford to spend is all based on your financial situation. What one person might think is poor another person might think is rich. Schmich also wants the reader to realize that the smallest things in life can make the biggest difference and it isn't all about money. A small action to a stranger might make all the difference in that persons day. She is trying to encourage the audience to do these small acts of kindness.

3. What is the purpose of the column?

The purpose of this column is to show the reader that each person will see a different value in different things based on their state of mind and that even the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference in someones life. This column is trying to encourage people to make those small gestures and be the difference in someones life.

4. How does the author use diction and syntax to convey the message?

The author uses simple and informal diction to so she can easily relate to the reader. She doesn't try to use over complicated diction to make the column sound elegant, she tries to make it start sound and feel natural to the reader. The way she tells the story makes it very easy for the reader to relate to.

5. What is the value of the column?

The value of this column is that it makes people look at the struggles that others less fortunate than the reader have to go through. It also makes people that are more fortunate grateful for what they have. It also shows the reader how they can be the change in someones life and how the smallest things can mean everything in the world to someone.

Blog Post #7

Over the past few weeks I have been reading World War Z, an apocalyptic horror book by Max Brooks. I watched the film version back when it came out in 2013(probably should have read the book first...) and thought it was really good, but never really got around to reading the book until now.

The story is told by a series of interviews done by Max Brooks, an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission. The origin of the plague isn't know but a boy from a small Chinese village is identified as Patient Zero. The plague started in China, and even though they tried to contain it, the effort was useless and it continued to spread.

Several nations, mainly ones closer to the devastation, started to initiate nationwide quarantines. The United States it too confident in their ability to handle the threat and tried to stop public panic by marketing a placebo vaccine. Many areas around the world fall into greater chaos, such as Iran and Pakistan who engage in a nuclear war to try and stop the flow of refugees in and out of their countries. A few weeks after, New York City falls gets overrun by the zombies, which didn't really come as a surprise seeing how overconfident the U.S. was. The army was sent in but failed miserably after never being faced with such a relentless opponent.

I only finished about half of the book because of all my test and other schoolwork, but this is one of those book that when you pick it up and start reading it, it's hard to put it down. So far I think that book is great in the sense that you don't know what to expect and that suspense is the reason you want to keep reading.