Reflective Essay

~Hi. Mr. Sutherland, just to let you know, this isn't one of my best pieces. With this whole week being crazy, my brain is dead.~
-After I have written this, I realize that I am repetitive and my coherence is horrible. Please bear with it.-

Throughout this whole blogging thing, I have learned so many new things about my writing. Last year, I was still trying to discover whether or not I had a knack for it, and right now, I still don't know. There are many things that inspire me to write, and most of what inspires me helps me write the posts are the ones that turn out to be my favorites.

There are many things that I have learned from writing these posts. One is that I am a comic book-movie geek, I get too obsessed with TV Shows, and I have this weird thing with Friday Night Lights and Scott Porter, which to some people sounds weird, but I don't know. Which leads me to my next blurb, my inspiration. One of my first posts was ultimately, the building block to the rest of my posts, Pretty Little Liars vs. Huge. The reason for that is because, it served as the building block for my free poaboutsts, my inspiration for them were what caught my eye, literally, today. all those TV shows and what not. It wasn't just TV shows either, there was one of my posts, What happened to our teenage movies?, that I thought people would have thought of writing about, but didn't. How this inspired me was that movies these days were turning out horribly. The only thing I wanted to do was blog about it:

 "Now, one thing that they all have in common is one thing: Grasping the teenage population with their finger. With these movies and TV shows that are broadcast to us, I start to wonder whether or not the people that watch them ever get tired of seeing the same people on their screens. I mean, back in the day, the ‘heartthrobs’ had distinct features that made them who they are. Now, all the males have the same attractive eyes, most of them the same skin tone, and all of them with that mop of hair.

This quote from the teen movies post, showed how far I went as a writer, from my knock-off of Twilight novel in 8th grade, to now, where I actually know how to place my words and make it sound actually legible.
I guess, this is the one sentence that really stood out to me out of all my posts. I actually worked on this and made sure that what I put in those sentences made sense and worked well with the coherence of the post.

One of my favorite posts was response post to Karissa.  In that post, she talked about all the Disney stars and why Disney makes them all sing. I was really proud of this post because it was one of my first response posts, and I actually worked on it. It also related to almost all of the posts that I had written about. TV shows and that stuff:

I guess Disney and us too are just growing up too fast to notice that we miss the classics. I personally miss Phil of the Future.

This quote doesn't say much obviously, but I'm just relating this to my writing. As I learn and progress more, I don't realize how far I get with my writing. As I mentioned above, my writing skills have grown with the more that I learn every single day.

While still on this quote, I chose this one to post up because I do miss my classic shows, and I do miss Phil of the Future and Zoey 101. Zoey 101, was the first show that I could recall, canceled because the main character got pregnant. I can't blame her. She is Britney Spears' sister after all. These shows were the ones that really taught me about life in general, whereas the new shows these days are just echoing them. Which I think is just stupid. The shows these days just don't live up to my expectations as before. And I can predict that in the future, the kids that are only like 6 or 7 are going to say the same about the shows these days too. Of how they're going to miss the 'classics' like Hannah Montana or The Suite Life on Deck. The Suite Life on Deck isn't that good. The original The Suite Life of Zack and Cody was more adventurous and it was funny. Not the new one.

My least favorite post was the response that I had to Tiffany and Amber G. The reason why I didn't like it that much was because it was just bleh. Half of the word count from that came from the quotes itself, and I just didn't like it. It was a brain dump to me. Also, as of right now, that post is the worst possible thing to happen to me, that and Day 2(which I will not post a link to).

To sum this all up, most of my inspiration comes from what my old middle school counselor would say, "where a normal teenager would be right now." Yes, that means movies and Harry Potter and Pretty Little Liars. Of my least and favorite posts, it really says a lot about who I am. Re-reading these posts again even only after a few months, I get flashbacks to Ms.Valdez' class last year and I realize that I did use some of what she taught us in my writing. (Even though I never really did get good grades on her essays). This is going to sound corny, but my inspiration comes from the life that I am living right now, even with the response posts, I use some of what happens to me to respond to those posts. The blog posts have helped me expand as a writer and I'm getting better at writing too. (right now, I came up with an idea to write a novel that's good, unlike my old one. The Twilight knock-off with my made up super-humans that are called 'tempermentals' that I wrote 5 chapters too, and used the last chapter in my portfolio for ASTI) Oops. Run-on. Still have some writing flaws.

NO. FML

Mr. Sutherland. I saved my post, proofread it again for a once-over and then when I pressed 'Publish' It was gone. I have no idea what happened, but would it be cool if I could do it tomorrow? -_-

Day 7: Your Favorite Actor/TV personality

Dear Scott Porter :D

You have no idea how big of a fan I am to you. You deserve a bigger break. It's kind of sad how you star in movies that people think are going to be big, but aren't, like Bandslam. I thought it was going to be big too.

You're really talented.You can sing and act. And play guitar. And is a comic book geek. Yeah, I noticed you Fantastic 4 shirt for that one premiere.

When you have your first single released on iTunes, I'm going to buy it. I already have Pretend, which is really cool by the way.

I can't wait until Jason Street comes back for FNL.

Bigger Break, that means you get the part of either Superman or Flash. Because every actor starts out small (no pun intended) right? For (bad)example, Robert Pattinson did not get big (pun intended) until Twilight, but for me, and other people, he's still small (jk)

Have fun with your life.

-Kim, a really big fan of yours.

P.S. for family time, we had a question (Which celebrity would you take to prom?) I chose you or Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Prom Night reference. lol

Day 5: Your Dreams (and Day 6)

Hi dreams.

I really don'twant to talk about it, or I'll start going off on an Inception talk. Which is true.

Yeah. I have alot of dreams at ASTI so that means something.
Also, I learn that if you dream about a specific someone, then they were thinking about you that night. Coolio.

I found me totem. It's coin. (MINE)

I'll just venture off into Day 6.......

Day 6: A stranger

The only thing that can come up on my mind while typing this is "Breathing Underwater: Episode 12 'Love with a Stranger,'" which is also a song. Also, for some reason, this reminds me of Aragorn. Don't ask me why.

I wish stranger were the same one like Chad in the episode. He was cool. And he just talked out of nowhere to Marie. That was really sweet of him.

One thing I hated though, was him giving her the scarf when he could have just given her his trench coat. He was wearing a suit under that.

Anyways stranger, I hope we can meet one day. (Right Daniel?)

The Central Conflict of Night

In Night by Elie Wisel, The main character, Elie gets sent to concentration camps when he was 15. He gets separated from his family, and it is during that time that he tries to figure out where he belongs. Elie faces many character-vs-self moments when he tries to figure out who he is, and what his place in the world is, even if he is in a concentration camp.

During the beginning of the book, Elie already has his mind set on what he wants to be, a rabbi. All that changes though, when him and his family get sent to live in a ghetto.And after that, him getting sent to the concenration camps, where he learns that the only thing he can do to stay alive, is only fend for himself, nobody else. "Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal's flesh. Had I changed so much, then? So quickly?" (37). Elie realizes sooner than later, that whatever he does, his father whould have to go through what Elie went through. Elie gets separated from his family, and is only left with his father. In the book, he never sees his mom or his younger sister Tzipora ever again. It is here that something sparks inside of Elie that makes him realize that if he doesn't have his whole family with him, then he has to stick with whoever he has left(his father) and fight until they can get out of their obstacle.

There are many obstacles that Elie faces while in the concentration camps, and that includes keeping to himself what is rightully his. While in the camp, he has a gold crown, which normally, the Nazis would take,but Elie would not let them take it. The officers offered to give him extra rations of food, ut he did not budge. Soon though, they did take his crown. "But that did not last long.A fortnight later, all the Poles were transferred to another camp. I had lost my crown for nothing," (54).  Usually, around this part of the book, Elie becomes more independent and is starting to explore without his father. Here, he knows that he could use his gold crown for some bread when he really could use it, but with the officers and even prisoners around, he knows he probably won't stand a chance against trying to hide his crown from them.

Towards the end of the book, Elie has the sense of feeling,  that the way his life would end would be death at the concentration camp. He already knows that if he keeps hoping for something good to happen, then it will just jinx him and something bad would happen. "I did not know myself what I wanted-for the day to pass quickly or not. I was afraid of finding myself alone that night. How good it would be to die here!" (72) Elie faces a character-vs-self moment when he realizes that if he loses his father, then he would not know how to live after that. Should he just go on with life and just not hope for anything? Or should he just move on. In this part of the book, his father is still with him, but he is more distant from Elie as ever before. Elie's dad starts to turn into one of the prisoners. One that only fends for themselves. Elie has never seen this side of his father before, Elie realizes then and there that the people in the camps do only care about themselves, and if he wants to survive, then he must also do the same thing, no matter who is holding him back.

The Night book, shows most of Elie's character-vs-self side. He is constantly going against what is right within him, and what should be done as said by his fellow prisoners. He learns that sooner or later he will have to fend for himself, even with his father tagging along behind him.

Auschwitz Sign, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and more.

Alright, so when I heard that we were reading Night, I instantly remembered when read the first few chapters and remembered this piece of new I heard the very same day:

The Auschwitz sign out side ("Work Sets You Free") had been stolen.

At first, I didn't really care about it, but as I learned more about the Holocaust, that was when I realized how important that sign was to our history, even if that history leaves bad visions inside our heads.

Also, I think it was the same year, I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC and I admit it. I cried. From the first time I stepped into the elevator to the ghetto they made, until I stepped outside and took a moment to think about what just happened to me in there.

There was one thing that stood out to me in the memorial, there was this walkway, and lining the walkway were shoes. These shoes, belonged to those that died in the Holocaust. I remember I couldn't move and say to myself that I should go back to my group, but I just stood there looking at the shoes and reminded myself of the people that died for us. They died so that we would not have to suffer the way they did.

And that reminded me of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas(which we should watch Mr. Sutherland). The ending scene of the movie, there were these two boys, and they were caught in a group of prisoners that were going to be killed in the gas chambers. Everyone thought that it was going to be a shower, but they were wrong. They were going to be killed by the gas Zyklon B. And those two boys were in there. One of the boys was the son of an SS officer, and the other was Jew in the camp, they were friends from across the electrical gate.

And to think, this was all from us reading Night.

Breast Cancer ftw :D

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The way I'm contributing is by helping fundraise for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk, in which ASTI is making a team to walk in San Francisco. I'm not of the age limit yet, but next year, me and possibly Saskia are going to be the co-captains for the 'ASTI for Breast Cancer' team.

This year, we already have some sophomores, juniors, and A senior who are willing to make a team.

The goal?

approx. $2,515

It's $1,800 dollars for the team and $65 for each person to register.

That's our goal. And we already have a starting fund of over $100 from a movie night we did last year.

Alright, October is a great month to start fundraising, and I have in my mind a Breat Cancer/ Halloween movie night. Money goes to the ASTI team fund.

Free Write: My Generation

Just recently, I have gotten hooked to this documentary/drama series, My Generation. It revolves around 9 or 10 people of the graduating class of 2000. Then the camera people followed them up until now. After 9/11, Bush, Obama, and many other significant events within the past 10 years.

Each of the ten students were catgorized as the typical high school student, you know, "The Jock", "The Punk", and "The Brain".

Well, I watched the first two episodes and then the show got canceled. Which really disappointed me because it was really good. In a documentary/drama sort of way. What I remember from that show (okay, I watched it on Hulu like 5 minutes ago) was really that maybe we all have these expectations set out for us, but then it all comes tumbling down because of some significant changes in our lives.

For example, in the show there is "The Over-Achiever." There was only one word to describe his future, and that was success. It didn't matter what, it didn't matter where. He wanted success. Turns out, his dad was arressted for a huge fraud claim for the company he owned. The result of that was his mom and him losing their assets and him becoming a bartender in Hawaii.

Another big 'fail,' which is the most appropriate word to say here was "The Nerd." He wasn't a bad guy at all. All he wants to do with his lfe is have a good job and produce a lot of kids. Back in high school, he dated "The Punk" which in turn married "The Jock" and now is pregnant with a kid while jock is in Afghanistan. And punk is living with nerd.

Nerd is infertile which really sucks for him.

Let me just break this down:

"The Jock" marries "The Punk"; who used to date "The Nerd," "The Jock" is serving in Afghanistan. "The Nerd" used to be best friends with "The Over Achiever," but stopped because he blames him for the death of his father. "The Over Achiever" had a one-night stand with "The Wallflower" and they now both have a son who's ten. "The Over Achiever" is really good friends with "The Rockstar" and they discuss that matter. "The Rocker" meets up with "The Brain" in a restauraunt. "The Brain" used to have a solid relationship with "The Rich Kid" (who played Wren in PLL fyi) then they broke up due to the parent subject. "The Rich Kid" is now married to "The Beauty Queen" who I sware is just using him for his money and his awesome cooking skills, while she--can't do shit.

The last paragraph was basically a brain dump, but you can see how this would kind of relate to 'our generation' today.

The people I have mentioned two paragrahs ago all went to high school together and all graduated the same year. BTW.