Do you get along with your parents?

I get along with my parents most of the time. There isn't much stress between my parents and I, but when there is I find it best that we go into separate room to alleviate the situation. But my parents are certainly not the bane of my existence. I owe them everything. But it does annoy me at times when they talk about everything they did for me. It's like they are bragging about themselves. Wouldn't they have done things for their child purely out of love? So why are they always expecting something in return? At the end of the day I try my best to respect my parents and behave even though they are extremely strict. I could never imagine one day waking up and them not being there. In that situation, I would never want to have any regrets with the relationship between my parents and I. I feel that because of this my parents and I have a special and thick bond that will never be broken.

Gothic Literature: Two characteristics from Wuthering Heights 12/16

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a gothic novel. It contains many elements of gothic literature. One gothic characteristic the author uses is a "dark" atmosphere. The house of Wuthering Heights is always looked upon as a gloomy place, especially when the novel takes place in the present time of the text. In the present the house is dirty and dark. The weather of the novel also adds to its depressing tone. In most of the scenes the sky is always dark and raining, or it takes place at night. The fact that the setting is the moors of England, which is a dark and windy place that is in the quiet country, and the houses are all spaced far apart from each other.
Another characteristic is the dark love and romance that is in this novel. Love in gothic literature does not necessarily have to be romance. It is considered to be love of any kind with horror elements within it. This element is seem frequently throughout the plot. When Hindley attempts to kill Hareton, his only son, he loves his son, but is so drunk he can't realize what he's doing. Another point in this novel where this element is used is when Cathy's ghost appears to Mr. Lockwood in the house during the present text. After Lockwood leaves the room, he sees and hears Heathcliff trying to summon the ghost of Cathy. This is very creepy, but it is still romance between Heathcliff and Catherine.

If I could be any animal, I would be...

I would be a unicorn. They were awesome just like me. They never denigrated anyone and were always known as king creatures. They lived a languid life, going wherever they want, resting all day and eating mythical food. Even though unicorns are only a fictional story, they defy the impossible. I want to defy the impossible just like unicorns. It's what I work towards and strive to achieve everyday. Unicorns are just cool animals because you can imagine them anyway you want. Since they don't actually exist, the dreamer can visualize these creatures anyway they like. This can make a person feel amazing because they will have felt the pride of discovering a new species. Anyone who would not want to be a unicorn is just crazy.

My favorite TV show is.....

My favorite TV show at the moment is Modern Family. My past favorite TV shows have abdicated their titles when they aired stupid episodes. But Modern Family never disappoints me. The show is always at the zenith of comedy and I fall on the ground laughing every time I watch it. I make sure that this show is always on DVR, so that if I ever miss an episode I can always catch up on my favorite show. Modern Family is aired on a Wednesday night and my family gathers round the television and watches it together. It's one of the only things we do together as a family, and this is another reason I love the show so much. I look forward to watching Modern Family every week and get upset when there is no new episode or doesn't air.

I wish I was there when.....

I wish I was there when my grandpa died. I know its a morbid thought, but I think I had the right to say my last goodbye to my best friend. My parents had made the decision at the time for fear that it would scar me. Instead I was one of the last people to find out about the news. That's not fair. For my parents to tell me that it would be a fallacy for me to want to see his death would be a fallacy itself. They feel that I'm vacuous of the situation and that I do not understand the severity of it. This is true yet wrong because I don't think whether I was with my grandpa for his last moment or not would have spared me the pain that came after he passed. I also don't think my grandpa would want to remember him like the way he died and wanted me to think of him as healthy. Still it would have been nice to be able to tell to him in person that I love him and will always miss him, instead of a grave.

Reflection on Stephen King's Writing 10/25

Stephen King says in On Writing that you must be confident about your word choice and that your vocabulary develops over time when you read, so you should no be wasting time looking up "better" words. He encourages all writers to be more direct when they write a sentence, rather than be so rich of huge vocabulary words. In doing this we say what we actually mean rather than use the word's "cousin". I do not struggle with word choice in my writing. When I write I get this brainstorm of an idea and I go with it. I keep writing every thought that comes to my head and after I get my ideas out, I go back into the paper and modify them. I also sometimes read sentences aloud to myself as I write them to process my thoughts, and I often change words in my writing by that method. Although, I never seem to have trouble finding the right vocabulary to use, my spelling is a completely different story.

I enjoyed this piece a lot. It was really humorous and witty and I felt that it addressed the point with great clarity. The examples he gave with simple excerpts from famous authors, on how writing could be simple, is extremely helpful. It does not only prove King's purpose, but it also instills in the reader's own writing, and makes them believe that they can write well even without knowing fancy vocabulary words. I also thought his example with the different ways to say the "John" sentence was very funny. It also demonstrated a very good point that sometimes being dirty and less proper with vocabulary makes your writing piece more interesting and entertaining for people to read. It also grabs the reader's attention and makes them focus on the piece, and created an informal and comfortable relationship between the reader and the writer.

If you were a crayon, what would your color be?

Probably magic mint. I actually looked up all the colors on crayola crayon's website and decided this was the best for me. Magic mint is bright and shiny shade of green/blue. It is zealous and expresses great happiness. I'm aware at times I can be garrulous and annoying, but in the end I mostly have good intentions. I also like the idea that the color is described with the term, "magic". It gives an idea that anything can happen and there can always be hope in any bad situation. I love the taste of mint. When I think of the color, I can already taste it. Mint reminds me of the holidays, and I enjoy the holidays a great deal. So if I were ever forced to be a crayon color at anytime in my life, it would be magic mint.

In 20 years I will be........

This is extremely scary to think about. I hate it when adults ask this question because I never know. I'm just trying to score well on the PSATs right now. The dearth of an idea I have for a life choice right now is to perform. UGH!!! I need more time. 20 years is going to go by like nothing and my only fear is that I will have nothing to show for it. In my fantasies, I will have already won 3 tony awards: one for best supporting actress in a musical and 2 for best leading actress in a musical. I will be on broadway performing 8 or 7 shows a week. I have no idea what the relationship and marital stage I will be at, and its an extremely awkward topic to talk about. With this career choice I have chosen the stress of school and learning will have been abated. Another thing I will love about the fact that I will be performing is that there is no work that is due and it is so much fun. There will never be a dull moment now, 20 years from now, and till the day that I die.

What is your reaction to the "toolbox" idea?

I think that the toolbox idea is a good way to encourage people to develop their writing skills. The more writing skills you collect, the bigger your toolbox will be. Then when we are faced with writing assignments, such as an SAT essay in 25 minutes, then we will be able to complete this assignment with no issue. This is just another mental trick to lessen the tension when writing essays. I think we all have similar minds like the toolbox. We judge things by levels of difficulty, while the toolbox has different layers. While the toolbox has the the more intense tools on the bottom layer, we have more intense writing skills the higher the difficulty level is. We have been collecting and using our "tools" our whole life and we don't even realize it most of the time.

If I were president of of United States...

The world would be in total chaos. I honestly would have absolutely no idea what I am doing. There would be many decisions I would vacillate between, and I would always rail against the decision I like better rather than pick the one that would help our nation most. Whoever would elect me as president would probably have the same IQ as a donkey. Let's just say it would not be good idea if my name was on that ballot. I would be such a terrible president I wouldn't even vote for myself. I'm not good at making any sort of decisions, and it's for the greater good of the country that I should never be involved in politics. Case closed.

Theses and avenues for "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Gilman contrasts hallucinations and reality throughout her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and directs the reader to believe that society’s perception and pressure can cause these acts.

-Dr. John/ husband

-Woman in the wall/herself

-Mental institution/home

Theses and avenues for "Miss Brill"

“Miss Brill” demonstrates the act of lonliness can drive a person mad, to a point where they create their own fantasy world to distract themselves from reality.

-Fur

-The couple sitting next to her/ Play

-Her walk home (honey cake)

If I could be doing anything right now, it would be.........

I would want to be at Disney World/Universal. When I am there I'm nothing but ebullient. The creation of amusement parks was truly a benison just for me.  It's like how can you not be happy there. Even the people dressed up in character costumes make you overjoyed and want to take pictures with them. Amusement parks are even more fun when you go with your friends. Even if a group of quarreling friends go together to the park, as soon as they enter the facility, pacific ideas come to their minds and they are making up and laughing and cheering together. I think the fact that amusement parks spread fun and joy around makes everyone want to go to them because who doesn't want to have fun. Anyway if I could fly to Disney World right now, I would take the opportunity.

What is your favorite childhood game?

My favorite childhood game is monopoly. Not the new, electronic, stupid version where it takes away the whole fun and point of the game. I have been playing monopoly since I was for. It articulated my math skills as a child and helped me add quicker and deal with large numbers before some of the other children in my class. Another thing I love about monopoly is that there is no special way to win. Everything depends on chance and new strategies are formed each day. Also, everyone who I play this game with gets really into it, and you can't help but feeling upset when your obdurate sister puts hotels on the most expensive properties knowing that you are coming around the board and have no money. This game has always been a fun activity for my family and we are always brought closer together each time we play it.

What is your favorite disney movie?

My favorite disney movies was Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 (Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest, At World's End). I have nothing but laudatory comments to say about these three amazing films. First off, Johnny Depp is my favorite actor. When I was in third grade I actually did a biography on him. I also am a huge fan of the other actors (Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom) and thought the movies were very well cast. When I saw the first movie I was ebullient with joy, and it was love at first sight. I like the fact that these movies represent a part of "dark" disney that can be enjoyed by older viewers. Now there are just stupid movies like Prom. The tale of pirates, sword-fighting action, and of course the sweet love story kept me watching the movies for years, and yes, I do own all of the DVDs. Now, some people might question why I didn't include the 4th movie amongst the others as my favorites. This is because the 4th movie was just okay. Sure it had some funny lines and once again I enjoyed Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow) and Geoffrey Rush's (Captain Barbossa) performance, but I wanted the old characters that weren't there to come back. I wanted more connections to the old story line. Anyway Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 was the best movies disney ever made and I recommend that everyone should see it.

If you won the lottery, what would you do?

Well if I won the lottery, I certainly wouldn't balk at the offer. The first thing I would do with the money is put a portion of it into my savings account and my little sister's. Then I would give another portion to my parents to do as they please with it. The next thing I would do is become a benefactor for the American Cancer Society. There have been many deaths and illnesses in my family due to cancer and I would want to make sure no one else would have to experience anything terrible because of caner. The last thing I would do is probably buy a car. Just a simple U.S. made car, nothing terribly expensive. I would not want to show off my winnings because I have seen many news reports of past lottery winners, where their lives end up miserable because they flaunted everything they received. These didactic news reports show me that if I ever won the lottery I would have to be wise with my money and not blow the opportunity I would have been given if I won the lottery.

Do you like studying vocabulary? Is it important to study vocabulary?

I'm ok with studying vocabulary. Do I like it? Not really. It is very important to study vocabulary at a young age rather than an older age. When you are young, your mind absorbs things a lot better than it does as you grow older. You don't have a lot of knowledge, and more vocabulary is required to express how you feel. When your mind is developed it is easier to pick up vocabulary as you read books and find new words you haven't heard of. I feel like it is also more effective learning vocabulary that way. In my opinion, I can remember a vocabulary word better if I pick it up in a book and look it up on my own time, rather than learn a lesson in school on a bunch of words that I have to take a test on. Honestly, I forget all the vocabulary words right after I take the test anyway. So learning about them in school at my age is very ineffective for me, even thought it is an important topic to learn. Sure, I will do well on the test, but after I will never think about the words ever again.