English class blog

Car Crash Description

zander — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:40:18 +0000

As a refrigerator, i have to deal with people putting various food substances inside me, but today i was thrown out on the street, due to an inferiority complex. It didn’t matter to me for i was tried of servicing the same forsaken house for over thirty years, five of which i was on the market. Anyway, i was sitting by the dumpster when i heard a car speeding down the road. Being a refrigerator, i couldn’t move anywhere unless acted upon by an outside force. The car was getting closer and closer. I finally saw the car and…*SMASH!* i’ve been hit! What a jerk! A man emerged from the wrecked vehicle with a bat. “What are you doing with a bat?” i said, or would have said had i a mouth, but the man passed right by me and entered the house of my previous residence. There were only two possible scenarios: He’s going to beat the snot out of my owners, or he’s just asking for a phone and just likes to carry a bat. What do you think will happen next. Surprisingly he emerged from the house thanking my owners. I was relieved to not be a witness to a crash and a murder in one day. My luck soon changed as the man walked up to me, opened my door, and kicked it off. Being a refrigerator, i have no nerves, therefore i felt no pain, but it was still quite annoying. The man returned to his car and came out with a sledge hammer. Where was this guy going with a bat and sledge hammer? Well, at least i can’t be found responsible for the damages to his car. *CRUSH* *SMASH* *THUD*

“Our Racist, Sexist Selves” Questions

zander — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:10:18 +0000

I think the test the author took reviled him to be racist because it true, we all have a root instinct that tells that they should be more cautious and suspicious of groups outside your own race group.
These tests require you to make decisions in little time, making you revert to primal instinct, and that instinct brings out unknown feelings toward different ethnic groups.
Sexism is harder to fight than racism because we see everyday, in our communities, from the moment we were born, the roles of men and women and how they act towards one another. We all learn, even when we don’t realize it. With information like that being branded into our minds, it makes it harder to ignore. On the other side, roles of race aren’t out in the open as much, so you able to ignore race issues better than those dealing with gender.
It’s harder for women in this world to be employed to jobs of great responsibility and power because the world doesn’t view women in their mind as powerful. People rely more on the stereotype of women being warm, friendly, homemakers, thus creating confusion once a women takes the place of cold and uncaring.
The author says that the real problem for women is competing in politics when they are usually in place is a man, as we look at to be strong and ruthless, unlike the women we see in everyday life. I think the problem is slowly changing itself from the inside. With the presidential election on the horizon, both the candidates for the democratic side are people out of the group of former presidents and i think most people looked at them in surprise, no matter race or gender of the spectators, for the candidates were in a different group than the presidents that came before.
The author wrote that the issue can be confronted by introducing more female professors who are also experienced in ways to reduce gender stereotypes. I believe that just by having more jobs that you would see a man fit for and have that job being done by a woman, the next generation will be greatly open to this idea and will grow up seeing the world in a more balanced way. Same idea can apply to race as well. With jobs that are usually occupied by white people and seeing someone of a different race doing the same job, racism loses its grip on children of the next generation.

Law of Power: What about it works?

zander — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:25:32 +0000

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim

This law would definately work on many people, both familier and strange to you. you hold the door for a stranger, they might thank you, then later you can close the doors on the elevator before he gets to them. Works the exact same way on your friends.
Should it work? In the minds of the people you are manipulating, they are paying you back for something you did that was nice, but when used on someone who can hold a grudge for something you have done wrong, it fails. The question that keeps people from putting this law into effect, is it morally right? Well, no. It’s not a way to gain friends of any sort, and friends have a higher chance of doing stuff for you if you have done more for them. It’s looked down upon others because they have been victims of this trick and feel very strongly of being “lied” to.

Macbeth Advice

zander — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:46:41 +0000

I think that Macbeth should ignore his wife, because she obviously his evil side. If he just ignored her, he wouldn’t be in the position of “should i kill the king, or not?” Macbeth is a nice person and his wife is trying to corrupt him by questioning his manlyness and tempting him with power.

Why Do We Teach Shakespeare?

zander — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:10:40 +0000

I’m not sure why Shakespeare is such a huge thing that everyone in the US has to read about. I haven’t read any work done by Shakespeare, but i seem to do well in life without him. I don’t think that by reading Shakespeare, i will notice much of a difference in life.

Persuasive Writing

zander — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:38:45 +0000

The idea of removing the vending machines from the school is enough to get the whole school in an uproar. Many students at the school, including myself, use those vending machines from time to time. The vending machines offer snacks for students in a rush to get to class, or if students don’t want to wait in a long line in the cafeteria for some beef jerky. The soda dispensers only offer diet soda, as apposed to the more unhealthy regular soda, and this goes for all the snacks in the school. All the vending machines offer a healthier alternative of the snacks. All chips are baked; all soda is diet, what more can I say? The only food healthier than the kind we have now tastes terrible and would sell. Having the kind of snacks in the school we do now if a fair compromise. In conclusion, leave the vending machines as they are.

WASL Questions

zander — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:09:04 +0000

1. “They” want us to take the WASL to compare how their students are against other students at other schools.
2. if you are taking the WASL that year, you have to come to school at normal time rather than sleep in like everyone else. The only good aspect is that IF you do well, you have something to gloat about, and so does the school.
3. Take the test scores of the students and average them to get a general view of how well a cirtain student is doing.

Driving to the Funeral

zander — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:41:56 +0000

1. Quindlin uses facts when persuading her audience, like “car crashes are the No.1 cause of death among 15-20-year-olds in this country.” and “the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21.”

2. Quindlin appeals to the emotions of parents losing their kids. She uses terms like “A mom and dad rise from their seats on the athletic field or in the gym to accept a diploma posthumously” and “The yearbook has a picture or two with a black border.”

3. Quindlin uses rhetorical questions like “if someone told you that there was one single behavior that would be most likely to lead to the premature death of your kid, wouldn’t you try to do something about that?” and “why not let 13-year-olds drive?” And to reinforce these statements and qestions, she uses “facts”

4. Quindlin is fairly persuasive to those with the same opinion, but unsure people, if they really read this article and hae reason of their own, will find faults that if exposed, knock the whole thing down.

War Poem

zander — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:01:59 +0000

As I run, as I walk, as I limp
my eyes never seem to clear
all I see for years past and years to come
friends, family, blood
never taking a day off
I fight as though I were a kid
but no war alows kids in the field
all of us became men

I don’t quite get the point
about us killing one another
all we’ve been told
is that we believe in freedom
while they do not
and looking back at what I’ve done
I can’t imagine going forward
and I would rather die than go back

What a world we ive in
told what to do, told what not to say
when this war is over
where am I going to be
will I be home and alive
will I return in a wheel chair
will I lose my limbs to a cannon
or will I just die…

Charpter Five Quotes

zander — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:43:29 +0000

quotes-from-chapter-5.doc