A Storm Rolling in

Dark clouds gather
over the horizon
drifting closer
and closer
towards you

You hear thunder
booming faintly
after the bright streaks
of lightning
illuminate the sky

A light rain
starts to fall
pitter-pattering
on trees
and rooftops

Then the storm hits
so loud it shakes
the ground
flooding the streets
blowing over trees

The storm finally passes
leaving everything dripping
A rainbow appears
bright and colorful
before fading away

Gym Essay

Balls fly around the gym. Swishing through hoops, bouncing off walls, zipping over nets. Those people who enjoy these activities have no problem with phys. ed and pay no attention to the poor kid standing alone in the corner, Sure, this kid might be a prodigy in other subjects, but in the gym, they might not know what they should be doing. Then there might be some who don’t care at all, so they don’t try. Like any other class, phys. ed has its fans, but its fair share of opposers, too. It’s beneficial to some people, including me, but to others it is useless and a waste of time, or causes social awkwardness. Its advantages and disadvantages vary for everyone.

Physical education is helpful in some ways. It keeps us in shape, for one thing. All those classes spent running on the track and around the gym make us active and healthy. It provides a challenge, for another example. Setting goals for specific activities that push us. Phys. ed also helps us learn about and get interested in different sports. In fact, it got me into volleyball. It helped me learn about other sports that I might want to try. Another thing: a unit on keeping ourselves healthy by staying away from drugs. It really enforces the concept to prevent us from making bad choices in the future.

There are also some downsides to physical education. One thing that some people may experience: Social awkwardness. Being picked last for a team, and feeling like the heavy backpack no one wants to carry. I’ve experienced this a number of times. I understand that it helps us learn responsibility, but really, we can learn that in other classes. Speaking of teams, we do many team activities that aren’t really enjoyable for some people. Sure, when we’re younger it’s fun and helps us learn things. But once kids get older, they start to take different interests and may get a feeling of self-consciousness if they’re not completely confident and into the activity they’re doing in the gym.

Personally, I think our 70 minutes in the gym should be a time to make and meet our own personal goals, not what the charts on the wall say we should be aiming for. Everyone has different bodies, endurance, and levels of activeness, so telling them what they should be doing based on age and previous scores doesn’t necessarily help. Setting your own goal will make you feel like you can actually reach it, and not make it seem like you have to run a marathon across the country.

Physical education is definitely helpful and a great opportunity to some, but to others it feels like a waste of time. It should be made more for each person so they can set a goal to work for. It just depends on how much the person is willing to participate, whether it’s affected by self esteem or a genuine interest. By really understanding someone’s levels, phys. ed can become beneficial to everyone.

A Summer Day

A light breeze blows through the green trees
Scattering the fallen leaves and freshly mowed grass

Kids run with shouts of joy across their yards
Dripping ice cream and popsicles all over

All the houses have the windows and doors open
Parents relaxing on their porches

Warm sun and blue, sunny skies
It's a perfect summer day

Film Critique- "A Clean, Well-Lighted place"

The story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemmingway is basically about finding your way out of the dark and into the light. This is represented by an old man sitting under a shadow cast by a tree in a cafe, an old waiter, and a young waiter. The younger waiter is sort of naive, in a way, and mostly cares about himself. The older waiter is more mature, but-here is more symbolism of light and dark- wants to stay later at the cafe because it is clean and well lit. This means that he does not like the dark, or is afraid of it.

In the film, the first thing I noticed was that the old man wasn't sitting in a shadow like in the story. This takes away a huge part of the symbolism of light and dark. Another thing I noticed was that the people had Irish accents, when they are mentioning Spanish words in the story. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like how they did the adaptation because it doesn't show as much detail as the story.

Reading Response to "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

Author's Note: I chose to pick three quotes from A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway, and write about what they mean.

"The old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference."

Even though the man is deaf, it's more peaceful at night when it's quieter and everyone has gone home. it must be hard not to be able to hear anything, so he likes it better with no one else around where he can think in peace.

"How do you know it was nothing?" "He has plenty of money."

The two waiters are talking about the old man sitting in the cafe, who tried to commit suicide. Obviously it wasn't for nothing; you wouldn't just kill yourself because you were bored. But just because you have a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean you're happy. Many people tend to think that because you're rich, you have no problems in life. The man had a reason to commit suicide, which the waiters are kind of overlooking: He has no one except his niece.

"With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night."

In this quote, the younger waiter is responding in an interesting way to what the older waiter had previously said about liking to stay late at the cafe. It means that he is possibly afraid of sleeping in the dark, and he does not want to go to bed. That he'd rather sleep when it is light outside.

The Magical World of Nighttime

Moonlight shines down from the cloudless sky
Reflecting off ponds, lakes, rivers

Stars twinkle through the atmosphere
Like tiny crystals in the sky

The sounds of nightlife fill the air
Hooting owls, chirping crickets


A perfect night

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Springtime...finally....

Finally, today
It starts getting warm.
It's about time...
Who ever thought of snow in April?
It's ridiculous.
Of course, this is Wisconsin
so anything is possible.
Let's hope this weather sticks for good.
I miss wearing shorts every day
instead of big coats

All Dried Up

I'm sitting here
mind empty
my inspiration has vanished
My creative thoughts gone

I sit at the computer
hands hovering over my keyboard
But nothing comes to me
My brain is bone-dry

Text Analysis- Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman, whose job is to set things on fire instead of extinguishing them. He lives in a very messed up world where no one cares about books, and they are actually frowned upon. Hated. Shunned. Montag loves his job of burning books, and believes that he is happy with his life. This changes when a teenage girl proves him wrong, which shows you how much different they are in terms of brainwashing.

Montag has never questioned his happiness, until he meets a seventeen year old girl named Clarisse McClellan, who is anything but ordinary. She asks Montag why books are illegal and hated. If firemen used to put fires out instead of starting them. If he had ever read any of the books he's burned. With her natural curiosity, Clarisse is clearly not brainwashed, unlike most of the other characters in the book. Montag is annoyed by her inquisitiveness, but is still greatly influenced.

After his conversation with Clarisse, Montag now questions what he really wants. He becomes interested in books, and tries to keep them secret. But books are to be burned, not read (hence the title of the book: Fahrenheit 451, which is the temperature that books burn at). If books are found in anyone's house, the house has to be burned down. Captain Beatty, Montag's boss, hints in his own creepy way that he may have once read books himself by trying to get Montag to stop.

Montag's wife, Mildred, appears to be completely brainwashed and doesn't even pay attention to Montag's new interest at first. She sits in front of a tv all day and watches a show that completely has her thinking that the characters are real. She takes sleeping pills every night and has become addicted to them. She finds pleasure in driving at reckless speeds, which is actually not an uncommon thing in this world. Although, if you think about it, Mildred might not be completely brainwashed. After her so-called "accident" with the sleeping pills, she acts differently around Montag and avoids his questions. She might have been so sick of living in this Dystopian world as to actually have attempted suicide by drug overdose.

There is one other man that Montag meets, who isn't ignorant of his surroundings: Faber. He was a retired English Professor, and from his quote "I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I'm alive," you can tell that he really is aware of life and its significance. He even likes books and poetry, just like Montag. Faber was a coward, though, and wanted nothing to do with Montag at first, but eventually warmed up.

Something unexpected happens near the end of the book: Mildred turns Montag in to the firemen for owning books, betraying him. Captain Beatty arrives and orders Montag to burn down his house, so he does. Next, he burns Beatty. "And there he was, a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering mannikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him." Montag has gone crazy, for his love of books and hatred for Beatty.

Fahrenheit 451 Discussion Response

Mildred is really a special character because you never really know whether she is thoroughly brainwashed or just acting. After her so called "accident" with the sleeping pill overdose, Mildred acts a little differently around Montag. One thing doesn't change: Her intolerance for books. When she finds Montag's large collection, at first she keeps it a secret but then calls the firemen to come burn down her and Montag's house. Montag feels she has betrayed him, but you know that Mildred might have been aware of what she was doing. You wouldn't be able to tell from her addiction to sleeping pills and the parlor, and how she enjoys driving at dangerously high speeds. She may be just acting like this, to blend in, and not arouse any suspicion.

A Dreary Day

Author's Note: It's so dark and rainy and blah outside...I felt the need to express it in a poem.

A raindrop slides down the window pane
Joining with others falling to meet their doom

They splash on the ground
Creating brown, muddy puddles in the grass

More come down from the stormy sky
Falling in endless, soaking torrents

People walking and driving in the rain
Carry umbrellas and slow down

An Excerpt from "We Want Our Country Back"

Author's Note: I've been working on a piece called "We Want Our Country Back" and decided to put one of the most descriptive scenes in a blog post to meet my goal for Word Choice and Context Analysis. The actual piece is six pages long (and counting), so I decided not to post that. 

I woke to an acrid smell. Rubbing my stinging eyes, I looked around me and immediately wished I hadn't. What used to be alive with fire, now sat dead and charred. The city that I used to call home, obliterated and turned to rubble. Only a few of the buildings had survived. Even the hill I stood on had been called home by a layer of ash. That included Luke and I; we were both covered in soot. 

The empty pit of nothingness I had felt the day before inside me turned to rage, boiling over at the thought of what those stupid soldiers had done. I kicked the ground and sent up a shower of ash that landed right in Luke’s face.

“Hey!” He spluttered, bolting upright and shaking the ash out of his hair. “What was that for?”

“Sorry. I just got really mad about...that.” I gestured to our almost non-existent city.

“I know. I woke up before and saw it, but...I didn’t want to say anything,” he muttered.

I nodded. “But what are we supposed to do now?”

“Well, there’s these things.” Luke reached into his backpack and pulled out two guns.

“Luke, where did you get those?!” I gasped.

“I found them just laying against a tree in that forest yesterday. Even found more ammunition next to them. Come on, we can take out soldiers as we go.” He started back down the hill with his gun up. I shook my head, smiling, and ran after him.

My lightened mood dimmed again as Luke and I entered the city and I saw things I hadn’t before. Everyday items, broken and melted. Vehicles of all kinds, crushed and blackened. But what was worst of all, what made my stomach jump into my throat, were the bodies. Charred, mutilated bodies. Everywhere. Fear filled my heart as we picked our way over the debris. Except for the occasional gunshot, which scared me every time, it was eerily silent and it made me uneasy.

“Dawn, are you okay?” Luke asked. I realized I had been clenching my fists so tightly that they had turned white, and I was sweating.

“Yeah. I just...” I trailed off. “I can’t do this Luke! It’s too upsetting and I feel like puking!” I heard a bloodcurdling scream somewhere in the distance, and suddenly I just couldn’t take it anymore. I slumped down, head between my knees, and cried. I saw my tears fall to the ground, blackened by the ash on my face. 

Luke crouched down next to me, and I felt his hand on my back. “I know how hard it is, Dawn. But I also know you can do this,” he said.

I looked up at him with uncertainty. “Really?” He nodded and smiled.

“Come on. We have to do it for Canada.” He stood and helped me up, then started walking slowly along a path littered with debris. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and followed him.