My life before now...

Hello everyone, it time now for our second set of logs...
This piece is a poem i wrote about my best friend and when she had to quit rhythmic gymnastics.
Enjoy.

My life before now...

Before this year all i did
ever since i was a kid
was rhythmic, school, and sleep.
Everyday was rhythmic, school, and sleep.

The schedule never changing
though the rain drops re-arranging.
The resume is impressive
the timing was excessive

Aeriels, splits, walk overs and all
until this year, my friend gene pool was small
until this year, i was blankly happy
until this year, my people skills were crappy

until i was forced to quit what i love
did i truly learn to sore like a dove


Hello again. This poem really deals with the aftermath of having to abandon something you love so much. Whether this is a sport, or a piece of writing, or a person, it will always hurt.

Biography of the subject: She was born on November 16th, 1992. At the age of five, she fell love with the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. She was very talented and rose to the provincial level of competitive competition. But at the age of 14, after an unfortunate accident, injured her shoulder and was no longer able to continue with gymnastics that year. After extensive physiotherapy, it was concluded that she would never again be able to compete in rhythmic, and was force to permanently retire.

The poem is more a confession, the vein attempts to make herself feel better. When we must leave something that has been such a big part of your life, its human nature to try and perk yourself up again. In this case, she is reminding herself of all the reasons that she disliked rhythmic. All the reasons that her life was so structured and was never able to just hang out with her friends.

Lines such as blankly happy, deal with the reasons that you do these things. Just going to practise for the sake of just going to practise. The excitement is predominantly gone, and now its just routine. The rains drops are explaining the passage of time, and the fact that you have been doing the same thing every single day for the past decade.

There is also alot of cross examining of her life, all the things she has or has done, contrasting all the things that she wishes she had. The secong verse is more the style of a pro/con list. Its her debating back and forth the good and bad of what her life has been like before this point.

*If you do know the name of the person that inspired this piece, please do not say it. Just out of respect.

Please tell me what you thought of this piece, or your own interpretations.

Are You There, God? It's me, DHALL

I haven't talked to you in a while! You probably already know why because, well, you're God and you know everything that I'm thinking ALL THE TIME, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

I didn't talk to you because I was mad at you.

I asked you to make me grow another 2 inches so that I would be tall enough to beat Alicia Brown at basketball. Remember? And then I got a broken nose when she shoved the ball into my face!

But that's not why I'm here tonight. The honest-to-God truth is that over the last few hours, I've realized something.

I don't think I'm human.

No, please don't laugh at me! Just listen.

I have a serious problem and I need your help - this is a life and death situation, here! Are you really willing to ignore a poor, innocent little girl who's life hangs in the balance?

Well, that is, if whatever sort of creature I am can actually die. Because I'm not human. I told you that, right? I hope you're listening to what I'm saying, God, because I'm just about to get to the good part! Are you ready? Okay. Here we go...

I don't have nightmares.

At least, not in the same way my friends and family do. You know what I mean, right? The stuff about death and fear that seems so real it is scary, sad and forever makes you afraid to walk down into your basement or jump into a pool?

I never get to see any of that.

It isn't like what they make you believe in movies or on TV; I don't wake up screaming and I don't wake up in tears. My Godzillas are always hunting, but they never find me; snipers press a gun against my back and shoot my beating heart, but I never cry out; and the death of someone close to me doesn't send my body into auto-pilot. I can function just fine, but what I want, God, is to feel something.

It's not fair! That's why I'm talking to you. You're the supposed to be the head-honcho, the Man, the Mr. what-do-you-call-it-when-you're-really-really-smart?

I guess what I'm asking is for you to send a few nightmares my way. Could you do that, God? It doesn't have to be anything dramatic. I could forget to put on pants on the first day of school - or I could sleepwalk into a swarm of giant spiders - OR I could even thrash around in my bed, screaming bloody murder as I try to escape from a T-Rex!

You know, the usual.

I really don't think I'm asking too much, God. I've forgiven you for not making me grow 2 inches, but I PROMISE that if you give me nightmares, I'll be the best-behaved human on EARTH!

That's all.

OH - one more thing; Rachel Anderson came to school yesterday with pink highlights in her hair, and when I told Mom about it, she said I wasn't allowed to have them.

Think you can put in a good word for me?




****

I'm not crazy about the way i've written this post, but i'm sure you guys can help me out. I really like the concept, I just dont think i'm being clear or that i'm choosing the right words.
see you saturday.
TTFN
(ta-ta for now)

Short Green Turf

I see the field,
My stick in hand.
I see the net,
My goals are planned .

I walk on the field, shivers down my spine...
My feet floating across the short green turf
Moving slowly across the painted white lines
Envision it...Invincible...Unstoppable...

I see the field,
My stick in hand.
I see the net,
My goals are planned.

The centre draw, my stick gripped tight
The field is glowing, beneath the lights
Legs are shaking, heart is racing
The ball, the win, its all worth chasing!

I see the field,
My stick in hand.
I see the net,
My goals are planned.


I wrote this poem about the feelings and the motions I go through at the beginning of a lacrosse game. These feelings are so familiar to me because I spend so much time feeling them. I had trouble with punctuation while writing this. Please help me to determine where and what punctuation I need. I know exactly how I want it to sound when I'm writing it because it sounds a certain way to me. However, when I write it I'm afraid it does not have the same effect that I would like it to because I can not use the punctuation effectively! I also feel like maybe it is not finished yet. Any suggestions? Maybe I should go through the rest of the game in different stanzas. I think it would be a better flowing poem if i continued to write a stanza about the second half of the game and then the outcome and the feelings leaving the field.

I Am Not A Goldfish

This past week (for those of us in English this semester) brought the last of the fishbowl discussions. So my question to all of you is do you think the fishbowl discussions are an important part of the curriculum? What skills do you think we learn?


My opinion? I do not think the actual discussions are necessary. I do however, think that the note taking process is a vital skill that we can use in the future. But the actual fishbowl discussions do not teach us any important skills. To me, it seems almost like an episode of the View: everyone is fighting over the other to put in their own two cents. Everyone is so focused on trying to get marks or thinking of what point they are going to make next, that no one is truly concentrating on what's being said by the other members of the group. And because of this, points often get repeated, making it hard to contribute something important to the discussion.


The worst part of all of it is the criteria we have to meet. Such as how we have to invite someone else into the discussion. It makes the discussion feel mechanic and forced. In day to day conversations we do not randomly turn to the person beside us and ask "do you have anything you want to add?" or "what is your opinion on the matter?"And if you have the misfortune of being invited into the conversation, you are put on the spot - so you better have something important to say! Otherwise, its just awkward. Also, when everyone is fighting to have their voice heard, how is it possible to invite someone else in when you, yourself are being cut off? And, when you're frantically grasping at words to make a valid point, why are we expected to make an analogy? And five analogies at that.

Don't get me wrong I do not hate fishbowls - hate is too strong a word for me. Strongly dislike. They just do not seem necessary to me. I know that it is useful to take notes, that part I understand. But why all the criteria? It all seems too forced to me. It would be better (and more effective) if they were small, casual discussions like we do here in Writer's Craft.

On top of all this is the awkward situation that it is by itself. It can be very difficult to feel confident about your personal beliefs and opinions when the rest of the class is surrounding you: staring at you like a goldfish.

And I am not a goldfish.

Good Work this week...

Hey guys!

You're off to a great start! I really like the variety of post topics and styles. It's nice to see that your feedback is often so positive. Also, great use of media to add to your posts. Try to at least mention the writing in the comments-yes, content and theme is included!

Summer Gone

Half, full, or crescent moon,
All of which, come much too soon
The days of summer, so quickly end
The sun, the beach, the river bends

Days disappear, as does the light
The memories of summer nights
We loose track of all the time
September arrives with the flip of a dime

Back through those doors, the time has come
Where homework, books, and work are from
It does us well, much to our dismay
Time to say goodbye, to summer days

I know this is a very short poem, but I want to talk about it a bit. I know it is very, very raw and there is not a lot to it but it was a quick thought that I just typed out and in my surprise have not yet deleted. I write so much that I don’t like and instead of looking at what I did not like about it, I delete it and start from scratch. I think leaving my rough work to be picked apart is a good way to improve and create a more complex and more sophisticated piece of work for my upcoming blogs. I am content with the first stanza, however I’m not sure what I think about the river bends rhyme. I’m also not sure about the last line of the second stanza. I think this poem could have potential, and I might blog the next part in a week or two. This could be an interesting poem to write with the help of you within the next few weeks so please give me some tips and help me add to it and make it into something I’m proud of!

Social Networking and You

Web2.0 and Social Networking will be most likely regarded as one of the largest advancements in human communication. 50 years ago, it would be absurd to think that with a small handheld device, you could send pixels of information to someone else and carry on a conversation with someone who is in Japan while you're in Canada. Yet millions of texts are sent everyday.

The popular hipster mocking blog Hipster Runoff recently wrote a massive entry about Kanye West's famous interuption of Taylor Swift at MTV's VMAs. Carles, the man behind Hipster Runoff titled the entry " It takes a socially transcendent moment to remind us what makes life worth living. Kanye West is a valuable member of society." The blog is a joke, and generally touches on topics that are 'culturally relevant' and about 'branding yourself'. It serves as mockery of those who try so hard to make themself culturally relevant and unique, only caring about becoming eFamous.

The thing about Carles' post is that although it is a joke, it does touch on some truthful points. I remember being on facebook on Sunday, and seeing my newsfeed flood with status updates regarding Kanye West's actions and everybodies opinion on it. Kanye West instantly became a trending topic on Twitter, and Youtube was being overloaded with videos of that event. As that happened, social networking served as a tool for us to express opinions on something we thought was worth 'talking about'.

Social Networking has become such a staple part of society, it's weird to think about a time where it didn't exist. Facebook has a userbase bigger than most countries have people. Web2.0 has allowed us to constantly be in contact with eachother whenever we want, and for however long we want. Blogs let us express our opinion and can share it an audience that isn't restricted to a local community yet to the world wide web. Microblogging allows us to 'tweet' about things as they happen.

Michael Jackson's death became old news almost 24 hours later. It was known worldwide that the 'king of pop' was dead, and even if you lived under a rock, your Iphone 3gs probably got reception under there as you noticed your newsfeed being swamped with updates of the death.

I could write about this all day, but I won't. However I know for a fact I shall resume the topic of Social Networking another day as it has changed society and our culture so much.

In closing, I ask you guys what your lives would be like without the use of Facebook, Youtube, Myspace(lol), Twitter, Blogging Websites, and the internet all together.