Succeeding

In Mr. McElveens class how do you succeed? Succeeding in McElveens class is simple. All you have to do is follow one simple rule and that is too do your work. You can fail every test he gives you (which is barely ever) and do all your blogs and reports and such in class and you will have a B. The work given in his class is not difficult it's just time consuming. We are high schoolers and we have time to do this work regardless of what each and everyone of us says. We should be able to finish this work in the time given. The only reason anyone is failing is because of being lazy and not completing the assignments we are given.

There are few rules also to not get in trouble with the almighty McElveen. We do not call him Chad, Chadwick or any other name besides Mr.McElveen. We do his assignments and that keeps you out of  getting a Saturday school to go back and make up the assignments. The last rule I have learned in his class is too follow his few demands. If he asks to stop talking, just stop talking. If you have not had McElveen yet you are going to have a fun time. He puts in the effort to make his class relatively exciting everyday and it's not a class you get sad every time you go to it. It's one of the few classes you will look forward too everyday and if you follow the few rules you will be fine.

The Last Few Days

As the end of our sophomore year approaches us quickly there is still work to be done. There will always be work to be done in school. The work that has to be done at the end of very year is usually the same which is preparation for exams. The students usually receive study guides and the teachers usually review with the students. What is expected on the exam can be anything from the entire year since it's the last exam of the year. In English II we have gone over plenty of writers, stories, time periods, etc and that's all open game for the exam.

I expect the exam for English II to be difficult but not for the reasons of knowing formulas but for the reason of there being so much knowledge we have acquired during this year. Teachers enjoy giving exams and seeing the kids make good grades and knowing that they taught the students what they needed to know and that they are ready to move onto the next grade in school. I'm expecting no less than for my teachers to give us difficult exams because I know that the teachers here enjoy challenging there students and making them think.

Whoopi Goldberg

Goldberg was good at one thing when she was a little girl. That one thing was being weird. Goldberg devoted herself to the arts and she knew that the arts was what she was going to do for the rest of her life. Goldberg was considered a "slow learner" because she had dyslexia and so she couldn't read till she was fifteen. No matter what she did art was always her passion and she knew what she was going to do.
Goldberg's story is touching. It teaches us that no matter how many things you can't do that there is always gonna be one thing that you are going to be good at. Through all the complications you can find your masterpiece and strive for it through your life. This lady had it all to grow up and go nowhere but with all the odds against her still found what she is great at.

A Rose for Emily

I enjoyed the story since it was telling about somebody's life. Emily seemed to be a very interesting character since her family was very rich. I couldn't put together though how they became rich or why they were so important or why they had so much authority. The story itself though was well put together over all. When Emily had bought the poison the author made the readers believe that she was gonna commit suicide but she never had. Emily used the poison to kill homer I'm pretty sure.

The story was a unique situation. This skinny pretty rich girl who's family was well known then all of a sudden she lost everything but her house and money. Who even knows where the African america came into there family situation and why he was so loyal to Emily. I enjoyed the entire story especially the end when they found homer dead and found out Emily had been sleeping with a corpse. The corpse was probably the reason for the bad smell around the house.

Indian camp

Indian Camp was an easy read. There was no difficult words in it or confusing situations. The dad it seemed was trying to teach the boy about being a doctor. It was unsure of how old the boy nick was but I would say he was a teenager of some sort. Nick didn't seem to posses strong emotions.

The dad regretted bringing nick along when the dad of the baby had cut his own throat. Nicks dad could not answer all of nicks questions with valid responses. Nobody knew the real reason the dad killed himself but the mom just had a kid and would have to deal with that. It wasn't much of a sad story but a boring one since it had no action or a growing story. The story just kind of began and ended with no worries or hesitations.

Benjamin Button

Benjamin Button was a well thought out story. It was neat how the story started off with Benjamin being born and ended with the day he died. I was Benjamin's entire life in a short story. There was no cliffhanger at the end that left you wondering what happened to Benjamin. The story started with Benjamin being born an old man in his seventies. The dad was shocked and did not like what had happened with his son.

Benjamin could talk when he was born but didn't know anything about the world. As the story progressed Benjamin her younger instead of older. He tried living life but people wouldn't accept him into schools or anything like that since he was a grown man. Benjamin ended up getting a family but the wife continued to grow old as he continued to grow younger. They had a kid and the kid at one point was older than his dad since he was still getting younger. The story was a great one to read and see this mans life even though it was not a real story. The story ended with Benjamin dying as an infant who was basically just born because he couldn't talk or walk anymore. 

Research Report

When I hear the words research report I always get sad. The words "research report" basically means many papers due in about a week. It's just never something I want to do since it's basically just a bunch of homework. Through my years I have never once seen a kid smile when the teacher has said the words research report. They just are not happy words.

When I hear the words research report I think of many things. The vision i usually have of it is a big paper with many pages. I always think of doing something really in depth but then it just never ends up that way. The though of doing many pages of typing/writing is not ever a happy though.

If I made a mistake as president

This mistake is obviously a big one if even our government can't get correct spelling on documents that have gone through multiple people before being published most likely. America is truly getting lazy. If the government shows mistakes does that mean the civilians are gonna be able to make mistakes? The president should not be hiring people who have not perfectly mastered there profession. Mistakes at that level should not be made.

If I were president and a mistake like this got released and heat came back to me I would fire whoever let that happen. There would be no discussing the situation the man would just be fired and replaced. I would try and cover the situation as fast as possible but once it's out there there is no going back. Luckily everything dyes off sooner or later and that would also.

Vonnegut quote

What about god? What if he were alive today?. The quote I chose by Vonnegut seems to me a good one. What would god think if he were alive today? God would be disappointed in most people. I say this because most people are focused on themselves and god wants others to be focused on others also. God was about caring and sharing and nowadays that does not happen.

If god just all of a sudden came back today he already knows what's going on since he is the all knowing. I wonder what he is thinking of society right now due to almost everything changing from back in his day. Would he like the change is the main question. Would he be happy that the countries advanced but there is still warfare? There is so much to guess on what god would think if he came back but in reality nobody will know until it happens.

Lincoln

Lincoln would be very happy on how America turned out today. America has grown so much since he was president. Slavery has also stopped and so did the old type of warfare they had. Lincoln was an intelligent man with high expectations on what America ended up being. Now we have a bunch of land and nobody trying to take it away from us constantly. The economy is well and the technological state were in is advancing rapidly.

Lincoln if he came back today would not know what to do. He would be astonished by anything and everything around. His jaw would drop when he found out what a cell phone was. He probably wouldn't want to live in this society though since we can't just murder people as we please anymore. When you hate someone your not allowed to duel them just insult them till they leave. He would live here in aw.

Vonneguts title A Man Without A Country.

The question is why did Vonnegut choose to title his book "A Man Without A Country". After reading  "A Man Without A Country" I realized the title didn't have anything to do with the book. The book is about Vonneguts thoughts on society and a summary of his life. Vonnegut chose this title because he doesn't believe he is part of a country. Vonnegut is in his own social bubble that few other people have the same intellectual thoughts.

Vonnegut hated most of society it seemed. "We are here to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different". Vonnegut also had a strange sense of humor also. It seemed he was lonely and thought he was alone on whatever he was trying to portray with his life. I'm not actually sure why he chose the title and I can't really think how it would match up to the book. A better title would've seemed to be a life story of Vonnegut.

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

When people grow older they gain knowledge that they could not gain as a kid. As I grow older I understand the meaning of life more than I ever have. Life is a game that gives you just one life to live and it's up to you to make it count. When I grow older I want to live on a house with miles of land to do whatever I please on. I want to grow up with my friends that I have now. I want to be the man that helps people and volunteers at the local fire station, the man with the nice classic cars, even the man that doesn't take nonsense from people and will make them eat dirt if they mess with him. I want to be respected when I'm older. I want people to know me as the nice guy that handles situations when there needed to be handled.

The way I plan on making this happen is by going through college and getting a job that pays good money. After I would like to move into my home with lots of land around it. I would go to the local markets and just live life as a good man. I would help people that needed help and I would get the locals to respect me. The plan is a good one that should work with ease. I want to live in a small town so the people can get to know me easier.

Semester two

Semester two I'm expecting to stay on my medicine to where I get all my work done. I want to pass all my classes with a 3.0 to where I can get into a good college. I plan on trying a little bit harder than I did the first semester. Not too hard though that I have stress over school. I'll try but just to the extent of getting b's but in reality that's probably not gonna happen.

I hope we get less work for the second semester to where it will be easier to pass. An the second semester has been heading though that isn't going to happen. This school seems like a summer camp of just fun but I got to get it through my head that I have to be serious about it. This semester I'm gonna stay on my medicine the entire time once I get more of it to where I can concentrate. School is a huge struggle when I'm off of it and I strongly dislike it. 

Semester One

Semester one was a lot better than what I had thought it would be. There wasn't as much work and all my teachers turned out to be very nice which I enjoy. There was a good amount of work though for the first semester. It was much more fun though then I had imagined it to be. I did decent in all of my classes and didn't fail most of them which is an accomplishment.

In most of the classes we worked on the basics and set up for the second semester. All the work we did the first semester was to prepare for the second so it would be easier. All the work though seems to not match and is still pretty difficult for me. I try in the classes but just cannot comprehend most of the work we have to do. I think it would be easier if we had less work for each class. Since we have a good amount of classes it would be easier if we had less work per each.

Walt Whitman compare to Vonnegut

In Walt Whitman's poem "I hear America Singing" Whitman talks about how Americans go throughout there jobs doing there everyday tasks. Whitman describes casual American jobs and says they are all singing there song for there job. At the end of the poem Whitman mentions that everyone of the workers songs are melodious and strong. Americans are great, strong people according to Whitman. Whitman likes America and the people and how they do there everyday jobs happily.

In Vonneguts book "A Man Without a Country" Vonnegut talks about how Americans are harsh people that are frowned upon by other countries. Vonnegut mentions how America steals from the poor and how soldiers are just being used. The soldiers are the people who protect our government and the soldiers are frowned upon by the government for being lower class people. Vonnegut basically says Americas pathetic in what they do to there people. That's the reason they are frowned upon by other countries.

These two people have very different opinions on America. Whitman likes America and the people while Vonnegut hates America and thinks they are unreasonable people. It seems it's either you hate America or like it there isn't much in between in these two peoples opinions.

Chapter 5

In chapter five Vonnegut discusses the differences between men and women and what they want. Vonnegut says men want pals to be with and women want people to talk to and when they get married each gain more pals or people to talk to through extended families. People haven't been having many children to have large extended families for each gender to get what they want and that's why divorces have been taking place Vonnegut says. He mentions that people will think its about money or power but it's really just about people to talk to in almost any situation.

Vonnegut brings his point from the men and women to the Germans and Anglos. This chapter compares these points during the entire chapter. Vonnegut says Germans and Anglos had a fault line between them and the girls family didn't appreciate him being German. The chapter finishes off with Vonnegut talking about the Germans and Anglos and why they had a dispute and how this girls family and the Anglos like to have control.

Picture and song

"Well, it suddenly struck me
I just might die with a smile on my face after all"
That Joke isn't Funny Any more - The Smiths

The picture shows the best of nature. It shows nature with all it's colors and the wide variety of its different landscaped. Nature can someone's be a beautiful sight and others it can be very gloomy at other times. Natures everywhere and always surrounding us. It's a huge part in everything's life.

This song quote is a very strong one. It has emotions to it when you read it. It makes you think that was this man going through to have to say this? Was it something good in his life or something very bad. It makes people think of personal experiences and others. Was it just a joke to begin with or was it meant to be serious? It's a good quote to put views on. 

Chapter 4

In "A Man Without a Country" chapter four Vonnegut talks about the game of life. Vonnegut gives examples of people's success or failures in this chapter to summarize what life is all about. Vonnegut informs everyone that life's a game and the successful people have won it and the failures have lost it. The game thats played whoever has the most money in the end wins the game and whoever doesn't have enough loses. He gives the story of Adam and Eve as an example of how one was persuaded into eating the apple. Since one had eaten the apple both got in trouble from it. The game has choices to make to be successful and incidents can cause people to fail.

Vonnegut mentions a cigarette company that the owner had made billions of dollars on. The man that did this is obviously a winner in the game. This man is obviously a winner because he has the money to buy whatever he wants. Money is the key to winning the game. He then mentions substance abuse about drunks seeing pink elephants. These "drunks" have not won the game since they can't play the game without substances in the way.This chapter was one focusing on what life consists of and how it is a game and can be won or lost through making good or bad choices.

Question 2

Should we, as humans, value creations? Even bad ones?

As humans creations are what we strive on throughout our lives. Human lifespans range from one to one-hundred and ten years. Creations are what keep us motivated through our lifes because everything is a creation In a way. Without creations we would still be in there Stone Age since nothing would have been created. Every creation is an advance for everyone not just humans. Humans should value these creations more though since we can take action with the creation and evolve it.

Every creation has a good purpose. That means a bad creation does not exist since every creation is an advance in its own way. A human should value every creation because any and every creation can lead to an even more remarkable discovery. People say the atomic bomb was a bad decision to make but, since the atomic bomb further things have led off that to new creations. As humans we strive for creativity and new things to mess with in the future.

Kurt's writing

Vonneguts writing in "How to Write with Style" reflects in how he wrote "A Man Without A Country".  In "How to Write With Style" Vonnegut says to just be yourself in your writing and not to make it boring. Keep the readers attention throughout it with the readers wanting more. Nv ramble off topic or about pointless nonsense just to take up more space that will leave the readers with boredom. When writing you want to write about something you are interested in and readers in the same intest will read your work.

In "A Man Without A Country" Vonnegut talks about himself and his life and never rambles on about an unwanted topic throughout the book. Vonnegut sticks to his topic on his life story and how he grew threw his life. He does exactly what he says to do in his how to write with style piece.