Roller coaster

 

Life is a roller coaster,

Starting off slow not knowing what to expect,

going through ups and downs,

twists and turns.

Sometimes it can be scary,

other times it can be fun.

Traveling at different speeds,

sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

Going through many changes,

every time a new experience.

Learning of the different obstacles,

Looking back and realizing what you accomplished.

 

 

 

 

The Good Ol' Days

 

Traveling in the car,

through the flat lands of Illinois.

Looking out the window of barrels and barrels of hay.

Asking mom and dad every twenty minutes,

when will we be there at grandmas to play?

Waiting to see my cousins,

wanting to play with the games and toys.

 

When waking in the door,

we smell an assortment of foods.

Fresh hot backed pie, buttery rolls, and roasted turkey,

this is when I know it's Thanksgiving day.

 

All of the cousins running around obnoxiously, 

the parents in the other room carrying on light conversation.

The sound of the marching band,

the intense game of football in the background.

 

We hear that it's time for dinner,

everyone racing to get the first seat,

so we can be seated first.

Stuffing our mouths with as much food as we can eat.

The fun-filled day catches up to us,

and we are ready to sleep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Colors of Me

 

I am warm like the color yellow,

bright and happy,

lively like the sun,

radiating and glowing,

giving light to an empty room.

 

My other half is cool like blue.

Relaxed like the wind blowing in the air.

Laidbacked and calm,

like the ocean before a storm.

These colors come together to describe me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wiki 5 20/20 - great analysis! Glad to see you had a chance to use your skills on an off campus speech!

11/5

     Yesterday I attended a college visit at Mizzou.  When we first got there, there was a speaker who presented us information about Mizzou.  She gave a speech for 45 minutes about the campus and activities that are involved.  She majored in communication so I thought this would be a perfect person to pay attention to speech skills.  She demonstrated many good speech characteristics that we have been currently learning about.  She used many gestures and showed a powerpoint of certain attractions on the campus.  These gestures that she used pointed our attention to the screen and also kept us interested in what she was talking about.  She also asked questions and made little side jokes to make us feel welcomed and that she was very interested in speaking to us.  She used eye contact around the whole room and had the speech memorized.  She didn't use any paper to help her keep on track of what she was saying.  This made her seem like she was well organized and had a good experience of talking in front of people.  She seemed very comfortable.  The only thing that I noticed that was a negative part of her speech skills is that at times she seemed to get a little over excited and talked in a very high pitch voice.  I almost sounded like a squeak!  However this minor detail didn't make me change my opinion about her being an overall excellent speaker!

 

wiki 4 - 20/20 -great entry - loads of detail!

10/28

     Pastor Clausing has had many experiences with public speaking.  He frequently  leads chapel service and also is a teacher so he talks in front of an audience pretty much as his career.  I recognized certain characteristics that make him a good well rounded speaker but there are also a couple things that  think he could improve on.  The things that I noticed that he did well was that he used a good tone of voice and didn't have many uplects.  He also projected his voice well so that everyone in the gym could hear and understand what he was saying.   He also uses good eye contact as he looks at both the left and right sides of the gym and also the center too.  The other good characteristic that he uses is that he uses hand gestures and also pointing to the powerpoint to gesture to us to look at it.  I think that he could use a couple less hand gestures as he uses the "ok" hand gesture a few many times more than he should when he is trying to emphasize a point.  He also shows enthusiasm in hat he is speaking of as it seems like he always has a smile on his face when he is speaking.  A few times however, he laughs a little to often because it seems to carry away and distract the audience from hearing what is message is.  Pastor Clausing is overall a well rounded speaker as he speaks to an audience on frequent occasions although I think there are a few areas he could approve (improve?) upon.

 

 

wiki 3 - 10/23  - 0/20 - no post.  

Mrs. Staude, I talked to Mrs. Flamm and told her that my internet was down this weekend so that is why I didn't get my wiki done this past week.  She said that she was going to send you an email and see if I can get any credit for doing this now.

Mizel

     Mizel had many characteristics that made him a good public speaker.  He communicated a well organized message and you could tell that he had practiced the information that he presented to us.  He also used gestures which made the audience feel like they were more welcomed and made it more entertaining to listen to what he was saying.  At times he would use his hands to much for example when he was reading.  He only needed to use his hands when he was talking to the audience rather than reading from the text and using them.  I also noticed i slight upflect in what he was saying which made me wonder sometimes if he was trying to ask us a question.  I also noticed that he walked around a lot and made eye contact with the left, right, and center of the gym.  His pacing around was a little bit to much and made him look like he needed to walk around a little but to prevent him from having his nerves overtaking him.  His eye contact did make the people listening to him feel like he was interested in communicating his message to them.  He was a well rounded speaker minus these few flaws because he was a speaker that seemed to keep my interest by his technique of how he spoke.  

 

wiki 2 - 10/16  - 20/20 good job.

10/16/09

     The chapel on Wednesday by Mr. Kuhlmann and the senior football team used good speech skills.  I thought that Mr. Kuhlmann used good hand gestures as he used them to involve the audience and make them feel interested.  He had a good voice with it being at a good sound level and didn't use up flex and didn't use a monotone.  He also did a great job with eye contact as he looked at everyone in the audience.  This made us stay interested and feel like he wanted to almost include us in his sermon.  He did a good job of communicating his message with the visuals also.  I liked how he related his topic of that we need to thank god for our talents through the football players writing their talents on tile then crushing them.  This chapel provided both an auditory and visual way of what the lesson was that he was communicating.  The visual related the message to an example of what God believes our talents are if we don't thank him for them.  This really helped me to understand this and I will always remember this message now when I may or someone else thinks that they are best at a certain talent.

wiki 1 - 20/20 - good response! It is hard to see someone miss their target audience... it was good of you to be as polite as possible while struggling to focus.

10/8/09

     I thought that the speaker at chapel on monday was very unique in how he spoke.  He was hard to follow because he seemed to get off track quite often.  He seemed to walk in circles and not clearly communicate the message that he was trying to.  He had a good message that he was trying to communicate but he told stories that he encountered in high school and his previous life.  He was telling stories that he thought we would relate too and try to make jokes here and there. He was both interesting to listen to and a little boring.  He was very confusing so this made some people want to pay attention to see what he was trying to talk about.  On the other hand some people just decided to not listen because they didn't know what point he was trying to get across.  I would see people looking around to ask others if they knew what he was saying.  At the end of chapel many had no idea what the point of the message was.  I felt a little sorry for him because he was older and I didn't want him to think that people weren't paying attention.  I tried to pay attention and listen closely.  Overall his message would have been better if he would have written an outline of what he was planning to say and not get side tracked with other stories.

 

 

Edgar Allen Poe

            Authors communicate a message and theme using literary devices in their works.  Authors may have a common style that is evident in all of their works that they write.  Edgar Allen Poe is one of these authors as he repeatedly uses the same tone and style of writing in his stories.  He also uses literary elements in five of his most famous writings: “The Black Cat”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”.  The five literary elements in these writings include first person narrative, characters affected by insanity, a gothic/horror style, and the setting taking place in a house.

            Edgar Allen Poe writes in first person narrative in all five of these stories.  By using first person narrative, readers only know what is going on in the narrator’s mind rather than knowing what the other characters are thinking throughout the story.  In “The Black Cat”, Poe uses first person narrative as he uses “I” and “me” to communicate how the narrator is possessed by a cat.  He also displays this in “The Fall of the House of Usher” as he is taking the audience on a tour of the Mansion de Fear.  Poe writes as a first person central narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to prove his power of hearing.  This form of writing is also presented in “The Cask of Amontillado” as he is describing his torture of Fortunato.  Lastly, this is also demonstrated in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” to describe his take on the murder case.  Poe uses first person narrative to show the narrator’s point of view of creating insane characters and having them be the main focus in his writings.

                                                                                                                                    Dostal 2

Poe uses insane characters in these five famous works to emphasize the horror and terror that influences his plots.  In “The Black Cat”, Poe uses insanity by having the narrator be possessed by a cat.  The narrator doesn’t think the cat enjoys his company so he goes insane and cuts the cat’s eyes out.  He also shows insanity when he gets irritated with the next cat he encounters and tries to kill it.  Instead of killing the cat, the narrator ends up killing his wife and hides her body in a cellar wall.  The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” also shows acts of insanity.  The narrator has a disease and is very annoyed with the appearance of an old man’s eye.  He goes insane and decides to kill the man because of this and ends up cutting him into pieces and hiding the remains under the floor.  “The Fall of the House of Usher” also shows insanity as Roderick Usher and Madeline experience strange illnesses.  Roderick predicts Madeline’s death and she dies as he expected.  He shows insanity by entombing Madeline, possibly still alive, in the vaults underneath the mansion.  Madeline eventually comes back to life and throws herself at Usher and they die together.  The narrator in “The Cask of Amontillado” shows acts of insanity as he leads Fortunato into a catacomb while getting him drunk.  The narrator goes insane as Fortunato walks into the hole and chains him up.  The narrator then buries him alive.  The final story that Poe displays insanity is in “The Murders in the Roe Morgue” as he describes the murder case of how Mademoiselle L’ Espanaye was stuffed up a chimney.  The Ourang-Outang shows insanity by slitting a woman’s throat and kills his friends when they won’t play with him.

            Poe also uses a horror/gothic style of writing that is apparent in these five stories.  In “The Black Cat” Poe combines family drama with horror.  For example, he cuts out his cat; Pluto’s, eyes and ends up hanging him on a tree.  He then tries to kill the cat once again but ends

                                                                                                                                    Dostal 3

up killing his wife instead.  Finally, he hides his wife’s dead body behind a cellar wall.  Poe also uses elements of horror in “The Tell-Tale Heart”.  The narrator decides to kill an old man just because he doesn’t like the appearance of his eye.  The narrator creates horror by watching over the man with a lantern and on the day the man wakes up he kills him.  After the old man is dead, the narrator cuts the man up and buries his remains under the floor.  The horror/gothic style is again evident when there is a ticking noise and the narrator admits to the old man’s heart still beating.  “The Fall of the House of Usher” is also influenced under the horror/gothic style. Roderick Usher has an illness and predicts the death of his sister.  She then dies and he buries her body below the house.  Poe uses horror to create the suspense of what is going to happen between the Usher and his sister, Madeline.  On a stormy night, Usher and the narrator are reading a story when they hear noises from beneath the floor.  The horrific Madeline appears all bloody and throws herself at Usher as they both die of fear together.  “The Cask of Amontillado” is also categorized as a horror/gothic story.  He uses horror as the narrator makes Fortunato drunk and leads him into a hole.  The narrator then chains Fortunato to a wall and fills the opening with bricks to bury him alive and allowing the reader to observe the process.  Poe uses these horrific events in this story to lead up to the killing and torture of Fortunato.  The last story Poe uses the horror/gothic style of writing in is “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”.  This style is evident when there are screams coming from a house on Rue Morgue in the middle of the night.  The rooms are destroyed in the fourth story of the apartment where Mademoiselle L’Espanyne’s body is stuffed up a chimney.  Poe uses terror as he describes the condition of Madeline’s neck as it falls off her head.

           

                                                                                                                                    Dostal 4

The final literary device that Poe uses is the setting of his stories taking place in a house.  The events that occur in “The Black Cat” all take place in a house.  Poe uses a house in this story because this story is based on family drama with his wife and cat.  For example, the night of the man killing his cat; his house burns down.  The bedroom wall is significant because it displays a picture of a cat with a rope around its neck.  The family then moves into another house which has a cellar.  This is the place where the man buries his wife’s body.  The setting of a “The Tell-Tale Heart” also takes place in a house.  For example, the narrator goes to the old man’s house after he kills him and keeps a watch on him with a lantern.  Poe uses the house as a way to hide the old man’s body under the floor when he kills him.  “The Fall of the House of Usher” is also centered in a house setting, although it is a creepy mansion. Usher references the house as being creepy and having power over him.  Usher predicts the death of his sister and then buries her under the floor of the mansion.  He then hears noises coming from underneath the house floor and the house then cracks in two.  The final story where the story takes place in a house is “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”.  The house is the setting where the mystery and crime take place.  For example, when the police hear screams from the house, they go into it and investigate.  The setting of the house also appears in this story when the neighbors break into a fourth story apartment and find the rooms destroyed. 

            Authors have a way of communicating certain ideas within the stories they write.  Edgar Allen Poe uses many literary devices that are similar through a collection of the stories he writes.  These are evident in “The Black Cat”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”.

Enemy Territory

     If I were Pablo I would have acted differently and handled my emotions differently than him.  Pablo turned tables, broke chairs, and also broke mirrors because of the bartender treating him differently since he was a cuban.  He then got sent to jail for this.  If I were in his place I would have been upset for being treated differently because of my race or being different than them.  However, I wouldnt have acted in a way that caused harm to somebody or their property because of the consequences I would face.  Also, I dont think a situation would happen like this today because people dont turn down others because of their race or culture.  I also think that if this happened to someone they would report the case of prejudism instead of going out of control and doing actions that would put them in jail.

Good insights in this one.... 

A & P

     I think that Sammy was a loser because he quit his job just because his manager embarrassed the girls for coming into the store in their bathing suits.  Sammy didn't even know the girls so I don't think he should quit his job just because his manager embarrassed three girls he didn't even know.  Also, if the store's policy is that you need to be fully dressed than that should be known to the customer because some places have that requirement because of health reasons.  Sammy has also worked at the grocery store for a long time and his parents wanted him working there.  Lengel thinks that his parents will be dissappointed in him quitting the job at the grocery store just because he was standing up for three girls that he didn't know.  In the end Sammy didn't even see the three girls in the parking lot because they left by the time he had the chance to meet them.

Good work on wk. 1 - enjoyed reading your ideas!

Charles

     I thought this story was interesting because the ending didn't turn out how i expected it to.  Laurie would come home each day from school and tell stories to his parents of a classmate named Charles.  I thought there really was a boy in Laurie's class named Charles that disrupted the class because Laurie would come home each day with a realistic story to tell.  These stories of Charlie ended up impacting the family and the mom began to worry that this this child may affect Laurie.  However, in the end Laurie's mom goes to a PTA meeting to try and meet Laurie's mom and finds out that Charlie isn't even in kindergarten.  The parents believed their child all along and were worried that this classmate would affect Laurie's education and upbringing.  The parents then find out that Laurie made Charlie up so I think they are going to be even more worried as to why their child had to make up a false person in his class.

 

The Moustache

     I think that it was wrong for Mike to go along with his grandma for her to think that he was her husband.  He should have told his grandma right when she thought that he was her husband that he was only her grandson because she spilled out her life story to him.  The grandma had alzheimers and she didn't know who some people were.  She was then confessing to her grandson that she was sorry for what she did in the past and Mike just went along with it.  He should have said who he really was because he didn't need to know personal things about her life and also he should have told the truth to his grandma because you should always be honest.  If his grandmother really wanted to see her husband, Mike, then her grandson should have told her that he will bring him to come see her.  The grandson shouldn't have continued to go along with everything and say sorry because he really wasn't her husband and thats all that the grandmother wanted.  Also, if the grandmother somehow found this out she would be deeply upset that she wasn't told the truth and she probably didn't want anyone else to hear the story of her being so sorry.

Great job. I enjoyed all the detail on your answer. I think a lot of people felt as you did about "The Moustache".

 

 

Usher II

     I thought that Usher II had a very interesting plot.  When I first heard we were reading this I thought it was a sequel to the House of Usher. However, it wasn't at all like a sequel.  I thought it was interesting how Stendahl killed characters the same way Poe did even though these stories aren't at all related.  I also thought parts of this story were kind of crazy because I have never read of a story like this before.  For instance I started catching on when he made robots of everybody.  When he did this I knew he was up to something and that he would be killing all of them.  I thought it was crazy how everyone was watching others get killed and they didn't realize that actual people were dying instead of the robots they thought who were dying.

 

Essay

     I like how we had many choices in choosing which essay topic we wanted to write about.  I was debating between writing my own short story or the one that had to deal with a realistic conflict.  I decided to write mine about the realistic conflict because I thought that The Moustachewas perfect to write about.  I thought this suited this essay topic perfectly because I thought it was realistic how

the grandma had a stroke that enabled her from remembering who people were.  I wrote that the grandson Mike should have told his grandmother that he wasn't really her husband.  I also wrote that the conflict could have been solved in many ways.  One way is that Mike should have forced his grandmother to listen to him.  If Mike couldn't get his grandmother to listen to him then he should have brought in his mother or a nurse to make sure they got it through to his grandmother.

Great job on wiki 3!Very well discussed!

 

 

Antaeus 

I enjoyed reading this story because I wanted to continue to find out what happened with the garden that T.J. wanted to plant.  I liked how T.J. wanted to reach his goal of building a garden by influence people he barely knew to build it with him.  He wanted to build a garden of cotton and corn because that what he did in the south and there wasn't anything like it to the place where he lived.  He then decided to build a garden on top of the roof where he lived and ended up growing grass on it.  However, a man who owned this building told them that they  had to remove the garden.  T.J. said that the man couldn't make them remove the garden or tell them what to do.  His friends made him realize that they couldn't do anything to prevent this so he moved away back to his homeland.  I like how T.J. was so determined and never gave up on his garden because that was a very important part of his life.

 

 

 

The Finish of Patsy Bears

     I liked reading this story because of the dedication the son had towards his mother.  First, his father died in sacrifice of a horse.  He then lived with his mother who raised him.  His mother then became very ill and needed a doctor.  She called a doctor and the doctor said to stay in the north where she belongs.  The doctor wouldn't help her in time of when she needed it and said to just stay in bed.  The son said that he needed to find his mother a new doctor because he couldn't see her ill like this and didn't want her to die.  The son didn't go to school so he didn't have much knowledge.  He loved horses and decided to enter a race to raise money to help his mother find a new doctor.  He then entered the race and his horse won.  He was hardworking and wanted to find a new doctor so that his mother could survive and he accomplished this.

 

wiki 5 - good postings this week! 

From Mother with Love 

      I wouldn't like secrets being kept from me as the Hawley family did.  I know they did this so the mother wouldnt be saddened by the fact that she was going to die in 3 months.  I also think the dad didnt want his wife to be scared about dying.  I think that the husband should have told his wife that she was going to die because I would want to know that so i could spend time with my family as much as possible.  I also think it was right for the dad to tell his daughter so she could understand the reason of him wanting her to stay home and not going off to school.  The daughter also wanted to make sure she made every last minute count with her mother and recognized the conditio her mother was in.  She spent as much time with her and prepared herself for the day she would die.  She was prepared for the death instead of it coming to be a shock which made it a little easier.

 

Project 

     Iv'e spent a lot of time thinking about whether I should write a short story or do the report in a author. I decided to do my report on Edgar Allen POe because I thought it would be interesting to compare his famous writing since he uses similar elements in them.  I also thought it would be a good experience to compare 5 different stories and see how they all relate in someway.  I found many similarities within them such as the setting, the style, the first person narrative, and insanity.  I have written an outline so my information will be well organized and i have also found that it is much easier writing a paper with it. These similarities that I found seem to be evident in almost all five of the stories and it is enternaing how author's minds can work in such detail like that.