Christmas Time

It's Christmas time in the kitchen,

But each year something is missing.

As we grow older,

The weather seems colder.

Yet you can hear laughter when you listen.

 

The air is filled with scentts of winter.

Everything sweet, nothing bitter.

Families start to smile,

As they sit and talk for awhile.

Till they hear the call for dinner!

 

Soon enough the dawn breaks.

All the children are wide awake.

The oven dings,

The children sing,

As they ice the cookies they baked.

 

Go now under the Christmas tree.

Sit in front and wait to see,

What inside presents hold!

As you listen to the past stories told,

And learn what God did for me.

 

Two-Toned

 

Weekends bring forth electric yellow!

Bouncy and spontaneous,

Shooting the breeze dancing the jig!

Here and there hither and fither!

Left and right to and fro!

 

But weekends come and go, life is not all fun and games.

Serene blue is my second nature,

Full of compassion and calming thoughts,

willing to help and comfort,

taking a more serious tone.

Succeeding at all I do.

 

Two seperate halves of the pie,

But both together make up what is, the Steve.

 

 

 

Life is...

 

Life is a credit card, its platinum gleam.

I swipe, and swipe, and spend with glee.

Cash? Savings? I know not of these!

Charge me that jacket! Charge me that cheese!

I am invincible, the world cannot touch me!

 

I swipe, and swipe, and spend with glee.

What's that in the mail, a present from Marie?

No, thousands of dollars, wanted from me.

Don't take my couch! No not my keys!

In the end, life brings you to your knees.

 

 

 

Give Thanks

 

While others travel for family far away,

Most of my family is not around today.

Others in great groups gather round,

While even in my little family, our love willd abound.

 

While we hang around praising with one another,

We always have room for at least one other.

Taking in our closest friends,

We cook for those who need helping hands.

 

Passing around the gravy boat,

Stuffing delicious foods down our throat.

Sharing our troubles with each other,

Eager to help one another like a brother.

 

After all the eating is done and gone,

It is time for our guests to run along.

No longer wanting that trendy sweater,

But being content makes us all the better.

 

 

 

wiki 5 20/20 - Good post (and you're right, you botched his name! :-) Mr Schlesselman did a good job, even if he is a bit static as far as movement goes.

November 6, 2009

     In chapel today Mr. Schlussemann (I apologize for that most likely being wrong) gave a message on character.  He had a bit of a challenge as his audience was not of uniform age.  Today was grandparents day so he had not only the typical student body but he also had to get his message across to the elderly, two opposite age groups.  

     I'd say content wise he did a great job picking a message that would apply to all age groups.  As far as presentation goes however, some areas were lacking.  During his delivery Mr. Schlussemann seemed to favor standing stationary behind his podium.  This causes a bit of a gap between a speaker and their audience.  His hand motions are relatively unnoticeable and were often below the waist and kept stubtly behind the podium.  They were also fairly repetitive.  He does a great job of controlling his volume in the large room, but his voice is very monotone and can cause someone to tone out.

 

wiki 4 - 20/20 - good response... interesting that we tolerate speech impediment issues in some but not others... I am thinking how kids will accept a speech issue in a friend, but not in a teacher. Just an observation - not a criticism.

October 30, 2009

     Today we had extended chapel in which Mr. Flandermeyer presented the message to us.  He is not a regular public speaker and it shows.  The most distracting thing about him may not be his fault but is distracting nontheless.  He has a largely noticeable lisp when he pronounces his "s".  There are alot of words with an s.  Also most likely due to his lack of experience he mostly stands behind the podium like a statue reading his speech to us.  There is a bit of a speaker-audience connection lost as he looks up from time to time and then back down at his script.  He also uses very little hand motions, holding the microphone in one hand and keeping the other firm at his side.  Speakers are more effective in my opinion in chapel if they can leave the podium a bit and create a more personal connection with the audience.  He did prepare his script well and his section of his speech where he asked for audience participation to make a confession of faith was very moving to me and was very effective. 

 

wiki 3 - 0/20 - no posting as of Oct. 23.

wiki 2 - 20/20 - excellent observation. He did a great job even with a tech glitch!

October 16, 2009

     Today I was lucky enough to have a very easy speaker with dynamic characteristics to evaluate.  Mr. Stec came in as our chapel speaker today.  I am going to critique him in a narrow sense on his delivery and appearance.  The single most obvious characteristic of Mr. Stec is his movement.  Knowing him previously as a teacher, he admits that he has an impossibly hard time standing still.  It is extremely distracting if you are not used to it as he goes from one side of the room to another.  On his upper body's behalf however, I think he uses a wide variety of gestures that add to the speech and uses them to emphasize key points.  

     The inability to stay in place does not hinder his confidence however, as he is not afraid to talk to the audience and make efforts to communicate with them.  He often incorporates a bit of humor when he speaks to keep the age group he is addressing attentive and interested in what he has to say.  He uses notes to guide his speech and in my opinion does fairly well with keeping eye contact with the crowd and glancing at his place in the notes.  Volume is not an issue for Mr. Stec as he could easily project his voice across the room without the need of a microphone, and various his voice to avoid being monotone and dull.

 

wiki 1 20/20 - great response work!

October 9, 2009

     I thought it would be a good idea for my first speech wiki to be on a speaker whom I was familiar with.  Today in chapel the service was led by our very own Pastor Clausing.  I believe that he is a very well rounded speaker, and I focused on watching his delivery today.  I noticed through experience with Pastor Clausing that he has a few repetitive hand gestures he uses when he is emphasizing something.  These can get a bit distracting, but other than that I have only positive criticism to give him.  He inflects his voice very well making sure his audience does not get bored, and he presents himself in a very confident way. If you know him outside of his speeches it almost appears that he is more comfortable speaking to the public rather than one on one conversations.  Because he is so confident, eye contact is very easy for him to accomplish well and makes the listener feel included in the message.  You can tell he has had alot of experience with public speaking, and talks at a normal rate to get his points across timely, but not too fast or boringly slow.  

 

 

I Didn’t Know How to Tell You

 

By Stephen M. Douglas

            I don’t remember much about that night.  The night when I woke up in my sleep screaming thinking I had a nightmare, only to realize it had actually happened.  I don’t know what possessed me to take things as far as I did, or even remember how I got to his house.  I do however; remember vividly the day I met Lizzy.

            “Hello?  May I ask who is calling? It is two in the morning and my family is asleep.”

            “Sorry to bother you Mrs. Simms, but we have your son here at the Oak City police department.  He requests that you come get him rather than go to prison.”  This was the start of my nightmare.  All I remember about that was the emotions I felt.  I felt pain.  I felt depression.  I felt hate.  I had been dealing with a tremendous amount of loss in a short period of time.  My best friend was growing more distant from me, my father had lost his job, and I had just been betrayed by someone I thought to be the love of my life.  I had always been terrible with coping with things, whether it be stress, loss, anger, practically anything. 

            “Justin,” my friend said to me that night, “just try this…it will help you forget and enjoy yourself again.”

            “Sure,” I quickly replied, “why not? Things can’t get much worse anyway.”  With those words I made a terrible decision I later thought would ruin my life. I set the tablet on my tongue and began my first and only acid trip.  Like I said I don’t remember much, but from my friends’ testimonies I couldn’t even recognize who they were and bolted into the woods only to be discovered cowering on the ground by a park ranger.

            I will spare you the details of how my parents reacted to this event, you can probably guess the typical reaction of any parent.  For the most part I sat in my room for about a week, (it had been Christmas vacation) and simply stared off into the abyss.  I felt hatred for those who betrayed me, for those who got rid of my father, and for myself.  I had zero self esteem. I was deprived of my car, television, games, practically everything a teenage boy of 17 finds entertaining. 

            School continued on as normal.  I attended class, kept up my grades, but I never smiled. 

            “Come on Justin!” my friends would often say, “you never do anything anymore.  Why don’t you do yourself a favor and get out?  You’re not grounded anymore, so why do you still treat yourself like you are?”  I was never quite sure how to answer this question.  I suppose it was because I didn’t feel that I deserved any fun.  My life was destined to be alone and miserable.  In response I would simply shrug my shoulders and look away.  This behavior became normal for me.  Days, weeks, even months went by without getting much more than a “hello” or an “I’m fine” out of me.  It got so bad that my family even considered getting me professional help! 

            “Justin,” my friends addressed me once again, “I need your notes for history after school and I know you take good notes.  Just meet me at my car after last period.  Thanks buddy.”  I gathered my notes for my friend and went out to his car.  He had been on his phone and just told me to set them in the back seat.  Crouching into his small car, I felt a sudden force upon as I was thrust face first into the back seat and heard the door shut behind me.  The car had begun moving.

            “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

            “Taking you out.” My friend said to me.

            “By kidnapping me!?” I exclaimed.

            “If that’s what it takes to get you to snap out of this ridiculous state of mind then yes, I will take you by force.”  We drove a few miles up the road to local superstore and parked the car.  “I’m not forcing you to do anything crazy or pressuring you Justin.  I just want you to help me pick out a nice gift for my girlfriend’s birthday coming up.  I heard that you have good taste in that sort of stuff looking at how much your last lady treasured that bracelet you got her.”  My heart clenched as he mentioned her.  I was trying to forget about her and he took me to the very place I spent my savings on her! How insensitive of him!

            We walked past all the clothes and food and made our way to the jewelry stand.  I put my face to the glass looking at the wide array of diamonds and jewels when I heard a girl’s voice, “I really like that diamond necklace you’re looking at mister.  I’ve always wished someone special would give something as beautiful as that to me.”  Not really paying attention to her, I turned my attention to my friend who seemed unimpressed with the selection.

            “Let’s try something else,” he said to me, “nothing here really catches my eye.”  We then moved over to the toy section and browsed until he picked up a pink stuffed teddy bear.  “She’ll love this!” he pronounced.

            “Very original.” I said sarcastically.  “Big spender too aren’t we?” 

            Ignoring my remark he had obviously set his mind on that stupid little thing.  He never was very good at these sorts of things.  Eager to leave and go home to get back to my lonely studious nature, we made our way to the front of the store.  As we walked, I heard a small voice in the distance.  “I hope you found what you wanted.  Have a nice day.”  I cocked my head to the left a little and noticed a girl looking at me from the jewelry stand.  At that moment everything that had been concerning me and corrupting me was erased from my mind.  I noticed her smile.  There was nothing in my vision other than that smile.  I quickly turned my head back around and looked at the ground in a kind of confused manner.  I was trying to make sense mentally of what had just occurred in me.  I no longer felt pain.  There was no worry in my thoughts, and it was all from a girl whom which I never saw a face! 

            “See that wasn’t so bad,” my friend stated while getting into his car. I just stared straight ahead with a look on my face that was unfamiliar even to me.  “You alright dude?” he asked. 

            “I’ll be right back,” I responded and quickly got out of the automobile.  I quickly paced back into the store, passed the clothes and over to the jewelry stand.  “I’ll take that necklace,” I said pointing to the diamond necklace I previously stared at.  The girl shot me another one of those smiles that so greatly affected me before and I nearly melted where I stood.  This time however, I noticed her whole being.  I saw her beautiful brown eyes and the warmth that they gave me.  I couldn’t resist but notice her thin curvatious figure and her soft inviting skin. 

            “That will be three hundred and thirty dollars,” she said in a sweet tone.  “Who is the lucky girl?”

            I quickly snapped out of my obsession with the girl and pulled out my debit card.  I thought about her simple question, and wondered to myself exactly what was possessing me to buy such a item without anyone to present it to.  “No one,” I muttered, a little puzzled myself.  “No one at all.”

            Without throwing in another remark or questioning my purchase further the girl rang up the necklace and gently gift wrapped it.  Still puzzled but in a weirdly good mood I reached for the package and brushed my hand against hers.  I felt so nervous that I took off at a pace that nearly felt like sprinting and rushed to my friend’s car. 

            “What the heck was that all about?” he inquired.

            “I’m not sure.” I said.  I felt euphoric.  I was in a heavenly state and I had no clue why.  I also felt like I dropped my stomach somewhere back in the parking lot on my record sprint back to the car. 

            My friend dropped me back off at school so that I could drive my car home for the weekend.  He apologized if forcing me to do something angered me but he wasn’t willing to sit around and watch his best friend wallow in self pity forever.  He probably expected me to immediately drive home and wallow some more.  I even expected to do that.  That’s not what I did though.  I, without thinking, drove back up to the store, strode back to the girl at the jewelry counter and said “Is there anything I should know about the care or protection I get on this thing?”

            “Well protection plans cost a bit extra,” she replied warmly.

            “I’m not sure if I have any money left in my account after that purchase,” I said.

            “No problem.  How about I just give you my name and store number and you can call me if you need anything ok?” She ended her statement on an upbeat and I couldn’t help but smile back at her and join in her optimism.

            I had it.  I had gotten a name and a number!  I didn’t look at the card she gave me until I fastened myself in my car seat.  ‘Lizzy’ they card read.  I probably waited a maximum of five seconds before I drew my cell and dialed the number. 

            “Hi thank you for calling Jempacked Jewelers how can I help you?” Immediately I realized what I was doing and I got that stomach feeling again.  I stayed on the line for maybe a minute not speaking until I hung up the phone.  I’m not sure of the exact number of times it happened but that sequence happened at least three more times.  After awhile when I receive that “Hello?” I mustered up some courage.

            “I need something.” I said randomly.

            “Ok what is it exactly you need?” she would reply.

            “Ummmm…” I struggled for a second part of our conversation.

            “Ah you must be that boy that keeps coming in here.”

            “What?”

            “Yeah I can see you in your car through the window.  You keep picking up your phone and putting it down.  Your parked right outside my section,” she said with a friendly chuckle.

            “Oh sorry about that,” I said, extremely embarrassed that I had been found out, “I’m not quite sure of anything I’m doing today.”

            After that conversation I continued to call the Jewelers every afternoon to see if Lizzy was working.  Each time she answered I would try to hold a conversation with her but after a second she would simply laugh and reply with a “goodbye Justin I have to work now.”  Eventually I convinced her to give me her personal number so I could talk to her, and in time I miraculously gathered enough courage to ask her to go to a small get together with some of my friends.

            Not long after meeting her we developed what people would call “a thing.”  I can still remember perfectly the day I came home after buying that necklace and telling my mom “I can be happy again.”

            “Is that so?” she gave me a weird look raising one eyebrow.

            “Yes,” I said with a smile, the first smile she had seen in a long time.  I didn’t give her the details about exactly why I was happy that day.  I waited until Lizzy and I began our romantic relationship to reveal my new happiness.

            Lizzy was a girl unlike any other I had met.  Right away we clicked and for the entire time we spent together, pain was absent from my life.  We became inseparable.  I couldn’t even conjure up thoughts about my past to bring myself down from the heavens in which Lizzy took me.  After getting to know her we found out that both of us had bad experiences with relationships in the past, and that we understood each other. 

            During my final high school year I saw Lizzy on a daily basis.  We spent afternoons doing homework together, taking walks around the neighborhood, and being mushy with each other in private.

            “How long do you think we’ll last?” she used to ask me.

            “As long as you want. I see no reason to change things.” With that we would smile and kiss, letting time fly by without our knowing or care.

  Things seemed like they were going to last forever, that our love was flawless, and that nothing could touch what we shared.

            After high school graduation, my life became more hectic.  I had to work two jobs over the summer to get enough money to start college, and planning became very time consuming.  Lizzy was very understanding about all of this.  She assisted me where she could but ultimately we saw much less of each other. 

            “I’m sorry I’m so busy Lizzy,” I would say holding her tight every spare moment I could.

            “I know baby. I understand,” there would be a calmness in her voice, but there was something underlying it.  Something negative was there, and I wasn’t used to negative things with her.

             Over the next few weeks she began to grow more distant from me.  She told me less, talked less, and that smile I had fallen in love with wasn’t there.  Something was bothering her, but she was so good at telling me everything I figured she would tell me when the time was right.  I was scared, and that’s all I knew.

            One day when I asked off work to come and surprise Lizzy by taking her on the date of her dreams as my apologies for being so busy, no one answered the phone.  I figured she was in the shower taking her time as she usually did around that time, so I figured a short drive to her house would be an even bigger surprise.  As I walked up their long driveway, bouquet of flowers in hand, I noticed a note on the door, accompanying a box on the porch. 

My dearest Justin,

A few weeks ago, my dad told me we were moving.

He didn’t let me know until we sold the house so that I would not worry.

I didn’t know how to tell you, and I am sorry I couldn’t say goodbye in person.

In this box is one item I collected from every date we shared.

I put pictures, notes, and poems I wrote about you in there too.

I never felt a connection like yours. 

I don’t know what the future holds for us.

But I love you, and that’s all I really know.

Truly, madly, deeply, Lizzy.

            I was devastated.  I couldn’t even find the feelings to cry.  I didn’t know what to do.  I picked up the box and went through all its contents.  I recognized all the items that were in there and their meaning.  A buckeye from the picnic, a score sheet from our many putt putting games, and all the cards I had given her for our special occasions.

            It wasn’t until the next night that I cried.  I cried so hard that I felt like throwing up.  I couldn’t accept the fact that I was alone again, back where I started without her.  So again my cycle reoccurred.  I withdrew from my friends, my family, and kept in my sadness.  I had little connection with Lizzy, being that I was in college and she was one year younger, still living at home under her father’s strict rules. 

            It wasn’t until a long while later that I was able to accept my loss.  I picked up the box and went through its contents again, finding a small note I did not open yet.  It read:

I told you I don’t know what the future holds for us.

I want us both to be happy throughout this though.

Everything will be ok in the end, and everything happens for a reason.

I didn’t want to hold you down while you went through all the experiences of college,

But I put this picture of me in this letter.  Notice the necklace I am wearing.

I took it from you; please don’t be mad, I wanted to have it.

But see I never forgot about you, and I never will.

What we should both take out of all this is that we both found something.

We found love that is perfect, that we both came out of our negative states

And realized that there is that kind of love out there.

And that we can find it again.

Truly, madly, deeply, Lizzy.

            After reading this final note I closed up the box.  I thought about what she said.  After thinking about her final statement, that we knew that that kind of feeling was out there and it existed, I managed to set the box down and simply, smile.

 

 

 

 

 

wiki 5 - Great job on your posts both this week and last. You have a lot of interesting ideas and I enjoy hearing them.

September 18

 

I think that "The New Kid" is a great story to give my opinion on.  First off I would like to say that I was disappointed that the new kid was not good at punchball.  I was anticipating that when he came up to bat he would astound everyone and be amazing.  This was not the case.  In terms of Marty, I hated his character from the beginning.  He was an annoying whiner that got on everyone's nerves.  His character dropped even lower at the end when he in turn started bringing down the new kid in order to lift himself higher (a common behavior in bullies).  The fact that the story ended without having Marty feel any remorse shows just how cruel the real world is and that not everyone in life ends up doing the right thing.

 

September 18

 

From Mother With Love did not hit me as hard as I expected it to after hearing other students' responses.  It was a highly emotional piece, but maybe because the daughter dealt with the loss so well I found it hard to be really sad.  I did however enjoy reading this piece's unique way of dealing with the loss.  In the end, rather than feeling sorry for herself or wasting away her life, Minta realizes that her dad needs her.  She does not complain about not going off to school, but rather she sucks it up and sits in her mom's chair at the end and takes on her mother's roles in order to care for her father.

 

September 10

 

"The Finish of Patsy Barnes" was a very interesting story.  It took me a few tries to get into it because I would glaze over the pages and had a hard time finding an interest at first.  Patsy, a black boy, has little interest in succeeding in school but has a strong love for horses.  His mom becomes very ill, and when he turns out to race the same horse type that killed his father I began to take interest.  Patsy ends up winning some money to hire a doctor for his mother, and realizing at the end that it was the horse that took his father away that gave life to his mother that made the story feel worth reading.

 

September 10

 

2.  If you can, explain why Deal gave it the title he did.

Well first we had to understand what "Anteaus" means.  The footnote explains that he was a mythological being that drew his power by having both feet on the ground.  TJ in this story represents Anteaus.  When TJ comes out of his rural country area, he feels out of touch with the world and immediately after coming he thinks up ideas on how to make the new city area similar to what he is used to.  Back home he farmed everything, so he rallies his new friends to create a roof garden on their gang headquarters.  He is similar to Anteaus because for him to be himself, he needs the land to farm and to create things with this hard work.  Without this, TJ is a stranger to his environment.

 

Great job on wiki 3!

September 4

 

"Usher II" by Ray Bradbury was the most recent story I read.  I keep saying in each entry that each consecutive story grabs my attention more and more, and this selection was no exception.  Although I had a bit of trouble with "The Fall of the House of Usher", I can vividly remember each of the other Poe works I have read in school over the years.  Seeing all of these stories come into play in "Usher II" was really entertaining and I caught on to what was going on fairly quickly.  The Pit and the Pendulum was my favorite selection and I was glad to see Bradbury incorporate it into his piece.  This story overall was like a blast from the past with Poe but in an even easier style of reading.

 

September 4

 

I didn't realize how fast time was moving along, so I recently began the start of my short story.  I am going to do the creative writing for the extra credit, and I think it will be a good opportunity to see what I'm made of in that area.  After sitting around thinking about what to write, I found it extremely difficult to pick just one topic to write about.  And on top of that, It was even more difficult to think up a theme to develop within those ideas.  I am setting aside a good chunk of time to try and figure all of these issues out over this labor day weekend.  Although it is a bit stressing now, I think that once I have my topic and theme, I will get alot of enjoyment out of putting it all together in any way I want!

 

August 28

Good work on wiki 2! I appreciate your personal connection that you shared. How's your project coming along... 

By the way... congrats on sticking with Poe.. he's not easy... but he's worth the ride! Wait till the end!

The Moustache by Cormier was probably the first story this year that I had a personal experience I could relate it to.  Mike in the story has a grandma that obviously is getting old and starting to lose her mind a little bit.  I had a great aunt who lost her eye sight and began to grow old as well, and my reactions to her when I would visit were very similar to Mike from the story.  His grandma thought that he was her husband who has been dead and she poured out her heart to him, but Mike was shocked and did not know how to react.  When my great aunt would talk to me and it wouldn't make sense I would feel awkward and sad that it was happening to her, but I would lie and go along with her to make her feel better even though I had little knowledge of what sense she was making.  Overall I enjoyed reading this selection and it got me thinking on a personal level beyond the confines of the story.  

 

August 28

 

I read the first half of Edgar Allen Poe's the Fall of the House of Usher.  I think Poe is a literary genius, but with this selection I had trouble staying focused.  Poe uses words that even though I understand, they are complicated and he uses so many of them at a time that my eyes go over the words, but at the end of each section I can barely recall what happened.  I am only halfway through this selection and so far it has not struck me as very exciting, but knowing this author I am sure I am in for a shock in the next coming pages.  I do however enjoy reading some of the descriptions of the house as he leaves nothing out and it seems as if I am staring right at it in real life.  

 

August 21

 

After you read part 2 of the story, comment on the story. I am particularly interested on what you think of Crane's style. Is he an entertaining author? I am also curious about how you feel this story compares in style to The Red Badge of Courage... any similarities or did Crane go in an entirely new direction?

 

"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" was a story I was not particularly fond of.  Primarily because it was extremely uneventful and boring at the start while the couple are on the train, then the end disappoints you by leading up to a big gun fight and ending without one.  The style that Crane uses in this story is very undescriptive whoa! He tells you what the dust in the street looks like! If anything, he's TOO descriptive! and he gives you very little background on the characters.  In fact, he doesn't even give the bride a name.  Compared to the Red Badge of Courage it seems like Stephen Crane went in an entirely new direction.  In his famous novel Crane uses vivid descriptions to paint every scene in the reader's mind (too much description for my liking).  In this short story however, he leaves a lot of the detail and description for the readers to guess about and create their own decisions about why, how, and various other questions. Are you sure you don't mean that he leaves unanswered questions in the plot development? Not the description?

 

August 21

 

I thought that enemy territory was the best story we have read thus far.  This story was unique in the way that it cut into a sub story about Pablo, but still was linked to the main story involving the narrator and his conflict with the gang of 8 year olds.  I think it was a good example of violence attempting to resolve a conflict when Pablo leashed out in the bar for being discriminated against by the Irishmen.  I found it humorous at the end when he was released from prison and went back to the bar only to find that everyone was afraid of him and ducked for cover.  Pablo intended to make peace however and offered the men a carton of his hand rolled cigars.  Back to the main story I agree with how the grandma taught her grandson to stand up for himself when he needs to without becoming a complete bully.  Overall this was a very enjoyable read and packed action in with good life lessons.

Good job on wk. 1