wiki 5 20/20 - you spotted almost ALL of the good things our Pastor C. does! good for you! He is a VERY consistent speaker and you are correct in that he almost always is memorized! (however, I asked him, and he told me he keeps an outline of his sermon's sections on the podium in case he has a memory lapse.)

11/5/09

This week in chapel the one speaker that stood out the most that related to much of what we have been talking about in symp. was rev. clausing. He have been talking lately about hand gestures alot and rev. clausing used alot of hand gestures and mainly made the "ok" sign, even though i later discovered in class that thats not really what he means when he does that to make a point. Another thing that not only impressed me about this week's chapel service put on by rev. clausing but he does everything out of memorization every time he leads us in chapel. By doing that it allows him to walk around a little more and make better eye contact with the whole audience even in the difficult shape we are all sitting in. He also did  good job in planning the lesson and what he was going to say because he had the tough task of relating to the students, teachers, and all of the grandparents that were there for grandparents day that day. one of the things that impresses me is that rev. clausing is that every time he leads us in chapel he stays consistant in his gestures, the tone of his voice, and he always makes good eye contact no matter how serious or joking his message is.

wiki 4 - 0/20 - no posting this week of Oct. 30

wiki 3 - 10/23  - 0/20 - no posting

10/16/09

wiki 2 - 20/20 excellent work... good observations

     This week on Friday, Mr. Stec led us in worship. We have talked about different approaches in class as to if you should memorize, create an outline, or to write your speech out word for word. There were some technical difficulties and Mr. Stec's powerpoint presentation did not work when it came time to starting chapel. Because of this he had to resort to plan B and go off of his memory. He might have had an outline with him just in case, I'm not sure. He did a good job of making eye contact for the few seconds that he should have. He also used his hands when it was necessary to help make a point or to exaggerate a point that he thought was important for us to pay extra attention to. One thing that I thought he did wrong was a lot of up flecting and down flecting, not only at the end of sentences but also in the middle of some sentences. You could tell that prior to his presentation he read his speech enough so that he knew most of it by heart, or enough so where once he got going with his speech he could keep talking whether he had to come up with it on the spot or not.  

wiki 1 - 20/20- good entry! In the future please restrict your entry to talking about ONE speaker and their style. To combine two into one results in an entry that lacks full detail.

10/9/09

     On monday pastor Arle led us in chapel. He was pretty boring because he spoke in a very monotone voice and he often upflexed when he emphasized certain important stories or information. He stood in the middle of the gym and didnt tend to move around very much. Many times he would get to the end of the sentance and he would mumble the last part, so he was very hard to understand some times. On wednesday some of the seniors that went on the retreat led the chapel service. I thought they did a pretty good job of having good public speaking ethics. They did a good job of making eye contact with the audience, i didnt notice any up flexing or down flexing. They didn't seem to nervous, and if so they probably were getting more and more confident as they went along because their messages and passages were getting stronger and stronger. 

Last Flight

            The nerves set in as I went to board the fighter jet. All I could think about was if I would ever be stepping back off this beloved plane. It was a dark, humid night on the Persian Gulf. The S.S. Skylark was rocking back and forth as I stumbled up the steps of the jet. As I glanced over at my companion, Frank, I could see the fear in his eyes, and a stutter in his step.

            Once we boarded, Frank and I said the prayer we said before every mission together, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” This ritual always seemed to ease my nerves.

            Starting the engines for what was supposed to be our last flight, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I knew this could be the last time I would ever have to step foot in this jet for more than one reason. The possibilities were endless on what the outcome could be. There was still one last ritual I had to do before we took off; I took the picture of my wife and two kids out of my jacket and took one last long, hard look.

            The heat from the engines was bouncing off the flight deck and I could feel a droplet of sweat starting to run down the right side of my cheek. I received the “all clear” from the flight tower through the headset in my helmet. Frank’s breathing through the headset was pounding in my ear, making it more difficult to concentrate and get the confidence to take off. The waves were pounding against the hull of the ship, and the crew was struggling not to be knocked off their feet and be pushed over board into the dark, cold sea.

            Finally, we got the courage to take off. The departure couldn’t have gone any more perfectly. I was sitting on pins and needles as we flew through the pitch black sky. We were approximately two miles across enemy lines, when a bright orange light started blinking like crazy. Frank radioed up to me and said we had a terrible fuel leak and we would run out any minute. We tried to radio back to the main headquarters and tell them our situation, but all we received was static. What was supposed to be one last bomb dropping was turning out to be our worst nightmare. Millions of questions were racing through my mind; “What do I do, do I land, do I turn around, am I going to live?”

            Out of nowhere our plane took a devastating blow to the left side of the jet. It seemed to hit Frank dead on. I got an ear full of static from Frank’s mic as I tried to keep the plane steady as I made an emergency landing into enemy territory. The ground came up sooner than I thought and the next thing I knew we were skidding across the earth, running over bushes and small trees. The plane finally came to a thudding halt, after what seemed like an eternity of life ending breaths. I felt a burning sensation as sweat poured into my eyes.

            Nervousness took over my body as the thought of what happened to Frank took a commanding control of my mind. I yelled “Frank!” at the top of my lungs, but all I received was frightening and death defying silence. I didn’t know whether to stay put, run, or what I should do. The crash had to have drawn attention and drew the enemy closer. Sure enough I looked out and I could see soldiers slowly dancing around the trees and debris, as they were nervous about who we were.

            I saw one rather large black male stop and point. He must have seen me move, I slowly reached down for my pistol trying not to make any sudden movements or anything that would make them open fire. I put my right hand on the gun and my finger on the trigger, waiting for the right moment. I glanced to my left and glanced to my right, and noticed they were only coming from straight on. My hands were dripping with sweat, as I knew this was life or death.

            One last deep breath was all I would take. All of a sudden I heard a loud bang; it was Frank crawling out of the debris and rubble. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the large man draw his fire arm and take aim. My life flashed before my eyes and I could count the rotations of the bullet. At the last second I heard a voice, “Drew, wake up it’s time for school!” I quickly woke up and snapped out of my dream. My body was dripping with sweat; what a dream.

wiki 5 - Yay! good!

9/17/09

     The story "From Mother... With Love" by Zoe Sherburne  wasn't to emotionally  over the top. I did not think this story was one to cry over. Yes, it was sad but it had good morals. I don't think that the ending situation was going to be a good one for Minta. She knew her mother was going to die and there was nothing she could do to help her. If i was that family i don't know what kind of feelings or emotions i would have felt if i would have found those presents in the closet that my mom had bought right before she died. I think that it was nice for the daughter to be able to lay down and eat an apple in remembrance of her mother since thats what she used to do. 

9/17/09

     This week in English Symposium has been pretty good. We read some good short stories; they were a little different then the other short stories we have read this year. They were a little more personal and touching than the others. I think that these stories were easier to connect with and understand. The author's put them into ways that seemed like the reader was in the same situation with the rest of the characters. I like how we have had two days to have a study period so that we could work on wiki's, our short stories, or the author analysis. 

No posting for wiki 4 - also disappointing - 0/20

No posting for wiki 3 - disappointing - 0/20

8/27/09

Good work on wiki 2!

Finally what do you envision the "next scene" after the story ends being like? Does the mom go home and punish her kid? Does she pretend she doesn't know that her son is a little monster? Does she tell her husband what happened or act like nothing happened... after all, he's sitting there smugly at home! What would you do if you were the parent of a kid like this???

     After reading the short story Charles i envision the "next scene" bring that the mom comes home and is very angry at her husband because she realizes that he knew the whole time about Charles being bad in school. They then got in a huge argument and the husband said that he was hoping that Charles would get better and she would not have to find out about his bad behavior in school. There isn't much that would happen after that because they both would realize that it would just be a phase that Charles would be going through because most kids go through a stage like that at some point in their lives.  

8/27/09

Your thoughts? Is it right or wrong for Mike to do what he does to (for?) his grandma?

     I do think it is right what Mike did to (for) his grandma because it is in her best interest considering his illness for her to not be sad or learn something new about her past that might hurt her. He was put on the spot and made a rational decision because he didnt know what else to do or say because he didnt want to hurt her. I probably would've done the same thing if i was him and put in that position, no matter who the person in the spot is it is going to be a tough decision for anyone. 

8/20/09

     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?

     I personally like Stephen Crane's style in The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky. Im amazed at how much detail he can fit in such a short story like this one. Crane also makes it easy to feel like you are in the story and jumping from scene to scene with the different characters. I like how he threw Scrappy in there and spiced up the story a little more by making him always drunk cause you never know if he is going to do somthing stupid or not, so you are always on the edge of your seat while reading this short story. I feel like this story compares a lot to The Red Badge of Courage in the way that he puts so much detail into his stories whether its the battle scenes in The Red Badge of Courage or the western gun battles in The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.

8/20/09   

     So far English Symposium has been a pretty fun class. In the past years Literature was a dreaded class for me, but so far this year the readings have been easy and short, so that has helped make this class more relaxing. Looking ahead on what we will have to do this semester and next semester i think that this class will get harder but as of now its pretty simple. I like the fact that our book is small and filled with short stories instead of novels and other long stories. Its interesting to look through some of the texts and upcoming authors and recognize the authors from last year's literature class and the years before.

Good work on wk. 1 - I enjoyed reading your thoughts. It's good to hear that you find the class enjoyable. It will change in content as we go on, but nothing ever lasts so long as to get tedious... at least that's what I am shooting for. Maybe you'll be able to find something else to dread besides lit this year! :-) Yay!