Some Days You're the Bird, Some Days You're the Statue

I always find myself staring at this poster in Ms. Serensky's classroom, and I equally enjoy this message each and every time I read it. So, I came up with a list of how you know when you are living your day as the bird, and another list of how you know you are living your day as the statue. Feel free to comment with additions to the list!

You Know You're The Bird When...
1). In class you rudely cut someone off during the discussion and do not feel bad about it.
2). You glance over at your writing partner's graded poetry paper and nonchalantly shove yours in their face showing them you got a higher score.
3). You make the blog banter.
4). Ms. Serensky comments on your comment during a discussion.
5). Ms. Serensky praises your blog banter theme song

You know you're the statue when...
1). You forget to do turnitin.com
2). Someone steals your best point during the discussion.
3). You are belittled and ridiculed about your pathetic attempt at a blog banter theme song.
4). You walk into the classroom and see the journals sitting anxiously on your desk.
5). On the calendar you see the words Data Sheet Due

Mother Kills Two Children for Being "Mouthy"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41319561/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

How many of us "talk back" to our parents or say something they deem "disrespectful"? If some people say they do not then they are definitely lying. It is teenager's second nature to question authority and challenge the status quo. First, "talking back" is a term used very very commonly by many parents in the average argument in a typical American household. I feel as though this term is made up by parents for them to assert their "authority" over the younger ones. For example, today, when I forgot to clean the dinner dishes, my Dad stomped up into my room and demanded why I did not do my chore. I simply replied (without an attitude of course), "I'm sorry Dad, but I forgot". He then proceeded to yell at me for "TALKING BACK". This tends to happen a lot in my house with me and the rest of my siblings. And every time, I find myself scratching my head with confusion. Does my Dad not want me to respond? Because If I do respond, I will be "talking back". However, if I do not respond, that would be "disrespectful". What is a kid to do when they're damned if they do and damned if they don't?

This article included shocked me and definitely makes me begin to watch what I say to my parents, because apparently, this mother of two from Tampa "was your average housewife and soccer mom who loved spending time with her family and neighbors". This description probably describes about 75% of our mothers. So, this blog post is a warning to all of you disrespectful back-talkers out there. Wear a bullet-proof vest even when you're blogging just in case your mom decides to get revenge for all of those times when you questioned her authority.

"La Amistad"

Hoy, en la clase de Espanol AP, discutimos sobre la relevancia de nuestros amigos. For all of you non-spanish speakers of the blog world, the previous sentence means, " Today in AP Spanish, we discussed the significance of our friends". Mrs. Fahey then proceeded to ask us, "como describes un amistad de mucho valor?" Or, "what does friendship mean to you?" I thought about it for a while, and I realized that in today's world, the word "friend" seems to be used pretty loosely. We then discussed how many "friends" we each have on facebook. I could not think of a concrete number at that moment, so tonight I did a little investigating. I thought, hmm, maybe I have around 400-500 friends? I then logged on and my jaw immediately dropped. 907 friends. Nine-hundred and seven. NINE-HUNDRED AND SEVEN. I became slightly alarmed. I then began browsing my friend list, and came across people who I do not even know, or have never met in person. The fact that they have full access to my profile, pictures, and conversations (not like I am trying to hide anything), scares me because I feel personally invaded. However, on the other hand, I am equally as guilty for "creepin hard-core". While I struggle to find topics to blog about, or how to start my AP Stats homework, for example, I sometimes find myself mindlessly clicking through the pictures on someone's profile who I do not personally know. So, today, I decided to do something about this vicious cycle. I went through my friend list and deleted those who I have never personally talked to, nor care if they appear in my newsfeed. However, I am only on the 100th friend or so. This might take longer than I expected...

Thoughts on the Blog

Although I usually forgot to complete the blog assignments until about 11pm before the due date, I enjoyed doing the blog assignments for the past weeks. It provides a way for those students in the classroom who may not always be able to get a word in during in-class discussions. This way, I have learned much more about their personalities and perspectives on AP English 12. I also liked the freedom of the ability to choose what we write about because it allowed for diversity and humor. The blog banter stresses me out, though, because when I am not on it (which is most of the time) I become frustrated and wonder why I cannot be as creative or intelligent as my fellow classmates seem to always be. I definitely love how the blog assignments make up our mid-term exam grade, providing for a less-stressful exam period on thursday. However, I did not like how two blogs were due each week. If there was only one, I would be able to put more time and effort into it and maybe even make Bobbi Jo's Banter. Overall, I feel like this was a positive experience and a nice change from the typical english writing assignments and helped me reflect more about the class.

My Nut Allergy

As long as I can remember, I have been allergic to tree nuts. These include walnuts, pecans, almonds, and pine nuts. However, nobody believes me. Even though when I accidentally eat them when they are slipped into a brownie or cookie, for example, and my lips swell up and my throat and tongue become incredibly itchy, everybody still thinks I'm lying. I do not deserve this maltreatment. HOW CAN THEY KNOW IF I'M ALLERGIC OR NOT? ARE THEY THE ONES WHO EXPERIENCE THE UNBEARABLE ITCHING OF MY ENTIRE MOUTH? NO! Tonight, my Mother sprinkled roasted pine-nuts in the salad she made for dinner. I politely said, "I'm going to chipotle because I cannot eat this salad". She then become very angry and said that I am not allergic, I just don't "like" nuts and am too much of a picky eater. Then my family began yelling at me and telling me how I just "over react" when I accidentally eat this poison, and need to stop complaining about it. I never thought I would say this, but I am the only sane one in my household. Their complete ignorance and lack of compassion appalls me. All of the mental insanity analysis that we have been doing in AP English 12 has influenced me to research into certain aspects of mental illness. Tonight, I chose phobias. Therefore, I am convinced that my family all has agateophobia, which means that they all are frightened of being wrong. I did a little research and found some very interesting phobias on phobialist.com. This website will diagnose any fear imaginable. Some examples include:
1).Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
2). Angrophobia - Fear of anger or of becoming angry
3). Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.
4). Doxophobia- Fear of expressing opinions or of receiving praise.
5). Helminthophobia- Fear of being infested with worms.

Looks May Be Deceiving

http://www.posters.ws/images/275311/leonardo_dicaprio.jpg

This photo is one of Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "The Titanic". In that movie, he portrays a sweet, caring young man who falls in love with Rose. I watched this movie a few days ago, and became very jealous of Rose. Why couldn't Leonardo fall in love with me? He is the most good-looking actor in Hollywood, if you ask me. Before monday, I had never seen "Shutter Island", but from watching the commercials and listening to my friends discuss the "creepiness" of it, I expected this film to be a horror movie instead of the psychological thriller it really is. Once Ms. Serensky turned on the movie on Monday, I was very pleased to see Leonardo Dicaprio call himself the "Marshall". I thought to myself, "So HE will undoubtedly be the hero of this movie, and take down the bad guys". Throughout the movie, I became very frustrated with the uncooperative staff members and their apparent reluctancy to give Teddy (Leonardo) the proper information for him to successfully solve the case. Despite the strange visions and apparent hallucinations that he has throughout the movie, I failed to infer that he is really a paranoid schizophrenic. This is because in movies, I, along with many others, tend to root for the narrator because from their point of view, their opinions usually seem to be the most logical. His drop-dead gorgeous looks also may play a role in my ignorant assumption also. "Shutter Island" does an excellent job portraying how it really is to be a paranoid schizoprenic. Therefore, what I have learned from this is to have more empathy for those suffering from mental illnesses, because in their minds, mostly everything appears to be real and they have much difficulty distinguishing reality versus fantasy.

The Last Hurrah of Winter Break

I just got home from the University School vs. St. Ignatius hockey game. I never thought that a hockey game would remind me of AP English, but of course it did somehow. After the first two periods, the US preppers were loosing by 3 goals, and from the looks of it, St. Ignatius was completely dominating this game. I am a pretty pessimistic person when it comes to sports teams making a comeback because I never want to get my hopes up and disappoint myself. I was almost positive US would lose. However, I decided to stay at the game to watch the last period and be a good girlfriend anyway. I am very glad I stayed because in the 3rd period, US looked like a completely new team, as they were refreshed and ready to play hard. They had two minutes to tie up the game and get out of their 2 goal deficit. I couldn't watch. However, they remained calm, kept their composure and did what they had set out to do: take this game into overtime. The energy of the stands was electrifying and as the puck dropped for the sudden death, it dawned on me. This is exactly how I feel when I do timed writings in English class. The pressure builds up inside of me and looking around, the faces of my peers tense up and their feet begin tapping when Ms. Serensky says, "5 minutes left!!" For a second, I felt as if I was having to write my third paragraph and conclusion in the 5 minutes, like usual. Then, I snapped out of it. "THIS IS NOT A TIME TO BE THINKING ABOUT ENGLISH", I muttered to myself. I looked at the people surrounding me, and they, too, had tense-looking faces and were stomping instead of tapping their feet in frustration and nervousness. US WON THE GAME! Everybody was screaming and jumping for joy. I smiled and thought to myself, "never in a million years did I expect this to happen".
Looking back on that moment, which only happened an hour or so ago, I realize that I should be more optimistic in pressure situations, whether it be during a hockey game or an in-class writing. It is too much of a waste of energy to psych ones self out when the outcome is still unknown!