Most Dangerous Game and Occurence at Owl Creek

The "Owl Creek" was an enexpected one. When I first started reading I thought it would be a routine hanging; I assumed that the author would explain how Farquhar got into the position he was in. The piece told of how Farquhar thought about escaping and followed with him actually escaping; or so I thought. Apparently Farquhar's escape was a dream or imagination that he had before he had been hung.

The second piece, "The Most Dangerous Game" is an interesting piece that I recall reading in middle school. I loved the story back then and I still enjoy it now. I had forgotten bits and pieces from the last time I had read it. This piece is about Rainsford who travels out to an island and meets Zaroff who has hunted about every dangerous animal known to man. Zaroff has moved on to hunting something more dangerous, something that can think and survive, humans. Zaroff explains that he will hunt Rainsford and gives him a head start. Rainsford runs and hides and tries to fight back against Zaroff. In the end Rainsford shows up in Zaroff's bedroom and kills him.

Ursula Le Guin Piece

Holy cow! That's what I have to say about the piece. At first I thought it was going to be boring and poetic, then it thurned into a place of sex and drugs. Finally with all the fun and joy that everyone in the town enjoys is one boy that must sit naked in his own filth forever. What is up with that? I understand the concept of sacrifice for something good, but why do they need to sacrifice that one child. Why can't he be joyous with the rest? I know the town wouldn't be joyous if they let the child out, but why did they have to stick him in the basement to begin with? Why him? Did he do something wrong when he was younger than he already is? This piece left me with questions and confusion.

Writing Process

So for the writing process I tried really hard to think of what to write, but I don't think I found the right words to get my point across. I talked about the melting ice caps and the problems it causes; is that still too broad of a topic. I wrote on the ice caps because I thought it'd be one of the effects of climate change and therefore not as broad. I'm not really sure what to write... I wrote the paper, it took me awhile, and it was very frustrating. For the life of me I could not remember how to cite my sources in the paper, but I tried. Hope you don't think my paper's a total failure.

This class so far

I apologize that I wasn't in class Thursday. I believe that I may be sick. Wednesday is when it started. I slept through all my classes Thursday and Friday, so don't feel like I skipped English on purpose. My throat has swollen up over the weekend, but enough about me and my problems. I like this class so far. The only thing I don't like about this class is the papers we have to write, but I know that those have to be done regardless. I also apologize for writing this blog so late. I've been working all weekend. I'm a great procrastinator, and I know that's not a good thing. I do like this class, I've met alot of friends in it and SOME of the assignments are actually enjoyable.

Research Topic

So I think I have my heart set on climate change as a topic. It has always interested me and got my attention time and time again. I believe we need three main points so I don't know what I'll do for them, but if I had to make them up right now I'd say... How the climate has changed. What problems are causing the changes. What can we do to prevent any further damage or try to reverse the changes. Do those sound like good points? They're just off the top of my head. The hardest part of a research paper that I've ever had was finding sources to back up my opinion. Hopefully this topic won't be a hard topic to find sources on.

Research Topics

This is the second time I'm writing this because it didn't want to work for me the first time. At first I didn't know what to write about. I first thought of writing about how I believe the drinking age should be 18 instead of 21. Then we did the activity in class and I thought of some ideas like how dorm rooms should be bigger, but I don't feel strongly about that. As people said their topics I thought of CEO's of big companies and how they make outrageous amounts of money. I considered writing about how the people who work tooth and nail everyday should get higher wages. The people who work very hard, all day, everyday just to get by deserve a little more. Finally I remembered global warming/climate change. I had always felt strongly on the matter even before I had seen Al Gore's movie, "The Inconvenient Truth." Once I had seen the movie, it intensified my feelings on the matter. I'm still not exactly sure what to write about, but I bet I'll find something soon.

Presentations

I had fun with the presentations. Not great fun, but more fun than writing a paper. I learned some writing strategies. I don't know how much there is to say about the presentations. It was an assignment that we all did. I read through the strategies with the rest of my groups and we took notes and created a powerpoint to summarize the main points and what you should know and tried my best to present it.