My Life Soundtrack

Throughout my life I have grown to love many songs, and attached them to many moments, both fun and hard. In my life soundtrack only a few of these songs will be represented, but they are some of my favorites. These songs are me. They start from my first house in Sandy, to where I am now in Layton. From the little things like goofing off with my sisters to family vacations. These songs help to represent me, and the times I have gone through. This is a musical representation of me.



“She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5



            This song reminds me of going camping when I was little, specifically when I was going to the dunes. I remember I was about ten when we went down there with my dogs. We were four-wheeling around our camp and we found these really cool trails. It was so much fun! This song for me is just representing time camping with my family. This is because whenever we would go camping after the day was over we would just sit around the fire and play games or sing songs. It was a lot of fun.



“Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s



            Anytime we were on our way camping, we would sing. That is kind of what our family calls car-eoke. We would just belt it on the top of our lungs, all of our favorite songs. This song represents time spent with my sisters, not having to worry about school, homework, or anything. This is one of the songs that we would belt. It was one of our favorites then and still is now. Even when we all have changed, this song, and what it means to us never will.



“Had a Bad Day” by Daniel Powter



            I was about four when my parents got divorced. I remember the day that my dad was leaving and I asked my mom why he was leaving, and if he could stay. I remember when I would wake up in the middle of the night, after a bad dream, and I would walk downstairs to his “office”. Really, it was just our basement. I would go down there and sit with him, and just watch him working on his computer. For me this song represents getting through the hard times, and coming out of it stronger. I think that the lyrics are just so appropriate.

♫Sometimes the system goes on the blink

And the whole thing turns out wrong

You might not make it back and you know

That you could be well oh that strong

And I'm not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most

Oh you and I

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

This song got me through some really difficult times in my life, and even though it is telling about sad times, it always cheered me up. It still does.

“Yellow” by Coldplay

           

            When I was little I would sit up in my room doing nothing for hours. I would listen to the sounds around me, and sing to myself. The main reason I liked this song so much though, was because it was my favorite color at the time. This was also one of the songs that helped comfort me when I was down. It seemed… familiar and safe. This song made me happy. After I heard it, you could believe that I got the lyrics down pretty quick. I was constantly singing it. J This song just represents more of my childhood memories. Also, more times spent with my family, and the times spent by myself. I loved the lyrics in this song, they are just so mesmerizing.

♫Look at the stars

Look how they shine for you

And all the things that you do♫

“Up!” by Shania Twain



            We got a country song now! Growing up with all of my sisters, I was never really alone; no matter what I was doing I usually had someone there with me. This song reminds me of spring cleaning or random jam sessions in the middle of the day. It is like early mornings spent in the yard, or going on bike rides with my stepdad. There was that one bike ride where we were just going down the street, but my bike pedal ended up skimming the curb. I ended up skinning my elbows, yea, it wasn’t very fun after that…. This is what my mom listened to as I grew up so I came to love it. This song even more than the other songs is directly me. I have listened to this from the very beginning. Although Shania is not popular anymore, her songs are still my favorite country songs.



“Over My Head” by The Fray



            One of my first trips to Hawaii was in the fourth grade. We were staying in a condo on Maui, or maybe it was Oahu. I couldn’t sleep so I went over to my sister, who was sleeping on the bean bag chair thing, and I curled up next to her and we listened to her music. This song came on and soon after that I calmed down and I fell asleep. It was instant comfort. The music is so smooth and soft; I just couldn’t help but sleep. This song represents the calm, quiet, and peace in my life. That song that night was just so relaxing it really helped me, and I have never forgotten it.



“Waka Waka” by Shakira



            I honestly don’t know how my family came to love this song. It sort of just happened. This was more recent than my other stories, about a few months ago. We were driving to my grandmas and my mom had this song on her iPod. My sisters were driving either right in front of us or right behind us, who knows. My mom turned the volume way up and rolled down the windows at a stop light so that they could hear it too. They started dancing! It was the funniest thing ever, and since then it has just become our happy dance song. J







“We are young” by Fun.



            Whenever this is on the radio, or we play in on a computer, my sisters and I just start laughing, smiling, and singing. It is our favorite current pop song. We just goof off and sing.

♫ Tonight

We are young

So let’s set the world on fire

We can burn brighter

Than the sun ♫

We love this song because it is so true, kind of, just the chorus. :P We are young, and we want to just have fun.



“This is me” by Demi Lovato



            I first listened to this song maybe a week or two before my Rhapsody In Blue try out last year. I wanted to pick a song that represented how I felt. I chose this song because I was sick of being so shy that I missed out on such great opportunities. I wanted to give myself a chance and let people see the real me (cheesy right?). I am so glad that I took that chance because I made Rhapsody. This new experience has helped me discover who I am, and what I want to do with my life. I wanted to show that I was changing. I was going to let people see my personality, I didn’t want to be shy anymore. Because of this choice, it has helped me over come many challenges that I have faced, and be more true to myself.



“Spirit of Adventure” from Up – the movie



            Any vacation or trip you’ve gone on is a new adventure right? It’s always exciting. Everyone is having a good time, and doing new things. One trip kind of stood out for me, it was different. It was a road trip. Over spring break I went to California, but not the way that one might expect. Our first stop was in Tahoe, Nevada. It was snowing. We took this big loop then from Nevada to California, then back to Nevada, south this time, and back into Utah. Most of the time was spent in the car. Not. Even. Kidding. It was still fun though. It was cramped, but really fun. Vacations are like adventures. I’d never been on a road trip before, or really to California at all. We went and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and many other things that I will never forget. Some parts were rough, talk about some suspicious looking hotels, but we got through them and we laughed about it. That’s an adventure.



“This One’s For The Girls” by Martina McBride



            This is another one of those songs that we would sing in the car, or the house, a lot. It is different though. This song has more meaning to me than any other song I have mentioned. This song brings back memories of holidays and family gatherings. When we listened to this with my mom she would sing it, but she would change the lyrics. Instead of saying This one’s for the girls, she would sing, This one’s for MY girls. It made us smile and giggle every time. It made us really happy. This reminded us of all of the things that she has done for us, and how she never gives up on us. She was making this song memorable, it has come to represent her. When I think of this song, I think of my mom. Well it worked, this song is definitely memorable.



            So you see? Music is my life. It is in every second in everyday. It is in my singing, my orchestra music, and constantly on my mind. These songs are just a few that have great meaning to me. I only wish that I had time to go through and think about all of the songs that have some significant meaning to me. I wish I had more time for music in my life, but you see, it has always been there. Whether I have realized it or not. Well, I hope you’ve had fun reading this and learning a little bit more about me, because I sure had fun writing it.

CRT's

So last week in my Honors English class we were asked to evaluate CRT's, or EOL's. Well, since I have such a big opinion on this subject, I thought I'd share it with you.

Ugh, don't even get me started on the subject of EOL's. These tests don't actually test any knowledge that a student knows. Most of the time it just tests their guessing abilities. Most of the things that are on CRT's or EOL's we never learn about, or they are test questions that have just been stuck in the test this year and don't actually count. CRT's don't test anything. If you really want to figure out how much a student knows then you should let them create their own assignment on a topic that they want to learn about. I think that tests, or assignments would be much more effective if they made them more relate-able. Almost every student dreads the CRT's when that day, or days, come. I think that grades are a little more accurate, but not by much. The assignments, like in English, are a little more relate-able. No test or assignment though will ever really show you how smart a student is, or how much they know. It will really only ever show you how much effort they put into it. These days it is becoming easier and easier for students to cheat on tests. With all of this technology that is available at the touch of a finger. You can find almost any answer to any question online, whether or not it is true is a different matter. Multiple choice tests are crap. Most students just guess on them, if they don't know the answer they are not going to try and reason it out. They will take that 25% chance that if they guess they will get it right. I think that essay tests, although harder, are a better test of knowledge. Unlike multiple choice, they actually make the student think and reason through the problem. Although they aren't favorable, they also won't be affective unless a student wants to write it. Honestly no test will ever truly measure some ones knowledge or how smart they are. Not test will work unless they want to do it, including CRT's, and believe me, no one will ever want to take the CRT's. They suck. I mean, it's not like they are always really hard, everybody just is so strung out at the end of the year and they don't really care any more. That's how I am now. This year has been challenging, all of my weekends have gone to homework, online or not. I wake up every Saturday to start on homework, so yea, I'm going to be strung out in the end of the year. I'm not going to be able to fully care about the CRT's, I'm just too exhausted.

The only CRT that might be affective is the math CRT, but even then not really. I mean seriously, do these people expect us to do our best? Do they expect us to want to take these stupid tests? The only reason we endure them is because we have to, and it means a day in class without assignments or homework. I seriously hate these tests. They are pointless. As I have said countless times in this blog already, it won't matter what the student knows if they don't want to take the test. It's all about motivation, and no student is going to have ANY motivation at the end of the year for a stupid, long test that they don't want to take. A test that is filled with random questions that relate to nothing. I'm just so sick of it. Ha, so yea... this post was kinda, angry I guess. Ah vel. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Veronica Roth expertly puts the characters to work in this book. Beatrice Prior is a sixteen year old girl, which means that it is almost time for the choosing ceremony. She starts out in the Abnegation faction. There are five factions, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. These are the factions that you can choose from. This is the choice that Beatrice has to make. Before you can choose which one you belong to, you have to take what is called the aptitude test. This test shows you which faction you are most like, only Beatrice didn't get one. Her results were marked as incomplete. She had aptitude for three factions. This is really unheard of. This makes her divergent. Only this is extremely dangerous, some one is trying to kill the divergent for some unknown reason. Beatrice chooses Dauntless where she starts her training for the initiate tests. The first part of the test? Jumping on and off a moving train. As she completes her training she begins to fall in love with one of her trainers, Four. Then things start to go wrong. The factions start falling apart. The erudite are injecting people with these serums that let the erudite control their actions, it puts them in a simulation. They are unwillingly becoming soldiers. But what can they do? This war has only just begun.

I absolutely loved divergent. It was so different, and I love books about dystopian societies. They are just so different. Veronica Roth masters the characters in this book. She gives them personality, and so much emotion that you begin to choose which characters are your favorite and you start to move with them. There are a bunch of characters in this book, but only a few main ones. There is Tris/Beatrice who is the focus of the book. She is sixteen and she is a divergent. There is Four, he is a Dauntless instructor, about eighteen years old. As the story progresses so does his relationship with Tris. We also have Caleb, he is Tris' brother and he is an abnegation that switches to erudite. We also have Peter, he is also a Dauntless initiate like Tris. He is very aggressive and is one of the top people in Dauntless training.

There are just so many things I liked about this book that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with some quotes. "That is death - shifting from 'is' to 'was'." I liked this quote because it is so true. That is really when death starts to set in. When you can no longer say, oh so and so IS great, you have to change it to so and so WAS great. That is just a really true quote in the book that I loved.

There is another quote that I really liked. "I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another." I liked this because I also believe in that. It is helping some one out with the little things that really makes the difference in their life. It can make some ones life a whole lot better or easier if you take courage and help them.

I loved this book so freaking much. I've said that so many times now. I would recommend this book to all people. It is a great read that you will never want to put down, and will be so sad when it ends. This book is different from most; it talks about putting people in a certain area, fenced in by their personalities because there is "something else" on the outside. It is amazing.

Junior High is almost over

It's weird to think back to the end of eighth grade when I was trying out for rhapsody how nervous I was, and then helping out with the try outs this year and seeing how nervous they all were during their try outs. Is that how I was? Junior High has helped me realize who I am and who I want to become so much, I have found myself in these last three years, thank goodness the awkward stage is over. I have decided what I want to do with my life, and it has all happened because of my experiences in Junior High. Through out the past year I have been trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up, and in the middle of the year, I finally realized; I want to be a special needs teacher. There are so many things that inspired this decision, but mostly it was working with the special needs kids at my school and seeing their huge smiles when I encouraged them, or just how excited they were when we played board games. It is going to be sad going into high school and no longer seeing these kids. I have grown to love them so much. They are just the most sweet, adorable, hard working kids ever. Their smiles are the reason I want to help other kids like them.

Ugh. The thing I am so ready for it to end though? The homework. I am so tired of spending everyday of every weekend on homework! If it's not for one of my classes at school, then it is one of my online classes. I am sick of not having time to actually do things that are fun. It is just so ridiculous. I thought that as the school year ended you were supposed to have less homework, not more. The homework that is most stressful though is my online classes- Health, and Computer Tech. It's not like it is hard or anything, I just haven't had anytime to work on them! Which sucks because I have to finish the first quarter of both of them by JUNE 15th! Ahhhh!
I hope that I can get it done on time. I just have to stick to it and make sure that I do at least one assignment for each of them a weekend. Hopefully I can get health done. That is the one that I am most worried about. I have only done a few assignments, so I have a lot more to go. Computer Tech I'm not worried about though, I have like three assignments left until I take the proctored test. I am just waiting for my sister to finish so that we can take it together.

Well, now that I've said that, I've sadly got to do more homework and clean my house. My sister is celebrating a friends birthday tonight. Lot of stuff to do in not a lot of time. :P Well, see ya later!

Wow...

I seriously cannot believe that soon, one of my sisters will be graduating high school. Now, I know that this has happened twice already, but still! My sisters are just so responsible, mature, kind, and I don't like that fact that they are growing up! :P I just want us to go back to when we were little and the only worries we had was if we won the Melee match of Super Smash Bros. That is what we have been doing lately; we have been playing a lot of Super Smash Bros, I guess it is because we just love the game, but it is so happy. We never really all get to see each other any more so it is really fun when we all have time to do something together. This is hard to do because they have work, school, and our schedules never really match up. It is even more difficult because both of our parents work the night shift and usually don't get home til eleven or twelve. Although this is difficult, I think that all of our relationships are growing because of it. Because we don't get to see each other often, all at the same time, we cherish it more when we do. This is something that I absolutely love, spending time with my family, even if it is just sitting around the garden for a few hours before we all have to go to bed because we have work or school in the morning. Time with my family is something that I never take for granted, because we don't have it often. I see my parents every morning, but only until one, on the weekends, and til I have to go to school. On weekdays it is usually just a hug, bye, and I love you before I walk out the door. The great thing though? My parents have Wednesdays and Thursdays off. So I get to see them when I get home on Wednesdays and Thursdays too. Family is just so important to me, I don't know what I would do without them. I have probably posted about this before, but that's okay because that is just how important they are to me. Often when we are all together they will all say how much they missed each and every one of us; but what they don't know? We missed them a lot too. My sisters don't work far away from home, two of them work in farmington, and one works at target. I wish that I could just go visit them at their work sometimes, but I can't. I don't have my drivers license yet so I can't drive to see them. It is really hard to try to see your family if you can't drive to see them. I usually just end up stuck at home every weekend, not that that is a bad thing. I usually end up getting a lot done, and I love home, it's just a little quiet and lonely sometimes, that's all. Well I know this is just a kind of random post, but oh well, I needed to get this out :) See ya.

Mental Disorder Research Paper

There are over 250,000 to 350,000 families in the U.S. that are affected by Down syndrome (National Down Syndrome Congress). Varying in severity, Down syndrome is a disorder that causes lifelong mental retardation (MayoClinic). This disorder is important to know about because it is usually caused when women over forty have children. This causes a mess up in the genetic code causing what is Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. I work personally with kids who have Down syndrome every day. They struggle with learning but are still very eager to learn even when they are difficult to deal with.

Down syndrome causes many symptoms; a lot of them actually affect their physical features making kids with Down syndrome easily recognizable. Most common are: flattened facial features, smaller head with shorter neck, protruding tongue, upward slanting eyes, unusually shaped ears, poor muscle tone, short hands with a single crease, shorter fingers, and excessive flexibility. These symptoms obviously lead to the fact that kids with Down syndrome will be abnormally small. Due to the abnormality of size the development of these children tends to be slower, their abilities such as crawling or walking may come slower and take more time to develop (MayoClinic). Other symptoms may also be sutures around the skull, excess skin at the neck, and white spots in the iris (Neil Kaneshiro). Because of the defects that this causes many of the children develop slowly mentally, socially and physically. They will usually have poor judgment, a shortened attention span, learning disabilities, and impulsive behavior. They also have many medical conditions that need to be taken care of, or watched carefully (Neil Kaneshiro).

 Working specifically with the children is important. They need more support than usual to keep going. Each child with Down syndrome has different needs, as the symptoms vary in severity. At my school we have a program to help these students. Since they need special care we give it to them. They are in a class room each day where they get their own attention. They work with their own teacher to develop the necessary skills they will need for life. To help develop social skills, a group of kids tutors them weekly and works on reading, money skills, and taking turns. We help them recognize how to sound out words, how to count out money, and play board games to learn team work and take turns. This is important if they are to live their own lives. Early intervention is important to help these kids along the way (MayoClinic).

 Down syndrome is most common in kids whose mother is over forty years old when they have the child. When the mother is forty or over the chances can go from 1 in 100, to 1 in 10; when you are twenty your chances are 1 in 2000 (National Down Syndrome Society). It can be diagnosed very early, often at birth based on the usual physical differences; there are also tests that can be done to diagnose Down syndrome.

 Currently there is no cure for Down syndrome, but there is treatment. Early intervention is often recommended to help these kids live almost normal lives. The cause of Down syndrome is a mess up in the genetic code called Trisomy 21. This causes the children to have social, mental, and physical problems. Down syndrome is a life time disorder, but with special care, the symptoms can be lessened. With help, these kids can lead their own normal, healthy lives.

34 Days... Is Not Enough Time

My Final year in Junior High, wow. I seriously can't believe how fast it is coming to an end; how fast I am growing up. It's crazy to think that I turn sixteen this fall, that I will have my license by October, and that I will be a Sophomore. Even though I've got thirty four days of Junior High left, I am already starting to prepare for my first year in High school, as a Sophomore.

As I look back on my years in Junior High there are many things I regret, like not being able to take all of the classes I wanted to. Not being as social as I would like, and most of all... not spending more time with my friends. They mean everything to me and because I was so worried about High School, I didn't free up any of my time to go hang out with them, or saying "Hey! Lets go get Ice Cream or something", you know? I'm doing my best to prepare for the future and not leaving any time in the present to do things with those I love. Although there are many things I regret, there are also many things that I am grateful for. I am grateful that my family has been there every step of the way, that my friends have been there every second with me laughing, that I've been able to get a 4.0 GPA every term this year. That is a big accomplishment for me. I'm grateful that I have friends that will stick with me, that will stay in touch even though we are all going to different high schools. That is a big accomplishment for me, I've always have a hard time keeping friends because I am different, and if I do have good friends they usually end up moving and then it is hard to stay in touch (especially when they move out of the country to Russia or Germany).

As I start preparing for high school I find myself looking back on these things. Hoping that I won't get lost in this high school that is so new to me. Believe it or not, in seventh grade I was the scared, shy (still am), and lonely seventh grader that got lost going to her classes. I got lost going to my English class, to my locker, then to my Science class; the funny part? My Science class and my English class were across the hall, and my locker was just in the next hall over. As I start high school I am hoping to discover more about myself, my interests, and what I want to do with my life. I have met many inspirational people over the years that have helped me when I struggled. They made me realize that I want to help people. I want to give kids that same smile that they gave to me when I accomplished something. Whether or not I can find a career in this I don't know, but I will always incorporate it into my life.

34 days. Let the count down begin.

Titanic Exhibit

Okay so if you have read my last post than you know that I went on a road trip over spring break. Well, we were heading back on Thursday; after staying in the Luxor in Las Vegas the previous night. Well, I started this wrong but, this post, obviously is about a Titanic Exhibit that we went to on our last day. Thursday morning. Well this certainly was an exciting day! We got to sleep in til nine! Can you believe it! Every other day we had been getting up at like seven, and packing up and we had to be out of the hotel at nine. So you can imagine our excitement when we could sleep for two more hours. After we had gotten up and checked out of the hotel we went to breakfast. This wasn't just any breakfast though. It was breakfast at a Las Vegas buffet. I don't know why but the buffets in Las Vegas are better than any buffet I have ever been too. Of course though the ones here in Utah suck so really isn't much of a comparison. Well I just have to say that that buffet was delicious! After the buffet we went back to the Luxor because we had found out that they were doing a really cool titanic exhibit wher there is a room that the temperature is the same as it would have been the night that the titanic crashed, and sank. We were sooo excited. When we finally got our tickets and were at the front of the line we got waved through and this lady had us stand in front of a green screen and took our picture.Then they gave us boarding passes and off we went. The super cool thing about these boarding passes was that they had the names of actual passengers that were on the titanic. So after you got the boarding pass you are told to hold on to it because at the very end of the exhibit you get to find out whether or not your passenger lived. My boarding pass was a Miss Kate Buss. She was born in England and was traveling to get married to her long time sweetheart. She had left the rest of her family behind in England. So as we are going through this exhibit we got to see artifacts that they had dug up from the remains of the Titanic. Peoples personal belongings. It was so breath taking, and they had quotes from people up on the walls, they even had the old time music. Once we got to the end there was this huge wall with a bunch of names on it and depending on where the name was told you whether or not your passenger, or you, lived or not. My twin, my mom, and I were all second class women on the ship and we lived. My step dad though, he was a third class man and he died. It was so sad. Well, this was just a brief explanation of the exhibit. I will do a more detailed post about it later, with pictures. :) See ya.

Day 1

This is day one of our spring break road trip. We left this morning at 10 am (Utah time) and are currently half way across Nevada. It has been way fun, but the weather isn't agreeing with us. This whole day the winds have just been getting worse and worse. It is seriously scary... At the beginning of our day we we driving west in Utah, our first stop was to the salt flats. It is so strange to think that the salt flats used to be at the bottom of lake Bonneville. After that we continued west and made it all the way to Wendover where we stopped to fill up our car, and buy snacks.  Then we continued through Nevada, where I decided to take an hour nap, while listening to Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series. Then at about 3:30 we made it to Winnemucca, this cute little town in the middle of no where, where we stopped to have lunch/get a soda/snack. Now we have left Winnemucca and  are going South West to Lake Tahoe where we will be staying for the night. This wind has gotten a lot worse, to the point where it is so loud that I could talk normally and no one in the car could hear me talking. We have about three and a half hours to our destination for the night. It is crazy. We have been in the car for six hours now, maybe seven. I did not know that like all of Nevada was just barren desert. Well, now we are listening to an Ellen Degeneres audiobook, it is hillarious! It is also very confusing. Well, I think for now I am going to take another nap and finish writing this blog post in a little while, until then (Which for you will be the next line I write, but it will for me be hours till I write it, probably)... Hey :) We made it to the hotel last night ('m writing this in the morning now) That last part that I wrote about with the wind? Well, that wasn't even the worst part. Once we got up into the mountains it started snowing, hard. This was like a few miles away from the Nevada/California border going South West. Once we got up in the mountains people were all pulled off the roads and out of their cars. We were like what the heck?!? Then we saw the sign that said snow chains and snow tires required. Luckily we already had snow tires on our Jeep Cherokee. it was so crazy though. I was so glad once we got out of the mountains. They scare me so bad. i hate even being able to see the side of the cliff even when we aren't close to it. Once we got out of the mountains there were a lot of wrecks. people were sliding  all over the place! Luckily no one hit us. That is how day 1 of our six day trip went. Day two here we come!

Spring Break!

Spring break is coming up and I am so excited! My parents, my twin and I are going on a six day road trip, just the four of us! My other sisters either have to work, have school, or are going on a trip of their own. On this six day trip we will be going to many places. We will leave from Layton on Saturday morning and then drive through Nevada on our way to California. We will spend the night at Lake Tahoe, exciting, I've never been there :) Then we will make our way to northern California where we will visit the redwood forest and down to southern California where we will do many, many things. After we finish in southern California we will make our way back to Layton, stopping in Las Vegas, where we will be staying at the Luxor. This will be so much fun because I have never really been to California, other than one quick layover on our way to Hawaii. It will also be different because I have never gone on a trip without my other sisters. So it will definitely be different. After the trip I will try to post lots of pictures of our adventures. I have been to Las Vegas. We went one weekend just spontaneously with my mom and my sisters. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Excalibur and went to the M&M factory, went to the Rainforest Cafe, went to this fountain display near the Billagio, and even went inside the Bilagio. We wanted to stay this time at the Bilagio but they were completely booked! Not even one room was open. It is crazy. I am way excited for this trip. I love to see the world and I love to take pictures, so I will certainly be bringing my camera with me. This trip is about 2194.33 miles, that is a very long trip.

I am hoping that I won't get car sick. That would really suck considering that we will be riding in the car for most of the trip. Just the first day is about an eight hour car drive, probably not stopping anywhere. Good thing I will have a lot to do, I have a book that I have to finish by the end of spring break, so that will be a big chunk of what I spend most of my time doing. This is a completely new experience that I am lucky that I get to have, and I get to spend it with my family. I will try to post another blog while on the trip about what I have seen so that you can see what I get to see. I want you to be able to see all of this too, since you can't go on the trip with me :P Well see ya! (wow, my family is having a really weird conversation right now..... you don't want to know) I'll post pictures later!

Great Expectations Literary Analysis

Another boring post I know, but it's the end of the week and I don't always have time to reminiscence about things I did when I was little. So have fun reading this if you want to.

Pip lives with his sister, and her husband, Joe. Pip has always wanted to be just like Joe, but then something changes; he meets a girl named Estella. Estella isn’t very fond of Pip, but Pip is in love with Estella. Estella doesn’t like him because she thinks that he is very “common”. This causes him to have Great Expectations. Pip doesn’t want to be common anymore, he wants to be part of the highest social class that he can; he wants to be a gentleman. This is one theme of Great Expectations; society and social ranks are the basis of life.

“Miss Havisham beckoned her to come close, and took a jewel from the table, and tried its effect upon her fair bosom and against her pretty brown hair. ‘Your own, one day, my dear, and you will use it well. Let me see you play cards with this boy.’

 ‘With this boy? Why, he is a common labouring-boy!’

 I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer - only it seemed so unlikely – ‘Well? You can break his heart.’

 ‘What do you play, boy?’ asked Estella of myself, with the greatest disdain.

 ‘Nothing but beggar my neighbor, miss.’

‘Beggar him,’ said Miss Havisham to Estella. So we sat down to cards.

 It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.

So she sat, corpse-like, as we played at cards; the frillings and trimmings on her bridal dress looking like earthy paper. I knew nothing then of the discoveries that are occasionally made of bodies buried in ancient times, which fall to powder in the moment of being distinctly seen; but, I have often thought since, that she must have looked as if the admission of the natural light of day would have struck her to dust.

 ‘He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!’ said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. ‘And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!’

 I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.

 She won the game, and I dealt. I misdealt, as was only natural, when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong; and she denounced me for a stupid, clumsy labouring-boy.” Page 62-63, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

This passage is significant to the book because it tells you Estella’s first impression of Pip. That first impression that she made of him determined the course of the whole book. Her calling him “common” is what made him want to change; in that short amount of time he fell in love with her. If Pip had not met Estella then the book would have been completely different. Pip would not have had his Great Expectations. He would not have had a benefactor and he would not have become a gentleman.

The imagery in this passage tells you what the room looks like that Estella, Miss Havisham, and Pip are in. It describes Miss Havisham’s never worn wedding shoes and her worn wedding dress. He says “She must have looked as if the admission of the natural light of day would have struck her to dust.” This describes what Miss Havisham looks like. This shows the theme because Pip enters this huge mansion of Miss Havisham and when he gets inside it is all covered in spider webs and everything is dusty and discolored. She has a high social class but once you get inside you wouldn’t entirely believe so. Her high social status allows her to waste all of these materials at her expense.

When Pip is narrating this passage of the book I think that he is kind of in wonder and sad. He is in wonder because he is in this huge unfamiliar mansion and there are these shoes that have never been worn, that used to be white, that are now yellow, that are covered in dust. I think he is sad and shocked when Estella starts to say that he is so common. He has never thought of himself like that before and it makes him desperately want to change himself.

The theme that society and social ranks are the basis of life is displayed by this passage. Pip hears what Estella says to him and immediately wants to change his social rank. He wants to be less common. This is the first thing that really sets his whole life in motion. It is kind of what leads to his getting a benefactor, because it made him want to be better.

This first meeting at Miss Havisham’s set the pace for the whole book. It changed the way Pip looked at himself and everyone around him. It gave him his Great Expectations. Society and social rank are very important in life and Estella certainly makes it so that Pip wants to be higher in society.

The Double Helix

Hey, I know my post is late again.... The end of the term is extremely stressful and it's hard to have time to do everything. But hey! I'm posting now aren't I? Enjoy my book review on DNA 
Imagine that you are just on the verge of discovering the structure of DNA. Something that has never even been thought of before. You suggest that the structure could be a double helix; no one believes you though. This was the story for James D. Watson. Francis Crick and he worked together on the secret of DNA.
James D. Watson is going to college to get his PHD. While studying he meets Francis Crick. Together they both start working on discovering the structure of DNA. They work with Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin; during their research they come across many difficulties that slow down their discovery of the structure of DNA. In the end they come up the the double helix. It fits all of the equations and after some time it is quickly accepted, but not until they build a model. These are the main discoverers of the DNA structure.
Originally this is not a book that I would have read on my own. Seeing as I don't care all that much about DNA, and I really don't read science books. There was one problem that really bugged me in this particular book though, the grammar. His spelling is okay, but his grammar is atrocious! The other issue I had was that it was just a story. There was nothing interesting in this story, at least not to me, a 15 year old girl who usually reads mystery stories. This book was okay, it was his telling of how the structure of DNA was discovered so I guess it is not meant to be interesting, it's meant to tell how this came to be.
"It was certainly better to imagine myself becoming famous than maturing into a stifled academic who had never risked a thought." The thing I did like about this book was some of the quotes, like the one I just quoted. He went against what everyone told him to do, he even lost his funding in pursuit of this. That is something that inspires me. Going for what you believe in even when every one is against you. "A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid." I like this quote because it is so true! In this book it says that the reason many of the other scientists who had been studying DNA for a long time didn't discover it is because they weren't open to the idea of a double helix. They thought that it was to unsteady and thought that it had to at least be a triple helix.
I would recommend this book to any one who wants to understand more about DNA, specifically and scholars, or scientists. When reading this book I learned a little about a lot of topics such as, chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and crystallography.This book was okay, but I will NEVER read this again.

Creatures

Hey guys, sorry my post is late, blogger was having issues and wasn't letting me post it. When ever I tried to type an error popped up saying that what ever I was doing could not be completed. Then it deleted my post, so I am going a different direction with this one than I was going to. So enjoy :)

When I was little I used to play games on my dad's computer all the time. He would always have new ones when we went with him so we were always excited. There was one game that I played on my computer though that I absolutely love. Any one know what it is? Any one? No takers? Well, it was Creatures. In Creatures you get to raise your own Norns. They are these cute little dudes that can do a lot. You get to raise then and they can speak, you can name them, and more. Once you name them and teach them how to talk, if you have more than one they will talk to each other. Mine mostly tend to say: "Cody stop that" or, "Cody push gah" Gah would be the word that they use for a certain toy or machine. Over time as they grow up and explore you can unlock new tools to help you evolve your creatures. They become very independent as they get older. It is the coolest PC game that I have ever played (other than fable). It is so detailed and kind of realistic.

This is what the game looks like. That little window on top is where you choose which eggs you currently want to hatch and want to raise.

I'm not quite sure which version of the game this is from because I haven't reached this place. Basically though the layout for each game is the same.

This is a Norn. Granted, this is a more detailed picture of one than would be in the game. It still pretty much shows what they look like, cute right?

It is a kind of old game but it will always be very fun to me. I grew up playing this game and recently saw a picture of something that looked like a Norn and made me want to play this again. Believe it or not, but it is actually a fairly complicated game. You have to know how to work the interface and what each button does. Even raising your Norn is difficult. You can teach them right from wrong and if you don't... well, who knows what they will turn out like then.

This is closer to what the Norns actually look like in the game. I've never put one on a boat, but I do know that they make that face.

You can actually interact with them and make it so that they follow your cursor. Some will actually become so entranced with the cursor that they won't look away. This is what the hiding cursor button is useful for. It makes the cursor transparent so that it doesn't appear to them. This game is very entertaining. I no longer have the full version, seeing as we lost our disk. My favorite version was always Creatures 2. Check it out, it is a lot of fun :)