AngelicaGuzzo

This is my last blog portfolio. I must say I have enjoyed blogging and communicating with my peers. I didn't have as many entries as I have had in my past portfolios. I have grown a lot from my first portfolio; this is me and my second portfolio, my work so far. I hope you enjoy my last.

Coverage: these entries have a link that goes back to the course web page and a quote from the assigned reading.

not that bad

Ender

Timeleness:These entries were all writen at least 24 hours before class.

My thoughts on time

Varied Syntax

too much information

Interaction:

Themes received  3 comments

I got it...now  received 3 comments

the end  received 3 comments

Depth: These are my longest entries

this is too much

free verse is great

terrible end

Discussion:

I left a lengthy comment on Jessie's blog

I left a lengthy comment on Kaitlin's blog

I left a lengthy comment on Angela's blog

This is my last blog portfolio. I must say I have enjoyed blogging and communicating with my peers. I have grown a lot from my first portfolio; this is me and my second portfolio, my work so far. I hope you enjoy my last.

I left a lengthy comment on Angela's blog

Vivian: Sharp, and sudden. Then it would go away. Or I would be tired. Exhausted. I was working on a major product, the article on John Donne for The Oxford Encyclopedia of English Literature. It was a great honor. But I had a very strict deadline. (Edson 28)

Vivian says at the beginning of the play that she is going to die, which made me think it is going to be a theme to this play. Vivian describes herself as a “professor of seventeenth- century poetry, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne” (5). I felt bad that when Susie questioned her, “You’re not having a lot of visitors, are you?”(34). She replied “None, to be precise´ (34).

I felt so bad for Vivian when Jason is questioning her. He isn’t fully paying attention. He asks her if her parents are still living. She tells him, “My father, suddenly, when I was twenty, of a heart attack. My mother, slowly, when I was forty-one and forty-two, of cancer. Breast Cancer.” (23) He then question “cancer?” and she has to repeat “Brest Cancer.”  I just felt annoyed for her.

Vivian tells us that she “survived eight treatments of Hexamethophosphacil and Vinplatin at the full dos, ladies and gentlemen. I have broken the record. I have become something of a celebrity.” (53) I took this as she has hope. She could survive this too, but hope is lost when Vivian says, “My cancer is not getting cured, is it” (66) and when she says, “they never expected it to be, did they” (67). It broke my heart that she had to come to the realization that death is inevitable.  She was in excruciating pain all the time. She tries to downplay it, but it can’t be ignored.

This play touched me because I lost both of my grandfathers to cancer. I know they had hope and high spirits in the beginning, but then lost all hope. I know they were annoyed with the treatments, mostly the effects of the treatments. The play made me feel better because we did not leave them. They had visitors until the end. Vivian teaching lessons made me think of how my Nonno spent more time teaching me different Italian words and Italian songs once he found out he was sick.  

“All the more dangerous because he could so easily be controlled. In all the world, the name of Ender is one to conjure with. The child-god, the miracle worker, with life and death in his hands. Every petty tyrant-to-be would like to have the boy, to set him in front of an army and watch the world either flock to join or cower in fear.” (Card 307)

I feel like Ender is starting to come into his own. I think he still has issues to deal with over who he wants to be.  I think that could be a possible theme to the story.  I was happy Ender felt remorse what he has done. I was happy he found himself.

I was skeptical about this book, but I learned that it wasn’t bad. It was actually really interesting. I think it helped that I felt sorry for Ender and I wanted to see if he was finally able to see his true potential.

“Free verse, also called open form verse, is distinguished from traditional versification in that its RHYTMS are not organized into the regularity of METER.” (Hamilton 239)

I have always had a hard time distinguishing blank verse from free verse until this semester. I learned that blank verse is “unrhymed iambic pentameter.” I’ve always enjoyed writing in free verse. I don’t like having constrictions when I write. I can just let my ideas flow. I feel that when there are no constraints, I can express my feelings better. I can say the words in my heart and not have to change anything around to make it rhyme or fit a pattern.

I think I used to write free verse because I had a hard time understanding poetry. I know in this class I struggled with rhyme schemes and stressed and unstressed syllables. I just wanted to avoid it. But, when it came time to write sonnets, I couldn’t hide from my fears anymore. It took a while, but my patience paid off. I finally understood.

I enjoy writing in blank verse as well. But for the longest time, I thought I was writing a blank verse when really I was writing in free verse. I just learned that blank verse is written in iambic pentameter. I didn’t feel as constricted writing in blank verse. Yes iambic pentameter is a constraint, but its only one constraint.

I still prefer writing in free verse. I just feel I can be more open with my thoughts that way. But, at least now it’s a choice.  Now I can say it’s a type of poetry I prefer, not it’s the only type of poetry I understand.

“Valentine celebrated Ender’s eighth birthday alone, in the wooded back yard of their new home in Greensboro. She scraped a patch of ground bare of pine needles and leaves, and there scratched his name in the dirt with a twig.” (Card 122)

It is really hard to pick just one quote. Ender is a kid and is looked at as just a kid, but he has proven them wrong. He was the only salamander that wasn’t frozen.  I like how there is a relationship between Ender and his siblings. I think it helps to show what Ender is like. His sister, Valentine, is less into having power. She worries a lot about her brothers. Peter enjoys power. He can be evil. Ender however is not like his brother and doesn’t wish to start. Ender is a genius. I just keep feeling bad that he is so lonely.

“The sonnet (from the Italian word for “little song”) is a LYRIC poem, written in a single STANZA that usually consists of fourteen lines of IAMBIC PENTAMETER.” (Hamilton 231)

I thought I should write about sonnets because we have just finished writing our own and I was not very good at them. I like writing Shakespearean sonnets. “The Shakespearean sonnet: three QUATRAINS and a final COUPLET, which rhyme abab cdcd efef gg.” (231) I had a tough time writing sonnets. I think it was because I was worried about the lines being ten syllables and followed the rhyme scheme. I didn’t pay attention to iambic pentameter.

I’ll be honest; I couldn’t understand stressed and unstressed syllables. That made it very difficult to write a sonnet. I think going over it in class a couple times and hearing what unstressed and stressed sounds like really helped. I had an idea of what I wanted to write about in my head. I just didn’t know how to make it fit the pattern. I spent a long time fixing my sonnets, but this time I focused on iambic pentameter before the rhyme scheme. I would say the line out loud (which I’m sure everyone on my floor enjoyed). It took me a while, but I think I understand a little better now.

“Ender wasn’t very hungry during breakfast. He kept wondering what it would be like at school. Facing Stilson, after yesterday’s fight. What Stilson’s friends would do. Probably nothing, but he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t want to go.” (Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, pg 17)

I don’t normally read science fiction. I was skeptical about this book, but I found it’s not that bad. It’s just something I need to get used to. I found it not as sci-fi as I thought it was going to be. This passage made me sympathize with Ender. I felt bad he has such a hard time with friends.

I think Ender is a relatable character.  I feel bad for him. School is hard enough with friends, let alone no friends.  I find this book to be a little hard to follow at times. I’m a little confused. Hopefully that will change in my next blog.

“Start with the readings, but don't pad your paper with summary.”

This is hard for me. I have noticed that I can easily get swept up in plot summary. I think because a research paper has a certain length, I feel I won’t be able to fill the space. Another reason I summarize sources, is because I think it’s all important. I also have a hard time cutting material out of my paper.  Sometimes, I feel there is too much important information. I don’t want to eliminate sources that make my point.

I learned in Thinking and Writing to read the sources first and then place them into my paper. Before, I would just start typing away and not before long, I had two pages out of three dedicated to two sources. Then I would spend too much type cutting information out. Reading first, helps to organize your thoughts as well.  It also helps because you can evaluate all of your sources and put only the really important information in your paper. It helps to save time.

Here are words I now know..thank you urban dictionary

Gangsta- someone who has money but made it illegally and if they don't have money they are trying to make it illegally but not everyone who extorts, steals, sells drugs, guns, or women is a gangsta some gangstas do work or own businesses in order to launder money a gangsta will hurt or kill you about money mainly, and generally doesn't start trouble, that's a thug, but a gangsta will finish something you start and come out on top.

 Example from http://k_koerberoh.tripod.com/gangsandme/id21.html:

Gangsters are destructive, rather than being vital, creative, or procreative.

I chose this word because in my high school, all the guys would call each other gansta. I thought it made them sound ridiculous. I was confused as to why they dropped the e and r from the word. From reading urban dictionary, I learned gansta and gangster are two different words.

A hot mess- a hot mess is when something just aint' right

Example from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080329164418AA4MOoJ :

Another woman who works in the bookstore at school, calls him a "hot mess" and warned me before to stay away from him , like everyone else told me to) I don't get it...

I chose this phrase because I hear this phrase in music and on television shows. I find it funny too. I find it amusing that we refer to a person whose life is out of control, a person whose hair is messy, or a person who doesn’t dress like us, a hot mess. I thought I understood what it meant, but I guess it has multiple meanings.

N*sync- An untalented manufactured singing group that can't play instruments.

Example from, http://homie_g_1.tripod.com/nomoresissymusic/id2.html:

Why N Sync sucks…These guys are the most annoying boy band of all boy bands. Not only do they have voices that sound like a twelve year old girl being beat up with a nightstick, but they also prance around the stage like wounded chickens.

I chose this word because I used to love N Sync when I was younger. I thought they were amazing. I found it funny that urban dictionary’s definition of N Sync is negative. I find it funny now to read N Sync bashing websites. Back then, I would get really upset if I saw websites against them.