Monday, October 24, 2016

Q2 Week 2 Comments

Sophia English 1 Blog






Response to LOTF

      This book has been different than I expected. I still have a number of questions about the story but I think I am starting to figure some of them out. These are boys from England, or some British colony because they use words and phrases from Britain. There was a plane that crashed into the water and at one time there was a man with a megaphone. Now there are are no adults and no girls. The island has beautiful flowers, plenty of fruit and a lot of it is pink. And I am starting to understand things about some of the characters.
      One irritating thing is Ralph has put himself in charge and he isn't doing a very good job. Piggy is a character who has good ideas but the others don't listen to him. I feel sorry for Piggy. I wonder why there was a reference to the atom bomb? Why is it only boys? Where are the adults? Why doesn't the group listen to Piggy because Ralph isn't getting the job done. And most importantly why don't they tell us what happened to the little boy with the birthmark?

Human Nature

     I believe that humans are fundamentally good, loving, and full of possibility. I also believe we as humans are flawed. People make mistakes, they don't always make the best decisions. They sometimes make terrible decisions and hurt themselves and other people. So, we are definitely flawed. Although we are flawed, I still see basic goodness in people. And many people have achieved many incredible things so I think there is possibility in us.
     What led me to these beliefs is my past experiences. My church teaches that God is in all of us. My family has always taught me that if I work hard I can achieve many things. I make mistakes. I have seen other people make mistakes and also seen other people be incredibly kind. People accomplish great things so there must be good in us.
   

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Comments Q2 Week 1

Anna's Blog

Short Stories, Q2 W1 - The Waltz of the Fat Man

   The short stories we have been reading in English class have been really different from other short stories I have read. In all of the stories, except for A&P, someone is sick or dies or does something crazy. Maybe quitting your job at the A&P because your manager corrected girls in a bathing suit is not necessarily crazy, but it is a different choice. The fat man, Noe', joins the circus at the end of his story. Oh, and before that, a clock disappears. These stories are different in almost every way imaginable.
     The Waltz of the Fat Man was depressing to me. Noe' wants friends and he can't seem to make any. He lives in a town where people come to his store but only because he is the only butcher in town. He finally makes friends with clocks and then he becomes obsessed with them. Am I suppose to feel happy for him that he joined the circus? I think the story tells us he is happy in the end. The line that confuses me is, "and all the rest of the animals who danced". I don't want to think of Noe' as a dancing animal. It is just one of the short stories that I think is really different.

Free Post - The Florida Compromise

     Over Episcopal's fall break, Florida and LSU made a compromise to play the game between the two teams on November 19, 2016 at Tiger Stadium. That was the weekend that LSU would have played South Alabama and Florida was supposed to play Presbyterian, both at home. Presbyterian and South Alabama had to be bought out of their contracts for those non-conference games. LSU will now play Florida at their stadium for the next two years. A compromise, right? Well in a compromise everyone suffers a little bit. And people shake hands and move forward. That is not what is in the media.
   Why is it that LSU is getting such a bad wrap from this agreement? Isn't it obvious Florida took advantage of an opportunity to try to improve their own chances at the SEC East title? Do people just not know the facts? There were five games effected by Hurricane Matthew and four of those games were played within a few days of their original schedule, but not the LSU / Florida game. LSU offered to fly their players in and out in one day taking no hotel rooms. LSU offered Tiger Stadium AND the Superdome as alternative playing sites. LSU offered to play on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday. The fact is Florida had substantial injuries and it was to their advantage to put off the game. It isn't that I blame them for working things to their advantage, it is that they talk badly about LSU in this compromise when they know the truth.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Should We Abandon Louisiana

       Should We Abandon Louisiana? In some ways, we already have. by Zack Kopplin at Slate.com discusses the national media's lack of coverage of the historic flooding in Baton Rouge in the middle of August this year. Kopplin, who grew up in Baton Rouge, points out the differences in the national media coverage of Hurricane Sandy and Louisiana's flooding. He refers to another author who says, "Media coverage scales with location", which means coverage is based on where you live, not on the actual disaster or suffering. He  says the media conspiracy decides whether or not people care about the people affected in a disaster. Some national figures and media coverage suggest that Louisiana residents should all just relocate and not rebuild because Louisiana is poor, corrupt and has bad schools. Kopplin writes that the blame for the flood is the climate because the chance of the flood was only 0.1 percent. The storm that caused the flood shouldn't have happened.
       I think Kopplin makes some good points. The storm was a freak thing and Louisiana should not be abandoned by the media or the country. If we covered and cared about the people who suffered during hurricane Sandy then we should care about the people who suffered in Louisiana. After all, the flooding after Sandy was predictable. Louisiana flooding was not predictable. I think about some friends in California when I read this article. We all know the earthquakes are going to hit the faults there, do we abandon them? Do we tell them to give up and move? Here, in Louisiana, our flooding for Katrina was the failure of a man made structure. In Baton Rouge it was a very rare storm. I agree with the residents of Louisiana who see the flood for what it was, a freak disaster, not a reason to abandon homes. I also agree with Kopplin, we will rebuild. We should help our neighbors and make it happen.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Homecoming

Since we are celebrating Homecoming this week at Episcopal, I have been wondering how Homecoming celebrations started and what it means to different schools. Does it mean it is opening doors for graduates of the school to come home? I think that is what it celebrates.  So, what are the different traditions in different places? And when unexpected things happen how does it affect how people feel and act for homecoming.

LSU just celebrated Homecoming. The Homecoming game was the first game I have ever been to where Les Miles wasn’t the coach.  I felt excited there was so much energy in the stadium. It was great to see the Tigers play great and win big.  I also wondered what it was like for Coach Miles.  Did he say goodbye to his LSU home? It was more like home “going” for him. It makes me a little sad.


As a freshman at Episcopal, this is my first Homecoming week as a high schooler. I don’t know about how alums feel, but for the football players it will be coming home to our own field. Finally! It feels like coming home when we practice at our own school. This week we will have our Pep Rally at the football field because our gym is not ready for us to “come home”. I think we will be very grateful to be home on the field; I know I will. Things look different this homecoming, but they feel good to me to be at “home”.

The Winged Creature

This short story was hard for me to follow. I think I may have confused mood and visualization. Unfortunately for me, I did a lot of visualizing and it was disturbing my mood. I don’t think there was much character building in the story. There were, however, a number of people being unkind to someone else. I guess you called the winged man someone else. He was a living thing and he seemed like he had feelings and felt pain.


It bothers me to read about people being so mean. I don’t care for this kind of crazy, creepy fiction and people’s cruelty makes it even worse. On a better note, I get that the creature eventually flies away. I was happy for him for that part. I sure wouldn’t want to live where crabs were crawling in my bedroom and dead crab’s stink was everywhere. I guess I just don’t get this one.