My alarm is set for 6:12 every morning, however, I always ignore it until 6:30 or sometimes even 6:45. Then, when i get out of the shower around 7, i lay back down for about 10 to 15 minutes before i look for something to wear and put on lotion and stuff like that. Sometimes if I am really flustered on what to wear, it can take up to 30 minutes and by the time I am done, I can not make breakfast because my bus comes around 8:50. While I am making my way out of the house, everything begins to anger me since i have to rush to get my stuff together and everything is all of a sudden against me. Then, people bother me and walk too slow and get in my way and say dumb things that make me even angrier. With all that being said, most of my mornings suck.

It will be difficult to overcome this rut because i love sleeping and i feel like i never get enough, hence why i wake up 18 or more minutes after my alarm goes off. Also, I do not really like school so I am not really motivated to get up on time to get ready. Getting out of bed is always so difficult because my eyes never want to stay open and my bed is extra, super duper comfortable and the fact that I am only getting up for school makes it so much harder. If i can break this rut, it will have a very positive effect on my life. Waking up early will give me a lot more time to get ready so i wont have to rush to leave the house. If i do not have to rush, i will be a lot happier in the morning and i will be able to eat breakfast. I am actually pretty happy about trying to wake up when my alarm goes off. I wish to “go confidently in the direction of [my] dreams” and overcome this rut for a week to have smoother mornings (Thoreau).

With the moon causing huge tides and closing down all the streets and preventing transportation of goods would cause people to go crazy. Not in this case with a girl named Megan, with the low supply of food she is willing to give her food up. I wish i would say that i would do the same when it came to a low supply of food. I look up to her because everyone is asking her “why aren’t you eating all your lunch?” (page 147) Instead she is giving it away to people at her lunch table. She is strong for giving up her hunger to help save other people from hunger. She would be a great role model for me and others, she shows that sometimes you have to make sacrifices in life inorder to help those who are more in need then you.

Evaluation- Lia Niebauer

I am still reading the “Hate List” by Jennifer Brown. In the book Valerie is still talking about the things leading up to the shooting. Valerie is trying to decipher why Nick did it. Valerie is always talking about “why he did what he did” and she is always trying to say what a shock it was to her (Jennifer Brown). I honestly thing that she is asking herself these questions because she knew in the back of her mind that she had something to do with it. They made a “Hate List” of people they did not like and he killed most of the people on that list (Jennifer Brown). I definitely think that she had something to do with it and the police will find this list she will  get in trouble because she contributed.

Tiarra Andrews-Owens – Prediction

I started reading a book called ILLYWHACKER by Peter Carey. The book is about the main character Herbert Badgery as he recounts his life from the age of 150! The book is really interesting and it starts off with him proclaiming himself a liar and a con man. I understand what I read better because the book is easy to relate to. The main character is not perfect so I can put myself in his place and imagine the story better. In the first paragraph Herbert introduces himself by saying, “God knows, and I have not always been proud of my activities.” Besides being 150 years old Herbert is an everyday man, just like me.

Ever since Bliss started Crestview, she’s been hearing voices. Whenever she walks in the hallways she always hears voices, at first she thought that maybe it was just in her head. She then realized that it wasn’t her, she really was hearing those voices. Bliss noticed that she would mostly hear the voices in a specific hallway of the school, which is why she tends to avoid it “We’ve reached Hamilton Hall, the very building I’ve gone to such pains to avoid” (60). Bliss isn’t sure why she is the only one that hears those voices and it scares her a little to know that she is the only person who can hear them. The only thing Bliss knows about the voices is that it belongs to a dead girl. I predict that Bliss will find out who this girl is and why she has been talking to her. I predict that Bliss will find out why this girl is haunting the school and will probably find a way to help her move on.

I have already read this book, but when a book is well written I can’t help but read it more then once. I want to tell you a summary of this book but the truth is that my words can not do it justice. However, I can tell you that this book is amazing and it is the first book of the trilogy written by Libba Bray.  I recommend it to all of the girls, not all boys because I know that this book might not be appreciated by most boys. I read a part in the book that I found to be extremely true, “Women who have power are always feared” (Bray).  Men through out history have tried to keep women from gaining power. They claim that it was because they believed women to be inferior to men, I believe it is because they were scared. Those women who were capable of gaining power in a time were men were ignorant to a women’s capabilities were feared and respected, but mostly feared.

Jennifer Posada-connection

My Walden plan was to not watch youtube for a week. I have successfully achieved my goal even thought i was struggling a bit in the first two days, and during the weekend. i feel like giving up my ruts made me more productive, because  do not like laying on my bed and doing nothing. Instead i went for a run  which made me more awake. I am very impressed about the things that i can do, and one day, i am still willing to make another Walden plan, because this gave me time to do things i really enjoy, and at the same time good for me. I do think that my life was simplified because i was more  in productive, but at the same time i was in peace. a quote that relates to my experience is that ” an honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers” which means that you have to think outside the box.

The outcome of my Walden plan was great. I thought i couldn’t live without playing video games, but i proved myself wrong. Giving up my rut has made a positive effect on  my life. I am able to concentrate more on my academics. Ever since i stopped playing video games i have been doing things that are more productive. I have been spending more time with my family, and having a lot of conversations with them. Instead of playing NBA2k13 on my xbox 360 i am going outside to play basketball. I am happy to have experienced this, because i got to learn that i could do a lot of things to entertain my self instead of playing video games. I got to spend quality time with my family which i usually don’t do, because i was to busy playing video games. My life was completely simplified, i learned that i could be happy without having video games in my life. I want to have a life that is meaningful like Thoreau “i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life”.

This plan went sorta well. It was very hard for me to give up music because i listen to it everyday and while i’m doing my homework. I think my rut had a negative effect on my life. I would be really grumpy while doing my homework. For physics I would give up on the hard problems because I would not be able to do them. I went on brainfuse to get help but they replied so slow. My patience would run out very quickly without having music. I think the music helps me be calm and patient while doing difficult homework. I am glad that i had this experience to give up something in my life. For the past three years I gave up texting for lent. That was much longer than a week. I figured out that i did not really need texting the whole time. I was allowed to text my mom or dad if there was an emergency. My life was more complicated giving up this rut. I would get so frustrated and stressed out without music.I think that “the more experiments you make the better”(Emerson).

My Walden plan went better then expected. Giving up my rut was hard at first but then i relived that their are better things to be doing then checking up on Facebook every day. With my life being more simplified i was able to work out more then usual because i found myself not running out of time during the day. I made sure to keep myself busy buy staying after school with friends and it actually helped me a lot to stay on task with all of my work.  I am glad that I did this because it felt good that i was not wasting my time anymore and made me realize that life is short and that i have control over it. It helped me to realize that i need “to reduce things in proportion,” wise words from Henry Thoreau. I have learned that its okay to go on once in a while but that i don’t need to go on everyday and waste time while i should just be living life simple.

Lia Niebauer