This book is about the civil war. I could visualize this perfectly, “He crawled upward on his belly over cool rocks out into the sunlight, and suddenly he was in the open and he could see for miles,  and there was the whole vast army below him, filling the valley like a smoking river” (Shaara 3).

Jennifer Posada-Visualize

Entry #1

My rut is that I am a huge procrastinator. This has caused me to not complete a lot of my assignments on time and it has been hurting my grades. The most difficult thing about giving up this habit is that I do not like doing work when I come home. I come from track practice and I am extremely tired and want to sleep, causing me to forget about doing my homework. When I do this, if feel that it will help me because I will complete my assignments on time and not have to worry about completing them on a later time. This will cause me to stress less and be able to have more time to sleep instead of staying up at night trying to complete assignments that I had not don the night before. A quote that gives me hope is “Things do not change; we change” (Thoreau). It lets me know that I have to be the one to change in order for this to work.

I am doing really well on my plan. I haven’t played any video games since the Walden plan was assigned . My brother asked me to play him in madden, but i told him my plan and he encouraged me not to play. Not playing video games has affected me in a good way so far. I have been more focused on getting my homework done. I also started to do other things in my spare time now. I started to write poems which is really cool i have always had a Passion for poetry but i didn’t really write that much. Since i haven’t played video games i have also had more time to spend with my parents. The concept of Emerson “nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” applies to where i am with my rut. I believe this fits perfect with where am at because since i set it  in my mind that i will stop playing video games i haven’t went back. I do miss playing video games sometimes, but i feel as i can handle not playing it for a long time. My parents are actually surprised that i haven’t picked up the controller this whole week, and also encourage me to continue my plan.

I give the main person Miranda credit because she is living without electricity for days and more to come. In a world that is more and more evolved with technology, we would all be going crazy. I feel bad for Miranda because “of course by the time we were read to ear the electricity had gone out again. It was out most of the day, but we’re used to that by now.” Its crazy to see how when the power goes out for us in the world we are all bored out of our minds and get cranky and agitated because we want to check things online. I give Miranda credit though because she seems to be keeping her cool is not pushing people out of the computer seats when the power does come on for a little bit. Also since she is a teen its hard to not live without any type of electricity, from watching tv to not being able to charge your phone, she’s living a tough life but she makes us think how dependent we all are starting to become with all these new electronics.

Lia Niebauer- Evaluation

The book i am currently reading is ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry. A boy Jonas is born in a very perfect world with nothing to worry about. There is no pain or war or even choices. There is just peace and everybody in the community is assigned with a role. When Jonas becomes 12 he is sent to the giver to receive special training. The giver is a special old and knowledgeable man that  holds memory about the true pain and pleasure of life. The giver says “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it.” and that the “Memories need to be shared.” I predict that he is finally going to know the true meaning of life and then maybe decide to leave the community.

Blog Post 11

The reading strategy I am doing is evaluation. Raven shouldn’t have move out of her parents house to go live Mizan because she is only 17 and Mizan is only using her. Mizan is using raven to get to the top of Flint, Michigan’s drug ring and in order to that he would have to make it seem like he actually wanted and love Raven. A couple moths after Raven moved in with Mizan he didn’t want her to go anywhere. He wanted her to be secluded everyone and everything. Raven even cut her family off especially her dad and they had a special relationship. Raven even stop going to school and she was a senior in high school. She only had a couple of months to go before she graduated.  Mizan had fully manipulated her, “Mentally he had her. Financially he owned her. Emotionally he commanded her.” (Antoinette 153).

I am doing okay with my plan because right after this class I cursed at my friend. The reason I cursed at my friend is because she said something I did not like. The effect that giving up “rut” has on my life is I use other words to express how I feel.  Another  effect is I just stay silent when I feel like I am about to curse. The words that explain where I am at in this process is  “To be great is to be misunderstood” (Emmerson). I feel good about giving up cursing because I think it will make me a better person in the long run. I also think giving up the rut is good because people won’ t think I’m a bad because of me cursing. When I told my friends I was going to give up cursing they weren’t really surprised, they just said good luck. When I told my mom she was kind of surprised but she already knew I cursed. So she said it was good I was trying to give up cursing because maybe she would give it up too.

I am somewhat doing okay with my plan because someone thought it would be funny and text me a question as if something had happened so i replied. This is how the conversation went, ANTHONY: “OMG Guess what?!” ME: “What????” ANTHONY: “you just failed your english project.” An effect giving up my rut has had on my life was that texting really isnt the problem. Having so many other electronic devices to provide entertainment is the real problem. “The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind” in order for “new creation.” With that being said, in order for my mind process to create a new habit from the one i am taking away i must embrace the environment i am in and adapt to that surrounding instead of the one i have created for myself. I feel pretty good about the project because it has helped me do more important things and focus a little bit more but then again i do not like it because i get bored. Other people have been shocked when I told them about giving up this rut because they all know how addicted i am to texting and just being on my phone in general. Some have tried to get me to cheat and others are leaving me alone until this project is over.

Jenna will soon break up with her boyfriend because of everything that is going on in her life. She does not know what she wants exactly but after a talk with her friend Steph it had her thinking. Steph told her to stop doing things just to make everyone else happy and do what makes her happy. Jenna will consider what Steph said and later break up with Ethan to be with her childhood best friend Cameron. But Cameron may no go along with them being together because he feels she could do better than him and doesn’t want to hold her back. Cameron will then run away back to being homeless and Jenna will regret making a move on Cameron putting him under pressure.

JaVaun Martin: Prediction

Entry #2

My plan is going well but I still have times were I feel like not doing any work and I just want to go upstairs and go to sleep. Giving up this rut has caused me to complete a lot of my assignments and get work done in the kitchen. It also keeps me from getting upset with myself because when I was lazy and I procrastinated, I would wake up upset because I did no work and would have to make it up at school in the morning. I feel well about giving up the rut because I can go to sleep without having to worry about how I am going to make up the work in time before class begins.  My mom has been very grateful about me giving up procrastination and wants me to keep it up until I get ready to go out and live on my own. An Emerson quote that has helped me along with this challenge is ” Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.”