Usually when I make a New Year's resolution I forget it by the time I walk out the door of my friends house where I made it, and usually I just make one because that's what everyone else is doing and they want me to. But this year I'll try to remember. I guess I could make that my resolution, but that would be kind of lame. Because if I did remember then I would just remember I was trying to remember that I was supposed to remember. OK. Never mind. I guess I would probably say that the best thing i could improve on is studying better for tests. They tend to be the thing that bring my grade down the most. So, since finals are coming up I will try to start studying now. Maybe I could study about 10 minutes per night or something even if it was a different subject each night. Also, I could try asking for more help if I don't understand something. For the new year I'm also going to try and do the best i can in all of my classes, which is part of the test thing. As for just goals I am going to try to improve my soccer skills and work on them more often. I hope that I will be able to remember everything I've said, and to make it easier, I'm just going to make it to do my best!

Animal Farm project

Jackson Hille recited the poem Forgetfulness, by Billy Collins. His physical presence was very well done. He used his hands to portray the emotion you should feel with the words he was saying. He properly plays the roll of a man, losing his memory yet he is (i hope) way to young to.He had good volume and articulation and he was easy to understand. So obviously you can tell that he isn't the one the poem was written about! He kept the audience pretty intrigued by the way he "poised" his questions and statements. The performance could have been a little better if he had changed his tone a little more.

This poem was about people forgetting things, hence receiving the title Forgetfulness. The last stanza is really about the authors past life and how he was affected by memory loss. When he talks about the planets, he is saying how those memories disappeared. Also, when he mentions that "something else is slipping away", he doesn't only mean the flowers and the uncles, but all of the other knickknacks stored in the back of his brain. When he says " the moon in the window seems to have drifted out " it shows how his last glimmer of actual memory is slowly fading until they finally disappear.

mockingbird motif

In the beginning of the year, a had only a primary understanding of what "motif" was. After reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I know have a broader understanding of the term. Yay. I guess getting an actual example helped. The main motif in the novel, is, well, the mockingbird motif. It represents that we shouldn't accuse innocent people of kill them-like you shouldn't kill a mockingbird because it's an innocent songbird and it didn't do anything.

"'Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?'" Scout said this when she was trying to tell Atticus that she understood what had happened after Bob Ewell had attacked them. The mockingbird motif represents how it's a sin to accuse someone innocent. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson were the main "mockingbirds" in the novel. The night that Bob Ewell attacked Jem and Scout, Boo Radley came and saved them by stabbing the attacker. Boo, hadn't barely ever come out of his house, so he wouldn't really have been be "able" commit the crime. If they put him in court, it would be like killing an innocent one. Pointless. Tom Robinson was a dead man the minute the trial began. This was because of the prejudice trials they had in this time period. If a black person was accused of something and the case went to court, they would almost automatically be either sent to prison or they received the death penalty.The motif highlighted the theme of children's innocence and also many other themes of the novel.

Symbolism; Judge Taylor

Judge Taylor, the main judge in Tom Robinson's case rules the courthouse. He is decision maker in this case, and therefore the gavel represents him, because number one, the gavel has the power to overrule the jury and silence everyone (and also, he's a judge so this symbol is perfect for him)! He is a strong man who tries to encourage others to make the right decisions, and in the story I think that if he had the ability to choose the verdict he would have chosen that Tom was not guilty.

random and pointless influential things

"Be grateful for the things you have". Someone probably told be this for the first time when I was really little and I was telling them what I wanted for Christmas and the list was probably a mile long. It seems that it would be a very common quote. Yet, in my life it has probably been one of the most meaningful. When we went to Africa last year, I saw so many people that were worse off than me. Some were literally living in the middle of nowhere, without running water or electricity. It's hard to imagine what it would be like- with no computer, or even lights to cook with, and for that matter it would be impossible to cook instant mac and cheese. A very big problem!!! Many of them wore the same clothes for a week straight feeling lucky they can change the next week. Not to be stereotypical, but most American people have WAY to much stuff. We wear a different item of clothing every single day. I'm definitely not saying that that's a bad thing, until you wear a different thing every day of the year. That would be scary. But to some people, one tiny toy car made from sticks and wood would be the best present they ever got, and they might like it more than a Wii. Just saying.

When most people see a lot of presents, and they know they're for them, they feel an urge to open one, say a quick "thank you", and rip open the next one. I've never been that way. I like to draw out my present opening and let it last as long as it can...until I explode and can't resist. Just kidding. Don't get me wrong by thinking that I'm "perfect" according to my examples. Although I don't always think before I speak or do something, I've learned to appreciate what I have. In many books, this quote is the main theme for the plot. Usually they're about someone who is greedy and want more and more, and then all the sudden something bad happens to them and they realize that there is more than "things" to life. Like those books, this quote writes the book of my life.

Best friends...

It's the first day of kindergarten. There are a ton of other people in the classroom. For some reason, I wander over to the plastic animals where one other girl is. We start playing together and at circle time we sit next to each other. She's tall and I'm short. That's just how it's always been since the day we met. We both have dirty blondish hair. She's had braces twice, and lucky me(I haven't). Another thing to contrast us, she has two brothers and I'm an only child. She was born in Maryland, and I was born in ordinary Olympia. She and I both used to do Irish dance, although she kept with dance and I with soccer. We seemed to form a special bond that we still have today. Every Wednesday, every Friday, and any other day that would do we would spend time together.

I never really thought about her as a pet/animal person until she and her two brothers took their two gerbils taking turns all the way cross country to Vermont to their new home on their laps in the car (In a cage just in case you were wondering). They had, and have a cat who is about 19 years old and have a 3 year old black lab. She is definitely not an egoist since she always puts others before her making her a true altruist. After she moved, we've tried to see her every year. But you know how that goes. She's still super tall. We're long distance buddies. That still hasn't changed.