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| Little does he know the fate that awaits him later today at my hand. |
Since it is Thanksgiving, I figured that I should reflect on some of the good things going on in my life as well as offer some bonus points for those of you that pay attention to the Internet presence of your English teacher. Here's the deal: describe to me a thing, an event and a person you have been thankful to have or occur in your life in 2010. Give me a minimum of five sentences describing why. You'll earn five points for each one, totaling 15 points. If you neglect to do all three, bupkis. That's Yiddish for "nothing" and is my favorite and only Yiddish word I know. Deadline for submissions is Sunday at midnight and remember to leave your name and period at the end. Mine are as follows:
Thing - My wife and I bought a house this year. It was a long, stressful and arduous process that had us crying our eyes out in desperation and grinding our teeth in frustration. In short, it was not fun. However, in the months since we've moved in and slowly but surely started to make our house a home, I'm grateful more and more that we toughed out the process. Redoing the floor, hanging pictures and organizing the garage add to the aspects that make the domicile more than just a place for our stuff. I'm thankful for the four walls here and hope that I can remember thinking that some of these things were fun in the coming years when I'm sure they'll feel a lot more tedious.
Person - Speaking of my wife, she's a swell gal. I could not ask for a better friend or partner who makes me a better person. She's funny, thoughtful and knows just the right way to make a bad day good and a good day better. I sometimes wonder what cosmic thing I accomplished to manage to land such a beautiful and charming lady, but I find that it's best not to question such things because I would rather not have this situation unravel. In the immortal words of Rick Astley, I am never going to giver her up and (hopefully) never going to let her down.
Event - To make this saccharine mess all the sweeter, I'm really grateful for the fact that both Angela and I finished our Master's degrees this year. Her accomplishment was a much bigger deal than mine, as I took the long road of waiting a few years between classes, but it's nice to know we're finally done. I'm glad that I'll be able to look at those diplomas on the wall and know that they stand as symbols for the hard work we put in to accomplish a goal we set for ourselves. Sure, the student loan bills will be pretty extensive, but I think everyone is alive to learn more. Getting sheepskins to prove that it happened is a nice touchstone marker to prove it happened.
Frosh
Last Wednesday, you took the quiz on chapters 7-10 of The Greek Gods and we then proceeded to read through the stories of Hermes, Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Those last two are my favorite of the bunch because they are such complete opposites, and the way they end up together is a line straight out of a sitcom or SNL sketch.
Thursday, you had a work day to focus on your mythology research project or the ORU that was due the following day. The final ORU will be due December 10.
And Friday, we moved forward.
Seniors
For Wednesday, we reviewed in-text citations and works cited pages. Sixth period didn't get a chance to finish receive all of the information on the works cited page formatting, so I suggest going to Citation Machine if you get stuck on any of the minutiae of creating your specific entries for your page. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is also incredibly helpful and always up to date.
On Thursday and Friday, you received time to do research in the library. Hopefully, everyone got a chance to find some relevant and valuable sources.
Thing - For my Birthday I received an iPhone. Not only is this thing great because it has sentimental value, it is so many things packed into a squircle (square and circle). My iPhone has saved me so much space, it replaced my old cell phone, my iPod nano, and it replaced my desire for a laptop. Not only is my iPhone my running buddy that tracks how many calories and miles I have burned (with an application) it also motivates me with music during my run. I can check my e-mail, call people, text people, listen to music, order food, go on Facebook, and so much more! After having my iPhone for 8 months, I have two complaints. It has put trouble once, when my cell phone went off in class and the battery dies out so quickly when running with GPS. Which isn't fully a downside since it motivates me to run faster. My iPhone has definitely made 2010 much more enjoyable and I am thankful for having it.
ReplyDeletePerson - A person who greatly helped me this year would be my friend Amber. Amber had and has always been there for me and I am a reflection to that. I tend to rant or be needy at times and while I lose trust in people, I can always rely on Amber. Strangely enough, I have met Amber once in person, we still keep in touch through the telephone, texting, or the Internet. I have known her for roughly 7 years now and I can safely say that I have always been the same person, except those few times where I was going through a rough patch. Whenever she is feeling down I will call her and make a duck noise to cheer her up, which always works. We have a special connection which allows us to call eachother at any time of the day to talk if we're feeling odd. If Amber calls me at 2:35 AM the night before a test, I will gladly talk to her. Whatever may happen, I know that my friend Amber will be there for me. I am thankful to have Amber in my life, even if she is 4 hours away.
Event - Speaking of being there for people, my first major break up is an event which I am thankful for. I have always been an optimistic person and a few months ago I began to lose that. For a month or two, I had a completely different view of life. I wanted to change, not only my values but I wanted to change as a person. I soon realized how rediculous that was. I am now more optimistic and feel stronger than I have ever felt in my life. I feel great both as a person and physically. Although my break up ended my relationship with my bestfriend I am now meeting new people and am enjoying life. I guess we need to fall down before we can get up. I am thankful for this breakup because I am no longer depending on someone to make me happy and I have proven to myself that I can do well without someone.
Loui Hernandez
Period 6