Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, in my opinion, is one of the best book of poems. First of all, simplicity of it makes it fun for people of all ages to read. The simplicity also doesn't intimidate anyone so people are encouraged to read more. Second of all, the drawings make it easier to read and help the reader picture the actual poem in their head. Lastly, all the poems actually have a rhyme scheme. Some 'poems' do not have rhyme schemes and that really irritates. I believe poems with no rhyme scheme should just be considered short stories.

Busted 9

In this chapter, Kim starts off by going snowboarding with Jon. She has a really fun time and realizes that she is flirting with him. She decides that he is too nice to be a drug dealer. When they get back to Hereford, Kim goes up to her room and sees Marshall just leaving from her room. He had dropped of a couple of CD mixes that he promised he would make her. She listened to them for the rest of the night and falls asleep really early because she is tired from snowboarding. The next day, Kim feels like she needs to do some snooping. In the library, Kim was trying to see how all the guys, Jon, Marshall, and David, all fit into the picture. She sees Jon and decides to follow him. She watches him take a package to Marshall's room than quickly run away. Kim decided to knock on Marshall's door to 'say hi'. As she is trying to look for remnants of drugs and the package, Marshall kisses her because he thinks that Kim is into her. Kim runs out completely disgusted. Next she goes to the room of Jon's friends to bluntly ask them where to get drugs. They give her absolutely nothing so she goes back to her dorm. The chapter ends with David knocking on her door. He says, "Hello, Kim Stratford". He has realized that she is not who everyone thinks she is. My favorite word in this chapter is laconic which means quiet or curt.

Busted 8

In the beginning of this chapter, Kim recieves a note saying that she had a package. She was so excited becasue it ment she could talk to Jon. The package was her Burton snowboard. She opened it right there and Jon became interested. He asked her if she was a good boarder. Kim said yes and told him about fun trips to Aspen, Denver, and other impressive places so she could keep Jon's interest. Before she left, Jon asked her to go boarding with him and his friends on the weekend. She was so glad and wished her mom could see her. Later that night, she has a karate match. She easily beats a huge guy twice her size. At the end, she watchs Marshall go into the locker room but right before, she sees David and him 'hi-five' eachother and sees pills go from one hand to the other. She is amazed. After this, David asks her if she wants to get a bite to eat and they do. In this section, my favorite word is nadir which means lowest point.

Hero in a Box

I am very athletic and participate in a number of sports. I wanted to look at how athletes become heroes. Through videos, I have found that heroic athletes can be classified as athletes who have shown heroics on the field and athletes who have shown heroics off the field. Most of the time, the record-breaking and clutch athletes are the ones that are considered to be the heros. Now I realize that athletes show heroics off the field as well.

ON THE FIELD:




I chose this video of Usain Bolt because he is an athlete who recently showed heroics at the 2008 Olympics by setting three world records. This video is important to our understanding of a hero because immediatley after his record-breaking run, he became the face of Jamaica.

I chose this video because I am a huge Kansas Jayhawks fan. Mario Chalmers' clutch 3-point shot in the national championship is important to our understanding of hero becasue he not only instantly became my hero, but will now always be known as the hero who won the national championship for the Kansas Jayhawks.




I chose this video because over the summer, I watched Tiger Woods heroically win the 2008 U.S. Open with an injury that later needed ACL surgery and a whole year off of golf to repair. Tiger Woods has been a clutch preformer throughout his career which is a major reason why he is a hero and considered one of the best, if not the best, golfers to ever play the game.

OFF THE FIELD:




I chose this video because it is a perfect example of athletes being heroic off the field. This video of an "Athletes for Charity" event, which featured Takeo Spikes, Carlos Emmons, and Smush Parker shows them interacting with underprivileged kids that will remember the moment forever.




I chose this video because The United Way is a great organization that many athletes, like Peyton Manning, are apart of. The organization lets underprivileged kids hang out with athletes, their hero's, for memories that they will never forget.

CONCLUSION:

Heros can be anywhere. I love to play sports which is why I chose to look at athletic heros. Though looking at different heros, I have realized that athletes can not only be heros on the field but also off the field. Now that I realize the possibility of athletes being heros off the field. I wish that they all were because they have so much to give besides their talents on the field.

Busted 7

At the beginning of this chapter, Kim and Danielle go to the school post office to send Danielle's sister a birthday present. When they are giving the present to the post man, Kim realizes that Jon works in the back of the post office sorting letters. Jon looks up and calls Kim a stalker. They angrily stare into each others eyes and it ends because luckily Danielle is done so Kim goes with her. As they were leaving, Kim realizes that the post office would be the perfect place for Jon to work because he touched every package that went into the school. He could easily receive the drugs for outside the school, pocket them without anyone seeing in the post office, and then redistribute them through the whole school. Later she talks to her mom about him working at the post office and they decide to send some test packages to make sure they get to Kim and so Kim has a good reason to go down there and talk to him. At the end of the chapter, she goes and hangs out with David, the third suspect, and they talk. Kim gets the feeling that David likes her. My new favorite word in this chapter is peccadillo which is a small crime or wrongdoing.

Busted 6

The last chapter left off with Jon turning around and asking Kim why she was following him. In this chapter, she quickly says that she finds him interesting and she wanted to meet him. He does not believe her and yells at her some more. She angrily says that she does not have to put up with him and walks away hoping he does not suspect anything. Once Kim gets safely back to her dorm, she talks to Danielle, her roommate. Danielle tells her that she hopes that they can still be friends even though Kim ate lunch with Marshall and the other cool kids. Kim assured her then left the room to go check out Marshall's room. As she was going up to his room, she saw Jon coming out of his room and he ran away suspiciously. She went into Marshall's room once Jon had left and they talked about music for a while and then Marshall asked Kim to leave. My favorite new word in this chapter is hedonist which means someone who seeks pleasure.

Busted 5

In the beginning of this section, Kim has a talk with her mom over the phone. Kim is expecting a huge report about the case but instead, her mom is more worried about her and how the teachers, food and dorms are. The next day, Marshall invites Kim to eat lunch with him and his friends. They get talking and Marshall invites her to this "totally exclusive" monthly party in the gym. Kim feels that she will hit the jackpot for solving the case there. After lunch that day, she sees Jon walking in the hallways. She decides to follow him and try to get his attention so she can talk to him. He takes a turn and goes through some doors to the stairs. As Kim goes through the doors, Jon is there and asks her why she is following him. The chapter ends there. My favorite new word in this chapter is banal which means ordinary or predictable.

Busted 4

In this section of Busted, Kim has her karate match with Marshall. After some back and forth jabs at each other, Kim is ready to end the fight. As she is ready to go in with her signature "jumping-kick and elbow jab", she realizes that she cannot win the fight if she wants to keep him talking to her. She realizes that he would be so embarrassed if he lost to a girl that he would not talk to her any more which would get her nowhere in the case. Once the crowd around the fight had broken up, Kim talked with Marshall and Marshall's sidekick. They talked about the karate team and how they need to replace a kid that had been expelled out because of drugs. They joke about how they know that they can not get caught with them or they too would get expelled. In this section, my favorite new word is ignominious which means humiliating.

Busted 3

In chapter 3, Kim has her first class with Mr. Nitkin. He is a history that not many people like. Kim does not enjoy him because he assigns a 10-page paper which reminds Kim that she is going to have to do actual homework. Suddenly, the whole undercover thing is not sounding great to Kim. After class, Kim meets Marshall, one of the three suspects. She tries to get in on his karate program but he says that he doesn't let girls in. They argue then he challenges her to a fight in the gym at 5 o'clock. Lunch comes after this intense encounter and Kim goes on and on raving about how the food is not school food but a fine American cuisine. At the end of the chapter, Kim has a talk with the headmaster about leaving the kids alone as much as possible and how he does not like having a spy at his school. In this chapter, my favorite word was nefarious which means evil of wicked.

Busted 2

When i ended my last blog, Kim had just told her mom that she would be perfect for being the undercover cop at the private school with the suspected drug ring. Now, after a long debate with her mom and the other policemen on the squad, her mom gives in and allows her to go in under the condition that if "one thing goes wrong up there on that campus and you are outta there. No questions asked.” (29). The next day, Kim goes back to the station to receive the case information. She gets her alias and she has to study it for hours so she knows it backwards and forwards. She also gets pictures and information on David, Marshall, and Jonathan, the three suspects. A couple of days later, Kim goes to the school for the first time and meets her roommate Danielle Fisher. Seeing her makes Kim realize that not all people in private schools are stuck-up and mean. The chapter ends with Kim meeting the suspect David. In this chapter, my favorite new word is paradigm, which means example or model.

Busted

Earlier in the year, I read the book S.C.A.M which is a novel written using the most common SAT vocabulary words. Today, I just started another one like it called Busted. So far, the main character, Kim Stratford, is home from Stanford for winter break. She is described as one who can make anyone laugh in any situation and being home with the boring life of a small town in Connecticut, she decides to go for a bike ride. As she rides past her old high school, she talks about how sad she was when the flag in front was at half-mast. She talks about how it wouldn't have been like it if it weren't for her. To avoid ruining her fun bike ride, she stops thinking about her high school years and bikes to the police station where her mom is the chief of police. As she is walking to her mom's office, she over hears her mom talking about how they need an undercover cop to bust a drug ring in one of the local private schools. Kim thinks that she would be perfect for this because she is still young enough to fit in and she is just like her mom... So far, my favorite vocabulary word is serendipity which means luck.

Animal Dreams

My favorite quote from the book so far is when Codi walks though Grace for the first time. Codi yells, “‘Stop it!’ I yelled. My heart was thumping. ‘You’re killing that bird!’” (15). I don’t usually get embarrassed. I can’t even begin to imagine how horrified I would have been if I was Codi. It is not only embarrassing that she mistook a piñata for a peacock, but it’s the fact she was screaming at the little kids who were having a birthday party! With Codi’s self-confidence and knowledge of how fast news spreads around in a small town, I am surprised she didn’t leave right then and there. It is not funny when you yourself are embarrassed, but I can’t stop thinking about how funny it would have been watching this scene unfold in real life.
My favorite character in the book is not a main character at all. He is one of the five Domingos children. Nicholas, most commonly known as ‘The Baby’ is my favorite character for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is hard not to like a baby. Second of all, I can relate to him because in my family I am know as ‘The Baby’ just like Nicholas because I was born late compared to all of my cousins. Lastly, I love how he can be such a minor character but still can symbolize such an important theme. I think that when he learns to walk during Hallie’s kidnapping, it symbolizes life and how it is a never ending circle. You have Hallie which you can just assume right now is going to die and Nicholas is just beginning his life by taking his first steps.
I think the most important scene of the book so far is when Emelina has the Labor Day Fiesta. I think this is important because Codi meets a lot of people that she knew when she was a child. I feel Kingsolver puts this scene in the book because the fiesta is almost a mini-welcome home party for Codi. This is also where Codi has her first conversation with Loyd. Without this scene, Codi and Loyd don’t talk and become attracted to each other again. Without the introduction of Loyd, Codi doesn’t find a good reason to stay in Grace.

Recent Read

Recently, I read a book called S.C.A.M. This book was written by Sparknotes. It incorporates 1000 of the most common words on the SAT. I read it twice actually to work on getting these common SAT vocabulary words in my head and memorized. Before I started to read this book, I thought it was going to be like a paper of mine where I just hit the synonyms button and pick a word so I sound smarter. That was not the case. It is just like any book but the vocabulary words are bolded and there definition is at the bottom of the page. Plus, the plot is very intriguing and is easy to relate to because it is about highschoolers. The book is very helpful and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read.

My Favorite Book...

I do not have a favorite book. There are so many. I do however have a favorite series. The Harry Potter series in my opinion are the best books ever written. Once I started reading them, I could not put the books down. J. K. Rowling does a great job of leaving just enough unanswered questions at the end of each chapter that you simply can not put the book down. If I had to pick a favorite of the seven in the series, I would probably my favorite is the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Golbet of Fire. I like this one the best because of the amazing use of personification and just plain detail. When I read that book, I feel as if I am actually there.

Codi vs. Emelina

There are many similarities as well as many differences of Codi and Emelina.

The beginning of a long Blogging career

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