Reflective Essay

Intro:

Through out this School time, the common types of blogs that i focused on had to do with religion, arguments/debates, and even things that led to discussion. Religion is talked about to let out my beliefs, and to agree or disagree with the religion given. Debating posts seem to add up to them selves showing a stand up for what I may believe in. It would also show some type of standard in what I would stand up for. Last but not least, I tend to love to relate both Religion and the beliefs behind it, and science: mainly confronting Evolution.

Thesis:

The basic idea of this reflection is to show whether or not my writing has improved over these couple of months in school, based on what we learned during the first quarter. Analyzing and linking to original posts, like ones about Religion, Debating, Regretting, and Scientific thinking. These posts all lead to the idea of either liking or noticing that having a blog post had changed the view of writing for me, or if it didn't have any result or effects on my writing and thinking creditability.

Over the first quarter of school, (which is also a short period of time speaking in my own terms). I've noticed over this quarter that I have changed and developed in many positive ways in terms of writing. I've noticed where I have seen my self often using quotes and text phrases; I learned to pick up the habit of this technique. At the the beginning of the school year, I most likely wouldn't have been using any of these techniques passed on during the first quarter. For example, some writing methods used are: TAGS! (Intro and conclusion tips), this step which is a guide and introduction to any literary analysis essay. Techniques like the ones shown took me through most of my writing in a step by step method. Over time it threw at me a lot of conflicts that also lead to new ideas for analysis essays. The story “Of Mice and Men” written by the author John Steinbeck.” This quote comes from the blog post (~ Final draft of our Of Mice and Men Essay ~).

“The story “Of Mice and Men” written by the author John Steinbeck. This man wrote a fascinating article that is the in the basic times during the Great Depression. “The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.”

Not only does this passage link to the improvement I have shown over the quarter of analyzing this book and many others. It also shows a great sequence of improvement in locking in techniques. The technique of this post used the TAG method. Through the use of these methods I was able to improve my essay in terms of intros and conclusions, not mentioning the lessons of quoting and reflecting.

However, I find my writing style to not only grow over this quarter, but it has also decreased in improvements. It seems that I have achieved a more descriptive and narrative type of writing, and that resulted in the loss of pure creative techniques and ways in my writing. I still have a great amount of creativity in my pieces, yet the only reason for this is because I tend to speak whats on my mind rather than whats goin on int the real world. I started off understanding the ways of getting creative and just jotting down what ever popped in my head like (Who am I?). Over time my writing has shifted into the basic dallies of thoughts and arguments leading to cause of (Rebuttals).

“I come from an universe unique and never there to be seen. Best part about that is it shows the Earths true colors are among with my favorite colors. They say most of the Earth is made out of water, and I say the way I drink it's water it might as well be made out of me. My hair consists with a trendiness amount of deep color. However, that not being the color of blue,night, and green like the Earth's center”.

This example of creativity was in the beginning of the year where I had no clue of what methods or techniques had role in writing. I had used the knowledge of brainstorming and planning out (which is what my writing last year happens to be now). It may sound like I regret learning these methods, but in fact I am not disappointed or ashamed at all. I feel like I have increased in writing by x100. Not only do I get to take on writing in a college way, I get to step up into new levels and get the opportunity of mixing creativity within these pieces to achieve a successful essay.

Over this first quarter of school; what honestly kept me together and in a place where I can feel like I have a relaxing moment is having a “blog”. I seem to have a escape route from all the stress caused from the tones of homework given each day. A blog having to be done on Friday, and nothing else but the blog turned in seems like the best homework a person can have. Posting on a blog what ever came to mind seemed like the best way to get a message of your chest. If I wanted to have a safe conversation about a major topic, for example like (Evolution on Horses).

"Evolution is an interesting subject, one that affects us all. Take a look at fossils you can find in almost every museum, and compare them to the knowledge we have of their current descendants. Note the similarities and the differences in the following two skeletons, The Prehistoric horse and the modern one": To successfully navigate their terrain, prehistoric horses were about 3 feet tall, lacked fetlocks,which are ankle joints, and had cloven hooves. Modern day horses average at twice that size, have their "ankle" joint further down, and their hooves have become solid. Why"?

This quote was a question discussed by a fellow student and I. Blogging caused me to understand writing and take in opinion discussed by others. I tend to now take a chance to hear someone out when they have something to say, rather than blurting out and interrupting their statement. Having a blog gave me another point of view at the world. A view of others opinions and (Beliefs/Thoughts).

"In my opinion, people came up with god (no offense intended to anyone) because they needed a reason to explain a cause in their life they couldn't explain, by science such as the Greeks, Hindus, and the Egyptians."

Conclusion:

In maybe the next, or the next couple of quarters; I would like to have set myself goals about learning new techniques and developing new methods for writing to an extreme level. Also to figure out ways to enhance my reading and writing with not only a teachers help and guide through the subject, but also my own creativity and skill in writing helping myself and guiding myself through essays. Most of all I expect a streak of A's and high achievements, sending my knowledge up the bar and onto a paste college that fits my scheduled.

Who am I?

I come from an universe unique and never there to be seen. Best part about that is it shows the Earths true colors are among with my favorite colors. They say most of the Earth is made out of water, and I say the way I drink it's water it might as well be made out of me. My hair consists with a trendiness amount of deep color. However, that not being the color of blue,night, and green like the Earth's center and even the mighty “Crust”! The dreams that come out from beneath me seem to conquer most lies when perhaps bluffing. Traveling has always been my theme; however, it never seemed like traveling suit out to be my most major or popular thing. The extra particular material of my body is not a relative term. It's not even a proper adjective. Perhaps it is just the material accumulated in my body from consuming those extra calories. I don't own my own car or maybe you can say I already may have, but not that soon? Although, I somehow have this car I am still not in the age of properly driving this “jeep”. Perhaps up in maybe 2 more years I'll most likely be past my permit and holding onto my drivers license. It may seem to look like I love to wear all these colorful colors, although I am highly seen with blue jeans and black sweaters. Can you guess who am I?

~ Final draft of our Of Mice and Men Essay ~

The story “Of Mice and Men” written by the author with the name of John Steinbeck's. This man wrote a fascinating article that is the in the basic times during the Great Depression. “The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.” (more info and link that could be found in the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression). The two main characters in this novel happen to be both George and Lennie. George is shorter in height than the average male, although he may be small, George maybe able to fool people for his character includes him being clever and quite a worker. Lennie on the other hand happens to have an unknown mental illness and the way he received his illness so also unknown. Although, he may be ill but he happens to be a big fella' with human and uncontrollable strength that he is unaware of. these characteristics that guide Lennie in being an excellent worker. Their story all begins with George and Lennie walking off to a ranch where their expecting a new job.

The Central conflict in “Of Mice and Men” is in my opinion Character Vs. Self. The reason why I choose this central conflict, is because through-out most of the story, all Lennie was ever doing was struggling and fighting against himself, trying to keep and not lose control of his body and actions due to his “unknown illness”.

Lennie's explanation of why he has an urge to tend things like rabbits, mice, and even soft dresses to soft curly hair is quite unique. Curley's wife finds Lennie in a barn by himself finding her perfect chance to get close to him. As she begins to try and start a conversation with Lennie, she finds that all that is on his mind is the rabbits. So she asked him “What makes you so nuts about the rabbits”? And he crawled up next to her and responded:

“I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some of them long-haired rabbits. An' they was nice, you bet. Sometimes I've even pet mice, but not when I could get nothing better.” (90)

The reason why this quote really seems to catch my attention, is because this is the moment where Lennie finally opens up in emotion wise. He starts to describe his urge of why he must touch and tend things. His illness isn't truly the reason why he acts as a child, however his illness is a major part of it but it isn't the main conclusion. He acts and likes to tend rabbits because as a child he never got to live a normal life for a child at his undeveloped age. He was taken from home to home, not having any family. By the time his Aunt Clara had taken him in he had already developed an illness caused from stress and child desegregation and stress causing him to have struggled against himself even as a child.

After Lennie's terrible accident with Curley's wife, Lennie realizes that the cause of Curley's wife's death was something that wasn't suppose to happen, and shows his sorrow. Realizing he has done a bad thing, Lennie remembers what George had told him if something bad happened, just like what had happen. George told him to “hide in the brush and wait for George to come get him”. As Lennie waited his conscious started to eat him up! He started to have thoughts of George leaving him, and even to were Lennie would tell him self he would run and live in a cave. Slowly Lennie begins to hallucinate more and more getting deeper into his emotions.

“And then from out of Lennie's head there came a little fat old woman, She wore thick bull's-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean”. (100)

The fascinating idea about this passage is not just how Lennie starts hallucinating. Although the reason why and the idea of what it represents is truly important. However, based on my resources of what causes Lennie's emotion to be so hurt rather than being scared is that George is the general conflict. Lennie wasn't trying to do the right thing all through-out the story just to stay out of trouble, but everything he was doing was all for George. Keeping George from becoming mad at Lennie was indeed Lennie's biggest accomplishment and goal he set for himself. During his hallucinations, Lennie starts to see the major characters in his life that give him joy and hope where the big rabbit, and Aunt Clara herself. If you didn't notice at first, pay great attention to how two major events and characters in Lennie's life/mind only led to one major character who must show a major sign of importance not just to Lennie and his friendship, but more to Lennie's struggle against him self to keep George satisfied.

This quote here takes place before George and Lennie reach the ranch, they camp for the night in a nice and unique clearing and George assures Lennie of their special relationship. Showing how they out of all the other people in this story, they have a bond that is impossible of being broken unless one in the bond brakes it himself.

“ Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. An' why? because.......“(14)

What really catches my attention in this quote here, is how this exactly shows Lennie's need for understanding and friendship. Although Lennie and George's friendship may or may not be real, it still shows how George just being there for Lennie made him feel happy with him self. After these few quotations Lennie points out how they have each other, to me that shows even though Lennie has some sort of mental illness, he still struggles hard against himself, just to keep a good friend like George along his side. Although, Lennie may seem to have the struggle; it is truly both Lennie and George who struggle towards their goals in the end.

Conclusion

The whole point or more like main idea of this reflection is to get the idea of why Lennie does what he does. Through out my reflection, I explain how Lennie continues too grow more ill and ill until he gets in a process where his time has come. Whats so important about this, and why it all really matters is that although I set the thesis as Lennie Vs. himself. The final idea that comes to mind, is that the central conflict that leads to the reason of why Lennie is just Lennie; all comes down to his faith being planned. All of his moments where he faces himself and especially because of his illness all leads up to “Character Vs. Faith”.

~My Harshful and Dreadful Moment~

The loud tone of the vicious flames against the freshly painted white walls gave off a type of sizzling, and crackle like popping sound; that had woken up Barial. Even if the sounds of the sizzling walls had never awoken Barial it wouldn't have been a problem. His older brother Lightarious (who Barial called Light for short) would have eventually woken him up with his high pitched scream even with the muffled wall. Enormous yellow and red flames were making static popping sounds at Barial's door path, he quickly reacted and dragged out his huge white suede blanket, placed it over the fire, and stomped on it repeatedly until the flames had gone out. The room that was shared between Barial and his brother was full of unique arts, posters, with it also a hand full of memories. Although the art was not his own, he still collected posters of worldwide known super hero's including the 63 Mortal Kombat characters, superstar basketball and football sport athletes, it mostly showed varieties of different rare collected artifacts he stored. Barial knew the bunk bed that once held all of his bedtime nightmare scary stories was for sure gone along with it the rest of his personal items. Barial felt that his room acted as the focus of his attention but not his heart. Light's muffled voice became more and more clear after Barial had leaped out of his room and into the hallway.

He found his brother on his knees, in heavy sweat, face covered in smoke and coughing. Light had done a great job of keeping the fire from spreading throughout the rest of their hallway. Unfortunately the flames gave off the same amount of effort fighting back, as Light had. Barial felt the dryness of his chappy lips and dehydrated mouth, drops of sweat had been dripping slowly from his forehead to the ground. The fact that Barial didn't have enough water for himself and his brother put him in an uneasy situation. Light soon gained conscious after Barial had dragged him away from the heat that the flames had given off. The worse began as they headed towards the stairs.

~The Echo of My Neighborhood~

To clear up the whole point of this blogger post, I'll explain it in a brief description. The whole idea of this quote is to compare two completely different places. One that describes joy, pride, and happiness. And which the other shows an uneasy, fearful, and unwanted point of view leading to the opinion of the place. Connecting the main character "James" to both scenes.

(a) The quiet, calm, and tranquility of the new neighborhood just wasn't working out for James; yet he imagined that he was still at his backyard playing duck, duck, goose. (b) The indolent habit in the people of James' new neighborhood had frustrated him; he complained how none of the townspeople ever came out of there homes. (c) The streets were always empty because of the terrorizing of mobsters that roamed the streets. The side walks were full of tumbleweed that happened to always roll around, just as it did in the Texas standoffs. (d) The sun was beginning to pack up for the night, taking along with it James' afternoon. (e) His new dinner sometimes gagged him like he had just swallowed paste from canned food. (f) The windows and sheets of his bedroom were all broken and torn up, his bed was made out of old cheap wood, stained old dirty sheets ,and loose spirals It was so low quality that he even decided the ground was much safer. (g) Outside there wasn't even a single jogger or even a thief. He couldn't bear thinking of his poor qualified and unwanted neighborhood. So instead he chose to close his eyes and imagine. Although he knew he would be terrified by his new neighborhood tuning against him and becoming a nightmare, he subdued it all with the memories of his old.

The reason why I found writing this post as a main graber to my ideas and thoughts, is due to the fact that this story is that of my old dear neighborhood. This story trully does refelect to my life because my neighborhood trully changed me in terms of slang, thoughts, and behaviors. Thinking of my old neighboorhood shifted me back to the right way and ideas. And thats why this blogger post is seriously important to me.

~Th1S is FoR, Uh JuSt ShUt uP and L1sT3n~

This freedom of post is mostly about my eagerness in wanting to explain my ideas and stress about religion that I have been keeping inside of me.

When growing up I didn't have a choice in choosing my religion or culture in being a "Durze". I grew up not knowing or even practicing my religious beliefs. I had never learned how to pray, understand, and even read my own bible that is called Qur'an. My religion may be unknown to almost every other religion and country, yet I myself never even knew what my religion was.

As I had grown up I went after learning what my religion truly was. Maybe the explanation of my religions culture is only my point of view. However, i don't see it as quite a false example. I find it as a mixture of Islam and Christianity, yes sounds different and unbelievable to most of the deep religious people out there. Although, it seems as a weird quality of religion it isn't false.
Druze take in all sorts of beliefs and cultures just to understand it and give them a sort chance and understanding. I haven't found any single prophet available that wasn't believed or mentioned in the Druze religion. From Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and they even share beliefs like reincarnation. Even though i was raised into a religion i had never chosen, I don't feel like it's totally a waste and shouldn't be practiced.

Now to get on with God and his understanding, i know that all people have their opinions and beliefsabout God. But honestly I don't think as God for the events that happen, i say that the best thing possibly thati believe in is "Science". I see it as reasons for why we live the way we live, and that's my thoughts. Yet, i tend to still believe in god. I find myself thinking more about how the devil proves and shows his existence more than god does. I tell myself if God can be alive and angels exist, what stops demons, ghosts, and ghosts from being real.

~Aakash Your Underestimating~

First off, i would like to lead you to Aakash's Post. In his post he explains his opinion against or should i say about religion (which I totally respect as an idea). But im gonna have to be honest, and disagree with you. For the following reason's:

"In my opinion, people came up with god (no offense intended to anyone) because they needed a reason to explain a cause in their life they couldn't explain, by science such as the Greeks, Hindus, and the Egyptians."

Yeah, religion and God itself could have been just and excuse or a specific reason to avoid why our world is that way it is. To start it off, have you ever wondered why people even seem to have hope. Ive noticed through and out and in my live(s) that people always no matter when, always have hope because of one thing. They believe someone is out there to answer their silent prayers or whispers. It seems that everything in life seems to have motivation and determination int their lives for reasons like a special someone, a promise they made, or even because they know something out-there is looking out for them. What mostly comes to my mind and opinions is how some people are just painfully forced into believing or worshiping a religious spirit.

Devils and demons, or any evil and unwanted worshiping soul of type is a great example. For instance contracts that you see in movies, where the devil or an evil spirit owns your soul. This example is great because it shows a type of force into worshiping, and your soul is for the taking showing they , must show some type of obedience and respect. Another cruel and more logical type of monster that forces into belief happen to be humans. It's either they brain wash youth into believing something without a choice at early advanced age, or they go around killing each other and conquering each other just to convert others into a religious belief that they join out of fear.

" Most of what we know about the Greeks are their culture, such as the myths about the gods. The Greeks used the gods for explanation about their daily lives."

This here is an excellent quote also from Aakash. He included in there that it was also called "culture". A whole lot of people seem to not understand it as another beings beliefs. Instead they see it as a false and wrong example of God and that their beliefs are correct and the others are all incorrect. (this doesn't include for all religions for example "Buddhism", and "Druze" my unknown and unmentioned religion.