Shel Silverstein Poems

This boy had a toy,
that he so ever enjoyed,
He found it one day,
bound to a blue jay,
He played with it until it got old,
but stayed with it til' it got sod.
The stress of losing it depressed surrounding peers,
Until several years later,
He was reunited with his gator.


Sepand has the second poem we made together.

Extra Credit Freewrite

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who always got picked on in elementary school. His name was James and he always wanted to stand up for himself but never had to courage to stick up to the older kids. One day when they pushed him too far by mocking him for being adopted, he socked the "leader" of the bullies and started pounding his fists into the kid's bruised face. They became all frightened all of a sudden from the change of personality that took hold of James. The group of bullies avoided James from that moment on knowing that he is a ticking time bomb.

James realized that if he stood up for himself and his rights, then he could scare away anybody. That philosophy kept him going his whole entire life and that is why he chose the profession of a lawyer. He wanted to get rid of all the bad people in the world by using the laws and rules. He supported the capital punishment and if any criminal committed a crime terrible enough that they must be killed according to the law, then they must be executed. James was a lawyer that dealt with criminals and murderers who infect the community.

One day, he had to support the people convicting a drug lord who shot and killed 2 cops. James hated murderers and argued that the drug lord and all of his men to be executed for their plague on the city. After a series of debates, the jury obviously decided that the drug lord and certain men under him should be executed as soon as possible. When everybody was excused from the court, the future dead men were going to be transported from the courthouse to jail and they were going to be killed in the electric chair. James was proud that he was able to convince the judge and jury that most of the men should be killed as soon as possible.

Back at jail, the drug lord was discussing with his fellow inmates how he was going to get back at that "bitchy" lawyer and his "false" accusations. The drug lord never realized the terrors he caused the city with his drugs and shootings because he was in major denial of his actions. The prison was also a professional escape artist and noticed many flaws in the jailhouse that could help his attempt in escaping. The night before his execution, the drug lord escaped his cell with the help of an old friend, or one of the jail guards. When the drug lord was free, he contacted a "guy" and found out who and where James lived. With a silenced pistol and a new suit of clothes, he was ready to take care of that lawyer.

James lived in a little apartment and was going to make a down payment on a house as soon as he gets a little more money. His apartment was in a safe neighborhood, but it still could be dangerous at times. The night before the execution of the drug lord and his fellow henchmen, James felt relaxed and did not have a care in the world, until he started to eat dinner. He heard several loud thumps on the door and when he was about to answer the door, he was knocked back by the door. It got kicked down by the one and only drug lord who was sentenced death in the electric chair. James was surprised and practically stunned to see him at his apartment door.
James asked in a trembling voice, " What in the world are YOU doing here?! I thought you were in prison. I thought you were practically dead!!"
He replied with a quick and painless answer, "You thought wrong." And shot James in the head while holding a murderous face the whole time. It doesn't matter if he killed a hundred people that night, he was still going to executed...when he gets caught.

Sentence Significance

Also, she was taking Chinese dance classes, which she was glad to present to us for entertainment.

She took dance classes which she presented to us.

She took dance classes and she performed.

She performed her dance moves.

She performed dances.

Dance.

The process of a child becoming a teenager is a major changing point for his or her personality and outlook on life.

Children becoming teenagers are changing points for their lives.

Change in lives is during peoples' childhoods.

Changes occur in people's childhoods.

Change in childhoods.

Change.

When the kids go to a public or realistic school, the difference in the schools and kids will shock them.

When kids go to a public school, it's shocking.

It's shocking for kids in public schools.

Public schools often shock kids.

Public schools shock.

Shock.

Memory Essay Reflection

The most challenging part of writing my memory essay is when I tried to remember the memory itself and what happened during every scene. It was difficult to come up with all of the details of what exactly happened in the duration of each memory. Also, the conceptual ideas that I had to come up with was difficult because I had to reflect on something that I did not consider that significant. I had to somehow create an outlook on every little part of the memory that gives it a larger meaning and to create a different purpose than what I first thought it to be. If I could go back and change parts of my essay, I would add more to the part with my cousin and her change in her personality. I could have used more examples of her life and when I realized her shift of character to give the reader a better view of her and her individuality. Also, I could have shortened my main memory and taken out some of the meaningless details because some of them do not help the essay in any way. I would also take out some other conceptual ideas because they acted more like random tangents instead of helping the reader understand my memory in a more detailed way. My essay has many conceptual ideas because there were numerous significant events in the memory such as the fact of humiliation at a young age. One is when the smallest of mishaps occur in a young child's life, then he or she is traumatized because the minor "incidents" are very horrifying to a young person. When a child has not really experienced any bad events in his or her life, than the first one is the one that always sticks in his or her memory forever. Another concept that was in the story is when parents force their kids to participate in some arduous activity that they do not enjoy. The parents are just living their dreams and goals through their children. What I found fun and interesting about this essay is remembering the entertaining memory and it was fun finding the correlation between it and many other conceptual ideas. Also, the concrete examples were interesting to compare and contrast with the memory that I remembered because it was fun to see what other people have experienced what I have already. Actually, many people that I know have experienced the embarrassing and traumatizing events that I have in that small span of time.

False Memory

When I was a little boy, about 1st or 2nd grade, I ran for student council president of my school. In the school, there was a president for each grade and the school was from 1st to 5th grade. Apparently, there were 5 people who were presidents for each of their grades. When I was nominated, I was surprised but didn’t really care. When I told my mom that I could be class president, she told me to make a long speech to persuade the kids at my school. I wrote and memorized a five minute long speech that I memorized. My mom was watching and she said that I was great, but I couldn’t tell how well I was actually speaking in front of the whole school. Later that week, after everybody gave their speeches and the votes were counted, they named off who has won for each grade. There was a speaker in each of the classrooms so the principal could tell everybody at once without calling for an assembly. I know that I didn’t really care for it and wasn’t that excited. I don’t think that we were even allowed to be a bit rowdy or energized at our school because it was a really strict private school. When they were naming off the winners, I was waiting and daydreaming about what I was going to do after school. When the principal said my name people were happy and were excited for me. I didn’t really show much emotion about winning because I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was to be the president for my grade. After everybody got it out of their systems, they explained the details. Once a day, the principal would call each all the presidents to meet with each other so we could discuss issues that we found large back then. I recall that the first time we got called to meet with each other, I was really confused and had no clue what to do or where to go. I probably didn’t know what to do because I was young and didn’t pay attention when they actually explained the details the first time. My teacher eventually told me to go to one of the old math classrooms and there will be all of the other presidents there.
When I got there, the other people were already there and I was a little bit late. They didn’t care because I was one of the underclassmen who didn’t really know his way around the campus. When the first topic was discussed, I was extremely bored and didn’t know what I had to do. I was scared of the other class presidents and that may be the reason why I didn’t really talk out loud then. I remember they gave us candy and other sweet food, and that was the only reason why I enjoyed going to those meetings. They gave us gummy worms and other candy because they wanted it to also be fun at the meetings, not all business. Whenever they brought up a minor topic of the school to discuss about, I didn’t really talk or suggest anything because I didn’t know if they would judge me on what I said or look at me in the wrong way. It was interesting and fun to hang out and not do anything for a whole hour, but eventually I knew that they knew that I didn’t contribute anything to the school in the meetings. We were discussing how we should talk about the issues in the next assembly that we have chatted about for the past few weeks.
Eventually, I suggested, “Do you think that we should each say one current decision that we have decided in the past weeks?”

They all looked at me because I did not say much at all the whole time I was there.
Then, the 4th or 5th president said, “Wow. He actually said something.”
After he said that, I was more timid than ever. Since that day, I didn’t want to be the president of my grade anymore. Even the sweet treats that were provided did not stand up with the possibility of another ten seconds of humiliation. I was really satisfied after that trimester was over and I didn’t have to go to those meetings anymore. Since that year, I never ran for president or any other student council position ever again.

Quesitons for Tobias Wolff

1) What is the actual meaning of Dr. Booth walking up the hill and finding the military button? (Nightingale).

2) Why did Tub and Frank both leave Kenny to bleed to death and why did they just forget about him? (Hunters in the Snow).

3) Did Anders ever realize that he was dying/going to die when he encountered the bank robber?

Extra Credit 1

Amuricanism

4) "I even wrote a book called Harry Otters, hoping to piggyback on the success of an British wizard."
The only thing wrong with this sentence is "an British wizard". It is just a grammatical error.

"People also tell me that I am pompous because I read my own books every morning, because I enjoy my own writing more then anyone else's in this world."
There is "because" in this sentence twice, which sounds awkward. It should just be separated to two sentences.

"I even autograph my household objects to increase their value, because I friken rule."
There shouldn't be a comma before "because" because it is just not needed in the sentence. Also, friken is spelled like "fricken", I'm pretty sure.

5) I even wrote a book called Harry Otters, hoping to piggyback on the success of a British wizard.

People also tell me that I am pompous because I read my own books every morning. I read them because I enjoy my own writing more then anyone else's in this world.

I even autograph my household objects to increase their value because I fricken rule.

6) I agree with it because you should not copy other people's work and have no point in your life. It is healthy for one to be original so one can be proud of one's work. One will also not die peacefully because that person will not feel good about oneself from not accomplishing anything in his or her life.
Textual evidence:

People have told me that I am self absorbed, and kind of a jerk because I believe myself to be the forever and eternity.
Owen is ashamed of himself because he is self absorbed and self-centered.

I realized this morning that everything I believe in, everything that I have created or that defines me, is unoriginal.
He finally realizes that he has not accomplished anything in his lifetime and he is depressed for being a failure.

"Krystal lay on the bed, restless and thirsty but feeling too heavy to rise" (123; Desert Breakdown, 1968).

-Krystal lay on the bed, restless and thirsty but feeling too heavy to rise. She deeply desired to move her neck, raise her arms and legs from the table to end the cramping, but the restraints held all of them firm so she could not shake off the pain. She needed to shake off the water that was dripping on her head because she caught a cold from the wet water and it was impeding her vision. The men in the room asked her once again the same question that has been said uncountable times in that room. One of the men yelled, "Answer, DAMMIT!" She once again did not say anything, and the men were starting to get inpatient, so they increased the amount of water flow to drip on her head to irritate her to a maximum amount. Suddenly, there was a loud pound on the steel door that was the only entrance into the room, which also was bolted shut to keep intruders out. Then the bolted metal door busted open and there were numerous loud bangs that echoed through Krystal's skull. There was about a minute of men storming in and shooting the who were previously questioning Krystal. Krystal was eventually released from the restraints and allowed to walk free of the pains she has endured.
-When the water was dripping on her forehead, she needed to rise to get rid of the pains. When the men asked the same question that they have asked her numerous times that day, she replied with the sound of silence. Suddenly, men stormed into the room that held her captive and ended the lives of the criminals who were keeping Krystal in that torture room. Krystal then was able to relax and let free of the bonds that held her in that room.
-Krystal could not move a muscle in that compact room of death. She was dripping wet and did not bother to open her eyes to try to see anything because all she would see were strange men looking over her. They asked the same question that was asked of her the whole evening. After they asked her, she opened her eyes and gazed at the ceiling. She could barely see through the layer of water in her eyes that clouded most of her vision. She noticed the stones had interesting marks carved into them. The were swirled in a way that looked like wind and a gust of dust that was going to cloud her vision once again. Fortunately, that didn't happen and she was able to observe the another familiar feature on the stone, which was a small model of a road which was lead by a trail of ants. The ants reminded her of the busy roads that she was from and how there was never enough room for everybody who was already there. Everybody wanted to travel on that same roadway, but the more popular it became, the more unfavorable it was because people would get upset of the increase of traffic. She closed her eyes and one of the men yelled, "Answer, DAMMIT!". When that man yelled, a handful of men busted through the door and killed every torturer there. She was released and Krystal never looked back at this death-defying moment.

Tobias Wolff Sentence

Mary Ann squinted at the fence. (Two Boys and a Girl 198)

It was a sunny and burning hot day with not a cloud in the sky.  With the burning hot sun, there wasn’t any breeze either.  Mary Ann squinted at the fence.  She glanced to check to see if the guard was around. She decided to climb over the fence and check one last time to see if the guard was around.  She only had to search for a few moments until she spotted her prize.  When she started to quicken her pace to retrieve it, she accidentally tapped something that made a clinking metallic sound.  With a split second to decide, she sprinted for the target in fear the guard hearing her when she kicked the metal object.  Once in arm’s length of possessing the object she desired, the guard suddenly appeared ten feet away from tearing her limb from limb.  In instinct, she bolted for the fence she first came from and grabbed the prize. Suddenly, she felt something grab her back and shove her down.  She was on her back and screaming for help.  While in this inescapable position, she though of how she dug herself into this hole.  Mary Ann started digging her grave just one day ago. 

It was the first day of summer and Mary Ann looked through the mail to see if there was anything for her.  Her eye caught a glimpse of an ad that was for a reality show game and the winner would win $10,000.  She entered and surprisingly got a letter of acceptance to the game and a list of objectives. The letter allowed her to get a group together to help her complete the objectives. So Mary convinced her best friends to help her and said that if she wins, she would split the money equally with all of them.  There were only three objectives, which seemed pretty simple.  The first objective was to go to the Suite hotel at an address that was close to Mary’s house and ask for a package that was named “Clue of Lies”.  They gave her a package that told her where her next clue was.  Mary and all of her friends were thinking, “This is what we have to do for $10,000?!”  The next clue was to find the pay phone that was closest to the suite and there is a package waiting for them in the phonebook.  They went and saw that around the building where the pay phone was, there were policemen and yellow security tape surrounding the skyscraper.  They asked the cops what was happening and the all they said in response was, “You kids shouldn’t be here, there is something wrong with the sewers.”  Mary asked if they could quickly use the pay phone and one of the cops quickly snapped at them and said for the to leave immediately.  They ran away, but did not understand what was going on, so they came back later to see if the police left the pay phone yet.  They were still there and the pay phone was so close from the security tape.  So Mary’s friends decided to distract the policemen by arguing about some random subject while Mary went for the pay phone to see if she could find the package.  When she went to it, the package was easily visible and was sticking out of the phone book.  She snatched it and ran away while signaling towards her friends to stop talking to the policemen.  One of the cops glanced over towards the pay phone and saw that Mary was carrying the package.  He called out to all the other policemen and the suddenly bolted after Mary.  She got frightened and started running for her life.  Good thing for her that she was a natural sprinter and quickly lost the cops.  When she caught up with her friends, they were all confused of what was going on, but the thought of the money overwhelmed their mind.  They all opened the package together and it said to go to a specific address and there will be a red box with the money in it.  Mary and her friends all became ecstatic and googled up the address on one of their Phone’s. When they arrived to the address, they all found out that it was the junkyard.  This brought everybody’s hopes down because it will take forever for them to find a box in a junkyard.  They all climbed over the fence and began looking for it and for hours, no one found anything.  So when hope was almost lost, Mary’s eye caught a red, small box buried under several pieces of garbage.  She quickly ran over to it, when she saw something else in the corner of her eye.  There was one of the guard dogs that patrolled the junkyard and to make sure no trespassers stole anything. The dog growled and drool was slowly dripping off his mouth like molasses in January.  It barked a few times to try to scary Mary away, but she did not move until the irate dog darted towards Mary.  The red box was too far away from her for her to reach it, so she just ran for her life fearing that the dog would catch her.  She yelled for help and all of her friends were nowhere to be found.  She barely escaped and climbed over the fence before the dog caught up to her.  Mary called up her friends with the walky-talky that they all had bought for this “adventure” and they were on the other side of the junkyard still searching.  The next morning she decided to try it again and see if she could get her hands on the money.  Her friends were all asleep still at ten o’clock in the morning, so she just went to the junkyard herself.  That was a crucial mistake. 

When the guard dog was on top of her, she was able to knock him off with the red box and get up for a few seconds.  While she was running, she wanted to at least see the money and to hold it in her hands.  When she opened the box, there was a note in it that said, “Jokes on you.  This was a practical joke. Hope you had fun!” When she read this small piece of paper, her heart sank and gave up all hope.  She slowed down for a split second and the dog caught up to her and devoured the remaining of her wishes and dreams.

The Lies of My Life

An example of a lie that I allowed myself to believe was when I was a young boy, possibly 5, is when I wanted to see if Santa exists or not. So one Christmas Eve, I counted the number of presents that were already at the tree and when I wake up the next morning and there are more than there were the night before, I would believe that Santa was true. Deep down, I knew Santa was fake and just a myth to keep little kids like me blissfully ignorant, but I wanted to know the truth for myself. The next morning, I planned to wake up as early as possible to count the presents, but when I was half asleep and slightly awake, I decided to just stay in bed and sleep because I did not want to prove to myself that Santa was just an illusion.
One time where I told a lie and when I got away with it is when I was a young boy, possibly in 2nd grade, I did not have time to do a homework worksheet the night before. In school, I decided to tell the teacher that I finished it, but I just forgot to bring it to school. Unfortunately, we lived close to home and the teacher knew that we lived across the street from the school. She said for me to run home and bring it back to school for her to give me any credit at all. I was thinking to myself, " WOW, WHAT A TERRIBLE TEACHER! She's actually going to send a boy in second grade out of school to just retrieve a homework assignment?! I am her responsibility and if something happens to me, she will be blamed. I might just not return for an hour to make her scared and worried to teach her a lesson!" So I went out and had the uncompleted worksheet in my pocket. I realized that I could complete the homework assignment at home. It took me 5 minutes to finish it, and I was surprised of how quick it was for me to finish it. I ran back to school and when I arrived, she asked me why it took me so long for me to just retrieve the paper. I said, "My dog got out when it opened the door. He's suppose to stay in and I had to run after him and get him back inside. Good thing I thought of that story because the first thing that came in my mind was, "My dog chewed it up". The story when he got outside was a more convincing one since second graders don't know how to lie yet, right? I was laughing to myself about it after class because I didn't even have a dog in the first place and I didn't have any pets either. I was at least happy that I did not get an uncompleted slip because I really cared about that when I was younger and I still do. I had to lie my butt off two times that hour, and uncountable times the rest of the day. This story may just be a lie to complete THIS homework assignment, but I doubt I would lie about something as small as homework again... But only if I get caught. :)

MHS vs. Cat's Cradle

I was in the English classroom of MHS pondering the reason for wasting six hours a day for lies. It wasn't that I would not believe what the teacher says to me, it is just that the teacher knew that they were not speaking the truth either. You are probably asking," What is the truth then?" Well, it all sense to me after the first few days of being in MHS.

My first day of school as a freshman was nerve-racking because I didn't know any other student and I was unfamiliar with the campus itself. The first day of school, I met a group of people who were in my English class and they showed me around the school and their kindness made me enjoy MHS to a higher extent. The second day of school during English class, the group of friends that I met the first day of school were fooling around in class. I didn't find fooling around in class that enjoyable because I am always use to following the rules and paying attention. I told them to be quiet and you know what they said. "Dude, it's not like we're not learning anything in this school." I was a little confused because since MHS is one of the highest private schools, academically speaking, how could we not learn anything?
I questioned them about how we couldn't learn anything at MHS, and the one of them said, "All the teachers teaching at this school are liars and they know that they are feeding us wrong information. Don't say anything or else we will get sent to the principal's office and we will get severely punished. Most people in this school are knowledgeable of the lies that are going around this school. Just no one really talks about it in public, and so far no one has found out why the teachers are lying to us." That is all he said before the teacher called on us to pay attention.
Now, every single morning I lose more and more motivation to wake up and leave for the campus of lies. It is a slow, grueling process and eventually I will know nothing and live a life of lies and deception.

Call me Jchan. I never participated in any adrenaline-rushing activities except bungy jumping. I don't know if you could consider that an adrenaline-rushing activity because it wasn't as exciting as I expected. I usually play regular sports everyday and work on homework like any other regular kids at MHS. Playing sports about 3 hours everyday after school stimulates my brain so I can focus better when I study for schoolwork. Usually, I have about a 2 hour time limit until I have to go to bed so I have to really focus and plan my time well. I'm sure everybody at MHS has to do that since most of them play sports and other after-school activities. I consider my life changeable whenever I meet new people or try new things like bungy jumping.