zBlogging the Literary Life - AP College English

FINALLY OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Today was the last day of finals for AP English! This has got to be one of the most happiest moments in my life. I presented my final presentation on utopia, I cleaned out my locker for the last time, I donated my extra supplies to the elementary schools. Having nothing in my locker has been a dream of mines every since I started out as a freshman.  So tomorrow is our last day of high school! I am eager to finally be free from school for a few months. Tomorrow is the first step into my new life. I know that after tomorrow my life will never be the same. Do any other seniors feel this way? I wish all seniors a prosperous journey in their new lives as well. I hope to see everyone alive and well at our 10year high school reunion. But before that I get one more chance to say our last good-byes at graduation. One more chance to see us looking our best! Mr. Heidkamp I better see you there as well. Take care and as my grandfather would say- So long!

Projects

Firstly, I wanted to adress my english presentation about zen becuase I think I threw a few curve balls.  I know that I stressed that zen cant be taught and that noone can understand it etc.  However, you can begin to think differently zen dosnt have to just be just be about enlightenment but a path of thinking.  And I want to say that we all can begin thinking as a zens tudent would. 

Now I wanted to adress the insanity presentation.  And ask if we put "insane people away" so we dont have to see them and look at our own faults because of them.  Do we use them as a sheild.  And who is the one to label some one insane or sane.  Is the norm the sane?  Or is the non conformity the sane?  How I feel like throughout the year we ask all these questions that I dont can be answer?  Why do we do this arnt there answers out there?

The Longest 2 Weeks of My Life!!!!!!!!

I feel as if these last two weeks are going to be the longest and the most chaotic weeks of my life. With seniors getting out of school on the 1st it good but stressful. Probably because most of my finals are on the 30th and the 1st. However, I like these English finals that we are doing. I find that  the students are doing a really good job on teaching the different concepts. The one that really confused me was the one based on free will. I understand the concept but the way the group presented it made me even more confused than I was before. Because it is not a concrete concept, I felt as if there were too many big words flying around and I couldn't quite grasp what was being said. Also the element of physics kept surfacing and it made me extremely out of it. Other than that the projects are really free flowing and good. Now finals week is going to be a little bit more chaotic than I expected. Why are we having full days of school next week as seniors if next week is our finals week? Any who, I have 3 presentations starting on Tuesday and ending on June 1st. Oh don't forget my 2-day math finals. The faster the week goes by the better. Does anyone else feel this way?

Pleasure

I wanted to continue the discussion about hedonism.  I feel like hedonism has a negative connotation because institutions i.e. religious institutionas wanted to use it to control.  What I mean by that is the natural human seeks pleasure, which is considered negative and therefore have to confess or atone for your sins.  Institiutions take advantage and use the idea of seeking pleasure as a way of controlling the actions of the patrons. 

Also I wanted to ask a question if America changed the drinking age to 18 would society regard it differently?  Would people make it not seem like such a big deal?

TIME-WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!

There is not enough time to do anything anymore. I feel so rushed all the time. Now that senior year is winding down, it seems like my classes want to push more work on us instead of them allowing us a peaceful end of the year. With one less week for finals, I think they should have all senior finals before prom so that all we will have to do is come back and graduate. It would be so much more less stressful. I think I'm going to need my asthma inhaler just for making it past prom week. Its crunch time and I need a minute.  How many students want to relax after prom? I know my hand is raised high to the sky. With prom being three days away, this week is so much more hectic just because there are so many finals deadlines. I wish I could blink my eyes and it would be all over. On a better note, my group project on Utopia I think is going to be a rather good one. Well good luck to my fellow seniors and I will see you all at prom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

English

So what's everyone’s' thoughts on the English language/literature profession?

As a child, being brought up by MAD Magazine and 2 teachers, I thought it was the lamest concept for a class- after all, who needs to know English good anyway? MAD's perverse humor drilled into my mind that an English Major was just a pothead who couldn't make it in anything else. When attending the then-glorious halls of a high school with my mother on "Bring Your Child to Work Day" (before the noodle incident), the English classes seemed less than impressive. They seemed to be still teaching the same absurd minute differences between the pluralization and possessive form's of words five years later, something I did not look forward to.

Five years down the path to the beginning of my own high school career I discovered the differences between the remedial and honors-track programs. Mainly, in honors classes you actually have to try... a little. The biggest surprise came when for English, Mr. Bell assigned not, "Go, Dog, Go!" for the twelfth time so we could pick up on the graceful subtleties of such poetic writing, but stuff that might as well been scrawled on cave walls in charcoal for how old it was. It wasn't so much deciphering the hidden sexual innuendos of every line as it was the interpretations we were forced to draw. No longer was I allowed to believe that "Why, my cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served" was just what it claimed to be, lactose intolerance.

Speaking of the AP's for other languages- what the dilio?! (I wish I knew how to type an interurban). NOBODY that's not a native speaker of the language can get a 5 on the AP test unless their accent is nonexistent! We might as well have a question on the AP English saying, "Is English your first language?" and if you answer "No" they automatically dock a point off your test.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is no longer do I scoff at the idea of learning my primary language in school, but am terrified at the realization that I still know only a quarter of the languages nuances after 18 years.

ZENNY

I wanted to talk about what I am doing for my group project which is zen.  I didn't really understand what it was before I looked it up I thought it was a religion with some yoga mixed in.  However, I was greatly wrong.  To simplify it, it is a subset of Buddhism and basis is for a person to have self discovery through introspection.  This concept I think is really cool and wish we could incorporate in it America life.  In America, we are always go go go and Zen seems to take time to absorb everything around them.  Do you think that American would and could accept the idea of Zen.

AP'S ARE THEY REALLY OVER????????????

Well majority of those in any AP English took the test yesterday. I went in there with tons of unwanted and unnecessary stress on my shoulders. In a way I can say that the preparation work we did in class was a true immulation of the test itself.  Well some of you are like duh! Why wouldn't it be? It isn't called preparation for nothing! Well see that's where my stress came from because when I took the ACT test for the first time after being in the class for numerous amounts of weeks it didn't accurately prepare me for taking an ACT test. The class was centered around more of how to take a test and less on the material. Maybe that's my own personal issue and others may not have the same problem but I would prepare the material itself than prepare time management solely. So my question is are AP's really over?????? The reason I pose this question is because now that the stressful part is over(actually taking the test) there is still the stress of test scores. What if I took a $92.00 test and failed and didn't even get an adequate score? I would feel like a complete idiot!

Prom Countdown:8 days !!!!!!!!!!!

Good Luck!

Good luck tomorrow on the AP test everyone!

Metaphor-Off

Well, now that I'm done taking finals in AP classes, I've begun to catch up on my over-one-month-long Daily Show and Colbert Report backlog on Tivo.  And, this afternoon, I got to a funny clip on the Colbert Report with actor Sean Penn in which the two engage in a metaphor-off.  Actually, that whole week Colbert prepared on the air by using metaphors as well as other literary devices such as hyperbole and allusion, but the culmination of this act ended in his face-off with Penn.  Check out the video clip yourself. Click here.