Semester Final

7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

• Has blogging had any other effects on your life beyond strictly your "school life"? If so, explain.

• For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Blogger is actually my first blogging account that I have ever made. If Mr. Sutherland never told us about blogger or told us that we were going to be blogging for the whole year, I do not think I would ever blog. But since we started blogging when school started, I have come to enjoy blogging and I blog every single day now. I never thought that we would be blogging in class, I thought we would just be reading books for the whole year and analyzing them, but no, for us, we blog and then we go over it and analyze our own writing to see if we notice any patterns and this is a new and interesting way to practice our writings. Blogging have changed the way I write and the way I think because when I blog, I usually let my mind out - I say whatever is on my mind and whatever I think and feel. And I feel a lot more confident and independent when I blog, especially since we can blog about whatever we want, and doesn’t matter what we say at all. And I can’t usually do that in real life when I talk to people.

When I blog, I use words that I do not normally use that makes me sound a lot smarter. Blogging is easier than writing too because all you do is just type and you can do it anytime you want. I feel that my writing improved quite a lot throughout the year, and hopefully it will continue to improve as years continue to pass by.

I remember in the beginning of the year, I use to struggle a lot with writer’s block. That happens because I just can’t think of what to write. Whenever I read other people’s blogs, it seems like they always have something to talk about. For me, sometimes it would take the whole week just to come up with what to write about. I get unstuck by just writing about the first thing that comes to my mind. If the word “love” comes to my mind, then I will write about love. If music comes to my mind, I will write about music. Etc…

I get my ideas for my blog post topics from my head. For these weekly blog posts, I have been blogging about whatever was on my mind. They were usually about my day though, because something interesting happens to me everyday. I like to tell people about my day and I like it when they tell me about their day too. I like to blog about my day as well, just so I can go back and read over what happened in the past whenever I am bored. I treat my blog as an online diary or journal. Isn’t the point of having a diary or journal just writing about your day? Well actually, I can write about anything in a diary but I mostly like to write about my day, so that’s what I usually write about.

I don’t blog only about my day though. I have some few private posts too and I blog about what I think and what I feel, and nobody gets to judge me, because it’s MY blog - freedom of speech. What inspires me to write is reading other people’s blogs. There are other people from different blogging websites, like Tumblr, whom I like reading posts from. I do not follow that many people; I usually follow the people whose posts I like to read. They are just so inspiring because I like the way they think - the way their brain works.

When I blog, I listen to music too; not those loud very noisy songs that gives you a headache or songs that you enjoy listening to everyday. When I blog, I listen to peaceful music, oh and not the kind of peaceful music that are classical, I meant music that are like R&B or slow jams. It makes me relax and it helps me think a lot better. So I guess that can sort of be an inspiration - calm music.

Even though I really love having a blog and I loved writing in it every week, I will definitely continue blogging in the summer. But I doubt it would be weekly since I have summer classes to attend to and I probably won’t be at home much. And like I said, whatever interesting happens to my day, I will definitely blog about it. Or if I simply have to let stuff off my chest, I will blog about whatever is on my mind. I’ll treat it like an online diary or journal or maybe simply just a friend that I can let out anything off my mind. Because I usually tell my friends about my life and whatever I am thinking of, but when I think about it over and over again, I feel like I shouldn’t have to tell my friends every single detail, and I should blog about it instead and I know that no one will have access to any of my private blogs except for me… I have no idea if that made any sense.

As my sophomore year have come to an end, and reading every single one of my posts from the beginning of the year til now, I feel accomplished. Blogging has definitely made my writing more organized and easier to read. I will definitely continue to blog for the rest of my life, if that is possible, so I must not procrastinate. Then I can go back and read blog 1 to blog 1 million. Hopefully if I have Mr. Sutherland next year, we will continue to blog; that would be totally amazing! And I am going to have to think of really really random topics to write about. I am looking forward to blogging even more and to see what other improvements I will be making. Thank you Mr. Sutherland!

Monthly Review: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

2 For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

4 How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
(You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.)

8 Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys is a fictional novel written by Kate Brian tells the story about a 16 years old junior army tomboy "brat" who has to live with (cute) 7 “Abercrombie God” boys while her parents have been transferred overseas to Korea for the military. Megan never actually had an ordinary life, having real best friends, or stayed at a place for no more than 3 years; her whole life consists of moving here and there from all over the world. This time, Megan has the decision to either stay here in the United States or move all the way to Korea with her parents. She decides to stay in the United States, but then she’s going to have to live with her dad’s friends’ family, the McGowans, which are in Massachusetts. Megan currently lives in Texas.

Megan wonders how things will be like living with 7 boys, and assuming that those boys are the kind of

boys with missing teeth, smeared faces of red Popsicle goo, beady little eyes laughing at her as they lured her behind their house to see their “puppy” and then lassoed her to a tree and hung her upside down. Greasy-haired, chubby-legged, evil little boys. Boys with worms in their pockets who ate gum off the ground and pulled her hair. P.6

Living with hot guys in one house doesn't mean that things will turn out so smoothly. Megan and her parents use to go visit the McGowans all the time back in the days, and she use to play with a few of those 7 boys too. They were nothing but trouble! Once Megan arrived at their house again, she see all the 7 boys outside in the yard playing ball with the younger sons. They all seem so magical to her as if she was in heaven. And she thought living with boys were nothing but trouble and disgusting greasy hands. Well boy was she ever wrong. All the boys… I mean, teenage boys are H-O-T!

Out of all the 7 McGowan boys, Megan, and Megan’s friends, I would have to say that Finn interested me the most. He’s the only guy that stood out in the story, to me anyways. He’s the 4th son in the family and he is super nice to Megan and he‘s practically her only friend out of all the 7 boys. Finn is an artist and he paints for fun. He hides in the shed in the backyard to paint and it’s sort of like his little studio. Throughout the whole story, Finn and Megan got closer and closer to each other that they were kissing each other in the shed!

Megan stopped [talking] suddenly - Finn’s face had gone all weird. He wasn’t smiling anymore. It seemed like he had stopped breathing… And then he leaned forward and kissed her… Megan froze. P. 224

Oh wow! So Megan wasted her whole time focusing on Evan, falling in love with Evan, tolerating with Hailey’s shit towards Megan, wanting to be with Evan, everything with Evan, that she totally missed out on the obvious. When Finn and Megan started talking, I knew for sure that Finn was such a nice guy and that they were going to get together anyways. I mean, when I didn’t even read this book yet, I kind of knew there were going to have a little bit of romance in it anyways; Megan living with 7 guys? Of course something was bound to happen. And I knew all along that Finn was going to be the guy that Megan have affections to. She was just too blind in the first place.
I also remember that when Megan was still new to living with them, all the boys got together in Evan’s room and talked about how to get rid of Megan, because they think now that she’s living with them, there are certain rules to follow, and Finn was in it too.

'This sucks,’ someone whispered. “Since when are they so big on us following the rules?' … 'We had this place wired tight, yo,' Doug sad. '…I say we ice her until she cracks. We make it so bad she’ll be beggin’ to jet to Korea.' Megan swallowed hard. Wasn’t anyone going to defend her? Finn? Evan? Anyone? P. 78

Well, Megan wasn’t so comfortable living with them just yet, and of course, since Finn is one of the guys in the family, he’s like practically one of them! So of course he has to be in with them. But Megan didn’t hear him say a word about what Doug had said. The next day, Megan told Finn what she had heard and then Finn said to not worry about it and don’t let his brothers get to her. Then he smiled at her and she smiled back.

I have to say that this book was absolutely entertaining and I can totally imagine all the scenes out perfectly and easily. The way Kate Brian writes in this book makes it like a teen’s book, even though it is one, but her style is just absolutely amazing. I don’t know how she made the dramatic part of the book so dramatic. I wish this could be a movie though. It would be so cool! And I can already think of all the actors to play out every single person from the novel. I wonder what it would be like if I had to live with 7 sons of all ages under one roof. This tomboy brat experienced a lot for the past year, living with those Abercrombie Gods. And it was pretty tough for her to go to a new school too, even though she’s use to it. But overall, I’m really impressed and I’m pretty satisfied after finished reading this book. I’d give this book a 10 out of 10 because of its uniqueness. Priscilla recommended this book to me actually, and I would recommend this book to any girl who likes reading book with school drama, adventure, and a little bit of a cheesy romance. This book is really easy to read and I know for sure that if I have some extra money, I’m seriously going to walk down to Borders and buy more of Kate Brian’s books. Recently, I’ve checked online to see if there are any other information about Kate Brian and her books and I’ve come across her website called Private and it consists of online web series of her book Private. It looks pretty cool although I didn’t watch a clip just yet. I want to know if there is a sequel to Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan boys though. If so, I would get it right away!

Last Weekly Blog Post

So I just found out this is the last weekly blog post of the year. It’s pretty sad, because I remember the very first time that I made a Blogger in classroom 204. Ever since school started on August 31st until today May 21st, I’ve made so many memories with old friends and new friends. Not only in school but outside of school too. So many memories are running through my mind now. I mean, where do I start? I guess I can just say whatever pops into my mind. I can say for a fact that I’ve been parting away with some close friends and eventually I made new friends this year too. I’ve gotten closer with some friends I don’t even talk to that much as well and that was a good thing. High school is half way over.
According to today’s senior talent show assembly, us sophomores have 700 something more days of school until we graduate. It’s really scary how time is flying by so fast though. I’m really not ready to grow up just yet, not matter how much I really want to move out of this annoying and loud house of mine. This year, I’ve had a lot of problems with my family, especially the people I live with; my parents and grandpa. I remember when I was little, only my parents use to have arguments with each other, and it didn’t even involve my grandpa, and now it did. It’s really sad and messed up. But there’s nothing I can do about it, because to them, I’m just an immature teen who doesn’t even know anything yet.
I remember in elementary school, I use to have these silly fights with my friends and we don’t talk to each other for at few days; I remember the longest was a week, and it felt like forever. Now when I think about it, all those fights were really silly, but we were only in what, 3rd? 5th grade. What do you expect, right?
When middle school started, I don’t think I had an argument with any of my friends. And also I was new to Alameda and it was never my intention to start some random argument with my friends and then start ignoring each other. But the only worse thing today is just being apart from friends that I normally talk to in middle school. But it’s okay, we still have contact with each other and whenever we see each other we still smile and wave to each other so that’s still a good thing.
Right now, I’m thinking all the times I had throughout 16 years of living my life. I can’t believe 16 years have passed so quickly. Another 16 years will pass by again and then I will be 32 years old. Oh no! I’m going to be so old! I can’t even picture myself that old! Maybe I can sort of picture myself being 20 something and graduate college already, but 32? No I don’t think I can imagine that just yet.
Just the thought about the 16 years that have passed by and thinking about the other 10 years that will come soon is very scary. I have a feeling that junior year and senior year will pass by fast too.
Sophomore year was amazing. I have to say it was better than freshmen year. It was a lot easier too for some reason. Isn’t it suppose to be the other way around? I still couldn’t believe I had a 2.6 last year but this year I practically have all A’s! This is unbelievable. Even though I know for a fact that junior year and senior year will go by super fast, I still hope that I will have straight A’s again!
So until … whenever … I’ll continue to keep living my life to the fullest! With my friends, family, boyfriend, and who else is there? New friends! You will never know what kind of surprise we will encounter in our path. There will be ups and downs, but hey! That’ just life, right?

Lit Circle #3: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

In part 3 of Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, the part I think is interesting is when Megan went to Christian Todd’s party. Almost all the juniors and seniors were there. A few of the McGowan boys were there too. Megan, usually a tomboy, dressed all up and looked girly for once just for this party. She also wore pink too.
Since Evan and his girlfriend Hailey were having trust issue with each other, well more like Hailey were having trust issues with Evan, Evan told Megan it wasn’t a good idea if they went inside the house together because people will start assuming things and Hailey will get even more pissed. Megan’s heart dropped and she just ran out of the car and ran inside the house, feeling like she was going to tear. When she went inside, she saw her friends and wandered around the party. The girls started dancing randomly to the music. Megan was actually having fun. She’s never been to anything like this before and this was actually pretty fun for her. Megan dancing with her new friends caught her off guard. She still have like a little crush for Evan. When she saw the front door open, Hailey was there, being all drunk. Her outfit made her look like a slut. She was wearing a black tube top and short shorts that can practically be her panties.
There were many guys surrounding her and her arm was around one guy’s neck for support. Evan went over to her and Megan saw them talking. Evan’s look was disappointed and Hailey was yelling at him. Then she ran out the back door. Megan knew that Evan was upset. Evan then went to a bedroom and laid there for a bit, thinking. Megan went inside because she thought it was a bathroom. When she was about to leave, Evan told her to come in and they both had a talk. While they were talking, Megan felt that Evan was really going to kiss her because his face was going near his face. Just then, Hailey smashed open the door against the wall because she want to have a talk when she started assuming things. She thought that just because Evan and Megan were in a bedroom together, they’d start banging each other, because Hailey got mad. Then what happens after? Some people caught Doug McGowan banging Hailey behind a tree outside.
When I read those few lines I really have to say that Hailey is such a dramatic whiny ass bitch who needs to stop assuming shit if she don’t have good solid proof. And she definitely does not deserve Evan. He’s too good for her. I honestly believe that Evan would do a lot better if he wasn’t with Hailey. Hailey don’t even consider Evan’s feelings and think that banging another guy will make everything better. And worse of all, Doug is Evan’s little brother. And when Evan found out, he beat up Doug so badly that he had to go to the hospital. At least Megan was there for Evan when he needed a shoulder to cry on, when he needed someone to talk things out with, when he needed a friend, a true friend.

Rules of Love?

Rules of Love? Do we really need rules if we want to be in a relationship with someone? Can't we just do whatever we want? Well obviously not! In my opinion, there are certain rules that must be followed when you're in a relationship. I know, right? Rules? I thought rules are suppose to be followed in school but we can do whatever we want outside of school. If you think that, then you're totally wrong.
Rules, or should I say, "common sense", is the ability to know what's right from wrong and know the obvious. Some of the most important rules in a relationship is obviously no lying, no cheating, don't do whatever that will hurt your boyfriend/girlfriend. I think those are the major rules you have to follow.
But for most people, people will already follow those rules, because they are smart enough to not do that. Being in a relationship, or I mean, in love means that you actually care for that person and that you will practically do anything for them. Maybe not anything but at least it shows that you care for that special love one. When you're in a relationship, it's when you're in a committed relationship and that you won't play around with their hearts and feelings.
What happens if you break these rules? Why would you even break these rules? Why would you even lie and cheat? Are they not enough? Are they not good enough? Are you some kind of player or slut who needs multiple girls or guys to be satisfied? Think about the other person for once! Once you break these rules, you break their heart and that is not a good thing to do. What happens if they're stupid enough to kill themselves? And it's all your fault. If you can't handle that person, you can't handle being in a committed relationship.
Nice girls? Nice guys? Do they even exist nowadays? I suppose back then in the 1980's or so, they did have nicer people but today? I don't think we have any of those people anymore. I mean I guess people can be nice and friendly and all but honestly saying, everyone can be selfish, rude, jealous, and what not in their own ways. Some things that nice girls won't do is be confident about herself and that guys will probably take advantage of her. Some things that nice guys won't do is treat girls like shit.
These rules aren't invented by anybody. There's no book of rules of love written by someone. People have different expectations of rules and how they want someone to treat them. It actually depends on their personality. But all you need is just common sense... or else you're not ready to be in a relationship.

summer vacation;; iron man 2;; tired

I can't believe this year is almost over. 20 more school days. 4 more weeks. This is absurd! Almost 180 days have passed already? I really have to say this year went by FAST! Faster than freshman year!! Is it because all my classes this year is really easy and it felt like I didn't have t0 do much work? No, I had to do a lot of work even if the classes or teachers are easy or not. I remember in my previous blog posts, I researched about the end of the world, earthquakes, and stuff and I remember that one of the earthquakes, (I think the one from Cuba or was it Chile? I don't know, I'll look back to at it later, because I'm in my 3rd period class right now; computers, and the bell is about to ring so I'll check later) that it made the earth's rotation go by faster than usual!
Oh this is just crazy! Watch, in a blink of an eye, I will be 21 years old already. Gosh why is time flying so fast? I mean ... I sort of like it going by fast but then again, I don't want to grow up so quickly! I'm gonna have so much responsibilities to take care of.
But what I'm super excited right now is summer vacation! I haven't traveled that much for these last few summers because we don't really have enough money right now due to building a new house at our back yard! So this summer, I'll be doing the same as last summer, which is going to take a class at Laney for 6 weeks and hang out with friends.
Last year, I took Chinese 1 with Katherine. This summer I will be taking pre calculus with analytical geometry with Leon, my friend Brian, Ryan, Melissa, and some more people. I also heard a whole bunch of San Leandro High School students are taking that class in the morning too from one of my friends.
Okay, right now it is exactly 8:41 PM. I just came back from watching Iron Man 2 with Leon. Asmita and Alejandra was there too. Iron Man 2 was pretty good. It was funny too. Some friends told me the first movie was better and the second movie was only funny and there wasn't that much action in it. Other friends said it was just as cool as the first one. And some more friends said it sucked. In my opinion, I think it was pretty good. I like the first and second one. The movie was 2 hours long but it seemed shorter. I guess I was too into the movie that I didn't realize how fast time was flying. After the movie, Leon and I went to Quickly to get milk tea. It was around 7 something by that time.
My mom called me and she asked where I am and she wanted me to come home. So Leon waited for the bus to go to Fruitvale bart to bart back home. I walked towards home and I saw my mom walking towards AMPM. She wanted to buy a lottery ticket. After that, we walked back home, ate dinner, went on the computer to finish my blog posts.
I am really exhausted. This week was a long and tiring week. I already reached the limit here so I will finish up my lit circle, take a shower, then have a good night's sleep.
:]

Lit Circle #2: Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

In part 2 of Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, Megan started school already and she was kind of struggling. Well, more than just struggling. She encountered some troubles. So we all know that Megan likes the senior, Evan. Well, actually, she doesn’t really like him that much. She just think he’s hot and good looking and stuff. Plus Evan has a girlfriend named Hailey Farmer, also known as “Queen Bitch Farmer” according to her younger sister Aimee Farmer. Hailey and Aimee are both in the soccer team that Megan tried out for. Megan was actually pretty good. Hailey got pissed and was jealous because she thought Megan was good too. So starting from that point, Hailey started giving Megan the cold shoulder.
After soccer practice, Evan went to the field and waved at Megan and Hailey completely ran up to him and started making out with him. All the girls’ felt disgusted. Megan felt her heart drop. Evan called for Megan to go home. Hailey felt kind of insecure now knowing they live with each other.
That night, Evan and his friends are going out to the lagoon to watch planes take off. Evan invited Megan. When they got there, Megan saw Hailey there. Of course she would be there… When Evan left Megan and Hailey alone for a bit, Megan tried to start a friendly conversation with Hailey.

“So, Hailey, what was the team’s record lasts year?” she asked. “We won more than we lost,” Hailey said, pushing her hands into the front pockets of her tight jeans. “Why? Worried the team’s not good enough for you?”
Megan stared at her. “No. I’m just making conversation.”
“Well, we made it to counties, but we didn’t win the final…Of course, Coach thinks that with you around, it’ll happen this year.”
“Thanks,” Megan said.”
“I said, ‘Coach thinks.’”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“What?”
“Did I do something? I mean, to offend you?” Megan asked. “All I’m trying to do is settle in at a new school, maybe make some friends, play a little soccer. But you seem to really not like me.”
Megan held her breath, unable to believe that her thoughts had actually come out in a semi-coherent way. For a split second, Hailey’s face softened and Megan realized that the girl was really pretty when she didn’t have her scowl on. She even looked like she was going to say something semi-human. Then Evan broke away from the crowd with his beers and Hailey saw him coming. She glanced at Evan, then at Megan, and reached out her arm to him.
“Come on, baby,” she said, latching onto his side. “Let’s go find someplace a little more private.”

So from this giant blurb from the part two, I have to say that Hailey really does despise Megan. I’m guessing it’s because Hailey is jealous. One, because Megan is super good at soccer, and Hailey had to be a little bit more aggressive to be a little bit better than Megan, just a little bit. Megan being good at soccer kind of ticks Hailey a bit, so Hailey had to be a show off. Two, because Megan lives with a whole bunch of hot boys, and especially living with her boyfriend that Hailey feels insecure about the whole thing.

For this part of part 2, I think since Hailey is in the same soccer team as Megan. And since Megan is new to the state, and the school, Hailey really shouldn’t be a total bitch towards her. Just because she’s good at soccer and lives with 7 boys doesn’t mean she’s all that. It probably seems like it, like I guess I can tell Hailey thinks that Megan is probably a show off slut but Megan is actually a tomboy. To be honest, Hailey is the one who’s like a slut. Hailey really should think twice before she starts talking more shit about Megan and criticizing her. She should be more like the other girls in the soccer team; make her feel welcome to the new school, the new place, and have her catch up on stuff.