How to read a poem.

Ah the joys of sitting down and reading a confusing poem. Most people are excited, but I groan at this thought. Poetry to me, is a confusing jumble of words meant to make me angry when I try to guess it's meaning. How to read a poem made me feel like less of a failure. It pointed out how poems are indeed confusing and theres not always one set way to interpret it. Reading a poem has a lot to do with attitude and technique. It's important to get the background on the author or where the poem is located in order for us to understand it. It's also important to know that you probably won't get the poem the first time you read it. Nothing is wrong with you, you just haven't cracked the code yet. Missing the point to a poem is very common and irritating. But, also understand that the poem cam mean anything readers want it to mean. If you are having a good day and the poem seems happy then it's happy. Poems are meant for us to interpret them and figure out what they mean to us. Reading poetry is a challenge, but it takes practice and as you read more poetry you'll start to grasp their meanings. Encountering a difficult poem is like a game or sport, it makes you work a bit. You can't expect to speed through a poem and grasp it's meaning. It's also a good idea to ask questions when approaching a poem for the first time. For example:
Who is the speaker?
What is the tone?
What situation is present?
If the poem is a question, what is the answer?
If the poem is an answer, what is the question?
These questions can help us to better understand the meaning to poems. The task is to grasp, to connect and to understand what the authur is trying to portray. Predictable and easy to digest poetry is very rare to come by. So, be prepared for the ultimate torment of trying to comprehend most poems.

How to say nothing in 500 pages.

Paul Roberts points out many, but common errors essay writers make on a daily basis. He talks of our (as in the students of this decade) excellent procrastination skills. By the time we do end up writing our 500 word essay on college football we have zero content. Making a dull subject, like college football, can be hard to make interesting. One should; find the argument, the approach, the andle and the wording that will make the essay fun to read. Paul also talks about avoiding obvious content. We should be against or for something by reasons or reasons of our own. Make sure the reasons behind the argument are keen and perceptive. We should also um up and dispose of trite and conventional points. We should also learn to take the less common side of arguments. Make a list of all the possible arguments and eliminate the ones that first come to mind. If they came to your mind first, obviously thirty other classmates are going to have the same ideas. Depending when he reads your paper will be the deciding factor of your grade. If this is the thirtieth paper talking of "College football is great for character building", he may give you lower grade because of the vain repitition of the class. Paul also talks about displaying or painting the picture of your point your trying to get across. He talks of moving away from the generality of the abstract statement to the concrete examples, facts and figures. We should also decide what we're going to say and say it. Avoid phrases like: "in my opinion", "as i see it", and " from my point of view". Say it in plain words, don't beat around the bush. Colorful, colored and colorless words are common writing errors also. We should avoid: "cool", "instances", "mother" and "limpid". Create scentences with words that are ment to produce a picture or induce and emotion. Overall Paul Roberts had several examples of common essay writing errors we should avoid. I liked how blunt he was. He helped me to become stronger in my essay writing skills.

Walden. Where I lived, and what I lived for.

Walden was a very intellectual man who decided to spend a year or so out in the basics of nature. He bathed in a pond, and lived in a tiny cottage with no neighbors within miles of him. Walden went to the outdoors to find the meaning of life or, in esence, to live his life. "I went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately, to front on ly essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what i had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that I had not lived". Walden lived in an era where you could ramble on, not having a point and people would think you were a genius. Now a days all books must have a point, all stories must have a plot. Waldens writings are very dragged on to say a simple thing, like the sky is blue. He would explain how he was looking at the sky, what time of day, where he was, what he was thinking and the souroundings were included. He has good points though at one time he says: "why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry". I like that saying because why should be run through life without stopping for a second to enjoy it. We humans tend to have to look forward to something but, what he's saying, is to not have anything. He wants us to live life as naturaly as possible. Paragraph 14 is my favorite one because of the great metaphors he uses when he talks of waking up with intelligence. He wants us to learn to awaken not just physically but mentally in the mornings. He says: "All memorable events, i should say, transpire in the morning time and in a morning atmosphere. He asks us why we throw off sleep because, if we were to get sleep we might be able to accomplish somthing that day. He also says; " The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only on in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life". Walden wants us to wake up and to live life as purely as possible. In paragraph 22 he talks of not knocking under and going with the stream. To me, this means work against the status quo. Do not do something just because everyone else is doing it. He also says; " If the bell rings why should we run?". I think he means if disaster strikes why should we panic and run, we should aproach our problems head on instead of running when the bell rings. Walden asks us to stop doing what we've always done, step out of the line and observe nature and live life the best you can.

A river runs through it USFS1919 The ranger, the cook, and the hole in the sky.

USFS 1919 was a very detailed account of the 17th year of the boys life. Throughout the story his detailed view on the nature and the people outlines the climax of the story. Bill Bell becomes the guy we would all like to be friends with or to be on his goodside. We also come to hate the cook and don't want to show mercy on him when he gets "rolled" by the boys so called 'next door neighbors' (the whore and the hairy butt man). I thought it was interesting throughout the story how we never once figured out 'the boys' name. I also liked the detailed account when he was the lookout watching for the lightning to strike that would start fires. He talks of the mountains healing him when he was a young boy. I also like the sentence: "I knew that, when needed, mountains would move for me". I love this because of the

Web page design 8/18/09

Today in web page design we evaluated web sites. The web sites we evaluated were school home pages. Most were over bearing and flashy. I like a simpler and more in tune type of web site. When i see pictures of the students that acutally go there it makes it more familiar

Learning to blog

Today in web page design I created an account at blog spot and I learned how to post blogs. It was fun. I learned about blogspot.com and edited my profile on my account.