Figurative Language

                A simile is defined as a figure of speech of comparing two things with the use of “like” or “as”. A same metaphor is basically the same thing. It is a figure of speech comparing to things without the use of “like” or “as”. (Wikipedia)

Similes

1. “...my hand, it just clamps shut like the Jaws of Life”(pg 9)

2. “...it’s hibernating under her skin like a bear, until it decides to roar again” (pg 10) 

3. "Kate, as usual, has swapped so that she has all the funchy ones that don't feel like rocks under               your neck." (pg 14)

4. "Vern's face is like a soufflé, caving in at the most unexpected places". (pg 59)

5. "They come in  like a hurricane".(pg 62)

Metaphors

1. “She has long dark hair and the  fine collarbones of a princes” (pg 11) 

2. “He’s got black hair and he’s at least as tall as my dad-six feet- with a right angle jaw and eye that look frozen over”.  (pg 19)

3. "When she is tied to the bed, I am her eyes and ears". (pg 58)

4. "The four-hour surgery isn't a walk in the park" (pg 59)

5. "My cheeks are on fire" (pg 60)


                  The use of figurative language like similes and metaphors effect the story because they give the reader a perspective about what the character is like. It also requires them to think a little and figure out what is happening in that scene. The reader may also get exited when he or she reads it because it is better than coming right out and saying exactly what is happening or what the character is like. Similes and metaphors can replace boring adjectives and make the story a bit more interesting and enjoyable for the reader.

Are you somebody's keeper?

       If I had to pick who I acted as a keeper for it would one of my friends. We have been friends for quite some time and are always looking out for each other. We make sure that each other is in line whether it would be for school, sport, or anything else. Being and having a keeper is great because you know that if you mess up there will always be someone there to pick you up and help you though it.

My Sister's Keeper

                My Sister’s Keeper is a novel written by Jodi Picoult. It takes place in a fictional town of Upper Darby, Rhode Island, in 2004. The two sisters in this book are Kate Fitzgerald and the younger one Anna Fitzgerald. Kate is suffering from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a type of blood and bone marrow cancer. Anna was born so she could be available to give parts to Kate when she needed them. Anna was usually willing to give her sister what she needed but at age thirteen they need her to donate a kidney to Kate. It was possible that the transplant would fail, leaving both of them with only one kidney.  Anna wants control over her own body and seeks out a lawyer, Campbell Alexander, to help her reach medical emancipation. Her mother is an ex-lawyer and tries to fight their case so her daughter Kate can continue to get the attention she needs. My expectations for this novel are indifferent. People say that is is not a good book but I think that there is more to it then what people think. I hope that after I am done reading this book that I learn a valuable lesson and also enjoyed reading it.                                            

Citations 

Work:       "My Sister's Keeper (novel)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Apr.      2013.

Picture:     "Offsite Event Jodi Picoult Signs THE STORYTELLER at Congregation Beth Israel | The    Poisoned Pen Bookstore." The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.

                                                                                       

My Escape Into the Wild

                I think that I would like to try going into the wild for a period of time. It would be nice to escape from civilization to be by yourself for a little. Even thought that Chris and the others mentioned in the book may have suffered a bit, I think their adventures were well worth it. My reasoning for this is because what they did was their dream and all they were doing was making it a reality. They took the saying “follow your dream” to a whole new level and I personally respect them for it. I would like to try a wilderness retreat because I think I would be able to survive for a little while and if it turned out that I was unable, then I would just go back to civilization unlike Chris did. If I were going into the wild I would most likely choose a place that was warmer then Alaska. It would be easier to survive in that type of environment where there would be more animals and plants to eat and you wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death. One thing that I would be escaping from would be the crowded civilization. It would be nice to get away from everybody. After a while I would miss human companionship. It might get boring after a while without human interaction.  Another thing I would be escaping and would not miss is all the crime caused by people. Although I would love to go into the wild and just be by myself, I would eventually have to go back to civilization. I would miss other people too much. 

Into The Wild Introduction

Adventuring Into The Wild

Andrew 

English Project 

Into the wild is a non-fiction book about a young man who hitchhiked to Alaska. Annandale Virginia is where the main character, Chris McCandless, grew up. In April 1992 he hitchhiked to the Stampede Trail in Alaska. He was a very intelligent young man and graduated from Emory University with high grades. After graduating Chris donated $25,000 dollars to charity and began to travel in his car. On September 6, 1992, his body was found inside an old bus that was in Alaska. John Krakauer began to trace the steps that Chris took that eventually lead to his death. Chris got rid of his legal name and called himself “Alexander Supertramp”. He spent some time in Carthage, South Dakota, where he work in a grain elevator owned by a man with the name Wayne Westernberg. Krakauer suggest that Chris was influenced by the words of Henry David Thoreau and his favorite writer, Jack London. Once he got to Alaska he survived about 119 days in the wilderness.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone

            If I was allowed to visit any place in the United States I would pick Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  The main reason I would want to go there is because I love the outdoors and would much rather be outside than inside a cramped city. Before I could go here I need to look into the travel information to find out what it takes to get there and what it will cost. If I flew there a Southwest airplane ticket cost about $70 but I would need to get back so it would end up at about $140. I also would have the choice of driving there. Maryland and Wyoming are about 1,892 miles apart so depending on the gas mileage of the car the price of travel varies. Once there, I would have to rent a lodge in Yellowstone. It would be idle to go in the summer because in the winter Yellowstone is often covered in snow and very cold.

            Yellowstone is known for many things. For one the vast number of different animals that make their home on the grounds. It is also very popular for its natural water geysers and one of the most popular, Old Faithful, is a huge tourist attraction. Another thing is known for is that Yellowstone Park sits right on top of a super volcano that, if exploded, could be up to ten times worse than Mount St. Helens. The only things I would take on this trip would be some extra cloths, a good pair of shoes, and a fishing rod.

            There are numerous things I would want to do if I went to Yellowstone. The first thing I would want to do is fish. I would love to go around to different streams and ponds and just see what types of fish are in there. Next I would want to go hiking around and camp outside. Another thing that would be fun would to go bicycling. I would just enjoy going sightseeing around because Yellowstone is such a beautiful place. The last thing I would want to do is to try and see all the animals and maybe even try to take a tour of the whole Yellowstone Park and see everything it contains.

            Visiting Yellowstone would be dreams come true for me. To be in a outdoor area as big as Yellowstone would be amazing. There is just so much to do I would never want to leave. I would take a lot of pictures so I could always remember my trip to the great outdoors.

Transformation Essay

Transformation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

                             William Shakespeare uses transformation as a way to change certain things in his play. The word transformation is defined by Dictionary.com as “A change in form, appearance, nature, or character. Shakespeare uses transformation to display change in his play. He uses it to shift your view from one point to another.

                             Bottom, love, and power are all examples of how Shakespeare uses transformation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is Snout seeing Bottom for the first time with the head of a donkey.  Snout exclaims, “O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on thee?” (Shakespeare 3.1.111-117) Puck uses his magic to transform Bottom to a head of an ass. This is ironic because Bottom can sometimes act like a jerk. Robin also says, “On the ground sleep sound. I apply to your eye, gentle lover, remedy.”(3.2.477-481)This is when Robin is putting the potion on Lysander’s eyes. When he does this he transforms Lysander’s point of view when it comes to who he loves. The first person he sees is who he loves. Shakespeare uses the general concept of power to show that the fairies are more dominate than the humans. The fairies are able to transform the humans in both mental and physical ways. They were able to transform Lysander and make him love someone else as well as being able to transform Bottom so he had the head of a donkey. They were also able to fix him and turn him back. This shows that the fairies have more power. You could say that the power has transformed for the humans to the fairies. Though out A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses Bottom, love, and power as examples of transformation.

                             There are many cases of transformation in the modern world. One example of transformation is gene splicing. This is where you can take DNA from one organism and put it into another to transform it. Scientist can make a lot of strange thing by doing this. They would be able to make glowing mice by taking the DNA of something that glows and splicing it into the DNA of an ordinary mouse. The mouse would basically transform into something new. Another form of transformation is bribery of powerful people or really any person for that matter.  You could bribe someone usually with money to make them do something that you want. For example somebody could bribe the president with a whole bunch of money so he would change a law or something else. That president’s view on the subject would be transformed so he would look at it in a different way.  The last example of transformation is ageing. Nobody stays young forever and when you age in a way you transform for stage to stage. You start off as a baby crawling around then as you get older your body transforms and be could stronger making you able to walk on two feet. Then as the years go by your body may go though some other forms of transformation such as growing taller and then well your even older you may start to shrink. These are all examples of transformation in modern life.

                             Transformation can appear though various situations. The prime connection transformation, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and modern day are though power. Power is shown by the fairies in the book, and it is shown though ranks of authority in modern day. The fairies display it by showing the have power over human emotions, such as love, and  modern day people show it by being promoted to a higher level and therefore having more control. All of the examples in the book prove that Shakespeare uses transformation.

                                                                                                     

            Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square P, 2003.

"Transformation." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

Unlikely Friendships

Unlikely Friendships

By: Jennifer S. Holland 

Started the day we picked out our book of the month and ended on November 9th. 

I read 207 pages.

I would rate this book a ten out of ten

I wonder if all animals can be like the ones portrayed in this book or if it is just not normal and these animals in the book are more or less one of a kind. What if all animals could be friends with one another? It would be interesting to know whether or not these animals in the book know that they are friends with another species of animal completely different than their own. They should be enemies if anything because in most cases one of the animals should be eating the other rather than making friends with it. What has to go on in the mind to tell them it is okay to do something that for the most part seems very unlikely to happen? I think that every one of these animals is making a decision to do what they think is right. Rather than fighting with each other they try to find common grounds and become great friends. It is good to see that animals have feelings to and this is a great example of it. They all clearly have happy or in some cases hurt feeling which is why they go out of their way to look for comfort, even if the comfort lies at the hands of a different animal entirety. I am surprised that some of these animals were able to become friends because of their differences. For example, there was one case where a snake had become friends with a hamster. A snake and a hamster in my opinion are there most unlikely animals to form a friendship. Hamsters are related to rats and mice which on any occasion would be a snake’s dinner. Why would this time be any different? The snake made a decision not to eat the hamster and all it took was a little bit of time before they were friends. I’m not sure that all animals are like this. It’s just lucky that some animals are able to form a special friendship between them. Besides, wouldn’t it be bad for all animals to be like this? If all animals were friends with each other than where would they get food? I mean you not going to eat your friend. People would have to make food for every animal on Earth! Although it seems that these animals can’t become friends it not necessary true. Any two things can become friend as long as you give the other one a little time to try. Maybe that what people should do, give everyone a little time and give yourself less time to judge them and more time to become there friend. 

Authors

Saki:

·         His real name is Hector Hugh Munro
·         He was born on December 18, 1870 in Akyab, Burma and died on November 13, 1916.
·         Saki is considered the master of short stories.
·         His parents were Charles Augustus Munro and Mary Frances Mercer.
·         Saki started his writing as a journalist by writing for newspapers such as Westminster Gazette, Daily Express, Bystander, Morning Post, and Outlook.
·         He wrote the short story called “The Interlopers”.

 

Edgar Allan Poe:

·         He was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts and died on October 7, 1849.
·         He had one older brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister, Rosalie Poe.
·         His father abandoned Edgar’s family in 1810 and his mother died a year later from tuberculosis.
·         Poe was taken in by John Allan who was a successful Scottish merchant in Richmond.
·         John Allen put the Allen in Edgar Allen Poe even though they never formally adopted him.
·         Poe enlisted in the United States army under the name Edgar A. Perry.
·         He claimed he was 22 but really he was only 18.
·         On October 3, 1849 Poe was found in the streets of Baltimore.
·         He was taken to the Washington Collage Hospital and he died there on four day after he was found.
·         When he was found he was wearing clothes that weren’t his. He was never alive long enough to explain why he was in that situation, but he kept repeating the name “Reynolds”.
·         Some say Poe’s last words were “Lord, help my poor soul”.

 

O ’Henry:

• O' Henry is just his pen name. His real name is William Sydney Porter.
• He was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina  and died on June 5, 1910
•  When his was born the spelling of his middle name was Sidney but he changed it to Sydney in 1898
• His dad was Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter and his mother was Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter.
• His mother died of tuberculosis when he was three years old.
• He travel with Dr. James K. Hall to Texas in March 1882 hoping that the change of air would help the persistent cough he had developed
• He took up residence on the sheep ranch of Richard Hall.
• Some of the jobs he did included pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller, and journalist.
• He was a member of the Hill City Quarter which was a group of men who sang at gatherings.
•  In 1894, he was accused by the bank of embezzlements and lost his job but was not indicted.

Julie Otsuka:

·         Julie is a Japanese American author.

·         She was born on May 15, 1962 in Palo Alto, California.

·         Her father worked as an aerospace engineer, and her mother worked as a lab technician.

·         She had two brothers as she was growing up.

·         Julie attended Yale University and graduated with a Bachelor degree in Arts.

·         She wrote the novel When the Emperor was Divine.

 

Haunted Barn

 I live on a farm that is called Ruff's Chance farm. Our farm dates back to the 6th century which makes it around 400 years old. Back then we had slaves because at that time just about every farm had them to help. To those who believe in ghost, they might see that there is a very high possibility of our farm being haunted. I have always thought that it could be but was and still am not sure if it’s true. There is a red barn that is on my farm and it has that scary look to it. Only some of it has been redone such as the roof but other than that it is all original. One day about three summers ago we went to the red barn to look for proof of ghost. By us, I mean my two sisters, Emily and Jessica, my cousin Henry, and my other cousin Brittany. Henry lives on the same farm and Brittany lives on a neighboring farm which used to be part of our but now it’s not.

            Everybody knows that people say ghost will show up on a camera so we went to the barn at night with one to try and photograph ghost. We go in through the bottom entrance. There is a long hallway that goes to the bottom story of the barn. The door at the end is for some reason slightly open. When walked slowly up to the door and went in. We walked around carefully and took multiply pictures. We didn't look at them until we got outside because we were scared of what we might see. When we looked at the picture for the most part there was nothing. But there we a couple of picture that till this day are unexplained  There where tiny, round, white or clearer, ball like objects. The orbs always seem to be hiding in the corner. We left right after that. The next day I was walking around there and walked down to look thought the hallway. The door was open which was weird because I had personally shut it behind me and I was the last one out. We have gone back a couple more times since then but there was nothing. There have been a couple of nights when I would be walking by myself or with a friend and the light to the down stairs was on at around 12:00 o’clock. We just run in, turn it off, and try not to over thing it.

This is a good story because it is relatable to my life. It is exciting, keeps your attention, and might be scary to some people.

            

MY BOOK OF THE MONTH

The book I am reading is called Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer S. Holland. This book doesn't really have a main character because it is about different animals. There are forty seven different pair of animals that are unlikely to be friends because of their differences. One example is the African elephant and the sheep. The elephant's mother had died and it was alone in till it meet the sheep. The book is trying to say that friendships have no bound and just because your different doesn't mean you can be together. I chose this book because I thought it looked very interesting. Also I want to read about unexpected friendships between two animals.

http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=1304&bih=683&tbm=isch&tbnid=jde3cYALg_U4WM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ourhenhouse.org/2012/01/book-review-unlikely-friendships-by-jennifer-s-holland/&docid=l1fADA2EVMsPFM&imgurl=http://www.ourhenhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Unlikely-Friendships.jpg&w=425&h=486&ei=GaZpUPKdELLO0QGuiICgBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=345&vpy=136&dur=1607&hovh=240&hovw=210&tx=106&ty=146&sig=102306388804197588492&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=135&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:77

  

MY POSITION RESEARCH PROJECT

Andrew Ruff

Mrs. Zurkowski

Aquas

September 25, 2012

Medical Marijuana: Good or Bad?

            There are a lot of problems concerning the legalization of medical marijuana. Some people might think it’s good, some people might think it’s bad. Can marijuana really help cure diseases such as cancer and other harmful things? Some people believe it while others think it’s a rumor. But can marijuana properly be viewed as a good medicine to treat such a terrible thing? Marijuana contains cannabinoids which some claims can help reduce nausea and increase appetite in cancer and AIDs patients (Sack). There is a ton of people who will state that smoking medical marijuana helps in their everyday life. Medical marijuana cannot be viewed as a proper medicine because it basically hands a get-high-free card to just about anyone along with all the risk of health issues (Sack).

            So many people think that just because one doctor says it may help cancer that marijuana is such a good medicine but nobody glances an eye at all the negative effects of smoking pot.  Everybody would be shocked to learn that the marijuana that they are smoking for the problems might actually cause the problems (Sack). Marijuana may contain cancer-causing or otherwise harmful hydrocarbons and may contain toxic contaminations such as mold or pesticides. Chronic marijuana use is associated with a lot of well documented health problems including a variety of cancers to adults and to children who were exposed to the drug in utero (Sack). It has also been associated with many long term health problems such as depression, anxiety, and psychosis (Sack). All drugs legally approved for the United States undergo extensive safety studies. Marijuana doesn’t meet these criteria. If marijuana can actually help with all these terrible health problems that we have today then that’s greats but the risk of using pot is too high. What if it just makes your problem worst?

            What if marijuana doesn’t even help certain problems? What if getting high just makes people feel a little better? A new study at the University of Arizona show evidence that medical marijuana might just not help certain problems you may have (Wingett Sanchez). They tested to see if it would help with anxiety, depression, migraines, or post-traumatic stress disorder (Wingett Sanchez). They only found a little evidence that it would treat post-traumatic stress disorder but not enough to confirm it (Wingett Sanchez). It had no effect, good or bad, on migraines (Wingett Sanchez). The test didn’t show positive results that it would help the anxiety but uses of marijuana have been linked to cause depression in the long run (Wingett Sanchez). “In the eyes on the United States federal government cannabis is an illegal drug and has no place in the clinic.

            Stopping medical marijuana is very important to the public’s health. If medical marijuana is legalized in all fifty states then the number of various diseases will skyrocket. Although it may help with some problems including, although it has not been fully proven, the killing of cancer cells, the risk of enabling it to every person is too high. “Just because some doctors practice bad medicine with legal drugs doesn’t make marijuana a good medicine” (Sack). In any state with legal medical marijuana, doctors with hand out a marijuana card with asking very few questions. In other words, anyone can get marijuana as long as they can answer a few questions. “Anyone who wants to get a medical marijuana card knows there are unscrupulous doctor who will give you recommendations with few questions asked” (Sack). “Without a doubt, medical marijuana hands a get-out-of-jail-free card to people who just want to get high” (Sack). Because marijuana does not have safety standards marijuana cannot be viewed as a medicine (Savage). “Making marijuana legally available for medical use will not improve patient care” (Savage). If marijuana is legalized it will only send a statement to the people of United States saying that the use of marijuana is safe which will increase the use a marijuana and cause a major public health crisis. If everybody is smoking pot the hospitals will be overrun by sick patients and people who “are not feeling well” because of all the negative effects of it. Besides, there are few patients whose issues cannot be solved by proper medications without the use of medical marijuana. If a proper doctor is taking close care of his patients then there problems should heal just fine without the use of marijuana. “The introduction of medical marijuana would not help to solve people’s problems but make them worst” (savage). “Rather than support medical marijuana, legislators should work to improve access for all citizens to good quality health care to treat all problems” (Savage).

            There are some people who still think marijuana is a good idea.  There is some research that says that marijuana can help kill cancer cells. It has been shown to reduce nausea. Smoking marijuana of a daily bases can potentially help you feel better. Just getting high for most people is all it takes. Some might think it wrong to look at it that way but most people who are in favor in medical marijuana think that is getting high makes you feel better than just go smoke some pot. They don’t care about what it really does but rather how it makes you feel. Although there is countless research that shows smoking marijuana has multiply effects on you, some people are still all for medical marijuana.

            Everybody in America should work together to put a final end to medical marijuana in all states. To do this we should make drug laws for strict. Also we need to make the penalty for the use of illegal marijuana worst. People need to first stop the states who are currently allowing the use of medical marijuana. We need to spend more time to research of the negative effects of marijuana and expose the results of the test to the public. There also needs to be a test to finally prove or invalidate the effects of marijuana on cancer cells. If it is proven that it does help to cure cancer then people should work on getting rid of the negative effects of pot.

            Marijuana is a very bad idea for medicine and should be stopped. This topic is important to others because if marijuana is approved for all states it will cause a major public health issues. Then again if marijuana can help cure cancer then it might one day make a great medicine.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                              Web Sources

Grant, Bob. “Medical Marijuana:somke, Fire, and Science.” Scientist. Jul 2012:36. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 16 Sep 2012.

Leff, Lisa. “Pot-Based Prescription Drug Looks for FDA OK.” Desert Sun. 22 Jan 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.  16 Sep 2012

Sack, David. “Is Marijuana Good Medicine?.” Los Angeles Times. 26 Jul 2012:A.23. Sirs Researcher. Web 16 Sep 2012

Savage, Seddon R. “Medical Marijuana Is Not The Answer.” Concord Monitor. 27 Apr 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 16 Sep 2012.

Wingett Sanchez, Yvonne. “Medical Benefits of Pot in Dispute.”  Arizona Republic. 17 Jul 2012: A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web 16 Sep 2012

blog #2

         Over the summer I read the book Black and White by Paul Volponi. It was about two high school basketball stars, Marcus and Eddie. They commit a crime and then have to face teenage criminal detention. The book I compared it to is called The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin. It was about three kids trying to find someone they could depend on because their mother neglects them. My book is different because in my book they are trying to stay out of prison rather than just staying alive. Also my book has to deal with crime. The books are the same because all the people are on their own and trying to stay either alive or out of prison. 

                The book I read this summer was Black and White by Paul Volponi.  My first choice of research topic is the issue of teenage crime.  This issue has two sides because some people just look at it like it's just kids being kids. My paper would argue that this is not okay.

                

                 My second choice of research topic is racism. It has two sides because some people are still racist toward blacks. My paper would argue that this is wrong.

My Unique profile.

        My full name is James Andrew. Despite James being my first name I have always gone by my middle name, Andrew. I came from St. Margaret middle school. I have been a student of St. Margaret's since Pre 3 besides second grade when i went to Hickory Elementary for one year. I didn't like it as much so I went back. I play soccer for John Carroll on J.V. I have only been playing soccer for two years but I really like it. I am looking forward to a great school year with all the wonderful teachers.