AlBhAbEt SeNtEnCeS February 26, 2010

This is my ABC sentence , and i know Xenophobic and Zealous have nothing to do with each other but hey one was X and one was Z so it works :)

A bug crawls deftly, ever fearful, guiding his insectine joints, keeping low, making no obvious prints, quietly running, silently treading, upside-down, very worried, xenophobic yet zealous.

And I realize that i repeat several letters in here, much to my dismay :( but at least not as many as I did when I first wrote it :)

Elizabeth Ghisk, Cory Quix, and I got Jim P. a VW bug.

!Watson!

Five stories..

East-Edith Pattou
In this story, Rose goes away with a white bear to save her sister’s life, but in so doing, Rose endangers her own life. Rose is willing to give up everything she has to save the ones she loves. This story is a retelling of both Beauty and the beast and East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and it shows how love truly can conquer all, even death.

Princess Academy-Shannon Hale
When Miri’s friend, Britt, is captured, Miri sacrifices herself to save her, putting herself in Britt’s place. When it seems that all hope is lost, Miri uses her only weapons left to her: her mind and her voice. She escapes through wit alone, and her bravery saves the life of not only Britt, but her entire kingdom. This story is a wonderful example of how one girl, even a girl too small to work in a quarry, can change the world.

The Lightning thief-Rick Riordan
When Percy Jackson is sent on a quest to retrieve the most dangerous weapon in the world, the lightning bolt, he is unsure of himself, not knowing what he is capable of. As his journey goes on, he discovers that no blade can match the power he has within himself. He learns what he truly wants, what he can achieve, and most of all, who he really is. This is a story of finding internal strength and learning to rely on ones self, and become who you’re supposed to be.

The Goose Girl-Shannon Hale
Ani is sent off to marry an unknown prince, and is betrayed by her power hungry, supposed friend. In a desperate struggle for her life, princess Ani is forced to pull her self down to the lowest possible rank, that of a goose girl. She learns what it’s like to be a peasant, living on the streets. She learns the value of hard work, a square meal, and a good night’s sleep, and along the way she discovers what love is. Ani is forced to rely wholly on the truth, praying it will be enough. Suddenly it becomes just enough when not only hope and life, but love is at stake, and with a friend behind her, and the truth at her back, Ani is able to save what matters most, and she saves an entire nation in the process. This is an amazing story because it shows how when you have the wrong reasons for something, your not going to get it, but when you want it for the right reasons, suddenly the path clears.

Heartbeat- Sharon Creech

Annie’s mother is expecting a baby, and Annie is amazed at how there can be a little person, inside her mother, growing everyday, a boy who will someday be a man but who is now just a group of cells. When Annie first hears her baby brother’s heartbeat, before he is born, she wonders at the beauty of an innocent being, not even born yet. But when the time comes, the baby does not breathe. Air is pumped into his body and Annie prays that he will live. Finally, tears come to the midwife’s eyes as the baby begins to breathe, and Annie feels again the little miracle’s heartbeat. This book tells of the miracle of life, and the wonder of a birth. It shows how amazing a baby, innocent and pure, can be and what a blessing a baby is.

<3 Watson <3

Beauty and The Beast February 24, 2010

Title: Beauty and the Beast
Author: (is believed to be) Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Gallon de Villeneuve
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Children

Characters:
Belle: A bright, beautiful girl with a love for roses and literature. She grows up without a mother, in a cottage with her widower father. She has a very loving disposition, and is the heroine of the story.
Father: A man getting on in years, who loves his daughter more than anything in the world.
The Beast: A prince under a spell who has lost the ability to love, and become an animal. In the beginning of the story he is the bad guy, since he captures belle’s father and holds him ransom until Belle comes to take his place. In the end, however, he changes and becomes a true prince charming.

This story is told from both Belle’s point of view and the Beast’s, and it takes place in pre-French revolution times, in France.

Plot Summary: Belle’s Father goes on a journey and finds an enchanted castle. He picks a rose for Belle and is captured by a beast for picking the forbidden roses, and Belle comes to the castle to take her father’s place as a captive. Over time the ferocious beast grows more gentle and kind until he is a wonderful person, and Belle falls in love with him, breaking the evil enchantment over him and his castle, and turning him into a handsome prince. Belle and the prince (ex-beast) are married and they live happily ever after.

Conflict: Most of the conflict in this story is internal, and we only see it through the thoughts of the characters. Someone inside this story who didn’t have insight into people’s thoughts would have no idea of most of the conflict going on.
The main conflict seen in this story is the conflict that is within the beast. He has the constant battle of the beast versus the prince going on inside him, both trying to dominate.
Another conflict is the conflict Belle feels as she begins to fall in love with the beast. She does not want to love someone she believes is a monster, but as tie goes on, she begins to see he is so much more than that, and the battle within begins.
External conflict is seen when the beast captures Belle’s father and throws him in
the dungeon. This is a minor conflict, and it only last a few minutes, but there is a man-to-man struggle.

The theme of this story is love. Love is what causes Belle to go to save her father, and love is what save’s the beast’s life.

Literary device 1: Anthropomorphism. The castle is enchanted and the table sets itself and the objects move about on their own. (not that they have faces as in the Disney movie, but they do walk and move about.)
Literary device 2: Bildungsroman. The beast, the protagonist, undergoes an enormous change.
Literary device 3: Characterization. The writer gives a vivid description of both Belle and the beast, and gives insights into both character’s thoughts, helping them to become more well-rounded.

My overall opinion of this story is that it has a very good lesson to it. A lot of times people mistranslate love of think that lust is love. Pure, Innocent love is a wonderful thing and this story shows it very well.

My Adventure’s Face February 2, 2010

My dress was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen, it shone, blindingly white, as I walked down the isle towards my future.  I knew I should be happy, so why did I feel fear?  I felt as though someone had pierced me with a poisonous needle, or drugged me with the wrong pills.  I just felt sick, blood pounded in my ears and I felt like my head was stuffed with cotton swabs where my brain should have been.

I walked past my mother.  She sat in her wheelchair, smelling of a sterile hospital room, and disinfectant.  The cap on her head, and the wire going into her hand told of the cancer, and the failed surgery.  I felt so numb, like I’d overdosed on anesthesia.  Just looking at my mom set of blaring alarms in my head, like the siren of an ambulance.  What was I doing?  I was still just a child, and incomplete child.  The X-rays had even shown that I wasn’t done growing!  Death was upon my mother and I was leaving her.  I remembered her words to me: “Medicine can’t help me now, nor can any doctor, but your happiness with make me complete.”

She wanted me to be happy.

I wanted to be happy.  I looked up, and saw HIM.  He stood there, smiling at me.  Suddenly I felt like I was melting.  It would all be ok, his eyes told me so.  As I took his hand, he whispered, “You don’t have to do this.  But I want you to know that I love you.”

I looked back at my mother, smiling at me with tears in her eyes.  I knew she would kill me if I didn’t do what my heart desired, and she might not be around much longer if I waited.  It was in God’s hands.  I loved my mother, and she loved me, but she had told me to move on and have an adventure of my own.  Squeezing his hand, I looked my adventure in the face.  And when asked that life changing question, I said “I do.”

Starry nights (CW15) January 21, 2010

This is a story of how the cares and things of the world can bring us further from God. If we fill up our lives with what is only good, we will miss out on what in vital.

There once was a young girl who lived out in the country. This girl loved the stars which she saw every night, spread out far above her in the heavens. The stars loved the girl just as much, if not more, and they looked forward to being with her and playing every night.
One night, as the sun went down, the stars began to look for the girl, but she never came. They saw nothing but moving vans and boxes.
“Oh, that’s all right!” the stars thought to themselves, “she’s only moving. We shall see her again in her new home.”
The girl was indeed moving, from the quiet country, to the big city. When she arrived, she was thrilled with all there was to do, and that night, after her long, busy day, she didn’t even once glance up at the sky before bed.
So it went on, with the girl getting older a

nd losing herself in things like makeup and social events. The stars became very lonely.
Many years passed, and one night, the moving

vans came again, and took away the girl, this time

with her husband and their child. They moved back out to the country, back where light pollution did not blot out the night sky.

That night, the girl’s little one tugged her outside and pointed up at the sky.

“Look, mommy!” the little one cried, staring up with wondrous eyes.

The girl looked up and her own

eyes filled with tears.

“All these years, I’d forgotten how beautiful the night sky looks from out here.” Never again did the girl forget the stars, and as time passed, the stars, and the girl with her little one, were happy.

~Watson

Ten Songs!!!!! January 12, 2010

Strangers Like Me, Phil Collins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkY1hjUJicg&feature=related
“Show me everything and tell me how.  It all means something, and yet nothing to me.  I can see there’s so much to learn, it’s all so close, and yet so far”

This song has always felt like my core “Theme Song”, ever since I was little, when I was elementary school age and doing upper middle school/high school work. I felt a lot like I was strange and different and all I really wanted was to fit in with my peers and have friends, and then I met the people who are now my closest friends and realized that they were just like me. Also, there are some lines that I love. The lines “I want to know. Can you show me?” and “Show me everything and tell me how” is exactly how I am, I want to know why and how and what about EVERYTHING. The other is the line “Oh I just know there’s something bigger out there.” I have been described as a ‘starry eyed dreamer’ more than once, because I dream of bigger things than are perhaps ever possible, but that doesn’t stop me.
AND  the lines about Jane are how I felt about my best friend, Becca. Everything she did made me feel like I could be better, do better, and be more. She really helped me turn my life around, and fix myself.

“Oh I just know there’s something bigger out there!  I wanna know! Can you show me?  I wanna know about these strangers like me.  Tell me more, please show me!”
“Every gesture, every move that she makes makes me feel like never before.  Why do I have this growing need to be beside her? ”

This is me and becca <3 (im the brunette, shes the blonde)

Set the World on Fire, Britt Nicole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66sQmu6fnxc

I want to be able to help in a lot of different ways, I want to be able to bring people to God.  I also have extremely high dreams for the future, but right now I can’t achieve those dreams because of where I live, but i know that i f I do all that I can, despite how difficult it is, God will set up a way for me to accomplish those dreams.  With God, nothing is impossible.

“Take my dreams, come and give them wings!”

Love story, Taylor Swift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

“Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone, I’ll be waiting, all there’s left to do is run.  You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess.  It’s a love story, Baby just say yes!”

This is a song about Romeo and Juliet. When I was seven, I found a copy of Romeo and Juliet and read it. It was love at first read-through. I have been a passionate Shakespeare reader ever since, and through the years, Romeo and Juliet is still my favorite story. I had a Shakespeare club when I was eight, and was sorely disappointed that all my eight-year-old friends were more interested in running around and playing house than reading Shakespeare. When I first heard this song, I laughed so hard I almost cried because I was so happy that someone else loved Romeo and Juliet enough to write a song about them. This song holds more power over me than almost any other.

“He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said “Marry me Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone!  I love you and that’s all I really know!  I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress!  It’s a love story, baby just say yes!”

Change, By Taylor Swift:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1jYllE0T-k&feature=channel
“Because these things will change!  Can feel it now!  These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down!  This revolution, the time will come for us to finally win!  We’ll sing Hallelujah! We’ll sing Hallelujah!”

This song has helped me a lot, and is still helping me a lot. Right now my family and I are having some serious difficulties, and at times I feel like things will be this way for forever, but then I hear this song and it’s like it was written directly for me.

“So we’ve been outnumbered, rated and now cornered, It’s hard to fight when the fight aint fair.  We’re getting stronger now!  Find things they never found.  They might be bigger, but we’re faster and never scared!  You can walk away, say we don’t need this, But there’s something in your eyes says “We can beat this!””

Get Up, by Superchick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHH0x3nxH4
“I’m not afraid to fall, it means I climbed up high.  To fall is not to fail, you fail when you don’t try!  I’m not afraid to fall, I might just learn to fly and
I will spread these wings of mine”

This song has two meanings for me. The first is the obvious: I’m an ice skater and there’s a battle in my head every time I fall, just as this song describes, but every time I fall I get up again, even though I know getting up means another fall, and falling hurts, but I can’t stay down forever. The second meaning is that when things come along that hurt me and make me fall (not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense or the emotional one) I have two choices, I can waste my life lying there or I can get up and risk falling again. But the thing is that I always get up because life is an adventure and sometime it will hurt but it’s always going to be OK.

“If I get up I might fall back down again.  So let’s get up come on.  If I get up I might fall back down again.  We get up anyway.  If I get up I might fall back down again.  So let’s get up come on.  If I get up I might fall back down again.  And I might fall back down again”

The best day, Taylor Swift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sv2E0S7gFQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

This is about my mom.  =)  I really like being with her and through all the years  she has aways been there for me.  Just this week I came home crying because my friend and i had fought.  She just listened and was really nice about it and gave me a hug.  It really makes everything better when someone is willing to listen.  <3

Hold My heart, Tenth Avenue North: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WifScmrU6CI&feature=related

There was a time in my life when I felt alone and abandoned by God.  This was the darkest time in my entire life.  My little sister was in the utah state hospital with severe mental problems, and I was struggling with depression.  It got so bad that I decided the only option was to rid myself of God’s greatest gift to me:  my life.  Several times I ran away from home, but I never got far.  Something always brought me back, and stopped me from ending my life.  Slowly slowly I began again to feel God’s love for me, and I felt that through all this hard time he had been holding my heart and calling out to me, trying to bring me back.  Eventually, I was healed of my depression, and my broken heart began to heal again.  =)

“One light, that’s all i am.  Right now i can barely stand.  If your everything you say you are, won’t you come close and hold my heart”

Lucky You, Taylor Swift: http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeV45qzOdFE

This is the first song i ever learned on guitar!  It will always be a special song to me, since it describes me quite well.  Im an optimistic person who tries to see the best in things.  I also try to live life to the fullest and I’m always trying to do a little better, reach a little higher.

You’ll be in my heart, Phil Collins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RiRFTLH0y8

This song is a tribute to my cousin Nathan who died in 2007. I went to his funeral in Ohio, and it was one of the saddest times of my life. The first lines were what went though my head as I held onto my dad’s coat and cried my eyes out at Nathan’s viewing. This song just reminds me that he’s still in my heart, and that God loves me and will hold me in times of trial, such as at the death of a loved one.

“Come, stop your crying it’ll be alright, Just take my hand, Hold it tight.  I will protect you from all around you.  I will be here, don’t you cry. For one so small, you seem so strong.  My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm.  This bond between us can’t be broken, I will be here, don’t you cry”

You are my hope, Skillet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNbBFQQsro8

This song tells of how I feel about God.  He is my hope, my strength and everything I need.  I know that no matter how hard things get, He’s there beside me, helping me through.  I make mistakes, and I’m not always as good as i know i should and can be but through it all He loves me and wants me to come back to him.   this song represents the time when I was pulled from the darkness and brought into the light and I suddenly felt the perfect love of Christ.  I have memories from that time of leaning on the doorframe of my bedroom and crying, and eventually sinking to the floor, tears flowing down my face at the wonder of it all, the power of his love, and the strength I could feel helping me through the difficult times.

No letter E? January 5, 2010

Bright spotlights glow through my lids.  My mouth snaps shut and I swallow hard.  Music pounds along with my brain.  I’m panicky, hot and drowsy.  I’m on my own in that I’m not dancing.  I know I probably should stand up and join in, but it’s just so loud!  My half-withdrawn brain is asking for all sound and action to just stop for a bit.  Food is laid out across six humongous trays.   A boy, acting as DJ for tonight, stands with an I-pod and a big boom box, spinning dials.   Spotlights form pools of light on a group of laughing girls, and a group of boys stands a bit away, watching.  I stand, making up my mind.  I am GOING to turn this into a night of fun and nobody is going to stand in my way.  I walk across to a girl who looks about how I must, and I ask, hoping I sound happy, “Want to go ask for a song?  I don’t want to go on my own.”

      “I would!  And I’m Tori.”

      “Hi Tori, I’m Taylor.  C’mon!” Putting my hand in Tori’s put things back on track that night.  From that instant on, I actually had fun    

How the dragon got his flame December 18, 2009

There once was an enormous, ancient, scaly, dreadful flying lizard, named Dragon who lived up in an old cave at the top of a mountain. He was a lonely old chap, for everyone in the whole town thought he was creepy for his immense size.
One very cold, wet day, Dragon was sitting in his cave, moaning to himself about his lonely his life was, and about how very hungry he was, when he spied an eagle, flying about above him. He flapped his gigantic wings to go catch his dinner, flying as stealthily as possible. It was a few moments before the eagle noticed him, but when it did, it took a great screaming dive from the sky, attempting to outpace the lizards massive wings, but the feeble feathers were no match for the beast.
The lizard seized the eagle right out of the sky, not killing, but merely capturing it. After a moment, he began to wonder how he would cook it. The sky was dripping with faint rain and the air was icy cold, not good weather for a gigantic-flying-lizard-sized bar-B-Q.
“Hey eagle, any preference on how you want to be cooked?” The dragon asked sarcastically.
“Well sir, I’ve always wanted to be dropped into the mouth of the massive volcano a ways south of here.” The eagle replied, coolly, as though the lizard’s question were nothing out of the ordinary.
“To the volcano it is then.” Dragon chuckled a little, and took off towards the south.
Half an hour later
“Eagle, how far away is this volcano exactly, my wings are tired.”
“Not much farther, don’t worry.” Eagle replied, smirking. Dragon sighed with relief as just then the volcano appeared through the mist, belching steam and smoke and chunks of ash.
“Now you overgrown lizard, there is a very specific way in which I want to be dropped. Land on the edge and hold me way out over the lava.”
Dragon obeyed, holding eagle out as far as his arm would reach and feeling the heat from the molten lava hitting his face.
“Now on the count of three, soar out over the volcano’s mouth and drop me.”
“Fine, yeah, whatever you like.” Dragon was getting a little nervous and wanted to get this business over with. He didn’t like the look of the lava way below him, it seemed to be awfully hot and sinister, bubbling down below him, and the eagle seemed far too… chill about this whole business.
“One… Two… Three!”
Dragon jumped, and as he did so, an enormous jet of lava shot up from the volcano and hit him in the face. He dropped eagle, who spread his wings and rode the upsurge of hot air away from the volcano. Dragon, on the other hand, got a mouthful of hot brimstone, and he accidentally swallowed some of it. Choking, he flew away, coughing up spouts of flame.
Since that day, Dragon has breathed fire, and has stayed, for the most part, away from other animals to prevent any other mishaps.

Perfect again December 8, 2009

“Alora, what are you doing here? Go away.”
“No Tommy. I’m not that dumb. I know what’s going on. I know why you’re here.”
“No one really knows. Everyone thinks they understand what goes on inside my head, but they don’t. Everyone pretends to care, but really they think… they want me to go away. You’re exactly the same.”
“That’s not true! You know I care!.”
“Get out of here Alora!”
“No.”
“You can’t stop me. No one can, and no one wants to. I should have done this a long time ago.”
“I could call the police and they could stop you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I won’t Tommy. I came to tell you something.”
“Hurry up then!”
“I came to remind you of all the good times we’ve had, all the times we’ve laughed so hard that tears rolled down our cheeks, the times when we watched the stars and tried to count them, going tie shopping, when we went out driving, everything. I haven’t forgotten them. Have you?”
“No. But what does it matter?”
“Remember how we used to go out for ice cream every Saturday and then we’ve sit on the roof of your car and tell stories?”
“Yes.”
“Remember that Halloween when I was Cinderella and you were prince charming, and you were riding a broom with a paper horse head on it, and I only had one shoe on?”
“Yes.”
“Remember how I got such bad blisters that you had to carry me home?”
“Yes. You weren’t heavy though. You only weighed what, 90 pounds?”
“87. I felt so dumb, having you carry me.”
“I didn’t mind.”
“Remember the expression on my moms face when she saw you carrying me? Priceless!”
“I couldn’t stop laughing.” A tiny smile crossed his face.
“Remember when you fell in the lake, I had to pull you out again, and we were both soaked to the skin when we’d been specifically told not to get wet?”
“Wasn’t that in April and the water was freezing?”
“Yep.”
“Do you remember when I pushed you in the pool when we were really little and you cried and I felt so bad that I brought you a daisy?”
“Yep.”
“But remember how it turned out that it was infested with ants? I’d never heard you scream that loud.”
“See?”
“What?”
“Life is amazing!”
“No it’s not.”
“But think of all those things we just talked about!”
… “I feel like it’s a lie. Like you hate me.”
“Would I be here if I hated you?”
“Would you?”
“Nope.” Alora held out something. It was the key to Tommy’s car. “Were going out for ice cream. You’re driving. I’m paying.” She smiled and took his hand. He did not resist as she pulled him away from the tracks, and away from the place where he would have ended his life. She felt the cuts on his wrist beneath her hand. But they would heal, and Tommy would too. Then everything would be perfect again.

Dialogue writing

There is a big difference between ‘Mandy was really mad.’ and ‘Mandy’s face was scarlet as she stomped from the room snarling at anyone who looked at her.’ This is a case of showing, not telling. Telling the reader that Mandy is mad is a bland and colorless way of writing. Showing the reader that Mandy is mad can tell them just how mad Mandy is, plus it gives the reader a picture in their heads and is a much better, fuller way of writing. Dr. Kristi Siegel tells about this in her article “Using Dialogue Effectively”. Showing instead of telling helps to highlight the main points in your writing.
Another thing discussed in this article is the best way to make conversations realistic. The best way to do this is to write conversations the way people actually talk. People don’t usually use long, complete, well structured sentences. Things like “For real?” are not full sentences, but adding them into modern day dialogue makes it more realistic, because people actually say things like that. Readers want to be able to relate to characters, and they relate to using half-formed sentences.
When two people are talking back and forth with each other, you separate their dialogue by putting it into paragraphs, like this:
“Are you coming on Saturday?”
“Oh yes! Derek is going to let me borrow his car!.”
“I didn’t know Derek had a car!”
You can keep track of the people without putting in things like “April said, and Kelsey replied. You can do something like this though, without cluttering up your writing too much: “Are you coming on Saturday?” April twisted the end of her blonde ponytail as she spoke. You can even do something like “Oh yes!” Kelsey bounced excitedly on the spot, “Derek is going to let me borrow his car!” Both these examples tell you who is speaking without saying things like ‘said’ and ‘answered’.
Writing good dialogue is a skill, something that takes practice, but once you have it down, it’s one of the most useful writing skills.