Monday, October 12, 2009

Sentence 4

His sentence:
Silence.
From Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

He uses this one word to describe a whole scene in the story.

My Sentence:
Chaos.

Sentence 3

His sentence:
Medicine, electronic communications, space travel, genetic manipulation...these are the miracles about which we tell our children.
From Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

The (...) shows a long pause after the first part of the sentence. This was probably put in so show the building of suspense added by the speaker.

My sentence:
Catching, running, throwing, kicking...these are the techniques about which our coaches speak of.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Sentence 2

His sentence:
Terrorism, has a single goal.
From Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

The comma after terrorism is not needed. It was put in the sentence though to signify a short pause between the two parts of the sentence.

My sentence:
Bob, had a single remark.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Sentence a Day

SENTENCE 1

His sentence:
Carlo could not get enough…the silence…the floating…seeing his mother’s face in the billowing white clouds as he soared to earth.
from Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

The disconnected ellipsis emulates the dream-like state that Carlo is in as he experiences skydiving.

My sentece:
Bill could not stand it anymore…the torment…the pain…feeling helpless as he watched the prisoner of war tortured.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Channeling My Annoyance

In Dan Pinks book A Whole New Mind he describes how to continue to flourish in the coming age we must learn to be R-directed thinkers as well as L-directed thinkers. This means we must learn to use the right side of our brain along with the left side of our brain.

Broken into six categories, Pink describes these R-directed skills: design, story, symphony, empathy, meaning and play. Each chapter is about one of these skills. At the end of each chapter Pink gives many activities to work the right side of the brain. The one labeled as Channel Your Annoyance Ch caught my eye because I happen to like coffee.

1. Choose a household item that annoys you in any way.
2. Go by yourself to a cafe with pen and paper, but without a book and without a newspaper, and, for the duration of your cup of coffee, think about improving the poorly designed item.
3. Send the idea/sketch as it is to the manufacturer of your annoying household item.

I went to Morning Side coffee a couple of days later to try this out. I was eating a Tootsie-Pop previous to my trip so I decided to redesign the common sucker.

I wondered what would happen if a small child accidentally swallowed this sucker. He/she would inevitable suffocate. I decided to think of a way to prevent suffocation is such a travesty did happen.

I bought a sandwich with my coffee because I was hungry. It was a turkey and cheese sandwich, but it had swiss cheese on it. That made me think...what if the sucker had holes going all the way through like this cheese. Then if a child swallowed it it would not obstruct the air so he/she would be able to breath. Then the sucker would eventually just dissolve or it could then be removed.

This was my R-directed thinking talking through the design. With a little bit of help from my turkey sandwich. Although it sounds far-fetched to me there may be something behind Pink's thinking with this R-directed thinking.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Of Mice and Men book review

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was based in the times of the great depression. Everyone was traveling around just looking for a place to live, eat, and sleep. Jobs were hard to come by.

Having a dream to have his own land land, George did any job that needed being done. His friend Lennie was a big guy and did most of the heavy lifting. Together these two were going to buy some land and be their own bosses.

Turns out Lennie is not the brightest crayon in the box, and he likes to touch soft furry objects such as animals and nice hair. This gets him and George into a lot of trouble later in the book.

George ends up going his separate way with Lennie but not in a typical manor. You will have to read the book to see what I mean.

Though there is some language in the book, it conveys a very strong message about life during the Great Depression. It is a short easy read and I recommend it to everyone that is not offended by language.

Sophmore Year

Being a Sophmore was almost like starting school all over again. I was finally in high school. I remember grade school like it was just yesterday so the time really seemed to fly by fast.

This year went by super quick except during basketball season. A 4-18 record will make any season slow to a crawl.

I learned a whole lot this year but especially in math because I learned how to think. Mr. Sparks is one of the best teachers I have and will have.

This year was really fun and quite a learning experience. I am ready to be a Junior and then finally the big Senior because I learned as a Sophmore how to get through high school.