Writing for HS, AM (Scalice, '07): Samantha Carr

A New Legal Drinking Age

(scarrgo) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:22:57 GMT

The legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen years old. You cannot stop anyone from doing something that they want to do and if the age were lowered, then they would be able to do it legally. When teenagers turn eighteen they are “adults” and should decide for themselves if they want to drink or not. Since most eighteen years olds are still at home with their parents, they can properly educate their children and teach them to drink responsibly. The legal drinking age of twenty-one should be lowered to eighteen years old because they will do it anyways, other life changing choices are made at eighteen and lastly parents can watch and supervise their child’s drinking.
There is a little saying that when something is illegal people want to try it even more. If you cannot drink when you are eighteen and in high school then they are tempted to drink excessively and when they get to college it is worse. People binge drink (get wasted) when they are not allowed to drink openly. If they get caught they automatically ruined the rest of their lives and keep paying for it as years go by. People will be more open about when they are drunk or not if they are eighteen or older because they will not be breaking the law. They will decide that they should not drive home when they have had too much to drink and will instead get in a car with a designated driver. When people turn eighteen they can do many legal things except drink alcohol.
At eighteen people are allowed to get married, join the army, sign contracts and do other life changing things but they cannot drink. People can make a choice to get married and have kids which change their whole life and bring about even more stresses. People can join the army and get killed in the line of duty but they cannot drink. Most countries besides America has a drinking age lower than twenty-one and they are doing all right with their young people. It is true that people are involved in car crashes when they drink too much alcohol but if they know they are drunk and feel like they have to sneak around and get home then they are more likely to drive home drunk. If they were able to drink legally and knewthat it is something they would not get punished for, they would get a designated driver or tell their parents so that their parents could pick them up and help them out.
Most teenagers turn eighteen when they are still in high school and at home. Parents become more aware that their kids are drinking. They could educate their kids and figure out a plan so their child did not drive home drunk. Also, when their child is allowed to have a party they could make sure that everyone who is drunk stayed at their house and did not drive home. The parents could better educate and prepare their kids for a world where drinking can be healthy and not toxic.
The legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen years old in the United States. First, people are going to drink anyway it is just a matter of how old they are, how much they drink and what they do afterward. Second, at eighteen people are legally adults and should make their own decisions. Third, parents would be more involved with their drinking behavior and could help them make the correct choices. There could even be a compromise that eighteen year olds were not allowed to drink hard alcohol but could drink everything else, such as beer and wine. It would satisfy young adults and maybe even make the roads and highways safer because then the drinking would be out in the open.

America is in the heart" and "How my Brother Brought Home a Wife"

(scarrgo) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:46:04 GMT

Questions that the stories raises

The relationship between the two brothers?
why did they go through the Waig (It is the long way)?
What do we know about Maria?
How old is baldo? How innocent?-really innocent.
Why would the father ask if Maria was afraid of Labang?
What was the sygnifigance of the song, "Sky Sown with Stars"?
What kind of way did Leon mis the city?
What is the connection between Leon and Noel?
Why would Maria be afraid that Leon's father didn't like her?
What is the signifigance of Baldo talking to Labang loudly in front of of the house of lacay Julian?
Who is Moning and Lacay Julian?
Has she met him before or is this the first time?
Where is Leon and Maria coming from(What city or place)?
What country does this take place in?
What class does leon and Baldo come from?
What class does Maria come from?
What is the laughter between Maria and Leon repressent?
How does he use language?

He used metophors:
pg. 6 The Paragraph about Labang's white coat?
pg. 5 The peregraph where they talk about other possible names
pg.5 & 6The paragraph where Baldo ponders the name Noel

Maria comes from the country and Leon is fromth e country.
Maria has inverted Leon's name so that it is more urban, new, american ideas.
All the laughter leaves Maria when she sees their star because she is afraid that the father will not except her.
He sings her the Star song (that city folk won't know) and he sings her the song to confort her and introduce her to country life and make herfeel accepted.
No one passes through the Waig at night when no one passes through at night.
The father doesn't want the couple to be seen because if the father didn't accept her then it would not be emarrassing.
Leon is surprised when they go through the roads and the Waig.
Leons response to father wanted to go through the field instead of the road was to hitch Labang to a run down carrage. The father is trying to test Maria with Country things to see if she can be countryfied and fit in.
Maria tries to fit and is willing to become part of the country life.
Maria cries with the mother and sister because they are tears of joy. Another reason is that the father will not accept her.
The final thing that the father finds about Maria is that she sang the "Sky Sown wirh Stars"
the father tells Baldo to water the bull shows that he accepts maria.

The two stories:
Manuel's intended audience is someone who knows things or has lived in the Philippines while Allos' wirting is for anyone who doesn't know anything.
They both desribe the the New American ideals and how they have changed the people.
The wifes are both beautiful and quite but are never seen again
Both countries sides are idealic and and wonerful but Ameria Story has a but in it.

Ameria is in the Heart:
first thing Leon does is pick Allos up and spin him around then starts plowing the feild.

Pg.5 & 6 talk about false ideals that seperate the new generation from the old. The new generation is upset that theere hards work doesn't pay off like all American Ideeals do. Ideals only work in America. New generation immigrats to America.

Allos and his family have four acres but they can't get ahead still.

Two events, Leon comes home, Leon brings home a wife.

Smoke should come out of the stack when a couple is married to show that the wife is a virgin but Leon didn't make smoke because he has new ideas and realizes it doesn't matter if a girl is virgin and it's none of neighbors buissness also. There backwards ideas and the new generation wants nothing to do with it.

Themes: City and country

Opposition between the country and city life.
Allos hows the progress and backwardness in the generation
marrage

Question:
What do city and country mean to Bulosan and Arguilla?
*What is the relationship between city and country in "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan and "How my Brother Leon Brought Home a wife" by Manuel Arguilla?

Arguement:Needs to lay it out
(the relation ship between city and country for the two men)
(america is in the heart) City is mordern and the country is not adapting.
(Brought home a wife) The City, Maria is adapting to the country.
* A city adapts to the country in the person of Maria.
*The country adapts to the country in the pearon of Carlos

Themes Inamerica is in the Heart:

Old customes and traditions
Marrage(Allos can't get married and falls in love with white woman)
America(Question: What does America mean to Bulosan?)
(Evidence will be in the book the book and his experiences and stories and will be shown as quotes)

Sin CIty Review

(scarrgo) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:24:17 GMT

From the review I would not want to go to the R-rated movie Sin City which Walsh thinks has too much violence. His persuasive review of disliking the movie persuaded my mind not to like it even though I have never seen the movie. He looked at the movie and thought it was a bad movie with murder, violence, sexualness which he frowns upons in a movie. I agreee with him and I will now probably never see the movie.

Walsh described the movie as a porno-sadism becaues it mixed the violence-which is a huge wrong in society- with sexual connotaion and a bad plot. He really thought about this thoroughly coming up with substancial counter arguements that could hold up because they had evidence and described other poeples' views. although the counter arguements were excellent he came up with mind changing reasons of why the movie was bad. He let the reader decide for themselves if the movie was good or bad letting the facts speak on their own.

Response to World Views Essay

(scarrgo) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:44:48 GMT

I agree with most of what the essay is talking about. After getting lost a few times and re-reading it a couple of times I was able to get some of the premises. It is true that most innocent and poor people have to pay for that by being oppressed or exploited. Soceity could decide to change it and help the innocent people but society tends to look away and ignore it. It is all true and it has been happening for hundreds of years. I think this is a great arguement but the people who look away and ignore it already know it. Society could undo it but they might be afraid that it would hurt their economical market and then cause them to lose their job. People also live in fear and if you could get rid of the fear then you could change the wrong in human society and make it right again.

I think that it is great that you offer sugestion to get rid of the problem but they also made me worry. I am worried that society would have to turn into an utopia in order for everyone to be treated equally and everyone's talents could be used in jobs. I am personally not a fan of utopias because people are hidden from most hurt and pain and live quite dull lives. With out changing society into an utopia I wonder how you could change it without hurting society. has the author done anything to solve the problem or help the people? I think that if you were to make up laws that didn't scare society then you could be very successful in helping the people being exploited and opressed and you could also do fundraising as well.

Excercise

(scarrgo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:01:10 GMT

#1.) I was fortunately still in the wings and could go over the steps but I lacked enough time to review my whole dance, but I walked onto the black floored stage with a big grin on my face.

#2.) tangable noun- can hold or touch or is an object
box, chair, table, rose, hersey chocolate, cloud, earings, computer, water, apple

intangable noun- abstract things
dreams, thoughts, stinky, hope, destiny, feeeling, sight, love, hope, wisdom, sarcassim

Metaphors (using of)

rose of destiny
the table of hope
a cloud of dreams
chocolate of love
an apple of sarcassim
a box of thoughts

Metaphor (uing is, are, has, 's,)
cloud's dreams
box are thounghs
chocolate has love
hate is an anchor
love is a battlefield

The word: Yellow

Yellow is the color that radiates from the sun and shines down on the earth. It is also assosiated with making people laugh. A banana peel is yellow and when someone steps on it they can slip and fall. It is the tool for a good humorous joke. Yellow is on my shirt and is the color that always brightens up my day. Everyone loves the color yellow and it can lighten peoples' hearts. Life is yellow and because it brings joy to everyone and can make them want to live.

The word: Chocolate

Chocolate is love because it makes people happy. The brown bar when slipped into a mouth melts into a lushous river of thick delishous goodness. It makes everyone happy with its abundance of sugar and caffine.

Corrections:
Nice description of how it melting. The description makes my stomach growl in hunger.

Thank you.

The word: flower
Flower power! It can be a symbol of love or lies. A flower can smell good or it can smell as bad as a skunk. Some flowers eat flies or fingers. They are thought of being harmless but in horror movies are man eating plants of danger and fear. Roses are beautiful to look at but are dangerous to the touch.

final paragraph

Flowers, chocolate and yellow bring joy to everyone. You can also eat all of them. When someone writes about them it makes them hungery so they might eat some. Unfortunately, like anything else they can be dangerous. Flowers can be piossonis when eaten, chocolate can make people sick if they eat too much and a yellow banana peel can cause someone to slip and hurt their back or butt.

Meaningful words:
joy
banana peel
man eating plant
melting
laugh
chocolate

The chocolate fed the man eating plant so the laughing men did not get eaten instead. When the father slipped on the banana peel, joy spread throughout the hearts if the family then melted into fear when the fater could not get up.

Nerves

(scarrgo) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:34:16 GMT

My nerves made my stomach churn creating butterflies that fluttered throughout my body. This was my last show because I had an injury which made it hard and discouraging to dance and I wanted this to be the best show of all the performances that I had ever done. When I was on point it hurt greatly and, as a result, made my feet stiffen so I could not get all the way over on the box- the flat part of a point shoe. This was the second time ever that I was this nervous to perform and I forgot my steps. Luckily, I was still in the wings and could do over the steps but I did not have enough time to go over the whole dance, so I walked onto the black floored stage with a big grin on my face.

I was quite nervous now and there was nothing I could do. I bowed to the Grandma and Little Match Girl. So far so good and I saw them walk away off the stage leaving me all alone in a big black sea. There were hundreds of eyes staring at me to see if I would float and perform, doing all the steps and making them look carefree and easy or sink by scowling or pausing in the middle of my dance because I did not remember my steps. I was still smiling but as I started my first steps my smile started to melt. I was concentrating too hard on my steps to remember to smile and look happy.

Thankfully, I was remembering

testing

(scarrgo) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:24:50 GMT