Research

For my last research paper, I decided to write an argumentative essay on the Death Penalty. Unlike the last two papers, I chose an issue I felt strongly about and had much to say about. As many people agree with the usage of the death penalty, I for one do not side choose to side with these individuals. The Death penalty (also known as Capital punishment) has been around for thousands of years. Capital punishment continues to be used in the United States despite controversy over its usage. There is also controversy over its effectiveness as a deterrent to serious crime. The Death penalty is the most severe form of corporal punishment.  It requires law enforcement officers to end the life of a convicted offender.  Many Americans feel that the death penalty is the “right” thing to do. These reasons range from the death penalty being used as a means of deterrence to a means of retribution. But I happen to disagree with the reasons put forth in front of me, and disagree with having capital punishment in a whole. I feel like a deterrent could be equal to life inside the prison instead of ending the criminal’s life instantly. Additionally, I feel as though the act of killing one for their crime of murder does not make that killing any more just, killing is killing.

Discussions

We had another one of those group discussions in Mr.Sweeney's class. This time, we got to write any discussion questions that we could think of on a card and converse with each other about the subject. One of the discussions I participated in was about the death penalty. Of course like many other Americans, majority of students in the class room said they agree with the usage of the death penalty. I for one disagree with its presence. Many of the students arguments were that the many people deserved to die if they killed someone else. My argument and response to that was I felt that it does not make the situation any better to kill someone for a wrong doing. Your judging an individual for taking someone's life, yet you are doing the same deed as they have done. Either you way you look at it killing is killing. You can sugar coat with morals anyway you like but the justice system is doing the same thing they are judging other people on. I also feel like not only are they doing the same sin, but they are trying to play the role of God, and its very obvious. I feel like no single man has the right to deny life and judge others for any reason, considering the fact that they are far from perfect in themselves.

Grammar Schmamar

My group and I presented our Grammar Schmamar projects. I was hoping to make the presentation better than the first group we seen. They were a little disorganized, so I was hoping not to follow in those same footsteps. My group created a slideshow presentation depicting the uses of commas and semicolons. We each read aloud the meanings of them both and then examples on how to use them. After we presented when to use commas and semicolons, we showed sentences that required either a comma or a semicolon, and asked students for the class to show where one would be located. For every right answer, the student received a piece of candy from the bag.

Scrimmage

For my second out-of-class event, I decided to attend a Richard Bland Basketball scrimmage. When Mr.Sweeney informed us that this counted as an event, I quickly jumped at the chance to go because Basketball is a passion for me, so the fact that I could go to a game and it count for my class made it all the better for me. Needless to say, I was expecting more from the Statesman team. I had played with a few of them during gym hours before, so I was expected a really good college game from then. It was nerve racking when they could barely bring the ball up the court and produced numerous turnovers in the start of the game. I know they have good handles from seeing them play before, but i wasn't showing up when game was going. I can admit, alot of the players on the team have a nice shooting ability and good athleticism, but you need substance to back it up to create a shot and create plays. That's were handling the ball comes into play.

Fall Break $$

During Fall break, I didn't not have the opportunity to go home like a number of other residents did. I was scheduled to work and close that weekend, so I was stuck at Bland. I did however go home for a few hours on Sunday and hang with my mom. We haven't had the chance to just sit down and relax together. So when
I got there she had already rented a movie i had been dying to see called "This Is The End". The previews were hilarious, so I was pretty excited to watch it. She also ordered Papa Johns pizza, which I love. "This Is The End" was such a great and humorous movie. It was about a group of friends who were stuck on Earth during the infamous rapture. Some people might not believe in the rapture, but I am one of the ones who do. This fact made the movie even more interesting for me. All the events that took place during that time they were stuck was hilarious. At first, I just thought they were all going to die, but when each one of them did a noble deed, they were shot up to heaven.

Kings Dominion

For one of my out-of-class activities that was assigned on the contract on the beginning of the year, My and my best friend Kiel took a trip to Kings Dominion. We hadn't been in a long time, so I was pretty excited about going. Unfortunately, there was plenty of road work occurring on 95, so we were stuck in traffic for a couple miles on the way up there When we finally arrived, Kiel told me to put everything in my bag, because I have a reoccurring habit of losing items when I go there (especially my phone). But me being hard-headed the way I am. I put everything in there except my keys, which I didn't think I was going to lose. So went went into the campus and rode The Dominator. I usually end up riding this ride first. After we got off I realized I didn't have my keys in my pocket, even though Kiel told me to put everything in my bag. I was so furious at myself, but I had to enjoy my time and look for them later. So I rode my ususal rides and it became dark. I didn't realize fear fest was going on that day. Fog appeared everywhere and random monsters layed in between it. Everytime I went into the fog I would get harassed by every monster there, because they could see I was scarred. Me and Kiel took the opportunity to some of the mazes that we had been hearing about. We ended up have the best trip to Kings Dominion that day!

Movie posters

In English class, we further on discussed the different types of arguments that are commonly used. Mr.Sweeney displayed some examples of well-known movie posters so we can depict the different types attractions. being used. For example, the first poster he showed us was Sylvester Stallone's famous rocky movie. This movie came out in 1976. Mr Sweeney showed us the poster and we discussed the many ways the poster tried to attract the audience. For example, up at the top of the poster it read '' He was one-in-a-million-shot'' This shows that the character displayed on the poster was an underdog, and usually the audience roots for the underdog. Another example was the second Stallone movie entitle First Blood. His name was one of the more noticeable text coming from its size and color. We declared the type of argument as ethos because it was trying to gain credibility from the actor of the movie.

Narrative

We were given a paper to write that was about a positive or negative experience we had with language. I chose to write mine about a book I read that made me want to become more of a reader that what I was. Originally, I was never fond of reading books. It could never really grasp my interest and attention. I was more of a movie fanatic than I was a reader. I could never figure out if it was just because I thought reading was boring, or if just never read a book that captured my attention. In 7th grade, when I was introduced to the novel Milkweed, I did not feel the same way about reading and books. Milkweed followed a little boys story during the time of the Holocaust. Not only was the story well told, The Holocaust also played a part in me liking the book. I always took an interest on learning about that subject. I actually enjoyed reading the book from the beginning to the end. Reading a book that caught my interest made me want to see what other books could do the same. So from there the cycle began and I jump started into reading.

Blog # 2

The latest narrative that was assigned to read in English was called Between The Drafts. This story shadows some of Nancy Summer's personal experiences. We had a group discussion about the main focal point of the story, which was authority. We also related this to our narrative essays we soon have to write. Our narrative is about language, and language also played a big part in Between The Drafts. In the story, Nancy's parents spoke a native tongue of German, which ironically, had not been taught to their daughter Nancy. Nancy had a problem with authority. I could tell that Nancy only valued her own authority, and wanted to learn information in her own way, as did her parents. I gather this from the part in the story where she was about 8yrs old and she wanted to learn Italian after being sweet-talked by an Italian waiter. So her and her mom bought a tape and played it in the car. Nancy did not accept that way of learning. She felt the lack of authority she had and personal experiences she had with the information given on the tape. So in our narrative, we were showed to tell our own story stemming from our own experiences.

Sean's first blog

Yesterday in my English class, my fellow class mates and I discussed an assigned text we were supposed to read. Each student took one note card and wrote two questions on them. We went around the room and the class answered the questions as a whole.  This was called Superman and Me. It was written by Sherman Alexie who was a well-known author. The title describes the authors relations between himself and the famous Superman. Sherman wanted to save his fellow Indian people through education, as Superman also saved people with his super natural ability. This text portrayed one of the stereotypes that has existed over the years, which can  relate to alot of readers of the story. Everyone, including myself  has more than likely had at least one stereotype they had to face, whether it be something small or a serious situation. How you handle the situation is the most important factor in times like those. As Sherman Alexie portrayed in Superman and Me, one of the best ways to fight that is through education. It is vital to have and acquire that. The best part of an Education is that none can take that away from you.