503; The Reflection

June 8th, 2010 | Weekly-Reader | No comments

As I entered this class at the beginning of the school year, I did not know what to expect exactly. Many people have said that Ms. Lahaise was really nice but a challenging teacher and in my experiences, it was either one or the other. My experiences proved me wrong and I was quite honestly surprised. Ms. Lahaise is by far one of my most favorite teachers here at SOCES in the years I’ve been here since 4th grade. She’s my most favorite English teacher other than Mr. Barasch. I believe this year has been kind of easy but there were definitely many times where it was challenging as well, like the essays that we wrote after each book. I have definitely learned a lot this year from this class.

Throughout the first month of school, Ms. Lahaise kept on talking about blogs and the internet community. To be honest, it felt really overwhelming taking in so much information about them at once. But after the first blog post and once she explained everything, it was “an easy” ride. The concept of blogging and the internet community was an interesting thing to take a look at and participate in. It felt overwhelming because Ms. Lahaise kept on stressing about it, since it was a new concept to her also. (The blogging not the weekly readers.)

Our English class this year really emphasized and focused on reading more
than writing in particular. Although it was more emphasized, it had a good balance between them because of the assignments that were assigned. As for the kind of reader I am, well I definitely think that this year help changed me. Before this year, I never really read for fun, I just read books to finish the assignments and be done with it, but since the silent reading, fat paragraphs, homework questions, discussions and the essays definitely helped my reading skills. I think I have improved overall, because the class helps me read faster while still understanding the meaning of the chapters. For example this time last year, I guess I would be an “in-between” reader, not too fast not too slow, but this class helped me become a fast reader. The conditions that helped me changed the most as a reader would be the homework questions, I remember when we were reading Native Son and The Great Gatsby, Ms. Lahaise would assign like over 50-70 pages of reading every night to finish the book quickly.

As far as writing, I think I improved in this area as well. Many of my friends say that my writing from real life (like homework, journals, etc) and the way I write my blogs are completely different. I don’t really see a difference but they do, so I guess that can be considered a positive. The things that have impacted my writing would probably most like have to be the essays and blogs that Ms. Lahaise assigned this year. I never really had to write a lot of in class essays up until this year, but even then the number of in class essays wasn’t huge. This class has definitely helped my write essay-length papers though because of the blogs.

For the reading units, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald would have to be my favorite, but I also liked Native Son by Richard Wright. I personally do not like the latest book we’re reading which is the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I like The Great Gatsby the most because it was just a great book overall, I don’t think there’s anything that I could dislike about it. The TED videos and blogs were nice also though. For the blogs, it was a new thing to almost everyone and I think it went well; it was really nice when we commented each other on the blogs, as well as the fat paragraphs.

I perceive myself to be a good, hardworking student, which in most cases is true. I always try my best and strive to get good grades. And I guess I’m a nice person, I have grown a lot since the beginning of the school year personality and school wise. I’m really grateful that I’m in this class because I’m pretty sure it would be completely different if I had Mr. Carrol for an English teacher. For the incoming students, the advice that I give is that you shouldn’t fall behind in your work nor procrastinate on the assignments. It really screws you over, if it becomes a habit. If you fall behind in your work, you would be missing a lot when you go to class next time. The blogs, vocabulary tests and TED videos aren’t dreadful, Ms. Lahaise is the only teacher that does this and it’s a great thing. Oh and also, the Quotations link that Ms. Lahaise has is really useful, so keep it in mind because it will definitely help you in your classes.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

June 1st, 2010 | Fat Paragraph | 3 comments

Quote 1: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. (Page 1)

Quote 2: A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to each other. (Page 7)

Although I have not finished reading this book yet, so far it is great. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is really by far one of his greatest books that I’ve ever read. If you’re a fan of Charles Dickens, then I suggest you read it. I’ve only read a little bit of the book because there wasn’t enough time to all of it but it is really captivating. Even on the first page of the book, it captivates and motivates you to read. I know for sure that most books would be boring but this takes a step back and makes you keep on reading and not becoming boring. Sure it is not action packed or has something terrifying that happens. Anyways a Tale of Two Cities is about 2 men who have to overcome their fall in society. The two cities in this book are Paris and London. The main character from London is Sydney Carton and he was a British “Barrister” also known as a lawyer (in modern terms) who loses his motivation. And the main character from Paris is Charles Darnay, a former French Aristocrat who is in the middle of the French Revolution. The first quote is the first paragraph on page 1. The moment that I read this, made me want to read the whole book. The way that this was written, was really captivating. The use of opposites in the paragraph/quote was excellent. And for the second quote, I really agree with it, I mean everyone no matter who they are, wants to be better than someone else. People try to hide their mysteries and secrets but in the end those secrets and mysteries are found out. Ultimately though, once I finish reading this book, It will definitely be memorable. You should read it too, if you’re interested.

https://park204.wikispaces.com/file/view/tale_of_two_cities_book.jpg

“What is your passion? What do you love to do?”

May 25th, 2010 | Weekly-Reader | No comments

Today in English class, a speaker from CSUN came and talked about CSUN and its opportunities. During his presentation he asked our entire class a few questions, which was “What is your passion? What do you love to do?” He said that he was asked this question by many people and he said he did not know until he really had to think about it. I really took notice to his great presentation when he said this because it made me think that this applies to everyone. It was quite interesting that he did not know what he wanted to do in life even at the age of 18 and out of high school, but he did have a passion which was music. Many people at that age do not know what to do either; sure some may have already set goals and have aspirations and know what to do in life, but it is different for the majority of people. That is why some work to figure out what they want to do or go to college to figure out what they love.

This question in particular struck something in me. I’m not exactly sure what but I guess it’s because I too don’t really know what I want to do in life. I have some ideas, but no set of defined things I want to do. The same can be said for many people in high school, juniors in particular. Senior year is approaching really fast and we’re all graduating soon and heading off into the separate directions in life. In 5-6 months we’re going to be applying to many different colleges, some here, and some across the country. Some of us might not see each other ever again after graduating high school and well, I’m pretty sure many of us aren’t sure what we want to be or do. We could listen to our parents and make them happy, but that would be at the cost of our happiness and love, unless we want to do what they want.


Many people nowadays are stressing that we should pick a career that we love to do, because if we just pick a job not a career, we won’t be looking forward to it and it won’t be something to wake up to every morning. We’d be unhappy with our lives. Having a job that you’re not looking forward to and the repetitiveness of daily life would soon become a routine/the normal American dream. The same old routine relates to my picture above because it’s basically the OLD American dream which was growing up and raising a family. Hopefully in the future, we’ll all figure out our real passions and what we want to do before life passes us by and it’s too late to change it. So the question I’m going to ask is his question, which is basically what do you want/love to do and what’s your passion?

The Five People You Meet In Heaven Reflection

May 19th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No comments

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is one of the best movies (based on a book by Mitch Albom) I have seen in a long time. Its use of emotion and suspense was great; it really fit during the really suspenseful scenes. Like at the part where Eddie dies trying to save the little girl from the falling malfunctioned ride, it was the best scene in the movie in my opinion. As he died and the scene faded into black showing him grabbing Tala’s hand in the water was just really great. Yes, it was an extremely sad scene, but I think it was the most memorable scene out of the entire movie since it had caused everything to happen. The five lessons that are taught are all important. And the flashbacks that were related to each lesson are very important aspects of the movie.

The first lesson was that there are no random acts and that all lives are connected to each other. In the movie it shows Eddie arriving in the Blue Man’s heaven.  As he awakes from his death, he is able to move freely without any pains or restrictions like when he was young. Eddie runs around Ruby Pier and soon sees an old building that gives him a flashback of seeing a blue man inside.  Eddie goes inside and the blue man appears and talks to Eddie about all of this and it goes into a flashback where Eddie is a young boy playing baseball on the street with the blue man driving his car.  A kid hits a ball into the street and Eddie runs to get it, therefore making the blue man swerve out of the way and into a cart. He dies from a “heart attack” because of his weak heart and the car accident. Eddie at that point in time didn’t know that he had caused this so he paid no attention to it. And the blue man tells Eddie the lesson. I personally like this lesson the most because I think that it deals with fate and destiny. It deals with fate and destiny because like this lesson, things just don’t happen randomly everything is connected to each other and there is always a bigger picture to “look at.”

The second lesson of the movie was about sacrifice. In this lesson, Eddie is sent to a battle field in World War II, where he sees his Former Captain’s heaven. After talking with his captain a bit, he gets a flashback where he and a few other soldiers were captured and sent to prisoner of war camps sent to work. After fooling the soldiers who were watching them, the soldiers led a revolt and Eddie destroyed the entire camp by burning it down with a flamethrower. In the process of Eddie burning it down, he saw a little girl trapped in one of the huts, he believes he saw the girl but he thought it might have been a hallucination because of everything going on at the time. Eddie was so captivated by this that he had to be shot in the leg from his captain. This is where his former captain tells him the lesson of sacrifice. Eddie had his leg sacrificed by his captain so that he could go and live on. Eddie felt that this was unfair and fumed with anger and that it wasn’t necessary, but as the flash back deepens he remembers seeing his captain checking to see if everything was clear outside. In the process, he steps on a mine and dies from the explosion. The captain sacrificed his life for his men while Eddie had his leg sacrificed. Throughout Eddie’s life he was depressed because of it, but now he understands why and is grateful and not filled with anger anymore as he learns his lesson. I think this is the second most important lesson overall because it actually applies to real life and everything around us. This lesson shows that you have to sacrifice things for the greater good, it may not look or be so well at the time, but without the sacrifice things would be so different. Everyone in life has to sacrifice one thing or another at one point in time, without learning the reason for sacrifice we all would be living in a false sense of reality. Sacrifice is a necessary part of life. For example a young couple who have a child may sacrifice their dreams/youth in order to raise their child the best way they can. They may sacrifice their dreams on becoming what they wanted to be so that they could feed and clothe and give their child the basic necessities of life. We all have sacrifice and we will continue to sacrifice because it is a part of human nature in a way to better the situation.

In the next heaven, Eddie goes to Ruby’s Heaven which is a dinner where everyone who has been affected by Ruby Pier in any way to go. She teaches him the lesson of anger and forgiveness. The flashback that appears is where he sees his mother comforting his father’s friend because he was fired from his job for being drunk. Being the drunk he (the friend) was, he tried to take advantage of his mother and Eddie’s father came in and tried to see what was happening because he heard some screams and outcries of “no.” Eddie’s father sees his friend and his wife in the room, and his friend the drunk runs away and so he follows him. The drunken friend runs to the ocean and dives in, at this point in time many thoughts and emotions fill his mind. The anger of his friend trying to take advantage of his wife and the feeling of their friendship and loyalty are filling his mind. In a few seconds he decided to jump in and save his friend and soon got pneumonia because of it. Eddie’s father sacrificed his life in order to save his friend because of their loyalty and friendship. He forgave his friend for what he did and saved him. And soon after learning this Eddie forgave his father for the things he had done to him. This lesson also relates to the second lesson of sacrifice because Eddie forgave his captain and his father while his father forgave his friend and sacrificed his life. I agree with this lesson because we all have to forgive people eventually even if they did something wrong. We can’t go through life just holding grudges because those grudges and fights are meaningless. They don’t matter at all and it’s useless to worry or get mad over the grudges. At the end of the day, life goes on and we move on and forget about the unimportant things in life.

The fourth lesson in the movie is love. This person’s heaven is his wife’s heaven which is basically many wedding receptions/parties. His wife tells him the she has always loved him and always will. Love basically never dies and will always live on if you truly loved someone. His wife mentions that love will just take a different form when someone dies so that is why I like this lesson. As she appears in heaven, slowly as time goes by, she changes the way she looks because Eddie wanted her to look that way. The way that they grew old together was very nice and the scene where they dance was the best scene in this lesson.

The last lesson of this movie is that everyone has a purpose in life and I wholeheartedly agree with it. I think this is the most important lesson throughout the entire movie because it relates all of the other lessons together. I also believe that everyone has a purpose in life and that they find it eventually. No matter what they go through and how they get to it, they will eventually reach it and it will be worth it. The person who Eddie met in this was Tala; she was the little girl who he killed with the flame thrower during his stay in the prisoner of war camp. He felt really sad and was always terrified of this and had post traumatic stress disorder because of this terrible, terrible memory. She showed him her scars and forgave him for what he did and he “cleaned” and took away her scars with the rock and water.

Like I said in the beginning of this, I really liked this movie. It has been one of the best I’ve seen in a while. The lessons that are taught apply to everyday life, in which we take for granted. Everyone will come upon these lessons and will deal with each one different but it’s these lesson that connect us all together which is basically like the first lesson where all lives are connected with each other.

Life Goes On

April 27th, 2010 | Weekly-Reader | No comments

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

~ Robert Frost

This Robert Frost quote is an amazing quote and I definitely agree with it. A lot of people nowadays are saying that their lives are ending just because of a few bad decisions or things that went wrong. But hey, it’s not their fault (sometimes.) Specifically teenagers nowadays, they say “FML” which is an acronym for “fuck my life”. Some say it playfully while others are dead serious. The way they portray it, it sounds like the world is ending and there’s no hope left. But they’re wrong, and this quote sends the right message. They’re so focused on the bad things that that they don’t take the time to look around, which relates to my image up there.

Even if many bad things happening and some “door closes” on them, many good things will happen as well and people take the good things for granted. Many doors will open as soon as some closes. There are many opportunities in life and we all have the chance to take the opportunities. Many people, who don’t take up the opportunities, will see it as a “missed opportunity” and they’ll dwell on that fact, while missing all the opportunities that are right in front of them. So they’ll miss those opportunities as well and it will continue in a chain until they really notice that there are many other opportunities. My point of view on this may be optimistic, and their point of view might be pessimistic and they clash with each other, but I’d rather be optimistic than pessimistic because it’s a better way to view life in optimism than pessimism.

Anyways, this quote goes for adults and children alike. People just need to chill nowadays and stop worrying. It isn’t the end of the world if you don’t get the task done, sure it may have consequences but that’s beside the point. You can always do it at another time, people just need to enjoy life and “stop and smell the roses and enjoy the scenery around them” so to speak. Everyone is in a rush, and being in a rush is a bad thing. The other day I was reading Avi Cohen’s new blog entitled “Life and Its Fullest” (http://lahaiseslair.com/avic/2010/04/22/life-and-its-fullest/) and I definitely agree with him and his point that people should just enjoy life overall and “So never forget to enjoy those small things that make life great, or find small things that could make it great.”

Life will always go on whether you want it to or not and accept that you can’t have everything perfect and many things will go wrong, but many things will go right as well at times and to just not live through life as an empty vessel and actually live your life.

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31989.html

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/desert_island.png

http://lahaiseslair.com/avic/2010/04/22/life-and-its-fullest/

Fat Paragraph – Animal Farm by George Orwell

April 18th, 2010 | Fat Paragraph | 1 comment

“Only get rid of man, and the produce of our labor would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that the future generations shall carry on this struggle until it is victorious”

– An excerpt of Old Major’s speech (pg 7)

“1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wins is a friend.

3. No animal shall wear clothes.

http://lahaiseslair.com/alexh/files/2010/04/animal_farm2.jpg4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

7. All animals are equal.”

-The 7 Commandments of Animal Farm (pg 28)

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an excellent novel for anyone to read. It is for people who love reading satire of Russia and enjoy a war among animals and humans as chaos ensues. In the beginning of the book, the animals are treated like nothing, overworked and hungry by their owner, Mr. Jones of the Manor farm. He was an alcoholic and terrible man who cared only about himself and drinking. He gave the animal’s very little attention and rarely fed them. All of the animals in the Manor farm were tired of this, and one great boar named “Old Major” who has a strange dream where all the animals are free one day in the future to rule themselves apart from humans. As Old Major tells the animals of his dreams, he inspires them to have a rebellion. And so, the rebellion happens and they take over the farm and rename it as “Animal Farm” with two leaders where their farm is supposed to be like a heaven and prosper for all animals, but that was all but a dream turning into a nightmare where in reality it is like hell. The two leaders are pigs who are known as “snowball” and “napoleon.” These two leaders were quite similar to Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky of the USSR during the 20th century fighting for power. But anyways these two leader pigs along with the help of the other animals create a set of commandments that are to be followed by every animal in Animal Farm. These rules were made to help animals but that was all a lie. Later on in the book, these rules are broken and changed by the pigs to make it suit them for their own interests. And many more interesting things happen to the farm, but to find out you have to read for yourself and have a journey of your own while reading this excellent novel.