Reading Times

The Cold Sassy Tree-
4/16: 30 min
4/21: 60 min

Portfolio:
4/15: 60 min
4/21: 60 min

Total: 210 min

What I Want

            Woah. What do I want most in the world? That's some deep stuff. I can honestly say this question got me thinking. If we look back at some of the characters in Nervous Conditions, I see that Tambu had a very distinct goal. She wanted an education because that would allow her to look onto a positive future. Otherwise, she would become just like every other girl in her town; a housewife. Another character who knew what he wanted was Piggy from Lord of the Flies. Piggy wanted order and shelter. Although he didn't always know how to get it, he keeps the same mindset unlike the other boys who didn't really know what side they were on and what they thought.
    So when I look at myself and wonder what I want, I feel like one of the young boys in Lord of the Flies. I don't really think that I know what I want to be completely honest. I guess that everything I work towards is to get me to a college out of state. Ideally I want to go to a college somewhere much farther north; North Carolina, Colorado, ect. I play soccer so that hopefully I can get a scholarship. Plus, I try to get the best grades I can. So, if I could ask for anything it would be a full scholarship to a collage somewhere up north. What would I be willing to do to get this scholarship? Well, I already play soccer ALL THE TIME. I am in a hotel right now for a tournament in north Alabama. I guess that I would kick it up a notch and practice everyday of the week rather than just five. I think that I could take harder classes in school so that my transcript would look better. I wouldn't go to extreme measures like cheating on the ACT or stealing an exam though, thats to far for me.

Reading Details:
Crank:
4/9: 2 hours
The Cold Sassy Tree
4/12: 1 hour

Total: 180 min

*I am skipping the poem post this week. I went to the Crank reading disscussion.

Cough Syrup

I chose the song Cough Syrup by Young the Giant. This song is easy to analyze because it is all a metaphor, it has mood, and rhymes. The song has a slightly depressing but more overcoming difficulties mood. The song has movements of the mood where the speaker is hopeful but that is immediately followed by a drop in the mood. However, the music and the tone that the singer uses is very calm throughout the whole song.
      The whole song is a very unspecific metephor. So it can be interpreted differently depending on the person. I think that the speaker is referring to the cough syrup being a remedy (or way) of dealing with whatever is troubling you. The singer talks about "fishes in the sea their staring at me" and "zombies in the park their looking for my heart" are both metaphors for people who have bothered/hurt the singer in the past.
 

Reading Response

      All this week I have been reading Crank by Ellen Hopkins, for Diamond's reading discussion.  So far, it is about a girl named Kristina but she has another side she named Bree. Kristina was an outstanding student, a great singer, and had great friends. This gave her so much to lose. When she went to stay with her drug-addict dad, she became one herself. She did loose it all.
     What I didn't know about Crank before I started reading it is that it is all written in a way that the pictures portray a shape or a mood. For example, if the mood in the book was choppy and tense the words would be scattered. I have noticed that someone who truly loves and cares about her will call her Kristina, but someone who just wants to crank or use her will call her Bree. It really is like she has two different lives, with different people and places. I haven't finished the book but I think that it is going to take a big mess up on her part for her to get her life back on track.