"Together" -Veterans' Day Poem

"Together"

Veterans of

Wars of the past

Wars of the present

Wars of the future are

Heroes

Then and now 

And

Family members

Beloved by all

Respected by all

The sacrifices made

Missing chunks

Of lives

Of flesh

Or even of souls.

Those left behind

Often work 

as hard as the soldiers.

Even those who stay left behind

Leave poppies for Papa

And always remember

The good parts

The bad parts

The happy parts

The sad parts

All the parts.

Funny, veterans kind of represent the U.S. in more than name, don't they?

They have parts (families, emotions)

That are best together

And together when apart.

Even when "apart" eventually means literally worlds away,

All veterans (active or not)

Are together

With someone.

Even if only he or she knows

There's always someone.

There always will be someone

Even if they haven't been found yet.

That someone guides them,

The veterans, representing the U.S.

In so much more than name,

Through the war or whatever else there is.

First Quarter Reflection Blog

Before we start: Happy Halloween! Also, since the quarter is rather conveniently ending today, I have a reflection blog to write. Enjoy!

       My E/LA goals for this year are few, but critical. Firstly, I need to get down the science of homework balancing. I have had problems, in the past, with equalizing homework load and time spent. But no longer! You see, I have a formula in order to solve this, which I won't get into here to save time. Another goal I have is to ensure that my writing skills are up to the level of the other people in this class at all times, as my stories and pieces are often lackluster compared to others. This is, in fact, a fixable issue, and I will fix it. The third and final goal I have is to remember to have fun doing some of this stuff, as I often forget to do. "Have fun." Such simple advice, but also so hard at times... moving on!

    I have learned a lot about the world. The first thing I learned is that the universe doesn't halt when your traditions are forced to. I actually learned this over the summer, when a combination of surgery and circumstances made it so I was unable to swim on Wednesdays or go to the Dells like I usually do. I thought it would be the end of the world, but the world kept going, which was quite a shock to the past me. I also learned that no matter what happens to you, you can always rebound (unless you die, of course). R.I.C. gave me the strength I needed to get back to some semblance of normality, and I use that strength daily. The third and final thing I learned is that there are always going to be people who want to watch sanity burn. The Alicia Project assembly failure showed me that, as maybe 10% of the student body got 100% of us in trouble, and that's the way it always is in a school behavioral failure. 2-3 kids get 26 of us in trouble, and so on... and it appears that I've realized why this keeps happening: it physically cannot be stopped. The way middle school is set up prevents us from doing so, no matter what measures are taken.

     There are two central strategies that have benefited me so far this year. The first is, of course, the TIQA format. By virtue of it effectively being an AoW or Blog Mad Libs, it has made homework take far less time, and that is always a good thing. Heck, I could make a copy & paste template right now and my fellow students would have so much free time that they could take over the WORLD! Anyway, another strategy that has benefited me is F.R:G.I.A.D.I.C, which stands for Forgo Reading:Get It All Done In Class. It's exactly what it sounds like, and if I have enough time, I can often ensure a complete lack of homework (then I read). If all students did this, homework would be gone forever! It's useful, is what I'm trying to say.

To conclude: Acronyms are hard.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Montresor Murders Mean Man With Mortar!

(This was a newspaper entry based off a transcript).

MONTRESOR:In Venice, I killed Fortunato. It was for reasons that appear to only make sense to me, and not to any of you fools! You desire to know them? Well, since it appears I'm tied up at the moment (quite literally, might I add), I might as well.
      I killed him for one simple reason:his skills with regards to wine were his only strength, but he was a quack and a dunce with regards to all else. I knew it all: art, wine, furniture....but he got the limelight. Every time he did this, my fury built. Every time, I didn't act upon it, until he dared to insult me. Me, who was superior to him in all regards. But then, he ventured to say these words: "I guess you know who's the connoisseur." I knew how that was directed, and as it stewed inside me, something snapped. I swore revenge, then causally strolled to my pallazo and plotted it. I knew it had to be done where there would be no witnesses or evidence or notices of his disappearance for days. Then, the whole plot hit me, and when the right time rolled around, I executed it and him.
      Now you may be wondering why I chose the method I did. I wanted him to suffer, knowing he was alone in there whilst he withered to nothing. I wanted to keep him in the dark, as he had done to me. I, above all, needed a place, where I could mock his soul, as he had done to me. I needed to wall him off from my life.
Literally. Now take me away.
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"My Father The Hero" (OBAA Life Lines Poem)

"My Father The Hero"

Sometimes you try to do something good
and end up being punished for it.
If he could have read his future
my father might have feared the headlights.

Such is the fate of many immigrant fathers, as
my father, a healer,
had been robbed of his power to heal.
Those who befriended him sought to rob him
And metamorphose him into a tragic, flawed beetle.

Those back in Adi
Kept my father in their hearts
As a measuring stick, as a lifelong
inspiration.

Remember your people.
Remember your people.

So I decided
I would always keep my father
the hero in my heart
tragic and flawed though he might be.

His heart saw angels
And he treated everyone as an angel,
saying,
“God sends angels to all of us.”