Week 13: End Of Semester Reflections

     I would like to start off by saying that, this first semester of taking English 1080 turned out to be much better than I have thought it would be. Back a few months ago I was really worried about coming to MUN, mostly because of the fact I had to do English courses. Throughout high school I felt that I didn’t learn anything and I wasn’t going to be prepared for English in university. Luckily I end up in a good English class with a good prof. I feel that I learned more about writing in the pasted couple months, than I did in high school. Also English was always the subject I disliked the most in high school but since coming to university, ironically English is now my favorite course.      

     To go back to the beginning of this semester, to me the most interesting material we covered in the course would have to be the poetry section. I really enjoyed the spoken word poetry and spatial poems. It was something brand new to me and very interesting to learn about. The two poems I found the best to read and listen to was “Swingset” and “The Tyger.” Regarding the essay workshops, I felt they were a huge advantage of helping me write my essays. The essay workshop really helped me understand how to make a clear and good thesis statement for my papers. Also after doing a couple essays I feel that, I finally have a better understanding of how to write a good essay. Before this course, I had no clue, our high school teacher never thought us how to do it and would complain when we didn’t do it right.  Also the weekly blogs we had to do was a good idea and easy marks in my opinion. Most of the activities we had to do were creative and fun to do. The one I liked the best was the memes, I really enjoyed making up funny memes, considering I used to do it all the time. Overall this English 1080 course was a success to me, I feel like I was worried over nothing. It turned out I could do the English here in university all because of the great Prof I chosen to take English 1080 with.

Week 12: How To

  This week I will be talking about the different steps and tips people can use when driving in the snow. I personally learned how to drive in the snow because of going to young drivers in the winter time. 

Here's the steps of how to drive safe in the snow:

1.)  Clear off snow and ice from vehicle

Remove all snow and ice all on the vehicle, including the roof, windows, head lights, etc. It’s important to remove all the snow and ice for good vision while driving.

2.)  Reduce Speed

Drive slower in the snow, where it’s slippery. Driving fast would only cause you to have an increase chance of an accident. When dealing with winter and the snow, if you need to be somewhere, you should adjust your time and leave earlier.

3.)  Keep distance

Always keep good spacing distance from the vehicle ahead of you. Braking on slippery roads takes a vehicle longer to stop compared to on a dry road.  

4.)   Don’t give gas going up hills

Giving more gas when trying to go up a hill will only cause a vehicle’s tires to spin and you’ll never make it up the hill. It’s best if you go up a hill in first gear or keeping your speed around the same.

5.)  Aware of brakes and gas pedal

Slamming your brakes on will cause your vehicle to slide or skid. Slowing but effectively applying the brakes is best. Don’t pump the pedal or remove your foot when braking. Also you have to slowly apply gas when driving. When stopped and about to go again, slowly apply the gas. If not your tires will spin. When coming to a point where you need to stop, start releasing pressure on the gas pedal to slow down. 

6.)  No Cruise Control

Do not use cruise control in the winter time. It’s only a greatest percentage of you getting into an accident.

7.)  Caution of Slippery Spots

Places like bridges, ramps, and overpasses all have a greater chance of ice on their surface. You need to be aware of the upcoming placing you’ll be driving and know if the road is filled with ice.

8.)  Pay attention at all times

The final one is to always pay attention to your surroundings. If you see a threat coming, for instance a vehicle sliding. It’ll give you time to react and hopefully avoid an accident.

Week 11: Memes

Week 10: Quotable

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”—Mark Twain

     Mark Twain was an American author and humorist, he wrote the famous books known as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and its sequel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Since reading Huckleberry Finn last year in school, I have become a huge fan of Twain, slowly gaining interests for his famous books. If there is one quote I love from Twain that he had said was “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” To me this quote is telling people if you want to get ahead of a certain task in life you have to start somewhere. Sitting down isn't going to get you anywhere, you have to work hard and even if you take your time to get the job done, you will succeed. 

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eye shut”—Dr.Seuss

                                                                                 

 
      Doctor Seuss was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist, he was known mostly for his children books around the world.  This quote came from his famous book “I can read with my eyes shut.” To me this quote has a significant meaning in the way of Seuss trying to tell his readers to open their eyes and look at the world around them. If you keep your eyes closed you’ll never see the positive things around you in life. Ignoring the negativity in life will cause you to be happier, enjoying life to the fullest. The best things in life happen when your friends and family are around, seeing them happy causes you to be happy. As Seuss is trying to say is if you block all the bad from the good in life, there will always be good things in your life but if you keep your eyes closed you’ll never be able to witness the best things in life.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have courage to pursue them”—Walt Disney

     Disney was an American business magnate, cartoonist, filmmaker, and voice actor. Disney was the one who created the Walt Disney Company, which was created to tell children around the world that dreams can come true. Also all the movies created by the company help children be able to live the magic of the movies. I personally was a huge fan of Disney movies growing up. In my opinion the quote above said by Disney means everybody has dreams and there may be times when we may feel the dreams are never going to happen. If we really want it to happen we need to pursue our dreams and believe in our self to help make these dreams come true by thinking positively. Having the incentive to try and explore new things.

Week 9: Flash Fiction

Analysis On "Doofus" By Mark Morehead

                “Doofus” by Mark Morehead uses a boy named Billy as the protagonist who’s in grade two and learning how to tie his shoes. The antagonist is Billie’s big fat jerk brother Todd. Todd is older than Billy and likes to pick on him, for example calling him “Doofus” all the time. Todd causes Billy to have internal conflict by teaching him to tie his shoes the wrong way on purpose and calling him a “Doofus” because he can’t tie his shoes correct. I would call Billy the exact thing his older brother calls him a “doofus”, cause at the end of the story there was a funny plot twist. Billy came home right proud telling his brother to look at his shoes he had keep tied and even finally tied up right since leaving that morning. Until Todd said “Nice job, Doofus. Whose shoes are those, anyway?” To me the protagonist is a kid who in my opinion would probably come home with the wrong head if it was possible.

                The symbolism in “Doofus” would be the “knot” on the shoe the protagonist is wearing. In the story it says “And now this... a knot”. This is the quote of where Billy’s journey in school of keeping his shoes tied begins. I think the “knot” represents the ability of being fooled and as the “knot” gets tighter and tighter it represents a victim getting pulled towards the lies of the enemy like a black hole is sucking the victim into the dirty lies. The antagonist, Todd is the one who created this “knot”. This symbolises the internal conflict that Todd had created upon Billy. Also the setting of the story causes a major role in helping the readers understand what Morehead flash fiction is really all about. The majority of the story takes place in Billy’s school while he's in grade two. To me, the setting of the school helps give the symbol of learning. Billy had been learning how to tie his shoes and going to school trying to keep them tied up, he learns one day how to finally tie his shoes correctly. Also the timing of this story is when Billy is only young and learning new things. As a child a lot of kids seem to make mistakes like Billy done by bringing home the wrong shoes. I personally did something the same like Billy, once when I was younger I brought home the wrong book bag from school. So by doing silly things like what Billy and I have done gets people labeled a "Doofus" just for making a simple mistake.

                The overall theme in the story “Doofus” is failure. I believe failure would be the correct theme to suit this kind of short story because of the way the protagonist Billy seems to have failed a couple times. One of the first failed moments he had was when he keep failing into his brothers way of teaching him how to tie his shoes by just creating a knot and never knowing the difference  that it was wrong. Another failure that Billy had was when one day he came home with the wrong pair of shoes on from school. The title “Doofus” adds the effect of creating the overall message because usually people call someone a “Doofus” if they did something wrong or weird. Therefore the title of the short story is indicated towards the boy, Billy. Billy was quite the “Doofus” no matter how hard he tried to do something right, he always seemed to mess it up. Therefore failure is the perfect word to use for the theme of this short story. Billy teaches the readers of this story to try their best and if they don’t succeed to try, try again.

 Here's a link to the story: http://www.flashfictiononline.com/f20090902-doofus-mark-patrick-morehead.html

Week 8: Open Letter

Dear Thief,

      This past weekend I was a victim of vandalism. My car was parked outside the apartment building where I live. When I went out to my car to go to math class I realized my car had the passenger side window smashed. There was glass everywhere, all over the seats and on the floor of my car, my center console was also scratched to pieces from the glass when you searched through my car. After I looked around in my car that next morning, I came to realize you stole my iPod touch that I accidently left in the car all night. Unfortunately for me I had to replace the glass for the window which cost me three hundred dollars, and well I’m out an iPod.  I think you should think about what you are doing before vandalising other people’s property.  People work hard to get what they have and don’t need this kind of bull.  I know I’ll never find out who you are but you are the one who has to deal with the guilty conscience of stealing. I do understand that vandalism happens all the time and it could happen to anyone but unfortunately it happened to me. Anyways I hope you enjoy using your new iPod touch, let’s just say it was a gift from me.

Sincerely,

Lucas T. Collins

Week 6: In The News

DO ALCOHOL HELP STUDENTS GET BETTER GRADES?

          In Victoria, BC earlier this week, scientists came to the conclusion after doing an experiment on University students that consumed alcohol before writing an exam helped students achieve better grades. Scientists asked one thousand students to volunteer in doing an experiment.  Scientists got five hundred students to consume alcohol before writing an exam. They got the other five hundred students to write the same exam without consuming alcohol.  Once the exam results were released, scientists were shocked with the outcome. The students who consumed alcohol before the exam surprisingly scored a high average of eighty-five percent. The students who didn’t consume the alcohol had scored lower on the exam with a sixty percent average. Therefore the scientists came to the final conclusion that alcohol indeed helps students achieve better grades.

          Scientists were in complete shock from their experiment at the University of Victoria. They decided to go into greater and deeper studies to figure out why the alcohol helped students achieve better grades.  After laboratory studies scientists couldn’t figure out any possible reasoning why students who consumed alcohol would do better on their exams. Scientists decided to go back and survey the same one thousand students who volunteered to participate in the experiment. They asked the students how much did they drinked regularly and scientists got the answers they were looking for. These five hundred students who consumed the alcohol were heavy drinkers and alcohol didn’t affect them in achieving good grades. In conclusion the students who volunteered to consume the alcohol were smart in the first placed and only volunteered to get free alcohol.