Linsanity

 The best present out of the 12 days of Christmas is undoubtedly the 3 French hens. I'd go as far to say, even with the 5 gold rings included, the hens are still a better option.  First of all, days 8-11 are probably considered human trafficking if you were actually gifted them, so they can be removed from the equation. If you weren't already arrested for such a crime, supporting 8+ people would be quite heavy on the bills, not to mention the need for a mansion of a home. And who would want to hear 12 drummers all day/night? From a monetary perspective, 5 average gold rings would cost around $1000 total (200 per ring from Google). If we assume that the 3 French hens have a full lifetime ahead of them, lay an average of 265 eggs a year, and have 4 years of productive egg-laying, we reach a sum of 3180 eggs. And, because they graze in the backyard and are healthy, we'll consider them pasture-raised. At today's market price of 6$ a dozen, that's $1590 total.  Yet, the ...

 After reading Recitatif and its themes of differences in perception, I couldn't help but wonder the extent of this in our lives. Last week when we were doing the graphs on the structure of the story of Three Girls and Flowers, almost everyone in my group had unique looking graphs; it all comes down to perception. We all read the same piece and were given the same task, yet produced different answers. I believe it all boils down to our memories and past experiences.  This parallels what we're learning in AP Psych right now: the fact that memories causes perceptual sets (biases) in everyone. When you think about it, we are really just our memories. They are what we did in the past and they affect how we will act in the present and the future. This is what makes us unique; the fact that no two people have the same perception of life. Sometimes, people's perception of things can be starkly different, as in Recitatif. Although Roberta and Twyla were both at the incident with Ma...

 I could never eat the same anymore. To me, it was an imaginary enemy, one that lived in the shadows and simultaneously hid its dangers. With its insidious nature, it seeped into the grocery store, infecting many of the products. It was only when I became reminded of it every time I ate that I became aware of its power, and I was forced to confront my greatest fear: seed oils (those who know). Maybe its effects are only placebo, but it meant eradicating it forever, I would go to the ends of the world. 

 The "seed" that I chose this week to write about is... writing. We did a WNB entry on who we are as writers in class.  Gratitude of the week = walking at 8pm in current weekly weather With the rise of technology, I think writing has become more and more obsolete and in my opinion, less useful. I'm willing to bet almost no one in class said they wrote "for fun" or recreationally. I think this in part to the modern school/work culture, which is pushing people to grind more and be more successful. Most activities people do fall into two categories: work and recreational, and writing does not fall into either. Writing doesn't help people (unless you're a professional writer or journalist) make more money, and there are also many other activities people would find more enjoyable. Writing is not the only activity that is gradually becoming less popular. The modern mindset closes a lot of doors.  On the topic of writing, I believe we should just abandon handwr...

  With the year coming to an end, I’ve been prompted to reflect on my 11AP journey. Only when I look retrospectively on the year did I realize the amount of progress this class has instilled in me. From scoring 80s on essays to 90s, from mindlessly reading to being able to analyze text, I’ve genuinely felt so much more comfortable in my abilities as a reader and writer as a result of this class. Of course, this progress was made possible and was facilitated by some important figures in our English classroom. First, I’d like to thank all my fellow AP Lang students. To my tablemates in the second semester–David, David, Tyler, Daniel, thank you for making 11AP all the more enjoyable. In times of confusion or need of assistance, I could come to you guys for aid and encouragement. When I wasn’t sure of the meaning of a word, or the purpose of a piece, or even what the homework was, I could get answers at my table and thus save embarrassment from asking Ms. Valentino. When it came time t...

  After reading Videotape, I was struggling to find the purpose or meaning behind it. It just seemed like a pointless essay that no one could relate to. I mean, who really likes to see people die? Yet, it proves a good point: the transience of life and desensitization of death. The essay prompted a question in my mind. Should death be shown? In our society, death is something that is always censored and not shown. especially to kids. Real, human death is never shown on any main stream news or videos. As a result, to me, death is something that has always seemed cursed in a way. Imagining a moment of someone filled with life, and the next they are devoid of that vital energy is almost too much to handle. Like something you weren't meant to see. However, with this censorship of death in media and society, there is a resulting fear of death. In my opinion, people shouldn't fear death. Thinking of ways that death can be more "normalized", removing some censorship comes to...

Due to the testing this week and next week, I will come up with a verdict on its usefulness and practicality.  First, it is important to note that most tests are designed for a lot of people, thus they are supposedly standardized. Of course, the main goal of testing is to gauge students' ability/knowledge of something. There are many forms of testing, and some of them will be better in gauging ability than others by nature. For example, a driver's test result is probably pretty accurate whether someone can drive or not, while something like the SAT does not really indicate whether someone is a good reader/writer/mathematician.  Tests like the SAT do not always promote better reading/writing/math skills, but instead promote learning how to take the SAT, if that makes sense. It rewards learning the format of the test, learning the types of questions that will show up, and taking the test over and over (collegeboard is a greedy monopoly, but that is a topic for another time). Som...