Victoria T.

EG Blog #5

victorres94 — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:52:46 +0000

Ender, from Ender’s Game and Gene, from A Separate Peace , are alike because they are both good people on the inside, and they are both very very intelligent. They are both capable of a lot of things, and are very strong. They are also alike because they both had someone that believed in them so much, Gene had his bestfriend Finny, and Ender had Valentine. Neither one of them ever stopped believing in them. Another thing way they are alike is because both them take place at the school they go to. But it’s different because Gene had his best friend with him, attending the school, and Ender did not with Valentine. Ralph and Ender are alike because they were both leaders and they were both ‘taken away’ from their groups. They’re different because the types of groups they were leading are different. The way things were run are different. Montag and Ender are different because Ender is very intelligent and Montag in the beginning of the book doesn’t seem to think at all and that’s all Ender eveer seems to do, is think. Another way they are different is that Ender is just a little boy, and is going through a lot of things, on the other hand Montag is a grown man and doesn’t seem to realize what he’s going though. In a way they are alike because in the books, they are very unhappy with their lives. Montag can do something about it, which he does, but Ender really can’t do anything because other people tell him what to do, he can’t really decide what he can and can not do. Ender and Caesar are alike because they were both very strong , and smart leaders.

Word Count: 288

Ender’s Game Blog #3

victorres94 — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:49:00 +0000

In the book, I think the children are not treated fairly. They usually single out one of the children and isolate them. They’re suposaly trying to make them stronger or seeing how much they can take. That’s what they did to Ender, and is the reason why he feels the way he does now. He’s sad and he hates his life, at 9 years old. No child should feel like that at such a young age, but that’s what Ender is now doing to Bean. Ender realizes that he’s isolating him, and making the other children hate him. He keeps doing it anyway, and he does feel bad becasue he remembers the way he felt. I do think the way they are treated is abusive. It hurts the children like it hurt Ender. Ender was the youngest to do anything and he was picked on for it. the ones watching over him were making sure he had no friends, and that people disliked him for being so good at everything he did at such a young age. So now, at the age of 9, he hates his life and is very sad. All they had put him through is what caused him to be so depressed. I do think Graff should be stopped. I think the person who should stop him would be Ender, because Ender knows how to take charge and knows how to stand up for himself. If not Ender, then Peter; just because Peter and Ender are somewhat alike now. They’re strong and brave, and people sort of look up to them in a way.

(Word Count: 265)

Ender’s Game Blog #2

victorres94 — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:53:44 +0000

I think in some cases Dink is correct. Im not really sure if he feels sorry about it. He’s pretty blunt about it. The goals at the battle school for the children are to defeat the buggers. They train a lot starting at very young ages. They want to prepare for war, and in their minds they have to start training the ones who are capable to win. The way they find the ones who are capable or have a chance is by placing a monitor in the back of their neck and observing, feeling, thinking everything they do. Some ways their goals might be similar to children I know, is that well they don’t exactly have goals set. They just do what they are told. And in a childrens mind adults are above them, and they have to obey what ever they tell them. But I think the goals that are set for the children are very different from children I know. Their goal isn’t to win the war. Maybe to win a game, like some of the children in a book, but not real life stuff. I think the children in this book are normal, just the situation they are in isn’t normal. Training children to prepare for the war is not something you see everyday. A normal child is any child. No one can really define normal because something that some people do today, later more people would start doing it, and it’d seem normal to everyone. To me, normal changes in everyone. I consider myself to have had anormal childhood because I was happy, and was in no rush to grow up.

Word Count: 276

Blog #1 Ender’s Game

victorres94 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:28:36 +0000

I think once he is away from he family he will miss Valentine very much. I think the first couple of weeks he actually may like being away from Peter since Peter would usually pick on him. Later on, he may start to miss him, just based on the fact that he is his brother. I think he will miss all of his family very much. Yes, I do have siblings. I have three older sisters, and one younger brother. My oldest sister, Maria is 26, Monica is 21, Meagon is 19, and my little brother is 11. I have a good relationship with all of them, I’m pretty close to my oldest sister. Even though she doesn’t live with us anymore I tell her almost everything. She’s like a second mom to me. Overall I think I have a both positive and negative relationship with all four of them. Because at times we do have our little arguements and fights. But we do overcome them, because we love eachother. Although I do have siblings, I do have other relatives and friends that are just as close or that I’m closer to than my siblings. My best friend Pricilla would be one of the people that I consider family, she’s always been there for me. She’s been my best friend since the 1st grade. We still keep in touch even though we go to different schools now.(: One other person that I would consider my brother would be my older cousin, Hector. He’s always been there for me, and I can tell him anything, and everything.

(Word Count: 257)

Fahrenheit 451 Blog #2

victorres94 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:50:47 +0000

Censorship in the novel is very strict, you could say. There’s really no access to any information about anything. The government pretty much wants to keep the people stupid, to not think of anything just to do what you’re told. But once Montag does start thinking about things, he realizes that burning books are bad, and that books have useful information. When he realizes this he starts keeping and hiding books in his home to read. He reads them but needs someone to tell him what the book is really trying to say. And he meets Faber, a retired english professor, that helps him. I personally really don’t like censorship just because I think everyone should get access to all/any information there is out there. People would have more knowledge about things. I think we’d be able to make more discoveries, and cures to be able to have access to all information. At times though I think there are times when it’s justified. Such as at school, when they block certain websites they don’t want us going to. All the websites we really need to get information are the ones that aren’t blocked. The ones that are really just distract us while we’re on the computer trying to do work. I must admitt at times i don’t like it, just because I’m done with all my work and I have nothing else to do, so i want something to be there to distract and/ or entertain myself. But maybe there are things that are justified that I don’t think are. But people always have a reason for not wanting to give us access to certain things whether we understand why or why not.

(281)

Fahrenheit 451 Blog #1

victorres94 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:55:49 +0000

I don’t think everyone has stopped reading today. I’m sure a few people have stopped reading because they don’t find reading interesting. I still think they’re are many people that read books. I think it just depends on their personalities. A lot of people these days seem to be getting lazier and lazier. I think that’s the main reason why people have stopped reading books. Some people don’t read because maybe they haven’t found the right book to read. Or in some cases they just don’t find any book interesting and think it’s sort of a waiste of time. In other words, their just lazy. Maybe another reason why people have stopped reading books is because they have other people read to them. Like people just tell them information and they go without having to sit down look at a book or magezine and find out the information. I think that one is another major reason, and why people say “America is dumbing down.” I personally don’t agree with it, because I think teachers are teaching us things up to date such as new technologies and how to use them, and some students even learn things at a higher level. Something we could probably do is make books that interest people. We could make surveys of what most interest people and write books about that. I think they’d like opionionated books, that have gossip but they still in some way make the reader think about what they’re reading and how it relates to their life. That’s something I would be interested in reading; something that I can relate to my own life.

(Word Count: 269)

Blog #1 – 5th 6-Weeks

victorres94 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:50:10 +0000

Last six weeks was quite an experience. We pretty much reviewed a lot for TAKS, and we also have been reading Farenheit 451 and been reviewing that. I also learned some new vocabulary words that I never even heard of. I got a pretty good grade on the test we took over it. I would say it was pretty easy. It was a good six weeks, hopefully this one will be even better with Mrs.Brantley back. (: I wouldn’t really say I had a favorite activity, but I liked being able to read and understand the book as a class. I get a better feeling of the book. I understood it better therefore I got better grades on the quizzes we took over the book. My least favorite activity would be the review packet we did as soon as Mrs.Brantley left. It was just a lot of things we already knew. I understand we had to review for TAKS in some way. I just thought it was a lot put together. I thought we should’ve like spread out some of the material we had to go over more throughout the six weeks. To kind of get more used to it. It would’ve been easier for us students to not have everything crapped in all together. I hope this six weeks we will be able to continue reading and reviewing the book as a class and watch the movie of Farenheit 451. It seemed very different and interesting compared to our lives today. I also noticed there was some differences compared to the book so I’d be interested in watching the rest of the whole movie.

271

A Seperate Peace Blog #3

victorres94 — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:49:20 +0000

I have done something done out of peer pressure. I don’t really know what I was thinking, but I think that was it; I wasn’t thinking. I was with a friend that I had met just a couple of weeks ago, she asked me if I wanted to spend the night. I ended up sleeping over. I thought we were just gonna have some fun and then go to sleep but she had other intentions. She wanted to go to a party. She told me it was just gonna be some friends, and I didn’t have to worry about anything. I had the worst gut feeling but I didn’t want say I didn’t want to go, because I didn’t want to lose a friend. I then later figured out that real friends won’t pressure you into anything, and if they do and you say no, they will understand. Let’s just say at the end of the night, me and ‘my friend’ ended up getting stopped by cops and both of us getting tickets. I knew I was going to regret going out. I felt so stupid, and I knew that I knew better. I should’ve said no. Because of that incident, my parents didn’t trust me. I took a VERY long time for them to just let me go out. I knew I disappointed them. It was the worst feeling. I just wanted to make it up to them, but there wasn’t really a way I could. Me and that ‘friend’ never ended up talking again. It was a waste. I should’ve never hung out with her.

267

A Separate Peace #2

victorres94 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:59:21 +0000

A time I felt guilty was when I me and my mom got into an arguement. We had been argueing about something we really shouldn’t have been argueing about. I had yelled and screamed that what I ‘knew’ was right and what she thought was right, was wrong. We didn’t talk for quite some time. We had turned something so little to something so huge. The arguement really wasn’t worth it. She ended up being right, and me feeling stupid. I felt really bad for things I had said to her, and which I really didn’t mean. My mom was very upset. I couldn’t take back what had happened.
Another time I felt guilty is when I lied to my parents to get my way. I told them I was going somwhere, and ended up going somewhere else. I felt bad because, I don’t like lying to my parents. What if something happend to me and they thought I was at the place that I told them, but when they went to go look for me, I wasn’t there? Anything could’ve happened. They even could’ve found me at the place I went to. That being said, When I had gotten back home, I told my parents I had lied. I felt way beter than keeping it from them, because they couldv’e found out sooner or later, so I went ahead and told them. They were very angry, but then again not so much because I did tell them. If they had caught me, without me telling them they would’ve been much more angry.

Word count: 263

A Separate Peace Blog #1

victorres94 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:49:21 +0000

I don’t think I’ve ever been jealous of a friend enough to want to take something away from them. I may have been a little jealous over something they have, like an object. For an example, if they got a new phone that just came out and I still had the same one, of course I’d get a little jealous. but not to the point to where I’d want to get back at them. I have never gotten jealous over their actual person, because if they’re my friend what’s the point in getting jealous of who they are. If they’re my friend, I like them for who they are, I don’t judge them by anything or wish I was them. I like who I am, and I wouldn’t want to change anything about my life. I don’t think a friend has ever gotten jealous of me, and if they have I don’t know about it. Me and my friends don’t really have a relationship to where we get jealous over eachother, but if we were to I wouldn’t be sure they’d be a real friend to me if they were jealous enough to want to get back at me or take something away from me. If we did get jealous over eachother, I’m sure we’d be able to get through it; of course if it was a close friend. If it were just a friend, and they got jealous over me, and we were fighting about it, I’m not sure the friendship would last, especially if we don’t have that kind of friendship.

(Word Count: 263)