My portfolio :D: February 2009

Friday, February 27, 2009

"Where I am from"- Jarelle Dampier

I am from the irresponsible decisions of youth
I am from nothing, from a broken home
I am from achieving what’s out of my reach
I am from overcoming my odds
I am from food stamp lines and welfare checks
From powdered milk and flavorless cookies
I am from troubles and darkness
I am from far away, emotionally
From no heat in the winter time
From no air in the summer time
I am from fried chicken and greens
From family reunions and separation. Choosing a side
In the fog of life
I am from change; life is too short to be
Afraid
I am from bold stands and brave battles
I am from harsh times and amazing victories
I am from camping trips with friends
I am from an emotionless family
From misunderstandings
In the tides of trouble, a child is afraid to change his ways
I am from improvement
From motivation and inner strength
I am from healing church services on Sunday
From devotionals on Friday
I am from demolition, and reconstruction
I am from dust, turned to gold
From the sun, dripping with light
I am from being saved, from recovery
From the winds of a new spirit
I am a Beast

Perfect from now on- Personal Narrative Summary

Perfect from now on is the story of John Sellers and how his love and appreciate for Indie rock came out through the use of itunes . The narrator was a complete music buff, you could tell he knew what he was talking about when he wrote this. The descriptions were great and had a lot to do with how easy it was to visualize the story. The amount of music he has is emphasized as well as what it could do for your life. The story has inspired me to talk about my hobbies and passions in my writting as well. Memories altered by new experiences in story, rendition of past changed.

Red-Personal narrative summary

The story is of a girl named Olive Panter, from her perspective. She is a girl who has a love for music and a passion for sharing it with others in her life. Emphasis is put on her love for music and what it can do for ones life according to her own opinion. I related to the narrator because I also have a passion for music and it definetly has changed my life for the better, it is also best shared with friends and family. The story wasnt too easy to visualize because there wasnt that many descriptive terms used in the article, but the narrators passion for music is shown and felt through the reading which makes the read much better.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Personal Narrative Poem

No Sleep in a long time. My life has been frozen chronologically, numb from what I have done in the past
I’m desperately trying to live my life, seeking the Remedy with all of my being, realizing I have found what I still seek
I wish I could say “I won’t worry”
One day I will stop and stare, I will look at my life and the circumstances that I have been through
And I will say
If I could do it one more time, then I would
Nothing can change my past but I can change my future, my knowledge will be a message in a bottle for generations to come on account of myself, handed down to my kids and their kids and beyond People change, I have changed, and a northern downpour of reality has cleansed my life of a fake mask which was stuck to my childish face, ripped o

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Personal Narrative- Mixed CD Project

“Undercover Hero; the Mix of my Lyfe” is the story of my life from the beginning of high school to the present. So much has changed in my own life over the past four years that I feel like I am a completely different person, a great way to describe the changes and experiences in my life were through music and sound. Being able to feel what I have accomplished in my life and what I have been through over the years through respected artists passionate lyrics has unleashed a new level of storytelling for the great changes and myths in my life. These songs allow my story to be told to a wide variety of people with different tastes in music, in a sense it speaks to many different languages and types of people. The story of my life is that of change, struggle, and plenty of storms before I eventually reach the places of peace and contentment in my life. In the beginning of my high school journey, I struggled to find out what I wanted to be, so naturally I pretended to be plenty of things I was not- living in a lie and neglecting who I really am in order to create an image for myself that I didn’t really want. After awhile I got sick of it and I had to put a stop to it, freeze that act in its tracks. I thought about how numb I had gotten towards live and how I felt like there was no significance to what I’ve done on my life. I just wanted to Live my life, and It was when I became a Christian that I found the remedy for the worn out shell I was calling my life. It was difficult to change and really be myself around people that thought they knew me already, it was like being tricked by my own façade, I had to break away and just live. With a new mentality in my life and a new school year to work with, I focused on changing myself for the better and it was awesome! Now all I want to do it celebrate.

Handwritten Mixed CD Playlist

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Personal Narrative-The Republic of East L.A. summary

The narrator of the story is a man names Cruz Blancarte who is currently a limo driver who likes to observe the world around him and learn about things. In the story, he gives a lot of details about his personal story and life and how they tie into were he is now, and how were he is now effects him as a person. His experiences and beliefs make the story much more in depth and draws people to be sympathetic towards the narrator. New dilmas and the progression of life have probably altered the events of what Cruz has been through in his many jobs and lifestyles. The story gave me ideas on different approaches in writting to tell my story.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Rob Sheffeild, Love is a mix tape... Summary of answers

Rob Sheffeild is the narratpr in the story of his childhood and his passion for Rock n Roll. We learn that he had a love for the genre but was far from actually living out a Rockstar lifestyle, music just became very important to him. Fragments of memory are recovered to tell the story of providing music for the school dance, which wasnt particularly danceing music but rather classi rock that Sheffeild liked. You could feel the authors passion for music in the writting which made it much more personal and well written.

Feig, Paul: KickMe: Adventures in Adolescence. Sumary of answers

Paul Feig is the narrator in story of his childhood which is filled with humiliating moments featuring his name, which was mercilessly made fun of by fellow students in his youth. This story relates to the other articles we read about memory becoming an altered thing in ones mind to make up for forgotten details and learning from new experiences in life. Imagery was established by the detailed information about the Fig Newton commercial that Feig brings up, so it was easy to visually follow the story for me, which was made personal by the authors own life experiences.

Friday, February 20, 2009

"The Meaning of Stories" Summary

"The Meaning of Stories" is about knowing people through knowing who they trully are. The idea that identity is a life story put together by compiled events in ones life such as deep personal experiences, childhood memories, etc. all play a role in who someone really is. The emphasis of these stories lie in how a person's story is developed from birth through old age and how the way that the story is told will decide how others precieve what kind of person he/she is. When people recall memories, we tend to create myths for our audience, letting the event seem much more fantastic than it really was, or making us seem much more heroic. When we do this, we are not neccessarily lieing, but the story is altered by the locating of who we are through challenging or monumentous moments in our lives because we search for who we are as well, and only when we know the significance of our own lives can we trully know ourselves or anyone else. This article relates to the previous article we read about Memories, how they are altered due to new experiences and moments in our lives that cloud over unwanted or insignificant things of the past. When we recall these memories, they are never trully accurate, but what is left may have held or possibly still hold significants.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Hampl, Patricia. "I Could Tell You Stories:Sojourns In The Land Of memory" Summary,page by page

- Writer is speaking in the past tense- "When I was seven...", remembering something. We are bieng shown a memory first, the story is bieng told in the present.

- Emphasis put on "Middle C" key on piano, holding some sort of significance in the writers memory. This significance is unkown even to the writer.
- Relationship is built with a classmate, a girl who sits next to the boy inspires awe in him due to her more advanced skills on the piano. The boy is puzzled by his first metaphor.
- Established a pupil and master relationship witht he girl
- Story snaps back to the present, author realizes that much of what he said was false
- Memories fade and are altered by new experiences, a rewriting of the story reveals the past in more accurate detail.
- We learn that drafts are for before the writer gets involved in a peice personally, it allows for connection between the writer and the memory.
- The work findsits own subject, the writer is a tool used for the memory to travel through times
-desires at the time change what one remembers in the present
- As we remember, we struggle to find truth, which is why memories arent always true.
- the beauty of memory lies within rendering detail, you become a story teller and an essay writer.
- If you fail to record your history, then it never really happened, through memory you get to live your life twice, going back to experiences to further sharpen the details and remember the truth of what was past.