Shrek

Shrek deviates from other fairytales because the princess, Fiona, isn't your typical princess. Fiona is strong and brave. Shrek is a big ogre and most princes are tall thin and hansome

Lightswitch

There are nights when I am so tired I can't even get up to turn off the lightswitch. Why does it have to be such a hard task to get up out of your comfy bed and turn off the light. I wish it was right next to my bed. I know I sound lazy but everytime I fall asleep and wake back and realize I never turned out the light it just makes my sleepiness go away. When I get up out of bed and get cold from uncovering the covers it awakens me and  it's hard to go back to sleep. I think I'm going to invest in the light where you can just clap and it goes on and off. My sleep would never be interupted and life would be so much easier!

Excercise 2

In the introduction to "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to enhance your writing, and help you write a well written paper. Specifically, Graff and Brirkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer you an alternative to the way you write your papers. As the authors themselves put it, "Working with these templates can give you an immediate sense of how to engage in the kinds of critical thinking you are required to do at the college level and in the vocational and public spheres beyond." Although some people believe that they can't show their creative side if they use templates, Graff and Birkenstein insist that once you begin to feel comfortable with the templates in this book, you will be able to improvise creatively on them to fit new situations and purposes and find others in their reading.

I agree. In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend seem like they can really improve your wrinting. For instance, I did excercise one, and just from the basic outline it made my paragraph sound better then if I didn't use the template. In addition, it helped me think of better ideas to support my main idea. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that it can be considered plagarism. Yet I would argue that it's  not plagarism it's a basic structure that everyone uses. It's not like your copying word from word, adn if you are you would have to cite where you got your information from. Overall, then, I believe that the templates will work and that Graff and Birkenstein's views are correct -an important point to make given.

They say, I say

1) You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches, and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. Martin is saying that you need to use direct action frist before they even talk about negotiating.

2) It is unfortunate that the demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, it is even more uinfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative. He is saying yes it's sad that we have to do these demonstrations in your city, but maybe if you gave the African-Americans more rights this wouldn't even be happening.

3) You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extremem. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. In the beginning he was disappointed, but then he thought about it and he is in the middle. He wants to be nice, but also he has so much anger and hatred built up inside. So he doesn't really care what they think.

4) If you were to see them slap and kick old Negro mean and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food becasue we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department. Basically, he doesn't like the police department, and what they do to African-Americans.

Lowering the drinking age

Everyone likes to enjoy every once in a while, so why not make the drinking age 18?  People that are under the age of 21 get caught for underage drinking everday, if the age was lowered there would be less people being charged. There a more important things for worry about like murder and rape. If you are old enough to fight for your country you should be old enough to drink a beer.

Thank god for chairs

I sit in the library in a hard, old, wooden chair. Right now if I could choose a chair to sit in, it would be a big recliner chair where I could just lay back and type this paper. If you really think about it, life wouldnt be the same without chairs. Everyone would have to stand around all the time with aching knees and legs with no choice but to sit on the floor. In school everyone would have to just sit on the floor, no matter how dirty it is. We should all be thankful for the little things in life, like chairs. Without them we would be even more uncomfortable then sitting in this hard wooden chair. At least it has back support. On the floor you would have no support whatsoever. Thank god for chairs!

The Greatest Generation

The elderly are more than just "old people" to me. It makes me frustrated when people are impatient with the elderly, everyone will one day reach that part in their life where they need help walking or grocery shopping.  Making fun of them is just like making fun of yourself years down the road. The are the greatest generation because they cherish the little things in life, like going to church, buying something for their grandchildren, and talking about what it was like when they were growing up.  My grandmas both love to  take me shopping, make me dinner, talk to me on the phone. Neither one of them complains about their age because they know they both have lived a successful fullfilled life and they wouldnt change anything about it.  Thats what makes them so great.

I believe in laughter

Laughter can cover up embarrassment,  make your abs hurt, make your cheeks red, and make your bladder weak. When something embarrassing happens to myself I just make a joke of it and laugh. It's amazing how embarrassed you can be but no one knows when you just laugh and act like everything is fine. In the article it says that "the ability to laugh at yourself is a great gift", it lets you easily entertain yourself which the majority of people would have to pay to be entertained. Laughing creates memories and friendships. It is important to be thankful for the ability to laugh because some people aren't capable of it.

Love is trust and faith

Natasha was a gymnast, she wanted to look perfect. Her diets consisted of an apple(or half) a day, a cereal diet, the sacred heart diet, the perscription drugs, and the laxatives.  The rest of the gymnasts were dieting too, but not to this extreme. They knew if they were to force Natasha to get help then her dreams would be destroyed. Natasha couldnt overcome her disease and she ended up trying to commit suicide. I believe the saying love is trust and faith because if you truly love someone you will do whats best for them. The best thing for the gymnasts to do was to tell someone what was going on with  Natasha. We have doctors and psychiatrists so that when we are mentally, physically, and emotionally sick they can tend to our needs and make us normal again.

Helen Keller response

After reading Helen Keller's narrative it affected my view on her because I never knew how thankful she was for little things like having the ability to know what something is. For seven years Helen walked around blind, not knowing what was going on and now knowing what she was touching and be surrounded by. Her teacher took the time to give her the ability to see things with her hands. Helen was so thankful for this feeling and she had something to look forward to each day, it brought her joy. It makes me appreciate the little things in life like being able to see and her and have all of my senses. Everyone should take the time to appreciate nature and the little things around us that we don't pay attention to everyday, one day we might not be able to see, hear, smell, or feel it, so its important to cherish it now. Helen didn't let being blind stop her from exploring the world. She found a solution to her problem and she kept going on with her life.

what i'm good at

One of the things I'm good at his lacrosse,  I've been playing since seventh grade and i love it. I've improved so much over the years. I also am good at reading and writing. I don't find time to read as much as I would like. Since elementary school I have always enjoyed writing about different things. I have the ability to watch children and help people. I have been babysitting for years now. I babysit for four different families on the regular and sometimes I randomly babysit for someone for a couple days or nights. I love playing with kids, especially my little niece that is four months old. Helping people is something I love to do. When I help someone I feel so good afterwards and I hope the other person does too. I always give people my advice, I might want to be a pyschologist when I'm older so helping people at my age is a good start. I also have the ability to run, I have always been one of the faster girls on the lacrosse team. In the moment I hate running but when it's all over with I feel so refreshed and in shape. I also have the ability to be nice and understand what other people are feeling. Being nice to people makes a good reputation for yourself and in the long run will help you throughout life. When i see someone everyone laughing at someone that's sitting alone, or getting bullied I am the person that sticks up for them and feels their pain. My abilities make me who I am today and help build my personality so I hope as I get older I develop more abilities.

Fireplace

On cold winter days I love to snuggle up on my couch next to the warm, quiet fireplace. I usually fall asleep if I've had a long hard day at school or work. Fireplaces remind me of Christmas when stockings are hung above it and Santa Clause comes down the chimney and lands in the ashy fireplace. In the late 17th century was when fireplaces were first invented. Not soon after that the Santa Clause coming down the chimney theory was told across the world. Today, thousands of Christmas story books are about Santa Clause coming down your chimney and into your fireplace. The picture books especially are the ones that have the families cuddled around the fireplace looking for warmth or Santa Clause being stuck in the chimney or even Santa Clause putting presents under the tree with the fireplace in the background. Fireplaces remind me a lot of my childhood and Christmas.

When  I was a little girl, every year on Christmas Eve night I wouldn't be able to sleep. I would stay up until I heard the reigndeers on the roof  or Santa getting stuck in the chimney. Never did I see Santa or the reigndeer, and now I know why.  It creates memories for you and your parents and gives you something to laugh and talk about. I've heard so many different stories about when children stopped believing and how it happened, and each one is different.  It's amazing that one fireplace can create so many different stories.

My unicorn and i

Over the summer I want to New Jersey on a lacrosse trip. While I was there I ran into Giggles, she is a unicorn. Who would of thought that while I was in the middle of lacrosse game a unicorn would run up to me! Everyone was startled and just stood there.  It's one thing if a deer runs on the field, but a unicorn, I thought they were just imaginary? The Unicorn ended up walking off the field onto the sidelines, she layed there and giggled throughout the whole game, that's why my team decided to name her Giggles. The last twenty minutes of our game went very slow, everyone was excited to rush to the sidelines to observe the unicorn that happened to appear during our game. After the game we sat on the sidelines just looking at this beautiful unicorn just wondering when she was going to run off. As we were getting ready to leave the unicorn started crying, it was going to take a lot of convincing to get our coach and bus driver to let us bring the unicorn back to our hotel. Mission accomplished. We were on our way back to the hotel with Giggles. It was time to leave in the morning and we had no idea what we were going to with the unicorn! None of our parents would ever consider letting a unicorn come home with us.  Giggles knew she would have no where to go, she cried and cried. Giggles slept on the bed with me and my friend, I'm not quite sure how that worked out but I was exhausted. I woke up the next morning and Giggles was not there. I asked my teammates where she was and if they saw her since they were all up and they had no idea what I was talking about. It ended up being a dream but it was fun while it lasted!

The lost earring

I have loved jewelry since I was a little girl. My favorite piece of jewelry would have to be an earring. With three older sisters I would always borrow their big hoop earrings and wear them around the house trying to act like a teenager. Sometimes I would forget to take the earrings off when I went outside. My sisters would find me outside running around with their earrings they just happened to wear that night and they would make me take them off right away. My mom ended up getting me some of my own but they just weren't the same as my sisters so I kept on wearing theirs. One day my neighbor and I were playing outside and of course I had one of my sisters earrings on, every so often I would feel my ear to make sure they were both still there but when I went to feel my ear, one of them was missing!  These happened to be my sisters favorite pair, her diamonds. My neighbor and I searched and searched untill it was pitch black. Luckily, my sister wasn't going to be home untill the morning! I searched all the next morning then finally the morning sun was shimmering down on the dirt where my sisters earring layed. It was a miracle, and my sister never found out!  From that day on  I never wore any of my sisters earrings again.

Who are you?

My name is Maggie and I'm going to tell you a little about me and what goes on in my life. When it comes to dreams I don't have anything to fascinating to talk about. I rarely remember my dreams when I wake up. The dreams I do remember are almost always based on what I was thinking about that day, all day. If I was thinking about a person or incident then them or it will most likely play some role in my dream. I have a lot of goals that I would like to meet in my life such as the traditional, going to college, getting a good job, getting married, having a family. I also have more personal goals such as to not make enemies, start new friendships, stay close with the people that have always been there for me, go on vacations and do exciting things that most people don't do in their everyday lives, never change for anyone but myself, etc. Goals are very important to me, they are something I live up to in my everyday life and they keep me strong and confident. I've had a lot of fun, crazy, adventurous, and scary experiences. One of my most memorable experiences was when I went to Hawaii. It is such a beautiful state and there is so much to explore there, it was a great time. I went with my friend Taylor and her father  in 8th grade. We got the chance to walk up a volcano, go under water in a submarine, and learn about the background of World War II. One thing that really interests me is lacrosse. I've been playing since I was in 7th grade. I became a captain in 8th grade and now I'm a captain as a senior. I love competition and making new friendships and bonds with my team. It relieves stress and can also get my mind off of things. In the future I hope I go to college and finally discover what I want to do as my career. I want to like my job and not dread going to work everyday. I also hope to have a good, healthy relationships that leads to marriage, and eventually start a family of my own one day!