Last Blog Ever: Advertisement

If I were to make a television ad for When You Are Engulfed in Flames I would make it appealing to the older crowd and young adults.  How I would start out the ad is by possibly having a short clip of Sedaris when he was younger, a more serious part of a story.  From there have it build up as he is getting older, still using the parts of his stories when he is more serious.  Then, all the sudden it will be abruptly interrupted by one of his sarcastic comments that will make the audience laugh.  Since this novel really takes place throughout Sedaris' whole life, it would be very appropriate to include clips that show him as a young boy and clips that show what Sedaris has grown up to be.  After the sarcastic comment, that comes from one of his short stories of course, I would continue with the comedy.  Even though the stories about Sedaris do not really match up, I do think that there is a theme among them.  This theme would probably be how Sedaris has grown as a person because of his experiences and the people he has known and met throughout his life.  I would try to somehow portray this theme into the commercial too, that way people would not think that it is just a bunch of pointless stories thrown into a book.  It is kind of hard to explain this though, and I do not think that it would appeal to many people if they did not think there was a message or theme, at least it would not to me.  I would then continue to show clips of his stories, but cutting them off so it does not reveal too much.  Since Sedaris does use dirty words in this novel, I think it would be pretty funny to incorporate them into the commercial, but every time someone were to say a curse word it would be beeped out.  That way it would be made clear that it is a book for a mature audience, but at the same time it would add a little humor into it.  I would make sure that it is like a build up and the guy narrating it would have a deep and intense sounding voice.  At the very end of it would flash the picture of the book with flames rising from the bottom of the screen.  The deep voiced man would say the title like it is leaving a clif hanger.  I know that this book is not that intense, but you got to make it appeal to the twenty to forty year olds.

What highschool has taught me..

Show school spirit: Although this may not seem very important, high school has showed me that it is.  I have connected with a lot of people by being goofy and showing spirit.  Without this I would have never been able to branch out and be my weird, crazy self.

Always have teamwork and dedication:  I have played in multiple sports throughout my years in highschool, but my swim team has showed me more than I ever expected.  Not only are these people some of the most talented highschool students I have ever met, they also have some of the best personalities also.  Most of them are very funny and unique.  They support everyone on the team while also competing for their own life time best.  They have left such a large impact on my life when it comes to dedication and teamwork.  I never knew I could get so close to a team.

Be creative: As Mr. Becksfort would always say, do not use other people's work creative commons is the way to go, I apply this to my own art work.  My teachers have influenced my artwork in certain ways.  I study and look at other people's art work to help me with ideas, but I never copy.  My creativity has flourished in many ways because of this type of advice.

Be independent:  I know that friends will come and go and there is no way to control relationships in life.  Because of this I find it very important to be independent.  There is no one else that you should ever rely on more than yourself.  Next year in college I will litterally have no one there except for myself, therefore it will be up to me to make new friends, force myself to study, ect.  I will no longer have my parents telling me what to do.  I will no longer have my friends since first grade there with me. 

Make new friends: During junior high I had a set group of friends, I never thought that I would need to branch out and meet new people, even in this small community.  After being in highschool I have learned that it is very important to make new friendships with all different types of people.  I no longer have one set group of friends, but instead I have a large amount of people that I have become super close to from different grades and even different schools.  I know that I will be set when it comes to making friends in college.

Why the Author Wrote the Story

David Sedaris has many stories to tell, they can range from extremely important to dumb little stories he remembers while growing up.  We all enjoy expressing stories from our past, things that make us laugh, things that remind us of love, and I think that Sedaris had the same exact reasons while writing this novel.  Most of the stories tend to focus on a certain person and how they have left an impact on his life; some characters are focused on more than others, such as his friend Hugh, while others may be mentioned only in one chapter.  I think that this book was meant to be dedicated to the people that surround him.  It is almost like a "thank you" to these people, even though sometimes he makes fun of them in certain ways.  That is just what adds the humor to his stories though.  Without his dry sarcasm and humor, it would not be the same and the impact these people had on his life would definitely not show as well.  Not only is this a way that Sedaris says thanks to his friends and family, I also think it is similar to a diary.  It is not a secret diary where it is not supposed to be expressed to anyone, it is more of a way that Sedaris can write about his day, past, or whatever.  I think in a way that Sedaris is trying to connect to his audience through similar stories and events.  He seems to be a normal guy that just has a way of explaining

Society Reflection

What is interesting about this novel is that it is already reality.  It is simple stories that are told in a way to alter perspective of life.  With the sarcastic tone, it is Sedaris' way of lightening the mood on somewhat important issues, such as smoking.  Sedaris notices little things about himself that also can describe his personality.  Such as the second chapter that is called Keeping Up depicts his relationship with his good friend Hugh.  He tells a story of when he is so excited to see a prairie dog for the first time ever, and he has to drag Hugh along with him.  Hugh is to the point and wastes no time, therefore he finds the prairie dogs in the zoo while Sedaris is chasing after him.  Other stories encounter relationships that Sedaris has with random people such as his trashy babysitter or his weird neighbors.  He hits home with depicting the average, middle class American life growing up.  Every family has their stories about life lessons and ironic situations, Sedaris just knows how to make it funny.  Most of the stories are things that everyday people go through such as starting up conversations with random people and getting to know their story, whether you really wanted to or not.

Lunch Date

As I may repeat myself for the third time, this novel is nonfiction, therefore the most recurring character is David Sedaris himself.  He would be the perfect person to take out for a meal because of his dry humor, fluency in sarcasm, and his memories and stories that range from his early childhood until his present life.  I love people who can make me laugh, so I am 100% positive that someone who can make me laugh from reading can certainly make me laugh in person.  Through his memories, I can tell that Sedaris is a very down to earth kind of dude.  He likes simple things, like he says in one of the chapters that he can fix something himself or call a repairman.  Therefore we would probably eat a simple lunch, such as hotdogs or hamburgers and it would definitely be at lunchtime.  He is worthy of my time because I enjoy hearing stories that are worth telling, and he has definitely got those.  He is able to create something funny out of really nothing which amazes me.

Characters

I guess I picked a pretty hard book to do these blog assignments on because it is so different.  The stories are all different, including a lot of the characters that fall into these stories, but the one thing they have in common is they are revolved around David Sedaris himself.  We, the readers, get to know and understand Sedaris a little better with each story and each chapter through the book.  It is easier to get a grip on his type of humor through the tales that he tells.  What makes these stories worth being told is that they are so relatable to normal people.  David Sedaris is really just an average guy with a really good sense of humor, therefore people can relate to his stories, such as his very last chapter called The Smoking Section.  That chapter is dedicated to his tough journey trying to quit smoking.  Many people have this same exact issue that they are dealing with in their life, David Sedaris's humor helps lighten the mood with the people who are also dealing with this problem.  As much as I hate to admit it, because this character drives me up the wall with his complaining, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye reminds me a little bit of Sedaris with his strong sarcastic tone.

If it were a movie...

My book is not exactly the easiest book to make a movie of, but it could also be because I have not finished it yet.  Each chapter is a different story coming from the authors life and past experiences.  This book is nonfiction, therefore these are all true stories.  I was thinking if I were to make a movie out of this novel I would make the story line more choppy, showing different parts of the authors life on and off from past and present.  Now I would not be able to make this movie strictly off of this novel since, so far, most of the stories do not have relevance to one another.  Therefore I think it would be good to find, or possibly even make up a connection, between each story to lead to an over all theme or message.  Again, I could not go exactly by the novel.  David Sedaris is a pretty funny guy, so an actor that would play his part would have to be funny, such as Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, or Will Ferrell.  There are many other characters throughout his story, I do not know these characters personalities as well yet so I can not exactly name people who could play the roles of people such as his mother, and friend's mother, Patsy, ect.

When You Are Engulfed In Flames

The book that I chose is called When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris.  This is a nonfiction book that is about the author's past experiences; each chapter is a short story or essay.  The reason why I chose this book is because people have hyped up this author as being hilarious.  I saw an story of him on Sunday Morning where they talk about his novels and his type of humor.  Since I have always thought that it is nearly impossible for a novel to make me laugh, I was curious to read some of his work.  He has quite a few books out, but this one was the one that fit all the requirements. I hope I end up liking it!

SRP ANALYSIS

Well I am definitely glad to say that i have completed the senior research paper, the one that we have been dreading since freshman year.  To be honest it really was not as bad as I thought it would be and that is because of all the deadlines kept me from procrastinating.  Even though, at the time, I did not like turning in a introduction, then another 6 pages, then another 6 pages, ect, it really did help me at the end.  I did not have to spend my whole weekend working on my paper because it was pretty much already done.  Something that I could have improved on my paper is probably my transition and ending paragraph.  I know that I got a lot of facts, information, and analysis down but my writing has never been a good flow.  I have always had trouble with the flow of sentences in general, it is definitely something that I am going to have to look out for next year.  What I did well was that I stayed organized, and on track.  Also I think that I understood the novel very well by the end of the paper.  My book definitely does not fit in the easy sit down, read, and fully understand category, so I am impressed that I was able to dig deep and figure out Arundhati Roy's message.  If I were to redo something, it probably would have to be doing a better editing job.  I am not going to lie but towards the end I started to get a tad lazy, but not too bad!  I wish I would have paid better attention to what the articles said because they had some really good information that I decided to skip out on; I mean I didn't want to write another 8 pages!  For next year students, I suggest that they just keep up with the workload, all those extra points are really important to the third quarter grade and it helps prepare you for the final paper, leading to the whole fourth quarter grade.  It is not that bad, just have fun with it, enjoy your book and enjoy writing it because that is what is going to make your paper good.

Summer Job

This is me and my friend Jane last summer when we life guarded at the mariemont pool.  It is a pretty fun job for the most part besides having to vacuum the pool with a really old vacuum cleaner that takes an hour to assemble.  At the pool I would guard, teach swim lessons, and I was also a swim coach for the swim team.  I normally would work 6 days out of the week for about 6 hours.  The pay is pretty decent also.  It was really nice because the pool is right down the street from me so I could just walk there whenever I had to work.  The best part about working at the pool is when it rains and we can all sit around and just play cards and chill all day and still get paid.  I get really tan also whenever I work at the pool during the summer, unfortunately it is a really ugly one piece tan with a big dark circle on my back.  I am definitely going to miss working here next summer since I will be in Georgia during the summer but I think I am going to try to find a guarding job at UGA.  I also worked at the Quarter Bistro and I babysit a lot.  That is how I have been surviving during the school year.

Photopeach Sonnet 55

Sonnet 55 William Shakespeare on PhotoPeach

whutup

concentration

In my ap studio art class, I will be taking the exam in May.  These exams are different than most of the ap class exams.  I will be turning in twenty-four pieces that I have made sometime within my high school career.  Twelve of them will be categorized in what is called bret pieces.   These have no connection to each other what so ever.  The other twelve indeed do have to follow a similar theme and relate to each other in some way.  My concentration is based off of flaws that we find in society and how I view these flaws.  Right now I have to come up with a new piece every week and it is very difficult to think of an idea and be able to execute it correctly, while making sure it is good enough to even turn in.  The first two pieces I have created for my concentration is a skeleton smoking a cigarette and a big building polluting the air with smoke.  I am hoping that as I go along my ideas will come to me and I will be able to make decent art work.

Xtreme Home Workout

Yes this is the one and only P90X.  I am trying this intense workout to get in tip top shape for spring break and the summer.  Now, I always thought that home workouts were stupid; all you need is the wonderful outdoors and maybe a mat to whip out some crunches on.  Not with this workout.  It's main focus is based on the idea of "muscle confusion."  Meaning, there is a specific order you must follow with the discs while working out.  Right before the body gets used to working out the same routine over and over, p90x switches it up with different discs containing new workouts that hit muscles that have not been used.  I am now on my fourth week out of the full thirteen weeks.  Results are almost noticeable the very first week.  Now I definitely have ways to go since there are still over nine weeks left for me, but I know this works.  Besides the work out, you must follow the nutrition guide.  p90x sets it up day by day, phase one two and three, recipes, and anything you need to know to assure yourself you are eating healthy.  At the beginning they have you eating mostly all proteins and hardly any carbs, but by the end of the process, it flips and carbs seems to be the major intake.  It can be hard to follow since I have sudden urges for certain sweets that are just too hard to resist.  Over all, I do think that it is a great workout and I am excited to stick with it and see and feel the ending results.

The New Generation of LUV

A skit from SNL that is poking fun at our generations new outlook on love and sex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o

As we all know back in the old days, women were not even allowed to choose their own husband, clearly this is unfair.  But we can not say the years of 2000 have been any better.  Love no longer seems to be an important factor in a relationship.  Of course we all search for our "soul mate," but family values and the moral importance of keeping a relationship together has seemed to fade among recent years, considering about 50% of marriages end up in a divorce.  Most men (not all of course) and some women only are looking for one thing in a relationship, and that is sex.  This digital short from SNL shows the humorous side of our generations construed thought of love.

Rudy puts the RUDE in Rudy

This is my dog and his name is Rudy.  Not going to lie, he is actually really weird and acts like a little princess, just look at the picture.  He follows my mom around everywhere she goes.  The worst part is that he barks constantly whenever my mom or dad leaves the house and when they come back.  It is actually really annoying because normally I am trying to take a nap or something of the sort (since I tend to take daily after school naps because I am lazy).  I am really mean when I am woken up by something such as a little 7 pound dog.  Minus his uncontrollable barking and his tendencies to skid away whenever you try to touch him, because he is a big baby, he is actually really cute.  Steph Allen was talking about how cute he is except he is a little b-word.  Sadly this is the truth and he needs to stop being a little girl and get over the fact that people are going to want to pet him.  Anyways, he is turning five in July which is pretty stellar I guess.  This picture was taken while my dad was trying to go on a bike ride with him in a broken basket down in Florida.  I guess you can say that my family is kind of special, especially when they call my dog my "little brother".  So in conclusion, I have a cute dog but he is a pain in the butt even though my parents are obsessed with him. 

College is Around the Corner



As we know, it is second semester; the time when all seniors decide they are done with high school and no longer have to accel in their studies.  As much as we like to tell ourselves that our grades do not matter anymore, we still have not given up on that feeling to succeed. For me, I am exhausted from all these years of school and all I want to do is just take a break since I will be starting college this August.  Unfortunately I feel as if second semester is just as hard if not harder than any other year of my high school career.  Teachers should just give it a rest and bring down our stress level.  Seniors have many other things to worry about unlike most of the other grades.  I am all set for my plan next year, unlike many who are still undecided about what college they will be attending next year, but I still feel like I need to try hard.  Soon enough my bags will be packed and I will be heading out of here.  I am really excited to get out of Ohio, partly because I hate the weather, but mostly because I am ready to meet new people and start a new chapter of my life.  I have stayed in Mariemont a little too long.

Winter Wonderland

clear roads in Cinci after only a couple days since storm

This past winter there has seem to be a shortage of snow, but as soon as the 2011 winter hit January, a rush of snow followed shortly after.  A huge storm coming from the south seemed to drown most cities in Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  Fortunately for Cincinnati it did not seem to effect us at all.  As my family traveled down to Atlanta, it was different then the visit a month ago; there was snow and lots of it.  I am used to going down there and the weather being atleast twenty degrees above Ohio's horrible chilly temperature, but again, this time was different; it was just as cold and even more icy.  Unlike states up North, states like Georgia do not have the right supplies to deal with such a snow storm.  Roads still had a slick and thick sheet of ice covering the pavement, making it nearly impossible to manuver a car safely.  The lack of salt and total of eight plow trucks caused the lack of clean up.  Not only did it make it hard for people to get places, it also caused many schools to close for a whole week.  Crazy.  It is funny to relate these schools to the ones in Ohio, where we drive through inches of snow just to get to school like it is no big deal.  With only two snowdays on schedule, I am hopeful there will be more storms to come!

New Years Resolution

For many of us, we decide we are going to kick a bad habit it to the curb once the new year comes rolling around the corner, but how long do these resolutions tend to last? At least for me, I would not be surprised if it was a one week change.  As I went to the gym the first week since January 1, I noticed a tremendous amount of people at the gym, it was jammed pack.  Then I went again this week, funny thing is, it was not jammed pack, and I could easily get around the parking lot and to the desired machine whenever I wanted. It are simple things like these that show how hard it is to break a habit.  Scientists from the article show that breaking a bad habit is much harder because "'You're fighting against the power of an immediate reward'".  Not only do people try to lose weight or just simply hit the gym to stay healthy, others may try to quit smoking or to stop eating such bad food.  Come on, lets not make nearly impossible tasks for ourselves to just be disappointed. I think the whole new years resolution is silly, and if you were planning on changing something about yourself you should have been doing it before.  There is always that same lame excuse of "next year I will..." Stop complaining and get to it now!  Show scientists that you can trick your brain for the better.


http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/01/03/new_years_resolutions_brain_can_sabotage_success/

Snooki's New Years Ball Drop and Her Excessive Amount of Fame

We all heard that Snooki, also known as Nicole Polizzi, was planning with MTV to be dropped from New York Times Square's famous ball that they always use to ring in the new year; this plan fell a little too short. Since MTV did not get the "okay" to do this, they got denied as soon as their plan was exposed.  The people who backed up the traditional celebration in Times Square thought that it took away the real tradition by throwing a newly famous reality star into the mix.  So, MTV took Snooki back to the real Jersey Shore and did their show there on New Years Eve.  That is what confuses me the most, how can people on a dirty reality television show become so popular among America?  I will not lie, the show is quite entertaining, but not because we find these people as good role models or perhaps their fashion sense, it's because they create entertainment by embarrassing themselves.  Snooki and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast make thousands just to appear on a red carpet event, it is a little ridiculous the amount of fame and money they receive for being trashy.  What exactly is their true talents?  To me, and most likely many other people, they do not really seem to have any and that MTV has made them seem to be higher than the rest of society when in reality they are not.  This construes my idea of fame and who really deserves the appraisal.  Whether Snooki is dropping out of a ball on New Years or she is fist pumping in the club with a drink in her hand, there is no talent involved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101230/people_nm/us_snooki