Found Poem

Found Poem

Lakeshore teams extend seasons,
Here's what the poets are saying,
Save money and still eat better,
A do-it-yourself guide,
To perform New Year's Eve show,
Police Find Man stabbed in the back with steak knife,
Man in serious condition,
Just fun? Or something to fear?
Niagara Want to be no-kill zone.

Headings from Niagara Falls Review

Getting Even

Novel Outline

Outline: Dexter and Victoria were the perfect couple. He was the captain of the basketball team and she was the captain of the cheerleading team. It was the night of Prom and Dexter wanted it to be perfect. The last slow song of the night he proposed to Victoria. She said yes right away and jumped in his arms. It was the perfect ending to prom; they grabbed their jackets and started walking back to their hotel room. Dexter decided to take a short cut through the park. As they we were walking they heard something in the bushes but kept walking. Victoria yelled and a man ran towards them with a knife. He swung the knife at Dexter; it briefly punctured across his throat. Dexter dropped to the ground leaving his fiancée helpless. Dexter awakes in a hospital bed, and is told Victoria was brutally murdered and raped. Dexter turns into a very dark person and is seeking revenge.

Character Description:

Dexter: Dexter is 18 years old. He stands 6 foot tall, with a fairly solid build. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He is a very athletic guy, heavily involved with basketball. He does plan to go to university to continue playing basketball. Dexter is a very caring person. He loves his girlfriend very much, and is always trying to make her happy.

Victoria: Victoria is 18 years old. She is a slim girl, who is relatively short. She has brown hair with green eyes. She loves her high school and is the captain of the cheerleading team. Victoria wants to go to university to become a nurse.

Jame (killer): Jame is 25 years old. He is 6 foot three inches tall, and weighs around 220 pounds. Overall Jame is a relativity big guy. Jame is a very dark and mean person. Jame had a very difficult childhood. Both his parents were very abusive towards each other and also him. Jame has never gotten over his childhood and now takes it out on others.

Setting:

The story is taking place in New York City. It is June of 2007, and there is perfect spring weather. The main scenes of the novel are the prom hall, the hospital, and the city.

POV:

The story will be told from a 3^rd person perspective. It will be written in present tense, except for when past tense is needed.

Chapter Outlines:

Chapter 1: We are introduced to Dexter and Victoria at the school. There is a basketball game, and we become familiar with the couple.

Chapter 2: It is the next day at school and the date and location for prom has been established.

Chapter 3: Dexter talks to his parents about proposing to Victoria. Dexter is excited and purchases a ring.

Chapter 4: Dexter and Victoria go buy their clothes for prom. They then go out for dinner and talk about their relationship.

Chapter 5: It is the day of prom and Dexter is very nervous. Dexter also went and got a hotel room for after prom.

Chapter 6: Dexter and Victoria arrive at prom. At the last slow song Dexter proposes to Victoria.

Chapter 7!: Victoria says yes to marrying Dexter. They decide to make their way back to the hotel room. As they are walking through the park they get attacked by a man. Dexter wakes up at the hospital clueless. The nurse comes and explains that Victoria was killed. Dexter suffered head damage so has to stay in the hospital for a week. Some visions come back to him.

Chapter 8: Dexter is released from the hospital, and using the things he remembered in the hospital he is looking for the man who killed Victoria.

Chapter 9: Dexter goes through tough times trying to find this man. He gets in trouble with other gang members, and killed some of the members on the way. He finds out Victoria’s killers name though.

Chapter 10: Dexter finds Jame (Victoria’s Killer). Before Dexter killed him he asked why he killed her. Jame explained his story to Dexter. Dexter felt bad but it made no difference, Dexter killed him.

Chapter 11: Dexter goes back to the field he took Victoria on their first date, and commits suicide.

Journal #13

What do you think about the writer's lifestyle? How much of it appeals to you? Which aspects least appeal to you? Can you envision yourself doing the job? Describe how writing might either fit into your lifestyle or become your lifestyle in the future.

I think that if you’re a great writer and can live successfully with your writing then it would be amazing. Although I think it would be hard to live off just writing unless you wrote a number one seller. Writing is great, especially when you’re writing with your own imagination. I’m the lifestyle probably seems easier then it is, but if you a good writer it seems like the only thing you have to worry about is making certain deadlines, and the rest is your free will to say what you want. I would think that at times it can become a very stressful lifestyle considering your deadlines, and the pressure of writing of a top seller. Other than that the lifestyle seems to be pretty amazing if you can live off it.

To be honest I think I could enjoy the lifestyle of a writer. The whole idea of travelling and experiencing different things in life then writing about it seems to be that it would lead into a great life. The big thing in life I already can’t deal with well now is stress. I’m sure being a writer there is a lot of stress tied into your life for many reasons. Maybe worrying about hitting certain deadlines and worrying about if your novel or your piece of text is going to be good enough of to sell, or even be published to begin with. There are parts of me that could envision myself in this job because I like to write, but then there are parts of me thinking I couldn’t. I’m sure if became a good writer I could, but after a while I think I would get bored and run out of ideas. Right now thinking about it, I am not sure how it would fit in my lifestyle. At the moment I want a career in sports, specifically basketball. I guess I wouldn’t mind getting into writing about basketball, maybe a sports journalist. At one point I was thinking of becoming of an announcer, but that idea has faded over time. I am open to all ideas, so if writing makes its way into my lifestyle when I’m older I won’t complain.

Journal #9

The world is a different place than it was prior to the shootings in Montreal, Columbine, and any number of other places. How much do you pay attention to violent issues in the media? How safe do you feel in school? What suggestions do you have for finding our way (as a society) to a more peaceful state? Do you have any thoughts, comments, opinions or suggestions about how the situation at Stamford on October 14, 2009 was handled?

Our media today is full of negativity such as violent issues. If you pay attention almost all the stories in the news are about something bad. I can’t say I follow our media on a day to say basis. I do find I am aware of some of the violent issues going on because my mother always informs them to me and tells me to be careful. At the school I do find it to be a safe place. They put a lot of stress on the safety of the students and this makes the atmosphere of the school comfortable. Although after hearing stories about violence happening in other schools it does open my eyes a little. I understand that things could go wrong, and there are bad people out there, so technically something could happen at the school.

The day Stamford collegiate had its bomb threat I was at home sick. I was sitting on my couch with my Macbook. I happened to log into my facebook and a friend had told me the school was on lockdown and explained the situation to me. My first reaction was that I needed to get to the school quickly to make sure my little brother was okay. My brother is autistic so I was worried he would be reacting poorly to the situation. So I called my mom at work and explained what happened, she told me to be careful and call her when I’m with my brother. I ran to school and I wasn’t aloud in the building, I was told to wait outside till the lockdown was over. Finally the bell rung and I came into the school and immediately started looking for my brother. When I found him I made sure he was alright and then called my mother.

From my point of view it seemed like school handled the situation in a proper manner. I mean they did make me wait outside during the lockdown when it was freezing cold out. I understand that’s all apart of standard procedure though. I don’t understand why they would keep everyone in the school for a bomb threat though. If someone was going to blow up the school, I think they should get all the kids out to safety. I’m sure they have their reasoning behind the situation though.

Journal # 12

Well, what a start to grade 12. I can officially say I have gotten off to a bad start. Not completely though, I have managed to join the volleyball team late, and I decided to coach the junior and senior girls basketball team. I told myself going into grade 12 that I wasn’t going to take on and get involved with too many sports, that didn’t happen. For some reason I just cant keep away, or maybe it is just because I can’t say “no” to people. I mean I didn’t have to play volleyball and coach the girls but I was asked to, and I said yes. I thought I could handle the sports and school at the same time, I guess I was wrong. Once again AJ Howard has dug himself into a hole full of homework that needs to be done. There is no one to blame but myself with this, I have struggled with this all my life. I am not sure why I put my homework aside and worry about my sports. My parents like to tell me that it is laziness, maybe this is true. I do find myself tired day in and day out, mentally and physically exhausted. This doesn’t make things better; it usually follows with me being completely stressed out not knowing where to start. Then when I finally find myself getting caught up more work is assigned, or my girlfriend and I are fighting. Something happens to bring more stress upon myself.

As to my parents calling my lazy, I can somewhat agree with them, but at the same time its very hard to finish assignments when your completely drained. This is just the beginning, its only November I’m terrified. Senior basketball is about to start, which means practice every morning at 7 am. This also brings the majority of my stress, this is my last year at highscool and I plan on playing university basketball. I need to have an excellent season and put a lot of effort into this basketball season. I am already trying to find methods so that I can have an A level season, but also an A level on the report card. The main thing I like to thing is I’m very persistent; I am not the type of person to give up. So I can say I am trying to do my best in each class, although in most cases it does not seem that way. I have dug myself in a hole, and I am trying to find the quickest and most effective way to get out of it.

Journal # 10

Reflect upon your past experience with poetry, as well as your idea of what poetry is. How useful, in your opinion, is the study of poetry? How open minded are you about our study of poetry?

In the past English classes I have found that poetry went by very past, and was not focused on as everything else. I have always enjoyed the poetry aspect of English, although I may not finish with the highest mark in the class, it is a part of English I highly enjoy. With poetry I find that you can put a lot of emotion in to it, no matter what you are writing about. I find poetry a lot more creative, and It is more pleasurable to write a poem. The rhyming and rhythm that is involved can be very challenging, but if you can put all the right words together it can sound beautiful. I find poetry very time consuming to write as well. I tend to find that you need a specific topic with a lot of background knowledge in order for the poem to work the way you want it to.

I find the study of poetry can be beneficial. We can learn a lot of different things from several different poems. There is a very technical aspect we can learn from studying poetry. We can learn different styles of poetry, and all the different mechanics. Then there is a whole other way of learning, more of a visual aspect I think. Since poetry takes a lot of description and emotion, I think we can pull out a lot of history from poems themselves. I believe by reading a poem we can put ourselves in the authors position and learn about how they were feeling and what they were experiencing during the time they wrote it. So I find that this can be very useful to study poetry, and we can definitely learn several different things from it. I am open minded and ready to get into this poetry unit. I find writing in general is very difficult, and poetry is a notch above that, but when the piece of writing is finished the struggle was worth it.

Journals # 11

Now, as a society, we have reached a point where we try to insulate children from the more unpleasant and laborious aspects of life but we have also delayed adulthood for many. Some "children" (perhaps you know some?) continue to live in their parents' basements until their late twenties. What do you think? How much (and from what) should children be protected? How well are we handling this issue now as a society? What kind of childhood will you try to create for your own offspring? What expectations will you have? What are some of the most valuable experiences and lessons from your own childhood that you will try to pass on to the next generation?

The way we treat our children now is different then how we used to, and it will keep changing with time. I think that since as a society today, and considering the number of resources and tools in our lives this is why things are different. Society is evolving very quickly, and ways of life will follow with that. I think now that we have more to give our children they are receiving more. Although, I don’t see a point where you can give your children more then they need. In all cases children should be loved, and there is not a limit to that. Parents should love their children, so why would they want any harm done to them? For the most part I think that parents are looking out for their children as best as they can. Coming from experience I know protective parents can get very annoying and frustrating, but now that I am growing up I understand now that they are just wanting what is best for me. As a society I can’t say whether we are handling the issue of protecting are children properly or not. If I were to base my opinion on my friends, I would say the majority of their parents are protective of them, but as they grow up are slowly starting to loosen up with them. Although I find there is a lot of parents who do not seem to care about their children as much as they should.
When I am older and married, I do plan on starting a family and having 2 or 3 children. I want my children to have a great childhood, like all parents would. I don’t want my children being happy because I can spoil them, and buy them lots of presents on Christmas. I want my children to be happy because of their life at home, and because their parents love them. As my children get older I don’t want to be over protective, but I wont be a parent who is controlled by their kids. I am sure I am going to have high expectations for my children. I don’t want to pressure them into high expectations though. The main thing I am going to want from my children is effort, because their have been times in my childhood I could have accomplished a lot more then I did if I actually put forth the effort. Laziness is not a good quality to have, and I will try and teach my children that. Then again I am sure they will have a hard working wife as well.

Dramatic monologue

Oh no! It looks like he has struck again,
His motivation I can’t comprehend,
I think he wants to be called the Thriller,
Since he is a masochistic killer,
He has only killed young brunette women,
We found tire marks of a brand new Lincoln,
Fourteen are dead and we haven’t a clue,
All we know is that his jeans were seen blue,
The very sight of blood must arouse him,
Since the murder scenes were oh so gruesome,
He has only murdered using a knife,
He must not worship the thought of a life,
I will make a promise to find this man,
I won’t stop ill do whatever I can.

Lyric Poem

Your Pace

Here I am on this world,
Open hearted with my girl,
Side by side we stand together,
This is the love I want forever.
But in a second something went wrong,
And now I feel like I don’t belong,
You drive me away,
But I’m here to stay,
Ill send you some flowers,
Since my heart is devoured,
Ill take you to dinner,
Your heart grows thinner,
Just don’t give up,
Ill make it up,
However long it takes,
Ill even go at your pace,
My heart does race,
When I see your face

Sonnet

A dream

Numbers can measure you but not a dream,
Numbers can analyze and grade you to,
Bad grades pouring upon you like a stream,
But there is nothing heart can’t get you through,

The force of life can push on you so hard,
Strangling you till you want to give up,
You want to give up since your heart is charred,
But you can’t give in you have to step up,

Find the strength deep in your very own heart,
Remember anything is possible,
So push back on life and its smart remarks,
Plan to go big, nothings to colossal,

So do what you can and what you believe,
Because in the end it’s yours to achieve.

Journal #8

In this journal I am going to talk about how the start of the new school year has gone for me. Grade 12 is what I expected it to be, it is a lot of work. This semester I have English, biology, writers craft, and environmental studies. Every night I am finding myself with a ton of homework and it is very hard for me to find motivation to keep up with everything. Aside for the difficult classes I am also playing on the volleyball team, this is also very time consuming and I find that it makes school harder because my time management skills are very poor. My goal is to come out of semester 1 with at least an 80% average. I realized this is going to be very difficult for me, but I believe if I try hard and hand in work it is definitely a reasonable goal. I find I am very stressed out the majority of the time as well, especially since university applications are being sent out in December. So I think this year is going to be very difficult and very stressful, but I have gotten off to a decent start, so I am hoping this year will go how I plan it to.

Journal #7

Assuming for a moment that you could transport anyone you wanted, where and when would you rather live? No society that you know even a little bit about is off limits. You might want to consider quality of life, societal expectations of men and women, health, access to education and recreation.

If I was able to transport where ever and when ever I wanted, I think I would like to go ahead 10 years. The technology is evolving rapidly, so I would like to see what change are made from now to ten years in the future. I am also anxious to see how I am going to make out in life. So by going in the future I could see where I have ended up, and what kind of person I have become. I would like to see if I was war married, if I had a family, and what kind of life I was living. I think it would also be neat if I could check in on all of my close friends, to see how they are making out as well.

Journal #6

One of the great myths of modern times is the idea that new technologies improve a person’s quality of life. No one has ever demonstrated that access to computers increase a person’s literary or numeracy skills. Likewise futurists in the 50’s predicted we would be enjoying a 3 day work week by now since machines would be doing all manual labor. What do you think? Is your life better now that it would have been 100 years ago because of technology.

I can understand when people think technology is doing more damage then benefitting our society. Although, personally I think its great and it has made my life a lot easier. A lot of technology is can be used for school and work, but a majority of it is for personal entertainment as well. When it comes to schooling I think technology has helped me out in many different ways. Information is easier accessible on the internet, and when it comes to projects you can make them look a lot nicer with a variety of editing programs. I now bring a laptop everyday to school and I find it much easier to type out notes then hand writing them. I can then keep track of them easier then having separate papers everywhere in my binder. Then there are things like ipods and DVD players. Any technology that is more for personal entertain I think I could live without. Although they are nice toys to have.

Journal #5

Here in North America I believe we take our education for granted. We are blessed with many schools, and many resources to increase our capability of learning. We are fortunate that North America has the money is does to provide us with the tools given to us. Since we are provided with these tools, and have been for a while I think that is why we have started to take our education for granted. We don’t stop to think and realize that we are very fortunate and we should be grateful for the education we are given.

Journal #4

Free Write:

In this topic I decided to write about myself, so that you as my teacher will know me a little better. First off I am heavily involved with spots. Mainly basketball, I have been playing travel basketball since grade seven. I plan on going to university to continue playing basketball. Right now I plan on attending The University of Waterloo, and to take environment and resource studies. I want to make a difference in the world, and take a different path than what most people do. I have the environment class fourth period this semester. So far I really enjoy it, and I am excited for the class to continue. When it comes to writing, I think of myself to be at the average level. Which is why I am taking this course, so that in university I am not overwhelmed with all the writing required. So I am planning to work and increase my writing ability.

Journal #3

"The Pen is Mightier than the Sword"

Writers have an extraordinary potential to change people's minds and to create revolutions. Reflect upon some of the radical changes that have been wrought by such texts as The Declaration of Independence, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and The Communist Manifesto. What issues or topics are you interested in exploring in your writing? What changes do you feel are worth making?

I can say I’m a very rounded guy when it comes to interest of topics. I am heavily involved with sports, so I enjoy reading any athletic articles or sports journals. I have also read the twilight saga, which most people find strange apparently. I suppose being an athlete most people didn’t expect me to be reading those types of books. I don’t really care about the issues or topics, as long as it can keep my attention towards it, that’s all that matters. Another thing most people don’t know is that I also enjoy to write music. I don’t play any instruments, but I enjoy writing rap, yes rap. I like the rhythm and rhyming needed for it to sound good, its just another thing that interests me. Some changes I think that are worth making is in order for my writing to get better I should probably start to read more. I don’t read very often and if I did I think it would help me write a lot more, and expand my vocabulary.

Journal #2

Why wait? Its time to think about what you will leave behind after your time on the third rock from the sun is finished. Some people manage to leave a great deal of wealth or legacy of public service. Others are long remembered for their monumental works of art. A lucky few are long cherished by adding family and friends. How do you what to be remembered. What will your reasoning being?

In my first period English class we just read the novel “The Last Lecture”. It was about a man named Randy. Randy had pancreatic cancer, was married and had three kids. He was remember as a great man. He always took the positive outlook towards life, even though he was dying. To know that your dying and being able to still be positive takes a lot of strength. Your probably wondering why I’m telling you this, but I want to be remember in a similar way. Even though I do not have cancer, I am always trying to make the best of things, and I never try to get down on myself or others. That’s the just the way my personality is, I firmly believe that everything does happen for a reason, and things will work out. So if I can be remembered as the type of guy who always thought it was going to be okay, and never gave up, that would perfect.

Journal #1

The first rule most writers learn is to write what they know. What do you know? What issues, topics, experiences and genres do you feel comfortable tackling? What are some topics you think you should avoid? What sort of research might you be interested in doing in order to write more effectively?

The first rule most writers are told is “write about what you know.” I guess you could say that there are a wide variety of things I know. I would feel comfortable tackling any type of genre. I would rather write about sport, suspense, or even romance. Anything I could relate to, makes it much easier for me to write about it. I am going to avoid writing comedy’s and horror stories. I do not feel confident enough. Whatever topic I am given to write about, I will do my best so it is up to my standards. At the moment I may not be a great writer, but that is why I am in this course. I’m willing to work hard, and put in research to make my pieces of work acceptable. One thing people don’t really know about me is that I liked to write music. But not like rock songs, I like to write rap and hip hop music. It’s like a past time for me, in my head I am always think of different lines and different ways to rhyme words together. Most people don’t suspect this from me, but its something I like enjoying so I usually keep it to myself. I think its great how you can take a beat, and just add words and make it flow and sound great. Music helps me with everything, so I thinking writing it just comes with how much I listen to it.