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.