A Poem About How I Stalk Your Blogs and How You're All Incredible and A Shout Out to Eddie Mullins and if you still don't want to read it, I attached a picture of Obama riding a rainbow unicorn as an extra incentive. K Bye!

A Poem About How Much I'm Gonna Miss You Guys

By Becky Smiley

Everyone is all like,

"Omg it's my very last blog and I'm 

never going to write a blog

ever again".

It's sad. Because here's a secret:

I'm that creepy kid who ends up reading everyone else's blogs

allllll the time, just for fun. 

All year

I've been getting sidetracked and reading these things.

Mostly because on Thursday nights

at 11:15, I want to do everything EXCEPT for write

a stupid blog. So ya know what?

I just read yours. Why?

Because you guys are really interesting.

And like, I always want to comment

and just be like, "hey dude that was 

the funniest, most hilarious, most epic

open letter

that I have ever read",

or "wow. I like your opinions on stuff.

You've got yourself some great opinions".

Because you do. 

And you should all keep having

your interesting opinions

and complex thoughts 

and funny jokes

just like I keep having crappy poems that are

distinguished only as poetry

because of my indenting skills.

You know, half the time, 

I only indent because I think the poem will have 

a weird shape

if I don't. And sometimes even if I do.

The other half of the time, I think I'm going

for some kind of BS sound device or something.

Anyways, like I was saying earlier,

keep doing what you're doing

Because you're freaking awesome.

Even though it's Wednesday or Thursday and you have

seven thousand infinity other homework assignments

and you're not trying anymore

and you just want to get the fricken' blog post over with,

I'm still light-weight mind blown sometimes

at the stuff that you kiddos come up with.

Even the really boring ones of you who only blog

about literature and stuff,

I admire that. 

It takes a really good brain

and lots of self discipline

and maybe even an adequate love for learning

to sit there, on a Thursday night,

when you could be doing anything else in the world

to tell us your intricate thoughts

about literature. 

Like that's just freaking awesome,

 I bet you're going to succeed in life.

So keep on doing what you're doing, guys.

And we're all going to graduate pretty soon.

There's a good chance that

you wont even remember the creepy kid

that you just found out stalks your blogs

five, maybe ten years from now.

But you should remember this terrible poem

about how incredibly awesome I think you are.

And about how incredibly stupid

I think the art of poetry is these days.

And you can just sit there 

whenever you feel sad

and just be like

"One time, this kid in my English class

thought that the stuff that comes out of my brain

is really, really cool

or smart, or funny".

I can't quite generalize a characteristic

because you guys are all different...

you've done got your own styles.

So that's why I had to put all of the "or's"

in the above few lines.

I know it makes the poem sound less personal

but it's not. 

This is very personal. 

It's as personal as if I was sitting across from you

staring into your soul

right now.

You know what? Just picture that.

Or don't. Idk I was just

trying to make this feel 

as genuine as possible.

You don't have to picture that 

if you don't want to.

But yeah,

that's why I'm gonna miss all of you kiddos

and your really cool thoughts.

And mostly

Good luck at college. 

You're all gonna knock it right out of the ball park!

I think that's an actual saying

but I'm not sure.

But either way, you know it was meant to be encouraging.

Eddie Mullins, I know you're not going to college

So I can't really commence the poem

with a "Good luck at college" for you.

But hey, this poem is just as much for you too,

because I'm pretty sure you have to read these sometimes,

and I think your thoughts are cool and awesome as well.

They might even be better than Nicholas Spark's thoughts.

Idk what goes on inside of his head though,

so I can't quite say for sure. 

And in case you actually are reading this, 

and just got all salty because I used your first name,

Just know that I basically call all of my teachers

by their first name

behind their backs.

 It makes me only half as intimidated as I would be

if I had to address them by a last name

like I do to their face.

So that's a little bit of what goes on inside of my head

in case you were wondering, ever.

Which you might have been.

I don't think it will be a jeopardy question, though.

But yeah, thanks for resisting the urge

to rip my terrible essays to shreds all year.

Also, thanks for accepting my horrible poetry

as an art form.

Because I really feel like I'm getting some pretty sweet

self-expression done right here.

It's like I'm the Picasso of indenting lines.

So yeah, thanks for helping me find myself.

Also, thank you in advance for giving me

a solid 9 on that poetry essay that we wrote today.

(Look, I gave you this huge, entire

infinity line stanza of this poem and 

everybody else has stopped reading by now, probably

but I'm still going strong with this puppy

so I can just imagine how guilty you would feel

if you didn't give me a 9. 

The shame).

But really, you've been freaking awesome

and I sure hope I succeed on the AP Exam 

so that everybody can know 

how much of an awesome teacher you are

and how much homework you gave us

and graded and how hard you worked all year

so that we had a good chance at success. 

So yeah

Peace Out everybody.

And enjoy the picture of the unicorn.

See how beautiful and majestic it is?

It reminds me of you.

Make Up Blog #15: A Poem About Things I Am Good At

Things I Am Good At

By Becky Smiley

I'm bad at writing poetry.

I'm really bad at writing poetry.

But that hasn't stopped me from writing 

like, seven thousand infinity poems 

and putting them on the internet. 

This means that I am good at trying.

Or we could go even deeper

and say that I'm good at 

overcoming adversity.

I'm good at shapes.

If you notice above, I pretty much

made that stanza

look like a stop sign.

Almost.

Just picture it if the third line was shorter

and the fifth line was longer.

I always forget the name of the actual shape

that stop signs are.

In geometry, I used to LITERALLY

just call them "stop signs"

in my proofs.

"All angles are equal and add up to 360.

This means that Figure A

is a stop sign".

The teacher questioned me sometimes

but that's okay because

she liked how quiet I was and how

I didn't try to spell dirty words on my calculator

and how my handwriting was nice.

I can also draw a great free hand circle.

Everyone was always like "I hate geometry"

but you know,

I never really minded stop signs.

I minded triangles.

I minded the crap out of triangles.

But stop signs?

Nahhh.

I wanted to end my poem

with that last line.

But here's another thing:

I'm really REALLY good at having OCD.

I could never end something with an even amount.

Endings are for odd amounts.

I only named two things I'm good at.

But two is an even number.

I have to name three.

You know, sonnets bug the CRAP out of me

Because there's an even amount of lines.

Especially the Italian ones. It's really noticeable

Because there's only two stanzas.

And what more?

couplets.

Heroic couplets end a poem and they're only

two

lines.

I can't deal with that.

I sit there in AP Lit, and

I want to rip these poems to shreds.

Why? OCD.

You probably think that I'm overreacting.

But I'm not.

I'm just as salty about even numbers ending poems

as I am about the intercom lady when

she reads us The Grapes of Wrath and

sometimes even the Odyssey

at 3:10. 

Not 3:15, 3:10.

Well, that's all I have to say about that.

Have a nice day, don't do drugs, and mostly

don't drop out of school and become a hippie

even if you really want to.

Because I want to, but my parents just 

gave me a very stern talking to

about how being a hippie

is probably a bad decision in the long run.

Peace Out.

Make Up Blog #14: A Poem About Things I Am Bad At

Things That I Am Bad At

By Becky Smiley

Firstly I'm bad at rhyming.

I don't even know why I'm writing a poem

because I can't fricken rhyme.

Like honestly I try to rhyme but it just doesn't happen.

It's probably going to ruin my dreams of being a rap star.

Justin Bieber is all like,

"Never say never".

But too bad because I just said never

about my rap career.

Oops.

Secondly, I'm bad at writing poetry.

The thing about poetry

is that you don't even have to do anything except for

randomly

indent your lines.

See what I'm writing here? You probably don't

because nobody reads these blogs.

Except for you, Mr. Mullins! 

(Thanks, Eddie)

Anyways, it's just normal crappy speech

but somehow it's meaningful

and artistic

because I'm

indenting my lines randomly.

How do you like that? 

Are you catching the symbolism? There's lots of it.

Not really. But I'm sure you could find some

if you wanted to.

Or not.

Idk what you do in your spare time.

Once, I won a poetry contest

In 8th grade.

Basically, it was this stupid poem

about me breaking up with a cookie

and somehow the teachers thought it was comedy

so I was all like...

okay. 

And so they put it in a contest and 

BAM!

I won. 

But it was the biggest load of crap in the world

because basically i was just doing this.

Nothing rhymed, there was no symbolism or sound devices 

or anything redeeming at all.

In fact, I wrote it as a joke.

But then I won.

I won a freaking poetry contest.

So I guess you could call me a prodigy,

idk.

More likely,

you could just call people who fall for this kind of art

hipppies.

Peace Out.

A Poem About When I Was Once Bit By A Chicken

Once, when I was like...7, I was bitten by a chicken whilst feeding it alfalfa. Basically it changed my life and I'm kind of freaked out by chickens right now. Like, if you put me in a confined space with a bunch of chickens running around, I'd probably cry. Anyways, I wrote a poem about it and attached a picture of a chicken to add to the theme.

I Done Got Myself Bit By A Chicken

By Becky Smiley

I used to live in a world,

where kindness was treated with kindness;

Not a deed unnoticed

or debt unpaid.

But..in the blink of an eye,

You changed that

You nasty chicken, you

In the strike of a moment,

A waterfall...a waterfall rushing down

to destroy the flame of innocence within me

to destroy a perfect world

to destroy the flesh of my fore finger

to destroy love. trust. hope.

I hate you,

You nasty chicken, you

Confused, hurt, alone.

There I was,

A Band-Aid blanketing the whole of my forefinger.

But there was no Band-Aid

to blanket my soul. 

There was no Band-Aid

to cover the wounds of hate

to cover the slashes of intolerance

to erase away the rips and stabs and tears

to fade forever

the battle scars left upon my heart.

Trust, my friends, is a dirty word.

One that must never be spoken.

It's Technically Not Called Reusing Since I Wrote This To Be A Blog Before I Decided That I Could Submit It To LitMag For Extra Credit

An Insider’s View on the Common Misperceptions of High Schoolers

An Editorial by Becky Smiley

            As a senior in high school, I have often taken a considerable amount of time to reflect on my experiences over the past 4 years – the good, the bad, the exciting, and even the not so exciting. Most importantly, I have taken note of many misconceptions that we, as students, have been given as we enter the terrifying realms of that which is called high school. The following is a list of what I believe are the top ten most common, and most impactful misconceptions that high school student have made. To all my underclassmen out there, this one’s for you.

1.       It’s not okay to wear fanny packs to school:

       Oh yeah? Three words, my friends: Convenient. Central. Storage. Where are you going to put your all your chapsticks? Where are you going to put your band aids? Where are you going to put your tots so people who can’t just get their own tots during lunch won’t steal them? Your fanny pack. Look, kids. I know you think that pockets can solve this problem. They can’t. Take it from me - I’m a lifeguard, and I wear fanny packs EVERY DAY. Why? To save lives. Fanny packs save lives.

2.       You’re cool if you try to show off by doing a burn out in your Camry in the high school parking lot.

       You’re not cool if you do this. Yes, boys, I realize that there’s tons of hot babes all around. I mean, school parking lots these days, am I right? However, what girls really like is a nice, mellow, safe driver. What girls especially don’t like is when you drive 25 mph in the school parking lot whilst blasting your crappy music. Actions like, to the driver, may seem to say “I’m big and bad and watch out ladies ;)”, but to normal people witnessing such events, these actions actually say “I don’t know the difference between NASCAR and a high school parking lot, and I’m probably about to wreck this nice shiny black car that mommy and daddy bought me”. The latter statement is particularly unattractive.

3.       It’s okay to be that guy who taps on the table during a test.

       Wrong. If you’re that guy, chances are, most kids in the class want to tie you to a rocket headed straight for the sun and you’re more annoying than the lady that comes on the intercom every day at 3:10 to tell us the weather and maybe even read us the entire Grapes of Wrath while we’re trying desperately to finish up our timed test.

4.       In English class, When Given A List of Books To Read, Always Choose the Shortest One.

      False. The shortest books are always the toughest books. You’ll have to get all analytic and there’s going to be all this symbolism and literary devices and you won’t like that. Pick a long book. Sometimes – as in the case of The Lord of the Rings – long books are long because they have stories worth telling. Don’t sit there and tell me that The Lord of the Rings wasn’t worth telling.

5.       Drugs Are Good.

       Drugs are bad. Definitely not something you should be storing in your fanny packs.

6.       You have to bring tons of pencils to the ACT:

        Bring your calculator the ACT, bring your ticket to the ACT, bring your glasses to the ACT, even bring your thinking cap to the ACT. But don’t worry about pencils. The teachers are going to hate me for this one, but I’m just going to say it anyways: Every ACT that you take is an opportunity to score yourself some free pencils. Look, you guys, they have buckets of them. Buckets and buckets full of sharpened, bite mark-free pencils in mint condition. Just put on your sweet and innocent face, explain to them that you forgot #2 pencils, and then help yourself to pencils galore.

7.       Eyebrows aren’t  important:

         I think we all go through times in our lives where we are displeased with the particular placement of our eyebrows on our faces and are tempted to shave them off. But fear not, young padawans, because that's just what makes us human. Look, teachers will tell you all the time that we’re “human” because of our DNA or our complex brains or our opposable thumbs. Don’t worry, they’re all wrong. We’re human because sometimes we doubt our eyebrows, and that is okay. Take good care of them.

8.       Erasable Pens Aren’t Real:

         Erasable pens are real.  You can use them on math tests, essays, speeches, love letters, whatever. I don’t care. Find them at a Walgreens near you.

9.       Expect the Unexpected

   I’m talking about snow days here, you guys. Definitely expect the expected which is most always “We still have school”. It gets your homework done and makes that moment when they call a snow day at 5am all the more glorious.

10.   High School Is A Bad Place.

       I put this one last because it’s the most important. Look, I know you hate homework and you hate tests and you hate scantrons and you hate when those dang Canadians club baby seals. This doesn’t make high school a bad place, I promise. Look around you. There’s tons of weirdos just like you. The problem is that you haven’t realized it. I know you think a bunch of really interesting things in your head like “What is déjà vu for?”, and “Why instagram your PB&J” and “Do dinosaurs go to heaven” and “Do polar bears even appreciate that we’re trying to save them?” and “Why pay three dollars for designer chapstick that comes from the secretions of bees like…ewww” or maybe even “How did humans think up unicorns if they never even existed? Have dogs also thought up the idea of unicorns?”This is high school! Look! There’s a gigantor pool of people around you who are probably wondering the exact same things. If you try talking to them and making friends, you’ll find those weirdos out there who are just like you. And if you ask me, that’s what high school is all about. So next time you’re fixing your hair in the bathroom, go ahead and ask the girl next to you that you see in the hallway every day her thoughts on unicorns because I promise you that finding good friends is always worth the risk. High school is only boring if you make it boring.

         

Awko Taco Movie Moments

      I can't blog about outside reading without it being boring and I especially can't blog about Beloved without it being boring. So...I know this isn't relevant to English class, but I would like to talk about movie soundtracks. As a musician/composer, music in movies especially stands out to me. In exactly the same way memorable movie quotes and film characters find their places in popular culture, film themes and scores have dug their way into our collective subconscious, but in a much more subtle and less obvious way. I think that too many times we see a film score as simply a 'tool' in movie making. I cannot even stress how wrong that notion is. Soundtracks enhance movies to the point of salvation. For example, have any of you ever seen All The Kings Men? If you have, you know what the "Nail Em' Up" speech that I'm about to reference is. If you haven't ever seen the movie, scroll down to the bottom and please enjoy a quick tangent by Sean "Please Give Me An Oscar For This One" Penn. 
    Okay...so now that you've watched that, I want you to imagine this guy doing his speech without the background music. HE WOULD LOOK LIKE A FLAMING PSYCHO. Nobody would vote for that, and we wouldn't be on the edge of our seats all like "Woooo! Nail em' up!! That's right Willie Stark, you done tell the government who's boss!". Instead we'd be all like "Go home, Willie. You're drunk." But we didn't tell Willie Stark to go home because James Horner created a magnificent theme with an upbeat that pushed Penn through to the end of that speech. There's so many scenarios when these types of things happen. I'm sure most of you have seen the Lord of the Rings, yes? And if you haven't...sorry but we can't be friends anymore. Anyways, what if King Theoden didn't have background music while he was giving his big battle speech before the Rohirrim charged at the massive orc army on the Pelennor Fields? The scene would be 12 times less powerful and we'd just be all like "Crap, I hope they don't die or anything" but instead we're all like "WOOOO! 'MERICA!!" so THANK YOU HOWARD SHORE. Anyways, I leave you now with a list of some of my favorite soundtrack composers that made would-have-been awkward moments into the most powerful scenes in movies.

1. Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Finding Nemo, Road to Perdition, The Road, The Green Mile, etc etc).

2. Hans Zimmer (Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes, Transformers)

3. Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings, Twilight...not that I even like that movie, but we'd all be laughing at Bella instead of feeling sad for her if his music wasn't playing in the background)

4. And there's like infinity others, but I don't have time to list them all and it's not like anybody is going to read this anyways.

Link: Sean Penn as Willie Stark in All the King's Men, "Nail 'Em Up" speech.

An Open Letter to The Intercom Lady Who Makes Announcements Every Day At 3:10

   
Initially, I was going to write an open letter to the intercom lady who talks every day at the end of 4th block. But then I realized that there are a lot more people I would like to write open letters to. So here's a few open letters dealing with some big issues that have been on my mind of late:

1. The Intercom Lady
Dear Intercom Lady,
          It's like every day at the end of 4th block you have to read the entire Grapes of Wrath to us. Stop talking. The teachers are trying to wrap up their lessons, I'm trying to finish my test, and you are NOT trying to be concise. See this? This is what concise looks like.
                                                                                     Love,
                                                                                         Becky.

2. The State Legislators That Enforced End of Course Exams:
Dear State Legislators,
          You haven't been in a classroom in 40 years. But who cares...I bet you must have soooo much knowledge about how modern day classrooms and classes work, you clever legislator, you! I mean, why listen to the opinions of the teachers that work in classrooms every single freaking day? They're clearly not as special as you because they don't run around in pant suits and make crappy stickers of themselves to get elected. It's really cute that you think you can sit up there on your high horse and enforce mandatory exams that make up a huge portion of students' grades. It's even cuter that  rather than easing us into exams, you decided that it would be cool to not let the teachers know what content is going to be on the exam and then make it a huge portion of our grades anyways. Cutest of them all is probably that you placed the exams in April because that definitely won't cause cramming, will it? I'm kidding. You're not cute and I think your ideas are a complete joke.
                                                                                     I don't love you,
                                                                                                      Becky.

3. Annoying Kids In the Dunbar School Parking Lot:
Dear Annoying Kids In the Dunbar School Parking Lot,
         If you blast your crappy music with the windows down and drive 25 mph in the parking lot in the expensive car that mommy and daddy bought you whilst refusing to yield to other pedestrians and cars that may be in your trajectory, I'M TALKING TO YOU. Nobody wants you here. Nobody even thinks you're cool. It's just annoying and you're gonna hit something or someone. Nobody is impressed by 25 mph so I don't even know why you think speeding through like a total d-bag is worth it. It's not getting you anywhere. You're stupid. You're really, really, really stupid. So stop acting like the school parking lot is a NASCAR race and go home.
                                                     Sincerely,
                                                            Everybody. Because everybody is annoyed with you.

Why All of You Are Wrong and I'm Right: A Minor Tantrum on Name Pronunciation.

       Bad at spelling? Nah. I'd rather write this blog about the issue of being BAD AT PRONUNCIATION. Why, though? Here's why: Sethe's (from Beloved) name is pronounced as such:

S-ehh-th.

Not "Seth-eeee" or See-thee" or "S-ehh-thh-uhhhh". You guys...those aren't even names! Like, nobody comes up with that. Her name is pronounced as it is bolded above. Here is why:

1. Seth is a name that is very plausible. There are many people who are named Seth. 
2. Typically, in most Western languages, an "e" is added to the end of a girl's name to assert that it is feminine and belongs to a girl. This "e" added at the end is most always silent. We should therefore logically conclude that "Sethe" is simply the feminine version of "Seth". Here are a few examples:
• Lucille (pronounces as "lew-seal", not "lew-silly" or "lew-sill-uh".
• Vivienne
• Danielle (This is an especially good example because we see that it is the feminine form of "Daniel".)
• Brianne
3. Notice that the above names had two consonants (a consonant blend) preceeding the SILENT "e" at the end of the name. In classic English phonics, when an e comes after two consonants, the "e" is silent and the vowel preceeding the consonant blend is not pronounced in its capital form (ex, "a" would be pronounced "ahh" as in "fat" instead of like "ayyy" as in "face"). Therefore, we can conclude that "See-thee" is out of the equation. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
• Moustache (pronounced "moo-stash", not "mooo-stay-ch-eee")
• Toilette
• Blithe (pronounced "B-lie-th", not "B-lith-ee")
• Binge
4. Yes, I understand that there are exceptions to the rules. There are SO many exceptions to the fricken' rules! But here's what doesn't make sense to me. Why can't we just follow the rules with this one, you guys?! Why are you so quick to conclude some obscure name that nobody even thinks of when the normal pronunciation that sounds like "Seth" makes so much sense?!!!! I just don't get it. I want to scream every single day in class because I'm just like, "Why are we saying this? Seethee isn't even a name!!!". 
5. It doesn't even make sense as a name. Nobody else in that book, despite how weird it is, has a name that is completely unusual for the English Language. Even Baby Suggs sounds like an ENGLISH nickname. Pronounced with English Phonics.Here's some examples of how normal (as in plausible) every single other name is there:
• Amy Denver, Baby Suggs, Denver, Paul D, Beloved, Mrs. Bodwin, Horace, Bulgar, Schoolteacher, Mr. and Mrs. Garner.....ALL OF THESE ARE NORMAL. Morrison just "out of the blue" isn't going to call a character some weird name like "Seethee" or "Seethuh" or "Sethuh". 
6. Toni Morrison is a weirdo. We all know she's a weirdo. I mean, look at this book! She knows she's weird, we know she's weird, and if she wants a name to be pronounced weird, she's gonna spell it weird because I think she's OBVIOUSLY pretty proud of her weirdness. If Morrison wanted it to be Seethee or Sethuhh or Seethuh or whatever weird stuff you guys keep throwing out there in class, she would be bold and spell it that way so she could continue to say to the world "Look at me! I won a Nobel Prize AND I'm a weirdo!". 

So please. Please somebody read this blog and please be normal about pronouncing. That's all I ask.

Everybody Loves Snail Mail

      I never read the link attached to the prompt, but as soon as I saw the question "When is the last time you received a hand written letter?" on Mr. Mullins's blog suggestions, I knew that it was mine to answer. I, Rebecca Anne Smiley, am probably the world's biggest advocate of hand written letters. To answer the question at hand, the last time I received a letter was a little less than two days ago. So why do I love letters so much? The list could go on for days, but my top reason is that they mean so much more than a text or an email or any other electronic form of communication that has replaced the snail mail belonging to years far before our generation. Here is why: Any one of us could just turn on our computer and begin typing and simply press "send" when we wish to contact someone. A letter, however, takes so much more effort than this. When someone writes a letter, rather than just sending a message like "hey watsup man?", they're sending a page full of their own thoughts that don't need to be immediately replied to. These thoughts are complex and they're thought out, and rather than just having a fragment of what your counterpart wants to communicate to you, you have an entire document in which they express themselves. As well, in writing letters, the writers are encouraged to communicate ideas in an eloquent manner that we have become quite accustomed to abandoning completely whilst conversing through the screen of a phone or a computer. Further, because there is no quick reply option, the writers of letters are forced to complete entire thoughts. Letters encourage thought complexity and have genuine meaning, whereas electronic mail encourages the utmost simplicity in communication. My favorite things about letters, despite all of this, is that you can keep them forever. An email can be printed, but that wastes ink and the originality of that person's handwriting and spelling skills are lost. A text can be saved, but we all know that phones don't last forever. So yeah, let's keep the snail mail going.

The Things They Carried

     Normally when I blog, I don't take things too seriously because I am aware of the fact that nobody ever reads these things. However, this one is going to be good because Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried was unlike any other novel that I have ever read before. As a reader, I was completely sucked into this narrative from the first few pages when O'Brien skipped straight to the point and started naming off  all of the things that the soldiers in his Alpha company carried. The way he did it, though...it was beautiful. I want to use the word poetic, but I know that it could never really do justice to the way that O'Brien characterized the young soldiers in a way that I never even thought a wartime author would. Each soldier was given a set of items: weapons, survival essentials, food, etc. Exactly what you would expect from an American soldier deployed in Vietnam. More than that though, they were each intimately characterized by the things that they carried which they held so dear to them. Kiowa carried his grandfather's hatchet and moccasins, Cross carried letters from the girl he loved, Tim Lavendar carried dope and tranquilizers because he was terrified of dying. It was these little things that reminded the reader that these were normal guys, barely even adults, just like the rest of us who were forced to go overseas and kill so that they would not be killed. The line that struck me the most, though, was after O'Brien listed off all the weapons that the Alpha Company carried, putting the burdens only in terms of weight: AK-47s, M-60s, smoke grenades, killer grenades, chains of ammo, and a lot more things that I can't really remember. But after listing off all of this, O'Brien writes "But most of all, they were all in a silent awe of the things they carried". These young men have been given tools that could destroy massive amounts of human life, as well as maybe save their own, and their "silent awe" just goes to show their shock  in actually having to accept that their job - the reason why they were sent to war - was to kill. Especially because this narrative is told by a Vietnam veteran drafted against his will, it really opens up a whole new perspective. It also makes the source reliable because we, the readers, can know for a fact that O'Brien isn't trying to dramatize something that he's only seen in the movies. He tells it like it was so that he can keep the memories of the men in his company alive.

     The book is also filled with numerous other narratives following The Things They Carried. Each one drew new insight into O'Brien's past in Vietnam and how it has shaped his present day life as he attempts to find closure for all of the events that happened. My only regret is that I only had an hour in class to write about this book because it honestly deserves a lot more explaining than just one hour will allow. So yeah...for those of you who like to read for fun, check this book out. There's like 12,000 copies of it in the library.

I Used A Vocab List 8 Word In My Blog Today

Today I would like to blog about how stupid it is that the Fayette County Public Schools administration won't call obvious snow days until 5:30 in the morning. I believe that this topic is relevant enough to school to blog about.

    Firstly, let's look at some facts. Fayette county ices their roads primarily with a Sodium Chloride compound salt. What rock salts like NaCl do is create a freezing point depression. This means that they simply lower the freezing point of water by disturbing chemical equilibrium. Sodium Chloride is capable of ionizing and doing this until temperatures drop below 20 degrees F, in which case the salt simply forms a layer of salt over the ice and no ionization occurs. Currently, the temperature outside is far below that, especially considering wind chill. I am aware that they also store in their reserves salt brine and liquid calcium chloride, which are effective until temperature drops well below 0 degrees. However, these are stored and used in much less quantity because they are more expensive. As well, they are generally applied before anticipated conditions, and we saw little of this happening during the day today before the onset of the storm. For the board to sit there and say that conditions have a good enough chance of being sufficiently better on the roads by tomorrow morning , it seems that they are not taking anything into consideration except for their own rudimentary insight which seems to simply include the effect of "time" and "is it still snowing or not?". The de-icing procedures that have been implemented today seem to simply have been "not enough" to have prevented such horrible driving conditions as the ones that Fayette county citizens have experienced well on into the night.

My point is that by waiting until 5:30 in the morning to call off school, the FCPS administration is wasting working parent's time who need to hire babysitters, employed students who could have scheduled to work extra shifts if we had known school was cancelled much earlier than 5:30 am, and the time of dedicated students who could be sleeping rather than staying up till 3 am just to do their homework. This is preposterous (note the use of a vocab list 8 word used. Go AP lit!).

Cavemen Who Obviously Made Bad Life Choices.

      Too many people are saying that they hated the ending of The Road. Well, for me at least, hating the ending isn't enough. I hate the entire book. Something about the constant bleakness and lack of light in both a metaphorical and literal sense reminded me too much of winter, which is also bleak and lacking in light. During this process of pondering, I am always reminded that "oh yeah, it's winter outside right now!", and then I am lost in a pool of depression. You know, there is this theory that humans almost always become more depressed in the winter because - naturally - our ancestors spent the entire season hibernating. This means that it is in our DNA to hibernate just like all other sensible mammals who know how to make good life choices.We are all sad because we should be hibernating, too. But we aren't. Instead we're blogging at 11:40 pm and eating cheerios because we have to. So, to whatever caveman thousands of years ago who said to himself "LOL hey we should try to stay awake all winter #YOLO"...I have three words for you: bad life choice. It is only now, in 2013, that we have finally realized that any idea preceding the phrase "YOLO" is usually a bad life choice. Our entire species has made a bad life choice.

    There is, however, one aspect of The Road that I really did like: the ending. Sure the dad dies. But hey, the dad wanted to die. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the need to protect his son. The way that I see it, the son's presence on earth didn't make the father's wish to live any bigger than it already was. Rather, it gave him a sense of duty and obligation; because he loved his son he had to look out for him. When the father dies, he is torn from his misery and hopefully gets to be reunited with everybody that he has lost. The father has also accomplished his goal. For the entire novel, the father had one thing in mind: his son's safety. Some may argue that reaching the coast was his main goal. I think that he knew within at least 50 miles of the coast that nothing in the atmosphere would be any different - the sky would not be lighter, the ash would not disappear, and civilization would still be wrecked. When the father dies, his son is taken into safe and loving hands with a family that looks after him and has faith. Henceforth, the goal of the entire novel has been accomplished. High five on that one, Cormac McCarthy!

College Essays and How I am Not Inspired

       Right now I am convinced that I am the only person in the world who has procrastinated their college admission's essays. The past few months I have justified my procrastination as acceptable for several reasons: Firstly, I am only applying to one college. Secondly, I don't even want to go to college. Thirdly, I've already written enough scholarship essays and I don't see how I could possibly take any more essay-writing torture. Fourthly (if 'fourthly' is in fact a word), I can't imagine how my writing, especially with those terrible essay prompts, would especially charm any admissions officer over any other essay that has been written thus far by students who are far more eloquent writers than myself. But before you start judging me too harshly, just know that my situation isn't completely terrible - I've already finished 2 of the 3 admissions essays. What makes that third essay so hard to write is the fact that nothing I have learned in school has ever really inspired me, and so now I have absolutely no truthful way to address the prompt. In fact, I don't think that school has ever inspired me at all. I am hardly ever interested in the facts and concepts that we are forced to sit in a classroom and learn every day...in fact, I have a hard time even being interested at all. What really inspires me are people and what I see them do in the every day world; they overcome struggles, invent things, help others...just all of this stuff. I even think that my teachers are inspiring because how on earth does somebody stand in a class room and handle a bunch of teenagers who would very obviously rather be doing something else? And how does somebody read through 60 different essays on the exact same topic when the handwriting is barely even legible? I don't even know but it blows my mind. Another thing that inspires me is technology like computers and cell phones because how does somebody even come up with that stuff? It's just crazy. But see, I never actually learned about these things in school. So yeah, I'm still in an essay writing rut.

My Deepest and Most Revealing Feelings About First Semester in AP English Literature

      I'm going to start out on a positive note by sharing all of the things that I have especially liked about AP English Literature this year. Firstly, I enjoy blogging. In the rare occasion that I actually have something that I feel is worth writing, I think that it is really nice being able to write and share it. Blogs are also a really easy 30/30 in the grade book, so I think that it's all just a win-win situation. It's fun to do some no-pressure writing every once in a while! I also really like being able to listen to the class discussions every time we read a book. It kind of fascinates me how complex everybody's thought trains are when it comes to interpreting those stories, especially since I tend to only see the most rudimentary details. Thirdly, I absolutely positively love the fact that our final is based solely off of a presentation dealing with a topic that we are actually interested in. Not only is this stress free, it is also really fascinating and I really like having the option to choose which books I want to read.
      And now for my hate paragraph. I hate essays. I hate sitting in front of a computer for twelve years fumbling over which adjective to use and how to not sound redundant, because quite frankly, sometimes I have a lot of trouble writing multiple pages about a book that I didn't even enjoy. I also hate turnitin.com. Here is why: access to the internet is a huge variability among students. I, for one, only have one computer in my household. It is shared with four other busy family members. In many instances, getting myself a turn on  the computer is both inconvenient and frustrating. Furthermore, what if your internet crashes? It isn't a dependable source for a lot of people, including myself, and I think that the extra struggle is extremely unfair. For example, tonight I am writing my blog at 11:44 pm because that is when my sister happened to finish doing her research project. I would much rather be sleeping. But besides excessive internet requirements and difficult essays, there really isn't that much that I dislike about AP English at the moment.
    Ending on a positive note, I think that this has been a really productive semester. I felt challenged every day in class and things never really got boring. I especially enjoyed the drama unit, which was discussed in my last blog. I am really looking forwards to next semester (with exception to the AP test).

A Reflection On the Drama Unit

      The drama unit has been by far my favorite yet. I'm not going to lie, a good half of the reason is because we got to spend time doing a lot of watching rather than a lot of reading. However, this isn't to say that I didn't enjoy reading Hamlet or Oedipus. I think that Hamlet would have actually been a really fun read, had it not been for the middle English and me struggling to understand half of the words. But hey, what's AP English without a challenge? I also think that the whole discussion items thing was a really nice way for me to be able to take some time to understand what was going on in the book a little bit better. Rather than having to sit there with a translator next to me all night while I was reading, and then proceeding to freak out because I knew we had a quiz coming, I could just clarify my misunderstandings and interpretations in class with my fellow students. It's also a much easier way to be able to involve yourself in discussion without having to not be shy or scared of saying something stupid in front of the entire class.
     Secondly, I thought that The Importance of Being Earnest was absolutely marvelous! Particularly the part where we got to actually watch the video. It was a fun way for me to be able to see all of the elements of satire in action without actually having to read. Especially for this play, reading would not have been able to have the same effect as seeing the actors actually performing the script on stage. I say this especially because the funniest part of play - by far - was Cecily's crazy fantasies of ponies and people dressed in flowered garments playing pan flutes and minstrel music. That level of cheesiness is definitely my type of humor.

I'm Not Actually A Potato In Case There Was Any Confusion.

      I love satire, but I can't really think of anything that I want to write about it. I'm not even kidding, I've been staring at my computer screen for the past ten minutes trying to think of something witty that I could do with the topic, but tonight is one of those times where after a week of no sleep, there's pretty much no way that anything creative is going to come out of my mind. College applications and projects and tests and practice every night have dulled me down to a point of where I would rather just go to my backyard, lay down in my garden, and pretend I'm a potato until eventually the rest of the world, including myself, forgets that I'm not a potato, and I actually think that would be a really happy life in comparison to what is being inflicted upon some of us right now in the academic field. However, complaining doesn't have much to do with English class, so here's some stuff on my favorite satire:

     Parody movies are probably the best when they're not overdone. The best example of this, at least in my book, is the movie Space Balls. I also enjoy the kind of satire found on Saturday Night Live, which is why I'm always parked in front of the television from the hours of 11:30 to 12:45 every Saturday night with few to no exceptions. Reading satire is okay, but only when it is strong enough for the reader to know that it is actually satire. Otherwise I kind of sit there and go back and forth between if it's real or not and then eventually bam! Not even funny anymore. The debating going on inside my head ruined it. Sarcasm is a type of satire that I often times use myself because I have a dark soul and I just can't help that. But you know what really irks me? When people use sarcasm over text. It doesn't work that way, you guys! Tone of voice is the key to making sarcasm obvious, so when it's typed on a text message and nobody is actually saying it, don't expect me to understand that you're joking. But anyways, that's about all I have to say about satire.

The End.

Why I Procrastinate

    Teacher's are always quick to assume that procrastination by a student is a direct product of that student's laziness, lack of motivation, or complete indifference to the subject at hand. Well, I have a different view. I believe that we all procrastinate for different reasons. Here is mine:

I don't entirely believe in reality.

Of course, I probably owe a little bit of explanation on behalf of my blatant statement. It's why I can't ever bring myself to do urgent homework assignments or do things that I don't particularly enjoy at all without much forcing on the behalf of my own guilt as well as the ever impeding parental unit. Yes, I am capable of forcing myself through such tasks, but hardly ever when it is in place of playing a piece of music or just going outside and staring at the sky. 

The great philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that all we can really know and believe in is our own consciousness. The more I am pushed towards extensive amounts of work that I have no interest in, the more I think to myself "So what if I don't do it?". Then there's the question of if it really even exists...if it really even matters. Yes, the work exists within my own consciousness, but, since it exists only in my own consciousness, couldn't I make it cease to exist? And here's the deal; I am completely in love with life. Whether this entire world is reality or not, I want to soak it all in. I want to be outside and hear music and enjoy every little aspect of it that my soul pleases. I think it is a sin to waste the limited time that I have been gifted in whatever this marvelous dream is that I'm living in doing things that I detest, like sitting in front of a computer for hours writing essays and blogs or buried in a textbook filled with subject matter that I am nothing but indifferent to. Especially when outside there is a sunset that is made up of all my favorite colors and I'm sitting here missing it all.

But the problem is, What if all of this is real? If it's definitely not a dream or anything inside my head and I am never going to wake up from it? Then I suppose I will have to face the consequences of my actions. However, this is a thought that for now, I can not really bear to think of, and it is the fear that arises from such a thought that still keeps me half way on track.

Most Beautiful Words In the English Language

    The topic of beauty is really open ended since it can describe almost anything. So if we're talking about words being beautiful, the real question is what about them do we find beautiful? Is it the way they look? The way they sound? Their meaning? Or maybe even all of the above. For me, it is what the word reminds me of.  I'm not the kind of person who sits there, hears a word, and thinks "Whoa that sounds nice", unless of course I am in French class. Every word sounds nice in French class (except for the really awkward ones that are meant to be pronounced in what sounds like an obnoxious grunt). I'm also pretty sure that unless it's written in beautiful ink-and-quill cursive, we rarely decide to think that a word is aesthetically pleasing.

    That being said, "What are Becky Smiley's favorite words?" you may ask yourself. Well, I enjoy many different words, but my favorite 9 are as follows:

1. Toaster: I like the word "toaster" because it reminds me of toaster waffles. Toaster waffles remind me of snow days, Christmas, and dental floss, all three of which are nice things to have in life.

2. Dental: The word "dental" reminds me of cool mints. Cool mint is nice because it makes your breath smell pleasant. When your breath smells pleasant, you are much easier to talk to. Also the word reminds me of those fun mornings at the orthodontist where I would miss math class and chill with my favorite dental technician who just so happened to look like Justin Timberlake. Who doesn't enjoy Justin Timberlake?

3. Birthday: My birthday is my favorite holiday of the year. It happened on Monday, in case anybody was wondering.

4. Caspian: Caspian is more of a title than a word, but it reminds me of Narnia, the ocean, and talking squirrels.

5. Sleep: Sleeping is my favorite activity. Thanks to work and school, I don't get much of it. When I am asleep, I am always calm and peaceful. This is mostly because I am unconscious.

6. Llama: I enjoy this word because llamas are my favorite animal and it reminds me of llamas. Also, a lot of things rhyme with it.

7. Music: The word "music" reminds me of pretty much everything in life that I enjoy. In fact, I think the biggest problem with life is that it doesn't have theme music like in the movies. It also reminds me of playing guitar on my back porch in the summer and drinking kool-aid.

8. Ocean: I can't actually pin point what I like about this word. It's just so expansive and vague seeming. It also reminds me of blue...but like...the pretty kind of clear crystal blue and the deep kind of blue. I'm not good at naming colors.

9. Rock: "Rock" is another one of those words that I can't pin point. It reminds me of a lot of things, most namely reefs and oceans. However, it also just kind of sounds really solid; it's another one of those words that sounds exactly like what it means. When someone tells you to picture rocks, there's just so much you can do with that; there's statues, beaches on the northeastern coast, cliffs, mountains, crystals, etc. I also enjoy climbing, which is very relevant to rocks.

Things That I Enjoy About AP English.

   I hate writing literary analysis papers. But then again...who doesn't?! I will admit though, there are far worse things. Most namely world hunger, the clubbing of baby seals in Canada, splinters, and - by far the worst of all - restrictive seating arrangements.

    This is my first year at Dunbar, so naturally I'm not quite accustomed to the ways of the school yet. For example, it's really hard spending your entire life having the liberty to move your chair in and out of your desk as you please in each and every class, and then having that right instantly stripped away from you with those stupid chair-attached-to-desk thingies with the annoying bar on the right hand side that messes you over if you happen to drop your pencil or something. In a normal school, when you drop your pencil, you can simply slide your chair out from the desk, reach over, and retrieve your fallen object. But nooooo, not at Dunbar! If your pencil drops on the wrong side here, you have to get all the way out of your seat, walk around the row of desks, retrieve your pencil, walk all the way back, and then sit down casually like you didn't just interrupt the teacher in the middle of their sentence. This is why I like English class. I don't even care how boring it gets at times so long as I have a chair that is not attached to my desk by a stupid bar. In English class, I feel safe and warm inside being able to have the security of knowing that my freedom to move has not been restricted. So thank you, for that.

College Admissions are Stupid and Nobody Likes Them and I Think I'll Go Join The Circus Now

I do recall Mr. Mullins saying that our blogs don't always have to be relevant to what we're working on and reading in English class, and that if something is really burning on our minds and irking us that we should try writing about it. So here it goes, because lots of things are irking me right now.

Firstly, I hate college essays. Nothing achieves the art of irking me more than college essays. You know what I think colleges should ask? Something along the lines of this: "What do you want to do in life? How will it help you or the people around you? Why should you even get accepted into college?". Instead they're throwing out crap like "What sparks your imagination?".  You know what, college admission guys? When you throw out essay questions like that, you've been living under a rock for the past infinity years if you actually think that you're going to get an honest answer from the bottom of that kid's heart. You know what sparks my imagination? Narnia. But that's not what you wanna hear. You'd rather have me sit there and lie about how some random topic I have been forced to study in some meaningless high school class has changed my life and got me so interested and involved in something or other and inspired my entire career plan. Don't sit there and think that us kids are actually being sincere in half of the things that we write for these stupid prompts, because we aren't. We're just spitting out what we know you want to hear. And you know what? I used a thesaurus for basically every big word in my essay and it has been peer edited just about 10,000 times, so don't think that you're really getting a sample of my actual writing skills.

Secondly, College Admission and Scholarship Guys, don't sit there and make me fill out my race and gender and socioeconomic information just so you can use it against me. I don't wanna sit there and write down stuff and fill in bubbles concerning my demographic that I know are just going to make it harder for me to be admitted. I'm not going to get too much into politics here, but I think it would be nice if we all had an equal chance for admission and everything could be based off of hard work and talent. The real way to promote equality is to become blind to race and gender, not to sit there and continue to use it against people. What was once called "reverse discrimination" is still discrimination. Notice how it still has the word "discrimination" in it. Sorry I was born a Caucasian girl and make up the majority of the people who are applying to college right now. Can't really help that.

Thirdly, College Admission Guys That I Hate, why would you look at our ACT scores and unweighted let me repeat, unweighted, GPA over everything else? I guess I would have benefitted from taking straight general classes and actually getting sleep at night or maybe even having a social life all of these years! After all, the goal for high school (for most students) is just getting into college anyways. Oh, but it's the ACT score that irks me most. Readers, in case you didn't know, colleges like UK look at your ACT score above everything else. Especially for scholarships. Well here's the deal: Let's say there's a kid with a 34 or 35 or something on his ACT, but its grades are comprised of almost straight C's. Yeah, this kid has proved itself to be smart, but if it gets poor grades along with that, what conclusions can we draw? It doesn't work hard. But no, you're gonna let it in over a straight-A kid with a solid 27ish type score who has obviously been working and dedicating itself much, much harder. What good is a genius if they choose not to apply themselves?

So basically I hate college and I think we should all just rebel against society's standards and not go. You know...there are actually some hoboes that lead pretty interesting lives.

Okay I'm done now.