1) Were you able to connect right away?
2) Was it clear and easy to understand?
3) Did it flow from one story to the next?
4) What should I add or take away?
5) Was your interest kept the whole way through?
6) Any open suggestions?

1) Who are the characters in your story?
   Me, my friends

2) What connections do you feel to this place?
    It is a strong mental connection that effects me and my everyday   life.

3) When does this story take place?
    2 years ago until present time.

4) Where?
    It's a mental place I call the "Black Cloud" but the places where they actually occur are grounded.

5) Why?
    Because I feel strongly connected to this place. It lives with me everyday and I am my own permanent bad luck charm so it had become comical to me.

6) Delivering?
     Multi-Genre, rap, poem, pictures, video, song, recipe, narrative,

I think this was a helpful exercise. It helped show me how to deliver what I am trying to say more clearly and direct. I know what I wanted to say but wasn't quite saying it on paper so this helped me sory

Dear Stephanie the Slammer,

               My name is Charlie. Charlie Fragglesworth. I am 13 years old, but let me tell you I am a man. I am writing you this as your number one fan. I have been searching all throughout Eaglesbridge elementary school for a lady like you. Fierce, Aggressive, and can really throw an Alabama slammer down.  BOOM. POW. CHICKA WOW WOW! I missed pizza Friday, and the school dance (it may not sound like much, but I must say I can’t keep the ladies off me, must be the new AXE spray my mom got me, let me tell you those commercials don’t lie!), just to watch your fight! I have been looking for tickets left and right!! They are always sold out!!! If I could have one wish it would be to meet you!!! And since that is probably out of the question considering you probably like 9478545734573 letters like this every day, can you possibly send me an I max theatre size poster of you, signed, and seal with a kiss, that I can hang on my wall! All the guys at school are huge fans of yours too! We watched how you tackled down Bruce the Bronco, and Scotty Stallion as they tried to make excuses for losing. “Oh, well I have a pinched nerve in my hand, couldn’t give it my all” or “ my sweat dripped into my eyes within the last 5 seconds of the fight, impaired my vision”. Give me a break. These guys call themselves men. HA. PALEASE. You show them what’s up.   They don’t deserve metals. Put them back in diapers where they belong, crying like little babies, calling themselves men. You may be a girl but you fight like a bull injected with terminator steroids. I hope one day I will be able to watch from the front row, close enough to see my reflection in your beads of sweat as you win, singing “Another one bites the dust”.  YOU ROCK MY WORLD STEPAHNIE SLAMMER!!

Stephanie Slammer

She’s so hot the girls cant stand her

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

She kicks the boys ass and she makes them cry

Im her number one fan, never missed a fight

Even skipped my hot school dance on a Friday man night

The alabamer slammer, her signature move

But it’s her huckleberry hoe down that really gets her in her groove

BOOM POW opponent never makes it to round 2

She fights like a lion that just escaped from the zoo

Fast like Fred Flinstone screaming yabadabadoo

She must have good trainers and an awesome management crew

She never gives up, crazy, fierce, and wild like mike Tyson the whole way through!

Switching from different genres in our blogs has really made me think in different ways as a writer. At first I was intimidated because writing in new ways and different styles makes you go outside of your comfort zone. When writing the found poem I picked out 10 random tweets. I looked at them all and had no idea of where to start. I then picked out a random word and somehow it sparked ideas really quickly. I did get frustrated at certain points because I was missing certain words that I wanted to use.  IT forced me to really think on take on a different path. IT was almost like a puzzle and finding the right piece to fit. When it was finished I was taken back because I would have never thought that my 10 random tweets that have to do with Wawa, my Shakespeare class, quotes from tiny Buddha, corny jokes I made ,etc, would turn into a poem about nature and how distracted we are as people and how we need to just stop and look. Force yourself to pause and breath. I thought it was really cool to see how one thing could turn into something completely differeret.

The micro fictions were so much fun. I enjoyed creating something of my own from a single sentence. First it made me think. I pulled out a few different sentences from Anzulduas pieces and looked at which one spoke to me best to get ideas flowing. I never thought that the line I picked would turn into the piece I wrote.That’s another thing about switching over genres. I wasn’t aware of what I could write until I was faced with the assignment.  Switching over in these genres really forces you to be creative and express your own individuality as a writer.  I first started off with Anzulduas sentence and somehow it became a piece of me.  The second microfiction based on my tweets also shocked me. Ocne again I randomly picked out a tweet of mine and started writing. I’m starting to find myself write without being afraid of being wrong. I’m starting to just write. I know that may sound confusing and I am the type of person that knows what I’m thinking in my head but has trouble explaining it into words. All these genres are so different from eachother and it allows you to think. I use to be the writer that would always have to think before I write. I would plan and plan until I had some central idea. All this writing and different genres have shaped me to write without thinking at all. I don’t have a plan, I don’t have this main goal I’m trying to reach. As I am writing new possibilities, new ideas, all come to me when I just allow myself to talk to the paper.  Not only has my stress level in writing decreased, but I can’t stop writing. I write about everything now. I like exploring new ways to write because I’m watching myself grow as a writer and a learner.

                

In class we were asked to create a Haiku based on one of our Micro-fictions. I chose to base if off "______ as we know it".

Mind, caught up, talking

Sit, Breathe, Connect, Nature, Write,

The Answer to Life




We were also asked to create a found poem based off our tweets on twitter.

Time is on speed               

Running in multiple places

Would love to stop already

I learn to look

Surf the waves

I spring into Nature

So interesting

My new best friend

One precious mind

Pouring out

I stop. I write

Wow.


This poem was created from these 10 tweets.

fill your head with twenty regular and write! #twitterive #wrt1

tinybuddha on twitter is my new best friend thank you andrea #twitterive

a 2 and a half hour shakespeare class should not be allowed. granted i do have the cutest, most precious old man professor ever #twitterive

I wish i went to school to become a child psychologist. The mind is so interesting. #twitterive

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." ~Jon Kabat-Zinn #twitterive #wrt1

WAWA- running over a muffler, gas pouring out into the wawa parking lot, 4 cops, and 3 firetrucks. <3 #twitterive #wrt1

one foot in multiple places #twitterive #wrt1

i would really love to go rollerblading right about now. can spring just come already #twitterive

Wow. Nature is really pretty when you actuallytake the time to Stop and look #twitterive #wrt1

speed up like broccoli and "floret". haha I'm just so funny. #twitterive

In this post I have created to Micro-Fictions. The first one is based off the line "For the longest time I couldn’t figure it out" from "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua. I created my own microfiction based off that single line.

   
______ as we know it?
    For the longest time I couldn’t figure it out. This thing called life. What is it really about? What is my place in this world? Every day is the same. 6:00 a.m as Bonnie Tyler’s singing what a feeling over and over again in my ear. I snooze her pain in the ass five times before I move. Shower. Class. Work. Gym. Homework. The person walking next to me looks at me funny as my stomach sounds like a broken furby. Oh yea, maybe because I’m so caught up with everything else I forget I’m a human being that has necessities such as eating. Soon I’m going to need an oxygen tank connected to my hip just in case I forget to breathe. It’s not like I sleep anymore. Around 11:30 every night my mind won’t shut up. It just keeps talking and talking about EVERYTHING.  Apple thinks they are so great. Coming out with all these crazy advanced technologies. Well how about internal earplugs that can connect to your brain and make it shut up already. It’s not 4 a.m and I get up, walk downstairs, pour three shots of vodka (Ha-ha  just kidding) a warm glass of milk and sit on the rusty old bench as I look at the cotton candy sky, and the only noise I hear is the hummingbird, that looks like it has just been dipped into the perfect sunset, land on the corner of my chair. Here, alone just nature and I.  begin to breath. I begin to write. The answer to life.


    My second micro-fiction is based off one of my tweets from twitter. "How is it possible I’m sick again? This is like the fourth time in 2 months".

THE poison apple
 
  "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". How is it possible I’m sick again? This is like the fourth time in 2 months. Energy is slowly vacuumed out of my body, walking with 20 pound weights on each foot. He watches me every day like a life guard just waiting for me to drown. The doctor puts the blue strap around my arm and pumps the air so tightly against my arm as it goes numb. The needle injects into my vein feeling slight bit of discomfort reminding me I’m human as I watch the deep red cells spiral around into the glass tube. He watches me, and tells me I’m going to be ok as he places his hand upon my back. A week goes by. The doctor calls and tells me I’m physically ok. I’m as healthy as they come, (chuckling) actually if I was any healthier he said he may be concerned.. He watches me talk to the doctor, and comes behind me roping his arms around my body tightly.” I told you, everything is going to be ok” he said. We sat down on the couch watching the discovery channel .An episode about the stars, the sky, and the planets. My eyes are watching but his voice orbits my mind with “Everything is going to be ok” drowning out the boiling tea kettle as the water volcanoes onto the stove in the kitchen and the timer on the oven buzzing.  I walked outside as he asked me where I was going. I said nothing. He followed me but I shut the door behind me giving myself a few seconds of silence. I stared into the black sky as the north star and I made contact with each other.  This is what it feels like to be alive. To be me. For those brief 3 seconds I felt something unusual. Healthy… Happy….Then I felt his hand on my back…

Often times people have mixed feelings about short storiesbecause your not really given a beginning, a middle, or an end. You don't haveenough time to connect with a character and your often left on your own tofigure out what happened. I used to absolutely hate it as well. Then i took adifferent outlook on it. I let myself create my own endings and started to lookat the short story itself without worrying about the missing pieces. just lookat what is given to you and be ok with it. If you start to let it bother you itis only going to stop your creativity and your mind from allowing the shortpiece to process.
    The setting of all these short stories have to do withMexico and some kind of difficulties the people encounter. "WongChannel" taking place in a hospital gives it a serious tone sinceBarbarita was sick but has a comical side to it when Mima who claims to beBarbaritas interpreter confuses "TB" with t.v. Mima was in allseriousness to which increased it's humor. I don't why but it triggered acouple specific memories in my head. At my job the mexicans in the back arehysterical. They are always singing and dancing and Gilberto who we call"Berty" was trying to sing "like a G6" and in allseriousness he sings "like a cheese steak, like a cheese steak, now imfeelin so fly like a cheese steak". I literally almost peed my pants. Thenanother time we were talking about muscles and he comes in and goes oh yea thebig mussels are good with ya know like lobster and stuff".
""MockingBird" by Laurie Berry gave us a sense of Mexicanculture when she relates to the hard work ethic and the long hours they work. Ithink of music and dancing when i think of Mexican culture and in the story thealbino Mexican was dancing to miriachi music. It also kinda gives a sense ofthe different work values of Mexican and Americans. The girlfriend was talkingabout the neighbors who work all day and are just so exhausted but they have anice house to show for it and they have money and the boyfriend stated "i'd rather inherit it". Then it says he just traveled to a third worldcountry to play tennis. I think the story also tries to impose what sometimesAmericans take for granted. I could be wrong though.
"Lands End" by Antonya Nelson refers to Cervesa, sun, drinking, andsex. I definitely think of those words when thinking about Mexican culture. Idon't know what else to say about this one. It confused me a lot.
"Waiting" by Peggy McNally showed the difficulties of a differentculture getting a job. I'm assuming she was Mexican and had to deal with racialdiscrimination. References to being the "lowest paid teacher" and howshe will always be stuck being a substitute. She works just as hard as ateacher but never feels like she will have the importance of one because shewill always just be a "sub" bouncing around from classroom to classroomnever having her own group of students for longer than a day. No matter howgreat of a teacher she is or what passion she has for it, racial discriminationwill always outweigh her goal which makes he live in a world of heartache.

Dubliners

This story was very easy to relate too being inreference to school. Leo was reading “The Half Penny Marbles” a series aboutthe Wild West and Apache Indians. Father Butler came over and snatched themagazine right out of his hands and began to take a look at it. After seeing thatit wasn’t the educational book he was supposed to have out or an educationalbook in general, Father Butler referred to it as “Scribble”. Basically, callingit worthless trash in which Leo will never learn from. I feel like manystudents often  feel like they have metaFather Butler in their lifetime. Still many teachers don’t belive thatanything that’s not an educational book can be worthwhile. However, I like todiffer. I feel like many students along with myself have learned  a lot from a lot of other outsidebooks,magazines, comics that do not have any relation to school texts. I feellike it is when the school texts are being urged to take over is when learningstops.

            Leoand Mahony end up planning a day to skip school. Leo says “School and homeseemed to recede from us”. A lot of people can relate to this. When you thinkof those two words other words that are connected with it are authority, rules,regulations, and guidelines. Sometimes it just gets overwhelming and you justwant to do your own thing and your own time with no one stopping you. I’m suremost people in their life time can relate to these two boys and skipped school.I’m sure that everyone as also had a Joe Dillon who chickened out. Power tothose Joe Dillons.

            Once theywere on their journey everything was great and dandy until they reached the oldman. I feel like all kids at some point learn that the grass is not alwaysgreener on the other side. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the word greenis mentioned so many times. “Green Eyes,green stems, green leaves, suit ofgreenish black.  It also shows theinnocence of children and talking to strangers. The old man they encounter is atotal, complete freak show, creepo who should be put in jail. He is very scaryand you can immediately tell by his language. He is always talking in amysterious monotone voice. He has some sick obsession with young girls and isconstantly reffering to their “nice white hands, nice soft hands, nice younggirl, nice soft hair, and their beauty. He then talks about nice warm whippingshe would love to give to a young boy who would ever think to have a sweetheart.The old man constantly repeats himself . Leo references it as “orbitingthoughts”. Poor Leo at this point realizes the safety of home and how scary theoutside world can be. Mahony is not as mature as Leo when it comes to hisdevelopment in his thinking process. I feel like Leo can grasp a betterawareness to what feels right and wrong.  Mahony mentions he has three sweethearts whenthe man asked how many they each had and that’s when the old man started totalk about whipping young boys. Mahony went off to chase a cat. What I thoughtwas interesting was that the cat was referenced to as a she. “The cat escaped once more and Mahony began to throwstones at the wall she had escaladed.” I think the cat was in reference toMahony chasing girls. He claimed to have three but in reality he didn’t haveany so the cat could be seen as a girl running away and Mahony coming after it.I probably just over analyzed it way to much which I have a tendency to do alot ha. Scratch that. Both Leo and Mahony said things to try to impress the oldman in the beginning of their conversations before they found out he was atotal creep. Leo told the old man he read all the books he named so that theold man would think he is smart. People can relate to this. I have definitely claimedto have read a book or some educational source to an adult just to seem reallysmart and like I know what I’m actually talking about.

Children have such an innocenceto them but learn only through making mistakes and experiencing the worldthrough their own mind and pair of eyes. Not even just children. Everyone, includingmyself.  You can get as much advice inthe world from adults, parents, teachers, and friends and they can tell youwhat they learned from their experiences but no matter what you need to learnon your own. In my opinion I have leanred best from making my own mistakes.