Wahwahlanawah

For the past week my family has been moving houses and it's been pretty hectic here, but while moving some books the we had in the garage (it's a shame, I know) I randomly found the creepiest book I've ever seen. Not like a bloody/creepy picture on the cover/ scary title font, but more like a witch's spell book creepy with the word Wahwahlanawah on the cover and the year 1931 printed on it. It's a year book from my school from 1931.

 I pulled it out thinking it was a movie prop or something evil and it turns out to be a year book.

 Even the inside is creepy, it looks like spider webs!

The End - A Reflection.

    Well, today is the last day I will be in this class and, thus, the last day I will be updating this blog.
    Haha, just kidding, I like writing here, but my updates will most likely be about fictional books from now on. I've really enjoyed the class, it has actually become one of my favorites. The teacher, Mrs. Coats, is extremely animated and excited almost all of the time and has so many fun stories to share with everyone, it really makes my day coming in here. This class only has three students in it and one rarely shows up (seriously I've only seen her about once a quarter) so we usually get work done a lot faster than normal and have plenty of time to goof off so it's always a fun time for me. We've written magazine articles and read books, which, if you know me, I almost never read non-fiction so reading "The Color of Water" and my sherlock book was a rare thing for me to do and I really enjoyed it. I probably won't do it again, but I enjoyed it.
    The first thing I will miss about this class is defiantly the teacher. I, myself, am a bit introverted so seeing someone as happy and colorful as her is always fun for me. She always has a story to tell and it never gets boring in here (okay, not never. Typing and such gets a little tedious). Some of her favorite subjects to talk about are her new dog (who, from what I hear, is very ornery.), her husband, her family, and her In-laws (it never gets boring in here when the In-laws are involved). I hope that the rest of the year goes great for her and that she never gets any less fun. Also that the kids are nice to her. Kids at my school are mean.
    I have actually grown as a writer. As proof of that I will list my strategies.
Step one: Write what ever comes to mind (See first paragraph).
Step two: Butter up whoever is giving the grade (See second paragraph).
Step three: Attempt to be funny to cover up the second paragraph (See here).
Step four: ???
Step five: Profit.
I'm still on step three.
    In all seriousness though I really have grown as a writer, over the summer my typing had gotten horrible sloppy (as evident in my magazine article). I Could type well not nd Ha dto REdo evry ting and it hard lol. Now I just get a headache looking at anything that isn't perfect (See previous sentence). I'm not saying I know everything there is to know about writing (who knows how many run on sentences I have in this already), but I do know that typing like you just woke up and haven't had your morning coffee is not acceptable for a project that is meant to look formal. I've also really grown out in my reading (although I'm content with my fantasy) so even though I keep saying I'll probably never read another non-fiction book that's a lie. I used to think I was extremely good at writing, but this year I noticed that I actually kind of really suck so even though I have yet to really improve on that, I've at least recognized it and I do plan on doing something about my terrible writing. Sorry to anyone I've forced to read my stories.
  I will miss this class, but in following with Dr.Seuss's wise words "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I will. So thank you, Mrs. Coats, for being one of my favorite teachers and helping me improve my writing.

Respect

Name, explain, and fully describe the person you respect the most and why.

No one.

I should probably explain that by "No one" I mean I don't respect any one person more than another. I have people I look up to (Certain artists and writes for example), but respect is something that every human deserves and who am I to deny a person what's theirs? Race, gender, religion, political view, and whatever else people may judge on don't matter to me, if you respect me I'll respect you.

Rewrite a chapter.

The Red-Headed League Summary
"This short story starts off with Watson once again visiting his friend from 221b Baker street. Once inside though he finds that Holmes is speaking with a red headed man named Jabez Wilson. After some convincing Watson was allowed to stay and the man began his tale. He worked as a prawn broker and had a very clever assistant, Vincent Spaulding. One day Vincent came in with a paper sporting an ad for and opening in The Red-Headed League. Eventually her got Jabez to apply, Jabez got the postion and went to work everyday until one day the Red-Headed League was disband which is when Jabez came to Sherlock for help. Holmes promised to have the case solved by monday and with that asked for silence from Watson for about fifty minuets, afterwards they went to the Pawnbroker's shop and beat the pavement around it with a stick. Ringing the doorbell they met Vincent. Later Holmes asked an officer to accompany him for an ambush in the near by bank (he also spoke with the director of the bank). Late at night Holmes, Watson, the officer, and the bank director waited and lo and behold Vincent and his accomplice sneak into the bank only to be caught. Holmes had deduced that Vincent was actually the notorious criminal John Clay and was using the basement from the Pawnbroker's shop to tunnel into the bank. He needed to get Jabez out of the way for a while so he made up the Red-Headed League and finished up the tunnel."

Refelction

With all the "Why is it good to reflect" stuff I have posted it only makes sense for me to reflect on my own blog. Truthfully I actually enjoy it, even though this started with an assignment I might just continue this even after the assignment is over. Doing book reviews possibly? Maybe just what ever happens to strike my fancy that particular day (in which case I'll probably start talking about my obsession with criminology more often than not)? Who knows. I kind of wish I had put this on tumblr or something that I'm more used to (where with a click of a button I can reblog all the personal library pictures and calligraphy gifs I want), but I'm not going to beat myself up for starting up on this site. It's pretty good in it's own way. To make my blog more appealing though is a bit tougher for me to think about. I'm not very good at designing things (especially blogs as it turns out) so I had a little trouble with this one at first. It will probably stay the same as long as long as this blog exists since it's the most though I put into a blog. I wanted to keep it warm and friendly looking, while still remaining true to my own interests, and at the same time sound/ look a little more sophisticated than I am capable of as a high schooler. With that in mind I made it red, black, added a book background, and created a title that could be misconstrued as a thinly veiled "psychopath blending in with society" story. Like I said before I'll probably keep this blog up and running even after the assignment is over, be prepared for book reviews, my personal philosophy, and famous serial killers in the near future (or after break, whatever.)

More Sherlock (In Case You're Not Sick of Hearing About it Yet)

I have just finished chapter 5 of Nigel Cawthorne's "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Guide to the World's Most Famous Detective".
[Insert cheering crowd]
The entire chapter was dedicated to summarizing "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and did a marvelous job of spoiling the stories I haven't had the time to read yet.
[Insert cheering crowd]
I won't bore you with details (or spoilers), but I actually like reading this. The first few chapters had several facts about the Conan Doyle I didn't know before and really put into light all the trouble he went through to get some of his stories published. The next few (which I'm currently in the middle of) describe all of Sherlock and Watson's adventures together and, in a few cases, point out a lot of things I missed while reading (see? This is why it's important to reflect on stories). Even though the book itself doesn't tell a real tale I'm still excited to read more.

Why is it important to reflect on what we read?

This may seem a little silly at first, I mena you just read it. Big deal, right? Actually in many things I've read, if reflected upon, I've found deeper meanings. I'm not talking about your english teach over analyzing why a write decided to describe curtains as blue, but like allusions or hidden references and maybe a few metaphors for life and death. Albeit I usually find these kind of things in poems, finding something you didn't notice before in a story isn't uncommon and feels pretty cool. Like in the Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Red Headed League" when I first read it I didn't pay much attention to the assistant, but [SPOILERS] as it turns out he was the culprit. After thinking back on it, a lot of the things he did made a lot of sense and had originally escaped my thought. Allusions and references could be hidden in stories too, or if you're really luck foreshadowing, like for example I once wrote a story for class and named the character Richard Parker. I realize this is also the name of Spiderman's parents, but my original intention was to reference Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" who had a character named Richard Parker (and was subsequently cannibalized by the remainder of a shipwrecked crew). Unless you look back on stories you might miss these kind of things and truthfully it makes you feel kind of cool to know you just figured out that in the "Wizard of Oz" the poppy field was alluding to opium (not to mention it adds depth to the tale) because you totally knew that.