Reading Assignment #6

-The Wednesday Letters
-Completed
-Created tweets for the characters Samantha Cooper, Malcolm Cooper and Rain Jeperson.

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper
Can't believe they both just left like that. #mom#dad#goodbye

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
@sammiecooper Sorry I'm not there already... #betheresoon

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson
@sammiecooper @malcolmcooper The Inn will never be the same. #theywillbemissed



Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
Never thought I'd be leaving South America for a funeral #notgoodat#goodbyes#orhellos

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper
@malcolmcooper At least you're finally coming home #wemissedyou

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
@sammiecooper Not home yet so you can still miss me sis! #cominghome

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper

@sammiecooper Finally landed... Everything's almost too familiar #exceptthenew#arbys#what?!

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper

@malcolmcooper That's what happens when you're gone for 2 years #finalllyback

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson

@malcolmcooper Of course that's the first thing you notice #seeyousoon

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper

@sammiecooper @rainjeperson Mixed feelings about coming home #itstimethough#seeyougirlssoon

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
The Inn smells different #guessimhome

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper

@malcolmcooper That's because no one's been cooking #sadbuttrue

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson
@malcolmcooper You smell different! #probablybrazil

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
@rainjeperson Oh you want to play this game now, hey? (I know you like it) #alwaysfresh



Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper
Brazil was a lot more scenic...Also a lot less Rain #ironic#takemeback

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson
Oh you're so funny @malcolmcooper happy to see you too #doof

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper
@malcolmcooper @rainjeperson Get married already #lovebirds



Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper
SO shocked dad wrote mom letters EVERY WEDNESDAY! #letthediscoveriesbegin#timetoread

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson
@sammiecooper Now that's what you call true love #soromantic

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper

@sammiecooper Who would have known mom and dad were so cool! An autograph from Elvis and Priscilla! #whatnext?

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper

Reading letter after letter... "I love you dearly", "Miss you", "Somehow we'll make it"...Jack Cooper #loveletters

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper

Who knew our dad was so romantic! @sammiecooper After all this time! #kingofromance

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson

@sammiecooper @malcolmcooper Your parents truly loved each other... I hope someone writes me one day. #truelove

Malcolm Cooper @malcolmcooper

When you find out your whole life has been a lie. #thanksalot#icantanymore

Samantha Cooper @sammiecooper

Where are you @malcolmcooper?! Come home! #notthetime

Rain Jeperson @rainjeperson
@sammiecooper Don't worry... I got him #safe

First Scarf of the Season

 Last Winter I learned how to crochet scarves and took quite the liking to it! Yesterday I went out and bought some thick wool at Michaels and started this scarf shortly after. Because I used a big hook and a thicker wool, this scarf took me about an hour. (So they make up pretty quick.) I realized while making this scarf, that out of the dozens of scarfs I made last year, I hadn't even kept one for myself! I decided to keep this one, but I will be making many more and selling them. If anyone is interested in purchasing a scarf, I'd be happy to make one for you! 

Thinking About Dialogue

For this assignment, my friend Taryn and I had to go around the school to eavesdrop on other peoples conversations. We went around the hallways of our school to try and pick up on some of the daily conversations that people were taking part in and came across some pretty strange topics!

1. Talk about the process of eavesdropping: 

a. Where did you go?
We went in the hallways of our school because all the kids that skip class have fairly weird conversations.
b. How long did you listen to conversation?
We listened to about two minutes of each conversation (before they found us suspicious).
c. Who was it between?
Most of the conversations were between about two guys and one girl.
d. How did it feel to be recording the conversation?
We felt like undercover spies!

2. What insights did you gain about the way people speak? 
We listened to two groups containing a couple boys and a girl and another group containing a couple girls. We noticed during the conversations with the boys and girls that most guys are willing to start conversation with girls ( knowing the girl will continue the conversation). They will continue talking even if they aren't interested in the topic. It was funny to see how the guys quickly lost interest but pretended to listen. The difference between the all girls conversation was that sentences were more cut off and it was more fast paced.

3. How can you apply this to your writing?
What we noticed is very typical to conversations between girls and guys. The conversation is slower and the girl is the main focus. Conversation between a group of girls is faster and harder to keep track of the topic because the topic is always changing. ( I now understand why guys tune us out!)

4. How is personality and character revealed through conversation/dialogue? 
We noticed that your personality can be portrayed through the choice of wording you use and how intense your tone is. For example, these two girls were talking about their love for music and you could tell the one girl was a little more tough than the other girl. She was swearing while describing how much she loved music and how she HAAAD to pick up some new beats to have a deeper experience with her music. The other girl was a little more gentle with her words and seemed happier. This reflects their characters as people with only a few words.

5. What happens when more than two people participate in a conversation?
When more than two people participate in conversation, we noticed sentences aren't always finished. The more people there are, the more other people begin to interrupt or add in on conversation. We also noticed that the more people in conversation, the more the topic can change because new ideas are being brought up. Between two or more girls the conversation is harder to follow, but when there is a guy and a girl the guy usually ends up listening.

6. What was the most surprising thing you've learned about the way people converse?
I suppose one thing that really surprised us was that people (high school students specifically) can have long conversations about the most random, general topics. Ones we heard today were music and socks. We know that sometimes we're like this as well when we converse with people, but that just goes to show that as teenagers, we don’t always have a whole lot of interesting topics to talk about on a daily basis. Especially since we talk to the same people everyday. Conversations begin to resort into talking about random things such as socks. (Believe us... they talked for a good 10 minutes about their socks!)

7. What are the differences and similarities between written and spoken conversations?
In our opinion, the biggest difference between written and spoken conversations are that most written conversations are not only more planned out, but have more of a purpose. I know that lots of the things we say do not always have a purpose and sometimes it’s just about the experience of interacting with another person. Usually in a story or wherever else you’ll find written conversation, the author will omit conversations that do not further develop the character or plot of the story. However in spoken conversations in life, one cannot simply omit a useless conversation. Also in a spoken conversation there is more of a visual aspect because you can see the person actually talking and read their body language.

8. General comments about the experience?
This assignment was actually pretty interesting because we were told to go walk around the school and eavesdrop on our peers to then later write about their conversations. It was a little difficult to get the full conversation at times because we didn't want to seem too obvious that we were listening in on them. Surprisingly no one noticed how intently we were listening in on their conversations... Maybe that was because we were just so sneaky! Taryn and I pretended to be opening our lockers near the people or another key trick was to walk in front of the people because then they had no idea we were following them!

Imagery Paragraphs- The Wednesday Letters

The Wednesday Letters
Jason F. Wright
pg.58-59

Malcolm dropped his bag at the bottom of the stairs and walked down the long corridor toward the kitchen. He stopped halway to straighten a slightly crooked frame holding an aged penny.  "The Inn smells different." "That's because no one's been cooking." Samantha sat at the legnthy dining room table. Malcolm sat across from her. The eggshell-white walls were lined with pictures of war heroes and presidents. Expensive china was displayed behind the glass doors of an antique, handmade cabinet Jack had purchased at an auction in Waynesboro the year they moved to Woodstock...

...The two sat quietly gazing at the family portraits and antique artwork that lined the walls. Eventually Samantha rested her head on her folded arms atop the table. She gazed up at her brother and admired Malcom's rugged features. She noted that even road weary with a long, mangy beard, he was a handsome man.

___=Visual
___=Kinesthetic
___=Smell
      =Auditory

I selected these particular passages because they contain a variety of imagery. These paragraphs appeal to me because every little detail is explained to the point where you feel like you are within the novel itself.

Like many novel, visual imagery is usually the most common. As you can see from the passages above, the blue highlighted sections which represent the visual imagery are the most common.

I think the best snippet of visual imagery within my passages is "The eggshell-white walls were lined with pictures of war heroes and presidents. Expensive china was displayed behind the glass doors of an antique, handmade cabinet." I think this snippet is effective because it describes what every little detail in that room looks like. When I read these two sentences, it paints a picture in my head of how elegant and proper the room is. By describing each item from the classic eggshell-white walls, to the expensive china behind glass doors of an antique handmade cabinet, you can tell what kind of lifestyle the characters Laurel and Jack Cooper had before they passed away.

This imagery is positive and negative at the same time. There are positive aspects as Malcolm admires all of the artwork in his parents house, but it is also negative because his parents have just passed away and his choice of words describing the room for example "long corridor" and "lengthy dining room table" display how empty the house is now. Malcolm also mentions the change of smell in the house now that no one is cooking. "The Inn smells different." This is a negative factor for him because his mom was known for her cooking and since her recent passing, the difference smell makes it more evident that his mom is no longer alive.

Sadness is an emotion that is created in these passages especially in the second paragraph when Samantha and Malcolm are sitting in silence looking at their family pictures. "The two sat quietly gazing at the family portraits and antique artwork the lined the walls. Eventually Samantha rested her head on her folded arms atop the table." The brother and sister are quite sad after the passing of both of their parents as you can tell while they sit in silence not knowing what to say or do. They begin to take in every little detail they may not have noticed as much before.

The purpose of this piece of imagery is to bring the reader right into the story by displaying visual, kinesthetic, smell and auditory imagery. These styles of imagery help in making you feel the grief the brother and sister are going through by the descriptions of the differences in smell and objects around them. Towards the end I felt a little uncomfortable as the two were just sitting in silence, feeling the emptiness around them.

Newspaper Blackout

Last week in class, our assignment was to follow in the steps of Austin Kleon and make our very own "Newspaper Blackout." A Newspaper Blackout is when you take any story from a newspaper and completely transform it by blacking out certain words while revealing the words that end up creating your final poem or story. This is a very interesting project because you can start out with a story that has a negative outlook and end up changing it into a positive poem about love. This was my first time ever trying this way of story telling and I would highly recommend others to try it! Also check out Austin Kleon's site and follow him on Instagram! I love looking at the different stories he writes every day. 

http://newspaperblackout.com/

LOVE AND CHANGE

CHANGING THE WORLD: The secret is to find something about changing the world for society and enjoy the brilliant vision.

AFFECTION AND LOVE: Enjoy time and learn to process affection and love.

ACROSS THE HILL: Words of love take place across the hill. 

Quick write #3 -Our Island

We had been travelling for what seemed to be hours, across the ocean in our boat filled high to the rim with belongings. As the sky grew darker and the wind began to pick up, I began to worry. "Please! There can't be a storm now!" I pleaded as I felt my body slowly beginning to give up on me. The waves continued to grow bigger and bigger as my muscles became heavier with every last stroke I attempted. "We're never going to arrive." I muffled under my voice. "This must be a joke!" I continued as I looked out into the ocean and the distance ahead of us looked longer than ever before. In every direction we looked, the dark blue water and waves surrounded us like we were the only people within miles. The current continued to grow stronger, while the waves felt as if they were counteracting every movement we made. "Maybe we should head back" I started. Suddenly, I was interrupted as the sky cleared up and changed into the most beautiful shade of bright blue, revealing the slightest hints of emerald green. It almost seemed as if someone from above was looking out for us and wanted us to continue. We gathered whatever strength we had left and proceeded to paddle onward. Finally among the waves and fog, there it was. Our very own island. At last it was revealed! With just one glance at it's beauty, all our negativity that we had accumulated upon our journey vanished. Our island was absolutely breathtaking. We placed our paddles down to admire the pure grace that stood before us. I soon began to wonder, "Is our island actually as special as it looks? Or are we just so pleased to finally be here that anything could possibly look good right now?" I quickly stopped my thoughts. It couldn't just be my imagination, I had honestly never seen a sight quite as outstanding as our new island and home. There was still one question to be answered though... Why had they sold us the island for only five dollars? "They must be mad...or extremely generous!" I thought to myself as I gazed up at the beauty that was now in plain view. "You couldn't possibly want to get rid of a paradise like this... Impossible." 

Photography- Clone

Last week in Photography our assignment was to "clone" an object or person and create a scene. I asked my friend Emma if she would be interested in being my model and she was so excited saying, " I can dress up like I'm in The Great Gatsby! I have a bunch of outfits!" Taking these images were quite simple. First of all, you need to set up your tripod in a spot where your shots will be able to include your subject in several different places. Also, you need to set your camera to a good exposure so that your final image is clear and well lit. The trick in cloning an image is to not move your tripod or change any of the cameras settings unless you want problems layering the images later in Photoshop. The only thing that is allowed to move or change while creating your image is your subject! Because the background and exposure remains the same in each separate shot, the final layering in Photoshop should go smoothly. I began with one of the images as my base layer and from there I selected my subject from every other image and just layered them on top of one another. This is a fun assignment that you can do a lot with if you put your imagination to it! 

Character Tweets

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

For this assignment our class had to create 15 tweets from the perspective of one of the characters in our book. I made tweets for the last book I read, The Art of Racing in the Rain through Enzo's perspective.

Somewhere the zeebra is dancing #traumatized

Your car goes where youre eyes go #driving#lessonswithdenny

Who gave Monkey's thumbs instead of dogs?! #frustrated

Can't wait for Denny to come home! #misshim#walktime

Please don't take her away from us yet #weeneedhermorethanyouthink

Nothing will ever be good enough for the Twins #complaints#judgemental

Never accept food from someone you don't trust #wisewords

I wish I could go visit Eve one last time #missingher

Zoe is growing up too fast #nomoregames

And just like that she was gone #neverforget

Don't you dare take Zoe away from us #unfair#shesours

Only those who are ready return as men #ready#afterlife

I promise I'll take care of Denny and Zoe forever #promise#forever

Nothing feels better than being back together #missedlittlezoe#finally

Enzo says hello #reborn

Just Cause- Halloween for Hunger

Last night College Sturgeon Heights Collegiate's Just Cause group participated in Halloween for Hunger by going door to door collecting items to donate to Winnipeg Harvest. This is the fourth year our school has participated in this event and our results were fantastic with a total of 1350,75 pounds of non perishable food items. Great job Huskies!

Capturing Events- Volleyball

Last Thursday, I also went to the grade 9 boys volleyball game for a couple hours. The boys played with a lot of focus and determination and I enjoyed what I saw of the game. I had never really watched Volleyball before, but I ended up getting really into the game especially since the score between the two teams was very close. Taking pictures at this game was a little challenging because the lighting in the gym wasn't the best and the movements of the players were very quick. The result in these circumstances was a bit more of a grainy photo because my shutter speed had to be quicker to capture the movement and my ISO had to be higher so that my photo wasn't too dark. All good practice though!

Capturing Events- Husky Classic

Last Thursday, the Sturgeon Heights boys and girls hockey teams played at the Iceplex. Both teams played with great effort and the spirit our Huskies brought was pheonomenal! As you can see, many people made signs and wore face paint to support this school event. There was constant cheering throughout the arena which really reflected on the playing of our teams. My goal for this day was to capture groups of friends and the spirit of the crowd which you can see in the photos I have posted.