e-portfolio: rekindling an old love

For a while, I struggled with continuing with this love, but I always strayed away from it. I hated the idea of writing papers for school. I hated the idea of writing in general. Growing up, writing was something I always loved doing, I wanted to be an author when I grew up. However, that idea faded away once I got into my teens. I started writing way less as I dove deeper into school work, I began to hate writing with the gracious amount of papers I was forced to do for school. Throughout this time I did try to get back into writing, but it was so hard to do. I would get an idea and I'd try to write, but then I'd hit a writer's block and stop.

Now, entering into college I knew a variety of papers were in store for me. College Writing was the class where I wrote, and wrote, and wrote; paper after paper. I still couldn't stand writing because of all these papers, but something changed. Dr. Kyburz assigned us the Rhetoricity Narrative, where she gave us free-range on the assignment and wanted us to make the story personal. I started the paper and I just continued to write and write and write. I was happy with actually taking time out of my day to write this paper. I was so proud of what I had written, and so happy with the outcome of that project I wanted to write more and more. It was one of my favorite papers to write.

For our final paper, she assigned us the Exploratory Essay. It was basically a larger scale version of our Microtheme Paper. The Exploratory Essay, though, was more interesting to me than the Microtheme. The Exploratory allowed me to reach out and obtain research on the issue I was crawling with questions for. It allowed me to seek deeper in the issue I was concerned about; it let me freely flow with my thoughts and worries surrounding drinking.

I've always been insecure on my writings, and always felt whatever I submitted in for homework wasn't the best. But, Dr. Kyburz really brought up my confidence in writing. I was able to feel happy and proud of the papers I was submitting and felt I was giving more effort into writing. This class has brought back my old love for writing. It made me happy to write; it didn't feel like a burden to me anymore. I really appreciate all the feedback that Dr. Kyburz offered to me, and enjoyed it wasn't just a basic student teacher formatted partnership, but it felt more personal and open with free thought.

With what I have learned from this class, I hope to excel even further into my love of writing.

can break come any sooner...

As finals soon approach, I begin to scramble to get assignments done on their due date. Stress is at a complete overload and I'm pulling crazy hours for homework. It's difficult managing schooling, work, and a social life. It's something I've struggled greatly with in trying to find a halfway happy for all of them. Hopefully over winter break, I reboot and find a way to deal with homework, work, and friends. This first semester was a slight test run since I am a freshman and this environment is totally new to me. Overall, I enjoyed my first semester, but there is definitely some things I would do different if I could.

neck deep - parachute

since I mostly just post music on my blog as of now, I decided to share yet another song from one of my all time favorite bands. Music is something that I greatly enjoy listening to and I want to share my love of music with others by showing some of the music videos for some of my favorite songs.

should i stay or should i go - the clash

I decided to post this song since I was really big into Stranger Things since the latest season was released not that long ago, and this is one of the important songs for the show!

with confidence - archers

music is something i greatly enjoy listening to and sharing with others. although i shared a with confidence song recently on my blog, but since they're one of my top favorite bands i decided to post another one of their songs!

multimodal

with confidence - waterfall

This week enough has been stressful, for not only me, but also my friends. This week was just rough for us all.. Some ways I try and relax are by laying in bed, watching tv, or listening to music. Music is one of the biggest ways I try to relax myself... So, I'd like to share one of my favorite songs from one of my favorites bands.

a weekend at lewis

Over the weekend, I decided to stay over at my friend's dorm Friday through Sunday morning. I have stayed at lewis for SOAR, and I slept over in my friend's dorm. But, I never got the true weekend vibe that time. I discovered lewis is super boring over the weekend and basically a dead campus. It was fun hanging out with my friend longer than normal, and I finally got to swimming here (which is something I've been waiting forever to do!!). By staying the weekend here, I was able to finish Stranger Things and get a lot of homework done (homework on the weekend? shocking I know). But sadly, Sunday morning I had to leave pretty early in the morning which sucked because, firstly, I had to get up early and second I had to be a ninja in order to not wake up my friends.

microtheme paper - drinking from a young age

I hate alcohol. I hate how alcohol has become a party norm for teenagers. It makes me angry that the only way for them to think it’s a good time is with alcohol. Why do teenagers feel the need to consume alcohol in order to have a good time?

A reason as to why teenagers start consuming alcohol at a young age could be they wanted to see how it tastes. Alcoholic ads are supposedly aimed towards young adults because they are viewed as the new drinkers of the generations, and the ads show drinking as fun and an exciting thing to do. A different cause could be that teenagers drink alcohol due to peer pressure. Throughout high school years, teens are placed under new influences from the new environment, and wanting to go with the flow and wanting to experience the common high school life, so it is probable that they succumbed to peer pressure to drink alcohol. Another source for a teenager to drink might be rebelling against their parents. They wanted to live life dangerously and probably felt going against what their parents say is rebellious enough, so they most likely drank alcohol to anger their parents.
Trying to understand the reasoning behind underage drinking could help find ways to decrease the pressure for teens to drink. Figuring out teenager’s reasons behind drinking could also help discover possible solutions to get them to turn away from alcohol. It could also help teenagers to focus on their schooling and grades more than trying to perfect their social life.

ocean drive - duke dumont

This song has been stuck in my head lately, and I felt why not share it on my blog. Music is something I very much enjoy listening to and I love sharing my taste of music with others. I enjoy a wide variety of genres when it comes to music, and would like share something I enjoy with others!

hollywood undead concert

On Wednesday, I was able to see one of my favorite bands again for the second time: Hollywood Undead. And let me tell you, it was amazing yet again. Since it was a school night, I was glad I didn't have to drive out to Chicago this time to see them perform, instead my dad, sister, and I drove out to Joliet for the venue they were performing at.

When we arrived, the doors still weren't open so we had to wait outside in the chilly weather for about 20 minutes. In those waiting minutes, my dad was listening to the Cubs game and I was trying to stay warm in my hoodie. Since the location they were playing at was a bar, they had to check I.D. and if you were under 21 they'd place a black X on each hand and if you were over 21 you'd get a neon yellow bracelet. While I was telling my sister how I would willingly take the X's since I'm under 21, the person in front of us told a story of his friend who got the X's tattooed on his hands after going to a concert. And now that he is over 21, he isn't able to get drinks at shows because they bartenders see the X's.

Then, we finally get into the venue and we are all the way in the back. I don't really mind being in the back, I've already seen the band before, but I would've loved to have moved closer (and by back I mean all the way by the bar back). Now, we have to wait for the opening acts then the band we really wanted to see.

The first opening act was the rapper whose name I don't know, and he kept on pronouncing Joliet as Juliet. Then, the show moved onto the second opening act: Butcher Babies. Butcher Babies singing was not something I truly was expecting; two girls metal screaming. Normally you expect males to do the screaming, but no, it was two girls. I mean it wasn't bad, but I couldn't understand a single word they were saying. 

Now, finally came to band I wanted to really see. Hollywood Undead comes on stage performing one of their new songs, Whatever It Takes, instead of the song they normally open up with, Undead. They perform more of their songs and talk to the crowd. I was most excited for the encore because that's when they play my top favorite song they have, Everywhere I Go. When it finally comes to the encore, that's when I am truly hyped up at this concert. That's when I feel it's my time to shine from the back row of the venue. 

However, sadly, the show must come to an end and they end the show with their song Hear Me Now. Finally, my dad, sister, and I must make our way through the drunken, sweaty crowd out the doors into the cold night back to my dad's car and home. I wish I could go back to that night, but I definitely plan to see Hollywood Undead again!

(I 10/10 recommend listening to Everywhere I Go, but I found it too inappropriate to post!)

((Also fun fact on my first time seeing them I had like a 2 second conversation with one of the members about the weather!))

American Assassin Review

picture

American Assassin is an adaptation of the novel by Vince Flynn. It is a movie I have seen twice now and I have read the book. I believe the movie was done really well, but there some things obviously different to the book. I could understand some differences made in the movie, but there were definitely some plot from the book I would have loved to see put into the film. The antagonist of the film and the main plot of the film was slightly different to the book, but it was more so a tangent of what truly occurred in the book. I recommend seeing the movie, but I really recommend reading the book. I  mean who wouldn't love to see Dylan O'Brien (Mitch Rapp) in an action packed film.

the reason behind my blog name...

There's a specific reason as to why the name of my blog was "The Tell Tale Blog," and that reason being it's a play off of one of my favorite short stories ever: The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. Ever since my class read this story in the 7th grade, I'd fallen in love with Poe and his writings; I even did my eighth grade literature report on him (fun fact: him and I share the same birthday!). So, I felt it was just to name my blog after it!

whatever it takes - hollywood undead

Thought I'd show others a song from another one of my favorite bands! I'm also getting more into listening to Hollywood Undead on repeat because I am seeing them in concert again! The first time I saw them was St. Patrick's Day 2015 and it was amazing! Except a person way taller than me stood in front of me for most of it and a person with a huge backpack kept on hitting my side, but other than that I had a super fun time jamming and singing along!

DACA

The Campus Ministry stood outside on Thursday encouraging students to sign post cards to send to Illinois Senators (Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, or if you know your Representative) on the issue of DACA. If you don't know what DACA is, here is a link to give you information on what it is and why it is important.

reflective writing compared to published review: the hunting ground

Link to the article I will be discussing is here.

This article was able to convey most of the film with to the point writing style, as well as giving compliments to the writer-director (Kirby Dick) and others involved in the documentary. They paid more attention towards the Title IX complaint with Andrea Pino and Annie Clark. Also, they had made some assumptions about what some things meant in the film, for example, when they were describing the scene about the gray haired man talking over the graduating music saying, "what happens in college stays in college." They made an assumption about what it truly meant with the gray haired man saying that. The article brought in other articles bringing in more statistics on sexual assaults.

In my writing for this documentary, I was definitely more opinion based on my description of the movie and talked more towards the scenes that riled up large reaction from me. I didn't focus on writing about the statistics that were shown, and I didn't dive too deep into the Title IX issue. My writing felt like I was more putting my thoughts out into words, while the article was aimed like it was talking to someone else. I didn't bring in other resources; I just wrote out what I was feeling after the film.

the hunting ground

Here lies my responses to the guided reading questions...

One scene that got to me the most was the absolute praise and honor the FSU football player, Jameis Winston, received from everyone. It just blew my mind how close minded everyone seemed to the real problem that was going on. It made me so angry that everyone was pushing away this disgusting charge that was not given as much light as his football career. I was so livid when the sports reporters were more worried about his position on receiving certain sports awards than this girl's feelings. This whole scene dealing with the FSU scandal made me the most angry. What really surprised me most about this documentary was how corrupted and so conceded the authorities and workers of the universities were. I couldn't believe how inconsiderate the school board was to try and protect their ASSets.

After watching this film, all I felt was complete rage towards college and how deeply corrupted school administrators are in order to make sure they're school's reputation is perfect. I didn't realize how money hungry school were; it almost seemed like they were desperate for alumni to hand over their money, even though college is what drives people into debt. Some problematic concepts from the film are the 'brush under the rug' idea schools use for sexual assault cases, what the two women are doing now since the documentary to help fight the Title IX complaints, the problems with fraternities, and the emotional turmoil the victims suffer through when trying to receive help with their cases.

neck deep - in bloom

This here is a song from one of my many favorite bands. The video is a big mess of pink and flowers, and it appears all soft and springy. But, the lyrics talk about how a relationship can't move forward if one person doesn't allow their significant other to better themselves. Their relationship can't "bloom" if they both aren't ready to step up. The song really shows that a relationship is two-sided and both parties have to work together in sync and equally - if one person isn't on the same level as the other, it doesn't work well and create problems.