reflective essay

        My blog topics so far have been responses to other people and to books, random topics, and that essay thirteen at the beginning of the year. The responses were about the Revolutionary War in America, college ready, a mad face, urban art, and essay thirteen. The random topics have been about leg cramps, writing essays, and sports. In hopes of improving next semester, I will explore my struggles with writer's block.

        My writing has not improved much. I can't whip out an essay in ten minutes like most of my classmates do. This is perfectly normal for me because writing has never been a strong point for me and my writing grade proves that(I have a B-). I can see that I need to elaborate more on some ideas. If I don't elaborate, I fall short of the minimum requirement which I expressed I hate in one of my blog posts. An example of this disaster is when I did a post about leg cramps. 

The title is very long because I want to be very clear what I will talk about in the post. If I just ask what the pain in the leg is, I would just say cramp and that would be the end of it. If I just mention how we treat it, the audience would not know what i am talking about. It's kind of a long sentence clause and I mentioned how long it is so I could have something to talk about. A cramp is a very simple topic and there is not much to talk about.

I went off topic just to meet the 350 word requirement which is the last thing I want to do, but I had no choice. I hope to solve this problem by expressing more opinions rather than facts next semester. This is because I can write more when it comes to opinions. Facts are boring because I just state them and that's the end of  that. Not much to them. Another way I didn't improve is I get stuck a lot in the midst of typing a blog post. I think for half an hour or somewhere around that just to come up with one idea. In extreme cases, I think for an hour and it sucks. 

        Of all the topics I have written about, I liked the one about America's struggle for independence. I knew a lot about that topic, so writer's block wasn't a problem there. It was written in chronological order from when Britain invaded New York to Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. My inspiration came from school and Wikipedia. I learned about the war through school history textbooks and randomly searching battles in the war on Wikipedia. My least favorite blog post was essay number thirteen. It was written as a response to an article I read over the summer and was purely opinion, but it wasn't an interesting topic to blog about. The one that surprises me the most is the NFL prediction post. I thought I was going to receive a lot of criticism and disagreements, but it worked out fine. I wrote this like any other person would. Look at each division and determine which team is the best. This is what the format looked like for this post:

To the nfc east, the giants take this one. Eli Manning (quarterback) brought his team to the Super Bowl within the last five years. The criteria to win the nfc north is huge, but I take the packers. They're building a great team around Aaron Rodgers. The afc south isn't such a hard choice. I choose the saints. They were champions last year. The nfc west is possibly the weakest division in football. The 49ers will be the team to beat. Mike Singletary will lead them to the playoffs.

My inspiration came from my love and knowledge for football. I watch the games on the weekends.

        I have learned that writing isn't just picking up a pencil. There is thinking involved and you can't just dive into an essay and finish it. Plannings, like prewrites, help you come up with more ideas. This makes writing much smoother. As I noted above in the second paragraph, I get stuck because I can't come up with ideas and I just state facts. I get unstuck by talking about random stuff, but that will change next semester. Instead I will use more of my opinions to get unstuck like this quote:

I believe that Luis is right about college being fun. He is correct about being able to choose classes and what time to take them. Being able to choose classes is brilliant because personally, I don't like writing essays and I will explain about that in my next blog post. Having the power to choose what time to go to class is a big plus. If you are not a morning person, you can pick classes in the afternoon or at night and vice versa. Also, the option to do that enables you to attend class around your schedule.

I think you can notice what all these sentences have in common. They are all my opinions and I easily elaborate on the topic. No facts can be seen in this quote.

        My first writing goal for the next quarter is to write about sports more. I seem to be interested in athletics and it's a wide ranging subject, so I will never run out of things to write about and I tend to not get stuck on these topics. My secondary topics would be about the world and news. I wouldn't be talking politics. All I would be discussing are disasters, milestones, etc., just things you see on the news. I would work on not procrastinating because I'm a slow thinker and I don't type that fast, so I need more time. In addition to that, there will be more posts required each week so I will start posting on Wednesdays. My other goals are pretty straight forward. Learn how to get unstuck and how to post a blog faster. Discuss more opinions than facts. Be more informal so I can connect to the audience who are ninth graders like I am. It would just be weird if I spoke to them in an adult or business like tone.

Of Mice and Men response essay

 Of Mice and Men response Devin Liu

        In John Steinbeck's realistic fiction novella Of Mice and Men, Lennie is the guy that starts all the conflicts. The central conflict is the battle between Lennie and George. Lennie and George travel the country in search of a job, but the former keeps messing up. The sub-conflict adds to the problem. Lennie's insanity agitates everyone and drags George down and it causes Lennie to do something that George will not forget. In the end, both conflicts add up and lead to Lennie's doom, which solves the conflict.

        In the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 25% in the U.S., which is where the story takes place. If there is a high unemployment rate, then many people will compete for jobs, thus it will be hard to get jobs. George successfully gets work several times, but Lennie interrupts this by losing George his jobs as it says in this quote:

I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose ever' job I get. (11)

Lennie is interfering with George's ability to survive, which means getting a job. Lennie's mouth gets people angry and his actions scare people causing people to see him as a retarded monster. Of course, George is also seen as an outcast because of the company he keeps. Losing his jobs forces George to become a nomad and roam the country for a job. Moving about causes serious challenges such as finding food and shelter. They also have to deal with cold and heat. In a way, Lennie is endangering George and himself.

        Lennie also has a habit of holding onto things when frightened. This gives George stress even though it's only a habit. This quote says it all:

Well he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants

to touch ever'thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to

feel this red dress an' the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie

all mixed up, and he hold on 'cause that' the only thing he can think

to do. (41)

George is forced to pry Lennie off the girl and she tells the police. The police and the men search for the two main characters. They threaten to lynch them and the two are forced to hide in a ditch. At the time of the incident, George was looking for a job and of course Lennie loses it again. They are on the move for the search for a job. Lennie has really big hands and when he clutches onto something, it will break. There are many examples. Lennie tries to pet a mouse, but is bites him. He gets angry and crushes the mouse. Curly beats him up and Lennie crushes Curly's hand when he gets frightened. Later on in the story, he tries to pet a rabbit and didn’t know he could crush it like the mouse earlier in the story. The big one was when he hung onto Curly’s wife and snapped her neck. George is forced to cover up for Lennie until Curly points out that Lennie did it.

        Lennie’s insanity endangers him as well. This sub-conflict leads to the main conflict and George demonstrates how stupid Lennie is in this quote:

I turns to Lennie and says,'Jump in.'And he jumps. Couldn't swim

a stroke. (40)

George tells Lennie to jump into a river. Lennie has to be saved by George. Remember that incident where Lennie grabs onto a woman’s dress. That costed George’s job and if they worked at Weed, Lennie would not have met Curly’s wife and killed her. Another way to think of it is if Lennie wasn’t insane and could live on his own, then he wouldn’t have to follow George. This story would have never taken place if he stayed where he came from. He could live safe and sound and own his farm of rabbits and mice.

        Of course the above scenario didn’t happen and the men look for Lennie after they find Curly’s wife’s dead body. Lennie is later seen hiding in the brush and George tricks him into lowering his guard. He grabs a pistol and shoots him at the back of the head. This death can be seen as positive and negative. The death relieves some of the stress George will have to face. Curly will find peace and have his revenge for his wife’s death. The negative aspect is of course that Lennie dies. This ending couldn’t have happened without Lennie’s craziness and his conflict with George.

response to leon liang's post about america

        Before the quote, Leon was talking about how England came to the New World and established a colony known as the thirteen colonies. The colonists however did not escape the grasp of the English government at first and the laws still applied to the colonies. The parliament passed unfair laws such as the townshend act and the proclamation of 1763. The colonists then decided to fight a war and they won. Thus the united states was born. I will explain in detail about the American Revolutionary War which was a civil war. Here's the quote:

After the war, the colonist was free from the control of the British. They create their own laws that were righteous. That was how the United State of American began. This was all Thanks to the most important leader, George Washington.

The war started with the battles of Lexington and Concord. The British were ordered to seize ammunition supplies and stop the rebellion. The minutemen however had other ideas and defeated the British and forced a retreat back to England. After that, King George sent a whole fleet to invade the colonies. They were headed toward New York City and ended up taking the city. The British had overwhelming firepower and Washington was forced to retreat.
        It wasn't all bad in the North. At the Battle of Saratoga, the Americans routed the British and forced a whole army to surrender because they were cut off. The Battle of Bunker Hill was a victory for the British, but caused heavy casualties for them. The war was going much better in the South. Although the British took Charleston, the British had trouble winning wars inland due to southern terrain. There are many forests and swamps that hinder the British. Their bright red uniforms didn't blend in with the landscape and were easy targets.
        Washington's army camped out at Valley Forge and were whipped into shape. They reemerged in the spring and heard that Cornwallis's army was camped out at Yorktown. the circumstance was right. The French agreed to trap the British by destroying the British navy. Washington and the French army decided to trap the British on land. Bombardments began on Yorktown and Cornwallis called for reinforcements. The reinforcements were too late because the British surrenderd at Yorktown. That marked the end of major events in the war.

what is that numbness in your leg after you wake up from your sleep and how do you treat it and why this is such a long title and why i am stating how long this title is

        Have you ever had that numbness when you wake up from your sleep and you feel a sharp pain in your leg when you use or move it? It's not like it occurs everyday for me, but it does happen. What I'm talking about is a simple cramp. There is a controversy over what causes these nighttime cramps, but people say it's potassium deficiency or the blood supply to the leg is cut off. Usually what I do is just give it a kick and get it over with. However, it does sting when I do that. On the bright side, it's a quick solution.
        Another solution is to walk it off which I do not like to do because it is dark. It also wakes you up a little because you are moving around. Another matter is that walking around is painful for the cramp, too. It's as if you were to export goods by walking. I don't even know if you could walk on a painful leg.
        You could hit your leg to wake it up. I don't know if that works. I have never tried it before. Maybe the pain will counteract the cramp. You could stretch, but it forces you to sit up and also wakes you up a bit. Most people would be too drowsy to sit up anyways.
        You could ignore the numbness and not move. However, you would have to deal with it the next morning and there is no guarantee that the pain will be gone by then.
        The title is very long because I want to be very clear what I will talk about in the post. If I just ask what the pain in the leg is, I would just say cramp and that would be the end of it. If I just mention how we treat it, the audience would not know what i am talking about. It's kind of a long sentence clause and I mentioned how long it is so I could have something to talk about. A cramp is a very simple topic and there is not much to talk about.

why writing an essay is so difficult

        Writing is one of the things we civil humans do. I don't think it's all that great. Every time I have to write an essay, I wish someone like a liberal donor would come and just hand me an essay that is already done. There are a couple of major reasons why I don't like writing essays.
        I despise the minimum requirement. I don't mind the minimum word requirement, but the page minimum is killing me. Every time I write, I see if my essay fills up a page and most of the time that's not the case. It's kind of annoying because I usually don't have anything left to write about. To stretch the essay, I have to grind and add words and details to the ideas I already have.
        I always finish my essays last because I feel like procrastinating on those devils. I did that back in middle school. If you read the study guide essays I did over the summer, you will find them not very impressive. Another thing is that my hand writing is sort of messy. The page becomes gray because the words are smudged. Letters are stuck together and everything looks out of place.
        Introduction is a main problem for me. I don't know how to start. I spend two minutes just thinking about the first sentence. My intros are usually very boring because i'm not creative. I also don't want to start out cheesy. It gives me chills. Conclusions are not my type either. How do I end my essays still remain a mystery to me. Again, I want to avoid being cheesy. I hear that in college there will be ten page essays, but you won't see me in those classes.
        My old teachers tell me that I write too little and I think it is true. My line paper would have thirty-three lines and I only fill twenty-five lines. The last lines of each paragraph only contain a few words and I have to admit that I am doing pretty well on writing this blog post. I think I will go sleep now.