Sunday, September 30, 2007

Section 2 Summary

Mitch goes back to visit Morrie, every tuesday. Mitch is still on strike. He travels cross country to see Morrie every Tuesday. Morrie is getting weaker and weaker and can barely lift his arms above his shoulders, and eating is now more of a challenge than before. Mitch and Morrie talk and discuss old college days, life, and feeling sorry for yourself and the world.
It is kind of odd that he traveles across the country to talk to Morrie for a couple of hours. It is also sad the Morrie is getting weaker and weaker and when Mitch lifted him up from the wheelchair to his recliner, he is mostly dead weight and just felt dead to Mitch.

10 Loaded Words (From Section 2)

1. Normal- Normal is loaded becuase there is not one definiton of normal, there is not a set normal. - p. 48- The author is using normal because it is describing a clothing, and there are many ways to describe different types of clothes.
2. Self-pitty- Self-pitty is loaded because people think negativly of people who self-pitty themselves.-p. 57- The author is using self-pitty because the person is totally opposite, he does not self-pitty himself even though he is dying.
3. Teenage- Teenage is loaded because when people hear the word teenage or teenagers they automatically thing bad things.-p.58- The author uses teenage because he is describing a story about two teenage girls.
4. Trailer Home- Trailer home is a loaded word because when people hear this they automatically think about the people living in them being poor. p. 58- The author uses trailer home because he is describing a story that involves a trailer home.
5. Death- Death is loaded because people might assume that it is a trajic insident. -p. 59- The author is describing the professor Morrie, and how he is almost nearing death.
6. Rage- Rage is loaded because when people think of rage they think of bad things.-p.60-The author uses it for a good reason, describing the latest thing in the culture, not a violent rage.
7. Unusual- Unusual is loaded because its just like normal, there is no normal/usual thing, everything is different.-p.60-The author uses unusual because there is not a usual sociology class.
8. Rich- Rich is loaded because when people think of rich people they think of snotty and selfish people, but there are some rich people who are also very kind and nice.-p.33-The author uses rich because he is describing how when he was in college he used to think all rich people were evil.
9. Freedom- Freedom is loaded because not everybody has the freedom to do everything they want, and it is not all the same for everybody.-p.33- The author uses freedom, because back in his college days he used to think about older people and how they did not have alot of freedom to do what they want whenever they want becuase they have to work.
10. Young- Young is loaded because people automatically thinking about young kids/adults.-p.34-The author uses young because he is discribing his younger years.

Section 1 Summary

Mitch graduated from college, and promised to keep in touch with his professor Morrie. Morrie loved to dance, and later that year, he had to stop and he knew that something was wrong. In Morrie's 60s he developed ashtma, in his 70s he had trouble walking. He went to the doctor, and the doctors preformed all these tests, and everything was fine, but Morrie knew that everything wasnt fine. Then they did a test of the muscles, and diagnosed him with ALS. His health declined and he got weaker until he could not drice anymore. Then he had to use a cane, and started teaching his last class. Less than two years later, he found himself weaker and he had to trade his cane in for a walker, then he could not support himself anylonger and had to trade his walker in for a wheelchair. Morrie had a friend die, and he decided that he wanted to have a living funeral. Mitch had graduated, and had broken dreams of becoming a musician. He finally gave up his dream of becoming a musician and became a sports writer for a newspaper. He was flipping through the television and found out that his old professor had ALS, and Mitch flew to go visit Morrie.
Its really sad about how ALS decays your body, and how that it decays your muscles that you need help going to the bathroom and eating and normal things that people do every day.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

This I Believe Homework Assignment September 18th

1. A link to the essay
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6196795

2. Author
Jon Carroll

3. Title
Failure Is a Good Thing

–4. One sentence of what the belief is
The Belief is that Failure is a good thing.

–5. 2 examples from the story that showed their belief.
- he said failure is how we learn
- he also said ' "I believe in the power of failure." '

–6. 1 favorite passage
-' “Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do… Failure is how we learn.” ' - Jon Carroll

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Thursday September 6th

I am anxious about the different classes and more opportunities at Edina High School. There are more clubs to join and different classes to take that were not offered at the middle schools.

One goal for my sophomore year is to work harder to study and get good grades on test. Last year I did not do so well on tests and quizzes, so this year I want to work harder to study for tests and quizzes.