Last Post Reflection.

So, I sat down to write this yearly reflection and I had no idea what to reflect on. I went back and read my first reflection and then some others. Based on all of those, I have definitely improved from the beginning of the year as an English student. But I think my biggest improvement that I want to talk about would be my writing. Mainly how I developed a writing style. Or better yet, improved on it. At the beginning of the year, I mostly had a writing style. My writing had a signature voice to it. I feel that this year I have improved on this aspect of my writing by adding structure and better form to it. My essays are structured better but I still use the same voice. Which is nice to know that no matter what writing strategies you use, your voice can still adapt.  

(Awesome) Non-Fiction Super SmartNote

This weeks Non-Fiction SmartNote is on an amazing topic. Something that I can regretfully say most kids have had experiences with as kids. Legos®! I return my focus this week back to Wired Magazine , a (according to Wikipedia) is "a full-color monthly American magazine and online periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics." I am mostly interested in it for the technology piece. Anyway, this structure is to date one of the largerst and heavyest at that and it specs of weighing 23-tons and using over 5.3 million Lego® bricks. If you are unaware of what an X-Wing is you should go watch some Star-Wars. But basically is a plane Luke Skywalker flew to blow up the death star.
Thats what it looks like in the movie but here is the Lego® build.

Its wing span is 43 feet! That is about 2 feet larger than the wing span of the X-Wing in the movie according to this website. I just found it amazing that people go into work every day to build something as impressive as this. Though you may not be a Star-Wars fan, you should still have some respect for the 32 people that built the X-Wing. I believe, from a news report on ABC that I saw you can sit inside this and it comes with its own R2-D2. They unveiled it this memorial day weekend in New York City and at the end of this year Luke's X-Wing will be shipped in 3 different pieces to LegoLand California where the west coast will be able to see it. 

Reflection

My reflection this month is about my sustained writing and how it compares to me say writing with the same opportunities last year. I believe that I have grown immensely in my writing and to say the least thats still not really that good. If I were presented with the same assignment, though last year, the piece that I would have wrote would not have even gotten near published. I think the book I am writing now stemmed off from a great idea of a few writers and now I have the creative freedom of writing it myself. I can't wait for it to be published and, if much advancement is made in my writing, my next reflection.

SSN

Since I have not done a SuperSmartNote on my book, Clicked, I wanted to sum readers up with the premise and how the book was written. It was written by over 10 writers! For one novel! I would never write a book with that amount of people because there would be too many ideas and only one book. So what they did was essentially, create a basic story outline for the book and each author wrote one chapter, maybe more. It is interesting because  in taking note, you can't really say, "the author does that a lot, its in his style of voice." It's all one book but with many different authors so may the style may seem similar, they are not.

NFSSN

My smartnote this week was assigned as a Non-Fiction. I am going to focus on my poet for the poet study, Eminem. I analysed this song written by him called Hailie's song.. 

Sometimes it feels like the worlds on my shoulders

Everyone’s leanin’ on me

Cuz sometimes it feels like the world is almost over

But then she comes back to me

My Baby girl keeps getting older

I watch her grow up with pride

People make jokes, cuz they don’t understand me

They just don’t see my real side

I act like things don’t phase me,

Inside it drives me crazy

My Insecurities could eat me alive

But then I see my baby

Suddenly I’m not crazy

It all makes sense when I look into her eyes

That is the chorus for Hailie's song. You can see the full lyrics if you search it online. This reveals a lot about Eminem. He is saying that even in the hardset situations, his daughter can make it seem better. I don't want to reveal everything because I am presenting this week. But I will break down a part of the song."People make jokes [becasue] they don't understand me". He is also saying that people make fun of him for being close with his daughter like this. Most rappers don't have a soft spot in their heart. Eminem is just a rapper that expresses his feelings through song.

Research Relfection

My research was on War Dogs impact and effect on wars. My reflection is going to be on my research process and how it improved if I had not done this paper. I learned how to apply different research to one thesis and try my best to relate all of my sources to my thesis. This week it was our assignment to do a reflection on our research paper. I plan to also reflect on my research paper as soon as a reflection is assigned and I have the paper back in my possession with Ms. Capelli's comments. For now I can only say what I think I have really improved on since I started the paper.

Review of DrawQuest!/ Blog of the Month!

Due to the comments in my recent post, I downloaded the free app for iPad from the App Store DrawQuest. Check out my review of the concept here! So, just to sum up my last Non-Fiction Super SmartNote, it basically talked about how DrawQuest works and the limited potential it is exposed to now that it is live on the App Store. I first tried to download it on my iPhone, warning this app is "only for the iPad" this allows for better drawings because of the increased screen size on the iPad. I would also like to apologize for all of the pictures in this post but I wanted to show what it looked like. (Its not to great for me either; having to edit them and all). As soon as I opened the app I saw a new quest-- a drawing quest for the "newcomers". It was a screen with a face that had no mouth. The quest read "Add a smile!". I drew this...

Remember- This was my finger on a screen- no pencil or stilus.

 I then tried to submit my drawing for anyone to see who clicked on that quest. I then signed up with my gmail and my drawing was ready to be shared with the world. As I mentioned before, anybody can now see my drawing once submitted, but that also reveals that I can see theirs. One that stood out to me was this.

This "ninja" was much more than a smile. This is what I mean when I say that this app has the potential for many creations. You may notice the "①" notification in the left-hand corner. This was DrawQuest letting me know that I had a new quest to draw. Sounds redundant but thats why the app is named that way. The quest was this...

You have to fill in the blank for the question. Most of the time, based on my looking, the app proposes questions with blanks in a cartoonish looking picture. Now, with my limited time and horrible drawing skills, I was not even going to attempt to draw this. I did not show it before-- but there is a purpose to finishing certain quests. For completing the first "smile" drawing you receive 25 "coins". You can buy more colors to use in your drawings with coins and to my knowledge if others like your picture and "star" it you then gain even more coins. Below are some great examples of what some people can do with this app. I hope you enjoyed reading my post and I hope you try DrawQuest on the App Store for free on the iPad.

SSN

In my book, Craker! . The author depits the dog crackers life as well as Crakers soldeir, Rick. If you havent realized it already, Cracker is a war dog.  The  author has  the job of telling the dogs life and Ricks. It is  very interesting as a reader to see the thoughts of  the dog and its handeler. Especially when you have been doing reseach on war dogs. Even though the author does a good job of switching between both the dog and Rick. These changes are abrupt and you have to be a very active reader when reading this book.

Reflection

The aspect of my writing I am going to reflect on is the use of quotes and background information in Super-SmartNotes. I have not been doing these things as prominent as they should be. Either these are not present or do give enough information.  Quoting the text is definently an important aspect of a Super-SmartNote that I was just not including. I would slightly talk about the specific passage but if not completely necessary I would not quote the text. Something to work on for next month would be quoting the text and analizize the specific quote. Another problem of mine pointed out to me by comments was the lack of background information. I now understand that giving a short but largely contented sentence with some general information about the book will really set up my thinking and better make the readers experience more elucidated.

Non-Ficton Super SmartNote

This article is called "How a Charming Doodling App Arose From the Web’s Wildest West". Its about this new app that was just released on the app store for iOS iPad. Its called DrawQuest, and its a "drawing app." Every day there is a new "quest" with a template for you to use. But the main reason for me doing this SmartNote is the central purpose of this app. See you can use this template but you don't have to. So if being creative is not your forte you can use the template to get started. If you are creative, (or you think you are) you can just draw right over the template. The creator of this app was very smart in this and I think created a great product for anybody to get better at their own artistic talent.
Read the original article here!

SSN

In my book, the main character, Rafe is moving to a new school to be a artist. He is my age but in this Super SmartNote I wanted to focus more to "get to know" the character. He reminds me of a young Ponyboy Curtis. Minus the artistic ability, these characters both contradict themselves to make themselves feel better. But I don't think I know Rafe enough to say that about him. Most of the time, you know when Rafe is lying because of the illustrations in book or because of the voice the author gives him. I would say Rafe is a young Ponyboy especially because of his imaginary friend. Rafe has an imaginary friend and I think in his case its for approval of his lost brother. The imaginary friend is what he thinks his brother is. His brother passed when he was young. Maybe Rafe wants approval from his fake brother or he wants closure for someone he hasn't even met. I will be sure to visit this topic again.

Writing Reflection

My writing, from the beginning of the year, has defiantly improved. Since the start of my 7th grade writing career, Ms. Capelli has made it very easy to grow into a better writer. When faced with problems, our class could always conference with her, and then in the future Ms. Capelli always looked for it in our writing to see if we improved. This "system" allowed, at least for me, and if not the whole class to help improve my writing. As the year goes into its 2nd half, I hope to become an even better writer than what I have grown to now.  

Reflection

Even though this last month was very short for school days due to the holiday break, there are still some things to reflect about. In late November, I started a new book, the graveyard book. I have never read scary books before but I thought how bad can it be? Its just writing on a page. This new thinking now opens up lots of more books for me to read as I finish books. Picking books will now be much different because I will no longer be running away from the scary novels. I think that this is going to maybe make my reading life much better because I love to explore the new hypothetical worlds these authors create.

Super SmartNote

Passage: "Once they had a working technical prototype, the next stage was to work out the UI. 'We usually start with brainstorming and paper prototyping,' they write, 'Only after that do we start using Photoshop.'"

This article titled How Pixle Created Its Clever Cut-and-Fold Papercraft App ‘Foldify’ by Tim Maly from Wired Magazine really caught my attention because I was interested on how apps are developed. This particular passage was very interesting to me. The process of how this team even started was very cool. They would first sit down and brainstorm for a long time before even opening a computer. This app is used on the iPad to create print-outs that you fold to create a 3 dimensional paper fold. In this passage the developers are talking about the UI (or user interface.) This is what the app is going to look like. For example the buttons. They had to decide what the "theme" of the app was going to be before they started designing it.

SSN

  I an currently reading The Graveyard Book. I am not very far into the book but very quickly any reader can pick up on Neil Gailmans's writing style. This story has a lot of setting changes. When introducing a new setting Neil literally puts the reading in the scene by using the word "you". "You could see the abandoned funeral chapel, iron doors padlocked, ivy on the sides of the spire, a small tree growing out of the guttering at roof level." (12.)  Gailman goes on paragraph by paragraph starting with you and then describing the scene. I took a smartnote here because I had never seen this style of writing before. This, for me, was a great way to visualize the setting and also reveled a new perspective on introducing a setting in a text. 

A Changed Pet or Person?

Passage:  “ Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.  Her early leaf’s a flower: But only so an hour. Then subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. … ‘Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it then i'm gettin’, though.’ ”
(77- 78)

This poem is said by ponyboy to Johnny in chapter 4. This is when Johnny and Ponyboy had woken early and decided to watch the sun rise. S.E Hinton picked this for many reasons. The poem relates to the characters as well as the tone of the story. If you pick the poem apart, it has a deeper meaning. The title is “Natures first green is gold.”  Gold in that phrase has another meaning though apart from the obvious shiny metal gold is in reality. Gold is the underling good in people, and to continue down the poem. Robert Frost is using the change of the seasons by starting with birth and explaining how life can be as short as a sunrise to convey and relate to peoples everyday lives.

But besides what the passages general meaning in the context of all life, S.E Hinton specifically took Frost’s words into her text. To relate something as broad as the changes of life and the world to a character in a book must have been a very hard connection to make. I am almost sure that one day S.E Hinton did not just have a light bulb just go off and The Outsiders was born. Hinton related the change of Johnny to the course of life. Johnny changed his approach to everything. Instead of letting someone else in the gang handle something for him, when he ran away Johnny was forced to live life on his own and stop being treated as the pet. Little Johnny-Cakes ran away as the pet and returned as a brave greaser who had saved Ponyboy. Change is a big part of life; Robert Frost and S.E Hinton displayed this well together.

Reflection

My goal for quarter 1 was to take more smart notes and be more aware of my thinking while reading. I semi accomplished my goal. I feel more aware of my thinking but I'm not taking as much smart notes. To fix this I am starting a book just for smart notes and one just to read. This will more or less force me to take more smart notes. When I do take smart notes they are mostly predictions. Or inferences that really are predictions. My goal from quarter one is going to stay up as a goal but in my head I have semi accomplished my first goal and I am using my smart notes to better understand my smart note book. I think these goals will defiantly better help me in my readings.

Outsiders Reflection

In chapter 2 of The Outsiders  by S.E Hinton The character Johnny is described as the gangs pet. As I approached this it confused me. Johnny is a human being, and in no way shape or form represents a house pet. But maybe this is a symbol for something else... In class it was stated that “pet” was a metaphor in being that Johnny was treated as a pet in the gang. Still confused a reader might ask you don’t honestly pet him and tell him he’s a good boy. So what? What does Johnny as a pet represent? Well most characters have wants and fears. Hinton does a great job relating almost every character trait to the characters wants and fears. Think about pets lives ... They wake up  eat, lay down, eat, sleep. Thats their day every day. Pets don’t have responsibilities. The owner does. In this case Johnny is the pet and the gang are the owner. So if you’re the owner and the pet bites you do you bite back? Short answer, no. In chapter 2  Johnny says “ ‘Leave her alone, Dally.’ ‘Huh?’ Dally was taken off guard.” (Pg. 24) Dally is one of the toughest in the group. Nobody really messed with him like that. Especially Johnny. Going back to the metaphor, most house pets don’t “act out”. And Dally showed that if they do you don’t do anything back. Their pets, their stupid. But when its comes to this book, stupid is a strong word. In The Outsiders theres book stupid and street stupid. The difference? Knowing how to act when your around other gangs and dealing with fights in alleys. School stupid is book smarts, your grades in school. Stupid in the context of The Outsiders is a very general word. But then arose another question. Why does a gang even have a pet? The greasers certainly don't need a pet. So why have one? I guess they don’t talk about him as one. While reading the whole book a reader always has to consider that all of the thoughts are from Ponyboys perspective. These are a few things I observed from reading chapters 2 & 3 of The Outsiders.

How Nerf Became the World’s Best Purveyor of Big Guns for Kids Super SmartNote

The First and Latest
Nerf Nonlethal Rounds

Every year Nerf faces a new challenge. How can we make our product better? Nerf sells their own line of ‘Blasters’. Nerf’s first goal to achieve was to make guns. Big guns. Rapid-fire guns. For kids. Thats right, for kids, you might be thinking ‘why create such a thing? Could kids get hurt with this? Why even think of such a device. Why? Because they could. In 2002 Nerf hired Brian Jablonski as a product design manager. (He figured he’d stick around for a couple years, then move on to another job.) But the company who owns Nerf, Hasbro, thought he was to good to leave. And he was. The only thing better than being good at your job is being good at it and loving it. Jablonski did love it. He had said: “working on Nerf stuff was sort of like waking up every day and driving a Mister Softee truck... [it made you] a protector of the cherished childhood memories of multiple generations.” When Nerf was created in 1970 its vision was not to do anything like it does today. Nerf was making footballs, basketballs, etc. But making a gun for a kid to safely use was definitely their biggest challenge. And the inspriation for these things does not just fall out of the sky. Jablonski does not just look to video games and movies but things like salad spinners and the coin slots on washing machines. Over the years a Blast a Ball game had turned into a Barricade RV-10 gun for kids the ages of 8-16 to use. All of Jablonski's products are tested with kids he says: "When you put a toy in the hands of an eight-year-old sometimes they tell you things you didn't expect." The evolution of Nerf must have been a fun experience. Something only a few people get to enjoy. 

See the article from Weird Magazine.

SuperSmartNote

On page 76 of the book Stormbreaker, By Anthony Horiwitz, Alex is meeting with his soon-to-be boss Mr. Blunt. "Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones… She unwrapped another peppermint and nodded back". When I read this I made an inference. I inferred that before the meeting Blunt and Mrs. Jones had conferred about bringing Alex to the team. I also thought since Mr. Blunt nodded in the first place that maybe he was thinking 'this is our guy'. This is a sense of the author hinting to what is going to happen in the future. If the reader did not make an inference it wouldn't be as clear.