http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW888a-Bx2U

I watched the this video. 2009 National Champion, Will Farley of Virginia, reciting “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams.

In each one, the recitor had a great physical presence, great dramatization, and very good voice and articulation. He recited the poem as if it was a story of his own life or he was the person speaking in the poem. His presence was not nervous, or awkward in any way. It was just as if it was a one on one conversation between you and him. He showed great understanding as well.

I think the meaning of the poem was that no matter how lonely you are, you can always find something to succeed in and something that makes you happy, and something to be proud of about yourself. That everybody can be happy, no matter what you have or don't have.

Reading To Kill a Mockingbird has made me understand motif so much more this year. When i realized i had to use motif for our summer assignment, i spent half the time just trying to understand it. I had no idea what it was. The whole idea of the mockingbird motif has raised my knowledge of it because it was such a good example.
The mockingbird motif is the moral that you cant harm anything that hasn't done anything wrong to harm you. Even if the reputation is bad and they may be hated, you cannot do a thing about them if you have not been a victim of them doing anything harmful.

Life lesson.
One thing my parents have always told is just always tell the truth. If you want to do something and you think They're against it, its easier to just be honest and nice and ask. If you want to go somewhere or do something that your parents usually are tedious about and you try and lie and say your doing something else and try to get away with it, it isn't going to work. They will find out. If your honest enough and just ask and don't scream or freak out about the situation and talk like an adult and offer compromise then it will all work out somehow one often than not. Thats one thing They've taught me.

Best Friend. My best friend is tall, nerdy:) Haha, an athlete, funny, always pleasing people or helping them out, and hes always trying to have fun. Hes a gentle giant and like a big teddy bear. Hes very tall for someone our age too so it makes him look even scarier than he really is.
Brendan is too smart for his own good. He needs to cut back on learning and hang out with me more. Haha. Hes too tall, and gonna be much taller. He comes from a huge family. Hes really funny all the time and cool to be around so don't worry when you see the great wall of china walking at you.

Earliest Memory.
One of the earliest memories i can think of was when i was in maybe first or second grade. Idk. Maybe before then. But i was at sams house. We've known eachother since forever and have been bestfriends for a long time. We yes trying to build something out of a few pieces of wood and i was in charge of hammering in the nails. We had no clue what we were doing and probably weren't the smartest people ever. I swung back the hammer to hit a nail and it never came back forward to collide with the nail head. It was stuck in his forehead...

That wasn't a good day of summer. I freaked out and didn't know what to do, and he was pale and bleeding out of his head. We ran up to the front door and got his parents and they rushed him to the hospital. I spent the next few days scared if his parents hated me or not. He still has the scar today. The end.

Treasure Island: Motif.
I think that the author used motif so heavily in the book, Treasure Island because its about pirates way back along time ago, not as modern as now, and a harder, rough time for people and they didn't have alot of money. When you bring factors like treasure into the picture, people get greedy because there isn't enough to go around and they want it all for themselves. Pirates, and even others around them all will struggle and fight for something if its something they like that They're not used to having around. If you throw a piece of bread at a bird they'll eight for it. Occasionally they'll have some but its not an every day thing for them.
Greed is still something that will effect alot of people today and in the future also and so it is a good topic to relate things to or write a book about. Greed can also come in many different ways so it is also a good expansle of a way that some things in life can take over our minds.

OUTSIDE READING.
Treasure Island.
-So far, i am actually enjoying the book. It's very accurate and doesn't sound like some corny pirate book which is good. It's grabbing my attention than most books but so far its not amazing. It's not very hard to get into because it starts off quick and tells about the past.

Right now I cant really tell very well exactly what the dominant term is but it seems like either point of view or conflict.

I think the author may have written the book this way, to be either conflict prone or with different point of views to show the life of different people in the time of pirates and from the pirates view.

The tone right now hasn't changed much and is basically kind of somber. Its not very upbeat and seems kind of gloomy. With a family living on the top floor of the bar they run and not much money. Sickness and disease endanger them and the pirates also.

When I first pick up a new book and start into it, I usually look for important themes or symbols right off the bat that are intriguing or interesting to me. Things that have a special point or meaning to the book from the start. Usually a lot of books don't interest me very much but I try to find something important to me in them. If I do that and within the first few chapters I still get nothing, then sometimes I'll either read ahead so I have something to look forward to later in the book and so its a mystery for me from the point where I start to how the plot ends up forming later in the story and it gives me something to think about. And something to figure out. If I don't have the opportunity to find a quiet or calm environment to read in, I'll try and block out the sounds with either music or running everything I read through my head a few times to make sure I get it.
I tend to read books that have a confusing, twisted, and morphed plot because they're easier to understand to me and catch my attention much easier than anything else. Also books that are sports and action filled but also a little creepy and weird too. Books about forensics and old things are always alluring as well. I read fiction because nonfiction books are all fact and there isn't any creativeness or any twists in any non-fiction books. Fiction books can be create any way the author wants and in the way the writer feels fascinates them. Fiction books can relate to the real world or be almost exactly like our world or they can be like J.R.R. Tolkiens books with Hobbits and Orc Warriors and whatever else. Or about aliens or about non-existent wars and encounters that as put in a context just as if they were real.