Final Thoughts

Favourite Assignment
I really enjoyed the moment piece. I know a lot of people didn't really enjoy it, but it was the closest approximation to what I thought the course was going to be like. I enjoyed how we got to get creative writing an actual story. To be honest though the amount of time we spent on it was a little ridiculous. I probably could have written at least five in the weeks we had to do it. That's the type of writing I like though, where we can go above and beyond and get a little ridiculous with the story. 


Least Favourite Assignment
I'm not sure if it can be called an assignment but I didn't like expressing my opinion on the Kony issue. I didn't like it because I wasn't aware of all of the facts and I felt like I was just putting out another non-sensical idea about an extremely large issue I had no wish in supporting one way or the other. I kind of felt like either way I was jumping on to a bandwagon that I didn't want to be on. 


Friday Reading
For me Friday reading was kind of a double whammy. I had english second period as well and every Friday we would try to read, so by the end of the third period I would start to get bored of my book. That being said I had some awesome books I read this semester, and I'm happy we got to read as much as we did because sometimes I find it hard to find time to fit it in anywhere else. The only thing I didn't like was how it petered out in the end. If we could have kept it up every Friday I would have loved that.


Monday Writing Reflection
I found it hard to get my brain to work enough to come up with responses on the Monday. Having that weekend in between was sometimes hard because I would forget key things I wanted to talk about in my book. The book I read for most of the semester was also pretty challenging so sometimes it took half the class just to figure out what was being talked about enough to formulate an answer on. I enjoyed it though because it gave me a better overall understanding of the book.


WRN
I missed the introduction into the class, and for half the semester I didn't even know what it was. It's a cool concept though, but a little bit of a waste of time/trees when almost all of the course is shifting to be online. 


Blog
I hated blogging at first. I found it really uncomfortable sharing my ideas in a forum where all of my classmates could see it, and an infinite amount of other potential people. As we went along I started to enjoy watching how other people's blogs progressed, and it gave me a better sense of what I wanted mine to look like. I like how I could compare the good with the bad and judge what I wanted to put on mine accordingly. At the end of it all I'm really proud of my blog, and I like how once I put it up the work couldn't get lost. That's an issue for me.


Tweeting
Before this class I thought twitter was a stupid waste of time. After this class I think twitter is stupid and a waste of time. It was nice being able to connect with you so instantaneously, but the whole concept of it just doesn't appeal to me. No way does anybody want to know what you're doing every two seconds, and no way would I want people knowing that info about me either. After I was FORCED into getting it I started following a couple of people, and lets just say I know more about a lot of people than I cared to. Awesome that you went to a movie, see how much I care. It's like the annoying facebook girl constantly.


Integration of technology in the course 
I was not a fan at first. I guess that was the old teaching mentality talking. I suck at computers and everything to do with them, and it was challenging for me to even set up my blog. Once we got going it opened up a ton of new doors though. I learned way more about my Mac than I ever had before, and I like how instantly I can do things. If I complete a project I don't have to wait until the next day to send it in. It's been an especial help these last couple of days when I've had to do like twenty posts, although I'm not sure Mrs. Mclaughlan is going to be too pleased with the barrage of assignments she'll be getting. 


What I've learned about myself
I'm not as bad at computers as I thought I was. It isn't as challenging and scary when there's someone there to help. I guess I need to open up my mind to new ways of doing things more because a lot of the time I would think a project was stupid when we first started and would end up liking it. I also need to work on my procrastinating, but I already knew that. Overall I think I'm a pretty creative person, and I know that my writing has gotten a lot stronger through personal posts and that.


Comments/compliments for Ms. McLauchlan
Overall I thought there were some pretty cool things going on it the course. If we could have done more stories or fairy tales I would have enjoyed that more because for a creative writing class I found we didn't do a lot of creative writing- other than if we added it into our personal posts. Overall it was a different type of experience, and I think your attitude towards it was positive enough to get most people onboard. 

Author's Note

So it’s my last semester of high school ever, and I’m not going to lie, as it gets closer to the end there’s a lot of questions left unanswered and loose ends left untied. Before I go any further, I should probably explain that I have no ambition of staying in Winnipeg. It’s not that I don’t like it here, or even that I wouldn’t be content staying, but there’s a lot of the world out there and I can’t picture myself living in one place for my whole life. I think what happens to a lot of people right out of high school is that they get scared with how much freedom they suddenly have, and fall into a routine that’s familiar to them… This is not what I want to do. There are so many possibilities out there, and things to see, and I feel like now’s the time to experience it all. That being said, this Bucket List has been a great opportunity for me to start thinking about what it is I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ve done a list like this before in grade 11, when everything seemed a far off possibility, and there were a lot of stupid entries in that one like wrestle a hippo and finish this list. This time, I wanted to make a legitimate one that I could actually follow through with. It will not only going to be a guideline to help me map out where it is I want to go, but will also be a way of making sure that I didn’t fall into a cookie cutter, vanilla lifestyle. There’s been a lot of editing and revising, but at the end of the day these are just some of the things I hope to accomplish in the next couple of years. I’m sure it will change as I start to get older (and hopefully wiser), but I believe we should always have at least a couple of things that keep us inspired or driven. My hope is that as soon as I have one thing crossed off my list there will be another one waiting in the wings… You always have to have goals, right?

Kickin the Bucket Visual Representation

http://indulgy.com/morgan%20wankling

28- the faces of diving

When you dive what you're doing may look pretty, but your face does not. Everybody looks like an idiot. The link below is an example of some horrendous faces divers have had. Enjoy

http://thestar.blogs.com/photoblog/2012/05/spins-twists-and-impacts-the-faces-of-canadian-diving.html

27

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

 

Ever since I can remember my dad's had a book of the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe. This one is my favourite works of his- more so than The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. I know a lot of his works are creepy and sad, but I think this one is really pretty.

#26- Pirates

So over the years there's been a lot of badasses. In my opinion pirates are the best. They aren't the original BAMF's, but they sure are the coolest. They get to carry around swords all day, sail around the world, and follow not too well written maps in the hopes of finding Davy Jone's buried treasure. What a life eh. Plus they get to pillage, plunder, and generally FSU. They didn't have to bathe if they didn't want to, and a vast majority of their time was spent getting boozed on rum and lounging about. Sure they had to worry about storms, and attacks, and getting the noose, but what a life of excitement.

Epicnesss

It's always been a dream of mine to walk away from an explosion in slow mo without turning around. How much of a badass would you feel if you did that? Millions of debris flying at you, followed by a potentially fatal sound boom? Nope, gotta put on the shades instead.

Also, it would be cool to be that one random person in a movie that doesn't show up anywhere else, and only has one line for like 3 seconds, but it's the most epic thing ever. And everyone else is just left sitting there scratching their heads thinking where did this swami of wisdom pop up from? I want to be that swami of wisdom. Epic