A Very Rough Draft (if you can even call it that)

            Since its start in 2005, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga has been the butt of many jokes. The 2010 film, Vampires Suck, pokes fun at the novels’ stories, while Stephen King criticizes Meyer’s writing in the books. In an interview with USA Weekend, King said, “Stephanie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” Although Twilight is constantly being judged, the text is worth reading and even a beneficial read.

            According to Publishers Weekly, Meyer’s Twilight Saga has sold over 116 million copies in over 50 countries.

            In “Is It Done Yet?” Barry Gilmore suggests that “[g]ood writers read” (p. 2). He says, “They read a lot” (p.2). However, in his book, Gilmore never suggests what they should be reading. As long as they are reading, the reader is being benefited. Therefore, even though many people say Twilight “dumbs its readers down,” reading the novel counts as reading. As a result, it will help its readers develop as writers.

I’ve been having a tough time choosing an argument paper. I’ve been going back and forth between topics, and I can’t choose one. As I’m trying to run with a topic, I’m stuck. Like we’ve learned in class, there are different ways to start writing.

I outlined basic points to my paper, and I decided to just start writing, which I never just jump into. It’s not going well at all as you can see. I don’t know if it’s because I am not passionate about this argument or because I need to do more research or because I am tired or because I am papered out. Whatever it is, I need to unblock this writer’s block somehow and get going. I will.

Anyone have a time machine I can borrow?

Sometimes, actually most of the time, I wish I could stop time. I wish I could stop time so I could buy myself more of it. I feel like there's so much to do and so little time in the day to do the so much.

But it's all about time management...and sleeping less. The second part, I'm not so much a fan of. Balancing time is a skill, one that becomes more refined in college. But, I have to be honest, I still struggle to manage my time. What's the secret to completing everything on your to-do list (which includes eating and sleeping) on time while being effective? Any suggestions?

I worked with someone once, and she makes an actual grid with pluses and minuses to balance her time. It's about prioritizing, she says. What needs to get done first and what can wait?

I met someone the other day, and he wears a stopwatch. He gives himself a certain amount of time to complete a task - most of his tasks. For example, he gave himself five minutes (which includes distractions) to walk from the Writing Center back to the library where he would start his timer again to work on his paper before he had to go to class.

I think discipline plays a huge role in all of this, too. We need to discipline ourselves to start assignments when we get them so we have time to work through them. We need discipline to actually sit down and do it. Then, after a long day at work, we don't have a huge project to come home to but a smaller one because we already started a few days ago.

Here I am ranting about stopping time because I need more of it, but I just spent valuable time daydreaming of what it would be like if I could actually stop time. This time would have been well-spent if I was successful in inventing some sort of time machine or something...but I wasn't. I'll let you know of my progress though. While on the topic, does anyone have a time machine I can borrow? I promise to give it back. I'll keep working on mine...as well as those time management skills, I guess.

As for now, I need to move to the next thing on my to-do list, which is getting ready for work. Even that takes time!

Responding to Anthony's "Free Will?" (November 15, 2011)

Would ya look at that: I actually agree with you on something, Anthony. Never thought this day would come.

If schools work, as you say, as "an antithesis to free will," students do not have choice. So, if students are doing only what schools require of them, are they exploring their own passions, interests, and questions? Are they becoming independent and critical thinkers? If not, how are we preparing students for life beyond the classroom? What are we equipping students with when they leave school?

So, what concepts do we teach about? Do we teach about concepts that are going to make our students think...I mean really think. Do we ask questions that make students think about their existence, purpose, or the world they live in? Why don't we ask questions like the one you brought up? What is free will? Whose will do we act by, if not our own? I can't imagine the discussions that would stem from questions like these. And, if we don't ask questions like these, really, what do we teach about? I'm nervous to answer this.

I've had high school observation experiences where, I felt, teachers babied their students, not really letting them act on free will. I wonder why so many of us baby our students? Is it a control thing? Is it because we care so much, we want to make sure they follow the correct path? But, if we care so much, wouldn't we want to make sure our students walked away as independent beings? Wouldn't we want to ensure that students walked away knowing how to exercise their free will in ways that would change the world?

I'm taking a class this semester, and I've never, in my entire school career, taken a class like it before, but I think every class should be taught like it. The professor who teaches the class gives us full independence, and he simply guides us along the way. For example, in the beginning of class, he tells us we are going to learn a new program; then he says, "Go for it." He expects us to teach ourselves with the tutorials he's left us with or having him there to ask questions. We share our struggles, findings, and personal products with one another at the end of the class. Students take control in the classroom, and it teaches us to do the same outside of the classroom. Can't we apply strategies like these to our classes?

Your post made me think, Anthony. Sorry for going on a tangent though.

What are we going to do?

Lately, to my surprise, I've witnessed bullying on several accounts. I remember bullies bullying and kids being bullied in elementary, middle, and high school, and I've been hearing bullying-related stories on the news, but I feel like I haven't encountered bullying face-to-face in a long time...or I've been oblivious to it. I'll go with the latter.

Let's see, where to begin? The other day, a friend of mine received a phone call from someone she hadn't spoken to in a few years. The caller wanted to let her know that her picture was up on a website and people were commenting on it. Basically, from what my friend told me, people post pictures of girls on this specific website to call them "sluts." That's the website's sole purpose. When a new picture is added, people tweet and retweet the picture's link, giving access to other people who have not yet seen or commented on the picture. When my friend pulled up the picture, random people had commented on her photo, making assumptions about her, criticizing what she was wearing, and calling her names.

A few Thursdays ago, I was observing at a local high school. During one of the classes I sat in on, one student was being silly. At one point, he couldn't stop giggling. To me, someone who has only observed that particular class a few times, the student seemed like he was just being himself. The other students in his class, however, have labeled his being himself as being "annoying." When the student couldn't control his laughter, a student sitting in front of him turned around and stared at him blankly for two minutes straight. The giggling student smiled at him. However, the staring student broke his silence and said something along the lines of "Shut up - I don't want to hear your voice." In another class, another student angrily told him multiple times to turn around and she did not want to talk to him.

Those were just two accounts that I witnessed. I can name at least three others that I saw and heard in the past week. Things like this happen? But why? I really don't understand. That's not the only question to ask, however. Whether we like it or not, bullying exists - all kinds of it. The question we have to make sure to ask and answer is what are we going to do about it?

My mother never...

My mother never drove on the highway. She gets around by taking local roads and back roads. And, if she can't use local or back roads to get to where she needs to go, she doesn't go.

For example, the Costco we go to is in the next town over. So, if my mom has a sudden urge to buy something in bulk, she takes a random route, taking roads the rest of us didn't know even existed. It may take her fifteen minutes longer to reach the store, but she successfully avoids driving an inch on the highway.

Driving on the highway scares my mom. No, it terrifies her. She's not a fan of the idea of cars zooming past her or cars cutting her off. She's more of a 25 miles per hour, wait your turn kind of driver. So, she has never driven on the highway, and she doesn't plan to learn how to. She's comfortable driving on local roads, like she always has.

I have only driven on the highway once myself. When I finally do drive on the highway (when I have access to a car), I know I will be a bit anxious. I wonder if this is because new drivers are always anxious when braving the highway. Or because my mom's nerves have affected me more than I know. No matter what, I see driving on the highway in my future; I'll make sure of it. Not because I don't have the time to spare taking the back roads, but I want to be able to drive on the highway just because.

A Weekend Adventure

I went home this weekend for my friend's engagement party. Home is in Connecticut. Connecticut is where the snow heavily snowed on this weekend.

The engagement party was in New Jersey. My family and I left Jersey after the snow had already begun. Because of the weather and traffic (due to accidents from the snow), it took us three and a half hours to get home - two hours longer than it would normally take us. When we reached our neighborhood, getting to our house was an obstacle course. Where I live is already like a maze; you have to zigzag through roads and go up and down hills. It's definitely not like New York. So, now, with power lines and trees down, finding a way to get to my house was almost impossible. Luckily, we found a way. Thank God for our Ford Explorer that carried us up the one snowy-hill option we had that wasn't blocked off.

When we reached our home, my family and I were in for a rude awakening: the power was out. Because we couldn't open our garage, we walked through the two feet of snow, past the breaking trees, to the front door, I being in a sari and open-toed heels. Using my dying cell phone as a source of light, we searched for candles and matches in the pitch dark. We decided to pack clothes and brave the bad roads again to go to my eldest brother's house ten minutes away (even though we knew it would take much longer to reach there) that was not powerless likes ours. When we finally made it out of our driveway after getting stuck about twenty times, we got stuck on our street, not even a minute from our house. We had no choice but to turn back to our powerless, waterless, heatless home.

It was 10:30 pm, and my parents and brother decided to go to sleep because there was nothing to do. I, on the other hand, had a final paper due the next day for my Sunday class; it was the last class. I had already researched for my paper and written two outlines, but I had not written the paper yet. As you can see, the snow had other plans in mind for me that night. So, while everyone attempted to sleep under multiple comforters in our freezing home, I sat at my dining room table with a scarf and gloves on, wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by literally ten candles, trying to write my Families, Cultures, and Learning paper.

Thank God everything turned out okay. What a night; it was definitely an adventure and a night to remember. And that was just Saturday. Sunday is a whole other story.

An Attempt

The bus was late. John stood at the bus stop, shaking his head and grunting as he grew more impatient. When it finally came, he stomped his way onto the bus. "Try to stay on schedule tomorrow, would ya?" he scoffed at the driver. He made his way to the last bucket seat available, tossed his briefcase on the seat, and sat down right next to it. He laid his head back and closed his eyes.

After a few minutes, the bus still hadn't pulled away. What's taking so long, John thought. He looked out the window and saw an elderly woman approaching the bus, slowly. Like John, the people sitting in front of and next to John began to tap their feet and sigh aloud. "Hurry up," a girl yelled out. "Although you may think we do, we don't have all day!"

Walking with her cane, the woman climbed onto the bus and walked down the aisle, stepping over passengers' feet, searching for a place to sit. As she approached John, John moved his briefcase further down the seat and looked out the window.

"Jerk," she said under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Are you hard of hearing? I called you a jerk."

"Maybe you should walk faster next time, Grandma. I was here first," John retaliated.

"Maybe you should watch what you say to me because I will..."

"You'll what?" John asked. "You'll hit me with your cane? No, you can stand. You'll be okay."