Modern Family

For todays free write, I will be talking about my favorite T.V. show Modern Family. I started watching this show when it first came on a couple of years ago and instantly liked it. I love all of the characters and the different families throughout the show and all of their different stories and perspectives.

            My favorite character would have to be Phil. He is the dad of his family, which consists of him Claire, Luke, Alex, and Haley. Phil and Luke together is usually pretty funny because they have the same personality and aren’t the smartest people and do some pretty funny things.

            I also like Jay as well. He is an older man who married a younger woman named Gloria. Together they take care of Gloria’s son from a previous marriage named Manny. Manny acts way to old for his age and is really mature. He is pretty funny too but Jay still is my favorite from their family. His attitude and way of doing things really just makes me like him for some reason.

            My favorite character from the last family would have to be Cam. He and his partner Mitchell have an adopted daughter Lilly. Cam also dresses up as a clown named Fizbo, which is usually pretty funny. Cam is just altogether a funny guy and always does something pretty funny things in each episode.

            Altogether, this show is hilarious. I also like how each of the family’s stories during the show go along together. The writing for this show is always good and I laugh every time I watch it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch the show as much as I would like to here at school. I never can keep up with it and sit down at the right time to watch it. So, when I go home I usually catch up on them because I record them on my DVR.

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The Cubbies

So for todays free write, I will be talking about my favorite sports team. The Chicago Cubs are and always will be my favorite sports team. Yes, I like the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Bears, but baseball is my favorite sport and the Cubs are the team that I follow the most and I really like going to their games.

            Despite the Cubs infamous World Series drought, I will always be there to support the Cubbies. It’s been a rough time hearing about how they haven’t won in so long but I don’t care. Wrigley Field is one of my favorite places to be and I love their hot dogs. I don't care that it’s not as big or fancy as other new ballparks. I just like the environment and the people are always nice too, theres nothing like going to a Cubs game on a nice sunny day.

            Even though the Cubs are obviously in a rebuilding year (it will probably be a couple of years) I have been excited to watch their games again as their season finally began this month. I love baseball and played my whole life until this year. This will be an interesting summer without baseball. It will be my first summer without baseball since I was about five years old. Watching the pros really makes me want to play again.

            Although the Cubs have been torturing their fans by not being the best as far as records go, I will still watch as many games as possible. It also doesn’t help that the Cardinals are in our division, no matter what it seems like they also have a solid line-up. I am however looking forward to seeing what Theo Epstein, Dale Sveum, and Jed Hoyer can do with the Cubs. Hopefully they can build a solid foundation for the future and we can finally win another a World Series, and you know when they do, it will be pretty crazy.

            I also recently saw this commercial for “The Show” which is a baseball video game for PS3. Its kinda cool but a little disappointing that it’s a video game and night real life… 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVGAfA15U1I

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Research Papers...

So, usually when it comes time to write a research paper, I like to procrastinate...I'm not gonna lie, even though I don't mind writing essays I just hate doing the actual research part. I don't like to take the time to sit there and read or look up information to support my arguments for my paper. I know that procrastination is not a good technique or habit to use but it does help me sometimes because by procrastinating, it makes me work harder to meet my deadline. 

         When it comes time to actually writing my research paper, I usually like to do my research first. I usually just start with some general sources that go over my topic and cover the basics of what it includes. Then I look for more detailed sources with some very specific facts that I need to prove whatever I am arguing or talking about. I also write down specific ideas or quotes I get from the research on post it notes. This way I won’t forget where I got the information and can easily look back on it instead of going through the text again.

         Once I feel that I have enough support and research, I start to organize everything. Before I start actually writing, I like to look at all the support that I have and piece together an outline of my paper.

         Then, I usually like to write the whole paper in one sitting. This way I use the same style throughout the paper. I like to write a rough draft without any citations, just the ideas. I do this because I don’t want to deal with the process of citing things when first writing the paper; I just want to write it. Then I usually take a break. Once I can motivate myself again, I go back through the paper and read/edit it. Then, I go through it and add in the citations that I need.

         Then, when everything is cited and it’s in what I think is the “final draft”, I read through it around five times and then have someone else (usually my Dad) read and proof read it.

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Close Readings

This week we learned about close readings. I personally am not a huge close reader or reader of any kind. I do like to read certain books and stories by particular authors, but for the most part, I am not a huge reader. However, this weeks lesson taught me how to look closely at the text we are reading and try and analyze what is truly going on instead of just looking over the text briefly and hoping that I understood what it was saying.

            I think that it is important for us to learn the technique of close reading because it will help us understand and be able to analyze any texts that we read. By annotating texts it will help us be able to go back and learn/remember what we read about and help us in case we have to go back through the texts for answering questions.

            Normally when I read a text or a story, I just kind of go through the motions and read over what the words say but do not actually pay attention to any themes or messages the story is trying to portray. After our lesson about close reading and reading the story “Hills Like White Elephants” in class, I was able to realize that a short story like this for example has much more to talk about in the brief story then what meets the eye. Although it is a short story, when I first read it I just noticed that there was a guy and a girl talking and drinking. I really did not pay attention to the actual text or what was going on. But later we discussed in class what the real message was, abortion. I would have never guessed that from my initial reading of the text. After we did a close read of it, I was able to understand the true meaning of the story.

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