Free Blog 9/30

Since there has been so much posting about American football. I think I will talk about English football again. In my fantasy team, I am getting killed. The three all-stars that I have are hurt and are out indefinatley, so james and jordan are going to murder me. Something really rare happened this week, an 11 goal game. Portsmouth beat Reading 7-4. That is unheard of. That would be like a 35 - 25 baseball game or a 100- 75 american football game. Some African guy got a hat trick which is also rare. Arsenal is still number 1 with 19 league points. Man U is behind by two points, liverpool is back 4 points and Chelsea is sucking, they are back 7 league points. Thats the important points of this weeks EPL games.

Class Projects

I don't have to many class projects right now. Mainly it's just English. I just finished a gubernatorial debate paper for History. I actually did not know it was due on Friday and had to write it during lunch. It wasn't really a paper though, just a report on what I thought about the debate, so it wasn't as formal as a paper. We never have projects in pre - calc because Mr. Davis thinks that we are in pre calc 101. He never gives any grades besides the occasional spiral, quizzes and a few tests. I guess that okay to get us prepared for college but its annoying. I have not had any projects in AP Chemistry yet, which is good because that class is turing out to be a little hard. Now that we have finished reviewing regular chemistry, we have gotten into the hard stuff. We just finished a vector project in Physics that had really confusing directions but I think I did it right. Bible is Bible, lecture for three classes and take a quiz. No projects in that class. And in English we have the epic paper and I guess you could call blogging a project. But, thats it.

Free Blog for Week 6

I think that this week is going to be pretty good. I only have one test in AP Chemistry and it isn't even that big, its 40 points. Thats all of the tests this week for me. Probably going to have to do some work on the paper thing for English, but it won't be as hard as writing a reasearch paper because it doesn't need a bibliography. Bible is bible, easy. Physics won't be to hard this week because we are learning about vectors and they are not that hard. Thats all we will do this week in this class. Math might be difficult this week because graphing trig functions is not fun at all. History is going to be good. No tests. We really dont do too much political theory, all we really do is argue about current events like the governer race and the credit crunch. We are going to have a debate this week which is going to be fun. And the best part is that I get to play soccer 4 times in 5 days this week. Im going to some select goalkeeper training that apparently made Danny a lot better last year so I'm hoping that will stay true for me. I think I will have an easy week.

Development of Hero Formula over Time

I think that the basic structure of the heroic journey has stayed the same since Perceval because it works. Those types of stories are the ones that people enjoy, and have enjoyed for 1,000 years. Why should movie writers and book authors change something that works. Sure, there are a few minor tweaks to the formula but nothing to major, usually. The changes are most often superficial like adding more explosions or fight scenes. But sometimes, the changes drastically affect some part of the formula, usually the ending. A really good example of a hero from a modern story is Neo from the Matrix. He has to learn everything in the beginning, has a romance with the girl, I forgot her name, he has two mentors, Morpheus and the oracle lady and he also has many challenges. The main change is that everything is not happily ever after for Neo. It is for the human city, but Neo dies. I think that is right, but even if it isn't right, the other drastic change is his girlfriend dies. So the story mainly follows the formual for a hero story, but hollywood added some changes to make it more entertaining.

Powerpoint Critiquing

Alfonso:
I thought that he did a very good job on this powerpoint. He went above and beyond what was required and answered all of the neccesary questions in great detail. My only question is that when he says that when Beowulf learns of the dragon, he believes he has done something wrong. How does that relate to God? Overall, very good job.

Doug:
Pretty good job, but it was a little hard to read. Also, maybe you could elaborate more on your slides answering how Beowulf is heroic. The evidence is very good, but it could use a little more explanation.

Helen:
Good job. She explained the six questions very well and elaborated on some of the evidence given for the first half of the assignment. Easy to read.

Matt:
Good powerpoint. Same colors as Doug and same information for the first half. For the last six slides, you provided lots of evidence and good elaborations and analysis of the details. You might want to add a little more to the impact of anglo-saxon on today.

JL:
Since you are in the same group of Doug and Matt, you had the same first half information. You need to put more information on the how is it poetic slide. Also, explain what you said more. Pretty good job.

Alex S.
I was unable to view her powerpoint because I do not have office 2007.

Claire D:
Very good job on this powerpoint. Lots of evidence, lots of analysis, and lots of personal input. My only complaint is that I dont like the color yellow that much. But thats just me.

Clare G:
Same initial information as Claire. I like the color blue. Much of the last six slides are the same as claire's but you used some different evidence than her. Good job.

Liz:
Same initial powerpoint as Helen and Alfonso but with a little more information than Helen and a little less information than Alfonso on the last six slides. Pretty good job. Maybe you could write the line from page 115 on the slide about how is it anglo-saxon. But what you did is ok too.

Jenny:
Same initial information as Claire and Clare because they were in the same group. It had some different colors that looked good, but where are your other six slides?

Matthew J:
Good job on providing enough information, there was a lot of it. Good analysis of that information as well. I was suprised to see that the powerpoint was not in purple and gold.

Morreed:
Lots of information, thats good. Good analysis of that information as well. I don't understand the slide about oral tradition. How do all of those bullets relate back to Beowulf being an oral tradition. Include that next time. Overall, good job.

Ross:
I was unable to view his powerpoint because I do not have office 2007.

Alex C:
Good information on the first slides but needs more information on the last six slides. You didn't use any evidence. You just said what you thought. That is good, but you need to include evidence along with what you wrote.

Paige:
Good information on the slides done with the group. Also, your slides you wrote yourself were good. They included evidence, analysis and sometimes your thoughts. Thats pretty much all this powerpoint needed.

Colleen:
I could not view her powerpoint because I do not have office 2007

Merritt:
Good colors. They are easy to read. Good information on the first half and also good information on the second half. All you need to do is add some evidence on the slide about how Beowulf is Heroic. Good job.

Holy Grail and Heroic Journey

I thought that the monty python movie was pretty funny. Stupid, but funy. The did lots of repetitive things. Like the guy that was running in the field for so long and then all of the sudden comes and kills the guards, they took that way too far. But other things were really funny. The monks hitting themselves in their heads was pretty funny. The black knight was the funniest though. Or maybe the lack of horses, that was funny too.
The interesting part about the movie was how it didn't follow the heroic journey all of the way like I assume Perceval will. For the first half of the movie, the writers introduced the audience to the different knights of the roundtable. After that was accomplished, they started the heroic journey part of the movie. The interesting part was that the journey was not finished. They did not get any rewards or have a journey home. The movie just stopped after the French didnt let them into the Castle of ughhh. I think that the reason they ended it was because they wanted to say something about the journey, or how the questers do not gain anything from the quest. I dont know, its just an idea

Free Blog 2

I don't have much to talk about right now so I guess I will talk about the English Premier League. The English Premier League is the soccer league from england. There were not to many good games this weekend, but there were a few suprises. There are four teams that usually are the top four in the league. Those are Chelsea, Manchester Utd., Arsenal, and Liverpool. Liverpool tied a bad team, Portsmouth, which is suprising. Chelsea also tied a middle class team, the Blackburn Rovers. That is not to suprising becasue Chelsea was missing their two superstars, Dider Drogba and Frank Lampard. Unfortunatley, both of those guys are on my EPL fantasy team, so James and Jordan beat me this week. Arsenal won 3-1 against Tottenham, which is a good win. And Man U beat Everton 1-0. That was the best game of the week. But, I was watching college football. That is much more important. So, yeah, that was the main highlights of the EPL weekend.

Free Blog 1

I cannot believe how bad the Saints are doing right now. I'm watching the game and I don't understand what is going on. One of the announcers said Brees threw something like 65 passes against Tampa last year without an interception. Right now in the third quarter he has 90 yards passing. That is not very good. Well, now they just got a 40 yard pass and are about to score, so maybe they are starting to do better.
Even if the Saints are doing bad, LSU did well. 44-0 against any team is an accomplishment. A certain Florida fan in our grade who will remain nameless thinks that Florida will beat LSU. He is completely mistaken. LSU has allowed 7 points in three games. Florida has allowed 54 points against Troy, Western Kentucky and Tennessee. Miss St is better than Troy, Mid Tenn St is better than Western Kentucky, and VT is much better than Tennessee. I think that this Florida fan will be in for a suprise on October 6.

Saturday

I had probably one of the best days of my life yesterday. It started by mowing my neighbors grass and making $30. Thats a pretty good start, because I like to have money. Who doesn't? By this time it is 11 o'clock. After I go home and eat something, I go to the library to get books for a govt. research paper. That was the worst part of my day. After the library, I went to redstick sports to get some tape for a soccer game for a cut on my knee. The funny thing was there was a VT fan there and he asked if redstick had any VT apparel. When the cashier said all they had was LSU stuff, he got really mad. He said, "I cannot believe that an apparel store doesn't have any thing from the number 9 team in the nation. I am uterly shocked." He said that exactly, word for word. The other older cashier then said what do you expect, you're in Baton Rouge. I thought that conversation was funny.
After all of the errands, I went home and watched Michigan get beat again. Then at 1:30, I went to my soccer game at the Burbank fields. That took forever to get to because of LSU traffic. We tied 2-2 and it was a pretty fun game overall.
After that, I went with Matthew Saltz to the LSU game. When we tried to park halfway in a ditch, a security guard came and told us that we couldn't park there. So, Mr. Saltz tries to move his car, but he gets stuck in the mud. Then, some random redneck with a tow strap pulls us out and Matthew and I go to Gaudet's tailgate spot. After some burgers, we went to watch LSU beat the $h!t out of VT. That was a fun game to watch. Keildan Williams is really good. The best part is still to come. After the game, we go to Walk-Ons and get a table in 10 minutes, that was pretty lucky. I then find out that Mr. Saltz did some custom lights and sirens for a guy's tailgate RV before the game. And that guy is coming to Walk-Ons to eat and talk to us. It was Shaquille O'neil. So I get to go with Mr. Saltz, Matthew, and his brother Josh and talk to Shaq for an hour. I also got a picture of me and matthew and his brother with shaq, that was fun. It was a pretty fun day.

Question about Hero Story Structure

I was thinking in class about the hero story structure. I thought of pretty much all adventure movies and the all follow those guidelines. Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, the movie I'm watching now, Gone in 60 seconds, and lots of other movies. They all have the same basic structure. But what I don't understand is why people, including myself, like to watch new movies if they have the same structure. I don't really get it. Just because the characters change and the complications change it is more interesting. If they all follow the same structure, then you should know what is going to happen.
Well, while I was writing this, I think that I answered my own question. I kept saying the same basic structure. But the change in the characters and plot make it more interesting. But the thing that makes the stories seem interesting everytime is the small deviations in the resolution and climax. Those are the things that make the stories always seem interesting. that and big explosions and guns.

Question on Beowulf

There is something that I do not understand. In the scene where Beowulf fights Grendel's mom, he starts out in a lake or swamp or something like that. But what I am wondering is how Beowulf fights her for so long underwater. I assumed that it was exaggeration of how long the fight went on, but I don't know what to think because of what happens next.
In the next scene, it says that Beowulf sees a body and cuts it's head off. This is Grendel. Beowulf cuts the head off for revenge. But if there was a body underwater, it would have floated away. So I think that there must have been some misunderstanding in the translation. It might just be a fallacy in the story.

First Section of Beowulf

This section was a little better than I thought it was going to be. It is still pretty hard to get through, but I can enjoy it a little, maybe. Maybe not, but I tried to enjoy it. It just takes to long to get to the action scenes. There are too many pauses between them for it to keep my interest. And when the action scenes come, they last for a few pages, and then it is back to boredom. But I did say that I tried to enjoy it, so this isn't all just a complaint.
The homework that we did for Beowulf was interesting. It was interesting because I have never had a teacher tell me to draw the main characters and setting. I kind of liked it because it was easier and more fun. I like drawing more than I like listing character traits on character maps. Also, it was much easier to do because it did not take very long. The first section of work for Beowulf was easy, but I think it will get much harder towards the end when we write a paper.