Creative Writing

I can honestly say this has been my favorite class. I have learned so much about different writing styles and enjoyed learning them. I liked the way we worked in groups and had the opportunity to change our papers. Most importantly we criticized our own work and that made me want to make my papers better every time. I enjoyed this class mostly because I felt free to write about whatever I wanted and in whatever style I wanted. I wish Professor Potvin taught more English courses because I would register for all of them.
Well the semester is about to end soon and this is our last class meeting so I want to wish everyone the best of luck and hope you enjoy your summer!

Art and Creativity

Being Creative, there are so many different ways to be creative and by watching this clip Muniz gives us wonderful ideas on creativity. It is so nice how he makes something out of nothing. To me it might look like nothing but he made it into something beautiful. I really liked how he made clouds out of cotton. I love looking at clouds and he made the nicest clouds with cotton. I loved how he was so creative with this cotton and made different figures of clouds, I always look into the clouds and try to see what they look like and he did that with something so simple. The wires he used to made flowers and the pieces of thread to make the lighthouse was just amazing. I am wowed by how creative this man is. His creativity is just a wonderful work of art. The sugar over black paper was the most interesting presentation in the clip. After watching this clip I look at things differently, art is not just made with paint it could be made with just about anything, you just have to stretch you imagination.

Creative Stories.

I liked watching this clip on youtube. It was interesting how he said it takes more time finding what you want to write about than how much time it takes to write the story itself. He talked about killing to make something else better live when writing. He goes so much into depth talking about different ways and different styles, stages of writing. I like how he said that failure is a big part of success because you can only learn from your mistakes. It was a short clip but was very informative and educational, you just have to listen carefully to what he is saying. It is kind of like reading between the lines to get understand his point clearly. It made me think of the way I write and how sometimes it is so hard to figure out what you want to write about and then when you finally do you just go with the flow and one idea leads to another.

Killing Yourself to Live

As I said in my previous post, I am not a fan of the book. I mean yes, it was interesting at times and I did read it but only because it was an assignment and I had to read it. Many times I didn't know what he was referring to and why he kept mentioning various rock bands or the different rock songs. Most of the times I would look them up online or just ignore that he even said anything about them and kept reading. He didn't really give much background about the groups or the music, other than he probably assumed the reader was familiar with what he was talking abou.
It was part of his job to go to places where these rock stars had died but I didn't see much point in that either since most of the time he just went to these places and didn't get any new information about their death. Sometimes he was not even allowed to go into the places where these rockstars had perished.
I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but that is just my opinion, I am sure many people who read it liked it.

Killing Yourself to Live

At first I wasn't so much interested in this book. I don't have a clue what he is talking about when he mentions rock stars and rock bands since I don't know much or I should say anything at all about rock music except that it is pretty loud. But thinking about the meaning of it and how people become famous after they die, pretty much makes alot of sense. Not only with rock stars but with everyday normal people, just random people that we don't know much about when they die we hear all these stories about them and how they lived their lives, we learn more about them and get to be sometimes more curious about their lives. I think the title is true to almost anyone that dies, they become more famous or known after their death.
The paragraph which we had to write a paper about, caught my eye even before we were assigned to write the paper, it made me think about all the things that were normal before and are not normal anymore. As for another part that I found interesting was the part about Chuck's nemesis, he was kind of his enemy but his friend at the same time, or was he just using him for a place to stay and for his own convenience, made me think about how people treat others or think of others at times. I kind of see where this book is going, actually the title and his work assignment says it all, when rock stars die they become more famous. I don't see why he needed to go to the places where they died, he didn't learn much by going there, he could have done more research online, but then again it was his assignment for work. About all the girls he talks about he just seems like he is lost and doesn't really know what he wants from life, thinking about one girl for a minute and another girl at another minute, he just seems really confused. I am going to read the rest of the book over the weekend. Hopefully he has some kind of good ending.

What's been happening...

I have been extremely busy the past couple of weeks with family. My father in law had surgery and has been staying with us since then and it's like a party at my house everyday. It's nice to have visitors but I never have time for anything else, like homework. I was sick and just when I started to feel better, now my little one is sick. He was up all night yesterday with a fever so now that is what I am going to be dealing with this week. I'm not complaining, just hoping everyone feels better soon, so we can catch up on things and start enjoying the beautiful weather that is coming up. We sneaked out of the house yesterday for one hour and went to Toys'R Us to get the kids a wooden swing set, it looks really cool and I know they are going to love it, but now we have to figure out how and when we are going to put it together, I read some of the reviews online and it looks like it takes anywhere from 18-24 hours to put together. I am really looking forward to the nice weather this week. Hopefully we get a chance to enjoy it.
As for anything new, nothing much going on. Trying to figure out if I want to paint some of the rooms in the house, just to make it look different I thought paint the walls and change some accents, maybe pillows and stuff to make it look more springy or summery. If I ever get a chance to do that it would be nice. I am really looking forward to planting flowers outside, we need some colors it looks so plain, the landscaping in the front of the house is empty I want it to be filled with beautiful colors. I do have a wedding to go to on Saturday, looking forward to that since we haven't been to a wedding or any other social event in more than 6 months. Life just gets really boring in the wintertime. And everytime we do plan to do anything or go somewhere someone is sick.

Post Secret

Well I just looked at the post secret website for the first time. It was pretty cool, the idea that you can write whatever you want anonymously. I am sure that all of us want to say things sometimes but are afraid someone might hear them and especially the someone you do not want to hear them. This is a good idea because noone has to know who you are. Some things on the posts were pretty intimate and others were sad, some were funny. I think that is how it is something like a poem, you can write whatever you want and let out your feelings, there is really no directions that you need to follow unless you are writing a specific type of poem. Some of the blogs actually sounded like poems when reading them, they were very descriptive and used words that had something to do with our senses. I didn't really see a post that related to my life, but maybe if I keep checking I will. The only one I saw that somewhat related to me is one that said I am the opposite of suicidal, I feel so dead but I want to be alive. That is how I felt when I had the flu a few months ago, I never had been that sick and wasn't able to take care of my kids, go to school, work, or even get out of bed. I hated it, I felt so dead but wanted to be alive, I couldn't wait to get better and get back to doing the things I did everyday.

Elegy Poem: Missing You

Missing you...

It happened so fast
I never had a chance

Should have told you before
Didn't think you wouldn't be here anymore

You were too young to go
I wish you had more time to grow

Only two years we had together
I will hold those memories with me forever

Missing you more each day
Didn't think it would hurt this way

An angel in heaven you might be
In my heart is where I will always carry you with me

Haiku

None

I woke up today
Had a million things to do
Got none of them done


Cold

The sky looks so blue
Its windy and very cold
Seems snows on its way

They are my all

Two little boys inspire me
One is big and one is small
They are my all
The sparkle in their eyes
The smile on their cheeks
Their little noses, their fingers and their feet

I want to be the best just for them
After all I'd die for them

Everything I do
It's all for you
The apples of my eyes
My two little boys

Two little boys inspire me
One is big and one is small
They are my all...

Poems

I went through a few poems found in the websites listed on ctools, some were very different than others. Some of the poems that I chose to read, I chose not for the word content but because the title was something I thought was significant to my life or was interesting to me. The first one was called Lullaby by John Fuller, it was easy to read through because the words rhymed, but not until reading it the second time around was I able to understand the meaning. He uses animals in the poem and compares the baby to a nut which I thought was weird. My favorite poem was titled Granny by James Whitcomb Riley. While I read this poem I was able to picture it in my head because that is the same thing we used to do when my grandmother came over, we all gathered in one house and sat around her to listen to her tell us stories and there was food and games and lots of fun. This poem is very detailed, tells how granny has all the kids around her and how she tells them different folk tales and they name a few of them. I really enjoyed reading this poem. The third poem was titled A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns. This poem was hard for me to understand, it rhymed and was easy to read through but the words got me confused. I think it was talking about someone who traveled to see someone they love and they had to travel back, but promised they will still love them. The fourth poem I read was called Fake Tattoo by Nikki Grimes, this was a cute one it was about a fake tattoo that would fade away, the tattoo was a butterfly and how they compared it fading away to it flying away because it looked as if it was poised for flight. It said how even if it was gone it would like in the person's memory and that is like almost everything in our lives, just because something or someone is gone doesn't mean we forget about them. It compares the tattoo to the writer as once being plain but now being beautiful and rare. I liked the last verse in the poem.

Rupunzel's Endless Golden Hair

Rupunzel’s Endless Golden Hair

It had been a long time since we had seen anyone other the wicked looking enchantress. Rupunzel was the sweetest girl ever. She took really good care of me; she would brush me every day with her fingers so softly and swiftly I would wish to myself that she was the only person to ever touch me. The enchantress was so rough and mean. She was so scary looking, her hands were so rough and prickly. Her face was dark and she looked like a monster from a scary movie. She had dark green eyes, as green as grass and she had a big mole on her face it looked like someone had planted it in the middle of her face. Every night she would come to the tower and stand under the window and call
“Rupunzel, Rupunzel, Let your hair down!”
When I would hear her voice I would tremble. I knew she was going to pull and snag on me to make her way up. It felt like a million pounds as she pulled her way up to the tower window. Rupunzel would unfold me and let me down so that the enchantress could come up. She only came up for a few minutes and would tell Rupunzel to never look out the window, and never speak to anyone who comes through the woods and never try to get down or even think of escaping. She was so mean and with her evil wicked sounding voice would yell out her demands
“Rupunzel! Never speak to anyone, never look out the window, never do this and never do that!”
After she made all her demands clear she would push me down the window again and slide down. This happened everyday and would dread the night because that is when she would come.
Rupunzel spent her time weeping in the tower, she would sometimes sit and sing, she had a beautiful voice and made up songs about how she would one day find a way to escape. One afternoon, she sat close to the window and sadly sang her beautiful song. She heard someone walking in the forest down under. It sounded like maybe the wind was moving the leaves of trees, or was it someone under her window? She didn’t dare look down after all she was told to never look out the window. She went on singing her song. It was someone down under, it was the prince. He sat under the tower and listened to her as she sang. From that day on, he would come every day and sit and listen to Rupunzel sing. One day he stayed late and when he heard someone coming toward the tower he ran and hid by a tree. It was the wicked enchantress. She stood under the window and called
“Rupunzel, Rupunzel, Let your hair down”
So Rupunzel let me down, and the enchantress would pull and snag on me to make her way up to the tower. The prince was watching and I had seen him hiding behind the tree, but didn’t dare say a word. The enchantress came up yelled out her demands to Rupunzel and then made her way down. That night I asked Rupunzel to let me out of my bun, she kept me tied up until the enchantress would call her to let me down each night. She let me loose and I told her about the handsome young man I had seen by the tree. I told her he might be able to help us out and of course she was terrified of the idea and told me she wouldn’t dare look out the window. The night went by, and the second morning Rupunzel sat and sang, this time the prince came again. He waited a while and then he called
“Rupunzel, Rupunzel, Let your hair down”
Rupunzel knew the voice was different, but thought no one else knew of her in the tower and no one knew to tell her to let me down other that the wicked enchantress. So she let me down and this time it wasn’t her, but it was the handsome young man I had seen hiding behind the tree. He swiftly made his way up, and for the first time I didn’t feel the pulling and the snagging, it was painless as he went up. Rupunzel was surprised to see it wasn’t the wicked enchantress; it was a handsome young man, in a small panicky voice she asked
“Who are you, and why are you here?”
“I am the prince, I saw how she treats you, I am here to help you out”
She trembled and was a bit frightened after all she had never seen anyone but the enchantress.
Rupunzel don’t be frightened I said. This is the man I saw hiding by the tree. I felt like she had a feeling of relief, she sighed and asked him
“Why are you here?”
“I am here to help you out” in a louder tone of voice this time.
How could she trust him, she didn’t know who he was, but why should she stay what would the enchantress do if she ever found her. I didn’t know what to think at the moment. I had flying through my head like bees in a bee hive. I wanted to tell Rupunzel to leave but wanted to also leave the decision up to her. How could we get down, Rupunzel asked in a puzzled voice, she sounded confused. He pleaded with her to let him help and promised her he would take good care of her once she made her way down. Rupunzel agreed.
He said “tonight when she comes, do as you always would, let your endless golden hair down and let her up and tomorrow I will be back.”
He didn’t tell us how he would let us down, but we waited patiently until the next day. Before the sun went down he was there he had brought with him a long, never ending piece of silk cloth. I made my way down, so he could come up and give Rupunzel the piece of silk. He gradually made his way up and this time I felt like he was as light as air. He approached the window and told Rupunzel to use the piece of silk as she used me. He told her to tie it to the pole in the tower and let it down and slide down to the bottom of the tower. He went down first and waited for her at the bottom. She did as he told her and in a matter of less than a minute she swiftly slid down to find herself at the bottom of the tower.
I was afraid that since she didn’t need me anymore she might cut me off. I asked her quietly
“Rupunzel what will you do of me now, that you don’t need me anymore? “
“I will let you grow longer and more beautiful than ever, I will never let anyone pull on you again” she replied.
Her and the prince married, she made everyone happy with her beautiful voice, but her songs were now songs of happiness and hope, she never sang her old songs again. And we never heard anything of the evil enchantress.

Nothing new..

Nothing really exciting to write about. Feels like all I do is run around all day, and barely get anything done. I am a mother of two boys so running around all day to keep up with them is one thing, but I also am a full time student and full time employee. I hate to leave my homework until last minute, but seems like I never have a choice. Can't possibly get anything done with my younger on around he only ends up writing on everything, shutting off my computer or ripping pages in my books. He does it so fast, I could be right by him and can't get to him fast enough to stop him. So that is one of the reasons I leave everything to do at night. My schedule this semester is so hectic, Monday night classes and Tuesday Morning classes, then Wednesday night classes and Thursday mornings, Friday and Saturday I'm at work all day so seems like the only day off is Sunday and that is the day I end up staying home all day getting homework done. The muse book is pretty cool because I feel like I have to set a few minutes aside a few days a week to write in it, that is like my alone time. Well here he comes, I better upload this before he shuts off the computer...

Rupunzel retold

I am going to retell the story of Rupunzel in first person, she will be the one telling the story.

All my life I remember living in a small room up high in a tower, so high that noone could come in and I couldn't go out. I had a small window where I would sit and look out to the world around me.
An enchantress had taken me away from my parents in exchange for vegetables from her garden. She had promised to keep me happy and love me as one of her own, but that was not the case. I had very long hair and used to let it down only when the enchantress would want to come up, she used it as a ladder since there was no stairs to come up to room. She would come once everyday and stand below and call my name and ask me to let my hair down. I was very lonely and sad but knew noone but her. During the day I would sit by the window and sing and watch the birds fly and look at the mountains and trees.
One day while sitting at my window I heard a voice calling "Rupunzel, Rupunzel, Let your hair down" I did, thinking it was the enchantress. To my surprise it was a young man. He came in the room and told me how much he had loved to listen to me sing and and asked me to go with him. At first I was scared, I never spoke to anyone except the enchantress and never had any friends. I didn't know if I should trust him, he promised to help me out and asked me to trust him and keep it a secret. He was very friendly and told me that he would marry me and I would not need to stay in this little room any longer. I remembered that the enchantress had promised my parents the same, she said she would love me and care for me and instead she hid me in this tower.
I wished that I could go with him, but how? We decided that he would come see me every night after she would leave and and would bring a piece of silk with him each time and I would tie them together until it would be long enough for me to hang from the window and use to get down.
I was scared that she would catch us so everyday when he brought the silk pieces I would tie them together and hide them under my blanket. I began to fall in love in love and couldn't wait for the day that I had enough silk to get me down from the tower. Finally after two months I had enough, I waited until the night and let myself down. He was waiting for me and we left together on his horse, I didn't know where we going because I had never been anywhere. He took me to his house and the second day we married. We had a beautiful wedding and lived happily ever after.

The lesson of this story, is that just because the enchantress promised something and lied doesn't mean that everyone is the same. She gave the young man a chance she trusted him and he did help her out and he married her and they lived happily. You have to give people a chance and not judge them by the actions of others.

The little birdy that told all...

My folktale is one I made up from something that I used to believe was true when I was younger. The story is told in first person, the girl is telling the story.

Mommy always told me to listen to her and always do as she says. She said that if I didn't listen the little birdy would tell her everything and tell my dad when he came home from work! I tried to always listen and be a good girl. The hardest thing to do was to fall asleep when she told me it was bedtime, sometimes it was still light out and others I just wasn't tired enough to fall asleep. She always would know that I was awake, she knew what happened when I was in my room, she knew that my sister and I fought and she knew that I sometimes went in the closet and took out the toys, but how? How did she know all this? I always looked for a birdy under the bed, in the closet, at the window but never found one. At times I used to shut the shades and then peek from down under to see if the birdy was peeking in. I never found the little birdy, but my mother was always able to know what we were doing.
When daddy would come home, he knew what we had done that day, he knew what we ate, what we did at school and what we did after, but how? The little birdy, always told them everything. I could never find the birdy and when I did anything I would always look twice to see if the birdy was around and it was never anywhere to be found. I always thought twice before doing anything because I would know the birdy would tell my parents so I made wiser decisions at school and at home. This helped me stay out of trouble, just because I couldn't find the birdy didn't mean it wasn't around, it always told my parents everything.

I finally figured out the little birdy was my mom, she told my dad everything and blamed it on the birdy and my little brother told my mom most things she didn't see so his was the other birdy. I know use the same birdy with my kids.
I guess the lesson behind this story is that you always think twice when you believe that someone is watching or someone will tell on you, so keep in mind that there is always a little birdy watching and you might think twice before doing something.

Folktale

One of my favorite folktales is Rupunzel. In this story Rupunzel was a beautiful girl that was kept from the world, secluded in a tower in the forest all by herself. The room had no stairs and no doors, but a little window. She was kept there by an enchantress who had taken her from her parents at birth in exchange for vegetables from her garden. The enchantress would come to see Rupunzel everyday and would stand at the ground and call her name, she would then let her long beautiful hair down and the enchantress would use it as a ladder to go up and see her. Rupunzel used to sit alone and sing and one day the kings son heard her voice and fell in love with her. He saw how she would let her hair down for the enchantress to come up the tower. So one day he stood under the window and called out "Rupunzel, Rupunzel , Let down your hair" and Rupunzel did just that, but to her surprise there was a young man standing in front of her and not the old lady enchantress. At first, she was scared and then he spoke to her in a friendly voice and told her how much he liked her and wanted to marry her. She agreed and told him that there was no way for her to get down, so she asked him to bring some silk everytime he came and she would somehow figure out how to make a ladder to come down. He did as she said. But one day, Rupunzel accidently told the enchantress about the young man and the enchantress was very mad. She cut Rupunzels hair and took her out of the tower and left her in the forest. At night the young man came to see Rupunzel as he did everynight, but this time the enchantress used Rupunzels hair that she had cut off and sent it down the tower for the king's son to use as a ladder. When he came up to the tower, he was surprised to find the old lady and not Rupunzel, she looked at him wickedly and told him he would never see Rupunzel again. He escaped and jumped down the tower, but had hurt himself and thornes had poked his eyes. The young man had become blind. He wandered in the woods for many years crying and wishing he could find Rupunzel again. One day he heard a voice he knew sounded familiar, it was the voice of Rupunzel, when they saw each other she knew him, she cried and with her tears she gave him his eyesight back. He was happy to find the love of his life.
There could be many lessons from the story of Rupunzel. The enchantress would not let the neighbor have any vegetables, until they agreed to give them their baby. This shows how sometimes people do not give anything unless they get something for exchange. Rupunzel, was kept alone and secluded when the enchantress promised to give her a good life when she took her from her parents, she lied and kept her locked away from everyone in the tower, the lesson here is that maybe you cannot believe everything someone says. Rupunzel had to trust the boy and make a decision for herself when she agreed to let down her hair for him everynight so that he could come up and give her some silk so that she could finally get away from the tower, this is the lesson that sometimes you have to make decisions and in order to live you need to be with people and not secluded from the world.