Romeo and Juliet DEBATE

Ayman Jabr

806

Does Romeo truly love Juliet, or is he acting out of youthful rashness?

I feel Romeo truly loves Juliet. For one, why would he kill himself if he didn't love her. That shows that he'd rather die than live without her. Why would he sacrifice his life for someone he didn't love? Romeo, after being banished from Verona, struck mayhem just so that he can see his Juliet. He almost got himself killed trying to see his love. Also, throughout the story, Romeo is really very positive with the other characters, but when he is with Juliet, he is as happy as can be. If he had been acting of youthful rashness he would commit to spend eternity with someone he had not loved by marrying her. Romeo had experienced youthful rashness before with Rosaline and he knows the difference between that and true love. This is how I feel about Romeos feelings for Juliet.

Next, when Juliets mother had suggested Juliet to meet Paris to see if she was interested in him, she wasnt very interested to even consider loving him and she knew him. The moment she met eyes with Romeo. she knew he was right for her and she had feelings for him the second they saw eachother. It is like love at first sight and destiny. Romeo and Juliet were meant for eachother, it was just fate. They were destined to love eachother and they were destined to die for eachother.

Finally, in Act 2.3 Lines 62-63, Romeo says " Plainly know my hearts dear love is set on the daughter of Rich Capulet". He basically wants to state that he loves Juliet for who she is even if she is supposed to be his enemy. Nothing can stop him from loving her.

Playground by: 50 Cent

        In the memoir, Playground by 50 Cent it tells a story of a big bully named Butterball who is in Junior High School who is really aggressive and is suffering with a lot of problems in him life. The secondary characters in the story affect the way Butterball is a lot, and I'll show you how.
         Butterball is very aggressive and after attacking a former friend named Maurice with a sock full of D batteries, Butterball begins seeing a therapist named Lizzie who he hates going to talk through his anger issues. Overweight and an outcast at his junior high school school, Butterball finds that his violence and him being a bully earns new respect with the cool kids also known as Andre and his posse of friends. Butterball's relationship with his parents are very different. His parents are divorced and it's because of his mom being a lesbian. Butterball hates being with his mom because they share no similarities at all and ahe doesn't let him do what he wants. On the other hand, Butterballs relationship with his dad is great, they go to the movies all the time, he can watch tv (which he can't do with his mom because she thinks it's a waste of time and money) and he can do whatever he wants. One time he and his dad go to a shoe store who that Butterball can buy a new pair of sneakers. Butterball and his dad end up stealing a limited edition pair of sneakers and everyone at school just keeps looking at Butterballs sneakers and how cool he is. Butterball starts feeling so good and the cool kids, all of a sudden, start to let him hang out with them. Butterball isn't realizing that it's the bad things that he does (violence and theft) that makes him feel good and be "cool".
         In conclusion, this book relates to the world because it shows the struggles of a teenage boy and how he deals with them. This book is directed to teenagers or really anyone with struggles because it show how your struggles can really affect yourself as a person.

Non-Fiction BLOG POST Upfront: INVASION OF THE DRONES

Ayman Jabr 806

Wednesday 

January 21, 2015

Upfront: INVASION OF THE DRONES

In the article, "Invasion of the Drones" by Patricia Smith it talks about drones and why how they are used positively and negatively. Drones have been tested by places like Domino's and can deliver "piping hot pizza". Even though they can be used in good ways, drones can spy on you without you knowing and can really invade someone's privacy. People are concerned about their privacy and safety and are worried about how drones can affect their everyday lifestyle.

Drones can have some really good uses but can also be used very negatively. It states in "Invasion of the Drones" that Mandy Lingard was sunbathing in her secluded backyard when a drone controlled by a real estate agent was taking pictures of a house next door accidentally took some pictures her almost completely naked body. She was in shock and couldn’t believe that pictures of her naked body were being put on billboards and real estate websites. She then states "Last spring a 375-pound drone operated by the Pennsylvania National Guard crashed outside an elementary school near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania." It was great that school was out and no one got hurt by this huge drone crashing after becoming out of control. Patricia Smith then states that she feels that drones are making war too easy and like a video game instead of something very serious. Drones can be used in good ways sometimes but aren’t the best tool to be used in my opinion.

This makes me think of the future and how at any time I can be spied on. It makes start to realize how drones really shouldn’t be put into use because of how easily they can become out of control and are a danger to us all. I can now understand why drones are disturbing and a BIG invasion of peoples privacy.

"Stitches" by: David Small

Ayman Jabr 806 

Wednesday 

December 17th 2014

Stitches by: David Small

                Stitches by: David Small is a brutal memoir about the author, Small’s childhood in an abusive family, whose members included his father, an emotionally distant doctor who treated David’s sinus troubles with carcinogenic X-rays; his brother, a bully who forced sensitive David to look at their father’s R-Rated medical books; and his mother, a brittle, closeted lesbian prone to silent rages and devoid of any love for her sons. In the book, David learns a lot about his family and their secrets.

                In the beginning of the story, Small starts off with when he was only 6 years old. As a kid he had a big imagination and would run around in the neighborhood and play. A lot of the time he would get yelled at by his grandmother because he was "ignorant" and he "needed to learn". He would run away from his grandmother and play in the neighborhood. Only to get called names such as "faggot, bastard, or queer" from the bullies. As he grew older he started to grow a sabaceous cyst, a strange infectious lump on his neck. As he would be put into surgery his parents would yell and abuse him for "wasting their time and money" and they said that he would pay. His parents disapproved of his fond for reading, so they burnt all of his favorite books and made him watch. The surgery leaves David with only one vocal chord and we wasn't able to talk. A couple years after his first dyagnosis he finds out that his parents have been keeping a secret; a secret that would change Davids life forever. David finds out that he had cancer and that his parents haven't told him all this time. As the book comes to an end, David starts finding out many secrets. He finds out his mother was a lesbian and that she had a sexual relationship with one of her co-workers. He then finds out that his grandmother has had the urge to kill her husband for over 20  years.

                Overall, the story was great. I personally love memoirs and this one was probably one of the best I have ever read.

        On my synthesis page I talked about important quotes in the story "Clean" by: Amy Reed. In this essay I will be talking about three of those quotes and I'll elaborate on how important this quotes are to the story
         One very important quote was " The scene does not end with fireworks. The girl did not get arrested or overdose. She just finally got caught. But the truth is, she never really tried to hide it. The truth is, the father just decided one day to open his eyes. And there she was, right in front of him. There she was, right where she had been. This quote is very meaningful because it shows how Eva has been treated, how she has never been really cared for. She is started to open up. Another important quote was "They were watching the game, and my dad saw me and said 'Come here you little pussy'. So I walked over even though I was sure he was going to kick my ass. But instead, he gave me a beer and said ' Drink this, it will put hair on your chest'. This quote is meaningful because it shows how Jason's dad got him to start drinking and it was his dads fault that he is an alcoholic teen in rehab. The last but not least was "The truth is, the girl wanted to feel something else, to get out of her body. The truth is, that was the best part, Do you know what it feels like to become someone new? Do you know what it feels like to do something as easy as swallow a pill and be transformed into someone you don't hate. This quote is extremely meaningful how it shows that Eva started drugs because of how much she wasn't pleased of herself and how much she wanted to change.
          In conclusion, there were many meaningful and important quotes in  the story "Clean" by: Amy Reed.

Ayman Jabr 

806

11/10/14

Non-Fiction Reading Response

In the article, “ Watch out: Cell phones can be addictive” by: KathiAnn Kowalski published on September 17, 2014 it states that cell phones can be very addictive. This is because the average college student uses a smartphone for about nine hours each day. That’s longer than many of those students spend sleeping. In fact, such extended cell phone use shows that the technology could become an addiction, according to a new study. An addiction is a type of uncontrolled and unhealthy habit.

The quote “It’s well known that people can become addicted to drugs, such as alcohol, narcotics and the nicotine in cigarettes. What’s not so well known: “People can be addicted to behaviors,” says James Roberts. He’s a marketing professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Roberts also was the lead author of the new study. It appears in the August Journal of Behavioral Addictions. Some cell phone users show the same symptoms that a drug addict might have, Roberts explains. Certain people use smartphones to lift their moods. And it may take more and more time on those phones to provide the same level of enjoyment.” This quote really made me start to think because of how it states that cell phones can be as addictive to someone as things like drugs and alcohol. Another quote that made me think was “ For such people, losing a phone or having its battery die could cause anxiety or panic. That’s withdrawal, says Roberts…  “I spend more time than I should on my cell phone,” said one such statement. “I get agitated when my cell phone is not in sight,” said another. (Agitated means nervous or troubled.) The more calls someone made, the more likely they were to show signs of addiction.” This startled me because of how something like cell phone battery loss or not having your pone near can make someone panic or start to have anxiety. The last quote that made me think was how it started to talk about the difference between men and womens addictions, “The data also differed a bit for men and women. Among men, for instance, signs of a possible addiction showed a positive link, or correlation, with time spent on a Bible app and apps for reading books. As use of either app increased, so did the risk of addiction. Men’s use of social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, also correlated with risk of addiction.

Women were more likely to show signs of addiction if they often used Pinterest, Instagram, Amazon or apps that let them use their phones like an iPod. Apps for the Bible, Twitter, Pandora and Spotify showed an inverse correlation. That is, heavy use of those apps was linked to a lower risk of phone addiction.

In conclusion this relates to the world because when people think about cell phones, they don’t realize how, many people struggle with being addicted to cell phones.

Thoughts on Megan Cox Gurdon's "Darkness to Visible"

       I read Megan Cox Gurdon's "Darkness Too Visible". In the essay, MCG states how much young adult literature has changed and her take on how she feels about modern young adult books. Throughout the essay, MCG gives a handful of examples of how dark, inappropriate and gruesome these books are.

The opinion, the author MCG has about young adult literature is that is too dark and inappropriate for kids to read and she feels that if kids read these books they’ll get influenced to be doing the bad things the characters in their stories are doing. The author wants the me, the reader, to feel that modern young adult books are too gruesome for people in their adolescence and that these books should either be banned or should be put in a different age group.She wants to convince us to believe that modern young adult literature is that is too dark and inappropriate for kids to read.

My opinion on this is that I,a young adult, feels like I am capable of reading books like this and I love learning lessons because I get to know what to look out for and get to see what other people are going through.Books like Crank by: Ellen Hopkins and Tweak:Growing Up on Methemphetamines by:Nic Sheff are two of my favorite books,these two books are both banned and are both about young adults using drugs and it shows how their life has be. It teaches the reader to not use drugs and I feel young adults should know about these topics so that they to know to avoid things like this.