Kingship in Macbeth

Kingship plays a big role in Macbeth because everyone wants to be king more or less and the whole book revolves around who is king. First, Duncan is king and everyone is happy he is a nice king but there was one rebellion early in the book but that was minor. Then Macbeth wants to be king and that sets everything off. He kills Duncan to be king and in a bit of repetition there's a rebellion then he gets killed and Malcolm becomes king like earlier. Duncan was a nice king and people liked him and were loyal to him and the rebellion failed. There seems to be a connection between that and when Macbeth is king. When Macbeth is king he is cruel and the people do not like him and are loyal (sort of) out of fear so the rebellion succeeded. Although they both ended up dead, there successors were different in character but both took the crown by force.


If Macbeth didn't want to be king none of this would have happened or if he was just a good king. He wanted to be king so bad and when he got it he turned out to be a bad king. I wonder if he became king somehow without killing Duncan, would he have been such a bad king? I do not think so since he was a good guy before he heard the weird sisters prophecy. I think all that makes kingship is one of the biggest motivators/problem causers in the book.


Infinity Ring Behind Enemy Lines   2 hours   I finished it

Spring Break

My spring break was tiring. I had tennis lessons almost everyday and has regionals for tennis, I went shopping with my grandmother, and I worked on History and English projects.


First off, my tennis coach that I take lessons from thought I wasn't moving to the ball quick enough, so she ran me around by hitting the ball nearly on the line left, right, left, right then sometimes left, left or right, right to mix it up. Then I had to do the overhead volley drill, you start by the net and  she hits a high ball and you have to hit it before it bounces (you normally need to back up) then she hits one chest level you need to move in on and try to hit at its highest point above the net. So you go forward, backward, forward, backward, and sometimes she mixes that up too especially if you miss one. I had regionals on Wednesday to qualify for state I only had to beat one person. I played my first match around 9:30. My opponent was Parkviews 2nd singles (I play 1st singles) and she was the first freshmen I've played the whole season I won 6-1 6-1 so I get to go to state. My next match was not so good, I had to play Billie a senior who was state champion once and had beat me 6-0 6-0 during the season, she beat me 6-0 6-0 again. Later she played Grace in the finals and she won 6-0 6-0 again.


Shopping with my grandmother wasn't so bad and I got a lot of nice clothes but she also took my brother, who is a pain the shop with. I also have no room in my closet for all my new clothes now and I didn't have time over the break to go through it so now my room looks like a mess with clothes on all the surfaces except my bed and some are on the floor too. I also went to the bookstore and spent all my money on new books so now I'm broke until I can save up enough allowance.

Reading

I read Snow White and the Huntsman by Lily Blake I finished it in 3 hours on the bus

Austin

Sorry I thought it was a free post this week.


I went to Austin Texas this weekend for the Futuristic Problem Solving Conference thing. I wrote a 1,500 word short story called "The Dead Forest Expedition" that won 2nd in the middle division I had to make a story board for the Texas trip. The top three scenario writers got to go and the Problem Solvers. My story board looked really cool but it was more like a model. It was a 3-D dead tree made from black foam board had had a tiny zipline in the branches (that's how they got around the forest in my story) and a tent underneath it with a bird in the tree (to represent the Sandures [a vulture hawk mix]in my book) some feathers and claws on the ground to show a fight in the book between them and the characters and all that on top of some sandpaper to look like it's in the desert where my story is set. The stories had to be futuristic and about desertification or social isolation. Mine was about desertification.
Friday we left at 7 and after an 8 hour bus ride we went to the award ceremony and I got a plaque and we saw the first place peoples movie trailers for there stories. The next day we traded stories but only five people showed up to that while everyone that didn't write a story were writing letters and making pillows for the veterans. Later the problem solvers had to do a skit of there solution to a problem I couldn't join a lower division group and the groups I could join didn't need any more people so I helped to younger group with costumes. They could only use certain stuff like one roll of aluminum foil, one roll of paper towels, eight pipe cleaners, tape, newspaper and stuff like that. One girl was a robot so I had fun with that I did aluminum around her forearms and aluminum foil helmet with duck tape. I also helped with the snowman costume, I did a paper towel strand around her waist and like a shawl around her head that became a necklace thing later on and did with masking tape. That night was the mixer where you trade things from your area, I brought madigras beads they were popular lots of people wanted them but the mixers were split into divisions so no one wanted to go to the middle division mixer but me and I was all alone.
Sunday I woke up at 6:30 and we went to the award ceremony for the teams and the other people. I was kind of annoyed because the medals for scenario writers came in late so after the ceremony we had to go find our medals, they weren't even labeled first, second or third I had to ask my teammate  but it was nice getting a plaque and a medal. After that there was the long ride back to Baton Rouge we stopped at a DQ and sonic for lunch and Cicis's pizza for dinner and got back at 9:00 I was tired but it was a lot of fun.

Reading

I read Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel I finished it in about 3.5 hours

Reading Log

I read Shadow be Jenny Moss I finished it in 2.5 hours

Song Analysis

I'm doing Umbrella by Rihanna feat Jay-Z.


There are some paradox's in this song like "Rain Man is back with little Ms. Sunshine". It adds emphasis and makes it stand out. It's like opposites that contrast with each other.
There is enjambment in how the lyrics are written which changes how you read and hear it. It gives it room to breath if you were singing or saying it out loud.
Some alliteration is included and this helps it flow and rhyme. The overall effect is nice and easier to sing.
The tone is serious or loving along with the subject being love. The audience is her fans or the person she's singing to. The purpose is to entertain or convey her emotions to or about someone. The occasion could be relationship problems or she just needed to write another song.




http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rihanna/umbrella.html

My Poem

The Family and The Apple Trees
By Alex Daverede

The cellar door swung freely on freshly oiled hinges

It's shadow swinging and shifting in the breeze

While the apple trees stand tall in the field

A car grinds to a halt on the harsh gravel way

Its engine sputtering and rust screeching

The apple trees soon find themselves under attack from small hands

Reaching up for filling fresh fruit grabbing at branches

The red apples like beacons through the foliage falling from the assault

They sit with there bounty in there wreckage under the shade eating there fill

While the father shuts the cellar door gently relishing the breeze blowing through the field

Knowing all is well here under the clear blue sky with his family

The youngest child shyly offers her father an apple

The ripest she found, he accepts the apple and pats her head

The mother walks in the tiny home and starts to tidy up

The children run and play while the parents cook and clean

They try to climb the apple tree to search for more treasure to share

Seeing no ruby red only emerald green they admit defeat

And seeing the sun sinking slowly trudge toward there home

techniques: Euphony, Cacophony, Sibilance, Onomatopoeia

Reading Log 2/3/14

I read Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith I finished it 3 hours


(I had this done on time but it was saved as a draft sorry)

Reading log

I read Extras by Scott Westfield I finished it  4 hours

Research Draft

I think my draft is okay. I was worried it wouldn't be long enough at first because I had about two pages done; then I checked the formatting we needed to have it in and the spacing between to lines made it a lot longer and now I'm a little worried it could be to long or I will have to be more general or something. I might need to change a few things to make it flow more because now the transitions aren't very good. I had a lot of information that's easy to work with but putting it together and paraphrasing it is kind of hard. It was sort of fun writing and having all these details to write with; kind of like writing a story or compiling everything. I would like you to focus on how well my paper flows and maybe the order of things.

Topic Explanation 1/26/14

So I've been researching slavery in ancient Rome and I found out some cool stuff like when slaves were freed they were called freedmen and that there were three kinds of freedmen. They couldn't just have one and make it simple. The slaves also had different types private and public; lots and lots of different types. Depending on how useful a slave was and where they worked they were treated differently. I thought slavery in Rome would be a good topic because I like ancient cultures like Rome and slavery was interesting to me.


My topic is slavery in ancient Rome. I was interested in this because I like ancient civilizations and mythology. I always wanted to know more about Rome and slavery interested me a little bit. This was a good opportunity to research my interests and compile what I found out in a productive way. When I first started looking for sources I used a database and got some good results. So far I have learned that social classes were very complex in ancient Rome. Slaves that worked in different places had different rights and there were different types of slaves public and private. I also learned that when slaves were freed they became freedmen and that there were three types of freedmen with different rights.


I read The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones  I finished it   2 hours

Reading Log 1/20/14

I read Epic by Conor Kostick   3 hours I finished it

Reading Log 13/1/14

Possession  by Elana Johnson   started on page127 and finished it 3 hours  12/1/14

research topic 13/1/14

I am researching slaves in ancient Rome. My topic is important because it is a great example of what happens when you don't have human rights or equal rights for everyone. It also gives an insight to daily life in ancient Rome. My topic more specifically shows the relationship between slaves and their owners. In some cases slaves were treated very well and seen as "part of the family"; but slaves that were crimes were sent to mines to do hard work and they didn't live long working in the mines.


Slaves had no rights in ancient Rome and were seen as property but there were laws concerning slaves like that a slave owner could not kill a slave without a reason. Slaves were also allowed to save any money they got in hopes of buying their freedom, but this was very hard to do. Slaves were given food and shelter so at first, poor romans would become slaves to receive these benefits but this was later outlawed. This shows that while being a slave was horrible it wasn't quite as bad as you may have thought.

Interpratation of evil 13/1/14

Well, Socrates said that "the one evil is ignorance." I don't really agree with this because there are many different "evils" and some people see certain things as bad that other people think are alright. Ignorance could be considered the root of some bad things but smart learned people can also do bad things such as blackmail or lying.


Desperation can also be a powerful motive for bad things that often has to do with knowing what will happen if something doesn't change and your often out of options. I think it's good that he recognized ignorance as something bad. When he was alive that probably wasn't thought by most people to be very bad; their first thought of evil would probably be murder or something similar. I don't think he should have believed that there was only one evil.