On Appreciating Substitutes!

On Jackson's blog, I found a response he wrote to Luis's post on substitutes.

Subs want to help us and care about all of us. We need to in turn show our care for them too. If you don't appreciate your education, leave the classroom instead of wasting the sub's time. Teachers are extremely important figures in society and everyone should realize that; they care for our future, even subs.

Like Jackson mentioned earlier in his post, substitutes are also teachers, but they are temporary.  Even though they may not know all our names or the norms of the particular class, they still have valuable knowledge that they can share with us, but oftentimes, students tend to disrespect and take advantage of substitutes.

Many times, when a teacher sets a rule in the classroom, when the teacher is there, a vast majority of the time, we follow the rules to avoid getting into trouble.  When there's a sub though, we choose to ignore those rules, and just do things as we'd like.  We take advantage of the substitute's minimal knowledge of the rules at the school and in the class, and use electronics or eat, and often do not do the work assigned, but on rare occasions, we do.

It's true though, just because the substitute doesn't stay for a long time at the school, dedicated to teach students at the school everyday, it doesn't mean that they don't care about your education or want to teach students.  We should appreciate substitutes more often, we under-appreciate them and all the effort they put into teaching or at least just watching us at school.  ASTI subs are extremely generous in my opinion, for being willing to find our small campus, and to stay with a room full of teenagers for a day.  It doesn't sound like a very fun or easy job.

Just a little story I'd like to mention about a substitute in fifth grade:
I remember back in fifth grade, I had (what I thought was) the coolest teacher ever.  He was nice, our history lessons were super fun, he had awesome books, lots of free time, and I always enjoyed my time in his class.  One day he was absent though, so of course we had a sub.  The trouble-maker of the class and the girl he liked (who btw was a goody-two-shoes) both teamed up and set up a string in the front of the class, where'd she would walk by, a few inches away from the floor.

I remember seeing her tripping over it, falling, and all the students began to laugh at her.  She started to cry.  Yet, the ignorant elementary students we were. people continued to laugh.  I think I probably did too.  But still all these years later, whenever I remember that moment, I feel guilty.  She was a nice person, she didn't deserve it.  She didn't do anything, but come in to substitute for us, which the students decided to take an advantage of, and use it to their entertainment.

Please don't do anything like that to a sub. Ever. It's not nice. At all.

Just saying.~

The Hunger Games don't disappoint.

The Hunger Games were created to no only show the districts how much power they had over them, but to also cause the districts to start hating each other.  They create hate between the districts since they can easily become angry at the district that kills their tributes, or become angered that their tributes had to die for a person from another district to live and become rich.  In turn, causes the districts to dislike each other, and therefore, can not team up in cooperation and well to start a rebellion, and the Capitol will be safe from any large and successful rebellions occurring.

The Capitol is has more technology and power than the districts they keep in control.  Through the Hunger Games, they wanted to show them their power of dominance, and make it clear that if one of them were to step out of line and rebel or anything, they would have certain death.  The muttations that they made and that chased after Cato before beginning to try to attack Katniss and Peeta each closely resembled the other twenty-one dead tributes that had died to allow the three of them to still be in the games.  They were meant to remind them of who had died for them (unwillingly) and to scare them, since they were so deadly.

Katniss finally feels a sense of security when she lays on Peeta's arm and he lays his other arm protectively over her.  She has not felt so secure and safe around anyone, ever since her father's death, because after her father died, she no longer trusted her mom enough, because she stopped playing that motherly figure in her family.  Her father's death caused her mom to numbly sit next to the window, day after day, unworking, and helpless.  She had a very difficult time getting food for Katniss and Prim, so Katniss took over that motherly position and went out to hunt for meat and animals, and trade it in the Hob for other foods.  Her mom no longer gave her the sense of security she once had, because her mother has lost her identity and can no longer simply just support and feed her and Prim, so Katniss becomes much more independent, as her mother grows somewhat weaker.

Haymitch doesn't hate people, like some people who read the book might think.  He might despise them, but he doesn't hate people (just making that clear).  Before he left for the games, he had a family waiting for him at home, but two weeks after he was crowned victor of the Second Quarter Quell, hims mother, brother, and girlfriend were killed by President Snow, because of the way he used the force field to kill the last tribute to win the Games.  Because Haymitch has been successful by winning the Quarter Quell, he doesn't need to worry about getting food to feed his stomach, since as the winner, the Capitol provides him with a home and food.  Without anyone to share his happiness with though, and he can't find anyone else to replace his girlfriend, brother or mother, he cannot do much, and resorts to alcohol to wash away all his sadness and problems he's having because of his lost family.

I strongly recommend this book.  I first read it after buying the book for the class, and because I wanted to avoid doing homework, I started to read it, using the excuse that it was a school book to continue reading, and I was absolutely hooked!  I finished the book in less than two days, even with the busy weekend, and couldn't stop thinking about it and was tortured by the search for the second book to read.

Response to I Love, I Hate, I Move On.

In Susan's blog post, I Love, I Hate, I Move On, I found this quote particularly interesting.

Sometimes I think life couldn't get any better than this, that everything is perfect and the world just keeps throwing better and better moments in my direction. Other times I wonder why I should even bother. What reason is there to drag my ass out of bed every morning? To even try to keep up with the rush and flow of every day living?

Sometimes, I feel exactly the same way.  I love life, it seems perfect, and I'm perfectly content living the rest of my life the same way, but other times, I feel like life is a waste, and I see no reason at all for living on and trying to make a change, because of that constant reminder that "one person can make a difference," and sometimes, I want to be the one to be able to make that difference.  Still though, I constantly find myself sitting around, wasting time, and not wanting to be productive at all.  I lose the will to try to do anything, and I don't want to do anything other than sit there and read a book, unmoving, and not changing anything (other than my mom's temper).

I try to look toward the happier times in life when I feel that way sometimes.  I just think, if I keep on going, living through these days, someday, I'll find that happy place again, I'll find happiness, I might even find my reason for life, a purpose for living through each day, attempting to keep up with life, and fitting in with everyone around me, in an attempt to blend in and not be seen as weird as much as possible, but it's still hard to do that every day.

You're an amazing writer, Susan, and you've got so much potential.  There's always a reason for getting your ass out of bed every morning and to keep up with the dramas and action of everyday life.  Although it may seem corny, you have the ability to make a difference, just wait, and with time, you'll see the difference you can and have made.(:

Looking for deep connections in the Hunger Games

Part Two of the Hunger Games is where all the action happens.  The part where Katniss and Peeta get thrown into the games, and struggle to survive.  No winner has been declared yet, and when I finished Part Two, I was dying to finish the book, so I finished it. I've been attempting not to ruin the story for anyone, which is extremely difficult.  The story is so dramatic and its nearly impossible to not express my anger about some parts to somebody. (Sorry, Carlybear.)

The Hunger Games, a brutal fight to the death for twenty-four tributes, one boy, one girl from each district, has different meanings and people each view it differently.  Those in the twelve districts see it as a terrible cruelty to those forced to fight, and those who have died it the past.  Those in the capitol view it as mere entertainment, nothing more than something the watch and amuse, with much blood and drama in it.  They feel no pain for the tributes who die in the games every year.  Even though Peeta and Katniss have admitted to all the Capitol and Districts that they were a couple in love, the people in the Capitol don't care, they send them into the games nonetheless, but there's a turn of events at the end of Part Two, which changes their relationship forever.

The people who live in the Capitol don't understand what true love is, since they have never been able to experience themselves; most everything in their lives are temporary, at their big fancy parties, they have drinks especially made to make them vomit out the food they ate, so they are able to eat more and enjoy the party for a longer time.  They have never been able to travel outside of the Capitol to understand the harsh reality of life outside the Capitol, so are basically destined to enjoy the games, they don't know what it's like to see one of their peers die.  Those in the Capitol don't have any chance to experience love, but lust over many things in their lives.  Everything for them is about appearances and enjoying their life, with material goods and flaunting their most (to the districts,) absurd outfits and newest styles.  Love is seemingly meaningless to them, but they have some idea of what it is, and what it may represent, but because they live in the Capitol, they don't know how important it is, or how influential it is.

Amazing Night at the Silent Auction

Kimchi, my grandmother in my strange family tree, wrote something in her blog post, Silent Auction SUCCESS/Response to Peter:

I'm pretty sure that throughout the night, the only thing running through everybody's mind, especially the sophomores was that we had HW due, and that included this post, a book post, 2 essays to work on, math hw, a study guide for science, and a STD brochure for science. On the weekend of the Silent Auction. How convenient.  I wanted to say my thanks...without any of you, we would not have raised OVER $2-3000.

 Last night was very hectic, with many volunteers, the PTSA board, and especially Ms. Harhen running around to make sure that everything was going well and in order, and that everyone had enough food, and that entertainment was good.  Luckily, there were no major problems, and things went well.  We fundraised so much money to go to ASTI, and many people left happily, from a nice night.


There is so much homework this week though.  The two blog posts for English, a group essay and short story for Writing, lots of "fun" math homework from the textbook, study guide questions and vocab for science, and   a "super fun" group science brochure on STDs to work on.  The group projects are particularly hard to work on, since it is difficult to get all the group members to work on the project, and sometimes, especially at the same time, and to communicate with one another.  My essay for writing was hard to write because half of my group didn't do much work *ahem, kimchi*.  The short story went a lot better though, since I had awesome group members, and we all managed to work on it at the same time, so we completed that fairly quickly.  The math homework I still have yet to finish, and same with the study guide questions and vocab.  I at least finished half of it though.  I spent most of my day working on the brochure, working on fitting all the information onto one page, and the formatting of the brochure constantly confused me, and was unwilling to cooperate with me.  


Thank you very much, all you people who helped contribute to the fabulous night yesterday at the ASTI Silent Auction.  The entertainment was stunning, despite the problems that Music Club ran into, trying to figure out how to perform with the microphone.  Let's hope next year's Silent Auction will be just as amazing or even better!~

Hunger Games-The book I'm currently addicted to-book response

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has been an amazing book that I cannot stop reading.  I got the book during the Black Friday weekend, and in between stores while my family and I were shopping, I would immediately pull out the book and start to read.  After reading it once, I realized that I was going to read it again, and this time, I would have to analyze it.  I thought it would be difficult, thinking that the story was more a book that was for enjoyment than to analyze, but there is so much more to the book than meets the eye.

There was a slight connection to history between Panem and their original thirteen districts, and how America once started with thirteen colonies, and grew to fifty states, making up the United States of America.  In Panem though, the thirteenth colony was wiped out due to war and a nuclear explosion, so it is just a land of ruins.  Panen and the US (as the thirteen colonies) were controlled by a strong power, for Panem and the thirteen districts, it was the Captiol, a place where people lived extravagantly and never had a shortage of food or entertainment, and for the US, it was England, who tried to keep them in control, and if anyone broke their rules, they would have strict laws to punish them.  They stressed the idea that they had power over their people, and made sure that the people never crossed them without big consequences behind them.

The mockingjay pin that Madge gave to Katniss to wear to the games was a symbol of rebellion.  The Capitol originally created jabberjays, birds that could listen to an entire conversation and deliver it to the Capitol, in their labs, so they could monitor what the people were talking about in their Districts, to make sure that no talk of rebellion could come about.  The Capitol's plans backfired though, when the jabberjays began to mate with mockingbirds, creating mockingjays, birds that were able to hear a tune and repeat it.  Slowly, the jabberjays died off, and the mockingjays were left in their midst to remind the Capitol of their failure.

A question I have burning in the back of my mind to get answered, is what would have happened between Gale and Katniss if Katniss didn't have to leave for the Hunger Games? Would something have started between them?

I found many things about Peeta and Katniss strange and interesting especially their relationship.  I'm curious about what would've happened between Peeta and Katniss if they hadn't been chosen for the games.  Would Katniss ever have gotten the chance and taken it to thank Peeta for the sacrifice he made to help her years ago?  Katniss continously looses trust in Peeta and starts to believe that whatever kind actions he is taking to help her out are all a plan to make her trust him, then he would turn against her, although she is reminded constantly about that night years ago... eventually, at the end of the first part, Collins throws a curveball at the readers, completely changing the relationship between Peeta and Katniss, but I don't want to give that away.