THANK YOU DR FORMIZZLE

dr. forman, you have been one of my fave teachers of all time! i will never be able to thank you enough. you are an incredible teacher, a kind person, an awesome advisor, and a beautiful soul!


love you so much!!
thankyou!

alex

a ROCKin ice

sooooooo.... i have a new slightly bad obsession. over the past week i have visited the snow cone truck AKA "a ROCKin ice"...three times. basically, i have been infatuated by food trucks, but never really visited one... until now. the snow cone truck is beyond amazing. the snow cone itself consists of one scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with a huge shaved ice ball, with three different flavored syrup, and topped with condensed milk.

my personal fave is pineapple, cherry, and blue raspberry, topped with some sour spray!

woohoo!

goodbye :(

this is a very bittersweet blog. but i'm not going to make it to sappy, so i'll keep it short. although, we all, at times complain about buckley, in the end, i hope i can speak for all of us when we say there have been plenty of good times throughout our high school careers. this year in particular i feel like i have gotten so close to so many people, that i hardly even knew before, which again, is bittersweet in itself. i love that i have made so many new friendships but at the same time feel bad that these bonds were created so late. i really do cherish and love each and every person in the senior class, and am so sad to leave everyone. im excited for college, excited to see whats ahead of me, but at the same time, i will miss everyone so much. we have been through so much this year,  and have grown collectively.

good luck everyone! i love you and miss you all already.
class of 2011 foevz.

shopping from prom dresses

so, as all girls know, buying a prom dress is definitely a process. not only do you have to search and search, find the right one, in your size, decide between long and short, but on top of ALL of that, you have to make sure that no one else has your dress, or something similar. and trust me its very easy to have a similar dress. but thanks to facebook us girls get to see the different dresses that everyone has, so we can avoid having the same or similar one. its a pretty big deal deciding on what you are going to wear, but i am happy to say that i found my dress! woohoo. snaps for me.

i dont wanna leave?

you wait your whole high school, the whole 4 years to finally graduate and move on to college. but now, with only 10 days left, i am feeling nostalgic, a bit sad, but most of all, i simply do not want to leave. everyone says since freshman year that they cant wait to get out of highschool, cant wait to stop wearing uniforms, or have so many rules and restrictions, and while i admit, i was one of those kids...now, i feel the opposite! never did i ever think that i would be so sad leaving. obviously i knew that this was going to be a hard transition, and i knew i would be feeling nostalgic, but i have taken it to a completely different level. just 10 days. not years, not months, not even 2 weeks, just days. i am trying to make these days the longest i can....let's see if that works out.

the royal wedding!

well ladies and gentlemen, this evening and england's morning begins the royal wedding and festivities! and let me just begin by saying, i am beside myself with excitement. i have always wanted to be a princess, ever since i was in the womb, and now, well, since i have given up on THAT dream, i must force myself to simply live vicariously through catherine (kate) middleton. what i am most excited for is the dress; to be perfectly honest. so much planning goes into the one dress, and the designer is guaranteed to sell out of that style for years to come. months have been spent designing the perfect most beautiful dress to fit kate like a glove. i spent most of my summer in london, and came to realize how much the british people respect and have a love for the royal family. it is such a wonderful and important tradition, and i will be tivo-ing the entire thing!

Meursault Dealing with Death

Unfortunately this year both my aunt and grandpa passed away in a matter of one week. And as I read the novel, especially the first chapter of Stranger, it really brought back some memories and feelings that I had and still have. I have been affected by many novels before, but this first chapter really made me engaged from the beginning because it hit home. And in a way I read about Meursault, and thought, he is so frustrating! How could he just sit there and even have a cigarette when is mother is right there, gone. Then I remembered everyone deals with death differently. I had never been through a family death in my entire life, and you see in movies, where the whole family comes together and sobs, and expresses their love and want for that person in that way. To be honest, when my grandpa and aunt died, i didn't have a dramatic experience. I was numb. I felt bad that I wasn't showing my emotion by crying and holding onto my other family members, but I realized everyone deals with it differently. And because of this, I have decided not to judge Meursalt, no one really knows how he truly felt at this point in the novel. Everyone is different.

Senior Spirit Week vs. Stranger's Meursault's Apathy!

In this blog I will be comparing the seniors to Meursault. This week, as everyone knows is spirit week. And we should be channeling everything The Stranger is not. Throughout the stranger, Meursault has a constant flat attitude and is very apathetic towards life, he also does not stay emotionally connected to pretty much anything, whether it be, people, family, love, or even a hobby, he seems to not really care much, and maybe its just that he is protecting himself? I believe he is actually really passionate, and has love for people, but is afraid of getting hurt. This is twisted way of protecting himself. So moreover, in spirit week, SENIORS MUST DO THE OPPOSITE!!! We must give everything we have, put our hearts and souls on a silver platter and hand it to the judges! Channel everything Meursalt is not!

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Being involved with Pride and Prejudice just after reading Pride and Prejudice:

It was so interesting being cast in the P&P this year, as Mrs. Bennet, after just reading the novel. Usually whenever I am in a show, be it musical or straight play, I immediately read the script, try and find a movie version, or even go see the show. But never before have I done something where just weeks before I read the whole book. It gave me such knowledge on the show, and on the background of the characters, it made it so much easier to connect to the role that I played, and the show in general. I really enjoyed being apart of the last show I will ever do on the Buckley stage, and it was very interesting to have such knowledge on story of the sisters, and the family, and the parents, and that time period going into the audition.

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Connecting Hamlet, and Pride and Prejudice into everyday, senior year life. I felt that this was a good topic to discuss because so many of us are going through this right now. Pressure. Whether it is peer-pressure, pressure from our families, our teachers, or our college counselors, we are going through a very important time in our lives. Just like in Pride and Prejudice, where women are usually forced to conform to the way of life, and marry someone for security rather than love, or in Hamlet, where the passion protagonist was forced to stay calm, and not act out and ordered by his step father. Pressure goes on in novels, and in everyday life. For us, the main topic is college. Which college we will get into, where we will go, what college will make us go the farthest. Sometimes I step back and have to realize that at the end of the day it is what I want, what WE want, not what all of the adult figures want for us. It is stressful. Just like the stress Hamlet faced, or the stress Liz faced when she did not want to marry Collins. Pressure is everywhere.

Introduction Paragraph

What is conformity? Conformity is the rules and regulations one gives into in an academic institution, conformity is the pressure that one's peers puts on their shoulder, conformity is the expectations one must live up to by their family's standards, conformity is complex. There are many different types of conforming, and it happens everyday all around us, and whether it is apart of our normal everyday activity, or something we rarely do, there is no doubt one must conform to something, somewhere, at one point in their life. Throughout time, and as generations pass the normal conformity, and standards for society are always changing, and as we compare different times and eras we notice how society has gone from more strict, to lenient, and then strict again. But some families and children are raised in a happy medium. Gregor Sams felt the pressure all around him, and was forced to conform to the strict German ways, while nowadays, society is completely different, but not for all. Conformity moves in importance throughout the generations, and the pressure that families put on their children is different in all cases, but moreover, at the end of the day, each person finds them self in a state of restriction, and giving into conformity at one point in their life.

Conformity

I believe that there are different levels of conformity, and it really depends on the institution that you are either working for, and studying with. For example, different southern california schools have different rules and opposite ways of conforming. Buckley, has many rules and restrictions. From not cheating, to not wearing any color socks besides white or black. But also I believe that because of Buckley's rules and because we must conform in order to stay out of trouble, Buckley breeds (for the most part) good kids that are independent thinkers. Although, I do believe that one should have as much freedom as that person desires, I know that if we were given that freedom, there would be much chaos. So I'm not saying our rules and conformity are bad, and I'm not saying that you should do whatever you want. But a nice balance between freedom and minor conformity is ok.

But... rules are there to be broken right?!

Today's New Class Experience

I really loved today's class. I felt like when there wasn't a main authority more students were involved. We were so engaged with the conversations and topics that were brought up, it was great. I loved how when one person would start or throw out an idea, immediately there would be 2 or 3 other people who would begin to add on and to elaborate on that idea, and contribute their own thoughts. Basically, I felt like we really came together as a class today and worked really hard. It was nice to see people who usually keep their thoughts to themselves (sometimes, me included) really come out and express their opinions. I loved the class! We should operate more classes like this!!

Essay Ideas

I want to write about the cannibals and the people on the ship. And compare and contrast their differences and how they are actually similar. Although right off the bat we assume that actually the cannibals are theworse people in the situation, who is actually worse? The people who kill each other, but who are honest or the people who are dishonest and sneaky. I want to explore around this idea and see how I can exaggerate on this point. Also possibly comparing the Thames to the Congo River.

The Physical Journey...

It is interesting to notice how Marlow's speech pattern, and word usage differs and changes as he goes through his physical journey and as he gets deeper into the heart of darkness. Examining what we have read so far, one can notice the more staccato and short phrases and sentences, often separated by a hyphen, even. This demonstrates Marlow's uncertainty, and fear. He isn't quite positive about what he will endure next in this journey, and his language expresses that. It is interested to see how his emotions reflect from his  words.

Heart Of Darkness (Q. #2)

In the Heart of Darkness, Marlow (in much detail) describes the setting of London during the time. And I believe it's connection to Africa is actually positive. Marlow describes the grey, dark, drab London, when the Romans were present, and talks of how it once was disease filled and depressed but soon after colonization by the English people, it became a powerful city with growth and rapid improvement. He is insinuating and hinting that with English colonizing Africa as well as London, Africa can grow in power as well. And be changed from its dark society, to something brighter and more powerful.