Fireworks

Drake is telling how he became famous and his feelings about it.  He was explaining how with money and fame comes a whole new life.  New people come and go along with real things and fake things and also people/things trying to knock you down.  But he isn't letting anything get in the way of his success.  If I look a little deeper into the song though, I can also see that he is explaining the fact that even though he is successful, it gets lonely sometimes being on the top of everything with the fame, money, and all.  Because of the fact that people always come and go while he is steadily moving to the top to follow his dreams, all he have let are the good memories of the people who he wish would have stayed with him.  He likes the fame and all he wouldn't change his life, but he just misses some of the people that were there for him in the beginning.  All of the stories that he tell in his verses are about people he miss and them or him being lonely, so that is where I got this idea.

On the Reservation

Reservations were the main start of civilization in America.  But as time progressed and cities began to come about, it ended up being less common for people to live on reservations.  I personally think that living on a reservation could have its pros and cons, I would probably want to live on a reservation or at least stay there for a while.  It seems like it can be a very relaxing place to be.  There will be a very small community where almost everybody knows each other.  Another thing is it helps you value life and your environment more by staying on the reservation because you will become more independent with certain things and will rely on others less.  I think it can help one adapt better to the outside world because there is more space for you to be isolated and alone if thats what u choose to be.
The only bad part I can think of is some things outside of the reservation you will have no clue of because you will be so use to one way of life and not use to what others go through that do not live on reservations.  Even though some things may be better left unknown, you should at least still have the knowledge on all possible subjects than just not knowing at all.  There will be things that you've never witnessed but at lease you still will know it exist out there somewhere in the world, just not on your reservation.

NICK & JAY

As I read The Great Gatsby, I notice a relationship beginning to be developed between Jay and Nick.  Jay throws a lot of parties and since Nick just moved right next door, Nick gets invited to the parties.  Many people show up to Jay's house during his parties that has never even met him and that wasn't even invited, but Jay doesn't mind because his real intentions on throwing the part was to meet his one true love Daisy again since he hasn't seen her in about five years.  When Nick accepted the invitation, he hadn' t even met Gatsby yet, but one day when he was there he just happened to run into him unknowingly.
Once Jay found out that Nick knew Daisy, he wanted to hook up with Daisy through Nick.  He wanted Nick to invite Daisy over to his home for tea.  So he started hanging out with Nick and Nick invited Daisy over for tea and told her not to bring her husband, but didn't tell her why.  The question is though, is Jay using Nick just to get to Daisy?
I seem to think that Jay is using Nick to get to Daisy but at the same time he still is trying to be friends with Nick.  His intentions of the parties was to get to Daisy so therefore he was technically going to use ANYONE to get to Daisy if they knew her.  I just feel like if Jay didn't want to be friends with Nick at the same time, then once Nick invited Daisy over for him, Jay would have started to blow Nick off instead of inviting him over with Daisy once they left Nick's house.  Also when Nick left the room, Jay followed because he still wanted Nick to be a part of their get together.  I don't believe Nick thinks that Jay is using him because he says in the beginning of the book that though Jay was not like the typical people that he associates with, he made an exception for him because he was a really cool person (not in those words).  I guess I will just have to continue to read to figure it out but as of now I believe it can go both ways depending on how you look at it.

WINTER POEM

Classmate I appreciate..

I am thankful to have Briana Hammons in my class.  I've been knowing her since third period geometry last year with Mr. Nunn and immediately we became friends. We went through the year helping eachother out in Geometry and being partners for every assignment.  For every question she didn't understand I would help her and for every question I didn't understand she would help me.  She was a good helper to me and explained things well.  And every time I would fall asleep she would fill me in on whatever it was that I missed in the lectures when i awoke.  We would always treat Robert together and talk about the bball team together.
This year, I appreciate having her in my class because she fill me in on whats going on when I feel lost, she reminds me of the homework and bloggs sometimes when I forget after a long day and practice, and she also helps me sometimes with the vocab book questions.  Don't get me wrong these aren't the only reasons I'm thankful for Briana, she also keeps me dying laughing not only in class but outside of class.  We are not those type of people that are only friends inside the classroom, I have a lot of fun with Briana outside the class room but that is a whole different story so....yeah that's enough about her, I will stop there before I end up putting all of our business out there ;)

Changes in American Lit

To start, I really don't have any major problems with American Lit.  The only thing I can't keep up with is the blog and comments every week.  Don't get me wrong it is a good thing and a good way to express ideas and find out other students ideas on the same subjects but I mean sometimes I just forget to do them by Friday.  Maybe if we could get the weekend, like until Sunday night to have them done it wouldn't be such a problem.  I'm not exactly sure why this is a problem, I think maybe because there's so much going on during the week and other teachers give out so much more unnecessary homework, then I don't really get a chance to get it done.  Or maybe I'm just soo tired after having practice so long after school then coming home to do other home work and studying then I just forget that I have to get on the computer and do this.  If it were due on a Sunday night on the other hand, I think I will have a better chance at getting my blog done.
Other than the blogs,  I think we should have our vocab test and our tests once we finish reading a book separately.  That way we can have more test grades and a better opportunity to do well in the test category.  Since we only had one test this quarter if we were to do bad on it, we wouldn't have had an opportunity to make that grade up on any other tests so that we can get a better percentage in that category.  I guess it doesn't really matter if we just study and read the book then we won't really have an issue with this, but for people like me who have very little time during the school week and at that manages their time very badly than studying and doing homework sometimes really become a major issue for me, especially on those long days when I get really tired.
Overall I think I like this class a little better than it may seem, it doesn't really ask for too much out of you and it really challenges you to think outside of the box.  Also it allows you to voice your opinions so that others may hear you and put up a good argument.

Slavery Today

Have you ever took the time to realize how many people treat others in the world today.  Some people may not think it matters while others may think the world has changed a lot compared to how people use to treat others.  Still there are some people who really don't think the world has changed and probably won't change the way that we treat one another.  The world was once focused on racial issues, cultural issues, religious issues, and many more.  Slavery has been an issue forever though and still continue on, just maybe not getting as much attention as it once was.
In our very own city here in Chicago, I happen to believe that slavery is going on right here in some of our backyards.  Have you ever considered that maybe these street gangs can be categorized in the same category as slavery.  In many street gangs, you have one leader or "master" who is in control of what everybody does, says, and believes.  Then you have the followers, or the people that works for the leader doing all of the dirty work and not getting nearly as much out of it as the leader is.  If you don't obey the leader or if you do something wrong then you will basically get beaten or killed by the leader himself or someone ordered by the leader to do it.  So really you are being forced to do something that you don't want to do because you want to keep your life.  Also to get into the gang may require some initiation where you will have to let every "jump" you or maybe you will be forced to go out and kill a certain number of people.  Some may argue that this isn't being forced if you want to be a part of this gang, but really you don't have a choice because I doubt if you can just tell them no and walk away with nothing done to you after all of that.
I think this can possibly be considered slavery, but maybe it's just me...