Next Week

Things are often harder then they seem, according to Dad. I had no real experience with this, as for most of my life I had no difficulty learning things or accomplishing tasks, and I had often felt contempt and annoyance with my peers who couldn't figure something out.

Basically, I wanted to learn how to play guitar. The clarinet was easy enough, so I felt like the guitar would be no trouble at all. We bought one off the internet, and got some method books from the library. I was eager to get started, and impatient to learn.

The first day, I played for about fifteen minutes before I couldn't take it anymore. The second day, I had bandaids wrapped around my fingers. The third, there were no more bandaids, so I just taped some tissues around the fingers that hurt the most. The fourth day, it actually wasn't so bad. I started to see some callouses on my hands.

A few weeks later, my dad got me a new guitar book which had a different approach. Rather than teaching chords, it taught individual notes. They didn't make my fingers hurt so much.

Throughout the summer, I enjoyed relatively relaxed days, and plenty of time to pursue my musical and artistic whims. Then, fall came. Like the leaves on the trees, my free time was quickly disappearing. Between swimming, middle school, Chinese school, art lessons, fencing, clarinet, and sleeping, there wasn't much time for leisure.

The practicing went from half an hour a day to half an hour a week to fifteen minutes a week to none at all. The ambition of learning something new was slipping away as I tried desperately to simply keep up.

"I'll get back to it," I promised myself, "next week for sure."

"Next week for sure."

"Next week for sure."

One November morning, a huge, messy pile of stuff was on my desk (so much for my resolution to be organized). As I started to pick through it, I mused, "This pile of papers and books. They're all priorities. And it never gets cleaned up, because more and more things just get piled on. My guitar dream, that's at the bottom of the pile. It only exists when everything else has been cleared."

With a sigh, I came clean with myself. I quit. It wasn't the first thing in my life that I didn't live up to my own expectations. And each time, I had promised myself, "It won't happen again. I'll make a change."

The guitar is still in its case, leaning against the wall next to the desk-pile. Perhaps it'll fit in my arms better now, since I've grown? Perhaps the metallic strings won't hurt my fingers anymore, which have been toughened by a crescendo of household tasks and responsibilities.

Perhaps next week.

  _H_______

/__________\

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Random ascii house... (not part of story)

Achieve

~one~

She looked shy
And nice, I thought.

She was new.

I smiled and waved
At her
to be friendly

Like I never was?

~two~

I hadn't achieved
Much of anything.

Always, good
But never
Enough.

~three~

Hello, what's
Your name?

I'm Elaine.

Welcome
to our team.

~four~

Maybe I did
Achieve something.

By helping someone,
Be her friend.

Like I never did?

That
    Was
        Before.

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

Jessica clutched her money in her hand. It seemed awfully easy to lose that way. I didn't say anything though. We headed into the lobby to buy our snacks. I didn't mention how my storage system was much better. Jess didn't even have boots.

At the vending machine of the pool facility, I reached into my boot. And... the ten dollars wasn't there. A feeling of dread washed over me.

"No no no no no no no no no no no," I gasped under my breath, "This isn't possible!"

Jessica just looked at me with a "What?" look on her face. Whatever else she said that moment, was lost from my memory in the urgency of the situation, everything but my immediate problem flying out of my thoughts and memories.

The next twenty-or-so minutes was a flurry of activity. Jessica and I retraced our steps. The money was nowhere to be found.

"It was the team in the blue!" she deduced, "They had to be the ones who stole your money." Jumping to conclusions was something that Jessica liked to do. (OK, maybe I do that sometimes too...)

"What am I going to do?" I wailed, "My parents are going to kill me!" By then, I was in complete panic. Ten whole dollars! My parents got angry when I lost a hair pin that cost less than a dollar ("You need to be more careful! These things don't grow on trees, you know!). They would flip if they found out about this.

I grabbed Jess by the shoulders. "You have to help me!" She obviously understood how suspicious and annoyed my parents would get if I told them I had spent ten whole dollars on bagels and fruit in only one day of the swim meet.

Jessie was just about the smallest sixth grader ever. She looked like she was about eight years old. It was actually kind of funny, that wise look on her face at the time. So... wise. Have you ever seen a teeny tiny little girl with that face? I would be laughing if I wasn't almost in tears at that moment. Silently, I cursed myself for being so careless.

Still bearing that "look", Jess produced a five dollar bill from her plastic baggie. "Pay me back," she grumbled. Was that annoyance in her face?

I literally snatched the money. Then I snatched up Jessica and probably crushed her in my hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!" I quiet-screamed, "Ohmigawshiloveyoujessieyouaremybestfriendthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

When I got home that night, my parents did ask. And I lied, and I gave them Jess's money. I breathed a sigh of relief when they didn't give me any trouble. They were satisfied. I felt awful about it, I still do, being a frugal person myself.

Jessica had always been my most reliable friend. In terms of body mass, she's incredibly small. Maybe that's why I underestimate her sometimes. Which just goes to show, you never know who's going to save you from being grounded for a year.

The J. Peterman Experience- Acara Flat

Your mask is waiting on the dresser. And the gown. It's peach and pink and ivory and gold. Satin and gauze and lace.
The heels are waiting in their box. Their toetips are full grain gold leather, like the heels. Surely, no one will see the shoes. Surely, you can substitute them out, right?
The attic smells musty and sweet. There's a broken perfume vial on the floor, its contents long gone, shards of pink glass glittering in the dusty beam of light.
You see the mismatched boxes on crooked towers. A green dress is on the floor. There are hats. There are watercolors and jewelry and dried tubes of rouge...
Than, a sharp glint catches your eye. It's a silver stud on a pair of navy suede flats. They fit.
You can find another pair of shoes. These are too precious to hide under a gown. These are definitely a keeper.
They're the picture of quiet elegance, the leather lining cured with age. The seams are undetectable, and silver studs flawless, free of scratches. They don't make shoes like this anymore.
Beautiful and functional, the Acara Flat is perfect for special days, as well as every day. Highest quality waterproof suede shell, to withstand rainy days. Premium grade Italian leather lining. Sophisticated sterling silver studs. Womens' sizes 35 through 40. Half sizes available. $478.00  

How to make an origami ninja star: reflection

4/24/2012

Dear Mrs. Shanley,

In addition to being my first craft tutorial, How to Make an Origami Ninja Star was one of the most unique writing pieces I have ever done. Being a craft tutorial,  How to Make an Origami Ninja Star also proved to be very challenging, as it included both visual and written components.

Usually when I write, I allow myself to ramble, adding semi-relevant details here and there to enhance the piece ans infuse more of my voice into the writing. However, the purpose of this piece, to teach, gave me less room to do that. In the past, I had read long winded, unclear tutorials by people who obviously didn't edit. Often, these tutorials had excess background information, something that I myself have a problem with. As I wrote this piece, not only did I focus on sentence fluency, but being straight to the point as well. Another HUGE difference that How to Make an Origami Ninja Star had from my usual writing process was the pictures. Formatting all those pictures and getting them to stay put was agonizing. Some other bumps in the road, including my camera's memory card being formatted, made it so that the time I spent fumbling with the pictures probably outweighed the amount of time I spent actually writing!

Something came up in our conference that was a toughie: how to substitute out the word "piece". There really is no other way to describe the individual... pieces that make up a ninja star. In the end, after checking several thesaurus websites, the best I could come up with was "segment". It would do, although the sound of the sentence wasn't extremely satisfying.

Overall, I'm glad that I chose an origami tutorial as my topic. I think that the biggest thing people will take from reading this is, well, learning how to make an origami ninja star. Hopefully, this will assist some of my friends in their relentless quests of obtaining cute things made of paper, which usually involves them constantly harassing me until I give in and make them one. From now on, I'll just tell them to refer back to my tutorial.

In fact, I like that. "Refer back to my tutorial." It sounds sharp and professional. Maybe I'll even make a few more.

Sincerely,
Elaine

Where I'm From- Inspired by George Ella Lyon

Where I’m From

I am from Aquafresh
from decoupage and sesame oil.
I am from peeling white paint,
the sunshine warming dusty corners.


From the hydrangea bush,
the magnolia tree,
whose long gone limbs
as if they were my own.


I’m from hard work and overachiever,
from Yunli and Yihe.
I’m from cynical and from sleep deprived,
Sit up straight and use more effort,
and 两只老虎.


I’m from Saturday breakfasts, Los Angeles.
from The People's Republic and winter melon soup,
from the dog with eight spots
who disappeared one day.


Those memories of laughs and tears
hang so precariously in the air.
Float from room to room,
settle in my heart.

Document Based Question: The Decline of Feudalism

The feudalism system was established in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, and was based upon loyalty. In feudalism, the distinction between the four major social classes (kings, lords, knights, serfs) were prominently drawn, and each class depended on each other. However, during the decline of feudalism, these lines began to blur and fade. Several factors contributed to this decline, namely the signing of the Magna Carta, the onset of the Bubonic Plague, and the Hundred Years' War. These events impacted the system of feudalism on any different levels.

King John was pressured into signing the Magna Carta in 1215 AD by rebellious barons who threatened to desert him if their desired course of action was not taken. The Magna Carta reduced the power of the kings, forcing them to ask permission of their lords before making decisions. It also ensured people convicted of crimes a trial by jury, instead of a trial by ordeal or combat. King John was against signing the Magna Carta, but quickly saw the power his lords had to abandon or overthrow him. "King John, seeing that he was far inferior in strength to the barons... granted the underwritten laws and liberties," states Roger of Wendover. In other words, King John only signed the document in a desperate, last resort attempt to hold his throne. By granting those rights mentioned in the Magna Carta, King John overturned many of the rules of feudalism, and gave the people what they weren't entitled to, if based on feudalism. This upset of feudalism's social hierarchy contributed to its eventual decline by paving the way to limited monarchy.

Carried from Asia by the rats that stowed away on trade ships and transmitted by fleas, the Bubonic Plague, or "Black Death", as it is commonly referred to, devastated over one third of Europe's population. The loss of so many citizens proved detrimental to the economy. Livestock wandered about aimlessly, with no one to herd them. Abandoned cities were collapsed due to their lack of maintenance. "Because of the fear of death, there were low prices for everything," (Knighton) as that was the only thing that merchants could do to lure people into buying their goods, since people were wary of each other, as they feared catching the plague. Alas, the plague not only affected the economy of feudal Europe, but the social pyramid as well. Because the majority of the working class succumbed, it became near impossible for business operations to flourish. The survivors of the Black Death were able to demand huge sums of money or rights for their services. Money and rights inevitably lead to power for the common people something unheard of in true feudalism. So, not only did the Bubonic Plague impact feudalism on an economic level, but a social one as well.

The Hundred Years' War was fought between the French and the English for land. During that time, their monarchs collected taxes to support large, professional armies, reducing their dependency on knights. This, in turn, reduced the power of lords, as a major role they played in feudal society was providing knights to fight for the king. Additionally, advancements in military technology, like the invention of the English longbow and the cannon weakened armies of knights. These new weapons were able to pierce through armor and bring down castle walls, exposing the knights inside. Once wounded, knights became useless, so their value fell dramatically. In the painting by Jean Froissart of The Battle of Crecy, the well organized, professional English army is using their longbows to kill French knights. The knights were much more scattered, and some were laying dead on the ground. Soon, the class of knights was diminishing, bringing lords down with them.

Thus, feudal Europe was on a path of rapid decline. As the lowest social class rose in power, the higher ones (lords and knights) fell. Additionally, trade was halted by the war and plague, leading to a collapse in the economy. Finally, people were granted rights that they could not have under feudalism. All these events were the result of three events- the signing of the Magna Carta. the Black Death, and The Hundred Years' War. These events spurred the fall of the Medieval socio-economic system of feudalism.