About Me

  My name is Jillene Delbergue, I was born in Calgary, Alberta and lived there until I was two years old, then moved to Clinton. I am in my third year at Goderich District Collegiate Institute and am on student council position as social convener with my friend Tasha Ban. We are in charge of all the school dances and social events, such as walk-a-thon. I like being on student council because it makes me feel like I am a part of the school and it makes me feel like I am doing a good job at making the school more fun for others. Currently I work at Goderich Harvey's/ Swiss Chalet, and work around 20-25 hrs a week. During the summer I was promoted to supervisor and it gives me responsibility and skills in the workplace. I am sixteen years old and in 3 months I will be seventeen.  I have recently moved out of town to Saltford and have a total of three brother and three sisters. Living in Saltford isn't that bad because it is out of town, because recently I got my G2 and my own car so I can drive myself around. That makes it a lot easier to go out for lunch and not having to walk around in the cold in a bonus.

I try and work really hard in school to get good grades and it usually pays off. After I graduate high school next year I plan on furthering my education and attending The University of Western and trying to either become a lawyer or neonatal nurse. I enjoy helping others and have an interest in the medical and law fields so I feel law and nursing are right for me. Being in London will be more convenient to drive home to see my family and my boyfriend also lives in London so it is a bonus. I feel that I learn best both  listening to the teacher and also hands on work, whether it be individually or group work. My favourite classes that I took last semester were biology and law class. I liked the discussions we had and also the hands on dissecting work. My least favourite class that I had was chemistry. I look forward to English class with you, and also physics.

Thursday February 15th, 2013

Why should I have a 100 billion dollars? 

First off having 100 billion dollars is a huge unrealistic amount of money, that entitles you to all the possibilities of spending it. Along with money also comes a sort of greed. Ironic isn't it? That sometimes even the richest people, have an overwhelming desire for more. That is though, because we are humans we always have an imaginations about money, more is better, more can buy you happiness and all the wonders of the world. I'm not saying that I wouldn't enjoy a little extra money, to be able to accomplish what I've always wanted to do, but I would also spend it a little differently. 

First thing first I would give a lot of it to my family so that they can pay off their bills and get out of debt. There is nothing I would like to see more then for my parents to be able to retire early and not have to worry about money ever being a problem. With my dad going into surgery for his second hip replacement I know it is hard on my mom to support us for the four months that he is off of work. The next thing I would do is finish my schooling at GDCI, and go to university and pay from that threw the money. When I finish university I wouldn't have any bills to pay or pay off any loans so it would be nice. I would give some money to my bothers and sisters so it would help out with their families and their schooling a swell  The next thing I would do is start my own charity. It is something that I've always wanted to do. I would travel the world and build schools in places where poverty is high. My organizations would be called "Over the Rainbow", where it gives children hope that over the rainbow there is a bright side to things, I would invest my money into their education. Doing this my way would ensure that the money is going directly to the kids and supporting them, you cant always trust other organizations because you don't know for sure where your money goes. 

For myself I would also buy a nice house, and a reliable car, nothing crazy, where I could live comfortably and not have to worry about anything. I would donate the majority of the money into the charity, and only keep enough that I can live peacefully and enjoy my life with my family.

I wouldn't actually want 100 billion dollars, maybe 1 million would be nice? With too much money people who you never even knew would come up to you can ask for money, and if you said no you would be considered a snob for not sharing, and people would down to you. There are just a few things I would do if I  was the owner of 100 billion dollars. 

"Twins"

Respond to questions 1-4 on p. 218                                                                              Friday 15 th,2013

1. It has been said that a good detective writer is always honest with the reader.  How does Eric Wright provide his readers with clues to the outcome of the story?                                            Eric Wright was clever while writing "Twins" by giving an insight of the outcome. The wife was the main hero in this story, or was she? It began with her contradicting the husband and questioning his stories. She seemed to know more that we knew at the time was was asking questions to lead the husband on to give her more clues. "How does one come out here so far? I wouldn't"(pg 212), it seems to me that she was trying to question what he was doing with her before she made any drastic choices that she was trying to kill her. While describing how much they look alike, (He doesn't actually have to change much; just put on a blonde wig, lipstick, glasses" He looked down at himself to show what it meant ) This made is seem more realistic to what was supposed to happen. 
2. "Crime does not pay", is it possible that the beginning of the story sets this up?                                                                              This story might reflect that crime does not pay because the villain  is that bad guy in the story and nothing ever turns out right for the bad guy. Showing that a person who does bad things will go nowhere in life. 
3.  In medias res is a Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things." Explain how the term can be applied to the opening of this story and evaluate the author's choice in employing this technique.                                                                                                                                    The term "getting in the middle of things" can relate to the short story "Twins". Even from the beginning of the story when they characters were at a mine shaft in Sudbury, they were fighting and bickering about how his plot didn't fall through last time, ("I want to get it right," he said. "After making the mistake in the last book about how long it takes to get from Toronto to Detroit, I want this one to be water-tight." 213). This shows the man to man conflict, which can reflect the beginning of the story. 
4. Describe the difference in narrative style between the two parts of the story.  Determine why the author chose each style and the effectiveness of each.                                                               The two narrative styles in the story are a dialogue style and informative styles. Dialogue is in present tense and is the direct word that are spoken. Informative which is past tense and is describing what happened. The author chooses dialogue because it tells the story in great details and chooses informative to cut to the chase.                                                          

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Notes on The Leap

The Leap – Louise Erdrich

1. What is the leap?
- the leap refers to a leap made by the mother character to save her daughter’s life
- the narrator is a woman whose mother rescued her from an old farm house fire by doing an amazing physical act that was possible because the mother used to be a trapeze artist
- the leap was the mother’s jump from the window to the firefighters’ net with her daughter
- the title makes obvious sense – the event is the KEY moment in the story – the climax and the whole reason for the story to be written
- the literal meaning of the story
- figurative –

Defining these –

Literal – means the obvious actual meaning of something – no interpretation needed – the physical event
You are a pig. Literally. (this would probably mean I was talking to a pig)
You are a pig. Figuratively. (this would mean something more colourful and deeper)

Figuratively – means representationally – something means something else in some other way beyond the obvious – indicates LIKE or SIMILAR TO or SYMBOLICALLY
-       means there’s more there and it’s linked to the thoughts and ideas behind it

Connotation – figurative meaning – secondary, deeper, inner, derived, interpreted meaning
- associations

Denotation – the obvious, explicit, literal meaning

These are relevant to The Leap in what ways?

-       leap of faith comes to mind immediately – it’s a saying that means taking a chance based on a belief rather than a fact, or taking a chance based belief in another person
-       there is another leap here, the leap into sacrifice for one’s child that comes with motherhood –
-       the mother sacrificed her career as a trapeze artist, her body, her own life and pursuits, her freedom, etc
-       that sacrifice is symbolized by her leap at the end
-       what does a child represent (connote) to a parent?
-       Investment, themselves, a burden, a memory, love, their own future – this comes straight from our biology
-       Our children are our legacy
-       Parents die, children live on with the genes of that parent – the child represents the parents’ impact on the world – that’s all we really have
-       A leap into a great realization – you are not as important as your child
-       BUT who tells this story?
-       The daughter – therefore what is the actual realization in this story?
-       The daughter has a huge realization about her mother’s love and therefore her own for her mother
-       Another element – the breaking of our gods – ie our parents

Notes on The Lottery Ticket

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860[1] – 15 July 1904)[2] was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature.

His originality consists of an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

In 1876, Chekhov's father was declared bankrupt after over-extending his finances building a new house, and to avoid the debtor's prison fled to Moscow, where his two eldest sons, Alexander and Nikolai, were attending university. The family lived in poverty in Moscow, Chekhov's mother physically and emotionally broken. Chekhov was left behind to sell the family possessions and finish his education.

In America, Chekhov's reputation began its rise slightly later, partly through the influence of Stanislavski's system of Method Acting, with its notion of subtext: "Chekhov often expressed his thought not in speeches," wrote Stanislavski, "but in pauses or between the lines or in replies consisting of a single word… the characters often feel and think things not expressed in the lines they speak."