Stuffed Pets

The chilly reception the Landlady had told Billy, " I stuff all my little pets myself when they passed away." suggested that Billy was falling into the Landlady's trap of, as ironic as it sounds, being stuffed and kept forever. Just like the two other guests before him, and many that may follow in his footsteps. I felt very much sorry for Billy and the two other gentlemen in the story, having a bright future in front of them yet ended their lives earlier than they were supposed to. Just because they entered the Landlady's deadly little trap like blind rats.  

This story not only expressed deadly schemes and terror, but also taught the readers a very important lesson: There is no such thing as a free lunch. No one would just be nice to you without a reason. Many heroes and story characters had proven that, just like Billy had. And when there is a person who is being nice to you without a reason (though sometimes you can make an exception for your family and friends), you better let your guard up. That is not saying you should simply avoid every single kind person you've ever met, just to beware of their actions and do not trust them entirely until you felt that you can trust them entirely. After all, there are some people really do gain contentment by extending others a helping hand. The main literal device the story used was the element of Foreshadowing and was very successful. The story seemed to always arouse the reader’s interests, and most of us were pretty frustrated, since we did not find out what had happened to Billy afterwards. 

The Landlady's perfect guest.

According to the observations I have made from the story, the perfect guest for the Landlady has to be qualified with the majors below. First of all, they have to be men. No ladies are acceptable. Second of all, the guests have to be in early adulthood. And lastly, and most importantly, the gentleman’s have to be tall and elegant, with a handsome face and a fine attitude. Only the finest men are allowed. I believe the two guests are murdered; yet their souls are not free. The landlady must have trapped and enslave them somehow, since she had mentioned to Billy that the two guests are still at her little adorable house. And I had a bad feeling that Billy is on his way to the same destination. The reason that I had this belief is because of the odd way the landlady seemed to behave that sets are apart from the other landladies all over the world. Noticed when Billy was looking through the guest book and the names rang a bell? Well, it also rings a bell for me. It was not the name that I seemed to recall, but the realization that the Landlady is not what she seemed to be. And she is lulling Billy into a horrible traps that he will regret for eternity. And of course, her odd behavior and the cheapness of her “ Bed and Breakfast” also arose my suspicion. 

The Landlady- Prediction

I started to suspect that there was something fathered odd about the Landlady, when she asked Billy to basement. What really surprised me is not simply of the Landlady asking Billy to the basement, but Billy himself not noticing something was about to go terribly wrong. His having no sense of danger had surprised me, but that also made me feeling more sure than ever that there is diffidently something wrong with the Landlady. And probably Billy too. I made a lot of predictions in this story, and none of them are quite positive. My first prediction, which is that the Landlady was not normal and she may do harm to Billy afterwards. The prediction was not yet proven in the story, but I have a sense that the interesting part is coming up. My second prediction is that the two guests that had once entered the Landlady's home was now trapped forever on her forth floor, bond with her for eternity. This prediction sadly was not yet proven as well. But have you seen any guests in a Bed and Breakfast stay for year round? That often arouses suspicion. The third prediction is that there is something wrong with that cup of tea the Landlady has Billy. Since Billy had noted that it tasted bitter, yet strangely he didn't mind. Judging from the Landlady's weird behavior and my previous prediction, the tea is probably designed to make Billy a slave or servant, or thing that the Landlady can now openly claim of her own. This prediction is also not proven, yet. But I believe it will soon be. If the Holt Reader had not cut the story short. My last prediction is that Billy will probably be trapped like the other two unfortunate guests; I thought this prediction was pretty reasonable, but it was also not yet proven since the story was cutted short. Blame the Holt Reader for none of my prediction was yet proven. But I have a feeling. As you read on of the story of the Landlady, you will see them coming true before your very own eyes.

Bed and breakfast

The features that I would expect to see through the land lady's window will be a warm and inviting environment. I expected there to be wooden floor, with a crimson carpet laid on the top. Two green sofas displayed near the burning hearth, and each contained two yellow pillows. The lighting will be a soft yellow, and there are candles lit up all over the place. There will be a small rectangular table on the side of the red carpet that stood with six chairs made out of red wood. A fine white tablecloth lay on the table with six napkins each folded neatly. Shining metallic spoons and forks casts dancing shadows over at the edge of the table, and of course, at the center of the table is a candle. A bookcase laid near the sofa with books the color of red, violet, velvet, and dark brown. All books very organized and a pair of wooden glasses will be displayed at the center. Aside from the furniture and settings, I expect to see young children playing on carpet. Their laughter ringing like tinkling bells. An elder woman will be seated on the green sofa, watching the kids having their fun with a kind smile on her face. On the other side of the sofa, seated an elder man with a book in his hand. One of his hands was on a child's head, encouraging the child to go on no matter what. Generally, I would expect to see a warming scene in the house that can warm up any frozen heart from any kinds of severe weather of cold.

" Broken Chain" Thinking Critically

In my opinion, most thirteen and fourteen year olds tends to think negatively about them. Instead of appreciating what they do have, they often grieve about what they do not claim. Very few felt confident about themselves, and almost none are happy with what they are. Alfonso tends to feel the same way. Instead of appreciating his excellence, he worried about his disadvantages such as him having crooked teeth.
He didn't appreciate himself fully, which can be one of the reasons he went wild before his first date. Alfonso's behavior and feelings seemed very reasonable to me, since he was acting shy and unconfident around the opposite gender. He was unsure of himself, and wanted advices and support from experienced friends (Someone just like his brother. He was thinking about asking for his advice). His behavior was common for all thirteen and fourteen year olds, and there are very few exceptions. Since being in your thirteen/fourteens meant that you are still discovering the potential of yourself. So you wouldn't be as knowledgeable and sure as a fifteen year old or as carefree and clueless as a twelve year old. At the middle between high school and middle school. The perfect stage for self discoverence. This meant that a lot of thirteen and fourteen year olds still have no knowledge of their full potential, what they can really do. This is why they can be shy around the opposite gender, or unconfident of what they do, just like Alfonso.

Advice letter

Dear Ms. Helpful:
  My name is Alfonso and I am a seventh grader in the states. I am a loyal reader of yours and I enjoyed reading your advice column very much. You advices always seemed so encouraging and just as your pen name stated-helpful, which is  the reason that I wrote to you today to discuss a problem of my own.
  I decided to not drag on the embarrassment that I, myself contained by the moment and went right to the point: I am in love. With a girl that was my age, and lived in my neighborhood. Her name, which I had hesitate of keeping anonymous, but didn't at the end, was Sandra. Our encounter as chance would have it, is plainly by luck. There was this one day that I was pedaling down the street, when I noticed a boy hanging upside down with a girl looking up at him. My instinct took over right away, and the next thing I knew I jumped off my bike and helped the kid off the barbed-wired fence. Both the boy and the girl was grateful to me, and we became friends. I later learned that the girl happened to be the little kid's sister, and we go to the same school, her name(which I have to repeat again) is Sandra. She has straight teeth unlike mine, and is kind of cute with a ponytail.  I really liked Sandra, and we went on a little date, or should I say, we hanged out? She was always friendly and amicable. Her laughter soft. I wanted badly to impress her, but unsure of what to do. What can I do to impress her, Ms. Helpful? Even though I don't know that much about girls, I know they sure do judge a boy by his cover, and I am not exactly super star handsome. I have crooked teeth,which is a pity.So, I was wondering what I can do to impress Sandra. And what I can do to get her to hang out with me more often. Oh, and should I ask her to an official date? Most of all, I want to ask  you ways to impress a girl like Sandra and how do I know if she liked me or did she just wanted to be "friends"? I would love to have my questions answered right away, but please do not put this letter on the top of your advice column. Sandra might see that, she reads the sports news.

Sincerely,
You loyal reader-Alfonso

Broken Chain: Thinking Critically

The story- Broken Chain is told by a boy's point of view. What feelings that Alfonso has that girls share? Whenever people thought about the two opposite genders, they always imagined a great difference between the two sexes. The difference that people list out is not only physical but mental as well. Are girls really this different from boys? Actually, no. Since girls tends to share the same thoughts as boys does. In this story, Alfonso is going on his first date and felt nervous and shy. He wanted to look his best, and was worried that the girl wouldn't like him. Girls tend to have similar behavior before they are going on dates. They often spent hours trying to put together an outfit that is just right, and request their friends to send them text messages as a confidence boost. Other than the reckless worries, both sexes tend to be shy when their crushes are around. They wanted the other person to speak out first before they do, because they often don’t know what their dates like to hear. And lastly, stating the obvious- both girls and boys wanted a romantic date and an awesome time to spend with their crushes alone. Which is the reason that couples are always grumpy when they are interrupted. In conclusion, a girl tends to share a lot of feeling with boys especially when it came to dates. They both are shy, unsecured about their looks, and wanted to have a great time. I suppose that will be the feeling of love. 

Popularity v Intelligence

  The world that we know of is full of competitions. All around the globe, people comtrast about their money, skills, their life, and their fourtunes. Competition, however doesn't only exist in adulthood. Go over the school fence and you will quickly realize that competition is everywhere here, too. " What do innocent students contrast about?" You may ask. Well, that is a great question, because the life of a student is never as innocent and carefree as it seemed. There is a lot of competition going on in here too, which meant there there is going to be winners, and losers. Students compete about a lot of things, and the two biggest catergory they compete about is: Inteligence and Popularity.
  Both topics will be disguessed indivisually in this document, and we will start with intelligence. Intelligence is capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, and meanings. Having intelligence is a great advantage that one can have. You will be able to see things before the others do, and make the most lucrative, or beneficial decession. You will be ahead of everyone. There is a downhill doen hill side for having intelligence, though. Other students might be jeolous of your intelligence, and your social status might be lowered simply because you are smarter than some others.
  Popularity, on the otherhand, is an entirely different matter. It is to have favor of the general public or of a particular group of people. Being popular can mean a lot of things. But most of all, it meant to be accepted by society. To be welcomed everywhere. People wanted to be near you, and you can join any group there is that you wanted, and everyone will open their arms welcomging you. It is a common thing that people wanted. There is also a downhill side for popularity. People may also get jeolous of how well you are doing and try to pull you down. If their plan succeeded, your social life will land on the botton of the heep, only to be surrounded by geeks and goths people looked down at.
  If there is only two choices of popularity and inteligence, I would rather be popular. Yes, I do want to be smart, but no, I don't want to be left out of the crowd. I suppose I just cannot stand to be alone. Popularity brings you more friends and gives you more interactions with people. Which is what I'd rather have.
  There are very few who liked to be alone and different. Most people tends to want to fit in to the place that they are in. They tends to have to sacrifice a lot to do so, though. The sacrifices includes: pretanding to be dumb inorder to get rid of the nicknames, ditch their old best friend just because they are not cool enoguh, trying to perform a performence that you are not capable of doing and so on. Those are all sacrifices people make inorder to fit into a new comunity. They may regret their sacrefices later on, but their sacrifices had been made for them to fit in.
  No matter if you are an intelligent person, or a popular person, you stand out from the crowd. Meaning that you are the unusual. Being unusual can be both good and bad. The good thing about being unusual is that you are not the same as everyone else, you get your own unique personality and skills that the others cannot replace. You are special, never invisilble. Of course. there are downhill sides of being unusual as well. Since you tends to stand out from the crowd, you are easier to pick on, since you are the abnormal in a pool of normals. Which, can be very troubling for most people.
  Both popularity and intelligence has it's own strength and weakness, but both is all about being unusual. It doesn't really matter though, since everyone is unique.So I suppose, you should simply live the life that you enjoyed, since there is not particular right or wrong in this matter.
 

English Assigment Assignment 1(Broken Chain assignemnt)

  Feelings and thinkings of a thirteen fourteen year olds can be complicated. They have so many things to worry about. They have to worry about how others think about them, how their teachers thinks about them, and most importantly, how "they" think about themselves.
  The most general feeling for a thirteen/fourteen year old is negative. Most of them yarned for things that they do not  have, instead of what they do have. Thirteen/fourteen year olds can worry about all sorts of things, such as their height, looks, smartness, and popularity. They all thought they have less than others, and tried their best to copy their leader, or idol. There are a very few thirteen/fourteen year olds , however tells a very different story. Instead of looking at what they don't have, they felt proud of themselves, too proud of themselves actually.  They act bossy, and expected for full leadership of what they thought they are good at. Which can create problems.
   Both kinds of people have their own pros and cons, I suppose it is yours to decided which one you really do belong.

Introduction

This blog is made "specifically" for Grade 8 English Class , in other words, this blog is basically homework.  This blog will be used for weekly writeups, essay writtings, and other assignemts. Personel comments can also be posted if wanted to, though highly doubt it. Anyway, this is the first year which english assignemts can be written on blogs, so I am a little excited. I hope this policy will maintain , and to have an awsome year with blogs!!!