Short Story Alex

9.What does she mean by “a smile that isn't a smile”?

I think that these smiles imply hostility and hatred. They are merely smirks and evil smiles. They are pretending to like the person they are talking to, but in reality they hate them.

10. What does it mean to be yourself?

To be yourself is to act natural and normal. You do not pretend to like someone, or enjoy something. To be yourself is to dress normally and do things you like. It means being honest and treating everyone with respect.

11. How did the race affect Squeaky's views on life?

While she was running she saw the true views of other people. This made her feel bad for her brother.

12.What does it mean to be honest and worthy of respect?

To me this means these people will never laugh at others and they will always be geniune. These people rarely lie and always treat everyone as a friend. They believe that if they are honest, people will treat them honestly.

The short story: Raymond's Run

5. I believe that she is confident about her talent of running. That definitely affects her running performance because our attitude towards life in general determinates everything. For example if you believe that you are the worst you will not be able to win. Attitude is everything. I, myself have multiple talents that I am proud of. But, one talent that I am going to share with you is the talent for sport. A talent is something that was passed on by birth. But to make that talent work you must first like and enjoy the thing that the talent is connected with. I had the privilege of everything that I do being encouraged by my parents. When you have that support it is easier in life.

6. People act like things come easy to them because they want to show you that they are really superior in a certain and that it comes easily to them and harder for you. Those people who don’t make it a secret about their dedication and effort just don’t care what others think about them in the aspect. I have definitely saw people that have said things they do that come easy. I personally do not care about others seeing my commitment because I let my results do the talking.

7. I think that the source of rivalry between the girls is jealousy. Gretchen is jealous of Squeaky because of  Squeaky’s talent for running and domination in that part of athletics. I had rivalries like that in sports like basketball. But, that rivalry stays on the basketball court.

8. Squeaky’s  behavior was more boy like. She didn’t want to dress up in some fancy clothes and attract attention. Her family wants her to change that and make her act more like a girl. That is also the reason that they made her enter a beauty pageant. As I was growing up there were situations in which people told me to act like a boy or in Serbian “budi musko.” They typically said that that when I was scared to do something and was whining if something hurt. Gender definitely defies some expectations and roles in life. 

Vocabulary Enricher

Disdainfully	201	Full of or showing disdain; scornful.
Resolutely	203	Firmly resolved or determined; set in purpose or opinion
Brandishing	208	To shake or wave, as a weapon; flourish:
Insincerity	217	The quality of being insincere; lack of sincerity; hypocrisy; deceitfulness.
Lumbered	222	Miscellaneous useless articles that, are stored away.
Precariously	225	Dependent on circumstances beyond one's control; uncertain; unstable; insecure:
Loathsome	227	Causing feelings of loathing; disgusting; revolting; repulsive:
Ominous	229	Portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious:
Proclamation	246	Something that is proclaimed; a public and official announcement.
Stammered	247	To speak with involuntary breaks and pauses, or with spasmodic repetitions of syllables or sounds.

He sighing disdainfully, and repeated the process again.

They ran brandishing their swords to keep of the foe.

The cars front was hanging precariously over the cliff.

He heard the door close with an ominous boom.

They signed the proclamation, which declared peace.

 

Discussion Director Aleksa O.

I was discussion director for this part of the book (170-255). My role was to make 5 questions and discuss them with the group.

1. What did you think when you saw Dodecahedron? I personally thought of math  and the art of geometry. I also though of the number 12 since dodecahedron is a polygon that has 12 sides. It was really interesting that the involved math in the book.

2. When Dodecahedron said all the math problems did you try to solve them yourself? At the start I did try to solve the questions since I love math. But, after a few moments I realized was focusing more on the math and not the reading.

3. What is one of the most interesting facts told in this part of the book? When the 0.58 kid said that you cannot reach infinity even though you know it is there.

4. Did the demon of insincerity teach you anything about real life? It showed me that not all people say what they truly are. A famous quote is that "People aren't always what they say they are." The demon was saying all the thing that were the opposite of what he was.

5. What do you think that Phantom Tollbooth taught Milo? It think that it taught him to like and recognize the things around him. It helped him to entertain himself with just the thing that he sees. But, one of the most important things that they taught him is to honor education!

Literary Luminary by Alex

“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.”

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”

“The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.”

“You may not see it now," said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milo's puzzled face, "but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.”

“It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.”

I picked these quotes and phrases because they are very thought provoking.

Illustrator: The Phantom Blog

My job for this week was the Illustrator, and I made this illustration representing everything that may have taken place in the book. However not every event in the book, was in the illustration because there were way too many events to include in one illustration.



The poorly drawn ladies are supposed to be Rhyme and Reason, right next to them are Milo's (the main character, in the middle) buddies made during the story. Right to that is the man that was the guide "sort of" at the beginning. Above that man is the conflict of the book. On top of the castle there is the phantom toll booth. Over that is the car Milo rode in. On the left to that we have the authors name. On the left to that I attempted yet failed to recreate the creatures in DolDrums, below the failed attempt we have my thought of the book, the book was great but was overall very strange. In the center of the illustration we have Milo. The center part is expressing how Milo is always confused and hence the Q-marks on top of his face, The 2 speech bubbles at the bottom are representing the two kingdoms. The speech bubble over his head (top - right) represent his journey with the monsters as conflicts and the one on the top - left is the map that represents the map that Milo might have used to navigate around the fantasy land.

That's all for now, I won't do illustrator job again because there is not enough time, but whenever I illustrate next I'll try to add colors and illustrate in a nicer way. CUNP!      

Illustrator- Literature Circles

                                                     

This drawing represents Milo and his dog friend Tock at the Valley of Sound. The drawing itself is after they free up all the sound from the Valley of Sound. It was a big moment for the villagers of the sound valley. They went from having no sound at all and just using signs with letter to communicate, to having sound and talking to each other. Milo (on the left of the image) was the hero that saved them by freeing all the sounds. Tock was missing the sound so much he started saying "So many sounds!"(as shown on the image). At that point of the book I imagined living without sound and the feeling was horrible!

Late Discussion Director

Alex Nedera
7/5/2015
The Phantom Tollbooth

Discussion Director

Q: What did you think of Milo's six million year imprisonment?

A: I was confused at how people could live for six million years and still remember it.

Q: What do you think about the author's writing style?

A: I thought that this book is written like one of Roald Dahl's.

Q: Do you think Milo's experiences have affected his journey?

A: I believe that the things he's learned help him all the time because in the story he reacts to things differently.

Q: What did you think of the Word-Bartering?

A: I was fairly surprised that to use a word you usually need to pay an exorbitant price.

Q: How crazy did you think the wether man was from a scale of 1 to 10.

A: I would say that his crazy level is a solid 5.5

Vocabulary Enricher May 7th

Alex Nedera

7/5/2015

The Phantom Tollbooth

Vocabulary Enrichment

Speculate: To Think About Carefully 

Indignantly: Angry at Something Unworthy 

Cartographer: Maker of Maps 

Unethical: Wrong 

Surmise: Guess or Infer 

Minstrel: Singer/Bard 

Monotonous: Monotone 

Ordinance: Rule or Law 

Loiter: Linger Aimlessly/ Dawdle 

Conciliatory: Tending To Win, Soothe or Reconsile

He Loitered next to the cafeteria because he had nothing else to do.

The crowd applauded the Minstrel's performance.

George was a Cartographer and he made maps.

Mr.Jones Surmised that Merlin is a magician.

The big man's voice was Monotonous.

Literary - Luminary, The Phantom Toll Booth

Literary - Luminary

I added an extra part on my job and theorized a persons behavior. The passage I chose was:
Milo and Tock walked up to the door whose brass name plate read simply "The Giant" and knocked.
"Good afternoon" said a perfectly ordinary sized man who answered the door.
"Are you the giant?" asked Tock doubtfully.
"To be sure" he replied proudly.
"I'm the smallest giant in the world. What can I do for you"
"Are we lost?" said Milo.
"That's a difficult question ," said the giant. "Why don't you go around back and ask the midget?" And he closed the door.
 They walked to the rear of the house....

In the paragraphs the man pretends to be 3 other people, altogether he was 4  different characters:          The smallest giant, the tallest midget, the thinnest fat man and the fattest thin name.
According to the author this was because ordinary men are not ones who are listened to so he had to do this to stand out. I think this mans behavior could be justified many different ways and could be very easily theorized. Now you may be thinking why the author didn't write the proper reason or any other reason than the "normal people" one and this is because he did not want to waste his time on creating a reason for this guys behavior. Yet I will try to decipher and theorize this mans behavior and prove it with some facts and research.

According to my research I've found that for some people living alone and for some noise drives them crazy. About 50 million Americans have tinnitus a disease in which victim hears uncontrollable buzzing in their ears. People living alone could also start to go crazy like this guy. He is living alone, no one to talk to so his brain created different perspectives for one person. This may be a case of Multiple Personality Disorder. I rest my theory.       

The Phantom Tollbooth-Meeting#2-Illustrator

The Phantom Tollbooth
Blog post #2
Illustrator

   
     
     In the picture above, I decided to illustrate the confusion that Milo, the protagonist, experiences throughout the plot of the story. I included the magic pencil that the hero of the story is given, as I predict that this gift will play a large roll in the book's resolution. Milo receives the utensil from the Mathemagician, who is the king of Digitopolis.
     Digitopolis is the land of numbers, all numbers originated in this kingdom. The numbers came from mines, I illustrated this fact using the hole dug into the mountain and the pickax located above the hand.  To make it clear that numbers came from the pitch black tunnels, I had "Milo's" hand writing the word "NUMBERS" next to the two illustrations. He writes this with his magic writing utensil/staff.
     To the left of the number section I included the word section. There I have a palm-like tree with a ladder and basket bellow it, since words grow on trees are plucked of them just like apples. To make sure that the viewer knew that I was referring to word trees, in Milo's handwriting, I wrote "WORDS" above it. I also included my favorite part of the book, intending to confuse the viewer.
     In the illustration, I decided to compare the Land of Noise to the normal life of most people. In two boxes I drew the same picture of a vase falling of a table, where the vase hits the ground I have an equal sine. In the box labeled "NORMAL" the vase makes a bang and a crash. But in the box labeled "LAND OF SOUND," behind the equal sine I wrote SILENCE.

     The Phantom Tollbooth is a very "picturesque" book. It has many complex parts, and pictures are great for making the sequences simpler. Also the humorous style of the author allows his illustrations to be interesting and also funny in an absurd way.

Phantom Tollbooth Meeting#2

   Phantom Tollbooth

   Blog post #1

   Discussion Director
    
       For the second meeting with my group my job was discussion director. I made my first question          about the reading but the rest were kind of critical thinking questions. We all agreed on the questions and this is what we got:

  

What did the road sign say when Milo and Handbug where driving?

“THIS IS THE SCENIC ROUTE: STRAIGHT AHEAD TO POINT OF VIEW” PG 102

2.       What were you thinking when Milo knocks on all those doors with the names at the top like “The Giant”, “The Midget” and so on?

They were thinking that it was the same guy and he was pretty useless.

3.       What do you think is going to happen in the next section that we read?

Martin thinks that they just escape the demon by walking out because he was dumb.

4.       Did these chapters that we read remind you of any real-life experiences?

It reminds Martin of Uselessness and Isis with a mask.

5.       What questions did you have when you finished this section of what we read?