Polished Journal March 13
Advantages and Disadvantages of Beauty and Ugliness

Advantages of beauty are that people are more likely to help you with things and want to be friends with you. People are more likely to seek you out in a crowd and want to be with you. Beautiful people get help with things when they need it and when they don't need it because of their appearance. People strive to become friends with them and thus do work for them as a means of befriending them.
Disadvantages to beauty are that sometimes people don't take you seriously. It is thought sometimes that pretty people just rely on their looks to get them through life and don't have to learn as much as others because people will always be there to assist them.
Advantages to ugliness are that you will have more challenges in life and can thus become a stronger and better because of your experiences. These challenges can also be seen as a disadvantage but I find that in the end they really help you out to become a more knowledgeable person . Being less attractive can allow you to get farther ahead in things and learn more because people aren't always trying to do all your work for you.
Disadvantages to ugliness are that you may dislike yourself because of your appearance. Uglier people may also have difficulties in life because of people who have prejudices against people who aren't as attractive as they are.

Polished Journal March 5
Drama Between Friends

What are the boundaries and rules when two friends like the same person? One rule is that they shouldn't let it affect their relationship as friends. The friends can't let another person come between them. They must not have issues with the other liking him too. I find that the fact that they both like the same person can actually bring them closer in a strange way. It allows them to see from the others point of view easier.
Another rule is that if the person they like happens to ask one of the friends(let's call them A) out, the other friend(and let's call them B) should be OK with this. B should be happy for the other friend because they both liked this person so much and they must be a great person. This rule is important because if A is asked out by the person, B should be happy for A because they are such good friends (and that's what friends do right? Be happy for each other!). B is allowed to be jealous though when A gets asked out, but can't let this jealousy get between them.
Another rule is that if A and the person break up, B shouldn't date them, or at least not right away. B should comfort A if they need it, and then after A is completely over this person and doesn't mind, B can date the person(if B still likes them). Person A shouldn't make it impossible for the them (B and the person) to date, because as friends A should want whats best for B and want B to be happy. As long as A and B think about each other's happiness and don't let a crush get in between them, everything should remain fine between them.

Likes and Dislikes about Shakespeare Unit

-Transfer of Romeo and Juliet into modern language-I liked this because it made Romeo and Juliet easier to understand. Shakespeare's wording is difficult to understand at times, but this activity made it a lot easier because it let us ask each other what things meant.
-Reading aloud-This was nice and allowed us to all be at the same place in the play at the same time. It also gave us the chance to ask questions . Reading aloud had a few problems. One was that some lines were really long and hard difficult words in them. Another is that some people didn't place much emphasis on the wording and it became monotone.
-Listening to the recording-This was nice because the readers placed emphasis on the wording which made it more exciting. This also easily allowed us to stop and converse about what just happened.
-The movie-I liked watching the movie because it helped us to understand what was actually happening in the play. Just reading is it not as good a s actually seeing what was going on. The movie was also easier to follow and immersed us in the way things used to be in places like Verona in terms of fashion and architecture.
-Posters of terms-When we created the posters with Shakespeare's terminology like monologue, metaphor, allusion, etc. was helpful. It helped us understand what the terms meant and actually see that he does use them throughout the play. The only problem I had with this was that it was tedious and took a lot of work to find examples of the terms we were looking for.
-Quizzes-I didn't like all the quizzes we had (but then again, who DOES like quizzes?). Although they did help us understand what was happening in the play, they were difficult when we hadn't gone over what happened. The wording Shakespeare uses is hard to understand and even though we had read the text it was still difficult.
-Explaining metaphors-It was helpful when Ms. Chiang stopped and explained the metaphors. Many of them used terms we didn't understand, thus causing us not to understand the metaphor, but when we stopped and discussed it, the metaphors were easier to comprehend.

Polished Journal-Haikus-Feb. 15, 07

Blue bliss, I look up.
The blue sky meets the blue sea.
Warm sand under foot.
~~~
I cannot describe
this new feeling within me,
is it newfound love?
~~~
Sweet scent reaches my nose,
bright flowers suddenly bloom,
and now spring is here.
~~~
Try to understand.
It is very difficult
to grasp the first time.
~~~
Stretched out on the ground,
watching clouds over my head.
Let me relax now.
~~~
I am lost in thought,
feelings confound me today,
head and heart differ.