“The Internet? Bah!”

I was a little confused after i read this article. I thought he was being a sarcastic smart ass lol. Guess thats whhat i get for not looking at the details. Knowing it was written in 1995 makes it make sense thoug.
It's crazy how far we have come with technology. I find it funny that pretty much everything he said would never happen, happened. 1995 doesn't feel like it was that long ago to me but it was 15 years ago. Wow i feel old lol. It's kind of weird now to think that we didn't have online shopping and the newspapers online back then. Seems like theyve been around forever.

Edith Wharton: The Valley of Childish Things

I really liked this story, it was short and sweet. I can really kind of relate to this story right now. Im at the point of being out in the real world trying to grow up, while it seems like some of the people in my life are stuck trying not to grow up. Or they believe they are adults, it might look like it at the surface but they really aren't. It starts out as kind of a nice happy story but to me the ending is sad.

Russel Bakers, from Growing Up

I kind of liked this story. It shows hope. It shows that even in the worst of times economically, life can still be good. As long as you have your family and people who care things will be ok. I thought it was sweet that the little boy, who probably didn't care too much that they were going on relief, saw how it affected his mother and decided to put his coat over the embarassing food just to make his mom feel better. This story reminds me of all the old movies i've seen about the great depression or immigrants. Back when kids were sweet and innocent. I think the author just did a great job with the descriptions. I could picture pretty much every part of the story in my head. I even started smiling reading the part about the boy practicing acting suprised in his room. I could relate to him when he accidently found his bike in his moms room, how bad he felt. I remember my mom used to always hide our christmas presents in the back of her closet in her room and around christmas time when nobody else was home i would go look through the closet guessing which ones were for me then i'd have to act super excited on christmas day when i opened them.

Zora Neale Hurston: I Get Born

I thought this was an interesting story but i didn't really like the way it was written. I guess i like stuff i read to be written in proper English. First off, i don't understand the saying "I get born". Is it the same as just being born? Maybe its just a saying for a mistake child? I think the author has sort of a depressing undercurrent for most of the story but towards the end when she's talking about how she started walking its a little less depressing and a little light-hearted.
I think she writes this story with a little bit of slang to it and it has just a little bit of a sarcastic tone to it.
I kind of felt like the writer was trying to get sympathy or something from telling this story basically about how she was unwanted by her dad. But i guess she is just telling her story.

Aaliyah El-Amin's Milestones

This essay i really liked. I definitely agree with everything she says. When I was younger all i wanted to do was play outside all day long with my friends. I didn't even really kno what sex or drugs were until high school. Now a days, most kids barely go outside. They sit inside with their electronics. Whether its sitting in front of the tv all day watching cartoons or playing on their parents computer. I think its rediculous that 12 year olds have cell phones and their own computers now. It makes me sad to see that my 12 year old neice acts more like a 16 year old then a 12 year old.
I believe its only going to get worse too. These kids are growing up to fast like they are because people that are still kids themselves are the ones trying to raise them.
This essay just made me think about how horrible i think this world is becoming which i probably shouldn't get into.

Richard Wright: The Library Card

I'm not completely sure if i like this story or not. It took me a few paragraphs to get into it. To me the story has kind of a weird vibe. I don't like the way he makes the character seem like he's going crazy beccause of the books he's reading. As a reader i can definitely relate to the feelings he gets from books. Some books do make u think about your life and the world around you.. not always in a good way.
This story did have some depth to it and the mood was kind of depressing. It's probably the time period and events in that time period that make me think this way. I think he wrote this to show people that you can do whatever you choose to do. Even when it doesn't look like you have a chance, if u put your mind to something you can achieve it.

Annie Dillard's from An American Childhood.

I liked the light-heartedness of this story. To me it seems like she wrote it just for fun. But maybe she wrote it to teach kids not to throw snowballs at cars, they never kno what might happen.
It made me laugh that someone would run so far and be so determined just to yell at some kids throwing snowballs. It's kind of rediculous. I was sort of hoping something more exciting would happen though. I liked how the kids were more punished by having to run as much as they did rather then by the yelling the man did.
I thought her description of the chase scene was good, i could picture it very well in my head. This excerpt makes me wonder what the whole book is about and want to read some more.

George Orwell: A Hanging.

This essay wasn't too bad. Still has some grammatical errors which i don't like, but it makes me think that its just the style of the writer. The writer does make me wonder where the story is taking place and when. He talks about Indians, Eurasians, and Burmese, but then has characters saying english words like bloody. I'm not a big fan of violence or gore so the story wasn't too interesting to me. I do like how at the end of it it becomes sort of lighthearted after such a terrible thing has happened.

George Orwell: The Spike

I had a hard time getting into this essay. Either i've never seen this style of writing before or it had a lot of grammatical errors in it and made it hard to concentrate and understand what i was reading.
I'm still a little confused about what exactly a "spike" is. Is it a homeless shelter? a prison? The beginning talks about how they were sitting on the green waiting for the spike to open like its a place they want to go to, but then the rest of the story makes it sound like a prison. At the end they are let go to look for work and stuff on their way to the next spike? I really just don't get it. So overall i just didn't like this essay at all. The way it was written, the words used, or the point of the story. Maybe i just need to be more educated about the background of the author.