"Bulletproof" by Raheem DeVaughn ft Ludacris

"Living like we bulletproof

We bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang

I say we load it, cock it, aim and shoot

Oh we load it, cock it, aim and shoot"

"Bulletproof" by Raheem DeVaughn ft Ludacris talks about how the horrible things that happen throughout our nation and how no one pays enough attention to it to change it. It also talks about how our nation's careless actions and how we do them thinking that we are invincible. Some things that he mentions are "Some will die over oil, kill over land, charge you for taxes and Blame Uncle Sam, read you your rights and charge you for nothing...murder your sons, ravage your daughters...tanks and missiles, bombs and grenades." But most of all, I think he is targeting political figures when he states "how can you ignore it, it's easy to spot it, a trap house, a liquor store, and your city's got it". I believe he feels as if politicians care more about foreign affairs such as the war in Iraq when they should come together and rebuild our nation that we have collectively destroyed over the years.

Throughout the song he sings "We gon' die livin'" meaning that he believes that we are setting ourselves up for disaster. If we just pay attention to what happens in our own country, pay attention to our actions and not set our nation up for disaster, I believe that our country and the lives of everyone who lives in it would be better off.

This song is very deep and powerful and I pray that you don't get discouraged to listen to this songs because of the topics sung about in Raheem DeVaughn's previously released songs. Although this song may not be well known or isn't number one on the Billboard's Top 100 chart, it sends a message that we all need to hear. Until the next blog, happy listening!

A link to the music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkdRQtDfqYg

The Shack on Dante Street

3:05 PM
It was Spring Break and I had nothing to do. All of my friends were either somewhere exotic or downtown having fun with their friends. But not me, I was sitting at home staring out the window at the shack across the street. Just look at it I thought. It was covered in vines and leaves going in all directions. The yard did not have beautiful blooming flowers like all the others on Dante Street. Instead, it had a random white lawn chair, (a dirty white lawn chair to be exact) big, shiny, black Hefty brand garbage bags lined on the far right, a broken circular table in the center of the yard and the skinniest tree I have ever seen. Hanging from a limp branch was an empty gallon of milk carton, open on one side, filled with kitchen scraps. A brown little bird along with two others fly over to the milk carton and pick their beaks at the scrapings.

I have always wondered what that house across the street looks like up close. I have never walked by that house, so I would not know. I can only see a few things from my seat by the window. However, more than that, I have always wanted to know what it looks like in the inside. Is it as messy as the exterior? What does it smell like? Is the floor covered in yellow shag carpet not thrown out during the 80’s or are the walls covered with Picasso paintings. My siblings and I have always wondered such things but there was no way of figuring them out. Actually, I do not know a lot about the woman in that house. All I know is that she is very tiny and old. Other than that, I am clueless about her. I know what I can do today. Instead of sitting here looking at the most unfortunate house I have ever seen, I could ask Bubba about the woman across the street.

Bubba was an old woman who was seventy-five years old who lives next door to me. It is a well- known fact that she has been living on Dante Street for fifty years and knows about everyone who lives in a two-mile radius of her house. How she knows such things I would like to know, but that is beside the point. It has also been said that she was once a rebel in her twenties. Actually, Bubba was the most interesting person on my block. So I decide to go next door and interrogate Bubba. I open the worn iron fence which creeks and run up the three steps to her house. When I come to the screen door, I pull the red string hanging from her bell. I yank the worn string and I can hear the echo of the bell yelling “YOO-HOO!” in the living room. I walk in because Bubba’s door is always open and she doesn’t mind and I remember to take off my dirty Converse low tops at the door. She is very particular about her Andy Warhol inspired rug of her cat Cactus. I hear her in the kitchen cooking so I walk down the hallway towards the back of the house.

3:10 PM
“Hey Bubba” I say once I enter.

I can see that she is making smothered chicken, my favorite!

“Aloha Nelly, what’s shakin’” Bubba asks me.

I never understood why she always greeted me with an “aloha” because she is not even Hawaiian. In fact, Bubba is Creole and was born in New Orleans to tarot card readers.
“Ah nothin’. I just wanted some information on Ms. Flemming. You know, the lady who lives in that tacky shack across the street.”

As Bubba tried to recollect all the facts that she has learned about Ms. Flemming over the years, she place a drumstick over an island of rice that sat on top a mystic blue plate.

“Here you go Nelly,” she said while she drizzled extra sauce on my chicken and placed the plate in front of me. “Well… let me think. She moved here to Chicago in the 1950’s with her mom and dad. They were sharecroppers like most people and had little money. Ya’ see she was a real activist in the 1970’s and was an animal rights activist. Ya’ see that’s why she cares so much about animals. Hence the empty gallon of milk container in the yard” Bubba explained.

As I stuffed the last few grains of rice in my mouth I asked, “Bubba, how do you know so much about Ms. Flemming anyway. I mean, I never see you talking to her…”
“Well… if you must know Nosey Posey, I know a lot about her because when she first moved on this block everyone thought she was a witch.”

“Well, she always had cats, dogs, birds and rats in her house. She felt bad for the birds because they were malnourished, and for the rats because they were always bein’ ate up by the cats in the winter. Therefore, she figured that if she took the animals into her house they would be safe. Talk ‘round the town back then was that she had chicken and rabbit feet hanging over doorways and sacrificed doves and chickens were found in her basement. It was also said that splashes chicken blood could be found on the floors of all the rooms of her house,” Bubba explained.

“Why would she kill them?”

“I don’t know Sweet Potato, I really don’t. And why ya’ wanna know all of this” asked Bubba as she started to get upset.

“I’ve just always wanted to know what it looked like in that house,” I said.

“Well, I actually don’t know what it looks like in that house. Ya’ see I’ve only heard rumors about it. Anyways, why aren’t you hangin’ out with your friends? That what you youngins say today?”

“Yes Bubba, that’s what us “youngins” say nowadays. But if you must know I wasn’t invited to go anywhere with my so called friends. But look who’s talkin’! Shouldn’t you be planting coin-settias or something” I asked jokingly.

“They’re called POINsettias and I was getting ready to go to a funeral tomorrow.”

“Who died?” I asked abruptly.

“Ms. Flemming’s daughter. I felt as if I should go because when Josephine was little she would always bake me cookies” said Bubba as she reminisced Josephine’s small round face and the warm smell of her double chocolate chip cookies she used to make.

“So when is it?”

“The funeral is in about an hour so if you would kindly exist my establishment, I would like to get dressed.”

“Okay Bubba, but don’t kiss Josephine alright” I said as I slipped back on my shoes.

“And why not? Everyone gives the person who has just passed a peck as they file out the room when the services are over” Bubba said concerned.

“Well if you wanna kiss a dead lady, go right ahead,” I said as I walked out the door. As I closed Ms. Flemming’s prehistoric gate I heard her laughing so I chuckled myself.

3:51 PM
I walked over to my house with my head hanging down because I knew that once I entered my screen door, I would have to entertain myself. Whereas when I was next door, I was doing half the work. I entertained Ms. Flemming and she entertained me in return. But that was all over now. I had entered the house already. I plopped on the big, black leather couch and turned on the TV. Nothing was on, and I mean nothing. MTV was rerunning episodes of True Life, BET reran the Game, and Teen Nick had a marathon of Degrassi episodes from 2001. I finally turned to my favorite show Phineas and Ferb. In every episode, Phineas says “I know what we’re gonna do today” and I knew what I was going to do as well, but I needed some rest before I could make this bid discovery. The last words that I heard before I fell asleep were from the Phineas and Ferb theme song. “There’s one-hundred and four days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem of our generation is finding a good way to spend it…”

4:45 PM
I woke up refreshed and ran to the window. Bubba’s 2008 Prius was gone and so was Ms. Flemming’s yellow 2004 Ford Focus. This was my perfect opportunity; I would finally know what the shack across the street’s interior looked like. I figured that funerals would last about two and a half hours, which would be plenty of time for me to enter the house, look around and get out of there. Before I left, I grabbed a jacket, and a camera. I was set for my journey. I turned on the alarm and left.

As I locked the bottom lock on the screen door, I zipped up my jacket and walked swiftly across the street. I knew that it would be easy to break in because Ms. Flemming was old and the old people on my block never locked their doors. I made my way through the cluttered yard and entered. I held my breath because I thought that the smell of dead chickens and doves would be too much for my nose to handle. However, I was wrong; so wrong…

4:51 PM
As I used all of my might to push the door open, a very misty breeze slapped my face. I clenched onto my jacket and zipped it all the way up. I wiped the salt water from my face and turned around to close the door. As I turned around a surfboard hit my toe. I looked around the room in awe; my eyes grew bigger like a cartoon character’s would. A strong wind blew strands of my hair from my loose ponytail. I used my hand and brushed the frayed strands. It was a beach! Ms. Flemming’s living room was a beach in Hawaii. There were surfers everywhere catching big waves on their newly waxed surfboards. I looked down at my self and expected to see the front of my pants to be wet but they were not. Instead, I was wearing a sleek, black wet suit.

“Aloha, wanna surf,” said someone in the background

Aloha. Aloha. I replayed those words in my head. Aloha. What does that mean? Who is saying this? Is he or she talking to me? How did I get to Hawaii? A million thoughts were running through my mind. I felt as if I was in the Twilight Zone. I heard the voice again and I turned around and saw a beautifully sculpted person standing there talking to me.

“Aloha,” he repeated

“Aloha,” I mimicked, hoping that what I said made sense.

“Dude, if you wanna surf you can rent a surf board from the board shop over there,” he said pointing to a small stand similar to a lemonade stand but instead constructed of bamboo sticks.

Aloha. Do I want to surf? Do I know how to surf? Whom is this handsome person talking to me? Without replying, I walked over to the stand made of bamboo. The owner told me to come behind the counter to pick a board. There were so many to choose among. Ones with swirls, ones with polka dots, others with stripes, and some were blue, others pink and yellow. I decided to choose the one with a pink and white zebra print. As I extended my hand and on touched the desired board, I felt a tingle and entered the Twilight Zone again. I was unaware of my surroundings and did not know how this was happening to me.

5:13 PM
At first, I felt my face was beginning to get hot. It felt as if the sun was shining directly at my face from three feet away. Then I felt massive drops of sweat running down my face as if they were racing each other and the finish line was located at the bottom of my chin. Wait, I heard something. It was as if another person was talking to me. Snap out of it Nelly. C’mon, come back. Make out those words being spoken to you. “Are”…”you”… wait, aren’t those letters? R and U. “Okay?” Okay… those are two more letters. Do they spell something? RUOK. Ru-ok? What does ru-ok mean? ROOO-OK. There it was again. It was the same voice as last time, yet I could not make out his words. He comes over to me. His face blocks the sun from my eyes. Wait, he asked me if I was okay. yes, YES! I’M OKAY! If only I could say it to him.

“Y-y-eee-ssssssss,” I force out of my mouth. I wondered if I said the right thing and if he understood what I said. He didn’t reply so I tried to say it again.

“Y-y-es. Yes. I’m okay,” I say. Once that is said, he moves his head and the sun comes back and beams on my head.

The road beneath me is rocky and my body, along with the bodies of the other passengers sway left then right, left then right. We stop shortly and the same person that stood over me has something in his hands. He walks forward and holds the thing to his mouth. It is a black stick with a silver ball on top of it. He announces us to look to our right so we did. There I saw a large brown animal hiding in tall brown grass. It reminded me of a field of wheat. The grass blew in the wind, left then right as we did minutes before. The brown animal had sharp pearly white teeth and medium brown hair framed his face. I have seen this animal before but I cannot remember his name. I remember seeing an animal like it in a movie once. Finally, the name of the movie came to mind. The Lion King. Yes, it was a lion! But wait, where do lions live. Yes, I remember, Africa! I was on a safari in Africa!

The tour guide asked us to look to our left as the car started to move. Tall giraffes stretched their necks to reach the leaves on the tree. I finally knew where I was and I felt safe and comfortable. I enjoyed the laughter of the people in the car when we saw a baby giraffe trying to stand on his own but kept falling down. As I started to relax, I heard a faint voice and a knock. I tried to make out the rushed words but I could not. “Police” I heard. “Police! Open up!” Once I heard those three words, the beautiful amber sky of Africa faded until it became completely black, the car beneath me stopped swaying and the people’s laughter became silent. I was no longer in Africa or Hawaii. I was standing in an ordinary living room. Hardwood floors, a love seat, a long L-shaped couch, a TV, a rug and a chandelier made up my surroundings. I must be in Ms. Flemming’s living room. I realized that indeed I was standing in Ms. Flemming’s living room. I looked down and noticed that I no longer had on a wet suit, but instead my blue and purple windbreaker. The voice came again and a pound at the door followed. I was very nervous. I stood there frozen and felt a wet sensation on the front on my pants. I started to cry and then it happened. The front door was kicked in and it fell towards the ground. Three seconds later, so did I.

The Trick of Writing

There are many different tricks of writing used by the most famous writers and by you and I. Ernest Hemingway believed that stories should be filled with short, quick-to-the-point sentences. He didn't believe that someone should need a dictionary to read and understand a piece of literary work. To prevent this from happening, he felt that all writings should be written using simple language so that readers of all ages can read and fully understand it without looking up every other word.

Another trick of writing that most people use is using a thesaurus to make certain words or phrases sound more inteligent and comolex. This can be used if you feel that your writing is not up to part or that the vocabulary is too simple. If Ernet Hemingway found out about this trick of writing, he would have a fit!

One trick of writing that I use most often is writing a paper either early in the morning or late at night, then after I've gotten some rest, revise it. This works for me because I feel as though I write my best works early in the day and late at night. Then, if I get rest and reread my paper, I would have forgotten what I have written and I can judge my paper with a blank mind. This allows me to get my paper edited without the need of others, which I like because I hate other people reading and criticizing my work, espescially if it isn't my best.

One last trick of writing I use is writing normal lengthed sentences, then follow with either a short, or even longer sentence. I feel that this ensures that the reader does not get bored reading long sentences. Talk about a headache! I hope you've picked up some tricks that you will use in your own writing and see how they work for you. And until the next blog.....see ya

Thankful for a Classmate

This year in Mr. McCarthy's sixth period American Literature class, many students have helped me. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I would like to dedicate this blog to these special people who have helped me. The three people that I am most thankful for are Danielle Craan, Karla Perez and Dominique Cole. Without them, I do not know what I would do.

The first person that I would like to focus on is Danielle Craan. Danielle, who was in my group at the beginning of the year has haelped me a lot. Even though we did not know each other previous to this class, we got along just fine. During group discussions, Danielle helped me better understand some questions that I did not understand fully. Without her, our group probably would have done worse on the group activities. Danielle also contributed to our good grade for the Phyllis Wheatley presentations. She brought great ideas to the table and I'm sure this helped our grade. Danielle has also let me know about blogs and other assignments that were due via Facebook and I am TRULY greatful for that.

The next person that I would like to thank is Karla Perez. Karla and I along with Danielle and Dominique was in the same group at the beginning of the school year. Karla always contributed to the group discussions. She would sometimes look in the book and read a direct quote to help us understand how to answer a discussion question. This helped us answer that question to the best of our abilities and I am thankful for that. Also, Karla was my partner for one of the partner quizzes we took in this class. She knew the answer to the questions I did not know the answers to and this helped us get a better grade. Karla also brought poems to choose from for our Phyllis Wheatly presentations.

The last person that I am thankful for is Dominique Cole. Dominique and I became good friends this year thanks to sixth period American Lit. Dominique has personally helped me with another partner quiz. Similar to Karla, when I did not know the answer to a question, she would help me and in return we recieved a better grade. Dominique has also helped us in group discussions to help me understand the answer of a question. To conclude this blog, I would like to say THANK YOU to Danielle Craan, Karla Perez and Dominique Cole because without you, I would be lost. Thank you for reading my blog and have a great Thanksgiving!

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

John Proctor is a character in The Crucible who has an affair with a young girl named Abigail. John Proctor is sort of an outcast because he doesn't go to church like most people in Salem. This is because he feels that Reverend Parris rarely speaks about God in his sermons anymore. Abigail is a young girl, Rev. Parris' niece and she has practiced witchcraft and instead of admitting this, she accusses others of this crime.

A stooge is a person who is under the control of another person. Whereas a hero is a person distinguished by exeptional courage. I believe that John Proctor is a stooge because in a way, he is controlled by Abigail. Joh Proctor's wife is arrested for witchcraft and he knows that Abigail is behind it. He wants to tell the court that Abigail was behind it but he feared that Abigail would tell the whole court that she had an affair with Proctor. If this happened, Proctor's wife, Elizabeth would find out and he would be hated more by society. He already has one strike against him because he does not go to church anymore, matters would be made worse if everyone found out that he has committed the sin of adultery. Like I said, Proctor is a stooge because he is under the control of Abigail. He knows that if he says that Abigail has been practicing witchcraft, then Abigail will tell the court that they had an affair with each other. This causes Proctor to keep his mouth shut and this shows that Proctor is just a puppet and Abigail is the puppet master yanking his strings!

A Direction the Class Needs

So far, I have liked the direction of the class for the most part. But like any class, I have some suggestions on what could be modified to better the class. In this blog I will be explaining in detail the good and the bad of the class, my opinion on them and how they can be modified slightly.

The first thing that I would like to talkt about is Independent Reading Thursdays. Although I believe this is a good idea because it lets us read for enjoyment, I have just a few issues with it. First, I can say from my experience with the independent reading, it was a little hard to read that book on Thursdays and read The House of the Seven Gables for the remainder of the week. This was difficult because I was just starting a new book and I was trying to get far into the book because there was going to be a project at the end. To accomplish this, I had to read beyong just Thursdays and this was hard because I had other homework to do. It was also hard to keep up with the characters in both books. Maybe independent reading should be eliminated altogether or we should have less to read for the class novel while independent reading is going on.

Another issue I have is that it is not always clear on what is due and on what specific date. About half of the class did not know that this blog was due on Friday, so the due date was pushed back to this morning (Sunday). I feel like Mr. McCarthy expects us to check the calendar on Edline to see what is due instead of announcing this information during class. About five of my friends and I did not know that the first draft of our comparison papers were due earlier this week. I feel as if Mr. McCarthy in this example expected us to read the informational sheet about the essay outside of class to know when the drafts are due. I feel as if he should take the time out to loudly and clearly announce these things in front of the WHOLE class well before the bell rings.

Another thing that I find difficult in this class is multi-tasking. Just this week (Friday to be exact), we started to watch the Crucible movie. We have also started to write our comparison papers and we still have quotes from the Crucible due in two weeks. I feel as if we are doing TOO MUCH at the same time. I am now confused because I do not know if we ar to finish the Crucible, or if we are just going to watch the whole movie and we should forget about the book.

One thing that I did not like was the big test that we just took on the House of the Seven Gables, Christopher Colombus, and Phyllis Wheatly. I did not think this test was fair because we took this quiz two months after school started and some of the material on this test was from the first month of school. Plus, the other half of the test was on the House of the Seven Gables that we just finished reading. It was kinda hard to tried to make sure you knew everything that you needed to know about the House of the Seven Gables and things that were reviewed during the first month of school for this test. It would have been better, I believe, if we had a test on Phyllis Wheatly, Christopher Colombus and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God at the end of September, then had a test on the House of the Seven Gables last week.

Three things that I DO like are group work, reading comprehension quizzes and the background information that we read about the puritans' point of view, and the information on the Salem witch craft trials. I felt that this helped me understand Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, the Crucible and the House of the Seven Gables. Hopefully this blog assignment would help Mr. McCarthy see what he can do in class to help us undersatnd the material better, and improve our grades.

You Take After Your Mother

In chapter 5 in The House of the Seven Gables, Pheobe makes herself at home in the house of the seven gables. Hepzibah didn't want Pheobe to stay in the house with her because she felt that the dreariness of the house would take away Pheobe's free and entergetic spirit. Hepzibah then changes her mind when she sees how respectful Pheobe is and Pheobe also gives Heozibah helpful tips on how to make the cent shop better.

When Hepzibah and Pheobe have tea that morning, Pheobe decides to clean off the dusty old China set and this when Hepzibah sees that Pheobe is helpful. Hepzibah is shocked that Pheobe was willing to clean off the dishes without even being asked. Hepzibah says to her, "But these things must have come to you with your mother's blood. I never knew a Pyncheon that had any turn for them!"(page 77). Hepzibah continues to say to Pheobe that she must have gotten all of her nice characteristics from her mother. I thought that it was nice of Hepzibah to complement her on such things but I was kind of angry that she was talking about her family so badly as well. I understand that you appreciate your cousin's help, but you don't have to put your family down at the same time.

Just when I felt that Hepzibah was a nice old lady, she says something that helps me to understand why people call her a mean old lady. After Pheobe has helped Hepzibah with her shop, and gives Hepzibah suggestions of goods to sell at the shop, Hepzibah claims that Pheobe isn't a lady. She also claims that she gets that from her mother, and that women from New England aren't usual ladies.

I felt shocked when I heard this come out of Hepzibah's mouth because a few pages before, she was giving Pheobe compliments, then ot of no where she says such a nasty thing like that. Now I see why people feel that Hepzibah is a mean old lady. How could you say that your cousin isn't a lady.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

In class, we read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". The sermon was about how God controls who goes to heaven after death, and who goes to hell. In the sermon, Jonathan Edwards talks about how God can release the flood gates and almost drown you to death or aim at your heart with a bow and arrow if you have committed any sins.

I believed that this sermon was to scare people because it basically says that when you commit sins, God is in control of what happens to you. Even I was kind of scared while ready this. The God I know and love would never do this; the God I know and love isn't this violent I thought.

I really dont agree with this sermon. I really don't believe that God is as angry or as viloent as Edwards describes in his sermon. I grew up believing that God created everything and not to diobey him or you will not go to heaven. I was never taught about God releasing the floodgates or shooting people with bows and arrows just because someone committed sins. Now don't get me wrong, committing sins is wrong and it is against what God wants you to do, and may send you to Hell, but I don't think that God will be so angry as to almost kill you to prove his point.

There Goes the Neighborhood!

I remember being so excited and scared when I first got to Whitney Young last year. I was excited because I was finally in high school! I've been waiting for this utopia where you gin independence that people called high school! I was so ready to get up that September morning and meet new friends at my new school.
I was curious if high school was like the movie Mean Girls where everyone is apart of separate clique are like on Everybody Hates Chris, on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide or on every other teen show, where people get stuffed in lockers, get pennies thrown at them or get beat up in the bathroom. Television really makes your mind wonder!
I was also scared about going to Whitney Young because I graduated from a small middle school. I was going to be the only one from my middle school to be at Whitney Young. I finally understood what people on tv mean when they say "you're gonna be a little fish in a big pond". I was going to be like Nemo in Sydney, Australia!
But when I walked into sixth period Biology, my stomach started to do jump up and down as if it was getting ready to jump off a diving board! I felt so sick. I eventually felt better, made a ton of friends and had so much fun my first year of high school! I wonder how much MORE fun I will have over the course of high school.

All About Me

Hey, my name is Amber L. and I am just your average 15 year old. I go to school, do homework, eat, watch television, change my status on facebook, sleep and this cycle repeats all over again Monday thru Friday. I really don’t know what to write about since my life isn’t really spectacular…but I guess I will try.

Well…I live in Chicago (on the south side of course) with my dad, older sister and younger brother. I attended Phillip Murray Language Academy from first to sixth grade. I have taken Spanish since second grade and I will hopefully spend the next three years of high school taking spanish. Yes I'm a Whitney M.Young dolphin just like our First Lady, Michelle Obama, and proud of it! GOOOOOOOOOOOO DOLPHINS!!!

Here comes the bring part...but I feel like it should be included in this first blog. I wish to be a high school English teacher. I've wanted to be a teacher since second grade, and writing is my favorite class (Oh... I hope Mr. McCarthy doesn't expect more of me now). Hopefully once I part with Whitney M. Young I will be on my way to Spelman in Atlanta,GA.

Um… some things that I like would have to be Facebook, chocolate, Top Chef, iCarly, The Real Housewives of Atlanta (NeNe is my favorite) and just watching t.v. in general. The things that I hate are cats, dogs, (mainly because I’m scared of them), people who chew with their mouths open, people constantly calling my name and my little brother (at times).
But overall I’m a cool person once you get to know me.Well I really hope I get a good grade on this because I tried and I really have nothing else to say. So until the next American Lit blog assignment…BYE!