Weekly Blog #6 (Girls to the Finals!)

The Episcopal Girls Varsity soccer team made it to the semi-finals for the third consecutive year! In the last two years, they failed to advance, but the third time is the charm! They had to play U-High, which is the school's biggest rival. The girls had beat them once and lost to them once, so this was the ultimate tiebreaker. It was even more special because it was at home and a challenge to decide who goes to the state championship!
Both teams came out strong, but our defense was the strongest it has been all year. The defense was led by Caroline Goodner, Summer Rhynes, Caroline Sides, Caroline Chapple, and a few others. They were bulletproof the whole entire game. There was only one play where they had a mess up and it almost lead to a goal but Moira came to the rescue!
Our defense was key to our success. Another reason we won was because of Taylor Coleman, the 8th grade girl at Episcopal who starts for varsity. She scored THREE goals during the game. The first two were really good, but the third one was into the top corner of the goal. An 8th grader scored a hat trick (3 goals) in a semi-final soccer game against the biggest rival in a tiebreaker. She was on the news, and the game was published in the advocate.
 http://theadvocate.com/sports/preps/2088328-123/colemans-hat-trick-tough-d.html
We stormed the field after the game, and all of the girls were emotional. Moira Fontenot, the goalie, came up big time, and I feel like she deserves more credit for the win that she is receiving. This was the best appearance I have ever seen the Episcopal Varsity girls make, and I know that they will do well in the state championship.

Weekly Blog #5 (Learner's Permit)

A normal sophomore is 16 years old. I am a year younger than everyone, and I would be a freshman if I were born three days later. I took driver's ed with dozens of 9th graders, and it was weird to be the only sophomore there besides Matthew Wen. There are freshmen at Episcopal that are older than me and that already have their permits. The most disturbing part about this is not that they have their permits, but that some of they are actually older than me.
I would have gotten my permit a month ago, but apparently I did not have a required paper. They gave us the option of bringing a social security card or two secondary documents, and since I did not have my social security card we came with the two secondary documents and got turned down. That would have allowed me a month of legal driving experience. I drive without it at the moment, but come Tuesday a police officer would not be able to do anything with criminal penalties if we get pulled over.
So on Valentine's Day 2012, I will be a legal driver with a learner's permit. I will get my license next year, which is really bad. Being a junior and sixteen years old is bad, but having to ride the bus for the first two months is even worse. I have already arranged for my vehicle to be a Ford Escape SUV, but that is something to discuss in a year.
I am really excited to finally get my permit because I will be driving everywhere legally!

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Sequel

John, after returning to consciousness, was absolutely convinced that we needed to leave immediately. He feared that there actually was a pattern in the wallpaper that possibly contained a secret passageway behind it, but his investigation led to nothing and confirmed his idea that I was insane.

John had assumed that all of the peculiar conditions I had been experiencing were a direct result of the stay in the house, so needless to say our belongings were packed and we were gone all under 24 hours time.

Gone from the wallpaper and the woman confined inside, I was feeling better. I resumed writing, but it was about nature and funny highlights of my day and how things were going with John. We settled back in our house in our hometown ,and I felt fully normal and recovered. The first order of business in the house was to change the color of the wallpaper in our room.

Yellow is just such a horrid color..

Weekly Blog #4 (Soccer is Over)

Episcopal Knights' Soccer season of 2011-2012 had the most losses in the regular season in school history. Everyone would look at this and think that the team was horrible, but we truly were very good. Our final record was 8-17 in regular season. Twelve of the seventeen losses were by one goal. Three of the remaining five losses were by two goals, and the other two losses were by three or more goals. The teams we played were very challenging 5A schools that have won championships. If anyone were to look past our record to how we lost and to what teams we lost to, then we would have more respect than we do now.

Playoffs came around, and everyone that knew about us ranked us in the top 10 for the state. However, it is the bottom-feeder schools that ruined our seeding. All they saw was our record and gave us a terrible rank. These people dropped us to rank 16. This Saturday at 3:00 was our first playoff game. The weather was terrible, and it was pretty much like playing underwater soccer. We were playing the Lusher Lions, another very talented team that got messed up in the seeding like we did. If we were to beat them, we would have gone on to play the number one team in the state, Country Day, but that did not happen this season.  William James and Austin Couvillion scored for us. Austin's goal was really special. It was 2-1 with twenty seconds left in regular time, and if it was not for Austin's free kick with seconds left until the end of the season, we would not have gotten a shot at the Lions in overtime. Austin nailed the free kick and the regulation time ended ten seconds after.

Overtime was intense, and the field remained sloppy. The score stayed level after the first, second, and third overtimes. After the fourth overtime, they game would have gone into penalty kicks and the destiny of the season would have been changed. However, the Lions scored with fifteen seconds left in the last overtime. Fifteen more seconds would have changed the season, but they scored off of a cross and the season came to an emotional end. The final score was Lusher (3) Episcopal-Br (2) (Golden Goal).

The 2011-2012 season was a great one that came to an emotional end, but next year will be more successful. We are losing no seniors, and everyone is growing and getting better. The year after that will be legendary, mark my words.

Robert Frost: A Terrifying Poet in "Desert Places"

Lance LaMotte

Mr. McElveen

American Literature

31 January 2012        

“Desert Places”: Terrifying or Not?

            As Lionel Trilling stated, Robert Frost is truly a terrifying poet. To be terrifying, in the poetic spectrum, is to consistently present readers with descriptions of fear, hopelessness, and solitude in environments with a relatively high degree of danger or desertion. Consistently providing these elements in their poetry builds a reputation of having works with terrifying content. Frost, in his poem “Desert Places”, establishes his identity as a terrifying poet through meeting these criteria.

            Part of the support of Robert Frost being a terrifying poet is because of his evocation of personal emotion. While reading, there was an actual person in a realistic situation, making the reader imagine, in his or her mind, about how they would conduct themselves in a situation as presented in the poem. However, the most fearsome part of this poem is the reality. For example, a poem fixed around a plot of fantasy type activities is not realistic, and in no way evokes emotion or thought from the reader of being in a situation relative to the one in the story they are reading, because it is not real and cannot happen. The realism in “Desert Places”, being a snowy field at night with trees surrounding it, is a situation that some individuals may have experienced already on a ski trip or whatever it may be. Thus, part of Frost being a terrifying poet reigns in his ability to instill realistic fear in the readers and ignite thoughtful emotions.

            The setting is a major role in this poem in terms of making Frost “terrifying”. The speaker says that the character is alone, in a snowy field, with night falling quickly. He is alone, and woods surround the large, snowy field. The animals in the woods are not out, but are hiding, smothered in their lairs. From this observation it can be claimed that the conditions of the environment were too dangerous, even for animals that live in nature and experience weather like this on a regular basis. The title, “Desert Places”, presents that feeling of desertion and isolation. Not only alone, but also alone in a snowy field in the winter with “but a few weeds and stubble showing last” (Line 4). Winter represents death, and the few weeds sprouting out from under the thick layers of snow symbolize life, but moreover how death reigns over life in this situation. Again, fear rears its ugly face through the setting Frost has provided the poem with.

            The second stanza starts to dig deep and unearth more concepts of fear. “The woods around have it—it is theirs” provides that this place belongs to nature and is not fitting for a human being (Line 5). Survival is not guaranteed in the environment where no individual should set foot, such as in this place where nature is thriving with no mercy nor concern for any human beings that wish to wander about. “The loneliness includes me unawares” portrays how the isolation rendered the speaker oblivious to the surroundings, unable to respond in the natural manner (Line 8). Another possible interpretation of this line is that nature is unaware of the speaker. Unaware of the presence of the human, the loneliness continues as it has for ages, with the speaker making no difference to nature.

            The third stanza is completely about feeling deserted. “Lonely” appears in different forms throughout this stanza five times. Being completely about isolation and completely about lack of expression instills fear of being alone. The road ahead of the speaker is described as being “…no expression, nothing to express” (Line 12). Just snow, a pinch of life, nightfall, and trees surrounding him appear expressionless to the speaker. All of the descriptions develop the idea of being lonely, another connection the reader can make because isolation and desertion are terrible feelings individuals are often burdened with.

            The last stanza turns the tables. “They cannot scare me with their empty spaces” shows that whatever process he is involved in, whether it be punishment or a disastrous adventure, is not the source of his fear (Line 13).  The fear is coming from his own creation of his own places of isolation, coming from the mind. The mind is often known as the most dangerous place for a person, and this is completely true. Plots are developed, emotions are hidden, and feelings are restrained all in the mind, with the ability to show none of these effects on the physical appearance of the person. The speaker’s own problems are the source of his discomfort and fear, not the dark, snowy environment with relatively no signs of life. From the descriptions, the speaker may be gradually becoming insane, or losing his mental stability at the least. The mind fosters the growth of good and bad ideas, but they technically should not be the sole source of fear for an individual. The situation is terrifying, but to be completely “unaware” is not normal.

            Robert Frost has successfully asserted himself as a terrifying poet in “Desert Places”. The setting has a significant role in providing the fearsome atmosphere of snow, dark, and isolation. Because of how realistic the situation is, the reader can draw connections and place themselves in the position of the speaker. The chance of survival for a human in conditions as harsh as the ones described is negligible, and this is where fear is instilled in the readers, making the poem terrifying. Isolation and hopelessness prevail, and fear is eminent. Because of the conditions that Frost provided of danger and desertion in a place where life is but a mere consideration, resembled by a few weeds sprouting through the thickened layers of snow, he is a terrifying poet.

           

Weekly Blog #3 (EHS vs U High Girls' Game)

On Friday, the boys varsity soccer team for our school played U High. It was a close game that went all the way through regular time and two over times with the scored still tied at 0-0. U High is ranked #6 and that was the closest we have come to beating them in a long time. We lost in penalty kicks, which does not really decide who played better or who deserved the win more, which was obviously us, but the only thing that matters is that they won. It will not happen again, but the important part about this weekend is the girls' game the following day. 

Yesterday, Saturday the 28th, the girls played U High and I witnessed some of the worst referring I have ever seen in my life. We scored two goals, giving us the 2-0 lead, but the Cubs came back to tie the score at 2-2 off of the two worst penalty kick calls I have ever seen. One time Moira, the goalie, came out for a 50/50 ball and hit someone and they both fell and she got the call. So the girl stepped up and took the penalty kick and scored, making the score 2-1. The second penalty kick was awarded to the Cubs when Caroline Goodner supposedly fouled some girl. It was so obvious that she was going for the ball and it is completely legal to lean into the other player when you are both going for it. Again, they both fell, and the Cubs were given the penalty kick again. The same girl stepped up again and scored, making it 2-2. They scored again off of a good through ball about twenty minutes later, giving U High a 2-3 lead over us. The score remained like that almost to the end of the game, but I had this strange feeling that they were not going to win. I knew the girls would pull it off. Keely Davis scored her second goal of the match off of a free kick about 18-19 yards away. The shot deflected off of a U High defender and skipped past the goalie's outstretched hands into the side of the goal. A 3-3 tie was how the game lasted for the remainder of regular time, and through the two overtime periods. 

Penalty kicks were fun to watch. We only had one miss, which was still a very good shot but its hard to do penalty kicks after a full match of soccer, especially after playing with so much intensity against a good team. Moira had been scored on by two penalty kicks in the regular time by the same person, so when she stepped  up a third time she knew what to do.  Moira had two saves and helped the team tremendously. Mary Heintz took the last penalty kick for the Knights and sealed the victory as the whole team stormed the field, celebrating their victory. It was the best match to watch, and I feel satisfied that they beat the school that we should have beaten too. In a sense, I feel like we won this year.

Weekly Blog #2 (Megan's Fall)

Today, January 22, was Brannon Bienasz's birthday. His mother called my dad and invited me through voicemail, because he couldn't answer at the time. On the voicemail, all that was said was that Brannon was having a birthday party at Pluckers a fairly new restaurant in town. I got excited, so I went to to my phone and pulled up the group chat we have going for the soccer team and sent "PLUCKERS!". I did this out of excitement because I love the place. Shortly after sending that, I received private texts saying "SHUT UP" and "SHHH". I had no idea what they were talking about, but at that time my dad comes in and tells me that it is a surprise party. Brannon was in the chat, but had no idea what I was talking about. So this is how we arrived at Pluckers for his party.
At Pluckers we talked and ate, and there was the occasional person taking a trip to the restroom. In the case of Megan Escott, she literally took a trip to the restroom. On the way there, she trips on a flat, wooden floor and wipes out. I know I should have helped her, but she seemed okay so I busted out laughing. This was the funniest thing I have ever seen. No one else saw, though! Later I re-enacted it for everyone and everybody laughed, but Megan completely wiped out on the way to the restroom at a surprise birthday party. What made it even funnier to me was that I slipped in that exact same spot on my last visit because I was wearing soccer cleats. Nonetheless, it was the funniest event of the whole night.

To Megan: You posted about me falling, so I posted about you falling. Fair?