Table of Contents Dear Reader Introduction to Pick It Up Pick it Up Introduction to Ignorance Ignorance Introduction to Inventory of Being Inventory of Being Introduction to Summary Summary

Dear Reader

Dear Reader,
I am twenty, and the youngest of four, so I have learned from three. I am studying English and math to better my skills. As I am finishing up English ninety-eight I realize I can write well. Before in my learning career I was at a red light on my creative path, blocked from ever reaching the green, and letting my thoughts flow. I was held back in my elementary school years. Never told I could do anything, and only told I wasn’t smart enough for normal classes. After being forced into resource classes for years a high school counselor gave me the opportunity to excel. When given that chance I let it pass me by. I slacked off and didn’t go to class, and I never cared enough to try to do better. I was ignorant and let the immaturity of my age consume my being. It wasn’t until after high school I woke up and realized that I was going nowhere. So I started to head somewhere, by going to college. Although I am unsure of end of that path at this time my life will lead there someday. Meanwhile my efforts to strive in my education will continue to grow.
This dear reader is my reflection of the growth process of my English ninety-eight quarter. I have picked out a few writing pieces to share with you, such as; a definition paper where I define a type of music known as ska, A journal I did in the month of May on the ugliness of ignorance, a summary of an article to show my ability to write effectively, and a inventory of being which I used a few lines in my lead in to describe myself. So please dear readier enjoy reading this window in to my life.

Introduction to Pick it Up

My first choice was a major writing assignment, our second one in this quarter. It was a definition paper on a term that most people do not know about. I chose a type of music to describe. It is titled "Pick it Up" and is a definition paper on ska. I don’t want to give too much information away but ska is type of music that you can’t help but dance to. I chose it because it shows my ability to write with my own personal voice I use slang, and describe the sound of music well.

Pick it Up

Have you ever listened to a band and they used the term "pick it up"? Well that all started with a little style of music called "ska". Ska is a term often used to pump up a crowd and get them stoked to see the band. I would like you to pick it up, and get pumped to learn all about ska it’s time to know when it started, where it started, who started it, and how it has changed over time.
What is ska? It is an up-beat happy form of music that incorporates; rolling bass, off beat guitar, brass horns, and a drum beat you can’t help but dance to. Ska has been around as far back as the 1930’s. To this day most people don’t know about it. A good example is a local ska band called Natalie Wouldn’t. They blew my mind away with their form of Jamaican-born rock blending with the up-lifting sound of brass horns. So let’s jump back to the 1930s and find out more about ska’s origins.
Ska started in the 1930’s, when it branched off of New Orleans jazz. Local bands at the time took the smooth sound of jazz and mixed it with Jamaican instruments, and it was characteristically up-beat. The first well known ska artists are Prince Buster, Byron Lee, and Peter Tosh in 1964. They were the first musicians to expose Americans to ska at the World’s Fair in New York in 1964. Before that ska was only known in the West Indies. Even though it wasn’t very popular at the time, most jazz fans seemed to enjoy it. However, ska began sounding a little more rock and roll in the sixties and seventies. As the sixties and seventies came around ska progressed into rock. Popular bands, at such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles transformed the music by blending ska with piano and strong guitar. However, people didn’t call the music ska, so it was still considered an underground form of music. In the seventies ska was mostly categorized with jazz and reggae. It wasn’t until the eighties that ska became popularized in the punk movement. The punk movement gave ska a whole new look and sound. It is mostly thanks to the British label Two Tone Records. They recorded most of the ska music at the time. The new look of ska still had the joyful up-beat sound of its early years but was over taken by the rapid speed of punk music. The lyrics became silly, and there weren’t very many ska songs that were about serious issues. People who followed this type of music often had Mohawks, and wore black and white clothing that was often in checkered patterns. Furthermore, the punk and ska style was dirty not much personal grooming going on there. The fans formed a new dance called skanking that was often done in this time at ska shows. Skanking is running in place pretty fast sometimes in a circle. Also at this time they started to incorporate terms to hype the audience such as "pick it up." The vocals required fast verbalizations and tongue twisters. Ska singers required a quick tongue. This new style of ska and its music has stayed with its fans until this day. It even inspired rap and hip hop music in the nineties. Ska music has inspired many rap style artist. It started toasting, that is spoken lyrics based on the rhythm of the music. If you were to take away everything but the percussions in ska music it would sound similar to rap. Ska is definitely not rap, but did inspire rapping. In the 1990’s ska became even more popular. Bands such as Less than Jake and The Fish incorporated lyrics of equality and political issues. That skyrocketed ska into main stream the more popular ska bands were Operation Ivy and Sublime. They are known for their political lyrics. Sublime is well known band, but people who know of Sublime probably don’t recognize the ska guitar cords, and their horns that are incorporated in their albums. Even though this music is under appreciated ska has been around for decades, supplying people with up-beat music that makes it hard to not dance to. Ska went from being silly music to hard hitting political moving songs that help people keep on moving in this harsh world. This type of music has come a long way from its jazz roots. It is the one music category that I have great appreciation for and believe that everyone should know of.

I hope you are pumped! below is a video thanks to youtube of streetlight manifewsto a very nice ska band. Listen and enjoy!

Introduction to Ignorance (Journal ten)

My favorite of all of them is a journal I wrote on the ugliness of ignorance. We wrote this only a few months prior to the e portfolio, so it is pretty recent. I chose this because it is something I am passionate about. Moreover it shows my ability to write formally, in the science that I don’t use slang that I normally would. It also shows a higher order of thinking on my part. I feel that I went above my normal thinking strategies, I personally thought out side of the box.

Journal Ten Ignorance

People often say that ignorance is bliss. If that is true what about the hatred that comes with ignorance? How mankind uses his blind ambition to go farther in the world with ignorance by his side. If I have lost you just think of all the racism in the world today, or in the past. For example black slaves, the word nigger translated are ignorance. With how often that word is thrown around today it was something that was different 50 years ago. The people who would use it in a derogatory scenic had no idea that they themselves were contradicting the words natural meaning. That is only one example; more recently is the ignorance people have towards Arabic people. Due to nine eleven people see any person form the Middle East as Terrorists. Not every person views this way but a lot due. It is ignorant for them to just assume that because a person has brown skin his is the leader of Alkida. Ignorance is my largest pet peeve I cannot stand when a person passes judgment based on ignorance. Ignorance is ugly and distasteful and yet it is a natural human reaction. Ignorance is just a large example to how stupid people are as a hole. Perhaps I am ignorant for thinking that, but for how natural ignorance is it wouldn’t surprise me if I myself was.

Introduction to Inventory of Being

For my choice I picked the inventory of being. It was one of the first assignments in class and I loved it. I thought it turned out really well so I used a few lines for the lead in to my dear reader letter to describe a little about me. It really shows that I can write in a poetic form, the words don’t really match each other, but it describes me so well. I really enjoyed this assignment and had fun with it so I wanted to include it in my portfolio. It is possibly my most favorite part of this quarter.

Inventroy of Being

I am 20

I am young in looks

But old in heart

I am unsure of who I am because everyone else had already determined that.

I do know that I am around five feet tall.

I have brown corrugated shoulder length hair.

I have eyes of lavish brown with a hint of green out lined with gray,

And a long nose that I can see if I cross my eyes

I am green. Sometimes blue, But mostly yellow.

I am at the end of a rope.

That shakes as I climb.

I love palm trees that swivel down to the sand.

I am the youngest of four.

So I have learned from three.

I am isolated from my family but close when it matters.

I like candle light and lilies,

They ease me when I am blue.

I appreciate orange drink from McDonald’s.

I love the boy who stole my heart.

I hope he doesn’t eat it.

I hope the world can spin on its access forever.

I hope mankind is evolved enough to help themselves.

I believe they can.

I believe the arrogant bustards are a dying species.

I believe in aliens.

I know I will always be OK.

I know I don’t want to be famous.

I know that nine times four is thirty-six.

I don’t understand why things have to die,

Or
Why nothing last forever.

I don’t understand the man upstairs.

I don’t understand why people don’t care.

I don’t understand image.

My heroes are Bob Marley, My cat Salem and Gandhi.

Because, they all seem to know who they are.

I hate being a waitress,

I hate fakeness,

And wet socks.

I hate baseball.

I cannot live without soap; Nor, can I live without oxygen.

I couldn’t live without the darkness of the misfits.

I spend too much money on tampons, clothing, and cell phone bills.

I admire Steven King and DR. Nullity.

If I were rich I would pay for school, to get even richer and take over the world.

I am whimsical.

I wish I had a genie and something that lasted forever.

I contemplate too much.

I overreact too much.

I tend to scrunch up my face.

I am studying English and math because I am iffy on what to do.

I will cry about it then laugh later.

I hate make-up but I still wear it.

I am a health nut but I smoke like a model.

I am Vanessa and this is 2008.I am Vanessa

Introduction to Summary

My next choice is a summary on a story of poverty. I believe it shows my ability to write effectively, formally, and analytically. I had to not use the word YOU, and had to include the title and author in my first sentence. Furthermore, I used senses to go into distributive details about the environment it makes the reader have a better picture of the story. It is about a woman struggling to survive with her and her family. I chose it because summary was a large part of my English ninety-eight class. We had several summaries to write, and it took up a lot of time in our class this quarter. I believe that the following summery is my best of all of them.

Summary "What is Poverty?"

"What is Poverty?" By JoGoodwin Parker, is about a women and her family living in poverty. The woman who is telling the story explains what poverty is in her life. She leads you in by using sciences such as smell when she says how it stinks from being poor. There is talk of sight, the author dose by telling the reader how she sees her children’s dirty dippers, the sores, and the messy home. Hearing she tells how all sound she hears is her baby crying due to wring worm. Touch she tells how her hands are so rough because she has no soap or lotion. Finally taste the lack of food they have to eat but cans of beans. It is a touching story of a woman trying to be strong. The author tells the reader to not pity her, and uses her story to inspire other to succeed.