English Final Exam #6,8,10

6. In what way(s) have you surprised yourself this semester on your blog? Have you tried topics you didn't think you'd write about? Approached a familiar topic from an unfamiliar angle? Discovered more "depth" to a topic than you first thought was possible? Explain.

In my blog last year, I surprised myself by writing about McDonalds. I wanted chicken strips, and decided to write about McDonalds. Usually, I order food and eat. I don’t care about calories, cholesterol, fats, etc. It was pretty fun looking at McDonald's website for the first time at the nutrition facts. I always wondered why my mom would limit me to eating McDonald’s only once every two weeks. At first, I was going to write about their foods in general. Then, I decided to write more in depth about their menu, like which types of foods I do and don’t enjoy. After I blogged about McDonald’s, I watched Super Size Me for the first time. I watched Morgan's cholesterol levels rise; gaining more weight must have been hard for him.

One topic I did not think I would blog about is "Time". I don’t think about time that much, only when I look at a clock. I began to question myself, "What would people do without clocks?" People would not have a fixed schedule, we probably wouldn’t know what day or year it is. We use time in schools, work, etc. People could not be paid by hour if we did not have time, we would have to use the sun as a clock. People calculate when the sun goes up and down, as the sky grows dark. I realized how many things I could write about time: time travel, units of time, even the origin of clocks. One thing I could have included in there was "Timeline" a movie about a lost professor trapped in the 1500's. His son as well as his students decided to go back in time also, and save the professor. The company in the movie that produced time travel did not know they were doing it, and accidentally discovered a wormhole.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

Having a blog is like having a pencil and paper on a computer. I can keep track of how many words I have, I can write faster, and use the internet if I need help writing something. I enjoy writing on the computer, as my hand hurts from taking notes during school. On a computer, other people can actually read my writing. Sometimes I think that a blog is just like Microsoft Word. When I write on Blogger, I notice I can’t press the tab button to indent on new paragraphs. Also, I prefer to blog than write on paper, because it is more enjoyable to me
Having to think of a subject to write about takes a while. It has made me pull up subjects about the past, like "Fire Emblem 6 and 7", and "Disneyworld". I remember going to Disneyworld three times vividly. The first time I went, I was five years old. It was a year after I had a hernia. I actually do not remember being at Disneyworld, but more on the cruise I went on with my family. One time on the ship, we had to go outside and wear a life jacket, incase if the ship sank. Everybody was required to have on an orange life jacket. It made me hard to breathe, and it was hot outside. The second time I went was with my cousins, when I was older. We went on all the "big" rides, because all the little kiddy rides were boring. During our stay, we went to every theme park once. On the final day, we went to Downtown Disney, basically a shopping mall for Disney themed toys, and restaurants.
Ever since I was little, I hated writing and reading, English. It is still my worst subject. I hate writing because my hand gets tired from writing too much, and ink smudges on my hand. If I mess up, I would cross out the word or letter and continue. Now that I’m in high school, I have to use an eraser. Mr. Joo prefers us to cross out errors, and now, it is difficult switching back. When I am on the computer, I actually enjoy writing. It is a way to express myself. Blogging has really changed the way I write, mainly because I enjoy doing it. Writing an in-class essay, which nobody likes, is hard to do. We are timed, and have to work efficiently. On blogger, we get to type whatever we want, and we have a deadline of a week.

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

My inspiration comes from anything I think about. I watch Spongebob a lot, so I blogged about it. I write about things I can talk about. My blog on McDonalds came from my cravings of chicken strips. I decided to research a little on McDonalds, and wrote about it. I do not choose topics I can’t write on, or topics that are unclear to me. I sometimes like to write about my everyday life because I don’t know what else to write about. I run out of ideas quickly. Even though I wrote ninteen blogs, I still have trouble finding things to write about. Anybody can write about anything, but the writing may not reflect what it is really about.

One time, instead of writing about "My Day", I almost wrote about Microsoft and their rise in technology. I love learning about history, and it is one of my favorite classes. I do my research on Wikipedia. It has articles about various things. Sometimes, when I’m bored, I will look up random things. I usually look up World War 2. I always get confused on how it started. I will blog about this later, but made into two blogs.

My inspiration to blog also comes from things I have, or did. For example, I wrote "My Every Other Year Trip to Maui", "Schindler's List", and "Fire Emblem 6 and 7". I read Schindler's List for my History book report. I also watched the movie two years ago. It was quite traumatizing, and showed that Schindler cared for his workers. Fire Emblem is a game that I played when I was in the seventh grade. When I heard there was a prequel to Fire Emblem, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and bought the game Fire Emblem: Fuin no Tsurugi on Ebay. I beat both of them.