Daily Goals 3/23/11

I have one main goal today: GET MY PROJECT DONE! To get my project done today I need to be extremely focused on my work. I will also need to make sure that I have time set away this evening to work on my project if I do not get it finished during school.

Literary Response #3 "A Farewell to Arms"

I had an interesting, and rather odd connection with Frederick Henry, the main protagonist, in this book. (I am going to call him Henry in this blog because that is the name he is most commonly referred to in the book.) Henry, while on the Italian World War 1 front was shot in the legs by Austrian soldiers. He hurt his right need pretty badly. He made it to safety and was eventually moved to the American hospital in Milan, Italy because he was an American and had connections with the right people. Henry had to undergo surgeries and had to participate in the 1917 version of physical therapy. His incident connects to my life because I have had an injury to my right knee and I had to have surgery.

Reflections 3/21/11

For today, I think I would give myself an eight when rating the amount of work that I got done today. I would give myself an eight because I did not complete the amount of work that I would have liked at school and I am doing it at home instead. I just finished my book "A Farewell to Arms" for my literary analysis and I am going to post my last blog on that book shortly after this. I got a fair amount of work done on my project today and I am excited that it is coming along the way that it is. I also completed a discussion-based assessment for my H.O.P.E. course today which I did not put on my daily goals previously.

Daily Goals 3/21/11

I have many things to do today. Below is the list of items I need to complete:

• Finish literary analysis book
• Post last blog
• Finish project
• End of day blog

Literary Response #2 "A Farewell To Arms"

So far, I am really liking this book. I am enjoying Ernest Hemingway's "matter of fact" style of writing. His writing style is really different than any other novelist's style of writing that I have read previously. A Farewell to Arms takes place on the Italian front of World War 1. Much of the book takes place in Milan, Italy. So far in the novel the main protagonist has been living in a villa. He has also been driving around the front in his ambulance. The main protagonist's name is Lieutenant Frederic Henry. Lieutenant Henry is an ambulance driver on the front; he is also an American. Lieutenant is often called Tenente, which is Italian for Lieutenant, throughout the novel. So far I have learned that Lieutenant Henry is the type of character who keeps a lot of his feelings to himself. He is the type of person whom everybody in the novel likes and whom everybody thinks they know a lot about but they do not realize that he is a very deep character. The other main character in "A Farewell to Arms" is Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Catherine is described as very beautiful and tall. She is also very intelligent. Catherine falls in love with Lieutenant Henry almost immediately. He loves her to a degree but tries hard to not fall farther in love with her. I don't know how or if their love progresses because I have not read far enough into the book yet. At this point in the novel it surprised me how frankly their love was portrayed.  Their are two conflicts that I have come across so far in this book. The first conflict being that Lieutenant Henry was wounded in an attack on the Italian army. He is spending time recovering and was moved to an American hospital in Milan right now in the book. Catherine is also being moved to that hospital because there is a lack of nurses. The second conflict I found was Lieutenant Henry's reluctance to love Catherine when she loves him so obviously and boldly. He thinks that she is beautiful but shows a real reluctance to "love" her.

Daily Goals 3/16/11

Daily Goals:

• Review what I already have done on my project
• Continue to get information to put in the Prezi
• Work on the Prezi
• Pick songs to use 
• Get at least half of my project completed

Reflections 3/14/11

Today has been a very effective day. I have gotten quite a lot done on my project "What makes a hit song". Here are the goals that I was supposed to have completed for today:

• Start on my project "What makes a hit song?"
• Lay out project
• Pick songs
• Start putting information into Prezi

I have started work on my project. I gathered information this morning and I still need about another day to gather all the information that I need for my project. I have decided on a flow-chart type layout for my project. I don't have the specifics for the Prezi  necessarily, but I have an idea. Later tonight I will work on getting the specifics down and work on getting my vision for the project down. I am still undecided on the songs that I am going to use for my project. I will need a little more time to figure out the direction that I am going with my project in order to determine the exact songs I will use. I have decided that I will use songs from the billboard charts though. I have started my Prezi also.