Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Week 4 Post B

This section was really good. Tony talks a lot about trying to be a good coach and at the same time, a good husband. He also talks about success and how he and others define it:
“God’s Word, however, presents a different definition of success-one centered on a relationship with Jesus Christ and a love for God that allows us to love and serve others. God gives each one of us unique gifts, abilities, and passions. How well we use those qualities to have an impact on the world around us determines how “successful” we really are” (143).
This is both the same and different how I measure success. I also measure it in if I give something my best effort and know that I truly tried my hardest, and then I am successful in everything that I can apply those rules. I also measure success by my abilities and weather or not I use them, either to benefit myself or others. In this section there are many pictures of Tony from the past leading to the present. But all help paint a picture that he is trying to tell. From playing high school basketball to college football, and finally the big show: the NFL and is coaching career. I last quote to leave you with would be when he is talking to his assistant: “No, Warren, I whispered. Remember what we talked about. We’re the tornado. Unknown. Until it’s too late” (163).

Week 4 Post A

  • "Not only was 1997 special for our team, it was a good year for my family as well. Lauren and I were really having fun discovering the Tampa Bay area"(131). This was significant because it really shows that not only was he trying to be a good coach but how he was trying to keep close to his family.
  • An emerging theme in this section would be balancing family with work (coaching).

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Week 3 Post A

Vocab:
Tacticians:(96)- tactical, representative, PR manager, mediator, someone who mediates and is tactical.

Frugal:(102)-fiscal, worried, careful, "penny pincher"

An emerging theme in the book would now be don't jump to conclusions. Because one of his coaches was shy and stand offish and he stuck wit him and turned out to be a great coach.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Week 2 Post B

A significant quote that I pulled out of this section would be: “Of course, being back in Minnesota was like being home for me, even though the weather was painfully cold” (79). This is significant because I feel the same way, except Minnesota actually is home. But no matter when I go or travel to, I always love being in Minnesota just like Tony Dungy. If I was writing a letter to the author (Tony Dungy) here is what it might look like:
Dear Mr. Dungy,
I’m writing you as a reader of your book. I think it is wonderful so far, but I’m wondering how you felt after you were fired? You didn’t go into much depth in your book. Right now I just finished reading about your experiences with Herm Edwards. Also I know how you feel when you returned to Minnesota from Kansas City, I love it here as well, and yes the cold in painful, but its part of what make Minnesota unique. Also I’d like to know why your wife liked Kansas City so much, what it was for her that made it so special.
That would be my letter to Mr. Dungy. Over all this section to me was good, he packed it with details and I felt that I made a personal connection with it. To me this is the first good book that I have read in a long time, and I so far I would recommend it to everyone.

Week 2 Post A

Vocab
Spontaneous:(63)v. Acting in spontaneity, outgoing, outrageous, action that wouldn't be the norm of that person.
Ramifications:(81)n. Repercussions, consequences

An emerging theme in this book would be that friends last forever. This is significant because Tony starts out meeting all new friends as a player who later on become people that help him get coaching opportunities.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Post B week 1

A quote that I pulled form this section would be:
“Everyone in the Tampa viewing area would have multiple opportunities to see Tony Dungy, former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, placing boxes into his SUV in the pouring rain”(6). This gave me a sense that he was in a way wounded or powerless now, the rain also contributed to that feeling, and he describes the people as if they want to see him this way. As the section goes on, He tells what it was like growing up a Dungy. A quote I pulled from this section was:
“Growing up in Jackson, to my way of thinking, was the way growing up was meant to be” (7). This gave me a sense of how Tony felt about his childhood. It goes on and talks about how much he loved where he grew up, and that he loved even more that he got to coach near by, in Tampa Bay. Something I really like about this book is that at the beginning of each chapter he puts a quote from someone on the first page. I think this is interesting because I wonder what prompted him to do that, and I concluded that maybe because some of these quotes changed his life.

Post A week 1

Vocab:
Prognosticators pg.3: People who antagonize, who provoke
Bewilderment pg.6: bewildered, astonished, dumbfounded

A rising theme in this book would be that hard work pays off. This is shown when Tony describes how he became a coach, and how when he was fired he recovered.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

My Book

  • Quiet Strength, by Tony Dungy
  • 2007
  • Nonfiction
  • 300
  • This book is sufficient because the reviews are mostly adults, it's a recent book, it's over 200 pages which i usually don't read, and it seems like an interesting book
  • I chose this book because it's about one of the great coaches of our time, Tony Dungy, and it's about sports.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Sea Inside 3

There were scenes that i thought were most significant.



1. When in the court, there is a high angle shot looking down on Ramon.
-this made him seem belittled small and powerless, this meant that there was no changing their decision and that this was the way it was going to be.



2. When they're filming Ramon's video, there is an eye level shot.
-This shot gave me the feeling that i was there talking with Ramon... and filming it myself. This is significant because he was going to die, and they didn't want to give the feeling of power or powerless but they wanted to make him equal.

3. In the scene where Ramon is arguing with his brother about wanting to die there is a mid-shot
-This is important because it gave me the feeling that no matter what he says it's still Ramon's decision and that there is equality there, even though hes the paraplegic.

The Sea Inside 2

Some similarities between Diving Bell and Sea inside would be that both people were paraplegics and both had people around them who loved them very much. But a huge difference is that one wished to die the other did not. In my opinion i tihnk that the diving bell and the butterfly was more powerful becasue he was trapped inside and it was a far more worse situation, he used his disadvantage to his advantage and wrote a book.... with one eye.

The Sea Inside 1

I thought that this was a good movie but kind of sad. I think that his request for suicide was his wish and that he had a right do do what he wanted, I also feel though that the court had no right to interfere like that. This was his wish and that Ramon felt what he said... living is a right not an obligation and if this is what he believed and that is what matters because the courts aren't the people who is wishing to die. As for the friends who helped, i mean he did tell him that if they truly loved him that they would help him die, so after a statement like that its hard to say because some of them might have felt pressured into it. But they wanted what was best for him and Ramon thought that death was what was best.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

ESSAY ON FEVER PITCH

English 10
25 October 2007
Play by Pitch

Whenever someone asks me: “who is your favorite college football team?” I always respond with “I bleed cardinal and gold for USC.” I give them that response because I’m a really big fan of their football team and I mean an enormous fan. And Only a true fan knows what it’s like when your favorite team loses a big game, of feels that pain the team does with the agony of defeat, which is why Nick Hornby wrote Fever Pitch, to acknowledge a life long fixation about the Arsenal football club and that he is a true fan of the game. He tells us just how much a true fan he is using word choice, game references and his personal life.
Sometimes what people say can be misinterpreted by the words you use. Nick Hornby leaves nothing to be misinterpreted in Fever Pitch because word choice is a huge part of his description and tribute to his obsession with the Arsenal soccer (football) team. This is demonstrated on page 13 in the quote: “It might not be too fanciful to suggest that it was an idea which shaped my life. I have always been accused of taking the things I love-football, of course, but also books and records- much to seriously.” When I read this I focused on his word choice of “love” because it describes his true feeling about the sport in reference Arsenal. Another good example of Nick using word choice is in the quote: “In a way Brazil ruined it for all of us. They had revealed a kind of Platonic ideal that nobody, not even Brazilians, would ever be able to find again”(30). The words here that jumped out at me were “platonic” and “ruined it for us all” because

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“Platonic” makes it sound like it was more that it actually was and you can really feel the emotion in his description that just adds to his tribute to the team. When he talks about “ruined it for us all” he makes it sound like he is more than a fan, that he is almost a player and the way he says it is to create a more dramatic feeling to the praise. A last example of word choice would be on page 73 when he is talking about a tragic loss, and he uses “we” as in “we lost” describing that he is more than just a fan that he is a part of the team and that he would be honored to be an actual part of the team, which creates more prestige about Arsenal. All of these examples of word choice have shown the emotion Nick Hornby has put into his book, and how he felt like he was more than just a fan.
It helps a lot when you take notes in school, so you can look back on the topic with detail. That has to be what Nick Hornby did when he wrote this book because he uses game reference with good details to add to the tribute. Some good examples of this would be on pages 85, 93, and 104. In all of these situations Nick uses good descriptive details as if he were writing everything down back then when he was watching the game. This is significant because it shows that he cared back then and he cares now, that this book is truly a tribute to this team.
Sometimes we get sidetracked from our goals, or forget the things we love. Nock Hornby does not; through all the events of his personal life he still follows the team. In the near beginning of the book, his parents begin the process of getting divorced, this is a personal issue, that almost clouds his viewing for a while but recovers and the team is kind of what gets him through the divorce. Arsenal’s stadium was like Nick’s home away
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from home during the divorce. This is noteworthy because it shows that this team is as though the team is personal to him. A last but just as good example would be when he broke up with his long-term girlfriend (unnamed). He tells us about how important to the story she is in the quote: “She is a part of this story, I think, in several ways…” (93).This quote is significant because he basically comes out and says she is important to the story. An event like this can cause someone to get sidetracked, but Nick doesn’t seem to, he stays strong and gets through it with his team… Arsenal.
In all I liked this book, it showed that true fans truly love their team. Nock’s personal experiences, word choice and game references made this book into a 239 page tribute to the Arsenal football club. And as long as I bleed cardinal and gold I’ll feel the same way he does.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Outside Reading Reaction

My Reaction: I have many feelings about Fever Pitch some of them are good, but some are also not good. I personally don’t have a personal connection to this book. Although I do play soccer I really didn’t connect to it. This book made me feel like it was a soccer report, that all he was going to do was report about the games he saw. Then as he got deeper into the book, he told about how it really helped him connect with his father. And then again he started to just talk about the games. One connection I did make with this book was that Nick and his dad with soccer are like me and my dad with hockey. I feel that this book was not a book for me. Although I also feel it was well written, it just didn’t fit my kind of reading style. This book also made me feel that Nick didn’t really ever connect with his dad, sure they had the soccer games to watch together but that was really it. In the book he talks about how when he was with his dad and sister they didn’t really talk or go anywhere, until the football game. And right now that’s how this book has made me feel.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Week 5: Summary

This section of the book was in my opinion.... boring, there was no action no connection. But Nick did go to games as usual.
-Arsenal v. Manchester
-Arsenal in "confrence championship"
they go on and on. This section was also only 20 pages which is in opart why i myself didnt find it interesting. Nick is still in college, working hard at Cambridge. Now that he and his girlfriend have been broken up for a while, he has a lot of free time spent on other things like... watching Arsenal and keeping upo with them. He talks about how he hasnt been able to because of his relation ship, ill keep posting though....

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Week 4: Part 2

Summary:

In this section Hornby basically explains more games. But one significant event would be that He and his girlfriend split up, also that in the midst's of all this he starts teaching in a London school.

Week 4: part 1

-"But I do have other, more reliable, and probably more meaningful memories. I remember the overwhelming maleness of it alll- cigar and pipe smoke, foul language (words i had heard before, but not from adults, not at that volume), and only years later did it occur to me that this was bound to have an effect on a boy who lived with his mother and sister..."(141).

*This is significant to me becasue it shows an example of how Hornby uses memories and reminisence to add to the feeling and describe the event. This is important to the book because he is using it to describe his feelings during the game.

-"I got lost around this time, and stayed lost for the next few years. between one home game (against Coventry) and the next (a midweek game against Manchester City), I split up with my girlfriend..."(130).

*This was important to me because its the only situation in this section where her mentions an event other that a soccer game. It is important to the book because with all this football watching he has had a lot going on and this was saught to be significant.

Monday, October 8, 2007

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Bauby tells a sad but inspiring story. This story has really mad me think, his word choice and ways of describing his emotions, and thoughts. In the end I felt like the book punched me in the face. A favorite quote of mine form the near end of the book would be when he is telling about Mithra-Grandchamp:

“Frankly, I had forgotten Mitra-Grandchamp. The Memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities. Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away.” (p.94)

This quote emphasizes my feelings. It describes everyone at some point in life. How theres something that slipped away form us earlier, those moments we didn’t capitalize on, or those feeling we never expressed. This opened up my eyes, because I feel that he is exactly right. But you don’t want to let those opportunities fly away, that we all need to live life for what we have now and what we can do, and sometimes people just don’t realize until after the fact. The books ending also made me feel a little sad. This might possibly be because I already knew that he died a few days after his book was published. But the feeling I had was also because throughout out the story, he had a wandering mind with endless possibilities, the only problem is was unable to act on a lot of them because of his body. I think that if he would have recovered he would have done somtihngs and changed some things that he had or hadn’t done when he had the opportunity, thus referring to the quote again. This book had many affects on me, these were the ones I thought most important to me.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Week 3: Part 2


Nick Hornby Bio:

DOB: April 17, 1957

Parents:???

Location: Redhill, Surey, England.

First Book: Fever Pitch (1992)

Back gorund: Horby is a graduate from Cambridge University, He has one son; Danny, who is autistic. He becam married in 1998 to Virginia Bovell. Later on Hornby and Virginia became divorced.

Carreer Accomplishments: Fever Pitch was written in 1992, he wrote this book about his obseeion with the Arsenal football club. It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, and becam a hit move in the England. Later on here in the U.S. a version of the movie on the Boston Red Sox baseball team was made. He is a well known essay writter and novelist. some of his more famous novels include: High Fidelity, About A Boy, and How To Be Good.

Books Into Movies: Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About A Boy.

Where is he now?: Nick is now living in Maidenhead England, he is still divorced and not remarried. His newest novel come out on October 16, 2007.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Hornby#Personal_life

Contemporary Writters: http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth51
Fever Pitch Spark notes... (p.1-120)

So far Hornby has separated the chapter with titles of games. Some he watches and some hes at, eahc thought some how realated to his life with his father.

Section 1: (p. 1-40)
-Staged in England Hornby as a boy

-He tells of his parents being divorced and haveing a weak reltationship with his father

-he talks about he first live futball game. this is especially significant because it helped him reconnect with his dad, it has given themsleves somting in common.


- Another significance would be that when he was at the game he discovered that he tohught the people there were truely hateful of some players or he thought that meybe they were looking for some1 to blame of get angry at.


-Throughout the rest of this section he basically tells about the games, such as Swindon Town v. Arsenal, Brazil v. Czechoslovakia...

Section 2: (p.41-81)
-Hornby continues about the games he watches, including the ones that he is at with his dad.

-Nick talks more about his infatuation with Arsenal. *The main focus of this section

-A huge part of this section would be the game of Arsenal v. Ipswich, because now he was older,more grown, and now he would be in a different seating section, where "only the most vocal" and loyal supporters could sit. He sonciders this significant because its been so long since he started his futbol obssesion.

Section 3: (p.82-122)
-This section was slow moving and not very interesting.

- Somnthing significant would be that during this section he has applied toCambridge University.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Fever Pitch Section 1: pages 1-40

Summary of section 1:

This whole section was basically gettign background knowledge, and setting up the story. Some significant events in this section would be going to his first game and watching it live, after jsut becoming interested in football. He goes and watches Arsenal play. He goes into more depth about how the people there were so unique. That the things they shouted truely made the impression on him that they hated the game. From then on the book is divided into chapters, all starting with a football game first being, Swindon town v. Arsenal then England v. Scotland, and Arsenal v. Everton and ending with Brazil v. Czechoslovakia. All in which he either watched or was at. He goes into more detail about each game and what he was doing or was going on in his life during that time.

Summary pages 6-11

In this small part of the book, Horby tells about his expieriences with his dad at football games. About how actgually being there is a new expierience, and seeing all the different kinds of people.

Summary on pages form Fever Pitch

from pages 1-5... Hornby talks about when he was a boy how he didnt have a great relationship with his father, mostly becasue his parents were divorced. But the find a common interest in football, or in america its soccer.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

This I believe...

1. A link to the essay
http://thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?themelist=sports&uid=12764&yval=0&start=0

2. Author
Nichole

3. Title
Hard work paves the way for success

–4. One sentence of what the belief is
"I believe that practice and determination pave the way to success."

–5. 2 examples from the story that showed their belief
"Each day when I put on my practice gear my mindset is the same; I must practice how I desire to play"

"Practice can elevate your game or destroy it depending on your determination and work ethic. For me, practice elevates my game. In practice I shoot at least one hundred free-throws a day."

–6. 1 favorite passage
"“Practice means to perform, over and over again in repetitious behaviors facing all obstacles that could come your way.” I believe in practicing hard every day with passion, determination and heart until perfection is attained."

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Question 2

Better grades, is something that my parents have stressed for a while. Which is why is it a major goal for me this year. Last year i dont feel that i pushed myself to the grades that i wanted to have. This year i plan to do that.

Question 1

The thing that i am most anxious about at Edina High School is the opportunity for me to tryout for hockey. Hockey has been a huge part of my life since i can remember, which is why i answered the way i did. Without hockey in the winter i would be lost. Which is why hockey is what i am most anxious about at Edina High School this year.
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