Monday, March 25, 2013

Today is Monday March 25 mother nature has decided to give us a little taste of winter. Think this will make my trip to the beach in two weeks even  more enjoyable. I got lucky over  the weekend and was invited to a seminar the school of metaphysics was hosting at the tower club on Saturday, there had not been enough people purchase and sign up. Late Friday night she called and offered me a complimentary seat and I could not it down. Now I hope to apply some of what I learned to my life to improve my meditation and concentration.Ran into Ellen there and was nice to visit with her , she had heard through her letter carrier that I had been let go . Although she is an odd duck I still enjoy talking with her and who knows maybe her very simple lifestyle is something we could  all try. Obviously the way it played out was a sign of some sort and I was suppose  to come away with  something. My back has been really bad since spring break and I am finding it more and more difficult to sit in this chairs for any length of time. I have now made three trips to the chiropractor and am trying to decide if I should continue to go. Last week I think it was hurting more after the adjustment than before. The flexeril  is making my brain very foggy in the mornings so I try not to take it during the week but it seems to help my back to relax. This coming weekend is Easter and no one has made any plans yet as to what we as a family will be doing. Jessica and kids will be going to church on Sunday morning so they wont be coming up.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Descriptive Essay

Cylene Wallace
Mr. Neuburger
ENG 101-101
28 February 2013
Descriptive Essay
The First Day
            Finding myself unemployed and nearing the half century mark I was forced to make a decision. I had thought about going back to school many times, but something seemed to always get in the way, mostly fear. I began to ask myself if this could finally be my time and whether   Cylene could find the courage to conquer community college classes. The preparations were made and, with the first day fast approaching, I felt a rollercoaster of emotions.
            Time is a thief, which is proven by my aged skin and body, but inside I was still the same little girl who couldn’t sleep the night before the first day of school. I could almost hear my grandmother telling me to go to sleep and don’t trouble your little peanut head over the problem.
            There have been countless numbers of dreaded Mondays in my lifetime. Rainy, sunny, hot, and cold but I was sure this particular Monday would prove to be one I would not soon forget. My stomach was filled with fear and nausea, but somehow found the courage to leave my safe haven and venture out into the unknown. As I headed out to my silver car my legs felt like large stone slabs.
            Driving to school everything seemed to be intensified. Traffic was heavy, car lights were so bright they were almost blinding. Sitting at the red stop light I must have gotten lost in my thoughts only to be brought back to reality by the honking horn of the car behind me. Dreading my first day,  it was as though I arrived at the school quicker than usual, even though I had taken the same route many times before. As foreign as it seemed, I realized I was still in America by the big flag blowing in the wind.
            Walking into the large mysterious brick building I felt like a fish out of water. There were excited voices buzzing like a beehive with the rushing around of people, mostly young adults, rude and bumping into me. They too, seemed to be lost, struggling to open doors with heavy book bags in hand.  I wondered if they could possibly be as scared as me. It reminded me of something I had seen in a movie, but this was no movie.
            With fear and nausea increasing with every step I took, somehow I managed to find my classroom. My legs were shaking so badly I was not sure if I would be able to make it to a chair. Here I was lost in a sea of nameless faces, and wondered if I could possibly belong? I remembered having this feeling before on my first day of kindergarten. The difference today being I had a car and could leave on my own; I wouldn’t have to wait for Grandma to come get me.
            Class began with role call as classes normally do. Under my breath I sarcastically thanked my mother again for not spelling my name with a K. She is always an easy target when I am scared and angry. We were instructed to log onto our computers and create some sort of digital portfolio. I looked at my instructor like he was talking in some sort of alien tongue. I was wondering to myself, “What on earth am I doing here?” almost certain I did not belong. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe, try to relax, and dig down deep to find the courage to pull this off. My palms were sweaty and beads of perspiration started running down my forehead. By this time I was looking at the computer screen with a stare as blank as a page from my notebook. Could this be the stench of failure?
Always having a taste for the fruit of knowledge, I realized eventually that this would not be a failure. While humility has hard lessons, it may be quite healthy. Standing on solid ground, I somehow found the courage to keep going back to the class. I am happy that I have the opportunity to go back to school. I would never have thought in a million years that I would create a blog account and be blogging, but here I am almost two months later feeling more comfortable with it, and it’s all because one teacher planted the seed of wisdom.
            Most days I now find myself enjoying going to English class. Although I still struggle with some, if not most, of my computer skills, I have made significant improvements. No longer hanging my head like a dying flower, I hold my head up and smile, determined not to be conquered by my fear. I now look forward to finding out what the next eight weeks has in store for me.
           



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

free write march20

Today is the first day of spring and the weather forecast sounds more like winter times like this makes me happy I'm not out walking around in that stuff. I have been to the dr two times now with my back and am going again today thought it was better until I started sitting in chairs all day again this week. Yesterday was the first baseball game of the season was scheduled to be at Walnut Grove but was moved to Halfway so I did not make the drive.Surprising enough he was not too upset by the lose.He said the boys still have a good attitude and are making improvements. Last weekend was spent mostly entertaining my parents. It was nice for everyone to get together for dinner on Saturday night. Josey has gotten to an age now that she has became more social and enjoys showing off on demand seems to be very quick on picking things up and mimicking. This is the first free write since returning from spring break so that means that I have made it halfway through the first semester and don't seem to have many scars.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Film Unfinished

Although, I am not sure that I fully understand why the film was being created and what they intended to do with it; I do know that it was very disturbing and I will not forget anytime soon some of the scenes. I find it hard to imagine that people were being treated so poorly just a few decades ago. It must have been very difficult for the actors to pretend when being filmed, while others, probably family members were being treated so badly. The scenes that were staged in the restaurants, the nice apartment, and Jewish people dressed in nice clothes walking freely, and the fancy funerals could not have been further from the truth. How difficult it must have been to trip over a dead body on the street wondering how much longer before that’s you laying there dead from starvation or disease. The constant in all the survivors I’ve seen is that they still get very emotional when either talking or watching the film, that what happened to them is still very painful even now. I am getting a better understanding of that myself in just what little bit of time we’ve spent watching the movie. The scene when they were sliding dead bodies on the board down into the large pit was nauseating for me; it is hard to imagine how one could have lived in those circumstances for any length of time. It was hard to see the children who were obviously starving; scared and dirty wearing mostly rags.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Survival Testimonial 2

Alfred Caro was born July 27,1911 in Samter,Germany the oldest boy in a family of three girls and three boys. His father owned a butcher shop and his mother was a homemaker.He moved to Berlin as a young boy and attended public school,in that time we didn't know the difference in a Gentile and a Jew. His father was one hundred percent German and had fought for Germany in World War 1 receiving several medals.As a young man he was very interested in sports,but went to school to be a butcher and became a masterpiece in cooking.Remembering when Nuremberg laws went into effect and the tremendous changes that followed,everyone looking at each other different now. There was a political investigation going on at this time and one male from each family was required to go in for questioning.He decided that he would go and after being held in a large room with several other Jewish men, none of whom understood why they were being held was transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.The living arrangements were horrible,sleeping on the floor,only water in the morning,watery soup for lunch and bread at night.The German officers brutally beating prisoners and tricking them intentionally just to shoot them.When he did not return home his mother went to police headquarters asking questions and ran into an old childhood friend of Albert's.He recognized her and agreed to help her.Albert was soon released from the camp and sent back to Berlin to the police prison where his mother picked him up.He then contacted the Hicem organization and they helped get him a visa.His entire family took him to the train station to tell him goodbye as if they knew this would be the last time he saw them. He spent two weeks in Belgium,and another two weeks in Paris, but found it hard to communicate only speaking German.South America had began taking immigrants and he was put on a ship to Columbia with about five hundred other people mostly Jews.He first worked in a goldmine and later worked in a restaurant.During this time the Red Cross was trying to locate living family members and two of his sisters contacted him only to tell him the rest of his family had been transported and believed to be dead.Soon after he decided to go to New York to live with his sister.That is where he met a widow woman from Alabama that was vacationing with her child.They were married,he moved to Alabama and worked in a small country store she owned.Later he opened a restaurant called the Annistonian,the motto being Often imitated, but never duplicated.Knowing that he was one of the luckiest ones being in the first groups to leave Germany he often wonders why his life was spared. "I never will forgive and I never will forget" "I cannot say in many words how you feel to say goodbye to people, what terrible"

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Survival Testimonial

Dr. Kristine Keren was born October 38, 1935 in Lvov into a very wealthy Jewish family. They lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking a courtyard with fine furnishings and accessories. A live-in nanny cared for her and her younger brother,they also had a housekeeper.Her father was an educated man who owned a business selling textiles,she can remember when the Germans forced him to give them the keys to the store. Next they came to the apartment, with the officer sitting on her mother's piano bench he then told them that all of their belongings were now his. Her father begged for his family's lives,the officer then accepted a bribe and allowed them to live.She could no longer go outside to play and learned to hide both her brother and herself upon hearing the soldiers footsteps.Her father decided it was to dangerous to stay, the family began to run,moving nine times before getting to the ghetto.Her father begin digging a tunnel to the sewer through the basement in the house they were staying in. One day while digging he met a Polish sewer worker who said he would help to hide the family in return for a large sum of money.They spent fourteen months living in a sewer,described as a large river with two-foot sidewalks on both sides.The conditions were horrible,it was dark with large rats, the smell of sewer, very little food and keeping quiet so they wouldn't be found by the enemy.The sewer worker helped them to survive by smuggling food,blankets, newspapers,candles,books and medicine in his tool briefcase.Upon leaving the dark sewer her brother wanted to go back down, the daylight hurt his eyes.Everyone was very suspicious about Jews that had survived thinking they were German spys.With the sewer worker still helping them the family went to Krakow where her parents began working again and she and her brother went to school.The principal knew she was Jewish and told her mother to pretend to be Christian and they changed their name to a more Polish sounding name.She remembers her mother bringing home packages from the United States with food and blankets.Her father going daily to the Red Cross to check the list of survivors hoping to find a family member.At the age of sixty-three when giving this interview she stated she still has dreams running with her brother trying to escape,cannot step on a manhole,and the sound of footsteps in a German movie is very disturbing for her. "The sewer was like a city underground with tunnels and branches and smaller branches." "For the sake of the child lets say that she is a Christian not Jewish."

Thursday, March 7, 2013

MLA powerpoint

1.It allows readers to cross-reference your sources easily Provides consistent format within a discipline Gives you credibility as a writer Protects yourself from plagiarism 2.Helps your reader understand your arguments and the built sources they're built on.Also helps you keep track of your sources as you build arguments. 3.Anything from failure of the assignment to expulsion from school. 4.Prentiss Hall Reference Guide, Composition textbooks,www.mla.org,and OWL website owl.english.purdue.edu. 5.The purpose of a work cited page is to provide a complete list of every source that your make in your essay and to provide information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any sources cited in your essay.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Free Write 3-6-13

Today is Wednesday my mother is 77 years old today. I have a medical terminology test this afternoon. I have already had the math mid term and will be having a mid term in my cis class in the morning.Friday in English and at that will have completed my first half of a semester of college classes. I have been very stressed this week and have not been sleeping very well. Look forward to sleeping on Friday

Narrative Essay

Narrative Essay by

Monday, March 4, 2013

Free Write 3-4-13

Today is Monday March 4 the last Monday before spring break. This means i have made it halfway through my firsr semester. The weather is suppose to be better this week and spring is right around the corner. This may be a difficult week sounding like I am going to have a mid term test in each class. I forgot to pay the house insurance and have been worried about that ever since I discovered that. will be glad when their office opens this morning. Next week i am going to pick Andrew up from school one day and spend the night there that will make him happy. I will be relieved when this week is over. My throat starting getting sore yesterday and I have a horrible headache. Probably what the grandkids had. Not the best of times to be feeling down. Was not able to rest very well last night. Not long before the trip to Florida have decided to just wear pants to the wedding after trying on dresses last week. Fat and fifty at least all the birthday cake is now gone.I need to work on scribd and learn the process.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Kor lecture essay

Cylene Wallace Mr. Neuburger ENG 101-101 27 February 2013 Lecture Summary Eva Moses Kor The lecture given by Ms. Kor was both touching and informative. It began with her and her family arriving at Auschwitz death camp. Upon exiting the cattle car they had been riding in for over three days with no food and water, she was now standing on the selection platform. It was the last place she saw her parents and two older sisters. Within thirty minutes her entire world changed forever. She and her twin sister Miriam were then taken to some sort of barracks; the living conditions were extremely bad. There was no water and rats roamed the floors at night. She spoke of the first time she saw corpses of children laying on the floor. Very little food was provided to the prisoners. Most days they were taken to the experiment station, where they sat naked and were injected with numerous drugs, their bodies measured and studied. She became very ill after one of the injections, Dr. Mengele told her she would die but somehow with her determination to live she pulled through. She talked about seeing an airplane with an American flag fly over, making her feel hopeful. Upon liberation there were only two hundred children found alive of the nearly fifteen hundred sets of Mengele twins. The lecture ended with what was called the three life lessons. Never give up on your dreams, do not be prejudice, and forgive someone. For her forgiveness is the key to healing.