It seems like I never know what to talk about when I hop on this wondrous website. I think to help with this lull I'm going to start posting some of the things I write for the school paper and maybe a english thing or two. I'll try to avoid all the boring stuff, but an opinion article or two might show up from time to time. I'll still post pictures and things, but it seems like I just don't know what to say to cyberspace. So, to the huge number of people who read this blog (like 2) I'm really gonna start up again!
Any ways, I recently read The Scarlett Letter for English and I really enjoyed it. The text was pretty verbose, but I really enjoyed having a challenging read. For class, I wrote a essay on how the last chapter relates to the rest of the book. That essay is going to be my first post. To those of you who may have read it, enjoy! To those of you who haven't, its a great read!

A Final Glance at The Scarlett Letter
The last chapter in The Scarlett Letter resolves many of the major conflicts between Hester and Roger and reinforces the theme that people grow from hard times. Through Roger’s death and apparent wealth, Pearl is able to make a life for herself, and Hester is able to move on with her life. The people of Boston learn to accept others no matter their pasts. Hester becomes a dear friend to many of the townswoman and is finally recognized as the strong woman she has been all along. With the predicaments at an end, and the truth let out, The Scarlett Letter ends in a very satisfying way.
The conflict between Hester and Roger Chillingworth is ended in the final chapter. After Arthur, Hester’s old lover, reveals himself as Pearl’s father, Roger Chillingworth loses the influence he had over Hester. Because Roger no longer has a victim to taunt, he loses the will to live and passes away within a year of Arthur’s passing. Soon after Roger’s death, Hester finds that Roger has left a great deal of money to Pearl and in doing so, Pearl is able to go to Europe where she marries into an aristocratic family. Hester travels with her daughter for a few years, but ends up going back to Boston, where she is welcomed with open arms. With Roger dead, both Pearl and Hester live happy lives free from the oppression of others.
In the final chapter, the theme that people grow stronger from hard times is emphasized. While in Europe, Hester is free to live without the harshness of her past. After a few years away, she grows to realize that home is back in Boston and she returns there. Again a resident of Boston, she wears her badge of shame as a badge of honor. She is now proud of the woman she has become and she accepts the badge as a part of her individuality. The citizens of Boston soon realize how harshly they have judged Hester and she is then looked up to as a wise, strong woman rather than a sinner. This all goes to show that people change because of their trials and in many cases like Hester’s and the townspeople, those hard times make you stronger.
I loved this book because it was easy to compare Hester’s situation to our time era. Throughout the book, Hester is wrongly judged and is blamed for a sin that is not entirely her own. With today’s “get it now” attitude, people often wrongly accuse others because they don’t want to take the time to open their minds and explore all possibilities. An example of this could be found in the James Bain situation where he was accused of a rape he didn’t commit, and then put in prison for a total of 35 years. Just as in the sixteen hundreds, today if you give people the chance to show who they really are they will shock you as they exceed all of your expectations. Hester wasn’t given this chance early enough. After giving birth to Pearl, she was forced into a life of cruel judgments and isolation. It wasn’t until after she had returned from Europe that she was given the chance to show her true colors. Once she was given that chance townspeople realized what a wise, strong woman Hester truly was. Like Arthur Dimmesdale, people are too often afraid that if they reveal their past or even their personality others will not accept them. All in all, many of the problems society has today were addressed in this book which made it more interesting and more meaningful to read.
Overall, the last chapter of this book tied together all of the loose ends that Arthur’s death left hanging. The conflicts between Roger and Hester were resolved in a beneficial way for Pearl. Hester was able to reach her full potential in the woman she had become and others accepted her. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I find it applicable to life now. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new understanding of human nature.


I know, its just about the most exciting thing that you've ever read. Anyways, stay tuned... until next time.....

You know its been a long time when you start checking your own blog for updates...Life is great. I don't really feel like saying all that much or even updating my life on here... So I think I'll just add a few pics.

























You know its been a long time when you start checking your own blog for updates...Life is great. I don't really feel like saying all that much or even updating my life on here... So I think I'll just add a few pics.

Fun at Hee Haw Farms

Waiting in the Sam's club parking lot for ma and pa

Dem with the enormous piggy

Baaa baa said the goat. Awww Cute wittle bunny
modeling the H2O in the pockets
More hangin at Sams . . Yes Zach was there, he just managed to dodge a couple pics.

Life As It is Now

Lately I've been pretty busy. Between end of term craziness, drivers ed, Yw, violin and spending time with the fam, it's been pretty hectic.
Like I said earlier, I've also recently taken and interest in taking photos. Mostly I've just been taking pictures of my friends and Em and Jo, but last week a lady in my ward who we are friends with asked me to take her family pictures! I was totally surprised. By now, most photographers are booked for a while and she remembered (from like three years ago) that I like taking pictures so she asked me to do it so she could still enjoy the fall colors. It was actually a lot of fun doing them. I just used our family's point and shoot because I don't know how to use my mom's fancy one yet (Plus I don't know that she'd let me) but I still think they turned out nice. I'm not quite finished editing all of them yet, but I can't wait till they are done. I've started using Adobe Photoshop Elements (we downloaded the 30 day trial) so its been fun learning how to use that. Any ways here are a few photos that I've taken.

Random path up at Bryce Canyon
Damaris

Demi Doo Hoo

Oh look! It's Demi Doo Hoo again!

Mercedes at work

Damaris. . . It seems like many of my pictures end up rose related. . .

Two of my best buds doing what we do best, laughing our guts out

Mercedes, also referred to as Euphrates.

Emy Sue

Em and Jo on the old bridge near our house

I just like this one.

I liked this pic of Em. She couldn't stop laughing for the life of her. The "tickle me pink" color was too much for me to resist.

This is one of my best buds Mercedes

So yup, this is life. Life is good. That is all.

Fall is here. . finally

I know its been a while. . .
These last few weeks have flown by here in the little land of Payson. I recently finished the classroom part of drivers ed, so I can't wait to get out on the road in a few weeks. School has been going well, its sure been keeping me busy if nothing else. My classes are pretty tough this term, so I'm working hard to keep my head above water. YW volley ball is well underway, so I'm really enjoying playing with all the girls from my ward. We are constantly laughing and having a good time. Love 'em.
Lately I've been taking a LOT of pictures and playing around with them on Picasa three. . . Man I wish I had known about this amazing program earlier. . . I put a few of them on facebook under MyPhotos if anyone wants to see em. I love photos.
Anyways, I'm super excited for Halloween this year. I love being able to dress up and be someone else for a day. October has such a good vibe to it, the chilly weather, crazy mysteries and goblins have made this time of year one of my favorite things. This year I'm planning to be a pirate. . . I can't wait. Aren't pirates just the coolest?? I love the adventures associated with them. Anyways, I really don't have a lot to say.

Pretty much all that is going on in my life right now is school and friends, so I think I will talk about school. (warning, this may be a boring post with lots of rambling)
School is, how do you say it?? Fantastic! I'm really enjoying most of my classes, especially Newspaper, English Honors 10, and Spanish! In Newspaper, I did my first official interview for an article I'm writing, can we say intimidating?? I love the teacher and the students in my class. It's not a huge staff so we have a lot of fun being goofy and still getting things accomplished. The staff has some really good ideas we are gonna try to implement into the paper, so I'm really excited to see the student body's reaction.
English is so much fun! Mrs. Earl is really good at making you think, I'm really enjoying the work that she assigns us. I can't wait to see all the exciting things that we will be doing this year!
Ola! Como stas? Me llamo Alma, me gusta to blog and things. Ahhh! I love Espanol! Senor Peck is mucho maravilloso! haha, okay all broken spanish aside, I really love this class! We've learned so much already, and its only the beginning. I love how Senor Peck will talk for forever in Spanish and watch as we try to figure out what he said (He breaks it down for us eventually). I love it!!
Pre Calc isn't as bad as I thought it would be so far. I have a lot of friends in there, so that helps too. Chemistry is really my only truly boring class so far, I'm sure that will improve though. Anyways, that is all I have to say for today!

Somehow, Life Manages to Go On

Summer is officially over. What a sad sad statement. This last Summer has been the best summer ever thus far in my wee little life. I tried a bunch of new things, met so many wonderful people, and just had a fun time being a teenager. Sadly, like most things, summer has come to an end, but you know what? I think I'm okay with that. School has certainly been an adventure so far! I have several classes I love already and quite a few teachers I can tell will work wonders.
This weekend we went to Idaho to visit my grandparents for my cousin's mission farewell, kind of like a last summer shabang. Saturday, I had a friend come over I met on our last Idaho expedition. We floated the canal and played games and stuff. That night him and I went to his uncle's reception and a multi stake dance (no, it was not a date), it was actually a lot of fun and a nice way to end the summer for good. Even though its just the beginning, I can tell that this year has some pretty great things in store for me. Let's see. . . I turn SIXTEEN, get my license, go to my first date dance, publish my first article, etc. In the words of a wise man I once knew "It's time to put your hair in a pony tail and say 'bring it on.'"This year is going to be the bomb.com.