Some Thoughts on the Second Day

1. I believe that writing is one of the many tools that a person can use to express himself. I used to be very active in writing various fictional stories when I was in junior high school. I used to write because it was enjoyable. I enjoyed being able to create my own unique characters and stories. At the time, I would also find myself creating drawings to go along with my stories. Once I hit high school, however, I leaned more towards expressing myself through visual arts such as sketching and painting. I do still feel the urge to type small journal-like entries on my iPod every so often nowadays, though.

2. I believe that reading is a great way of gaining insight into nearly any place, time, or emotion. I think that it provides access to an inconceivable amount of knowledge, and that it can greatly affect one’s learning. The last book I have read would be a book on Japanese Art. I spent a good amount of my summer reading about different aspects of Japanese culture in the hopes of doing well for the Japan Wizards team this year. 

As a child, I didn’t take many trips to the library on my own time; however, I was required to go the school’s library every so often. Whenever I went to the library as a child, I would always go to either the animal or mystery sections.

My favorite novel would have to be The Call of the Wild by Jack London. I can still clearly remember the first time I picked up the book at the library of the school my dad worked at. I used to have to pick a book from the library and read it while my dad worked on things. After reading, I also clearly remember having to write small book reports on whatever I had just finished reading. 

3. I believe that technology is an amazing and advanced tool that can be used for innumerable amounts of different purposes, both good and bad. I tend to lean more towards PCs and Windows due to their enhanced ability to be customized; however, my family owns both Macs and PCs. I am an avid gamer, and I tend to spend a good amount of my free time playing a wide range of different online games. I am not active in social networking sites right now, because I currently do not have an interest or see a need for them. Another reason I am not active in social networking sites would definitely have to be the security issues. Even though technology can be an amazing tool, I hear all too often how dangerous it can be on the news or even from my friends.

4. I am most definitely a kinesthetic learner. I have always had a love of puzzles, and I used to always play with things such as Legos as a kid. I love to put things together, and I am also the go-to person when it comes to repairing various things around the house. I tend to enjoy and perform better on projects and book reports where I can take my time and work on things at my own pace. I really dislike tests and quizzes. Though they provide a person with a glimpse of where they are at, I personally find them very stressful. 

5. I want to take this class for a couple of reasons. First, I really like the idea of an online class. It's definitely has a different feel to it because you don't physically have to go to a classroom, and you can access all of the class information and work from pretty much anywhere. Second, I wanted to take a more challenging English course this year and develop a renewed respect for reading. The classic books that this class goes through definitely interested me too. Overall, I believe that this class will prove to be very beneficial to me and help me work on my technological, organizational, and time management  skills.