Heres another post from a journal entry that i wrote 3 years ago.

I found this journal entry i wrote from my sophomore year in my notebook. It was a good entry so i figured I write it out and share it.
         Silence filled the bed we’re I laid from my room. I stared from my pillow past my windows at the stars above. They seemed to shine in a radiance that called in my mind the times. I wished upon a star when I was small. I couldn’t sleep and the more I tried, the harder it got. Mom and dad are asleep in the other room and my sister is also asleep. It’s just me, my room and the stars above. I’ve lived here to long I tell myself. Before turning over to look at the clock shining on the shelf .It’s 4:00 and I’m still awake, so I pull this book out from under my bed and start writing. However the thing about it is, that I’m awake now. I’m awake. A star above me lights more than the other for about a second and than dies in the light. I ask myself did someone’s dream die on that star.   

free write will in school versus free write on my own.

free write done while in english
The Hudson river always seemed so lonely to Thomas Buckley. It was the fast flowing river that seemed to give New York a heart. However as he sat outside, along the shore which was adjacent to the light house. Which stood along the shore of govorners island. he couldnt help but feel a tad but lonely. It was dawn..... to be continued..
------------------------------------------------Free write down at home------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and the sun was gently pressing along the sea. Painting the sky into a golden ray of orange and blue, The sea gulls flew and the waves crashed. They seemed to comunicate the ending of the day. It would be eight soon and the sun would dip bellow the horizon. The sea made a few crushing sounds as it the sun moved lower. Which were soon followed by the sound of foot steps along the sand. The noice caught Thomas attention and when he turned around. Why there she was. Amy Peireton. She didnt say much as she walked to Thomas. Who watched as her soft blond hair graced the delicate sunset in a dance of beauty and games. She was a the daughter of a marine who was had been promoted to a capitian. Which meant that she came from a family with power. But that meant nothing to Thomas as she sat next to him along the sand and placed her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead.  They didnt say much. It seemed that just the action of holding each other close on the beach was enought to take away anything on there minds. 

Part 2: List of Things (10 categories, 10 lists, 10 paragraphs)

1.Things I am afraid of
Spiders
large crowds
dying
dying alone
getting kidnapped
     It might sound weird to here a teenager say this but i hate to  in large crowds. My reasons might sound weird but they all basically tie into one reason. You see I have autism and so as an autistic person I hate to be in places were there are so many people because I worry that some how. ill do something and people will think i am weird. When i was younger i use to freeze at the thought of a crowd. but as i have gotten older I have learned to control my fear. Ironically most guys who hang with me don't seem to think i have autism. Because Ive learned to hide it well enough to get by, But than again guess crowds and my perception of them seem to change as i get older.
2.Things I like.
candy
girls
video games
sleep
English class
history
   When i was younger i use to always wonder why teenager slept so much. Until that is I became a teenager myself . I than realized that sleep and being a teen went hand in hand. I would sleep as i became a teenager so long that at times. I would be tried from sleep. I don't know if its possible to be tired of sleep. But than again I guess anything is possible. My cousins are way better sleepers than me. My cousins when i was younger would sleep till 3,4 in the afternoon. i couldn't believe it. However looking at it now as an older 18 year old. i realize something. Sleep is beautiful.
3.Things that make me cry
last episode of wonder years
the notebook
Marley and me
seeing sad love movies
seeing animals getting killed
realizing i have good friends
    So this is probably going to sound weird. But yes the last episode of the wonder years does make me cry. My reasons are various but my main reason i tell people. Is because in the last episode he says. That's it childhood is over. As i look at my childhood. i feel a sense of sadness as i kiss away old times. I miss the innocents of being a child. Of being careless. I mean i feel like we grow up to fast to even enjoy childhood. Towards the end when the camera looks at the town. I just think that's like my town. And maybe that in a way makes me cry. Because that's it. We grow up so fast and before long were adults and to think life goes by that fast. Always makes me cry.
4.Places I loved
Cape cod
Vermont
my childhood
my school
my neighborhood
    Nothing in my mind can be as beautiful to me as the bonds that have tied me to my neighborhood. its an average neighborhood. But like the wonder years, Its been the place I've grown up in. I've scene things change in my area but the faces were the one's. I never forgot. The faces of my friends and companions. Were a close knit area. In a time when I feel as thought other areas aren't. Its my home and when i come back. I could smell the salt watter in the air the liveliness of the birds and I know in my heart. That I am home.
5.Wishes I've had
To go to the moon
own a sports car
date a model
be a prince
meet napoleon
    This might sound weird. But i went through  a phase in my life. When i was younger. When i wanted to meet napoleon. I had always been a history nerd. So when i want through the period of which i wanted to meet napoleon. I think my mom and smiled and this one is gonna be a lawyer. I remember begging her to meet Napoleon. She knew that wasn't possible. So she made a compromise. I would meet Napoleon. Of which ironical i did meet Napoleon. He was 4'9 and stood quite still. That is in the madame tussiaus wax museum. I never forget that moment. Looking back at now. It explains alot to me on where my love for history came from.
6.Things I've always wanted to do
sky dive
go to Paris
eat a crocodile
ride in nascar
     It might not seem like a big deal. However I have always wanted to go to Paris. I've never been there and maybe a lack of being there is why I would like to go back. My genealogy is French. Or at least that's what my folks think. It doesn't seem like I might be France since I look more Spanish than french. But my last name doesn't seem to lie in this aspect. I always wondered if maybe my great grandpa was from Paris. Maybe he was and that's why i would like to go to Paris. Or maybe I just that classy. Paris is the classy capital of the world. In whichever case. I would love to just go to Paris. And maybe go back to the place that started it all for my family. In the city of love or should i say the city were i might be from.
7.10 things if i could go to the future i would see
Who I would marry or be with
any possible children
what happens to my parents
How Michael ends up
what ever happened to my high school teachers
What happens to my sister
How do I die
Did i die happy
Will i be something big
Will i change the world
    You might think that most teenagers don't think about what there contribution to the world will be. But I think about my case all the time. I mean what will I give the world means alot to me. Its something that in this way. Maybe I'm human like everyone else. I look at the future. And all i think. is I hope there is enough room for me to do something great one day. I don't know if there. But if there is than maybe i could be the next newton/
8.7 things i don't want to see front the future
How i will I die
if any future kids die
how my parents die
If there is another 9/11
The next world war 3
Anything sad in my life
Anything bad that happens to my friends
     There's alot of bad I don't want to see in my future. So if its any comfort. I would say the thing i don't want to see ironically is how i will die. I mean as a teenager. The essence of being  a teenager. Is that you believe. That you will be young forever. Which is why i don't want to see how i will die. I know that I will eventually die. But since i know i will. I just want to think that while I'm alive. I could do something that will change the world. Maybe I wont change the world. But the thought of me dying scares me to the core. Because I've enjoyed life to much to see it go away. I mean alot has happened in my lifetime. That I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy. Which is why i wouldn't want to see how i would die.
9. People Who are my hero's
My parents
Bill Gates
Warner Van bruan
My teachers
      Ironically the moment I discovered what a hero was. Was the day I discovered about Bill Gates. He was my hero in every sense of the word. I learned about Bill Gates while in 4th grade. I was a reader and so while most kids were looking at comic books for there hero's. My hero was out there in the world. That is he was real. He didn't have any special powers short of being an average guy. He was a billionaire and maybe money was his power. But it wasn't. To me he was simple like me. A true American millionaire story of someone who worked hard like me. I loved it. His story which i hoped would be my own. Wasn't lost as I got older. In fact while most kids come to lose there passion for there Hero's. Mine hasn't. To me Bill Gates is still my hero and probably will be till I enter college.
10. People i wish I could have met for like a day and than said goodbye
Al Capone
tom cruise
Ralph Lauren
Benedict Arnold
a solder landing on the battlefield of d day
     He might have gone down in history as being a traitor to this nation. But I think to meet Benedict Arnold for a day would be quite interesting. i would pick at his mind and ask him dumb questions that only teenage guys could ask. Like did you enjoy having the attention of the ladies? Did you ever feel dumb for losing the war?  Dumb questions like these are reserved for maybe my stupid thoughts. I don't think he would mind if i asked these questions. Benedict Arnold is revered as a traitor but sometimes i wonder if he ever felt like he made a mistake. I think we all make dumb mistakes. And my friend Benedict Arnold problabbly did the same thing. But he isnt bad. I think I would rewrite history for him. So that maybe he woudlnt go down as a traitor. That would be awsome.

Americanhistory

  Christopher Franqui

      Ms.Defoe’s English class

"American History" takes place as a public crisis interferes with a personal one. What are 3 public crisis that have occurred during your lifetime that you feel could serve as the backdrop for a fictional story?

1. 9/11
2. hurricane Katrina
3. Major black out that hit the east coast.

Why is this fiction considered "realistic fiction"? Find examples that prove that it is realistic.
    This fiction is considered realistic fiction because it’s based on realistic events that take place in real times. Also since the character does nothing to ordinary such as landing on space crafts. Her story makes it vary real to the real. As thought you could be her.
“Since I had turned fourteen and started menstruating my mother had been more vigilant than ever.”
They say that the most important line in fiction writing is the last line of a fictional story. Read the last line of "American History" and explain how it helps to illuminate the theme within the story.
    The last line of this story helps to illuminate the theme that sometimes rosy things can turn into painful realities. In the case of John F Kennedy being assassinated. It was a painful reality that things in the nation weren’t as pleasant as they seemed. In protagonist case the realities that people will not always except you for who you are. Along with the realities that love is not blind. Her crush on Eugene sees its end and with it. The realities that like the presidency of John F.Kennedy. The dreams that and realities that might have been something are swept away.

My goals for english

   Few words could describe my excitement for this year English class. Than the word fun. English class for me has always been about changes and discovering myself as a person so this year. I hope to express this  discovery as a person through my goals in English.

1. My first goals for this years English class is to expand out side of my comfort zone on the subject of genre. In both my reading and writing. Which isn't so easy for me because to say the truth. Unlike your average teenager. I hate the whole idea of the teenage novel and story. Its really a played out theme to me. Which  I hate played out themes. But this year. As much as it might bother me. I want to branch out and write a good teenage story which a teenage theme.
2. A second goal I have to keep at least a 90 average in Ms.Defoe's class.
3. Another goal I have is to be the quite the writing voices in my head that are always telling me. That i cant write well.  I want to be able to write about anything and to see the world the eyes of a writer. I mean its not that i don't already see the eyes through a writers eyes. What i mean is that i want to be taken to new heights in how good my writing sounds. 
4.  My last goal is to have the maximum amount of fun in English class as I possibly could have. i want to laugh. I want to cry. i want to make my last year of high school English the best year of my life.

2 lies and a truth

This doesn’t usually happen to me, but for some reason it did. I don’t know how I get in these weird scenarios but I guess that’s the nature of being a teen driver. You see a few weeks ago I was taking my dads car out for a drive in the neighborhood.  When all of a sudden a spot opened up to park my car .Now it was a nice spot so I figured I take it because parking in my neighborhood is really hard to get. People fight over parking spots in my area in almost the same way, two rival gangs might fight for prized turf. It gets heated. So I decide ok I’m going to park the car and not scratch the other cars that are also in back and front of me. So I took time to park the car. But the thing was that the street I was parking my car on was a really busy intersection. So at first I had 3 cars behind me and it was fine. They didn’t seem to care until more started coming. Than it became a group of car and that’s when they started beeping at me .So I tell the car right behind me to calm down and let me park. But the car kept honking at me. So than I lower my window and I look at the car, and I’m like dude calm down. So he gets up and he starts writing me a ticket. I’m like what! So he tells me he’s a cop and I’m like dam dude you don’t even look like a cop. But that doesn’t stop him. He looks out to the cars that are waiting and all of a sudden everyone’s clapping that he’s giving me a ticket.  So I look at my ticket and it’s a violation for blocking traffic. I couldn’t believe it. I was trying to be a good driver by being slow to hit cars and I get a violation like this. I knew my parents would kill me if they saw this violation. So I take the ticket and right as the cop is leaving. Everyone starts passing my car and giving me the loser finger signal. I’m thinking to myself bastards. All of them but what could I say. I guess this stuff happens to me.

            It’s always been a habit of mine since I entered high school. To go to the annual sports car show in my neighborhood every year. I mark it on my calendar and yet despite all that planning I always find that for some reason it’s by accident that I run into it. This is what happened last. I was with my friend Mike. We had planned to go to the car show that week. So we planed a time to leave school and we left. We were on my area in 15 minutes .Which wouldn’t have been possible if we weren’t excited to be going there. Mike took his camera along with him and I took a pad and pen. Being the cars fans we are. We usually tend to find our way among the CEO’s of Ford, GM and BMW.  We’ve at times even been invited to private events hosted by these CEO’s. So it must have not surprised us that we would meet the engineer. That designed the Ferrari Testarosa. I was walking around chatting around to some of the guys who were looking at cars. Telling them what I knew about the Testarosa. The adult’s would just look at me like move along kid and that was it. Except that the engineer was passing when he heard me. So he said what you think of the car and I said ahh it could use more gears for changing speed. He smiled at me and said. “Well good to know because I’m the engineer who designed this car.” My mouth dropped. He gave me his number and so goes my story of how I met a car engineer.

            It was an early start to my school day. However I had a feeling thing’s wouldn’t go well to start with. I entered the train like I usually did at seven. I saw my friend Mike enter the train at seven thirty. And I left the train with him that day the same time at eight. Except that things didn’t turned as I planned. It was a window day and the pigeons were out in full force. There was probably over twenty. However there was this one pigeon. He must have been flying low because he hit the glass with a loud thump. I didn’t notice it because mike and I had been so engaged in conversation about the uniform policy. That by the time I looked up to register where the sound had come from. All I saw was a pigeon flying right down on me. He hit in my head and gave me a nice bump also. Stupid pigeon probably gave me fleas. But when I went to school I felt so embarrassed that I didn’t tell anyone. It was the dirtiest day of my life.   

Homework due 9/20-9/22

Hunter College                                                                                   Christopher Franqui

English                                                                                                September 16, 2010

Get started

“Sometimes the effort of putting pen to paper is so great that I literally feel a pain in my head.”

• This quote interested me because I know for myself getting the jump start to write a paper isn’t at times always easy. It takes a lot of time and work and I could attest to the pain the writer feels.  The pain the writer feels attests to the fact that all writers experience writers block. Along with the at times quite comical physical pain that comes with writers block.

“The paradox of writing is that you’re trying to use words to express what words can’t express.”

• This quote was my favorite quote for this sub heading because I feel as thought that’s what writing is. I mean words convey feelings and emotions that I feel can’t always can’t be expressed in words. It’s an almost kind of weird of paradox which I find so close to my world. Because I don’t always know how to speak to people but when I get fired up about something on paper. It’s as though I become a word revolutionary. So for me this quote is almost about a small aspect of my relationship to writing.

 “The mere consciousness of an engagement will worry a whole day.”

• I could agree with this quote almost 100 percent. As a writer I know that as a writer when I write. It’s hard to write to my greatest comprehension when I have something on my mind. This is another aspect to fiction writing. That fiction writing takes full concentration and it requires time and effort. Also it doesn’t come easily. It takes zoning out what one needs to take off the mind. And this quote ironically talks about that.

“Some writers can plop at the kitchen table without clearing the breakfast dishes; others need total seclusion, a beach, a cat, a string quartet.”

• This sentence sparked my interest because I couldn’t help but think of myself as that person. I mean as a developing writer sometimes you feel as though how did Jane Austin compose such beautiful pieces of literature. While on the other hand there you are trying to write a piece of literature and your wondering. Why cant you be the next Jane Austin. It’s as though you wonder how much you could accomplish but you know that you could do it at your own pace. At times this could be discouraging.

“The critic is an absolutely essential part of the writing process. The trick is to shut him or her up until there is something to criticize.”

• This sentence teaches me that when writing fiction. Its not always as easy as what it seems but the trick is to learn the art of knowing that you could do it. About making yourself control the critic in your head and remembering that he has the power over himself. This is not always easy at times but in a way I get this feeling that is a stepping stone as a growing writer in developing your literary legs and walking. I mean maybe ignoring those critics in your head is about being like the baby that says I can do it and walk on your own to feet as a writer.

“To be an artist means never to avert your eyes.”

• I really liked this quote because I feel as though this an under lying idea of what makes studying English so unique. English is unique because it’s the capture of this beauty that is so rare now a day’s. I mean the artist has a paint brush and a photographer has a camera. But the writer has something even more greater than that to create beauty. He has the ability to look with his eyes at the beauty and pen those words. He has the power to look into the world and bring out its beauty through the words of a pen or pencil and some paper. Its power and it’s a skill that as an English student continues to fascinate me about English. It’s this want to look and attain beauty.

Keep Going

“Writing is mind-farming. You have to plow, plant, weed, and hope for growing weather.”

• I thought this quote was quite interesting because it’s so true. Like you nurture your idea and you see it. But it’s really based on how much time and effort you put into it. Along with the conditions you place into it. I’ve never really thought of my ideas in relationship to agriculture. But this is probably why this quite is so interesting because it compares such an idea in a way I’ve never thought of it as. Ideas do require effort. However in a way I also wondering since farming conditions aren’t always right does that mean that even if you work hard and yet there’s not fit circumstances that your idea wont prosper. Its really a doubled edged question. But than again maybe that’s the beauty of English.

“You have writer’s block”

• Those are probably the words no writer wants to hear which is why I find that those words popped out to me. Because it sucks to have writing block but it isn’t uncommon. Writers block isn’t at times easy to deal with and I cant describe how many times I hate it. But than again that’s what being a writer is about. This is what fiction I get the feeling is about its about overcoming our writers block and just writing.

A word about theme

“It takes a reassuring, “just do it” approach to getting starting.”

• This quote kind of made me laugh and stood out to me because it reminded me of my 5^th grade teacher who use to say. “You’ll never know unless you just do it.” I don’t know if she had taken her words from this book. But if she did than I think she would be happy that her words still stand today with me.  Reading this also caused me to hear a song I heard in the movie 500 days of summer called you make my dreams come true. To start coming out in my head. I assumed this song appeared in my head because we never know if we could make our dreams come true as writers unless we use the just do it approach and makes our dreams come true. But than again it could also be that writing is about making dreams come true.

 “What your story has to say will gradually reveal itself.”

• I picked this quote because I never thought as my writing in this way. I mean I always thought the story reveals itself through its ending but in this case it doesn’t. It reveals itself in the early stages as you unravel it. I think this a quite good demonstration that as a story is created the ideas aren’t always found at the ending but instead at times in the beginning as well. I mean I know this sounds clique to say. But a story is never real said until its writer as revealed it so.

Shitty First Drafts":
1. Anne Lamott is a famous author. Is the writing process easy for her? List 3 ideas she has to help her battle with the process.

            The writing process isn’t easy for her.

• One thing she does is write a shitty first draft.
• The second thing she does is to quite the voices in her head
• The third she does is reviewing her drafts and except her criticism of herself.

What are your personal expectations for your first draft of writing?

            You know this is going to sound bad but when it comes to my first drafts. I tend to get hostile with myself because I tend to see my first drafts as my fall back sheet. I view it with such high expectations. In hopes that maybe my first draft could be my last and that maybe some how what I couldn’t say would be expressed in my first draft.

 Who are your biggest critics that you need to silence?

            My biggest critics for me are the three ideas in my head. Its like I have this one side of me. Who says that sounds like crap you could write better. Than I have another critic that says you do realize that you sound clique. The third critic laughs at me constantly .It’s like this third critic is the combination of the two except he knows its easy for me to fail and he waits for it.

 Questions from "Why I Write"
1. According to Didion, how is grammar important within fiction writing?

            According to Didion the usage of grammar is important in fiction writing because it holds infinite power. By just shifting the words you create a new story of your own and that’s the power of words.

How did Didion get her ideas for the opening of her novel Play It as It Lays?

            Didion got her ideas from two pictures. The first picture was of white space. The second picture was of young women in Vegas basically enjoying herself in Vegas.

On page 21, reread the paragraph beginning "The picture that did..." What does Didion use in order to create the "norteamericana woman" for her novel A Book of Common Prayer?

To create the norteamericana women for her novel .The author used the picture of being in a panama airport at 6. And being in a waiting room and seeing women at an airport who was about 40 and had a wedding ring on. The author than took this women and put her in another airport and placed into another scenario quite different than the one where she had scene such a women.