After watching the short film, "Moments," by Will Hoffman, think back over the last week. Now freeze, in your mind, a single moment. What makes it stand out from the millions of other moments you've experienced this week? What colors, textures, and sounds define this moment for you? Try to describe every detail, paying special attention to the infinitesimal (the very small): What did the ground feel like beneath your feet? What did his voice sound like when he said that thing that hurt, made you smile, or made you turn and walk away? Your moment might be something monumental or very simple. It's your choice. Don't get bogged down by explanation. Try to capture the moment as you felt it.
Each week, I'd like you to capture at least one moment from your life to portray in your journals. At midterm, I'll collect your journals to ensure that you've been keeping up, and at the end of the semester I'll collect them again to configure your grades (journals are worth 10% of your final grades).
For a participation point, I'd like all of you to post your first journal entries in the comments section of this post. I've already posted one of mine to be referenced as an example. Please add yours by next Tuesday, February 9th by noon. As a rule, weekly journal entries will be expected each Tuesday.
Each week, I'd like you to capture at least one moment from your life to portray in your journals. At midterm, I'll collect your journals to ensure that you've been keeping up, and at the end of the semester I'll collect them again to configure your grades (journals are worth 10% of your final grades).
For a participation point, I'd like all of you to post your first journal entries in the comments section of this post. I've already posted one of mine to be referenced as an example. Please add yours by next Tuesday, February 9th by noon. As a rule, weekly journal entries will be expected each Tuesday.
The reading room at night contains a stillness almost nauseating, set, as it is, against the dark waves of the Hudson. In a straight-backed chair, with the lights out, I sit and feel the city shift around me, not touching me, not even close. Through the windows I see the lights like slack stars of the Jersey City skyline--tepid and weary, growing dimmer every second. I feel relieved sitting here, exhausted among the thousands of unopened books without enough light by which to read even a single page--discovery and wonder still preserved on their shelves. I think of all the poems I've committed to memory, rendered to rubble, mere beats and phrases in the recesses of my mind, and I feel glad about that: relics of another time, the self emptied like a vacuum bag, ready to start all over again.
ReplyDeletei am Waiting in line to pre order the new God of war 3. The sound of children playing demos sounded like running water amplified to the tenth power. The feeling of sinking was due to the blood colored carpet that covers the floor of this queens gamestop. I think to myself, what is this woman saying infront of me that has the cashier looking at her wierd? the beeping noise of the entrance door opening and closing is as annoying as a child yanking your shirt to ask a question. Wow it's my turn. Hello i would like to pre order God of war 3, i replied. He states, we are at the max for pre ordering this game, but you can check the store on 34th. street in manhattan. I angrily say, then it's off to manhattan.
ReplyDeletei am waiting patiently for the next train so i get to school on time and as i look around me while i have my earplugs in listening to music, i notice all around me that there is a lot of people. like when you go to a flea market or black friday all of the people are in their own zone like they are robots and that they are being monitored by a higher power.and as i am listening to music the sound of the train coming is like somebody scratching their nails on a blackboard. the sound is annoying like somebody asking you the same thing over and over again. i get inthe train and its like all of new york city got onto the train and there is no other transportaion available. i get impatient like when a child does not get what they want and i want to scream at all the people. but i just keep quiet and wait for my stop and when i get off i say to myself "WHY"? do i get on this train!!!
ReplyDeleteAs the sun glared through my window I glanced at the news weather report.
ReplyDelete‘Possibility of reaching high 52 degrees’ said the weatherman.
Yet despite the day's prospect of warm weather, I brought a light sweater. The thought of the trek home with a t-shirt in late evening is something I would rather avoid.
As I ran to class, I noticed many students wearing shorts. I thought it seemed quite exaggerated, as the winds still managed to grab papers from students grasp taunting, and juggling them in the air only to land in the middle of the street despite the students struggle. I never quite understood how one degree can make the difference between a North Face jacket and shorts.
As I passed the C building I spotted many of my classmates who I attend an evening class with, attired in shorts. I laughed. I’d like to see them not freeze tonight.
I'm sitting with my kids last night watching "Monsters Vs. Aliens", for like the ten thousandth time. When my kids start fighting over the dummiest thing in the world, which monster is better than the other. I tell my eight year old to stop hitting, she turns around and told me," why you fusing, to be easy". Which when translated in english means, "why you mad, take it easy". I just looked at my dauther and laughed inside, that a moment im going to remember for a while!
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I went to get preventive inoculation. I used to afraid of it. To my surprised, I feeled relaxed instead of nervous and scary this time. I even said,"Doctor, I'm very scary." Then the doctor smiled and I smiled. I didn't to see how doctor operated it. It's my habit. And I was absent-minded to look back something happy. The doctor was busy with his job. I feeled the mosquito sting me. It was not very painful at all, I realized. If something, you are very care about them, you will enlarge them...
ReplyDeleteIt was Saturday morning and I was at home,relaxing. Outside it was a sad and rainy day. I could see how the rain drops were falling diagonally because of the wind.Anyway,I was happy ,sitting on the couch next to my wife, hearing the noise of the radiator valve and at the same time I was feeling the warmth from it.
ReplyDeleteI listened over and over again, the chords and notes were foreign to me, but i could let my passion be shaken. I attempted to play the song ..a complete failure. I listened to the song again. My finger tips grew weary from the repetition. I gave it another go , this time I was relaxed and humble. I closed my eyes and listened to the music it sounded smooth and the chord progression and timing were perfect and in that moment "mango tree" by Angus & Julia stone was my song.
ReplyDeleteIt was 2:24pm when i woke up my alarm didn`t go off i needed to go and pick up my daughter which came out of school at 2:30pm i got up got dressed and leaft,not even looking out the window, when i got outside it was drizzling not much but everything looked wet, so im running down the block when i hear a splash i turn around and see my phone broken and wet OUCH!! picked it up and ran to pick up my baby.Amazing all i was able to do in 9 mins.
ReplyDeleteIt was Thursday night, I decided to go out and have a drink with some of my friends. When I saw someone from my past, someone that I loved very much, and somehow to this day, I still do. But seeing her and talking to her, it was a very emotional experience, that shaked my life. But something that i learned in life is that I have to be strong and stick by the decisions that I made and that she made, life is too short to be stock in out past.
ReplyDeleteAs my aunt is doing rollers in my hair as she does routinely every week. I was amazed on how munch my hair has grown and as she puts bigger rollers as usual I wonder how my head is going to fit in the small dryer. As my aunt squeezed my head in the dryer, as she was doing so I got an instant headache. She turned it on with my head tilted. As the heat was hitting my face I remembered when I was in the Dominican Republic, the heat there is so unbearable that you feel the rays from the sun penetrating in your skin; and to think I had to stay in that dryer for two hours.
ReplyDeleteI was Somewhere in Brooklyn sitting on his chair observing the dust caked on the furniture.The heater was on blast and it made a very unpleasant mixture of stuffiness in his room.His mother was cooking some Spanish food which made my stomach grumble.It was the first time i had ever went to his house.The only thing that caught my Interest was the bearded dragons he had in a 250 gal Tank smack dab in the middle of his room.I had never held a lizard in my life and i thought it was the perfect opportunity.He told me they bite but i picked it up anyways.At first glance it looks like their Rough skin could stab you with all of the small spikes that come out but it doesn't.The poor thing felt unsteady and scared and started moving his legs frantically.I fed him a carrot and i could hear the crushing of the vegetable in his mouth.He had five lizard fingers and long claws.My friend also had a Taranchula but i wasn't going to take any risks with that one!
ReplyDeleteI was in Brooklyn earlier today waiting for a bus. When i was standing there and hoping the rain would not come down and it was pouring! I could not wait for a bus to come so I would not have to get wet even though i had my umbrella with me. Anyways i was standing there in this pouring rain and i then i saw her. She was waiting for a bus too. But something was wrong with her. She did not have an umbrella. When I was looking at her I saw her getting wet and cold. I felt like I'm getting wet and cold myself. So I came up to her and I started to sing: "You can stand under my umbrella...". She smiled nicely...I smiled back of course. so Both of us were standing there in a pouring rain under my umbrella. I felt good with the fact that I could make someone's day better. We were talking when the bus came. We screamed, hurray, and we got on the bus.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sitting next to my daughter and were playing rhyming two words together, I can't help but notice how fast she is growing. Unbelievable!! Time surely flies fast. As a parent I must cherish each and every second with the most dearest people in my life. Well back to reality . " papi let's play again" . Then I realized oh that's right I just fell off course for a bit. I say "Alright Mami let's go".....
ReplyDeleteAll I could hear around me was the voice of little kids laughing and screaming. The aroma of pizza filling in the air at Chuckie Cheese.The voice of my 3yr. old niece saying "Titti I want to go on the horse" the voice of my boyfriend telling me not to move because he was taking a picture of me and Dulce. It was the first time my niece and boyfriend have gone and a while since i have been there. We decided to have some fun on a cold winter night and what better than to spend it warm in a fun place filled with color and arcade games to entertain ourselves .Playing games like the wonder wheel trying to get the coin into the slot to get some tickets. From the feeling the texture of a orange rubber ball (basketball) at the tip of our fingertips trying to make it into the hoop, come on Dulce mami make the ball in so we can beat Edwin!That night was filled with fun and excitment because i spend it with the people i love.
ReplyDeleteIt was finally Saturday night and My friend's and I have been planning this girl's night out for about a month. When the day finally came I didn't realize how much stuff I had to do, but one way or another I was going to make it tonight. I managed to get ready by 1am as I was approaching the lounge I looked at the time and it was almost already 3'clock! I thought to myself absurd how could that be possible, it definitely didn't take me two hours to get there. Then I remembered it was daylight savings time, which basically ruined my night since it ended at 3:30am. So it was a whole weekend wasted.
ReplyDeleteI was laying on my bed thinking about how I had the worse day probably ever. I lay in silence listening to the words of the "breakeven" by The script and as I pour my fustrations out into a text to my friend. Word after word text after text and with loud sighs it seems like the fustrations were peeling away layer by layer. It amazed me out little black letter on a bright screen in a dark room could make me feel better, happier even. And as I lay my head down to go to sleep to leave the world that had diappointed me for the day, my lips curved up and formed a smile. Becasue the last message the last thing I saw before the end of my very bad day said . .
ReplyDeleteIt was on a Saturday night when I was working at my job in Applebees. I am a host and a few of my other employees are hosts as well, but I've been working at that job longer than any of them and I got promoted to being an expert. But on that specific night my manager came up to me to remind me that it is my job to lead them and tell them what to. At that moment I felt bad I haven't lived up to her expectations. I felt a little weak inside, she spoke with authority that I wasn't as an expert. I just listened to everything she had to say. As she was talking the other employees were passing by looking at us. My manager spoke to me as if she really cared, I guess she wants me to succeed at this job. Inside I was thinking that I need to step up and take charge and do my very best.
ReplyDeleteFinally walked on stage .Will I mess up?Will I do well?I need to get this off my chest .Sunday night peoples, wake up ! Im here.Are you ready .Well i am .Yo el drop the beat!!
ReplyDeleteit was on tuesday mornig .. takeing the train to school ... eveyone seems tired .. some are hearig there ipod , reading books .. othetr are just eating there breakfast .. or putting make up .. i was siting down between two women .. when suddely the coffe spilled on another women . they both stared to argue .. i am in the middle .. i want to get uo .. but there was no space .. i deciede to get up and say excuse me .. guees what ? i got ofended ... they told me i was some ride girl ... that i didnt noe by matners .. i said .. what did i do .. i just wanted my stop to come ..
ReplyDeleteI hate Monday!
ReplyDeleteIt was the worst day that I ever remember. First of all I hate to wake up early in the morning after the weekend, but who cares I have to no matter what. I woke up to late I got twenty minutes to get ready so my morning was so busy which I hate. I hate to rush in the morning. School was ok nothing special happened. After school I went to my work in which I babysit 23 months old girl. Today I couldn't communicate with her she was crying like crazy, throwing her toys on me. I was so mad at her, but what I can do it is not my baby so I had to shut up and let her do whatever she wants. 5.30 time that I should go home and her father was not there. Im so tired, mad, ready to go to gym and i could not because he was not there. She started crying again and calling her father. Ohhh I was wishing that he will come soon. he came before6.30 I felt like new born. I packed my stuff, in a few sentences I described what happened today and I left. God I felt so good when I closed door after me. I hope that rest of the week will be good for me....
It was a very cloudy afternoon on last Saturday and it was raining cats and dogs.I was on my way to home from the bank.Since i like rain very much and i had been walking and enjoying the drops of water on my umbrella.That was quite exhilarating to enjoy the sound of raining through shutting down eyes.However,i started to dream all of my beautiful memories that i have had and i would have in my future.In the meantime, i was passing the pedestrians and suddenly a wind came and made my umbrella blown up.For a moment i had forgotten about the green light and tried to fix my umbrella.I became awake after hearing the horn from traffic and quickly ran over the road.Then i thanked to my God as i could have been injured.This is the incident which made this momentum different from others.Nevertheless i enjoyed that day very much.
ReplyDeleteThe sound of rain is gone. Thank god for that. The smell of wet dog hurts my nose, but i do miss that chuckle of mine when the dogs roll around on their beds.I am hoping they dont shake that excess water on me, but they do. Those eyes staring you down like a kid deprived of its favorite toy. All that just for a pat on the head, or the tummy. What a hard life for a dog.
ReplyDeletewell i saw this quote during this week and it said: We humans were meant for each other but we still don't know to live with each other. I certainly agree with this quote because their has not been a great major progression between human relationships. Many people today still do not know how to get along well with each other;therefore,small or big wars erupt. why is it that humans are screwed up? The answer to that question is desire. Desire is something that is hard wired to to the human brain, which allows us to become greedy and do whatever it is possible to get what we want no matter who gets hurt.
ReplyDeleteI look out the window wishing i wasn't here but promise my friends i would come. As the waiter brings this plate that looks big enough to feed three people, he places it in front of me. my friends treating me to dinner at a resturant, now that i'm here how can i tell her "hell no!", i can't eat that! Oh my god it look so good,i felt like i was a virgin ready to have my first sexual experience. Do i throw away all my hard work that i put in the gym ,or do i just act like one of those poor starving kids on t.v. and jump right in? my friend starts eating i hesitate for a minute, then i put the first spoonful in my mouth. "BOOM!" An explotion of flavors that i haven't tasted in months, i fell in love all over again. When i look down at the plate it was empty, it was hard to believe that just twenty minutes ago there was enough pasta n seafood on that plate to feed all of italy! As im leaving the reasturant feeling guilty of all the calories i just put in my body, i let out a big burp and i say that was a good meal.
ReplyDeleteSo i am here looking at a screen!! thinking about how to even start this essay.. i seriously dont understand why its so hard for me to actually write an essay. ive stuggle with this all my life, i wonder how many hrs i will be here thinking on how to start...
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting patiencly for my proffesor to hand out the assighment so i can start writing my essay, when i'm hand this thing that look like a novel. I notice it was like five pages to read, knowing myself and the time i been given i start to read. I started reading and underlining one page, it took what felt like an eternity to do. I move on to the next page, which is the same page just the back. Reading and underlining key pionts that i wanted to remember. Throughtout this whole thing i can remember my professor saying he read this in twenty minute, wishing i had his brain! I finally finishing reading and i'm ready to start writing my essay, with only forty minutes to go. I put all my key pionts together, hook up my thesis, answer any question that needs to be answered, then ten minutes left. Dam it! Now i got to rush and cut my essay short, ifelt like i was in a who can write the fastest maraton! I finish with two minutes to spare, by now my hand feels like its crippled. The important thing is that it done, and now i can move on to the next challege.
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting here waiting for my socology teacher to hand me my mid term exam while everything is still fresh in my head, but yet it takes him what feels like an eternity to walk my way. I think maybe it's the fact that he's as old as time, or he's jus tuanting me with his patience! I finally got my exam and when i open it, it was like everything was in chinese. How could i've forgotten all that i studied late last night and all early this morning.....ahhhhhhhhhhh! I begin to read and evenually everything comes back to me, i feel good about my answers and i turn it in. He see me coming and extends his hand, as to say give me your paper. I start to walk as slow as posible to mimic the motoins he had done to me earlier. After what i felt was suffient enough time. i hand it to him and we both shared a laugh.
ReplyDeleteFriday (4/30)
ReplyDeleteToday is a day of fun , me and my kids decided to have a family day in the park, alittle playing on the swings and then a nature hunt. Well we get to the park and i'm chasing my dauther around the park, pushing them in the swings, "i even got on the swing", it was turning out to be a beautiful day. So we decided it was time for the nature hunt to begin, we start walking into the woods and going deeper and deeper until we came upon a creek of water. My eight year old dauther asked me if she could walk in the water since she had sandles, i thought why not...no harm in that. It wasnt even ten seconds in the water when she gave out such a sream, that people in china heard her! I ran to her to see that she had cut herself on some glass in the water. I felt guilty because all you saw in the water was a big red circle of blood around my dauthers foot, and all i could think about was that it matched the color of the fruit punch kool aid they drank early. Her screams brought me back to reality, she was screaming like if some serial killer was dismembering his victim with an axe. Before i could pick my dauther up i notice to men runing down the path looking concerned asking "what's wrong, is everything alright?" Before i could even answer they totally brush me off and asked my dauther the same answer over and over again, jus ignoring my attempts to answer their questions. When they felt that it was safe for them to leave, they said have a good day to my dauthers and all i got was a head nod. Come to find out my dauther just had a little scrap on her toe, but it bleeded alot. I dont know if i was angry because those men made me feel like i did something to my dauther or was i happy that someone responded so quickly to my dauthers cries for help,i guess i was just happy that my dauther was alright. I learn a valuable lesson from all his, never let her dauther go in a creek with sandles on, because two little girls and a big guy in the woods all alone and blood dont look right to people. you end up looking like your the serial killer.
I know that vampires exist, because these little bloodsuckers are invading my eight yer olds body. I left my dauthers in my sister in laws house for the night while i go to work over night, when i pick them up the next day....these little fuckers had a feast with my dauthers arms and legs. I show my sister in law the bites, she said that these vampires come through her windows at night, sneak in her house when the door is open. she said that she sleeps with long selves shirts at night, i wish this witch would of told me that before. Isn't life like that, important information is alway reveal to you at the last minute. So that morning i become "lenny the vampire slayer", so i grab my tools for slaying these little bastard (which is a rag) and i begin my serch. I look wherever i think i might find one, i look in closet, bathroom, bedroom, i kill a total of five creatures. I remember thinking if buffy had a show, they better give me one! Even thought we both battled two totally different kind of bloodsucker, the ones i killed are as dirty and as vicious as hers. For now on my dauther also will wear long selves shirts when they sleep over to combat these unholy creatures of the night, because mosquitos are no different than the vampires you see on t.v..
ReplyDeletei keep waking up in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, i kept smelling an odor of shit in da house. I went to check the kitty litter, because earlier that week i had gotten a kitten for my kids. Everything was just fine, the kitten litter was unused. Unused kitty litter meant that the kitten uesd the bathroom some where in the house, i moved the sofa, i looked in closets , under the beds, but i couldn't find the source of the odor. It was like the odor was following me around the house, like the odor was tapping me on the shoulder and when i would turn around it would hide from me. I was playing a game of hide and seek with this odor,i finally decide to go back to bed. I lay down taking off my slippers i realize that the kitten had left me a nice little surprize in my slippper, 'BINGO", i found the source of the odor!
ReplyDeleteToday im walking to school wishing i didnt have to come, im a block away from the school. Laguardia community college, my prison of education! Well i start crossing the sreet walking towards my future, when a bird craps on my head! they say in the latin cuture that when a bird craps on you it's suppose to mean good luck. I remember feeling not to lucky, rather embarress. there was alot of students around me when this white paste with shaded of blue spatter on on head, like if my head was a a landing for birds to crap on. I rush to the school bathroom and i clean my head off, wishing there was a better way to get good luck these days!
ReplyDeleteI imagine that there is no worst situation than getting locked out your house with your kids on a rainy day, but there is! I forgot my keys in my brothers house and i didnt realize this until he drove off, and now he doesn't pick up his phone. Did i mention it was raining, and that we had no umbrella. I finally decided i had to act quick to save my dauthers from this assult of water that wouldn't let up. I force my window open and tell my dauther to climb in and open up the front door. My 8 year old dauther decided it was a good time to use the bathroom, remove her wet clothes, turn on the tv, all this while me and my other dauther continue to take shower outside with mother nature. I called to my dauther and my shouts went unanswered, so i tell my 12 year old dauther to go in to open the door. she was complainting that she might fall, i shouted again in the window....no answer. I finally decided that i was going in, i push my head in this little narrow window, then one shoulder, then the next one. I wedge myself into a space made for midgets to crawl into, then i realize......"I'M STUCK"! I tried my best to get to get out, no luck i wasn't going no where. Then aparently one of my nieghbors had called the cops, so when the cops came all they saw was half my body sticking out a window. Evenually they pulled me out, all this took a total of thirty minutes. with scratches and briuses on my arms and shoulders, i shake the policeman hand in gratitute drove. Still not believing what had just happen, my front door opens and it my eight year old dauther, all she said was "i'm sorry i was taking a number two". Everyone jus looked at each other, i was speachless
ReplyDeleteThis weekend was great, i went to three barbacues and we went to the beach twice. First we went to orchard beach, it was nice but alot of horseshoe crabs all over the beach. Then we went to jones beach, it was great but so much seaweed in the water. I must of swollowed like a pound of seaweed that day, there was seaweed in places that seaweed shouldn't be! Then the barbacues were beautiful, i ate enough to feed a starving country. My kids had fun, i had fun, besides me catching sun burn. IT WAS A GOOD WEEKEND.
ReplyDeleteI was in my brothers house on friday, he bought a full grown aligator snapping turtle. It's huge and ugly, bad thing is i got the noseyes kids in the world! Especially my eight year old dauther that like to stick her fingers in everything, if i knew he had that kind of turtle in his house i would of left her home that day. My brother decides to let it roam around on the floor knowing my dauther is there, everything goes wrong! I praticelly had to lock my dauther in the room, because she didn't want to stop messing with the turtle. My brother called it being curious, i called it dangerous. That turtle almost bit my dauther like four times, finally my dauther get her shirt caught in the turtles mouth and it rips. My dauther takes off her shoe and hits the turtle twice in the head before i get to stop her. My brother starts shouting at me and trows us out his house, i dont know if i should feel mad or bad. I told him not to have it out around the kids, he didn't listen and i fely badd because the poor turtle probably going to have a blackeye. I think i wont be going to my brothers house no time soon.
ReplyDeleteMy nineteen year old son came to me and started telling me that his ex-girlfriend trying to cut him with a razor. My son put this poor girl through so much, cheating on her several time and every time she took him back. I wondered had can i give my son advice when i think he's in da wrong, especially now that i got dauthers. I would never want my dauthers to go through what he put his ex-girlfriend through, plus he has sisters and he should know better. So i continue to dodge the question, finally i tell him what i think. He doesn't like what i got to say! I can't agree with the way he's thinking, i guess i never will.
ReplyDelete