Mack's Blog

I do it; you do it, and that guy over there, well he definitely does it. What is it that we all do? We drive! When the first automobile was introduced in 1885, it was designed to get people from one place to another. However, their purpose has evolved – now we use them as beauty parlours, lunchrooms, or even home office locations. But however, you use it, an average of 3287 people will use their cars as their death bed every single day. Distracted driving has become one of today’s largest transportation issues across the board. On a daily basis, distracted driving puts millions of drivers and passengers in danger, on top of the large amount of deaths. Distracted driving varies and could be a variety of things. We need to fully understand this in order to prevent it. The consequences are also very large and should be a great deterrence. We need to understand what people can do to drive more safely.

We all know that we have been guilty at some point; we do it without thinking. When our phone goes off, our first instinct is to answer it! When we stop for our McDonalds, we eat it! When we see a pimple, we cover it. Most of us do not think about the consequences that are to come along if we do these things while driving. According to studies released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 80% of crashed and 65% of near crashes involve some kind of driver distraction. Driving with distractions has become one of today’s leading causes of death for 16-20-year old’s. Distractions while driving include, but aren’t limited to: texting, writing, makeup application, music, eating and drinking.

As of February 1st, 2010; police may issue tickets for distracted driving. Drivers could handle it with an out of court settlement by paying $490, plus a $50 victim fine surcharge with a $5 court cost for a grand total of $545. Drivers who receive a summons or those who contest their ticket by going to court may face a fine up to $1000 plus charges if you lose in court. There are now 3 demerit points that are taken off due to the increase of distractions. Police do not confiscate your phone or any other distraction on scene. However, if the distraction is texting, they just passed a bill recently resulting in immediate loss of license if the distraction is caused by mobile devices. Drivers who endanger others as a direct result from any of these distractions can be charged with careless driving. This in turn will automatically run you in 6 demerit points; fines up to $2000 and/or a jail term of 6 months. In some cases, your license may also be suspended for up to two years. They may even go as far as charging you with dangerous driving. Dangerous driving is a criminal offence that carries heavier penalties, including jail terms of up to 10 years for causing bodily harm or up to 14 years for causing death. Those are some of the better consequences. Some may even be serious injury or even death to yourself or others. You would not want to live with the guilt that you had killed or injured someone really bad, or even living with the injuries that someone else has caused due to distracted driving.

There are many different things that drivers can do to increase safety while driving.

1. Buckle up. The use of seatbelts saved the lives of a reported 22000 people in 2014 alone. In an accident, it is your best defense to help keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle. If you do not buckle up, you could be thrown out of the automobile on impact which is almost a guaranteed, deadly scenario.
2. Secure your children. Car crashes are the leading cause for death of kids between 3 and 12 years of age. By placing all children 12 and under in the back seat, you can reduce injury risk by 64% for children 8 and 31% for 9-12 years old. Also, make sure your children are in the proper seat for their age provided it was installed correctly.
3. Don’t speed. Speeding is a factor in about one-third of all fatal crashes, killing nearly 900 American and Canadians every month. Although it affects all ages, crashes and violations are much higher for young drivers of both genders.
4. Keep your eyes on the road. In 2014, over 9422 people were killed due to distracted driving and 448 000 were injured. The best advice is to put the distractions away and focus on the road. No call or text is worth losing your life or ending someone else’s.
5. Don’t drink and drive. In 2014 there were 14 839 alcohol-fatalities, and while that number has declined from 2008, there are still many lives that can be saved if everyone remembers to assign a designated driver if you have been drinking, or just hand over the keys until you’re sober.
6. Lastly, just use your turning indicators. The car has them, just use them to protect yourself and other drivers.

Provided you follow these rules in combination of not being distracted on the roads, your journey will be great! Hopefully others will do the same and leave a safer drive all around.

We have covered what distracted driving really is, what the consequences of driving while distracted are, and what people can do to make everything safer on the roads. Although engineers have made us a safer road trip experience, driving has dangers that should not be introduced into your ride. It takes more than just car safety to ensure a safe trip. By simply staying focused and not having distractions you bring up your level of safety as well as the safety of those around you!

As my time comes to an end in the course, I just want to start by saying thank you! To my teacher, my classmates, and everyone in between! Thanks to the collaborative effort from everyone in unity, my skills have a writer have definitely improved for the better! My effort, my thought process and all the new rules I learned has been wonderful. My favourite unit was cycle three. I was paired with great group members and felt as though I excelled in this unit. If I could redo it all again, I would let myself go and be freer with my writing.

I was asked to be creative and express myself through my writing. I struggled at first, but towards the end started to go great! I identified my weaknesses as comma splices and tense shifts. I learned that sometimes you need to let certain rules go from our memories to excel in creative writing. This learning helped me achieve my goals by letting me be free, then critiquing it draft by draft. It challenged me in ways that other things haven’t before. I went out of my comfort zone in poetry and learned a lot. I never ever liked poetry before cycle two. I did not know that thewre was different types, or different rules. There was also plenty of ways to write a poem. This helped my skills a lot and it taught me how to be extra creative.

I might use all this new knowledge in my grade 12 English course to better myself in the writing craft and make my work even stronger than before. It has made me think deeper in my work, search for alternatives and it just overall made me use my resources more than ever. I approached my work hesitantly, trying to make sure I am happy with my content and/or topic. I learned that lack of planning is inefficient and leaves you dissatisfied throughout the whole time you are working. I was pretty successful in meeting deadlines for the most part until trips affected me during cycle three. I do believe I learned good habits throughout the course.

The learning from the whole course was exceptional. New skills and knowledge was learned every day whether it be from classmates or my teacher. Everyone was happy to share their thoughts and the whole class felt very close and comfortable. I have learned that I do skip out on important details to show rather than tell. I slowly worked from this to show my stories and let the image be produced by the reader. My next steps are to continue writing and developing my creativity with my newly acquired skills. I plan on fixing grammar specifically. My misuse of certain things really dampens my work. Great work to my teacher for running the course and classmates fore participating! The course was perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Reflection

Learning cycle three was by far my favorite! It has not done much for development unlike the previous learning cycles, but this has allowed me to be creative. In writing, I do not like following guidelines, being told what to do and everything in between. I like writing freely and creatively which learning cycle three has allowed me to do. I learned dialogue rules, which makes a huge difference and will help my writing in my English class next semester! I also learned new rules from editing within the cycle. I was taught to unlearn certain aspects from previous classes and use what flows best.

For my summative, I chose to redo writing prompt number two. During writing this prompt, I rushed through it. I was away during this week so I was playing catch up. I left out a lot of details and facts that made the reader what their mindset was. When it came time to end the piece, I was never content with the ending. It was rushed, unclean and unfinished. My goal during revision was to cover this details that left the mind wondering. With my teachers help, combined with the comments of group members, I have become significantly more confident within my revised piece. My biggest this that I mess up with frequently is tense shifts. Classmates help me realize this and I have become a more aware writer.

The most beneficial part of this learning cycle in my opinion was the feedback I received. It pointed out my biggest flaw of tense shifts. There was always positive feedback being left on my pieces, all helping to develop my writing. This cycle has been a great closing one to the unit and I feel confident in our final! All three learning cycles have been great, but my favorite is this one!

Armour Services

       There once was a young woman who was named Emma. Being herself, she often was viewed as the quiet one. This was due to the fact that she was shy and always tried avoiding confrontation. An introvert if you may. Emma was a single mother of a 4-year-old boy. Only being 19 herself, she lived a struggling life. After getting pregnant at age 14, then giving birth at 15, her parents disowned her. Emma was forced to drop out of high school to take on a minimum wage job that would support herself and her son. Life was going okay for the small family. That was until her son was kidnapped from their lonely two-bedroom apartment.

       Emma became frantic. She tore her apartment apart in a combination of panic and rage. She was at a loss and had no idea what to do. Calling the police never crossed Emma’s mind. When Emma’s son was only 16 months old, they snuck out of Mexico and were illegally living in America. Emma knew that she had to tackle this problem on her own.

Emma picked up the antique corded phone and dialed in the number: 1-212-538-9654. This number reached one of Emma’s only friends, Ava. Ava was a lot like Emma which was why they were so compatible. Emma informed Ava all about the scenario that had taken place in the early hours of that morning. Ava became equally as panicked as Emma was. They decided to meet up and hunt for the little boy. They gathered equipment they believe they would need. They folded pocket knives that they had for emergencies and packed up baby Thomas’ diaper bag with necessities. The two lonely girls set out to the busy streets of New York.

       The streets of the Bronx were busy, the two young women were alone and vulnerable. They were completely unaware of where Thomas could be. They started the hunt by asking neighbors, business owners, and pedestrians if they saw anything unusual, but nothing surfaced, not until that evening. A city worker who had the graveyard shift sweeping sidewalks came forward with something that may give the girls the break they have been looking for. He claimed seen an internet service provider van at Emma’s home location at four in the morning doing what appeared to be work. It was strange because Emma, Ava, nor the worker had heard of the company that was at the apartment. Thomas’ room was right along the alley where the truck had been parked with the boom extending up to his window. The girls knew this was all they had to go off. The hunt was on.

       They scouted their district for hours, days even, just looking for the service van. Days had turned to nights, but baby Thomas was nowhere to be found. Alleyways, abandoned lots, even the back yards of neighbors, but no van!

It was not until evening of the fourth day that Thomas was missing that they got something. They found an old, dingy, rundown garage on the east side of their district that was lurking in the shadows. The windows were dusty and blocked up from the inside. All the doors were of course, locked.

Emma and Ava knew they had to get inside somehow, somewhere. They walked around the building and found a set of stairs leading to the roof. Being the curious but determined girls they were; they went up! The only thing that was up there was a skylight that was surprisingly open. The girls helped each other drop through the open skylight and into the building. Once inside, they saw the unthinkable…

       Two vans with lifts on them occupied two out of the four bay doors. The vans read “Armour Services” with a simplistic description of what they do. The van’s decals would make anyone believe it was a legit internet service, but the girls knew better! A quick search on google revealed that this company was nonexistent. Ava had a feeling that this had to be the van that took Thomas. They took a quick gander in the back of the van revealed nothing but a few blankets, a teddy bear and Thomas’ favorite toy car. Ava swiftly alerted Emma, in which she almost fainted upon hearing the news. They knew they had to get this boy back. There was now only one problem that lied in the girls way, they were trapped. Panicking, the girls tried getting back through the skylight to pull each other out, but it was too high. They tried the doors again, but were locked, they had no way out.  Ava was no short of a solution however, before Emma knew it, Ava had the van started and smashed right through the doors.

           Just as they broke out, a van that was sitting in the shadows at the edge of the lot had started up and drove off. Emma knew this was someone important because that van wasn’t there when they first showed up and it had the companies name painted on the van. Emma rushed over and climbed into the van that Ava used as a battering ram not 3 minutes ago. Ava stomped on the gas and tailed the fleeing van. After 10 minutes of intense driving, they ended up in a parking lot on the other side of the district that had a concrete building on the end. Both vans came to a skidding stop and dust filled the air. A man hopped out of the fleeing van into the building while the two girls once again, gave chase.

       The woman demanded repeatedly to know who he was. The tall, slender man did not reveal his identity. Instead he starting telling the girls everything about themselves that no one else would know. He told them all their sizes for every article of clothing, family secrets; he even spoke about how Ava recently had a miscarriage that absolutely no one knew about. He finished off by saying that Emma had a cute boy named Thomas. The girls turned to each other and nodded. An overwhelming rage took over the bodies of the two woman as they attempted to harm the man. Two larger men appeared out from the shadows of the poorly lit room and dragged Ava away. Emma turned to look at her friend being hauled off and considered running over to help her friend. What had stopped her was the presence of someone behind her. Emma turned back and saw a large man towering over her. Not soon after, she was met with a blow to the head from an old pipe wrench. The man walked up to her almost lifeless body and held a gun to her head. Emma sobbed.

“Why are you doing this, what do you want from me, where is my boy!?” Asked Emma.

“This isn’t time for talking,” Replied the man.

Emma gave up, that was until she heard her baby cry from the other room. Emma lit up with life, delivered a firm, solid kick to the groin, and knocked the man on the ground. She then beat his face in with her heal, took his weapon, and shot him….

       Emma dragged herself back up to her feet and ran into the back room where she seen Thomas and Ava tied up and being whipped by the two men. They turned when they heard a stumble at the door. Emma was standing tall and proudly. The men’s eyes were taken over with fear as they looked down the barrel of her recently acquired gun. They pleaded relentlessly to keep their lives. Emma knew she was better than they were, so she let them go on the condition that they took responsibility for the death of their ring leader, spoke nothing of this event to anyone, gave her all the money they had locked up within the warehouses’ safe and to never mess with her or her family again!

       After releasing her friend and son, they took a ride in a cab back to Emma’s apartment. They rejoiced in excitement, but they had a lot to talk about. After a week, Emma decided to pick up her life and move somewhere safer. Emma took 50 000 from the safe money combined with her personal savings, acquired all of her paperwork and legally moved into a 3 bedroom home in a remote part of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. Emma then passed down the remaining 50 000 to Ava for her struggles with a miscarriage, for the trouble she went through to help Emma, and to help better establish a life for Ava. Ava chose to remain in New York, but the friends remained in close contact and visited each other as often as possible. They both grew up to be stronger than ever, fueled off of each other’s energy. The following days, they had googled Armour Services only to realize that the two men had been arrested for murder of their leader and organizing a crime ring. Both women were able to sleep well once again.

            Many years had passed and many things have changed. Ava moved up to Revelstoke to be closer to her best friend. Thomas was no longer a baby and was now 12 years old with a little brother to share new adventures with. Emma remarried and was living happily with her husband. Ava on the other hand had a beautiful little girl on the way with her fiancée. Both woman were now prospering with their new lives and living the dream.

Walking down Main Street today is nothing like Main Street was 40 years ago. Besides the sound of your footsteps crunching on the blown sand beneath you, you hear the creaking of Mr. Steadman’s old sign welcoming you into his bakery.  Besides the sound of your footsteps crunching on the blown sand beneath you, you would swear you could hear the voices of the residents who used to live here. Besides the sound of your footsteps crunching on the blown sand beneath you, you hear nothing.

“People don’t hear us when we speak; we are nothing.”

The town had a sign welcoming you into town. Now, the town has a sign making you wish you never came. Unlike before, it now has a mysterious red stain that seemed to have dripped from the top down. Unlike before, where the lights on the sign used to glow, they now just look at you through their cracked lenses. Unlike before, the sign was not welcoming; it was cold, dark, and held secrets. The sign left you wishing your natural curiosity did not bring you to “Scarville.” Why was this the name? Why did people live here? You will never know, nor do you wish you knew.

The streets in town are cracked and composed of grayed asphalt. Weeds and grass fill the cracks and spaces where Mr. Chambers worked 8 hours a day to support his family of four. Going down what was left of the street towards the old houses, old businesses littered the street that once prospered. Below the thick layers of dust, caking main windows where people displayed their product is now just empty shelves that hold unknown, forgotten memories. The gas station in town is like all the other businesses; filled with dust covered windows with empty shelves.  It had less charm than a graveyard, at least those are places built out of sentimentality and love. In the still air of this natural depression the stain of their indifference had time to sink onto your skin. Deserted streets, tumble-down stores. Shutters hanging by one hinge bang eerily in the gusty wind. Dust, tumbleweed, dark ominous clouds, and a dirt road that will turn to a river of mud in the coming monsoon. The town saloon with peeling paint sign, half-drunk whiskey shots, a silent grandfather clock, and thick dust on the counter, with broken stools from a last bar brawl.

The residential neighborhood is rough. Grayed old barn wood held what was left of these houses together. Some had holes in the wall, others had no room. Windows have shattered within their weak wooden frames, some got banged as old shutters danced in the wind.

“No house was like; we as people are not alike.”

It was like everyone vanished. Cars fill the street like they were going to work. Tricycles squeak as they roll back and forth from the wind. A child would have been on one, that enjoying their morning. A group of bikes lay on the corner where teenagers would have met to go to school. Even the old bus that picked up children was in the middle of the street with the doors open, stop sign out, but no life in it. There were backpacks in every seat, some Dora and some Cars but no carriers.

In Mr. Chambers’ old house it was pretty standard, but in the little girls room is where the story starts. Her rocking horse still rocks back and forth, violently at night with no wind being present. The light flickers in her room, even though power has been cut years back to the town. Red crayons lay on the ground while the white walls are now covered in symbols that are unidentifiable. Writing lays by the door in a foreign language that no one has decoded yet. It was a mystery. Even giggles still creep from that room, but no one knows the truth.

Not a soul has come out of Scarville alive. The only person who could visit is a previous resident. She is now 44, only 4 years old at the time. She remembers little about it, except for her name. Emma Chambers. The town still stands, aging with passing days, but no one dare visit. When you enter, you never leave. Your body? Never found. Memories you build, forgotten.

“The town was forgotten, one day….we will be forgotten.”

Mack Mcleod                                                                                                             3/2/18

Learning Cycle #1

Summative Assessment

I chose to redo writing prompt three and develop it even further.

Josh awoke on a scenic island with soft beach sand and palm trees all over. The tall, fit  man slowly sat up, brushing the grainy beach sand off of his blue t-shirt. Before completely standing up, Josh took in the sight of his surroundings. After some time, he finally stood up and looked around the beach once more. Some people were very upset, and others angry. While being perfectly fine physically and mentally, Josh noticed his pants could not say the same. They had suffered a large tear that was irreparable. “That’s a good excuse to get a new pair,” he chuckled softly to himself. Being the character he was with his background in the medical field, Josh was able to make the most out of any situation. Thinking back to his last memory, he remembered boarding his flight back to his home in Los Angeles.  After enjoying his time alone, feet buried in the white grainy beach sand, he wanted to go back home.

The vacation was down South in tropical Islands as a break from helping wounded patients. Josh liked taking vacations to get away from the stresses and to enjoy life a little. His favourite thing to do was to meet new people on these vacations. Although after being on this vacation Josh was happy to be boarding the plane to go home and see his wife and children. Not knowing what had happened or where he was, Josh wanted to find out. Coming out from his shaded spot, he called for someone but no response came through. He called again but even louder, still without a reply. Wondering why no one was responding, he concluded that regardless of how loud he was, the wind and waves washed away the shouts of his voice before anyone could have heard him. Already being exhausted from the heat, Josh did not want to drain the remainder of his energy so he sat back down under his shaded palm tree. Moments after sitting down, he noticed a gun-wielding person in the distance. The sound of algorithm machines and the screaming of the emergency room filled Josh’s mind. His job in the medical field took over his thoughts.

“I’ve seen this before,” exclaimed Josh with some excitement in his voice. “That man is in unstable condition, perhaps from the heat and stress. Someone needs to get him into shade and relaxed, otherwise bad things could happen.” In the emergency room, Josh would usually order a takedown team to strap the patient in a gurney, so treatment could begin. Unfortunately, on this beach there were no medical supplies, no nurses or takedown team. It was looking like it would be a long hard survival.

‘The only other alternative to help this guy is to give him space and let it play out. I need to tell the others to stay back,” Josh thought. Josh tried to warn the group but remembered that it was no use. No one could hear him. Instead, he just waited to see what the outcome would be. “There would be no point approaching,” Josh murmured to himself. “It would just result in potentially fatal heat stroke trying to calm him down and he may even shoot us for approaching.” Under the shaded palm tree, Josh watched the situation unfold. Innocent people tried talking with the man, but to no avail.  From previous medical training, Josh did not feel right not helping others and watching what could happen. He arose to his feet once again and slowly made his way down the long, winding beach towards the individual. He thought to himself, “This isn’t going to end well….”