by Aloysius Bresnan

Congratulations! You have just survived freshmen year at St. Joseph school. You are probably thinking it’s going to be a lot easier well let me be tell you, it’s not. Sophomore year is full of surprises and challenges, which will sometimes overwhelm you. Here are few tips to survive your sophomore year:

1. Use your time wisely. Don’t procrastinate! Trust me, using your free time to review some Geometry or get started on your project next week will pay off in the long run.
2. Participate. Be involved in school activities and don’t be shy to make a name for yourself by showing your skills in music, sports, or anything your good at but remember you’re still a student so don’t forget your studies.
3.  Take down notes! This is crucial for all subjects and will help you understand subjects like Biology, Geometry, and English. Memorization techniques like singing the words and acronyms also help.
4. Be friendly. No one should be alone. Help your friends so that they will help you. Have study groups, just make sure you actually study and not just goof off J
5. Sleep well and eat right. Skipping breakfast or sleeping after midnight is not going to help you ace that quiz first period and affect your overall performance.
6. Facebook, Dota, and Malling are not the first things you should do when you get home. Do things in their order of importance.
7.  Have goals. What do you want to achieve this school year? Do you want to be on the honor roll? Do you want to be on the varsity? Or Do you just want to make this year fun and memorable? Whatever your goal is don’t lose sight of it and let it motivate you to do better.
8. Confidence is important. You need to believe in yourself to do your best. Don’t be shy to show your skills. But be careful, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
9. Passing requirement is a must. It doesn’t matter if you did your project if you don’t pass it on time. Remember to follow deadlines for everything. Be organized.
10. Don’t give up no matter what. I’m not going to lie to you but there will be times that everything may just look like too much and you just want to give up but remember that you have worked too hard to give up now.

Just follow these tips and you will surely survive your sophomore year. Don’t forget that you used to be the freshman who had no experience of high school whatsoever. Now prove to everyone that you have what it takes to call yourself a Josephian sophomore.

           by Alexa Claro

          Do you buy things simply because it feels good to buy them? Has shopping sunk you into debt? If so, then you must be a shopaholic or a compulsive shopper. You must want to quit for being a shopaholic has its consequences. These are some of them: bogs down your time, space and mind, you sacrifice you money, food, utilities or be unable to pay rising credit card balances, you sacrifice your relationships, and the worst is developing other impulse disorders.

            Being a shopaholic bogs down your time, space and mind. Instead of doing more important things, you shop to kill time. You also spend inordinate amount of time shopping than being with your friends or family. You even buy a lot of things which you do not need, and they occupy most of the spaces in your house. Probably, your house if littered with unopened packages and multiples of the same item; your rooms are full of electronic equipment and software still sitting in their boxes, and you know that there is no more space for visitors anymore. When you become buried underneath a mountain of stuffs, you will begin to think of going out and buying mass quantities of organizing tools, plastic bins and filing cabinets and closet organizing components, and the like. So, the irony here is you are spending even more money to get handle on the stuff that out you to debt. Interestingly enough, you are not connecting the dots.

            Apparently, you sacrifice your money, food, utilities or be unable to pay rising credit card balances. When you buy useless things despite their high prices, you know you are sacrificing your money. When you choose to shop rather to eat, you are sacrificing not just your food but also your health. You sacrifice your utilities when you become frugal in consuming the electricity, water and gas, and save the money to shop. What is worse is you cannot really afford to buy all the things you are buying. Then, you become drowned in debt yet you continue to shop until you drop.

            Unfortunately, you even sacrifice your relationships with your loved ones. Instead of spending quality time with them, you go to malls all by yourself, and you don’t want them to give you feedbacks about being a compulsive shopper. Then, conflicts would occur. Another is when you usually try to hide how much money you have spent from a significant other, and this lack of honesty can only have negative effects on relationships.

            Other impulse control disorders might rise from being a shopaholic. Once you spend beyond limits, the disease such as an addiction to drugs can worsen. You may indulge in compulsive theft which is known as Kleptomania, or you might steal money from others in order to continue shopping. Another impulse control disorder is the Ludomania where you continue to gamble despite the harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop.

            Buying lots of stuffs cannot possibly make you happy, instead they give you problems and negative effects while simplicity frees you up to pursue the worthwhile things in life—be it family, career, athletic or creative endeavors, or simply getting lost in a good book. Lastly, if you are shopping for pleasure or to pass time, find another activity.

by Allycka Torres

1. Facebook. Sometimes it is just nice to chat using their chat box especially when all your friends and blockmates are online. 
2.  Twitter. You love tweeting that you have to study but you end up scrolling down reading all the other tweets. 
   
3.  Computer Games. Whether its from facebook or Dota, you know it's a distraction from homework. 
   
4. SMS. Sometimes when you are texting really important people, (a.k.a the boyfriend, the bestfriend, the mom, the dad or even the everyday textmates) you forget that you have something more important to do. 
   
5.  “If I start now, what will I do later?” 
   
6.  “Eh, my class will start late. I can do it before that!” 
   
7.  “I’m too lazy to move! My bed looks inviting!” 
   
8.  “I’d rather eat.” 
   
9. “Our teacher will discuss it after anyways!” 
   
10. “WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN?” 
    

Source:For #s 1 , 2 and 4-10 

Am I right or am I right? Did you feel a little guilt right at the back of your head? We're all victims of the we-don't-want-to-do-our-homework virus and sometimes we just keep catching it. Some students do it at school so they have all the free time they have at home while others cram during the night. I know a guy who wakes up at 3 just to do some "early morning homework" just because he forgets at night. Which one are you? 

As a student, I get this feeling a lot. Most especially when I get a lot of homework from different subjects, I suddenly feel sleepy or I finally think of loading my phone. The thing is here, we have to learn how to fight this lazy feeling. Bruno Mars' "The Lazy Song" doesn't apply to us Josephians because we're being taught on how to handle this. Sip-sip ako :)) . 

And a hello to everyone who reads this. What are your reasons on why you don't do homework? Share your thoughts below.

Ta-da!  Featuring the sample invitation made by select students of II-Narra.

Uncopyrightable is the longest English word with no repeated letters.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

pump-up party noun an illicit party at which people inject black-market fillers in their buttocks, lips, etc. in order to pump them up

Here, Grazia uncovers a worrying new trend for underground ‘pump-up parties’ where women are risking their lives injecting black-market fillers. [Grazia (UK celebrity magazine) 21 March 2011]

source:
http://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2011/05/30/new-words-30-may-2011/

Anais Nin was a renowned writer who is famous for her journals written for a period spanning six decades. Nin was born French-Cuban but lived in the United States in her later years of life till she died. Nin's works revolved around accounts of her relationships with authors, artists, psychoanalysts, and other figures. Her journals spoke of life and its balancing acts. Much of Nin's written works have been published after her death. Nin is hailed as a great erotic literature writer and some of her notable and popular works are "Delta of Venus", "Little Birds" and "Henry and June". Nin was known to have a male mindset and had sexual relations with men and women whom she portrayed in her novels and journals which were works of fiction and reality. Some of her journals include "A Cafe in Space", "the Anais Nin Literary Journal" which are being brought recently which also include "Anais Nin and Joaquín Nin y Castellanos: Prelude to a Symphony—Letters between a father and daughter". Nin had been a visiting lecturer in several colleges and given a fine impetus to the feminist movement with her strong writings. Some of her writings were made into films and she was also portrayed in a feature length film made by Maria de Medeiros.

Anais Nin Childhood and Early Life
Anais Nin was born as Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell on 21 February 1903 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France to artistic parents. Nin’s father Joaquín Nin was a Spanish artist and a composer who lived in Cuba where he met Nin’s mother Rosa Culmell of French and Danish descent who was a well trained professional classical singer based in Cuba. As a child Nin was brought up in Spain. Her parents separated and Nina along with her two brothers, Thorvald Nin and Joaquin Nin-Culmell were moved to New York City from Barcelona by their mother.
 
Nin received her formal education till the age of 16 when she decided to give up studying and started to work as a dancer and model. After living in America for a long time Nin nearly forgot how to speak Spanish which is why she kept her French and English fluency.
 
Personal Life, Early Work and Marriage
Nin got married to her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler on 3 March 1923 in Havana, Cuba. Her husband was a banker and an artist who made experimental films in the later years and was known as Ian Hugo in the late 1940s. In 1924 Nin and Hugh moved to Paris where Hugh continued with his banking career and Nin started writing and even trained as a flamenco dancer in Paris in the mid-to-late 1920s. Nin wrote her first book in print, “D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study” which was published by Edward W. Titus in Paris, 1932. Nin is believed to have taken just 16 days to complete her book on D. H. Lawrence. During this period Nin deeply immersed herself into exploration in the felid of psychotherapy, studying under the likes of Otto Rank who was a disciple of Sigmund Freud. Nin had briefly been a patient of Carl Jung. On the onset of 1939 Nin left Paris as it was a French government’s request to its residents to leave France because of the upcoming war. Nin returned to New York with Hugh during this time and sent her written books to Frances Steloff of the Gotham Book Mart in New York for safekeeping.
 
Nin had written diaries, Vol.1, 1931–1934 which suggest her close bonding with Henry Miller with whom she probably shared a bohemian life. Her diaries however do not have any mention of her husband in the published edition of the 1930s parts of her diary (Vol.1–2). However, the opening of Vol.1 makes it clear that she is married and the introduction also points to the fact that her husband Guiler had refused to be included or mentioned in the published diaries.
 
Nin met former actor Rupert Pole in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party in 1947 when she was 44 years old. The duo soon started dating and started living in. On March 17, 1955, she married Pole at Quartzsite, Arizona and returned with him to live in California. Nin’s first husband Guiler stayed back in New York unaware of her marriage which he came to know only after Nin died in 1977. In 1966 Nin had to get into an annulment of her marriage with Pole because of legal problems arising out of the fact that both Guiler and Pole were claiming her as a dependent on their federal tax returns. In spite of Nin’s marriage with Pole being annulled she continued living with Pole until her death in 1977.
 
Works
Nin is better known as a person who recorded everything in her diaries. She had written journals for decades which give all the insight into her life, relationships and times. Nin is popular as an author even today and she is regarded as one of finest erotic literature writers of all times. In an unpublished 1940 diary Nin confirms that she was not a bisexual, although she might have been attracted to women but thoughts on sexual acts with women made her uncomfortable.
 
Nin discussed many of her personal struggles and journeys and while doing so she revealed that many literary figures had been her friends and lovers. Some of them are Henry Miller, Antonin Artaud, Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, James Agee, James Leo Herlihy, and Lawrence Durrell. Nin had a love affair with Miller who shaped Nin as a woman and an author.
 
It was in 1931-1932 that Nin had written her book “Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin” (full title - Henry and June: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin) which was published much later in 1986. The book was published with parts and sections taken from Nin’s unpublished diaries. The book revolves around first volume of Anaïs Nin's published diaries and discussion of Nin's sex life and is full of her struggles and passionate relationship with husband Hugo, and then, as the novel/memoir progresses, other lovers. Miller’s wife was June who was considered a femme fatale was gifted with money, jewelry and clothes by Nin which often left Nin with no money. All this aroused questions about Nin’s sexual preferences. But Nin cleared all doubts by stating that she did not have any kind of sexual relations with Miller’s wife. In the book Nin was moved by June’s powerful persona. Nin stated, “I have become June” but made it clear that she did not consummate her erotic feelings for her.
 
Nin wrote her second unexpurgated journal “Incest” which talked about her having an incestuous relationship with her father, which was also graphically described in pages 207–15. In 1936 Nin published “House of Incest” which was a 72 page novel that was her first work of fiction. In the book Nin did not deal with stories about her love life but she narrated a beautiful surrealistic look within the narrator's subconscious mind as she attempts to escape from a dream in which she is trapped, or according to Nin, as she attempts to escape from “the woman's season in hell.”
 
Nin had appeared and been a part of various films. She first appeared in the Kenneth Anger film “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) as Astarte, Maya Deren film “Ritual in Transfigured Time” (1946); and in “Bells of Atlantis” (1952) and in a film by her husband Guiler.
 
Later Life, Honours and Death
In the 1960s feminist movement had become prominent and Nin’s writings featured feminist perspectives during this time. Soon she became a popular lecturer at various universities and at the same time she detached herself from all political activities. In 1973 Anaïs Nin was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Philadelphia College of Art. In 1974 Nin was elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters.
 
Nin died on 14 January 1977 in her Los Angeles home after battling with cancer for three years.
 
Posthumous Publications of Nin’s Writings and Works on her

    * Delta of Venus – 1978
    * Little Birds - 1979
    * Henry & June (film) directed by Philip Kaufman - 1990
    * Incest: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin - 1992
    * Fire: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin – 1995


Anais Nin Timeline:
1903 - Anais Nin was born as Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell on 21 February
1923 - Nin got married to her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler on 3 March in Havana, Cuba
1924 - Nin and Hugh moved to Paris where Hugh continued with his banking career and Nin started writing and even trained as a flamenco dancer in Paris
1931-1932 - Nin had written her book “Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin” (full title - Henry and June: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin) which was published much later in 1986
1932 - Nin wrote her first book in print, “D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study” which was published by Edward W. Titus in Paris
1936 - Nin published “House of Incest” which was a 72 page novel that was her first work of fiction
1939 - Nin left Paris as it was a French government’s request to its residents to leave France because of the upcoming war
1946 – She appeared in the Maya Deren film “Ritual in Transfigured Time”
1947 - Nin met former actor Rupert Pole in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party
1952 - She appeared in “Bells of Atlantis” and in a film by her husband Guiler
1954 - She first appeared in the Kenneth Anger film “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” as Astarte,
1955 - On 17 March she married Rupert Pole at Quartzsite, Arizona and returned with him to live in California
1966 - Nin had to get into an annulment of her marriage with Pole because of legal problems arising out of the fact that both Guiler and Pole were claiming her as a dependent on their federal tax returns
1973 - Anaïs Nin was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Philadelphia College of Art
1974 - Nin was elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters
1977 - Nin died on 14 January in her Los Angeles home after battling with cancer for three years

Alfred Lord Tennyson was a poet laureate of the United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Victoria and also one of the most known poets in English Literature. He continued and refined the traditions of Romantic Movement left to him by his predecessors, Wordsworth, Byron and Keats. His poetry was considered remarkable for its metrical variety, rich descriptive imagery and exquisite verbal melodies. His subject matter ranged from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature. He had excelled the art of writing short lyrics which can be evident from his poems like, "In the valley of Cauteretz", "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar". One of his noted works include "In Memoriam A.H.H.", which he wrote to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam. His other significant works include "Idylls of the King", "Ulysses", and "Tithonus". Also, many of his phrases have become commonplaces of English Literature today. Some of his most frequently used phrases include "Nature, red in tooth and claw", "T'is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", "The old order changeth, yielding place to new" and so on. After Shakespeare, Tennyson is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Alfred Lord Tennyson Childhood & Early Life
Alfred Lord Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, George Clayton Tennyson was a rector for Somersby and few other institutions. Tennyson belonged to a noble and royal ancestry. His father was a man of superior abilities and varied skills and had made significant contribution in the field of painting, architecture, music and poetry. Alfred Tennyson’s mother,Elizabeth Fytche was the daughter of Stephen Fytche who was the vicar of St. James Church, Louth (1764). The couple had twelve children and Alfred Tennyson was fourth amongst them. His father took significant attention and care of his children’s education and training. Alfred, along with his two brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner and Frederick Tennyson, was sent to Louth Grammar School in 1816. The threesome had started penning poems in their early teens, which resulted in the publication of a combined collection of the poems of the three brothers, when Alfred was only seventeen years old.
 
After attending Louth Grammar School for four years, Tennyson enrolled himself Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. In 1827, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge where he joined a secret society known as Cambridge Apostles. At the Cambridge only, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam who became his best friend. The same year in 1827, his first poem collection, “Poems by Two Brothers” was published which had compositions from him and his elder brother Charles. His first composition, “Timbuctoo” brought him the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge in 1829. The following year, he published his first solo poem collection, “Poems Chiefly Lyrical”. This poem collection had the famous poems like “Claribel” and “Mariana” and became popular for its sentimental nature.
 
Returning to Lincolnshire
The year 1831 came with sudden turmoil in Tennyson’s life. His father died as a result of which Tennyson had to leave Cambridge mid-way, before taking his degree. After returning to the rectory, he stayed there for next six years to take care of his widowed mother and family. His best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam came to stay with him in summer where he met Alfred’s sister, Emilia Tennyson. The two fell in love and got engaged. The year 1833 was worse for Tennyson, for his second collection of poetry was heavily criticized. He decided not to publish any other poem for next ten years. The same year, Arthur Hallam suddenly died in Vienna due to cerebral haemorrhage. The sudden death of Arthur Hallam deeply affected Tennyson and influenced his poetry. It inspired him to write masterpieces like, “In the Valley of Cauteretz" and “In Memoriam A.H.H.” After staying in rectory for six years, Tennyson and his family moved to High Beach, Essex in 1837. He also invested in wood carving enterprise during this period, but met with huge losses. Consequently, he moved to London and resided in Chapel House, Twickenham.
 
Career and Later Life
While living in London, Tennyson published two volumes of “Poems”. While the first collection had the already published poems, the second collection comprised of entirely new poems. This poem collection included famous poems like, “Locksley Hall”, “Tithonus”, and “Ulysses”. 1850 came as the golden year for Tennyson. He was on the top of his literary career and finally published his dedication to Arthur Hallam, “In Memoriam A.H.H.”. The same year he was appointed as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, succeeding William Wordsworth. He remained on the post of Laureate till his death in 1892. While on the post of Poet Laureate, Tennyson produced various appropriate verses which included, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington” and “Ode Sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition”.
 
Queen Victoria was a fervent admirer of Tennyson’s writings and made him the Baron Tennyson of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight in 1884. He was offered baronetcy earlier as well, in the year 1865 and 1868, but on both occasion, he refused to accept the offer, finally accepting it in the year 1883, at Gladstone's earnest solicitation. He took his seat in the House of Lords on March 11, 1884. During the last years of his life, Tennyson wrote about his religious beliefs and revealed how he dared convention and also about his leaning towards agnosticism and pandeism. His few famous religious comments include, "There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds” which he wrote in “In Memoriam” and "The churches have killed their Christ” which he wrote in “Maud”, 1855.
 
Personal Life
Alfred Tennyson married Emily Sellwood on June 13, 1850 in the village of Shiplake. Both knew each other since childhood days, but didn’t come close until Tennyson’s brother Charles married Emily’s younger sister, Louisa. The couple had two sons, Hallam Tennyson born in August 11, 1852 and Lionel born on March 16, 1854.
 
Death
Tennyson continued to write till his last days. He died on October 6, 1892 at Aldworth. He was aged 83 and long-lived like most of his family members. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. Later, a memorial was erected for him in All Saints' Church, Freshwater.

Timeline:
1809: Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire.
1815: Sent to Louth Grammar School.
1827: Entered Trinity College, Cambridge.
1827: Published his first poem collection, “Poems by Two Brothers”.
1830: Published his first solo collection of poems, “Poems Chiefly Lyrical”
1831: His father died, due to which he left Cambridge mid-way, even before collecting his degree
1833: His closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam died; Second collection was released but met with heavy criticism
1837: Moved to High Beach, Essex with family.
1842: Published two volumes of “Poems”
1850: Married Emily Sellwood; Published, “In Memoriam A.H.H.”; Appointed as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
1884: Was made the Baron of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight.
1892: Died at Aldworth, aged 83.

Although remembered now for his elegantly argued critical essays, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) began his career as a poet, winning early recognition as a student at the Rugby School where his father, Thomas Arnold, had earned national acclaim as a strict and innovative headmaster. Arnold also studied at Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1844, after completing his undergraduate degree at Oxford, he returned to Rugby as a teacher of classics. After marrying in 1851, Arnold began work as a government school inspector, a grueling position which nonetheless afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout England and the Continent. Throughout his thirty-five years in this position Arnold developed an interest in education, an interest which fed into both his critical works and his poetry. Empedocles on Etna (1852) and Poems (1853) established Arnold's reputation as a poet and in 1857 he was offered a position, which he accepted and held until 1867, as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Arnold became the first professor to lecture in English rather than Latin. During this time Arnold wrote the bulk of his most famous critical works, Essays in Criticism (1865) and Culture and Anarchy (1869), in which he sets forth ideas that greatly reflect the predominant values of the Victorian era.

Meditative and rhetorical, Arnold's poetry often wrestles with problems of psychological isolation. In "To Marguerite—Continued," for example, Arnold revises Donne's assertion that "No man is an island," suggesting that we "mortals" are indeed "in the sea of life enisled." Other well-known poems, such as "Dover Beach," link the problem of isolation with what Arnold saw as the dwindling faith of his time. Despite his own religious doubts, a source of great anxiety for him, in several essays Arnold sought to establish the essential truth of Christianity. His most influential essays, however, were those on literary topics. In "The Function of Criticism" (1865) and "The Study of Poetry" (1880) Arnold called for a new epic poetry: a poetry that would address the moral needs of his readers, "to animate and ennoble them." Arnold's arguments, for a renewed religious faith and an adoption of classical aesthetics and morals, are particularly representative of mainstream Victorian intellectual concerns. His approach—his gentlemanly and subtle style—to these issues, however, established criticism as an art form, and has influenced almost every major English critic since, including T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling, and Harold Bloom. Though perhaps less obvious, the tremendous influence of his poetry, which addresses the poet's most innermost feelings with complete transparency, can easily be seen in writers as different from each other as W. B. Yeats, James Wright, Sylvia Plath, and Sharon Olds. Late in life, in 1883 and 1886, Arnold made two lecturing tours of the United States. Matthew Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888.

http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/matthew_arnold/biography