No more blogging

Well Mr. Hill said that we are done blogging for the semester. Good bye!

Finally

When I started this class I was a former reader who had not read in a while.  I did not read any literary books.  I would read a lot during spring break because my Florida house does not have cable.  I started reaading because my dad started me out early.  My dad used to make me do the summer reading program at the library every summer.  When I was younger all of the librarians knew me by name.  During this semester, I started to read a wider variety of styles of books.  I was either hit or miss with books on how I liked them.  Some I liked at first but I then grew bored and uninterested with them.  Others never quite caught my attention.  Then there were the few that I enjoyed reading from start to finish.  Friends would recommend books for me or I would just grab a book in a rush and decide to read it.  I am slightly more likely to continue reading through out the year.  I have a couple of friends that have and love books that other people in this class said were very good.  I am leaning towards one of those books to read.  With school work and other activities it is hard to find time to read. 

Reading: City of Bones

Now the issue of sexuality has come into play.  Clary asked Isabelle if Alec was gay.  Isabelle made it clear that Clary could not tell anyone because their parents would disown him and throw him out of the Clave.  Alec is lucky to have Isabelle who supports and takes care of him.  The group then went into Magnus's party where they saw a group of vampires' motorcycles that ran on demon energy outside.  A vampire came up to Magnus infuriated.  Someone had poured holy water into his motorcycle and it was ruined.  Magnus promised he did not invite any of the "Moon's Children," aka werewolves.  Once the vampire left Alec admitted that he and Jace did the prank.  It is funny how something so simple to the normal people was a huge prank in their world.  Later in the story something very bad must have happened because the werewolves came to the vampires lair.  That is forbidden by the Covenant but the reason was that there was about to be a war.  The werewolves came to get Clary.  A wolf broke away from the fighting and Jace helped Clary escape out the fire escape.  Jace then got on a vampire's bike and they fled.  Once back to safety, Alec tried to get Clary to leave.  Alec did not like Clary.  Alec blamed Clary for everything that Jace had done even though it was Jace's idea.  Alec and Clary then got in a big heated argument which made Alec not like her even more.  I think Alec had no right to accuse Clary of what he was.  Then Clary and Jace snuck to the greenhouse to celebrate at midnight that it was Clary's birthday.  Jace gave Clary a witch stone and was actually thoughtful for once which was nice.

I want to do this

Reading: City of Bones

Clary finds out that she was not just a weird mundie who could somehow see the shadow hunters and other creatures.  She finds out that she was born a shadow hunter and her mom would have her memory erased of anything related to the other world.  Her mother was trying to protect her but Clary was angry.  This book series is called the Mortal Instruments.  A spell could not be done to reverse the memory erase spell because it could go wrong and ruin Clary's entire memories forever.  As Clary is trying to remember the things she had forgotten, they tell her what the Mortal Instruments are.  They were three items an angel gave the first shadow hunters.  The items were a sword, a cup, and a mirror.  The bad guy in this story, Valentine, is looking for the cup.  The cup is necessary to make more shadow hunters.  That idea of three powerful items being given to people a long time ago is seen in many stories such as Harry Potter that I mentioned in the other blog post.  Harry Potter had the Elder Wand, invisible cloak, and resurrection stone.  That idea was not so original compared to the somewhat original story line.  Simon, and real mundane, was then turned into a rat by drinking a potion.  It was kind of funny how the normal goofy kid gets turned into a rat and gets into the stupid problems.  Although this book could be read and enjoyed by all, this books main characters are teens and is obviously geared more towards teens.  I would catagorize it as a teen fantasy.  I have not really read many of those recently so the change of pace is always nice.

Currently

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

This week: 150

Last week: 150

Total: 1273

Sentences of the week:

1.  "He turned to follow her, tasting the phantom sizzle of her death on his lips."

2.  "Colored lights played over the dance floor, turning it into a multicolored fairyland of blues and acid greens, hot pinks and golds."

3.  "There was a word for him that her mother would have used- insouciant."

The boy who thought this was actually the boy who was killed by the girl so its foreshadowing just for the wrong person.  The second one also described the club very well and I liked the use of fairyland.

Reading: City of Bones

Simon kept questioning Clary about what happened at the night club.  Clary and Simon went to a coffee shop to hear one of their friend's poems.  A girl started to ask about Simon and thought he was cute. Clary tried to get simon to go ask her out but he started insinuating that he liked Clary.  Then Jace showed up to take Clary to the Institute.  There was a doctor named Hodges who wanted to talk to her and figure out some questions.  She is the first mundie to see and know about the shadow hunters for at least a hundred years.  Clary did not want to go with Jace but he forced her.  I think that something must be pretty serious for Jace to force her to go there.  Clary then got attacked by a ravener and killed it remarkably. She got poisoned by that demon and was sleeping for three days. Hodges was aftraid she might die.  After Clary got changed they started to tell her about the shadowhunters home country.  It was called Idris and mundanes or normal people did not know about it. supposedly it was a small country between Germany and France that was protected by spells.  The author has a lot of imagination that shows through in this book.  The plot line so far is very creative.

Reading: City of Bones

This book is part of the Mortal Instruments series and is going to be made into a movie.  I have also heard a lot of good things about this book!  I also just noticed a pattern about reading books that are movies or are going to be movies.  The cover of the book is very shiny and eye catching which I like.  I sometimes can not help but judge a book by its cover sometimes when I pick it off the shelf.  The book starts out with a group of kids trying to get into an all ages night club.  One of the kids notices a girl in a beautiful white dress being followed by an awestruck boy.  They went into a back room which would have been normal at a club.  What was not normal about this was the body guards that showed up and guarded the door after the two went in.  The book then cuts to inside the room where the girl seduces the boy close and then the girl started to beat him up.  She had tattoos on her arm and the boy called her a shadow hunter.  The girl was named Isabelle but it was the boy who tried to gain some information before he killed the monster that looked like a boy.  That is when Clary walked in.  They called Clary a mundie which I'm not sure but probably means the same as a muggle from Harry Potter.  They were surprised that Clary could even see them.  Simon went in the room after Clary and did not see anyone so Clary pretended no one was there.  That was just a little analysis of the first chapter.  Usually books do not grab my attention for a while.  This book, however, caught my attention right away.

This makes me wish i was longboarding down my street in florida

Reading: The Lucky One

Keith went and told Beth that Thibault had a picture of her.   She was surprised and immediately went to talk to Thibault.  When Thibault admitted he had the picture that she gave to her brother she started to freak out.  She thought the was he used her was sick and wrong.  Her reaction was understandable and she was not overreacting too much.  Thibault should have told her about the photo from the beginning and he started to understand that mistake.  Everyone believed he was a sociopath.  I do not believe he was a sociopath but the whole idea was kind of crazy.  The fact that Thibault gave Ben the picture to help keep him safe made Beth a little less mad when she went to talk to Thibault.  After talking it out, Thibault and Beth made up and decided to still date.  I think this is a pretty big 180 after how mad Beth was and how weird and crazy the situation was.  Keith came to Beth's house and started to attack her.  He was acting crazy and was trying to make Beth kiss him.  Ben saw Keith trying to force his mom to date him again and ran away.  Ben had run to his tree house which takes an old collapsing bridge to cross.  On top of the impending devastation, the river below was flowing extremely fast due to the immense amount of rain that had been occurring all day.  Zeus saved Ben pulling him across the river to safety.  I was afraid that Zeus was going to be killed off by the author and I was happy he made it safely.  Keith did in fact die.  Even after the bad things Keith did, Beth only said good things about him which I think was skewing his memory.

Reading: The Lucky One

Thibault thinks that Beth's ex husband broke into his house.  Beth talked to Nana to try and figure out why.  Beth started to get scared that maybe Keith (her ex husband) would try to scare Thibault away.  I think that knowing the way Thibault feels about Beth there is no way that he would be scared away by Keith.  Thibault went to talk to Keith about breaking into his house.  Thibault had a video camera up so it saw Keith breaking in and Thibault still had the disk with the pictures that Keith took while spying on girls.  Thibault told Keith to 1. Stay out of Beth's business 2. Stay out of his business and 3. Not take his anger out on Ben.  Keith had been chasing away any guy who had tried to date Beth ever since they got a divorce.  Technically that was black mail but it was not hurting anyone it was overall helping the situation.

Keith found out that the guy who was showing Beth's picture around was Thibault.  Keith thought that Thibault had stalked her and wanted to know how he got the picture.  Keith was confused and knew that Beth probably would not like the story he heard.  After reading that I knew that something bad was going to happen.  If Beth did not think something was wrong with that there is something wrong with her.  Some may say that Thibault's trek to find Beth was romantic.  I agree somewhat but I think it is more creepy. 

Close-reading Bingo

1. "...Carrying a black Peguin paperback and a small white CVS bag...".  Weakness #8
http://stanfield6.blogspot.com/
2.  "In Nicholson Baker's work The Mezzanine, he uses elegant and intricate diction to create a formal tone." Weakness #6 http://clayballl.blogspot.com/
3.  "The girl screams to her sister “I will kill if you touch this, Julie, and if you do I swear to go I will kill you, no mercy, no take-backs private property, this means you, Julie, you” which explains how the infuriated girl feels toward her sister." Weakness #2 http://emily1212.blogspot.com/
4.  "The negative connotation of his words is straightforward, making his word choice easily believed by others. " Weakness #3http://littleduckkie3.blogspot.com/

Favorite: http://xchoosier3366.blogspot.com/

In Chapter One of The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker's elegant and flowing elevation, journalistic and descriptive denotation, and slightly sweet musical tone convey the vivid detailing of the narrator's office. Although there is not an emotional tone to the passage, it still presents a brilliant and exact description of the building and its surroundings. His scholarly word choice is depicted through "radians of black luster that ride the undulating outer edge" and the lobby's "towering volumes of marble and glass." His denotation is evident through the descriptions of "the struts and piers" and the "black Penguin paperback and small white CVS bag" which are clearly easy to picture. The mood isn't very uplifting, but the connected words of "sunlight," "glossy," and "shine" help to emphasize the melodious sound that Baker employs.

Practice Diction Analysis

In the excerpt from JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, the blunt yet dull diction displays his view on life and portrays him as an angry young man.  Salinger uses words with mainly negative connotations that are easy to understand yet are somewhat hostile.  He also uses dull sarcasm like when he describes his parents as "nice".  That is a strong case that shows even though Salinger may be straight forward on some things, the verbal irony can create an interesting diction.  There is also a lot of common vernacular that makes the story a little more relateable.

Currently

The Lucky One  by Nicholas Sparks

Original Style Mapping Sentences:

1.  In Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, the straightforward descriptions of the stripped wilderness give the text a minimalistic feel and forcing attention to the rare dialogue between the father and son. That was from Norwegian Wood and I like the imagry it shows and uses adjectives you normally would not see.

2. These diction types enforce the suggestivly imaginative connotation as he describes normal objects with a certain blunt hyberbolishness. That One Guy's Blog said this and I enjoyed the feeling given from the words especially hyberbolishness.

3.In 1984 by George Orwell, he portrays low language through his blunt diction and coarse observations giving the reader a sense of fear as well as disgust. Orwell uses vulgar descriptions such as, "The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats," which illustrates the setting of the novel. As Told by Ginger used the quote very well to help illustrate the feeling in the writing.

Style Mapping

Authors tend to have different writing styles that help protray their mood and theme of the writing. The Help by Kathryn Stockett uses moody and somewhat suggestive tone within the words that tend to have a somewhat hidden meaning.  Stockett's words are overall more in the middle on the map.  In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling's words are very connotative, elevated, and magically musical.  On the other end of the spectrum, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy does not send a whimsical or inspirational feel but gives off more of a graceful or elegant feel.  These authors all use different diction that change the mood completely from story to story.

Reading: The Lucky One

Beth starts out talking about how it was her brother who took the picture with him over to Iraq and how Beth didn't want to hire Thibault because he was a marine.  It reminded her of how Thibault made it out alive but her brother didn't.  Her brother Drake was killed by friendly fire.   After Beth had told Thibault about her brother her ex husband Clayton pulled up.  Ben got out of the car with a bloody black eye from a supposed ball that Ben missed when playing catch.  For some reason I think that someone hit Ben because the description of the wounds do not sound like something that is from a ball.  Clayton was the police officer that Thibault saw taking pictures of the girls on the beach.  Clayton started to yell at Beth and then at Thibault but Thibault stayed calm and asked Clayton to leave.  Clayton seemed intimidated and left.  Clayton was a little jealous and became determined to make Thibault hate the day he showed up into town.  I think Clayton is over reacting and holding a grudge on something that he has no right to hold a grudge on.  Then Beth asked Thibault to go on a date with her and they had a great time.  If you were reading the book you would know that the date was bound to happen so it was not surprising.  The bulk of the date was spent talking about Zeus, Iraq, and why Thibault was in the town.  He never told her about how he found her picture in Iraq.  At the end of the date they both said how they loved eachother.  Personally I think they threw that out there pretty fast but it was sweet.

Quarterly

I have read a lot more this quarter than I have in a while.  When I was younger I read all of the time but as I grew older I stopped reading for the most part.  I went from knowing what books I was going to read next months in advanced and having the librarians know me by name to not being able to figure out what book I was going to read for this class next.  The most challenging reading by far is literary.  Popular books are more fun to read and overall easier to read and follow than literary.  I really enjoyed reading The Help.  Not only was it funny with a great plot line it was inspirational and just a great book.  That was probably my favorite book of the semester by far.  I usually read at night around 8:00 or so and it is not for an extremely long time in one sitting.  I also read during third period where I'm a teacher's assistant.  I will usually read in my room with some light music playing in the background.  I think a challenge I need to place for myself is putting my phone downstairs when I'm reading upstairs in my room.  I get distracted when my friends text me which makes me stop reading too early.

Reading: The Lucky One

After searching around in North Carolina Thibault figured out the mystery girl's name.  Her name was Elizabeth "Beth" Green.  She is a divorced school teacher who helped out at an animal shelter.  Thibault went to meet Beth and possibly get a job at the kennel.  Beth thought Thibault's whole situation was odd.  Beth's Nana like Thibault and decided to give Thibault a chance with the shelter.  A downside to hiring Thibault was that he was a marine which reminded Beth of her ex husband.  I think the way Thibault nonchalantly made his way into Beth's life was funny and smart.  Then a little boy came up to Thibault outside and started talking to him.  The boy's name was Ben and he was Beth's son.  Ben seemed to like Thibault from the first time he met him.  The connection Ben felt with Zeus and Thibault from the first time they met was really sweet and possibly foreshadows Ben wanting his mother to date Thibault.  Beth also started to think about Thibault and things she liked about himi.  She has not made a move yet but it seems like it is bound to happen sooner or later.

Reading: The Lucky One

There are certain weeks where it is harder to get your reading and blogging done than others.  This is one of those weeks. My friend just gave me The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.  This is actually the first Nicholas Sparks book I have read.  I have heard mixed emotions about his books but the majority I have heard really like his books.  The main character is Thibault.  Thibault is a former marine who was on tour in Iraq.  While he was on his daily jog one morning, he saw a laminated photo sticking out from the sand.  It was a picture of a girl who was probably in her early twenties.  Although he usually loses, with the picture of this girl in his pocket he won the card game.  When he returned home from Iraq, he decided to take his dog Zeus and go find the girl.  He starts in Colorado and is walking all the way to North Carolina where he believes the girl will be from clues in the picture.

I think it is ridiculous that he is walking across the country to try and find a girl he isn't even sure is there.  It's a total long shot! But in the other sense, it is also romantic.  I love the relationship Thibault has with Zeus.  Zeus seems to understand everything that Thibault says to him.  Zeus listens, does what he is asked, but still has a little bit of an attitude.  This is one faithful german shepherd.  I really want to know why Thibault was so compelled to find this mystery woman.

Currently

Population: 485 by Michael Perry

This week: 150

Last week: 110

Total: 973



1.  "Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun."

2. "Uncle Shotsy was a victim of optimistic physics."
3. "Shes wearing a tight red sweater a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker."

The imagry and and adjectives in the first one really help you understand what the author is trying to show and makes it creative and fun to read.  It also goes along with what we have been doing in our recent assignments with using creative adjectives.  I like the other two because they are funny, especially in the context of the story.

Reading: Population:485

He talks about his life as a firefighter and the dynamics of his town mainly.  He said something earlier in the book about how a family had a lot of children and the dad was a farmer.  Most farmers would have their kids help in the fields but the father said that a lawyer would not expect his kids to help in his practice so why would I expect my kids to help me farm.  I think that is a valid point.  Most kids of farmers talk about the chores and jobs they have to do.  On the other hand, children of parents of other jobs just have to do regular house chores.  There is a sharp curve in a road that is talked about a lot in the story.  People tend to take that curve too fast and then the either roll their car over or go off the road into the field that is next to it.  We are lucky that our roads in Fort Wayne are better constructed so that we do not have problems like that.

The main character gives a little insight on the background and family life of some of his fellow firefighters and the higher ranking officers. They have nicknames such as Beagle and Tricky.  It is cool to see how the comradery is portrayed so easily.  Even though there are some good stories in the book, it is starting to get more monotonous and repetitive.  The author is using less colorful language and adjectives which makes the story less fun to read.

Reading: Population:485

The main character starts to talk about his experiences as a fire fighter.  He talks about one of his rookie runs which was really gross.  There was a lady who had a seizure earlier in the day and was stuck between the toilet and the sink.  The entire house smelled like puke from this lady.  Once they started to try to pull the lady out the family started to sympathy puke.  I also caught a vocab word!  It was mnemonic talking about ABC. ABC= Airway Breathing Circulation which is one of the most important things to remember no matter how major or minor the injury or problem.  Then the next couple pages tells how big mnemonics are and there are about 9 more.  They also talked about an important instrument called a KED (Kendrick Extrication Device) here's a picture of it below because I had no idea what it looked like.  /I guess it is used to immobilize patients but one man gave the firefighters a hard time when they were trying to put it on him.  It was cool to see how hey tried to save this lady and other people.



  In movies, the hero usually runs in and while trying to save a child is just taken up into the nimbus of flame.  He talks about how rare that actually happens.  Most firefighters die from a heart attack or running out of air.  It is funny how im most movies the firefighter will die a heroic and easy death or make it out untouched.  While we wish all firefighters would make it out safely all the time, that unfortunately does not happen.  The author really sheds light onto that situation.  Since the town his man lives in is so small, the joke is that all you need to join the local fire department is a valid driver's license and a pulse.  After a while the volunteers have to take a course but it is sad there aren't enough people wanting to do this job that departments are struggling to find volunteers.

Currently #6

The Time Maching by H.G.Wells

Population:485 by Michael Perry

This week: 110

Last week: 100

Total: 823

1. Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun.

2. Uncle Shotsy was a victim of optimistic physics.

3. You can move about in all directions of Space but you can not move about in time.

I love the imagery in the first sentence.  It is the first sentence of the entire book and it got me excited to see what other images and descriptive words the author would use next.

If you've seen Bon Qui Qui at King Burger

Reading: Population:485

The narrator of the story is a fire fighter in his town.  Their fire department did not have many qualifications necessary to become a fire fighter.  The town is small and has nothing to do.  Their Main Street isn't even busy during the day.  When someone is hurt, they have to wait at least 15 minutes for an ambulance to come from another town because the town he lives in does not have one.  The main character also talks about people who used to live in the town.  He talks about a huge family and one of his friends who died in a car accident because she did not turn a sharp curve and went off the road.  The other part of this book's title is Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time.  After finding out that this man is a firefighter and certified nurse, this title makes a lot more sense.  He recently moved back to this town which is where he grew up.  He is meeting all of the new people in the town each time he responds for an emergency.

A lot of Homestead students whine about how there is nothing to do in Fort Wayne.  There is a lot more to do here than there is to do in most towns.  Those students must not have been to a town in the middle of nowhere or a farming town.  This book brings the boringness of most towns to my attention and shows how we need to stop whining and just have fun and enjoy what we have.

Reading: The Time Machine

In the beginning of this book there is a man having a dinner party.  When he walks in his clothing is tattered and he has some cuts.  Turns out this man had just time traveled.  Many stories talk about time travel but I think it is interesting how this book portrays the journey to time travel.  The main characters in other stories who time travel make it to the desired time or even the undesired time usually unscathed and without much difficulty.  In this story, it really took a lot out of the main character to time travel.  This book though was literary so I read about 60 pages but decided to switch to another book.

The book I switched to is called Population: 485 Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry.  After reading the first sentence I had a feeling this would be a great book.  Usually the beginnings of books are boring and take a while to get you interested in the story.  The author used a lot of imagry and colorful adjectives in the first paragraph alone.  So much in fact, that I went and reread it two more times just to make sure I caught all of it.  In the first few pages the title of the book is already making its self known.  The author tells how everyone was kneeling around a girl who was hurt and yelling for an ambulance while she was about to die.  I'm excited to see where this book leads!

Currently #5

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

This week: 100

Last week: 150

Total: 713

Sentences of the Month!

1. "Shes wearing a tight red sweater a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker."

2. "Shoot, she call the roll at the crazy lady club."

3."The sun is bright but my eyes wide open."

I picked the first one as my favorite mainly because it is funny.  The relation to a hooker really helps you imagine what the normal house wife looked like.  That is one of those sentences where you will stop for a second and re read to see if that is really what the book just said.

Reading: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

This is the first literary book that I have read all year.  I now understand why literary books are 50 less pages a week.  This book is not necssarily extremely difficult to read but it is definitely harder than a normal popular fiction book.  Especially since these stories are older the language and vernacular is much different than we use today.  This book was originally published in 1892 and has become some of the most well known stories in history.

Holmes was investigating a group called the Red Headed League.  The league paid a small amount of money per week but there was hardly any work that needed done.  This pay was only available to red heads that are in the League.  The two supposed heads of the League said that the money was left behind by a rich business man who died.  This man also had red hair and wanted the gene to continue on throughout history.  Turns out these heads of the League were crooks and closed the League once they had built an escape tunnel.  The closed the League on Saturday which gave them two days to escape.  At least, that was their plan until Holmes figured it out.  The best part of the stories is when Holmes explains his reasoning and how he solved the mysteries.  His attention to details and situations that most people would overlook is one reason Holmes is such an intriguing character.

Love. This. Video.

Reading: The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

This is a collection of smaller individual mysteries.  They do not necessarily relate to one another.  Sherlock Holmes is an extremely clever and observant character. He could tell where his colleague Dr. Watson went in the morning and how good his staff was without Watson having to say anything.  Holmes says the difference between him and other people is that he does not just see what is around him, he observes what is around him.  Most people can go up the same flight of stairs their entire life and not think a thing about it.  Holmes would know exactly how many steps there were. This picture is what many people pictured as Sherlock Holmes and Watson for a long time.  These actors were from one of the earlier movies in the 1940s.  The stories became popular again recently with the new movie with Robert Downy Jr. 

In the first story of the book Holmes refers to someone as the woman.  We later find out that Holmes was trying to get to an incriminating picture of that woman and the King.  Holmes had almost outsmarted and tricked the woman as Holmes tends to do with anyone.  Surprisingly the woman caught on and fled the country with the picture and her new husband.  Holmes was shocked but the woman promised that she would not reveal the picture.  The fact that someone could see past Holmes's tricks, especially a woman, was a concept that Holmes never believed possible.

5 Favorite Claims

1.  [In this scene from Vincent van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night , his colorful and exciting use of setting, busy but pleasant mood, and inviting cozy buildings]
 portrays [a sense of playful benevolence and lighthearted liveliness.]

2.  In this picture of lightning striking the Serengeti you are overwhelmed by it's explosive power, seductive presence, and docile setting which creates a sense of euphoria, fear, and loneliness.

3.  Emerson's chubby cheeks, varying moods, and melodic giggles highlight the sincere, playful, and cheerful innocence of children.

4.  The educationally stimulating childrens' game Questionaut incorporates pleasantly jubilant music with whimsically quaint animation to create an inventively playful adventure.

5.  The painting “Bold as Love” by Scott Cicero portrays an intense and dramatic expression through the spiritual flow, soothing colors, and compassionate movement emphasizing the complex design.

The most original artifact: http://freefifteen.blogspot.com/ 

Claim

So in honor of Disney day here's my video!

4 Elements: setting, choreography, attire, sound

12 Adjectives: happy,excited, magical, smooth, cheerful, energetic, absurd, friendly, whimsical, vibrant, upbeat, loud.

Claim: This dance battle shows a magical setting, energetic choreography, vibrant attire, and upbeat sound that captivates the crowd and all who watch.

Poet of the Month

I copied "Aboard at a Ship's Helm" by Walt Whitman into my moleskine.  I chose Walt Whitman because I recently rewatched a movie called Dead Poets Society. The character Robin Williams plays quoted lines from Walt Whitman that the students then showed their respect for him by using those lines at the end of the movie.

Currently #4

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This week: 150

Last week: 150

Total:   613

1. "The sun is bright but my eyes wide open."

2. "You'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin."

3. "Go to New York, Miss Skeeter. Go find your life."

The first sentence gives a sense of optimism that most people wouldnt find in the situation that the character was in.  I just thought the sentence sounded cool.

Reading: The Help

I finally finished the book! This is the first book I have finished in one sitting in a very long time.  In the story, the editor decides to publish the book but only runs a small amount of copies.  The sales were up in the districts where a lot of the actual maids lived in Jackson but not many in the white suburbs had bought copies yet.  That was until a talk show host did a review on it and made a lot of the white women in the town believe it was about Jackson.  All of the women went out and bought copies to figure out if it was in fact about Jackson.  Hilly started to piece together and come up with maids that she thought helped with the book.  Hilly then told all of women who were those maids' employers and they fired their help.  Hilly was especially outraged that the story about the chocolate pie was in the book.  Instead of going to Celia, Hilly went to Minny's husband's employer and made him be fired.  Minny's husband was abusive so Minny and her children decided to run.  Skeeter was offered a job at a magazine in New York, and after Aibileen's encouragement, Skeeter took the job.  Skeeter was also rocking the long hair and hippie look that had become popular.  The other main reason Skeeter decided to take the job was that her mom's cancer was in remission.  Then, Hilly went to Elizabeth who was Aibileen's employer.  Hilly tried to frame Aibileen for stealing and forced Elizabeth to fire her.  Aibileen made sure the children remembered all of her lessons before she left.  On the bright side, Aibileen was offered the Miss Myrna column that Skeeter previously did and was paid the same amount Skeeter was.  This story was very powerful and inspirational. 

Real Life Ghostbusters Surprise New Yorkers

Reading: The Help

Let me start out this blog post by saying how much i love this book!  Everyone else who has read it will most likely agree that if you are interested you should definitely read it!  The benefit that the Jackson League puts on happens at the beginning of what I am reading for the week.  It is one of the biggest social events of the year in Jackson.  Celia goes to the benefit and wears a dress that she believes is cute but is not very modest.  The moment Celia walks in the room people are staring at how provocative she looks.  Celia gets very drunk and throws up and Miss Hilly, the woman in charge of the benefit, kicked Celia out of all Jackson League events forever.  Just before that, the winners of the silent auction items are announced.  Someone signed Miss Hilly up for a chocolate pie that Minny made.  On stage Hilly looked happy but when she got off stage she was disgusted.  What people do not know is how Minny made a chocolate pie for Hilly once right before she was fired.  After Hilly had already eaten two pieces Minny told Hilly how she put poop in the pie.

Skeeter rushed to get the manuscript together in time for the editor to read it before the holidays but Skeeter will not know what the editor thought until after the holidays.  Skeeter also just found out how her mother had cancer in the lining of her stomach.  Her mother only gets up to go to the bathroom and throws up at least twice a day.  Skeeter is worried but she has started to go on dates with Stuart again.  Stuart left for a few months and did not contact Skeeter at all.  Before the benefit, Skeeter pulled a prank on Hilly showing her protest for Hilly's separate bathroom initiative for the help.  Skeeter put almost thirty toilets on Hilly's front lawn.  Because of this action, Skeeter lost her position as the editor of the League's newsletter.

Currently

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This week: 150

Last week: 152

Total: 463

1. "I realized I actually had a choice on what to believe."

2. "I hope you write something really good. Something you believe in."

3. "The churches got together though.  They gone send both those boys to college."

All of these sentences show some obstacle being overcome or about to be overcome.  The first sentence shows how in the world full of hate and racism a little girl understood that there was no need for all the hate and that she could believe and do whatever she wanted.

Personality Test

I am an ESFJ, (Extraverted, sensing, feeling, judging).  I definately agree with the first one because I tend to be very social but I try not to judge people.  To be honest after the 30th question I wasn't thinking about the questions very much.  I guess this test makes sense.

Reading: The Help

Miss Celia, the woman Minny works for, does not know that her husband found out about Minny and is actually happy that Minny is working for them.  Minny still has to sneak around so Miss Celia thinks her husband does not know.  Miss Celia would also sneak up to one of the old bedrooms and stay there all day while Minny cleaned.  Minny spied and saw that Miss Celia was an alcoholic and was going up to that room to drink.  Minny confronted Celia and was fired.  After getting home from Miss Hilly's house, Skeeter noticed that she left her bag.  Miss Hilly was nosy and all of the interviews and books on the Jim Crow laws were in that bag.  Miss Hilly was not a supporter of the Civil Rights movements and was actually trying to pass a law that would have mandatory separate bathrooms for the help.  Miss Hilly started to avoid Skeeter but Skeeter saw her at the swimming pool one day and talked her way out of what Miss Hilly found.

A big turning point in this section was when a man was killed by a member of the KKK.  The man was the husband of a woman who was higher up in the NAACP. The NAACP is the national association for the advancement of colored people who work towards civil rights for minorities. The husband was attacked and shot in the back.  This scared many of the people in the area but it also brought about a surprise.  Aibileen was able to convince more maids to talk to Skeeter.

Minny waited a few days and went to beg for her job back.  When she got to the house, Miss Celia was curled up in a ball and there was blood on her night gown and all over the room.  When Minny looked in the toilet she saw a dead baby.  Miss Celia was crying and told Minny that this is the fourth time it had happened.  It turns out that what Minny thought was whiskey was actually molasses and water that Miss Celia was given by Native Americans to help prevent the miscarriages.  Minny had to work fast to clean up all of the blood before Miss Celia's husband got home.  The twists and turns in this story really take you buy surprise.

The Help Featurette and Charater Overviews

I haven't seen the movie yet but this video is clips from the movie and the actors talking about their characters.  It is actually a good assessment of the characters and helps you understand the emotions and situations in this book even more.

Reading: The Help

After a lot of asking and perseverance, Skeeter convinced Aibleen to talk and be interviewed about her life and how it is working as a maid.  Aibleen is nervous she will get caught and hurt and Skeeter is nervous that the editor will not like what she has come up with. After a few interviews with Aibleen the editor calls Skeeter to tell her that she will need to find more people to interview.  Aibleen turned her sights to convincing Minny to join.  After much persuasion, the stubborn Minny actually decided to talk to Skeeter.  Minny would only do it if she was on the opposite side of the room as Skeeter so she could keep an eye on her. 

Earlier in the book Skeeter went on a date with a man named Stuart.  Stuart was a handsome, smart, and reputable man.  Surprisingly, Stuart got very drunk and rude on their first date.  Stuart came back and explained how he was not ready for that date since it was too soon after his breakup but that he would love to take Skeeter out again.  Skeeter had a great time and Stuart acted like a gentleman.  They have been going on dates periodically since then.

One aspect that really makes this book interesting besides the content is the way it is written.  Like I said before, the three points of views in this book are Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter.  In each seperate section the dialect and language is different.  Skeeter's language is somewhat more proper and educated while Aibileen  and uses more slang terms and words that are realistic to the type of person she is and helps bring what is happening to life.

Blog Tour

Blogs I visited today.
-As Told By Ginger
-ETYAFTER
-Apples to Apples
-phyllis
-Chillin In The Nyle
-Back of the Napkin blog
-Fire Side Reading
-Chillin
-Contemplations 

Currently

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This week: 152

Last week: 161

Total: 313

1. "Shoot, she call the roll at the crazy lady club."

2. "Shes wearing a tight red sweater a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker."

I like both of these quotes but the first one is my favorite.  They are both funny but I think the first one is a very creative way of calling someone crazy.

Reading: The Help

The main things that happened in this section involved Skeeter.  Skeeter's mom fired her old maid Constantine. Skeeter has been asking all over town but no one knows where Constantine went or how to get a hold of her.  Skeeter also applied for a job at a successful publishing company and received a personal letter from the senior editor who was surprisingly a woman.  The editor was named Elaine Stein.  Stein agreed to look over Skeeter's ideas and give her opinion but that Skeeter should first get a job at the local paper.  Since Skeeter was a woman, she was given the Miss Myrna column.  Women write in to Miss Myrna and ask for advice on cleaning and relationships.  Skeeter does not know much about either of those topics so she goes to see Aibleen who agrees to help with the answers.  After a few days, Skeeter gets a revolutionary idea.  Skeeter decides she wants to write a book from the perspective of the help.  No one has written anything like it before.  The only problem will be finding people who will be willing to talk about their employers and their lives.  It will be even harder because a local black man was beat for going into the white bathroom.  He only went in there because there was not a sign that said he could not.  Aibleen does not even want to be a part of this book.  I am excited to see how Skeeter convinces people to be a part of the book.

Reading: The Help

This week I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  This book was a New York Times best seller and was recently made into a movie with popular actress Emma Stone.  The book takes place in

  Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s.  The book is mainly written from three people's point of view.  Aibleen is a maid who has raised many children and most that were not her own.  Minny is known as the best cook in the entire town but her sharp tongue gets her fired often.  Skeeter is a white girl who is not very pretty and wants to be a writer while her mother just wants her to get married.  Skeeter is the one who actually writes this book from the point of view of the women who are employed in the households.

Aibleen works for Miss Leefolt and does most of her cooking and cleaning and also takes care of her seventeeth child Mae Mobley who is Miss Leefolt's daughter.  Miss Leefolt completely ignores her daughter and doesn't even change her diaper after Aibleen goes home for the night.  When Mae Mobley irritates Miss Leefolt trying to get attention Miss Leefolt yells at Aibleen for letting her baby bother her. 

The lady Minny had been working for had gotten so old that it was time for her to go into a nursing home.  The only reason Minny had worked for that woman for so long was because the woman was almost deaf and could not hear Minny's rude comments.  Minny finally found a job working for Miss Celia.  Miss Celia was very pretty but she was also very lazy.  Miss Celia did not want her husband to know she was hiring a maid.  Minny had to clean the very large house Miss Celia owned and give her cooking lessons.  Minny was paid $2.00 and hour working for Miss Celia which was twice Minny was getting paid before.  The strange thing about Miss Celia for this setting and the situation was how she treated Minny almost as an equal.  Minny still has not figured out why Miss Celia is that way and honestly thinks the situation is weird.  So far the book is great and the dialect really helps the story come alive. 

Currently

I Am America (and so can you!), Stephen Colbert

This week: 161 pages

Sentences of the week:

1.  "Red means stop. Green means go. Purple means Wednesday." I Am America (and so can you!)

2.  "I find the problem I have with most books is that I didn't write them." I Am America (and so can you!)

Both of the sentences this week came from the same book.  The second one showed how arrogant in a funny way Colbert tends too be.  The first sentence was my favorite because of how random it was. 

Reading: I Am America (and so can you!)

After the first couple of chapters, this book really started to become bland.  Colbert talks about topics like religion, sports, Hollywood, and animals to name a few.  Within the first chapter about his childhood and family in general Colbert's bias came across a lot funnier and less rude than his jokes have progressed to become.  He set such a high bar for himself within the first few pages that it just went downhill from there.  With that said, there is no denying that Colbert can be funny at times but he needs to make sure he does not wear out the joke by taking it too far.  The jokes almost get annoying. 

Besides the first chapter and the introduction, the funniest section was where Colbert talked about animals.  Colbert tells how he was unimpressed with the zoo when he went. If he went to another event where what was paid for to see was asleep, he would get a refund.  His solution for boring zoos was to put all of the animals in one big enclosure.  He also gives a list of endangered animals and explains why God made them endangered.  Almost ironically at times, Colbert uses God a lot in this book.  The first few times he uses God as a support to his argument it was funny but got old fast.  The way he writes little sayings and comments in a smaller font in the margin is an interesting writing style that works for this type of book.  The only problem with that I have is that you can have too much of a good thing.  Only the really funny and necessary lines should be put in the margin instead of having two or three on every page.  Since I have read the assigned number of pages for the week, I do not think I will end up wanting finishing this book.

Reading: I Am America (and so can you!)

The first book I am reading for the school year is called I Am America (and so Can You!) by Stephen Colbert.  I was stuck with this book because I ran out of time to run to the library.  This book was in my sister’s room and was probably the only one in her room that was not about hippies, the sixties, or some sort of classic rock band.  Stephen Colbert is most commonly known for his late night comedy show The Colbert Report.  Having never seen his show, I could still get a sense for his character and humor within the first few pages.  He is a very opinionated person who makes fun of everyday issues and groups.  Many of these issues can be related to popular political topics.

Colbert uses a unique writing style in this book.  Mainly to keep people entertained and interested.  Many times there will be small phrases written in red in the margins.  These phrases are often funny or completely contradicting what he just said in the actual paragraph. I may not agree completely with every idea in the book, but it is not off putting enough for me to want to stop reading.  Colbert also tends to throw in content that has little connection to what is going on in the chapter.  For example one line is, "Red means stop, Green means go, Purple means Wednesday."  That was one of the arbitrary rules that parents should use to keep the respect and authority in their families.  Colbert stays serious throughout this whole book too even when giving ideas he knows is ridiculous.  So far this book has been enjoyable to read!