Columnist Response

So this is going to be a short blog post because a) it's late and b) I'm sick and I feel totally awful.

So we read these 3 "columns" in English class, basically the quotes because they're like glorified articles with strong opinions. I, personally, liked this one about the turkey talking to the president about no Thanksgiving because "Tom the Turkey" was really funny and even though it isn't really a turkey talking, the guy voicing/portraying the turkey uses a lot of dry humor and sarcasm, which I LOVE.


See, my favorite kind of humor is the stuff that is hilarious, but that when the people say it, they keep a totally straight face, which makes it even funnier.

Well, I'll end this with a "sick" funny (see what I did there? I'm sick and this is a...oh, never mind)

Fahrenheit 451 Worksheet Group #1

Alex Acuna, Caroline Bass, Jessi Berger,Erin Gilliland

,Rollie Sheriff, & Carter Witmer-Gautsch,

Bell 1

Theme Statement: In the wrong hands, technology can be dangerous.

So why is this theme important for our understanding the story? Well its important because without the forces of technology such as the hound, or the TV walls, a lot of the conflict wouldn't be there, the walls made it so that he could no longer talk with his wife, and the hound made it so that he had to find a new way to escape or hide books, and without this technology this conflict wouldn’t be present.

How does this theme connect to modern day society, and how we see it play out in our lives? We see today how technology consumes most of our lives, and a lot of it can be powerful such as military weapons or even daily technology that can easily persuade our minds, and its important to study this or notice it, because technology easily has changed our lives for the good, but in the wrong hands it could be for the worse, as we see in Fahrenheit 451.

2/8 Writing Prompt- Mrs. Bowles Point of View

   That man! He's simply ridiculous! Mrs. Bowles thought. Pete and Clara have a simple relationship, I have good, obedient children, why shouldn't I be happy? 
   "I am happy." She said aloud, her voice quiet and empty as she walked down the deserted street away from the Montags' house. "I am happy."
   But the more she said it, the more she realized that it wasn't true. Even worse, the more times that she said those three words, the less meaning they had each time.
   "I...I...I am...I am ha-happy..." She slowly trailed off as she came to her front door.
   She pulled out her key and opened the front door and sat down in the TV parlor and automatically turned on the 4 wall TVs.
   Mildred should get the fourth one of her wall TVs. She thought. It's so much more interesting, like you're sitting in the very same room.
   Although didn't she say that she was going to get one? I can't remember... must have been something interesting playing inside my Seashells at the time...
   Strange how her husband acted tonight, maybe he needs to just sit down and watch some TV, the walls always have such exciting things on during the late-nights....It's a wonder anyone sleeps at all...
   She slowly got up and wandered over to the kitchen, in a kind of wayward fashion, as if she didn't know where she wanted to go, since there was nothing in the house to tell her where to go.
   "I think I'll have some toast....That always helps...."
   As she watched the spidery hand slather butter onto the slim piece of toasted bread, her mind began to wander, and for some reason it wandered toward her children.
   I wonder when they're coming home next....They do have a break coming up soon....How do I know that? I don't check on them.....Must have been on the TV.....I hope they haven't done anything to cause attention to our family, it would be such an embarrassment for us to be on TV. 
   As the hand finished buttering her toast, she thought about Mildred, having such an intense husband...
   It's a wonder she can sleep with all that yelling he was doing....If my kids did that they would be out of the house....It's not like they have any attachment to this place anyway....Even I don't...
   A ringing echoed through the empty house and she moved towards the phone, picking up the receiver in a daze.
   "Hello?"
   "Hello, ma'm, I'm sorry for the late hour, but do you have a son named James Bowles?"
   "Yes, I do, he's in college. Is there a problem with him?"
   "Well, he was caught last night sneaking around campus with some other students who have been caught doing this before. Now, James is a star student, and we were wondering if anything like this may have happened before."
   "Well, I wouldn't know." She replied. "I never did pay much attention to John anyway...."

1/23 Blog Post

So, this is the start of second semester blog, where we are working on voice. Very exciting. Just a little non-related shpeel (yes I know that's not a real word- I don't care, I use it all the time and it absolutely sums up what I'm talking about. And also pronounced sh-peel, 1 word)

I just got braces and all everyone can seem to say is that I will thank them later and that "Oh, you'll have all the boys after you with the beautiful smile you're going to have". All I can really say about that (that is related to books) is, you know when everyone says that "Oh my gosh, you totally have to read this book, it's the best book ever. You'll love it." and then you read it and it's awful. For example, the Fault in Our Stars.



Now, nobody get mad at me. I'm not hating on the book, it's apparently a great book. I wouldn't know because I have never read it and I will never read it. I'm sorry, I love books, and John Green has written some other great titles (For example; Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, etc.), and I love a great Romeo and Juliet cancer story (we finished reading that play at school, suicide really? Why do you young-uns- great word- always have to be in such a rush?).

Sorry, sorry, I'm getting off topic. The point is that no matter how great the plot, or the hunky guy who always seems to be shirtless (*cough, cough* Twilight, "To be or not to be...Team Edward or Team Jacob"), I simply can not read one of those sad stories, I hate sad endings.

Like, if anyone has ever read the series Gregor the Overlander, SPOILER ALERT where the two main characters finally get together and say they love each other and then they say "OMG, we can never be together, even though you're totally cute and I would date you if I could, but your grandma with memory loss is sick and you gotta move to a farm in the west and I'm in-line for ruler of a secret underground nation started by an old guy who wrote prophecies on the wall, but I'LL CALL YOU FROM UNDERLAND BABE." Absolutely not!!!!! You do not have them go through so much and then just say they're from different worlds. That would be like if Jasmine and Aladdin didn't get married at the end of Aladdin, it's just not right!

Anyway, I'm done, so I'll continue with what I'm reading. I finished:

• Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Charlie Bone, book 5) by Jenny Nimmo
• Charlie Bone and the Beast (Charlie Bone, book 6) by Jenny Nimmo
• Ever by Gail Levine

And I also made my reading goal of 40 books for 2014.




I am currently reading Charlie Bone and the Shadow (Charlie Bone, book 7) by (you guessed it) Jenny Nimmo. I'm also reading this book from a series I got from my friend who was sick this week (hi, Julia) and I've been reading it for like 2 months. It's not that the book isn't exciting, trust me it totally is (with plenty of butt-kickings from the main character whose a girl). It's just that other books are..... more exciting. It's called Blood Promise and it's Vampire Academy book 4.

And the book before it ended with this total cliff-hanger SPOILERS. Where it ends and the main guy character (who's a total hottie by the way, with a Russian accent *swoon*) was caught in an ambush and the main girl lead-who has a major crush on him- was asking her ghost friend (it's complicated, if you want to know, read the series) if he is dead or alive. And there's also a thing in this book, with these things called "Strigoi" and they're like this twisted vampire-thingy. There's this really great cliff-hanger scene that's like this.

“Is he... is Dimitri a Strigoi?"
Mason hesitated only a moment, like he was afraid to answer me, and then—he nodded.
My heart shattered. My world shattered.”
― Richelle Mead, Shadow Kiss

Since that's about all I have, I'll do my weekly funny.

Semester 1 Reflection

The independent reading I completed this semester consisted of the Heroes of Olympus series, the Jake Ransom series, the Vampire Academy series, and the Chloe King series among others. I read about 25 books so far and have a goal of 40 for the end of 2014. Most of my books that I read are in the fantasy genre, because that's one of my favorite genres. I am currently reading the Book Thief and book 4 of the Vampire Academy series. I also reread the Harry Potter series a second time.

My blog posts were good in quality by having compelling ideas, such as the idea of a connection between the reader and the blogger, like similar likes and dislikes. This also included writer's voice, which was strongly present in the blog. It also included links to websites connected to the current book, such as the link to J.K. Rowling's Pottermore website. The website included pictures that connected the reader and the blogger. Finally, the blog contained videos, such as trailers for movies with similar plot lines to certain books.

Three of the new goals for the 2nd semester blog are (1) focus more with blogging. This semester, the voice in my blog was mostly about language arts as a whole, not centered on specific ideas. The next goal is (2) to branch out more in reading, such as different genres like historical fiction or autobiographies. And finally, my last goal (3) is to read books at a higher reading level or just with tougher language. For example, Shakespeare or books at a college reading level.

Text-to-Society Collaborative Blog Post Assignment

The central idea my memoir (Wish You Happy Forever:What China's Orphans Taught Me About Moving Mountains  by Jenny Bowen) that interested me the most was that the main character (Jenny Bowen) had a dream and she found a way to make that dream a reality.
Basically this book is about a Caucasian American woman, with 2 biological kids already having families of their own, and she decides to adopt a Chinese girl, then she decides to try and help other children in the orphanages made even harder by the US bombing of the Chinese Embassy as she is trying to make international Chinese connections, and later, when she makes those connections and is trying to get into China to see some more orphanages, The Dying Rooms comes out, a movie that portrays China as treating their orphans terribly and savagely. China's orphans are not being treated well, but only because there are so many orphans, and too few hands to help take care of them all.

The URL below is a link to an article explaining China's One Child Policy, and how the relaxing of that policy and allowing parents to have more kids has increased woman's place/role in Chinese society.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/07/as-china-s-one-child-policy-relaxes-girl-children-no-longer-stigmatized.html

Basically The Dying Rooms is a documentary made by people sneaking cameras and a filming crew into Chinese orphanages and grossly blowing the story's details out of proportion, by saying that the Chinese abuse their children and don't take care of their children.

This is Half the Sky's logo, written in English and Chinese. 

10/19 Reading Update

So, this week I finished Goblet of Fire and since it's been a long time since I've blogged, I'll just update on everything else, too. So here's what's going on:

1. Finished Goblet of Fire
2. Started Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix
3. Got to the part about Snape teaching Harry Occlumency
4. Left it in my friend's car
5. He hasn't brought it to school to give back to me for TWO WHOLE DAYS 

I am so mad!

But I digress, I also reached a really sad chapter in The Color of Water, where the main character (who is writing from his mother's point of view in an interview) talks about how his mother's mother had no power, and an "abusive marriage", as they would call it nowadays, was back then referred to as "wife". It's so sad because the mother's mother (I'm just gonna call her Mameh, `cause that's her name) has all this bad stuff happening to her (there's probably going to be a lot of lists in this post, just a heads-up)

1. She is nearly blind in her left eye
2. Slightly crippled
3. Blacks out often
4. Sisters don't care for her
5. Husband (Tateh) has an affair
6. Tateh can treat her however he wants
7. Sick
8. Tateh divorces without her permission

See this lady had a really hard life, but because she was crippled, she had nowhere else to go, so she had to stay with her mean, abusive, ex-husband, who divorced without consent, and she still has to work at his shop.