LAST BLOG POST :O

<–––– I love this drawing :O I DON'T OWN IT, BUT I WISH I DID CUZ I WISH I COULD DRAW THAT WELL :O




Well, there are the questions I'm going to answer for y'all. So... yeah.

* What did you learn about yourself as a reader from creating and keeping up with your blog?
I learned that I connect a lot of things to books. Whether it has a lot to do with the book or if it's just a connection I sort of randomly think of, I can usually write a bit about the book.

* In what ways did you benefit from the experience?
I think I learned to make more connections, and actually say them and rant off a bit. I'm not the type who likes to talk about a book, like if I'm asked about a book face to face, my reply will be "Oh, that's a good book" or "I effing hate that book" or whatever.

* Is writing online different than in a notebook? In what ways?
Of course it is. For notebooks, I feel like I can't really write as much. I don't have free spirit or whatever, and I always limit my writing. I think this is because I can't think clearly and just want to get it done and don't feel like writing one sentence on one page.

* In what ways can writing online be liberating? Limiting?
First of all, I don't know what liberating means. Dictionary away!
Okay, so liberating... I can just say things easier on blogs and all and whatever. It's just easier to express my amazing self (conceited). I don't think blogging is really as limited as notebook-ing, at least for me. I guess notebooks are great for diaries and that stuff 'cuz you don't want some random person reading every single thing you do or whatever, but this is a freaking book review, so ya know. Yeah.

* Do you think that people are more real online or do we create online personalities that project the best of ourselves? Or something else?
I don't know. I just rant about what I think, so I guess it shows my "true self". Or something. I don't really talk about books well by, well, actually TALKING 'cuz I sorta stutter and all, and I think writing a blog is more organized than just talking because you can GO ALONG WITH IT and THINK and that leads to CONNECTIONS and INFERENCES which can be awfully FAR FETCHED (trust me, I know -____-" ) but you can still think more clearly, I believe. So yah.

* Do you think that teenagers abuse the freedom that being online gives you on sites like facebook? Do people type things they would never say to a person's face? Do you think this is a good or bad thing? Why?
Well. Hmm. I thought we were talking 'bout bloggin' and all but chu know, that's cool. Course it's bad to type meanie things or whatever, but why people say to a computer, I don't know. All I know is that internet fight are a waste of time -_____- It's like, really peoples, do you have nothing better to do than to scan the screen for whatever amount of time, waiting for a notification of some sort saying "So-and-so responded"? Really? That's lame. And no, this is not my attempt to start an internet fight, 'kay? I would say this in "real-life" too, not just through a bunch of little buttons to a big screen.

* Can you imagine yourself keeping up this blog or creating another one? What would it be about? What's your opinion of blogs in general and why?
Hm, I think if I were to start another blog, it would be song reviews :D I don't think that I could write a lot about books, I'm not like that, but, chu know, Reedie tries her bestest. (As you may remeber, earlier I said all I care is if I like it or not). I usually like all books, so yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Also, I think blogs are cool, cuz you can totally share all your awesome ideas :)

Have fun in other high schools, guys! :O I'll Miss ya! Well, some of you, anyways -____-'' XD

Love and Rockets,
REED :D

To Kill A Mockingbird~ Spoilers, YAY

<---I THOUGHT THAT WAS A GUY





























I'm pretty sure that whoever reads or has heard of the book To Kill A Mockingbird has wondered why this book has this title. I guess you'll have to read it to find out (MWAHAHA THAT MEANS DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS OR IT'LL SPOIL SOME OF THE BOOK)

Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, her brother Jem, and their father live in Maycomb, Alabama.
)I didn't realize Scout was a girl until her brother told her to stop acting like a girl, and Dill said that she was anyway.) At first I thought, since the book was published in 1960, that that was the time it was plotted in. However, it takes place during a few years of the Great Depression. When I found this out, I finally stopped comparing this to my parents because I thought that this was what it was like for them when they were growing up. At least, I hope it wasn't.

In the book so far, there isn't really anything about the Finch family living in poverty, though, but maybe it's just that the entire town is horribly poor? I don't know. However, once in the book, during school, the teacher screams because a bug crawls out of a boy's hair. She tells him to come back to school when he's taken a bath, but in his family, they only go to school when they feel like it. Once a year, on the first day.
This made me think about how poor people live, especially if you were poor BEFORE something like the Great Depression.

"Back then", or whatever, cursing was like a really bad thing. Nowadays, people curse all the time. But in the 1930's and such, it was considered as a sin or something. Scout starts "cursing" and says "hell", and she gets in trouble and is yelled at. BUT~ people say means things about black people, because back then, nearly everyone. Was. Racist. Really, people call them... bad things. So yeah.

Imagine how much we've progressed since then. Their telephone was like half of a jump rope attached to a tin box. Now, we have these awesome things that look like they could teleport us (iPhones). I mean, imagine that poor boy with soot all over his faec and cooties and lice all in his hair. We take a shower everyday, he probably has once in his life. ( Like that king who only took 5 baths in his lifetime. [EW] ).

By the way, what do y'all think about marriage? or being engaged? You know how, when you're little, (at least for girls) you're all like "I'm going to marry a Prince" and all that, like you're going to marry Aladdin or find your Prince Charming? Isn't that cute, when little kids do that? The whole little skit, like, "We're engaged" whole thing? That's what it's like in this book, at the moment. Scout and Dill are "engaged", but Scout is only eight, and I don't know about Dill. Do you really think that little picture could last forever, or will it be torn apart?

That should totally be the end of a movie trailer.

Love and Rockets, Reed


By the way, if you ever get a gun, shoot as many bluejays as you'd like, just not any mockingbirds. It's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

I have been rereading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In this book, an Indian boy named Junior lives on a reservation, the Spokane Rez. In it are his tales of woe, and how he gets by. His family doesn't have much money, they're dirt poor. He describes it as his parents parents were poor and their parents were poor and on and on until the beginning of poor people.

Junior loves to draw. He doodle all the time, and it's basically how he gets by. He claims that pictures show more than words, since everyone understands a picture no matter what language they speak. If you draw a flower, people will think "flower" in whatever language they speak, unless your flower was really crappy.

What do you like to do, to pass by time, to get through crappy stuff that may happen?
I love to draw too, even though I'm not the best at it. I mostly just doodle and all. Then, people sing or dance. I think dancing is a great way of expressing yourself, well, I guess any form of art is, even drama.

Do you know anyone who has "mental issues"? Well, if you read this book you will. (Dang, I sound like I'm promoting it. Is that what I'm supposed to do, anyway...?) Junior was born with "water on the brain" so the doctors had to cut open his skull and remove it. Scary, huh? He goes on about how in 3rd grade he was a size 11 in shoe size, he lisps and stutters, has a huge head, and how he gets beat up all the time. This made me feel so bad for him, and his parents. I know this sounds mean, maybe, but it must be really hard to raise a child who is so sick, especially if you haven't any money.

This book reminds me of this of Jeanne Wakatsuki's Farewell to Manzanar. In both stories, the families are poor and live in a reservation. However, Farewell to Manzanar is a true story; Jeanne Wakatsuki is the daughter of Japanese parents, and they are suddenly forced into the Manzanar reservation when Pearl Harbor is attacked, simply because they are Japanese. I can't imagine being in a situation like that, can you?

So it's not like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is true...? I wonder, is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian actually a true story, or what? It's really confusing to me since it says it is but... Yeah. What do you think...?

Love & Rockets, Reed.

Cruelty

What do you think about fate? Faith?
Do you believe in luck? Good or bad?
Do you think that if something bad happens to someone that it's their fault? That they caused their own misery?

You may be thinking it depends on the situation, and of course, I agree. If you do something bad, then something bad may happen to you. I believe this is called karma? Especially if you hurt someone, they may unintentionally, or purposely, get back at you. Like Law and Order SVU's season finale yesterday. (DID Y'ALL WATCH IT??) I think fate controls the world, just like faith. Faith is too much. People fight over and about it, and my theory is that everyone is wrong- or at least, not right. I think believing in what you believe is fine but you shouldn't talk about it and fight over it, that's just lame. And luck? Well, I'm not sure if I believe in luck or not. But ask yourself these questions.

Now, about the book I've been reading, Chanda's Secrets. There are many issues that come up in this book. Of course, you've heard that before, but it's not like simple, easy - to - solve problems like... Love stories or whatever. Chanda is 16, and her mother has been married 4 times. Chanda's father blew up in a mine, and her current step father is an alcoholic. And she suspects she and her mother have AIDS. In where she lives, Africa, everyone shuns those with AIDS, as well as their friends and family, because they have it, thinking they're bad people and such. But isn't there a saying "Bad things happen to good people" or "Good people die young"? I suppose these don't apply to this book... Which is sort of sad, because now, it's sort of like either way bad things happen to you, good or bad...

What do you think?

Comparing Two Similar Yet Far Worlds

In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, both children are not close to their parents. Romeo hasn't even got a relationship with his parents, and it seems like they completely neglect him since there is no conversation between them in the play. Even at the beginning, Montague leaves Benvolio to talk with Romeo because he doesn't feel like it. Juliet's parents think they know best for her, and act and think that denying them is like breaking the law.

In Honey Hunt, the main character, Yura, is the daughter of two famous stars, her mother an actress and her father a musician. Yura has never been close to her parents, either.

What both these sets of parents have in common? They are famous. They are well known, rich and stand tall with dignity. They think they're so great, but they really aren't - at least, not to their children. This made me wonder if this is what it is like for children of actors and singers; are they really loved by their parents? Do their parents really care about them? Madonna is a good person, she adopted many children, right? Well, what if they really are neglected? In Honey Hunt, Yura's mother was voted "Best MOther" for actresses, but that really wasn't true. Maybe people really don't know anything unless they walk two moons in another man's moccasins. >Walk Two Moons<

Recently... (ugh I said that to start of my post again......) I have been re-reading, for the 3rd time, Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos. I have the advanced reading copy so I'm not sure if it's the same, but I like it anyways. Let me start by defining this term.

"Dark Dude" - n. I. What a male of light skin is derisively called by persons of color. (colloquial, Harlem 1965-1970). 2. A person considered suspect because of his light complexion, especially in criminal circumstances. 3. Someone who is not considered "streetwise". 4. A white person considered not to be "hip". Cf. "Straight." "Uncool." 5. An outsider, particularly in the context of ghetto society.

That's the exact definition from the book. So, basically, it's about a boy from a Cuban family who is, somehow, completely white.

What I like about this book, is that it really seems real. It makes me wonder... If Oscar Hijuelos lived like this? On the back of the book, a quote by him (which, honestly, I think is a little braggy?) is "This is the book I wish I'd read when I was a teen." So then, I looked him up. Oscar Cuban parents... hmmmm *hint hint*...

After seeing a photo of the author (he's white), I can conclude this is based off his life, or that a part of it (which reminds me of Go Ask Alice) is what he made up, sort of a rant on imagination.

Speaking of rant on imagination, that's sometimes what I will do. This ALLLSOOOOO brings me to a practice test I took over spring vacation. Roald Dahl said, in an excerpt on the test, that many of his idea come from dreams. Oooh mysssticaaalll... I don't know why, sometimes I'll just think of something like that. It's how my brain works... Ahem... Anyywayyy...

I've always enjoyed writing, but I really don't like my work. I try and try to be witty and all, but my aura isn't exactly comical. So I have a problem with that. I read my work and I'm like "... Oh CRAP. THIS IS CRAP." Anyway. That's my rant. On imagination. No, not really, but I should have one, shouldn't I? What do y'all like to write about? Is your brain strangely wired so you think one thing and it connects to a memory that has little or no relevance? Hmmmm...?

Lord Of The Flies -One of my lovely spoilers... And lame Titles...-

For about 5 or so days now, I've been reading William Golding's Lord of the Flies. However, or at least, so far in my findings, this book has nothing to do with flies. Perhaps everyone dies and rots and the island the boys landed on becomes infested with maggots, or maybe, because of the cover on the version I have (which has a rather "fat" boy on it) Piggy becomes ruler and everyone dies... or something amazing. (I can infer that because Piggy's glasses break and the spectacles on the cover are cracked as well.)

When I read books, I like to visualize things. If you know me, you probably know I am a very visual person and like to doodle quite a bit too much. However, it annoys me when in movies of the books, I see them and the setting and characters are completely different than what my brilliant imagination created. Anyway, how I imagine the tropical island in Lord Of The Flies is like an island in the Caribbean - Beautiful clear, blue waters and skies, tall green palm trees with coconuts and pineapple, and lovely bright flowers dancing upon the sand.

Thinking of these kinds of places make me have a craving to paint, even though I'm not that good (this is why I must learn InDesign and Photoshop). I think the one downfall to having a great imagination is not being able to share your thoughts.