Into the Wild

1. My first impression of the novel is that it is a very interesting story and Chris McCandless was a very interesting person. I like how the author opens each chapter with a quote from one of the books that inspired Chris to go to Alaska. The fact that we know that Chris dies on the cover of the book is good in my opinion because then we are not disappointed at the end of the book.
2. I don't think that Chris can be described with only one word. The words that come to mind are intelligent and independant. He is a well educated guy, he was smart enough to stay under the radar. Clearly he is independant because he is all alone traveling across the country.
3. I think that the author is saying that individuality is good, but Chris took it to the extreme and ended up paying for it, along with his family. I think that when people try to be too indivudual they don't think how their actions will impact others and people end up getting hurt.
4. This book reminds me of the movie "Wild America." It is a movie about three brothers that go out on their own to film a movie. They meet lots of interesting people and encounter lots a danger, fortunatly they all made it out alive.
5. The only connection that I personally can make to this novel is that sometimes I just want to disappear and not deal with the stresses and expectations that society has placed on us.
6. A connection to the greater society is like I said above; people sometimes want to escape the pressures and stresses that society puts on us.

Book Review

The Constant Princess

Philippa Gregory

The Constant Princess is a wonderfully written piece about Queen Katherine of England. Born Catalina, Infanta of Spain, she marries the Prince of Wales, Arthur. When Arthur dies shortly after their marriage it is up to Catalina to fight for her life and for the throne of England. After lying about her marriage with Arthur she eventually marries his younger brother Henry, and finally gains her title as Queen of England.

I believe that the plot is very exciting and a real page turner. For someone like me who loves historical fiction this novel is a real winner. We know from history what happened to Katherine of Aragon, but Gregory does an amazing job filling in all the other details of her life. This story is full of suspense and drama that could only be found in the English Court.

One theme of the novel is love. Catalina dearly loves Arthur when he dies and promises to do as he commands her-lie she may one day be queen. Ambition is another theme-Catalina herself, England, Spain, and of course the young King Henry.

Catalina is a young and ambitious girl who believes it is God's will that she be Queen of England. She will stop at nothing to do the will of God and of her mother, Isabella of Spain. We meet the future King Henry when he is only a boy, but a very ambitious boy at that.

The child was as iron-spined as her mother. "I am all right," she said.

"You weren't afraid?"

"Not at all."

The woman nodded her approbation. "That is good," she said. "That is what I expect of a princess of Spain."

"And a Princess of Wales," her daughter added.

Gregory uses a mix of dialogue and description to describe her characters. The reader also gets to know the inside of Catalina's head through multiple monologues throughout the novel.

The Grudge 2

Also know as the worst sequel ever. The first Grudge movie was not very good and it still perplexes me as to why they would make a second movie. The plot is much the same as the first; there is a "haunted" house in Japan and if you go inside you will be cursed and eventually killed. The movie attempts to tie up some loose ends and answer questions brought on by the first movie, but really it just leaves the viewer more confused. The film jumps around between two different time periods, the past and the present, making the lack of a plot hard to follow. As my father so bluntly put it "It's about some dead asian brood." This movie is marketed as a horror movie but in reality has all the criteria of a comedie. I had seen the first movie and still had almost no clue as to what was happening in the sequel. This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. So if your lookin for a good laugh...this is a good option.

President Obama

Part One: The Sit Down

If I had an opportunity to sit down with the President of the United States to two main issues I would focus on would be about the enviroment and the economy. I would ask him how he plans to cut down on pollution and how we as a country are going to prevent further damage. How much money/ time is he going to invest in finding new cleaner energy sources. I also think that the economy needs to somehow be stimulated and more jobs created.

Part Two: In the future

1. I hope that in four years we are working towards a cleaner enviroment and I hope that we have new energy sources. I hope that our troops are out of Iraq and that there is no war going on.

2. When I am in my forties(which is really weird to think about) I hope that our world is a better place. If I do have kids I would definetly want the world to be in better shape than it is now. I haev no idea what the world will be like or what issues we will be facing in 2035. I hope that there will be no wars, maybe we will get world peace at last.

TWILIGHT Taxonomy

Alice, Angela
Bella, Baseball, Billy, Beach, Blood
Carlisle, Charlie
Dance studio
Edward, Emmett, Esme
Forks
Green, Greek God
High School
Isolation
Jasper, Jacob, James, Jessica
Killing
Laurent, La Push, Love
Mike, Meadow
Newton
Oracle
Port Angeles, Phoenix, Prom
Quileutes
Rosalie
Scent
Truck, Tears
United
Victoria, Volvo, Vampire
Washington
Xtreme
Youth
Zen, Zombie

Free write

This is going to be a good week, I can feel it! Only two and a half days of school, then I am going off to IOWA! Yeah I know you are jealous. My friend Emma and I are going down there because that is where my dad and grandparents live. We are going to be having a joint birthday party for me and my two cousins. My cousin Lillie will be one year old tomorrow, her sister Avery will be five on November 2 and I will be 18 on November 5! I love MEA weekend!

Love is Like a...

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)i fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-carry-your-heart-with-me-2/


The theme of this poem is love obviously. The author is saying that love is the reason for everything that is beautiful in the world. He uses things in nature and comoares them to love.

Poetry

Robert Louis Stevenson
Foreign Lands

Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.

If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.

To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
http://www.poetry.com/PoetryForChildren/childrenspoem.asp?id=322

I like this poem because I think that it captured the idea of childhood. Children are supposed to climb trees and be imaginative and have fun and believe in magical things. The title of this poems is great because it is pretty accurate in that when you use your imagination you can travel to foreign lands. This is a childrens poem so the language is fairly simple, but one poetic device the author does use is imagery. The tone is cheerful and fun, it is from the perspective of a child outside playing.

Hoy es jueves!

This year I decided to mix it up a bit. I have taken french since 6th grade(and im still taking it), but i had an opening in my schedule and thought it would be fun to take a second second language. SPANISH! Yes, thats right. Im taking two languages. AP French V and Spanish I. I love it. Trenda is so great. Im the only senior in my class of all sophmores.
So far we have learned:
1. Greetings
2. Numbers
3. Map of spanish speaking countries
4. Weather terms
5. Classroom vocab
6. Days of the week
7. Alphabet

That's a lot of info in less than three weeks, but its so similar to french that it makes it a lot easier. So far spanish I has been way easier than french I was because i can guess what almost everything means. French and Spanish are basically the same language just with different accents. The hardest thing is that in spanish you pronounce every letter, where as in french there are lots of letters that are not pronounced in each word.

ps. the title means today is Thursday

Personal Narrative

So this is a portion of my narrative that needs a little work. Actually all of it needs some work but this part is way too wordy and doesn't flow well.

"We like to come here in the summer to play at the park and swim in the river. We were swimming in the river when all of a sudden I was taken by the current and pulled down the river. I flew over a small waterfall and was really scared."

Yeah...it sounds like it was written by a second grader. That is probably because it was written in a hurry late at night.

Discover

Hmm... what could i talk about every week? Well I could talk about a lot of different things.
1. Old Navy. My place of employment. Where i lived this summer. I have many great stories.
2. Hockey. During the hockey season nothing else really matters. I go to every game, and when its time for the state tournament... i go a little crazy.
3. School. They make me come here for 7 hours 5 days a week, not that its really exciting but i could write about it if i needed to.
4. Family. The fam is so important to me. Immediate family is small but my extended family is big and crazy and i love it.