Great Expectations Chapters 7 - 11

For chapter 7 I chose the couplet "...whatsume'er the failings on his part, remember reader he were that good in his hart." (pg. 42) This couplet was very clever thing to come up with on Joe's part, especially since he never went to much school and came up with it all by himself.

For chapter 8 I liked the quote "Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it." (pg. 55) because that was a main role with one of the characters in the book and it can be a true fact in real life as well.

For chapter 9 I liked the quote "If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to it through going crooked." (pg. 65) because it is great advice and very thoughtful of a quote, once again, from Joe.

For chapter 10 I enjoyed the quote "...and then he made his shot, and a most extraordinary shot it was." (pg. 71) because it showed the impact it made on Pip at that one moment. The action of the stranger caught Pip quite hard by surprise and this is able to show that in one sentence.

For chapter 11 I chose the quote "The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me." (pg. 81) because it was an interesting comparison the old lady made between mice teeth and life. You can see from this statement that life had not been good to her at one time or another.

Great Expectations Chapters 1 - 6

For chapter 1 I thought the quote "As I never saw my father or my mother...my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones." (pg. 1) was interesting. This shows what an imaginative boy the main character was. He takes the time to sit there and ponder what his parents can look like and make decisions on his own.

For chapter 2 I chose "I may truly say I've never had this apron of mine off, since born you were." (pg. 8) as an important fact in the book, it seems, and even in real life. Children are no walk in the park and the main characters sister found this out, though it was quite unwillingly on her part.

For chapter 3 I thought the quote "In all of which particulars he was very like the dog." (pg. 17) the most interesting comparison between human and animal. With this thought though you can easily see how ravenous the man was but also see that the boy was thoughtful as well.

For chapter 4 I thought the quote "...be grateful, boy to them which brought you up by hand." (pg. 23) interesting to see that that thought is still used today. Respect was what they were talking about at the time and I found it quite amusing how I could see myself being in a conversation of a similar thought today.

For chapter 5 I chose "Then, the ends of the torches were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all over with him." (pg. 36) because Pip once again shows quite a comparison between a live human being to something else.

For chapter 6 I thought the quote "In a word, I was too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong." (pg. 37) was a very thoughtful insight. Not only for Pip in this case though, but also that is a very good explanation of how many of us act when we do something wrong.

Shakespeare and Macbeth

     After reading Macbeth I found I was reminded, once again, of how much Shakespeare enjoys killing people in most of his stories. It seems that if he isn't making it comical then it has to be tension filling with the use of death. Othello is also a good example of this. Besides that I didn't think Macbeth was too bad of a story. It kept me interested on what would happen next and it was a different kind of story because of the fact that a main character becomes a insane murderer fairly quickly at the beginning of the story. I have to admit though, Lady Macbeth started to annoy me due to the fact that she would give her husband so much trouble about being a man and tell him to do the bad deeds yet she wasn't even following through to what she said she would do herself. Next thing you know she is going around, unable to really sleep, feeling guilty even though she was the one to push everything forward in the first place. She bit off more than she can chew and was quickly becoming a hindrance more than a support for her now evil husband.
      I also ended up wondering what kind of twisted view of a 'man' they used to have back then. From what I got from the story a lot of people thought that if you were able to never show sadness and can kill someone then you are considered a man. That is a little twisted, in my opinion, but the entire story of Macbeth seems to be filled with twisted people anyways. I loved the fact how Macbeth went to the witches and got the prophesies which left the reader wondering how the story will end since it seemed impossible for those prophesies to happen. I thought it was clever how Shakespeare handled that in the end.

Saving Thanksgiving

     Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a group of mischievous goblins hiding amongst the humans. Thanksgiving was coming up and the goblins became angry because they were jealous of all the happy little children in the world. They wanted everyone to be miserable like them, so they hatched up a plan to ruin Thanksgiving for all the kids in school by making their turkey dinner become gross with out anyone realizing it until it was too late.
     In order to do this though, they needed to get strong magic, so they decided to go and steal Santa's apple juice. They knew Santa's apple juice had special magic in it so they went to the north pole, stole his apple juice, and came back to test out their spell. They poured the apple juice on the elementary school's turkeys they were planning to use for lunch. Instead of the turkey becoming gross tasting, though, the turkeys became zombies and started roaming the school, biting anybodies fingers that tried to catch them. The children, in a desperate attempt to stop the finger biting zombie turkeys from roaming the school, wrote letters to Santa, promising to be good children for the rest of the year if he got rid of the finger biting zombie turkeys fast.
     Santa, receiving their letters, realized that the goblins had done this with his missing apple juice. He flew right over and poured his special grapefruit juice over the finger biting zombie turkeys. They instantly turned back into normal turkeys and Thanksgiving was saved.
     Before Santa left back to the north pole he wisely said "Now, don't steal things that don't belong to you. It can get you into big trouble." With that said, Santa Clause took all the mischievous little goblins with him to the North pole. To this day the little goblins no longer steal Santa's apple juice and work in the back of his workshop, preparing the coal for all the naughty little boys and girls.

Beowulf

     Needless to say, the movie was completely different from the story. The movie seemed to go on about the religion Christianity and how great it was opposed to the Pagen religion. The book did have references to both religions but besides a few references to how great Christianity is, overall it wasn't a very important matter. The religions, in my opinion, weren't that big of a matter that the movie tried to make it out to be. The point of the book was to get rid of the killer monster, not to convert all the people who hear it.
     The people who created the movie tried very hard to insert twists to the story to keep it interesting. They made Grendel almost human and even added a baby Grendel in the story as well as having the baby's mother being the town's witch. They also had a major problem of not being able to catch or find Grendel. It was no longer just about this evil monster that killed people, it was a angry looking guy, known as Grendel, who was avenging his father's death.
     The changes they made to the move weren't very effective overall and it left me feeling like it dragging on unnecessarily sometimes. Between going on about the religions and the attempt to somehow keep it interesting for viewers with random twists to the story, they lost my attention. They payed so much attention to things like that that when they actually killed Grendel and his mom it ended quite fast compared to the rest of it. I did like Beowulf's personality better in the movie then in the story though. He was more human and humbler in the movie when in the story he was unnaturally amazing and proud.

Writers

It seems as if the day will be just fine,
Then comes out all the things that we don't seek.
Now it's as if life just ran out of time
And now things look so down and bad and bleak.

Nothing will work, things come up to and end.
Wars, death, and pain and torturous strain stand aground.
They laugh in glee for all the pains they send
Then the search for any hope that can be found.

From strain and stress, unwillingness, came hope.
They slipped it in, sudden, quick and quite slick.
We see what's wrote and seem quite able to cope.
They grin and laugh with evils wrath. Another trick.

Tortures pleasure be it wimp or fighters.
This is all that occurs while with writers.

Spoiled Alert!

    It seems as if all respect is deteriorating out of society gradually. There could be many things that could be causing this, and I could be wrong, but I think the youth are being very spoiled. Now, in the 20th century, everything seems so easy to come by that the youth seem to just expect things to happen. You see this everywhere, in school with their work for example. Exactly how many high schoolers have terrible grades because they don't want to do their work?
     The youth constantly need to be entertained and can do so with all the technology that is around and is given to them, but that leaves trouble for the teachers when they actually have to sit there and listen to them. With things given to the youth it seems their respect is going down with it, as if they should be given just what they want. Because all this spoiling is going on the country will deteriorate as well. As long as the parents let the kids get away with what they do then the kids won't know how to act the way they should. How are they supposed to get along in society by themselves if they can't learn how to act and just expect things to be handed to them?
     Parents should be more strict to their kids in certain areas, or at least set rules and teach them to respect adults the way they should. It's getting more out of hand and that is not helping anyone. They need to see and understand that there are consequences to their actions not only in the real wold but in the home as well. Parents are not the kids friend. They are supposed to be a teacher and parent, not just giving the kid what they want with no boundaries, as if the child is entitled to be given what they want.

Go Green Card

      Don't get me wrong, I love people moving into America from other countries, just as long as they are legally here. I also understand that it's probably a big pain to get a green card due to the time and energy that you have to put into it, but you also have to think of the rest of us that are legally here in America. That means we have to pay for your living instead, meaning it's taking away our time and money as well. It only make sense that when Americans follow the laws and get punished for breaking them that immigrants should also be treated the same way. If they don't get their green card then they will be deported, that would only be fair.
      No, I am not being racist. As I said, I like people moving to America but people who don't come here legally sometimes cause a lot of trouble for us. Not only the money, but also the language barrier. If you are going to go and live in a different country, then you should learn their language. In other words 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. It really brings problems because then what do we have to do to make up for it? We have to put up all these things just so people who don't want to speak our language can understand and do things normally here in the U.S. We should not be forced to accommodate for them like that if we are trying to get them to become true Americans. But yet again, easier said then done right? What I am saying is, though I do feel sad that people are getting deported, all they have to do is obey the laws and get a green card.

Book vs Movie

     It's always a mistake to watch the movie before you read the book. The movie and the book are never the same, but at that time, I didn't know better so I watched the movie Howl's Moving Castle anyways. The movie didn't follow along with the book by Diana Wynne Jones at all but a friend of mine insisted I read it and that the book was so much better. I was doubtful that I would like it so much considering the movie wasn't mind blowing and the cover looked weird, but I'm willing to try nearly any book and I'm glad I had done so.
     Sophie, the main character, was witty, creative, and brave throughout the story despite the fact she was turned into an old woman. She never was afraid to speak her mind and that was a great character trait on her. She braves the attempt to go to the evil wizard Howl's place just to find he is an interesting character to say in the least. He's very proud but all in the wrong ways. He cares far too much about his looks and loves to play around yet he's such a great guy that you have to love him.
     Throughout the book you meet all sorts of interesting characters like a fire-demon, a young apprentice, king, princess, witches, and it twists it all up with magic and mystery. So much action happens yet it becomes funny along with it as well. All of this happens while Sophie has to endure having been turned into an old lady. Howl's Moving Castle is a great book filled with mystery, humor, and action. Who couldn't ask for a better book?
     Needless to say, I love the book. I couldn't put it down and it just kept me hooked. I can only  see someone not liking to book if they didn't like spontaneous randomness. Some of the stuff Jones writes about is weird and different, which can put some people off. I, on the other hand, liked how I couldn't guess what was going to happen next. Anyone who likes books that are unique, humorous and has some mystery then this book is perfect.

blu4books

     Where did all the time go? I am using blu4books as my blog title in remembrance of the time that I can no longer spend at my leisure. I love to read my own choice in books but lately with school and other things coming up, that seems to be only a fading memory. Not to mention the only books I have found time to read are my school books. I miss my old books and I'm sad I'm being forced to read only school books, hence I'm blu4books.

I Swear...

Everyone froze, not quite believing that we heard what we thought we heard coming from the

television. When it finally sunk in, what it said, we were all left in shock. The commercial had just boldly

blurted out a swear word at us! How far well this swearing go? It’s actually amazing how much

swearing you hear on television. Just because some people are fine with it does it mean the rest of us

have to be fine with it as well?

My mom refuses to watch television shows that are rated pg14 or higher, which normally would

be fine with me, except for the fact, how many shows are rated below pg14? Near to none it seems

now. Everything is rated so high and guess what is probably the main cause of it is? You guessed it,

language. What? Is our vocabulary so low that we can’t find other ways to voice our anger? Remember

the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’? So, can’t we act something out good enough that the

viewer can’t guess they are angry?I tell you, adding language doesn’t mean adding viewers, in fact, it

prevents them. More people are more likely to watch something with a lower rating in television shows

and even movies rather than a higher one. So why all the language?

I do understand that now days a lot of people do not care whether others are swearing on

television or anywhere else as a matter of fact. But there are a lot of people who do care about

swearing as well. I don’t see the harm in knocking out the swear words. It’s not like you hear people

walking away from a sow complaining that the movie didn’t have enough swear words in it. You do

hear comments about if the movie swore too much though. As far as I see it, if you knock off a bunch of

those swear words then it can only get better.