Reading Log

As a result of multiple recommendations from multiple friends, I divulged into the Percy Jackson series. I made it to about page 160 this week which is quite a bit more than my usual reading. So far it is a very interesting book and it hooked me right away. I saw the movie a while ago and the book definitely out does the movie. There are much more action scenes and plot strengthening sequences that entrance me much more than the movie. Stella slept through my reading for most of the week so she must be bored by the book but hopefully she'll wake up for this week.

Reading Log

I finished the last hunger games book today on my way home from a soccer game. I really can't decide if I like the ending or not. I like how she ended up with Peeta but I really thought there was gonna be something more at the end. Something drastic like Katniss being elected president or something. I also didn't like how Finnick died. I thought he was a great character and one of my favorites. I didn't get the chance to read to my chinchilla this week unfortunately but she could probably use a break from the attention anyways.

Reading Post

Well it seems like I have done a million of these posts and the year will never end but I keep moving along trying to accomplish these goals. But instead of starting some non fiction book I finished Catching Fire and started Mockingjay. The ending of Catching fire was so surprising. I didn't see it coming at all. But I do not know if I really liked it or not though. It ended a little to abruptly when I was hoping for a little bit more. I'm worried that Mockingjay might not have very much action too and it might be boring. But I guess I will have to read more to find out.

Reading Log 3

So I never thought I would get so entranced in the Hunger Game Series to have 300 pages of the second book read in less than a week. I'm not sure what it is - probably the suspense of the action scenes and the games - that force me to keep the book focused in front of my face and to wipe away the sleep from my dreary eyes. I did continue to read in front of my chinchilla and I think maybe she is starting to like all the attention. But as I get further and further into the Hunger Games Series, I get farther and farther away from completing my goal of reading more diverse things.

Note 2 and 3

Ferris Bueller's Day Off Parade Scene

For all of you deprived children who have not seen what some critics claim to be one of the funniest movies of all time, this scene consists of Ferris Bueller, a high-school senior, singing on a parade float in the middle of downtown Chicago. The celebratory exclamation of the crowd and the idealized image of Chicago exudes a sense of playful comfort that anyone could easily fit in the city. The first song that Ferris sings is harmonious and serene causing the crowd to react surprised and almost disappointed at the gregarious teenager. However, the police guards choose not to remove him from the float out of either a sense of improbable disregard or self-amusement. This action illustrates that the city is accepting of young people having fun as well as easily entertained. Soon after, the disparaging tone picks up as Ferris begins to sing "Twist and Shout." Everyone in the city begins to dance for no apparent reason other than to have fun.  Even construction workers, babies, and obese men join in the random gamboling. The exceeding comfort level of the crowd demonstrates that the citizens of Chicago really don't care about differences between them, but instead they are all out to enjoy life in the city.

City Life by Viraj Bhanshaly

Depicted in Viraj Bhanshaly's poem "City Life," the constant congestion of people, noises, and cars in the city - only interrupted by the awkward silence of the early hours in the morning - illustrates the special needs of city dwellers to have patience and an admiration for the large range of strange actions going on in the city. The silence of the city only exists at night where "the city streets are calm" and "everyone is sleeping." However, when the sun rises, "the silence disappears" and and is never able to overcome the roar of city busses and taxi cabs. Bhanshaly first characterizes the city as being overly noisy in his perspective by describing the night when it is quiet as peaceful and needed almost as if he longs for the moment when sleep falls over the city. He also describes the night as the time when "heaven awakes." The overly positive diction that Bhanshaly employs towards silence exudes a sense that silence is the only good part of the city. However, he ends the poem by saying that even though the city is overwhelmed by "the screech of cars," "motorbikes going racing," and "the lively dynamic roads" that are not easy to navigate, Bhanshaly loves the city because even though it is expensive to live in, "it gives you range." Bhanshaly's contradiction of the earlier negative tone in the poem suggests that he does care about living in the city and that he couldn't imagine living else where. Also, he chooses to apply a constant ABCB DEFD etc. rhyme scheme. The inclusion of this rhyme creates a rhythm and flow to the poem almost to mimic the steady hum of traffic down the crowded streets. It is the constant honking and yelling of traffic in every city that makes life in urban areas unique and enjoyable.  

Reading Post

Well spring break went great maybe not in terms of my reading  accomplishments but in terms of overall enjoyment. I did finish the hunger games over break and very quickly i might add. It has been a while since   I have actually been entranced by a book like that. But then that simple happiness was lost by the required reading of 1984. I mean it really wasn't that bad of a book but I think there is just something about having to read it for school instead of for fun that just kills the whole point it reading. Maybe its the quiz i know I am going to have to take tomorrow during fifth period, or just the fact that I am going to have to discuss the themes and write an essay on a book that I didn't even know had a theme. Oh well, I did accomplish my two book over spring break goal, though.

Exercise 3

Reviews I read: Spiderman, Black Boy White School, Chomp

Requirements:
1) broad opening paragraph about the genre of the work
2) what works well or not well about the book - cite specific examples and why they do what they do
3) how this book compares to any sequels or prequels
4) general summary of the book
5) evaluate and comment on any themes/motifs in the book

Reading post 3/26/2012

Well here starts a new quarter and my new goals as well. I completed my first goal this week as I definitely enjoyed reading to my chinchilla. I didn't really think she was listening though. I'm reading the hunger games right now and she must be a team peeta because every time I said his name she would crawl all over the book. I don't know yet because i still have quite a bit to read, but i am definitely engaged by this book. Even though it started out a little slow, it is starting to pick up as the action increases.  I'm definitely procrastinating on goal number 2 though.

Note 1

Riding the "A" - May Swenson

In "Riding the 'A'," May Swenson depicts the ordinary bleakness of a subway train in a city; however, the common mechanics of the subway gliding along the rails arrouses the writer as if she was frolicking through a flowery meadow. In the openning lines of the poem, May Swenson depicts the dull pessimism of the train amplified by her "gray raincoat," and also noting that "the hollow of the car is gray." The gloomy dreariness of May Swenson's diction exudes a sense of hopeless desolation as if the world suddenly turned black and white. However, the middle of the poem brings a volte-face. At this point, Swenson switches from the dull, literal language into a flowery poetic verse. The steel frame of the train, usually an ordinary and orthodox object, "feels like the newest of knives slicing along a long black crusty loaf from West 4th to 168th." The easy-going subway glissades across the rails as if it were to "make love in a glide of slickness and friction." The embellished figurative language that Swenson uses depicts a contrasting image to the routine and vapid subway car. This complete divergence creates a notion that a simple ride on the train can change a dejected man into euphoric prince as the car floats across the abyss once known as the dull, gray rails.

Exercise 2

On the Effect of Heavier Things - good post

Weaknesses:
(4) The description of the neutral town and it's similar inhabitants is enough to leave a optimistic reader pessimistic.
Only a left sided claim - In this excerpt from Stardust, Neil Gaiman details the town of Wall in a matter of fact, gruff manner.  
(7) - Even as the the main character, Roberta, is grounded till September 8, 1972, she writes a "cruddy book of her cruddy life."

Hai.

The Mud Below - Exercise 1

The gentle formality and mellifluous flow of the straight-forward diction in Annie Proulx's The Mud Below exudes a Rodeo-like sensation underscoring the feeling of being a real cowboy. The bodies of the cowboys were “gleaming with sweat.” The riders sat confidently on their bulls, with their “butts cocked to one side.” The raw intensity of the description of the rodeo creates a foreboding chaos as bulls are about to be released.    The fanatical fervidness continues through the paragraph as the time came closer, "bringing the adrenaline roses up on his cheeks." The vibrant flow of blood throughout the rider, as if he was about to bungee jump off of the empire state building, furthers the sharp ferocity of the rodeo. 

Reading Goals

My reading goals for this quarter:
1) read to my chinchilla 3 times a week
2) read two non fiction books and one historical fiction book
3) read two books over spring break

Anthology Theme

For my project, I will be compiling literature dealing with life in the city, whether it be good or bad.

Possible poems:
1. Paradise: Prison by Zach Howard
2 Heart of Texas by Nighttime Daydreamer

Dart League King

The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris, follows team members of a small town dart league on the night of the league championship. 

The story is told in third person, alternating points of view between five different characters: Russell Harmon, the self-proclaimed dart league king and founder of the dart league in Garnet Lake, Idaho; Tristan Mackey, Russell’s teammate; Vince Thompson, Russell’s dealer and sometimes friend; Kelly Ashton, Russell’s ex-girlfriend; and Brice Habersham, Russell’s dart-league nemesis and the man Russell must beat to keep his title. Each of these people has a secret; some secrets are worse, in a larger-than-life sense, than others. Morris does a terrific job of giving each of these characters a voice, and making them surprising in a way that makes the story both refreshing and troubling.

I expected a small, quirky story about a small-team dart league, but there are bigger things at stake. I didn’t expect suspense, but several of these people’s lives literally hang in the balance through the course of the story, and not everyone will have a happy ending. In a lot of ways, this is a story about luck, both good and bad, and about how the smallest decisions or errors in judgment can change the course of fate forever. That’s what good literature is all about in the end, I believe, and Morris does a fine job of showing the reader the significance of each of these people, and how nothing is too small in the big picture to make us wonder out loud about the role of fate in our lives, about how we become who we are, about the thread by which we all may (or may not) be hanging.

I wish I could tell you more, but there are so many plot elements, large and small, that I wouldn’t want to give away, because really: everything means something in this book. I don’t think Morris wasted a word. I highly recommend it.

Stormbreaker

I just kinda stumbled upon this book at my house and ended up reading the whole thing this week and it was really good. 


A fourteen-year-old boy, Alex Rider, learns of the death of his uncle and adopted parent, Ian Rider, in a deadly car crash because he didn't wear a seatbelt. Alex is suspicious (because in spite of what the police told him after the crash, Ian Rider always wore his seatbelt), and decides to investigate. He finds that Ian Rider did not die in a car crash, and after events, reaches the head-quarters, where he discovers that his uncle was, in fact, a spy who had been killed before completing his mission. He had actually been training Alex (who already speaks German, Spanish, French, English, Japanese, and is a black-belt in karate) for a career in MI6.

Alan Blunt and his second-in-command, Mrs Jones, of MI6, ask Alex to pick up his uncle's assignment, investigating Herod Sayle, a Lebanese billionaire (Egyptian in the American version) who is giving free "Stormbreaker" computers to every school in Britain. This seems very suspicious, as the Stormbreakers must have cost a fortune. As an undercover agent, and equipped with an abundant amount of gadgets, Alex travels to Sayle's home in Cornwall, and, following the path drawn by his uncle, discovers a large computer manufacturing facility, where the Stormbreaker computers are being tainted with smallpox virus. The Prime Minister is going to release the virus, to which school children will be exposed. This is because the Prime-Minister bullied Sayle going back to school-days. Before he can communicate with MI6, Alex is caught. Sayle leaves Alex to die in a tank with a Portuguese Man o' War and heads off to the Science Museum in London, where the Prime Minister is to activate the Stormbreakers, unwittingly releasing the deadly virus.

Alex eludes Sayle's compound, parachutes out of a hijacked airplane, and smashes through the roof of the Science Museum. With a stolen gun, he fires eight bullets at the Stormbreakers and Sayle, hitting the Prime Minister in the hand and destroying the trigger that would have released the smallpox. After a debriefing by MI6, Alex gets into a taxi, intending to head home. The driver is Sayle, who had survived the attack and fled. He pushes Alex to the top of a building, intending to shoot him; Sayle, however, is himself shot from a helicopter by Yassen Gregorovich, a mysterious assassin who was earlier contracted to kill Ian Rider. Alex tells Yassen he will one day kill him, but Yassen shrugs the comment aside, telling him to go back to his normal life and to forget about being a spy.

Response to Submission 4

Good Claims:
Vivar Sonar Leer

Reading Reflecting and more reading

Not as Good Claims:
"When first looking at these amazing hand animals or paintings some may feel astonished or think it is unbelievable." - this claim evaluates the picture instead of analyzing.

"Reading through all the posts, you can't help but agree with him."

Jaws submission

This opening scene is pivotal to the rest of the film because it already sets the stage for the theme of horrific deaths by sharks. The frantic movement of the kids and the thundering suspense of the music conveys this sense of carnage  and trepidation so that the audience might pee their pants in fright.  

The opening scene of Jaws features a lot of stereotypical thriller conventions: the tension filled music, the female character being the victim, having the other character – who could possibly save her- being unaware that anything is wrong. The girl, thinking she is safe when she swims to the buoy but is infact going to be eaten!


In the opening to the film the majority of the scene is shot from the sharks perspective giving the audience the idea that she is not safe and also gives some indictation in which direction the danger is coming from, this creates even more tension as the attack seems inevitable. The editing of the sequence when the two teenagers are running to the sea and when the girl is being attacked is shown in quick fast paced, frantic cuts of shots from different angles. In contrast to the calm, static, lingering shots of the boy who has fallen asleep on the beach. The opening sequence is set at night time/early morning. The scene starts off with a bunch of young students having a beach party, as you can imagine this usually includes. All of these small little things dealing with the motion of the characters add to the horror theme of the movie.


The beginning starts quietly, then the middle part where the tension becomes gradually louder and louder until the climactic ending becomes silent again. The silence at the end is a good representation of death. The screaming ans splashing about when the attack is happening is a great contrast to the boy lying peacefully on the sand near her. You kind of expect the boy to hear her struggle and the audience get a glimpse of hope that the boy will come and rescue the girl, but when that doesn't happen, the shark successfully kills the girl and the scene becomes silent once more.

The Calder Game post

The plot line is absorbing and intricate, and as with each of her previous books, Balliett introduces many concepts involving art, math and literature. We learn the myth of the Minotaur, that half-man, half-bull who ate humans. We learn more about pentominoes, Calder’s particular love, and explore the meaning of patterns of five. We see how words can go beyond our senses:

"Black, black, black went a drip someplace to his right. He’d never realized how much the word fit what it sounded like: the flatness, the no-color, of dark water on dark stone. Black, black, black. "

The change in the initially prickly relationship between Petra and Tommy is handled well and realistically, based as it is on their mutual feelings for Calder. Unless they can overcome their differences, they don’t stand a chance of finding him. With the stakes so high, this is very clear to both of them.

The ending is very satisfactory, wrapping up all the separate pieces. We’re also introduced to another interesting character who, I suspect (and hope), will become part of the team in the next book in the series.

Most wonderfully, though, I came away from my reading of this book with a desire to explore Alexander Calder’s work more fully. I wanted to see for myself the beauty of his mobiles. I wanted to play the Calder Game: design my own mobiles on paper, balancing ideas, things, concepts in ways they have never been balanced before.

Short List 2/21/12

Here are my opening scenes for the week:

Jaws - There aren't many movies that can top the thrill and suspense of Jaws. It is one of the greatest and well-known movies of all time and that is why it is on my list.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark - Hunting for treasure, Arrows flying everywhere, Booby traps about ready to blow, and then there is the classic boulder ready to demolish anything in his path especially an agile little man named Indiana Jones.

Mission Impossible 3: Some of Tom Cruise’s best acting comes in these first five minutes, in which Ethan Hunt, chained to a chair, attempts to convince an eerily calm Philip Seymour Hoffman not to kill his fiancee. Maybe not the best opening scene but I love this movie.

Full Podcast Response on Middle School

I don’t know what it is about the middle school episode of This American Life, but it seems that everybody is able to connect with this episode. I think this happens for a couple reasons. 1) As far as I know, everybody went through middle school and it was only a couple of years ago. Therefore, we can all look back and remember a lot of little details from middle school that lets say a 40 year old wouldn’t be able to remember. 2) Middle school was a very important time because it was really when everybody started to grow up. It was that huge transition period between elementary school and high school (two completely different things). This transition is what caused the problems and laughs of middle school because everybody took this switch into the teen years at different paces – some people more mature then others, some people focused on sports or school or girls/boys or drugs. There were so many possibilities that none of us had ever experience. Stuff completely new to us. Didn’t know what to expect. Didn’t know what to do. And look what happened as a result: Middle School.

The podcast starts with Annie who is a little unsure of herself, which definitely is common in middle school. She doesn’t want to put her name out because of all the bullying and making fun of that could happen if anybody catches wind of her talking on the radio. However, she seems to express the same feeling that everyone has: middle school is just awkward and no one really enjoys it.

Probably my favorite part of the podcast is what follows Annie’s session: Middle School Dances. Once again, no one really knows what to expect or even what to do at a middle school dance because we had never done anything like it before. This uncertainty is progressed even more by the interviews of various middle school students. Ethan is afraid that he won’t know how to dance correctly, and as a result, he doesn’t slow dance with anyone. 5 different guys asked Autumn to the dance. However, instead of saying yes to one guy, she gives all the guys an “I don’t know,” leaving them in a state of befuddled hopefulness.  Also, the 20-minute middle school relationships are classic. They show the kids as having a elevated aggressive amusement with "love" but it is very far from pragmatic. 

Overall, the bleak pessimism that the kids exude through their unsureness about middle school underscores the negative influence that middle school has on young teenagers. 

Podcast Response: Notes on Middle School

Everybody always seems to have that same outlook on middle school - it definitely wasn't the best experience ever (one to forget actually). Whether its the overall uncertainty about a school dance - asking a girl to dance  (or getting asked by 5 different guys), deciding what to wear, trying not to get interrupted while slow dancing with the "special someone," getting asked out right as the dance begins while drinking a glass of root beer - or dealing with random problems like smelly kids, homework, and bullying over immature troubles. But either way, there appears to be a common consensus about middle school being an overall pain and a period of time to laugh upon but to forget and replace with high school.

Reading post: The Calder Game

This book has been sitting on my shelf for literally forever. Picked it up randomly the other day. 

Calder, Petra and Tommy are back again in The Calder Game, another mystery involving a famous artist – this time, it’s Alexander Calder and his beautiful mobiles and statues. The three find themselves separated near the beginning of the book when Calder goes to England with his father, who is attending a horticultural conference near Woodstock, home of Blenheim Castle.

One thing on my mind at the start of the book was how the author would manage to get Petra and Tommy across the ocean from Chicago to England. It does require rather more suspension of belief than normal, and is really the only “flaw” in the book. When Calder goes missing, Mrs. Sharpe arranges to bring both Petra and Tommy with her to England to help look for Calder; it did strike me as odd that there was no objection from the part of the parents to this arrangement. But this is a small point, and doesn’t take away from the rest of the book at all.

Which, in a nutshell, is really wonderful. As with her previous books, Balliett illustrates concepts and ideas beautifully with her writing; for example, in the following passage in an early chapter where the three children visit an exhibit of Alexander Calder’s mobiles with their classmates, Petra, the word lover in the group, comes to her own personal understanding of his art:

“Petra forgot the frustration of not being allowed to write, and thought instead about pulling sentences apart and balancing words in three dimensions, as if they could float off a page. Words as things, not just meanings … words in space, words set free! Could it be done? Petra’s mind felt as if it were exploding with possibilities.”

Helquist’s illustrations add to the mood of the story, and this time around, I found myself involved in the happenings in The Calder Game in a way that I wasn’t in the two previous novels. After all, there is so much more at stake. Calder is missing.

Angels and Demons 469-610 (end)

Well I finally reached the end and this is how it went: After viewing Kohler's tape Langdon, Vittoria, and the cardinals confront the camerlengo; Shortly before the beginning of the novel, the Pope met with Leonardo Vetra who believed that anti-matter was capable of establishing a link between Man and God. Vetra's beliefs caused great discomfort to the camerlengo. While discussing Vetra, the pope reveals that his support is due to science having given him a son. Without waiting to hear the explanation and horrified that the Pope appeared to have broken his vow of chastity, the camerlengo plots to "rectify" the situation. He poisoned the pope and, under the guise of an Illuminati master, he recruited the assassin, to kill Vetra, steal the antimatter, and kidnap and murder the Preferiti. The Camerlengo planted the antimatter in St. Peter's in order to be seen as the savior of Christendom. The Illuminati "involvement" was merely a plot engineered by the camerlengo to cover his own plans. It is revealed that Camerlengo Ventresca himself was the birth son of the late pope, conceived through artificial insemination. Overcome with guilt Ventresca soaks himself in oil and immolates himself before a crowd of onlookers in St. Peter's Square.


I thought this ending was fair, but surprising at the same time. Even though there is a number of cultural inaccuracies dealing with the Catholic faith that obviously bother me, I still think Dan Brown, if nothing else, does a great job of creating an entertaining book full of suspense and thrill. I would recommend this book to just about anyone looking for an entertaining book but does not get bothered by the religious contradictions in the book. 

The Dark Knight

I had this idea that I can't believe I never thought of before during class the other day. Some people might know that I am a total movie buff and I love going to movies and seeing them over and over and over and over again. So over the next couple weeks I'm going to try to take some of my favorite movies and look at their opening scenes - see what happens, how it sets up the plot, tone, and characterization, and maybe even compare it to other similar scenes. So this week it begins with one of my favorites: Batman: The Dark Knight.

In the opening scene of this movie (if you haven't seen it), a bunch of thugs dressed like clowns rob a bank. But the clever part is that each one of the thugs, after they complete their job (cutting the power, opening the safe, taking the money), is killed by the next thug. However, none of the guys realize that the Joker is actually one of the thugs working with them. As always, the Joker prevails untouched with all the bank's money. This scene full of gunfire sets the stage for the movie as explosive and exciting. For example, the best part of the whole scene is at the end when a bus just randomly breaks through the side of the bank. It's totally unexpected but totally awesome. The Joker and the rest of the gang's immense desire to rob the bank conveys a sense of caustic ferocity as though they were babies that would do anything to get their toys. And of course nothing will stop the Joker from getting what he wants because frankly he has nothing to lose.

Second Short List

Not Really sure what about this chicago sky line I liked but when I started looking at it I was mesmerized for like 5 minutes. - Tony Katai (some of this guy's pictures are inappropriate just a heads up). 

Another interesting but kinda weird tumblr. This guy takes photos like all day of everything he sees in his taxi cab. Some really cool pictures. - Things I see from my cab

This guy is originally from australia which caught my attention because australia is awesome but he has pictures from all over the world of landscapes and buildings but mostly the sea. some really cool stuff. - Ojae's blog 

My Favorite Short Lists

More Cowbell, please - I think this blog did a really good job of analyzing a simple picture, but going in so deep into things one wouldn't even process when the picture was first looked at. very creative and very real.

On the Effect of Heavier Things - I think this blogger took something that when I look at, I just think its a bunch of  blocks stacked on top of each other that a 4 year old made or something. But somehow this blogger finds and analyzes a deep meaning that is simple yet rich all from a picture of 3 blocks.

Sports Logos

Sports have become our hobbies, our wants, our needs. Every Sunday it's watching Peyton Manning sit on the bench while Curtis Painter runs around like a wild man without a clue. Or watching Kobe Bryant drop 45 points a game without even trying. But nothing beats the memory of Christian Watford's buzzer beating game winning three-pointer against #1 ranked Kentucky. But a lesser known aspect of the game is not necessarily the players themselves or how the play, but what appears on their jerseys. As sports have become more popular, the logos of the franchises have adapted to the new audience in order to produce a better financial product or just to please the crowd.

As seen here in the logos, the older ones being on the left, there is an obvious difference between the two. The older ones have a blocky, simplistic feel that exudes a comfortable and calm sense. On the other side, much different from the old, the new logos have a complex fierceness attributed to them. In the Cav's logo, a sword was added which almost conveys a sense of power. The newer logos almost progress to a disney-like feel full of cartoon characters. The colors are more bright and the lines are more curved and less block-like conveying a sense of excitement ready to start the game. Maybe the owners of the teams wanted to create more excitement of the fans by changing the logos to a more animated feel. However, more and more teams are consistently wearing their throwback uniforms in some sort of re-cultivation of history back towards the good days of Magic Johnson, Dan Marino, and Wayne Gretzky.

Angels and Demons pg 307 - 469

"Tell me... How can the church condemn that which makes logical sense to our minds! How 

can we decry that which is now the very foundation of our society! Each time the church raises 

 its voice in warning, you shout back, calling us ignorant. Paranoid. Controlling! And so your evil 

grows. Shrouded in a veil of self-righteous intellectualism. It spreads like a cancer. Sanctified by the 

 miracles of its own technology. Deifying itself! Until we no longer suspect you are anything but pure goodness. Science has come to save us from our sickness, hunger and pain! Behold science - the 

new God of endless miracles, omnipotent and benevolent! Ignore the weapons and the chaos. 

Forget the fractured loneliness and endless peril. Science is here!"

First of all, this is a very controversial topic which really gets me going and I am a Catholic too for any of you who were wondering. But here goes nothing....

I have to admit, I could hardly write that paragraph above without wanting to erase it. It makes the hair on my arms stand up. But I’ll be OK after I pick it apart. First of all, this book assumes that the Catholic Church is the only church. Christianity is not a denomination, but rather the body of Jesus Christ on earth. It spans denominations and is only recognized by the condition of the heart and the fruits in a person’s life. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian is actually a Christian. Yes, we have all done stupid things and the Catholic Church throughout history, especially, has been associated with atrocities (killing of Protestants, killing of Muslims and Jews, etc.)… but not all Christians agreed with the evils their church hierarchy committed – even back in those dark days. God sees into our hearts, and it is sad that the world can not distinguish between true Christianity and the fake kind which actually is self-serving and self-righteous. Anyone can take a good thing and make it bad - if we use it to serve our own purposes and thus begin to worship material possessions like money rather than God. Christians have a calling to live out our faith, and a lot of us lack in that area on different occasions (me included). We are called to be ambassadors of Christ, and we all should remember books like this one (and the sad theological suicide found within it’s pages) when we think of the seriousness of that charge.

Secondly, Science, as I stated above is not proving that faith is archaic and un-necessary. In fact, every shred of True Scientific evidence over time has proven the Bible to be true. I could write an entire book on this, but I don’t have to, because plenty of authors have beaten me to it. Science is actually a Tool that has done nothing but prove the Christian God’s account (through the Bible) is factual. Almost every branch of Science was founded by a Christian. You don’t have to leave your brain behind when you leap off the faith bridge. When you see the truth about what macro-evolutionists want you to believe up against the true evidence (not the propaganda and lies), you will see that it is more of a leap of faith to accept their dogma than it is to believe in a Creator. Christianity has nothing to fear from Science. It is rather far-fetched to believe someone would be so afraid of Science that they would embark on a formidable killing spree (as this book depicts). I am in no way trying to hurt or denounce Dan Brown as a person or writer, all I am saying is that I disagree with a lot of the Christian philosophies presented in this book. However, as unlikely a story this may be, Dan Brown does a phenomenal job of entertaining his audience through this Faith/Science conflict novel.

My favorite Short List Links

September 11th recap - I think this article and image montage is sad and interesting at the same time.

Best Places around the World- I like this article because it makes me want to get out and travel around the world.

Rain - I love this site because it is so unique but such a simple and fun idea.


Leaving Rockwell - I think this blogger has a very creative idea which has a lot of potential if done well.

Angels and Demons 157-307

Basically, Robert Langdon, the main character if you didn't read my last post is following this path to various churches in the Vatican based on ancient journals written by Galileo. The Path leads Langdon to four locations in Rome, each associated with one of the primordial elements: 'Earth', 'Air', 'Fire', and 'Water'. Langdon finds one of the Preferiti, the four bishops who are favored to become pope, murdered in a way thematically related to each location's related element. The first cardinal was branded with an Earth ambigram and had soil forced down his throat; the second was branded with an air ambigram and had his lungs punctured; the third was branded with a fire ambigram and was burned alive; and the fourth was branded with a water ambigram and was left to drown at the bottom of a fountain.

After finding the bodies of the first two Preferiti, Langdon hurries to the Santa Maria della Vittoria Basilica and finds the Preferiti's abductor in the act of setting the third cardinal on fire. The kidnapper is an unnamed assassin who is working under the orders of the Illuminati master "Janus", whose true identity is unknown. Commander Olivetti is killed and the assassin kidnaps Vittoria. Langdon escapes and accosts the assassin at the final element's landmark (Water), but is unable to save the cardinal.

Langdon must complete the Path of Illumination in order to find the assassin and rescue Vittoria. His search leads him to Castel Sant'Angelo, that hides a tunnel leading directly into the pope's chambers in the Vatican. Langdon frees Vittoria, and together they send the assassin falling several hundred feet to his death. The two hurry back to St. Peter's Basilica, where they find that Kohler has arrived to confront the camerlengo in private. Langdon and Vittoria fear that Kohler is Janus, and that he has come to murder the camerlengo. Hearing the camerlengo scream in agony from being branded with the Illuminati Diamond, the Swiss Guards burst into the room and open fire on Kohler. Just before he dies, Kohler gives Langdon a videotape that he claims will explain everything. That is where I left off for this week. Cliffhanger? I know right. I cannot wait to keep reading this great book.
.

My Short List

The Ivies Squash Back - The Trinity College squash team lost its first match in 252 straight games and 13 seasons earlier this month. This record, even for a smaller and lesser-known sport, is remarkable similar to Mariano Rivera's record for 602 career saves and other seemingly unbreakable sports records. To be completely honest, I have never played squash and have no idea what the rules or purpose of the game is, but I do feel that records like this shouldn't exist even in a less popular sport. I do not know if its a direct result of international recruiting or not, but I feel something should be done to prevent dynasties in sports.

Old Sports Logo's - Jed Jacobsohn analyzes the differences between historic sports team's logos and current ones. I found it interesting how plain and simple the older ones are, but how people still enjoy them. On the other hand, the current logo's are more violent and fierce attracting a more intense audience. I believe that as time has gone on, franchises have had to change their logos in order to accommodate for the fans and their increasing obsession over these professional teams.

A Few Good #1 Seeds - Grantland.com is one of the biggest sports blogging websites and their main blog is known as "the triangle." Yesterday's post concerned NCAA basketball and the tournament predictions as well as the possible teams for the #1 overall seed. The top four contenders currently are Baylor, North Carolina, Duke and Murray State. The interesting part of this topic is that anybody could take the win because there are so many solid teams such as Michigan State and Kansas.

My Favorite Blog so Far/Best Dead Poets Society Response

http://quasiurl.blogspot.com/
I think this blog, Chimerical Tales, does a great job of expressing unique and factual ideas. Bruce Willis, the author, also uses some of the vocab words that we learn in the posts which I think is very creative. My favorite line of this person's blog is comes from their Dead Poets Society response saying:

"Underclassmen look at the robotic mechanics of the already brainwashed upperclassmen and know soon the oppressive environment will morph them into zombified shells of their former selves."

I really enjoy how the sentence is worded and how they metaphorically describe the students as robots and give them the ability to morph other students into zombies. Ooo gives me the creeps. 

Lastly, I covet how much Bruce Willis reads and how motivated he/she is to read. If only I could be that motivated and want to read. Oh well, just keep trying.

Angels and Demons pgs 1-157

First of all, the movie Angels and Demons was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I loved the way that the director used the beautiful Vatican City to his advantage by showing many different views. I also loved how suspenseful the movie was but also how it contained some truth about the Catholic faith. After seeing the movie multiple times and putting it on my iPod for me to enjoy whenever I want, I felt I should read Angels and Demons.

The novel opens up as Robert Langdon, a professor and symbologist, travels to Vatican City to help stop an infamous and ancient secret society called the Illuminati from killing bishops during the period in which the new pope is elected. As Langdon travels around the city from church to church attempting to stop this group, the controversy between the Catholic Church and science. I think this is why I am so intrigued by this book because I am a science geek and a Catholic. The contrast is most vividly created simply through the character of Robert Langdon. He is an intellectual, a scientist, a professor. He does not believe in God simply because "[he] is not made to understand him. Faith is a gift [he] has yet to receive." However, the fact that he is helping the largest and most powerful source of Catholic faith in the world creates a connection to the faith that Langdon simply cannot ignore.

On the other hand, a bond between the two radical beliefs is formed when Kohler, the director of a scientific research lab, says, "He was both. Men of science and religion are not unprecedented in history. Leonardo was one of them. He considered physics 'God's natural law.'" This fact that a man could be both a scientist and a Catholic at the same time was thought to be radical, but it showed that their could be a bridge between the two. I think that this discussion between the two is very interesting because of how common and insignificant this debate is now but how life changing and monumental it was back in Galileo's time.

Dead Poets Society Response

In the opening scene from Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society, the ordinary bleakness of the ceremony and the foreboding unease of the children underscores a pessimistic sorrow that the preparatory school is resuming. The majestic formality and army-like discipline of the entrance is at first celebratory exuberance, but as the process wears on, the children express an anxious and unsettling mood. The mural that is seen first in the movie proves the pessimism of the children by showing the same disheartened attitudes of students before. The playful sound of bagpipes and an organ as well as the overall success of the prep school suggest the kids should be ecstatic to go to return back to the school; however, the black clothing of the teachers and students and the flustered look of the children argues that the students are dreading the return to the institute. On the other hand, the new, young teacher proposes a small positive light in a seemingly dark tunnel.

Heat Rises pgs 1 - 165

While I was thinking about what to write, I stumbled upon nothing better than the word choice that Richard Castle uses throughout the book. My favorite selection of his word choice came early in the book when Nikki Heat expresses her extreme sadness because Jameson Rook, her love interest, is off in some foreign country possibly finding other women. Castle writes, "After she locked up, she raced to her bay window and waited, there watching vapor trail from the tailpipe of his waiting town car, wanting one last glimpse of him before he dissolved" (pg 21 Heat Rises - Richard Castle). I think the word dissolved stands out right away. Rather than using "left" or "departed," Castle uses a more permanent word implying that castle may never come back. The word dissolve refers to a unitary object that falls apart into smaller pieces that are not mean to come back to together. This act that Rook dissolves from Heat foreshadows a possible falling out between the couple. As the chapter goes on, the reader discovers that Rook has been socializing with other women which confirms the suspicions of Heat as well as the foreshadowing of the word "dissolve." This small example portrays the incomprehensible use of just one word. (Maybe this is how poets like Shakespeare and Walt Whitman are so popular and effective). That power of word choice is undefinable and unimaginable if used properly and mastered. However, the difficulty of that task is almost unreachable. If I take away one thing from reading this book, it would be noticing the true talent of authors today that because of my lack of reading I have yet to realize. Authors truly possess something special that most people do not even understand (including me). That is the power of words.

Nighthawks Analyzation

Elements to analyze/observations

1. Lighting effects - very bright inside the store, more dull and dreary on the streets, the building across the street appears uninhabited because of the shadows

2. People in the painting - one couple sitting at the bar appear indifferent, one man sitting alone appears sullen, the waiter appears content and attentive

3. The space in the painting - although there is only 3 people at the bar, the space appears crowded because of the small amount of space between the bar and the wall of the building, there is a lot of empty space between the bar and the other building

4. Color Scheme - bright, fanciful colors inside the bar, the colors of the other building are dull and brooding,

5. Actions in the painting - boring, not a lot of movement, the couple and the waiter appear to be talking, the man sitting alone doesn't appear to be doing anything

Claim - In "Nighthawks," Edward Hopper conveys a contrast between the bright seemingly lively shop with the dark, brooding tone of the empty building across the steet in order to express a sense of animated joviality and grim loneliness.

My Literacy Narrative

When you think about it, remembering the earliest point at which you started reading or having any memorable reading moments throughout your childhood is really quite difficult. The first and only thing I can remember from my reading deprived life is my mom reading some of the Narnia series to my brother, sister, and I. I was probably around 9 or 10 at the time and I didn't enjoy reading at all. However, there was something about the story or the way my mom read the books that compelled me to go to my sister's room with the rest of my family and to listen to the fictional tales.

Another reading tid-bit that I remember from my elementary school years is reading these sports mystery books - I forget what they are called. Anyways, I recall reading the entire series which was quite an accomplishment considering the large number of books in the series. However, this want to read surpassed me sometime through middle school.

I don't know if it was the extremely boring novels we were assigned such as Iron and Silk and The Chosen, or if it was an increased enjoyment of doing other things such as playing soccer, Xbox, or piano. Either way, some sort of drive has to take me over to be able to really "want" to read a book. With the increased amount of technology of today, it is hard to find that drive when "House" or "Modern Family" is on or I can walk downstairs and play Call of Duty for a while. Someday, I think I will find that urge to read whether it is in college or sometime later in life, but right now, that urge is long gone.

Even though I do not read much myself, I do believe that reading does play a large part in our society today. The sale of books and e-books makes up a large portion of the consumer economy today. Also, books, along with paintings, poems, and many other art forms, are one of the main ways that people express themselves as well as record history. Books allow writers and novelists to voice their opinion on anything or maybe they just want to entertain. Non-fiction books can also pass on information and history that we, the people of today, need to learn from in order to learn from the past. Even though books have not had a large impact on my life in particular, the ambiguity of books make them special and important to our society.