Final Reflection

One of the things I learned this year that will stay with me is foreshadowing. Not only does it help me predict what will happen in a story as a reader, but it also will help me do foreshadow as an author. Another thing would be annotation because we had to do so much of it during our short story unit. It was ridiculous. The last thing is probably how to do quotes. That's going to help a lot in the future. Like, school future. Probably less so in adult life future but we have eight years where we'll have to do essays and those essays will most likely include quotes so knowing how to incorporate them properly is nice.

Sardines. Goodness gracious that was gross. Not disgusting really, just icky. I felt like I ate a spoonful of plain canned tuna. it was simply not right. I'll probably remember whenever we had times where we got to bring in food simply because this is the only class where we were allowed to plan something like that.

Probably the nicest thing someone did for me this year from our class is either Athziry for being my friend or Autumn for letting us sit with her during lunch. I really sort of switched friend groups this year because I stopped sitting with the people I sat with last year and at the beginning of this year during lunch. It was nice to have people like, actually talk to me while we ate our food. So thanks you two for that. <3 This sort of goes into the next question also. I'm not sure that I taught anyone anything asides from Knitting Club where I showed Jenna how to knit but I know something I learned was that it's okay to just walk away from certain people. I don't ignore them or anything, and I'm still friends with some of them, but I'm glad I did it.

The thing I'm most proud of doing this year was the spelling tests. Last year I was really not all that great but this year I think the lowest grade I got was somewhere in the low 80%'s? Either way, huge improvement.

The most challenging part was probably just doing the work. Like, I knew I had to do things, and I sort of panicked about them, but I just didn't. It's just a problem I have. I'm trying to actually do things but sometimes I just don't. I'm going to try though.

The best thing I wrote this year for this class was the ending for "Cask of Amontillado". It was a fun assignment and I really like what I was able to do with the ending. Violet knows.You can't hide anything from the wife.

Blood of olympus was my favorite that I read this year. Nico and Reyna are bae. My underworld child finally got POV chapters. It was the best.

Have fun. Bring food when you guys have parties. Actually do your homework. DO NOT FORGET YOUR AOW PAPER. Have fun though. As long as you do things your supposed to this class is super fun.

Aphorism

"Death ends a life, not a relationship." What Morrie meant by this was that even though the person is no longer with you, you still have the same relationship despite the fact that they are gone. The relationship doesn't just dissapear with them, because you still have it with you in your memories.

The relationship I can think of that relates to this is between Kreatcher and Regulus Black from the Harry Potter series. The reason that they came to mind is because, and I haven't read the last book in a long time but as I remember it, Kreatcher had a very loyal relationship with Regulus because he was kinder to him than the others in his family. When Regulus went ot the cave to replace the horcrux locket with a fake replica, he had to drink the poison from the dish it was in and died. He told Kreatcher to protect the locket and keep it safe. When the order of the Pheonix was cleaning out the House of Black they found the locket, but Kreature stole it away and kept it in his little cubbord and tried to protect it best as he could. This shows that he cared enough about Regulus, even after his death, to actively keep his word, showing that their relationship did not really die.

I think that this is sort of true because you do still have your memories of the person an dof the things you did with them and what they were like. Sure, you can't make any new memories with them anymore because they are gone, but because of that you should try to hold onto the ones you made before their passing. I of course don't really know if this works because no one particularly close to me has ever died yet but some day I'll probably be able to put this quote to personal pratice. 

My picture is of Mitch having visited Morrie's grave. There are three hygrangeas, the flowers in Morries studdy, and three because Tuesday is the third day of the week. The scene I drew is how I pictured Morrie's gravesite to be when he described it. 

Tuesdays with Morrie

Prompt is family.

To be honest I'm not really sure what to make of Morries opinion of having kids and being married and raising children. (Because having kids and then raising them are two completely different things) I don't like kids. I have to younger cousins who are five and three, and everyone on their moms side of the family is that age as well while their dads side of the family (us) are in collage with the acception of myself and Sarah, who is a freshman.
On my cousins birthdays their moms side of the family comes over as well, so its just small children everywhere and its loud and exhausting and messy. I really don't want that. If I do ever end up having kids in my life I'm adopting teenagers, because for all I know I won't even be able to have kids with the person I choose to commit myself to.
Another thing is I really don't get the point of marriage. Like, the relationship you have with that person doesn't change, it's just a legal document. Sure, the perks and legal implications are a plus but other than the fact that you've found a person you want to share those perks with I don't really see it as any kind of milestone in life. It's not even me not wanting to be tied down because if your getting married it shouldn't feel like your being tied down. If it feels like that you shouldn't be getting married. Like that trope with guys that marriage is the worst thing ever like; thats not healthy. That's not a healthy relationship like at all.
But you know, whatever ends up happening to me in my adult family life I've got how to raise kids down moral-wise pretty much and what I want in a relationship is down packed so it'll end up fine probably.
Probably.

Tuesdays with Morrie

I'm liking Tuesdays With Morrie so far, which is kind of surprising because I really don't normally like non-fiction. For me reading is for getting away from real life, so reading about real life to get away from real life is really counter productive. Essentially what I am getting at is I wouldn't have read this on my own most likely. Same with Night and To Kill A Mockingbird.
I do like it though, I'm not even quite sure why. It just seems to flow nicely, I think, and it's illustrated well without going into too much detail. I can get a proper picture of what is going on and then it goes back to dialogue or the authors thoughts. The descriptions don't go by too quickly before I can make my picture and they don't linger to after. It's balanced and I like that.
To be honest I'm actually kind of glad that what we're dealing with is ALS, because what I initially dreaded was Alzheimer's. Watching someone you know mentally erode to me is worse than watching their body erode. If it was a choice between the two I'd rather have ALS. Either way I won't be able to do things myself, and I'd rather have it be because of physical limitations than the fact that I cannot remember how to do the things to take care of myself. I also think it would cause the people I know less grief, because I would still die knowing them.

Anyway let us get to the more lighthearted things I would like to accomplish at some point in my life.

• Top goal is to get something published before I die. I'm sure none of you are surprised that this is on my list what so ever.
• Be able to own a large plot of land and build my own house on it. 
• Be financially stable enough so that whenever I see a post somewhere from people who need money donated so they can pay medical bills or so they can get out of a dangerous place or so they can pay rent and stay out of said dangerous place, I can donate a pretty substantial chunk of currency without even having to think twice. 
• Buy a drawing tablet and good quality tablet pen so that I can dabble in digital art. (The list as to why is endless don't even get me started)
• Have enough money to fix up our current house so its sellable and so my Mom and Dad can move into a nicer wider bungalow. Or I can build one for them because that would work too and my mom would be able to plan out her garden space exactly.
• Have an esty shop

Life Is Beautiful 4-16-15

The main three parallels between Night and Life Is Beautiful are how they both start with before the holocaust effected their lives, and ended with Liberation, how the father dies right before liberation, and how the main focus is the father-son bonding. A huge contrast however are the tones of the two.

While Night has a sort of hopeless, fighting to survive, melancholy feel to it, Life Is Beautiful  is rather upbeat and humorous. This difference is caused by the age of the sons in the story. Elie from Night is 15, so he notices everything that is happening and will not ignore all of the terrible things that are going on. He is also working age because the camp thinks he is 18, so he is also suffering from hard labor.
Joshua from Life Is Beautiful however is only five years old, and ran away from the showers where he would have otherwise have been killed with all of the other children. He's in hiding and has been told by his father that this is a whole big game. He can't be outside of the barracks so he doesn't see much. What his father tells him about what is going on is a complete lie because his father wants him to stay innocent despite everything that is going on. He never doubts his father because when he hears things from the adults his father tells him that they're just trying to make him get out of the game so they'll get first prize instead of him. He also tells Joshua that all of the other children are hiding as part of the game aswell. Throughout the entire time they are at the Concentration Camp Guido's entire mission is to shield Joshua from the horrors that are truly going on. Him keeping Joshua safe from all of this is the reason why the movie is so light-hearted in places despite the facts. Because of the ten-year difference in the sons, the fathers survive with them by using different methods. These different methods and what the sons are experiencing are causing the drastic difference in tone.

Life is actually quite beautiful throughout the entire film despite what everything the characters are going through. The most obvious example of life being beautiful would be at the beginning when Guido is trying to win Dora's heart. The atmosphere is light, the music is cheerful, the colors are warm and bright; things are going well.  During their time in the camp though all three of them are pretty well off. Sure, Dora is separated, but Guido finds ways to reach out to her so she knows that he and Joshua are okay. He finds the intercom and speaks to her through it, saying that they are fine. Then he has the oportunity to play a record on a gramaphone, and finds a song from a musical they were both at. He plays it out the window to her. Even though Guido himself did not survive, the moment where Joshua is reunited with Dora is the moment at the end where life is very beautiful. 

Night: Elies Changes

In the beginning of Night Elie is a devout Jew, and wants to be able to studie the cabbala, but his father refuses to let him because he thinks that his son is too young. "During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple,"(Wiesel 1). He is twelve when he asks, and most men began to studie the cabbala at around thirty, He studies and talks with Moshe the Beadle about these things instead. Once they enter the concentration camp however, he sees such horrible sights that he cannot believe that his god would allow this to happen. Akiba the Drummer says that "God is testing us. He wants to find out whether we can dominate out base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more,"(Wiesel 42). But Elie still has begun to doubt his gods absolute justice. How could he just stand by and let all of these horrible things happen after all. Eventually towards the end even Akiba looses faith and dies. The only reason Elie had to fight on was because he couldn't leave his father alone. “I was his only support”

His relationship with his father grows far closer during imprisonment than it was before everything happened. “He rarely displayed his feelings, even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with his own kin”(Wiesel 2) During their time in the camps they are each others only support when other sons turn on their fathers. On one of the trains they are given bread, and one beats their father to death for a slice without a second thought. Another time, during a death march, a Rabbis son leaves him behind when he realizes his father is starting to fall back in the line and go slower. Even when Wiesels father is struck down with dysentery he brings him rations of his own food and keeps watch over him when he can, even though its a lost cause and he should be taking his fathers rations for his own benefit. They stick with one another until his father dies, which is something a lot of families didn't do because of the hostile 'every man for himself' environment. 

Butterly Project 3-31-15

"We got used to standing in line at seven o'clock in the morning, twelve noon, and again at seven o'clock in the evening. We stood in a long queue with a plate in our hand, into which they ladled a little warmed up water with a salty or coffee flavor. Or else they gave us a few potatoes. We got used to sleeping without a bed, to saluting every uniform, not to walk on sidewalks and then again to walk on the sidewalks. We got used to undeserved slaps, blows, and executions. We got accustomed to seeing people die in their own excrement, to seeing piled-up coffins full of corpses, to seeing the sick amid dirt and filth and to seeing the helpless doctors. We got used to it that from time to time, one thousand unhappy souls would come ere and that, from time to time, another thousand unhappy souls would go away...."
Journal entry by Petr Fischl, born September 9, 1929, died in Auschwitz 1944.


Commented on Amelia Abdiel Athziry Jenna

Night 3-26-15

So something I noticed in the beginning of the book was how everyone in Elies town is so optimistic. It kind of makes me wonder if they were just blissfully ignoring the fact that they were going to get overrun by Nazis or if they genuinely thought that everything was going to end before it got to them. Sure, the Nazis were nice to them at first when they became occupied but I'm pretty sure that if I had been there I would still have doubts....

The other thing that I thought was interesting was that the woman knew there would be fire awaiting them wherever they were going to be taken. Seerly premonition?

Something else that got me thinking on a more personal level was at the end, when Akiba the Drummer says "God is testing us. He wants to find out whether we can dominate our base instincts and kill the satan within us. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more." To be honest as far as relationships and love go thats a red flag for abuse if you ask me. Like, if this God is supposed to be all loving, then why do you have to go through all of these tests of hardship? If they are all loving, then they would care about us and not want us to go through all of these horrible things. There probably wouldn't even be a hell to speak of because with unconditional love comes acceptance and forgiveness, and so they'd forgive whatever bad things or 'sins' we had, and let us move on. Or else explain why the thing we did was bad if we don't understand, and then let us move on once we do come to an understanding. It's just so contradictory to me. I'm not trying to put down anyone who agrees with what Abkiba said, it just doesn't add up to the unconditional love thing this God has been said to have for everyone in my opinion.
If you guys would like to comment on this please do, I want to see what everyone else thinks about this.

AOW Impressions Holocaust

One of the things I found really shocking during the gallery walk was Bella's article about one of the experiments that a Nazi doctor did. He thought that if he could get twins who were close to Aryan to have twins with an Aryan person, and then continue that cycle, he'd perfect the bloodline. If the child wasn't born a twin he'd just kill them. It was just sickenning.

The other really interesting things was what Stanley's article was about. According to his article, the children of people who experianced the holocaust have altered stress hormones, causing them to survive longer without nutrients. It also however causes them to be more suseptable to trauma. This was really interesting, because it made me wonder what other kind of things could produce a change like that in offspring.

Berlin Memorial Reflection

To be honest, up until today we've never really ever gone in depth with what exactly the Nazi's took away from the Jews in this sense, which is odd now that we have because it's a huge thing. It all went down kind of like a tsunami does. The decrees came in a large wave when it began and took away a lot of political, judicial and teaching stances from the Jewish. Then the wave receded, and only a few were made each year. Then the mid 1940's came and the tsunami wave hit. You couldn't fix your places of worship after they were destroyed, you couldn't keep your pets, you couldn't immigrate with any valuable belongings, you couldn't own your own business, you were forced into labor, you couldn't get clothing rations. It was not a good time.

This monument was built as a constant reminder of the unimaginable struggle it had to have been to be living as a Jew in Nazi controlled land. Sure, the German people alive now had nothing to do with it, but it's a dark part of their history that cannot be forgotten or swept aside. It's a dark part of history for most of that region of Europe!

I sort of went into this in my first paragraph, but in the mid/late 1930's they let the initial ones sink in and only added a couple of new ones per year. Then in the 1940's+ everything just sort of went boom and suddenly no one could really do anything. Sort of a false sense of security. Like, 'oh, well, they've already put a bunch of restrictions on our daily lives they're probably done now' but then the Nazis were like 'psych, now you can't do anything' and it was actually quite strategic. I'm not saying it was okay but you have to say they at least planned.

The most immediate one I can think of is the pets. The most physical and emotional one would be the loss of sports/outdoor activities because I literally need to get rid of my energy or else I can't sleep or concentrate or anything and it's really not a good situation. The other thing would probably be the radio and typewriter being taken away because that's probably what I would have written on. I would have just moved on to pen though so it may not have been that big of a deal. But pets man. You don't take away peoples pets. Seriously what is wrong with you.

Third Quarter Blog 3-13-15

The only book I actually finished this quarter was Looking for Alaska, because I was only reading the other books because I had to be reading something. Looking for Alaska however, was something that I had actually been sort of wanting to read, so I actually finished it. First book I've finished this year. Woohoo. (That is a sarcastically celebratory "woohoo", mind you)

I've probably read eight books, counting the ones for L.A. and Social Studies. I'm not counting the ones I haven't finished though. The five books I did like though were the All Souls Trilogy because I ship Diana and Mathew almost to the same level as I do Persephone and Hades, Blood of Olympus because Nico and Reyna got POV's and that was bomb, and Looking For Alaska because Alaska was cool even though the main character is kind of like, really self-centered and annoying at the end. A thing I'd like to remind you guys about myself regarding the 40 book challenge though is that I don't do it. I'll read what I read. You can't make me read stuff I don't want to. If I want to read a book of poetry it'll be because A- it's for a class and I have no choice, or B- I fricking want to. I'm not going to do it because of a challenge. I read things because I find them interesting. If I did the 40 book challenge I'd probably have to read things that I don't find interesting and it'd end up this horrible thing I have to slog through.
I'm not doing that.
It's not worth it.

To be honest I write the same as I always do. This year though there's way more posts in my "other" tag than last year, and less in actual "book blogs". I'm not even counting the ones for Passion Project either just the ones in this actual class. Since we started doing the AOW impressions and an AOW had to be posted on here one week so it's mostly miscellaneous. However my blog it's self has gone through different theme changes and stuff so that was fun to do.

Things I've learned about the world

• Climate change is screwing up most things
• There are like four really bad things going on globally (ISIS, North Korea, Russia/Ukraine, Boko Haram) and everyone is fighting all over the place and eventually they're all going to end up this one big fight like how WW1 started and it'll be WW3 and then we're gonna have to deal with all of it and that just really sucks.
• America really needs to start focusing on the injustice within it's boarders instead of distracting it's self with things over-seas. Like, stopping terrorism is nice but that's protecting us from afar when there's literally problems hurting us right here that need to be delt with.

I know how to properly cite things like an adult. I research things the same way but putting them in the thing they need to be put into has improved. Now I can truly be an adult. I may not know how to do taxes or get a job but atleast I can do in-text citations!

Book Blog Poem, Looking for Alaska 3/11/15

Miles Halter

Impressionable, easy going and Lovestruck

Lover of Alaska Young, Cigarettes and Last Words

Who Notices Moods, Habits and Quirks

Who Feels Guilt, Love, Understanding and Pain

Who Learns that the ache of being left behind is comparable to the pain of death

Who Says "No, not past tense."

Who used to wonder how he'd get out of the labyrnth, but now knows to go strait and fast

Majior Character in Looking For Alaska

A Book that is light-hearted until it isn't

Article Impressions 3-6-15

One thing I noticed this week in juxtaposition to last week was that there were far fewer articles about the ISIS crisis. However, there were articles about how girls are going over to marry into ISIS, and how ISIS defaced a lot of valued historical artifacts.

Since we focused on a lot of the negative last week, I'd like to talk about the more positive articles I saw this time around. According to Nadrian Canadian scientists have found a cure for Ebola! In monkeys at least. However, since monkey's are closely/ish related to humans, this could bridge the way to a cure for us, which would make that particular virus being a global pandemic less of a threat.

 Another article is from Gabe, with good news about a lagoon cited power plant in the U.K. somewhere. Since lagoons are by the sea, they have tides, which is precisely what this power plant derives it's energy from. The lagoon is circled by a large wall, and when it comes to high and low tide, a gate opens and the water comes rushing in or out. This movement is how 8% of the U.K.'s clean energy is generated. Cool right?

The third and final article with good news in it was Stanley's about Bangladesh's vertical roof gardens. Because Bangladesh has a huge flooding problem they have really inadequate soil that is pretty useless for growing crops in. How do you fix that? Cheap, affordable vertical standing plant pots. Totally something large cities could use for community gardens on top of apartment complexes.

So thoes are the more positive articles I saw this week. Hope to see more next time.

AOW impressions 2/20/15

The main event people focused on was the Egypt's reaction to the beheading of 21 of their christian citizens, done by the terror group ISIS. Egypt bombed ISIS controled sections in Libya in retaliation. I think a lot of people focussed on this because it's kind of a big thing. This is the first time, I have heard of, that ISIS has killed so many people at once. There are also posibilities of a war between the two.

Another ISIS related thing was that Europe is becomming slightly more worried that the group will begin to move more north. Italy has reportedly began defense in case such threat becomes more prominant. Since ISIS is a terrorist group, being afraid of them just sort of gives them more power, however if we don't defend against what they can actually do we're just being foolish and making it easier for them to spread territory. Seeing Italy doing something in advanced is somewhat reassuring, because if they're prepared for what may happen, there's a better chance ISIS will lose if they try something.

AOW 2-26-15

Boko Haram + ISIS = Marrage from Hell., CNN News




The Boko Haram is a terrorist group in west Africa, and people who have been observing their recent actions say that they have seemed to eerily mimic ISIS. The way they have beheaded and stoned people, and made use of social media in much the same way as ISIS has, has began to spark worries that they may form an alliance.

"The latest sign that Boko Haram is wooing ISIS came on Sunday with a series of tweets released by jihadist site Afriqiyah Media, which declared its own allegiance to ISIS in December. One tweet quoted Boko Haram's own media arm as saying: "We give you glad tidings that the group's Shurah Council is at the stage of consulting and studying, and we will let you know soon the group's decision in respect to pledging allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may Allah preserve him," according to a translation by SITE Intelligence."


This is of course very worrying, however it is somewhat questionable on the Haram's part due to smaller factions within the terror group. The way Boko Haram is imitating ISIS, to the high quality videos and pictures to even the similare camera angles these are taken at, to useing twitter. They have also been seen with the ISIS flag, which alone is quite worrying. Though a formal pledge of alliegence has yet to happen, it seems possible. However, ISIS has not seemed as solid on reciprocating, possibly because Boko Haram is so separated from its self and has small sections that may not all agree with an alliance.

This is a problem that needs to be watched, because with two terrorist groups forming together, things will get even worse than they already are. Also, with larger groups they may also be able to spread to other countries and start problems in farther places, which is why we need to keep up on this and be prepared.

AOW Impressions 2/2/15

This week I noticed that a lot of people chose articles that had very over-arching topics, while some had more specific ones. Global warming was the most obvious to me since several people I saw chose it. Issues like the sea levels rising, how 2014 was the hottest year so far over all, and how all of this climate change is being caused by greenhouse gasses. There were also however more specific topics, like Jesus's article about the portraits Holocaust victims did of eachother so they wouldn't be erased if/when they died, and Gabe's article on how Yemen is having a water crisis, and the crops they use most of it on has very little world trade value; causing a sort of financial crisis.

It was rather fun to do, but also a bit stressful not only when your presenting but also when your going around to people. When you present it's hard to give people enough information fast enough because you don't want to keep them, but then another person comes in the middle of your explanation and you have to catch them up on what your talking about. As for when your walking around I got the feeling that there was never enough time to really get an understanding of the persons or what it was about. I don't think it was really the person's fault either. I'm really not sure how this could be fixed, but if the rushed feeling could lessen it'd be a lot less stressful.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time 2-19-15, pages 1-26

I really like the way Christopher speaks. He explains everything, like why certain things mean what to him and why he doesn't like metaphors because as a picture they don't look the same as what they mean. "And when I try to make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imagining an apple in someone's eye doesn't have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about." However, he does like similes, because they, unlike metaphors, do look like what they mean, so that it's a thing you can picture. "this is not a metaphor, it is a simile, which means that it really did look like there were two very small mice hiding in his nostrils, and if you make a picture in your head of a man with two very smal mice hiding in his nostrils, you will know what the police inspector looked like. And a simile is not a lie, unless it is a bad simile." The way he thinks and the way he understands things just makes perfect sense. I also like the way there are pictures of what he's explaining, and he compares things a lot when he talks, which is something I do as well. Sort of a ramble, in a way that gets somewhat away from the point while still explaining said point at the same time. He also writes in long sentences, which is a thing that I also do. I find it very easy to read so far probably just because of that actually.

As part of the reader I like how you get a pretty solid sense of Christopher as a character really early. It doesn't take that long for him to have a definite personality, and as someone who also writes I'm kind of surprised because normally it takes a little longer for characters to fully form as a person in a story. It's just kinda cool.

Anyway Christopher findes that his neighbor's neighbor's dog has been murdered. The next day is a good day, so he decides that he's going to solve the murder.

Book Talk: A Discovery of Witches

"A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness is a fantasy novel set in current day England, France, and New York State. It begins in Oxford, where a scholar named Diana Bishop finds a lost manuscript called Ashmole 782 during her study of historical alchemy in The Bodleian library. Diana Bishop comes from two ancient lines of witches, and finds immediately that the manuscript is enchanted. Wanting nothing to do with magic she quickly takes some notes on Ashmole 782 and sends it back, not knowing that it's been lost for hundreds of years and contains information on the origins of all the creatures; Human, Vampire, Witch, and Daemon.
Diana Bishop is a historian, and though she is also a witch, she wants absolutely nothing to do with magic. When her aunt Sarah tried to teach her spells they would never work, and some things her mother did with magic frightened her when she was a child. Since human fear often leads to trouble for other creatures, witches daemons and vampires are meant to avoid one another. When together, they'll get noticed, and getting noticed never bodes well. Diana's parents were studying abroad in Africa when she was seven, and were murdered. The things other witches said at their funeral about how they had attracted too much attention made her turn away from magic entirely; seeing it as the reason for their death. By the age of 20 she had graduated collage. When she got a doctorate in history she had separated her self entirely from her family line of magic and passed as an ordinary human in everything but genes.
Shortly after her encounter with Ashmole 782 other creatures sense that it was found, and come to the library. One of them is the vampire Mathew DeClarmont, who specializes in genetics. He invites her to dinner, saying that he's interested in her work, and she tuns him down saying that she has plans.  They don't get along right away, but after this he begins to sit in the same room as her  at the Bodleian, and the other creatures avoid them.

Throughout the events of the story, Diana is forced to bring magic back into her life, and learns far more about herself than would have otherwise. Mathew assumes the role of a sort of gaurdian soon after his appearance as people who are trying to find Ashmole 782 begin to threaten her, and thier relationship goes from there.

Personally I likes this book and the series that follows because it's extremely detailed. We learn in "A Discovery of Witches" what makes Human Witches Daemons and Vampires different in the genetic codeing, which is something that both interests me in general and is something that creates depth in the world of the story. Another really great thing in this is the characters and the relationship between Diana and Mathew. Everyone is written realisticly, which is very importent because no matter how good the plot of a story is, if the characters are bad it ruins everything.
A really memorable part of the story for me is the development of Diana and Mathew's relationship and how they were developed as characters together. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't go any further, but as a person who is driven to read books by the characters more than the plot, it's very satisfying.
I would recomend this book to people who enjoy fantasy elements, european history, and romantic subplots that don't overshadow the rest of the story.
I'm not going to try and convince you to go out and get this book, but if you are interested in it you should. "A Discovery of Witches" is the first book of the All Souls trilogy. The second book is "Shadow of Night", and the third is "The Book of Life". They come in French. I checked.

Passion Project Update

You know, they say on the page that they'll give you feedback and advice on your stories when they email you, but they really just don't.
Two more declinations.
I kind of feel bad for whoever is in charge of sending th emails because my phone went off at like ten thirty last night when I got them. Why do they have ot stay so late.
I also got these back like, really fast compared to the other four things I submitted. I guess they really didn't like them.
I'm not stopping though.

Someday. Someday it will happen.

Books I've read recently I would Reccomend 1-24-15

AKA The All Souls trillogy because that's going on the top list of Adult series' for the rest of my life.

Remember these?

 

Hella Rad book series. If you like modern magic, 3D characters, world bulding that makes sense and really cute romantic subplot that doesn't overshadow whats going on THEN BOY DO I HAVE GOOD NEWS.

It's slightly adult, I'm going to say that right off the batt. Diana and Mathew are adults that are in love and what do adults that are in love do? Eachother. It never gets detailed and only happens maybe six to eight times throughout ther series so it's really not that big of a deal. Really it's just cute because they love eachother and intimacy of any kind is adorable in my opinion. There's also like four-nine swear words in the last book because A- laybor is extremely painful and B- kidnapping Diana's family is not a thing you do without the rath of a god being dropped upon your head like an anvil in a looney toons episode.

      One thing that is really great about this series is that it's so realistic. The Author Deborah Harkness brings so much history and science into the world that the only loophole I can think of is a slight spoiler that I won't go through but if anything it's only big enough for a finger so it's easily over looked. She goes through the genetics that make the creatures (Witches, Daemons, Humans, and Vampires) different from eachother, which is totally a thing I'm into so as the world developed in that way I was just sort of like:

It's just really amazing and admirable from both a reader and author standpoint how much depth and thought Harkness (I can't find whether or not she's married so I'm really not sure what to put before her last name....) has put into the world. Her characters are well done, the things they go through are realisticly written (lets just say I have zero qustions on the physical effects of being a woman who is pregnant), and it's emotional in a realistic way. The world she spins pulls you in and envelopes you like a blanket but all to soon it ends and your just sitting there at the end of the last book like

Because you liked the ending BUT YOU DON'T WANT IT TO STOP.

All I can hope for is a series of short stories about the twins growing up. It would be great. Perhaps I could email her.

Take The Cannoli 1-20-15 page 1-65

     Now, this is another one of Sarah Vowell's books, but it isn't one based on history, or American History at least as most of her other books are. It is a personal history. Sort of a mish-mosh of stories about things from her life.
For Example: "Shooting Dad" the first title in this collection, is about how she and her dad don't really get along that well for varius reasons. ("About the only thing my father and I agree on is the Contitution, though I'm partial to the First Amendment, while he's always favored the Second.", "I am a gunsmith's daughter.", "All he ever cared about were guns. All I ever cared about was art.") She goes into all of this background about thier relationship, and ends up with a story about his home made fully functioning replica of a 19th century canon called "the Big Horn Gun"that he built from scratch. Despite her stance on guns and her personal dislike for them she decides to go with him to a forest preserve to light it off. She recorded the event for her local radio show, and was facinated by the sound levels that her recorder got from the canon going off. "The delicate needles which keep trach of the sound quality lurch into the bad, red zone so fast and so hard I'm surprised they don't break." It's there that she realizes how similare they are, after a hiker compliments her recording equitment. "My Dad and I are the same person. We're both smart-alecky loners with goofy projects and wierd equitment."

The second story is the about lessons she learned in marching band, such as how the band kids and the orchestra kids only truley unite through the unified disdane for the chorus, and how the only instrument she could play gracefully was the recorder; "which was already on it's way out of fashion during the lifetime of J. S. Bach." 
It's rather humorus.

The next one was about the Apocolypse and had a bunch of bible references I didn't get because I haven't read it yet so I had to skip it.
Same with the one the book is named after which came after the Apocolypse, which is centered around The Godfather which I've never seen and is probably still innapropriate for me to see.

I'll come back to these parts in a few years(the Apacolypse one sooner since I'm probably going to a Catholic highschool,) and read them, because there's no point in reading something that I'm not gonna get.

Film vs Novel 1-15-15

- What do you think is the most important difference between the written and filmed version? Provide evidence with specific details.

Okay so since I was not at school on monday I missed the entire trial scene and then some. However I asked around and what really bothered me was that:
A- Calpernia was hardly a character in the film the way she was in the book, and
B- That they didn't have the scene where the kids to go Calpernia's church.
I did expect a downplay in the role of the black chaacter just because of the time period it was made in (to think the screenplay writer wrote out the colored people in a book-to-movie with a focus on racism) but that doesn't make me any less annoyed with it.

What really bothered me about the fact that they got rid of Aunt Alexandra in the movie is that it took away how Cal bonded more with Scout. To my knowladge, Scout and Cal's relationship didn't really exist to the extent that it did in the book; which is really dissapointing. I understand that they had to cut out some parts to make room for others but still, relationship development between characters is an importent thing to have. 

The significance to me of having the scene in the church in the book, is that the reader understands Maycomb's black comunity better and how much they respect Atticus and his children. It's also a strong point in Scout's learning about them because she learns about the way they sing hyms and how not all fo them can read. The reader is also made aware of how dedicated the comunity is to their word. The Reverend told Helen Robinson that he would gather ten dollars for her, and he doesn't let them leave until he has collected as much. I respect people like that. 

I did like the movie. Being able to pick out the lines that were taken strait from the book is fun.

Sardines? Sardines.

I could not find a suitable picture of a Sardine so this will have to suffice.

The last time I did something for the first time was when I tried that sardine on a cracker. Not particularly eventful. It was gross like eating plain tuna from the can. I like tuna, but only when it's been mixed with things, mayonaise and pickle cubes to be precise. If you put it on crackers it's really good.
The time before that would be getting my first story declined by Cicada, and even further back on October 31st last year submitting my fist story.
Sorry this is so short but sardines aren't the most exciting thing and I've done a bunch of other passion project blogs on the other thing so there's just not much.

New Years Goals

Okay so something I'm really not good at is keeping up with my work. I can, I just sort of don't, and then a panic about the fact that I haven't done anything and continue to not do anything about it. I'm going to try to not do that this year. When I get home I will do homework immediatley, because if I start doing something I want to do instead, thinking "Oh I'll just do this for a little bit then I'll do that laster", It'll end up being 8:00 and I need to shower and go to bed, getting nothing done. Then It builds up and I can't sleep because I'm worrying and so on and so on in this endless cycle of needles stress because I'm procrastinating. This goal isn't just for Heritage though, it's basically for everything/where that gives me work to do. So school in general.

Looking at all the responcibilities I'm neglecting like

A more personal goal would be to either get published, and/or put one of my stories from 6th grade on the computer because currently it's in a notebook at the bottom of my bookshelf doing nothing. I'm probably going to have to resist changeing things immidiatley and write it word for word as my first draft but man that will be difficult.... I did a thing sort of like the camp halfblood series but all pagan and non pagan religeons and gods, and Anubis's appearance needs some alterations. I may also cut out a few characters for a bit. There's like seven main characters, I don't even remember all of the names for the side characters, there's just to much that needs development with everyone personally it's rediculous. If I don't give people time to develope they'll be flat and I just cannot allow that as code of morals. I've got a lot to do with that. I don't even know what to call it.

Winter Break Blog: Blood Of Olympus Finished *Pretty much spoiler free*

Okay so I finished this book in like a day, mostly just so I could get to the parts where it was Nico's POV, because he's always been my favorite. It was really strange finding out that both he and his sister Hazel are 14, because I'm 14, and it really sort of puts everything else they've done into perspective; like how young Nico had to have been during the first war and during the "The Battle of the Labyrinth". Since I read the first part of the series in fourth or fifth grade, Percy Annabeth and everyone else were always older than me, but now that isn't the case for all of them. Now that I'm the same age as they are in the third book, it's really quite strange reading about someone the same age as you or younger having to go through all that they do. It sort of gives the characters more depth because you're no longer a nine-year-old kid reading about these awesome grown up "mature" teenagers; you're a kid they're age realizing how insane and ridiculous the things they're doing really are. In two years I'll be the same age they were in the last book of the first series when they were 16 years olds fighting in a war that they could not afford to loose; or else the entire human race would suffer endlessly. It's really hard to put yourself in that position because it's so much stress and unbelievable expectation. Like seriously, no wonder most demi-gods don't make it to adulthood when the adults and deities that should protect them put them into the very situations that get them killed!! 

Now, going back to the topic of the book. My favorite characters were definitely Nico and Reyna because they're characters that never got much time to be developed on their own. The seven are cool and I like them and all but we got three whole books for them. Reyna was always sort of Jason's version of Annabeth, and Nico, despite the pivotal role he's played in both wars, (Making Percy nearly invincible so he wouldn't be killed in the last battle of the first series, bringing his father Hades up with an army of dead to help the demigods fight off the Titans, keeping both camps secret from one another so war wouldn't break out, literally jumping into Tartarus to find out why monsters weren't staying dead when they were killed and to find out some of Gaea's plans ) has never really gotten the recognition or character arch he deserves; making their quest to bring the Athena Parthenos as a peace agrement from the Romans to Camp Halfblood absolutely perfect.

The way Reyna and her sister were given backstories that I won't go into was really well done on part of the author. It didn't feel forced. The hints as to what happened blended in with what else is going on until she decides to open up to Nico herself. Speaking of her and Nico, the relationship that developed between them was really sweet and caring, and somewhat sibling-like.

I also really enjoyed the development of their powers as well, and while Nico's are more prominent, (and slightly worrying)  Reyna's were also quite interesting. Since I don't wan't to ruin it for the people who haven't read it yet but will, I won't go into detail, but some interesting things do happen. ("Nico's a scary gloomy child", I say about the character who's literally the same age as me.)

Now, about what trouble the seven get into, I won't say much, but Piper gets some much needed moments where she gets to kick butt, and her friendship with Annabeth is the cutest platonic ship I will ever have. They're problem solving skills are amazing, since Piper thinks emotionally while Annabeth thinks theoretically. They balance very well. Jason is a sweetheart as usual, Percy still has an immature sense of humor, the gods fight along side their children in their own special ways, (Aphrodite is good at causing a distraction, in more so the throwing things to get your attention way than what probably was your first thought) Hades and Nico are as awkward around one another as to be expected, Leo tries to keep his friends in good spirits despite his own cloudy mood, and Reyna gains the title of "Horsefriend".
A lot happens.
It's all very exciting.