Reading Log Post #3

Sorry I've been so neglegent recently.  I've had science fair and all that jazz; I won, though!!  And Christmas is only, what, four days away!  I hope you're all in holiday spirit, unless you're a humbug.  If you are, please exit the website by clicking the exit arrow in upper right hand corner of your browser and don't come back until you've realized that being a humbug is not nice...  Just kidding!

Book:  Flowers for Algernon
Author:  Daniel Keyes
Pages:  221-245 (it's part of a textbook)
Icon:  Details

Note:  It was a really good story and we read it in class a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I should do it justice by posting about it.

Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old man that faces mental retardation.  He wants nothing more than to be smart, and when he is offered the oppurtunity to become smart, he snatches it up.  Throughout the story, Charlie's intelligence is seen to slowly increase, then rapidly increase, then slowly deteriorate away.  In this time, Charlie learns that his "friends"  really laughed at him, not with him, and many educational things as well.  He writes in his notes that he is curious as to what would happen (when he is more intelligent) if a genius would have their intelligence tripled; what would happen then?

So many questions; the world may never know the answer to them...

Reading Log Post #2

Alright, second post within the hour!  This is also for last week, and for those of you who really like reading that don't have an account on this website, I suggest you visit the link I'm going to add to this post! It's great!

Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com

Book: Flowers for Algernon
Pages: 221-231 (it's part of a textbook, cut me some slack.  I work enough when I have to analyze and connect to it.)
Icon: Lips icon (dunno it's proper name.  Ha, irony in the face.)

This story is about a man named Charlie Gordon, a man of low intelligence.  He has just had an operation that is supposed to raise his intelligence three times its original number.  You can see that the operation is working throughout the story as you watch his vocabulary and grammar improve greatly.  Originally Charlie would spell "operation" as "operashun", and then after the alter to his brain, he spelled corectly.  And then  for the word "I.Q.", he spelled it (or, more really, wrote it) "eye-q" and then, after the operation, spelled it correctly.

You all can expect this week's posts tomorrow.  Sorry, but there's stuff I gotta do; I hope you enjoy th posts and keep blogging!

Reading Log and Some Changes

So, I'm going to change things up a bit on here.  I hope you've all noticed the total blog views, now up in the upper right hand corner.  I've also decided to start listing new reading logs for every month; for example, this reading log post is for last week, which was the start of December.  So, this reading log post being for last week would be reading log post #1.  Yeah, I was way busy and didn't get the time to post anything for last week.  Hope I'm not confusing y'all here.  Any Q's, leave a comment.

Book: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Author: Ahaha... kinda lost the link to it, since I'm reading it online...
Pages-no, chapters: 1-8
Icon: Details.  Yup.

Dorothy has landed in Oz, where the author desribed as diferent from Kansas, the land which Dororthy hailed from.  Compared to the gray, empty land of Kansas, Oz is a beautiful land (in the Eastern part, anyway) of farms and pastures.  A picture perfect land of beauty.  The inhabitants are a mix of strange people: Munchkins, a living scarecrow, a tin man, and a talking lion.  There are also witches, good and bad alike.

Allen's Challenge for the Blog

Okay, so I'm going to post the same book (Middleworld) in other depth and complexity icons.  Like ethics and stuff.

Details: Did that.
Lips Icon: Definition of a word I did not know: Xibalba- Mayan name for the underworld
Big Ideas: Did that.
Patterns: Max and Lola continue to experience the power of Jaguar Stones every time that a stone is inserted into its slot at its respective temple.
Questions: 1) What will Max have to pay as tribute? 2) What happened to Hermanjillo and Tzelek? 3) Will Lucky Jim get to come back?
Ethics: Max is a great videogamer and also turns out to be good at exploring and diversions, but has a temper and he gets mad at the smallest of things.
Multiple Perspectives: Lola sees the monkeys being inhabited with the souls of Lady Coco and Lord 6-Dog as utterly horrifying and so do the monkeys themselves; Max sees it as hilarious.

Yes!  A ton of depth and complexity icons but yes!  It is done!

Reading Log #10

So for English, while I was gone we were supposed to finish reading a whole book in a week.  I didn't know about this until yesterday, and what did I do?  I finished a book!  Middleworld is complete.

Book: Middleworld: The Jaguar Stones
Author: J&P Voelkel
Pages:  I'm using the whole book for this post.
Icon: Big Ideas

Max Murphy has gone to the dense jungles of San Xavier in search of his parents.  Throughout the story, he ventures through an enviroment totally different than the one he grew up in, along with Lola, Heramnjillo, and Lord 6-Dog and Lady Coco (an ancient Maya king and his mother, trapped in the form of two howler monkeys).  They try to find the jaguar stones, an extreme force of power that are deadly if they fall in the wrong hands.  All this time, Max learns to appreciate his easy and simple life and begins to fall for Lola in the end.

Read the book.  It's really good.

Reading Log #9

I'm back from 6th grade camp!  I really enjoyed going back to camp, and it was fun being a counselor.   Anyhow, I missed this blog, and all of it's sarcasm.  I finally finished Angel and I'm starting a new book called MiddleWorld: The Jaguar Stones.  This book was given to me by my wonderful friend, Cabrell (visit her blog!), so thanks and enjoy the post!

Book: MiddleWorld: The Jaguar Stones
Author: J&P Voelkel (Jon and Pamela)
Pages: 1-132
Icon: Details!!!!

The main protaganist in this book is Max (short for Massimo) Murphy. His parents are Frank and Carla Murphy, who are famous Maya archeologists.  He resents them, because thay are always too busy for him.  Max is a red-headed, videogaming, picky-eating 14-yesr old boy that has a temper.  He never really paid attention to his parents rants about the Maya, and so when they cancel the family trip to Italy, Max is furious.  He turns out to be a whining couch potato, only really capable of playing video games.  And that's just by my standard opinion of him.  However, this is only the start of the book, so I can't really be sure.

Evidence:

"'You're the worst parents in the world!' he said.  'You've missed every performance of the school band!  You promised that you'd come to the end-of-year concert!  I've been rehearsing for weeks....'" (Voelkel, 28)

Yep.  That's the first you'll hear from this book.  This is last week's reading log, and the next post will be for the second half of last week.  These will not be for this week!

Thank You!

I would just like to say thank you to all of you that have visited, read, or even joined my blog!  I was checking my stats today, and it said that I have 125 views in America, 8 views in Russia, 2 views in Germany, and 1 in Thailand!  Thank you all; I never thought that I could even get this far!

What is also mildly interesting is that I have three links on Google, of which I am not aware of putting there.  It makes me happy to know this stuff.  I have opened comments to all readers, so if you don't have an account on Google, you can still comment!  I'd like to know what you guys think of my *flips hair over shoulder* wonderful work.

I Hate History

I am ready to rip whoever decided to make us write Cornell Notes the way we must to pieces.  I am sick and tired of having to take notes, rewrite them, take some more notes, rewrite them, and so on and so forth.  I think that I'm going to have a meltdown.

So for the rest of the world to know, I hate Cornell Notes.  And I think that my parents are going to kill me if I keep whining.  Oh well.

Also, I will be gone for the next week, so you will probably not hear from me that often.
That little rant felt good.  I feel refreshed.

Reading Log #... Ummm...

Okay, I'll admit that I forgot which log number this is.  Sorry!  Okay, I'm still reading Angel.  I can't speedread right now because I have a science fair project to run, birthday to celebrate, paperwork to fill out, and whatnot.  That project is going to kill me eventually, and then you won't be able to read my blog posts anymore...  Such a shame...  Well, back to Angel!

Book:  See above paragraph.
Author:  See below reading log posts.
Pages: 150(or 151)- 248
Icon: Big Ideas

Ever since the Erasers were wiped out, and Itex destroyed, and Dr. Hans got put out of buisness, and Mr. Chu dissapeared, things have been mildly peaceful.  But now the flock(s) have discovered the Doomsday group, an organization that is rallying people and genetic freaks to detsroy the humans.  Their methods?  To make it sound like humans are the bad guys, and that if they go, then the world will be a better place. Somehow, they are getting into peoples' minds, and convincing them to basically side with them, human or not.  To Max and friends, this makes groups like Itex look like nothing.  It does to me too.

New Picture

Hey guys!  I've just decided to edit my pictures, so if I comment on this or your blog, then don't expect to see the tigers.  They were cute tigers, but my love for anime has preceeded my will to keep them there.  Also, I am debating as to whether or not I should begin posting stuff from other classes too?  Hmmmmm.....

Reading Log #7

If I was to tell you guys I was an over-achiever, would you belive me?  If you do, don't, because I'm not.  I just read a lot and try to make my drawings perfect.  Yes, I am a perfectionist, but not an over-achiever.  Also, I would like some ideas on how to open these posts.  I am slowly but surely having the ideas drained out of my brain, since the science fair needs more room for thought.

Book: Angel
Author: James Patterson (I was in a bad mood last post)
Pages: 76-150
Icon: Details!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have discovered Max to have a great sense of humor.  She is extremely sarcastic, and I love that about her.  Her tounge is like a knife (not literally, it's a figure of speech) that could slice somebody in half.

"I held my hands up in the universal 'I'm unarmed and if you shoot me you're a total unfair jerk' gesture, but only heard safties clicking off in response." (Patterson, 92)  (I will begin citing my sources from now on)
"I didn't know what I expected to find, San Quentin?" (Patterson, 126)

This evidence shows that Max is not afraid to let out her inner sarcastic soul.  She is good with irony, and is somebody I'd want to have a nice, long sarcastic conversation with.

Reading Log #6

I am pondering how I should continue to begin my blog posts.  You know, like "Hola" or "Hello again!".  Well, since I have no ideas, I'll just ramble on for a bit on how my life is right now.  I just got back from Ross and my cousins are pestering the crap out of me.  Yes, even as I type. (Of course I put that there on purpose, Malia)  I have begun yet another new book.  Angel, the book that follows up Fang in the Maximum Ride series.  It's really good, and I have discovered a twist in the story that made me want to freaking SLAP the heck out of Fang (the character, not the book).

Book:Angel
Author: Do I really have to say it?
Pages: 1-76
Icon: Multiple Perspectives

In this very interesting episode of Maximum Ride, both Max's and Fang's points of view are being portrayed.  For instance, Max believes that Fang made the wrong choice to leave the flock and start his own gang.  Fang believes that he did the right thing by leaving, and that Max will be safer without him.  Both characters have similar opinions about Dylan, the flock newbie.  However, from what I've been told, Max's feelings towards him begin to change throughout the book.  One word: J-U-I-C-Y.

To James Patterson: Hurry and finish the last book!  I'm dying here with all the suspense!!!!

Reading Log #5

Okay, so for those of you that read my last post, that log was for the second half of last week  This post is for the first half of this week.  Again, sorry for being so late.  Fang continues:now!

Book: Fang (you know this stuff)
Author: James Patterson
Pages: 88-138
Icon: Details (I wil be using this icon for the first post every week)

After trying to get the flock to educate themselves, Max has decided to let them have a birthday party; all of them at once.  She says that "sometimes being a good leader is knowing when to back off".  Apparently, she believes that she is stressing the flock too much with their studies, and she also has them ready for battle when they need to be.  She's right, so she lets things kind of slide for a while.

Reading Log Post #4

Hola, amigos!  I have returned (I'm late, but I'm back) and am now reading Fang of the Maximum Ride series!  And yes, I am, as some of you may say, a book hopper; I frequently change books.  I have the time to do it, you know!!!  Oh, and I finished the Hunger Games series.  Personally, I was very pleased with the ending, though some of my friends weren't...  Anyhow, let the blogging begin!!!!

Book:  Fang
Author: James Patterson
Pages: 1-87
Response Icon: Big Ideas

Ever since Max and the flock stopped Itex from taking over the world (see book 3), they have stopped the current cycle of Erasers chasing/finding them, battling, and then the flock disappearing for a while.  All the Erasers are dead; now Max has to worry about saving the world from other people, like, oh, maybe THE REST OF THE WACKO SCIENTISTS LEFT ON THE PLANET.  Recently, Angel has also been acting strange...

Evidence:  Read the series yourself.  I can't put it all here.

Max is constantly saving the world, and each enemy is harder to destroy/get rid of.

And I DID notice the typho in the last post.  My mistake.

Reading Log Post #3

Hello!  I have finished the harry POtter series yet again, and have begun the book Catching Fire, from the Hunger Games series.  I read the first one a while back.  Do not expect me to reread it anytime soon.

Book: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages:1-116

Icon: Details!!

Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games, in which she mananged to save both her life and also save a boy named Peeta, who had come with her from District 12.  She is about to travel on the Victory Tour, but is comepletely unwilling to do so.  On top of that, President Snow has threatened the life of her family members and her best friend and his family as well.

1:"If it were up to me, I would try to forget the Hunger Games entirely.  Never speak of them.  Pretend they were nothing but a bad dream.  But the Victory Tour makes that impossible."
2:"Now I've endangered Gale and his family and my family and Peeta, too, by my carelessness."

Katniss doesn't want to remember the Hunger Games because they remind her of  all the death that occurred during that time.  President Snow is threataning Katniss's family and friends because he believed that she is the cause for the uprisings in the other districts, and that she is also defying the government.

Reading Log #2

Hello again!  I have my wonderful reading log beside me as I type out this post.  In a moment you shall once again experience the glory of...HARRY POTTER!

Book:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling

Response Icon:  Multiple perspectives

When Kreacher the house elf first met Hemione Granger, he was disgusted by her presence.  A Mudblood in the noble house of Black!  How dishonorable!  (no, I am NOT Slytherin.  I am simply restating what Kreacher must have felt)  However, as Harry became more compassionate towards Kreacher, and Kreacher began to be more accepting of Harry, Kreacher began to respect Hermione as well.

Reading Log Posting

As of this... erm, week, no, day... oh, time period, whatever, I'm going to start posting my reading log  sections.  I should normally produce two posts a week, and as of right now ( hah!  I mastered that one THIS time) I am reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Yes, fangirl scream for all you readers out there.

Book:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K. Rowling
Pages read: 1-117

Response Icon:  Details ( the super easy one)

Statement:  Harry is now in extreme danger since he has come of age, and his aunt and uncle cannot protect him.  He has taken refuge in the Burrow, the home to (presently) six of the nine Weasleys.

Quote: "...you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow."

Harry is going to the Burrow beacuse it is safer there than it is a Number Four Privet Drive.  There, he can be magically protected by the Order.

Hello and Welcome!

Welcome to Eplaza's Academic Blog!
Here you can discuss any academic (preferably English) issues and have debates over topics!

And like I said, "academic issues" only, please.  I can't have people start discussing Black Ops on my blog...
Anyhow, feel free to ask questions and I will attempt to answer or help somewhat!

Thanks and keep blogging!!