Reading Log Post #2

Okay, sooooo I realized that I never finished the Throne of Fire and so I thought I should.  Besides, the new book in the series comes out soon.  :D  Wanna finish!

Book: Throne of Fire
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 74-446
Icons: Details and Ethics

For Details: Carter has found Zia again!  (Aww....)  But Zia doesn't remember any of their time together, since she was in a three-month coma.  The person that was once in a relationship with him was a shabti, or a clay figurine made for a helpful purpose.  The shabti Zia fell in love with Carter and he loved her back.  Unfortunately, the real Zia does not feel the same for him.  She watched her other self like a movie, but did not recieve any of her other's feelings.  I pity Carter.

For Ethics: The Egyptian Gods are...tricky.  They are extremely useful sometimes, mostly for helping Sadie and Carter use more powerful magic, and for helping the students keep energized, like when Ra comes and revitalizes everyone's spirits.  Of course, they can always be arrogant and snarky as well.  Horus, for example, is greedy and ambitious when it comes to his wants.  Isis is corrupted easily by power, and it's kind of her fault that the whole "senile-sun-god" thing happened.  Set is just plain evil.  Nehkbet and Babi don't believe Carter and Sadie.  God, gods can be irritating.

Reading Log Post #1

Omygosh I am so sorry for not posting!  I meant to last Thursday and I forgot, and then I had my eyes dialated on Friday so I couldn't read (or look at, really) the computer screen.  So sorry!

Book: The Fallen (Aerie and Reckoning)
Author: Thomas E. Sniegoski (kudos to you if you can pronounce his last name right)
Pages: I read the whole book, so about five hundred or somewhere around that number.
Icons: Details and Multiple Perspectives

For Details: Aaron is a half human, half angel hybrid who is a savior that has been awaited for many years.  Outwardly, he's your average high schooler, nothing much to pay attention to.  That is, unless he's been ticked off recently and his wings and sigils show up on him.  That's besides the point.  Inwardly, Aaron carries the weight of a prophecy that deems him the savior who can grant forgiveness to all the fallen angels on Earth.  When one is close to death or is dying, he can grant them forgiveness and send them home to Heaven, and God.

For Multiple Perspectives: In the book, Thomas E. Sniegoski jumps around, following the perspectives of about five main characters: Aaron, Verchiel, Lucifer, Camael (in Aerie), and Lorelei (in both Aerie and Reckoning, but more so in Reckoning).  Here is a brief synopsis of their views:

• Aaron has the most time under the microscope in the story, as I put it.  His expression of the situation that he is in is that it's a lot to handle for someone who only recently wanted to graduate high school and get into college.  He has a hard time figuring out how he is supposed to do his job as savior, and looks to others for asdvice along the way.  His opinion of Verchiel and the Powers is extremely low.
• Verchiel is the main antagonist of the Fallen series.  He believes that it is his sole purpose to wipe out the Nephilim (the being that Aaron is) and kill all the Fallen angels in the service of God.  He thinks that the reason he has been hit by lightning twice, been disobeyed by fellow angels too many times to count, and has not healed from either situation is because he hasn't been able to kill Aaron.  Naturally, he's just gone insane.
• Lucifer is the reason there are so many Fallen angels wandering Earth.  He was the one who led the rebellion against God in Heaven, and he now carries within him the torments of Hell.  As he tells his mouse friend later on in the story, he was once God's favorite of angels, and much of his perspective is spent on his past. He is also Aaron's father.
• Camael is Aaron's mentor for the majority of the series.  He guides Aaron along the path to Aerie, and is part of the reason Aaron ever learns what Aeie is.  He also spends much of his perspective on his past, and how he must pay penance for once aiding the Powers.
• Lorelei is a girl who lives in Aerie and becomes its leader after its previous leader, Belphegor, dies.  She, like Aaron is a Nephilim.  Her perspective of the whole savior stiuation is that she is unsure of Aaron being the savior, but she knows he's special.  During Reckoning, she gains more faith in Aaron and eventually becomes a close friend of his. 

Reading Log Post #6

Told 'ya I'd be back later!  Still dragging out Northanger Abbey...

Book: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Pages:44-100 (woohoo! Quota reached!))
Icon: Ethics (I think...)

This post will be about our protagonist's (Catherine's) best friend in the city of Bath.  Her name is Isabella and she is around Catherine's age (I don't believe it specifies in the book).  Like Catherine, she finds great entertainmaent in dark, mysterious novels, and is thus greatly compatible with her friend on that level.  On the other hand, Isabella can be quite annoying, seeing as she must have Catherine with her at all times, but will often desert her at a formal party or dance.  For example, at one point in the story Catherine is torn between taking a carriage ride with Isabella and her brother, and meeting her other friend's sister.  Isabella at first tries to convince Catherine to go with them by using sweet tactics and when Catherine refuses her words turn nasty.

At least, Isabella can be a bit annoying to me.  :D

Reading Log Post #5

Sorry for not posting!  This is for last week.  This week's post will come later.  Anyways, I went to see the Hunger Games movie.  It was so good!   I hope that if you see it you like it too!  Right now, I'm reading a Jane Austen book.  Kinda hard, but eh.

Book: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Pages read: 1-42
Icon: Details

Catherine Morland is the seventeen-year-old protagonist of the story.  She comes from a wealthy family of ten, and has an interest in dark, mysterious novels.  She has met and begun to like a man named Henry Tinley.  When she leaves her hometown for the city of Bath, she meets a new friend, Isabella, who also finds and  interest in dark thrillers.

Sorry for the short entry!  I will try to read more, but Old English is hard to understand! 

Reading Log Post # 3 & 4

Combining the stuff together because I'm too lazy to post them separately.  I'm still doing the Hunger Games, so be patient.

Book:  Hunger Games
Author: Susanne Collins
Pages: 171-297
Icons: Details/Big Ideas

Details: Katniss has made and lost an alliance in the arena already.  She's worked with Rue, a small but agile and very knowledgable tribute from 11.  Rue was her partner until a boy from District 1 decided to kill her.  As she died, Katniss sang her a song that spoke of a place of peace and safety.  Later it was announced that if two tributes were to survive through the whole Games, then they would be allowed to live.  She's been with Peeta ever since, trying to find a way to keep the both of them alive.

Big Idea:  The Hunger Games were created to remind the twelve districts of Panem that they are weak, weaker than the great Capitol, which boasts incredible technology, defenses and knowledge.  Each district must send in one boy and one girl to the Games, and then these tributes are thrown into an arena where the citizens of the Capitol will watch as they simultaniously kill eachother.  And none of the districts can do anything about it.

Reading Log Post #1

It's draft #1 for March.  And because I've been to lazy to check the post numbers.  Yup, I've been listening to FeintDnb.  And sorry about my absence/lack of posting last week, I was busy with my other classes.  Also, I don't know if I've mentionsed this before, but there is this really awesome book website I go on constantly called Goodreads.  The membership is free and the site's a ton of fun.  Google it sometime and check it out.

Book:  Hunger Games (book assignment)
Author:  Susan Collins
Pages:  1-171
Icon: Details

So far in the Hunger Games, Katniss, the main character, has been plucked out of her home in District 12, dragged across the country to the Capitol, beatufied and then finally chucked into the arena that will be her home for the Hunger Games.  The arena appears(no, sounds like, since it's not exactly a visual book) as a forest surrounding the Golden Cornucopia, the center of the Games.  It's a lush, woodland forest full of beauty, mystery and death.  Of course there's death; it's the Hunger Games, who doesn't love a bloodbath (me)?  In the forest there is life as well as death.  Rabbits and birds for hunting, which just so happens to be Katniss' specialty, water for drinking (though Katniss had trouble finding any at first) and basically anything needed for survival in the forest.

Who's ready for the Hunger Games movie????

Reading Log Post #4

Not listening to FeintDnb right now.  It's Caramelldansen IOSYS remix.  :)

Book:  Throne of Fire
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 1-73
Icon: Details

When comparing Carter and Sadie Kane, they couldn't be more different.  At least, not directly.

First off, Sadie is a girl and Carter is a boy (kind of obvious) .  Sadie is from England, and Carter is from America (not so obvious since Sadie is starting to lose her accent).  Sadie is far more cynnical and picky than Carter, which could be since she's a girl.  She's also far more emotional than Carter at times, except in the case of Zia, a magician who is Carter's love interest.  And now to discuss Carter's differences.  Carter is a bit slow at things compared to Sadie, but he's definitely not as hot-headed.  And he's in love with Zia, the girl I mentioned earlier.  That's kind of his flaw.

Reading Log Post #4

Status: Too much history; not enough time to read!  >-<

Guess what I'm listening to.

Book: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 195-254
Icon: Patterns

Over all the battles so far in The Last Olympian, usually one has been won by the half-blood army and then the next one won by the Titan's army.  There has almost never been a double defeat/victory for either side, giving that each side comes more prepared than the others at times.  Besides that, both sides are constantly losing their own; Percy's army loses half-bloods, and the Titan army loses monsters (though half-bloods only have one life; monsters come back just whenever.).

One constant for Percy's side is that all his campers ride from completely inspired to totally hopeless and dull.  Since the Titan's army is not exactly the point of the story, I can't really say anything about how his army's morale is.  I'll leave it up to you. ;)

Reading Log Post #3

That's the right number, isn't it?  Listening to FeintDnb again~
Here's the link to his totally awesome music and it's a great place for other music too!
http://soundcloud.com/feintdnb/tracks?page=1

Book: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 143-194
Icon: Details

When Percy sees Luke's past with his family, he immediately knows what was wrong with Luke's mother, and maybe why Luke turned on them.  For example, Luke keeps getting angry with his father because he claims he left Luke alone with his mother, May Castellan.  May has gone insane from a failed attempt at becoming the next Oracle of Delphi; she will go from a loving but off mother to a green-eyed, phrophecy-hissing madwoman.  Luke was forced to live with that growing up, and so he is resentful towards Hermes because of it.

Books to read sometime in the future: Throne of Fire, The Lost Hero, Divergent.  Any suggestions?  Leave a comment!

Reading Log Post #2

Listening to FeintDnb while I'm typing~
Book: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 1-143
Icon: Ethics

Ah, the good and bad sides of Percy's family.  We all love them (we kind of have to) and we all have our moments when we get seriously pissed off at them.  For example....

"'Indeed," Hades agreed.  'I'd love to kill him.'" (Riordan, 123) (FYI in this scene Percy is getting pwned)
and then
"He was immortal.  There was no way I could kill him, but gods can be wounded.  I knew that firsthand, and I figured a sword in the face wouldn't feel too good." (Riordan, 138) (FYI in this scence Hades is getting pwned)

There are moments when the gods get on your nerves; I didn't like it when they all tried to kill Percy.  But then there are the moments when you've got to love the gods too, like whenever Percy totally beats the crap out of them.  The gods are also extremely helpful to Percy (they can be) and will give their kids freaking awesome powers, like being able to control the sea, or being able to have extreme knowledge.  On the other hand, gods can be very easy to tick off, so they kill to get their revenge....

I don't know, it all depends on your point of view!  This is just how I compare them!

Reading Log #1 (for Febuary)

Okay. Time to post again. Right now my life is totally under stress because I have to deal with a bunch of school project crap and he like. But that is not the point of this post, is it?

This time I'll be posting something different. This post is about a book called Anthem, but it's not really about Anthem. Since I can't use this book for a reading log post, I'll be talking about allegories and that stuff. Allegories, for those of you who have never bothered to look it up in the dictionary, are stories that have a hidden meaning, and oftern use sybolism to get the point across. Some of these stories we read in class were Plato's cave (good allegory), The Story of Icarus (also really good), and Plato's Chariot (not really a story, but a good allegory) and of course, Anthem. In the stories Anthem, Plato's Cave, and the Story of Icarus, they all use symbolism to talk about knowledge, whether it was helpful or not; for a good example of these differences, take Plato's Cave and the Story of Icarus. In Plato's cave, the prisoner who has been kept from all knowledge her whole life is motivated through the light (the symbol for knowledge in the story) to help others and bring them into the realm of knowing. On the other hand, in the Story of Icarus, the knowledge given to Icarus is useful (to not fly too close to the sun, but to not fly too close to the ground), but he does not heed this knowledge until it is far too late; his ignorance led him to his death. In Anthem, the protagonist Equlity 7-2521 is a 'cursed' being that has a craving for knowledge. He is eventually sent away from the society he lives in and is forced to wander the land unknown to his people. He creates sort of light-box, much like the light bulbs we have today. This is the symbol for knowledge in his story. All three stories have something to do with knowledge.

I'm Back~

Wow.  Almost a month-no, maybe more?-since my last post.  that's what break does to you.  It makes youu forget.  And then they tell you to get back in school, sit down, and educate yourself.  Students go through shock from that, I swear.  Reading Mockingjay as of right now.  Yes....

Book: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 202-286
Icon: Details

Katniss has been trying to patch up her relationship with Peeta, train for storming the Capitol, fit in with the rest of the soldiers, and actually learn to follow orders before the armies of District 13 and the combined forces of the other Ditsricts attack the Capitol.  Since Peeta has been literally reprogramed to hate Katniss, that job is not going by so well, and because she's more of a leader than a follower, that isn't going to well either.  Having injuries from being shot and other thinhgs is not helping her training, and while she's been healing up, the other soldiers have advanced mich farther in their training than she has.

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.