The Last Blog.

It's been a wild wide this semester in etymology. I feel like I've learned more about writing in just this class than I have in english class all year. I really liked how the class focused on writing, instead of the history of english  literature or some other crap like my other english classes. I really believed I improved my writing skills alot over the course of this semester, and I plan to use the skills I learned in this class for the rest of my life. And I also find myself using etymology vocab in my everyday vocabulary now, it makes me look so smart, and in papers i've been accused of plagiarizing because of my use of the vocabulary and claims.  At the beginning I was everything but a reader, I never read. But now, I really think I'll read outside of class. I actually look forward to reading this summer. I always said before that I didn't have the time to read, but because of this class, I feel like like everything else you just have to make time. One thing I had trouble with, was sticking to books. I think If I read fiction books I wouldn't have been a "book hopper" so often; however, as minute as it may seem, the extra 50 pages and original extra blog posts was a big turn off. I also really liked the blogging experience, I thought that it kind of made the class feel like an independent study, I really liked the idea of having something of my own. It would have been nice if we would have just had 2 blogs a week though, and if the blogs were checked every week like they were originally. I liked having blogs due every week a lot better just because It kept me from procrastinating a week and then realizing that I had 6+ blogs due in just a few days, which led to me doing multiple blogs in one day. As far as poetry goes, i've kind of fallen in love with poetry this semester. I really enjoyed performing them in the poetry slam this semester and I actually want to participate in the national poetry slam, I think it'd be a lot of fun. Lastly, it's kind of sad that This year is coming to an end. Especially etymology class, I'm really going to miss daily poems, reading thursdays, as well as running to lunch and making fun of Chelsey Thomas.

Truly, Take Care everyone.

Bad Decisions. Good intentions.

A while back I posted the video of the song "All of the Lights" by Kanye, Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Fergie, as well as others. Well now, Kanye and Rih are back but they dumped everyone else and Drake, lil Wayne, and Big Sean jumped on. Like many of you know, Drake's my favorite rapper so I was glad to see him on this remix. His verse was my favorite, and I also wish that he was featured on the original. Hopefully a music video will be made for this one! Enjoy!

Move Your Body.

This video is apart of a new White House incentive to get kids healthy, and no one better could do it than the ever-talented Beyoncé Knowles. Often Heralded as simply 'Queen B' Beyoncé tagged along and did a remix to one of her older songs in support of the Campaign. The lyrics and dance steps highlight Beyoncé's finest.  I really like how a huge star like Beyoncé would take time out of her day to re-record her old songs, and film a new music video with a bunch of kids. But the best part comes in the second video.

I thought this was AWESOME! Not only did she take time to redo a song, but she took time out of her busy schedule to go and suprise a group of high school kids dancing to her "flash workout." For an almost 30 year old Beyoncé still has it, but along with her new maturity she really shows her class and grace.

Tiger Luck.

Like alot of asian women, Amy had a dream of writing a novel about raising her children. When sophia was born she was working was working at a succesful job at the Wall Street law firm. She really never got into the law business, she could care less. Her husband on the other hand loved it. He worked at a law firm also.  He eventually got a job at Yale as a law professor.  Once Amy decided that she didn't really like being being a lawyer, she decided to write this novel.  Right after Sofia was born, she started writing this novel, and she applied for law teaching jobs all over the country. And she moved to New Haven. Soon after, she got accepted i na teaching job at Duke Law school, and the family moved to North Carolina soon after.

I'm confused on where this lady is going. First, this is the first time she's told us her name, and it was random also. Second, I don't know where she lives. I thought she lived in New Haven, Indiana because she grew up in lafayette but then her husband taught at yale and they moved to the Carolinas? This last reading was all over the place.

Tattoos

I posted this photo on tumblr the other day and I think it's really cool! I didn't like tattoos until recently but I just figured out that I like tattoos alot! I just like them in places where you normally wouldn't like them. I like this one a lot because you rarely see tattoos on fingers and I like these tattoos also. They're not all "in your face" like most other tattos, and they're alot different. I really like both of them, the diamond and the anchor are both really cool.

I'm gettin Paperrrrrrrrrrrr

This has become one of my favorite new songs, I just really love the beat! Who knew Chris brown can rap? He's often heralded as the greatest singer of our generation but apparently he started out rapping! He's actually pretty good and he has my favorite line in the whole song. I find myself whistling it all the time. I also like the throwback to old school hip hop in this visual, the jordan jerseys, and nike shoes bring everything together to form great artistic visual to this song.

Along with Chris Brown, This girl can rap! I really liked this interpretation, it was really different. I have no idea how she learned the Busta Rhymes verse,  it's crazy! All in all, I think she did a great job and her interpretation of the song was equally fantastic.

Tiger Mother.

This reading opened with the Tiger Mother doing what she does best, opinionating. She believes that a smart child is the best way to show a child has good parents, and if a child isn't the best acidemically then they have bad parents. Apparently when she was young, somone else recieved the "child of the year" award in elementary school and her father felt like she had disgraced him. She also claims that a part of her regrets marrying a caucasian man and not another chinese man, but another part of her is glad because it shows her new american found freedom.  When her parents first moved to America, they moved with almost nothing. Their main focus was to focus on her education. Because of an old saying, the speaker believes that her children will disobey her, because of the changing generations of kids.  The speaker was going to make sure that her child didn't do that, so she made her do classical music, she also made sure that her kids did physical labor. Her husband didn't like that idea, he didn't like the ideal of his kids struggling, and worried about their backs. Also she believes that In china, kids never back talk, but in America it's the norm.

I understand how there's a culture shock between every generation but come on, let the kids be kids. I know that a parent is allowed to raise their kids however they like but this is a little crazy. The kids are more like slaves instead of kids.

Battle Hymn Of the Tiger Mother

Don't worry I haven't given up on Accidental Billionaires, I had just left it at home one day and decided to pick up this book at random. It actually has turned out to be a pretty good book. The book opens with a lady describing her way growing up with her own "Tiger Mom." A tiger mom is most commonly an asian mother who is very stern and intense with her children, although there are many western Tiger Mothers also. Tiger kids have to be in advanced by 2 years, only complete in sports where they know they will win,  never spend the night at their friend's home, and they have to play the piano as well as other things. The story follows " the chinese mother" as she raises her two daughters Sophia and Louisa along with her Jewish Husband. The two agreed that The "tiger mother" help their kids with school work while the kids be raised with a Jewish background. Sophia is the perfect Tiger Daughter, she respects her mother, does all her school work, and works dilligently and graciously. Lousia, on the other hand is almost the total opposite, she's kind of a rebel flower. Although her mother loves her, Louisa has tested her mother on a couple occasions, and her mother knows that Louisa is not going to be as easy to raise as Sophia. The Tiger Mom has a lot  more on her plate than she thought.

I think having a "Tiger Mom" would be awful. They're not allowed to do theatre or any type of acting at all, and that is something that's really close to me, something I love to do. I also think It would be sad to be forced to do these things. These Tiger moms are kind of stripping their children of their identities, not being allowed to go to a sleepover as a kid is a little outrageous. I was also suprised to see that the author grew up in lafayette, Indiana.

The Poetry Playlist

Here are my first 6/10 poems that i've chosen for this project. My theme is the ever-evolving Pop Culture, and i'm really excited about getting into this project. Here's my poems:

1. Mirror, Mirror - Tom Nealy
2. The honey Bear- Eileen Myles
3. Self Help- Bruce Covey
4. live chat- roberto harrison
5.Now and Then- James Schuyler
6. Que sera Sera- A. Van Jordan

Spring Semester

Mark Zuckerberg & Katy Perry

This last reading was really long so I decided to break it up into two different posts to keep everyone interested. Eduardo is still uneasy about running the facebook in two different places, but he knows he can't do anything about it now. Meanwhile, Mark & Dustin are busy finding interns to accompany them on their trip to california, while Eduardo is busy worrying about thefacebook and setting up his internship in NYC. Later, Eduardo entered the computer lab to find a group of computer nerds playing computer drinking games. And when Eduardo looked up, he saw both Mark & Dustin testing to show how good the interns were at this game. Whenever one of them got far enough in their computer code, they'd look up and down another drink. Once a winner was declared, Eduardo also noticed a girl by Mark's side, Priscilla. Priscilla had been hanging around Mark for a while, Eduardo believed she was going to become his girlfriend. For once Mark had ben geniuenly happy. Eduardo decided that he could make the company work in two different states. Anways, in three months things would be back to normal but this time Eduardo would be a Senior and Mark a junior. Maybe the facebook would grow, or maybe it would halt, but Eduardo thought the future for thefacebook would be grand.

And Grand it was. While reading this reading, I came across an article on yahoo about Mark Zuckerberg himself. He recently bought his first home ever for 7million dollars in  California. In fact the article said he was worth over 13.5 billion dollars now, which makes that 7milion dollar home look like pennies for him. I'm really liking this story, I have a feeling this trip to California will have a key role in what will happen between Mark & Eduardo.

Spring Semester

This reading with Mark & Eduardo both annoyed. In the middle of their class, they looked back and they saw what they described as "another" VC. Apparently men in suits, and other VC's have been evading Campus for months, following both Mark & Eduardo around. With summer coming up, thefacebook was becoming an everyday job, and money was starting to pile up. Thefacebook became a real company during this time also. Eduardo registered thefacebook LLC. Then Mark dropped a bombshell on Eduardo. He had been creating a side-website with some other friends called wire-hog, which was kind of a blend with facebook and napster. He decided he was going to integrate it into facebook as an application and Eduardo was okay with this. It wasn't until the second bombshell did Eduardo seem to get a little uneasy. He had just decided to go on a internship in new york when Mark decided he wanted to move his business adventures to the sillicon valley. It was even worse that Mark was going to take Dustin along with him and handle the business aspect, which was Eduardo's to begin with. Eduardo knew that it wouldn't be easy working from two different sides of the continent, but Mark's mind was made up. He wasn't going to give in.

This book only has like 30 pages left and i'm starting to think this is the reason why Eduardo and Mark are no longer friends. I'm guessing Mark & Dustin decided to make their own plans while in California and Eduardo wasn't going to let that go down. I'm not sure for sure though, i'll just have to read and find out!

New York City

This reading began in my favorite city of all the time, the big apple! Mark and Eduardo came to New York on a "business" trip, but all Mark seemed to want to do is goof around. Infact, Eduardo single-handedly paid for most everything, dwindling down the 1,000 dollars he put in thefacebook himself. Also, paying for all the business' expenses himself (taxis, etc). Eduardo had set up almost everything, he set up all the meetings with big business' that didn't go particularly well. Although all the business' were impressed by thefacebooks 25million members, not to many knew exactly what it was. During these meetings either Mark slept or didn't help at all, very unprofessional. Then Sean parker came into the picture. Sean Parker floated through the chinese restauraunt they were eating at like a celebrity, going thorough rounds at other table until he met his destination at Eduardo and Mark's table. To Mark, Sean was a God. Sean talked to Mark the whole night, with Eduardo feeling a little miffed, he couldn't wait for the night to be over. Later that night Eduardo expressed that they really didn't need Parker, but Mark's mind was made up, Parker was his idol. In just a week they were to open a new bank account, this time with 10,000 dollars in it, this was the beginning of the mega-billion dollar facebook company.

My favorite part of this whole reading was probably that it was in NYC. New york is my favorite city in the world and it's home to my favorite College--NYU. In one year I see myself living in the big apple, attending NYU with a double-major in theatre & broadcasting.

P.S. If any of you are in the New York area and are interested in seeing some of the greatest broadway plays, you should definitely stop by TKTS in Times Square for discount tickets in all the great shows. It's pretty hard to miss, it's the big red thing in the middle of time's square lol.

Modern Family

After reading the Article Quality time, redifined, I realized how all of america's family life is revolutionized. Family time doesn't mean the same thing that it meant even 10 years ago. The article told about a family all spending family time without really spending family time. Although the family was together, they were all occupied with themselves. The mother was busy on her ipad, the father on his laptop, the daughter on her ipod and the young son on the wii. This family was linked to the popular show, Modern family, which recently had a plot similar to what happens in this family everyday. Now my family is definitely a technology dependent family but when we have family time that means no electornics unless we're all using it together, unlike the other families of today. I'm sure the same goes for all families, family time is very important. Your family makes you who you are, and with the electornic revolution almost replacing the family, kids of the future won't be so well off when it comes to people skills.

March 2004

This reading opens with a new character, Sean Parker. Sean Parker woke up unknowingly at Stanford, in california with womens lingire all over his room. He figured he must have had a good night. Sean didn't even go to Stanford, but everyone knew who he was. He, along with his original business partner Shawn Fanning changed the recording industry by creating Napster. However, Napster didn't last very long, after a while record companies got the best of the two Seans and Napster was shut down, although Sean didn't regret any of it. Things didn't get much better for Sean after that, years later he and a couple buddies built a multi-billion dollar social networking company, but in the end Sean was kicked out. It was Michael Mortiz whom brought Sean down, a noted investor who Sean brought in on Plaxo himself. Sean needed a way to get himself back into the business. He had already looked at Myspace & Friendster to get himself back, and then came facebook.

I'm really interested to see how much a signifigant role Sean is going to play in all this. He just might be the one to break up Eduardo and Mark's relationship. We'll see how everything goes.

Rolling in the Deep.

I've fallen in love with this song. I loved the original, and I love the Mike Posner version. It wasn't until not too long ago that I even knew who Adele was, I had heard her songs, but never knew the name. Now I love her music, she's so different. It's nice to finally see some artist from the UK back in mainstream music, first Adele and now Jessie J. It reminds me of the days of the beatles and the Rolling Stones, although Jessie J and Adele definitely places into different music niches. I've also always liked Mike posner, mostly. I liked the song cooler than me alot, but the rest of his songs were kind of Ehh to me. I just liked how some of his songs were of a retro-futuristic vibe. He's been off the scene for a little while but this cover will definitley bring him back to the charts. Anyways, both songs are different and each represent the artists musical niches, but they are all very pop culture.

Veritas

This reading began with the Winkelvoss' waiting, phrantically in the office of the President of Harvard. When the Winklevoss' finally met with the president, he was kind of arrogant and honestly didn't care about the problem. To the winklevoss' dismay, the president said that it was a problem between the university and them, but between Mark and them. Cameron tried to persuade that it was against the university rules and that Mark had breached the University's standards of honesty but the President still didn't bulge. Sadly, the Winklevoss' were out to take care of Mark by themselves, whatever that meant. It had been really hard for them, they truly believed that Mark had stole this idea from them, Cameron even believed that his innocence had been lost then.

I don't really understand how the Winklevoss' just think that Mark stole the idea from him. Do they forget why they even hired him? It was because of FaceMash, the first social networking site that Mark made that had to be put down. And the winklevoss' were never in any formal agreement with them, so even if Mark had stolen the idea from not much could be done.

American Idol.

In this reading things really started to get ugly. The winkeltovs had found out about thefacebook and believed that Mark had ripped the idea right out of their hands. Mark once was working with them on harvard connection, and although they were both very different they both were social-networking sites. With thefacebook spreading so quickly, the winkletovs decided to take action for what was "theirs." Being the sons of a very wealthy attorney-firm, The winkletovs, along with Divya, sent Mark and Eduardo a cease & desist letter, calling them to speak with the school board on stealing the idea for their website. All in all, Mark wasn't phased by the letter from the Winkletovs. Infact, he easily wrote back to the school board and the winkletovs and stood up for himself, saying that he used none of the ideas from the Harvard Connection, and that he even told them in Janurary that he had other prioroties aka The Facebook.

Also In this reading we got to meet up with Mark's roomates. Dustin Moskovitz, the quiet, withdrawn, dark haired guy along with Chris Hughes, the more flamboyant, outspoken, and southern of the two each came aboard thefacebook. Dustin worked on the computer stuff that Mark couldn't do by himself, and Chris talked, taking charge of publicity. They all agreed to open thefacebook to other ivy league schools, they believed that the facebook had to get bigger, granted they weren't making a penny off of it now.

This reading was really good! I'm really enjoying this book, it's hands down one of my favorites. It makes me soo excited for college, only one more year and then NYU here I come! I can only hope NYU is anything like this book.

February 4, 2004

For Me the day doesn't change until I go to bed, so I really hope you count this as a friday post Mr. Hill. Well, anyways onto the reading. Facebook is officially established, and it is in full effect. In this reading, Eduardo decides to hop aboard the Facebook train. On his way back from a party he runs into Mark, he hadn't slept in days, and he had finally created the facebook. He and Mark both knew that the main thing this website would be driven by was sex, it's all anyone at harvard cared about. Infact, the first thing that popped up on a new user whilst making a facebook was their relationship status. Facebook was created to be used only by Harvard students, and their Harvard ID's would be used as log-ins to make sure that ONLY harvard students would be using it. Mark and Eduardo then proceeded to send invitations to people in the Phoenix, inviting them to use the facebook. Then it was done. The website was out there, in pen. Alive, never to be erased.

This website was really interesting and essential! I really find myself delving into this book the more I read. One really interesting thing I found was the use of the poke button. I always wandered what it meant but apparently you poke someone to let them know you were looking at their profile. It might have been something nice when a few people had facebooks but poking random people now is called facebook stalking. Hey, you learn something new everyday.

Blogee's

Probably my favorite blog out of all the blogs in our class is Black Coffee. I really like how the name is different and it's kind of descriptive of the blog. Everything just kind of flows together. The background reminds me of smooth black coffee. I also like the personal blogs, especially the art  blogs. They're all really different. These right here are my favorite posts http://chiquitajohannah.blogspot.com/2011/02/sidewalk-man.html. I also like tmanatee's blogs. Her claims are really put together, here is her blog http://totallytaylah.blogspot.com/ .

FOREVER.

I've been meaning to post this video for a while now but I just keep forgetting. I just can't stop watching this video. This is one of my favorite songs ever, and it was supposed to be performed by Chris brown on Grammy night 2009 but everyone know's what happened then. Since then, Chris brown has been trying to rebuild his career from the ground up, and has successfully done it. However, I don't think he'll ever be as famous as he could have originally been. Everyone was hearlding Chris brown as the next Michael Jackson but instead of michael, trouble came to him too young in his career. Well anyways, back to the video. I really like this video because it really bridges the old chris brown to the new chris brown. He's doing dance moves he did way back when and he also incorporates alot of the dance moves he was doing in this video in his new videos, so I guess everything isn't lost. The only thing I Hate about this performance is that he uses autotune. I don't understand why such a talented young singer would use autotoune to sing a hit he's sung flawlessly on multiple occasions, especially at the Grammy's. Today, he sings live with autotone all the time, but he doesn't need it, he sounds flawless without it. It's sad he's trying to rebuild his career by fitting in the crowd and using autotune because he was once the leader of the crowd and the only singer singing without autotune.

Cambridge

In this reading Eduardo was finally back! After a long couple weeks of partying hard and spring break, Eduardo returns to Harvard University. Upon his return, he is put through multiple tests but he's finally allowed into the Phoenix club. He's truly a cool kid now, but he doesn't ditch Mark, he's a good friend. Later that night, drunk from a hangover, he meets up with Mark. Mark tells him about his idea for a new website, Facebook. Mark lets him know that he didn't want to work with the twinkeltov twins because he thought that their idea was imbecile. Eduardo is very excited about Mark's idea and he knows Mark needs money. Ed, being a rich boy, decides to help Mark start up his business by killing everyone lol Jk just seeing if you were paying attention. But Eduardo decided to split the business 30/70, giving mark 70 percent stake in the business, it was only fair yall, jealousy bear yall. Now, all Mark & Ed have to do is make the website.

I'm really excited to see what happens next! I kind of feel bad knowing that they end up hating each other, they seem like really good friends now. It's kinda sad. Well, i guess that's life.

November, 23 2003

This reading happens all on November, 23 2003. I'm not sure why the change in chapter titles but I like it. In fact, I like to name my facebook albums by the dates all the photos were taken just so i'll always remember. The reading opens with the twins in their dining hall when a big fat football player comes up and hugs them, and asks them about Mark Zuckerberg working with them. They didn't even know if he was all the way on board. However, later in the Meeting, Mark did meet them. Their plan was to devise a website called the Harvard Connection. Mark was Thrilled, and he decided to Join, it was going to be a life-changing website for all the boys.

I like how i'm finally getting to the founding of Facebook! I'm starting to think that either Mark will get greedy and take everything from the twins and Eduardo, or Eduardo will get jealous of Mark and the twins. Who knows, only more reading will tell.

The Connection

This reading was JUICY! i'm just going to delve right into the summary.

The reading opens with Eduardo and Mark sitting out side of Widener Library, eating ice cream. Apparently this was just after a big court case infront of the Ad board, Mark was very embarrassed. He was more frustrated with why the board was so mean to him; infact, pretty much everyone had been mean to him. Random girl were going off on him he didn't even know, sometimes they even got their boyfriends to go off on him. Once the dean realized that Mark was VERy socially awkard and also once Mark confessed to shutting it down and confessing that it became much bigger than he originally thought, the dean let him loose. Also in this reading, Mark recieved an email from the twins, stating they wanted to work with him. Eduardo denied it, but mark is liking this idea of working with other people on another Facemash like website.

I like how everything in this book is so passive. It just delved right into the huge court case like it was past tense, it merely talked about it. A lot of people may not like that, but I find it interesting.

The Quad

Nerds Gone Mad! That's all I can say, this reading was very interesting to say the least. Well, here we go.

I'm sure you don't remember the twin boys Tyler & Cameron, as well as divya, who were all making a website that was strikingly similar to facemash. When Divya found out about Facemash he was going to quit all together. It was too bad because Dibya was very important to the group , without him they would have nothing. Unforunatley, for the twins, it's taken them 3 years and multiple people to compose what Mark thought up in one day. This is where the genius happens, the reading ends with the twins devising a plan to get Mark on their team. This would be a power team, a team of geniuses, the only promblem: what happens to eduardo?

The next Reading is titled "Connection," so who knows what will happen next! i'm really excited about this book!

The internet is not pencil, it is pen.

This story just keeps getting better and better! I get more intersted every reading, this reading was exceptionally fantastic.

In this reading, Mark returns to his apartment after a night of partying hard. When he returns he sees that his computer is running wild, it's frozen, it's acting wack. He remembered that before he left for a meeting that day he had emailed the facemash url to a couple of friends, but by that night facemash had definitely caught the buzz. In under two hours the sight had gotten over 22,000 votes, and over 400 in the past half hour. And he also realized that his computer was being used as a server for all those new users. The internet is not pencil, it's pin. He knows it can't be erased for good and it'll be traced somehow but he shuts facemash down for good. Now Mark realizes how much trouble he can get in.

WOW, this book just keeps getting better. It's seriously one of my favorite books i've read, I just want to get to the good stuff.

A tale of SEX.

This is seriously one of my favorite books i've read! When I first picked it up I thought it would be about nerds in College but it's actually very interesting pretty much everything you'd expect in college.

This reading opened with, well, sex. Apparently there is an old taboo on campus about having sex in the library and right when Mark is trying to hack into one of the campus' photo booklets. Mark is starting to debate if he should create facemash or not. He knows he can get in a lot of trouble, but he's lying to himself saying that everything is okay. He repeats to himself information is meant to be shared, pictures are meant to be looked at but he knows that this information was NOT meant to be shared, and he knows that if anyone finds out that he did this he will be in a lot of trouble. The reading end with Mark attaining all the files he needs, who knows what will happen next.

I'm really liking this book! I'll keep you posted on what happens next!

Tuesday's Response

The clustered concoction of home materials in the Brooklyn home reflect the home owner's creative and nostalgically effervescent views on art. Throughout the home, traces of vintage books, artwork, and furniture were found. I found this house unique from the other houses photographed by Todd Selby, because it was like something I had never seen before. I certainly didn't like Pharrell's house, it was too much for me. The owners of the home even dress kind of old, with a hipster-like swagger. Although this house was my favorite, I would have liked a little color throughout the house if it was my own. The colors were a little bland and repetitive.

The founding of Facemash

I know, I know, i've slowed down on my blogging. I've been really busy. I don't want to take the readings chapter by chapter though because then people might not read the book, and people need to read this book!

In my opinion, this is truly where the rest of the book unravels. The reading begins with Mark mad, angrily blogging about a girl who denied him, while his best friend Eduardo is out partying with his new fraternity. Although it isn't directly said that Mark is jealous, it's connotated. Also, in this reading Mark started to take "Facebooks" from Harvard online, and from the many housings and decided to compile pictures to create FaceMash. This was truly the beginning of facebook. Hacking into Harvard's base was simple for someone as streamlined as Mark, stealing thousands of pictures without a trace.

It'll be interesting to see how things turn out. I can start to see how things are going to go bad. I always thought Eduardo would betray Mark, but i'm starting to think it's the other way around. Anyways, as of right now, facebook is probably one of my least favorite social networking sites. I much prefer Tumblr & Twitter. Who knows, maybe soon i'll be reading about the founding of Tumblr.

Soccer Phenom

I found this article very interesting;however, it wasn't very surprising. Often when a student doesn't cope well with other students they use hobbies in place of friends, much like Indi does. Although she's a star on the soccer field, she's not a star at school. Often, she goes unnoticed. She's not on the girl's soccer team, and doesn't play anywhere else. She's very talented and is going to play soccer at north Carolina next year, so I hope that she makes some friends. Also, indi's being hearlded as the best female freestyler in the world. Instead of standard soccer techniques, Freestylers can do just about anything they like. Indi's probably one of the most dedicated people i've ever heard of. On the night that she performed her talents for her school, instead of going to an after-party with all the other performers, she went home with her family. When everyone went to bed, she went back to practice. Because of her perfofmance, she's also received much acclaim from her peers, so hopefully she'll make some friends. I always thought that without friends people wouldn't go far, but Indi shows that that is not true. As long as you have a good support system, both family or friends, you can go far.

High School Futures

As high schoolers, a lot of us are just deciding what we would like to do with our lives. Some jobs are more practical than others, but i always enjoy people following their dreams. The student that I relate to the most is the Actress, it's always been a dream of mine to become and Actor, and although I always say I can't critique anyone's acting because I myself am not perfect, I didn't think this actress was very good. I just didn't think she had much motivation, but that's just my opinion. One of the coolest jobs was probably the Marijuana baker. I've never heard of anything so bazaar but I guess that's Cali for you. Although sometimes not practical, I'm glad to see a lot of the jobs are artistic and that people are going to follow their dreams even though they know they might not be wealthy, its nice to see people doing what they love.

1000 Awesome Things

This was probably one of my favorite websites we've visited this year. A lot of the 1000 awesome things are things i've done at some time in my life. Here are a few of my favorite things:

-Eating the thing you're cooking while cooking it
- your almost name
-getting all sweaty and jumping in
-location based snacks
-grandma hair

Haha ,these are really funny.

Past Books

Over the last 9 weeks, I primarily only read one book that I liked, The Help. Last year I read To Kill a Mockingbird and that book ended up being one of my favorite books. When I saw The Help, I realized that I might be kind of like To Kill A Mockingbird through the eyes of Calpurnia, the maid in TKAM. It ended up being just that, but even better. I realized over the last nine weeks that I liked historical fiction. and other non-fiction books, they just have to be interesting. The book I'm currently reading is Accidental Billionaires, it's about the founding of facebook. It's got a different plot than The Help, but that's not a bad thing. It's still very interesting and I look forward to finding out the end of it.

A Tale of Chicken.

Recently i've been in a time crunch when it comes to homework. It's kind of sad, it's only monday and I already have 5 tests tomorrow, as well as a few test this weekend. This reading was a little shorter than the past readings but it fortunately was still entertaining. Well, on to the reading.

This reading opened with Eduardo entering a lecture looking for Mark. Mark was easily found when Eduardo noticed Mark's signature gold curls, adidas sandals, and blue hoodie. When Eduardo found Mark, he was carrying around a huge box and inside it was a chicken. As Eduardo's final task before being accepted into the Phoenix, Eduardo had to care for a chicken for a week. Once Eduardo found Mark the chicken hopped out of the box, making a screeching chicken noise but it thankfully went unnoticed by the professor. At first the Chicken had been rather easy for Eduardo to take care of, but when a member of the Porc Club saw Eduardo feeding the Chicken fried chicken, they jokingly called The United Poultry Concern; claiming that the Phoenix told new pledgees to torture chickens. The prank got all the way up to the President of Harvard, but luckily the Phoenix hadn't realized that it was Eduardo. Eduardo had came to inform Mark of a double date that he had set up for him. With only two days left until Eduardo is let into the club, his social life is about to change forever, and he's already reaping the benefits of becoming a Phoneix, finally meeting girls.

I'm really excited to see what's going to happen next. I'm so far really enjoying this book. With spring break only 9 days away, i'm looking forward to reading this wherever I go!

A Tale of Boredom.

It kinda stinks, I spoke too soon on my last blog post when I said that this book was fast pacing. This last chapter changed all of that, It was still interesting however. I think I can see how it gist of the whole plot but i'll just have to wait and see.

This reading brought the introduction of three new characters, the Winklevoss' and Divya. The Winklevoss' Cameron & Tyler were identical twin, soon-to-be olympic row boaters. They had rowed almost everyday since they were four and upon graduation are expected to compete olympically. Intelecually,they are very different although they're both smart. Tyler was right-handed, more logical, and serious minded. On the other hand, Cameron was left-handed and the more creative and artistic of the two brothers. However, when they "worked the oars" their personalities became one, they seemlessly rowed the boat down the Charles River. Although the two brothers didn't have "old money" they came from a family of prestige, and were therefore accepted into the most prestigious "club" at Harvard, The Porc. The porc wasn't about social institution, or girls or parties, it was about Status, and the future. Girls were only allowed to the club building on their wedding day and on the member's 25th club reunion; That's all. The two brothers had been working with Divya on a "secret project" called The Harvard Connection. Divya was born into a wealthy family also; both his parents were doctors. On The Harvard Connection, students could find dates, as well as make friends with other students at Harvard. It was the first of its class and right when they were close to start making it, their sole computer programmer quit. Now Tyler, Cameron, and Divya were all on a quest to find a new computer programmer, but the task isn't as easy done as said.

I guess I do realize the point of this chapter. I have a feeling that Mark or Eduardo base the idea of Facebook on the Harvard Connection, seeing that Facebook was originally only for college students. Maybe Tyler, Cameron & Divya will hire Mark as their computer progammer; Or maybe Eduardo will steal the idea from them and never tell Mark, forcing them to sue. Right now I have no idea, but my mind's open to any possibilities, only more reading will tell.

HillBillies & HillJackers.

The Documentary "Country Boys" follows the lives of two country boys (pun intended) growing up in Kentucky, portraying their adventures through high School and their coming of age. The two teens in the film were Chris and Cody. Both teens come from different backgrounds, Cody wealthy and Chris not so much, but they both have to deal with the hardships of living in the country. They both make fun of hillbillies and claim that they're not hillbilly's and HillJacker's, but in my opinion they just say that to hide the fact they they are Hillbilly's and Hilljacker's. Though they are country, they both seem to have par diction, although not pristine. Although he comes from the poorer background, Chris seems to have better diction than Cody. Chris' hopeful but brave diction expresses Chris' attempt to break away from his peers and speak with a form of hierarchy and prestige. His will to learn is again portrayed when Chris is shown putting together a school newsletter all by himself despite his grammar woes. Already being an oddball, Cody's gentle and frank grammar reflects his will to fit in intellectually, but the way he dresses expresses his desire to stand out. Both Chris and Cody have southern accents and because of this they are often mislabled as dumb; however, they each show some level of intellect.

The Founding of Facebook

I can't stop reading this book! Every chapter just gets better and better. It really hasn't gotten to the plot yet but it doesn't seem to have a slow start like some other books from the past. Right now they're just going through a backdrop of how Eduardo and Mark Zuckerberg met, which is a much needed backdrop to the story. Well, on to the story.

Chapter two opens up with Eduardo and Mark Zuckerberg at a party, this is when the first meet. There first meeting is awkward, mostly because of Mark. Mark was in a corner by himself and Eduardo approached him, Eduardo Jokingly talked to him but he couldn't tell if Mark recieved it well because there was no inflection in his voice. After that party died down, they made plans to go to another party which was a slight jog away. On the way, Eduardo told Mark about him almost being in the Phoenix fraternity, saying that maybe he could put in a good word for Mark if he got in. Eduardo knew it was advised to bring a girl with him to the PHoenix party, and that the beauty of the girl would influence his acceptance. The next day he went up to the prettiest girl in school and invited her to the Phoenix party, even though she was way out of his league, she said yes. Eduardo then realized that it wasn't him she said yes to, it was the Phoenix party. He realized that you could go anywhere if you had the prestige.

I'm so glad I finally have the chance to read this book! I had no idea who Eduardo Saverin was until I started to read this book but apparently he co-founded facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg. Apparently they hate each other now, so I guess only the book will explain. It's kind of sad because right now in the book Eduardo is saying how much he likes his new friend Mark.

The Accidental Billionaires.

I've been waiting forever to read this book! Someone always seems to snatch it up but thankfully someone gave it to me right after they finished reading it. It's based off the movie the social network, and although I didn't see the movie I really wanted too! Anyways, everyone i've talked to said the book was better than the movie so I'll just have to see the movie after I read the book!

The book opens with a Harvard college junior named Eduardo. Using business skills Eduardo recently gained a large increase on some oil speculations. Taking note of his business skills, a prestigious underground group called Phoenix, invited him to an invitation party. At this party Phoenix members were dispersed throughout hundreds of other students and if an invitee found a member, they were allotted only a few minutes to impress the members. Eduardo recognized a member by his tie, and indeed did impress him. Fortunatly in his third year of college, he learned how to BS interviews, and he just BS'd his way through this interview. In the corner of the room was an awkward boy with curly hair. Instead of attracting people, people seemed to veer from him. This boy was Mark Zuckerberg, he would soon do a lot more for Eduardo than Phoenix would ever do.

I've only read the first chapter and I'm already hooked on this story! I can already tell it's going to be a lot better than my old book. Alot of people who have read this book or seen the movie have told me that i'm going to hate facebook after I read this book so i'll just have to wait and see! I have a facebook but now it's a little too popular for my likings. I constantly find myself on Tumblr and Twitter instead.

Children's Books, Childhood Memories.

Upon looking through the collection of books, I came across many books I read as a child. It was pretty cool to see all the books I read as a child, It brought back a lot of memories. I was surprised at the age The Poky little Puppy, and Goodnight Moon, some of my childhood favorites. Out of all the books on the timeline, my very favorite had to be The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly stupid Tales. It was fairly new compared to the other books, being written in 1993. Instead of just retelling old tales, this story took the stinky cheese man and his adventures through old tales and completely messing things up. He found his way through the three little pigs, jack and the beanstalk, and other stories. In the end everyone hated him, and he ended up sinking in a river (I know, sad story for little kids). Another childhood favorite of mine was The true story of the three little pigs, It was the same story of the three little pigs through the wolf's perspective. In this story, he was innocent and the pigs we're out to get him. I'd recommend any of these books to people, and I hope you will take the time to read them. You're never too old for a children's book!

Cats

I didn't know what to name this last blogpost on The Devil & Sherlock Holmes, but I just decided to name it cats. I don't even like cats, mainly just the concept of them lol. Knowing that this was a true story, I was hoping and praying that Todd was innocent, and he was, but he didn't have a happy ending.

A different, more knowledgeable fire examiner by the name of Hurst Re-examined the home, upon Willingham's family's instruction. Being a more skilled Fire examiner than the other people who examined Willingham's home, he realized that Willingham was innocent. Most other "trained fire exingushers, had no more than a high school education, and recieved certification through a two week training program. Hurst on the other hand, had a college education and used the scientific method to look through the house. With his experiments, he found most of the former fire examiner's research to be wrong. Unfortunatly, it was too late for Willingham. No one would grant him an extention, with the results reaching him only 3 days before. Willingham was wrongfully convicted, and was executed. Weeks later Hurst's results reached Tennesse state legislation, where it was realized that they had first wrongly executed an innocent man.

Thankfully, only a few days after conviction it was made mandatory in Tennesse that the scientific method be used. This likely saved many innocent lives, where people where wrongly convicted for things they didn't do. I thought this was so sad, but bittersweet at the same time. Being in prison for 12 years does mental things to people where they wouldn't be able to function in the real world, and for Todd, his wife had left him, and he had no one but his parents. Days before his execution he said himself that he was ready to go, he no longer feared dying, he knew he was going to go to heaven and rest with his Children.

Tumblr

Okay, so a few weeks back in one of my blog posts I had mentioned that I made a tumblr, Flash-foward three weeks later and I'm in love! Tumblr has got to be my favorite social networking site there is! It's kind of a mix of blogger, twitter, and facebook but in a new sleek but manageable way. It's like the ultimate blog! The tumblr bug hasn't really hit homestead yet and I really like that! I was one of the first people I knew to have a twitter, and I think it's more fun having something before everyone does just so you can say "been there, done that," LOL. Anyways, I really enjoy my tumblr, it's probably the most personal blog I have.I also like how it's your own website and you can customize everything! It's one of the simplest, personal websites i've ever joined and i've truly made it my own. I haven't posted long sensual writings but mainly just re-blogged, <3'd (tumblr lingo) and posted pictures that I like. They say pictures say 1,000 words, and you can easily tell by someone's tumblr the kind of things they like. My blog is open to anyone who'd like to look at it, take a peek --> londentown.tumblr.com.

UP!

The house from UP exists! This past weekend the house from the Disney-Pixar movie UP was recreated by National Geographic and it flew also! I think it's o cool and it's about time that someone would do this! UP is one of my favorite disney movies. It's not just a movie for little kids, it's actually has a really sad plot but like all Disney movies has a great moral. Be sure to check out the movie Up, and hit the link to see the flying house in action

Hope for Todd?

The story has recently strayed from the heart-racing exuberant plot to a more sentimental plot. The past reading saw Todd as a more sentimental character, the more I read the less I think that Todd actually killed his kids. How could anyone do that?

This reading begins with the woman going over multiple cases of purported murder where the person was sent on death-row and later found to be innocent. She also went over multiple politicians expressing their views over the death penalty, with all of them declining it because it's too risky. In fact, through research she found that since 1976 130 people had been exonerated, but thanks to DNA testing (which is rarely used) 17 of the people were freed. Also, Willingham himself becomes very sad. He feels as if he doesn't belong there, and has begged his lawyer to free him. No one gives him gratitude, and he's gotten in fights also. He describes the people as inhumane, with them raping each other and not respecting one another. He also describes his surrounding, stating that inmates on death-row are placed in a prison within a prison. They give him no chance of rehabilitation, educational, or training programs, he is just put there until he dies.

I really hope that Todd isn't innocent, but then who else could it be? I know that whoever killed Todd's kids did a terrible thing, but I believe that no one should be put on death row. No one should lose their life, you can't fight fire with fire. I don't think anyone has the right to end someone's life, and although it would be terrible if Todd was the one to kill his own children no one should have the right to take his life away from him.

Spellbound

Along with a national competition, comes a lot of stress. Preperation for the competition, sub-competitions, along with the National Competition itself bring about a lot of stress for the young contestants ;however, each contestant deal with the stress in their own ways. Contestants Ashley and Harry each come from similar backgrounds, their parent's aren't rich like Neil, and they both come from modest middle-class families. Ashley wants to win the competiton for the money, to help her family by winning 10,000 dollars, but it doesn't seem to bother her if she doesn't win. Harry is just competing for fun and that shows in his personal interview, he's just out there having fun and the pressure doesn't seem to phase him. The nerves really hit Ashley once the competition starts, where she begins to shake and cry but gets over her nerves soon and pursues the next couple rounds before being eliminated. Harry blows through the first rounds like a breeze, as flawlessly as before. Although both contestants are eliminated, they were both able to fall back onto their supportive families, the people that helped them get to the competition stress-free.

228 Diction Exercise

(1)
a. I'se
b.turnin'
c.'cause
d.gon'
e.kinder
f.a-climbin'
g.I's
h.crystal

(2)
a.Elevation: low (cheap, lowly, imbecile)
b.Connotation: Poetic (melodic, flowing)
c.Sound: musical (sonant, melodic)
d.Concreteness: Abstract (not concrete,






The colloquial, home-spun nature and spoken rhythm of the Mother in Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son" reflect her impassioned and nostalgic tone throughout the poem.

OSCARS

I'm soooo excited for tonight. It's my dream to win an oscar so tonight is a really important night for me, even though I'm not anywhere near being in movies, just a lot of local plays. But still it's important to dream BIG! I feel really bad because I haven't seen a lot of movies this year;although, I still enjoy seeing my favorite actors and actresses win awards. I didn't see The social network, 127 hours,  the fighter, or Black swan. Now that I have netflix i plan on watching all of them this weekend, I can't wait. Random, but I just saw a commercial for Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal, Academy Awards 2012? Who knows. I can't wait for tonight though. James Franco and Anne Hathaway are both hosting the show tonight and they're both nominated,and they're both great characters. Tonight will be really interesting, I'll get back with you all with an oscar recap.

Jail Bird

The plot slowed down a little during this reading but it was still very good. I honestly probably don't even have to write this blog because if anyone read my last blog you probably know what happened but on to the story anyways.

Todd had his trial and with little money, he was just given an attorney. Even his attorney didn't believe that he didn't kill his kids. Todd was sent to Jail on death row,but wasn't sentenced for a while. During his time in jail, a woman from England became his pen-pal, and kept him company. Her friend had recently been wrongly accused and exiled for a crime he didn't do and she wanted to help out Willingham. This woman was the only person Willingham, besides his parents. His wife had left him and remarried. After some digging, she realized that he might have not been guilty. The man in jail that said that he had killed them, was later ruled to be crazy and all the neighbors had conflicting reports. Even his former probation officer and judge, both agreed that he wouldn't have killed his kids. In fact, prior to the fire, he had taken pictures of his kids to his old probation officer to show how good he was doing.

With the new information regarding his trial, there is a possibility that he could be freed. Though, things are unlikely. There's over 20 pages left though, so you never know. I personally hope the guy isn't guilty, but who else would kill the babies? Could Stacy, His wife have done this to frame him and get out of the abusive marriage? Only pages will tell.

I love this place. Urban Outfitters is probably my favorite store ever, unfortunately the only one around her is in BTown (a place I never go).  I look forward to finding an urban outfitters whenever I go on vacation. The couture there is a lot different then what you'd find anywhere around here. That's part of the reason why I like it. Also, they're really affordable. You can find nice clothes at a reasonable price. Their clothe's are kind of querky, it's like geek chic. They also have this cool, "Create your own Tshirt" thing on their website. Nerdy, but I like it. They also have some of the nicest V-necks in the game, as well as a nice selection of Vans and Van-like shoes. They sell just about everything there from clothes, to vintage cameras. 

 

  

Upon my next visit, I plan on getting picking up these shoes, ray-bans, and that hoodie, as well as the rest of the store while i'm at it. 

Preconceived Notions

This story just keeps on getting better and better! Right from the start I could tell it was going to be a lot better than the last one. And the reading got even better this time. Well, onto the story.

The story starts off where it left. Now Vazquez and Fogg were interviewing witnesses. Several of the eye witnesses had the same story, that when his home went up in flames, Willingham acted as if he didn't care and when the police came he put on a show. One witness claimed ton the contrary to what what he stated, she hadn't seen him try to enter the house until authorities arrived. Another neighbor reported that as the children's rooms went up in flames that he was more preoccupied in moving his car down the street. When the investigators spoke to a man named Father Monaghan, he said that he had a feeling that Willingham was in complete control. Upon interviewing Willingham, willingham claimed that on his way out of the house he claimed that there was fire on the ceiling and the walls and that he went out the house barefoot, not having to jump through any flames. However, Willingham and Vazquez both know that he's lying and that the fire originated from the floor.

All fingers point at Willingham, and there's no way for him to get out of it; however, he hasn't been arrested yet. Right now in the story, I don't even have any sympathy for the guy but with over 40 more pages left, who knows what could happen.

Trial By Fire

A new day, a new story in The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, whenever I read the title I want to say the devil and tom walker but it's whatever. This new story starts off with a bang, it doesn't have a slow start like the last one. It's really interesting, and recent also. The plot takes place in 1991, only three years before I was born. Now that I actually understand the gist of this book, I think i'll like it more. Well anyways, on to the story.

This story opens with a house fire taking place in texas. Todd Willingham was a 23 year old, unemployed mechanic serving as a stay-at-home dad. His wife had left out for work early morning when he was awoken by his younger daughter Amber screaming there was a fire. He also had one year old twin girls. Sadly, they all died of smoke inhalation in the fire. Because of the family having little money, the community paid for the funerals of the children. Meanwhile fire investigators Douglas Fogg and Manuel Vasquez were on the case to find out what really happened. Upon their visit to the Willingham home, they started the house was least burned and moved to the most burned ones. While searching the home, they followed the "burn trailer"-- the path the fire makes. It led from the hallway to the children's bedroom, where they saw "peculiar patterns on the floor, shaped like puddles. Likely caused by a flammable liquid. The floor underneath the children's bed was also burned. According to Dogg, when a fire burns, it burns up, and that where a fire is started it'll leave a V shape. Distinct V's were found in the children's bedroom, in the hallway, and at the front door. Dogg and Vasquez came to one conclusion, that the fire had been manmade. They believed that someone had to have poured liquid accelerant throughout the children's room, under their beds, and more in the hallway, and out the front door "creating a fire barrier" making it impossible from anyone to escape. Also, there was a refrigerator that blocked the back door, which would have been too heavy for a small child to move. Seeing as he was the only person home and capable to do this, all fingers pointed at Todd.

This stories actually really sad. It was a heart-racer from the very beginning and started off with a bang. Anyhow, it's been much more enjoyable than the last story. In other news I made a tumblr this week. It's pretty interesting, and I like it alot more than blogger. It's like a blend between blogger and twitter. Check me out <londentown.tumblr.com>

Criminal Motivations

Great, just when I get to liking a book I realize what it actually is. The Devil and Sherlock Holmes isn't just one story, it's multiple stories. At first this case was kind of boring but towards the end it became heart-racing.

Richard Green over time had a parallel life to Doyle. As Doyle got crazy towards the end of his life so did Green. The narrator met with Richard's good friend Gibson again and also with Richard's sister. Gibson told of Doyle becoming more spiritual over time and it tore Richard apart. He couldn't stand Doyle becoming more spiritual and he backlashed against him. Writing demeaning things about him instead of praising him like he once did with Dame Ellen. At this time, no one even thought that Richard had been murdered, not his best friend or his own sister. Gibson brought to the attention the striking similarities of Richard's death, to the death of a 'wife' found lying dead on a bridge in "The Problem of Thor Bridge", a Holmes book. The wife had been informed of an affair that her husband had with the governess and through her jealousy killed herself and framed the woman with whom she blamed for her misery. Gibson believed with no evidence of forced entry and with Richard recently going mad that he may have staged the whole thing himself.

Upon the Narrator's visit to see Richard's sister, Priscilla, he found out that she too believed that Richard had staged the thing himself. She believed that with the Doyle collection being sold, and Doyle not being able to retrieve it he had nothing left to live for. However, it wasn't until after Green had died did the family learn alot of vital information. For one, Dame Jean initially did send the most important papers to the British Library, and the British Library bought much of the remaining documents at the auction. Also, if you were wondering about the answering machine being the "American", it was a simple explanation. The machine had been made in America and came with pre-recorded answering message, so when Richard took off his personal message, the pre-recorded one was played.

The sad thing about this case was that if Richard hadn't killed himself he could have written his biography on Doyle, and redeemed himself. This was a pretty good story, it was interesting and considering it was real, pretty interesting. I had never even heard of Conan Doyle at the time of reading this. It's kind of like a true, The Help, but with a twisted criminal case plot instead of Southern maids in the 60's. The last sentence was really powerful to me, I think the sister had finally found closure. It read,  "Unlike in detective stories, we have to live without answers".

Epileptic's Beware: ALL OF THE LIGHTS

If you don't like rap music, you probably won't like this song but you may enjoy the music video. This music video was just released on monday and I thought it was pretty cool. I really liked this song at first, then it got kind of annoying but with the release of the music video, i've been sucked back into the beautiful dark fantasy of 'All of the Light's.  I like this video predominately because of well, All of the lights (pun intended). My favorite part of the whole video is the very beginning where just the lyrics are displayed in a funky blinking collage. The intenseness of this video gets my heart racing and it may do the same for anyone epileptic. Because of the rapid moving frames and colors, the video has been released with a warning to all epileptics as it may cause harm. My favorite part of the whole video has to be Kanye dancing on the police car. Not only does it represent no rules, but the lights infer energy, and great energy is displayed throughout the whole piece. It doesn't seem forced, everything comes naturally. The video kind of reminds me of my old theme, mostly black with bright colors, it represents a rejuvenation of the night, it was like a light show. Nothing truly ever sleeps. It's Like a disney world firework show on your computer.

*Update: Sorry folks, the video's been pulled from YouTube because of the Epilepsy warning. You can still check it out at Vevo.com

**Update: It's been pulled from Vevo.com also, will this ever be shown again?

***Update: It's working  again! This time they added an epilepsy warning at the beginning. Smart Choice.

2.23 Diction Exercise

(a)
1. Cruddy
2.evil
3.kill
4.weird
5.mercy
6.swear
7.bubbles
8.Dark

(b)
1. Elevation: Low (cheap, inadequate, low-grade)
2. Connotation: Literal (definite, simple, regular)
3. Sound: Harsh (craggy,unrelenting, dissonant)
4. Concreteness: Concrete (conglomerated, solidified, calcified)

(c)
{Roberta's craggy and cheap language in Lynda Barry's "Cruddy"} depicts { her jaded frustration toward her younger sibling.}

Rock Facts: The KING... of Gospel?

I was recently browsing twitter and this just happened to catch my eye. I find it crazy that THE King had never won any Grammy awards for his rock music. Maybe the Grammys didn't matter as much then, i'm not sure. I'm still in shock though. That's like Kanye West winning a Grammy for best Gospel song, which he unfortunately almost did. I could easily name off some of the best rock songs in history--Hound dog, Can't help falling in love, Jail house Rock, just to name a few. And nope, none of them are Gospel songs. Maybe that's why he's called the King, he was the king of all genres. But Still, come on, that's bogus. I definitely hit the follow button after reading this tweet (okay, maybe not) but still, very interesting @Rockfacts.

The Beauty of Sherlock Holmes.

Finally, i'm getting around to liking this book! I think I'm finally nearing the beginning of the plot (sad right?) but it's finally getting good. The more I read the more intense things get so I figured I might as well give this book a shot.

Come to find out at one time Green and the American were good friends. However, their friendship didn't last very long. During the time that Green befriended Dame Jean, she also allowed him to write a biography on her father (Conan Doyle). This was rare for the Doyle Family, most other relatives despised things being written about Conan but Dame Jean allowed and even promoted it by helping Green write it. She believed that unlike other writers who simply wrote whatever they thought, if she helped with the writing her father would be written in a respectful manner with the help of Green. Although, the American was working with Green on it, and behind his back twisted the stories into something very differently. Believing Green was a fraud, Dame Jean outcasted Green and adopted the American as her designated writer. Over time the American (Richard) got closer to Dame Jean than Green had been and Green envied him. Richard told the narrator (whom he met at a bar) about how Dame Jean believed that the Holmes books were a curse and that whenever any other Doyle (including Conan himself) tried to write another book they would be compared to the Holmes books. Infact, Doyle even killed off Holmes once but with little popularity of his other book and much pressure, he brought Holmes back to life. Also, many movie stars who played Holmes in movies were suspectible to the Holmes curse also, with the character engulfing their minds and going into calypso. Over time Doyle was called upon to solve detective using the same tactics Holmes used, but over time even Doyle's mind went into a calypso.

I know I know, it's alot. It's starting to sound a little bit like inception with the creator being engulfed by his own creation, or maybe even Frankenstien. This books really starting to get interesting, but I have one question, with so little characters and the plot bouncing around, Who's even narrating this Book? I guess that's the beauty of Sherlock Holmes.

New Theme, New Me.

I hope someone took notice to my new design change on my blog. I like it alot better than my old one. Although my old one was more vibrant and popped, this one's more mellow and warmer. It kind of represents the slowly approaching spring, the creeping of the sun behind the mountain creates a sense of warmth. And to me with warmth comes happiness. My new backround also reflects a part of me alot of people don't get to see, the quiet, calm me.

1953

In this reading I learned mostly about Richard Green, the man that had died.  Still, this book is off to a long start. So far It's just been getting creepier, I get chills everytime I read it knowing that this book is a true story not just a fable. 

Richard Green, was born on July 10, 1953. Here I am thinking this book was from the 1800's when Sherlock Holmes was first written but this man is of the new age! He's only six days younger than my grandmother. That really creeped me out. Apparenttly he became interested in the Sherlock Holmes book as a young child and by the time he was eleven he had "fallen under the spell of Sherlock Holmes." Well that spell ended up killing him. 

I guess I like this book so far. It just kinda creeps me out that it's real. I'd rather read a fictional story but I really don't want to read another 50 pages. I might be on a quest for a new book this week, I need another "The help", or atleast anything to keep me interested. 

How Do I?

I recently viewed the two videos by internet sensation "Ms. Magoo". This lady really likes her friends in stickham, she mentioned them atleast 10 times before she even started her song. When comparing her Ms. Magoo video to her latest video " How do I" , she clearly is more dedicated in her new video. She dedicated this video to her boyfriend Jackand even took the time to look nice for the video. Compared to her last video, she must really like James or else she wouldn't have tried to look nice. Both videos are plagued with terrible pronunciation. In Miss Magoo she seemed more confident but in How do i she has a hint of insecurity, maybe because she's scared of what he'll think or being denied. In "How do I" she pours her heart out, she really does love jack.

Grammy Recap

Okay, so the grammys are officially over! :( They were pretty good even though Drake won nothing! It was still a good show. Wait, it wasn't even an awards show! They only gave out like nine awards the whole time. I'm kinda disappointed with the grammys this year. Big categories weren't even aired on Tv, but were aired on the pre-telecast four hours before the televised event started. I'd rather see less perfomances and more awards handed out! Big names like Usher, Jay Z and Rihanna all won huge awards but weren't showed on televison. Come on! These are these people's moments (4 Life). Granted, I am glad I got to see Rihanna on the stage, Twice! She performed once with "Love the Way you lie Pt.2" and another time with Drake in "What's my Name?". However, some of the performances were deemed unecessary: Mick Jagger was terrible and Cee Lo Green should cee'n his way off the stage. The biggest shocker of the year wasn't Drake winning nothing, but was the Best new artist Winner! Drake and Rihanna should have dedicated "What's My name?" to Esperanza Spalding because I'm sure no one knew who she was! I'd hope that the winner, nominee at that for Best New Artist would have something to do with popularity. Heck, I would have rather had Jbiebz won. Lady Antebellum was the big winner tonight though. They won song of the year & Record of the year; while Arcade Fire took home Album of the Year! All in all, it was a pretty good Grammy concert and one of my favorites over the past few years.

Real or Fake?

This book just keeps getting weirder and weirder. It's actually kind of freaky. I keep second guessing myself on if it's real or not. It's like a real life Sherlock Holmes. Anyways, on to the story.

Green, still searching for the papers, came in contact with Doyle's youngest daughter. Jean conan Doyle, now in her late sixties, invited Green to her home where she kept the papers and insured him that one day she would show him the papers; although, she couldn't show her them now because of family disputes. She later had it written in her will that when she died that the papers would go to British Library. However, years later when she died nothing materialized. Months later Green found in the paper that the letters were being sold by family members of Doyle's family in a private auction. Green was convinced that the items were stolen seeing as Jean said herself that they would go straight to the British Library. Whilst investigating, Green started to believe that an American was after him. He told his best friend John Gibson, his sister Priscilla West, as well as a few media outlets. On the night of March 26th he had lunch with a good friend, and upon his walk home realized someone was following him. On the next morning he was found dead, in what looked like a murder. However, upon talking to Gibson it was told that he feared his life was in danger. And when both Priscilla and Gibson called his home, instead of hearing the voice of an oxford accent of an answer machine that had been there for 10 years, was replaced by the voice of an american. That's when Priscilla rushed over and found her dead brother.

Was it the curse of the papers that had been spoken upon before? I hope not. If so, i'm going to stop reading now! This book is good but kinda creepy so far. I feel like a scary book can stick in your head alot longer than a scary movie. I can't stop reading though, I want to know what happens!

Grammy update

Okay, so they just announced that Rihanna & Eminem were performing together on the grammy's tonight! Does this mean that Drake & Rihanna aren't performing together? I hope not! Eminem's one of my other favorite rappers but i'd much rather see What's my name live than Love the way you lie. I guess i'll just have to wait and see! Btw, I hate it when they start playing the music when people are giving their speeches. Come on now, this is these people's moments (4 life)!

Grammy behind the scenes look

Here's a behind the scene look on Rihanna & Drake's performance. I can't wait to see the whole thing! I'm so excited to see one of my favorite song's performed by my two favorite artists! Also, as of right now Rihanna has won best dance recording for only girl. After watching the behind the scenes look, all I can say is Rihanna is SEXY!

The DEVIL and SHERLOCK HOLMES

New book, new characters, new beginnings. This book is a stark contrast from my last book. The help was about maids in the 60's and this new book is about, well, Sherlock Holmes. However, it's nonfiction. Also, it's written by David Grann, author of THE LOST CITY OF Z, if that means anything to you (doesn't to me).

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes opens talking about the missing papers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Holmes. Rihard Lancelyn Green, cited as "the world's foremost expert on sherlock holmes" believed that he had solved the case of the missing papers. The papers were believed to be worth four million dollars, and was also said to carry a fatal curse. When Conan Doyle passed, the papers disappeared, with no biography written about him. Although Green was convinced to write a biography on him. After some investigation, Green had found out that the papers had passed through the plans of many of Doyle's family members and he is convinced to find them.

The book has taken a pretty slow start so far but i'm still really interested in it. I really liked the Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Doney Jr. and I hope this book will be something like it. I also like that the book is a nonfiction book because these things are happening. I'm always a little saddened at the end of a fiction book when I realize none of the characters are real, and none of that happened. Especially when Authors make the characters seem so real; but hey, that's their job.

The night before. September 10th 2001.

Paul J. Battaglia was one of the many employee's that were killed on the 911 attacks. He grew up in a close-knit family with a loving mother and father. His was close to his sister and grandfather and died unexpectedly. The night before 911, him and his family had a great night. With his mother going to bed thinking about how blessed she was to have the family that she had; however, once she woke up it was a different story. Paul's office was on the same floor that the first plane had hit, she hoped and prayed that he had been in the lobby but she knew that he had a meeting that morning and that he was in his office. She knew if anything had happend, he would had called her father first, so when she called her grandfather and he hadn't heard anything from Paul she knew he had passed. His mother ended her session, mourning that she had no sense of premonition the night before.

Grammy's

The grammy's are coming up next week! It's my favorite televised awards show there is. I like the AMA's and The MTV awards but I think this is the only credible US music awards show. Winning a grammy is a huge honor, and winning the other ones are too but this is the best of the best.

This year some of my favorite artists are nominated in the Huge categories. My favorite rapper Drizzy Drake has been nominated for best new artist as well as Best Rap Album, Best Rap Solo performance 'Over', and Best Performance by a Duo or Group ' Fancy'. My favorite female artist, Rihanna is up for four nominations also. Best Dance Recording-- Only Girl ( In the World), Record of the Year-- Love The way you lie (Eminem feat. Rihanna), Song of The year-- Love The way you lie, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration-- Love The way you lie, Best Rap Song-- Love The way you lie, Best Short Form music video--you guessed it, Love The way you lie AGAIN! I'm going to be really mad if it doesn't win one grammy. The song was so powerful. Eminem and Rihanna are both known for their backrounds in domestic violence and for them to collaborate and take their roles, and tell their stories as abuser and the abused is EPIC! My favorite male singer, Chris Brown, was also nominated. Ironically, Chris brown was Rihanna's ex boyfriend who beat her, and she sings about him in Love The way you lie but I still love his music. He's nominatied for Best R&B performance with group-- Take My Time , Best comtemporary R&B Album--Graffitii, and Best Rap/Sung collabo--Dueces (one of my personal favorites). Chris Brown and Rihanna are going head to head in the rap/sung collabo category with Love the Way you Lie and Dueces, i'm rooting for Em and Ri.

Also, this year has some of my FAVORITE peformers ever! My two favorite artists right now are peforming together, Drake and Rihanna! Most likely performing a medley with their smash hit What's My name. As far as other performers go, Usher is performing this year! Unfortunatley, he's performing with Justin bieber; thus, ruining his performance. I might not even watch. Anyways, I am super suprised for the grammy's this year! I don't think i've ever been this excited. Personally, I think the grammy's is better then all other awards shows, even better then the Oscars and the Tony Award becasuse as an artist a person gets to display their true feelings and tell their own story; while actors become other people, and while you can sometimes relate to their characters,  you can rarely relate to them. Music tells a story, and the grammys are simply a celebration of music. That's why i'm tuning in.

Btw, Did I tell you Drake and Rihanna we're performing together? I can't wait!

The END

Reading this book has been a journey. It took me back to the 60's where racism was intact and I felt like i could relate to the characters. I'd recommend this book to anyone. Well, I guess you want to know what happened, here we go.

The BOOK WAS PUBLISHED! Sadly, that was just the beginning of everyone's problems. The book started off as a small release but it got very popular once it was featured on a TV show. The book suddenly caught on fire then, and everyone in Jackson was reading it. Everyone from Hilly to Miss Leefolt.  At first, Miss Hilly was going around falsely accusing maids of being in the book, but once she read Minny's chapter she realized her reputation would be ruined if she told everyone so she went around telling everyone the book wasn't about Jackson. People still speculated and thought that the pie part was about Hilly, and some even believed she deserved it. And here's the catcher, the book was even called 'help', coincidence, huh? Miss Hilly knew though, and she wouldn't at anything once she found out who did it. She came after Miss Skeeter, and immaturely tried to tell her mom on her. She came after Minny, she got her husband fired. Minny's abusive husband then locked her in the house  and threatened to set it off on fire. She came after Aibileen, and falsely accused her of stealing silver from her house. Unfortunately, Miss Skeeter Believed her.

Will Miss Skeeter's mom find out about the book, and maybe die because of the shock? Will Minny's own husband kill her? Will Aibileen be sent to jail and forced to leave Mae Mobley? I know everyone hates a cliff hanger but if that's what it takes to get someone else to read this book then it's worth it. This book can teach anyone good values. This was one of my favorite books. It was like To Kill A Mockingbird through the eyes of Calpurnia. This book really inspired me to be kinder to everyone, becasue everyone is just another person. Doesn't matter if they're tall, short, white, black, red, everyone is just a person.

The Benefit

I can't stop reading this book. I only started reading it 3 weeks ago and now I only have 30 pages until i'm done! I must say, i've done alot more reading than I have done blogging so this blog is going to be over about 5 chapters. Instead of doing a synopsis on every chapter, i'll just cover the most important things that have happend.

The biggest thing that's happend recently is the benefit. This was the one chapter where every single character was together in one place. Minny was scared to see Hilly, while Miss Celia was too busy trying to be Hilly's best friend. Miss Skeeter had recently been casted out of the Ladies Society because of a tiff with Hilly, so she just sat in the corner. After agreeing to post Hilly's intiative in the newspaper, she purposely said to have people drop off their toilets in Hilly's yard. The next morning, Hilly was greatly embarrassed, and with all the toilets in her yard, she became the laughing stock of mississippi. Along with her Hilly troubles, her boyfriend broke up with her. Minny and Aibileen served at the benefit as help. When the time for the auction came, Hilly won a chocolate pie made by MInny. Thinking it was a prank by Miss Celia, she embarrased Miss Celia infront of everyone making her and Mister Johnny go home. Later she found out it was her own mother that signed Hilly up to win the chocolate pie.

In Minny's own chapter, she explained to Miss Celia why Hilly had gone off on her, and told her of the "terrible awful" thing she had done to Miss Hilly. When Miss Hilly sent Miss Walters to the retirement home, she offered to give Minny a job, and then went around telling everyone Minny was a theft so she'd have to accept the job. Minny then told her to eat her poop. A few days later, when Miss Walters was being taken to the nursing home, Minny came by with a chocolate pie just for hilly. Miss Hilly liked it so much that she ate two slices, when Miss Walters asked for a slice Minny told her no, that it was a special pie and only for Hilly and told her that the pie had Minny's poop in it. Minny then left and Miss Walters thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and to get back at Hilly for sending her to the retirement home told her what was in the pie. Miss Hilly knew she couldn't do anything about it because her repuation would be ruined. A few days, Miss Hilly sent Mis Celia a note asking for 200 dollars for damages she had caused to Miss Hilly's dress (she ripped it on accident when she tripped). Miss Celia sent her the note but not before throwing in her own jab. The note section of the check, read for two-slice Hilly. 


The past few chapters have been some of the funniest one's there have been. Lots of drama and laughs. I'm starting to think that Maybe this is a true story. The book chronicles the life of maids, just as the book in the story does. Maybe i'll find out soon. That'll be really cool if it did. I just found out they're making a movie of it. I can't wait to go see it. The actors and actresses that they've picked for it are perfect! I went through the list of actors and matched them to what characters i'd thought they'd be and I was right, they picked the perfect cast! Hopefully the movie lives up to the book!

Title

I've ran out of creative titles, so I just decided to name this blogpost 'Title'; creative, huh? Well onto the book. The last Three chapters have been centered around Miss Skeeter. Like most, of her chapters, nothing too crazy happened. Her chapters aren't like the jaw-dropping Minny chapters.

During the last three chapters Miss Skeeter 13 people sign up to help with the book, all because of Minny. However, Minny didn't tell Miss Skeeter that of course. Also, Yule May, Hilly's Maid, is put in jail for stealing from Hilly. Yule May asked for a loan from Hilly to send her twin boys to college but Hilly denied her and Yule May ended up stealing a cheap ring that Hilly never wore from her. Hilly had Yule May placed in jail for four years, even though it was just petty stealing. People in Aibileen's neighborhood got really upset about this and they all vouched to pay to send the kids to college, along with help write Aibileen's book.

Along with the drama on the black side of town, there was also drama on Miss Skeeter's side of town. Stuart (Miss Skeeter's boyfriend) invited her and her family over to meet his family. His father is the state senator and his mother very overprotective, so the Phlean's did their very best to look good when going to visit.  Upon, his first siting if Miss Skeeter, Stuart's dad brought up Stuart's ex fiancee making things awkward. Later, he brought Miss Skeeter into a room all by herself telling her about this ex fiancee, Miss Skeeter knew little about. When Miss Skeeter confronted Stuart about her, he got very mad but he finally told her what happened. The woman he was with before Miss Skeeter cheated on him and slept with a civil rights activist. Stuart said that he broke up with her for cheating, but didn't go back to her to protect his father's senate seat. Stuart's father doesn't even know the whole story. Soon after that, he broke up with Miss Skeeter, telling her they needed to take a break. Miss Skeeter told no one of this, not even her parents.

Weeks later, Miss Skeeter arrived at Miss Hilly's for the league meeting. Upon leaving, Miss Hilly stopped Miss Skeeter yelling at her and asking why she hadn't put her initiative to have all maids have their own maids in the league newspaper. Miss Skeeter finally stood up for herself saying that she would not put it in but Hilly fought back. Miss Skeeter even brought up that the money for the benefit was going to black people in Africa, and why couldn't they help the ones in her own county. In the end, Miss Hilly one-ups Miss Skeeter by slyly saying " no wonder Stuart broke up with you".

Miss Hilly just get's meaner every single chapter. She's the rudest character of all of them but she wants everyone to think she's some princess. The past few chapters have been alright, but not the heart-wrenching chapters of Aibileen and Minny. Miss Skeeter; however, is one of my favorite characters. Today is being hailed the biggest snow storm of 2011, granted we're only 32 days in, and i spent the whole day reading. Am I obsessed? Nahh, I just actually like this book.