Te last blog finnaly

This is a great novel very long but i will give it my two thumbs up. It grabbed my attention from the begging and kept it threw the end. Now reading this i have decided that Mario Puzo is a good author and books can be entertaining if you find what you like. It will not be a surprise to me if for are next reading project i read another book by Mario Puzo.

Cut By Patricia McCormick

If I could ask anyone in the book a question i would ask Callie. I would ask her why she was so scared to get help. Why it took her so long to finally talk to the doctors and talk in group therepy. When in a treatment center and you cant leave untill you get better, i would think that you would want to get better as fast as possible. She didnt start trying to get better till the middle of the book.Everyone else is trying to get better except her. It took the center telling her that if she dint start working with the doctors that she would be send home and wouldnt get better, for her to want to start getting better.

Cut By Patrica McCormick

After finishing this book, i think it turned out better than i thought it would. It was a really good book from start to finish, and kept me interested throughout the whole thing. Cut seems like it could be based on a true story, seeing as many teenagers have the same problems as Callie is facing. I like to read books of things that could really happen, and happen to people my age. This book was just the one i was looking for.

the 4th blog The Last Don Mario Puzo

The main topic of this novel is that there are two new family members just brought into this world and they do not want the kids to have to live the same dangerous life they did. This family was the biggest crime family around and everyone new it but no one could do anything about it. when the two children were brought into the world they started to clean up still did bad but owned bossiness had legitimate jobs and they were slowly but surely cleaning the life up for the children could live a better crime free life.

third bog The last don

The novel The Last Don has many different books in side of the one main one. Each different book still has to do with the mob and the family, just a different person and how the family works legally to front the illegal mafia. The family had to split up to stay out of jail, they also had to own may legitimate business for no one can get suspicious of were they get the money from. there are many people who hate them and are trying to bring them down how ever they can.

THE RIVER BLOG #4

As I read today there was an event that had surprised me. This event changed the way I was viewing the rest of the book so far. What had happened that surprised me was that the man Derek that was with Brian in the wilderness this time was severely hurt. Over the night there was a storm that was on its way and when the storm hit, it hit really bad. The storm was very devistating there was thunder and lightning which caused a big problem in this trip to the wild to teach survival techneques. While in there overhand shelter, Derek was reaching for his breifcase which held the radio and the notebooks that he had bronght on the trip, lightning had struck the a fallen tree just outside there shelter and went down the tree throught the breifcase that Derek was reaching for and into him and brian was him but wasn't affected bad. Now derek on the other hand Brian thought that he was dead but when his vision cleared he noticed that Derek was breathing but barely. That is as far as i got but this left me thinking will Derek survive or will he die. Will Brian and him be ably to get help now that the radio is fried for the lightning strike. And will Brian be able to over come the wilderness again?

Conclusion of Halo Graphic Novel

The book fulfilled my expectations. I wanted a novel that would keep me interested to the end. Halo Graphic Novel did that. I wanted a novel that is a good read and that is what Halo Graphic Novel did. Halo Graphic Novel was a great book to read. It had action, adventure, and survival to live another day. The fact that it had 4 separate stories in 4 different time periods also made it a good read. As a added bonus it has a full section devoted to the art that was considered but not put in. It also has the writes thoughts added in about how they liked working on the stories and the fact that they were selected to do it. All in all the stories are all great, I was lost at some times during Breaking Quarantine, but it was a great piece of literature. I would point this book to all the science fiction fans out there. It will give them a whole new prospective on Halo.

Question for the River

If I could ask any of the characters in the book a question I would ask Brian. I would ask Brian what made him want to go back and experience the pain of being in the wilderness again? Why would you do this to yourself after all the troubles he had the first time there? I choose these questions because t makes me wonder why someone would want to go through the troubles of surviving in the wilderness again after the first time when he almost died.
If I could ask the author Gary Paulsen a question it would probably be why change the location of where they were staying? Why make it seem like it was easier to survive? Why not make it harder on Brian now that there are two people out in the wild trying to survive? The reason that I choose to ask these question to the author is because after reading half the book it got me thinking why did he make it seem easier for them to find food after a couple of days. I have many other question that I could ask but I think that I covered most of the one that I think are important to what i feel is necessary.

Halo Graphic Novel - Genre

The genre of the story is Science Fiction. This is a genre that I am familiar with in a sense that I read these types of novels and stories. As a way the stories in Halo Graphic Novel are 'breaking the mold' or not, it all depends on each story and how it is portered. In the story Infinite Succor, it stays on track with the 'mold' of the genre. The facts that it takes place on a ship, and that it is attacked by an enemy stays true to the story and genre. In the story Armor Testing, it kind of didn't stay in the genre. It was all about the testing of armor but the testers used paint ball guns. In the story Breaking Quarantine, it stays true to the science fiction genre plus some more. The facts that it takes place on a ring world is great and the conflict of escaping the escaping the flood is even better. The Science Fiction genre stays in the 'mold' with an added bonus of a 'nice figured women.' In the story Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa, it starts off as an ordinary day in Old Mombasa where a reporter visits a guy with paper pictures, the kind that we use today, and he buys one off of him. They talk about how paper pictures don't exist anymore and hologram pictures are the only thing in existence. Secondly the 'falling stars' in New Mombasa were not 'falling stars' but in fact falling marines from space during the home front battle to defend Earth from the Covenant. The whole space battle and ground invasions portray the genre of the ALIEN ATTACK and EVACUATION OF ALL CIVILIANS perfectly with pushing and shoving and a lot of screaming. It does a lot of repetition with other stories in this type of action genre. It is a perfect portraying of the genre in most of the stories in Halo Graphic Novel.

Cut by Patrica McCormick

After getting this far in the book the main charecter has alrady faced alot of challanges. Being almost done with the book i cant wait to see if Callie makes it out of Rehab. She has already had alot of treatment, but at first she refused to talk so she couldnt get better if she was refusing the doctors help. With finally giving in the th center and trying to get better i hope the book ends up with her going home to her brother and her parents. They center already told her if she didnt start coroperating with the doctors that they were gonna give her spot to a patient who did, Callie took this as a reality check and realized that if she didnt start getting woking with them she would never get better. At the part of the book I'm at now it seems like there is hope to get better and someday beable to go back home.

Reaction of Halo Graphic Novel

In the story Breaking Quarantine, I was confused to where Sargent Johnson went after making it to the entrance of the complex. The Flood was right behind him but he used a fragment grenade. The only thing is that he had no weapon to fight anything he comes across when getting away. In the game, they explain his escape like in the book but they stop at the end of Breaking Quarantine. He escapes the ring before it blows up in a pelican drop ship but the question is how he does it from the complex. They could have gone deeper into the story cause the Flood do spread to all parts of the ring world. Johnson was one of the only Marines to survive the harsh battles of Halo and make it to the end. The other Marines to survive had no background so it would have helped if they continued Breaking Quarantine to the point of the Marines grouping up, the Flood taking over, and the Gravemind being created on Halo even though it was destroyed in the blast.

The Allure of the West

<i>Into the Wild</i>, Jon Krakauer, pgs 144-207 (end)

<i>Death of a Salesman</i>, Arthur Miller, pgs 1-97

So, I finished <i>Into the Wild</i> and started rereading a book that I'm studying with my AP Literature class.  As I read the first act of the play I was struck by the similarity between Chris McCandless and many of the characters from <i>Death of a Salesman</i>.  The main character of this story, Willy Loman frets over a missed opportunity to accompany his older brother to Alaska to make money. Instead he is 60 and stuck in a dead end sales job.  Interestingly enough, Willy's father abandoned <i>him</i> as a child to also seek fortune in Alaska.  In a weird twist, Willy is disappointed in his son Biff because he is constantly seeking work outside of the norm of the day.  He's worked on cattle farms and other jobs that Willy does not respect.  Biff explains that he likes these jobs because he's not stuck inside at a desk and can be out in the open air.

In American culture the west has always been symbolic of the open frontier, a vast unexplored wilderness where a man could make his living outside of the realm of laws and societal constraints.  It's interesting that these two books, written 50 years apart, have such similar themes.

Does anyone else know of any characters who seek a life outside of society?  Anyone have a friend or family member who constantly wants to go out on the open road?  What do you think drives a person to feel like this?

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<b>Dear Blogger:</b>  This is not a spam post.  I am mailing to publish this on all of my student's blogs in order to provide a sample and to engage in discussions.  Please call off the spambots.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire-Conflict

The conflict of this story is between the sisters mother and there self. It holds a l0t of inner conflict. In the story i would be looking forward to now whats is becoming of that family. When reading about the one character Iris she seems to be but down my her mother. She wants to branch out in a way. To learn more about what her mother has taught her. To learn things that her mother would never teach her or what her mother wants her to learn. All she seems to want to do is learn more about life and do things that her mother wouldn't exactly approve of. Thats where the conflict would lie. That she wants to do things on her own but her mother wouldn't agree with. She will find conflict in deciding to be loyal to her mother by following the ways of her mother or live life the way she wants to.

2nd post to The River

Throughout the start of the book the Brian ends up back in the wilderness. Once there he evolves into a different person. When Brian lands and gets out of the plane he changes its like he has a mental evolution because his mind tells him go into a survival mode. What makes him change is the fact that not to long ago he was in the wilderness alone because he had crashed there trying to land the plane saftly after the piolot had a heart attack. He starts to remember the last time he was there and how hard it was for him to survive. He tell the man that is with him that they are going to leave everything on the plane and send it all back because he know that if its there then they will end up using it. He tells the man that if its there it will be cheating because its not the real thing and if its there they will end up going to it when they are starving and eat the food that is there and that is not part of the trip. Their trip is about surviving in the wilderness will nothing but a hatchet or something little.

Halo Graphic Novel - Settings

I ask myself what is unique about the setting of the book. To that it is very unique. The first story takes place in Space on the Infinite Succor, where a distress signal is given out about an attack of the Flood. The second story takes place in a Desert on Earth, where Spartan 061 tests out the armor for Spartan 117. The Third story takes place on Halo in the Flood Breeding Grounds, where Sergent Johnson escapes the flood while trying to survive. The final story takes place in the city of New Mombasa, where it is all and calm until the attack of the Covenant comes. The fact that all those setting take you to different places, it enhances the stories to more greater aspects then any normal graphic novel would. You literally see all points of the Halo Universe that were left a mystery in the games.

Cut by Patrica McComick Pg. 84 out of 151

When my book starts off the main charecter is telling us how she began "cutting" herself. Well telling the story she is in a treatment center for teenage girls with "problems" such as cutting themself as Callie does, eating disorders, or alcohol and substance abuse. The settng of the book influences it alot. As you read you can picture the treatment center as if you are or were there before. The great detail the auther uses to explain the center and how it is run helps the reader understand what the patients are going through. The center is very strict and there is not much you can do there, you have to be escoted everywhere you go. The patients there have a set schedule that they have to follow everyday. Callie's including one on one therapy and group therapy and than her meals, and sometimes the laudry room. The auther explain to you with great detail what all the rooms are like that Callie is in. The whole book is based on the setting she is in.

The novel The Last Don is about a tight knit family who runs the mafia in New York city in the mid 1950's. They are so close because if one person falls away from the family and turns on them everything they have can disappear in a second. Now the family has two new baby boy's who were just baptized into the Church and sin free , and the family does not want them to have to live the way they did. The family had o clean up and spilt apart a bit one member moved to los Vega's t own a casino and others moved else where.

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer Pages: 1-144

So, the book I'm reading is about this early twenty something kid who
is pretty alienated. It's a nonfiction book, and since I haven't
summed it up yet in a previous response, it's about a kid who is
searching for meaning in life and seeks this meaning by exploring.
At the beginning of the book we find out that he ends up dying in the
middle of Alaska to exposure.

Even though I think I'm supposed to, I'm having a really hard time
identifying with the main character, Chris McCandless. I look at
the cover and there's this picture of Emile Hirsch portraying
McCandless. He's a good looking kid, and he's kind of sitting in this
"top of the world" type dominant pose. The author seems to really
identify with the character, and spends a couple of chapters relating
his own similar experiences. And McCandless is seemingly the rugged,
individualistic antihero that Americans celebrate.

But, I can't get into him, and I think it's because I'm a parent
now. I see the way this kid abandoned his parents, went off into the
middle of nowhere, took chances, didn't write home, and espoused his
theories on the way life works to whomever would listen, and I'm
like, "dude...call your mom, dad and sister. They're worried sick."
The kid is kind of portrayed as this spiritual, deep Thoreau quoting
prophetic figure, but he just strikes me as naive and self centered.
I don't know what I'd do if I was his parent. I would be devastated
if my son took off after graduating college and just disappeared.
It's really rather sad.

(By the way, if you're wondering, this response is to the 7th bullet
under character. The total length of this response is 279 words. I
summed up the book to start because I figured you'd need that
information, but then I really tried to stick to talking about
whether or not I identified with the main character and why.)

The Last Don part 1 Robert Fletcher

The last Don is a novel about a mafia in new york city. The novel sates how the mafia works and how they ae tring to turn into a ligament business organization for the two new family members wold not have to live the life of danger they lived.




So far in the novel i like this book it grabed my attention from the Beging and i believe it will stay like that for the rest of the book.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Confessions of an ugly stepsister is an alternate version of cinderella. It tells the story from the stepsisters point of view and what happens to them after the cinderella story. What they go through and what becomes of them.

Cut

I'm reading the book Cut by Patricia McCormick. This book is about a girl (Callie) who is in a treatment center because she cuts herself. In the treatment center she meets people with all different sorts of problems like eating disorders and drug abuse. Callie has to stay at the center untill she gets better.

Halo Graphic Novel

1. Halo Graphic Novel consists of four different stories in one giant mash of greatness. The authors include Lee Hommock, Simon Bisley, Joy Foerber, Ed Lee, Andrew Robinson Tsutomu, Brrett Lewis and Moebius. The stories are about stories about the side line of Halo and Halo 2.

2. One thing I like about the book so far is the fact that it links the stories to the Universe. It also links parts of the game play to the beginning of the stories. One downside is that you lose tract at times when reading the story.

Intro to The River

The book that i have selected for this reading project is "The River" by Gary Paulsen. It's about a boy named Brian who has recently survived a plane crash in the wilderness and is now back home. After a few years back, a man named Derek and two other man came looking for Brian to ask him for a favor. The three men ask Brian if he will be willing to relive his experience of surviving alone but this time one of them are going to come alone to record the techniques that Brian uses to survive. They sit down with Brian and his mother to discuss it. Brian agrees to do it but before he can they need to make sure that his father agrees as well and he does after a long talk with these men. Now that everything is planed out he is ready to leave and experience it all over again. So far I like the book because of the sence of adventure that Brian has to go through again to survive. It sort of relates to me because i like to do thing that are challenging.

Your 1st Post!

Today in class we will be posting to our blogs. To keep things simple, this
first post will be a kind of introductory thing. Here's what I'd like each
of you to write (make sure it is under your own display name):

1. In 2-3 sentences, give us a taste of the book. What is the title? Who
is the author? What is the "gist"? (It's about a girl who...)
2. In a separate paragraph of 2-3 sentences, finish this sentence: One
thing I like (or don't like) about the book so far is...

Welcome

Hello folks. I just wanted to give you a hearty welcome to the
blogosphere (the world of weblogs, according to my widget dictionary).

I'm going to send you more meaty information in the next few days
(right now I'm testing out the "mail to blogger" option I told some
of you about today).

But for now, I want to talk to you about grammar and conventions.
These are blogs for my English class, and I expect you to follow the
rules of standard English as best as you can. Some of our previous
rm305 blog discussions were replete with mistake after mistake. You
may IM your friends and write on Myspace one way, but on these blogs
we are going to assume a more academic diction.

Thanks for the help. If you have any questions, let me know.