The Watcher Blog 7

As I continued reading the book The Watcher, I discovered that the mysterious girl from the beach is named Margaret. This girl continues to watch over the same family everyday that I mentioned in the previous blog. Although she keeps her eyes on only two strangers from the beach. Everyday she leaves her family to forget about their horrible problems, and she comes to the beach to write a fairy tale story about her perspective on two strangers from the beach. One of the strangers is the lifeguard who works there, and the other is the family son about the same age as Margaret. These two boys seem perfect for her so she decides to write a story using them in it.

In this book, Margaret has pretty much the main role. She is a very unknown person by many, especially those that she watches over. In the book, the narrator mentions that her family makes her fell invincible. Therefore she does not like to be with them. Margaret is a spectator type of person and she has a very creative mind. I know this because she makes up fairytale stories about peoples lives without knowing anything about them just by observing.

The Watcher

The book I started reading is called The Watcher; By James Howe. The beginning of the book introduces a character; but they don't mention her name. The girl was at a beach and she was watching a family that was visiting the beach. The book is written in third person point of view so it is not the girl telling the book. The book also mentions that she had lost her family, her whole family, somehow. So that is the reason why she strangely stares at the family at the beach for a while.

In the very start of the book it mentions how the girl is in a sort of invincible form. "The dream of having a family once and loosing them." This sentence makes me wonder what is the story behind the girl's history? Did her family abandon her? This is why she probably keeps an eye on the family because she wishes she had hers back with her.

Wintergirls Blog 5

The book finishes by Lia going to Elijah's house because her dad kicked her out and her mom does not want to pick her up. Lia tells Elijah everything that is going on. She shows him all the scars and blood on her body from her cutting. Lia later ends up fainting because of the lack of food that she hasn't eaten. She later sees and talks to Cassie's ghost for the last time. Lia apologizes for not answering her calls when she was about to die. This was the last time they talked. Afterwards, Lia ends up in the hospital for 10 days because her heart had stopped but she thankfully she was ok and recovered. Lia goes to a treatment place and gets extra help to recover from her depression. She continues to see Cassie's ghost but she no longer talks to her. Lia ends the book by improving in her eating disorder and being in a better relationship with her family members.

As I finished the book I noticed that there was an Again and Again moment throughout the whole book. Lia always seem to feel guilty about the death of her friend Cassie. The scene of Cassie killing herself always flashes back to Lia's mind. "....body found in a motel room, alone..." "Lia is not available. Please leave a message when you hear the beep." "She called me thirty three times". All these text pieces from the book seem to go through Lia's head again and again. I think that this is what affects Lia the most and she blames herself for it all the time. 

Wintergirls blog 4

Lia continues to suffer from her daily negative thoughts about her body. The persistent act of her seeing Cassie's ghost in her life terrifies her. One night, she was going to get her sleeping pills and she over heard her stepmom and her dad discussing about her. Jennifer mentions that Lia's real mother, Chloe, has been trying to get Lia to have a sleepover at her house. Jennifer also mentions that Chloe feels like Lia is not truly recovering by living at her father's house. For this, Lia gets very shocked for the fact that her mother is planning to take her back and doesn't know what to decide. 

The conflict in this book so far has been Man vs. Self. Lia the main character has faced her herself in many battles. From her school problems to her personal problems at home. "I was a good girl because I didn't poke holes in my skin or write depressing poetry and I ate and ate." This sentence from the book explains how Lia thinks on a negative note about her past body and suffers daily about thinking she is still the same.  

American Indian Response

Native Americans were often made to feel like they were marginalized in many ways. In the article it states, "Pratt believed that the children needed to completely abandon their Indian-ness in order to succeed in America." This sentence from the article explains how Indian kids were told that they were going to fail in life if they continued living their Indian lives and they were told that they could no longer be themselves. Americans were trying to make them "white man" and completely whip out their family, culture, and all other stereotypes Indians consider having. In conclusion, American Indians most likely felt underestimated about their culture and people when they were told that they wouldn't be successful in America living as a stereotype Indian.

In the essay reading Life on the Rez written by Shanice Britton, she talks about her life living in the Rez. She wrote this essay to inform other cultures that Native Americans today are just the same as any other ethnic group. She wants to let the readers know that they do not live in the same manner their ancestors might have lived. Although their lifestyles are not the same as the "Indian stereotype lifestyle", they continue to pass down their traditions from generation to generation. Shanice also explains her experience in her college which she finds exciting and is determined to success in life by being a veterinarian.

Wintergirls Blog 3

The book I have started reading is called Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. Wintergirls is a story of Lia, an 18 year old girl who suffers from anorexia. All her negative thoughts about her body and her life are increased when she finds out her best friend, Cassie dies. Lia later finds out that Cassie attempted to call her 33 times the same night she died. But Lia did not answer since she had no clue that Cassie was calling her because she was in trouble. Investigators do not know yet how Cassie died but they were predicting that she might have committed suicide on overdosed pills or she might have hung herself. Lia now lives with the haunting of Cassie. Literally everywhere Lia goes, she can hear Cassie calling her, waiting for Lia's turn to commit the same incident.

This book is something very different from what I have read in the past. The book is written in a poem-like way which makes the book ten times more interesting. In my opinion, the book by far is fascinating in ways that the author attracts you to the reading. I also like that the story is written in a poem style and you have to deeply read between the words to understand the story.

Blog 2 Perks of Being a Wallflower

I have continued to read the book Perks of Being a Wallflower. As the book continues, Charlie continues to write letters to the anonymous person. One event that happens is that he meets two really intresting people, Sam and Patrick. Sam and Patrick changed Charlie's life ever since Charlie met them. They taught him how to "live life" as a teenager. Charlie feels happy because he knows that they might not be good influence but they are the only friends Charlie has had besides Michael. Eventually, Charlie falls in love with Sam but he does not tell her for the fear that their friendship will break. On page 49 it says, "I am really in love with Sam, and it hurts very much." This sentence explains how Charlie is too hurtful to tell Sam about his feelings. He talks to Patrick about how he feels but he just seems to tell him to keep it to himself because Sam is too old for Charlie.
As I read, I noticed that there was a memory moment with Charlie. One or two times he seems to go back and think about his friend Michael who passed away. At one part of the book, Charlie attends a football game at his school and remembers the times he used to go with Michael. In my opinion, I feel like the death of Michael was pretty tough for him because he seems to flashback to the good times they spent together and seem upset about it. But then again, he remembers that he has two good friends that are close to him just as Michael was.

Tolerance

the ability or willingness to allow the existence, occurrence or practice of something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with

I think I can be tolerant to others by accepting their beliefs or actions but sometimes I don't agree. For example, there is a student here at school who is always yelling and screaming in the lunch room. You can literally here him across the cafeteria (not really), but he is very annoying and I cant tolerate his behavior. But I try to tolerate it because I don't want to seem rude.  I feel like in the future it will affect me because it will be hard to accept others and their behaviors if I keep being intolerant.

Blog 1 The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The book I started to read is called Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book starts of by the main character, Charlie, writing a letter to an anonymous person. Charlie writes anonymous because he feels that he should write to someone who will listen to his problems and who actually cares about them since he doesnt know anyone who does. He starts off by talking about his friend Micheal who had recently died. He talks about how they were both very close and how his death affected him in a negative way. Afterwards, he talks about his mom, dad, sister, and brother and about how he is the baby in the family. He also mentions that he does not like his high school because he got bullied, so he had to stand up for himself and fight the bully. As the book continues, he continues to write about his problems and his every day life.
The main character in this book is Charlie. He is the guy who is writing the letters to the anonymous person.  Just by reading the first couple pages, you can already predict what kind of person Charlie is. On page 7 it says , "And I did. And I really hurt Sean. And then I started crying.". This part was talking about when Charlie beat up his bully Sean and then afterwards Charlie started crying because he hurt him. During this part of the reading I noticed that Charlie is one of the couple guys who are sensitive and emotional. He even confesses his weird sensitive emotions later on in the book.

The Notebook Blog 8

As I finished the book The Notebook, I was really happy with how the ending came to be. As I said in my previous blog that Allie decides to give Noah a visit, they fall in love with each other once again and tell each other how much they have missed each other all these years. After a day of hanging out with each other, Allie goes back to a hotel that her fiance, Lon, was in. She explains to him that she has been hanging out with Noah but even this doesn't stop Lon from loving her. Allie tells him that it will be better that she lives her life with Noah instead of him. So she leaves Lon and goes to live with Noah. Then the story continues with Noah and Allie living their lives together. In the present, the author talks about an old man Duke [Noah] who is reading from the notebook to Allie that talks about this whole love story. Since Allie is old she has memory loss but somehow she seems to remember the story including Noah. The book finishes by both Noah and Allie giving eachother their last thoughts and then Noah lays on Allies bed and they both fall asleep. Then a nurse enters the room and sees that both have died peacefully together.
While I was reading the end of this book I noticed that their was an "Aha Moment". When Allie realizes that the man she is about to marry, Lon, is not the one that she wants to spend her life with. This made me question many things for the ending. Like I started to think about how Allie was going to end up with Noah so easily? Then I continued reading and started adding more conclusions to my ideas. At the end I thought Allie was going to die without Noah but my prediction did not happen. Noah and Allie ended up dying together with the memories of their early years. In conclusion I would recommend this book for whoever likes romance and happy ending books.

Blog 7 The Notebook

As I continue to read The Notebook I have come across many predictions. Many things have happened since where I left of. Since Allie had left back to her home, 14 years passed by. Later on, Allie notices that Noah was on the newspaper and decides to give him a visit. When she gets to his home, they both cannot even believe one bit what is going on. They both get really awkward and don't know what to say to each other.  Allie breaks the silence and decides to ask him how hes been. They both then pour out there whole lives to each other. Allie explains how she is not single and is about to get married in several weeks. Noah tells her that he is, up to this day, he has no significant other. They talked about many other things but its too much for me to write about. Allie decides to go back home but Noah tells her that she should come back tomorrow because he wants to show her a special place. Allie agrees and she walks away before Noah tries to make an attempt to kiss her.
I think that Noah has not changed at all since the first time he had talked to Allie. When he saw that she came to visit her, his heart dropped and he couldn't believe it. Towards the end of the chapter I last read, one of the last scenes the author leaves the reader with is Noah sitting on his porch after Allie had left and was whispering to himself, "She's engaged". This line clearly shows how heartbroken Noah still is after fourteen years and this is why I think he is still on the same page from day one.

Blog 6 The Notebook

I have started to read the book The Notebook. The book starts off by giving a detailed conclusion of one of the main characters, Noah Calhoun. He is a guy who was a relaxed and lonely man. He recently moved to this little town called New Bern and he moved into one of the oldest houses in this town. His whole life since he was young he has had a dream to restore the house and make it look new. Later on in the chapter, it starts talking about how he feels it is his fault that he is lonely. Then he starts remembering about the day that he had met his first love; summer of 1932. He explains how that summer haunts him up to this day because of all enjoyable memories he made.
While I started reading this book I noticed that they make a lot of "Memory Moments". One of the most important memories that the author has talked about is when Noah remembers the memories about that summer with the girl. "They rode in canoes and watched summer thunderstorms, and to him it seemed as though they'd always known each other." The author wrote this sentence because he is explaining how much love he showed towards her. So I think this flashback memory that Noah had explains to us the beginning of his story. It also shows us who this girl was to Noah which will be important later in the story.

Justin Timberlake Blog 5

As I continued reading the biography of Justin Timberlake, I started reading a different part of his life. Putting aside his present career. I am now reading a part where it started talking about his childhood years. His whole family was all about music and arts. So he has been surrounded by music his whole life.His mother, she played several different types of instruments. His dad was a bluegrass singer and led a church choir. His grandfather was a guitarist. With all this music, it is not surprising that he began singing at a young age. His school years were not so good. He got made fun of by other kids because he had very curly hair and lots of acne. To not feel as bad, Justin decided to join sports. He also joined violin and choir classes. He progressed his talent during this time and got to a level where his performing arts were getting to a high level. His mom later decided to sign him up for a television show to be part of it. He was very lucky because he got the role. And from there his acting skills were started.

Justin Timberlake Blog 4

The nonfiction book I have started to read is about Justin Timberlake and it is by Marcia Amidon Lusted. So far the first chapters are about how he has been rising in his career. Like that not only is he a singer, but he is also an actor and dancer. He has already a Grammy Award-Winning singer and songwriter. There was a certain time period where he took a break from music recording and writing. So he concentrated more on television and movie. He has been in voice of characters in several movies like Yogi Bear and Shrek The Third. He was also took roles in movies like Bad Teacher, Friends with Benefits, and In Time.  In 2011, Timberlake started being a frequent guest on the comedy television show Saturday Night Live. 
I can connect to this biography about JT to a magazine that I read about a year ago about this same guy. The first chapters that I have read so far talk about how all the events that lead him to where he is now. The magazine also explained how from when he was a young adult he has been in bands and acting and how those events lead up to where he is now. In addition, Timberlake has raised lots of money for all he has done since the time back then.

Room Blog 3

As I continued to read the book Room, I finished it off and was surprised by the ending. After Jack had jumped out the truck and told the man on the street what was going on, the guy called the police to chase after Old Nick. Then Jack told the police that Mom was in Room. Eventually, the police found Mom, saved both of them, and charged Old Nick for several charges which leads him to 25 years of life in jail. Afterwards, Mom and Jack started going to a mental hospital to try to recover from the past. It was extremely difficult for the both of them to cope with the outside world, since Mom hasn't been in it for the past seven years and Jack has never even been in it. They're situation that was lived in Room was attracted by the public so this made it even harder for both to live a normal life. Eventually, they both end up moving to a place of their own and get their own rooms. One day Jack asks Mom if they can take a visit to Room. Jack says a last goodbye and they leave.
Towards the very end of the book, both characters changed their  perspectives of life. Jack became more open to the world. Although, Mom continued to be the same sad person, but understood that she had to change so that she could have a better life. Towards the end, I also noticed that it said that Jack was forgetting about Room and began to look at the outside world differently. He wasn't as scared as he use to be. Which is good news at least for him. In my opinion I think that Mom will eventually cope to her life because she has something to live for, which is Jack.

Room blog 2

As I am continuing to read the book Room there were many important events that I read about. One of the biggest events that I read about was that Mom told Jack about the truth about they're life. She told him of when she was a 19 year-old college student when she was abducted by Old Nick, had another child who died while in her stomache, and how Old Nick broke mom's wrist while trying to escape from Room. Mom decides to plan an escape with her son far away from Old Nick. She planned to fake that Jack had a fever and diarrhea so that Old Nick would take him to the hospital, but Old Nick didn't care so he did not take him because he thought Jack was going to tell authorities about Room and about how they were hidden in it. Mom did not give up, so she told Jack that he was going to have to pretend to die so that then mom would roll him up inside a rug. Then Mom would tell Old Nick to take the "dead body" in his truck somewhere where he could not be found. This plan worked. Then Jack jumps out of the truck when he is taken which Old Nick notices and starts following Jack. Jack runs into a guy who was out walking his dog and is rescued by the him; the guy calls the police and tells him what he remembers of the license plates of Old Nick's truck.
I stopped reading here because I knew that it was going to get more interesting and I wasn't going to stop reading. Hopefully, the ending will be awesome and will leave me surprised.

What I think about the last pages I have read, I think that I could make a connection to a news report that I saw on television. It was pretty much the same story but with a girl and her mom. This book has been one of the saddest books I have read. I can predict many things that are going to happen. Like I can tell that Jack will get help to rescue his mom, and at the end they will both be out since the mom is smart and knows the right things to do. Hopefully, the end of the book will be a jaw-dropping moment.

Room blog 1

The book I have started to read is called Room by Emma Donoghue. It is about a mom who got kidnapped and has been trapped in a little, little room with her son. The boy does not know though that they are kidnapped so he just thinks that that is how life is supposed to be lived. The room they live in is only like  11 ft by 11 feet. Mom has not been in the outside world since Jack was born so Jack has never been in the outside world. They spend all day, everyday in this little room trying to live normal. They don't have much to eat or do but they always rely on Old Nick to hopefully provide for them. Old Nick is the guy who has Mom and Jack trapped in this room. For Jack, Old Nick is just a normal guy who comes home every night and does things to Mom while he is put in Wardrobe so that he doesn't see anything. Everything sounds so illogical but it is how they really live.  It's a great mystery of what you think is going to happen next. So far I think this is one of my top readings.

The main character in the story is a little boy Jack, and the mom. Jack is a boy who barley turned 6. He was born in the little room, which is the setting of the story. Every night, Jack is put in Wardrobe when Old Nick comes back. Jack never asks himself why he sleeps there; he just listens to his mother. For Jack, the room is the only world he knows; but for mom, Room is a nightmare prison but she tries to cover it up just to give her son a normal view of life. They both have totally different perspectives of Room. In which for them, they both try to live it normal.

                       

My Goals for 2015

One of my academic goals that I have is too get my work turned in the day it is due. The class that I have more trouble with is in Language Arts. I procrastinate too much and leave all my work to do last minute. This gives me a lot of stress because then I try to do the work during class, but instead of this helping me, it leaves me more behind in class. So the effect of this is that my grades go down in that certain class. Therefore, this is why that is one of my academic goal. 

One of my personal goals this year (not as important as the rest) is to let my nails grow out. So I will have to stop biting them like I do now. It has been sort of hard because trying to stop biting my nails was my New Year's resolution like two years ago. I still have not accomplished it. No matter what,  I'm going to try my best to stop doing this annoying habit of mine.