~*~::{Reading Blog #8: Auntie's Poem}::~*~

Auntie's Blog

I decided to analyze her story that she wrote about her dear cat, Apollo. 

Now...I remember going over there as a youngling.  Everytime I saw Gail, there was Apollo.  Everywhere she went, he went.  They were inseperable, almost to a fault.  When he passed, my aunt really was a wreck for months.  She took forever to rehabilitate to the bubbly, dark, deranged soul she normally is again.

This little excerpt from her many writing about depressing and dark subjects (which have a humor about them that have rubbed off on me...) really reminded me of the happy times when she had her kitty.  16 years of her life she had that cat.  He was the closest companion she had ever had (pphh husbands...)

So...reading this actually brought tears to my eyes.  I mean...I never really had the strongest bond with that particular cat, but my cat and I are close (still nowhere near as close...but still...) and when I lose her, I know it's gonna be rough.  So not looking forward to losing my baby. 

Still...read it.  It's amazing.  She's a great writer. 

(Love ya, G..)

~*~::{Reading Blog #7: SAW V!}::~*~

...so...Mr. Cheng did say that we could do an occasional reading blog on a movie as long as it wasn't all the time.  (Loopholes!! AHH!  LOVE 'EM!)  I was very patient so I could analyze Saw V. (Mr. Cheng has to read this...he winced when I said the name in class.  XD) I went and saw this right after school on friday at 5:oo. (Saw V at 5:00!)

I'd just like to begin by saying this...Cullen...I have a life.  I have other hobbies.  Before you make fun of me, I warn you...don't read this.  

Now...the Saw Series isn't all about gore.  It actually has a good plot with tons of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat.  (The gore is just a bonus...)  

In the latest installment, you learn about why the newest and most recently revealed apprentice, Detective Mark Hoffman, was involved in the whole Jigsaw ordeal.  We learn that he was blackmailed for getting revenge and forced to help Jigsaw with his sick games.  

Now...normally with the other Saw movies, the people that are put into the games where they have to mutilate themselves are drug addicts, murderers, rapists, arsonists, etc.  But in this movie, the people were high-class citizens.  City planners, journalists, real-estate developers, etc.  This made for a very interesting twist.  They used their high-class status to advance themselves in life (money and such) and Jigsaw felt like testing them...blah blah blah, you get the idea.  

The other side of the movie shows a cop, Special Agent Peter Strahm, following Detective Hoffman trying to catch him as the true Jigsaw Accomplice.  Meanwhile, Hoffman was setting the scene to make it look like Strahm was the real apprentice throwing the rest of the police off the trail.  It really was a tug-of-war battle that ended in bloodshed. 

Now, I repeat.  This movie actually does have a plot and the gore is really a backseat to this film.  This movie leaves many holes and loose ends that are going to be tied up in Saw VI next october, but until then, you won't hear me speak the name Saw...(not for a couple months anyway...)

~*~::{Hero In A Box}::~*~

My heroes that I chose to research were Pokemon Trainers.  They are heroes because they go on journeys to find themselves and learn about who the

y truly are.  

They join up with friends (Misty, Brock, May, 

Drew, and Dawn) and they c

atch pokemon (over 450 of them...I'm not listing them all..

.) which are like their swords and shields that help them through their journey to beat the 

bad guys (gym leaders, Team Rocket and Team Galactic).  These heroes are rewarded for their triumphs and their accomplishments with rewards (trophies, gym badges, contest ribbons, frontier brain badges, etc.)   To the 

right, we have a list of about 391 of the

 450 pokemon that have been created.  They aid trainers on their journeys to s

uccess. 

Here we have a picture of all the badges from the pokemon series.  This is all badges from every Pokemon

 Gym and all Frontier Pyramids.  These signify triumphs and accomplishments of all pokemon trainers. 

Here we have Team

 Rocket, one of the main antagonists of the series.  

Constantly trying to foil Ash and his cohorts' plans at being great masters of pokemon, they try to ste

al their pokemon to try and impress their boss, Giovanni.

Next we have the Legendary Pokemon which take place as the

 Gods and Goddesses that watch over the trainers and their pokemon as they go on their journey to be the greatest. 

Finally we have Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of this  series.  He goes on a journey with

 his wonderful friends that guide him through the world and his pokemon love him and see him through every victory and loss.

~*~::{Reading Blog #6: More Luna...}::~*~

Continuing to read Luna, I read a few more chapters...well, actually...the rest of the book.

I really don't read things this quickly unless they catch my attention...I mean...holy s**t.  This book was...WOW!

Regan meets this boy that just moved to town, Chris.  She becomes lab partners with him in her science class.  She develops a huge crush on him and he likes her, too, but she is worried that she's not good enough for him.  Throughout the whole book is a huge denial-factor of her not realizing how good she is.  He helps her realize this.  They end up going out, and (sappy sappy) fall in love.

Now...her transsexual brother, Liam (Luna, as a woman), is developing more problems.  He wants so much to tell the world he's really a girl and he hates hiding his secret, especially from his best friend, Aly, and his family.  

His mother and father are completely oblivious and think everything's all good.  Aly has a huge crush on Liam, and when he finally get's the guts to tell her, she goes crazy.  

At the end of the book, the only people talking to Luna include her sister, Regan.  Everyone else has cut themselves off not wanting part of her world.  

Luna moves away to try and start a new life.  She gets sexual-reassignment surgery, and many other surgeries to make her transformation complete. 

After all the drama leaves Regan, she gets to focus more on Chris and appeasing him. 

~*~::{Reading Blog #5: The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy}::~*~

For this reading blog post, I read the finale of "The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy" by Joshua Foer.  What this story is about is a boy that became paralyzed in a car accident, unable to move or make any actions whatsoever but move his eyeballs around.  Only able to answer 'yes' or 'no' to questions asked by people,  doctors wanted to make his life as normal as possible trying to rehabilitate him.  

They put glass shards and wires into his brain.  With practice, patience, and open-minds, he was able to begin translating his actual thoughts into letters and words allowing him to converse with people.  

With practice and patience, people were helping Erik with his problems and were allowing him a second chance at life by interpreting his thoughts into letters and those letters into words.  

~*~::{Siddhartha 4}::~*~

Well...my journey is over.  Enlightenment has been achieved, and I'm very happy with where I am.  After accomplishing my goal and finishing my journey, I think I have learned self control and how to wait.  I think I realized this best when I was meditating and when I was being tempted by many temptations like love and money.  

Learning how to wait was a tough one.  Having to ask people questions about how to be happy and why things are the way they are without getting an exact answer right away was very difficult.  When I asked my father to go on my journey at the beginning of my young adult life, he told me I wasn't allowed to go.  I had to wait until he was okay with it for me to be able to.  

Self control was another big one.  When I had to meditate to finally reach my enlightenment, I had to wait and wait and wait (and wait) thinking only about getting enlightened.  I was tempted by many many things which made my journey very hard.  Love and money were the biggest ones.   Trying to distract me, I had to turn them all down very painfully, but in the end, I realized it was just for the best for me.  

In the end, I learned that in order for me to be truly happy, I had to go through some very hard times in order to eventually be happy.  Asking questions to quench your thirst for knowledge and waiting for good things to happen and going with the flow of life are all you have to do to make your life happy.  

Siddhartha, over and out.

~*~::{Reading Blog #4: Luna}::~*~

I am currently reading Luna by Julie Anne Peters.  I am about 3 chapters into this novel, and it is already filled with marvelous plots.  Regan is a girl in high school who is already dealing with liking this guy and trying (and failing miserably) in her classes.  Now, Regan's brother, Liam is a transexual, which means that he was born in the wrong body (i.e. he was born a boy, but thinks he should have been born a girl).

A prediction about this book I have is that Liam will be harassed for being different.  People are ignorant and scared of change that they don't necessarily want, so they are going to treat him terribly for being different.  Regan, however, is already said to be his helper when he changes into his girl form (Luna) during the night, so she will probably have a stressful time trying to deal with this and high school drama.  

~*~::{Reading Blog #3: More Wicked...}:~*~

Continuing to read Wicked (yet another time) I have read through the first couple chapters.  So far, Elphaba has been born into a family with a father that travels a lot and a mother that is cheating on him.  The girl was born with skin as green as lettuce (yes, lettuce) and said to have been born of the devil.  She has teeth that are sharp like piranha teeth and is dazzled by Turtleheart's (her mothers lover) glass blowing and his stories of travel.  

She ends up going to school in a very esteemed school and there meets Galinda (soon to be Glinda, the Good Witch of the North) who is very snobby and all about material things (like half of Edina) and right away by judging Elphaba without knowing her, finds great disgust and hate in this girl that looks like lettuce.  

Elphaba finds herself caught up in a web of mysteries (yes, my words are awesome) when all the Animals (capitalized because they can talk) are going missing and being outlawed by the Wizard of Oz, who we learn later is the real bad guy in this story and world of Oz.

~*~::{Reading Blog #2: Wicked}::~*~

For my second book choice, I thought I would analyze the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  This book follows the Wicked Witch of the Wests' side of the story of the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy and her story.  You learn through the story why she is green, why she doesn't like water, why she is hated by everyone, and how she is connected to the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.  

Now, having read this book already, I knew I loved it.  I went back and read the last chapter (which is more like a section...) and it really made me sad.  Throughout the story, you begin to love the Wicked Witch (Elphaba) because she really is a wonderful person that tries to be good, just having all of her good deeds fail in the process making it seem like bad things.  (Good intentions gone wrong...)

The last chapter is all about the finale of The Wizard of Oz and the melting scene.  How this was described was just phenomenal.  If you connected with the Elphaba, this scene tore your heart out. 

"...she hurled the water at the Witch.  An instant sharp pain before the numbness.  The world was floods above the fire below.  If there was such a thing as a sould, the soul had gambled on a sort of babtism, and had it won?

The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation. " (Maguire 403 "Wicked")

This whole page and the following pages talk about her life flashing before her eyes and all

the people she has hurt with her good intentions.  

This is the one book which I have read numerous times and still get emotional when it

gets to the part about her dying.  

RIP ELPHABA

~*~::{Siddhartha 3}::~*~

Dear Ginny...

I am seriosly worried about my dear friend, Siddhartha. For the last few years, he has become more emotionally attached. I feel like I am losing my dearest friend and I don't know what to do anymore. We used to do everything together, but more recently, he has cut himself off from the world looking for innner happiness and enlightenment, but I don't know if it's helping him or making him a worse person. Can you please help me? Thank you.

--Govinda

Dear Govey...

That sounds really terrible. So you think your best friend is abandoning you for a higher power and enlightenment? Hmm. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it. If he truly is your friend and if he is even worth your time, he will come back to you after this little phase of his is over. Offer yourself to be a friend of his and let him know how important he is to you, and then just give him some space. Again, like I siad. If he really is your friend, he will come back to you and you can be friends again. Then all will be good in the world, and he will be enlightened.

~*~::{Siddhartha 2}::~*~

(Mr. Cheng...since I made my avatar Siddhartha, I decided that I am going to make it a letter from Govinda to Siddhartha and visa versa)

Dear Siddhartha,

Why are you saying goodbye?  You and I have been companions since we were children, and by you leaving me, you are saying that we aren't friends anymore.  You don't know how depressed that makes me.  How am I going to find my own salvation when my best friend isn't apart of it?  By you leaving me, that doesn't put me on the path to salvation.  All that does is confuse me and want you back even more.  Please don't leave me. 

Love, Govinda. 

Dear Govinda, 

I understand that you don't want me to leave you.  It is completely understandable.  I don't want to have to leave you either, but as you know, my thirst for knowledge has left me empty on the inside.  I no longer know who I am and I need to learn why I feel the way that I do.  I am on the path to enlightenment, thanks to the learnings from the Buddha.  He has inspired me to go on my own path to happiness, and it involves giving up all that I love...that includes you, as well. 

Good bye for now, dear friend. 

Love, Siddhartha. 

~*~::{Reading Blog #1: The City of Ember}::~*~

Since one of my favorite books of all time is coming out as a movie as of next friday, I decided I will analyze this piece of literature. 

The last time I read this whole book was probably around 7th grade, but I went back and read a couple pages in every chapter to get my juices flowing. 

This book is about a dying city under the ground.  Lina and Doon, 2 young children, find a mysterious letter and using eachother's help, they find a way out of the town before it dies out.  They lead their town to safety, and they are the heroes. 

This book really was one of my favorites because they give little hints and clues throughout the wholes story, so they allow you to follow along with the story and try and solve the mystery along with the main characters.  It had me reading it nonstop and really never wanting to stop reading.  It was always exciting to the very end. 

If you haven't read this book yet, you totally should.  The movie comes out next week, so if you get reading now, you may be able to finish and then see the movie in theaters. 

~*~::{Siddhartha}::~*~

This is young Siddhartha.  Aided by his friend, Govinda, he hopes to one day stop all pain in his life.  He respects his father and his wishes greatfully, and does only what he says.  His father allows him to go find himself and try and be happy by becoming a Samana.  Young Siddhartha starves himself, asking people for food for every meal.  He enjoys meditating, and loves asking himself why there is so much pain in the world, and what it will take for him to overcome it.