Friday, October 29, 2010

extra credit entry, The Giver


In the book The Giver, there is a world full of completely oblivious people. They have no connection to the outside world; hell they think that their little town is the only world. I feel that their form of government is wrong for shielding the peoples eyes like that I don’t think that it is helping anybody, it is actually killing people because in their attempts to keep people ignorant they have to kill people to do so. An example of this is when the old receiver filed for release because she couldn’t deal with the reality. By shielding their community from the harsh reality the elders made a problem of when this reality gets through not only do the people not know what to do they don’t really know what to do.

I also think that in Jonas’s case people are being fed lies on a silver platter and when one person refuses to take that food and eat it, they die. An example of this is when the plane crashed into the city. They didn’t know what to do so they killed the plane driver. They die because the government wouldn’t know how to deal if people stopped believing what they were told and if they wanted to not be in this community anymore and go out and basically have free will.

In our case though I think it is different because our government doesn’t forcibly block our thoughts and… wait never mind they do or at least on some occasions but that’s not what I meant. They don’t forcibly make it so that we are ignorant we choose to do that ourselves and I don’t really understand why. I think that it may be because since it doesn’t directly affect us we don’t really seem to give a damn.
I think that we as Americans are sort of disconnected from the world I mean really think about it. (Everywhere else uses centimeters but we use inches.) So many people are ignorant about the world outside in other countries; the only reason people know what happened in Haiti is because of the people on the news.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

social awarness october 28


i was reading the new york times trying to find something to do and a certain article really caught my eyes. "end the war on pot," was the name of the article. this was really interesting, it was about one journalists who went into how pot should be legalized, i might disagree with him but, he brought up a very good point, he said that the USA spends more money on jail and juvenile for drugs then on many public schools. "A Harvard economist, Jeffrey A. Miron, calculates that marijuana could generate $8.7 billion in tax revenue each year if legalized nationally, while legalization would also save the same sum annually in enforcement costs." that's a lot of dough so basically it makes the USA 17 billion dollars every year. but it also raises the point, well the same is with smoking, although it isn't illegal to buy and smoke it could soon be and is this fair, legalize one thing and illegalize another? i don't think so.  


this article also caught my eye, it was about the USA and other European countrys are trying to limit the amount of nuclear bombs Iran has. they are proposing to make Iran ship 2/3 more then they already are in uranium. also they would have to bring its nuclear fuel levels down to 20 percent of now which would really lower their ability to make nuclear bombs. this really made me think, if we are enforcing and cracking down on theses middle eastern countrys, why do we still have nuclear bombs. i bet that half of these people we are attacking because they have nuclear bombs would get rid of theirs if we got rid of ours. just a thought though 

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

entry #8

At first, this poem doesn't seem to be that deep. My first read through i didn't get a feel for the poem at all, i think this was because i wasn't looking at the poem in the right way. the second time through was a little better, i got the crystal stair-life thing and i enjoyed it much more. the third time through i picked up even more, i picked up the hard things in her life and her reaching platforms is like goals and progress and i thought that turning corner was discovering new things, maybe being a little scared. so all in all my understanding of the poem got better the more times i read it, i also liked it a lot more the last time i read it as opposed to the first time i read it.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Appreciation First Draft

You know that you have a book when the two main characters are a short genius and a big idiot who bond and become the best of friends and start "riding high above the world and slaying dragons."

There can only be one book I'm talking about, Freak The Mighty and that is one of the many things that make me read this book over and over again, the uniqueness. This book is one of the most unique books in the world because it's different from any other book I have read and this is why I keep reading it time and time again. For me, it takes a lot to get me reading realistic fiction, I mean A LOT, but this book, whatever the reason, has drawn me in and won't let go and I am glad for that.

I can make a connection here despite this books uniqueness. I feel like Max and Freak can be compared to any other character's that are different, for example Wilbur in E.B. White's Charlotte’s Web because they both have something different about them that people don't like or that make them out of the group until a friend comes along who will accept them for who they are.

Another thing I appreciate although others may disagree was the movie. Although people will argue that hey they wrote a whole damn new beginning, well that is what I liked most about the movie and the book for that matter, how they met. In the book it is when Freak loses an Ornithopter in a tree, in the movie Blade rolls a basketball at Freak, which knocks him down, and Max gets blamed for it. The reason why I love the fact that there are two different beginnings and their relationships start differently but they still end the same, with me in tears.  Personally I loved the actors; they kept it action packed and humorous while still keeping that great essence of the book. Kieran Culkin played freak, and was very good. Although he wasn’t the textbook Freak I still love the job that he did. Eldon Henson played Max I loved this. I don’t think they could have picked someone better to play Max, he really made himself seem like a big bumbling idiot.

And last but certainly not least, actually probably greatest thing I appreciate is how this short little genius and this big idiot, bond and become great friends. Personally I love this idea that 2 people so different can bond and turn into great friends, personally I don’t think in real life it is like this, or at least not in middle school. In middle school everyone stays to their own little group of friends. This also goes back to my first idea but I won't get into that. I love how they become friends, by the same common goal and interest, adventure, even though Max doesn't know that's what he loves yet. Regardless of how they became friends I love it how they ARE friends because it really shows that anybody can be anybody's friend if they try hard enough. The only thing I question is the truth to this, can anybody actually be friends despite their differences, I think that the answer is yes and I also think that people should give anybody and everybody a shot, I try to do that to the best of my abilities and I think everyone else should to.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Entry #7 Movie: The Mighty

well despite things i have heard about this movie i had a great experience watching this movie. i had heard from certain people (cough, cough, Tomin) that the only part of the movie that was good was the last 15 minuets of the movie. although the last 15 minuets were so good and sad enough to make me start balling, i thought the movie as a whole deserved a thumbs up. i really enjoyed watching this because it really helped me to think more about the book and also i basically got a whole new beginning of a story. i think that watching the movie defiantly did it's job by helping to expand my thinking and questions about the book. even though it was very good and even though Kieran Culkin was really good as freak it really is hard to get over the fact that the beginning was completely different. Kieran Culkin did a good job at what it seemed he was trying to accomplish as Freak but just Freak's whole character and attitude was much different from how i imagined Freak would be. all in all though i really enjoyed the movie and now i sort of want to read the second book.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Entry #6 Freak The Mighty

i really like how freak and max are very different but they also need each other. this really shows me that opposites can attract. i feel like usually this is either completely true or completely the opposite.
 i really like how freak and max bonded. for me most of my friends are just like me or just barely different from me.

i honestly do wonder how they get along. i mean freak is this really brainy small kid whereas max is this giant person who is dumb as a rock. then again i can understand it because freak, being very small, needs a big strong muscular body. max on the other hand needs a brain to go along with his body. they are just like yin and yang.