3rd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

Books I read this semester:

(ranked by "difficulty" or how difficult it was for me to finish the book)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Firestarter by Stephen King
The Martian by Andy Weir
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (I got bored over break so I reread the first 3)

My goal last semester was to read five books, and I'm proud to say, for the first time this whole year, I've met my goal! However, I still don't think I  REALLY met my goal in a broader sense, which is to treat reading as something, that needs to be done constantly. With my busy anime LIFE, it's hard finding time time to sit down and have quality reading. It helped a bit that "3rd quarter" constitutes winter break too, because I read a bunch over winter break, since I knew once school started, it'd be back to no time for reading.

Also, last semester I said something about reading at least an hour on weekends.

Yeah right, like that happened.

So, because of all this, and since I don't see my anime schedule LIFE getting any less busy, this semester, we're going to focus quality over quantity. I feel like it's been quite a while since I've read a REALLY high quality book, or that one I can really connect with. Therefore, this last quarter of the year, my goal will be unlike any of my other goals, and I'm going to focus on quality, yes QUALITY, for once.

So, without further ado, Kevin's reading goals for quarter 4:
1. read at least one Alex Award Winner
2. read at least one book that Mrs. Leitsch recommended

No Faults in "The Fault in Our Stars"

The Fault in Our Stars is a true piece of art. A piece of art that was  probably made by a 5 year old in art class, but hey, art is in the eyes of the beholder. The book just had so many great, TOTALLY not cliche thematic elements, such as: teen romance, cancer, love at first sight, I-want-to-go-on-a-romantic-trip-but-my-mom-won't-let-me-oh-wait-jk-if-I-beg-enough-she-will, more romance, death.

But don't worry, this book isn't dark at all! I mean you shouldn't have your young child read it though, there's a lot of unnecessary swearing, that doesn't contribute shit (<-- see that one actually contributed!) to the message of the story! Oh, of course we can't forget the message. I think it's actually very very deep: if you have cancer, gg get rekt by fate!

Now, a great book like this one, would not be complete with some great characters. The first character is Hazel. Definitely not cliche either, not your average depressed high school student who wants nothing with life, except a spark of love!  I must say, I really did enjoy Augustus Waters also. Just like what Hazel says, he is just oh-my-god-so-cute and oh-my-god-he's-so-good-at-video-games and oh-my-god-I-love-how-muscular-he-is, and oh-my-god-he-likes-the-same-book-I-do, and oh-my-god-he-smokes. TBH, if Kirito or Tatsumi didn't exist, I think I'd love him instead! Nah, I take that back, nobody is hotter than Kirito, but that's a different story for a different time!

Speaking of story, I must comment on the great story. The story is set in a pretty average town, but the best part has to be the conflict in the story. I just love how Hazel struggles to express her love to Augustus throughout the story, definitely was not falling asleep when I read it; so engaging! The plot line is like a kiddie roller coaster at an amusement park, it really is as boring as it looks. Of course, the author is so cliche good at foreshadowing, I figured out the ending after I read the first chapter: it's not IF Augustus dies, but WHEN Augustus dies.

But even then, the ending was so impactful for me. Like this was me when I read the ending:

I flipped the page.

I read the page.

I processed the page.

I cried.

I had just wasted 3 hours of my life.

Now again I stress just how much I loved this book. So I'll make a quick list of why this book is better than any other book you'll find in the romance genre:

What TFIOS has that can't be found anywhere else:
1. really great characters, NOT cliche or anything
2. really great plot, like SO MUCH happens, not boring love all day AT ALL
3. great ending, totally not predictable, man it really pained me deep down

I think this book is totally worth the buy, really, you can buy it right here, you should really buy it!

But of course, if you're poor like me, then try this link!


---------------------------------- SIDENOTE-------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all, I apologize to anyone who actually likes The Fault in Our Stars. You have my permission to slap me the next time you see me.

HOWEVER, hear me out. The book was  written very well. The craft was very high level and yeah, it was  p good. John Green is an amazing writer, but unfortunately, the stuff he writes is not really my type, nor is romance in general really my type.

On a serious note, if you like romance books, go for it, the plot and characters really aren't as bad as I describe them, and I could see how people would like this book.

Actually you know what, this book really reminds me of SAO. Like they have so many things in common:

1. cheap romance
2. no character development
3. a plot, but not really, because nothing REALLY happens
4. predictable plot
5. both are really mainstream, and I seem like to be the only hater here

Except SAO has Kirito. And Asuna. (we're dating BTW).
Which just makes it light years better.


--------------------------------ANOTHER SIDENOTE------------------------------------------------------------

OK, that turned out a little more weird than I'd have expected. Again I apologize to anyone that had to read this and I applaud you for making it this far.

Like OK, all weird stuff aside, Kirito actually is pretty good looking , I mean just click on the link and see for yourself. Although Jason with his hat comes pretty close...

Point of View - Dave Berry

The Mother of All Parties: http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/08/23/1181265/the-mother-of-all-parties.html
A Ruff and Ready Playmate: http://www.miamiherald.com/2004/12/19/849625/a-ruff-and-ready-playmate.html#storylink=cpy 

Columnist writer Dave Berry writes columns with the style of everyday life and humor. In his columns, he writes about and shows readers aspects of his daily life and family such as birthday parties for his daughter, or convincing his wife to buy a dog. He also uses writes in the style of humor because he inserts jokes into his column that are intended for the enjoyment and humor of the reader. An example of an aspect of his daily life, is planning a birthday party for his daughter and all of the planning that goes into it. An example of humor is him exaggerating how his wife is a sworn enemy with anybody who uses the same theme for their daughter’s birthday party or his insertion of an example of how far parents are willing to take birthday parties.

One writing technique that Berry uses to contribute to his point of view is hyperbole. Berry exaggerates many things in his column to add humor to his pieces. In his piece, “The Mother of all Parties,” he states that a woman “used the actual sky, which was visible because [she] removed the ceiling roof with a chainsaw”. Berry uses this hyperbole because it is so far-fetched how anyone would go this far to create a sky theme for a child’s birthday party, that readers will find it humorous because of how outrageous it is. Also, in his piece “A Ruff and Ready Playmate,”, Berry states that a dog will always wait for you, and is always ready, and “sits in the drive seat, in case [it] is called upon to steer.” The reader clearly knows that dogs can not drive in real life, and when Berry exaggerates how a dog is ready for anything, even to drive a car, it paints a humorous picture in the reader’s mind.

Things I Learned Last Year

Things I Learned Last Year

Some are willing to get 7 people a bus
Just for safety reasons.

People will work that much harder
For a piece of candy.

Bit by bit will give you results,
It'll just take a long time;
A REALLY long time.

Getting 10 hours a sleep each night
Was a thing of the past

You can make a teacher quit his job,
If you're really annoying in class.

You can get a lot done in a day,
Like finish all of SAO,
If you really count the hours.


By the way about the teacher quitting his job, I don't think the only reason that he quit his job because some students (who will remain unnamed) were REALLY annoying in class. I'm positive there were other reasons. My year last year was overall, a pretty average year. I liked all my classes, I liked (mostly) all of my teachers, and life was pretty good. Nothing huge really happened, except me getting a year closer to dying, but I guess that happens every year. The biggest things that happened to me last year were me failing 2 back to back violin auditions, and somebody showing me a video of what, back then I thought was just another one of those weird stupid things that people with no life got addicted to, but now I'm addicted to it, so I guess now I'm a stupid weird person with no life. (BTW if you couldn't figure it out yet, the thing starts with a, ends with e, and has 'nim' in the middle).

My poem has a lighthearted tone. I didn't write it to be some super deep and personal poem. Again, as with all my other blog posts, I try to be funny, but usually that doesn't work, so it's extremely awkward as the reader. To me, writing should be something that's fun, which is why I'm not always super on board with the education system, and for me, fun writing to me is really just like me talking, but instead I'm writing it down. I think my poem, and probably all of my other blog posts reflects this.

In comparison to Stafford's poem, they both have a lighthearted tone and talk about a lot of random facts, although mine pertain to my personal life, while Stafford's are just, well, random. I didn't talk about any celebrities or famous people, because let's face it, I'm the real celebrity, right? Also, my poem wasn't really structured like Stafford's, with duplets, quatrains, and stuff, and again it was really just kind of random. Also, I feel Stafford's has a since of cohesion, like the poem as a whole, is supposed to mean or represent something, where mine is just like a random collection.

Second Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

Now I'm sure many of you out there think that this blog post is something funny, and lighthearted , and you know, put something that represents you out there, right? WRONG! ABSOLUTELY WRONG!! We are here to discuss some very pressing issues. This is completely serious and definitely should not be taken as a joke. Now today, the issue we will be discussing is, one of the most pressing of all, teenage relationships.

Now in the process of discussing this, we will be answering the question, "Should high school relationships be taken seriously?" To thoroughly analyze this thought provoking question, we will implement a strategy know as persuasive case writing, given to me by my late English teacher, Mr. Eric Schatzle. In order to get the most through answer possible, we will analyze a situation of high school relationships, and what other one would we turn to other than Nisekoi??

Just like persuasive case writing, each relationship must start somewhere. We turn to look at our case study, where we meet our couple: Raku Ichijo, the son of the Yazuka gang, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the gorilla woman who is the sun of the bee hive gang. Of course so conveniently, the two gangs are at war with each other, and to keep the peace, both must love each other. Even more conveniently,  Raku is in love with another girl, Kosaki Onodera. Add in some side characters that nobody gives a crap about and you have your average harem!!

What many people do not understand is, that it is very hard to hold a high school relationship, as is shown on Valentine's Day, where a no-lifer Raku, gets chocolate from just about every girl in the school. We have to put ourselves in his shoes and really imagine how hard it must be. It has to be very stressful getting all that chocolate and not knowing what to do with it. Science has proven that high amounts of stress to the body is very detrimental, and therefore, high school relationships must be taken very seriously, or we will see massive amounts of stress induced deaths across the country.

Another example of how hard holding a relationship is when there are just too many choices. Somehow the school he attends has a boy girl ratio of 2:100 and all these choices of who to hold a relationship. Everybody knows having too many choices can lead to chronic indecision. I mean just look at all these people. (notice the boy girl ratio)

Of course,  having all these choices can lead to serious and deadly side effects such as:

Raku getting beat up

Raku ending up in the girls bathroom

Raku playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet

and of course the most deadly, monkey AIDS

So what have we learned today? First we have learned that I have no life, and this piece of !@#$ took an hour of my non-existent life. Second, we have learned that if you don't want monkey AIDS, you better value your high school relationships!


Reflection

Yeah, I'm never going to do anything serious. I'll probably be taking the ACTs and this is the bullcrap I put on there. I chose this one mostly because all my other ones suck, and I felt like I could express my true stupid self in this one. The result was supposed to be better but unfortunately it is 12am and I value my sleep too much. My revisions consisted mostly of extending what I had in my journal a bit, and changing the orders of some stuff here and there (along with the beautiful pictures, and removing bad words). When I blog like this, I usually just let my brain run on whatever wild tangents it wants to and I don't do too much revising at the end, because again it shows my true stupid self.

OH yeah if you wanna see another adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, be my guest --> here <--
it actually fits what we're doing in class pretty well!

Second Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

This quarter I read 4 books. Now before you criticize me on how little books I read this quarter, I would like to remind you that 4 is 3 more than 1. Again, this is less than I would like to read, but you know, life (and manga). This is the same amount of books I read last quarter, which is slightly disappointing because my goal last quarter was to read more. The 4 books I finished were:

The Color of Water (read the review here)

Breaking Night by Elizabeth Murray (read the review here)

Inferno by Dan Brown (read the review here)

The Pearl by John Steinbeck (read the review here)

My favorite book out of the 4 I read was by far Breaking Night. Although I think the writing wasn't anything all too special, the story that was told was great and very inspiring. To me, it's so awe inspiring how that someone can be living on the streets, gone to no high school, and still make it to Harvard. It teaches all a lesson that no dream is too far away. 

The books I chose I think were about the right level for me, if not a bit easy for me. I chose these books because I want a book that's not too easy but not so challenging I can't enjoy the book at the same time, so I try to go somewhere in the middle. 

Again, I think I'm more of a fiction type of person, but I really did enjoy Breaking Night, even though that was a memoir. 

My goals that I set for myself last quarter was to read more, and clearly, I am nowhere close to reaching that goal. Last quarter, I set myself a goal to read in 30+ minute chunks at least a few times a week, and I can manage maybe once or twice a week, tops. Again, the main reason why I think I did not reach my goal was because that, again, reading was more of a second thought. Most of the time, when I get home, I always have homework running through my head, but never really reading. I think this is the main reason that I didn't reach my goal.

For next quarter, my goals are very simple. First, read at least 5 books (wow, I know, huge increase). I think if I can do 4 a quarter, there should be no problem squeezing in another book. Secondly, I will challenge myself to read at least an hour every weekend. My weeknights are usually very busy, so I will try to do more reading when I'm less busy, i.e. the weekend.

Again, maybe spending less time on  anime HOMEWORK, would help.

Shakespeare? More like Fakespeare!!

Recently, in the information age, or what I like to consider the age of stupidity and conspiracies, comes yet another conspiracy, the idea that Shakespeare did not write his plays. This theory originated in the year 1848, when a young man by the name of Samuel Mosheim Schmucker wrote in his book, as a joke, that Shakespeare did not exist. But he will soon figure out, words have a large impact, especially in the form of a high velocity dictionary flying towards your head. 

For some reason, the people of today have a hard time distinguishing a joke and something serious and sure enough, in 1857, American writer Delia Salter Bacon published The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, in which she argued that Lord Francis Bacon, among others, wrote Shakespeare's plays. Soon afterward, many people also jumped aboard the bandwagon, even people such as Mark Twain (“So far as anybody actually knows and can prove, Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon never wrote a play in his life.”) and Charlie Chaplin (“I can hardly think it was the Stratford boy, whoever wrote them had an aristocratic attitude.”).

The main basis for most conspirator's arguments is that there is absolutely no evidence directly relating to his upbringing. As far as we know, he did not receive any formal education or training in writing, yet he uses such advanced writing. Also, no other formal documents or otherwise exist, saying that Shakespeare wrote his plays. Finally, the most convincing piece of evidence, a word found in Hamlet, honorificabilitudinitatibus, is an anagram for hi ludi F.Baconis nati tuiti orbi" or "these plays born of F.Bacon are preserved for the world and Francis Bacon is one of the proposed authors who wrote the "Shakespearean plays"

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/10/did-shakespeare-really-write-his-plays-a-few-theories-examined/        
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/shakepeareauthorship.html