Blog Number Six

Since this is going to be our last blog post assignment I thought I would write about my opinion of the Private Series,, and my observations in reading them. One thing I noticed when I was reading the books is that the author uses many of the same words to describe things. I'm guessing she does this because she didn't expect anyone to notice or think too much of it because usually most people wouldn't read all the books in a row. My favorite part of this series was that you couldn't predict what was going to happen next. There were so many different possibilities! My favorite book was the last one so far in the series. Although it wasn't as action packed as the others, it was a lot calmer. It was also nice seeing Reed and the other Billings girls reunite after a year plus apart. They were definitely able to relax compared to other books.

Blog Number Five

For this post I read the fifth book in the private series, Inner Circle. It picks up on a new year that the last book left off on. One thing I didn't like was how it skipped the whole second term of Reed's first school year, but I guess it wasn't too eventful without the original Billings girls. The first week Reed is back, she gets a new roommate. Her name is Sabine and she says she is from Martinique. Throughout the book I could never decide what I made of her. Whether or not she was fake, or finally someone who wasn't hiding something. After this book and the next 2 or 3, it is still hard to tell. Even though she sticks by Reed the whole time, you never know with the world these girls live in. I like how in these books you can't really predict the outcome of everything. It was hard to put these books down.

Blog Number Four

For this blog I'm going to write about what I read in the fourth book of the Private Series called Confessions. I love reading books and watching movies that aren't predictable. The ending of this book was so unpredictable it was impressive. A lot of authors and script writers also make their works on the same common road map where everything starts out good, something goes wrong, some predictable person is behind it, then somehow everything ends up happily ever after. The surprise also has to do with the second to last book in the series. One of the characters who is new to the book is unpredictable and at first I thought that she was going to be bad, then I truly believed she was a good friend to Reed, the main character, and it ends up the total opposite. Not only was she basically the enemy, everything gets so twisted no one could have predicted it. That's my favorite part about this series. Every page keeps you guessing what is going to happen next and you never know for certain if you will be right until you've read it.

Blog Number Three

In the third book in the series, Untouchable, Reed never thought anything like this could happen. Her boyfriend Thomas died at the end of the last book. In this book they spend a lot of time trying to figure out how he died. At first, everyone believed it was suicide. It seemed so weird though, that he would want to kill himself. I can't remember exactly what I thought when I was reading this part, but I think I was just shocked. I'd never read a book more scandalous. In this book they discover that Thomas was murdered. When you find out who murdered him, it was the most unexpected thing ever. I liked how this book wasn't predictable! Also one of the suspects of Thomas's murder is his best friend Josh. Throughout the whole process of them questioning him, it was on and off again whether or not I thought he had done it. Reed always believed he was innocent. The Billings girls on the other hand, did not. That created some minor drama in the house.

Blog Number Two

In the second book in the series, the main character Reed is finally, somewhat, accepted into billings. She has to do all their dirty work though, but she'll soon find out it's all worth it. All the girls living in Billings are loaded with money coming out of their @$$es. I love how in depth Kate Brian goes with the detail on the designer clothes they were. It just adds even more to the effect that I feel like I'm there watching everything in the book happen right before my eyes.

Blog Number One

For my outside reading book(s) I am reading the Private Series written by Kate Brian. The first book in the series is Private. This book series reminded me of another series I'd read, called The It Girl. It's a continuing story on Gossip Girl's Jenny and is all about how she goes to a private school to escape her past, meets a new boy within her first couple of weeks, and tries to fit in with the popular girls at her boarding school, of which there are 3 or 4. The series both have the same basic outline. I liked the Private books better though because they are an easier read and go really quickly.

Someone Overcoming Odds Post

For this blog post I picked to talk about the movie, Armageddon. The whole movie is about the world, and a group of people who are trying to overcome the odd of a whole meteor crashing into the Earth and destroying it. The group of astronauts become really close on the journey. With their loved ones back home, and their fate in the hands of each other and the meteor. They are sent up to destroy it so that when it explodes, the different pieces will branch off and avoid crashing into the planet. I though that this movie was very good. Its heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Every moment is intense, especially when they've reached the meteor.

Movie Info

Love Post

For my post on love I chose to write about the movie August Rush. This is one of my ultimate favorite movies. It begins when this classical musician falls in love with a guitarist. Her dad doesn't approve of her choice and forbids her to see the guitarist. The girl later finds out that she is pregnant and ends up giving up their baby to an orphanage because of her dad's will for her to continue her musical career. About 12 years later the boy ends up running away from the orphanage and bands with a bunch of homeless kids in New York who are under the wing of Robin Williams character. Their son learns how to play the guitar and is really skilled and learns very fast. His mom starts looking for him after about 12 years too, the same time he ran away. She can't find him through the system because he isn't in it any longer. When August plays the guitar his mom, and dad can both feel it. The end up all reuniting at the Spring Concert in New York and get to become a family again.

Movie Website

War Post

In my AP World class we are doing a unit that covers World War I so that is what war I decided to blog about. The was started in 1914 because of the assassination or the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, which then led to the current emperor Franz Joseph declaring war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. The alliances between countries caused the war to grow and expand more then expected. Since Russia was in alliance with France and Great Britain, that meant they would have their back when Russia protected Serbia. Germany was in alliance with Austria-Hungary and was then basically screwed because the powers of Russia, Great Britain, and France were much greater then those of Germany and Austria-Hungary. After a long 4 years the war finally ends in 1918. November 9th of 1918, Kaiser Wilhem II abdicates himself and the next day a German Republic is formed. Then at 11 o clock, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month the war is finally over when Germany sign an Armistice.

Source

Colonization Post

For this blog post I read an article on CNN.com called "Kofi Annan: Still watching over Africa." This article is about Kofi Annan, who was born in the Ashanti province in Ghana. His life was shaped by his up bringing when Ghana was struggling for independence from Britain. He has won a nobel prize and he was the former United-Nations Secretary General. Even after he left his post and being over 70 years old, he has still been actively participating in advocating policies to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries in Africa. Annan quoted, ""When the cloth of government is not seen as being stretched to cover everyone in society you tend to have these divisions, so the issue for me is not tribalism, but the way to handle governance, distribution of limited resources ... and equal access to opportunity for all." This was his point of view about the misconceptions about tribalism in West Africa being a hurdle to progress.

Link to Article

Global Post

For this blog I wrote about the environmental aspect of a global issue. I found a website that had all different types of environmental factors leading to the issue. One of the issues was biodiversity, and how human activity is causing mass extinctions from animals, to forests, to whole ecosystems. The World Resources Institute found a link between climate change and biodiversity. A type of ecosystem that has been neglected, and is one of the richest in biodiversity, is the coral reefs in the world. Twenty percent of the coral reefs have been destroyed and show no prospects of recovering. Many scientists have concluded that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. Research has shown that air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. This leads to an effect known as global dimming whereby less heat and energy reaches the earth.

website: globalissues.org

Holiday Post

For a post on a holiday I chose to pick Christmas. The first thing I thought of was learning about how Santa Clause had different names all around the world and talking about them in elementary school. Some names are: Pere Noel (Belgium and France); Christmas Gnome (Norway); Grandfather Frost (Russia); and Father Christmas (United Kingdom). Another thing I remember from grade school was learning about different traditions around the world. The one I remember most vividly was putting our shoes in the hallway during nap time and waking up finding them filled with candy. This tradition comes from The Dutch when on Christmas Eve they'd fill their clogs with hay and set them by the fireplace for the reindeer.

Santa Names

Bollywood Post

For this post I read an article posted by CNN called Is Bollywood Coming to Hollywood, and it was talking about the new movie Slumdog Millionaire. Although this movie is not authentically a bollywood movie, or 100% Indian, it is still a celebration of India. Just like bollywood movies, it comes with the whole package of a love story, song and dance, and just overall a movie that you want to keep watching. The article also mentions how this wasn't the first movie from India to get a lot of attention from the media. Bride and Prejudice was mentioned as another movie from which it's actors have appeared in Hollywood movies.

Link to CNN Article

Culture Post

For my post on a different culture I found a Norwegian Folktale to write about. The story is about a mother making pancakes for her family and instead of making them how she always does, she uses a new milk this time. When she's making the pancake all of her children beg her for the chance to eat it, each one saying something sweeter and nicer added on. When she tells them to hold on and "wait until it turns itself," the pancake freaks out and tries to run away out of them pan, and does. After the entire family starts chasing it, the pancake gains so much distance on them that they can't see it anymore. Along the way the pancake rolls by a man, a hen, a cock, a duck, a goose, and a gander, all of whom try to eat him. The final creature it met was a pig, who tricked the pancake into sitting on it's snout to cross the river so the pancake didn't get wet. The pig ate the pancake.

Link

Change Post

The first thing I thought of when I knew that we had to do a blog about change was Barack Obama. I googled his name and the first website that came up was "Barack Obama and Joe Biden: Change we need." Every other sentence on the website had the word change in it. Sometimes change can be for the worst or for the best, and this was definately for the best. Once you go to the website you see right away an area that says three and a half million jobs have already been created or saved. Another thing I noticed was a big area that says American Recovery, which I know Barack Obama is going to do. He is going to save America and get everything back on track, even though it will probably take a while, I have faith in him and I know he'll do a great job running our country.

Hope Post

For my post on hope I chose to write about WWF which is the World Wildlife Fund. It is an organization that has been helping to protect the future of nature for more then 45 years. They are the largest multinational conservation organization in the world working in 100 countries and they are supported by about 5 million people nationally. The reason I chose to talk about the WWF is because it has a lot to do with hope. They are working to protect everything on our Earth and hoping to succeed with people's support and aid. Their goal is by 2020 to conserve 19 of the world's most important natural places. One of the things that scares me most is thinking about how much damage is happening to our planet and how much has happened. I'm really glad organizations like this exist. I think they give hope to lots of people all over the world. I know they give me hope about saving our planet.

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

Religious Post

For my post on religious beliefs I chose to talk about St Valentine's Day. I found an article on it's history. When people think about Valentine's day they probably think of flowers, candy hearts or chocolates and the commercialized view of the holiday. Although the holiday is associated with the catholic saint, St. Valentine, it isn't a religious holiday. A very common custom is to hand out valentines to your friends, family, and loved ones.

Link to More Information

Gender Roles Post

For my blog on different gender roles I chose to write about the movie The Stepford Wives because I thought that it would fit perfectly with the topic of gender roles. At the beginning of the movie the family that moves into the gated community of Stepford the mom is a successful author and is making most of the family income. When they get to Beford everything changes. The community is really messed up and hiding a major secret. The men in the community all have perfect trophy wives that do nothing but serve them and make them happy. They are basically their servants but they don't care. There is only one normal wife living in the community other then the new one that just moved it. The two normal wives start thinking something is going on, while their husbands are completely clueless. Later on in the story the author starts acting different and her friend notices. She starts doing everything like the housework, taking care of the kids, grocery shopping, and other tasks that the "typical housewife" does. In the end it turns out that the "leader" of the community replaced all the real wives with robots because she believed they should all be pefrect like her, she had even made her husband a "perfect" one by making it a robot. Whenever I think of gender roles and stereotypes for them I think of this movie because it had the typical shovanistic views of women and what a lot of counrtries were like and some still are.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3119842073/
Link to movie preview!

The Stepford Wives. Frank Oz, Ira Levin, Paul Rudnick. Paramount Pictures, 2004.

A Culture Different From Your Own Post

For my class Psychology of Relations I'm doing a project on different marriage customs around the world. I learned about many different traditions that were unique to certain cultures and countries. For example, many weddings in Egypt are still arranged with the groom’s family proposing to the bride’s. Before the marriage vows a musical wedding march called the Zaffa is performed with traditional Egyptian music, belly dancers, drum horns and performers with flaming swords. Egyptians also believe that the ring finger has the “vein amoris”, the vein of love, which runs straight to the heart. A tradition in Bermuda is the wedding cakes of islanders is to have a tiny sapling on top and at the end the couple takes it home and plants it. It is then they can watch it grow, just at their marriage does. In Iceland marriage is a very serious matter. Long engagements are very common, sometimes lasting up to 3 or 4 years. Modern weddings in Iceland are mainly based off of American traditions. A groom is expected to ask the permission of the father-in-law before proposing in Venezuela. A civil ceremony is held two weeks before the religions ceremony at which the couple is officially married. It is also tradition for the newlyweds to sneak away from their reception without saying goodbye, it’s considered to bring good luck.

Overcoming Struggle Post

For my blog about someone overcoming a struggle I chose to talk about Harry Potter. In the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire, Harry participates in the tri-wizard tournament. Every task that he has to complete is an example of overcoming a struggle he has. The first thing that Harry has to do is try and steal and egg from a mother dragon guarding her nest. The next job that the competitors had to perform was to swim down to the bottom of the lake and rescue someone who meant a lot to them from the merpeople. There were these creatures in the water that tried and slow him down and stop him. One of the competitors failed to retrieve their loved one so Harry went back and rescued her. The last thing that Harry had to do was travel through a maze full of obstacles and reach the center where the trophy was. Not only did Harry Potter have to go through the many struggles in the tournament but also when he reached for the trophy him and Cedric were transported to a graveyard were Voldemort was waiting. I really liked this part of the book because it was always interesting and I never wanted to put the book down. The author does a great job describing how Harry felt through all of this. It was kind of like I could picture myself there in the stands at the tournament.

Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. First American Edition. New York: Scholastic 2000.

Natural Disaster Post

For my blog post about natural disasters I found a website that has information about all the different kind of natural disasters that happen. The website also gives each of the natural disasters: floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, thunderstorms, volcanoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and winter storms. It tells information about previous cases of that specific natural disaster that's occurred, some of the disasters have more information and some even have quizzes. I thought that this website was a great informational help. It is also mostly for kids so it's easier for them to understand and the website is a little more decorative so they don't get bored of it.

Link to the website