In Class and Bored

Okay, I'm in class right now, and I have nothing to do because I finished my book report already. (No I am not a nerd :)) anyways..... I'm excited for tonight, we have a spaghetti.... excuse me - pasta dinner for swimming tonight at maddie's house. I already miss swimming which is stupid because I missed a lot of practice because I'm always hurt or sick. (Like right now I have a black eye because I got hit wtih a hockey puck.... I know... I'm just SO graceful) Anyways... I miss swimming a lot which I guess proves how much I like it even though I hate doing the ab work and Sue stops just short of killing us during practice. (She did bring us bagels one time though.... that made me happy =)) So far this week has been boring, but this weekend should be fun. Friday is my brother Taylor's 16th birthday, and there's talk of Shoni having people over for her birthday which was on monday. Saturday is Halloween and anyone who's been past my house knows how much my family loves Halloween (for those of you that don't know - we have an alligator man in our yard, a witch, scream, a wolfman, this guy coming out of his grave, a HUGE spider web, this skeleton hanging from a tree, tombstones, and then on Halloween we'll have people I'm a dead bride, my brother is a werewolf, Hedy is my groom person, my cousin Derek is a demon sort of thingy, and Katie is going to be something or other (it's undecided), and my dad gets the EXTREMELY manly role of handing out candy to little kids). And then to add onto that Katherine says she's having a party, but I probably won't go, just because I'd rather scare the.... let's just say I'd rather scare people and hang out with my cousins on Halloween then wander around and get candy (candy's amazing, but Kate and Derek are amazing-er).

How is your main character like you and not like you?

My main character, Spaz, is like me and also not like me. He’s like me in the way that he does what he has to to survive, and makes do with what he has. I think that he’s a lot braver then me though. When he and Ryter go and rescue Lanaya I kept thinking “I would never do something like that, they’re crazy”. I also think that he’s more grown up then I am, mostly because he didn’t have a choice. When he got kicked out of his family unit, it was a sort of grow-up or die situation. Even when he was in his family unit, he had to be really mature because Charly didn’t treat him like a normal kid, just because he had seizures, and his foster mom didn’t do anything to stop Charly from treating Spaz like that. Another way that we’re alike is that I would never want to have Billy Bizmo for a father either. If the whole town was on fire, I wouldn’t want some guy who’s famous for murdering people to come up to me and just say “I am your father”. I think that I would have the same sort of reaction as he did, I would just shut everything else out, and go to my room and think long and hard about everything that just happened. Spaz pretty much lives, just because of Bean. I really think that at the beginning of the book, she was the only reason that he was even trying to survive. I’ve never felt like this before, only having one thing, one person to live for, but I think that if I didn’t have a family, and the world was in ruins, and overall life was just absolutely awful, but I had a little sister like Bean, she would be the reason for me to fight to survive.

What I like about The Last Book In The Universe

I really liked this book. The author described everything really well. It made it really easy to picture what was happening. Some of the things that happened were almost cruel though. For instance: When they were carried by the monkey boys to the guard who eventually brought them to “Mongo the Magnificent”. I thought that it was really sad that he just sat with the mind probe in his brain, and that that was the only thing that kept him alive. Another thing that was sad was the trial, because it wasn’t at all fair that Bean and Spaz (yes those are their real names) couldn’t stay in Eden. The people didn’t even justify their resoning, they just kicked them out. My least favorite thing was that Billy Bizmo ended up being Spaz’s father. I kind of saw it coming, but that just turns the entire reality for Spaz upside down. Having Billy for a father would be awful. Even though things were unfair, and cruel, and awful, I really liked it. My favorite part was when Ryter convinced the guard to take over for Mongo. Another of my least favorite parts was when they came to the latch that was completely on fire, because whoever was in charge of the latch was in a mind probe and wasn’t in control, so everyone went crazy, and tried to eat Ryter, and Lanaya. It was very “action packed”, but not exactly pleasant. It had a lot of twists and turns, but I think that they’ll all end up okay.

Swimming

When I dream, I dream that I'm swimming.
When I swim, I dream about winning.
And when I win, my dreams come true.

Memoir

It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, slight breeze. A day everyone asks for. Inside, it was an entirely different story.
My grandfather, Maurice Wasserman, passed away on September 9th, 2009. His funeral was that Thursday. It wasn’t exactly a day to remember, but it’s not a day I’ll ever forget. The veiwing, serice and lunch that followed were at Benson funeral home. During the hour that people could say their respects, I kept myself busy helping my cousin with his baby girl Evalie. As I walked around, I could find some smiles in the midst of tears. The service was, well, a service. It was nice and people shared stories. For the majority of the time, I looked at my toes, and wished I wasn’t there. The lunch consisted of pretty much the same thing, along with picking through food I had no intention of eating. Next, I endured the forty-five minute ride to Fort Ripley, where my grandfather was to be buried. Inside, there was a formal military service. They played Taps and fired the guns. Each note tore through my heart, and each shot brought another tear. At the end, they folded the flag and presented it to my grnadma. The moment she took that flag was when everything stopped, and sunk in. It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off inside my head. Tears flowed freely down my face as I tried to find justification to all that was happening. All my memories of my grandfather flashed through my head. Showing him I can tie my shoes, and spell my name, visiting their flea market in Taylor’s Falls, sledding on calvary hill, moving them from Hinckley to St. Cloud, the day he told us he had prostate cancer, watching him get sicker, seeing him waste away, feeling him grow out of reach, getting the news that he had died, and then now, being without him. Family get togethers will never be the same. Christmas will be a little empty, but it’s a relief to know that he’s notin pain anymore. It makes it easier to deal with, a little more tolerable. It hurts to lose someone you love, but it hurts more to see them in pain. Knowing that he’s not hurting anymore, makes me feel better inside, and because of that, I'll be okay.

Nothing Like Stress

Well... this should be interesting. I had a 300 some page book for my continent book. I was on page like 120 something mostly because i hated it. So now, because my book report and project on the book is due TOMORROW, ms.clear gave me a different book to read. She said that I can finish over MEA but i'd still lose points. So this is what I'm going to do: I have school and then after school I'm going to the North Football game for like 45 min. with a friend and then I have a swim meet at Apollo at 5:00 pm and I'll be there till like 9:00 or 9:30 THEN I'm going to go home and eat and then read ALL night and try to finish this book AND do a project AND write a summary. I think that I might be able to do it. If I don't do it tonight then it'll be done by wednesday because I'll be reading in my spare time, well... more like every spare second. So we'll see how this goes. Wish me luck!

Character 1 for A Long Way Gone

So.... the main character for A Long Way Gone is Ishmael. He's really intelligent and doesn't hide the facts of life. One thing I noticed that is kind of odd is that when Saidu died all of his friends were sobbing and there were a lot of other times when everyone else was crying but he's always the one who will NOT cry. He always holds back his tears and just his feelings in general. I'm not sure that it's good for him. I think that when he gets to America (because he will end up there eventually) he'll have to go through TONS of counciling and self exploration because he can't open up. I just thought that his never crying was interesting and might have a bigger impact on him then he is sharing in the book.