Summer Reading #3

“passing the bulkhead felt like crossing the threshold into hell. Black smoke swirled around him so dark and thick at times all he could see of Marchetti was the beacon on his respirator. Waves of heat baked him through the Nomex suit, and his eyes stung from the smoke seeping beneath the seal of the mask.”

In the excerpt, 

Summer Reading #2

I am supposed to discuss the character’s “complexity‘, what they want/desire, but I couldn’t come up with a way to turn this into a conversation-like telling of their wants/desires, so I’m just going to list them out. Kurt Austin wants to avenge the deaths of the NUMA crew, the same goes for Joe Zavala, Jinn Kahlif wants to reverse the oceanic movements, therefore changing which continents have monsoons or horrible droughts. And as for themes that are beginning to appear, the only one I can think of, is people turning out to be evil, BECAUSE I WAS RIGHT! In my previous post, I had predicted that one of the main or supporting characters would turn out to be evil, and I was right! I feel so proud of myself, because not only did in happen once, with one of the main supporting characters who was working directly with Kurt and Joe; it happened TWICE, that’s right, twice. Let’s just take a moments to look at my prediction skills, I awesome, maybe I’m psychic; my vanity aside, to where I have read, it also happened with the assistant of an extremely rich guy who tried to kill Kurt, Austin, The evil chicks name whose name I have forgotten and can’t look up because I lost my book a few days ago. This is a bad post for me because I had trouble with all of the topics I was supposed to discus, and I can’t even begin to understand the last one, so that’s all for now folks.

Summer Reading

For my summer reading, I decided to read The Storm by Clive Cussler, the story doesn’t seem to have a definite setting, because it focuses attention on different people like every chapter. Now, those people are; Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala, jinn Kahlif(the bad guy) Members of N.U.M.A., which stands for the National Underwater and Marine Agency. The reason for them constantly traveling is that they were researching into the disappearance of a NUMA boat and its crew, who were actually killed by tiny nano-bots in the Indian Ocean. I myself haven’t read very far into it yet, but it already seems like a great book. I honestly hope that one of them turns evil, or one of the people they're working with turns out to be evil, I want some drama in this book, more than there is already, so my prediction is that one of the main or supporting characters turns out to be either working with the bad guy or just evil. I forgot to mention that this book is actually one book in the Kurt Austin Adventures series by Cussler, there are several more, such as Devil’s Gate and Lost city that I’m honestly interested in reading.

Time to Give Predictions Another Shot

Since I last posted, I have started HP and the Order of the Phoenix, and I noticed something when I was looking at the books. THEY GET LONGER AND LONGER, seriously, look at the books in the Harry Potter series, the books just keep getting more pages. It's crazy, I've been struggling just to get them finished before posts, my lord, I don't know how I didn't notice that before, it's so obvious. Anyway, I haven't gotten very far in Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix, so I'm going to give the whole predictions thing another shot.(if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my So Much to Read, So Little Time post) So, I've gotten to Chapter 7, and based on what I've read, heard, and seen, I'm pretty sure I know exactly what's going to happen. I already know the major plot points because my family always talks about it, and I'm just guessing the between details. So here's how I think it's going to go: (SPOILERS!)(SPOILERS!)(SPOILERS!)(SPOILERS!)

1. Harry gets attacked by dementors while with Dudley
2. Uses magic in the presence of Dudley
3. Gets moved to Serious's house
4. 
   

That's all I've read so far, and I'm going to try to make a prediction about what's going to happen next. Based off of what I've read and what I've heard from my family, I know that, (SPOILERS!) Harry is punished using a weird quill, he starts an underground training routine with other students, gets found out, and the rest is fuzzy. Based on that I think that, the slytherine house will help Umbridge with trying to find out where they practice Defense Against the Dark Arts on their own time, Dumbledore will get blamed because they wrote who the members are on a paper titled, "Dumledore's Army", Since Fudge is paranoid that Dumbledore is trying to overthrow the Ministry, Fudge will try to arrest Dumbledore, fail, someone who serves Voldemort will be placed as headmaster. That is my prediction on what will happen in the book. As always, if you have any suggestions on a series I might like, leave it in the comments. Thank you and goodbye.

(this was supposed to be posted on 5/12)

"Hey, remember that time I was a wizard?"

When I posted last time, I had finished HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, since then, I have started and finished HP and the Goblet of Fire. To be totally honest, I didn't like this book as much as the others, I'm not entirely sure why, but it doesn't seem to have the same quality as the first three. Anyway, for this post I'm going to describe the best and worst characteristics of the main character. First off, the main character is Harry Potter, (as told by the titles of every single book). His best characteristic is either that he has great problem-solving abilities or that he very kind, his problem-solving abilities are evident when he tries to get past the Hungarian Horn-tail, and despite being forced into an incredibly difficult situation, he came up with a solution that allowed him to win the event and continue. His kindness is present when they're in the last event and he tries to share the victory with Cedric, "Harry looked from Cedric to the cup. For one shining moment, he saw himself emerging from the maze, holding it. Ge saw himself holding the Triwizard Cup aloft, heard the roar of the crowd, saw Cho's face shining with admiration, more clearly than he ever seen it before ... and then the picture faded, and he found himself staring at Cedric's shadowy, stubborn face. 'Both of us,' Harry said. 'What?' 'We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it.'" On he other hand, his worst characteristic is also his kindness, which is evident when Cedric got killed because Harry tried to get a tie so that edric could also win. I wish I could relate this to myself, but it would be like, "hey, remember that time I was a wizard?" So instead I'll just say my nest and worst qualities. My best quality would probably be my intelligence, my worst would either be my extreme laziness or my short temper. If you have any suggestions about other series I might like, put them in the comments section, thank you and goodbye.

(this was supposed to be posted on 4/28)

Letter To the Author

Hello once again, this week for my post I am going to be writing a letter to the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling. this is what I wrote:

Dear JK Rowling,

Hello, I am Cameron, I am writing to you to tell you what I think about the Harry Potter series and what you could do to improve future books. So first off, the things you did well: 

1. excellent character development 
2. amazing plot progression
3. incredible diction and syntactical usage
4. incredibly vivid imagery

Those are the general places that you did extremely well, here are somethings that you could have improved:

1. character development for minor characters
2. use detailed imagery more often
3. (this one is just my opinion) add more humor

if you actually read this, please consider it and incorporate it into your next novel, if you think that you should.

Sincerely,

Cameron

(this was supposed to be posted on 5/5)

So Much to Read, So Little Time

Since I last saw you, I have completed Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, and have begun Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, however, circumstances have limited my reading time, as such I haven't gotten very far. I've only gotten to Chapter 5, the part where Harry overhears Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arguing in the Parlor, after meeting with Hermione and the Weasleys at Diagon Alley while staying in the Leaky Cauldron. yeah, not very far, I've barely gotten anytime at all to read this week, but nonetheless, it seems like it will be a great book, though not as well as the last two, but still a good book. I don't know why I think it won't be as good of a book as the first two, but it just feels like it won't meet the expectations I have set for the series. We'll see if my prediction holds up, I honestly hope it doesn't, but only time will tell. But that doesn't mean I can't speculate about what might take place, so that's exactly what I'll do. This book, (stated in the beginning, but there's a picture of the cover at the bottom, for people like me, [too lazy to look] and here's the source, so I don't get in trouble for plagiarism or something.) is the third book in the series, and based on the title, what I've heard from my family, and what I've it's about a prisoner of Azkaban, which I'm pretty sure is a wizard prison,(which I think I heard from my family) who, (SPOILERS!)(SPOILERS!)(SPOILERS!) is after Harry to kill him. Obviously he doesn't, since we know there are more books with the name Harry Potter, but what happens in the book that stops him from succeeding is what makes this book interesting, and from my personal experience, he - being Harry - will most likely be at the mercy of Sirius, but then his friends will save him and together they will defeat Black and return him to Azkaban. Recommendations about other book series I might like would be appreciated in the comments. Thank you and good bye.

(This was supposed to be posted on 4/14)

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

This column is about the grandmother of Tyann Adkins, a young teenage girl who was shot and killed by a young boy while getting a manicure, while waiting for a ride home. It describes what happened, and the events and emotions the grandmother went through afterwards. The line that I think is best written is, "'But who would think that in the middle of the day a foolish kid playing with a gun would shoot your granddaughter?' That was all the time Long had Wednesday to ponder a question for which she had no answer. She had to 'keep checking things off my tablet.' Those things included helping her daughter choose her granddaughter's casket, write her obituary and pick out photos for a memorial video." (that's more than a line, I know) These lines relate to the reader by asking them a question, and then continues the story by answering with the grandmother's answer. The question that is posed can be for anybody, so the reader most likely considers it, and might mentally answer it, but they most likely consider what their answer would be, this helps them to relate to the column, paying closer attention and taking the column more seriously than they were. By answering the posed question with the grandmother's answer, it evokes more empathy and sadness for the grandmother and the family of the girl. One observation I made about the syntax in this excerpt was the rhetorical question that was posed in the beginning. I would to describe Krista Ramsey's writing style as journalistic, mainly because she's a journalist, and that usually make their writing style journalistic, but I checked just in case and I still say her style is journalistic because she refrains from using opinions and other forms of expressing personal bias. Such as when she wrote, "But like other teenagers in her neighborhood, she also had to navigate a complicated community" she could have easily written something to sway our opinion towards discriminating against said neighborhood for being a bad place to live, but she decides to use friendlier words when describing it. Some questions I would ask her if I had they chance are as follows:

1. How do you notice things like in the Red's opening day column?
2. Do you ever not want to write about something, like if it's too sad or something?
3. How would you define your writing voice?

(this was supposed to be posted on 4/16)

Well, I guess I was wrong

I just finished reading HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, (btw, I'm, going to be referring to Harry Potter as HP from now on) and boy was I wrong, if you haven't read my previous post, DO IT NOW. and if you've read the HP series, yo'll have a wonderful laugh about my prediction. Seriously, I don't think I could have been more wrong, even if I tried. I can't recall if the book told us how Sirius escaped from Azkaban, so if you know, please enlighten me in the comment section. Spoiler are discouraged, seriously. In fact, both of my predictions were wrong, one of them was, " it seems like it will be a great book, though not as well as the last two, but still a good book" and the other one was, " he - being Harry - will most likely be at the mercy of Sirius, but then his friends will save him and together they will defeat Black and return him to Azkaban." I mean, seriously, that second one just, I can't even describe how flabbergasted I was when I finished. I'm not joking, this is exactly what happened when I finished: I closed the book, stared at the cover, looked at my computer, back to the cover, back to the computer, then I got on the computer and went to my previous post and read it a few times, then laughed. And laughed, and laughed. I was also shocked when I found out that Harry was his godson, I swear, J.K. Rowling had this exact kind of reaction from the readers in mind when she wrote this book, (and if you want to know more about her and her works, click here. But I'm glad that my first prediction was wrong too, it was actually my favorite book in the series so far. Truly, a wonderful book, I would recommend this to just about everybody, (except for people like Vernon and/or Petuna Dursley, they would note every minor flaw in these books, total killjoys, or people like Draco Malfoy, just because I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by being seen associating with them. Which is why I'm glad I've never met someone like Vernon or Petuna, or "Aunt Marge" especially her, horrible woman, she is.) anyway, yeah, I think most people would enjoy this book. Any recommendations on another series I might like would be much appreciated in the comments. Thank you and goodbye.

(this was supposed to be posted on 4/21)

Final Blogging Assessment in English 1-B

I will be analyzing my, "Too Many Spoilers" post for my final blogging assessment. One purposeful syntactical device I noticed was Anaphora, this is when I said, " pretty powerful politician" the repitiion of the "p" in those three words adds some of my personal humor(because I find that funny) and adds a little bit of a rhythm to the post. One purposeful diction choice I made was using elevated diction when I said, "He finds extraordinary stories about people or things doing amazing feats of courage and bravery, then says that he did it by writing it that way in his books" the use of elevated diction here makes it seem more like someone who knows more than I actually do, which should make the reader respect me more.

Over the course of this Trimester I have learned much about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, but little about myself that I didn’t already know. Some things I have learned about my writing strengths are that I have good imagery and writer’s voice – so I have been told – but that I can still improve further. Some areas I definitely need to work on are; meeting deadlines, in general or the including of outside sources so that the reader can have a better understanding of what I’m talking about. I plan to improve these areas by constantly practicing making them better so that I can improve my skills as a writer and blogger. I will do this by paying special attention to these areas in future assignments and taking the skills learned in those assignments and applying them to what I write in the future. Once I have improved upon my weakest areas I will try to improve my strong areas, because you can never be too good at something to point of not needing to practice. Now, while I did learn much about my skills, I learned little about myself. I already knew that I'm not very good at meeting deadlines for work, and that I have horrible writer’s block whenever I have to work, or that I just don’t do work because I'm lazy. But, I did learn that if I just sit down and focus for long enough, I can actually complete the assignment fairly easily.

Too Many Spoilers

So far, I've gotten to the point where (SPOILER!) Harry and Ron find out that Lockhart has been taking credit for things he didn't do. I think that (MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!) Riddle's diary, the one Harry found, is 'You-Know-Who''s first Horcrux(if you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here and here. I think this partly because I know that there is a Horcrux in this book -  mostly from my family constantly talking about it - and because it seems like the most sensible thing. I feel like I can make an accurate text-to-world connection with Lockhart, He finds extraordinary stories about people or things doing amazing feats of courage and bravery, then says that he did it by wrtiting it that way in his books. By doing that, he gets fame and fortune for doing almost nothing. This, personally, reminds me of politicians, I'm not saying all politicians are like this, but that it the stereotypical image for a politician. I'm sure though, that many, if not most politicians would do something like this if it helped them get more power or money or influence. What's worse, there has undoubtedly been a famous politician that everyone thinks is borderline saintly, who has not only taken credit for something he didn't do, but exaggerated the story to a point where he seems like the ultimate super-hero. Then He/She became a pretty powerful politician. That aside, it has been a wonderful book so far, just as good as the first one, and I look forward to completing the series in the future. Any suggestions about what I might want to read are welcome in the comment section below, thank you and good bye.

(this was supposed to be posted on 4/7)

1 book, 1 week

I finished it in a week!! It was pretty difficult, but I did it, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a week. It was excellent, far beyond my expectations, amazing, easily one of the best books I have ever read. Anyway, for this week, I've decided to talk about how Harry Potter (obviously the main character) changes over the course of this book. In order to know how he has changed, we must know what he was like before, I said he was, "a small, shy boy who is curious about his past". I said this because of the context clues: what he does, how he reacts, what he says, how what is said sounds when I read it aloud. These criteria are what I used in order to make this claim, evidence supporting that would be, "Harry had always been small and skinny for his age..." also, "Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from". The first quote shows that he has a small physique, while he second quote demonstrates his curiosity about his unknown past and his desire for knowledge about himself. Although, throughout the book, as he learns more about himself, and the mystical world of witchcraft and wizardry that he belongs to, he gains self-confidence. This boost of inner confidence is especially evident when Harry and Hermione sneak out after curfew to help Hagrid send Norbet to Charlie, (I know there are lots of names, if you have no idea who these people are, look them up here) but this change is most obvious when Harry faces 'You-Know-Who', who uses Professor Quirrell sort of like a host. Most people would run, seeing Voldemort's face on the back of someone else's would make me puke in disgust. But Harry holds his ground and fights off the weakened Dark Lord. It was an excellent book with a well developed plot, I can't wait to read the next one: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, see you next week.

(This was supposed to be posted on 3/31)

English 1-B Blogging Kickoff

I decided to read Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling for my independent reading novel. I will also be reading the series for the blogging. I chose this because almost everyone in my family has read the Harry Potter books and they all pressured me into reading them. I would have like to make predictions about what is going to happen, but I know too much to only make a guess about the contents. Some of you might think that it's pointless to read it because I know so much about it, I agree, but I don't know exactly when and where a certain event happens. So I'm reading the books to know exactly when and where everything happens. So instead of doing that, I'll just tell you about the time and place where it happens. Most of you know all of this already, but Harry Potter takes place in 1990's Britain, where a secret society of wizards co-exist with mortals. The wizards hide their powers from regular mortals, save a few high ranking officials plus friends and family of a wizard. I look forward to learning even more than I know now. Reviews would be much appreciated in the comments section. SPOILERS ARE DISCOURAGED, but if they are necessary, use of the spoiler alert would be appreciated. Thank you and goodbye.

(This was supposed to be posted on 3/17)