Project

Well for the project, I have decided to examine the elements in chase scenes. I'm have three specific chase scenes in mind at the moment. The first one is from the Matrix Reloaded and involves the chase atop a speeding train. Another that I plan on using is the chase scene between the Nazgul and Arwen in the Fellowship of the Ring. The last scene I plan on using is the scene in one of the James Bond movies. If anyone can think of any more I can use could you please comment below?

Currently

Pages Read

Foundation- 1-118
Fatal Alliance 76-210

Sentences of the Week
The cantina was as bad as he had anticipated, with alien and human lowlifes clustered in twos and threes over pots of dense looking brown beverages.
Fatal Alliance

I picked this sentence because it was one sentence that I could truly visualize in my head. I could picture it well and in my opinion accurately.

Update

Well since I can't think of anything to write about at the moment I've chosen to write about which books I am currently reading. At the moment I am in the middle of reading Children of Dune, Foundation, and Game of Thrones. Its not that I don't like these three books, its that I can't focus enough on one of them to actually finish one. I also often have to go back and read parts I have already read in order to remember what I read a week ago. I've decided to finish Foundation first since its the closest to being done. Than I'll work on the two others. If anyone has any suggestions on good books to read I'd be open to suggestions though.

Claims of the Day

Claim: On the album cover of Titus Andronicus's "The Airing of Grievances," the commanding, classic font and layout of the cover, as well as the cluttered and colorful use of space in the photograph convey the band's homely practice environment and admiration for the old-fashioned symbols of history.   

In Todrick Hall's "I Wanna Be On Glee," Hall's plea to Glee creator Ryan Murphy shows Hall's inventiveness and artistic talents through the music video's cleverly pariodistic lyrics, assertive instrumentals, and effervescent choreography.

The soothing, cheerful melodies and harmonies, light vocal instrumentation, and playful, relaxed rhythms in McFerrin's song, depicts a mood of lighthearted cheerfulness and soothing rejuvenation.

In this flash mob by Todrick Hall, the mischievous and adventurous expressions, jubilant sounds, and bustling moves, show the explosive creativity and confident energy of the dancers.

Link

The Average Life of a Teenage Bookworm

 

 

Sentencess of the Month

Paranoia is a survival trait in my circles.
Changes

 Clarence Potter walked through the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, like a man caught in a city occupied by the enemy
The Center Cannot Hold



"Humming tunelessly the RagPicker walked the barren, empty wasteland in the aftermath of a rainstorm."
The Measure of the Magic


My favorite sentence of the month would probably have to be the first one, as it still seems profound to me even though it has been two weeks since I last read it.

Game of Thrones not just another Fantasy novel

Game of Thrones was a book that I'd been wanting to read for a long time. When i saw it sitting on the side in the Etymology room, I decided that with nothing else to read, I would finally get around to reading it. I am very glad that I made that decision. Game of Thrones is an intriguing political thriller as well as a fantasy novel. However unlike other sword and fantasy novels that use humor and romance to lighten the mood, Game of Thrones just soliders right on through as a thoroughly dark fantasy novel. The other thing that it does is it adds a human face to the villain, no more is the villain some high over the top evil spirit, or demon, or the like. With human qualities, the villains and heroes are all much more realistic and in a sense more meaningful. The humanizing of fantasy and science fiction has been ongoing for a while, I think this is one of the most successful books in that area that I have read for a long time. For all fans of fantasy I highly recommend this book

Fatal Alliance

I have something to admit. Ok here goes, I'm a massive Star Wars fan. Finally said it, now we can get on to the book. Star Wars Fatal Alliance is a book based on the upcoming game Star Wars the Old Republic. Now as a star wars fan and a gamer, I've been excited for this book for a long time. When I heard there was a book however, I was apprehensive. Usually books based on games were total pieces of crap. Written in a short time frame by a person paid for the quantity instead of the quality of the thing they were writing. This one however was different, it was exciting action packed, and its dialogue did not feel in the least bit canned. The story revolves from perspective to perspective based on the chapter. Usually this can give a book a bit of a whirlwind feeling, and confuse the reader. However the different stories were closely intertwined here to create a mesmerizing experience. The other thing about the book that I loved was that since it takes place 3500 years before the movies, it gives itself a bit of breathing space. Giving itself the freedom from reliance on continuity. Introducing us to characters that don't have to be chained by the fact that they have to resemble people and personalities created in the trilogy that started it all. A thoroughly enjoying read, while not quality literature on par with Dickens or Shakespeare, it is still a book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoyed the movies or like me is a fan of everything Star Wars.

Favorite Poet so Far.

Gary Snyder


Once Only almost at the equator almost at the equinox exactly at midnight from a ship the full moon in the center of the sky.


After Work

The shack and a few trees
float in the blowing fog

I pull out your blouse,
warm my cold hands
     on your breasts.
you laugh and shudder
peeling garlic by the 
     hot iron stove.
bring in the axe, the rake,
the wood

we'll lean on the wall
against each other
stew simmering on the fire
as it grows dark 

drinking wine.

Live It Out

http://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/1578-metric-live-it-out.php

Observations

Color- Bright, Contrasting
Movement- fluid, alive
Text- Exaggerated, memorable


Infer
Rebellious
Defiant
Wry
Assertive

Sentence

The album art to Metric's Live it Out conveys a since of rebellious defiance through its bright and contrasting colors, its fluid movement, and its exaggerated and memorable text.

Currently

Pages
This Week:918
Pages Total: 3516

Books Read
The Measure of the Magic
Game of Thrones
European History From a Global Perspective

Sentences of the Week

"Humming tunelessly the RagPicker walked the barren, empty wasteland in the aftermath of a rainstorm." The Measure of the Magic

I picked this one because it really sets the tone for the remainder of the novel, dark and brooding. It lets the reader know what to expect from the rest of the novel.

"But they were defending an ideal that was no longer viable." European History in a World Perspective.

This one takes some perspective. It concludes a chapter about the fall of the Greek Cities and the freedom they represented to the tyranny of Macedon. It ends like most David Goliath stories almost always ending with Goliath inevitable crushing David.

The Measure of the Magic

The Measure of the Magic is a book that blends fantasy with science fiction. In a world that was devastated by nuclear war, a small enclave of survivors was saved by the creation of a barrier between the valley where life was saved and the nuclear hell that was outside. The Measure of the Magic like its predecessor Bearers of the Black Staff, takes place 500 years after the barrier was first erected, and it is now tumbling down. The main conflict centers on the confrontation between a demon known as the Ragman, and the current bearer of the black staff Panterra after the death of the last bearer at the end of the first book. I find it interesting the way that Brooks drew a world 500 years after a nuclear war. Technology is seen as either a priceless relic or a rusted piece of junk, a tribal society has arisen in most of the world, while technology has gone back to a time last seen during the medieval period. For me, who read all the Shannara books starting with the first one published in 1973, it is strange to find out that what I thought was just a world built from scratch, was actually supposed to be our world made unrecognizable by nuclear Armageddon. The book is action packed, and full of interesting and memorable characters. Though the most interesting would probably have to be the demon, and his or its view of the world and the people in it. Having not yet finished the book, I cannot tell you how it ends, or even if it ends, Brooks has always had a love for trilogies and this is only book two, but I would highly recommend, if not this book than this series to anyone who considers themselves into the fantasy genre,

Live It Out (Metric)

On the day we were supposed to leave
You changed your mind at the station
You had a nice apartment
There was a good bar downstairs
Your old friend worked there

I'll go anyway, I'll go anyway
They won't refund the ticket
It's a good story

But I don't want to live it alone
Crash to take a chance
I wanna live it out
Look at you, I know I'm already dead
No concrete adversity
Only traps of our own actions
How we wanted it to be
Now I'm never gonna see you again
You turned off

Vertabrae by vertebrae
Roll your way out of a coma
Look up, the nurse is smiling
What luck, the nurse is me
Your old body is dead
Your body's dead, you're a word instead
In my sleep I repeat it
It's a good story

But I don't want to live it alone
Crash to take a chance
We were gonna live it out
Look at you, you're already dead
How will you remember me
Digging ditches out of boredom
Said you would never leave
Now you're never gonna be here again
You checked out

Dum dum dum dum dum
Sha la la la la
Dum dum dum dum dum

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. 




My Favorite Poem of All Time

Diving Headfirst into Nonfiction......Not so Bad After All

For the nonfiction portion of the reading, I chose to start with a history book. I chose European History from a Global Perspective. I'd always had more than a passing interest in European History. I was probably one of the only people who was sad when they took away the class and added in the more global but much less interesting field of World History. The book covers ancient times up to the beginning of the age of revolution in 1775. From  the Classical Era of the Greek City States and their wars, revolutions, and intrigues, to the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the book explains not only the effect of certain events on their local areas, but explains how events effected on a global scale. The book made me realize the intricate nature of the history of the world, how events in one part of the world can have a profound impact on the globe. The fact that a war over hegemony in Greece could effect revolutions in France nearly 2100 years later is in my opinion mind blowing. While many in the world think of history as among the most boring topics ever to be taught in a high school, a bit of outside reading may change their minds, like it changed mine.

Review of the Accidental Billionaires

The Accidental Billionaires is in my opinion a work of fiction. While it claims to be the story of the reality behind the founding of arguable one of the most important websites in the history of the internet. I was at first surprised at the format of the book. A narrative form focusing on the view almost exclusively of Eduardo Saverin, Facebooks co-founder, was in my opinion not the most unbiased form that could have been used. In the book described by the author as not a work of fiction, we hear one side of the story. One side in one of the messiest legal battles that the world of high technology has seen in recent years, cannot in any scope be considered fact. Especially since while the book was being written, Saverin and Zuckerberg were engaged in a protracted legal battle. How anything coming from either of them during that time could be considered usable for writing anything other than glorified fiction. The book like the movie portrays Zuckerberg as the villain, the punk college kid who sold his friends and his soul to Big Business in order to gain himself wealth and fame. Now in any story there are at least two sides. In this one the number could go higher much much higher. What about Parker, the Winklevosses, and of course the proverbial black sheep in the room Mark Zuckerberg. For his part, Mezrich has tried to keep the book as neutral as possible, however with the subject matter and the situations involved, his best is not nearly good enough to give everyone a fair shake. The only thing I can say for this book is that for its worth it is entertaining in a dark kind of way. For anyone who really wanted to know what happened with the founding of Facebook this book does not clear the smoke in any way. It only adds its own smoke and places mirrors into the mix.

Currently

Currently I've been on a sort eclectic reading schedule. The two books I read this week were Harshini by Jennifer Fallon and Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Harshini is the conclusion of the Hythrun chronicles a series that I picked up a while back but never got around to finishing. Accidental Billionaires the book about the rise of Facebook and the basis for the move The Social Network, was a book that I'd heard was good, but one that I never took the time to check out.

For the page numbers I'm not really certain, since I left the paper with the page #s in my locker. I'll update them when I get back

Reading
The Accidental Billionaires- 1-187
Harshini ???

Total???

Dune: Beware of Heroes

Dune is a book that has one main message. Beware of heroes. The book chronicles the rise of one such hero. Paul Atreides, the heir to one of the noble houses that make up the empire. Throughout the novel, Paul is raised to an almost messianic position within the desert world where he and his mother escape to in the aftermath of a deadly political game that engulfed his house. He later leads the people of the planet Arrakis into a war against House Harkonen the group that killed his father. Throughout the book Paul uses evermore stringent and costly measures to gain control. Using his almost godlike status among the fremen, the inhabitants of Arrakis, he defeats House Harkonen killing its baron, and with the threat of destroying the only means of space travel forces the abdication of the current emperor. He then becomes Emperor of the Known Universe. The book ends with Paul in control of the galaxy and with an army of men who follow him as their god. The books end begs the question of what will happen now, during the campaign Paul makes several mistakes costing many people their lives. Now that he has control of an entire galaxy what will his mistakes as a god king cost humanity as a whole.

The Victorious Opposition: A Look at what Might have Been

The Victorious Opposition by Harry Turtledove is a book that I started a while back but never got around to finishing. I found it laying under one of my magazines in my closet last week and decided that I'd give the book another try. The book revolves around a future in which the South won its independence from the North in a war not known as the Civil War but the War of Secession. The Victorious Opposition takes place nearly 70 years after that event. Seen threw many eyes is a post war Confederate States of America reminiscent of our time lines Germany after the Great War, which happened not only in Europe but in North America as well. The books main draw is its characters. From military men, to waitresses, to the Southern analogue to Adolf Hitler, Jake Featherston, all are important in some way and since the book takes place over many years, they change like real people and have time to develop. As a novel of alternate history, it shows us what might have been, were conditions like those in 1930 Germany placed on the people of the Southern United States. The realization that any people put under pressure like that would accept help from almost any place. To represent the Nazi Party comes the Freedom Party, an authoritarian "fascist" party who draws its strength from the peoples fear of communism which instead of being tied to Jews is tied to people of African descent. It was particularly uncomfortable to read the logic behind the events, and how Union victory in the Civil War really was one of the defining moments in the history of the modern world.

Currently

Sentences of the Week

Dune

Running With the Demon

The Road to War

Changes

Pages this week 1009

Pages this Semester 2043

Susan smiled at me, giving Molly the Female Once-Over a process by which one woman creates a detailed profile of another woman based upon a million subtle details of clothing, jewelry, makeup, and body type, and than decides how much of a social threat she might be. Men have a similar process but it's binary: Does he have beer? If so will he share it with me
Changes

Paranoia is a survival trait in my circles.
Changes

I picked the first quote because I thought it was one of the funniest things I'd read this week. I picked the second because I thought it was profound in some way. Don't ask me why but I thought so.

A History Lesson: Road to War

Road to War is on its surface a history,but instead of just relaying facts, it goes farther. In it, the author makes some startling conclusions. A complex and ultimately controversial book, Road to War is a different look at the Second World War. It examines the years prior to the conflict through the eyes of each of the belligerent nations.  Germany, the British Empire, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States are all analyzed, their motives contemplated, and there involvement in the antebellum period explained. The reasons for the conflict, and how after the debacle that was the Versailles Treaty, war was nearly inevitable. The clash that many consider to have begun with the conflict over Danzig, and the subsequent German invasion and occupation of Poland, is shown to have had much deeper roots than a small German minority living in the Polish Corridor. The book also goes out of its way in order to debunk many myths that have been attached to it since, such as the idea of an advanced warning of Pearl Harbor. All in all, Road to War is a great book for anyone interested in the background to the Second World War.

The Rebirth of a Series

Terry Brooks' Running with the Demon represents in its entirety a rebirth of a world he began with the publishing of The Sword of Shannara in 1977. Two decades after the publishing of the original, Brooks' finally answers the questions that had dogged readers minds for ages, the idea of, "what came before?" All throughout the series, references to a "great conflict" appear quite frequently. Running with the Demon represents the beginning of a new trilogy that seeks to answer that very question. Unlike the Shannara novels that took place in a fantasy world, Brooks' series now takes place in a carbon copy of our world, with a light sprinkling of magic to go along with, and tie it with the older books. The central conflict of the book revolves around the discovery a teenage girl named Nest Freemark, who possesses a knack for wild magic. She becomes the central figure in a conflict between the "Word" who represent the forces of good, and the "Void" who represent the forces of darkness. Throughout the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that things are much more complex than they seem. With the publishing of Running with the Demon, Brooks took an almost ended series and breathed into it new life. It is a fantastic book, and should be read by anyone who considers themselves a lover of epic fantasy.