Philosophies

By Dorothea Lasky

The man who murders his wife

Is not the same as the man

Who goes around and murders a stranger.

I am a woman but I am not

The same as another woman.

Identity politics are bullshit.

There is only the smart and the evil,

The good and the righteous.

There is only one color on the earth.

In its infinite degradations it becomes music and mathematics.

There is shit on my hands

When I have been playing around with specifics.

Love your lover. You are a lover.

With each breath God has put a golden faith

Upon the snowy mountains of the world.

Here, look at the snowy mountains,

Glittering with snow.

They are wiser than you might think.

And in your soul, the small grey animals

Of the world sit and wait to do good

For you, and together

We are one thing, bleating a

Somber, scurrying lullaby to

Lapsing pinkish angels.

Upon a mountain

The angels smile sleepily as they stretch

Their very long legs, thinking of us.

And wise they might seem, us and the angels,

The Choice

By Nate Klug

To stand for once

outside my faith

to steady it

caught and squirming on a stick

up to mind’s

inviting light

and name it!

for all its faults and facets

or keep waiting

The Progress of the Soul

By Thomas McGrath

Where once I loved my flesh,

That social fellow,

Now I want security of bone

And cherish the silence of my skeleton.

Where once I walked the world

Hunting the devil,

Now I find the darkness and the void

Within my side.

First to be good, then to be happy I

Worked and prayed.

Before the midnight, like the foul fiend,

I killed my dear friend.

Hope unto hope, dream beyond monstrous dream

I sought the world.

Now, at the black pitch and midnight of despair,

Starry Night – Chris August Lyrics

Jul.30, 2010 in S

From the birds that sing in the tallest trees
To the human life of you and me
From the desert sands to the place we stand
He is God of all, He is everything

I’m giving my life to the Only One who makes the moon reflect the sun
Every starry night that was His design
I’m giving my life to the Only Son who was and is and yet to come
Let the praises ring ’cause He is everything
‘Cause He is everything

From the autumn leaves that will ride the breeze
To the faith it takes to pray and sing
From the painted sky to my plank filled eye
He is God of all, He is everything

Hallelujah Hallelujah I believe (x2)

I’m giving my life to the Only One who makes the moon reflect the sun
I’m giving my life to the Only Son who was and is and yet to come

I’m giving my life to the Only One who makes the moon reflect the sun
Every starry night that was His design
I’m giving my life to the Only Son who was and is and yet to come
Let the Angels sing that He is Heavenly
So let the praises ring ’cause He is everything

I Remember, I Remember

By Thomas Hood

I remember, I remember,

The house where I was born,

The little window where the sun

Came peeping in at morn;

He never came a wink too soon,

Nor brought too long a day,

But now, I often wish the night

Had borne my breath away!

I remember, I remember,

The roses, red and white,

The vi'lets, and the lily-cups,

Those flowers made of light!

The lilacs where the robin built,

And where my brother set

The laburnum on his birthday,—

The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember,

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh

To swallows on the wing;

My spirit flew in feathers then,

That is so heavy now,

And summer pools could hardly cool

The fever on my brow!

I remember, I remember,

The fir trees dark and high;

I used to think their slender tops

Were close against the sky:

It was a childish ignorance,

But now 'tis little joy

To know I'm farther off from heav'n

A Heart Divided

By Pierre Reverdy

He so spares himself

He so fears the coverings

The sky’s blue coverlet

And pillows of cloud

He is ill-clothed by his faith

He is so afraid of steps that go awry

And streets chipped in the ice

He is too tiny for winter

He so fears the cold

He is transparent in his mirror

He is so hazy he loses himself

Time rolls him under its waves

At moments his blood flows the wrong way

And his tears stain the linen

His hand gathers green trees

And nosegays of seaweed from the strand

His faith is a thorn bush

His hands bleed against his heart

His eyes have lost their glow

And his feet trail over the sea

Like the dead arms of devil-fish

He is lost in the universe

He stumbles against cities

Against himself and his own failings

Then pray that the Lord

Erase even the memory

Of this man from His mind

Adding It up by Phillop Booth

a hole in my life pages 80-150

The two men are getting frusterated with eachother and I am thinking it is because they have 2 totally differnet personalities. The man that sails the ship took away Jacks identification, and everything and anything that is "evidence". The only thing he left him with was a fake ID. The next morning Jack woke up to gunshots and found out that it was the sailor practicing his aim by shooting bottles....he missed every time, which was definitely did not make Jack feel safe. Jack was at the point where he missed talking to an actual human, and he was venting to Hamilton by telling him that he is scared of punishments that might occur on this plan of trying to sell hash. He eventually got over it and went on with the journey taking it day by day. He was sick of smoking hash, and it eating it was well so he decided to have a little fun. He jumped into the water and swam around to where Hamilton was in the porthole. Jack grabbed his leg and pretended that he was some sort of monster...and next thing you know Hamilton had a gun pointed toward Jack. He pointed the pistol straight at his head, and shot the water on purpose to scare Jack. Ohh was Hamilton mad. The boat was acting weird and they soon realized that they needed fuel. So happens to be a Japanese fishing trawler ship ahead and eventually made a deal with them and ended up getting some more fuel. It has been almost a month now since they set sail and they think they are getting close to land because helicopters have been in sight lately. So in the next chapter the setting is jack back in his jail sell telling stories on "how people were caught". Suddenly the setting is back with Hamilton and they have arrived in New York and Hamilton had a friend that is going to sell the hash for them. Every police car siren, every helicopter sound makes Jack jump, and he is really nervous for all of this to go down. As they settled in, Jack was thinking to himself as he drank a cold beer and ate some food, that everything is going to be alright for the fact that they didn't get caught on there way there, and the selling of the hash is beginning and that is one step closer to Jack getting his college money he needs.

chicago!

This weekend i traveld to chicago....well just because I guess. My freind and I stayed at her sisters house in the suburbs area, and drove to downtown chicago for the first time. It is absolutley a whole new world down there. The drive down there was dealthy because Chicago drivers are crazy and only care about themselves. Any way once we had made it safe to the house we relaxed for awhile and Sarah's sister and her husband took us to the downtown part and treated us with some lunch. I dont remember what the resteraunt was called but I had the best burger I have ever tasted in my life. Every bite was filled with a sweet juicy taste that I couln't get enouph of. After lunch we headed towards some of the shops. I tried on allot of clothes but didn't end up buying them because everything was really expensive, but I still enjoyed every bit of shopping. After we wanted to go the the big tall bulding that has the glass box that you can look over the city of chicago. We took a cab to get there and realized it was a two hour wait and we did not want to wait that long so we skipped out on that part. We also went to the big bean that is so amazing and cool. If you go under it you can see your self from all points of view. Then after our day downtown, we went to a beach and took some pictures by the water, and then Sarah and I went out for some Chicago pizza. After our night was almost over we went home and watched The chronicals of Narania with her family, and ate hot cookies and ice cream and then went to bed. The next day was depressing when we had to leave but we had a great time so that is all that natters. I would highly recomend going to Chicago! Its AWESOME!

Tuesdays post assignment

I read the article about Electronic devices and how they affect family bonding and relatoinships. Quality time, redifined is a great article that makes people in this day in age realize how consumed we are with the media and technology. If you step and back and look at the advantages of technology itself and how it benefits people, I would say that it has a positive impact on the citizens, but contrasting the idea of how it affects the bodage of family and how they come together I would say the affect is contadictory. The article metntioned that over 60 percent of childern have laptops or access to internet wirelessly. I feel like this is definatly could end up being a bad things just because children are probably spending way to much time doing video games and pointless activites when they could be learning social skills, and how to communcate with there peers with out expressing there feelings and words through the buttons on a keypad.

Blog post assignment for Bloggies

This is my favorite post from the blog page , A Jar of Orange Marmalade http://jaroforange.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-feel-less-like-child-thanks-to-lewis.html

So far I have been really impresses with A Jar of Orange Marmalade's posts and the overall blog. My favorite post which is linked above, is a personal post that describes the relationship of J.J.R tolkeins and CS Lewis and how the article they found on Google about them made them feel less geeky which I thought was comical.

Gallery post

Along with many of Adam Gayers harminious and imaginative artowork peices this bold painting, "A mans crime" creates multiple emotions and very satisfactory to the senses. The disordered brush strokes and 3 demensional outlook makes the painting worthy of examening for a long period of time. The vivid incorporation of real picrures and the painting aspect really gave it it's uniquness. The missing man in the painting may signify that crime isn't what he wasnt to be in life, so he is taken from the picture and wants to be looked at as something else.

week ahead of me

Well the month of April is a big month for my family. Well we have Easter of course, and then we have my Moms birthday, my Dads birthday, my cousins, birthday and my brothers birthday. This Friday my family and a couple of my brothers freinds are going to lazer x to celebrate his 10th birthday which will be a blast becasue I am bringing a couple of my freinds to go to which will be quite comical. Then on Saturday we are goint to Shelbyvill Indiana to visit some of my family, and quite honeslty this is one of those awkward family visits where you only see these people once a year and it is just plain awkward. I mean I love them but the lack of time spent together is not doing a whole lot of good. Then we are having easter dinner at my Dad's house which will most likely be pretty layed back because he is not the fancy type. i have also decided that I am going to read the book of John in the bible because I havent really taken Easter that seriously in past years and thought about the real meaning of it so I decided this year I will step it up. Also I hope that this weather gets better becasue it has not been the greatest out and I would really like the sun to start shining becasue it always puts me in a good mood.

hole in my life pages 41-80

Something very intersting about the way Jack writes is that he compares allot of his situations to books that he has read for example, Jack starts chapter 4 with, " Like every guy, I had read On the Road by Keravac adn wanted to cut loose and carom from coast to coast as he did withougt thinking of money or trouble or annything but great freedom that awaited me like a ship heading to sea." I think could poetentially really help the reader understand where he is coming from especially if they have read the book he is refrering to as well. He just wants to do something big. All year he had worked to keep himself together by keeping his job, managed his money, kept passing grades, and for th emost part he stayed out of trouble, but now his accomplishment just seemed like survival routines which he didnt want it be like that. He had told his dad he was going to come help him with his new construction job. Out of the blue, an old freind of his called him up to meet him and they met up, ended up smoking, and then before you know it Jack forgot he was driving, and they ended up stopping at a pizza parlor, and just got to catch up on eachothers lives. It was actually very intersting, his freind was extremley smart, and extremley into books and research and the sciences. So next thing you know his freind had desserted him and he is stuck at this pizza parlor. So later on he is in St. Croix where his family had recently moved to, and drugs are everywhere. Times were hard financially and there was no way he was going to be able to save money for college even though he wanted to. Something significant about Jacks dad was that he could look at someone and in seconds know there character and if they were a good person or bad person. He could tell if someone was a drug dealer.
.This book does not really go into detail so it is really hard to summarize everything that is going on. Trying not to get lengthy with the descriptions is kind of hard so i appologize if you are getting bored. But this book is so fantastic to me and maybe because the story is so foreign to me.

hole in my life pages 1 -40

For some reason, I think this book has been quite interesting and easy for me to follow, which is not the case for allot of books. In the beginning it is talking about him in the present, and how he is occupied with jail bars surrounding him in jail. The guys name is Jack Gantos, and he is a really fascinating person. It is not yet said the reason that he is behind bars, but I think the rest of the story is his life leading up to his hardships. In jail he describes himself as pretty shy, and not wanting to be apart of the prisoners because they were pretty grusome. He basically tried to stay invisible. Jail is where he went from thinking about writing, to writing, and that was one of his main goals in life was to become a writer. So a little farther in to the chapter he starts the story of his life, and he starts it with his highschool years. He was a junior and lived in Ft. Lauderdale, and suddenly his parents decided to move to San Jaun. Jack was used to moving, so it wasnt that tragic. After realzing that he couldnt fit in the public schools becasue he couldnt speak spanish, and the private schools were too expensive, he thought he didnt have to go to school so he worked as an electrician with his dad for awhile. Coming to realize that he needed to get an education he moved back to Ft. Lauderdale with the Bacon family. The Bacon family were very welcoming at first until Jack started acting up. He would come home at insane hours in the night so drunk he couldnt funtion. After countless nights spent with his face in the toilet, he just was not getting it. One morning the Bacon family woke up to puke all over there family room carpet, and that was the last straw for them. Jack was kicked out. Jack ended up living in his car, and eventally found a small room to rent. He still had a job and still went to school, but he was on his own. I cant even imagine being on my own at 17. Jack wanted to clean up his act, but for him things always dont go the way he wanted. He got cought up i the wrong crowd and was in the enviroment of weed. He shifted away from that crowd, and ended up in his rented room with the manager bringing him breakfast and watching over him like a grandma would. Things were not going well for his dads businsess. There family had moved again, and the relationship was drifting. Jack decided not to go to college, which was one of his goals as well but he just didnt have the drive.

This is all amazing to me, how he is surving on his own and making adult decisions by himself. Its almost as if he is so content and isnt really bothered by his family being sepearted. Or maybe it does bother him and he is just that easy going. I dont know it seems as if he is just seeing what may get him introuble, almost as if he has nothing to loose. The fact that he is into writing is really cool becasue that shows that he is a creative person and likes to express his feelings which I like.

Spring Break

Okay so spring break was absolutley amazing! The cruise ship was top of the line five star for sure. Each place we went to was life changing! We went to Hait first and it was soo pretty, really windy that day so it didnt feel too hot which was good! W only had about three hours there so we just layed out on the beach. Then we had a day at sea on the ship, and believe it or not I surfed on a thing on the shop called the wave runner! It is allot like wakeboarding but like surfing it was really fun! I wiped out really bad, dont worry I go it on video.Next we went to Jamaica where we went zip lining, bob sledding, and we climed Duns falls which was awesome! We also had a taxi driver the whole day and his name was Owen. Owen had a very approachable and sweet attitude about everything. He had an sad but moving story. Of course he wanted money but he was trying to jip us off by telling us his story. After we warmed up to him, and we had spent almost the whole day with him, he was telling us how he lives in a box probably 14 x14, and that is how most Jamaican middle class live, and once they get more money they add on to their house with cement blocks. He loves to cook, and he is not married. His life was very intersting to me just becasue it made me think of how fortunate I am to live in America. He also introduced Mer and I to Reagge music which I love love love. He gave me a cd for free just because I loved it so much. At the end of the day, I dont think I could ever forget my experiance in Jamaica.

Tuesdays Response

From watching these videos of the high school kids, it reminds me allot of homestead, and the kids that we have here. From the pot heads to the nerds, these kids seem pretty typical.
Honestly I think i relate to the girl that wants to be a physical therapist because I also had problems with my body because I was a gymnast, and I was constantly getting injured, and physical therapists were allot of help to me. I don't think I would want to be a physical therapist but more like an occupational therapist, or a speech pathologist because I would like to do something that is really rewarding. I thought the guy that wanted to to be a counselor was really intersting because most guys at his age wouldn't want to be a counselor because it involves being very sensitive a understanding, and most guys at this age are not really that sensitive and understanding. The one that is most diluted is most defiantly the guy that wants to open a weed bakery, I mean that is just really out there, and most likely will not happen because he used the excuse that it would be for medical purposes, but if you need it for medical purposes, you not going to be putting it in like a cake.... at least I think.
In ten years, I see my self probably married and maybe having a kid or two. I see my self probably not extremely wealthy but comfortable and well off. I really enjoy being around people and making people feel comfortable, so I think occupational therapy is a good choice for me.



Dang, this girl is really talented! Soccer and freestyle, are 2 things that she is completely passionate about, and it has showed through out the years. Indi has been playing soccer since she learned how to walk, and from then on thats all she knew. I can relate because I was a gymnast for around 12 years of my childhood, and that is all i knew as well, and I understand that passion involved, and how it is apart of you as a person. Some of her statisitcs are mind blowing from juggling the ball more that 2000 times, and scoring 7 goals in a game when she was just 10 years of age. She got the chance to play at the Glascow womens national team and actually got subbed and impressed everyone by scoring 3 goals. Her creative footwork is her advantage, and no women in the world can do it like her. She had broken world records which is so cool! It is so sad that she was considered a "nobody" because she is so talented, and people didnt start knowing who she was until she had made her accomplishments. She is probably a role model for many young athletes and at only 16 years of age.

160 -the end

I cant tell you how many times the word love is used in this book, it is unreal! On the other hand this book is almost what the narrator is thinking in his head. Why this? Why that? Mentally he forced himself to abandon life itself. All of this because he had found out that Chloe had been seeing another man..."Will". Chloe had previously slept with Will too which made it 10 times worse. As Chloe was confessing, he was telling her it was okay, and then they had not spoke in two day since the trip, until he received a letter int he mail. "I am sorry for offering you my confusion, I am sorry for ruining our trip to Paris, I am sorry for the inviolable melodrama of it....."The letter brought no relief to him only reminders. The recognizable speech that she used only reminded him of her and her face, and her smell, and her touch. It is surprising how often rejectionin love is freamed in moral language, the language of right and wrong, good and evil, as though to reject or not to reject. He also describes how it is surprising that the one who rejects is labeled evil. After everything, he still loves her though. At this point he is asking himself allot of questions as usual. "Was my love for Chloe moral, and her rejection of me immoral?"But he had got to the point of really bad depression,m and almost could not live with himself....basically was a slug that only thought about Chloe. Sadly he was in a process of writing a suicide text saying stuff like" its the only way I could say I love you, please understand I could not live with out your love", and after he wrote it imagined Chloe getting the call from the police. He doesnt do it. Next thing you know he is at a hotel by himself to just be alone I guess. Towards the end he is making references to Jesus, and once again asking questions making many references to a "Jesus Complex" Saying his Jesus Complex had turned the situation that the rejection was a sign that Chloe was worthy of contempt or best pity. I feel like the narrator had gone a little bit crazy just because he talks about hallucinating about the break up and that it did not even happen. The last chapter is titled Love Lessons and it is basically a sum of the whole book and what love really is. Assuming that there are certain lessons to be drawn from love, and that we start to be wise when we realize that we are not born knowing how to live.

3.22 excercise

2. The peom that I liked the most last quarter was "Journey". This poem identifies something that happens to all of us, but we never have time to stop and think about our journies, and how they affect our lives. This poem relates because, I often experiance everything that is said in the poem, but I never have the patience and time to appreciate the goodness of the experiance. The rhyming also makes it more lyrical and fun to read. Also the diction expresses the different emotions such as frustration,"The many fights that made Dad say, "I'll turn this thing around!". Also it expresses the happiness in the car rides when the narrator says"I think about the time when we oustang the radio, and thought we sounded fine".

3. First I would like to say that this website is AWESOME, and it makes me really happy, because it reminds me of all the good things in life. Some of the ones I really like are, "Christmas hugs", "swapping drivers licenses with a freind and lauphing at eachothers photos,", lauphing so hard that you dont make a sound", "wearing your favorite pair of underwear and no one knows". These are just a few, I personally think all of them are awesome. One of mine that I think that should be on it, smelling the smell of a new book!

On Love 121-160

Chloe and the narrator chose to travel to spain to hope to fall in love even more than they already were. Which in my opinion could possibly be quite romantic. The house that they were stating in was absolutely ineffable. As soon as they arrived they took advantage of the clear blue water and took a swim. Despite there amazing time together, Chloe began to have a pain in her head that did not seem to get any better as the night went on. Deciding to get a doctor, with a further diagnosis of anhedonia. No big deal. Which is supposed to be common in tourists, because it is the disease of the suddeness of happiness.....haha i chuckled when i saw that. I guess the anxiety of the happiness led to a throbbin in the head which was painful. After the trip had gone by some more they began to fight about really pointless things, such as directions and maps. Then came to realize that they fought not because they hated each other but because they loved each other. "I hate you because I love you"

I think we can all relate, I think the reason why we fight and argue with our family so much is because we know that they will always be there no matter what, and its not like they can be-friend you easily. Also the reason be that we fight with our best friends is because we want what is best for them and we love and care about them on a different level then just a friend in lets say a class of yours.

SPRING BREAK!!!

Ahhh the joys of the Carribean. Spring break 2011 is when I am going on the biggest cruise ship in the word called the Oasis of the Sea. It is 4 times as big as the titanic..whooow that is huge. I am fortunate enouph to be going on this cruise because my freind is taking me and paying for most of the trip. With out her paying for it I probably would not have been able to go on it so.....thanks Mers mom and Dad! The cruise itself is going to Cozumel, Haiti and Jamaica Man! We are going to go snorkeling, and deep sea fishing, and rock climbing in like this water fall thing, swimming with dolphins and stingrays, and we are also going to be having a butt load of fun on the ship. The ship has an iceskating rink, a billion pools, tennis coarts, surfing stations, teen clubs, all you can eat for FREE, lots of shops, and I am sure lots of attactive males. Haha. Well anyway I am super excited because I have never done anyting like this before and this is basically a once in a life oppertunity for me. Sprin break 2011 lets gooooo!

The thirteenth Tale first pages 1-40

The narrator, Mitch Albom gives a brief introductory explaining his weekly meeting each tuesday with Morrie which is his former college prof. The meeting were at Mories house where they watched pink hibiscus plant shead his leaves. In his words it kind of implies that we should pay close attention to the hibiscus plant because I have a feeling it will play a role in the story later on. I some sort of flash back, Mitch remebers his graduation from college in 1979. In the flashback, mitch sees when he got his diploma handed to him and he introduced his parents to this favorite prof Morie. Before mitch leaves he presesnts Morie with a breif case that has his initails engraved into it. He wanted to give him a gift so that he would never forget him, and as Mitch is leaving, he turns and sees that Morie is crying.

In my opionion I think this is one of those books that will get better as I read along. It is almost dry right now but I have a feeling it will get better.

Love Song

Carol Muske-Dukes

Love comes hungry to anyone’s hand.
I found the newborn sparrow next to
the tumbled nest on the grass. Bravely

opening its beak. Cats circled, squirrels.
I tried to set the nest right but the wild
birds had fled. The knot of pin feathers

sat in my hand and spoke. Just because
I’ve raised it by touch, doesn’t mean it
follows. All day it pecks at the tin image of

a faceless bird. It refuses to fly,
though I’ve opened the door. What
sends us to each other? He and I

had a blue landscape, a village street,
some poems, bread on a plate. Love
was a camera in a doorway, love was

a script, a tin bird. Love was faceless,
even when we’d memorized each other’s
lines. Love was hungry, love was faceless,

the sparrow sings, famished, in my hand.

Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

Notre Dame

Now, anyone would have to admit that this is a pretty awesome campus. For me it has been my dream to go here, but my grades are not good enough to get in. This weekend had a busy weekend and went to Indiana University on a college visit, and its campus was awesome as well. If I could go there on some sort of scholarship, I would go but I dont think I would go just because. IU is the ideal college for allot of people that I know; everyone always wants to go to IU. In my case I want to go somewhere totally different. Anyway, I also went to ND the same weekend I went to IU, and WOW it was amazing. I went there to compete in a regional dive meet for my travel dive team. There were 67 girls all over the nation and I placed 27th which is not too bad. The overall experience was awesome and I really think it was worth it, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to participate.

Spell bound assignment

1. All of the spell bound contestants are all very unique. Ashley White and Harry Altman were two of the contestants that were quite intersesting. Harry was by far my favorite contsestant becasue he was so careless and carefree with a short attention span. You could tell he was pationate about the spelling but not as serious as the other contestants like Ashley. Harry was definetly a talker and was enthusiastic about everything he did and said. Ashley defintley wanted to to win but I think her Mom wanted her to win more than she did, possibly for the cash prize.

2. The two parents that I thought that were the most intersting was Neils parents and Aprils parents. I think Neils dad took the spellbound way too seriosusly, and put way too much pressure on Neil, almost to the point that it was unhealthy. The fact that he told Neil that if he won he was going to help families in Africa is awful. I mean it is okay if you want to help families in Africa, but he did it for the wrong reasons. Aprils parents on the other hand were quite comical and not so serious. They would be proud of her no matter how well she did. A scene that I thought was funny was when her Mom went into her room and looked at one of the books April was studying and was like, " I don't even know any of these words, and maybe I should start studying". I think the major difference between th two sets of parents is that Neils Dad was way too serious, and Aprils parents were allot less carefree.

Mistaken identity 150-200

Carly and the family are having a hard time soaking in the fact that Laura is actually dead. Carly is trying to come up with a short speech to say at her sisters funeral, and same with the rest of the family. The father is actually doing the best out of them all. When they got to the funeral over 400 people were there tightly packed in the foyer. After the funeral for "Whitney", back in the hospital, "Laura" did a remarkable thing.....she said Hi! The doctors had soon been able to take out all of the trachea tubes and other crap that was in her throat so she could start breathing through her nose and mouth. Her sister and her mother start to go into Whitney room and clean the closet out and her drawers, while describing as it still smelling like Whitney which makes her feel close. They decided to keep some and then let her friends come and take stuff that would saver a memory of Whit. Whits father often thought of what and how whit was doing now that she was in heaven. Allot of prayer was involved for the remainder of time, form prayer to the victims, to Whitney impact on people and how important she was to so many.

"Are you Human"

But why not be this lake instead,

icy blue, and the little white curls

of waves, it;s absolute refusal

to be a human? Why not be a thing?

Why not be a place

you'd go to get away

form your mothers frontal lobe eroding

as the faxed medical report has it?

why not a lovely blue-turning-green

and why not the removal of all feeling?

Maybe she'd rather you be a lake,

a way to lie still in the world,

a melted-down pool of snow,

a place to rest.

you could let yourlself wash up on foreign shores

or be the surface across which boats ply their trade,

taking humans from one shore in sun

to the other side in shade.

You remember humans, dont you?

The ones who row the boat,

who act for all the world

as if they know where they are going?

This poem actually meant allot more to m after I had read it about 5 or 6 times. I think what Jim Moore is trying to convey is a foreign and far fetched idea of what we humans think the world is. These simple yet powerful statements are saying for example, "why not be a place you'd go to get away?", or when it says, "why not be a thing?", or " why not be the surface across which boats ply their trade?" Finally in my opinion the most powerful line in the poem isYou remember humans, don't you?" So the emphasis is on the things that maybe us humans could not compare to be equalized or greater than a human itself. Its almost as if the power is reversed, and things such as nature are describing humans. In this poem it talks about "or be the surface across which boats ply their trade, taking humans from one shore in sun, to the other in shade." This making it seam like the ocean is literally, or personifying taking a human across the sea therfore putting the emphasis in the ocean which is unusal. An analogy is maybe the ocean is the actual trunk of a tree, and the human is the leaves on the tree. I think this poem makes you think allot about how wonderful things are that we take for grantid, such as that one place you go to get away, or the little white curls on top of the waves in florida or at the lake.

Mistaken identity 150-200

Carly and the family are having a hard time soaking in the fact that Laura is actually dead. Carly is trying to come up with a short speech to say at her sisters funeral, and same with the rest of the family. The father is actually doing the best out of them all. When they got to the funeral over 400 people were there tightly packed in the foyer. After the funeral for "Whitney", back in the hospital, "Laura" did a remarkable thing.....she said Hi! The doctors had soon been able to take out all of the trachea tubes and other crap that was in her throat so she could start breathing through her nose and mouth. Her sister and her mother start to go into Whitney room and clean the closet out and her drawers, while describing as it still smelling like Whitney which makes her feel close. They decided to keep some and then let her friends come and take stuff that would saver a memory of Whit. Whits father often thought of what and how whit was doing now that she was in heaven. Allot of prayer was involved for the remainder of time, form prayer to the victims, to Whitney impact on people and how important she was to so many.

On love pages 50-100

Allot had gone on in the past 50 pages so it will be hard to reach every point. The man whose name still had not been mentioned, realizes one day when he is writing Chloe a birthday card, that he had never said he loved her. Maybe in actions but never actually said it with the word. Then he questions himself on if he really loves her, or loves the idea of her. Then the next chapter is about these pair of shoes that Chloe gets, and she absolutely loves them and payed allot for them, and he doesnt like them. Later on they are going to a party and Chloe wants to wear her new shoes and he wont let her because he thinks they are too ugly, and by that she gets offended. He tells her its because he cares about her....I say if she likes the shoes she should be able to wear them if she wants. She ends up not wearing them. The two have grown to be quite comfortable around each other aka not polite. He describes how chloe would pick her nose and crumble it in a wad and flick it across the room....right in front of him. One thing that I can admire about them is that they often joke after they fight to settle the mood down. In the chapter beauty there is a picture that is a duck but can also be seen as a rabbit, and it is put in there to determine that people can look at things and people from different points of view and see something totally different. He was beginning to notice that he was doing and saying things like Chloe did and said. They are becoming one.

2.28 diction exercise

You are Human By: Jim Moore
1) lovely
2)absolute
3) melted-down
4)foreign
5)humans
6)removal
7) medical
8)thing

B)
1)elevation: medium( exaltation, grandeur)
2)concreteness: medium(actuality,certainty)

C)Jim Moor's "You are Human", has an unrestricted reality of illusions that alludes to an imaginative exaltation of scenarios that are too righteous to be legitimate.

The lost pencil

You know when are doing homework or something, and your pencil just disappears...its almost as if it camouflages with the bedspread, or the carpet. I mention this because it just happened to me. So, there has been a few exiting things on tv lately like American Idol, the gramies. I believe that this season of American Idol will indeed be the best so far, just because of the talent that is being introduced. I mean these peoples voices are amazing and quite unique and peerless. I fell in love with one particular audition just because of this mans breath-taking voice. I would put the youtube video on, but I forget how to so if your curious then look up Steve Beghun American idol season 10 auditions. On to my opinion with the gramies...I thought they were pretty good this year, I mostly watched it to see all of the breath taking dresses. Another highlight was when toy story 3 won best animated film!! Loved it!

Dance Marathon 2011!!

WHAT IT DO???? ITS DANCE MARATHON TIME! Tonight is dance marathon, and I am super excited because I have never done it before. From the games to the dancing and all the way over to the food, I believe that I am going to have blast! I heard the food is going to be fa nominal Thank gosh it did not get canceled due to weather. I am honestly sick of all these cancellations! Just because the superintendent is all paranoid now because he got crap for not canceling on Monday, we are never going to have a summer.

2.23 Diction Exsercise

A)
1.cruddy
2.evil
3.weird
4.mercy
5.swear
6.bubbles
7.dark
8.Kill

B)
1.Elevation-Low(cheap,inadequate, and low-grade)
2.Connotation-Literal(definite,simple, regular)
3. Sound-Harsh(rough, craggy, unrelenting)
4.Concreteness-Concrete(conglomerated, solidified, calcified)

C)Roberta's craggy, cheap language in Linda Berry's "Cruddy" depicts jaded frustration toward her yonger siblings,

New book chapter 1

So tomorrow is indeed Presidents day....at least that is what my Dad told me so i hope he knows what he is talking about. So here he is the president of the United States..I personllay do not like him all that much but that is just me.

Any way i started a new book called" on love" and so far its pretty decent.I decided to stop reading the other book because it was not intersting me at all. I think reading love stories once in a while is good for everyone. This book is unique becasue every chapter is chapter 1, and in each chapter, the parapgraphs are numberd, almost as if they are entries, which is weird I know, but something about it draws me to it. This story is told in first person and the main charater is a man, that is looking for love. This man loves to travel, and so one day he was on a plane, and his passenger had told him to get an extra drink so that she could have it.....and that is were the love began. They continued to make conversation, and flirt. Next thing you know he is in love with this girl named chloe. He described her as having chesnut colored hair that was short, watery green eyes that refused to look into mine, and her shoulders were thin, almost fragile. She was a graphic designer for a fashion magazine in Soho. So after strange click on the plane, they had spent time with eachother that afternoon, leading to having dinner once in awhile. Even though they were far apart, they called eachother everyday. He truley believes that meeting chloe was fait, and it was not an accident. I wish these types of things really happend in real life....

On love pages 20-50

Alain de Botton "On Love" has just been one of those books that I do not want to put down. It is choppy, but intriguing at the same time. Honestly the cover was what attracted me to the book, but a love story wouldn't be my first choice in book, but I am glad I did. At this point in the story, Chloe and they guy who i never figured out his name(he is the none telling the story), they start to see eachother more and more. This man is so madly in love with Chloe; he analyzes everything and anything about her, its almost creepy. And he quite often asked himself ,"Who could I become to please her?"While that in his mind he attempted to anticipate everything he believed she might of wanted to hear. Then they were at dinner, and things were going well until there was "that" silence..... I think everyone can relate to "that" silence. He went on saying how silence is a sense that you are boring, and is an unattractive quality which i agree with. But then again it is hard to always know what to say. As dinner went on he had found out that Chloe didnt like to talk about herself, and that is what made her so modest. Chloe had grown up in a rich home, and had a quite "awkward" childhood as he explained. At the end of the night when he was taking her home, he tried to be mature and just kiss her on both cheeks and wish her a goodnight, but she whispered in his ear, "we arent children ya know", and they had a wonderful, long kiss! Ow Owww! One thing led to another and they spent the night with eachother doing the nasty. The next morning, he wakes up to Chloe getting into the shower, and then she makes a huge breakfast, which she is grateful for. Until something in his taste buds told him that he needed strawberry jelly when there was like 5 different jelly's that she had. He said that he was going to leave and go get some and she did not like that idea. I don't blame her, that is ridiculous. Those actions led to a small fight, and she ended up in her room crying over jelly.

Chicago Enlightened!
In the video perfomance that the flash mob dancers portrayed, caught the eyes of many Americans displaying a strong sense of unity and fluidity reflecting the majestic ripple and energetic feeling of everyone taking part. Oprah opened the show and introduced the Black Eyed Peas, and watched the performance from the stage. In true flash mob style, the dancing begain with one solitary performer positioned in the front row. As the song
progressed more dancers joined in until there were thousands moving simultaneously. The audience was proved to be well rehersed with everyone seeming to know what to do at the exact time they were supposed to do it. On stage, Oprah was standing in awe of what she was witnessing. She held her cell phone up taking video of the whole thing and could not stop saying,"Oh my gosh"! She obviously had no idea that this unbelievable show was going to take place. It was almost as if the dancers were telling a story, and it all started with one person. So therefore if it wasnt for that one person being themselves the others would be affected. This video might be portaying that sometimes you just have to let loose and have fun!

Jane Eyre and Miss Lonely Heartsnpages 1-75

In English class we are reading a book called Jane Eyre, and right now it has a ton of description in it, almost too much and I am not too fond of it so far but we will see how it goes. I started a new book, a different kind of book but I dont know if I will keep reading it so we will see. It is called Miss Lonely Hearts and it starts off with a man that works at the new york post as a columist, and he is under the name "Miss Lonely Hearts". His editor, a cynical old man named Shrike, had printed out a mocking prayer comparing Miss Lonely Heart to Jesus? Miss Lonely Heart recieves all of these letters from people that have crisis in there lives, and only know that Christ is the answer, and he is sick of Shrike mocking him in his prayers. Shrike makes fun of him for only loving Jesus.

So far the book is not as good as a planned, and for some reason the religious book have been a hot topic for me latley. No problem with that.

Dirty Ducker

Do you see this? This will be my face on the day of Dirty Duckers Dodgball tournament! I am super excited because my team is going to be pretty legit. Our team name is the Office, and we are all characters from the show. My name is Jim. Classic right? Anyway, I am also in the process of raising money for Dance Marathon which is goin to be so much fun! I have never been able to go to it because I always had gymnastics regionals, but now thay I am not doing this year I will be able to attend. I am a little apprehensive about only getting like 3 hours of sleep so it will be interesting. I also heard the food is amazing!

pages 175-210

Laura is now able to somewhat talk, and open her eyes. Which is a releif for the family, and just makes them want to stay by her side the whole time as she gets better everyday. Whitneys family had found out that there cousin had just been in a similar accident and she died. Breaking the news to everyone would be like dealing with the whitney situation all over again. After that the news hd to be broken that Laura was not really who they thought she was, and that she died in the accident along with Brad and all the others. They all sobbed until they couldnt anymore. It didnt seem real to anyone. Chapter 19 is called Back to From the dead, and ironically Whits family finds out the wonderful news that their daughter is still alive. The whole family panicked and rushed down to were she was. On the other hand Lauras family was not getting left alone by the news reporters and poperazzi. They were all so frusterated, sad, and coudlnt get a break. The next few pages are picturres of Whit and her family and Larua and her family.

So last you heard, I was training for regionals, and last night I had a great meet down in Indianpolis for the regional meet. It was so crazy I was conpeting against an olympian! She is the youngest girl ever to be in the olympics. She is 17, and dove in the last olympics and is now training for the 2012 olympics. It was an honor to compete against her and watch how good she was. She obviously got first place but me on the other hand, I got 8th which makes the cut for State. So Friday I am leaving at 8 heading towards Indianapolis, and I am sorry to say I am missing school Friday. I have never been to state for diving before, but I have been for gymnastics and it was one of the coolest things I have ever experianced. I am hoping this will be just as thrilling.

On to a new topic, I think the picture that we discusses in class today was so cool! It had an absolute amount of intricate detail that you have to look up close to see, which is the beauty of that painting because there is so much hidden. Also how the painting looked like someone froze time just to catch every detail and emotion that the birds where portaying. I very much enjoy what we are dong in class now because we get to do things our own way to an extent instead of other classes where you do same old same old crap everyday. So thank you Mr. Hill for making this class an enjoyment!

The crazy teenage drivers that think they are cool...

“The presence of peers activated the reward circuitry in the brain of adolescents that it didn’t do in the case of adults,” said Laurence Steinberg. I think that statement is interesting because I can relate and admit that I drive faster and less aware when i have my freinds in the car with me. The music is always louder and i am less focused on the road. Dr. Steinbarker says that the brain system involved in reward processing is also involved in the processing of social information, explaining why peers can have such a pronounced effect on decision making.I guess he is just trying to say that when your peers are with you, you are more likely to be a daring individual rather than if you were by yourself.

personal

I found this picture, and i just thought it was super cool and captures reading in action.

So, tomorrow is my regional dive meet in Indianapolis, and I am so nervous. I just got first at sectionals last weekend which was exciting, but my coach informed us that we have some major competition. There is going to be a girl that is training for the 2012 olympics that I will be competing against, and how can you not be intimidated by that? The top 8 girls go to state, so I am praying that I will be able to do well enouph to make the cut.

This is one of my favorite olympic divers Kelci Bryant...I thought this pictures was quite comical


This video is one of my descriptions but I dont think it posted on my blog so I am posting it again.

Mistaken Identity pages 50-100

At this point in the story you literally just want to be there with the families to help comfort them, especially Lauras family because they are stuck in an ICU waiting room for days waiting and waiting. They finally get the oppertunity to stay at a house that is run by a pastor, and it is for families like Lauras that need somwhere to stay and have a horrible situation that they are dealing with. Everything was free. At this point "Laura" is in a coma, and so many people are trying to contact the family, with the same words," i heard about your daughter, if there is anything we can do to help let us know." So in that case with hundreads of people trying to contact her with updates and so forth, Lauras Mom decided to make a blog! In fact it was on this very website, blogspot.com. She would post updates on Lauras health, and people from all over the country were contacting her saying that they were praying, and telling there stories as well. So Laura was fortunate to have so many people praying over her. After Whitneys Mom Colleen and the family had got the news, and they had gone away, they came back and the house just seemed abnormal. There were flowers everywhere, over 30 messages on the answering machine, and they were dreading the moment that they were going to have to go upstairs to Whits room. But they knew they had too. They ended up just laying on her bed and turning the harshness into laughter by remembering all of the good times they had with Whit. Also after that they had to be concerned about making the arangments for the funeral. Carly, Whits older sister suggested that instead of worrying about the funeral arrangment, they shoud start the day with a 2 hour prayer session. Her mom thought she was crazy cuz she had so much to do but they ended up listening to worship music, and reading whits favorite bible verses. Everyone was so thankful that Carly forced them to do it because now the day would be so much easier. Later that day they end up going to watch the highschool soccer game beacuse Whit used to be on it. Next comes whitneys birthday which was also her funeral day. Her Mom is keeping a journal of like what she would want to say to whit everyday, just saying like Happy 19th b-day, its been so long since we have talked....basically writing her a letter like she is gone in a foreign country or something. So many of the people that loved whit showed it, and there were more people than anyone ever could imagine at the funeral.
I am still in aw at the fact that this book is how God is the look back on every situation, and every thought, they always turn to him either with prayer, or trust in him. Its so moving I cant explain. Its almost comforting in a way and makes the situation less sad and depressing. You would not believe how many people were praying for these girls. Its so unreal but so real. Even though this book is sad, for some reason it interest me to see how these families are getting through this tragedy.

Blog Assignment # 2!!

http://www.pandora.com/#/stations/create/

This is one of my favorite websites! Pandora is a new way of internet radio that you can listen to a variety of music that you like. For example you can type in an artist or genre, and it will play a plethora of music from that artist or genre. Also for example if typed in, let's say John Mayer, there is a button were you can click on that will provide you with music like John Mayer, so its a cool way to discover new artists as well. If you have an iphone or droid, it is free, but I am not sure about just going to it on a computer. This is convenient if you are in one of those moods, and you just want to listen to a certain kind of music. Also they have thousands and thousands of artists and songs. Check it out!!

Blog assignment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwRo0iCvoYE
This video is a present to oprah for 24 seasons of Oprah


observation: thousands maybe millions of people
crazy lights and colors on stage giving it an upbeat vibe
the unitity literally gave me goose bumps
dance moves were fun and energetic
the way the image looked like a ripple of domino's it was AMAZING!
It looks like they are just having the time of their lives, dancing and partying!



inferences:
they were telling a story with there body and there body language
Maybe the story could resemble how it can all start with one person, and one person can make a huge impact.
Oprah was in a state of amazement, and wondering how this could all be happening.
It kind of remids me of how birds fly in the sky in syncronized movements

20-50 Mistaken Identity

So I figured out that the way the author is writing this story is every other chapter, its switching families in the order that things happened in. So for example, the first chapter is about whitneys family and when they first got the phone call, and the second chapter is when lauras family first got the call, and it just keep alternating in sequence of how things happend. I am so into this book, just because i know that it is 100% real. So in i think it was the third chapeter, Whitneys family gets that phone call pronouncing that she is dead, and they get the chance to go see her but she didnt because she didnt want the last image of her daughter to be of her dead. The only problem with that is that she couldnt 100% confirm that it was her; they just trusted the "profesional". So in the next chapter, Lauras family gets the phone call that she has been in a horrible car accident and they need permission to stick some device in her brain to higher the chances of her living. They approve, and they are on their way to the hospital. All of her family and freinds from taylor were at the ICU waitng in the waiting room to hear any new news. First her parents went in the room to see her, and were stunned on how bad she looked, but they insisted that it was laura. When Aryn her boyfreind (but it wasnt really her boyfreind, since it was really Whitney)got there he sat by herside and the nurse came in with some of the stuff that was hers, like a pair of five star converse, but Aryn and her mother claimed that they did not belong to her, but they didnt think anything of it.

The one thing that I really love about this book, is that both of the families put the situation in the hand of God. All that Lauras mom Susie could do is pray that God has a plan for her and her family. Also Taylor University had praying ceremonies the night of the accident and a couple after. That just shows that they are strong in that area and they are going to get through it allot better knowing that they have God.

Mistaken Identity....du du duuuu!

So i know this is probably a bad idea, but i have started another book, hoping that it will not interfere with the other 2 books I am trying to read. If you live in Indiana, you probably have heard about this story. Right off the back, it tell you the end result, and then tells the story of what happend. So in the first chapter, it explains how this story on April 2006, a tragic car accident claimed the lives of several college students in Indiana, and put others in the hospital with critical injuries. Also to find out that 2 of the people where victims of mistaken identity! The story is told in 3rd person, but does a good job of being specific so you can really picture everything happening, and the emotions that the families felt. Whitney was a 2005 high school graduate, attending college near Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She was the kind of girl that loved everyone and everyone loved her. Her mom is a teacher at one of the local schools and her dad is an assistant pastor at a church, so most of the town knows the family. You can tell that Whitneys family was very religious, because as soon as they heard rumors, to the actual phone call announcing that her daughter had died, all the could do was pray, which at times brought me to tears. I couldnt even imagine hearing such news. The only thing that is confusing me is how the family didnt go to her and confirm that it was her....becasue it obviously was not.

Nights in Rodanthe Chapters 1-3

This a new book I am reading, and the first thing that I read was the acknowledgments because usually you can get a feel for what the authors personality is from who they dedicate the book to. For Nicholoas Sparks, he tried to thank everyone and anyone that he could which really shows that he cares about the people around him, and wanted them to know that they impact ths life.

In the beginning, it is basically giving background information on the main character, Adreienne and is very descriptive on her personality traits and characteristics. The story is told in 3rd person, making it feel like you are watching the story from affar. Adreinne is an older women around 60, and in the beginning, there are some flashbacks an Inn that her and her husband used to stay at, (very descriptive). She lived alone, she was divorced from a man named Jack, her father had died in 1996. She had childeren that were in there early thirties. All of them were happily married accept for the youngest whos husband had died of testicular cancer which took a huge toll on there family. Ever since Amanda's husband died, she had not been the person she used to be. She was in a major depression, and most of the Adreinne would help take care of her kids while she weeped in her bedroom. Adrienne was a good grandma. She understood that is was hard, but what Amanda didnt realize was that her kids were suffering too, and it probably seemed like they had lost not only one of there parents but both.

My thoughts about "Tweaked"

Well, this book is basically trying to tell you that once your an addict, you have a 93% chance of never recovering from your horrible habbit. Once Chase died, there whole lives were different. They were in so much debt, so much pain, that they didn't know what to do with themselves. Gordies parents ended up splitting and living far away from each other, and Gordie stayed with his Dad. One of Chases previous druggie friends, Ryan, went to rehab, and from the looks of it Gordie thought he was doing great until he ran in to him and his Mother hat the grocery store. They chatted it up for a few min and the very last line of the book was him asking Gordie if he could barrow 20 bucks....That line is probably the most meaningful line( in a bad way) in the whole book. That line indicates that he still needs money to go get that fix, that high that has taken over his whole mind to the point where I am sure that is all he thinks about. The sad part is, that his Mom thought he had recovered.

Getting to the point where getting the next hit is all you think about, you have major problem and you need to go get help before you end up like Chase, dead. I am sure Chase was a good person on the inside, and I am also sure if he had not gotten into the wrong crowd, that he would be normal, with a normal life.

If you are someone like me, who is totally oblivious to stuff like drugs, this book will give you a detailed description on what an addicts life is like. READ IT!

159- to the end to the BOOK

So before I read the last of the book, I made sure that I some pretzels handy to munch on because I knew it was going to be suspensful. Anyway at this point in the book, it is the start of summer, and Gordie has allot on his mind. Work, summer school, Chase, Mom and Dad, the band, and his crush Jade. He drops in the pawn shop almost everyday to check on his bass guitar that he has almost saved up enouph money for. He really wants to have it back. It was just one of those things that was so precious to him.

One day when Gordie was working, a strange man that was skin and bone, and there were deep hollows of were his cheeks used to be, and when he got up close, Gordie had to step back because the odor was that bad. Once the man got closer, he had realized that it was Chase. Chase was asking Gordie for 500 dollars or else Ractchet and DC were going to kill him. Gordie was so mad at him, but he didnt want his brother to die. Ratchet and DC were outside of the store waiting and watching. Gordie locked the doors so that they could not get in. He calmy tried to tell Chase that he was going to call the cops, and as soon as he told him the plan, Chase freaked out and started shaking, and did what he did best and ran away and tried to get out.  Before Gordie could call the cops, he was out and when Ratchet and DC saw he didnt have any money with him, they started beating him, and pushed him into the backseat of there car and sped off. The cops later found Ratchet and DC but no Chase.

Gordie rides the bus home, wandering if Chase is alive. He is scared to to go home and tell his parents that Chase was with him and once again got away. Gordie looks at the newspapers everyday at the section reading unidentified bodies wandering if it were Chase. It seems as though this whole thing has screwed there family up mentally and emotionally. Gordies dad is starting to drink, and his Mom wont get out of bed. His parents are not speaking, and his Mom is turning on Gordie and his Dad. The cops do not trust Gordies Mom, so everynight they speak with his father. 

So one afternoon Gordie is watching the news, and sees that a man has stolen a womens car in the rain. The man gets to the highway and is chased by cops at over 150 kilometers per hour when they finally stop him, he is seen with his head down on the wheel, and swallows something which is later found to be a large amount of drugs. Its guess that he just wanted one last hit before he got arrested. Even on the TV with all the cops surrouding the man, Gordie knew that it was Chase. Chase went into cardiac arrest, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he stopped breathing. My post is getting too long so therfore.....to be continued....muhahah

Tweaked pgs 100-157

With the book almost being over, the suspense is building up on what Gordies family is going to end up like, and what will happen to Chase. Gordie is describing his parents to be ageing allot in only less than a year, and I am sure we can all guess why. Chase, financial issues, etc. His mom seemed to non intentially blame the situation on Gordie, when Gordie is just tryig to help. Gordie is failing two of his classes, and gets a chance to re-take his finals, or go to summer school. The night when Chase dissapeared was the last night he had to study for his exams, so that didnt happen. He went into his councelor the next day and signed up for summer school because he new that there was no hope for him passing the exams. I personally think I would have a tremendous amount of difficulty studying when my life was as bad as his. While he is in the councelor he finally opens  up to her and tells her almost everything about Chase which lifted a huge weight off his shoulders. Over the next week Chase doesnt call or show up. Everyday that Chase does not turn him self in to the police, the more the police are not going to play mister nice guy, and his punishment will get even worse.

At this point, he feels like nothing else can go wrong, so he tries to look for his bass guitar at local pawn shops. While he is downtown in a nasty area, he gets hit on by a grundgy looking man with no teeth, and smells horrible. The old man asks him if he wants to go on a date for money. This incident just show you how messed up people can get when they do drugs.

Later on Gordie finds out over the phone, that his Mom has been contacting Chase for weeks now, giving him almost 200 dollars a day. Chase has been using a pay phone right outside a conveniance store. Some how the police find out, and try to catch him at the phone booth calling his Mom. Gordie is watching at a distance, and as soon as the undercover cops seem a little too obvious, Chase runs! Gordie cannot help himself but to run after him as well. Chase gets away. At this point, Gordies Mom and Dad are not talking, and his Mom is contantly wasting gas looking for Chase.

At this point I really want to know what is going to happen to Chase. I personally think he is going to be dead, and there is not going to be a happy ending, but who knows, this book is pretty "Tweaked".....haha good one. Anyway if I were in Gordies shoes I would be on the verge of giving up, but something inside of him keeps looking for his brother.

"Tweaked" pgs. 63-100

These next few chapters are intense and quite depressing. Chases freind Harris has committed suicide by statbbing himself when he was high and thought that there were bugs on him that wouldnt come off, so he tried to stab them to get them off leaving him on the side of the rode with 27 stab wounds his body, and died before they could get him to the hospital. At this time Chase is at home, and surpisingly doesnt react as he should when he hears the news about his druggie freind. He doesnt show much emotion at all. Later we find out that Gordies Mom has lost her job due to asking for time off too often, becasuse she was having problems with Chase that she needed to take care of, and work was a second priority. Now they are really screwed finanically. I can not imagine having almost no money, and then right after that loosing a job. So in that case, Gordie decided to sell his precious bass guitar from his band to help pay Chases debt. He also gathers up all of his birthday money and savings to meet the amount needed to help pay Chases drug dealers, so he could get out of the house and start working, and maybe even become normal again. Gordie helps Chase out big time and goes to the bank and gets the money.

Gordie refuses to let Chase go by himself with his money; who knows Chase would probably run off with it. Anyway, for some odd reason Chase gets all spiffed up to go to the drug dealers house leaving Gordie confused. Disregarding that, they are on there way and Chase directs Gordie into an actually nice neighborhood, and Gordie is very shocked to see where this is where Chase comes to gets high at. As they enter the drive way Gordie wants to go to the door with Chase, but Chase refuses and promises he will only be 5 minutes. 20 minutes go by and Gordie is worried, so he goes up and a creep answers the door and says Chase isnt there, he had run off.....again. Gordie is scared to go back home because they had told there parents that they were going to a movie. Gordie feels like an idot. He looks for Chase all night in the rain and almost gets jumped by some crazy men downtown. He finallly gives up, and goes home to tell his parents the truth, but the police had beat him to it. They had found out that the man that Chase had hit on the head, and was in the hospital had just died that night, and its possible he is going to be charged for murder. His parents are so upset, and scared of whats going to happen.

Right now Gordie wishes that Chase was dead. I dont blame him, it just seems like one bad thing happens after another, and its not fair. Gordie hasn't done anything to deserve this life, and if it stinks to think if Chase had never acted the way he did, nothing would be falling apart like it is. Right now I feel like I am Gordie, and I fell the pain he is going through. The book is doing a great job of being descriptive and telling every detail so you feel like you are actually in the story. Honestly I feel like I could ring Chases neck right about now, he is just screwing up time and time agian and it is not fair to an innocent family like theres.

"Tweaked" Pages 38-62

By this point in the book Gordie has been faced with things that probably would be traumatizing to most people including me. For example, he gets jumped by two gangsters on the side of the road named Ratchet and DC. Shocker, Chase had owed the gangsters two grand, and when didn't get there money on time, they went after his family. When Chase gets home from rehab, Gordie can barely talk to him because he is so disappointed. They get into a small fight, and Chase breaks down in a whimper and tell Gordie that he is scared for his life. He is scared that he is going to get killed by Ratchet and DC, because he had already broke his best friend Hatchets hand because he owed them 500 dollars. Chase begs Gordie for money, and Gordie leaves him hanging and tells him he will think think it over the next couple weeks.

Gordie's Dad lets him borrow there sports car they own that Chase used to drive all the time. Making it all the way to the highway, they began to be chased by another car, ending up reaching dangerous speeds of 140 kmh. They eventually see that it is the gangsters trying to kill them. Gordie and his friend eventually get pulled over and the cops found records of drug possessions and steeling all because it was from Chase leaving them in the Police station. After his parents picked them up disappointed about the speeding ticket, they knew the drug talk was not Gordie. Chase disappeared for about two weeks and the two grand was over 2 weeks overdue. Chase had lost around 50 lbs, and had broken out in "speed bumps", sores all over his body oozing gross stuff trying to get rid of the noxious chemicals in his body from the meth.

Gordie and his parents have had enough after they get a phone call from his grandma terrified for her life because Chase entered her house with a knife demanding for money. They had finally kicked him out. They changed the locks and didn't see Chase for two more weeks. He would come back once in awhile begging for food, and a place to sleep, but as hard is it was for his parents, they had to say NO.! It seemed like Chase did not learn his lesson though; he would break in occasionally when no one was home and try and steal things so he could sell them. Also, he applied for a credit card in this mothers name and nearly drained there family bank account. It just seems like one thing after another, and there family doesn't get a break from Chase being a bastard and selfish. Gordie is livid with this situation because his parents are barely paying any attention to him because they are constantly working with there finances or worrying about Chase and why he is the way he is. Truthfully, I think Chase just got ahold of this horrible behavior from hanging around the wrong people. If I were Chases parents right now i would use all of the money i had left to put him back in rehab, because there is no way he is getting better on the streets. I think this whole situation is scary and has gotten out of hand.

Pages 1-38 in "Tweaked"

I got interested in this book because getting addicted to crack cocaine is something that would never cross my mind as something that would take part in my life. This story starts off with this boy named Gordie, and he reminds the reader of some of the good memories of him and his brother when they were younger. Soon enouph, he break out into present happenings, and informs us about his life and his brother. Gordie's brother Chase, asked his dad one day if he could have some money to go buy some unbleached Egyptain cotten. Confused, his dad and him went to get it, and later that night Chase had done something terrible. Chase had put his neighbor into the hospital because he hit him in the head with a bottle. Chase had been arrested before, and finally we find out that he is a serious crystal methamphetamine user.

Gordie has to deal with not knowing whether his brother is safe, or when he will come home. Most of the time he comes home he is "hyped up, pupils flickering in his head like a pinball machine, skin yellow-gray, and sores festering all over his face." Gordie had described him as being so thin that he could break. Chase would always be going out and lying to his parents who were worried sick, and coming home with the police beacause he had been found on the side of the road or something of that sort. The parents had given Chase way too many changes, and were somewhat of pushovers in the beginning. Teachers, freinds and family gave him every oppertunity to redeam himself, but he ended up screwing it up again. Gordie is emberassed to have people such as the girl he has a crsuh on name Holly over because he is afraid his brother will come home high, and scare them off while trying to steal whatever he can to sell for money for the drugs. Gordies mom and dad don't have money anymore beause they litereally have spent it all on Chase, with bailing him out of jail countless times, and getting tricked in to giving money for things when he only spent it on drugs.

My personal outlook on the book is that  Gordie is taking is better than I would be. Seeing my sibling tearing his life apart, and knowing that he is a drug addict, I dont know how I would deal with it, I would probably need counseling. This book reminds me of that show on MTV about the drug addicts, and honestly it is a depressing show to watch these wonderful people turn into monsters because of an nasty addcition. It changes there whole personality and willingness to live life.