Destiny...

I'm going to have to go against the full belief of destiny because I think that destiny is a major scapegoat for explanations people are looking for. Everyone has a choice in any given situation even if it's how they got to that situation or what they will do in a situation. Everyone makes choices that affect them now and later on in life. I feel like the thought of destiny gives people an easy answer or scapegoat as to why things happen or why they are going to happen. A big question that everyone always has is "Why?" and not many can find the answer for this so they decide to just go for the easy answer of the reason being God or destiny when really it's just a chain of thoughts and choices someone has made. As people I think that we really do create our own paths because of the choices we make. Live on.

Independent reading blog 4

I have finished reading This Dark Endeavor and it was indeed a great book, yet poor ending, as previously stated in my last blog. Well, to continue my fun reading time I decided to read the book Eragon, again. I have completed reading this book and once again, it continued to amaze me as to how good this book truly is. Eragon is one of my favorite books because of the adventure in yet and all the challenges and trials Eragon faces throughout the book even though he is only some measly 16 year old farm boy. He gets placed in such a huge role into society which ends up being bigger then he could have ever imagined. I think I enjoy this book so much because it has the adventure I am always longing for. Reading books like this, I begin to just have the words start a movie reel in my head and I don’t want to stop reading, ever. Well Eragon truly is a great book and it inspires me that anyone, even a farm boy, can be placed on a huge adventure and find greatness in life and hey, if a little farm boy can do it, then anyone can right? I also think that this book is very down to earth with the dialogue and way the characters are throughout the book. Many books these days have it where the protagonist is the perfect person and never makes a mistake, and even when he does, the mistake is the best thing he’s ever done. In Eragon, he makes little mistakes and decisions that everyone would do and he messes up, just like everyone else. He grows a lot in the book and matures and it just makes you more able to relate to the book.

I think that this book goes a little bit with Mr.Kain's post on finding adventure, even though this book is not placed in modern society. As said earlier, this little 16 year old farm boy, who has had nothing special to him happen, gets placed on this huge adventure that completely changes his life. No matter what type of person is going about their everyday, you can still finding adventure smacking you in the face.

Independent reading blog 3

As before, I am still reading This Dark Endeavor. It has continued its course and Victor has continued searching for this elixir of life. He soon finds out that the last and final ingredient needed for this elixir of life is bone marrow. In a heroic attempt he decides to sacrifice cutting off his last two fingers on his left hand, so that the bone marrow can be extracted and used for it. After this process of getting his fingers removed they are in a big rush to get back to their house and give the elixir to Konrad. Once back to the house Konrad receives this elixir as he is already starting to snuggle into his death bed, but thankfully the next morning upon waking up, Konrad feels like a new stronger man. Filled with excitement, Victor, Konrad and their friends all are having a great day and the household is the happiest it’s been in quite some time.

With a couple pages left this book is looking to turn out great and is headed in the direction to be one of my favorite books I’ve read in a while, but then it takes a wrong turn. The next morning Konrad is found dead, as he had died in his sleep.

This ending changed my whole entire reaction to the book and it just threw a mean curve ball at me. I don’t know what to think when it says that Konrad had died when the whole entire book had been based on saving his life after many trials throughout the book. Victor had sacrifices cutting off his two fingers so he could save Konrad, but now, he lost two fingers with nothing to show for it. I begin to wonder what the true point of this book was and I can't seem to come up with a conclusion as to what it really was. Thankfully there is a second book coming out later in the year of 2012 and I hope to read that and hopefully it gives me some insight as to why this whole ending to the book happened. I'm still a little baffled as to why the author made this choice to have an ending that turned the whole entire book, into what seemed to be a pointless reading time for me. Maybe he wanted to follow the path of not every book has a good ending but come on, the whole book was to save this kid and he just died. Give me a break.

Independent reading blog 2

After going through many troubles they find someone, and an old alchemist who can translate the text inside the old book, they find that they need 3 ingredients for this to work....

The first ingredient needed is a rare lichen, which can only be found on high trees in Strumwald, on only the darkest nights. When Victor, Elizabeth and Henry realize that in a little less then a week the moon will allow for a dark night.
After setting out that night, they remember that Juliuis Polidori, the alchemist who translated the text for them, has given them a little "potion" to make which they would drop in their eyes so that they had "wolf vision" which would allow them to see in the night more clearly.After hours of walking deep into Strumwald, they find one of the tallest trees in the forest and now they must climb it, for this rare lichen is near the top. After climbing and climbing they  reach near the top, and start getting the lichen off the tree. Upon coming down though they are nearly attacked by vultures and must hurry down. After luckily making it back to the bottom of the tree, they are safely on the ground again, with one ingredient to the elixir.
The next ingredient is the oil from the head of a coelencath, a deadly large fish that is rare to find in normal lakes or rivers. After talking to Polodori about this though, he reveals that he has a map through caves not too far away that can lead them to a pool very far underground that is said to have these fish there. After a very long journey through these caves, Victor,Elizabeth, and Konrad(Victor's twin brother) are taveling through these underground caves, while henry waits at the entrance of the cave for he is fearful to go into the cave. After many trials throughout the cave, they near the pool and are trying to catch this giant fish. The giant fish then takes both baits from Victor and Konrad, causeing them both to be struggling to get this fish and reel him in, but he is nearly too powerful for them to get. Next, Konrad's line snaps which causes all the power to get thrustted into Victors reel and this unexpected force causes Victor to go flying into the freezing cold pool of water. While Victor is fighting for his life he doesnt want to give up on getting this fish, but the giant fish begins to fight back and bites, and nearly swallows Victor's arm. Konrad comes running into the pool and stabs the fish in the eye twice with his sword and finally the fish is still. Not being able to carry the whole fish back to the surface, they just cut of the head, wrap it up, and leave the cave.
When they get back to their house, their father asks Victor what happened to his arm and why there were bite marks in it and Victor comes clean about all the has happened. Victor's father becomes furious and tells them to stop trying to get the elixir because alchemy is just a "mirrage."


Once again...thats where i left off

Independent Reading Blog 1

For my independent book reading I chose to read the book This Dark Endeavor, by Kenneth Oppel. This book so far is mainly about these two twins, Victor and Konrad Frankenstein, and their two friends Elizabeth and Henry. They have all spent a majority of their childhood together and mainly lived together for most of their lives at the Frankenstein household. But one day, Konrad, the older of the twins gets sick. Many doctors from all over Geneva come to diagnos Konrad or to try to rid him of the sickness. One doctor comes to though from a the the best university around and makes a cure for him because something is wrong with him blood cells attacking each other. This makes Konrad heal but the doctor says that it is only treatment so most likely the sickness would return. Victor through all of this, is worried for his twin and doesnt want to see anything bad happen to Konrad, so he decides that maybe it doesnt take just some regular doctor to help his twin, but maybe some alchemy, or some other mixture of magic and science. After finding "the dark library" in their own old household and searching through its books, they find one book with the thing they are looking for, the elixir of life. After going through many troubles they find someone, and an old alchemist who can translate the text inside the old book, they find that they need 3 ingredients for this to work.

And thats where i left off....

Sherlock Holmes Reaction

We just finished watching Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr., and I thought it was a decent movie. It was good for a classroom because it was newer and I enjoy Downey Jr. I really liked how logical he was with everything throughout the movie and his knowledge of everything made him very sucessful. Many parts throughtout the movie he would have not been able to continue or he would have taken a wrong turn though the movie if he wasnt so clever about everything.
On the opposite though, i dont agree with people saying that Christopher Boone, main character of The curious incident of the dog in the night-time, is similiar to Homles because Homles is not a whiney little kid who freaks out. Yes i agree they both use logic and such but Homles is so much different because Boone uses logic because he has to and he truely is a little kid about his methods and what not. Homles is much more smoother about descions and exectution of there whereas Boone is annoying, childish and truely mentally retarded about them. I disliked Christopher greatly throughout the book because of all his annoying childish things, even though he may not have been able to control them, but either way, i cant help but dislike him.

Book Reaction: Dog, kid, mom leaves 1

General Book Review: The Curious Incident of the dog in the night time


This book started off with the general plot for a kid looking for someone who killed the neighbor's dog, Wellington. After investigationg a little it turns up that his mother has left him and his father and ran away with the nighbor's husband to go to London. This last sentence though does not seem to sound to good for someone looking to view Christophers mother, but theres more to it. She left because Christopher has disabilites and it was very tough for their family to get everything together and have a happy life early on. Christopher would always throw tantrums and mainly he was more upset around his mother, so evntually, she decided it was best for all of them if she just left. His father though did not tell Christopher the truth, he did not tell him that she left them and just ran off. He decided it was best for Christopher to just tell him that she had died. So for about two years, this is Christophers belief on what had happened to his mother. One day though when his father took his book, he went looking around the house for it and found letters adressed to him, from his mother. Suprised at this, he opens it and starts to read and is very confused. His father tells him the truth when he sees that Christopher has found the letters and tell him that he is very sorry and doesnt want anymore lies between them. To show Christopher he doesnt want anymore lies between them, he tells him that he killed the neighbor's dog Wellington when it tried to attack him one day but this backfires on him and scares Christopher greatly which results in Christopher wanting to leave himfather and go find his mother in London, who is still very much alive. In the end, Christopher goes through many trials and obstacles with the real world and himself mentally that he must overcome to go find his mother in London.

Reaction: This book was alright but was very hard to follow because of the random rants Christopher would go on about what he liked or didnt like or what he was scared of. This really was the worst thing about that book that made it annoying. I think that too much of the book was off task from the story and was just about random stuff like Cristopher wanting to wet his pants because a train was near him. This book had a huge downfall in that essence and this book is definatly not in my top ten.