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.

David Henry Thoreau

"Henry David Thoreau believed that in order to live well, we must reduce the number of material goods we have. Otherwise, these things begin to dominate us."


I agree with Mr.Thoreau, for the most part. If we have material goods and can obtain them, then we will just keep wanting more and more. With always getting and wanting new things, these things do begin to dominate us because we will naturally keep wanting more. You normally wont see some billionaire living in a cardboard box....i think. But yes, if we reduce the material goods we truely have then we will be more likely to look at the things we have and be thankful for them. Normally having less material goods, we will not take so much for granted and we will focus on what we have other then what we really want. This statement by the one Mr. Thoreau also agrees with no one liking a greedy person because they will just keep wanting more.

Prime numbers are like life....

"Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the numbers away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical, but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

            I dont really agree with what Christopher said about prime numbers and life exactly. He said you cant work out the rules but yet there are certain rules that make up how to get the prime numbers. Life on the other hand he was right about with how you can never really work out the rules. there are no limits, restriction or rules when it comes to life but with prime numbers, they are just prime numbers. Christopher himself earlier in the book said someone could sit there and work out however many prime numbers, even though he couldnt keep going and going, but he could still lay there and think about them all and figure them out eventually.Life is always changing, and always evolving so i  dont think anyone could or will ever be able to figure out life no matter how much time or effort they put into it. Everyone has their own theories and such about the purpose of life and what we are supposed to do here but no one really knows and no one ever will know. You can try to say life is logical, with that everyone is raised and taught to support the world and people of it but thats just a general saying. More in depth you will find that its not that simple and its a more complicated circle that everyone is in. Christopher is not always right with his little clever quotes...