Blog Post 3

The show Dexter is about a serial killer who only kills people that are/have done bad. Dexter works for the Miami Police Department where he is the Blood Spatter expert. Dexter's father created a code for him to follow because he knew that he couldn't stop Dexter from killing. The code states that he must find a victim that has commited a cruel crime and that he can only kill after he has fully collected the evidence that proves that the person is guilty of the crime. Dexter is a very strnage individual, he keeps to himself and is very socially awkward when it comes to being around other people. In the first clip Dexter explains Harry's code and in the second clip you see Harry's code come to life. Dexter puts up photos of the killers victims so that they see those who they have hurt in their life before Dexter takes their life.

Don’t Willingly Allow Yourself to Be Put In a Trunk (Ill-advised essay)

Don’t Willingly Allow Yourself to Be Put In a Trunk

Pedro Robles

Bell: 2

                The date is March 7, 2014; it was a nice, quiet day at work. I picked up two shifts, one at the child center from 2-6 and a birthday party from 6-8. The birthday party was great, I received a $40 tip from the parents and they said they loved the party. I remembered that Alex told me that everyone was going over to our friend Trent’s house to watch Pokémon on Netflix. “Yeah, I’ll be there right after work”, I remember telling Alex. “Tell Trent that I’m coming so that he doesn’t think that I’m so stranger walking in through his garage door into his house.” This was the beginning to an interesting night.

                After a few hours of watching Pokémon we decided that we should do something our age and go for a drive. First off let me tell you this, there are seven people and we had one car, the car is a Hyundai Sonata, a tiny little four door that sits five people comfortably. But here’s the catch two of the people that are there are six feet tall and weigh around 200 pounds, so they take a ton of room. Trent and I are the two smallest people in the group at the moment so; we are without a doubt the two that are ending up in the trunk of the car…

                    “Trent why are we always the ones that end up in these situations? I don’t know any of our other friends that will willingly allow themselves to be put in a trunk for forty-five minutes.” I said with a tone of disappointment in my voice. I wasn’t disappointed with my friends for making us be the two that sit in the trunk; I was disappointed that I had allowed this to happen.

                Five minutes pass and Trent and I are trying to figure out the best position that two people can fit in a trunk but be comfortable at the same time. After what felt like hours passed we finally came up with a position that we both would fit in the trunk but still have our own personal space… we found a way that we both were comfortable and were an elbow width apart from each other. When you’re in the back of a Hyundai Sonata that doesn’t sound like much but when you’re taking one for the team it’s more than enough.

                We gave them the ok and they shut the door and as soon as the trunk closed we couldn’t see a thing. The trunk began to become humid within moments of the trunk closing. Trent and I instantly began to form beads of sweat on our foreheads. “Trent this is the dumbest idea we’ve ever had and we’ve had a lot of dumb ideas.” I said. “I know Pedro, this immediately went up to the top 5 dumbest things I’ve ever done and I’ve done a lot of dumb things.” Trent added. All we were able to see was the tail light lighting up red every time Alex tapped on the breaks. We were able to hear pebbles hitting the bottom of the car but most of all we could hear the bumping from the bass.

                We pulled out our cell phones to be able to see what was in the trunk or too come up with a game we could play or something we could do to pass the time. After 30 minutes had passed the trunk had become unbearable to sit in. The trunk was acting like a sona trapping in our body heat.  Interesting enough we found that Sprint’s cell service does not work in the trunk of a car, so for anyone reading this, if you have Sprint and end up in the trunk of some weird guys’ car you’re out of luck.  

                

I believe that i did well on telling the story. I could've done more with senses but I couldn't tell where I should add it.

                 

Reading Wishlist

Book Talk

Book Review

While reading 13 Reasons why certain things caught my eye; first, the way the story is told through audio tapes and through internal thoughts. There are very little conversations in this book which is what makes the book. Jay Asher could’ve chosen to write this book like any other type of book but he chose a unique and different way. Your body receives chills down your spine at the end of every audio tape because Hannah (the girl who’s voice is on the audio tapes) calls out the next person, “I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why.” Jay Asher does a great job at wanting to catch the reader’s attention from the very first line of the book. He makes them want to know who else is responsible for the death of Hannah Baker.

The second thing that caught my attention was the emotions the characters brought to your attention. You could feel the pain Clay felt while listening to these audio tapes. As a reader you were able to hear his voice becoming weaker and softer through his internal thoughts, you could tell he wanted to do more and speak out but since he didn’t he felt responsible for Hannah’s death.

“My breathing begins to slow. The tension in my muscles starts to relax. Then, a click in the headphones. A slow breath of air. I open my eyes to bright moonlight. And Hannah, with warmth. Thank you.”

This is a quote from the end of the book when Clay is about to press end on the very last tape that Hannah had made. Before the tapes, Clay was questioning why Hannah killed herself, why she didn’t reach out to anyone, he loved her. After Clay received the tapes he was never going to let hope pass him by. Hannah taught Clay a lesson he will never forget, even though he wasn’t one of the reasons why Hannah killed herself, Clay will forever treat people differently and not let someone he wants to meet walk right past him without him saying “hi”. Through the tapes Hannah begins to become darker as she gets down to the very reason of why she killed herself. Hannah is the type of character that everyone knows in real life. There isn’t one teenager in this world that hasn’t had a friend say that they wanted to end their life. But, Hannah is the one person that did end their life. The signs were there, just like they were with Joe. Everything affects everything.

Lastly, the weak plot caught my attention. Jay Asher made this book very relatable for teenagers and by doing so he made the book very typical. It was an amazing read, but the book lacked passion and depth. Jay did an amazing job at telling the story of Hannah Baker. But, I believe he hasn’t first hand witnessed someone without a shred of hope, at their breaking point, at the end of the rope. But, if there's one thing Jay did do is write a book that teenagers will make their children read because of the message that the book is giving. This book is a bible to those who have experienced thoughts of taking their own life or seen someone take their life. I'll leave you with a quote from the book; “You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything. . . affects everything.” 

Post 9

Heroes and Villains:
In the book Room Jack is a five year old boy and he is the hero in the book. Jack is a modern hero because he has been psychologically abused by only seeing the inside of Room which is his home. Jack has never seen the outside world because when his mom was 19 she was taken by Old Nick (who is the villain in Room) who Impregnated her. Jack only knows Room, he has never talked to anyone besides his mom, he thinks there is no outisde world outside of Room. Jack fits all archetypes of a Modern Hero because he going on a moral and psychological quest to save him and his mom.  Jack reminds me of Clay from 13 Reasons Why because he is so kind and caring. Clay would do anything to bring Hannah back and Jack played dead so that he could escape and get the police to help him and his mom escape room.

In Room the villain is Old Nick. He is this old, horrible person who kidnapped Jacks mom at the age of 19. Old Nick abuses Jack's mom mentally and physically and constantly rapes her. The scene that shows you how much of a monster he truly is, is when Jacks mom raised her voice and screamed "Don't you dare look at him!", he then casually left room and turned off the power to room which made room frezzing, the water became muddy and made the food rot. Old Nick is seeking pride because he has been laied off and now the only thing that he has control of is Jack and his mom. I would compare Old Nick too The Joker because he loves to make people go insane, he loves to be in total control over ever situation.

 

 

Post 7

Post 8

•          How true does a book have to be in your mind to be considered non-fiction?   Why?

I believe that a book must be 90-100% true for it to be considered non-fiction. There's no way anyone can remember a line they heard from someone word for word, so authors have to improv those types of situations. A book needs a plot line and a story for it too sell and if it doesn't have something of that nature it won't sell.

-Are half-truths okay if it’s still a good story? Does it matter if Frey or other memoirists bent the truth to tell their stories? 

Yes, I believe that half truths are okay. An author needs to sell books and maybe telling the whole truth won't sell because it's dull and boring. It is not okay for Frey because, he made up big parts of the book. I think when you alter the facts of a crash and say that you were there when you really weren't is that person crying out for attention. I think it's sad when someone has to lie about big parts of their lives. Be happy with your dull, boring lives, others wish they had a boring life.

-Is David Shields right?  Do we need lines between genres—do we need to label something fiction or non-fiction?  Why does it matter

I personally don't think it matters. Many "true" stories have fiction involved in them. Example; The Strangers a movie that was made in 2007 was considered to be a true story. The Strangers involved a newly wedded couple being murdered in their cabin in the woods. Wrong, the actual story behind that movie is the director of the movie was staring out his window and saw a group of 5 kids going up to peoples doors and knocking trying to tell people about their church... I don't think those kids killed anyone if you ask me. A "ture story" sells, a fiction story only sells when you have a big name.

Post 6

I believe that readicide is a problem in schools. Schools are creating students who have no clue what the real meaning of reading is. Schools are creating students who are growing up hating and despising the thought of picking up a book and reading it. Students should want to read. They should not feel as if reading is a tedious task. But, it has become a tedious task. Schools are assign books that students feel are “unimportant” or “stupid” because they’re old. Ok, I get that. But, why don’t schools take out things like Romeo and Juliet for a book that has a similar plot line and isn’t as hard to comprehend. Taking out Shakespeare would make English class a little more bearable. Students don’t understand what he’s saying without having to buy a translated version of his plays. Old English isn’t around for a reason, so why keep teaching it?

                 I don’t think schools should add more genre fiction to the curriculum. I think that schools should add more passion to their reading assignments. Yes, most teachers love the book that they’ll be teaching but, their students may not because of the amount of extra work that comes with reading (Study guides, book worksheets, ect.). Extra work isn’t helping this generation of students love reading because no matter what teachers do to show how amazing a book is, the students will hate every moment they have to write down what happened in every page they read. Reading should be a fun, relaxing thing. Not this “you must read chapters 4-8 tonight and be ready for a quiz tomorrow” type of reading. I know as a student, that if I’m being told to do something in that sort of tone, odds are I won’t pick that book up at all. Teachers need to adapt with their students age.

What would be difficult while making The Book Thief into a movie

One of the biggest challenges the filmmaker would encounter would be adding the side notes that we see all throughout the book. The side notes that act as a pause of sorts from the reading add detail, meaning, and depth to the reading. The side notes bring more detail to the story. I as a filmmaker would have trouble deciding how i wanted to go about adding those notes into the movie; they can't be taken out because they carry a lot of information that is important to know to understand the book.

Some scenes that must be kept are she is taking the book from the fire and it begins to burn her chest, the scene where Liesel sees all the books in the mayors house, and the scene where papa is trading his cigs for books for Liesel to read. These scenes are a must to keep because it shows what's going on in that time period and shows the connection papa has for Liesel. Without the scene where she is taking the book out of the fire and putting it into her shirt, the movie viewers and the readers who have read the book and are seeing the movie will be missing a essiental part.

A scene that I would cut would be when papa's son run's away. I would cut this scene because it has no real connection to the rest of the book.