Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Week's Reading, Which Is Mostly Centered Around The Fellowship Of The Ring

Hello, darlings! It's been so long since my last post, I nearly forgot all about it. Anyways, this week brings the end of The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. I was dreadfully disappointed when Ms. Bellatrix decided to kill my favourite character. Yes. The bunny, the bunny, OH! she killed the bunny. :'(
I am glad that Tillie won the science fair, and that Janice Vickery sounds a fright. Boiled the skin off a cat, did she? What kind of person does that? And I'm still not sure if I support Ruth or not. She turned out better in the second act then the first, but...she still is a puppet for her mother.


And in other headlines this week, Lord of the Rings has started up...again. I just parted ways with Tom Bombadil and am dying to get to Rivendell! I also read ahead a little...okay, a lot, and visited the Caradhras. And then I was reminded why my favourite character is my favourite character. You will find the excerpt below.
The Fellowship of the Ring, consisting of nine persons (Gimli, the dwarf; Gandalf, the wizard and the leader of the group; Aragorn, the Ranger/heir to the throne of Gondor; Boromir, heir of the Steward of Gondor; Frodo Baggins, the star hobbit who bears the One Ring; Samwise (Sam) Gamgee, Frodo's faithful companion/gardener; Meriadoc Brandybuck, or Merry, and Perigrin Took, also called Pippin, are friends/relatives of Frodo and hobbits of the Shire;and Legolas, the elf, son of the king of Mirkwood- yes, that makes him a prince) is travelling on their route to Mordor("where the shadows lie") and are attempting to pass the Caradhras, a large mountain range in the centre of Middle Earth. After being caught in an absolutely giant snowstorm, they are turning back to pass under the mountains at the suggestion of Gimli, who naturally feels safer underground, being a dwarf and all.

Only a few paces from the ashes of their fire the snow lay many feet deep, higher than the heads of the hobbits; in places it had been scooped and piled by the wind into great drifts against the cliff.
"If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might be able to melt a path for you," said Legolas. The stotrm had troubled him little, and he alone of the Company remained light of heart.
"If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the sun to save us" answered Gandalf. "But I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow,"
"Well," said Boromir, "when heads are at a loss bodies must serve, as we say in my country. The strongest of us must seek a way. See! Though all is now snow-clad, our path, as we came up, turned about that shoulder of rock down yonder. It was there that the snow first began to burden us. If we could reach that point, maybe it would prove easier beyond. It us no more than a furlough off, I guess,"
"Then let us force a path thither, you and I!" said Aragorn.
Aragorn was the tallest of the Company, but Boromir, little less in height, was broader and heavier in build. He led the way, and Aragorn followed him. Slowly they moved off, and were soon toiling heavily. In places the snow was breast-high, and often Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking.
Legolas watched them for a while with a smile  upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. "The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose a otter for swimming and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow- an Elf."
With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long know it, that the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow.
"Farewell!" he said to Gandalf. "I go to find the Sun!" Then swift as a runner over firm sand he shot away, and quickly overtaking the toiling men, with a wave of his had he passed them and sped into the distance, and vanished round the rocky turn.
-The Lord Of The Rings Part One: The Fellowship Of The Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien (copyright 1994)

And now I must go to find the sun, seeing as it's snowing, cold, and dark at 5:30.
-Jenni

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Mairgolds (TEOGROMITMM), Week One, And Other Random Reading

Doesn't the title sound like fun? Now, TEOGROMITMM isn't a "book," it's a play. Lily should play either Ruth or Beatrix. They should call Beatrix Bellatrix because I find it a more...threatening name with more history (Bellatrix Lestrange, sound familiar?) and would fit the character perfectly. Beatrix, Bellatrix, whatever. My favourite character is the bunny who  might be shot with chloroform- stops the heart instantly if injected correctly, used by Dr. Josef Mengele during the Holocaust on his "children" when conducting expiriments, deadly to any living thing.
So anyways, Tillie seems like an ok girl. I mean, who would ever have the guts to get up in front of an entire school in rags? Certainly not me...I hardly have the guts to get up in front of people I don't know (even orchestra concerts- believe it or not). And her science teacher seems really dedicated to her education, so I must salute him.
Ruth...well, she's what I call a prep. Of course, probably not a prep of current standards, but really? Smoking? "Devil's Kiss" lipstick? Come on, crazy! Clean up your materialism ASAP! And then Nanny... I wish she could talk.
This play is much better than Habibi (although you can't get much worse), and much easier to read than the Odyssey or Catcher in the Rye, but not as gripping as Night. I love that book. *sigh*

Bad news: I have a really good new novel idea and not enough time. I am completely obsessed with this new idea (main characters: A.P. Swann and her best friend Rose DeWitt, hometown, Holland, MI) and OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT. So Swann sends Rose her old laptop which she's used for years a sa sort of diary, since they were in middle school. And Rose ends up reading it all, which is basicallly the story of Swann's life, and at the end of the book we find out that Swann is dead, but knowing what was going to happen she sent Rose her laptop so that someone would be able to figure out who killed her. And here's the awesome thing: Swann's life is based off of my life expreiences and potential life experiences, so I get tot make up my own imaginary future in which I marry the equivalent of Legolas. ^^,

In other reading, Sarah Dessen's new novel, Along For The Ride, isn't my favourite of her novels, but then again, I'm not really into it yet.

I started TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY by Jay Asher this week...gorgeous book. So heartbreakingly sad, good inspiration for my new novel. Unfortunately. This is addicting.

Quote of the week...
"I'm not saying what tape brings you into the story. But fear not, if you recieved this lovely little box, your name will pop up...I promise." -Hannah Baker, Tape #1, TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY.

-Jenni

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The General Awsomeness of Free Reading

No, I'm not talking about a library (although those are rather useful) but nonrequired, uncensored bliss. Yes, the joys of free reading: read whenever you want, choose what book you wnat, and when you finish it. Not that some of us actually want the book to end when it does....

So, anyways, this week, I continued my random rereading of Harry Potter. I don't think there's much left in the last two books or the first three, so soon I will devour The Order of the Phoenix and The Goblet of Fire (Fleur got a job at Gringotts to "eemproove her eenglish"- that's about how much I've read of the fifth one last night) and am very exited to do so. Thenwe all have to wait till July (curse you, stupid movie franchise!) for the series to be officially complete.
I have difficulty imagining that- the one thing that kept getting updated as I grew up is almost over. *sigh* It makes me feel so old. And that's saying something.

Other than Harry Potter, this week I indulged myself in Laurie Halse Anderson's latest book, Wintergirls. WARNING: THIS SECTION CONTAINS MANY SPOILERS.
It's about Lia, a teenager who was anorexic, and her best friend, Cassie (who was bulimic), just died (they'd been friends since second grade, but the last few months they'd ignored each other), who had called Lia thirty-three times the night she died, because she didn't want to die alone. Lia becomes increasingly anorexic, making it under 90 pounds. Lia meets Elijah, the boy who found Cassie at the motel where he works, and found out that Cassie told him to tell her that (direct quote) "I lost, and she won", "she" being Lia and "I" being Cassie. when she cuts herself too deep to take away the pain that she's trying to ignore from her hallucinations of Cassie's ghost, and winds up being found by her little stepsister, almost dead. At that point, Lia is about 86 pounds. There's lots of twists and turns and background stories. (Spoiler Alert over.)
I really liked this book and would recommend it.  It starts off confusing, and you start to see Lia's guilt as the story progresses.

"Tonks goes by her surname only," (Lupin?)
"You would, if your idiot mother decided to call you Nymphadora," -Tonks
-------
"The new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher is about as nice as your mum," -Harry in a letter to Sirius
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The quotes above are taken from Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix (Year Five At Hogwarts) by J.K. Rowling.
Have a great week and hang in there! Only two more weeks til Christmas Vacation <3

-Jenni

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Catcher has been caught!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Due to the holiday, I didn't post anything, so this is my post for two week's time, during which many memorable and historic events happened.

Firstly, on Friday the Nineteenth, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) came out in theaters around the nation. I love that series. So does the rest of my family, and I am currently rereading my favourite sections of the series in whatever book I so choose.

Second, I have FINALLY reached my word count goal in NaNoWriMo, and I will prefer not to talk about the details, or I will fear for my life. 10107 glorious words of my very first novel...which I am currently calling The Hot Dog Wars.

Thirdly, in my awful pun title, some of you might have been able to detect the end of the Catcher in the Rye. We say goodbye to (sadly and pitifully) our third book this school year, and remember some of our favourite or most memorable parts of the story.
"I mean it. I really do."
"You'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was to have a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it."
"What the hell'dja do that for?"
"I mean, I'm not going to be a goddamn surgeon or violinist or anything anyway."
"'Oh, no!' She put her hand right up to her mouth and all."
"Everytime I got started, I kept picturing old Sunny calling me a crum-bum."
"The one right next to me had one of those straw baskets that you see nuns and Salvation Army babes collecting dough with around Christmas time."
"She kept walking ahead of me, so I could see how cute her little ass looked."
"I started thinking how old Phoebe would feel if I got pneumonia and died. It was a childish way to think, but I couldn't stop myself."
"The best break I'd had in years was when I got home."
"'Well. Go to sleep. Give Mother a kiss. Did you say your prayers?' 'I said them in the bathroom. G'night!'"
Ah...good times...good times....
It's rather funny that Holden broke into his own house, and that it took this long in the story to finally meet Phoebe, although we've kinda already met her.

In other notes, I have a quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I do believe that The Catcher in the Rye has helped me to be less ashamed of writing/saying explicit language.
"Like I said, if there's something wrong with the bitch, there's something wrong with the pup," -Aunt Marge

Pip pip cheerio, darlings!
-Jenni

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Catcher In The Rye Week Two (7-12)

OMG, this book is SOOOO much better than the Odyssey!!!
I would like to congratulate Holden on ditching Pencey because he felt like it. And I would like to scold him for getting himself beat up by his roommate who happens to be dating the girl he's obviously still in love with. Some people just can't decide, can they?
I'm starting to wonder if Holden has some sort of mental disease, like ADHD or something. He has an endless source of energy, and does the things that annoy him most. Maybe that's why he's annoyed by them- he thinks that everyone is trying to copy him, in some random subconcous part of his brain.I know how he feels about just being depressed. I felt the same way when I went to fourth hour yesterday- it was really wierd. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I'd just done a little research on Titanic for my novel...soooo sad :'(
"Josephine, my flying machine, up she goes, and up she goes," (heard twice in the movie, first by Jack, later by Rose)
WHY DOES HE HAVE TO DIE????
Oh, yeah...I forgot...so he could be in my novel!!!! ^^,
So, anyways, after that really super random part, I don't have much left to say, other than the cougars were really ditzy, Holden's kinda crazy, and I like his younger siblings.
That's it this week!
-Jenni
(Nimthiriel)

Monday, November 8, 2010

NaNoWriMo ideas

Ok, so i just had a great idea....(Jenna, are you ready for this?)
We all know the story of Jack and the beanstalk, right? Well, what if Jack is still alive, and his name is Jack Dawson, and he travels by ship or by land because he's still super scared of heights! And since he's part of a fairy tale, he can't die. And so, anyways, around 1912, he was on this one ship and he met a girl named Rose, who totally thinks he's dead, but when Cinderella goes looking for her Prince, Jack just happens to come along, and they run into Rose in Hollywood. YAY!!!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Catcher in the Rye...Chapters 1-6

      I think I can say that I like Holden more than I liked Telemachus. However, the sanitation at Pencey thoroughly disgusts me. I can deal with all the "goddamns" and "sonovabi***" and "hells" and alltogether lack of grammar, but those slobs....EWWWW!!!
     I find myself wishing that Holden would leave already. I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU ALL HATE EACH OTHER. I AM A READER, NOT A MEDIATOR. I also wish that he would have gone and said hi to Jane/Joan.
    Holden is definatly an unreliable narrator, but also more relatable than Homer. "The child of morning, Rosy-Fingered dawn," doesn't stand a chance in the modern world if it's up against "goddamn morning". Yup. I really don't miss The Odyssey.
    Holden's little brother that died from leukemia would make a much better narrator. And a better story, in my opinion. It seemed odd how Holden just dismissed the memory of him so suddenly. But I really do feel bad for Holden now. *sigh*

    The quote this week is a perfect synopsis of my feelings over the needless chatter in The Oddyssey. And Habibi.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." -Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable)
Gone With The Wind, 1939 (based on the best-seller by Margeret Mitchell, and one of the best books I've read yet)

-Jenni ;D

Sunday, October 31, 2010

This Week's Reading...which involves Greek and Roman Gods but no Odysseus...^^,

Well, this week I read The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It was okay, but the writing in itself was slightly confusing and boring. It didn't have the charm that The Lightning Thief did- one of the risks of changing perspectives of three very confused and scared demigods. There's Piper McLean, who's dad, Tristan McLean, is a huge movie star. Want to know who her Greek goddess mom is? If so, too bad. Read the book or a different review. Next is Leo, a son of one of the Greek gods. His mom died when he was like, eight, and he's been running awy from foster homes ever since.You might be a little surprised with this one, because of his abilities compared to that of his brothers and sisters. And then there's Jason, a kid who has no idea who he is or where he came from. It won't be hard to figure out who his godly parent is...but here's the catch...he calls himself a son of Jupiter. Yes, a ROMAN god. (GASP)
Annabeth, Chiron, Clarisse, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and the Hunters of Artemis all make a reappearance. Camp Half-Blood is still a major setting. However...Percy Jackson is MIA...wonder where he is...you find out at the end of the book, don't worry. He's mentioned a LOT, but never actually shows up. And there is a reason that Jason talks in Roman terms instead of Greek ones. And yes, the Roman gods also exist in this book. Not just the Greek ones. Surprise, surprise. If you've read this book too, I'd love to talk sometime.

WE START OUR NOVELS THIS WEEK!!!! Yay?

And I know this has like, nothing at all to do with this, but..."A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is her early. He arrives precisely when he means to." -Gandalf the Grey

-Jenni

Monday, October 25, 2010

To Build A Fire and This Week's Randomness

At the beginning of To Build a Fire, I was thinking that the guy was going to end up freezing to death. I feel really bad for the dog!! It must be sooooooooo cute! It was weird reading about a guy as he gets tons of frostbite. Why is he out there? Why does he not want to stop and build a fire, even if it is freezing?  Thank goodness he eventualy does...and then falls into the creek. I was super mad when he started trying to kill the dog...seriously, I wanted to punch him SO BAD. I kinda started hoping he would die and that the dog would live because I REALLY HATE THIS GUY. So I was really happy when that happened...and that the dog gave the guy a little bit of greif for dying on them without building a decent fire first.

So...this week was what I call a "transition week". See, tennis ended and the Odyssey is OVER (yay) so this coming week I'm hoping to read a lot more. I always listen to music...did a lot of that while I raked the leaves on Friday. Unfortunately, they came back on Saturday. We had pizza in hobo pie makers on Sunday night...lots of cheese...really good! No new songs- wait, sorry, I lied!! A Time For Us, the love theme from Romeo and Juliet (the 1969 movie or something like that). It doesn't have lyrics, but...who cares? It's really pretty. You should listen to it sometime.
Anyways...best quote EVER... "Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends." -Gandalf the Grey/ J.R.R. Tolkien
I tell my warmongering friends this and they blow me off but I think they take it into consideration sometimes because I have to believe that they can be saved. Or if I say it enough. ^^,

-Jenni

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

CLICK ON THE LINK!!

Ok, this is SOO COOL! I took my profile and put that on this thing, and so now see if you can find all the words!
Click here to see the "Wordle".

Monday, October 18, 2010

This Week's Reading and Other Random Stuff

So this week in the Odyssey has been my favorite week so far, for three reasons.
REASON #1: All the suitors died
REASON #2: Athena got kinda mad at Odysseus :D
REASON #3: The Odyssey is OVER!!! ^^,

I liked the thing about the bow contest. It was also kinda funny that even Telemachus couldn't do it. And Antonius and all those other suitors look so stupid trying to be all that. Kind of like one of the girls at my school....
It was kinda awkward having Telemachus, Penelope, and Odysseus reunited like a hapy family, expecially with knowing that there's like 20 dead guys that are laying right there. And that you and your son or dad/your son and husband just killed them.
That's just plain old creepy, kind of like the short stories that we have to read.

The time of The Odyssey is over; the time of The Lord of the Rings and Wicked will go on (just like my heart).
If any of you caught those huge puns in that paragraph, you're like me and can quote LOTR by heart.

As for "The Deadliest Game", in the atmosphere of the short stories we've been reading recently, when Whitney told Rainsford about an island nearby that had cannibals, I had a sinking feeling that Rainsford was going to end up on the island that had a lot to do with some sort of the killing of people. I mean, how obvious can you be? It's almost exactly the same story as A Good Man is Hard To Find- main character mentions bad thing in beginning, goes on a small journey, everything is great, something knocks main character off course, bad thing mentioned earlier comes and threatens main character, typically trying to take life away. This time it was a little better. I think this has been my favorite one that we've read so far, probably because it was like a super mini version of The Hunger Games. Just that this story is too short to let anyone really bond with the characters. These stories make me wonder it our teacher enjoys reading Stephen King....

So this week brought MEAP (curse its foul test material that ruined some of TeenInk for me) and I was looking in one of my LOTR books, and I flipped to a random page and looked at a random paragraph and it was a quote from Aragorn and it was like "I have wished thee joy ever since first I saw thee. It heals my heart to see thee now in bliss." and I started laughing so hard I started crying. I think I saw some kids look at me funny like "What does she do in her spare time??"
Oh well.

And, by the way, if you ever get the chance to see a professional orchestra play along with a movie, TAKE IT!!

"The women of this country learned long ago; those without swords can still die by them."
Yes, this is a quote from one of the strongest female characters of all time (physically, emotionally, and morally), Eowyn (yes, from LOTR). All the lead women in LOTR are strong in these senses, not to mention awesome. That's why my friends and I belong there [in Middle Earth]!! ^^,

-Jenni

Sunday, October 10, 2010

This Week's Reading

Taking center stage today would be...wait for it...wait for it...THE ODYSSEY!! Hey, that's what, five weeks in a row now? This week (books 13-17) started off being the funniest thing I've ever read yet. First, the Phaeacians were "enthralled by the charm of his [Odysseus's] story". What a great joke. And then Poseidon was talking to Zeus about what he could do to show the Phaeacians (the guys that gave Odysseus a lift home) who their boss is. So, he decided to turn the ship that took Odysseus home into rock just off the shore and then crush the city under a mountain. What fun! I think I like Zeus for encouraging Posiedon to do this... IT sounds even funnier when it's in the old style English that it is. Lord of the Rings English, that is. That stuff cracks me up every time, sometimes just listening to it.

This week, I discovered that Odysseus is....blond. *GASP* (crowd gasps)
That was a BIG shocker.....

Anyways, I think the only guy that I really like is the swineherd. He already has a little nickname thing- "O swineherd Eumaeus". Speaking of little nickname things, the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, is about to lose some fingers if it doesn't let go soon. It's rather unfortunate that Telemachus has to reenter the story, but somehow he's aged and seems less annoying. I think it's so weird when Odysseus and Telemachus reunite because Telemachus never really knew his dad and Odysseus never really knew Telemachus.

I really want to see the dress that Helen gave to Telemachus (don't worry, it was for a future wife of his).

Yay for Athena. She's smart and strategic (unlike some people...*AHEM*) and knows what to do and who to trust....I have to admire her.

This week (I'm saying that a lot, aren't I,) I read a short story called "The Lottery". It was similar to "A Good Man is Hard To Find" because at least one person gets killed nad the reader doesn't know exactly why. It also starts off sounding like an ok story.
The lottery just doesn't make sense; why would you choose one villager every year to be stoned, probably to death? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AT ALL.
ANd that's all I have to say about The Lottery.

Lucky for you, this week is a bonus post! I've decided to introduce a new part of my blog called  "This Week's Entertainment" where I get to tell you some of my current favorite quotes from entertainment that kinda goes along with my post. This exerpt is part of something that was supposed to be written to each one's parent(s). It's rather funny because Galinda (or Glinda [the Good] later on) adresses her parents as "Dearest darlingest Momsie and Popsicle," while Elphaba (later known as The Wicked [Witch of the West]) adresses her father as "My dear father". I can'thelp laughing at the name of the academy; "Dear Old Shiz" ^^,
"BOTH: There's been some confusion for, you see, my roommate is:
GALINDA: Unususally and exceedingly pecular and alltogether quite impossible to describe;
ELPHABA: Blond."
-Jenni

Thursday, October 7, 2010

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

If some of you don't already know this movie, starring George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill (that's a really cool name), that's too bad. You need to see this comedey based on the Odyssey. For some of you who are confused about the name thing, The Odyssey with Greek names stars Odysseus, while The Odyssey with Roman names stars Ulysses. I don't get it either.

Anyways, this is, after all, a parody, so there are similarities. One is when Everett's companion, Pete, leads the trio (Everett, Pete, and Delmar) to his cousin's house after escaping prison life. There, his cousin, who is experiencing some hard times due to the Depression, turns them in for the bounty. This is similar to Athena turning against the Greeks and causing them all sorts of misfortunes.

Another similarity (I feel like I'm writing some boring Type 3 now... sorry!) is the Sirens. In The Odyssey, the Sirens sang so beautifully about the thing that the listener desired the most that they could lure them to thier death on the rocks on shore. In the movie, there are the beautiful women who sing and entrance Everett and Co. to sleep. When they awake, they find Pete is gone, but there is a toad in his place. Delmar is almost inconsolable.

Thirdly, there is a cheap man named Big Dan Teague who decides to smush Pete the toad after swindling and beating up Everett and Delmar. I belive that he is a Lastrygonian, not a Cyclops, because he was civil at first.

There are more similarities...these are just a few. I'm sure you can find them if you watch it!

"Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers!" -George Nelson, O Brother, Where Art Thou?(2000)
^^,
-Jenni

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

There were some great lines in here.
"'Where's the plantation?' John Wesley asked.
'Gone With the Wind' said the grandmother."
I love that book.
I disagree with the grandmother when she says that east Tennessee is more desirable than Florida.  What is in Tennessee that is better than what's in Florida? And why are they going to be gone for only three days? One does not drive all the way to Florida and then turn around and come back.
Wait...woah. For a second there I thought the grandmother was talking about Twelve Oaks, one of the plantations from Gone With The Wind. :)
I believe, from reading this story, that a good man is hard to find because he is not always...evident.

I might actually recommend this.
-Jenni

Monday, October 4, 2010

This Week's Reading

Once again I indulged in a little bit of Lord of the Rings history. I LOVE THAT BOOK!!!! And I love Legolas even more!

For The Odyssey tuners, I think I'll just say that I would kill Homer if he were still alive. He could have saved me and a lot of other people a TON of time if he just let Odysseus get home to Ithaca instead of his idiotic, jealous, and selfish men opening the bag of wind from Aeolus, son of Hippotato (that's what it looked like to me), who lives on the Aeoli island, the king of the winds. And what's up with Odysseus falling onto a "light" sleep and knowing what was going on and still doing nothing about it? How can he hear them and not know what they were talking about and be that slow to still be a favorite of Athena?

*Sigh*

When Odysseus and company went to the Lastrygonians, there was a line "Some god took pity upon my solitude," I was like, "You see, Mr. Frodo...some luck at last!" (for those of you who think this is random and irrevalent, you may want to google it. You need to know the situation in which this quote is said to know its full power in Lord of the Rings.)

Circe is just plain old desperate. All I can say is: WOW.  You can do a lot better than PIGS. Come on, girlie. You're pretty, and a goddess, so you should at least go for a immortal being. Not some crazy Greeks.

The ghosts were weird, though. Homer called them "the wives and daughters of heroes," when really, THEY are the heroes. Anti-feminism is NOT okay with me, even if this was written thousands of years ago!!

And I get the point about the dawn being "rosy-fingered". You don't need to tell me twenty trillion times. It's gettting very redundant.

I just forgot what I was going to write. Maybe I should get more sleep...
I don't like Homer or Telemachus (who is currently missing from the story) and I'm glad that all of Odysseus's idiotic men die. ^^,

"Edward, I love you, [I'm anti-feminist and I'm pretty sure I'm about to die so you should come save mebecause I'm a woman and don't think I can defend myself.]"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. XD
Better quote: "FINNICK!!!" -Annie 
(It's what everyone [as in my friends who are reading the series right now] will say when they read Mockingjay.)
-Jenni

Monday, September 27, 2010

This Week's Reading in

So, this week I decided to become an offical Lord of the Rings fan and spend a good three hours in the Appendix of a series I have not yet finished. IT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE!!! :) But it is very sad about Arwen and Aragorn :( and it took me a while to figure out that King Elessar is Aragorn (son of Arathorn, Isildur's heir, ect.) and they still talk funny. They were talking about their son, and Aragorn was like "he is man-ripe for kingship." Like, really? "Man Ripe"??? NO. That just does NOT sound right. (shudders)
If you scroll down my page a little bit you will see Most Unforgetable Movie Characters. This week, Padme Amidala (Star Wars), Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter), Gollum, Samwise Gamgee (LOTR) and, also from Lord of the Rings, (yes, ladies, you guessed it) LEGOLAS (aka Orlando Bloom/Will Turner)!! (<3 :D <3)
For those of you tuning in for The Odyssey, your part will begin here.
FINALLY!!!! THANK YOU HOMER!
I was getting very bored in the Odyssey...finally it begins to have a brighter future. Maybe not bright, but brighter than it was.

I'll never let go, Jack. (lets go of his hand)
-Jenni ;)

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Odyssey, Books Two through Four

First off, I'd like to say that I am so sick of Telemachus whining about the suitors I want to teach him to suck it up and be a man. Athena was right; he's not a little kid anymore, so he can't just whine about it and have somebody else follow through. Thankfully, Athena is in the story, so there is some logic and sense. I don't really like Telemachus because he acts too immature to be an adult but is too old to be an adolecent. When he started crying and making himself pitied...and even more childish...I kind of wanted to scream.

Homer confuses me. He just has to put in all this random information that coud be easily taken out. I'd like to have a nice little chat with whoever editied The Odyssey.

Anyways, that's kind of irrelevant. For those of you who aren't avid mythology readers, you will like book three because you finally get to find out more about the Orestes and Agamemnon. If you hadn't already googled it. Athena, the smart goddess, finally decides to reveal herself as who she is, not this guy who was friends with Odysseus.

Telemachus continues on the quest and finds Melanus and Helen. Two of their kids were getting married, so there was a huge party. Melanus finds out that Odysseus is on Calypso's island, tells Telemachus, and then Telemachus goes back home. The suitors want to kill Telemachus for being a whiny guy- or, maybe just so that they can go down in the history books. Penelope finds out, freaks, and then Athena tells her that Telemachus won't die. Of course, Penelope belives her because, after all, she is smart....

So, this is how far I am in the Odyssey. I like Harry Potter better.

-Jenni

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Odyssey, Book One

To read Book One of the Odyessey, click here.
I was so happy because I could follow it. Being a Percy Jackson fan, in the winter/spring months of 2010 I stole my mother's Mythology book and became an avid reader of Greek and Roman myths. I read about Agamemnon and Orestes and how that guy Aegithus convinced Clymnestra to cheat on her husband-it was really weird and inconsistent between sources because of the back stories. I read of Hector and Achillies and how wimpy Aphrodite- or in this case, Venus- was in the Trojan War. So wimpy, in fact, that she went crying to Zeus when she got hurt trying to protect her son (a demigod). But that's not reallly relevant to The Odyssey, so I think I'll start talking about something a little more on topic. So anyways, things weren't looking so great for Ulysses's wife, Penelope, for Calypso was holding Ulysses captive on her island and wanted to marry him, Neptune didn't want Ulysses to get home, and Penelope couldn't decide wether she wanted to remarry or not.
 Minerva, who's supposed to be smart, didn't really make much sense when she decided to come down and talk to Telemachus in disguise, because he figured out who she was pretty fast. Or maybe he was just a really smart guy- which would't make much sense either, because he couldn't think about the option of kicking out his mother's suitors.
At least I could follow it. Kind of.

-Jenni

Friday, September 10, 2010

My Summer Reading

Hi. I'm Jenni. Welcome to my blog. I get to go on and on and on and on and on and on about my favorite books, so I'm very sorry if I do. I'll try to keep my excitement to a minimum so I won't bore you too much.
For starters, I read some good books this summer and one that I would not have read had I known that I didn't actually have to read it.

I was going to be in Honors English, but...something came up over the summer in the scheduling at my school that got me credit for PATH. We had a summer reading assignment, because it's a 9th grade course. The assignment was one required reading (A Separate Peace by John Knowles) and two books of a reading list, with matching journals. As easy as that seems, it is NOT FUN to have your attempted chew of Lord of the Rings interrupted. I didn't find out about this until I got my schedule about two weeks before school started.

My first read this summer was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (amazing) off of my Honors reading list. It was definitely something I would recommend. The story itself kept my attention and I couldn't stop reading it.

The second book was A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the required literature. I strongly disliked it because of its lack of climatic events, drama, and overall depressing mood. I was very bored with this book, and I suffered through it to the end. Which was even more depressing than the beginning of the book.
For my third book, I read Cage of Stars by Jacquelin Mitchard. It is from the Honors reading list, but a little more graphic than some teens can handle. I enjoyed this book immensely, and would also recommend it to my friends. I really love how, at the beginning, you think you know what happens. It is also depressing at the beginning, not to mention graphic. In reality, you need to know the whole story. As an added plus, the end is so sweet and it's a happy ending (yay!).

As the highlight of my summer came to a close and the inevitable return to school drew near, i remembered about a very special final installment of an unbelievably awesome trilogy. Yes, for those of you dystopian fans, I am talking about Mockingjay, book three of the Hunger Games trilogy. I waited for it for so long and memorized the release date, and then it comes around and takes me two days to realize that August 24th has come and gone. Anyways, I was satisfied by this book. However, that was also rather depressing. Okay, nearly suicidal. Although there are lots of new characters, and (SPOILER ALERT) about half of the characters die, I loved it.

Finishing off the summer was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which is the first volume of a very long and more difficult trilogy. I have not finished it yet, so I can't say much about it, other than what I know from watching the movies about ten trillion times. Just so you know, the movies leave a lot more out than one would think.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please leave a comment. Or if you just feel like commenting. I do ask that you keep the comments somewhat constructive so that I can know what to edit.
Best wishes to all libraries and to my fellow Comp and Lit 2s,

-Jenni