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

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

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".

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

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

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

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

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