Finals...

Finals are coming up and I am only freaking out about a few of them. As of right now I only have one grade that is not an A that is AP US Government. I reallyike this class because of the rigor involved, and by not getting an A and still learning more than I really ever have in a history class is ok. The only downside right now is that I have a C it is a 79.71, but the good news is that I did some extra credit and I completed a test that I missed. This should boost my grade up. Sometimes I get made at teachers for not putting in my grades, because the. I don't know if I should worry about them or not. Also side note for teachers: if you give an assignment at the beginning of the semester and you still haven't graded it, just grade it already, or better yet give everyone an A for your long term grading. Especially if you have graded everything else except that. Ok now back to the subject of finals. I hate it when you are on the cusp of A-B and you just have to hope you don't get a bad grade on the final. It's those classes that make finals fun... Then you have those classes that you could get a 50% and still have an A, those classes are the best classes. Finals are just a hill of a sorrows that take a while to get over, but once you're over them it is freedom!

The Armory, and a Few Other Messes Part 12

4.    The Armory, and a Few Other Messes

The armory looked just as I had imagined. It was a largish brown building with a hut styled roof. Armor and weaponry were strung across the front of the armory, as well as the inside. As Garnids, Nora, and I walked up towards a building which looked like it was equipped with many weaponry, a strange feeling that told me that we should have left by now. It just felt like the Knotr were just stalling the inevitable. The grass of the Knotrs floating planet was a bluish color. It was strange to see this new type of style, but then I thought to myself “You are in another world, what do you expect?”

While we were walking though, I did notice a peculiar staff that was wrapped with writings that looked like it was from some ancient language. It also had a stone at the top of it. The stone was undistinguishable because of the fact that it was changing colors, from yellow to green, then to blue, red, white, and orange. I walked up to the staff and as I started to pick it up, it flashed into a sword, then a dagger, then a bow, and finally back to the staff.

“Whoa! What is this?” I said.

“Why that is the staff of changing, but we just call it Florence,” Garnids interjected.

“Why is it named Florence?”

 “Because 200 years ago during the last war my ancestors had sacrificed a Knotr named Florence to create a weapon that would help set us free from the Unkind, that weapon is this.”

      Looking at the staff I knew that is was the one for me, it felt right in my hand as if it called to me wanting to aid in my adventure. After staring at the changing weapon I said, “Umm if you don’t mind I think I will just use Florence from now on.”

Garnids looked at me with disbelief and said, “Well that is a very powerful KNOTR weapon and I do not think that you should be using it.”

“I agree with Garnids on this one Jeremy, I just believe that since you only have a little combat experience you should get used to a regular staff first before trying to master great weapons, especially ones that are of great importance to this Knotr tribe.” Nora said.

“Ok I guess you’re right, now where do we get some armor, this is an armory after all isn’t it?” I muttered.

Garnids took Nora and I through the armory and showed us all different types of leather, chainmail, lizardscale, and other bizarre armor types. While we were walking Nora decide to go with wingscale (don’t ask me that is just what they are called) armor. I had decided to mix and match different items, so I ended up with an iron breastplate, lizardscale boots, leather grieves, and a chainmail cap. I looked very outlandish at the least, but I felt comfortable in it. After choosing our armor they decided to go see weapons.

As they discussed what wand like dagger that Nora should use I snuck out and decided to show them that I could use Florence without any training at all. It was going well, I went to the training area right around the corner of the armory. As I stepped into the arena Florence transformed into a sword, it felt balanced and I swung at the training dummy with ease. Then the most peculiar thing happened, the dummy caught fire. It was frightening and amazing. I just wanted to go and find Garnids and tell him my wrongs, but that wasn't what was going to happen, but instead freaking out at the situation I decided to go and find water to put out the flames. This gave me a chance to get it done without anyone else’s knowledge.

Creating the monster... Again

Frankenstein is starting to get interesting, with some deaths in the beginning, and Victor feeling bad about his creation, I did not think that I would like it. When Victor found the monster, now that is when it got interesting. The monster's story was very exciting, and weird. It was very weird that he decided to press up against a hole in the wall, but it is understandable because of his state. After starting to learn the new language the monster became engaged in his "family". This is where it gt exciting. After revealing himself to the family he was forced away by them. Then he ran into the woods, and after some hardships found his way into a part of the forest where he found William Frankenstein. This was another weird part because after learning that William was a Frankenstein he strangled him. This is revealed from the earlier section of the book. This is when the creature then has a proposition to Frankenstein. This proposition is that Frankenstein is to create a wife for the creature. After saying yes to this proposition Frankenstein goes to start the body. He is first accompanied by Clerval to London. They split paths and Victor ends up on a small island where he is creating the monster. He then destroys the new creation when the monster is looking, and then long story short the monster kills Clerval. Mary Shelly has created a piece of literature that has twists around every corner. She uses numerous literary devices to create her themes which the readers then sees as an amazing story. When Victor destroyed the other monster I thought that the creature was going to dismantle him on the spot. Mary Shelly creates a bond with the reader and the creature, which makes the book greater in power.

Creating the monster

Frankenstein is starting to get interesting vein that the monster was just made. What interested me about the monster was that Victor sees him as a beast, but as he first described the monster he said it had white teeth and beautiful hair. Also about the monster it rather confused me when he ran away, but I understand why he did. If some monster was watching over me as I slept I would have ran away as well, and I think I would have paced just like Victor because I would not be going back to sleep after having a traumatic incident. If this had happened to me I probably would have had a heart attack though from sheer terror. Then to find your friend and get a letter from home is just adding to the weirdness. The letter was from Victor's cousin Elizabeth, it described a girl named Justine, and how she got away from her mother an is now living with the Frankenstein's. Then after Clerval showed Victor that letter Victor's father sent another letter telling him about the death of his brother William. This made Victor want to go back home more than he already felt. When he did go home he went to go look at William's body, and when he did he saw his monster and decided it was he who killed him. I ind that unfair to the monster because he did nothing to deserve being accused of the murder. It could have been him though, but just making assumptions is what led to Justine's execution. I feel bad for the monster, but also I feel bad for Victor. The monster was created, and just probably doesn't even know what he is doing, and Victor is just terrified because he has no idea what he has created. Shelly has so far amazed me, I hope she keeps it up.

The Chapter you want to read part 11

Part 11:

*          *          *

     After the feast I went into a little house marked “Jeremy” and found Nora sitting on the bed packing a bag full of clothes that I had never seen before, but I figured the Knotr may have just made some clothes for me. As I entered she noticed me.

    “Hey Jeremy, I was just packing up a few things for when we begin our journey to Fulmar’s lair,” she said to me.

    “Oh, when should we embark?”

    “I was thinking right after Garnids comes back from the feast. He looks up to you as our savior.”

    “I figured that. There was a plate for me marked ‘To our savior Jeremy.’”

    “Yeah, I don’t want us to mess this mission up because I think of him as a brother and do not want to disappoint him.” Nora’s tone suddenly got a lot more serious.

    “I believe that we can do this, I just have one question. There was this guy named Jaramy, and I ate his food because I thought that they just didn’t know how to spell my name. Then he saw me eating his food and exploded. Do you know why that happened?”

    “You are the one with the book aren’t you?”

    The book!

There it was in plain words:

The Knotr are very strange creatures. They are kind of like walking kamikaze’s because whenever they get really emotional they tend to explode, but don’t worry they always form back to their original selves, basically the are just compressed forms of energy. It just takes a while for their energy to find and put all of the pieces back together.

    “Ok that is interesting, it says when they get really emotional they will explode, but don’t worry they will form back eventually.”

    “Yeah Jaramy explodes way more than all of the other Knotrs, sometimes I feel sorry for him; I guess after he forms back together he gets more emotional, and it is a vicious cycle until someone can calm him down.” Nora said.

    As Nora said this Garnids came into the room and just sat down at a table. He was staring at us and I think he was waiting for one of us to speak up and realize that he was there. We both knew he was in the room, and then it got silent. It was one of those silences that you dread; the really awkward ones when you don’t know if you are going to talk first or someone else is, and then when you start to speak another person speaks with you. Which makes it that much more awkward and uncomfortable.

    “Okay, Garnids what is there to report,” I said finally.

    “Ok, we’ve seemed to have located some Unkind scouts wandering around down there on the ground. We have sent out some of our scouts to see what they are equipped with. They seem to have some kind of flaming sword. If your journey is interrupted by these creatures you will need to be properly equipped.” He said.

    “Ok what will you have us bring?” I said.

    “Follow me,” Garnids said.

The Chapter you want to read part 10

Part 10:

       “We are getting to that part, but first you need to know the back story of what you are looking for. It is called the Book of Fulmar. We need it to better understand some things about our world and about the direnight so we can find one to gaze into our shaman’s eyes. With the war going on we need the book so that our shaman is able to release some of her stress on her brain. You see shaman put pressure on their brains because they’re blind. Their brains swell because they need to use their other senses to see so they can use their brain to transmit waves around the room. It is kind of like the echolocation that bats use. Anyways once a year the shaman of every tribe get together and reveal their eyes so that the stress on their brain goes away. With the war on no shaman can make it out here because we are the farthest from any of the other villages.”  Nora said.

      “Okay, so why do you need me?”

      “We need you to get the book and bring it back here, we chose you because only newcomers can enter and exit Fulmars lair, and you are a newcomer here. We will send our guardian with you because the war hasn’t reached us mainly because only other shaman know that we are out here.” Garnids said.

      “Okay, wait your guardian can’t go into the lair with me.”

      “Yes she can because a new comer can be accompanied with two people. It is a stupid rule but Fulmar has guards searching for you and they usually go in groups of three. Besides even if that couldn’t happen his lair is in his kingdom so our guardian can help you to get to the lair and then fend off monsters outside, they just can’t go in the room with you. He has cast spells on it to prevent anyone who has been here more than a year to go in there. He thought it would work because no one really ventures here, but he did not think of you. You need to get to his lair to get the book. His lair is just like a throne room.” Vanessa said in her scraggily voice.

      “Okay I’m starting to get it now,” I said, “what I still do not understand is how the heck I am supposed  to get to Fulmar’s lair when I don’t even know where I am!”

      “It is difficult to explain, but we are on a floating island just above the Gardor River. There is a bridge leading down to the main land, but then you would have to find your own way to the lair because no one knows where it is,” said Garnids.

Wait Fulmar’s lair I remember seeing that somewhere. OH WAIT! It is in the book.

      “I think I might have a way of finding where he is hiding his lair, but if we have to leave soon then lets sleep and eat first because I am HUNGRY!” I said in excitement aloud to everyone in the room.

*         *         *

      After a while everyone got together and then we had a FEAST, there was food everywhere I looked. I didn’t know what most of the things were, but as I walked down the row of chairs I could make out a pile of cheeseburgers labeled “JARAMY.” I figured they didn’t know how to spell my name and this was for me. Just to be sure I confirmed it with an odd couple sitting next to me that started laughing right after they told me and I quote “Yes that be’ist your food not someone else’s!” I decided I was hungry and I didn’t care if it was mine or not, so I dug in. After I finished about half of them a big Knotr about twice the size of any other Knotr there walked straight up to me with a face of what looked like disgust (it might have been just his normal face though) and let out a deep belch. UGGHH it was horrible just imagine a blender was filled with sardines, bratwurst, and molasses. Plus to top it all of it was very warm afterwards I was thankful I didn’t burn.

      That is when he spoke, “Hey you been eating Jaramy’s food, he only eats these fluffer patties.”

      “Oh sorry I thought it was mine, Jaramy is close to Jeremy you see.” I said.

      Just then the fat Knotr exploded into chunks of Knotr. Even if I didn’t want to throw up before now I wanted to even more. It was the worst thing that I had ever seen. Then I looked to my right and saw a plate of pizza that said: “To our savior Jeremy.” I was overwhelmed with what had just happened that I just kept eating Jaramy’s “fluffer patties.”

      I never want to go through that experience ever again.

How much for a locke?

In English we had to read the rape of the locke. It is basically about a baron who wants to get this girl's hair. There are also these 'syphs' who try and protect the girl from getting her hair cut. Long story short the baron gets a lock of her hair, and she believes that it is rape. In the process the syphs protect her from this, and then one of them is cut in half by the scissors that are used to cut her hair. It is a funny serious type piece. It uses satire a bunch to demonstrate its point to its reader. It is similar in its ways to Jonathon Swift's "A modest proposal', or the baby eating theory as I like to call it. They both play on the satire of humanity to create a funny serious point. Also in this story the girl asks the baron if she could get the hair that he cut off back. As anyone who really wants something would say, he declined this offer and continued on with the lock of hair. She was saddened by this. This is a comical story. Also in class we had to read an excerpt from "Paradise lost" I found this story very interesting. It was religious and it had many parts about it that were very interesting. In some forms of literature you see Beelzebub as Satan, and in this story Beelzebub talked to Satan. I found that interesting, as well as many of the other choices throughout the story, such as Satan being a cherub.

To be or not to be

Hamlet is coming to a close, and soon we are going to start reading Frankenstein which I am very excited for because it is more imaginative with a bigger meaning behind it. I was told by one of my teachers that the original Frankenstein is exactly like Edward scissor hands. This made me think I back to when I had watched that movie. My teacher then continued to say that both were just about people who were misunderstood by everyone, and thought to be a threat to society.  This is interesting to think about because that is no what I was taught that Frankenstein was about. I was always told that an evil scientist created a monster out of many different people to raid villages. Then the monster was killed with fire by an angry mob. I find it interesting that this is not how the original is portrayed. I always seem to find the original pieces of work better because it gives the reader a chance to actually see what the author wanted their work to be portrayed as. I enjoy reading old fairy tales to actually see what they were about, even though some of them are extremely gory. This is hopefully going to be the case with Frankenstein. I am excited to move from something where someone had "to be," onto something where someone was chosen from  "the not to be's."  The transition we are making into reading Frankenstein is also a refresher in my biblical knowledge which is always a joy.

The end, for everyone! (well except Horatio)

      The end of "Hamlet" was different than most Shakespearean plays, and it was interesting. The way that everyone just started dropping like flies was funny. Then at the end I felt bad for Horatio because he was the only one living when Fortinbras came in. That would be the most awkward situation anyone has ever experienced. Everyone was just lying on the floor dead, and then the king of another country just walks in the door after your best friend died, and said to live to tell their story. I would have probably just ran away and decided to never come back. In Act 5 Scene 2 all of the death occurred. You figure out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are most likely dead by the hand of paranoid Hamlet, and then begins the duel. I just found the way that Gertrude died to be hilarious because okay lets drink something that your husband tells you not to drink. Where was some common sense as to: "My husband/brother has been trying to kill my son/nephew all year, lets drink something that Claudius is trying to make only Hamlet drink." Yeah she was ignorant. Also Hamlet, we know you hated Claudius, but I don't think that he will be coming back after you stab him. I just felt that force feeding him poison after he was already bleeding to death was a little much. I also don't get how Laertes and Hamlet swords got switched, they were in each of their hands for crying out loud. If I was going to kill someone with a poison dipped sword, I would be extremely careful as to where it is, but hey that is only my opinion.

The Chapter you Want to Read Part 9

3.    The Chapter You Want to Read

     There I was standing with the Knotrs, and standing in front of me was the last person I wanted to see. It was the girl who took everything from me, my friends, family and most importantly my life in the normal world. She had taken me from my home and dragged me down here. Her eyes showed me that it was her.

I spoke at last “What are you doing here!? I thought you were gone. Wait… don’t you work for Fulmar! You’re a she-devil, aren't you? Yes you are I saw you transform! Wait no that was someone that looked like you? Will you explain yourself please?”

      Vanessa spoke first “This is Nora our tribe guardian she heard that you had been drug down here and I sent her off to find you. She tried to infiltrate the she-devils and I guess it didn't work out because she came running out of the house and alerted our guards to try to find you. When you came running out of the house we were relieved but then you fainted. We figured that you knew where you were and would come with us, but instead you fainted.”

      “So Nora is good, then why does she look like a she devil?”

      “I am a shape shifter but my true form is the mortal version of a she-devil. It was the curse put on me when I became a shape shifter.” Nora spoke.

      “Ok then how did you become a…” I tried to speak when I was interrupted by Garnids.

      “That is enough questions for right now. Now let’s go into the next room to discuss why we had brought you down here.”

As we walked into the next room I was blown away by what I saw. There was a big black cauldron in the middle of the room, ingredients filled shelves all around the room, and a big wooden stick was sticking out of the cauldron, probably a stirring stick. Off to the right of the room was a single door with nothing else on the wall and all of the bricks were darker than the rest.

      “Now it is time to tell you why we brought you here Jeremy,” Nora said.

      “Why you brought me here, so you were the one who took my parents and killed them!”

      “No Jeremy, a she-devil brought your parents down here to the outerwide and killed them in front of you that much is true, but then we knew that we had to get you out of there and in our village so that we can start you on your quest just like is says we should in the prophecy.” Garnids spoke that time.

      “So what you’re telling me is that I need to go on a quest?” I asked.

      “Yes, now you are getting it.” Vanessa congratulated.

      “A quest for what?”

Fat trolls part 8

Part 8:

      “Well hello there you must be Jeremy, I’m Vacnushta or in your language Vanessa,” said the old weird, strange voice, then all of a sudden a Knotr appeared, but it didn't look like a regular Knotr, it looked like a dried up little raisin with 50 chins, and no eyes, just two large holes in its head.

      “Why do you not have eyes, and where is the guardian?” I asked.

      “Oh Natalia is in my workshop looking in the fountain. It is said the fountain can be used to see someone’s struggles. You may be wondering why it is that I don’t have eyes, well you see I am the shaman of this tribe and as a duty of being shaman I have to gain the eyes of wisdom which I have, it is just that they are only visible to other shaman,” she said then I think she tried to glare at me.

      “Okay that makes perfect sense.” I said in a sarcastic tone. Then I opened the book to see if she was correct and there it was right in front of me:

 …The Knotr shamans are very unusual creatures because of the fact that you cannot see their eyes, but they do in fact have eyes though unable to see by anyone except other Knotr shaman. If they do ever reveal their eyes to anyone other than shaman or the direnight than that thing will perish instantly and turn into a nut…

      There it was. She really was telling the truth. I do wonder what a direnight is though, as I put the book away the shaman spoke again.

      “You have the book?”

      “This? Umm yeah I do, but what does it matter there was tons of these books just lying around in this old cabin”

      “That is because that cabin was in Fulmars domain. That book has been banned ever since the start of Fulmar’s reign.”

      “Oh that makes sense a she-devil did want this book, and it seemed very important.”

      “You battled a she-devil?” Asked the chief.

      “No I battled a skeleton minion, which I think was controlled by the she-devil, and I barely escaped.”

      “You’re lucky you did escape, she-devils are truly violent.” Said a new voice coming from where Vanessa had just came from.

      I knew that voice, where had I heard it before. I now was going through all of the voices I had ever remembered in my head to see if I could place it. Then out of the shadows came someone I knew, someone I had feared, and someone who I had fled.

The end is NEAR!

In act 4 of Hamlet right now Hamlet and Claudius are trying to kill each other. I do not understand why their desire to kill each other is the only thing on their mind. It is obvious and ambiguous at the same time. With Hamlet wanting to exact revenge on his father, but also wanting to find a purpose in life, and with Claudius wanting total power over the country and wanting to just continue his manipulative ways, it is difficult to determine which one of their reasons outweighs the other. I find this interesting that each killer is killing for one sole purpose: to kill the other before they get killed, or in the cliche form kill or be killed. This act is purposeful to the end act because it sets up a way for Claudius and Laertes to kill Hamlet. It also gives the reader or watcher the chance to see Hamlet when he finally broke down and decided that killing is the only way to kill and live. On the other hand Claudius and Laertes decide that to kill Hamlet they will have him duel Laertes. Laertes will also have a poisoned blade, and then they will give Hamlet a glass of poison to be sure that he dies. At the end of Act 4 Gertrude rushes into the room and tells Laertes and Claudius that Ophelia has drowned. They are both shocked, and that is the end of the Act.The plot line is starting to really come together, and become complete. I am looking forward to act 5.

First Blood

Hamlet  is starting to get to the point where everyone is dying off. The third act got interesting. In this act new plot twists arose and old ones were continued. The common theme of espionage was continued with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Also with Claudius and Polonius, although it caused Polonius some trouble in the end with his death. This play has gotten to the point where the issues in the family are starting to get out of hand. Hamlet decided to put on a play where he reenacts the death of his father to get a reaction out of Claudius, which it did. Then when Claudius went to repent Hamlet was going to kill him, but feared he would go to heaven and not be punished for his deeds. This is really ironic because right after Hamlet was going to kill Claudius, Claudius said that he did not mean any of what he was repenting and would go back to his normal ways. Then in the end Hamlet kills Polonius when he is hiding behind a curtain. This was interesting I thought because it was one of the first times you actually knew that Hamlet knew someone is spying on him. At this time also Hamlet talks to his mom, and then the ghost shows up to deal with her, and then she just makes it all worse. It is a whole mess of a family already, and there are still two more acts to go. So they may go further into insanity.

Fat Trolls part 7

Part 7:

      “What in the world did you just say?!” I said with surprise.

      “Oh,” the thing spoke with a sudden change of tone, “so you speak English do you, we the Knotr are humble little beings with one duty: to protect the outerwide.  We are capable of speaking many languages, what you just heard was our native language: Knotish, we can change our language by whatever our guests speak, that is why you hear us speaking English.” said one of the Knotr.

Knotr, I think that was one of the creatures in the book. I looked around and finally found the book. I then decided to open the book to the part about the Knotr and read it.

…Knotrs live in tribes called maroshkas, in these maroshkas there is a leader who helps all of the other Knotrs in the tribe find peace with nature. They usually like to be concealed from the rest of the world in hidden clearings, caves, or secret tunnels. The scouts are the only Knotrs allowed out of the village, besides the leader…

      “Okay well my name is Jeremy.” I said in a raspy startled voice after the little creature spoke in English. Then I decided to skip ahead and read what it said about the languages.

…Knotrs are usually recognized by their fat shape and ability to understand every language except Gargar spoken by the Gargals. These two species have had a feud since the dawn of man coming to the outerwide. The Knotrs do have very strong magical power and to be taken into their village is a privilege. It is said that the only humans that the Knotr let into the village are girls that are usually in their teens to become their tribe guardian…

      “I’m Garnids or in your language it is George, I am the leader of this tribe of Knotr.” Said the little one that had spoken first.

      “Hi George, can you tell me how I got to your village in the first place?”

      “Oh that is an easy one, we took your from where you fainted, do you not remember anything. Here let me explain Jeremy. Okay so two of our scouts: Ishnag (Isabella) and Feruk (Fred) say you faint and then saw one of the she devils looking through a cabin at you. Our frightened scouts decided that it might be good if you were to stay in our little village so they picked you up and carried you here. We were just discussing what to do to you when you awoke,” said Garnids. 

      “Okay so I was carried here by two of your scouts because there was a She-devil looking at me through a window?”

      “Yes,” said two of the Knotr who I believed to be Ishnag and Feruk.

      “So you two are the only two that are allowed to go out of the village, doesn’t that upset any of the others that want to explore?”

      “You have done your studying on us haven’t you? Also yes some of our younger villagers wish to roam outside of home that is why we choose two new scouts every year, to make sure everyone has a turn to see the world outside,” said Ishnag.

      “Though I would like to be done now,” said Feruk.

That is when I noticed that their little clearing in the woods was different than the rest of the world. It was green like the woods back home in Canada. The grass was green too, so I was happy that this didn’t look like a freak show. I decided not to mention it because of my grumbling tummy.

      “Okay, then with that cleared up I have one last question then.”

      “What is that Jeremy?” Garnids said.

      “What do you guys have to eat around here?”

      “Oh well we have a wide variety of food. You shall eat a ton at the feast tonight, but until then our shaman and tribe guardian would like to speak to you.”

A tribe guardian was a teenage girl. I was starting to like these Kotrs. They took me into one of the bigger of the huts that actually looked like a human being could live there. They went into this hut and then Garnids toke me down a winding staircase. It seemed like we would be there for hours walking down and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, AND DOWN, and down, and down, and down, finally we had reached the bottom step when we heard a voice unlike any other. It was high pitched and low at the same time, it was both feminine and masculine, but it was different. It was something that you just can not explain. 

Taking a break

Last week was a break from school and of course I thought that I was going to get all of my homework done the first couple of days and get prepped for the up coming quarter. Those thoughts that entered my head were somewhat true. Even though I did get most of my homework done during the first couple days I did procrastinate some of the homework assignments until the last couple of days.

I organized my binders for school so that I do not need to carry all of my things around in my clipboard. That surprised me the first day of school back I did not have all of the papers that I usually have in there. It was nice to just have the necessities in there.

I also did some studying for the ACT it is starting to make me nervous because I have never been good at tests. Especially standardized ones. I tend to think that I will not pass the test and that will reflect badly on my high school career. It has made it a difficult time to take these tests. I am preparing myself so that I do not have these thoughts during the ACT, and it is working so far. I have taken a couple of practice tests and it is creating a better mood for me about it.

I do think that this break has given me a chance to get myself straightened out. It has given me a chance to feel good about where I am in school. Now I just have to get all of my work ready for FFA Nationals next week!

Fat Trolls Part 6

Part 6:

2.    Fat trolls

      What I saw in front of me was indescribable trees on fire, rivers of purple, monsters roaming near and far, and all of the grass was red. It looked like a different world, like the ones you hear about in fairy tales. I think this might have been what my parents were talking about before they were taken. Before I knew it, I was fainting I think that it was just too much to take in at once, so what did I do, I fainted. While I was fainting I saw strange creatures coming toward me.

      I started to dream as I fainted. It was before I was even at this wretched place, it was of my parents and I in the living room talking so I went to see what they were saying, and I stopped in the door way.

      “Rachel you need to take Jeremy and leave,” said my dad.

      “Where will we go Ron, they will just find us again. I think we should just take him to the outerwide, we know that if we bestow the crown to him then it will all be over.” said my mom.

      “I know, but it is safer to be up here in the mortal realm, and even if he does make it to the outerwide then how will we know what to do?”

       “I don’t know, but I wish his parents were here to guide him.” said my mom.

       All I could think about then was who my actual parents are. I walked into the living room. My parents turned to me as quick as they possibly could. With a timid voice my dad asked me: “How much of that did you hear Jeremy?”

      “All of it, why didn’t you tell me sooner that you weren’t my parents,” surprisingly not shocked at all, “and what is the outerwide.”  I said

       Just as I finished my sentence the she-devil barged in the front door and ran straight for my parents.

      “Run Jeremy, Run she won’t be able to get you if you are not in her presence, and she is only after us.” my mom scream as she dodged an oncoming bullet from the she-devils gun.

      “Don’t forget to read the book son, don’t forget.” Said my dad.

       Then my vision blurred and I was focused on another event that didn’t seem to come from my past.  It was weird I didn’t feel like I was actually there in the dream, yet it had a strange calling to me. I walked down a long hallway and into a big room with guards of every shape and size. Then I went over to a big throne and sat down and saw three demon-things that looked like big bird elephants. They kept walking toward me and then the tallest of the three spoke:

       “Harpe has failed, the boy has gotten away.”

       “We sent Howp to find him in the outerwide, but she hasn’t found him yet.” Said the smallest one.

       “We think the Gargals, or the Knotrs have them.” The middle one said with a panic.

       “Then they all said together “We are sorry we have failed you master, but we won’t give up, the boy will be ours we just need some more time.”

       I said without even trying with a new booming voice, “Well go and find him yourselves, you Unkind are horrible at helping with my plans, now then if you fail to find any trace of him talk to the seer she is always helpful. When you find him you need to make sure that he is alive otherwise he will be no use in my plan. This is the lasts of my plans so you better find him or else.”

      With that the strange animal things left the room with a bang.  I wondered what the thing or rather the new me’s plan was for my original self.  With that question racing through my head I awoke. I was in a large field with huts all around me.  The huts were small and very fat. The roofs of the huts were straw with some sort of goo as the walls.

      I heard grumbling from somewhere in the houses. Then I saw them, they were small and fat like their huts. They were somewhat round and green like grapes. They had very little hair sticking straight out of the top of their heads. Their legs were short and skinny; it was weird to see them with their giant heads attached to two legs and two arms (that looked exactly the same as the legs).

      Finally one of them spoke, “Garmble gar mi gore nar chi.”

Family issues

(Warning there may be spoilers to Shakespeare's play "Hamlet")

Hamlet is full of exciting plot twists and dramatic scenes that shock even the brightest of characters. In the first act Hamlet finds out that his uncle newly became his dad and had recently murdered Hamlet's father. Hamlet's father wants to get revenge on the newly crowned king and Hamlets mother. To do this he enlists the help of his son. Hamlet then starts acting strange. People in the kingdom start to notice that Hamlet is acting a little weird, and take it to the king.

I find this part of the play interesting because Hamlet was already angry about his uncle marrying his mother the same day that they had his father's funeral. This new information that his father's ghost gives to Hamlet just fuels the fire. When Hamlet figures this out he knows that "I better do something, or I might be next on the killing list." That may even be true in the future parts of the play. I find it funny that Hamlet's mother just went for his uncle less then a month after his father died. The whole family is tearing at the seems because the son does not like anyone anymore, and then the mother and uncle start getting together right after the father dies, and to add even more craziness the father's ghost tells the son that he needs to get revenge on the uncle and to let the mother suffer with the guilt. 

I just find that this family has some serious family issues. They should talk it out to fix everything wrong in their weird relationship, but it is a Shakespeare play, so everyone will most likely die... 

Snakes, Bones, and the Occasional Embryo Part 5

(This is the final part of Chapter 1, Enjoy!)

Part 5

      With that the skeletons rushed at me with so much force I could’ve been smashed into a million pieces, but I dodged and swung one’s head off into the pile with the others. I then turned to another skeleton, who decided to fall into pieces. He was probably just afraid of me, so I didn’t see any harm in just letting his bones lie there. That is probably where I went wrong.

      The last of the skeletons was easy to finish off, mainly because he just stood there. After I took care of him I realized why I came in here in the first place. I rummaged through the cabinets and drawers, but there weren’t any sharp objects so I guess I had to persuade her to let me go by having information that I shouldn’t have.

      “I know your innermost fear,” I told her.

      “I don’t have one silly boy.”

      Darn I thought in my mind, and that is when I heard it; the skeleton was reforming and not just with all of his bones, but with all of the bones around him. He was turning into a beast with the bones from all of the other five skeletons. When his transformation was over I ran into the other room and completely forgot about the skulls in here. Right when he walked into the room it was like a magnet to the other skulls. They all shot at him and morphed into one giant person. The giant skeleton raced toward me and I tried to dodge it but he hit me and I slammed into a book shelf and strangely enough it fell revealing a big tunnel in the back of the cabin.

      “What the heck.” I said and raced down the tunnel.

      As I ran down the dark tunnel I started to think about what happened to the other she-devil-girl-person. Maybe she died or maybe she was trying to be evil and help the other one. Either way I didn’t know what had happened or where I was going now.

      I decided that I wasn’t being followed and started to slow down. As I slowed down I heard loud breathing which could only be from one person; the evil she-devil. The breathing started getting closer so I decided that I would try to hide against the side so I could sneak out the way I had come in.

      “Come on my child he shouldn’t be much further we are almost to Fulmar’s fortress he couldn’t have gotten in there.” She snarled at her minion.

      “Good idea Harpe.” Harpe’s minion shouted.

      “SSSSSSShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The boy must never know my name! Got it my child.” She hissed at him, as though someone had just killed her parents.

      “Yes ma’am.” He whimpered as though she had just hit him.

      They ran past me, and I was grateful that they did not find me. I waited until I could no longer hear the breathing and then I ran back to the entrance of the tunnel and climbed out on top of the bookshelf, and that is when I realized where the front door was. This would be a great start to my journey, so I decided to walk out the door.

The Shakespearean people

CAUTION: If you read this blog there may be spoilers of some Shakespearean plays!
In class we have started to read a play by Shakespeare, Hamlet, do not get me wrong it is going great and I am finally understanding it. I just don not get into it as much as I got into Shakespeare's other plays. Romeo and Juliet was awesome, and I recited Mercutio's Queen Mab speech. Then I read Julius Cesar which while was not my favorite, it gave me multiple quotes that were good to use. Then I read Macbeth which was my favorite Shakespearean piece thus far. I just liked the idea of a crazy psycho murderer, and his creepy wife seeing ghosts and then dying. I don't know it was just really phenomenal, but with Hamlet, I just have not gotten into it. I believe that as the story progress' I will enjoy it more, but as of today it is still not my favorite. Right now I am reading the part about how Horatio is taking Hamlet to see the ghost of his father. Then as they are searching they find him, and the ghost wants Hamlet to follow him. Horatio tries to tell Hamlet that he does not know if he should follow him. Hamlet follows the ghost of his father anyways he then reveals that he was murdered. At this point I am trying to start to like it. It gives a tragic happening that will probably end with death(which is what happens in all of Shakespeare's plays). As I continue reading this play I will try to keep you guys updated on my opinion of the play and its scenes.

Snakes, Bones, and the Occasional Embryo, Part 4

Part 4

I decided it would be a good idea to go to page 18:

The she-devils are strong and powerful, they feast upon their foes with the uttermost attentiveness. They tend to feast when their prey is not looking or distracted by some odd or shiny object on the she-devil’s scaly arms…

As I read this information I almost immediately knew what was going to happen next. I dodged the furious strike of the she-devil.  I knew there must have been something in the book about how to fight them or something else about them.  I flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for…

 …when fighting she-devils you need to be swift and agile the only way to harm one is to lodge a sharp object between their scales, or by fooling them into letting you go. This can be accomplished by letting them thinking you know some valuable information that they can’t let get into the wrong hands.

I finally found it now all I needed was some information that I could use against her, or a sharp object to injure her with.  My best bet was to make my way into the kitchen. I might be able to make a dodge for it, but first I needed her to think I have another person in the room waiting to kill her.

“Shh, Henry you need to sneak around her and jump on to her back.” I said this in a loud whisper, just loud enough for her to hear me but not loud enough so it sounded like I wanted her to know.

  She then turned to face her “opponent,” that is when I made my move for the kitchen. I made it without a problem, but as soon as I did make it into the kitchen the she-devil realized what I had done. She let out this roar that could raise the dead LITERALLY. Skeletons rose up from the ground to face me, and as I charged at them I thought that they might splatter into a pile of bones. Luckily it worked, but then I could hear clanking and as I turned around to face the pile of bones I saw them reforming, this time as a different form as though they were becoming tougher.

“Now you see what my children can do.” She told me as she slithered into the kitchen.

 The book? Of course, didn’t the book have a section on skeletons? I flipped the book open to page 79 and there is the picture of the skeleton I start to read as I rumble around the room dodging the attacks. Until I finally read:

Skeletons are usually controlled by she-devils, but some colonize in the depths of Fulmar’s fortress. It is difficult to kill a skeleton when their bodies are intact. What you want to do is hit them with something and then take any one of their bones this makes them unable to reform because every bone is needed in order for the reformation process. If you do kill one, be sure that no other skeletons can use their bones to make them stronger, and remember to take the same bone or kill them quite a ways from each other because they will take the bones from other skeletons…

I read this and instantly knew what bone would be easiest to take, the skull. As I watched the skeletons charge at me, I saw the she-devil just watching and awaiting my death.

“Why are you trying to kill me, I thought you needed to train and use me!” I scream.

“That was their plan, Fulmar’s plan is different he wants you dead NOW!” With that she lunged at me with all of her force.

I dodged the advance and she flung into three of the six skeletons. I quickly grabbed each one of their heads and threw them into the other room. With that I looked at the she-devil she snarled what sounded like “He has the book, get it from him before he reads it all; if we let him read that we will get far worse than punishment from Fulmar!”

The City of Whites

      As I was looking for sonnets i my English book I found one that was not about love or beauty at all, it was about hate, and despair. "The White City" by Claude McKay, made me think about how in the late 1800's- early 1900's was discriminatory towards races other than whites. This poem tells readers about the hate in the city, and how that a white mans hell was like heaven to them. It is ironically written as a sonnet because of its hate, which makes it more interesting. This poem may be about something completely different, but this is my interpretation: It is about an African America person who is living in the city, and is  hating how the discrimination throughout the city is segregating the blacks and the whites, and is making it seem like heaven for one is hell for another, which is not right at all. There was imagery in this poem that made me think of a run down street that many were forced to live in, but it was normal for them, and many were just happy to be in the north. It also made me think of new technology arriving, and how the city was just full of hate, and despair. Another concept that the poem gave me was of the underground railroad, even tough it was not written around the time of the civil war, it made me think of a time before the civil war where the underground railroad was active, and it brought families up to the north to live in run down towns with multiple other families. Anyways here is the poem so that you can make your own assumption. 

The White City
By: Claude McKay

I will not toy with it nor bend an inch.

Deep in the secret chambers of my heart

I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch

I bear it nobly as I live my part.

My being would be skeleton, a shell,

If this dark Passion that fills my every mood,

And makes my heaven in the white world's hell,

Did not forever feed me vital blood.

I see the mighty city through a mist--

The strident trains that speed the goaded mass,

The poles and spires and towers vapor-kissed,

The fortressed port through which the great ships pass,

The tides, the wharves, the dens I contemplate,

Are sweet like wanton loves because I hate.

Snakes, Bones, and the Occasional Embryo Part 3

Part 3

      She seemed to be telling me about the devil kind. I mean this is a very boring conversation about how great the devil kind is, but I don’t even think she realizes who she is talking to. Finally I ask, “Why are you telling me this?”

      “So you are aware of what you are about to do.”

      “And what is that, and how do you know I’ll even do it.”

      “Oh you will do it, if you don’t I will drag you down to my cave personally.” She grimaced with pure evil.
      “Now that you’ve told me what is going on, sort of, I guess it is time to tell you I know that you are not her.”
      “I figured you would find out sooner or later, finally I can have some fun,” That is when she lunged at me and I defended myself the way I usually do when a bully attacks, I jumped on the floor and covered my body with the chair I was tied to. That is when she turned into the beast, her legs became smoke, her arms became scaly with large claws that looked like bear claws, her head turned into a head of a bird and instead of beak she had large lips, and her body had become smaller like that of a snake.

      After her transformation happened she darted toward me and with a swift rise over me she cut the bindings keeping me on the chair. I was grateful, but I knew what she was trying to do, she was trying to see how good I fought so she could report back to whoever was in charge. I knew her plan before she could tell me this time. I had the advantage, or at least I thought I did. With that thought she lunged at me I rolled and dodged her swipe just barely. I could feel something drawing me toward a book in the corner of the room, so I decided to try to grab it. I finally reached the book and opened it up to the table of contents and saw this:

Table of contents:

Unkind…………………………………………………………………………………………………1

She-Devil…………………………………………………......………………………………………18

Knotrs………………………………………………………………………………………………..34

Grave Carvings……………………………………………………………………..…………………49

Gargals………………………………………………………………………….…………………56

Language of beyond……………………………………………………………………………………70

Skeleton……………………………………………………………………………….…………………79

Nice…………................………………………………………………………..…………………89

Fulmar…………………………………………………………………………….…………………100

Fulmar’s Kingdom and other creatures…………………………………….…………………119

…If you are wondering about the direnight than please find the book of Fulmar…

I felt a funeral, and then something terrible happened...

The poem “I felt a funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson, is very ambiguous. Poets always have multiple meanings for every word in their poem. This poem has vivid imagery about a funeral, and then a stanza or two about going to heaven and then… That is how the poem ends, right in the middle of a sentence it has an awesome ending though, because you don’t know if the poem is a dream or is someone having an out of body experience while they are viewing their own funeral. This poem is stupid. I don’t know why poetry makes me go off on random tangents like this one, but it does because of all of these meanings it is starting to make my head hurt. I know that poetry is useful, and is a major part of culture in general, but it is just so darn difficult to figure out just one meaning that you believe. Every time I read this poem or any other poem more than once I get a brand new interpretation, and scratch the old one until another clue leads me back there. Emily Dickinson has some great pieces that I have already read, but this one just makes confused on what is real and what is not, and I believe that was her intentions, so good job Emily. I just have to say this poem is a good one with ambiguous writing style and vivid imagery, but it just was not one that I liked all that much.

Here is the poem:

I felt a funeral in my brain,

        And mourners, to and fro,

Kept treading, treading, till it seemed

        That sense was breaking through.

And when they all were seated,

        A service like a drum

Kept beating, beating, till I thought 

        My mind was going numb.

And then I heard them lift a box,

        And creak across my soul

With those same boots of lead,

        Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell,

        And Being but an ear,

And I and silence some strange race, 

        Wrecked, solitary, here.

And then a plank in reason, broke,

        And I dropped down and down--

And hit a world at every plunge,

        And finished knowing--then--

Snakes, Bones, and the Occasional Embryo, Part 2

Part 2

     She looked at me with a disgusting look of delight.                                      

     “Happy now,” I told her with the energy of a lion.

     “Yes, very much so,” she said.

     She picked up the plate and headed back towards the kitchen. I could tell that she was in a hurry because as I watched her feet to a sort of run-walk-hop-like-jig.

     As she came back from the kitchen she seemed different, she had a smile that could kill a rhino; trust me it was a horrendous sight it was worse than the embryo. She had about 20 teeth intact and about 3 teeth coming outwards towards her lips. Her gums were just fine though besides the teeth coming out of them. Another thing I noticed was that her teeth were different colors and I don’t think they were like that before she stepped into the room. Maybe it was just my imagination but she was very tormenting. Just her appearance frightened me.

     “What are you looking at?” She said in a shrill voice that made my hair stand on end, this wasn’t her normal voice.

     “Look me in the eyes!” I said with this new sense of confidence that even surprised me.

     “Now why would you want that Jeremy?” Her voice sounded threatening instead of the usual soft heartedness. 

     “Just do it,” I scream at the monster, “why are you afraid!”

     “No I am not afraid of some little kid! …Fine come here, and take a good look.”  

     Her eyes were black not the soft green eyes I was accustomed to. I knew I had to think fast so I decided to devise a fool proof plan while she was staring into what seemed like my soul itself. To fool her of what I was truly thinking, I said what I would’ve said to the other girl and not this, this, imposter.

     “Why did you take so long in the kitchen?” I questioned in the same tone I had been using when I asked about my parents.

     “Time is not important, not now nor ever will time be important. Right now we need to wait until you are trained and have finally unlocked your true potential, in order to help the greater devil kind. Nivow is coming and your entire little tiny race will suffer, and you will lead their demise. She-devils are just superior to your race in general. The funny thing is though there is nothing you can do about it.”

Mirror... not by Justin Timberlake

           Mirror is a poem by Sylvia Plath that uses a mirror as its speaker. This poem was very confusing to understand at first because of all of the syntax. After reading it a second time I began to understand more of the poem. I started to make sense that a mirror was talking about it speaking the truth. Then I got to the second stanza and I was lost again. All it started talking about was that now the mirror was a lake and a child had drowned in it. It reminded me of an Old Spice Commercial.

          I do understand the ending better because it was just symbolizing aging and eventual death, but the part about a candle and a moon being a lie is still weird to me, but oh well I think if I read it a couple more times then I will get it eventually. For the time being though I am going to read some other poetry, and then go back to it. One concept of the article that makes me wonder is that is the mirror just trying to trick the person into only seeing the aesthetics and not what is actually there, and then the lake is suddenly rippling you the truth behind reality, which is death.  Yeah this poem probably does have some deeper meaning that is not on the surface, just like a mirror or a lake…

                        Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful ‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

-          Sylvia Plath 

Snakes, Bones and the Occasional Embryo, Part 1

   Hello, this blog post is the first of many, and I just wanted to give all of the readers a little info on what is happening. On this Blog I will be posting at least twice a week, one of the posts will be a part of the book I am working on titled Page2, and the second will be a review on a piece of literature that I am dealing with at that time. I will try to keep you guys updated on the upload schedule. Now here is Part 1 of the book.

Chapter 1.    Snakes, Bones and the Occasional Embryo 

Part 1

She looked me in the eyes, and that is when I knew she was good. Sometimes I thought she was trying to convince me she was evil. This thought made questions race through my mind.  Why had she killed my mother and my father, but left me? Why had she seen it right to take me here, and not leave me to rot in my home?  Where were we? How long has it been since my parents died?

“I’m hungry,” was all I could manage to say.

I thought to myself “I’m so stupid! I had so many other options, to curse at her, to beg her for my life, or to question her, and I chose to say that”.

“Well then, why don’t we fix that,” She said in a snide snicker voice. That reminded me of how much I hated her.

I watched as she walked toward the kitchen in this minuscule cabin, probably in the middle of nowhere. How I got there, I have no idea. I could see her coming back from the kitchen with what looked like a dead squirrel without hair. She handed it to me and gave me one of those “looks good doesn’t it” looks that made me feel even queasier because she actually ate this gruesome cuisine.

“There you go the finest cuisine west of the Knotr hills.” My captor spoke.

“You, You, You expect me to eat that.” I said in a disgusted tone because who knows what it is.

“Why yes haven’t you ever eaten a pig embryo?”

“THIS IS A PIG EMBRYO!!” I scream.

“Why yes, what else would you like to eat.” She sounded as if she was truly interested.

“Well what about hotdogs, hamburgers, or pizza, you know normal people food, not some exotic garbage.” I quickly explained to her hoping she had an alternative.

She looked at me in disgust and then gave me a look telling me: eat this or you will suffer far worse than watching your parents die.

*Gulp* I looked at the embryo and decided it might taste like pork or something scrumptious. I took a big bite out of it.

“Ugh, no this is gross this tastes like a pig threw up mud on a piece of bacon.” I said to myself.  It was horrible but I had to fill my stomach with something. I also had to put on a show.  After a while of eating I finally gulped back the final piece of the tiny hooves. I was finally finished with this horrendous item of food. At least I was no longer hungry and frightened.