FICTION
1. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown:
A five character password, she thought. She instantly knew the odds: twenty-six to the fifth power; 11,881,376 possible choices. At one guess every second, it would take nineteen weeks.
As Susan Fletcher lay choking on the floor beneath the keybad, the commander's pathetic voice came to her. He was calling her again. I love you, Susan! I've always loved you! Susan! Susan! Susan!...
She knew he was dead, and yet his voice was relentless. She heard her name over and over.
Susan...Susan...
Then, in a moment of chilling clarity, she knew.
Trembling weakly, she reached up to the keypad and typed the password.S...U...S...A...N
An instant later the doors slid open
It's been a while since I have read this book and this is one part of the book that I have always remembered. This is a perfect example of why fiction is so great. Only in fiction can a character succed with a 1 in 11,881,376 chance. To make the ending of this book even better Susan follows up her miraculous password gas with another much more amazing guess that saves the NSA from losing all the information in their computers to hackers.
2. Independence Day by Richard Ford:
We walk a ways down the widening alley to the point behind the old brick buildings of Main, where it turns into the Doubleday Field parking lot and where several men-men my age- dressed in new-looking big-league uniforms are departing cars with their gloves and bats, hurrying on noisy cleats toward the open grandstand tunnel, as though they were showing up late for a twin bill.
In this the narrator is referring to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York which is also the town that is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I have been fortunate enough to have played a baseball tournament up in Cooperstown and I also got to see the Hall of Fame there. To me this town was like heaven. It's out in the middle of the country and everything in Cooperstown is centered around one thing, baseball.As for a little background on Doubleday Field. Doubleday refers to Abner Doubleday, the supposed creator of the great game that is baseball. Once a year during Induction Weekend, a time during the summer in which qualifying players are inducted in to the Hall of Fame, they play the Hall of Fame Game. This is one of the festivities to enliven Induction Weekend, but when this weekend is over Doubleday Field is reduced to being used by overaged men, who havent picked up a baseball in twenty years, are using a mitt that is older than that, and whose gatorade is spelled B-e-e-r. I just think its kind of sad that a field like that has to be used for games like that.
3. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God's fingers? I'll tell you what's walking Salem-vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant's vengeance! I'll not give my wife to vengeance!
This reminded me of the Duke Lacrosse Case. In both cases if the defense were to be proved innocent they still were going to be stained for the rest of their life just because they had been accused of the crime, and in both cases the defense was innocent and the accused was always assumed to be innocent even though in both cases they weren't as clean as the accused. Unfortunately for Proctor the only difference between the two cases was that Duke was proven innocent.
4.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
"Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. “Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
This is one of the most famous quotes from the book and it teaches a really good lesson I think. I had never known what the phrase "to kill a mockingbird" mean until i had read this passage in the book. It means a lot more too because it comes from the hearo of the book, Atticus, who lives his life the way that it should be lived, full of hardwork and selflessness.
5.Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Tom told me what his plan was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in on it.
I was a big fan of Huckleberry Finn after I read it and this quote stuck in my head after. It kind of sums up what the whole book is about. Huck doesn't understand that Tom's plan much more stupid than his and that all the steps of the plan are not required to free Jim. Tom does this repeatedly throughout the book, but actually manages to find success most of the way down the river.
NONFICTION
1. Night by Elie Wiesel
"There are eighty of you in this wagon," add the German officer. "if anyone is missing, you'll all be shot, like dogs...
Everyone knows about the holocaust and how brutal the people were treated who had to go through a concentration camp. This is a quote that I always remembered from reading Night the first time. It shows how ruthless the Nazis were. They didn't care if the people survived or not but they did care if one of them was to escape and they would take it out on the people who had listened to what they said. The holocaust was a horrifying reality.
2.Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.
I think it is great when someone is so in touch with some part of their life so much that they can tell the slight differences that make it so special. That is how I am with baseball. I can tell if the pitcher's ball is moving when it shouldn't be or when a player did something that he shouldn't and he should get hit by the next pitch thrown to him because of it. I can't say that I am at the level that Emerson is though when it comes to nature.
3.All I Really need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
Share everything.
Play Fair
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
I think this would be a great way to replace the rules that are set up around the school. People would be able to understand what they mean a lot easier. Our school would be so much different if we could actually follow these rules like we did when we were in kindergarten. I bet I could see every one of those rules, besides flush, broken at lunch every day if I were to go out and look for them. It's a shame that high school kids can't follow the rules set for children more than a decade younger than us.
4.Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
"What is the shape of Walnut Bend?"
He might as well have asked my my grandmother's opinion of protoplasm. I reflected respectfully, and then said I didn't know it had any particular shape. My gunpowdery chief went off with a bang, of course, and then went on loading and firing until he was out of adjectives.
Mark Twain is very interesting to me because he's kind of got a dry humor. He answers his chiefs question with such a broad answer that it can't be anything but right. It's kind of like when someone comes up to you and asks, " How did you lose that game?" Which you can simply reply, "They scored more than we did." He also does very well describing the actions of his characters. In that last sentence you could tell that the chief was chewing him up one end and down the other just with a simple metaphor.
5.Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1954 by Ernest Hemingway
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
This is the way I wish I could live my life. No, not anything to do with writing but to never be satisfied. Hemingway is right when he says that you should always reach for something beyond attainment because if you do that odds are you could reach something that you didn't think was actually possible. If you don't try to succeed, you just try not to fail, anything you try and improve on will have reached a never ending plateau.
POETRY
1.what if a much of a which of a wind by E.E. Cummings
what if a much of a which of a wind
gives the truth to summer's lie
bloodies with dizzying leaves the sun
and yanks immortal stars awry?
blow king to beggar and queen to seem
(blow friend to fiend: blow space to time)-
when skies are hanged and oceans drowned
I like what Cummings does with his writing. He's the only perosn I have ever seen who doesn't capitalize at all when he writes. This was a very good idea of his, because it makes the reader focus on the poetry and not wonder why a certain letter isn't capitalized.
2.The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
What's not to like about a poem that looks like it says so little but actually says so much more. Williams did a great job organizing this poem. He has three words in the first line of every stanza and then that is followed by one word in the next. The poem could be one sentence if you were to read it out loud but he found a way to separate it into four separate stanzas.
3.Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.
The rest cling to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that--
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn - hugging third.
This is one of the most famous things ever written about the game of baseball. I like it because Thayer did such a good job portraying what the game is really like. Anything can happen in Baseball. This is the only sport that can truly say that. Thayer gives an example of this when Blake and Casey both get hits when it seemed like there was no way they could. He counters there mighty hits by having Casey strike out to once again prove that anything is possible in the game of baseball.
4.of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery
by Gwendolyn Brooks
He was born in Alabama.
He was bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
Drive him past the Pool Hall.
Drive him past the Show.
Blind within his casket,
But maybe he will know.
Down through Forty-seventh Street:
Underneath the L,
And Northwest Corner, Prairie,
That he loved so well.
Don’t forget the Dance Halls—
Warwick and Savoy,
Where he picked his women, where
He drank his liquid joy.
Born in Alabama.
Bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
I've always been someone who's admired people that stuck to their roots and hasn't changed. In this poem thats what the main characted does throughout. He sticks to the places he knows best and relaxes and enjoys life.
5.Ten Little Indian Boys by Agatha Christie (from And Then There Were None)
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One chocked his self and then there were nine.
Nine Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself then there were eight.
Eight Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there then there were seven.
Seven Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves then there were six.
Six Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumble-bee stung one then there were five.
Five Indian boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery then there were four.
Four Indian boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one then there were three.
Three Indian boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one then there were two.
Two Indian boys sitting in the sun;
One got all frizzled up then there was one.
One Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
This is one of those poems that I think of when this comes to poetry. And Then There Were None is one of my favorite book i've ever read. This poem is pretty much the story line for the whole book. Ten people go out to an island and none of them return. Each one is killed according to this poem. I really wish I wouldn't have read the last chapter of the book before I finished the book though.
MISCELLANEOUS
1.The Life You Imagine by Derek Jeter
The motivation is to be the best player I can be, and if that means some people want to call me one of the best in baseball, that's up to them. I don't sit here every day and think about what I accomplished in the past and how I've got it made now. I'm always focusing on what I can do to improve in the future. What can I do to make myself better tomorrow? I know people don't care what I did last year. Seriously, last year is over with. My teammates and my coaches want to see what I can do this year. More important, I want to see it.
Derek Jeter has always been a player that I have looked up to when it comes to baseball. It's very rare to find a player who tries as hard as he does every single game. When I read this right here I understood what motivates him. The other thing I like about Derek Jeter is that he tries this hard off the field too. I have never heard of Derek Jeter have any problems off the field with court cases, drinking, or anything of that sort.
2.Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none of who he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with everyone in the country round. Their dress too was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip involuntarily to do the same, when to his astonishment he found his beard had grown a foot long.
I always like reading passages such as this where the character realizes that the problem isn't with the society he's in, it's with him. This is another example of a great piece of fiction. Irving does very well in showing that there is something different with his chin before actually telling us that Van Winkle has grown a beard a foot long. This isn't exactly what Rip was expecting to wake up to that is for sure.
3.A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather
" I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!
I understood, for her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.
There isn't a worse feeling than experiencing such a great nostalgia and then having it yanked away from you by reality. There's always a point in someone's life where they look back and wish they were still living in the past and that makes the present worse than it was before we looked in to our past. This is a great reason to live in the present.
4. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason."'
"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.
"My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can."
"But you can't mean--" gasped Rainsford.
"And why not?"
"I can't believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke."
"Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting."
"Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder."
The general laughed with entire good nature. He regarded Rainsford quizzically. "I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life. Surely your experiences in the war--"
This was one of the biggest surprises I ever read about. I couldn't believe it when Zaroff said he was actually hunting human beings. This shows what goes through the minds of people who were given power over weapons they shouldn't have been given. Zaroff reminds me of the suicide bombers of today. They don't realize that they are taking something precious away from this Earth for a stupid cause.
5.Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway
By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over.
This goes to show how much really appreciate things. It's easy to love something when everyone else is loving it, but you can show true character if you can show that same kind of love to something when it has gone out of style. I think it's ridiculous that something like this could ever happen, but it happens all the time and you hardly ever see anyone doing anything to change that.
ONE AUTHOR
1.Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
My dear Professor, surely a sensible persone like yourself can call him by his name? All this ‘You-Know-Who’ nonsense—for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort.” Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice
Eleven pages in to the first book of the series Rowling had already established the name that many readers around the world have known so well as something to represent evil and darkness. She did a great job with this by having McGonagall flinch and she also did well to show that Dumbledore was someone who could be looked up to because he was not afraid of the person that everyone else seemed to be afraid of. This also created one of the characteristics of her books. Throughout the whole series the topic of being afraid of saying Voldemort was always discussed.
2.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
"Oh no, sir, no," said Dobby, looking suddenly serious. "'Tis part of the house- elf's enslavement, sir. We keeps their secrets and our silence, sir. We upholds the family honor, and we never speaks ill of them—though Professor Dumbledore told Dobby he does not insist upon this. Professor Dumbledore said we is free to—to—" Dobby looked suddenly nervous and beckoned Harry closer. Harry bent forward. Dobby whispered, "He said we is free to call him a—barmy old codger if we likes, sir!" Dobby gave a frightened sort of giggle. "But Dobby is not wanting to, Harry Potter," he said, talking normally again, and shaking his head so that his ears flapped. "Dobby likes Professor Dumbledore very much, sir, and is proud to keep his secrets and our silence for him."
Dobby and Dumbledore were two of my favorite characters of all the Harry Potter books. Dumbledore tells Dobby he can insult him if he wants too, but Dobby, and anybody else who knows Dumbledore knows that will never happen because as Dumbledore proves again and again it is impossible to dislike someone like him if you get to know him. I liked Dobby because you couldn't find anybody more willing to help you out if you needed it. He even dies saving Harry's life in the final book.
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
"IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT. THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANTS AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT... BEFORE MIDNIGHT...THE SERVANT...WILL SET OUT...TO REJOIN...HIS MASTER...."
Professor Trelawney comes through with one of her few correct predictions and doesn't even realize it when she wakes up from her trance. I liked this quote because it makes you think that the servant is Sirius Black, it isn't, and by "chained" she means like in prison which is where Sirius has escaped from but it really means from ownership, Ron's ownership. Scabbers, Ron's longtime useless rat turns out to be Peter Pettigrew, the former best friend of Sirius, Lupin, and Harry's father James. I think this is a really important quote because it leads us to who really betrayed Harry's parents the night they died.
4.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job.
It doesn't get more ironic than this does it? Voldemort was the most feared and most powerful wizard, next to Dumbledore, of his time, and the one person he fails to kill ends up possessing the knowledge and essential characteristics to kill him once and for all. This quote has stuck with me because it was the beginning of the end for Voldemort. Harry had found out about the horcruxes and it would only take him a year before he would destroy all of them and their owner.
5.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
You still don't get it Riddle, do you? possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard... The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him allegiance...
I couldn't have a whole section on Harry Potter and leave out the climatic last battle between Harry and Voldemort. Personally, I don't think there's a much better feeling than putting fear in an overconfident opponent like Harry did to Voldemort in this quote. It was the only time in all seven books that I noticed that Voldemort had lost his nerves, not his anger. You could tell that the confidence Voldemort had was taken away completely and at that point you knew that Harry was going to kill Voldemort.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.
I think it is great when someone is so in touch with some part of their life so much that they can tell the slight differences that make it so special. That is how I am with baseball. I can tell if the pitcher's ball is moving when it shouldn't be or when a player did something that he shouldn't and he should get hit by the next pitch thrown to him because of it. I can't say that I am at the level that Emerson is though when it comes to nature.
All I Really need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
Share everything.
Play Fair
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
I think this would be a great way to replace the rules that are set up around the school. People would be able to understand what they mean a lot easier. Our school would be so much different if we could actually follow these rules like we did when we were in kindergarten. I bet I could see every one of those rules, besides flush, broken at lunch every day if I were to go out and look for them. It's a shame that high school kids can't follow the rules set for children more than a decade younger than us.
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
"What is the shape of Walnut Bend?"
He might as well have asked my my grandmother's opinion of protoplasm. I reflected respectfully, and then said I didn't know it had any particular shape. My gunpowdery chief went off with a bang, of course, and then went on loading and firing until he was out of adjectives
Mark Twain is very interesting to me because he's kind of got a dry humor. He answers his chiefs question with such a broad answer that it can't be anything but right. It's kind of like when someone comes up to you and asks, " How did you lose that game?" Which you can simply reply, "They scored more than we did." He also does very well describing the actions of his characters. In that last sentence you could tell that the chief was chewing him up one end and down the other just with a simple metaphor.
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1954 by Ernest Hemingway
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
This is the way I wish I could live my life. No, not anything to do with writing but to never be satisfied. Hemingway is right when he says that you should always reach for something beyond attainment because if you do that odds are you could reach something that you didn't think was actually possible. If you don't try to succeed, you just try not to fail, anything you try and improve on will have reached a never ending plateau.
Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway
By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over.
This goes to show how much really appreciate things. It's easy to love something when everyone else is loving it, but you can show true character if you can show that same kind of love to something when it has gone out of style. I think it's ridiculous that something like this could ever happen, but it happens all the time and you hardly ever see anyone doing anything to change that.
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason."'
"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.
"My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can."
"But you can't mean--" gasped Rainsford.
"And why not?"
"I can't believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke."
"Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting."
"Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder."
The general laughed with entire good nature. He regarded Rainsford quizzically. "I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life. Surely your experiences in the war--"
This was one of the biggest surprises I ever read about. I couldn't believe it when Zaroff said he was actually hunting human beings. This shows what goes through the minds of people who were given power over weapons they shouldn't have been given. Zaroff reminds me of the suicide bombers of today. They don't realize that they are taking something precious away from this Earth for a stupid cause.
A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather
" I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!
I understood, for her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.
There isn't a worse feeling than experiencing such a great nostalgia and then having it yanked away from you by reality. There's always a point in someone's life where they look back and wish they were still living in the past and that makes the present worse than it was before we looked in to our past. This is a great reason to live in the present.
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.
I think it is great when someone is so in touch with some part of their life so much that they can tell the slight differences that make it so special. That is how I am with baseball. I can tell if the pitcher's ball is moving when it shouldn't be or when a player did something that he shouldn't and he should get hit by the next pitch thrown to him because of it. I can't say that I am at the level that Emerson is though when it comes to nature.
All I Really need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
Share everything.
Play Fair
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
I think this would be a great way to replace the rules that are set up around the school. People would be able to understand what they mean a lot easier. Our school would be so much different if we could actually follow these rules like we did when we were in kindergarten. I bet I could see every one of those rules, besides flush, broken at lunch every day if I were to go out and look for them. It's a shame that high school kids can't follow the rules set for children more than a decade younger than us.
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
"What is the shape of Walnut Bend?"
He might as well have asked my my grandmother's opinion of protoplasm. I reflected respectfully, and then said I didn't know it had any particular shape. My gunpowdery chief went off with a bang, of course, and then went on loading and firing until he was out of adjectives
Mark Twain is very interesting to me because he's kind of got a dry humor. He answers his chiefs question with such a broad answer that it can't be anything but right. It's kind of like when someone comes up to you and asks, " How did you lose that game?" Which you can simply reply, "They scored more than we did." He also does very well describing the actions of his characters. In that last sentence you could tell that the chief was chewing him up one end and down the other just with a simple metaphor.
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1954 by Ernest Hemingway
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
This is the way I wish I could live my life. No, not anything to do with writing but to never be satisfied. Hemingway is right when he says that you should always reach for something beyond attainment because if you do that odds are you could reach something that you didn't think was actually possible. If you don't try to succeed, you just try not to fail, anything you try and improve on will have reached a never ending plateau.
Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway
By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over.
This goes to show how much really appreciate things. It's easy to love something when everyone else is loving it, but you can show true character if you can show that same kind of love to something when it has gone out of style. I think it's ridiculous that something like this could ever happen, but it happens all the time and you hardly ever see anyone doing anything to change that.
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason."'
"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.
"My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can."
"But you can't mean--" gasped Rainsford.
"And why not?"
"I can't believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke."
"Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting."
"Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder."
The general laughed with entire good nature. He regarded Rainsford quizzically. "I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life. Surely your experiences in the war--"
This was one of the biggest surprises I ever read about. I couldn't believe it when Zaroff said he was actually hunting human beings. This shows what goes through the minds of people who were given power over weapons they shouldn't have been given. Zaroff reminds me of the suicide bombers of today. They don't realize that they are taking something precious away from this Earth for a stupid cause.
A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather
" I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!
I understood, for her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.
There isn't a worse feeling than experiencing such a great nostalgia and then having it yanked away from you by reality. There's always a point in someone's life where they look back and wish they were still living in the past and that makes the present worse than it was before we looked in to our past. This is a great reason to live in the present.
ten little indians poetry 5
Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie (from And Then There Were None)
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One chocked his self and then there were nine.
Nine Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself then there were eight.
Eight Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there then there were seven.
Seven Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves then there were six.
Six Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumble-bee stung one then there were five.
Five Indian boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery then there were four.
Four Indian boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one then there were three.
Three Indian boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one then there were two.
Two Indian boys sitting in the sun;
One got all frizzled up then there was one.
One Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
This is one of those poems that I think of when this comes to poetry. And Then There Were None is one of my favorite book i've ever read. This poem is pretty much the story line for the whole book. Ten people go out to an island and none of them return. Each one is killed according to this poem. I really wish I wouldn't have read the last chapter of the book before I finished the book though.
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One chocked his self and then there were nine.
Nine Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself then there were eight.
Eight Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there then there were seven.
Seven Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves then there were six.
Six Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumble-bee stung one then there were five.
Five Indian boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery then there were four.
Four Indian boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one then there were three.
Three Indian boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one then there were two.
Two Indian boys sitting in the sun;
One got all frizzled up then there was one.
One Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
This is one of those poems that I think of when this comes to poetry. And Then There Were None is one of my favorite book i've ever read. This poem is pretty much the story line for the whole book. Ten people go out to an island and none of them return. Each one is killed according to this poem. I really wish I wouldn't have read the last chapter of the book before I finished the book though.
huckleberry fin fiction 5
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Tom told me what his plan was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in on it.
I was a big fan of Huckleberry Finn after I read it and this quote stuck in my head after. It kind of sums up what the whole book is about. Huck doesn't understand that Tom's plan much more stupid than his and that all the steps of the plan are not required to free Jim. Tom does this repeatedly throughout the book, but actually manages to find success most of the way down the river.
Tom told me what his plan was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in on it.
I was a big fan of Huckleberry Finn after I read it and this quote stuck in my head after. It kind of sums up what the whole book is about. Huck doesn't understand that Tom's plan much more stupid than his and that all the steps of the plan are not required to free Jim. Tom does this repeatedly throughout the book, but actually manages to find success most of the way down the river.
of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery poetry 4
of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery
by Gwendolyn Brooks
He was born in Alabama.
He was bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
Drive him past the Pool Hall.
Drive him past the Show.
Blind within his casket,
But maybe he will know.
Down through Forty-seventh Street:
Underneath the L,
And Northwest Corner, Prairie,
That he loved so well.
Don’t forget the Dance Halls—
Warwick and Savoy,
Where he picked his women, where
He drank his liquid joy.
Born in Alabama.
Bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
I've always been someone who's been admired people that stuck to their roots and hasn't changed. In this poem thats what the main characted does throughout. He sticks to the places he knows best and relaxes and enjoys life.
by Gwendolyn Brooks
He was born in Alabama.
He was bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
Drive him past the Pool Hall.
Drive him past the Show.
Blind within his casket,
But maybe he will know.
Down through Forty-seventh Street:
Underneath the L,
And Northwest Corner, Prairie,
That he loved so well.
Don’t forget the Dance Halls—
Warwick and Savoy,
Where he picked his women, where
He drank his liquid joy.
Born in Alabama.
Bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.
Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
I've always been someone who's been admired people that stuck to their roots and hasn't changed. In this poem thats what the main characted does throughout. He sticks to the places he knows best and relaxes and enjoys life.
Rip Van Winkle misc. 2
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none of who he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with everyone in the country round. Their dress too was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip involuntarily to do the same, when to his astonishment he found his beard had grown a foot long.
I always like reading passages such as this where the character realizes that the problem isn't with the society he's in, it's with him. This is another example of a great piece of fiction. Irving does very well in showing that there is something different with his chin before actually telling us that Van Winkle has grown a beard a foot long. This isn't exactly what Rip was expecting to wake up to that is for sure.
As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none of who he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with everyone in the country round. Their dress too was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip involuntarily to do the same, when to his astonishment he found his beard had grown a foot long.
I always like reading passages such as this where the character realizes that the problem isn't with the society he's in, it's with him. This is another example of a great piece of fiction. Irving does very well in showing that there is something different with his chin before actually telling us that Van Winkle has grown a beard a foot long. This isn't exactly what Rip was expecting to wake up to that is for sure.
harry potter 5
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
You still don't get it Riddle, do you? possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard... The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him allegiance...
I couldn't have a whole section on Harry Potter and leave out the climatic last battle between Harry and Voldemort. Personally, I don't think there's a much better feeling than putting fear in an overconfident opponent like Harry did to Voldemort in this quote. It was the only time in all seven books that I noticed that Voldemort had lost his nerves, not his anger. You could tell that the confidence Voldemort had was taken away completely and at that point you knew that Harry was going to kill Voldemort.
You still don't get it Riddle, do you? possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard... The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him allegiance...
I couldn't have a whole section on Harry Potter and leave out the climatic last battle between Harry and Voldemort. Personally, I don't think there's a much better feeling than putting fear in an overconfident opponent like Harry did to Voldemort in this quote. It was the only time in all seven books that I noticed that Voldemort had lost his nerves, not his anger. You could tell that the confidence Voldemort had was taken away completely and at that point you knew that Harry was going to kill Voldemort.
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