Finally, last currently...

-Where and when did you find yourself sitting down to read? Do you tend to read with music on, or in silence? By the computer? Did you find yourself checking your phone a lot, or do you ever lose yourself in the reading? Do you ever talk about the books you read with your family or friends or teachers?

When I find time to read, I usually sit down in a quiet, calm place in my house such as my room or office. Whenever I clean my room, or when my sheets are just washed, I find myself reading more often than when my room is a total mess. I can't read with the radio on because I can't fully understand and relate to the book. I prefer total silence. My favorite place to read is in my bed, and other than that, I don't really like. If I am texting someone important, I will usually finish the paragraph or page I'm reading before I  check my messages. When I am reading for long periods of time, I often do lose myself inside the book. Time escapes from me and I just read until my eyes hurt or I realize that I need to be doing something else. I don't ever talk about the books I'm reading simply because I don't want to discuss the book; I just want to have my own opinion if I like it or not. But, I do often tell my friends or family to read a book that I find enjoyable. Reading for me comes to bursts, I can't read enough sometimes, and other times I don't want to do anything. Usually good books allow me to read more than if I was reading a book for school or something.

Tweaking to the end

I can't believe that this is our last week of blogging! Its so sad, even though I've kind of been slacking about the whole blog posting, I still enjoy it when I find the time. Im still reading Tweak, and that surprises me because when I like books, it only takes me like one to two weeks to finish, but this time I haven't gotten around to finishing. This semester has gone so fast and I don't know where the time has gone!

Back to the book... Nic has relapsed again, which I figured only because he never really wanted to get better for himself, but for others. If he would stay sober for others, he would relapse for someone else too. The reason why is Zelda; shes Nic's new girlfriend and they started to live together; Nic getting fired from his job and moving out of his apartment was only a few sacrifices that he has to make to win her love, but the biggest one yet was trying to break into his moms house in order to steal a computer. While in the garage, Nic blanks out and 6 hours later when he tries to escape, his parents are waiting for him. They tell Nic that he has two choices; get arrested or go to rehab. He chooses rehab, which is where I am no in the book. His parents decided to move him into a rehab in Arizona, so his relationship with Zelda I believe is coming to an end.

Mind Gym by Gary Mack

Our marching band went to state this previous weekend, and we ended up winning. Cool, right? So now everyone is congratulating us and "honoring" us. Anyway, I'm so glad we won, but I don't think my reaction towards our win was what was expected of us. So, now I'm reading Mind Gym by Gary Mack. Its a preparation book that tell you how an athlete would preform mentally; saying that your game is 90 percent of the game is half mental. I still don't know what that means, just that your game is determined by how mentally prepared you are. Since winter guard starts next week, I hope that this book will help me to become a better performer and be able to give advice to those who haven't figured it out yet. Even before reading Mind Gym, I always have mental rules and superstitions before a contest. I don't like seeing the field before we preform, and I always sing and chew gum right during warm up and before we walk onto the stage. I always crack and neck before tosses and crack my hands before dancing. I don't eat before the game, even if I'm hungry and I don't like to know where my mom is sitting because I don't want to see her reactions. In my head, all of these "rules" that I do make me preform to my greatest potential. I hope Mind Gym gives me better advice than what I am doing, to see if I can have a great performance by telling myself that I will. I want to trust myself and what I am able to do without fearing it won't happen. Well, we'll see...

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=hedgehog&hl=en&biw=1441&bih=610&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=Y4xigyQnMCAUCM:&imgrefurl=http://hedgehog38.edublogs.org/&docid=TafUtoZJTnxQJM&imgurl=http://hedgehog38.edublogs.org/files/2011/03/hedgehog-with-flower-t6vc3r.jpg&w=399&h=355&ei=uyCoTqC2GsiGsgKjnuHTDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=63&sig=110793844442573343631&page=5&tbnh=116&tbnw=152&start=92&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:92&tx=78&ty=66

BINGO!!

1. Baker describes the appearance of the lobby of his work as a place with “towering volumes of marble and glass,” and he also uses figurative language when he mentions the escalator “as the handrails slid on their tracks, like the radians of black luster.”
- Used the verb "use", number 6. http://mbutchko.blogspot.com/

2. Comparing the black handrails, "like the radians of black luster," shows the way he is able to control his writing.
- Uses the words "shows", number 6. http://almostfacebook.blogspot.com/

3. 'he also uses figurative language when he mentions the escalator “as the handrails slid on their tracks, like the radians of black luster."
- Refrain from using he says when describing a quote.  http://mbutchko.blogspot.com/ 
4. " Comparing the black handrails, "like the radians of black luster," shows the way he is able to control his writing.
-The example above, the person used "he is able". Avoid "he ..." quotes.

hww

In the beginning of Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger’s literal, blunt diction expresses Holden’s attitude towards his life and his surroundings. While describing his “touchy as hell”, he empathizes how emotional his parents can be. Mentioning his childhood as a “lousy childhood.” The negative connotation of his words is straightforward, making his word choice easily believed by others. Speaking of his brother, Holden says where D.B. lives “isn’t too far from this crumby place.” Though Holden is capable of positive emotions shown by his compassion for his brother.

Style Mapping

Tweak: Nic Sheff
:Growing up on methamphetamines. 

Starting at the LOW side of the y axis, Nic Sheff bluntly uses vulgar language to remember a time he had with a previous girlfriend. His harsh words suggest exactly how his addiction has escalated. Nic uses figurative language to describe her body and uses graphic words.

The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by: Melissa Bank

Her journalistic viewpoint of her brothers first girlfriend precisely describes how love waits for no one. This guide compares and contrasts how women should act towards men and each other. 

define...

addict:
-to cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent
     synonyms: adherent, devotee; fanatic; junkie

alone:
-separate, apart, or isolated from others

      adverb: solitary; solely

worthless:
-without worth of no use, importance, or value; good-for-nothing
       without practical value or usefulness

I think of these words when I am reading Tweak. Addiction is only caused and can only be cured your you, and your actions. No one can force you to recover, because relapsing is just around the corner. You do certain things, good nor bad, because you made the decision to, not your friends or your parents. These 3 words resemble the struggle and the reasons of substance abuse and addiction.   

Tweaking it up...

Tweak hasn't gotten much better.... I've continued reading, but I'm losing interest, quickly. The book has gone in a more positive direction though, Nic is trying to become sober and live his life the right way, for once. He moved from LA and is living in his old, vacant apartment. He finds his run-down flat bike and his gear that he left a short time ago, to go full-fill a more thrilling, exciting, drug addiction life. Now that he is recovering, Nic tries to follow all the 12-step guidelines to the tee, and finding an inner peace with himself and with God. He prays all the time now, thanking God for what he has accomplished, rather than asking for something. He tries to help others, which actually helps himself in the long run. He depends on his best friend, Spencer, who is a recovering addict of 15 years to help him through his struggle of recovering. When Spencer becomes very ill and is sent to the hospital, they leave Nic in charge of their young little girl Lilly. He has to cook for her and make sure she gets up and gets to school on time, and at first Nic thinks the responsibility will be too much, but in the end he benefits from helping others and in return Nic is much more mentally stable to recover. He still has a long way to go though...

Reflection

I was absent on Friday, and I just realized that I didn't check what we were doing for etymology. It says a reflection. So my reflection follows...
I need to improve, a lot. I need to read more and I need to blog more. I did so well in the beginning, and now I'm just slacking and getting behind. This week I want it to be different. I hope so. I'm reading Tweak, and I want to finish it by next week. I'm glad I took this class, I actually enjoy coming to it every day. I'm learning words that I use in my normal vocab now, and I think its funny when I use a word that my friends don't know what it means. I don't want the semester to end because I don't want the class to end, I like it too much. No regrets in this year. Just improvements.

Tweak

Tweak, by Nic Sheff, is a very repetitive book. Its all about getting high and thinking about becoming clean. Spending every cent of your money and hitting rock bottom before becoming sober, just so you can relapse is the main theme of Tweak. Nic, is on day 23 of relapsing, and he takes a lot to get him high, or feeling that he is high. He is getting high so often that he has trouble finding a vein to hit; now he looks for veins in his feet or legs. He believes that you should live life and die young, rather than die from a old and boring life. Personally, I would rather lie a mediocre, long life. Living the life of getting high and drunk all day doesn't seem a tad bit interesting or fun as people, such as Nic Sheff and Gack do. I hope that reading more of Tweak will give me an insight on how the "druggies" of the world compensate for their bad decisions.

Tweak, Nic Sheff

I'm going to finish this book if its the last thing I do! I don't exactly approve the frequent use of the "f" word, or the making drugs sound appealing, but its actually a good book. Some of the paragraphs are hard to comprehend simply because I don't know if he is talking to himself about his own emotions, or if the author, which is himself, is giving an insight to his feelings. The book also explains the types of people who end up doing drugs, alcohol, or often cut themselves. Often people feel pain and empty inside, and they think that doing drugs will make everything seem okay. Personally, I don't think I would ever attempt to do drugs and potentially harm myself, even if I wasn't the happiest person. I hope Tweak has a good ending, and Nic Sheff recovers and rebuilds his life after being a drug addict. 

tweak favorites

Im such a slacker! I only blogged once and and only read like 35 pages. I started reading Tweak, by Nic Sheff, and I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I knew it was about drugs, but not how to do them. So this was a bad week, so my goal is to do the required reading and blog the right amount. Now I guess its time for the favs...

"How can I go forward  when I don't know which way I'm facing."

"I melt down half a gram of the sweet-smelling tar in the jar I took from Laurens."

"Bullet is homeless."

slacking...

I have not a clue where this week has gone!! I still think the week hasn't started. I've been so busy with guard and projects that I haven't had time to read all week and I like to read. The art of project we are doing consumes most of my free time honestly because my partner and I work really slow so we need a lot of time for each paragraph. On Sunday I bought Tweak at Barnes and Nobles, but I haven't gotten a real chance to read it; like maybe 20 pages and thats it. I'm truly ashamed. Once band is over I feel like I will get the opportunity to read lots, especially this week was hard. We changed the ending to our show and our coaches have been drilling all the new changes into our heads, too much pressure for me right now. There is only a few more weeks until state so I guess I'll be okay until then. My goal is to read all of Teak, so that I can read the book I ordered, The Dark League King. Cant wait.

as current as it gets.

"...the boy who tore his earlobe in half trying to give Misty his earring, well, he's bald now."

"...everything you do is a self-portrait."

"What you learn in art school is there's an etiquette to drugs. You share them."

I personally like the second quote the best because I agree that life is how you see and full fill life to be. Everything is a self-portrait because you see life different than anyone else and how you see things makes a different outcome.

mix

Well, I stopped reading, How to Be Popular because it kind of got repetitive. It wasn't a bad book, I just got bored and wanted to read something else. No biggy. I'm kind of losing track of reading because  I am so busy all the time. With band practicing 23 hours a week, and having 19 hours on Saturday, I am always tired and overloaded with homework that I don't always have time to do my reading and blogging for the week. My goal for improvement this week is too be more conscience of my time and try to blog more for etymology and blog experiences from my personal life. How to Be Popular kind of reminds me of my best friend and I. Everyone thinks we like each other, but we are really just good friends. He and I have a lot in common and I guess being friends with the opposite sex means that Im in love with that person. In How to Be Popular, Stephanie gets mad at her best friend over something that didn't have anything to do with her. I feel like that's where I am at right now. I am currently mad at him, but I don't know if the reason I'm mad at him allows me to be mad at him because I don't know if I'm overstepping my boundaries or not. I guess I stopped reading this book because I don't want to know if I shouldn't be mad, because I care about him and don't want him involved in the wrong crowd and doing things that I don't approve of. I also plan on buying, The Dart League King this weekend. I'm upper excited to get it, I hope its as good as Mr. Hill made it seem like.

mixing it upp

Today, I decided to read How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot. Its a novel about a girl, Stephanie, who wants to fit into the popular crowd of high school. This book does not actually tell you how to be "popular" or anything, it is more about what makes you a better person. Rules like think of others before yourself are hidden messages throughout this book. Everyone knows these simple rules already, but sometimes people forget the little reminders. This book helps you to relate to the popular side and the non-popular side. How to Be Popular is not about being popular, but a decent human being; having empathy and a heart. I'm close to finishing this book, and I learned that not being popular is okay. I rather have people like me for who I really am, rather than people thinking that they like me because I act like they want me too. Everyone should live a true life and be happy with they people that love them and with the people they love.

Sentences of the week

"In ocean park, the man answers his front door, a wineglass in one hand, some kind of bright orange wine filling it up to his index finger on the side of the glass."

"Call it custom or superstition or feng shui."

"These thin women, maybe on the weekends you'll see a husband, short and dumpy, sweating so hard the black flock he sprays at her withered throat..."

Diary

This book reminds me of a sad love letter that is supposed to be personal, but somehow everyone finds out. This is written by the wife of the husband who killed himself. She writes as if he is going to read what she wrote some day, even though hes dead. She blames him for her horrible life, and writes as if she wishes she made a different decision. She never says she does not love him though, only that she wishes things did not turn out the way they did. She does not want to have to clean up the tracks that her husband made; she doesn't want to feel responsible for his mistakes. It wasn't her fault that he killed himself, and now she has to fix all the rooms that her husband vandalized and made disappear. Diary, has many inner connections to feelings and emotions that help portray how the author wants the reader to feel about the husband and the widow. The missing rooms and the suicide help us understand what kind of image we see the husbands as; helps us decide what we think of the relationship the two share.

Back in the 80's

Today was Back to the Future day, so I dressed up like the 80's. It was super fun and interesting to see all the looks I received from others kids. I borrow my moms jacket, so my outfit was a legit 80's outfit, not just a goodwill find. My hair on the other hand, took me forever! I spent an hour just braiding it, and the next morning I had to take them all out and brush out the waves. And the outcome was a bushy wavy wad of hair! My friend and I have dressed up everyday, and we take a picture so we can remember how "spirited" we are....