Last Year Blog Post (reflection)

       Creating and keeping up with my blog has actually taught and helped me a lot as a reader. I noticed that re-reading the most important part of the book, and analyzing different characters has helped me progress as a reader. I remember coming into the 8th grade with rarely thinking about the book as I read, too now blogging about relationships between characters, and the missing perspectives in the book. Writing a blog every week not only helped me understand the book even more, but it was also a very interesting experience that helped my reading along with my writing.

        Before writing blog posts, I would honestly skim through the book, and I couldn't wait to finally get to the end. However with the help of blog posts, I actually take my time reading a book and thinking about all the conflicts, plots, and characters in the book. Blog posts help me let out all those thoughts that I have about my book. With blog posts, there's never an unlimited amount of sentences I can write, I can just combine all my thoughts and create one fantastic blog. Blog posts taught me how I can think about a book without being bored, it basically taught me how my own ideas about the book can make writing a blog even more interesting.

     Writing online is a lot different then writing in a notebook. You can always delete or edit something online, and in a notebook that's not always possible. I'm not a huge fan of writing in my notebook, I prefer typing up my responses a lot more. And also you can control who sees your response in your notebook, but with a blog post anyone can see and anyone can judge. So personally, writing online is a lot different than just writing in a plan notebook.

   Writing online is liberating because I really do enjoy talking about my ideas and sharing my opinions and thoughts about the book and the characters in it. To some people it can also be limiting, because they might feel as if they have to type a certain way to gain a good grade, and that takes away the point of blog posts because you should express yourself and never worry about what others think!

    I think this only depends on the person. Some people project themselves on the internet in a way that is totally different in the real world. Many people want to fit in, so they create a different person online that isn't similar to them at all in real life. However, some people do act real online, and I think I'm one of those people.

   Teenagers most definitely, definitely, definitely abuse the freedom they get online. It's so much easier to curse someone out on Facebook, that it is in real life. Through the internet teenagers aren't too afraid of getting in any trouble, because nowadays people even create fake online profiles. Instead of being mature enough to say something to someone's face, the internet is the main source for all this nonsense and trouble. Thanks to the internet and cyber bullying, suicide is becoming very common between teens. Not only does Facebook abuse the freedom of teenagers, but other websites such as ask.fm do also. Ask.fm is a website for asking people questions, you can choose weather to be on anonymous or not. With the click of the anonymous button, teenagers have all the freedom they want because they can send so much hate and rude comments without being caught. I think this is such a bad thing, because through the internet you don't really see how someone actually feels, and you never know what actions they can take to stop all of that hate.

    I can actually see myself continuing this blog, because it helped me think about my book so much more. However, I don't think I'll be able to continue doing this every week, because it does get hard once in a while, but I'll definitely try to blog about my books here!

Non fiction post

   
    I just currently read an article called "Killer-flu update'' by Janet Raloff. This article talked about a flu that has recently began occurring in China that has caused sickness to 13` people, and death to 36! The virus has now found even more ways to spread, and one of them by ignoring the drugs that are supposed to help and kill it. Studies have showed that the virus may be even caused by birds. To help test this theory scientists conducted an experiment using ferrets, and even humans themselves. When all the experiments were finished, Chinese researchers had tracked the new germ to poultry. Viruses worsen by picking up bits of genes from nearby microbes, which helps them turn even more dangerous and more infectious as well.
  
        I think this is insane, how a virus can spread through birds like that hurting so many people, and killing so many lives. Even though the Chinese researchers are working hard on solving this mystery, it's just so hectic because more and more deaths are being found each day. I really hope that medicine will be found to get rid of the virus, because it almost seems impossible since the virus is so strong that it even ignores the drugs that are meant to stop it.

               I have read the book "Copper Sun" by Sharon M. Draper. I found this book to be very interesting, and different than most books I usually read.  Throughout the story, Amari has faced many complicated situations. Some of the complicated situations are being sexually abused by her slave owner, being beaten every day, and the tough times she has faced on the boat.Amari can be considered a strong women, because many of the women at her age didn't make it through the consequences she had to face.

                Amari witnessed the death of her family right in front of her eyes, and other tride members dying as well. She was captured by Ashanti members. There was this one time when a mother and a child jumped off a boat, because they couldn't handle the situation they were in. Afterwards, they were eaten by sharks. In my opinion, Ashanti is considered brave for conquering the obstacles that came her way. It's really disappointing knowing that so many people took their lives, because they couldn't face the terrible problems that came their way, but strong Amari did. Amari kept going and held onto her hopes of escaping.
 
               The slaves along with Amari weren't given any medication or food, until the day before they were sold. Many slaves reached the point of death because of this. Amari held herself together knowing that no one was going to comfort her, like her mother once did. If I were in Amari's shoes, I wouldn't be as brave as Amari is. I can't imagine myself being held captive with other tribe members going to be sold in a slave auction. It disgusts me how the minds of people were back then. No one, should be harassed like this, because we are all human. The color of your skin should not matter, and shouldn't decide your faith.
          
                In conclusion, not everyone held it together throughout their journey of being a slave. I can't personally relate to this idea of being a slave, because I didn't live during that time period. I really enjoyed reading this book, because it has taught me about previous centuries and the hard life back then. I'm happy I got to go through Amari's journey as a slave with her, which has taught me to never take anything for granted. This book has opened my eyes a lot about the world itself, and the people living in it. I'm looking forward to reading more books similar to this.
               

                        In "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, love has been shown to be the key factor of survival. It's what brought together Romeo and Juliet, and what continues to be a continuous factor in the play. Love is what helped keep the two star crossed lovers together, even though they were born into two very different families; the Capulet's and the Montagues which hate each other. When both had fallen in love, the names of each side didn't contribute to their relationship. Instead, the people who try to end their relationship, and have the love of Romeo and Juliet vanish, and those who try to push it forward, are the ones who make it stronger, and make both Juliet and Romeo more rebellious than ever before.

                        Juliet's father a Capulet, disapproves of her relationship with Romeo greatly. However, it's not that he doesn't approve of Romeo himself, he doesn't approve of Romeo belonging to the Montagues. Instead of keeping his daughter away from Romeo, without even realizing, he's actually helping her fall in love with him even more. Lord Capulet has already arranged Juliet's wedding with Paris. Everything is perfect, a big wedding to come, a happy-wealthy life, however Juliet is not interested in Paris. Even before Romeo's arrival the love between Juliet and Paris was very hard to see, and than when Romeo had come into the picture, Juliet was so eager to be with him and the relationship between her and Paris was fully gone and missing. After spending only several days with Romeo, Juliet had understood that Romeo was the man of her dreams, so she decided to come out to her father. In act 3 scene 5 lines 151-153 "Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate, But thankful even for hate that is meant love. " Juliet isn't being grateful of marrying Paris, so she decides to open up to her father. However, Lord Capulet doesn't want to hear such thing and in lines 166-171 " Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what; get thee to church o' Thursday, Or never after look me in the face. Speak not; reply not; do not answer me. My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce though us blessed." Lord Capulet obviously disagrees with Juliet's beliefs and wants her to only marry Paris. Even though, Juliet doesn't want to herself, that doesn't concern her father. The fact that Lord Capulet has made his daughter marry someone she doesn't please of, has made her even want to be with Romeo more. The thought of not being together is what later on caused Juliet to drink the vile, so she can fake her death and run away with her beloved Romeo. Not having her father's approval to not marry Paris, has only aggravated
 Juliet even more, and has made her love for Romeo and her want to be with him and only him a lot stronger.

                   Another character who has meant to bring hate to the Montagues, and destroy the love of romeo and Juliet is Tybalt. During the party scene Act 1 Scene 5, Tybalt complains about Romeo being invited to the party. Lines 61-67: "This, by the voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier boy. What, dares the slave come hither covered with an antic face to fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin." Tybalt very much hates any one who belongs to the Montagues, and wants each and every one to vanish. However, in Tybalt's case, it's not his hate for the Montagues that draws Juliet and Romeo closer, it's the fact that he dies. In Act 3, after Tybalt kills Mercutio in what was supposed to be a :play fight", Romeo loses it. Romeo is tired of being treated like a worthless human being, and having the ones dearest to him killed. Instead of talking it out with Tybalt, Romeo chases after him to kill him, and make him feel the pain he had done to Mercutio. Romeo accomplishes his task, and does kill Tybalt. When Tybalt's body has been found, it has been agreed that to serve the punishment Romeo deserves, he shall be banished. When Juliet hears about all that has occurred, she breaks into this "depressed stage". While everyone thinks Juliet cries a lot because her "favorite" uncle Tybalt had died, she actually cries for the sake of Romeo. She was praying, Romeo would be safe, and even though she couldn't believe Romeo had actually killed Tybalt she was too much in love with him to stay mad and be concerned. When Juliet has heard of Romeo's banishment, this is when Friar Lawrence and Juliet plan Juliet's fake death in order to have her and Rome be free, and for Romeo not to serve any punishment. In order to be together without feeling scared of someone stopping them, their only option is to run away. Tybalt's death had brought Romeo and Juliet closer, because now the only way for them to be together is to run away, and both are up for that because the love they share for each other is irresistible.

              Friar Lawrence tried to help Romeo and Juliet find their future together. As apart from Lord Capulet and Tybalt, Friar Lawrence was there to help. He wanted the two lovers to be able to stay together forever, without the need of feeling scared. In Act 2 scene 6 lines 35-37 " Come, come with me, and we will make short work, For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.  Friar Lawrence helped marry Rome and Juliet. However, the Friar wasn't too sure about marrying the couple because Rome had just got over Rosaline, but the Friar Lawrence went ahead and still did it because he thought their marriage may end the feud between the two-family's. Having Juliet married has brought the two closer, because now the thought of having Paris as her "future" husband was gone. She wanted to be with Romeo, and only Romeo. In act 4 scene 1, Juliet confesses to Paris that she doesn't love him, and instead loves another man. In line 26 Juliet says "I will confess to you that I love him". As soon as Juliet had met Romeo, she knew Paris was not meant to be her future husband, instead it was Romeo who she wanted to marry. And with he help of Friar Lawrence, Juliet accomplished that.

         Juliet's and Romeo's relationship faced many consequences, but throughout all the drama all the hate and love helped improve their relationship. Lord Capulet's want for Juliet to marry Paris, Tybalt's death, and Friar Lawrence marrying them all played important roles in the book. All these factors helped contribute to their relationship and make it stronger, even though the majority of people did not approve of Romeo and Juliet.   

           

            For my non-fiction post, I had read an article about a 15 year old girl named Zara hartshorn, who has a very rare ageing disease. Instead of looking like a normal teenage girl, she's mistaken for a 50 year old woman. Her disease only affects fewer than 30 people in Britain, and sadly her mom and her sister have it too. Her and her mother and sister all have lipodystrophy, which is a disease that decays your bones and destroys fatty tissue beneath the surface of the skin, which than causes the quick ageing. Her childhood growing up was very difficult, and it still is due to the way she looks.
She was taken out of school, because of the harassment and the bullying she faced every single day. She was forced off a bus, just because she couldn't prove she was able to get a child's ticket.
 It was impossible for her to get a child's ticket at a cinema, and she would be mistaken for a teacher at school.

          Reading her story made me realize quite a few things. I really loved how even though she was battling with this disease, she kept on fighting. She's had a rough childhood growing up with being called "granny, and baggy face". And if that's not enough, she was born into a family where 2 other members suffer from the same disease she's battling against. And, I really like how she's accepting of herself, just like she says in one of her quotes “I used to wear lots of make-up but now I’m more accepting of myself  some people are worse looking than me.” She cherishes every moment of every day, and I like her positive attitude towards things, and how she really wants to speak out to schools about her condition and the bullying she faced as a child. She's one of those people that actually proves to the world that not everything is about looks, personality plays a big part also.

   I just recently started reading the series of “The Clique Summer Collection” by Lisi Harrison.  And this book is about Claire. Basically, so far in the book Claire moved to Orlando for the entire summer. She got a job, spends time with her friends and her loved ones. However, in less than 4 weeks, she has to move to Westchester so she’s leaving everything behind. Her main goal is to be able to make those entire 4 weeks interesting and fun.

I chose to write about which character’s perspective was missing. And believe it or not, I think the main character; Claire’s perspective isn’t really there for several reasons. One of the reasons is due to Massie the “queen bee “of the pretty committee. No one likes her, she’s just there. One of the reasons the pretty committee even has their high reputation is due to her. She’s the “prettiest” of the group, and she basically controls everyone. For example, Massie sent Claire a list of stores she’s allowed to shop at during the summer, and a list of stores she shouldn’t even get near too. I thought that was just plain stupid, like who are you to tell anyone what they can or can’t do? And what bothers me most, is Claire doesn’t stick up for herself or her friends, she just goes along with it, and actually listens to Massie! Who cares about reputation…. No one should feel being taken advantage of.

                Another example of Claire’s perspective missing is the part about the pageant show. So, her friends wanted to participate in a pageant show during the summer, and Claire had a bad feeling about it. Claire didn’t want to compete with her best friends, because she knew she could put their friendships in jeopardy, She was worried about losing her friends, since many best friends who previously competed in pageant shows had the shows tear their friendships apart. However, instead of Claire actually telling her friends how she really feels about pageants, and how their friendship means so much to her, that she’s not willing to lose it, she keeps to herself. She just says all these thoughts in her mind, and to the reader, but never actually confronts her friends about it.

              Hopefully, as I read on, Claire will begin to open up more, and she will change from this shy being to a very open person.

 

    I have just read “How Do Genetically Modified Foods Affect Your Health” by Rachel Mount. I decided to read this article because in science we are writing an essay about our opinion on genetically modified food, so I thought it would be interesting to make my blog post on this.

     Turns out more than 85% of corn and soy grown in the United States come from seeds whose DNA has been rearranged. This means that more than half of the corn and soy grown isn’t natural instead it goes through being genetically engineered. The process of genetically modifying food allows farmers to produce food with fewer chemicals, which results in a cleaner environment with much cheaper groceries. Genetically modified foods have been out there since 1994, and have been experimented on animals. They can lead to kidney and liver malfunction, and even reduced fertility.

         It may even be that genetically modified foods cause allergies. As genes are transferred between plants, allergenic proteins such as peanuts or wheat will come up in weird places. Researchers are running tests to try to prevent that from happening, because it can harm the health of a person. Even though there are many risks in genetically modified foods, more and more appear each year. However, it is impossible for consumers to tell genetically modified foods from regular foods.

      In my opinion I think genetically modifying our food is great. This article did talk about more of the bad things that result out of genetically modifying your food, however since I’ve read a lot more articles on this topic I’ve found more cons rather than pros. I think have a much cleaner environment is amazing. Since there is a lot of pollution, and littering, we are in very much need of a cleaner environment and genetically modifying food can help us with that. Also producing food with fewer chemicals is very healthy for any human being. And lastly, cheaper groceries can help us save a lot of money.