The Eleventh Plague, Stanley Suter (The Poem Version)

Prompt: Two Voice Poem.

Stephen Jenny

“You don’t have to leave.”

“I do, I can’t stay here and live 

                                                                  my dream at the same time.”

“We can find a way!”

“I’ll come back, this is my home 

                                                                 and always will be.”

“What if something happens?

What am I supposed to do then?”

“Even if something happened,

                                                                 you could live without me, you did before.”

“Those weren’t happy times.”

“I can’t, you know I don’t fit in,

                                                                 you want to make me stay here? 
                                                                 Were I’m not happy?”

“It would be better.”

“Stop.”

“Who do I have? Dad’s in a coma, 

you’re leaving too?”

“I will be back, I cannot continue living like this.”

"What will you do if something
happens to me?"

                                                                   "We both know that's not happening, you have people here."

"And you don't, what then?

                                                                    "I can handle myself."

"Is that what you call setting the
barn on fire? Handling?

                                                                    "I need to do this."





"Please"                                                  "Please"

"Where I'm From" by:Stanley Suter

"Scat", Pages 0-21 Stanley Suter

Prompt - Describe the setting's time and place. Then create a new setting that better fits the story.

        For the past couple of days I have been reading "Scat" and its really good so far. It starts with two kids in a class room (private school) with the least liked teacher in the school. Their both scared their going to be called on, but she fakes it and calls on the bully of the grade. He stalls for about five minutes until the teacher forces him to write a 500 word essay. She points the pencil threateningly at him and he eats half of it. She flips out and he leaves. Right now the headmaster is trying to talk to his father, a perfect replica of his son, just bigger.

        A better place for the story would be in either a public school or a school for criminals. I think that the bully is so out of place at a private school, likely costing thousands and thousands of dollars. He lives in a poor neighborhood, he dad went to jail, and he has problems with many of the other kids and teachers. If he was in a public school he would not be as out of place, trouble maker, not super rich. He would fit in even better if it was a school for criminals because he was kicked out of elementary school for biting his gym teachers pinkie off.

        The better time place for this story would be in the 40's or 50's because they had much more tolerence for physical behavior like that. Also, they wouldn't worry about taking it up with the parents, they would just spank the child with a paddle. Eating a pencil wasn't as serious even if they had actual lead in them, so the headmaster wouldn't even have to notify the parents of the child about his or her mistakes and wrong choices.  The time period would also allow different problems with the teacher and their studies. Much more room for comedy and more could be done with the situation while still keeping it real, unlike the real time setting.

PLEASE VOTE ON THE POLL

"I Funny", Pages 0-258, Soiler alert. HEHEHE

*Prompt*- Do any of the characters feelings change through out the story? Explain why or why not.

      This week I have been reading "I Funny" and I really like it. It is about this boy who is crippled from a young age but still likes to make jokes. He starts out as a loser but makes his way up to the top when he enters a competition for stand up commedians. Of course he wins and makes it to the next rounds of the competition, while also improving on his social life. The irony of it all is that he is a "stand up" comedian and yet he can't stand up. Right now he is talking to this weird foreign kid who says that the only reason he got to this point is from pity votes, not talent. But of course, because this boy has such low self esteem he believes him and he is very doubtful. His chances don't look good.

        The main character's feelings change very rapidly. Jamie starts with very low self-esteem, gets bullied, and lives in a garage. Then his uncle tells him to join the competition afetr about half an hour of non-stop joking. He lets his uncle know he isn't doing it, then does it, and wins. He then is happy, his whole life was turning around. He wasn't bullied anymore, had more good friends, and just seemed much more happier. He even got some girl's attention. That became his downfall. They where sitting on a bench looking at the stars when she asks him something very personal, she asked him how he went to the bathroom. Of course, that was right before the competition and he ended up bashing her in a line of jokes. He was low yet again.

        The other character that I would like to explaint the feelings of is "cool girl" (that's really her name in the book). She is a very popular girl who happens to have caught the attention of this jokester. She always had a very high self esteem until out of the blue she had to ask Jamie how he went to the bathroom if he couldn't stand up. Then when he bashed her in front of hundreds of people and won, well she was done with him. She wouldn't talk to Jamie for almost two weeks, then he got thrown over a 10 foot drop and broke his ribs. The bullies where after him again. He apologized and they made up as usual, and on that note i'm done.

TAKE THE POLL-Top Right Hand Side of the Blog.

       

"Unstoppable" SPOILER ALRT. Stanley Suter

*Prompt*- Explain how you have been surprised by what your reading.

        This week I finished the book Unstoppable by Tim Green and I both liked and disliked it. It was a very good story, a superstar foster child, Harrison, is forced to work and ends up accidentally killing his "dad". He was beaten non-stopped until he was saved and transfered to a much nicer family. They don't make him work and let him play football, his life dream. Then one day he is hit in the knee with a helmet and can't do anything without being bothered. Harrison is taken to a hospital and is thought only to have a small tear in the cartilage in his knee. However when they take the MRI he is found to have bone cancer. Finally he goes into surgery to get the tumor removed and when he wakes up he can't find his leg, its gone.

        I was surprised at how he acted, saying that his parents didn't have to keep him if he couldn't play. He acted as though they wouldn't keep him even though he should have known, they where such nice people and obviously loved him so much they wouldn't give him away! They took him in and wanted him to call them mom and dad but yet I think he had this feeling that he wasn't family and was expendable. This also raises the thought that he didn't think he was like family because he worried he would be given away if he did anything wrong.


        I also think that it was surprising how they would take his leg off without asking him first. He could decide wether he wanted to be legless or maybe somehow find another way he could live. I would feel like they totally disregarded my thoughts on the matter. To take off my leg when all I thought was happening in the operation to take out a healable part . Then, what made me really angry was the part where they couldn't find the medicine to help push away the sickness and make him feel much less nauseous. He was in total pain for about two weeks before he was able to go home. To take off my leg and not be able to supply comfort is just, well cruel.

The Son of Neptune 0-425

 *Prompt*- Does the title fit the story? Why or why not?



       This week I have been reading "The son of Neptune" and I really like it. It is a sequel series to the Percy Jackson books. I'm at the part where Percy, Hazel, and Frank are about to go into battle with the giants. Percy had forgotten his memory ever since he met lupa the wolf who was working for the god Juno/Hera. He lost the gift of achillies when he walked into camp through the romans sacred river, the Tiber. Now after having a friendly meet and capture with the Amazon women, they have accumulated the fastest living creature in the universe (also usable on water). He only knows that he had a cyclops brother, and a girl friend named Annabeth but ever since drinking gorgons blood (anti-dote) he is slowly regaining his memory.

        The title does not fit the story because (assuming Rick Riordan is talking about Percy) Percy is Greek, not Roman. In Greece Neptune would be considered Poseidon. How ever it is also reviled in the book that Frank was the son of the sea god. Even if this was that case, I don't agree with the title. Frank had none of the powers that the sea god had. He had archery, Apollo, and his family gift is that he "could be what ever he wanted to be".  The final meaning for that is that their might be another sea god at one of the camps, like tyson, only smaller and with two eyes.

        The title does however fit the story in other ways. The prophecy that Ella knew said "The Son of Neptune will drown..." and percy thought he would drown in Alaska. Another way the title fits the story is that after Percy woke up he was attacked and found the Roman base. Their version of Poseidon, the sea god, was Neptune. The final way that I can think of where the title fits the story is when it is revealed that frank is Percy's like great-great-great-great... uncle, or family member. That means frank is partially related to the sea god. And because he is Roman, he happens to be related to Neptune. I think its safe to say I just blew your mind.

Don't forget to take the poll at the top right hand side of the Blog.

The Story of my Dramatic, Fear Infested Life. By: Brad "Bam" Bamford - As seen in The Dead

            "There not zombies, just - diseased."


     It all started with the video. It has been two weeks since the disease struck, and right now, I feel I am our only hope. We are running out of food and our shelter is faltering. The mothers and fathers have taken down our barricades and our system of “lock” isn’t helping us much. Two of our best men almost died because we couldn’t get the 200 pound wardrobe out of the way in time. Then there is the crew. We have the fashion king, the wimp, Wikipedia, and Jack. As I was saying before, just before the disease struck a video showed up on Youtube. It had a little boy on a    video camera screaming and crying, saying that the "mothers and fathers" had taken Sammy, and now they had come back for him. Now we didn't think too much of it at the time, but no kid is that great of an actor, and just after that it became most watched ever on Youtube. Then the video was taken down, then Youtube, finally the internet. Thats when we found out something was really going wrong. And this is where I had to end up, with our world practically falling apart!

          So now, as we just set off because of lack of food we were attacked, our group cut in half and were picked up by a man who should be sick, and his little kid. They said that they where going to their own little family place and that we where not welcome. A giant fight broke out and we all rested - well restlessly. In the morning it turned out he was sick and we barely got away to the museum of WWII, got me a nice spiked club and armor, where told we wheren't welcome again. The good news, I happened to lead our group into a couple of other kids. Immediately after we set off, we reached a supermarket and found a truck full of food. When the other boys saw the body, well you can just guess who had to get him out. So I climbed in, opened the door, kicked him out, then hurled. It also happens I  became leader for my "heroic" actions and am now the representative for my group, no being let back into the museum. One of the people that we picked up, the girl, is pretty suspicious. She wouldn't eat any of the food I gave her and she denies telling where she came from.

        I just shot Jack. Of course, it was all due to my awesome "leadership skills". We were heading to jacks house so that he could complete unfinished business. So, we see about 200 army vehicles next to a cricket stadium and im struck with genius. Why not get guns and supplies to make this trip even easier? I send Ed to get the medical supplies and pistols while we find the food and better weapons. I guess curiosity just sparked that the whole army was parked outside of a sports stadium. We walk in to find it filled with people, only they where not alive. In the base of the stadium, there was what looked like a halfed finished construction site. only not for building, but bombs for destroying. We ran as fast as we could back toward the exit we hear the moans of the sick. We had only one option as others rose, go towards the base. As another stroke of genius hit me. Shoot the bomb. The whole stadium collapsed with myself in a pocket of darkness. I heard footsteps and shot. Only my target was Jack. He seems ok other than the heavy bleeding in his side. We have to keep moving.

        We are leaving the museum to get away from the fire eating at north london. The main bridge had bottle-necked and was shaking because of the weight on top of it. As soon as we where over half-way across the bridge the great mass of kids was pushed forwards. So I sent half of the muscle down toward the mouth of the bridge and the other to clear the front where a fight had broken out. A gunshot sounded and we were allowed down the bridge, closely being followed by the sick. I had to get out of the truck. I ran back to fight the diseased, letting all the anger I possesed from the world on the people who ruined it. They quickly overwhelmed us. We had to use our remaining strength to get down toward the docks.  We boarded the ship as fast a possible and immediatly left. No one knowing how to steer, we had the fear of washing out to sea. The crash solved that problem. We hit a pillar and boarded the lifeboats, giving us a bit more controll. Intell we finally hit land, right next to the Tower of London. We decided to stay there because it was fit in all ways. Easily defendable, big, had weapons, and new recruits. 

 Other sites -
 Sidebar
 The Scared Kid

Sources - 
www.terminally-incoherent.com
commons.wikimedia.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM9aEtVEIWA