Non-Textual Reading "Transformers 2"

            On Tuesday night, there was a showing of Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen. A couple of friends and I are pretty big fans, well my friends are die-hards one has a Transformers tattoo, and we loved the first movie. I also want to be a computer animator so anything with CGI in it fascinates me to no end, and those CGI robots…well they are AMAZING! So since we liked the first movie so much we decided to see the midnight showing of it on Tuesday.

            Now like I said I am a huge fan of animation and again this movie had TONS of it, but that was pretty much all of the awesome factor I got from it. Well, and I am not ashamed to say the other reason is Megan Fox… she is pretty hot. The movie overall though had just taken a turn for the worse for me after the first 30 minutes. I mean through the whole middle half of the movie; the only auto-bots focused on were two “gangster” stereotype robots, who had absolutely no reason to be in it except for very cheesy lines, and the humans. I mean the movie is called Transformers not The human kids running around with robots. None of the original bots introduced in the first movie really did anything in this movie, except for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and that was only at the beginning and very end. This was a huge disappointment for me, as well as the random scenes that waste 10 seconds of my life. I mean do I really need to see two little dogs humping each other…TWICE? I don’t even need to see it ONCE.

            I would say this movie would be a 2.5 out of 5 stars, and that is only primarily because of the animation and the cool fighting scenes. Plot was terrible, dialogue was terrible, and the acting was…so-so. Even though I say this I know people are still going to see it, as well as have their own opinions on it, but would I recommend it…no I would say wait until you can RENT it to see it.

Textual Reading "Mortal Instruments"

            Recently I had picked up the first book of the Mortal Instruments series. The first book was called City of Bones. I was mainly attracted to it because Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight, had reviewed it. Her review was plastered all over the cover so I had decided why not and bought it. I am SO glad I did. Right after reading City of Bones, I read City of Ashes and City of Glass.

This series is teen fantasy and is written by a woman named Cassandra Clare. It is based around a race called the “Shadow Hunters” whom are a race of human and angel hybrids. They are the protectors and they hunt the “Downworlders”. The “Downworlders” are basically the Vampires, Faeries, Warlocks, and Demons of the story. But not all the “Downworlders” are bad. Throughout the story you follow the main character Clary, who gets suddenly sucked into the world of the “Shadowhunters” to save her mother. She finds out that she is more than just any normal “mundane”, or human, that she was raised to be, and that her father is the most evil of all.

The thing that I absolutely LOVE about this series is, it keeps you guessing and surprises you around ever corner. Really random things happen out of nowhere, and you never expected it to happen. Its one series that I have ever stopped reading and could almost not go on because it had just suddenly dropped a bomb on me! Since the series is so intense, and keeps you interested I had to keep reading to know what happens! Another thing I loved about this series, is even though I was really into it, I could set it down and not read it for a while without needing to pick it up again as soon as possible. I read it with ease and no rush.

Even if you are not into all the weird fantasy stuff, I still really recommend this series to anyone.

Inside class reading "I know what I am Doing..."

When we first got our assigned readings of short stories, I went right into looking at the story I had chosen. I had picked "I know what I am doing about all the attention I am getting" by Frank Gannon . I saw it and noticed It was only about four pages. Great, I thought, reading these stories are going to be a breeze! HA! After reading mine and made almost NO sense of it, I went to reading the other classmates stories. I realized so far I have gotten the shortest short story yet, and even though it was shorter it was not easier to read and understand. Coming up with at least six questions for the book club was difficult to achieve. When I whipped out ten I was proud of myself. I read that story over five times trying to get it down. Tuesday came and after getting an idea of how things go from the first book club, I figured it was going to be fun to lead conversations. Turns out my story wasn't really enjoyed as much as the others and surprisingly one reason was the length! Even though I only did get three people to come to my table I was actually quite surprised on how much I learned from talking about the story with other people. I really began to understand the story and how much actually made sense! So far I have enjoyed every story read for the book clubs. They have kept my interests, and even though I am not hesitant to say that the story I had gotten isn't a favorite, I am glad I got it and had the chance to lead discussions on it, and I hope the ones who attended my table, felt they had also learned more about the story than what they had by themselves!

Is it me that you REALLY see?

            I admit it. I am a person who judges by the cover. The way something looks on the outside I tend to always think the inside is the same. I realize this all the time, especially with books, I will pick up a book by the title name or the way the cover of it is styled. I have a feeling this really alters the books I read. I also realized the other day it is the way I tend to read people. What they wear, a certain way they walk or even how they talk, I tend to think they even act a certain way. For example the other day walking into class, there was a woman walking just a few steps ahead of me, and at the same time there was a young man walking a few steps to the side of her. Now both of these people I noted did not seem like the type that would care too much about anything other then them. The way they dressed in that…”cocky” sort of way. They looked good and they knew it. As I acknowledged this to myself I noticed a piece of garbage scurrying across the ground like it was in a hurry to get to class along with everyone else. The young man stepped right over it without a second glance and I thought of course. Walking up onto that pesky liter myself, I figured might as well grab it and throw it away. Right at that moment the woman with the heels and blonde hair went after it. I was holding back an urge to giggle a bit as she sort of stumbled a couple times as it slipped past her grasp. The garbage seemed to want to play a game of “catch me if you can”. Once she grabbed the stubborn garbage, I suddenly remembered about all the stories this last couple of weeks we had to read, and how many of them dealt with reading people by their outside appearance. “Nipple Jesus” really came to my mind, as well as my short story “I Know What I am doing about All the Attention I am getting.” The woman threw that stubborn garbage in the closest can, and at that moment I suddenly regretted judging her. It’s not like I enjoy my judging from outside appearances, but when I think about it, isn’t it the way almost everyone has been raised? I also realize how much this reading or judging has been keeping me away from things I may actually quite enjoy. So I say “nonsense with this judging and reading things by the outside”, the next time I’m trying to decide what book I would like to read I will just pick up a book and not care about the cover. The same goes with people, if I see that person in the nice, expensive, fancy clothing and think that I really shouldn’t talk to them, they are just stuck up, I am going to shake that thought from my head and approach them without a second thought. Reading things from its cover, will get you nowhere near the truth of the actual qualities and possibilities a certain object could hold.

Extreme Makeover TV show.

It was really hard to try and figure out what I was going to post for my second Blog. I got to thinking about what I could write about and I remembered the show Extreme Makeover. Even though this show has ended and no longer airs new episodes, the show is still interesting and entertaining in its own way. First off whenever I watch this I get the same emotions. I always am touched by the affect this show has on people’s lives. Today’s random episode that was on was a couple who had a big age difference but were still madly in love. They both had their own flaws and yet they loved each other no matter what, but not loving themselves was taking a toll. They got on the show Extreme Makeover to change that and the show did just that and more. EM actually gave them also a dream Disney wedding! Even though I have a sense of happiness for the people who go on this show and have their lives changed forever, I also have a sense of sadness for them. Every person on this Earth has their own flaws, whether it’s looks or other reasons. It makes me sad seeing a person going through all this pain just to “look good”. Even so, while I watch this show, it is like I do feel their pain of not loving themselves, and Extreme Makeover really does go all the way with creating a sense of sympathy for the person getting the makeover. Overall this show really is successful in making the viewer, especially an emotional one like me, to have a mix of emotions that correspond with the person actually on the show.

Literature Assignment 1 (Intro)

            In a way I am quiet surprised the many similar concepts that Literature has with films! Both use concepts as flat characters and round characters, use a sense of dynamic structures, plots, themes, as well as many other terms thatrelate to film. I am so glad I had that film class last semester! PHEW! Reading the intro to fiction within the Literature 110 book, was surprisingly interesting and quite informative. There were so many things that the author informed me on with literature that I would have never really began to really think about. Such as all the different types of short stories and novels there are, as well as their developments throughout the world and time. Folk tales, Animal Fables, legends, Folk Epics are just a few examples, and there were even more different types listed. Even riddles and jokes, I would never have thought to put those in with short stories and novels! Thanks to many of these things I listed helped shaped what many people read on a daily basis today. I as also surprised to learn the word novel deriving from the Italian word Novella. Even though this was all interesting to me to learn I, it was still somewhat difficult to get into the whole thing. Some words were confusing but I do love how Gwynn inserted many examples and well-known names to explain Literature, especially at the beginning. For an educational book about Literature I’m actually quiet surprised on how much I got from just the introduction!