Dove Arising

This week I read Dove Arising by Karen Bao. This book was about a girl name Phaet Theta, who has lived her whole entire life on a colony on the moon. She has a pretty normal life for living on the moon-she cultivates the plants in the greenhouse and pretty much tries to stay out of everyone's way. That is, until her mother gets arrested. She then has to save her siblings, the only way being enlisting in the brutal training of the Militia, like the moon-military but kind of evil. :)
This book was really amazing. I loved the descriptions in it, the action, and all the characters.
I would recommend this book to everyone it our class.
WARNING AWESOME CLIFFHANGER!!!

Polynesian Fire Show

After dancing and getting photographed by Max, we make our way out from under the glow of the streetlights outside and the humid air to large indoor amphitheater. I look at the small black printed numbers on my ticket and make my way to the seat, stepping around others' legs. Sofie soon comes and joins me, and we wait for the lights to dim in the outdoor auditorium and a man in an aloha wear shirt comes out onto the stage. He announces the story, about the birth of some Hawaiian person in a Hawaiian legend, which sounds very interesting in some cases, but over the next hour and a half, I almost fall asleep.  My head is almost on Sofie's shoulder, falling asleep, when the lights dim and out comes a guy, announcing the Polynesian Fire Show. The next hour is a blur of screaming. It was amazing. My voice was hoarse the next day.

Under a Painted Sky

This week I read Under a Painted Sky by Stacy Lee. This book was really amazing, and I would honestly recommend it to the whole class. Samantha, living in Missouri around the middle of the 19th century, has one wish, and that is to be a musician in New York. That is a big deal for her at the time period, considering that she is a girl and also Chinese. I don't want to give anything away, but Samantha and a few others suddenly are forced to leave Missouri and run on the Oregon trail, destroying any chance of completing Samantha's wish and leaves them trying to stay alive. This book is amazing, I couldn't put it down, and really well written with really vivid characters. Overall, this was a really amazing book.

Replica

This week I read Replica by Jenna Black. This book was about a girl, who is 16, named Nadia Lake who had a prearranged marriage with the son of the wealthiest family in basically the whole entire country that she lived in. Even though she is under the spotlight of the public constantly, she doesn't really have a problem with that. Now her only problem is staying out of trouble for her to be old enough that they can go through with the marriage-until, or course, Nathaniel, her fiancé, gets killed. Then her and Nate, or at least the "replica" of him, his carbon copy made after he got killed, have to figure out exactly who killed him. This was a really good book, and kinda a mix of a realistic fiction book, science fiction, and mystery. I liked all the characters reasonably well too. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Logan Map Poems

Wrote by the window in what used to by Ryan's/Now Dan's Class:
It's a Haiku thingy that doesn't actually fit the rules of a haiku.

The rain drums against
Cold Glass windowpanes
Eyes Watch
Brown Hazel Blue.

This one was written outside of the gym, on the sidewalk:

Running
Tripping
Falling
Screaming
Burning on your cheek
You get up

3 years later
Skipping
Chattering
Nervous Energy
People Holding the Door for you
Shoes Scraping Cement

7 years later
Walking
Taller
Feet Skimming the ground
Smiles
Phones
Names Called
The world outside

8 years later
Running
Tripping
Falling
Screaming
Burning on your cheek
Pain
Laughter
A hand
Friends help you back up

Limericks

There once was a cat named Matt
He fell off the roof with a splat
Someone got it on tape
And now up to today
It 's gone viral on the internet

Logan the School allows me
To do whatever I please
But one sad day
My fingers exploded away
And Logan was gone along with me

I wrote this poem last year:


There once was a guy named Will
He liked Guacamole not dill
He won The Voice
America's Choice
And I'll be Talking about it Still.

Free Verse Poem

Five Little Faces
Crowd around the window
Lighting up their brilliant smiles just to see their breath reflected on the frosty glass.

Inside it's warm
Outside it's cold
The dormant ground blanketed by hills of silent snow
Whispering it to sleep

Five little faces
Crowd around the window
Little cold hands wrapped around steaming mugs of hot chocolate

Five little faces
Crowd around the door
Waiting to be let out into the cold.

Kim

This week I read Kim by Rudyard Kipling. This book was just a random book that I picked off of my family's bookshelf, and turned out actually to be very entertaining at the least. This book was about an orphan in late 19th-Century India named Kim. He made a living, or at least survived, by begging and running little errands on the main street of his town in India. The descriptions in the book were especially vivid, and that is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much. I loved the descriptions in this book and would totally recommend it to most people in our class.

Occasional Poem

Two ships
White and black
Pull up side by side
One fighting for war
And one fighting for peace

The flags wave
The whistles blow
Masking the fact that it's
Just war
After all
More people dying
More lives lost
Just this time in an iron tomb
Instead of being laid to rest on the ocean floor

And then the cannons start
The blasting of metal hitting metal
The screams and tears
The flags stop waving
The whistles stop blowing
And the crowds stop cheering
To witness
What has been laid there before them

Have we made a mistake?
Have we doomed ourselves and our children and grandchildren by doing this?
It seemed so simple
Just an advancement
Advancement comes with a cost
Just one more human life
One out of billions

One ship pulls away
Victorious
But are they really?
One more human falls.

Ode to Crestmoor

This is my Ode to Crestmoor
And all the Little Things
That make it
Special.

The creak of the metal gate on the way in
It sounds a lot scarier then it looks
And the red dirt coating the patio.
Fresh dew cold on the grass when it's early
The shock of a cold pool first thing in the morning.
Sizzle of Pancake Breakfast
red white and blue frosting licked off noses and cupcakes on the forth of July
Suffering bruises from the insane greased watermelon contest
The heat of competition
The cold of long nights spent out under the pavilion in the rain.

But Most of all my friends
They are there when I walk in in the morning through the gate
Their flip-flops imprinted in the dirt outside
We run our feet through the cold wet dew while sitting on a towel
and push each other into the pool first thing in the morning.
We smile and laugh and help each other to five servings of pancakes
We smear frosting on our noses at the fourth of July
And never have to worry about who's your friend
And who's not
You can notice it in a smile
In the way they cheer for you at the end of the pool while your swimming your races
And even the patriotic frosting
Smeared across your nose

Crestmoor makes me notice the little things and that
Is what makes
It Special.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

This week I read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. This book was AMAZING but really dark and depressing a least for me, so don't read it if you can't handle it. This book was about a kid in high school named (guess what?) Leonard Peacock who has a plan to commit suicide after he kills his best friend, happening by the end of the day. Leonard has different gifts that he has given out to his friends to help them know that it is not there fault that he will kill himself. This book was amazing. I really actually cared about the characters, especially Leonard Peacock. This book was also dark, worrying, and had a lot of mature topics, so don't read it if you are not up for that. Overall, this was a great book, but one of the darkest/scariest/scary because it's a kid going through something that is relatable because he's a kid in an American high school-type book. It's a really great book though, and I'd recommend it to anyone who thinks that they can handle it.

Haikus

Spring:
A breeze blows across
the grass and takes away the dark
As we welcome Spring.

Summer:
Summer to me is
Ice cream and hot and chlorine
And nights with the same

Songwriting:
Writing a haiku
Is just like writing a song
But to me less real

Cats:
My cat stands up, blinks.
A long pink tongue comes curling
then out of his mouth

Spanish: SOL

This morning I had Spanish, which can either be one of the highlights or one of the worst parts of my school day. On one hand, you have to get up early and go to Spanish, where your mind might not be fully awake and you have to take notes on a new verb tense and you don't get it and everyone else does, and it sucks. On the other hand, it could totally be the highlight of the day, like today, because you never know what's going to happen. Today I walked in and Nikki told us to each write down on five or six notecards famous people or fictional characters that everybody knows about. My notecards consisted of Adam Levine, Jennifer Lawrence, Lady Gaga, Olaf from Frozen, Madonna and Peyton Manning. We played charades for the next hour, which rocked. I love Spanish because it's like learning a secret code in some ways, but also allows you to communicate with people and understand more different cultures wherever you go.
Do you guys take any languages, and if you could take any, what would it be. Comment your answers...

The Kill Order

This week I read The Kill Order by James Dashner. This book is the prequel to The Maze Runner, which I read a while ago. This book mainly follows a guy named Mark, who is pretty much the main character, and his girlfriend as they try to escape and survive the solar flares that left the world devastated. He meets up with a bunch of really strange people and escapes. Eventually, they escape but are again threatened by The Flare, a disease that could take over the world. Mark and his friends have to escape and hopefully find a cure for the Flare.
This book was fun to read, especially if you've read the Maze Runner, it ties in pretty well but doesn't really have an surprises or plot twists related to that or any really at all, depending on whether you've read it or not. This book was fun, but only if you want something mindless to read.
My TBR list is separate then this, but it is on my blog if you're looking for it. :)

Waves- SOL 3/30

I bob up and down in the dark blue waves, looking across the water. There's a breeze, blowing against the water, sending sharp, stinging droplets of saltwater through the air in to my eyes and streaming down my face.  To my right is a bunch of boats, mostly sailboat, a small cliff guarded by a bunch of dark brown rocks and sloshing sea foam and waves slamming against then, and a small beach with a row of perfectly manicured palm trees, my hotel. The smoothie shack lies on the hot sand in front of the Koi pone, and the long path leads back to the condos and hotel with the big, wide windows and perfect yards. It's so different from the ocean, I think. The ocean is beautiful in a different way then the hotel and gardens and palm trees. The hotel seems so taken care of, pretty but not wild, perfect. The ocean is perfect too, but you know that it's not under the control of any human- it could turn wild at any moment. I lose my awareness for one second, thinking random stuff like this and I get doused by a wave. I choke on the water, I look out at the dark water again and think how lucky I am to be here, among the waves.

Travel SOL 3/31

Right now I'm sitting at the airport, writing this last slice of the Slice of Life March Challenge (woohoo)! I'm going to the grand canyon, where I get to hike down it, camp, and back up in three days. It's kinda going to be like backpacking. After that, we get to go to Las Vegas and see shows and stuff like that, including the Bellaggio fountains. We also get to stay in the Mandalay Bay hotel, which is themed to have a shark tank, waterfalls, and a super-cool pool. I think that traveling is super important because it exposes you to cultures outside of your own, as well as different people, and helps you understand and see the beauty in different cultures and try new things. I also actually like long airplane rides-they're kind of fun, especially when you have a friend to talk to or free wifi, or the TVs that come down from the ceiling.
Happy End of SOL everybody!

Music-SOL 3/29/15

Music is really important to a lot of people, and it is definitely really important to me. I love to listen to it, play it, and write it. Music is really something that I love to do. I think that it's kinda cool how big of an effect music can have. Music can change the world where war can't, or can describe the effect of the war afterwards. Because this can happen when a bunch of really influential people, with fanbases all over the world, that also happen to be really good at making music, come together to do something. And put it in action, especially through something that they are very good at and can connect to so many people,  a lot of things can happen. Each separate person connects to music in their own different way, and we often hear people saying that music saved their life. But why? I mean, it's just bunch of sounds mixed together, right?

Outside-SOL 3/28/15

Today (yesterday, by the time you guys are all reading this) we got to go outside after school and play soccer. It wasn't that big of a deal-most people crowded around the goal and some of the better at soccer people and people who just wanted to play dribbled out and shot on the goal. People were nice though, so it was fun. People also walked around the track, sat on the bleachers, and threw a frisbee. However it was just nice to be outside, and being active. I was wearing a sweatshirt, boots, and skinny jeans so it got so hot. The grass was green and it was really warm out, so it was just nice to be doing something outside. It made me excited for summer.
Sorry for the short post :)
HAPPY BREAK EVERYONE!

Season Part Two: SOL 3/27

Winter: The Voice, heat of inside a room, defrosting, thawing, red hands and nose, snow, ice crystals, sledding, hot chocolate, long afternoons, busy, snow, night, parties, out late, restaurants, pavilions, out for dinner, music, smiles, snow stomped in from outside, Pink Converse, boots, laughter, heat, soups and bread, Mini Wheats, school, my cold breath freezing in the air, hairstyles, laughter at school, surprises, screams of joy, snow, friends, Christmas, break, snow, Festival of Lights, classmates, fun, Basketball, bus rides, holiday walk, AS Breakfast, laughter, surprises, nice clothes, our car in the snow, good smells, warmth of streetlights, downtown, bright lights, coats, gloves, laughter, Maroon 5, jokes, silliness, invitations, RSVP, smiles, comfortable, NBC, 2015, excited, people, Lucky Strike, gold, Christmas Eve, food, loud voices, music in car rides, the color red, our cars, cookies, the Pepsi Center, everything, The Voice, wandering around by ourselves, movies, skiing, presents, the color white, mac n' cheese, home alone, Avs, Nuggets, cold, shiny floors, warm, home, new TV Shows, Commercials, comfortable, Carbondale, our cats, fish, Boo shaking off after being out in the snow, water droplets, cold ears, biting wind, neck-warmers, on top of Snowmass, sleepovers, Snowmass, cake, did I say The Voice, Chopped, new snow, fresh powder, racing my dad, lunch, Sam's Smokehouse, warm smells, Spaghetti and Meat Sauce in the mountains, all this and more, concrete floors, soaring beams,  after swimming, sunlight in the snow, laughter, screaming, singing loudly, dancing down the hallways, Sam's Smokehouse hot chocolate, late nights, bright lights, dreams, people, dinner, smiles, trips, my favorite season.

Spring: Earth, snow, thawing, suitcases, breaks, family, the color blue, the color green, grass, packing up, Washington DC, texting friends, Croissants, airports, Caribou Coffee, ends and beginnings, stories, reading books, Nooks, beaches, running, humidity, diving, brother, skirts, casual dresses, warmth, sitting outside, dry, smells, bonding, spring trip, Elitches, adrenaline, exhilaration, out-of -school good friends, flowers, packing up, friends, airports, groups, shopping, time of our lives, fun, guitar lessons, airplanes, journaling, drawing, locations, no sleep, cool experiences, camping, fruit pies, hotels, tents, mornings, fun, everything will be alright, Math Appreciation day, joy, woohoo, roller coasters, bumper cars, cold windowpanes, warm windowpanes, music, summer songs, playlist, piano lesson, guitar lesson, unfamiliar and familiar faces, smells, rain, whipping cream, chocolate sauce, Easter, mashed potatoes and gravy, malted milk balls, friends, gelato, T-Shirts, happiness, preparing for summer, end of school, shaving cream fights, water balloons, saying goodbye, happily going home, piano, recording, last day of school, pounding feet on the bleachers, screaming and cheering, disregarding, smells like spring, warming up, Avril Lavigne, small sun, happiness, friends.

Seasons Part #1: 3/26

Summer: Hot, dry, swimming at the pool, no school, early mornings, Panera, sunbathing, swim team, sunscreen, warmth, sunburns, tanning, hot plastic straps of lounge chairs, Crestmoor, more Crestmoor, early mornings for swim team, birds chirping, walking the dog, sunlight filtering through my window, meeting up with friends, shopping, vacations, Europe, swimming with friends, Home Depot with my dad, making our garden, riding bikes, sunlight, early lunches, Parkburger, tomatoes, reading, relaxing, trampolines, outside, warm sun on my face, late at night at Crestmoor, events at Crestmoor, staying in touch with friends, texting, Instagram, hot pool decks, summer teammates and friends, cheering, Grandparents, runway walk, swimming, winning, tired, goals set for the end of the season, early pancake breakfasts with my friends at Crestmoor, smiles, laughter, ribbons and medals, swimsuits, swimsuit tans, fire trucks, forth of July at Crestmoor, more friends, friends at party, Crickets at night, burning power lines, watermelon, fireworks on the fourth of July, warm pool decks, towels, skateboarding, lying on warm pool decks, Trader Joe's, Crestmoor Park, Parkburger, running with the dog,  camps, relaxing, bored, museums, parties, shorts, T-Shirts, hairstyles, chlorine, Ice Cream, Lowry, Converse, warmth, songwriting, friends.

Fall: Trees, falling leaves, Aspen, fancy restaurants, extended family, Thanksgiving, warmth, snow, cold, good food, laughter, candlelight, school shadowing, first day of school, fading sunshine, sleepovers, Halloween, sticky fake blood, candy costumes, out late, meeting new people, new teachers, pumpkins, carving, The Voice, family friends, cards, my brother's video games, Piano Lessons, adults, Lowry Beer Gardens, shopping, pumpkin spice latte, warmth, computers, math, sports, birthdays, skeleton trees, bees, dreams, smiles, Starbucks, AS Play, leaves fall, making new friends, swimming, running, walking the dog, Uggs, jackets, chill, garden-picking, landscapes, dogs, apple-picking, hiking, warm glow, hiking boots, trips, long weekends, family.

The Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck Book Blog(SOL 3/24/15)

This book is about a 17-year-old named Kelsey who gets a summer job working at a circus, where she meets a tiger named Dhiren. Soon, she and Dhiren get scooped up and go to India, where she discovers the Dhiren is actually a man put under a curse. Together, they meet Dhiren's brother Kishan and go on a quest to try to break the curse.
This book sounds weird, but I was actually surprised by how good it was. It was kind of a mix of realistic fiction, adventure, and fantasy. I also got really attached to the characters. Like, REALLY attached. The chemistry between the characters was also really good, and I can't pick a favorite character because of that.
If you don't usually read fantasy or adventure books, this would be a really good one to try. Also if you usually read both fantasy or realistic fiction books, or want to get REALLY attached to characters,
this would be a very good one to try. :)

Songwriting-SOL #25

Some of you guys might know that songwriting is actually something that I REALLY love to do. I love music, and it's basically just storytelling in a song. I can make the song sound like anything I want to, and reflect what I feel. I also want to compile a bunch of my songs and send them out to a record label in the form of a demo CD, which would be super cool. I just have to find out a way to do this, which is kinda hard, because it's not like I can get great quality recording equipment anywhere, which I can't, but if I get an OK mic-attaching mic, which I just bought myself (Woohoo!) I can attach it to a computer and edit it on there. Then I just have to do this to a couple, burn it to a CD, and go around giving it to everyone in the whole entire world that will listen to me. I try to write a song at least once a week, but that doesn't always work out. But I try, because it's cool to see me get better and I want to, as well as I've spent SO much time on it that I can't just give up now (not that I'd want to). It's also cool to have something to do in my head when I'm bored, figuring out melodies and harmonies and chords with different pitches in my head, as well as lyrics. On the Solo on the fall trip I wrote like 10 songs and wrote down the lyrics, but then promptly forgot the tunes to all of them. Oh well. They weren't very good anyways and I probably just helped me get better :).

There are a couple of ways to write a song, the first one being the melody first, which a lot of people normally do (including me!). This involves creating the melody and main idea of the song first, and then fitting lyrics and chords to it. The other two ways are chords first, where you put down a chord pattern or background first and then put on a melody corresponding to the lyrics, and then the lyrics-first method, where you can just write the lyrics first. I just normally write the melody first, because I think that it allows me the most artistic freedom with the song and it just works better for me. I also like writing lyrics first, but it's more of a challenge and less fun. I don't know where I was going with this, but I hope you guys read it. I was going to write a song for this but I didn't have time. I'll tell you how the demo goes. :)

Banner- Sol March 23

I have been sitting and staring at my continuation banner for such a long time now, and STILL have no idea what to do. For those of you who don't know, outside Logan, all the eighth graders have something called "Continuation", which is basically our version of graduation. Each eighth grader gets to design a banner representing themselves and their time at Logan.  Normally, when I'm doing something creative like this, I have all the ideas in the world, but now I have NO idea what to do. So, I sat down and brainstormed. This is what I came up with.

What represents me:

Bright Colors (especially against a dark background).
Lots of different themes in the banner/make it really busy.
Make it Stand out
Don't plan it first
Flowing Pattern/All Connected/has Big Picture

What do I like to do:
Swimming
Music
Cats
Skiing
Different Sports
Acting
Singing
Playing Piano
Hanging out with friends
Songwriting

What represents my time at Logan:

Campfires
Class Trips
Science Units
Sun
Friends
Learning

Today-SOL 3/21/15

Today was pretty cool, for a couple of reasons. The first is, that I got to see my cousins again for the first time in two years. We had lunch with them, and while they are kind of annoying sometimes, they're still pretty cool. I also got to see my Aunt and Uncle, and they told us all about the place that they moved to (Portland) as well as getting to eat a super cool lunch that was like a big giant feast. My grandparents also came over, I jumped on the trampoline and played wii with my cousins, Logan and Rowan, as well as just talking, and it was fun.
Number two is that after lunch, Jack and I went to the Escape Room with Sam and Amelia Modest, and Amelia brought Sarah Hoffer. We all were locked up in a room with Sam's dad, and had to solve a crime where the granddaughter of a billionaire was captured and taken to a hotel. When the FBI came to try and get her out, the kidnappers took her away and strapped a ticking bomb to her. We had to figure out, using a couple of clues from the room where she was supposedly kidnapped, how to unlock some locks to find the girl and then finally unlock the final door to her and then try to disarm the ticking bomb. We had 45 minutes and got occasional clues. This thing had an 8% success rate with adults, so when we almost solved it, the guy was super impressed and gave us 5 more minutes to solve it, which we did. Even though we failed within the 45-minute time range, it was still super fun and we all felt smart, which is good. :) We WERE so close.
So yeah, it was fun.

Tony the Fish Part Two-SOL 3/20/15

Today, Anthony "Tony" Dinozzo Jr., the Goldfish, got a new home. For those of your who don't know, Tony is a goldfish that Briahn left on my desk two weeks ago, named after my favorite (or one of my favorites) character on NCIS because of his Italian heritage. Anyways, Tony had been in the little cup that he came in for two whole weeks, or who knows how long, since I got him at least, and I finally decided that it was time for him to get a new container. Tony was kinda dying, so I had to get him into another container. I cleaned out this old tank that I had kept some other smaller fish in so that the other bigger fish didn't eat them, until they were grown up, and cleaned it out. I also found some leftover gravel from my larger Discus tank, and rinsed the dust out of it, then put it in. I then put water in it, added water conditioner, let it set overnight, and netted Tony Dinozzo and put him in the tank. He's much happier now. Now all we need is a Kate and a Ziva (NCIS reference).

Who's cuter part two:
NCIS-Tony Dinozzo                            

Tony Dinozzo the fish look-alike.

Who's Cuter?

Dr. Vertenstien's Lessons-SOL 3/22/15

I've always kind of looked up to the older kids at my piano teacher's, or Dr. Vertenstien's, lessons and concerts. Dr. Vertenstien is 87 and from Romania, if you need any reference to get an idea what she's like. The older students were always the ones that played the longest and most intricate sounding pieces, the ones that Dr. Vertenstien always stood up for at the end of concerts, and the ones that she would request to play to me or some of the younger students, especially when I was littler, when our lessons overlapped. Normally, they're the juniors or seniors in high school, in their last couple of years with Dr. Vertenstien, and I've always told myself that someday, I'll get that good. But today, I got a chance to be one of these older students.
I've been working on a Schubert piece for the last couple of months, which is kind of a big deal because it is mostly played by older students, and this is my third try to play it, with it being too time-consuming to do before when I didn't have as much of the ability that I do now. It's 10 pages long, densely printed, and takes about 20 minutes to play through once I know it. It's also divided into three sections: the "A" Section, the "B" Section, and the "C" Section. Anyways, when the doorbell rang today at the end of my lesson, and in walked one of Dr. Vertenstien's younger students, Dr. Vertenstien asked me to play some of the Schubert for her. I said ok, sure, and I took out the Schubert, expecting her to only make me play a few measures. I kept going and going, with Dr. Vertenstien standing behind the piano, saying things like "More!" when I reached a climactic section , "smooth" as I got to a more legato section, or "shhhhh" when I needed to tone it down. I eventually got to the end of the "A" Section, which was the first time that I had played the whole thing, plus it was in front of people, or well. It was pretty cool.
Also, as I walked out the door, Dr. Vertenstien gave me one of her rare compliments. Normally if you've spent the entire week on the piece, working very hard to make it perfect for her so that she doesn't yell at you, she will say something like "Okay" or "Better", ranging to "Terrible." I know that she has high expectations of me as a piano student and a person, and yeah, I like that, because it pushes me to work harder and set my own high standards for myself. But it also makes it that much better when she gives me a compliment. Sure, the compliment was "you did okay, Sarah. Good even. You work well." But I'll take it.
So yeah, it was pretty cool.

Cats-SOL 3/18

Cats. As a lot of people probably know, I love cats. I have two cats right now, named Truffle and Cream, and they are about the cutest and sweetest and fun things in the whole entire world that have ever existed. We call Truffle Mouse because he literally looks like a mouse in the cutest, most cat-like way possible, sounds like a mouse too when he meows, and scurries like one too. We call Cream Meep, because apparently when she meows it sounds like "Meep." Don't ask me.

Also, the word cat looks really awesome, doesn't it, especially when you capitalize the first letter. Example: Cats.

Sorry for the short slice. I had like no time today at all, and no idea what to write.

Sports SOL 3/19

I've never really not liked playing sports. I've actually always like sports. I've just not always recognized the importance of them. Some people are like "I don't like sports." I mean, it's definitely possible not to like them, but you need to see why people like them. Number one, they've taught me a lot. For example...

1. How to work in a team.

You're driving down the sides of the court with the basketball. There's one second left on the clock. You glance at the bleachers to see all of your teammates, friends, and family watching. Suddenly a huge guy steps in front of you, waving their arms so that they obscure the basket. Your teammate, wide open and under the basket, motions to you. But if you make this shot, you just know you can, you'll be the hero of the game. What do you do?

2. Celebrate other people's accomplishments and make friends.

You're playing soccer, and it's the biggest game of the year. You see the goal up ahead, and the tied score on the sideline, 2-2. You see the clock on the sideline, 30 seconds left, and the tense faces of all of your friends, family, and classmates on the bleachers, cheering for you. Your teammate dribbles the ball up to the goal and shoots...SCORE! Everyone congratulates your teammate, and you won. Are you jealous?
3. Never Give Up.
You are in the final lap of a 100 butterfly, trying to qualify the last chance you have for State, in a goal that you set at the beginning of the year. All your friends are cheering for you at the end of the pool-they know how badly you want it just as much as you do. You turn into the final lap, you get through halfway, your arms are aching, you really need to take a breath of air, and the girl next to you has started to catch up. You don't think you can go on for any longer, but you need to make the time. Do you give up?


No. No you don't.

We Were Liars-(SOL March 17) Book Blog

This week I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. This book is about a girl named Cadence who spends every summer on a private island with her best friends and cousins Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. She is in the Sinclair family, a rich, generally perfect family that is headed by Cadence's grandfather, with three perfect daughters. When Cadence has an accident, she gets amnesia, and has to deal with that as well as the sickness she gets from it and the consequences from her actions that summer-that she can't remember. This book was really good, a quick read, and I would recommend it to almost anybody in our class.

Haikus about Random Stuff (They're actually interesting) SOL 3/16

The Voice:

Some people say that

It's not real but let's just say

It's for sure not fake

Endless jokes and laughs

Cassadee will go far

Only her dreams come true

Roller Coaster:

You forget who you

are and can be and just fall

Down and down and down...

Adrenaline:

Adrenaline feels

Like you've had ten coffee cups

Just without the crash  

My Goldfish:

All of life

the universe/everything

Trapped in a tiny box

NCIS:

Drama is fake just

Like this show is too but the

Feeling shown is real

Lap-Tag at the AS Play:

Crawling inch by inch

Army Crawl Through the Battlefield

Lap-Tag field, that is.

AS Play Curtain Call:

The Lights are so bright

As I think how good it feels

To be recognized

Dreams: 

Dreams are like roses

Pick just one to be proud of

Before they destroy

Hawaii:

Haiku sounds like a

place called Hawaii (guess what?)

We are going there!

Tell me which ones are your favorites and why!

Slice 3/15 (Halfway Through!) Canolis and Boston

Quinn, Kyra, Kate, Etti, and I all sat at the rectangular table, eating the best canolis like, ever. We were in Boston on our spring trip, and we had just spent the last 5 hours walking the freedom trail by ourselves in our little group, stopping at three Starbucks, walking right by the Levis factory, spotted a stray cat, and even visited the occasional historical site (which was actually super cool). We had then gone to this tiny cafe on the way back to eat canals, which are basically a tube of deliciousness filled with a yummy-cream-thing and topped with like, 5 toppings. We were all sitting at the table eating Canolis, and had just finished them when someone glanced at the time and realized that we had about 30 minutes to run all the way back through Boston to our meeting point which took us two hours before. We grabbed all of our stuff, stuffed our field journals and pencils in our bag, said thank you and payed the owner of the restaurant, and ran out. We ran, without stopping, all the way back to the group of people, with a minute to spare. Everyone cheered when they saw us running. It turns out that we weren't even the last people there. Oh well. It was fun.

A Canoli. The Italians seriously ROCK sometimes...

Tony the Goldfish...SOL 3/14

The poor fish was left on my desk by the crazy fish abuser redhead. COCA-COLA was scrawled across the plastic container and left there. I was sick that day, so I didn't come in until really late, and walked in to find the poor fish sitting on my desk. I was at first confused, and then surprised, and then happy to find such a wonderful little fish on my desk. I took the fish away from my deskmates who were threatening the fish's life with death and torture threats as well as eating it for dinner, and brought it home. The fish is currently sitting on my desk right now at home, in a big plastic bowl. I even gave it a new amazing name-Tony, after Tony Dinozzo, my favorite character from NCIS, which honors the fish's Italian heritage. The poor little fishy now has a new home, a wonderful owner, and no more threats of being eaten for dinner, and despite multiple warnings of "you need to get this fish out of the house" by the wonderful owner's mom, the world has come to a happy ending for Anthony "Tony" Dinozzo, the little goldfish.



The real Tony Dinozzo vs. Tony Dinozzo Fish look-alike. Which one's cuter? (jk :) )

Dr. Vertenstein's Rules-SOL 3/13

My Piano Teacher is both 87 and from Romania. This is kind of strange because we couldn't be more different. I love playing piano, and I think that she's a really good piano teacher, but just kind of intimidating sometimes. She has a lot of quirks-for example, the time that I walked into her house for a piano lesson and she greeted me by saying "I shall knock my house down", and decided that she wanted to transform her house into a marble concert hall or how she's constantly boiling cabbage for a "Nutritious Snack." Most of the time, she's actually really nice to us and at least, if she's not nice, she's pretty normally fair, but she's definitely hard to work with sometimes. And So, ladies and gentlemen, I present: If Dr. Vertenstein (that's her name) had 10 rules, what would they be.

1. Always clip your nails. If you do not, I cannot let you play, especially on the Steinway (her favorite piano).
2. Do not come to the piano lesson with ink, paint, nail polish, or anything else on your hands. It will rub off onto the Steinway.
3. DO NOT get a nosebleed or start bleeding in any way, ESPECIALLY on the Steinway.
4. Don't be late. Like, even one minute.
5. Don't talk unless I ask you to, if it doesn't relate to piano.
6. You MUST practice. If you don't, I'll kick you out because you're wasting my time and won't listen to any excuses.
7. Sit Nicely at the piano, so that you look graceful.
8. No shoes allowed in my "Studio."
9. Do Not Move Chairs. (She has this one plastered all over her house on large pieces of paper scrawled with sharpie).
10. Keep your bag of books away from the Steinway, so that it doesn't hit it.
11. No jewelry, because that it might scratch the Steinway.
12. Do not bend the spine of books to make them stay open-only I will do that.
13. Always say "Thank You, Dr, Vertenstein" on the way out.

Opening Night SOL 3/12/15

Opening Night for me in a play is the best night because you don't know what's going to happen. The other couple nights you have a sense of repetition, of knowing what's going on. Some people like that, and I do too, sometimes. But for me it's really all about the opening, and the adrenaline rush, of something going wrong and the having to use your mind to fix it. It's more of an accomplishment that way. Today is opening night of the AS Play and I am so, so Excited to finally present something that we have been working on for months (and yeah, I'm kinda tired of it too). But it's super cool to be able to put on a play with about 40 other people, with cast and crew, that most of which are actually my friends. You all should come watch us (even though my part kinda sucks, I have like a thousand scenes but I have like one line in all of them). If I had to pick a favorite part (besides the being onstage, of course)? Well, not to sound totally conceited or anything, but I like at the end, applauding for my friends and soaking up the applause myself. It's a cool sense of accomplishment, knowing that everything went wrong, but judging by the reaction, nobody saw and nobody cares.

3/11/14SOL Music

My mind disappears into the music, as the rest of the world swirls the color of the song and disappears. The lyrics write themselves across the front of my brain, through my mind over and over again. I find myself living with the song, my storyline rising and falling with the music. I notice the technical side of the music if I want to, but most everything just blends and comes together in the shape of the whole song. I focus on just one point, vision narrowing to block out the already disappearing world. I don't know how to describe it besides the fact that the song was living in my brain, purple and blue and all the feeling and memories of the song and other things in swirling around and enveloping me, muting everything but bringing out the things that are importantly sharply.

I'm writing this with my music blasting loudly in my ears. I just described whatever I felt. If its weird, well, I bet it's weird. It's an amazing feeling though. I guess I just don't care if I go deaf early.

Answer in the comments: What's your favorite song? Why?

Book: 1001 Cranes (SOL 3/10/15)

This week I read 1001 Cranes by Naomi Hirahara. This book is about a girl named Angela Kato who moves to L.A. because of her parents divorce. She has to stay with her grandparents, her grandpa, who she gets along with pretty well and her grandma, who Angela doesn't get along with at all. Angela at first is totally not excited to live with her grandparents, and work every single day in the shop where they fold 1001 Paper Crane Displays for people, and hates the people that work there. After a while though, she starts to actually enjoy L.A. and living life there.
First of all, this book is totally under my reading level, but I might recommend it to some of the younger  people in our class (maybe). The story got kind of slow sometimes, but it was also very interesting at sometimes, even though it left a lot of storylines hanging (which was FRUSTRATING). My favorite character would probably be Angela, just because she was cool and not one of those perfect characters that protagonists in books sometimes are. overall, I would recommend this book to maybe 5th-Sixth Graders, it was way under my reading level.

Sick/Train of Thought/Other Stuff Too March 9 Slice.

Being sick gives you a lot to think about and a lot of time to do it, too (as well as a lot of time to write a really long slice...). When there's nothing better to do then sit around the house, you get a lot of time to think. Except for, when I have homework there's always stuff to do, but when I don't and can just sit here or do whatever I want I can't think of anything. It's kinda like being a long-distance swimmer, except for then you can't think because you keep thinking about the race. I'm a short distance swimmer, by the way, But I can do both. Here is a collection of already (as you can tell) my very mixed-up thoughts and what I thought about today.

#1: What is Talent?
Is Talent actually real, or not? A couple of days ago my dad, who was listening to me play piano, started talking about how good of a piano player I am and how I'm way better then he was when he was my age even though he practiced more and for longer every day (Thanks, Dad). But why? Is it just because I have the physical abilities to play piano, is that what we call "Talent", just having the physical ability to do something? Do I just have more connection between the two sides of my brain then he does and therefore have developed a "Talent" for it? Could this explain why I'm so much better at sports where I use my hands and reflexes relating to that then other sports, like I picked up basketball extremely quickly but have been playing soccer for almost 8 years and still have trouble with it? Or is it something else, like I enjoy the piano more, or have a better teacher, or am more dedicated or just know how to practice better? I don't know.

#2: Are TV Shows Actually like the Real Life Thing?
I'm not talking about like Reality TV Shows here, Like The Voice or Survivor, I'm talking about stuff like NCIS. Is the real Naval Criminal Investigative Service like the drama-filled, super-cool TV Show? I then went online and started researching the question. I found a few articles that said that the things that they get to experience are kind of the same as the TV Show, and the cases are very similar, both of which are SUPER COOL! I then started thinking about what really draws me to that TV Show, and I came up with a third answer as well as those other two-the characters. All of the characters and people in the show are so charming and unique and just seem too-good-to-be-in-real-life. And I guarantee that there aren't any articles online that tells you if the real-life people are even close to the characters from NCIS.

#3: Does someone's favorite color effect their personality?
Or is it the other way around? Does their personality effect the color that they choose to be their favorite? What about numbers, or even favorite seasons too? I don't know. I don't have any evidence on this one so I'll skip to the next one...

#4: Where Did the Stereotypes for Brown and Blond Hair Come From?
Like the brown-haired people are more exotic, smart, and brave and blondes are more sweet, kind, and pretty. I mean, it's obviously not true, but where did they come from and who got people to believe it? It's kind of odd that a bunch of people would just start believing stuff about your hair, especially when both of the stereotypes represent good traits as well as bad. But I don't know. I believed them until I was like five, so I can't really complain. It's kind of stupid though, honestly.

AS Play- March 8, Slice #8!

I walk to the center of the room, and look at the mass of people chatting and talking to each other in various groups, mixing and intermingling. I find a circle of people and sit down next to my friends, joining in on the loud conversation, yelling across the circle to each other as pretty much always. It's not like anybody would notice us over the loud bustle and chatter already in the room. As the lights dim, the group splits into two very distinct groups; the "Stagecraftees", talking lights and cues, and us, the Actors, talking  entrances and exits. The people seem so different, with the black dark gear and the loud and brash costumes, but they share a very common bond-working together, because we have a show to run.

Elitches SOL 3/7/15 (#7)

Do you ever get that feeling where you are about to take a leap of faith, or fall into nothingness, but aren't quite sure what will happen afterwards. It could be about anything, a big decision, a risk, etc. But at that moment, I was literally about to fall into nothingness and take a leap of faith, because I was at the top of the 220 foot Tower of Doom at Elitches' Gardens. The nice thing about being up here was that I could see for miles and miles, through downtown, all the way out to DIA. The wind was whipping at my hair and it was just really nice in general. I looked over at my friend, who looked like she was enjoying herself reasonably well too. I looked around, wondering how long they were going to keep us here. What if there was a glitch? What if the brakes had stopped working and we were just going to fall all the way too the bottom and punch a hole through the concrete, not stopping until we were at the bottom of a hole, probably dead and engulfed in a crowd of dust? Or what about the fact that we might end up like the girl in Kentucky, with both of our legs sliced off at the ankles? I'm not really nervous, though. I love roller coasters, and I've learned to trust (mostly) that we'll arrive safely at the bottom. That doesn't stop me from being terrified sometimes, but what else is the point of the roller coaster? The operator chose that time to let us fall and my stomach rose up into my throat as I screamed with happiness and adrenaline. I stepped off with a huge grin on my face. By the end of the ride a few seconds later, I knew this-the feeling of the fall was 1000 times over worth the anticipation.

TV Shows SOL 3/5/14

Some people think that watching TV is a way to relax and take your mind of the present, like your mind floats up into the clouds somewhere or something like that, but I think that sounds too gentle-it's more like it yanks your mind into it's own world. Whenever I find myself watching a TV show, my mind starts to be drawn into it. I start thinking about the characters and the people and what would I do and OMG please don't kill him and so on and so on. Sometimes I get so attached to a TV show I honestly find myself fantasizing what would happen if I lived inside of it. Ok, I daydream a lot, but it's really kind of horrible to get so attached to a show, BECAUSE IT'S NOT REAL! It's fictional. All the characters and people and plotlines and story and drama that I love and that I fit right into in my dreams aren't REAL. I tell myself this to keep myself from fantasizing over TV shows, movies, and books like this-but I can't help myself from falling in love with a new set of characters or plot. My latest TV show obsessions: , The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Pretty Little Liars (I'm way behind on all of these because I don't watch that much TV-no spoilers!), ...and of course, The Voice (but that's not a recent obsession). Maybe that's why I love The Voice so much-because it's actually real, and proves that people in the real world can be just as awesome as fictional characters. That's one of the MANY reasons I love The Voice, of course. I can't just choose one.

Hawaii SOL 3/4/14

We drift closer and closer to the cliff, gliding across the deep blue water. I can hear the lapping of the ocean waves, and everything suddenly seems super quiet as I get used to the engine being turned off. Our guide stands up in the boat and it rocks side to side. I pull on a t-shirt over my swimsuit as I feel the warm sun burning my skin, little pieces flaking off in the warm sunlight as I give up on my goal not to get ANOTHER sunburn. Suddenly the guide guns the boat and we pull closer to the black rock cliffs. I was in Hawaii this summer, riding on a snorkeling trip off of the coast of the Big Island. My brother sits across from me, my mom behind me, and my dad diagonal, with the rest of the boat scattered with strangers. Suddenly the guide guns the boat and we speed up in our course towards the cliffs. We pass into the shadowy area created by the black rock cliffs above and shiver. We pull faster and faster towards the cliff and my mom screams when it looks like we might crash. The crashing of the waves suddenly gets louder in my ears. I close my eyes as we speed towards the cliff-
And nothing happens. I look up and see that we are in a tiny sea cave. Water rushes in and we float up so I can almost run my hand along the wet, slimy looking, ceiling. The water rushes out and we fall again. The guide leans in toward the water. Look closely, he says. I squint at the water-and it's glowing. I blink a couple of times and it's still glowing. Underneath the surface of the water are millions of tiny little golden fish, reflecting light of their scales into the water.
This was my second time going to Hawaii. It was lots of fun and I'm so excited to go back with all of you!

Road Rash (Book Blog SOL #3), March 3rd.

This week I read Road Rash by Mark Huntley Parsons. This book is about a high-schooler drummer named Zach, who after being kicked out by his old band, gets picked up by a new band and embarks on a summer tour with them all over the country. It is mostly just about the dynamics in the band and Zach adjusting to them. It is also about the dynamics of him and people that he leaves at home. This book was okay, but was kind of mindless. It has almost no mature topics at all, or very little language. I would call this book realistic fiction. Also some things in the book weren't very realistic, or so overly realistic that things were boring. If you want a book with a deep message and great writing, as well as a sophisticated topic and storyline, then this book is not for you, but if you want a fun and mindless read to pass time, this book is a good candidate for something like that.

SOLSC #1-March 1st, 2015! Happy Day One, Everybody :)

I sit staring at the computer. What should I write?
But this wasn't the normal I've-run-out-of-ideas-I'll-write-a-super-boring-Slice-about-not-knowing-what-to-write type of thing. In fact, that almost never happens to me. This was like starting a story. If you were writing a collection of short stories, even about your life, and then packaging them up for your whole entire school to read, you'd want to put the most captivating story first. I had ideas jostling in my head, pushing each other out of the way for the honor of being the first Slice of the 31 day challenge, but somehow none of them seem right. Maybe I'll write about The Voice-no, no one's interested in that besides me, people will think my slices are boring. Or I'll write about Hawaii-that's a shared experience that all of us will have, but no one in Linda's Class wants to read about it-I'll lose that audience. I take a deep breath and decide to just type whatever comes into my head first.

"I sit staring at the computer. What should I write?'

Okay, maybe not the best opening line, because people will think it's one of those boring I've-run-out-of-ideas-I'll-write-a-super-boring-Slice-about-not-knowing-what-to-write Slices that as I've said, by the way, I NEVER do. So I specify it in the next sentence. I get sorta excited about this Slice, and start typing quickly, and within minutes, I have a semi-okay Slice that I hope will draw people to my blog again. Or maybe I'm overthinking this.
So Just Promise Me One Thing.
If this Slice is boring, please come back tomorrow.
Happy Day 1 of SOLSC, Everyone!

Best Sports Ever SOL 3/2/14

What is the best sport ever? When I asked this question to myself, my first thought was swimming. I'm a swimmer, and I think that swimming is a great sport. It tests your endurance, physical and mental toughness, and strength. It also builds an amazing sense of community and develops a different skill set then you would normally have. Swimmers need to be strong, tough, and confident in order to swim, and it's a super fun to achiev
e goals that you've set at the beginning of the season. It's a super cool sport.

But then I think of Basketball. This is the other sport that I play, and while I may not be as good at it as swimming, I think that I picked it up pretty quickly. The thing that I love about Basketball is that it's such a great team sport, and more of a contact sport then swimming. You're on a team and you have to be confident in your teammates, as well as not hog the ball the whole entire time. It's also more strategic, there are plays and strategies used differently then in Swimming.

And then of course there's soccer, which is the most popular sport in the world. It's probably just as athletic as Basketball but in a different way. People run across a huge field in a game that can go on for hours just for a few goals. Soccer is fun because it's a team sport too. I can definitely see why people like soccer so much, even if I don't do it the same amount that I swim (or really competitively at all. I play on the Logan team but that doesn't really count).

There are also team sports like Baseball and Football. Football needs a lot of strength and strategy, where in my limited experience Baseball is more about skills. Also Hockey, which combines learning a skill set that you wouldn't normally have, like swimming, as I've said before, or in this case skating, with a lot of strength. Also sports like Volleyball, which has less running but more concentration.

Mostly I think that it's just cool that people play sports. These sports range from Swimming to Volleyball to Soccer and different people like different ones depending on their personality. I don't think that there's one perfect sport but different ones for different people. However, it's cool that we all play them, showing that everyone likes the general idea of a sport-to be competitive, make friends, and to have fun.

So, I want your opinion. Which sport is the best, which ones do you play, and why are they the best? Comment your answer and also vote on my poll to the side ->. Thanks for reading everyone!

The Mediator

I pick a book a couple ways, the most common way being my friends recommendations. It's great to find a couple of friends with the same taste in books as you and then you can keep recommending books to each other. Another way I pick a book is just looking at the recommended books list for teens on websites or at the library, or bestsellers. These books, especially if they've won an award, are recommended, so they are probably good.
I don't really have an ALL TIME favorite book for right now anyways, but a great book that you all should read is called The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater. This book is about a teenager named Blue who one day meets a couple of boys from a private, rich academy. These boys that go there are mysterious and mostly avoided, and called Raven Boys by the rest of the town. But when Blue meets four of these boys and gets swept up in their obsession, she rethinks who they are. This book is great, the pollen is great, the writing is great, and mostly the characters are great, so I'd totally recommend this book to people in our class.
Over break I read The Mediator by Meg Cabot. 16-year-old Suze has a secret-she can speak to ghosts, and always had been able to. Nobody else knows but her. When she gets the news that her mom is remarrying and their moving from their home of NYC to Northern California, she is relieved in some ways because she gets to get away from-literally-the ghosts of her past. But moving to San Francisco offers a whole bunch of new ghosts like Jesse, the 150-year-old Spanish cowboy who part-time actually lives in her room, to the most problematic of all, the kid who's spot she took at her school, Heather, who committed suicide after being broken up with by a guy. Suze meets Father Dom, someone who has the same abilities that she does, and she tries to help ghosts while also surviving her new life.
This book was REALLY good. Maybe my review doesn't make it sound like it was, but you all should read it. My favorite character probably was (all of them!) Suze: she was actually a main character that wasn't perfect and that I actually liked instead of being one of those perfect main character that gets everything right, if that makes sense. This book does have a few mature topics, and some (not a lot) of language, but not that much-it's pretty appropriate for anybody in our class.This book was great and I would recommend it to people who like a mix of adventure, sci-fi/fantasy, and realistic fiction.
Next Books that I want to read:
Road Rash
Claire Ange
The Martian
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Eleanor and Park

Significance

I refuse to believe that I am insignificant.
Why not? I am one in billions, standing on a tiny speck of safe ground in the middle of the universe, stretching on for billions of billions of light years, miles, kilometers, to who knows where. 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies all containing even more of these things, to be exact. But still I refuse to believe that I am insignificant.
Why? Because I'm not. By saying I'm insignificant you would be saying that people are insignificant. I mean, if we're insignificant, why are we even alive? Why would there have been a scientific miracle to bring independently thinking, feeling people alive on this circle of rock known as a planet. Was it a coincidence? I just don't think that I'm insignificant. I mean, if I did something horrible, like die right now, it wouldn't effect the world. The stars wouldn't fall from the sky and the world wouldn't collapse and people wouldn't fall to the floor dead. But I hope that people would care. I mean, what do we have to live for, if we're all insignificant? If we can't do anything with our life, are we doomed to just walk around aimlessly, fulfilling our ambitions to just realize that they are all futile in the point of the universe? I don't think that that works. If we are so insignificant to the universe, is in insignificant to be significant to our happiness. (Okay, that makes no sense. Please proceed in the reading of the beautiful text. But think about it. Are our biggest achievements insignificant in the grand scheme of things? I'm saying no, but that the whole point of this SOL).
And even if life is all a coincidence, I say we make the most of this chance to be alive. I mean, being alive is a great thing. In the people are the things that make us happy, that make us like living. our friends, family, and the things that people do and make, like music, or art, or just a kind thing that your friend says to you, or when someone who you hardly know smiles at you in the hall. So don't ever believe that you are insignificant to anyone. Because while we are alive, no matter how small compared to the universe we are significant enough to maybe try and make those 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies a better place. We all have a very limited time on this Earth, and we are all significant to do something, if we try. Don't let it slip

Hey so-Gavin did a contrasting view to this blog post called "Insignificance." You should go check it out. Right... Here http://gavinrollsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/sol-13-insignificance.html
Sry I couldn't do a hyperlink. It's not working.   

The Summer of Letting Go

This week I read The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner. This year Francesca is supposed to turn 16-and she gets to spend the summer at her family's summer house, extremely close to the beach. But ever since her brother Simon drowned, Frankie can't let go of the fact that she knows that it was her fault. Her mom also blames her for it, and that doesn't help her already interesting home life by the fact that she thinks that her dad is having a super-obvious affair with the lady next door, Mrs. Merrill. Her best friend, Lisette, is growing farther away from her and has a new boyfriend, Bradley who Frankie has always had a crush on. This summer would have been interesting enough without her meeting Frankie Sky, a four year old boy who resembles Simon, Frankie's little brother. Frankie starts wondering if they, somehow, could be connected.
This book was amazing! My review doesn't give it enough credit, but it's really amazing and has great writing that made you really connect to the characters. My favorite character was Frankie, because she was really connectable, like insecure like a real teenager not surreal like a normal book character. I'd call this book great realistic fiction. The ending is so bittersweet and I'd recommend this to almost everyone in our class.

Being Sick

Being sick sucks. I woke up with a really bad throat ache and my head felt like it weighed 100 pounds. All I wanted to do was fall asleep, but my headache stopped me, so I kinda just lay in bed and read and drank this horrible tasting tea-thing that was supposed to help me get better. My mom insisted on bringing stuff home for me so I could do homework, but there's really no point in doing that if I'm too miserable to do homework anyways. At least I got to finish my book. My friends were all texting me telling me how lucky I was to be at home, and to skip school, but I don't really care about skipping school if I feel horrible. It doesn't help that it's the week before EXPO and we have two math tests and I'm missing the staff basketball game which is like the most fun thing ever of the year. Oh well though. This is why being sick sucks.

Under the Never Sky

Aria is a teenager who definitely has a big problem-she has been exiled from the alternate reality place that she calls home, through actions that in no way were her fault. Also-she can't get in contact with her mother who went to work on a top secret project. Knowing that she probably can't survive in the wastelands outside of her community, Aria panicks-until she meets Perry.
Perry is an outsider-not just in his small group of family and friends, but also in the literal sense. He and his family live in a tribe outside of the gated in complex of Reverie, a place home to people called "dwellers" who spend more then half of their time in a virtual reality. When his nephew is kidnapped by the Dwellers, Perry starts a journey to find him and do whatever it takes to do it.
Aria and Perry meet each other, and have to stop judging and stereotyping each other to start an alliance at first just for their own separate reasons that takes them through many adventures and eventually develops into a friendship and makes them see that there is value in both of their separate lives and bad things too.
This book was very good, actually. I didn't really like the characters, and the writing is only okay. But the storyline is so good that it kind of makes up for it. My favorite character is probably Perry or Brooke/Cinder (you'll have to read the book to find out who they are). I'd call this book adventure/sci-fi/teen-book style, and would recommend it to people in our class (there are not a lot of mature topics but some language).

Music

My head is full of music. Swirling round and round inside my head every day. I have the pop song that I heard on the radio, on an endless loop round and round. I have the sheet music chord pattern that I was working on for rock band implanted into my brain. I have the inversions for a chord in my classical piece for piano lessons, a Schubert, repeating itself down and down and down the piano, like a ladder. I turn on the TV to Palladia, music videos repeating themselves in an endless cycle. Soon these too will be trapped in my brain, allowed to go free but choosing to stay, spinning and swirling round and round in my head.
My head is full of music.
And I'm okay with that.

Looking For Alaska

This week I read Looking For Alaska by John Green. 16 year old Pudge gets sent to boarding school in an effort to escape his rather boring, non-social life at a public school in Florida. There he meets a lot of interesting characters such as his new best friend The Colonel, an insane girl named Alaska, and his supposed Romanian girlfriend, Lara. I really can't tell you anything more then that without giving it away, because half of the amazingness of the book of the book is being surprised by the plot twists, but it is also the most amazing book ever! I totally felt what the characters felt, more then almost any book that I'd read before, and some parts were so sad and some parts are hilarious. You all should read it because it's AMAZING!!! I kind of liked this book more then The Fault in Our Stars, which by the way is by the same author if you didn't know, and I was surprised that I did. There are kind of a lot of mature topics, so if you don't feel comfortable reading about that stuff, you probably shouldn't read it. But this book is amazing, and otherwise all of you should.

Nuggets Game

The smell of Popcorn and Hot Dogs drift around the inclosed stadium as Selah and I settle down in our seats, looking down at the brightly light-up basketball court in the middle of the gigantic venue. My mom comes back too, quickly, from getting food from ourselves and we excitedly glance at our watches/phones to see when the game is going to start. Just as I reach for my iPod, the lights go black and the crowd screams as the big screen in front of me introduces our players loudly, drawing my eyes up away from the court and towards it. Our center, a tall white guy from some foreign country tips off into one of the hands of our players, who dribbles down, outside the three point, launches the ball in the air, and scores. Yes! Selah, my mom, and I give each other high fives as I notice out of the corner of my eye an elderly woman in an usher's vest walk down the aisle, high fiving people. She makes her way over to us. "3 points" she says. My mom and I look at each other. Is she going to do this every single time we score? We wonder. From then on, every 3 point shot, we see the soon-to-be familiar figure hobbling down the aisle. It gets annoying fast, but after a while, Selah and I start getting used to it, and even having fun with it. We leave the stadium convinced that we had a good time, even if we had to give high-fives to an annoying lady every single time we got a 3-point-shot.

On the Road to Find Out

This week I read On the Road to Find Out by Rachel Toor. This was a book about a 17 year old named Alice and starts when she was just rejected from the only college that she had ever wanted to go to, Yale. Her friend Jenni tells her to stop being miserable, and do something, so throughout time, she decides to go for a run. This sets her off on a long path about learning to love running, meeting her new boyfriend, and going through a various series of relationships with her family and friends. This book was really good-it managed not to be boring while describing everyday events. I also really connected with the characters. I thought that this book was really good, fun to read, and I would recommend it to all of the people in our class, especially the girls maybe.

Snowshoeing

I struggle through the snow, aimlessly calculating where to put my foot next. It doesn't work of course, as I plunge through the thin layer of ice and into the powdery snow, getting all of it in my boot. I slowly pull myself out, sighing, and stand next to some friends on an ice shelf that looks adequately sturdy. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel the impact of someone slamming into me. I fall, my face grinding into the freezing snow, and roll down the hill into a small valley in the ground where about six faces stand, gazing at me with looks from amused contempt to barely held in laughter. I look at them and lunge toward the nearest person, grabbing their feet and bringing them down, tackled into the snow...Well, I get them on their knees in the snow before they shake my tackle and stand up. Maybe not the result I wanted, but at least I didn't completely screw up. The rest of my friends tumble down the hill to join in the game. Over the next 30 minutes, I tackle many, get tackled more; I figured out the tackling part pretty quickly, but apparently I'm an easy target to tackle, because, well, I was pretty bad. For thirty minutes we play in the snow, falling into the cold powder and slamming each other into it, until we are so tired and can hardly stand up in the shifting snow to tackle others. When Elizabeth calls us back to the circle, she receives 23 freezing kids, windblown and with snow in our gloves, but also more happy then before.

Samaria Gorge

We got dropped off at about midnight. I stood in the sticky grass, watching the dew collect on my brand-new sneakers, which seemed too bright for the gray, gravely, dirt the dullness of the early morning. The bus dropped us off and sped down the dirt road, leaving a cloud of dust behind it. The width of Greece away from our goal, we were left alone with only a group of determined tourists. Without further ado, we set off on the steep trail.
If you were wondering what's going on, my family and I were determined to walk all the way across the country of Greece, on a trail called Samaria Gorge. This trip would be 11 miles long, but much more difficult then it seems because of the constant ups and downs and changes of weather. One especially cool thing is that we had the chance too, on the other side, swim in the Bolivian Sea on the closest point to Africa in Europe. So we set off down the steep slippery slope, sliding down rocks and pebbles, in the middle of the night.
6 hours later, my Mom, Dad, Brother and I came down the final hill approaching our destination. It was hard, but not as hard as expected, and at least we had made it! I looked down at my shoes on the black, silky-smooth sand as I stood on the beach, no longer seeming as bright as before, and out into the emerald, choppy, and hopefully warm water at the farthest thing that I could see in the distance: the point of Africa.

Mistborn

This week I read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I got this book as a present for Christmas and was pleasantly surprised by it, even though it still wasn't my favorite book ever. This book is about an orphan named Vin who has spent the whole entire life on the streets, in a futuristic land where a species of humans named Skaa works as slaves to the rest of the considered superior species. After a few horrible years being abused by her older brother and in a Skaa thieving crew, she gets discovered and rescued by a man named Kelsier and one named Dockson, and their crew in an attempt to overthrow the empire and restore rights to the Skaa, after learning that she possesses some sort of weird magical powers. This book was good-especially the end. I wouldn't recommend it to people who don't really read this genre (mystery/action/fantasy) a lot I wouldn't recommend it. The author was very willing to make huge changes to the world of his characters, which I enjoyed, and resulted in a lot of crazy insane twists. This book was good but dull sometimes but TOTALLY worth hanging on for the end. My favorite character was probably Kelsier-I felt like he was awesome and actually a developed character, and I've said this a lot, but the end is totally a twist related to him. This book would be good for almost anybody in our class if you like this type of book, and don't mind varying qualities of writing style but an amazing general idea.

Swim Meet... SOL 6 (3/6/15)

My head buzzes, replacing my thoughts with a seemingly never-ending sound of white noise. I can't feel my arms and legs as I sit, tight with nerves, as my heat gets called.

This is what it feels like at a swim meet. I've been to a lot of them, and I still get nervous. Well, I have a good reason to get nervous for this one. It was my last meet with a chance to qualify for State. I had been working hard all week, but it seemed pretty tough to drop 4 seconds.
Swimmers, stand up on the blocks.
I get up on the blocks, feeling the roughness of the step scrape my skin. This is when I start glancing around at all my opponents. Next to me is a girl about my height, who looks good. The rest except for one are all taller then me, surprisingly. I'm always the tallest at school, but at swim team, I'm both the youngest in my age group, and the smallest. One away from the opposite side from me is a girl shorter then me, and then next to her one that I know that I can beat, so I start to feel better.
Swimmers, take your marks.
This is when my thoughts start to go blank and I try to prepare myself for the race. Four lengths, back and forth, back and forth. Start out with just go fast but don't put to much effort into it, and glide. Try to drop the pace a little bit on the second one. Then make a decision on the third lap depending on how I'm feeling. I always factor it in as a 3-lap-race- the fourth lap will seem like nothing because of the fact that I know that I'm almost there, and people next to me will push me competitively. I need a time under 1:28.00.
Beep!
The Buzzer sounds and all of us dive. I catch one glimpse of my family and friends watching and cheering on the other side of the pool before I hit the water.

Skiing

I feel like I'm in a snowglobe as I leisurely ski down the slope. The icicles hanging off the green tree branches, the early morning sun, the soft, gently falling snow...it just all seems too perfect! I speed up as I go over the next rising hill, my skis falling down the steep other side of the slope, wind starting to knife through my hair, my helmet, the seemingly thin layers of my jackets underneath my ski coat. I tuck and speed up even more, savoring the feel of going fast-maybe even faster then I've ever gone before. By now the wind is roaring at my ear, snow stinging my face and coating my goggles as I feel the rush of adrenaline and fear that I get from skiing this fast. I struggle to control my skis, going out of control. The next hill rises up and the drops down again, my skis seemingly leaving the ground and my stomach rising into my throat as the ground below speeds towards me. Suddenly, a person comes out of nowhere in front of me. I freak, trying not to hit them, and come to an abrupt stop, trying not to spin out, putting every single bit of my energy into stopping. I hear an angry yell as the person behind me realizes that they were almost hit by me. The wind stops howling and the harsh wind gets softer as I skid to a stop. Finally, I am all alone, lying on a soft hill of snow, and the snow that is gently falling gets illuminated by the perfect, sparkling, snowglobe-type sun.

Sorta Like a RockStar

Over break I read Sorta Like a Rockstar  by Matthew Quick. This book was about an eighth grade girl named Amber who lives alone with her mom and her dog, after being kicked out of her mom's boyfriend's last house (which Amber blames on herself) they have taken to living on a bus, homeless. Her mom turns into an alcoholic and secretly a drug addict, and Amber's only chance to be normal is when she goes over to her friend Ricky's house, who is wealthy and has a successful mother who Amber basically idolizes. Over the course of the book, Amber  saves her favorite teacher from being fired, teaches a group of Korean People english, visits old people in a retirement home, and accidentally stumbles across a strange, traumatized, Haiku Writing War veteran who actually becomes one of her best friends. Then a tragedy happens and her whole entire life is changed.
This book was actually REALLY GOOD. It had some mature topics, but really not that bad and the characters were great. I would call this book realistic fiction, and would also recommend it to almost everyone in the class.
Books that I want to read:
If I Stay
Looking For Alaska
Rethinking Normal
Book that I got as a present:
I got this book as a present and...
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson