Airborn post 2

Ok, so the book is really good. I haven't had many chances to read because of ski practice and what not. But what I have read has been pretty good. Anyway, the book skips forward to a year later and Mat Cruse is on another voyage to Sydney. They lift off and soon a couple passengers in a strange flying machine are requesting a landing. They were very important so they do a BA landing and get the passengers aboard. It turns out that it’s a girl named Kate and her chaperone. She is about Mat's age and she is cool but her chaperone is just annoying. He soon finds out that she is the granddaughter of the man who they rescued a year earlier and she has come on the ship to see the "winged creatures" that her grandfather supposedly saw. She gives Mat her grandfather's journal to read and it says that he saw animals that are always flying and never touch the ground. They have fur instead of feathers, they look like cats with wings, and they even give birth in the air. Later he talks to her about it but he is skeptical because near the end stuff became inconsistent and the grandfather started making drawings of the birds with different faces and stuff and it looked more like he was going crazy than anything. She thinks he's totally wrong but they don't get too mad over it. That’s all I've read so far. I'm excited to find out more on these creatures and if they are actually real.

Airborn post 1

For my outside reading book for quarter two I chose the book Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. When I first saw my sister buy and read this book by the next day I thought "Wow, what a loser," as usual. However it was getting further into quarter two and I still didn't even have ideas for a book and my sister recommended Airborn to me so, I reluctantly agreed. Unlike some of my sisters other books, this one started out strong and had an actually intellectual writing style. The story had all the elements I liked to have pulled me in. I eventually came to like it and am enjoying the story. The main storyline so far is that this guy, Mat Cruse, is fifteen and is working as a cabin boy on a luxury airship called the Aurora. One night he is on watch duty in the crow's nest late at night and spots a hot air balloon in distress in the middle of the ocean. He is later picked as the person who performs a daring rescue which entails him swinging over to the gondola, hooking the balloon up to the ships ropes and cutting the flight lines of the balloon that was damaged and was collapsing on an automatic timed burner. The man he saves is unconscious and is not doing well. When mat goes to check up on the man in the infirmary, the man wakes and says "Did you see them?" says some weird stuff and then the doctor comes in because the man starts freaking out. He soon dies and I haven’t read past that.

The Road soundtrack

I think that "Hourglass" by lamb of god would make a great addition to The Road soundtrack because well, this bassically describes the story. It is either the strangest coincidence or they based their story off each other or something but, the lyrics are perfect for any scene where the man is coughing or they are looking out at the burnt landscape. The entire song is about the appocalypse comming and how its too late to turn back. First, the song says "Each dawn another curse, every breath a twisting blade" that would correspond directly to the man and his coughing fits that lead to bleading. The song would be well placed when the author writes "Slogging to the edge of the road with his back to the child where he stood bent with his hand on his knees, coughing...". The ending of the song where the artist sings "The ashes of the wake, it's only getting worse" would be good with like a pan view of them looking at the destroyed and ash country. I could go on about how well the lyrics fit in but these are two prettey good examples of why "Hourglass" by Lamb of God.
Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcNtsAIEi8

Tristan M.
Hour 1

The Road-begining

So far, I am surprised to say this, but I have enjoyed this book to a degree. The writing style reminds me of that of Chuck Palahniuk. He is the author of such books as Choke, Fight Club, Lullaby, and Survivor, the later three of which I own and have read more than once. There are many short sentences in Chuck's writing just like in The Road but, his writing is even more obscure than that of Cormac McCarthy. An example would be Chuck's one word sentences in Fight Club, or the main character, counting in his head, each number a sentence, in Chuck's exceptional novel Lullaby. I also enjoy how Cormac does not give names to his main characters just like Chuck does in Fight Club. Although I have talked about it a lot, this is not the only reason I like this book. I also like the fluidity and fanciness of his sentences. Too many books these days come out and are all basic sentences all the way through with no descriptive words and the same old adjectives and "he said she saids” all throughout. This book and, as I've been told by my dorky girlfriend, all the books by this author, are very well written and are actually enjoyable to hear out loud. The one problem I've found is that it is kind of difficult to retain the information when read late at night due to its occasional new vocabulary words and non-monotonous descriptive words. Other than that this novel is great so far. ☻ (Sheshot)

Death of world's oldest person

This week I read an article on yahoo about the world’s oldest person, Edna Parker, dyeing last week. The article was inspiring really. I've always had this strange fear of becoming old and not being able to take care of myself. However, Edna lived by herself as a widow from the year 1939 until she was 100 years old and only then did she move in with her son. On top of that, she outlived both her sons and had 13 great-great-grandchildren! The article also stated that oddly that the Shelbyville nursing home she spent her final years in was also home to the world tallest living woman at 7'7". She lived to be 115 and I hope someday, when I'm old, people will look up to me like I'm sure they looked up to her as an example of how keeping an active lifestyle can preserve your body, mind, and soul for a very long time. Edna Parker is an example of human excellence and I'm glad I read this well written article about her and her life.

The Odyssey round two

The Odyssey kinda sucks the big one. Not because I don't like it, but... more because I hate it. Nawwww jkjkjk lulululululul. The Odyssey is ok by my book, get it? book,... the odysey is a book? ;) As for my real thoughts I liked all the parts that had action because people died. Also, I liked how Oddyseus killed all the suitors at the end, even the one who was like innocent and begged for mercy. I personaly liked the way the movie ended more than the movie. However I liked the book version of cercie's island more than that of the movie. Well, that's my general opinion on the Odyssey as a whole. Thanks for reading, rock on.

Oddysey

In my opinion, the Odyssey just is not a very good novel. Even though it is supposed to be history I just don’t find it believable or entertaining. Well I shouldn't say that because the idea of the story is really good however, I find the length of it and the fact that we have to skip chapters just to get through it makes it less appealing to me. The parts I have enjoyed about the Odyssey were the scene with Polyphemus because it’s funny how Odysseus tricks him into thinking his name is nobody so When Odysseus blinds Polyphemus he cries out "I've been blinded by nobody!!!" That was tight. The summaries I do enjoy It's just the real book that seems too long and drawn out. First of all they repeat the same stuff over and over again and don’t even use different adjectives. I realize that it was a long time ago and the story was so long that people zoned out a lot but I think they could have cut it down for the actually printed version at least a little. That is my basic opinion on the Odyssey.