Convenient for Etymologists

100 Books Every High School Student Should Read

The Nineties in One Picture

Along For The Ride

Sarah (Sara?) Dessen is extremely adept at writing about the trials and tribulations of teenage life. In her latest novel, Along For the Ride, Auden is an insomniac braniac with two college professors/authors for parents. Divorced parents that is. Her father lives with his new, pregnant wife (Heidi) in a small seaside town miles away. She's been living with her intimidatingly smart mother, who's been filling her head with negative comments about her dad and how he's "shacked up with some coed." While Auden is busy graduating, shunning social advances, and being the "little adult," her brother Hollis is traversing throughout Europe, filling the role of "big kid." Auden decides to visit her father the summer after senior year, thinking it'll be good to bond with him before college. Unfortunately, she's faced with a newborn scream machine, a frazzled step-mom and an absent father. Before she knows it, she's facing cocky guys, emotional girls and a mysterious loner. Having been considered an adult most of her life, Auden never got to experience the things a normal childhood would consist of: cul-de-sac kickball games, bowling and riding a bike are just a few things she's missed out on. She even missed Prom, getting stood up when her date opted for a scientific conference instead. When she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac with a tragic past and a knack for bike riding, she learns that it's never too late to learn to be a kid.

21

I haven't written much on here lately that hasn't been assigned by my teacher. I'm truly sorry for that, however, I have been really stressed and exhausted these past two weeks back from break so I've been opting for naps after school instead of blogging.

My older sister, the freshman at IU, just purchased the CD 21 by Adele and I am in raptures with it. "Turning Tables" was featured on Glee last night and while I don't believe Gwyneth sang as well as Adele, it's such a good song it didn't really matter. "Someone Like You" is also a favorite of mine, lamenting the moving on of a past boyfriend/lover. Adele is very soulful and I usually reserve her for when I'm in a bad mood or when I'm sad, which has been, unfortunately, very frequent lately. Oh, come on, school's almost over, yet we still have a bunch of stuff to do. We all deserve to be a little peeved, especially juniors who have to start worrying about college and starting applications and making ourselves look perfect so that we'll be accepted. And then there's the money i$$ue. Short paragraph even shorter, I hate school right now.

Other Masterpieces

Shideler continues to amaze, creating the screaming portrait through only vertical lines and the senior citizen portrait with only black and grey fingerprints!

Squiggles In Art

From far away, Eric Shideler's portrait of Josh looks like any other hum-drum drawing you've seen a dozen times. Upon getting a closer look, however, energetic squiggles become apparent, filling in the dull, boring places of the drawing.
Eric Shideler's utilization of bright colors and make-up of squiggly lines lends a silly playfulness to his portait's demeanor. Shideler's neutral subject contrasts with his use of color and child-like doodling, his small smile humorized through Shideler's spontaneous creativity. What was once mundane and uninteresting gets a new spin, becoming worthy of it's super-sized display.

Where Are You Leading Us, DeLillo?

1) What is the significance of the "day of the station wagons" to Jack and Babette?
2) So what's up with Babette's reading choices?
3) What is the root of Murray's obsession with Elvis?
4) Why argue about the rain when it is obvious whether it's raining or not?
5) Do any of these characters have cerebral abnormalities? I'm starting to get suspicious.

......

I'm speechless. I seriously can't think of a book to read next. Suggestions????

Country Living

Dan Martensen and his girlfriend Shannan Click live in a farmhouse somewhere in upstate New York. Their property consists of two large barns and a large garden. It looks like their house is just surrounded by green. The natural, woody colors of the barn, and the encompassing green lends the farmhouse a relaxed and peaceful feel to it. The trees seem to box them in, creating the feel of a world separate from ours. The fact that they grow all their fruits and vegetables adds to the organic feel of the farmhouse. Let's just say, I wish I lived there.

Overwhelming Relief

It's really not as drastic as I make it out to be. I only found my missing poetry journal for etymology that I had been missing for a while now. 22 poems down, 18 to go!

Simply...Exhaustion

YoungLife is a youth group get-together thing that happens every Monday in my basement. As it is Monday, you can bet it is happening right now. It's very loud and very fun, so I can hear them through the floor beneath me. Why aren't I there, you ask? Well, spring break just ended yesterday and I drove ALL DAY so I tried sleeping the duration of the trip. Probably not the best idea, seeing as a result, I couldn't fall asleep last night. So now I am exhausted and the only things keeping me from collapsing into bed are these:

A) YoungLife happens in my basement which is where, subsequently, my bedroom is located. Suffice it to say, I would not be getting any sleep down there.

B) My math teacher gave us book work and my etymology teacher gave us blog assignments. My AP Lit teacher, who is also my ETY teacher, gave us pages to read and a blog post to write about it. I have to memorize a 200 word poem by Wednesday.

C) I haven't showered yet, and my bathroom is, you guessed it, in the basement. How awkward would THAT be.

Lacking in Empathy

I, as a very empathetic person, can very easily feel for other people. I can't really imagine a world without emotions but there are people who go everyday without knowing how their actions affect others. There is a mental disability known as autism and autism has its very own spectrum. At the high functioning end of the spectrum is a diagnosis called Asperger's. In the novel House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Jacob, an eighteen year old boy with Asperger's syndrome, finds himself wrapped up in a serious murder investigation and trial, as the prime suspect. Jacob, as an autistic adult, is extremely intelligent and could carry on conversations with people double, even triple his age which is why Asperger's is known as the Little Professor syndrome. Jacob can retain any information he comes across, has a photographic memory and knows everything there is to know about dogs, dinosaurs and forensic science. Yet Jacob lacks the social skills needed to survive in this world (he can't stand people touching him, he can't look into anyone's eyes for more than a second, and he can't interpret emotions that other people are exhibiting). Kids who suffer from Asperger's desperately want to fit in and make friends, but are often viewed as freaks because of their inability to interact with others. For example, Jacob has nervous tics that he experiences when he gets stressed or nervous. Even the smallest thing can set him off. He starts "stimming" or flapping his hands at his sides and then starts screaming at the top of his lungs. Jacob cannot stand the color orange, hates loose hair, has to eat by color-coordinated days (Red Mondays, Green Tuesdays, Yellow Wednesdays, etc.) and has to watch his favorite TV Show, CrimeBusters, every day at 4:30. If his schedule gets interrupted he goes ballistic. He has numerous medication he takes to help him make it through the day, and sees several doctors and even has a social skills tutor, Jess. Jess tries to help him see the world through normal eyes, teaching him how to make conversation, look into people's eyes, and even how to ask a girl to the dance. Despite his high intelligence level and adult age, Jacob is, in many ways, still a child. And his mother is forced to take care of him, while his younger brother Theo gets tossed to the side. When Jacob's social skills tutor, Jess, turns up missing, and is eventually found dead, Jacob is suspected of murder, due to his close interaction with Jess, his being prone to lashing out, and countless evidence piled against him. Oliver, his lawyer, has to show the jury that while his behavior may make him look guilty, it is just his Asperger's acting up and Jacob couldn't have known right from wrong in the situation due to his disease.

I'm really glad I decided to read this book, due to the fact that my cousin, Matthew, has Asperger's and I wanted to learn a little more about this condition. Matthew has always gotten on my nerves due to his behavior (which was just recently diagnosed as Asperger's) but he's not nearly as bad as Jacob behaves in Picoult's novel. Reading, and learning, how Asperger's works makes me believe I can interact more easily with my cousin. I don't believe Asperger's is a disease, or something to be ashamed of. It is merely a part of who Matthew, and Jacob, are. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in psychological issues, crime scenes and family issues.

P.S. Solved: Me, 1:00

Familial Relations

I don't know why, but lately I've been reading books centered on slightly skewed families. Okay, scratch that. These families are pretty messed in the head, usually featuring one child who possesses a slight sheen of normality. The abnormality (at least by my standards) rates for these two familes are through the roof. I just finished APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE! and This Is Where I Leave You while on spring break and let me tell you, the main characters are as far from my view of family as you can get. A,A! is about a son, who is relatively normal, existing (or at least trying to exist) in a family of crazies, living on Martha's Vineyard. His mother is a radical activist, a communist and a Marxist who blames her father for her mother's death and is obsessed with dogs. Apparently they own upwards of 20 I guess. His father is a compulsively unfaithful drunk who married into money and can't hold anything except a glass of chardonnay. His uncle hates his mother, is obsessed with training carrier pigeons and randomly goes missing. His brother is incorrigible, yet still mommy's favorite. The only other person in their family is The Falcon, otherwise known as Grandpa, who pays for his family's lavish lifestyle. Oh, by the way, did I mention the main character's name? Yeah, it's Collie. As in, the dog. And his brother's name, you ask? Bingo. Yes, his name is Bingo.

The other family I read about is from the book This Is Where I Leave You. While not as radically abnormal as the other family, it's still much different from mine. Judd's wife has just left him for his boss (Wade) and his father has just died. His family's Jewish so they are forced to "sit shiva" which is a way of saying they're going to sit in their house and grieve for seven days, while people come to their house to pay reverence, I guess. The characters weren't really all that into it. So Judd's the third child, after Wendy and Paul and before Phillip. Wendy brings along her husband and three children, Cole, Ryan and Selena. Paul brings along his wife, Annie, who used to date Judd. Awkward, right? Phillip, another incorrigible baby brother, nine years away from his closest sibling. He brings home a surprise guest. His forty year old life coach-turned-girlfriend. Oh, and surprise, Judd's wife, Jen, is pregnant. But it's not Wade's baby... And then there's the mother. She's a psychiatrist, I think, who specializes in raising babies. She's also, well, let's just say "surgically enhanced." Oh, and a closeted bi-sexual. Who knew families could get so crazy, huh? NOT ME. I have two parents, and two sisters. My family is about as square as you can get which, I think, is the reason I've lately been drawn to "special" family books. I don't know what it's like to have family members constantly go missing, passing out in a drunken stupor in neighbors' chimneys. While I'm happy about that, it gets kinda boring, doing the same old things. Can't one of my family members raise ten dogs, or carrier pigeons or something? I NEED SOME VARIETY HERE PEOPLE! Ah, well, as I always say, c'est la vie. Adios muchachos. I'm due for some much needed sleep. See you on Monday!

SB XI

Spring Break finally kicked off this year. It took its time, huh? Anyway, being in paradise, a.k.a Seaside, Florida, this week is shaping up to be pretty spectacular. If you're a fan of snow cones, Frost Bites is the coolest, most original and most delicious snow cone place you could ever visit. Every combination has a cool name. For example: Shark Attack, Frog in a Blender and Taylor the Sailor. Frog in a Blender is basically a combination of every single flavor. TtS is my personal favorite, and I don't even like snow cones. That's how good they are. Anyway, the weather has been perfect, the beach, pristine, and the company, while not stimulating, is very enjoyable. But come on, who expects stimulating conversation on Spring Break? So why am I sitting at this laptop instead of enjoying the day? Well, since you asked, a got a nasty bout of sunburn on my shoulders, face, hands and feet so I don't really feel like basking in the sun today. But rest assured I will be back out there tomorrow, ready to soak up more rays and expose my body to even more risk of skin cancer (at least I'm better off than those who tan everyday. I mean really, you couldn't just wait until you got to florida? come on, being pale is not that bad. take it from the master.). Anyway, I'm off!

An Early Father's Day

so it's my dad's birthday today, so everyone say a quick happy birthday to him, even if you don't know him. happy birthday, michael!!! next year it'll be the big 5-0! oh and p.s. my birthday's in 13 days, so if you haven't gotten me a present yet, you might want to get on that ;)