The barcode tattoo conversation #1 blog post

           On Friday, my group (minus Waniso ) had our first discussion about "The Barcode Tattoo." The Barcode Tattoo is a science fiction book about a girl named Kayla, about 20 or 30 years from now. The Barcode tattoo is exactly what it sounds like, a tattoo of a barcode. However this barcode hold all of your information, your credit card number, your bank account information, basically your whole life, and maybe a little bit more.

         In our discussion, my group talked about how the barcode relates to  very common  and convenient way of paying we have now, which is a credit card. You can pay with your barcode just like you can with your credit card, for example if someone hacks your credit card, they can use your information and money, however,  with the barcode, they can literally control your life. Another subject we talked about was how Kayla's reactions to both of her parents' deaths. We agreed that the author either didn't convince the reader that Kayla was that upset about losing her parents, or she was fueling the rebellion against the barcode with the loss of her parents. We also discussed Kekal's betrayal of the rebellion, and Kayla's best friend Amber eagerly wanting Kayla to get the tattoo, which made us wonder if Amber was also working for Global1, the company that runs the country and issues the barcode.

         All in all, Aleyna and I have agreed that we think the book is somewhat poorly written, but is an easy and quick read.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower blog post + movie opinions

               The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an excellent book that became a film a few years ago. I think that the movie was excellent,  being that is had all of the main attributes to the book, and didn;t leave out any important bits. I also like how is didn't undersize the issues that want on in the book, such as depression, abuse, sex, homosexuality, death, suicide, et cetera. The main character, Charlie is a 15 year old boy just starting high school. He is a year older because he was held back a grade when he was emotionally ill after his best friend committed suicide. He is a sensitive boy who now has no friends, until he meets Patrick, Sam, and all of their friends.

             In both the movie and the book, they are pretty much bad kids who smoke a pack a day and do weed and acid. But they are also nice, and smart, courageous and outgoing.  Charlie soon befriends them and falls in love with Sam, a girl with short hair and Patrick's step-sister. Charlie spends the whole book and movie with these people, and dates and dumps their friend Mary Elizabeth. He liked her, but she was always talking, and was a bit bossy. Deep down, he loved Sam, but he didn't show it until a party where he was dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room. However, he wasn't the only one with relationship problems. His older sister had a boyfriend who she was seeing in secret, because her parents had found out he had hit her. Even though she claimed he wouldn't do it again, he was to never be seen again. He then got her pregnant and cllaimed not to be the father. She got an abortion and they broke up.

             The story ends with Charlie realizing the person he loves most molested him as a child and he is put into another hospital, where he is treated. The final part ends with Charlie and Sam getting back together after her and Patrick go tot college.  This book is heartwarming and heartwrenching at the same time.

Hurricane Song blog post

                 My class recently finished the inspiring book, Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi. The book is about a boy living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The boy's name is Miles, and he recently moved to Louisiana to live with his father, a jazz musician. Miles was not interested in Jazz, and believed that his father loved his instruments more than him. When the hurricane hits Miles, his father and a few of his father's very good friends and fellow jazz musicians are forced into The Superdome, a football stadium, with many other people of low income. They are forced into awful conditions for a couple days, but by the way the book is written, it makes the reader feel like it was  a couple months.
Miles and his father were able to live through deaths, injury, sickness, and so much violence. I believe Miles and his dad were able to live through that because of the music; even though Miles resented it at first.


               At the beginning of hurricane song, Miles asked for football gear for his birthday, something he really wanted and specifically asked for.  Instead he got a drum. In the superdome, he played the that drum, and used it more than any football gear would have. When someone died they played. When gangs were setting fires they played. They brought peoples' hopes up when they were tired and defeated, hungry, thirsty and fatigued. When a man named Cyrus commited suicide they played- together, always together, with Pop (Mile's father) on his horn and Miles on the drum. When Miles and Pop escaped the dome and swam through the floods to Pop's old jazz club, they played. I believe that all of the music kept them going, surviving. I think that if they didn't have that hope, they wouldn't have escaped the dome, and they would have endured much more torture. I'm not saying if you play jazz BOOM your life will get better, but in this scenario, they wouldn't have lived without it.



              All in all, this concludes that Miles and Pop in Hurricane Song survived the storm through music, and hope, all while giving people hope around them, when they had none.

Beautiful Boy in relation to Tweak

         I first read Tweak around six months ago, and realized the true horrors of being a drug addict, and after reading Beautiful Boy it brings you into the world of being related to one. David and Nic take years to battle this disease of addiction that plagued their lives for years after. Nic took many years to recover from his addiction to meth, and it took his father even longer, and one brain explosion. Literally, his head exploded. Nic's addiction affected not only David (Nic's father) but his mother, step mother, step father, grandparents, younger siblings and all of his friends.

         In Beautiful Boy,  Nic is shown at first as a sweet talented, smart boy who gets good grades, is kind to his family and friends, and is, in general, a good kid. Not much of Nic's childhood is shown in Tweak. The small bits that do exist in his book are about his father's previous drug use and his parent's divorce. He shows Jasper and Daisy's childhood (his younger siblings) mostly because they were little when he was still addicted to meth. He describes having great times with them when he was sober, and and them feeling upset when he wasn't. There is one particular scene where Nic steal's Jasper's only eight dollars. This shows that Nic was really willing to give up everything he had, including his younger siblings who loved and adored him so much.

This was not different from David Sheff's book, as David shows Nic breaking into his home, stealing money, forging checks, and doing drugs at night before sleeping in their living room.  The two books end with Nic being sober for two years, relapsing once more, but then finding help immediately. He as not relapsed since, and his family has grown mush closer. And now he and his father have books that are both New York Times bestsellers.

        

Black beauty blog post

              I just started reading the book Black Beauty, a book about a young horse who is mistreated and abused. It is in the first person,  and it helps you respect the horses life. This book makes one think in the mind of a horse, as it really sucks you in to the horses' setting, environment, it lets you feel the horses' pain when he is hurt, and lets you feel his happiness when he is treated with respect.
I am using this book as a mentor text for my Independent Writing Project, because my story is from the point of view of an animal as well. So far, I believe this book is an excellent one.

             In Black Beauty, the main character is a black horse who is just a few years old, at least in the beginning. As he gets older he leaves his mother, his old farm and his master. He shows his master as a kind person, who never hurts him, always feeds him and gives him treats, and speaks to him in a nice way. He moves to a new farm to get used to wearing a saddle, a bridal and a halter. He complains about wearing a bit, a metal rod that goes behind the horses' last molar, and is, apparently, very unpleasant. The first master is kind, however he goes to another farm where the master shoves the bit in his mouth and causes his mouth to bleed. He meets other horses who have had experiences like his, and ones that have been in much worse conditions. I am guessing, based on the blurb in the back of the book, the horse will be moved to a new farm, or multiple other farms where he will be mistreated, then he will ultimately go back to his old ranch.

           I believe the author of Black Beauty wants us to respect animals, or just everyone in general, by showing the horses point of view to its life.

The Road Not Taken bloggy posty

            The poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is about a man in his mid-life, having to make a choice between to roads in his life, then later, wondering what the other road would have held for him, and how it would have changed his life. In the poem, it states that "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," and that means that there were two choices for him to make, and the yellow wood means that it's fall, which means its probably in the middle/end of his life. This poem show the man looking back by stating that "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

              In the poem it states that "Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear," this shows that the narrator is choosing which path to choose, and chooses one because less people had traveled on it. The poem says after that that
"Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back." This shows that the narrator wanted to go on the other path, or the other destiny, but decided that he would save it for another day. Again, in the future, or in the fourth stanza he says that "I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

          All and all this shows that the narrator chose one path in life, and decided that he would go the other way one day. the poem indeed shows the man looking back- without regret but more curiosity, and wonders what the other path would have held.

Luna bloggy posty

                I recently finished the heart wrenching book Luna.  The protagonist is a 15 or 16 year old girl with two judgemental parents- and a transsexual brother. The girl, Regan struggles with school, boys, bullying, and protecting her brother, Liam. During the day he is a smart tall, thin senior in high school, smart, handsome, and has girls following him around like he's god.  But that's not what he wants. All he wants is to be a girl, and says he was born into the wrong body. Meanwhile, he dresses like a woman at night, and has named himself Luna. She wakes up Regan in the middle of the night to show her- as Regan is the only one who knows. Regan has always been there for her brother, but now she is struggling to work in school, and has caught the eye of the new kid, Chris, in her science class. In Luna by Julie Anne Peters, Regan goes through a tough year, as she helps her prother transition for good.
                 In Luna,  Regan has flashbacks about her brother as a little kid letting Luna out. He would but nail polish on, ask his mom for barbies makeup and hairbrushes for his birthday and Christmas. They never has any of it. The father was always making Liam look bad by making him try out for sports, and not letting him cook dinner instead of Regan when he was perfectly capable. In the middle of the book, Regan and Luna would slip out at 6 in the morning to go shopping at a mall. Liam's goal was to make no one question that he was a boy, and pretending he can't see people snickering. At the end of the book Liam meets a transsexual and goes to live with her inspired by her braveness. After he tells his family on his eighteenth birthday, his dad practically throws him out of the house, and his mom just couldn't deal with it. He goes to Seattle where he starts therapy and gets ready for his sex-reassignment surgery.
                  I think this book really shows that you should appreciate others for their differences, no matter if they're gay, lesbian, transsexual, it doesn't matter. The moral of the story is you should treat people the way you want to be treated, and accept and love others for their differences- not everyone has to be exactly like you.

Soda Ban blog post

Lucie Pascarosa              705            2/10/13    

                                             Soda ban Essay

Mayor Bloomberg has imposed a soda ban on New York City, proposing to ban sugary drinks over 16 oz. in order to drop obesity rates. Sounds good right? Well, not exactly. The soda ban may seem like it would decrease the obesity rate, but there are way too many loopholes in the law, and it could hurt businesses. One example of a loophole is that you can buy multiple 16 oz. sodas at a time. The government cannot help this loophole, but unfortunately stores not regulated by the government could still sell supersized sodas which means delis and 7/11 will be able to sell (sometimes literally) you buckets of soda legally. The point is, even if you can’t get a 32 oz. soda with your Happy Meal, you can just hop across the street to the 7/11 and buy a Double Gulp, for much less than buying that many 16 oz. sodas would cost. One more reason the ban should not be supported is because it could hurt businesses that depend on large sodas for profit, like fast-food restaurants, and movie theaters. Those are only two of the issues with the ban. The point is, there are way too many loopholes in the ban, and it could actually hurt our community, more than it would help it.

One reason the New York City soda ban should not be supported is because there are too many loopholes. First of all, even though Mayor Bloomberg has banned sodas that are more than 16 oz, really he has banned cups that hold sizes larger than 16 oz. So you can just keep refilling that cup over and over, and the government won’t be able to lift a finger. Now, that is your own personal choice to get fat, which isn’t a good thing, but the government should have figured out a plan with less loopholes of they really want us to drink less soda. Another loophole is less obvious if you have no knowledge on the ban. The ban states that only government regulated restaurants and theaters will be affected by the ban. So if you don’t want to waste money to keep refilling your cup, you will be able to go over to the bodega across the street and get whatever size soda you want. So in reality, the ban will only be a small inconvenience to those who enjoy larger sodas.

Second of all, the soda ban could kill Movie Theater and fast-food businesses because of how much money the fast food business and the movie theaters make off of soda each year. According to rd.com, or Readers Digest, movie theaters make almost all of their money from concession stands- not movie tickets. Movie theaters also make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from soda, and would lose that much money from the ban when Bloomberg takes away all of that soda away from the menu. The business will be making much less money, especially if they charge cheaper, even when the soda is already over-priced. A soda so often accompanies fast food restaurant’s meals, that cutting most of that soda out of the picture could be disastrous in terms of money. One could think that the govornment wants to make people feel full after one small soda, well the first McDonalds soda was 6.5-7 oz. When sizes were that small, people felt like they were getting too much when they ordered two, so most didn’t. So less people were fat and more people paid less. Then came the jumbo sizes. Bigger sized sodas were designed to make you feel full with one soda that is larger, therefore the company makes more money. As the sizes increased, the less you had to pay for a jumbo soda, and people got fatter. (From the Omnivore’s Dilemma for kids).

There are some potentially beneficial parts to the ban, but they don’t make much sense. Some say that the ban will create an inconvenience for people to buy large sodas at their favorite fast food restaurants, but they can literally go across the street to a convenience store or 7/11 to buy a pint-sized soda. Another argument was that the ban was a really big step for cities across the United States, but because the ban didn’t regulate all restaurants, there is no point in having it. Non-government regulated restaurants, and drinks with 50% or more milk or milk substitute will be exempt. Also, drinks you add your own sugar will also be exempt. Some also say that if it benefits the people, businesses can stand to loose a few extra bucks. Well, not exactly. Along with movie theaters, basketball stadiums will be affected by the ban as well. Think about all of the people who pay more to buy sodas over 16 oz. in those stadiums. A lot right? Like movie theaters, stadiums charge a high price for soda and other concessions. Taking most of their soda away will discourage customers from buying the soda, which is what Bloomberg wants to happen. The thing is, he needs to find a way to balance everything.

All in all, the New York City Soda ban will not be affective because there are too many loopholes, and movie theaters and fast-food companies will loose money. The soda ban will take away one of the main money sources from movie theaters and stadiums in which customers won’t pay as much for sodas. The other loophole is that non-government regulated stores will not be affected by the ban, therefore, you can still buy gallon sodas. The big picture is, the New York City soda ban will fail, and all of the money Mr. Bloomberg spent on the law will be wasted.

After Ever After blog post

         In class this year, we read a book about an eighth grade boy coping with his brother who was diagnosed with cancer. The book was called Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. I recently found out that there is a sequel to this book, but instead in Jeffrey's , the little brother, point of view. In the second book, Jeffery has reached eighth grade and is struggling with all of the pressure that comes with it. After having cancer for a couple of years, chemotherapy has poisoned his brain, making it really hard for him to do math. On top of that, he has girl problems, and his best friend is tourturing him him about it Those are only two of the many issues the main character faces in this book.

        Jeffery goes to the same middle school his now college age brother did. He also has the same English teacher. Those are pretty much the only normal thing in Jeffery's life. He met his best friend in the third grade, when he was new to Jeffery's school. His friend Thadeus, or Thad came in on crutches, and with a bald head and a scar running across his scalp. Jeffery introduced himself to him saying that he had cancer too. Thad made some sarcastic remark, and then they became friends. Going into middle school, Thad had much trouble walking, and had to be wheeled around in a chair. If you haven't guessed already, Thad didn't have Leukemia, he had brain cancer, and wasn't out of remission like Jeffery (the five year period after cancer treatment). Meanwhile, statewide tests have been introduced to New Jersey, which could be trouble for Jeffery.  There is a math test, and if Jeffery doesn't pass the test he will have to repeat the eighth grade. Thad has offered to tutor him, and Jeffery has a Thad try to walk on the treadmill in gym every other day, and Jeffery's goal is to get Thad to walk across the stage for graduation, and Jeffery promissed that he will be at graduation, with a passing grade in math. Aside from the two best friends, Jeffery has a crush on the new girl from California, and Thad has been making obvious remarks in front of her when they sit together in science everyday. Jeffery is also missing his brother Steven who is in Africa, playing drums.

          Jeffery is going to have a big eighth grade year, and this is only half of it. The other half you need to find out yourself. You should anyway.

On the Far Side of the Mountain

           I recently revisited one of my favorite books from sixth grade- On the Far Side of the Mountain, which is the sequel to My Side of the Mountain, and the prequel to Frightful's mountain. the series is about a boy who has eight siblings, living with both his parents in a tiny apartment in Manhattan. The boy's name is Sam, and he has always had an interest in the wild, and what it would be like to live there. So he tells his dad, "I'm running away to the Mountains, I'm going to live there." His dad laughed and said go ahead, like he wouldn't actually do it. Well, the book is called, "On the Far Side of the Mountain," so you can guess eh proved his dad wrong. He ran off to the mountains, with only a swiss army knife, flint and steel, and a couple other necessities. He made a tiny camp out of sticks and leaves to survive the firs night. I love this book because it shows how humble and non- society dependent a person can be, and can be independent, and not rely on others.

         In On the Far side of the Mountain, Sam has long since made his home on the mountain. He lives on one of the mountains in the Catskills, and his home is an old tree that was gutted, and made cozy. Sam kills deer, squirrels, fish, frogs, and even turtles for food. He wears clothes made from deer hide, and socks lined with rabbit fur. It is the purest world a man could ever live in. I forgot to mention before, that Sam was about 15 when he ran away, and in the book I just finished, he was maybe 18. At the end of the first book, his family goes to visit him, but with a plan in mind. They want to build a farm on the peaceful, natural mountain side, which Sam begged them not to do. They tried anyway, but the soil was so rocky that it was impossible to plow. Then, one of Sam's younger sisters persuaded her parents to let her stay. And she did. She built a tree house a short distance away from Sam's tree. It is truly a beautiful story about a beautiful paradise.

         These are the reasons I love this book. The purity of the Sam and Alice grow so much, that I only wish that that could be reality.

Dead is the New Black bloggy posty

            If anyone has read my other posts, you know that I was reading little women and I get bored easily when books aren't thrilling, so I wasn't such a fan of Little Women. So one project real I asked Giselle if she had a better book and she handed me a book with a pink cover with black dripping type saying "Dead is the New Black." I read a few pages and figures, ok, this is a classic teenage vampire story with boyfriends, cheerleading, coffins and such. Was I right? Yes. Yes I was. The main character is a girl who's family is all psychic-except for her. Her sisters can read minds, and make objects float in mid-air. Her mother works in crime solving, and as teenage vampire dramas go, there is a very unusual case, in which a girl was killed, but there was no signs of death, and so on. The book will suck you in with the fast-moving plot, even if it isn't a particurally good book in terms of quality, but it's a quick and exciting read.
          In "Dead is the New Black" Daisy, the main character is 17 years old, and goes to a high school with her best friend, who happens to be a really cute boy(go figure). He has a crush on the head cheerleader, who used to be a cheerful blonde, but is now carrying a coffin around, wearing black, and is always wearing a mysterious ankh pendant around her neck. Going back to the unusual case Daisy's mother was working on, Daisy, being used to cases like that, took her best friend, Ryan (the boy) to the morgue to look at the girls dead body. There were no signs of injury, but there was a noticeable stamp on her hand that read "opal." I haven't finished the book yet, so I couldn't tell you what it means. I'll have to find out! Moving on, I didn't mention that they took the keys from the security guard to get in. So they almost get caught in the morgue looking at the body, when Ryan hears the guard. He randomly kisses Daisy, and the guard says "Ryan, didn't I tell you to stop bringing girls in here? I thought your father took your keys away." Daisy covered him by blaming it on herself, and it just got more akward after that.
         I guess you can see why one would get sucked into these kinds of books right? They don't make you think that much ,and they're fun to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that is really bored with their current book and need a fun, quick read.

Little Women Blog Post #2

            Little Women has gotten increasingly better. It isn't as boring as before and has a small plot line. There is one thing I want to focus on in this blog. In the book, it is obvious that there is a particular way of speaking and amount of politeness  that everyone has. There are four girls in Little Women. Meg, the oldest and prettiest, Jo, the "tomboy," Beth, the sweetest, and Amy, the youngest. Even thought they all have their different personalities, the "little women" are all equally polite. They speak in an old- English drama type of way. I am very impressed with the way everybody talks. It makes me feel bad about the way I talk. For example, they would say "I am so forlorn that Beth's dainty heart was broken by the deceased bird!" I would say "It's like, sad that her bird's like, dead."
I feel like I need to go back to the 1800's to learn how to  talk right.

           I think that the girls in little women are too polite. I think that a certain amount of politeness is great, being polite and well mannered are two great attributes to a person's personality, but the amount of politeness in little women is so absurd. They are always polite. No matter what. Even in arguments they are polite. I think a certain amount of rudeness is acceptable in some situations. For example; the girls had gone on a camping trip with a couple Englishmen and their friend Laurie. They were playing a game of croquet, and one of the Englishmen cheated by nudging his ball though the hoop with his foot. Jo, the second oldest sister was annoyed and she said something but she didn't get mad at all! I If I was there I would have shown him my fist and told him not to cheat-but that's just me. I also appreciate that they can be so polite and happy while their father is at war. Even though that was how everyone spoke back then, I think that Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are all greatful for what they have.

         Without hate or complaints, I actually think Little Women is a good book. I think you have to dive a little deeper to get the true meaning of it, but it's there. It shows you should appreciate the time period you live in. But mainly it also shows that you should appreciate what you have, even when you are around others that have more.

Little Women

                 Little Women has been a favorite book to many readers, and so I thought  might pick it up and start reading it. I assumed that it would be written in that 1800's style speak, for example, 'I feel so forlorn that we are poor and now I'm going to weep a little weep. ' If you have watched any old movie that is supposed to take place in the 1800's, then you know what I am talking about. Anyway, it was worse than I expected, and some words had stars next to them to point out what some weird old words mean. As you might have noticed I'm not a huge fan of this book so far. Maybe it will get a little more interesting, and I'll see why people love it so much.

              In Little Women all they talk about is that they are poor. Always complaining about this and that and why their "burden" is so big, and how their clothes are all frayed or have a burn mark on them, when, they have a maid!!! What poor people have a maid?!?! Then again, it did take place during the civil war, maybe the maid was a slave. But they seemed to be on pretty good terms with the maid, and they labeled her as a maid in the actual text, so I am assuming they are a "poor" family with a maid. Personally, I don't think they are all that poor from the description of their house, what they wear, the food they eat. My definition of "so poor" is no food, no nice house next to a very rich man, no parties, and no semi-nice dresses. And especially no maid. I don't mean to hate on the sisters but really, they always think about themselves, and pity themselves because other girls that they meet are richer than them. If I could go into the book and back in time, I would say deal with it. I just think they should appreciate what they have more, because really, they aren't that poor, especially considering that their country is in a war against themselves.

            What I am trying to say is, you should appreciate what you have, and not go  complaining to other people about that you don't have as much money as so and so, or your dress has a burn mark in it this one time. As for the actual book, it isn't painful to read it, but I have been reading books like Tweak and Crank that I'm very bores with a book that has little to no plot line.

Tweak bloggy posty part 2

                So I finally finished the melancholy book Tweak with the main character and author Nic Sheff. At first I thought of the book as a disgusting, gross, and I pitied Nic who had to go through that stuff, and not how lucky I was to not have divorced parents, or a history of weird sexual stuff in my family, like Nic did. but after finishing Tweak and reading the after word, I now realize how lucky and fortunate I am to not have to worry about just about any of that stuff. I have zero interest in drugs or alcohol, because I have read four boost hat show that they can ruin your life. I have a new appreciation for Nic Sheff because it takes a lot of strength to have relapsed that many times, and still write a book (fact: Nic Sheff relapsed one more time on prescribed meds after writing Tweak in 2008).

           In the remainder of Tweak, Nic relapsed at least two more times before writing Tweak ( other than the third time after Tweak) I really hope that Nic Sheff's life has become much better since he stopped using drugs. After watching Nic Sheff on youtube, I realized how much it really affected Nic's family, mostly his dad. His father also wrote a book called "Beautiful Boy" which was about him living through his son Nic's drug addiction. In the interview, Nic admitted that he stole things from his parents, and tried to get money from them to buy drugs for his ongoing addiction.

         On the more fortunate side of life, (but of course not as well,) Nic Sheff published the book in 2008, and had been sober since 2006 until his small relapse. He is now also very close with his dad, and is trying to prevent other young people to choose to do drugs to relieve stress, or whatever the reason is. Based on another video, I think he did drugs to " fill hole that had been with him until meth." Later, he explains that he wanted to die, and that his parents helped him by getting him into rehab and helping him through the 3-5 tough years that Nic did drugs such as meth, cocaine, crack, pot, heroin, and he smoked.

           All in all, the point of this post is that I obviously think that no one should ever try drugs, even pot (gateway to other drugs; happened with Nic) becuse it doesn't just damage your body, it hurts your actual self, and the people that really care about you in this world.

            

Tweak blog post

             If you think I am obsessed with books about drugs you are wrong. I am only mildly obsessed with books about drugs. Just putting that out there, but that's besides the point. For those who have not read it, Tweak is a book about a boy named Nic Sheff (the author) growing up and ruining his life with drugs. Similar to Crank, he does a lot of meth and ruins his life. Unlike Crank, he actually checked into rehab, and went to college, but he ended up much worse than her. Then again, he started doing drugs much, much earlier. Also unlike Kristina in Crank, Nic Sheff was involved with a lot of other drugs besides meth. He also didn't have any children. At least, so far. Like Kristina he lied stole, got stolen from, and had relationships with people that were either doing drugs, or had stopped for a little while and wanted to start using again. I just don't understand why some people do that to themselves. It ruins your life for years and from the books I've read recently, it is excruciatingly hard to get back on track again. The point I am trying to prove in this post is that Nic Sheff almost ruined his entire life with drugs. But he's alright now because he wrote the book I am currently reading.
             Nic Sheff got drunk for the very first time when he was-wait for it- eleven. That is younger than I am, and I have only had sips of red wine (blegh). So that is when it all started. His father also had an affair with another woman and his parents divorced when he was very young. Then his father married a different woman and they had a kid and Nic was left in the dust. I feel bad for Nic because he experimented with alcohol and it ended up with him puking all over the bathroom, but still liking the buzz it gave him. After, he progressed to other, much more dangerous and illegal substances. He got into all sorts of trouble. Arrests, overdoses, bar fights, fights in general over money and drugs. He dropped out of college twice, and stole 5 dollars from his little brother. He wrote checks for himself from his dad's checkbook, stole money from cash registers at stores he worked for, and stole stuff from the rehab he worked at for a little while. What I am trying to say is, drugs ruin your life. They make you steal for money to buy them, and then that money gets stolen and you get in a fight with that person. Then you steal more money. It's an ugly circle that you don't want to be a part of.
            All in all, that is why I think Nic Sheff's book Tweak is an amazing protrayal of the horrible things that take place when you do drugs.

Peeps bloggy posty

             In the (um, well) interesting book Peeps, Cal is an infected vampire person who feels bad for himself because he can't have a girlfriend or he will turn her into a vampire. In my opinion, it is not a very well written book, and the idea of vampires has gone so off in the past decade, that now vampires aree actually mortal, and they just don't like the sun, and sometimes, they don't like the sun because they sparkle! Really? The terrifying bloodsucking creature now sparkles and or doesn't like the sunlight! What is up with that? Anyway, the main character is looking for other "vampires" so that he can protect normal people and lock up the savages. But there is something lurking below the surface of New York City, and Cal is trying to find out what it is, meanwhile trying to hide his identity. I don't think the book is very interesting, except for the beginning of the chapters, which tell you about a different kind of deadly parasite. In Peeps, being a vampire means you somehow caught a parasite and you are living with it. So I guess that relates to the stories? The beginning of the  chapters sound more like a science book than a badly written story about "vampires." 
          
              Another reason I don't like the book Peeps is because the author doesn't give anything in the book that much importance. Yes, the main character cares about his cat, and his friends, but the book gives no backround of his life. If there was some more details about Cal's life we could feel more sympathy for his condition and instead of just looking at the words and not really reading, a reader should be able to read a book and actually think about it and want to read it more later, instead of just going, (as Ms. Cunningham would say) "I liked it it was good," you should want to read it again and again until your eyeballs hurt. Then again, people have different preferences, but a book should leave a reader thinking, and not just searching for something more interesting to do. There are some interesting parts in Peeps, like when they find the creepy vampires, and the mutated cat; but it seems like all action and no real details. Going back to back rounds, Westerfeild did say what state Cal was from and how old he was (Texas and 19) but he didn't say of he was adopted, who his parents were, did he have siblings, nothing that made the story any more interesting.
          All in all, that is why I don't like the book Peeps. It is badly written, there is no back round information about the main character, and the idea about scary monsters is very thrown off.