The Lovely Bones Annotation

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Boston: Little Brown and, 2002. Print. (328 Pages)

                The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was yet another new reading experience and differed from some the the books I have previously read. My previously read books centered on deep and moving concepts. For instance The Help was about the struggles of African American maids facing discrimination during the 1960s and A Thousand Splendid Suns was centered on a woman’s struggles. I hate to say that The Lovely Bones had a “lighter” theme because there were very deep parts, but the overall theme did not have as great of an impact than some of the other books.

The Lovely Bones was also an entirely new and interesting concept; a murder mystery written by the victim that was trying to help her family discover the killer for themselves. I think that this was a brilliant writing approach taken by the author. It set the book apart from the others and gave readers a fresh perspective on murder mysteries.

The author developed the characters with such depth and different personalities that it elevated the status of the book in my opinion. I felt myself becoming attached to the lives of Susie’s family because she cared so deeply about them. The book obviously included the aftermath of the murder which caused me, as a reader, to feel the emotions of the family and understand their actions.

I think that the book was fantastic. I have never read any “thrilling” books before. I figured that because the author disclosed the facts of the murder in the very beginning of the book there would be no suspense and that it would be a bit boring but I was proved completely wrong. I was on the “edge of my chair” for the majority of this book and found myself reading it for hours on end. (317)

Slutty Brownies - Part 3

            DO NOT stop whisking the ingredients until the brownie mix is finished. I know it sucks, and you may need to recruit other chumps, I mean people, to take over the whisking for you. After the cocoa powder, sugar, and butter is combined and the pan is far away from its heat source, add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. I assume that I don’t need to remind you to keep whisking. After those ingredients are mixed in, add the flour. Alas! Once the flour is added, you can stop whisking. Just go ahead and put the batter somewhere else when you are done.

            Next, you can make the cookie dough for the cookie layer. Luckily for you, there is no need for a whisk and you should obtain an electric mixer. In the mixer, cream the butter and the sugars. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix these ingredients together on a low speed until everything is good and combined. Finally you get to take the mix away from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips. This type of folding is not what happens for clothes or an assortment of towels. To fold in the chocolate chips, take a spoon, I usually use a wood one, and after the chocolate chips are added on the top, put the spoon on the bottom of the bowl and bring it up and over with the cookie dough until it is completely mixed together and looks delicious. I assume that there is some warning somewhere that says not to eat the dough so I will repeat the same warning: DO NOT eat the raw cookie dough. It is definitely not good, or scrumcious, or delectable, so it would just be a waste to eat it. After you have not eaten a fair portion of the dough, set it next to your brownie batter. (343) 

Slutty Brownies - Part 2

            DO NOT stop whisking the ingredients until the brownie mix is finished. I know it sucks, and you may need to recruit other chumps, I mean people, to take over the whisking for you. After the cocoa powder, sugar, and butter is combined and the pan is far away from its heat source, add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. I assume that I don’t need to remind you to keep whisking. After those ingredients are mixed in, add the flour. Alas! Once the flour is added, you can stop whisking. Just go ahead and put the batter somewhere else when you are done.

            Next, you can make the cookie dough for the cookie layer. Luckily for you, there is no need for a whisk and you should obtain an electric mixer. In the mixer, cream the butter and the sugars. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix these ingredients together on a low speed until everything is good and combined. Finally you get to take the mix away from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips. This type of folding is not what happens for clothes or an assortment of towels. To fold in the chocolate chips, take a spoon, I usually use a wood one, and after the chocolate chips are added on the top, put the spoon on the bottom of the bowl and bring it up and over with the cookie dough until it is completely mixed together and looks delicious. I assume that there is some warning somewhere that says not to eat the dough so I will repeat the same warning: DO NOT eat the raw cookie dough. It is definitely not good, or scrumcious, or delectable, so it would just be a waste to eat it. After you have not eaten a fair portion of the dough, set it next to your brownie batter. (320) 

Slutty Brownies - Part 1

            Like the name suggests, this brownie is a bit off the wall and crazy BUT they are completely delicious. I found the recipe on http://whatsgabycooking.com and made them with some friends the other night and have decided that they are so delicious that I want to share them with you. First you need to make sure you have all of the ingredients though listed below.

For the Brownie layer:

o10 tbsp unsalted butter

o 1 1/4 cups white sugar

o    3/4 cup cocoa powder

o   1/2 tsp salt

o    2 tsp vanilla extract

o    2 large eggs

o   1/2 cup AP flour

For the Oreo layer:

o    1 package of Oreo (regular stuffed or double stuffed)

For the Cookie Dough layer:

o    1 cup unsalted butter (at room temp)

o    1/2 cup brown sugar

o    1 1/2 cup white sugar

o    2 eggs

o    2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

o    2 1/2 cup AP flour

o    1 tsp salt

o    1 tsp baking soda

o    1 tsp baking powder

o    2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

The first step of baking is to preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. The first step of preparation is to make the brownie layer. The brownie batter that we made did not taste very good however so we ended up making the brownies from a box. Our fall out was that we used bread flour instead of normal flour and left half of the ingredients all over the kitchen. So, if you find that your brownie layer doesn’t work out, the box brownies taste just as delicious.

            To start the brownies, find a medium sauce pan and melt the butter over medium high heat. Make sure the butter doesn’t burn in the pan by continually moving it around. DO NOT burn the butter. I can tell you from experience that it smells absolutely disgusting. When the butter completely melts, add the cocoa powder and sugar. Whisk the ingredients to combine them and then remove the pan from the heat. (343)

A Thousand Splendid Suns Annotation

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. (367 pages)

                I have begun to read a lot of interesting and different books this year. Each one is different than the other and there aren’t two books that are alike. This year I have read The Help, The Shack, and many others that are each based in a different time period and in a different setting or country than the last. A Thousand Splendid Suns was definitely not an exception to this trend.

                A Thousand Splendid Suns is basically a book centered on the inner strengths of women and how they deal with their struggles. This is also a first theme in the books I have read. It’s very interesting to read about the strengths of these women because I am a woman and can think from the same point of view. I think it adds to my personal experience of the book because of the female similarity.

                The setting of this book really isn’t completely different from others I have previously read. I should say time period because the location is completely different.  From what I can tell, this book is around present day, maybe later like the 1970s or 1960s or so. This time period isn’t really that different from other books because they were all written about the same approximate time. The location of the book however, is in Afghanistan. Previous books were mostly based closer to home or with the same type of culture. I find it interesting to read a book located in Afghanistan because I am not really familiar with the customs or landscape in Afghanistan.

                I found this book to be very interesting. I think that the setting change contributes to my fascination and the story is actually very moving. There were so many times I found myself awestruck by what Mariam was dealing with and it just made me glad I wasn’t in her position. (331)

ACT versus SAT - Part 2

1)      The ACT also has a bit more advanced math section that covers more math concepts than the SAT does. The SAT only covers algebra and geometry in their questions whereas the ACT add a bit of trigonometry. In my opinion, the trigonometry questions are nice to see because they are the freshest in my mind because my school teaches trigonometry to students when they are juniors and seniors.

2)     There is an essay offered for both of the tests but only the SAT requires one to be written. The ACT has a thirty minute optional writing test but obviously, students do not need to take it. The score is also not included in the final composite score. It is listed separately in student’s scores. The SAT has a required twenty five minute essay in beginning of the test in which the score is included into the writing score. The writing score is also factored in to the composite score so ultimately the writing portion does affect your score on the SAT.

3)     The SAT has more sections than the ACT and is broken up more. There are four tests in the ACT; writing, math, reading, and science. The SAT tests three areas; reading, math, and writing but is broken up into ten different sections. It is a little of everything and switches back and forth. The test taker will take some math, and then some reading, then some writing, and then a little more math, etc.

4)     The final key difference is the way that college boards view each test. The ACT is viewed for the composite score so if someone is weaker in one area than others, they could still get a pretty good score. College boards look at how a student did on each section of the SAT however so there is a possibility that the student might score lower.

ACT versus SAT - Part 1

          The ACT is the most frequently taken test by prospective college students, the SAT coming in second. To help write this blog, I relied on a list from princetonreview.com that compared the two. I stumbled upon it and thought that it was interesting so I decided to share it. Below I wrote a condensed form of the list.

          The biggest reason to take either of these tests depends on which colleges you want to go to. The ACT is required by almost any college that a student applies to. The SAT however, is only required by about one hundred in the United States. There are about seven key differences between the two tests.

         

1)     The questions on the ACT tend to be a lot more straightforward than the questions on the SAT. The questions on the SAT are generally harder to understand and take a lot more time to figure out what they are asking. Here are two examples given by the Princeton Review;

“SAT: What is in your view of the claim that something unsuccessful can still have some value?”

“ACT: In your view, should high schools be more tolerant of cheating?”

2)     The SAT focuses a lot more on vocabulary than the ACT and includes a lot more challenging words. It also has a section that actually tests vocabulary

Ex:

Alfred Schnittke's musical compositions are -------: phrases are clipped, broken into sections, and split apart by long rests.

(A)                       Garnished

(B)                      Improvisational

(C)                      Fragmented

(D)                     Cautious

(E)                      Uniform

3)     While the SAT has a vocabulary section and the ACT does not, the ACT has a science section while the SAT does not. The science section in the ACT however is not meant to test one’s knowledge of formulas, phylums, or chemical equations though; it is actually designed in a way that would test your reading and reasoning skills. They will give you an experiment or study to read and ask you questions regarding the information. (334)

A Shift In Education

                Schools: the primary institutions for educating, learning, and preparing children for their futures, have changed a great deal over the years, both in purpose and the information taught. When school was first instituted, its main goal was to prepare children for work in factories or similar institutions. This intent can still be seen in every school, for example; there is seven to eight hour school day starting at seven or eight depending on schedules, five minute passing times, bells signaling students to move from one place to another, and so on and so forth. As time progressed, people started to complain. Early reformers like Jane Addams wanted to keep the schools with a production base in order to help immigrants and the poor adapt to society’s harsh conditions. People like John Dewey however; thought teaching more than the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic,) would be more beneficial to students in the socially changing economy. He wanted classes to be taught that would help the students learn new skills and actual things they would need when they got out of school.

            Today, there has been yet another shift of the way children are being taught and what they are being prepared for. They are not learning skills that will prepare them to work in factories; rather, they are skills that will prepare them to get into college. This would normally be a good thing because it encourages students to go to college and think that they are eligible to. It is so enforced however that everything that students work for is preparing for tests like the ACT, SAT, PLAN, PSAT, etc. and working to get the best grades so that they can get into their college of choice. The grades don’t always come from hard work either; some students will sometimes take easier classes where it is easy to get a good grade versus harder classes that they won’t get as good of a grade. (326)

How to Survive Shin Splints - Part 3 - Magical Medication

3.)    The Magical Medication – Ibuprofen

Now, I’m not quite sure if I can tell anyone to actually take this medication because then if something happens I might end up in a Micheal Jackson’s doctor situation and I don’t really want that to happen because I am kind of broke and I don’t have any desire to go to prison for twenty five or more years. So, to counteract this problem I am just going to tell you what I do to treat my shin splints pain.

I will maybe take ibuprofen once a month if I have a stomach ache, head ache, back ache etc. but when soccer season comes around and I develop my lovely shin splints, I tend to up my dosage. I figured out that it helps to take ibuprofen like a doctor prescribed it. By this I mean that I take it three times a day, with two to three pills each time. According to the back of the container you can take it every four to six hours so I try to space it out accordingly. I don’t know if this would work for anyone else but it definitely works well for me.

If you didn’t like any of the methods I recommended, you could always go a more traditional route and try to tape your shins. I’m sure there is some YouTube video showing the best way to do it but basically; you just tape around your shin around the area that hurts. I have tried this before and I personally think that it ends up making it a lot harder to run and it doesn’t work well enough to even try it. Hopefully these methods will help you get through your awful shin splints. If not, the best advice I can give you is to stay off of them and they will eventually heal. (323)

How to Survive Shin Splints - Part 2 - Ice Ice Ice

2.)    Ice Ice Ice Ice Ice! (No relation to the1990 song by Vanilla Ice)

I’m sure you have heard the saying practice, practice, practice because that is the only way you will get better. Well, I have decided to change that saying a bit in the case of shin splints. Instead of practice, practice, practice, it should be ice, ice, ice because that is the only way that your shins will heal! First off, the ice helps the pain to go away very quickly so if you choose to ignore all of my other suggestions I would highly recommend that you try to do this one because it will make a big difference in the amount of pain you feel.

My method of icing is to get some ice or an ice pack from my freezer and just place it on my shins for approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. It may be hard at first to figure out the best placement for the ice but all you have to do is move it around a bit until you maybe get it. It will take trial and error to get it right. After the fifteen minutes are up I will usually go put the ice back in the freezer to keep it cold and then grab something that will heat them up. I then heat my previously iced shins for another fifteen to twenty minutes. After I finish heating them, I then go back and get the ice pack out of the freezer and ice my shins for another ten to fifteen minutes. This should usually numb them long enough to go pain free until your next physical endurance session. Although it seems like it is not doing anything at first, trust me, it really is. In the meantime however I would suggest looking at my next step. (320)

How to Survive Shin Splints - Part 1

                I have recently discovered that I was blessed, or cursed, with a tendency to develop shin splints. For those of you that don’t know what shin splints are; WebMD describes shin splints as a “throbbing and aching in your shins. Shin splints aren't really a single medical condition. Instead, they're just a symptom of an underlying problem. They might be caused by irritated and swollen muscles, stress fractures, which are tiny, hairline breaks in the lower leg bones or over pronation or ''flat feet".” ("Shin Splints Symptoms, Treatment, Recovery, and Prevention from WebMD.")

                I have been unfortunate enough to have gotten shin splints for the past four years almost immediately after I start a sport or something with vigorous exercise. Due to my reoccurring problem, I have figured out some ways to either reduce the pain or get rid of shin splints altogether. Below I have included some of the ways I do so.

1.)    Buy arch supports

This is probably the most important one on my list. They not only help with the prevention of shin splints, they even help them go away! Keep in mind that I quoted earlier that there were three main causes of shin splints. If over pronation is not even a factor in your shin splint development it may not work. However, it probably is so you might as well try them anyway.

So, go to the store and buy yourself a pair of decent arch supports. Be careful in the ones that you choose though because there are some horrible arch supports out there. Look for ones that were made for the purpose you need them for, such as running, dancing, etc. If you go and buy a crappy one chances are that it will not help you and then you will have to spend more money on one that will. (333)

Works Cited:

"Shin Splints Symptoms, Treatment, Recovery, and Prevention from WebMD." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 10 Apr. 2012

Pep Pep Pooray!

                Pep Assemblies, different in every school and every depiction, and school has different traditions and ideas for them. A pep assembly is defined as a large gathering of people intended to arouse enthusiasm ("Pep Rally."). Obviously this is a vague definition because it does nothing to explain what actually happens at pep assemblies. Let me clear this up for you, everything that happens at a pep assembly or a pep rally is designed to make students or players more excited about an upcoming game, or going to the school, or anything that needs to be encouraged by students. Most will have a performance by cheerleaders, encouraging speeches from people like sports captains, student body presidents, cheerleaders, principals, teachers, etc.
              
            Like every other school, ours has its own traditions. We have a class competition, where each graduating class competes against the other classes trying to distinguish themselves as the best class and win the spirit stick. At each of our assemblies, the principal takes the chance of the school being in one place to award people and point out the students that overachieve or participate in any extracurricular activities.

            I went to a pep assembly in Missouri a few years ago that was more like the stereotypical pep assemblies that one would see on TV, in movies, music videos, etc. They distinguished their overachieving students as we did but instead of competing to increase school spirit, there was one person in the middle of the gym that was evoking applause and cheer. Their pep assembly was also shorter than ours usually are. It only lasted about thirty minutes whereas the assemblies at our school take at least an hour and a half.

            This is my comparison of only two schools. I would love to see whether the majority of schools conduct pep assemblies in a similar fashion to ours or like the one in Missouri that is more stereotypical and thought of. (337)

Works Cited:

"Pep Rally." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.

Marvel Superheroes

            This may just be because I saw Captain America recently, but I have been noticing that there are A LOT of Marvel Superheroes that have been made into movies, and almost all of the movies are fantastic (I admit that I havn't seen them all so I can't say that they are all fantastic, only the ones that I have seen were). Below is a list of movies from Wikipedia that have been made featuring the Marvel superheroes.

Year	Title	Production studio(s)
1944	Captain America	Republic Pictures
1986	Howard the Duck	Universal Pictures
1989	The Punisher	New World Pictures
1990	Captain America	21st Century Film Corporation
1994	The Fantastic Four	New Horizons
1998	Blade	New Line Cinema
2000	X-Men	20th Century Fox
2002	Blade II	New Line Cinema
	Spider-Man	Columbia Pictures
2003	Daredevil	20th Century Fox / Regency Enterprises
	X2	20th Century Fox
	Hulk	Universal Pictures
2004	The Punisher	Artisan Entertainment
	Spider-Man 2	Columbia Pictures
	Blade: Trinity	New Line Cinema
2005	Elektra	20th Century Fox / Regency Enterprises
	Man-Thing	Lions Gate Entertainment / Artisan
	Fantastic Four	20th Century Fox
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	20th Century Fox
2007	Ghost Rider	Columbia Pictures
	Spider-Man 3	Columbia Pictures
	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	20th Century Fox
2008	Iron Man	Marvel Studios
	The Incredible Hulk	Marvel Studios
	Punisher: War Zone	Lionsgate Entertainment
2009	X-Men Origins: Wolverine	20th Century Fox
2010	Iron Man 2	Marvel Studios
2011	Thor	Marvel Studios
	X-Men: First Class	20th Century Fox
	Captain America: The First Avenger	Marvel Studios
2012	Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance	Columbia Pictures
2012	The Avengers	Marvel Studios
	The Amazing Spider-Man	Columbia Pictures
2013	Iron Man 3	Marvel Studios
	The Wolverine	20th Century Fox
	Thor 2	Marvel Studios
2014	Captain America 2	Marvel Studios
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Columbia Pictures

"List of Marvel Universe Characters." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Apr.     2012.

                To be fair, Marvel comics has around 7000 different superheroes to choose from but still! If a company can make this many movies about this many different things, they have got to be pretty intuitive. It makes me wonder what the inspiration is for all of these writers. In my experience, the ideas for heroes come out of a need for something good and pure, which, in today's society is sometimes hard to find. (388)