This Semster's books

This semester I have read so many books that, I am not able to remember all of them. They were all good but with the rush of school, work, and home activates, time seems to fly by like a cheetah with its tail on fire. I always read fictional books like syfy and fantasy. The appeal of another world is so great, and the escape of melting into that otherworld get me all excited, and I always have trouble putting the book down.

· Tempted (336pages): This novel by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast is one of my favorite reads for this semester. Tempted is the sixth book in the House of Night series. The House of Night series is about a group of vampire friends living in a world where vampires are discriminated against when they just want a happy life like everyone else. This book was a bit different from the other five. The chapters switched back and forth from one character to another and I was not sure that I would like that at all. I was afraid that I would hate it and it would ruin the book, but I feel that in the end that method really made the book have so much more depth and made it so much more interesting. The main character, Zoey Redbird, in this series is always going up against some dark evil, and in this novel she is faced with the same previous evils she faced in the last novel and they are posing as a couple that they are not in an attempt to take over the world and declare war on the humans. In this book she ends up losing something that is so dear to her it could tear apart ones soul for good. She is such a strong character, and a great leader. If she were real I would want to be on her side that is for sure. Another complaint I have about this novel is that the plot is somewhat slow, it takes forever to reach a climax, but the climax was a good one so I guess it evens out.

· Blue Moon(284pages): This is a novel by Alyson Noel. This is the second book in the series known as the immortals. Something I noticed when I picked the first book and this book up to read is that the author does not capitalize the title, her name, or the name of the series. It makes me wonder, does she do this so kinda show the reader that when one lives thousands of hundreds of years such little things like capitalization is not seen as important. It becomes a boring time wasting task. The main girl in this novel is named Ever. She is a girl that can be described as a loner. She lost her family when she was 13 and she only has a couple friends until she falls in love with a man named Damen. Which all happens in the first novel. Now (in this novel) something is wrong with Damen, her soul mate, and Ever has to find out who is causing the change and why before she loses him forever. But in her search she faces a chance to go back and save her family and return to her old life. Which will she choose her family of the man that it connected to her soul whom she could not live without?

· Eternal (307pages) This book has the theme of Angel in love with a vampire. At first, it is a bit different, but as the book progresses a forbidden love forms and causes chaos. Miranda was just a regular girl with a guardian angel that always watched her but she never knew. Then one night her and her best friend go out to meet some guys and both of their lives change forever, and Zachary her angel falls. I like this book. It is not my favorite but it was enjoy about. The story line was good. It did take me forever to read at first because I had trouble getting into it. There is a moral to the story though that is so important and so sweet.

Should Homosexuals Have the Same Rights?

Gay people are people too. This is a statement that few Americans believe in, few humans believe in, but it is a very true statement. According to an article by Brian Montopoli in CBS new, "forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry." This poll information was posted April 27, 2009. Twenty-five percent agree that gays should be allowed to have civil unions, but not marriages, and twenty-eight percent want gays to have no legal recognition what-so-ever.

They are people with souls, minds, hearts, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They should have all the rights that "straight" people have, which includes the right to be joined in marriage, a beautiful ceremony that represents love, commitment, and dedication for one another. But in our society today gay marriage is seen as an abomination, and a statement against God.

There are many scriptures in the bible about homosexuality in the bible such as:
Leviticus 20: 13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

But there are so many other scriptures, that out weigh the number of homosexuality scriptures, which talk about issues that are against God that we a a human race do not fight so strongly against. Sex before marriage for example:
Jude 1:7
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

So if you read and follow these scriptures exactly then if you are gay all you have done is committed an abomination that you can repent for, because God is forgiving and if he can forgive us for taking a live then he can forgive you acting in the manor that he has made you. But if you have sex before you are married then you are going to go to be punished with the "eternal fire," which I assume we all know what that refers too.

Some may argue that there is not a problem with sex before marriage so this comparison has no backing, but sadly they are mistaken. Melissa S. Kearney brings forth some very startling data on teen and non-marital childbearing. According to Melissa S. Kearney's article entitled Teen and Non-Marital Childbearing, in 2001 there were 1.1 million pregnancies that were to unmarried women in their twenties.

Even the 36th president of the United States, while signing the Voting Rights Act, said that gay marriage "must come; it is right that it should come. And when it has, you will find that a burden has been lifter from your shoulder," according to Taylor Harris with The Washington Post. If the human population would open their minds a bit more, and accept people for the way they are then we could cast that burden of fretting over same sex marriage aside. In doing this we could focus on the more pressing issues in the world, such as: the sudden changes in climate, global warming, and how we can fix them, new ways to protect the environment, sources of energy that are Eco-friendly, and efficient so that we can preserve fossil fuels.

Discrimination Against Language...What is American Coming too?

?Que? No lo entiendo. Translation: What I do not understand. It is becoming apparent that if a person does not speak what we as Americans call english, then that person is breaking a law, a law that does not against, a law that some Americans have created in their own minds. Something needs to be done to protect theses people that have all the right to be here in the U.S. and speak their fluent tongue just as much as we do. Don't think other tongues are being discriminated? Read the following story and its links.

According to an editorial in the New York times, police in Dallas have been giving tickets to people who could not speak, or understand fluently, english. The tickets were an outrageous $204! In the main article about this situation, which was written by Scott Goldstein in the Dallas News, it is said that, "Dallas police wrongly ticketed at least 39 drivers for not speaking english over the last three years." Most of these 39 drivers, according to Scott's article, were pulled over, charged with for their violation, but also charged for being a "non-english speaking driver." As stated by the New York Times, "all but one of these drivers were Hispanic."

I would say that this is an eye opening situation to what our nation is breaking down too. Most people do not want to focus on the bigger problems in our world, such as our growing national debt, our crippled economy, starving people near us and far away, so they begin cracking down on the little things that frustrate them, or confuse them.

One may say that the ticket incident was a fluke in their computers or a complete accident, but could a fluke or an accident happen 39 times over a three year period? And the ticket case is not the only situation where people of different languages are discriminated against. Kids are discriminated at school, adults and teens are discriminated in the work place. It's heart breaking to claim but, the evidence is all over, and if one pays attention then they will see and hear it.

I have heard kids, and adults alike, say "If they cannot speak english they do not need to be here," and when I hear that said over and over again, I laugh to myself, because our U.S. Congress never sat down and said, "The official language of this nation is English." Mind you that what we call english is really not english, it is a mix of nations, tongues, and regions I like to call American English because there is no other language like it. That being said, shouldn't we as a land of equal opportunities accept these other languages and the people that speak them? These people enrich out nation and bring variety and diversity.

Cell Phones...Friends or Foes?

Cell phones have become an unsuspecting weapons almost more than they have become useful tools.According to a group called Lawcore, on an average, there are more that 6 million car accidents on the roads of the U.S., annually. The rate of accidents caused by texting and driving are rapidly shooting toward the sky, and teenagers are not they only ones at fault. People of all ages have been swept up in the hazardous phenomenon of texting and driving.

Here are a few stories about texting related accidents which involve a range of ages which have been recorded by the website momlogic:

Bailey Goodman, 17, was killed along with four of her fellow cheerleaders when she swerved into oncoming traffic, hit a tractor-trailer and her SUV burst into flames. Five days later, the five teenagers would have graduated from high school. Two minutes before the crash it was reported, her phone was used to send a text greeting to a friend.


Ashley D. Miller, 18, veered into oncoming traffic and hit another car head on while she was texting. She and the other driver, a 40-year-old mother of one, were killed instantly.

17-year-old Vana Francis and 15-year-old Ronnie Scoggins drowned when a car carrying seven teenagers drove off the road and into a river. The 20-year-old driver admitted she was texting on her cell phone when the car plunged into the water, and was later arrested.

18-year-old Makayla Lynn Belew was killed when a text-messaging driver hit her as she walked along the side of the road and then the driver drove away from the scene. A year later, Larry Chad Smithey, 28, was arrested for the crime.

Something needs to be done about this terrible situation the world has fallen in. Some may argue that most states have made laws that ban texting for all drivers, or for drivers under the age of 18, but does this law really keep anyone from texting and driving? How could it? It is like the law that does not allow people under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes, kids under that age still find a way to by pass this law.

Many teens, and adults alike, have developed the ability to text with out looking. They may argue that this puts them at a better chance at not having a wreck, but they are sadly mistaken. Most people do not realize how little they are able to focus on the world around them when they are texting.

As recorded by a writer at hubpages.com, MRI brain scans taken while the patient partook in a driving simulation, shows that when a driver concentrates on driving the spatial awareness region of the brain sparks to life(click here to learn more about the spatial awareness regions of the brain). The same patient was then taken and put in a driving situation, and engaged in a cell phone conversation. The difference between the two simulations was that in the cell phone engaged simulation the part of the brain that controls, speech, language, and language understanding becomes alert and the spatial region of the brain is reduced in function by 37%. One may think, "Oh that's not too big of a difference. Driving is still possible." True as it may be that driving is possible, it is not true that driving in such a spatial reduction is safe. Texting while driving increases a persons chances of a crash by 23%, according to the author of this article, at hubpages.com.

We as a country need to slam a fist down and put a halt to this growing epidemic.According to an article in the Maryland Gazette, we have the technology to stop unnecessary cell phone use while driving. This wonderful technology is called cellcontrol and it was crated by a man that was almost hit by a person who was texting and driving. This amazing device regulates what calls can get through a phone, and what calls can be made. Text messages are also monitored and all operations that need to be ended, or changed can simply be done online at home. As of October 28, 2009 there are 20 people using cellcontrol, and a total of 75 devices in use. If these numbers do not increase then the roads will continue to be more and more dangerous as more and more people text and drive.




This blog post was was inspired by this article by Megham Daum with the Los Angeles Times.

Sentence12

Novel: Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

His Sentence

How much of the world did people miss because they were not calm enough, empty enough, to experience it?

Commentary: Cole has had a revelation and is asking some rhetorical questions, and out of all the rhetorical questions he asks himself, I like this one. I like this sentence for the simple fact that people do miss a lot of the world because they are to busy and stressed. Humans are too rushed and crammed for time to realize the beauty around them. I feel that the author used these rhetorical questions to get the reader to realize that there is a lot in the world and sometimes it is best to sit back relax, accept, become empty (not in a depressed way in an enlightened spiritual way), and experience the world around them in a new sweeter, magnificent view.

My Sentence

How much of what he said to me was a lie because he was not strong enough, brave enough, to tell the truth?

Sentence11

Novel: Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

His Sentence

It was as if the sky was holding it's breath.

Commentary: At this moment in the text, the poor boy has been hurt dearly and just awoke to dead quiet and stillness. This use of personification to describe the stillness and the loss of sound makes me oooo and aaaaa. I try to imagine the sky holding it's breath, and the sentence it's self just sounds beautiful to me, even though the situation in the book is a very eerie one, far from beautiful. It is as if the whole world is watching this boy endure all the trials and the sky is worried about what will happen next, just like a lot of people with they watch horror movies and all goes quiet in the movie. The holding of breath brings anxiety.

My Sentence

It was as if the ocean was dancing with me.

Sentence10

Novel: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Her sentence

Prim comes home from school bubbling over with excitement.

Commentary: This is a very straight forward sentence with a cute little metaphor weaved within (bubbling over with excitement.) When I think of something bubbling over I think of a big batch of blowing bubbles dripping over the rim of the container. When I think of Katniss's little sister Prim running into the house bubbling over with excitement I can see he bouncing around like bubbles. In the times that this family are dealing with it warms the heart to know that they can still be happy over the simple things such as wedding pictures. So this is kind of a way of lightening the mood for a soon to be terrible scene.

My Sentence

I ran to the house from town dripping with enthusiasm.