Finally

During the course of this semester, what kind of reading did you do? Crime thriller, political fiction, part of a classic, popular fictions and nonfiction.

Was it easy to find things that interested you? Yes.
Did you have trouble finding something you could stick with?No, but when I was trying to force myself read a book I didn't like, it was hard to stay with it and I ended up quitting it.
How did you choose the things you read? Recommendations from friends and looking at the covers.
Did you have trouble meeting the weekly page quota? Yes, during band.

Where and when did you find yourself sitting down to read? On my bed and outside after school, and in other classes, and in assistantship. 
Do you tend to read with music on, or in silence? Silence! I hate reading with music on!
By the computer? Sometimes when waiting for my slow computer to load 
Did you find yourself checking your phone a lot, or do you ever lose yourself in the reading? Both, depends on the book and who I was texting (especially my best friend, Becca) 
Do you ever talk about the books you read with your family or friends or teachers?  Yes, to the point that it annoys them.
Do you read the same types of books you did at the beginning, or have you discovered any new types of writing that you like? Yes, nonfiction and crime fiction. Are you more or less likely, do you think, to read independently this summer? tThe same. I always read in the summer. What do you think you might read next? Ummmmm.... I don't know yet :)

"Quirk Theory"

I have a marked interest in mathematics and psychology, so when I saw a book (The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth) attempting to scientifically explain "cafeteria fringe," I was hooked. "Cafeteria fringe" is defined as the people who are labeled as "different" or "weird" by their peers and are consequently mocked or excluded. These people often sit alone at lunch or with strangers, earning them the title. They can be judged for their appearance, views, religion, smarts, sexuality, interests, or pretty much anything. When I was a first year, I fell in this category for my bossy, know-it-all attitude (trying to mask deep insecurity) and my intelligence. I even overheard Ron telling Harry, "It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends. HONESTLY," and then cried for hours. So I sympathize with the kids in this book.

The book is nonfiction but reads almost like fiction as it anecdotally follows the lives of 7 main characters who experience this in some way or other. They are all labeled" "the loner," "the popular bitch," "the nerd," "the new girl," "the gamer," "the weird girl," and "the band geek." From the reader's point of view, they are all great people and worthy of befriending, but their fellow classmates see only the outside. Interspersed within the stories are psychology and science, things like the biology behind not wanting to be "that guy" who answers differently from everyone. One of the scariest parts was when I learned that "the weird girl," hated by cliques at school, is actually a teacher and is hated by teacher cliques. This is not just a teenage problem.

Quirk theory essentially states that the very same things that make peers, especially in a school setting, reject a person, are the things that positively set them apart from others in the real world. The "quirks" that are labeled become skills and interests that create interesting, successful people. I agree.

Currently

I'll get back to you on the quotes since I haven't recorded any and I turned The Dart League King back in. Quotes pending.

In the meantime, I read 102 pages of The Dart League King and 17 pages of The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth (Alexandra Robbins).

Total for the week: 119! Yay! Hooray for free time!

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EDIT: Quotes of the Week:

3. "Noah stood at attention exactly three-quarters of a yard beyond the 46-yard line, tingling with excitement." --The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth by Alexandra Robbins (I understand that feeling.)

3. a. (from the same book, a few pages later)"He noticed that he accidentally set up the podium five yards to the left of where it should have been, which could cause conducting problems. But the band was playing now and it was too late to do anything about it. Despite Noah's concerns, the halftime show ended up running smoothly until a trumpet player fell down."

2. "Eli classified himself as 'ten percent quiet nerd, ten percent ADD nerd, and eighty percent I-don't-really-care nerd'"--The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth by Alexandra Robbins

1. "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in the fruit salad." --A Friend :)

The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth

Starting a new book! Hope it's good. It's a nonfiction piece about the lives of 7 "misfit" high schoolers.

Will say more about it when I know more than a few pages about it. Nevertheless, I'd like to share this quote:

"Author J. K. Rowling, who has described herself as 'a squat, bespectacled child who lived mostly in books and daydreams,' was bullied in school because she was different." (sounds kinda like a kid who would write a blog from a witches' point of view) "Her heroic wizards and witches, who have entranced millions of readers worldwide, 'are plainly outcasts and comfortable with being so,' she has said. 'Nothing is more unnerving to the truly conventional than the unashamed misfit!'" YES.

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

Funny how people's judgement works. Tristan (in Keith Lee Morris's The Dart League King) is charming, unique, insightful, brilliant, and cute. He steals Kelly's heart in sophomore English class though his passionate, deep reading of Shakespeare. Despite the inability to hear Tristan's reading, the reader can't help to be captivated by Tristan's depth. Up to meeting him, the characters all seemed so messed up and shallow--drug dealers and addicts, teenage mothers, and potential murderers. All self-absorbed morons. Then saunters in Tristan--quiet, yet deep. The third person omniscient allows for a window into his mind to see how he thinks. New, refreshing, brilliant. The only character with any potential.

Until he takes Liza Hatter to the lake.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go read the book. Totally flips all your opinions of everything.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







And she never comes back.

So wrapped up in the unique, brilliant world  of his own mind, Tristan watches, motionless, as Liza drowns in front of his eyes. Something poetic in her face and her final plea, "Tristan," paralyzes him as she bobs under the water for the last time. Devoid of any semblance of humanity after this event, he discards all emotions as he dumps her body into a hand dug grave.

Dang.

Suddenly our cocaine addicts, teen moms, undercover cops, and potential murderer seem more friendly.

And in fact they are.

BINGO

Rule 4:

The narrator briefly discusses his “lousy childhood” and “all that David Copperfield kind of crap” before exclaiming to the reader that he will not tell his “whole goddam autobiography.”--Keep It Classy (great blog name, btw. One Word: Classy.) http://estella-havisham.blogspot.com/

Rule 9:

This gives the impression of a fancy an intimidating lobby.--To Kill A Mockingjay http://skullandglossbones3.blogspot.com/

Rule 6:


He excessively uses expletives and demonstrates the only implication of a simile is when something is compared to "as hell". --Intrusion of the Soul (I thoroughly enjoy the content of the sentence though! Very nice!)
http://mallorymills94.blogspot.com/

Rule 1:

On the subject of his parents, he says "they're touchy as hell."--Laughapalooza http://laughapalooza22.blogspot.com/

WINNER:

J.D. Salinger masters the voice of his protagonist, Holden Caulfield, in the first page of his novel Catcher in the Rye, using direct, colloquial, and bluntly offensive diction. Holden starts by saying that while he knows the reader would like to know about his background, he is not going to provide any information on his origins. His gruff, devil-may-care attitude exudes from the page, as he says he can’t be bothered with “all that David Copperfield kind of crap.” Holden’s trademark sense of superiority reverberates within the passage. While Holden’s language is neither profound nor particularly beautiful, it is representative of how a disenchanted teenager speaks. Holden complains that he won’t give his “whole goddam autobiography” and that his prother is far away from “this crummy place.” He has no objection to cursing, a sign of rebellion against the norm through language. Salinger breathes life into Holden by rambling and cussing, providing literature’s favorite teenage antihero with an identifiably meandering and rude voice. --ZENGERINEgoesacademic http://academiczengerine.blogspot.com/


P. S. I second Zengerine's motion that everyone must read Catcher in the Rye

Practice Diction Analysis

In the opening page of Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger underscores the teenage angst bursting though the young, yet disillusioned, Holden Caulfield. Lowbrow words like "lousy,"
"crap," "stuff,' "hell," "crumby," and "damn" accentuate Holden's anger as he rambles the opening of his story. Furthermore, sentence fragments, such as, "One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour," destroy any last vestige of formality, further developing the aura of simply telling a story to a friend. Despite a Dickens allusion, the majority of the passage is purely denotative, lacking symbolism. This expository passage helps develop Holden's past. Although the majority of this passage is about Holden's family and past, the majority of the character development shines through Salinger's diction and style.

Currently

Read exactly 100 pages this week of The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris.


 Up Your Score on the other hand, speaks with a mixture of intricate words and slang pop-culture references that are very punctuated, straightforward at times, but somewhat suggestive, and often light.--Contemplations

(I enjoy that this person analyzes an SAT help book! Unique!)

Authors choose words.  Words define language.  Language shapes literature.--Becca's Blog


(OK that's 3 sentences, but I liked them. Short and profound.)

Max Brooks' World War Z has a very scholarly formal language.--The TRUTH

(I just love how a zombie novel is "scholarly" lol)

It is blunt and straight forward.--Wolf Spot

(Very blunt and straight forward lol)

Picoult's use of straightforward language gives off a sense that she doesn't care about the norm of our society and what they will think.--Notoriously MoFulla

I wonder if it's possible to calmly read 20 pages a night. Either, if you are reading a book you hate, you'll barely force yourself to read at all, or, if you're reading an amazing, riveting book, you'll barely be able to put it down and will read when you really ought to be working on your Transfiguration homework.

The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris, is the latter.

I love books in which the characters seem real. Because he writes like each one thinks, and because of his uncanny ability to portray a gamut of human emotions--from lust to fear to guilt to anger to pride to embarrassment and everything else. I know no real people that resemble these people in any way, yet, nevertheless, these characters are real to me. I start to see traits of the characters in people I know--not the other way around. It's not a book in which you have a favorite character. You love and hate them all. They all disgust me, yet touch me. But still, I'm glad I don't know them in real life!

The Dart League King

I'm well into my new book, The Dart League King. I once heard that all good books are either mirrors or windows, meaning that they make you see deeper and clearer into your own experiences or show you a whole new world (a dazzling place I never knew!). Many books I read serve as mirrors, with aspects of characters reminding me of myself or people I know and underscore and heighten traits of those real people. This book is clearly a window. From the first page, I was hurled head over heels into world of darts, binge drinking, cocaine, sex, homicide, and overall madness. I watched with utter revulsion as the normalest-seeming character watched a girl die in front of him with no attempt to save her. There is not a single character in the book that I would want to be friends with or talk to. They're all the sort of people whose friend requests on Facebook I would never accept. They are all stupid and psychopathic and selfish and cruel and debauched. Yet, in a weird way, I almost love them. Each of them has a redeeming characteristic, making them profoundly human. They seem almost trapped. Their realism is accentuated because the author writes in a different style for each of them, as if they were simply thinking (though in the 3rd person). This book is simply crazy good.

Style Mapping

Frequently, the point an author is trying to make in a work shines brighter through how he says it, rather than what he actually says. In The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris, each chapter has a different main character, although always in 3rd person omniscient, and the style changes dramatically to accentuate the character traits of each. The second chapter centers on Vince Thompson, a crazy, homicidal, psychopathic drug dealer. Fittingly, the first page of this chapter is written with extremely lowbrow vulgarities. There are nine swear words in less than a paragraph of text. Furthermore, the sentences are long, rambling, and nowhere near grammatically correct. It is written like an infuriated tirade, with no hint of class. Again, as Vince is hardly the most intellectual man, his rant lacks figurative or imaginative language, and aside from an obvious tone of hatred, it is mainly denotative. It is rather harsh, from the cacophony of f***s. Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried also jumps from main character to main character, but the style remains essentially the same. The whole work is symbolic and metaphoric, a "noble lie" in which the denotative meaning of the story isn't always true persay, but reveals a deeper truth, transcending the literal meaning. The language is essentially middle of the road, and is somewhat conversational, like someone telling a story around a campfire. It is neither particularly melodic nor particular dissonant. Finally, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian exhibits his typical disdain for punctuation, but also his unique style. Words like "thunderclap" "gnashing" and "hobbled" create a harsh feel to emphasize the bitterness. Most of his description of the setting is imagistic and connoatitive.  Words like "nigger" and "raggedyman" contribute to the mild coarseness of the tone, illustrative of the rough diction of the Wild West. All authors write with a distinctive style, reflecting their distinctive themes and purposes.

Quarterly

I have always enjoyed reading, though in recent years rarely found nearly as much time for it as I would like. This semester, I have learned the importance of reading a book I ENJOY. I make time for engrossing, wonderful books, but don't have nearly enough time for books that are meh. I also learned that you don't have to like the same books your friends do. Just like your friend could swear by ranch on pizza but you hate ranch, your friend could fall in love with a book that you hate. Many times I have claimed that books are friends and are almost people. There's no way you'll like every person, and in a similar way, you won't like every book. I challenge myself to actually read all 100 pages every week and to love everything I read.

On Quitting

I have finally come to an important realization: you can pick your friends, you can pick your books, but you can't pick your friend's books. I have been trying so hard to read Ginny's favorite book, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, but the fact is, I don't like it. I find it boring and repetitive. All that happens is they fight random strangers and D'Artagnan bemoans his lost love. A couple parts made me laugh, but out of the couple hundred pages I've read, it's essentially put me to sleep. I can see why she likes it, but the humor and style simply don't appeal to me. It's not that it's a bad book, it's just not my book. Just like some people don't like mushrooms, and a few insane people don't like chocolate, some people love some books and others hate them. Anyways, I have finally allowed myself to quit reading that book, and I'm now picking up The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris. If this book doesn't work out, I'm probably going to read What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell because I've already read Blink and LOVED it. But I'm going to try this out first and we'll see how it goes!

Currently

I read 44 pages of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Total 1051.

Sentences of the Quarter:

3. "Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."
--Tytler

Where do you think your country falls on this continuum? This quote of the quarter seems especially relevant in light of the current protests. To the protesters, I would like to remind them that all of them are "the 1%" to many of the impoverished, helpless people of the world. Greed applies to all classes, not just the "super-rich"; I hope those protesters are generous to those less fortunate than themselves.

2. "forced to believe them by my act of trusting people" --"The Farewell" by Edward Field

"The Farewell" is the first poem of the semester--arguably the first poem of my life--that I actually really liked and spoke to me. To me, it's a beautiful illustration of the loss of self brought about by conformity, pride, and trust.

1. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" --Emily Dickenson

Not only is Dickenson's quote fantastic and original in and of itself, it holds special meaning to me because it was used by my best friend to describe my philosophy on life.

A Cautionary Tale

The section of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers I just read seems to me to be a cautionary tale about false accusations, drinking, and gambling. Because of falsely accusing Athos of giving him fake money, one unfortunate hotel keep found all his food eaten and wine drunk, to his incredible dismay. Athos, however, due to the eating of the keep's food but especially to the drinking of all his fine wine, learns that wine will loosen the tightest tongue and tells D'Artagnan a secret that he regrets telling in the morning. Finally, all four heroes independently are cheated out of their horses through foolish, sometimes drunken, gambling.

However, despite the debauchery of the section, the most evil people in the section I read seem to be the Church, as the controlling Jesuit and the hypocritical, faking priest attempt to talk Aramis out of his musketeer uniform and into a the priesthood, writing a thesis on a topic he neither cares for nor understands. When the churchmen too succumb to wine, it is portrayed as a victory for the young heroes. Hmmmmm.

Currently

I read 54 pages this week. Total 1007.

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Edit: Forgot to record my sentences of the week!

"D'Artagnan admired by what fragile and unknown threads the destinies of nations and the lives of men are sometimes suspended." It's amazing how much the personal lives and personalities of a few leaders impact the whole world.

"Every one knows that drunkards and lovers have a protecting deity." I heartily disagree, but it's an interesting idea.

Both from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

"'Oh dear God,' rang harshly in the close tiled room. I stood alongside others, a simple traveler at a public urinal. Bhind me the restless waited their turns." Sentence of the week. How sad it is how little people care about others.

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Random Top Three of the Week:

Breakfast foods!

3. Eggs.
2. Hash browns.
1. Obviously bacon.

If that makes you hungry, go to IHOP for unlimited pancakes starting at $4.99!

Stepping Out of Character

One of the things I find the most amusing about this book (The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas) is the diction. Rather than saying, for example, "The cooking food smelled good," Dumas says that the food was "very grateful to the olfactory nerves." Hahahahahaha. Although I am a firm believer that sophisticated vocabulary elevates both written and spoken word, Dumas sometimes takes it over the top, which I find quite amusing. 

(Out of character: I can't stop thinking about the fact that tonight is Senior Night for the band. Soon ends the happiest chapter of my life. Tonight, I will again take up the persona of Hermione Granger, in the form of my traditional Regulator shirt. To clarify, the idea to use that name on my shirt came first and this blog came second, caused by my decision to use that on my shirt. After I take off that tear-stained shirt tonight, I'm not going to be able to look at this blog again in the same way. The era of Harry Potter, the essence of my childhood, has ended, and the era of band, the essence of my high school years, is drawing rapidly to a close. The connection of my childhood best friend and role model, Hermione, who is so like me that writing in her character is no challenge whatsoever, with the emotions of Senior Night will create an extremely powerful memento of my teenage years. I am seventeen now, the age at which Hermione is immortalized. For the past eight or so years, when asked to describe myself I have often compared myself to her. Looking past her grades into her actual character, the similarities are uncanny. Once, I wrote out all the similarities. They filled a page. Before every birthday, I would read the book pertaining to the age I was about to turn. There is no book for eighteen. And so will end another chapter of my life, as I step out of character for the last time on my eighteenth birthday. I don't know why I'm thinking about this now. I guess Senior Night has just got me thinking about endings. The publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows signaled the end of my childhood. Senior Night heralds the end of band. And my eighteenth birthday will force me to step out of character for the last time. I apologize for the rambling digression, but I think a slight indication of what this character means to me will increase the impact of my blog. But this was really more for me.)

Epic Battles

Because nearly all of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is about either A. swordfighting B. love (which I don't feel like talking about today) or C. nothing discernable (which is hardly conducive to good writing), and because my friend and I are doing a Muggle Studies project about wandless dueling: The Art of Dueling with a Sword, today's post centers on epic battles. Besides, after both Harry and Neville slayed giant, evil snakes with swords, and after personally killing a piece of Voldy's soul with the same sword, I have a new appreciation for the Muggle weapon.

Poll for the Reader:

Which of these battles is the most epic and why? Please leave any thoughts in the comments.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring--Aragon v. Lurtz

Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope--Obi-Wan v. Darth Vader

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Peal--Jack v. Will

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur v. The Black Knight

The Princess Bride: Wesley v. Inigo Montoya

If you're not familiar with any of those people, go turn on the idiot box.

Today, fencing, even with blunted swords, is no longer an acceptable method of settling disputes, but the heritage of triumph of strength lives on in such battles as arm wrestling and thumb wrestling. Recently, Muggles even developed a similar game called "fencing." Both parties stand a pace apart and hold right hands, extending their pointer fingers towards their opponent. On the count of three, both attempt to stab the other with the right pointer finger without unlocking hands. It's rather intense. Try it.

Currently

Sentences of the MONTH:

3. "forced to believe them by my act of trusting people" --"The Farewell" by Edward Field

2. "This collision of teeth, of tongues and lips, is like feeling for the door in a strange room, blindfolded." --"First Kiss" by April Lardner

1. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" --Emily Dickenson

Not only is Dickenson's quote fantastic and original in and of itself, it holds special meaning to me because it was used by my best friend to describe my philosophy on life.

I have been extraordinarily busy this week so only read 32 pages (putting my total to 953 pages), but hey, at least I'm honest about it!

Desensitivity to Violence

Many people these days are convinced that our society has desensitized itself to violence through modern movies, magazines, video games, and books. I think that's nonsense. Violence has been the focus of entertainment and literature since the beginning of literature itself. In fact, I would argue that generations long long before ours thought even less of violence than we do today. For example, look at this passage from The Three Musketeers written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844 and set in 1625:

"Grimaud had tried to waken the stable-boys, and the stable-boys had set upon him and beaten him. When they opened the window they saw the poor lad lying senseless, with his head split by a blow with a fork-handle."

Horrific, right? They split a guy's head open with a fork handle! Jeez! Talk about anger management! That's awful! But look now at the very next sentence:

"Planchet went down into the yard, and proceeded to saddle the horses."

Grimaud's grim fate is already old news, and that's the last we hear of his incident. Dumas had already moved on, matter-of-factly, treating the loss of a servant as nothing but a minor logistical setback, forcing Planchet to saddle the horses instead. I went back and reread that paragraph twice to make sure I didn't miss something, then just laughed out loud at how ridiculous that was. There are many examples throughout the book of a very casual attitude toward violence, but that one just struck me as absurd.

If anything, modern culture is far MORE sensitive to violence than the culture of France in 1635 depicted by Dumas!

Knights in Shining Armour

What's more romantic to a girl than the proverbial knight in shining armour, the glorious guy who would literally risk his life to save his damsel in distress, riding in majestically and attractively? Not much of anything actually. (I wonder if the resemblence to the English "armour" and the French "amour" (love) (which was adopted into English to mean "illict love affair" a.k.a. scandal) is coincidental.) I'll admit, I first realized that I loved Ron when he was astride the knight in that Wizard's Chess game first year and he brilliantly commanded the game, finally, heroically sacrificing himself for us. It was so romantic and I was so mortified that my beloved might be hurt that I almost undid his sacrifice by running off my square to hold him and tend to him! It's amazing how things that seemed important, like winning the game to stop Snape, lose all their importance when a loved one in in danger. As I felt my own distress, I realized how much he meant to me, though my eleven-year-old naive self did not recognize I was in love for almost 3 years when I desperately wanted my knight of shining amour to escort this damsel to the ball.
D'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers is both literally and figuratively a knight in shining armour as he rides off to risk life and limb to because he was bidden to by the woman he likes. Amazingly, he was able to convince his three best friends to accompany him without even needing to tell them anything about where they were going! I wish Ron and Harry listened to me like that! If they would just listen to me, we all would be right! Currently, our adventures are journeying to London per the instructions of D'Artagnan's crush Madame Bonacieux, and already, have been beset by misadventures and duels. Still, the fierce, loyal love of the French knight of shining amour is the most attractive piece of this saga.

Epic Claims

Best Topics:

http://addie-line.blogspot.com/

http://beccaboola1013.blogspot.com/

Best Claims:

The soothing, cheerful melodies and harmonies, light vocal instrumentation, and playful, relaxed rhythms in McFerrin's song, depicts a mood of lighthearted cheerfulness and soothing rejuvenation. --RocketGuild

(soothing rejuvenation--I really like that!)

On the album cover of Titus Andronicus's "The Airing of Grievances," the commanding, classic font and layout of the cover, as well as the cluttered and colorful use of space in the photograph convey the band's homely practice environment and admiration for the old-fashioned symbols of history. --The New Zealander

(Honestly, I never look at album covers, but I really liked that!)

In Bérenger's black and white photograph, his dramatic contrast and enticing depth of field draw the viewer into the picture with active negative space that elevates the shadows from the composition to illustrate an ominous and mysterious mood.--Kim's Corner

(WOW! It's amazing how much you read into this! Way to state the ineffable!)

In this contemporary dance, choreographed by Mia Michaels, the varied confusion of the movement, pain and romance shown through the emotion, the regret expressed through the dull costume choice, and the dominating and agressive use of space create a sense of lighthearted passion between the two dancers.-- My Everyday Sticky Waffle

(That almost contradicts itself... yet it doesn't... very nice!)

In this scene from Nick Cannons film Drumline, the aggressive and alert style, quick, narrow movement, and percussive, thundering rhythm expresses an alive sense of energetic celebration and modest jubilation--Case 1

(Music expresses the feelings of the soul, and words merely attempt to capture what cannot be said.)

 

Phantom Regiment--Spartacus (2008)

A Word About Drum Corps:
First of all, it's Drum CORE, not Drum CORPSE. Just saying. Second, but as important if you don't like to sound like an idiot, a Drum Corps is NOT a marching band. You will offend people by saying that. Most notably, marching bands have woodwinds (flutes, clarinets, saxophones) while Drum Corps don't, but there are numerous other little differences. Drum Corps compete in Drum Corps International, or DCI. They are comprised of 13-22 year olds who choose to spend their summers competing in some of the over 100 competitions in the DCI circuit. They practice or perform almost all the time. There are over 5000 total members (just over half of which intend to major in music), who perform for over 400,000 fans. While they are the self-proclaimed "Marching Music's Major League (TM)," they do NOT pay members. In fact, members pay around $2000-$3000 annually, depending on the Corps--assuming they pass the rigorous audition process. They do this because they want to and have a passion for marching music, and are the best of the best, putting on perenially amazing shows. Almost all of the above information is from http://www.dci.org/ because I actually knew very little about Drum Corps before today. Nevertheless, I have always been amazed by what they can do, and I hope you are to! Please give it a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised by how incredible the art form of marching music can truly be.

The Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TyfrQCtJe8

The Words Trying to Describe an Ineffable Art:

Drill: linear, filling space, fast-paced

Choreography: militaristic, violent, fluid

Music: loud, powerful, brassy, marcato, accented, dark, lyrical, ballad, percussivePerformance Quality: precise, in character,

Inferences: arrogant, violent, desperate, romantic, lamenting, vengeful, professional

Claims:

The Charles Dickens Version:
The professionalism, precision and characterization of Phantom Regiment allows for near-perfect execution of the show's wide range of emotional contrasts: from arrogance, showcased through forte, marcato music and condescending, violent choreography,  to romance, expressed through graceful movements and a lyrical ballad, to combativeness, conveyed through brassy hits, percussive rhythms and fast-paced, militaristic visuals, to lamentation, through quiet music and slow drill, finally to vengefulness, underscored in the musically and visually strong and powerful finale to the saga of Spartacus.

The Sparknotes Version:
Phantom Regiment's professional execution of the contrast between powerful, fortissimo fast-paced, militaristic style and the more lyrical, graceful, slow ballad underscores the emotional contrast between vengeful violence and sorrowful lost love.

P. S. Apparate to a competition this year! While Drum Corps season has ended, competitions in Indiana, probably the strongest marching band state, are well worth seeing. October 1 and 8 are at Homestead and October 29 is the much anticipated State Finals in Indianapolis.

Poetry

"Dust," Dorianne Laux

Someone spoke to me last night,

told me the truth. Just a few words,

but I recognized it.

I knew I should make myself get up,

write it down, but it was late,

and I was exhausted from working

all day in the garden, moving rocks.

Now, I remember only the flavor —

not like food, sweet or sharp.

More like a fine powder, like dust.

And I wasn’t elated or frightened,

but simply rapt, aware.

That’s how it is sometimes —

God comes to your window,

all bright light and black wings,

and you’re just too tired to open it.

 

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"First Kiss," April Lardner

 

This collision of teeth, of tongues and lips,

is like feeling for the door

in a strange room, blindfolded.

He imagines he knows her

after four dates, both of them taking pains

to laugh correctly, to make eye contact.

She thinks at least this long first kiss

postpones the moment she'll have to face

four white walls, the kitchen table,

its bowl of dried petals and nutmeg husks,

the jaunty yellow vase with one jaunty bloom,

the answering machine's one bloodshot eye.

 

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"Crying Man" Charles Douthat

  At O'Hare, after a first jump west to California,
I thought my father was dying, as I waited

for the connecting flight. Being hungry
I ate pizza with the people eating pizza.

Feeling uninformed, I bought newspapers,
opened magazines at a bookshop wall.

Near my gate, I pretended not to watch
a dozen others waiting, as they pretended

not to watch me. But finally, in a hectic airport
restroom, I heard the crying man in his stall.

"Oh God," he cried, behind a stained steel door.
He didn't sound old. And in his privacy, not shy.

"Oh dear God," rang harshly in the close tiled room.
I stood alongside others, a simple traveler

at a public urinal. Behind me the restless waited
their turns. "Oh dear life!" came the third cry.

I shook myself, zipped, found a vacant sink for washing.
Spurting water dwindled to a trickle on my hands.

I lathered and rinsed as I'd been taught. Grabbed
for paper towel. Didn't linger at the mirror.

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 I really don't want to talk about these too much. For once, I actually enjoyed the poems I read, and I think it wasn't so much that these were better poems than I've read before, but that I didn't need to analyze them for structure and style and voice and allusion and metonomy and all those other useless things that became the focus in my Muggle Comprehensive before being admitted to Hogwarts. The point of poetry is to elict an emotional response, not to check off a bunch of useless literary terms. So my comments on each poem with be brief. The first poem moved me because it represents my current faith life in the most accurate way I've ever seen. It succeeds in articulating a problem, a feeling, that I've had for quite some time. The second poem made me laugh with its description of kissing, and tugged at my heart as I empathized with the poor girl waiting for a message. So poignant, so real. The final one illustrates the lack of compassion and the self-centeredness that characterizes the generations of both adults and teens today. Nobody cares. It's profoundly sad, but only because I have witnessed that happen and have done it myself. Tragic. These poems have spoken to me because, for once, I wasn't too tired to listen.

Currently

This week, I read 114 pages of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. That puts my semester total at 921 pages.

Sentences of the Week:

"For tell me, where can you find a love like mine, a love which neither time, nor absence, nor despair can extinguish; a love which contents itself with a lost ribbon, a stray look, or a chance word?" --Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers

It amazes me how melodramatic and creeperish the Duke is in his attempts to woo the queen. The whole scene (which lasts for a few pages of the same general idea) was so over the top that I could not help but laugh at him! Yet somehow it almsot seemed to be working on the queen...

"That’s how it is sometimes —

God comes to your window,

all bright light and black wings,

and you’re just too tired to open it." --"Dust," Dorianne Laux

 

Profound. I really like that quote.

But the quote of the week is:

"Love is the most selfish of all the passions." --Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers

Two words: So true.

The Rock-Paper-Scissors of Fencing

Because so much of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers focuses on fighting, and because that fighting, despite the name, is actually fencing and has nothing to do with muskets, I decided to quickly look up the basics of fencing to better understand the plot. One site, http://www.whatisfencing.com/, compares fencing to game of rock-paper-scissors. In rock-paper-scissors, as everyone, Muggle and magical alike, knows, the object is to try to guess what your opponent will choose and choose the one that will stop them. (For an added challenge, attempt rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock. Although few know how to play, it is rather more mentally stimulating and is a good deal more fun.) Because I know nothing about fencing, I will relate the rock-paper-scissors of fencing in the site's original words:

This is how it works in fencing:
Simple Attack (an attack executed as one quick action) is defeated by:
Parry and Riposte (defending with the blade and/or distance, and then attacking), which is defeated by:
Compound Attack (an attack executed with multiple “feints” to close distance and draw out the final parry), which is defeated by:
Counter Attack/Attack on Preparation (a timed Simple Attack into the early, non-threatening phase of the Compound Attack), which is defeated by:
Counter Time (a feint or preparation used to draw the Counter Attack so the ATTACKER may then make Parry and Riposte), which is defeated by:
Feint in Tempo (a compound counter attack used to evade the Counter time), which is defeated by:
Simple Attack (the wheel has come full-circle).

A quick skim through the rest of the site reveals that fencing is not only athletic but involves a similar mentality to a chess player. If that is the case, Ron, chess champion of Gryffindor house, would be a brilliant fencer, but as Ron constantly reminds me, I am awful at chess and am unathletic so fencing would not be an activity for me. Besides, just as wizard's chess is completely barbaric, so is attempting to wound someone with a sword for amusement. It is irrelevant that the tips are blunted; the very notion is barbaric. (Aside from my aversion to the violent mentality of wizard's chess, I have no idea why I am bad at chess. I am logical and reasonable and smart, so should be good. Maybe it has to do with what the fencing example was saying. Maybe I simply fail at predicting an opponent's move. I don't know.)

Anyway, now I understand that fencing involves a good deal of strategy, not mere athleticism. And as few of you will be fencing, I challenge you to try to be a rock-paper-scissors champion this week!

P.S. Speaking of champions of simplistic games, tic-tac-toe is a solvable game. There are three possible openings (center, side and corner), and if you go second and choose the correct move for the opening your opponent chose, you cannot possibly lose (barring making a moronic mistake). Challenge: figure out each proper second move and never lose a game of tic-tac-toe again. I haven't in years. But if you play someone who also knows this strategy, every single one of your games will end in a tie (or cat's game). So make sure you choose an unsuspecting victim.

A Royal Scandal

The action in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas has really picked up. After plowing through a plethora of difficult pages, bursting with vocabulary from an antiquated lexicon, a story has begun to develop. Our hero, D'Artagnan, has fallen in his first love. Unfortunately, the object of his passion is already married, being older than he. However, there is more to Madame Bonacieux than simply being D'Artagnan's first crush; she is one of the maids of the queen. The queen is suspected by her husband and by the cardinal to be having an affair with the Duke of Buckingham, and their suspicions are not too far off. Friendless and lacking in love from her husband, the queen is hard pressed to overcome the temptation of succumbing to the Duke's efforts to woo her. I feel bad for the queen, for she is clearly terribly lonely and obviously likes the Duke, but she still, with difficulty, resists his advances. It is hard enough to experience unrequited love; I cannot even imagine the pain inherent in rejecting someone you love. Poor Queen. People always dream of being royalty, but, in my humble opinion, a much better wish would be for good family, friends, relationships, and health. Those things bring a lot more happiness than royalty! Though I must admit it would be glorious to be a Disney princess, as their stories always have a romantic happily ever after. I would want to be Rapunzel, if I had the choice. Her story is epic and Flynn is amazing :). But I digress. My point in all of these ramblings is that The Three Musketeers is actually interesting now!

Currently

Because it has been a rather busy week, and because it is only Thursday, I have not yet quite completed my reading quota for the week. So far, I have read 54 pages. I intend to finish my reading for the week tomorrow. I have read The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

Weekly Total: 54 (will update after Friday)
Semester Total: 807

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Sentences of the Week:

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" --Emily Dickenson

My best friend used that line to describe my personal philosophy in an essay. So I guess that represents me. Take what you want from it.

"This collision of teeth, of tongues and lips, is like feeling for the door in a strange room, blindfolded." --"First Kiss" by April Lardner

My first kiss was with Ron Weasley (who I'm still with <3) in the middle of The Battle of Hogwarts, completely randomly, with no romance leading up to it, born out of sheer desperation and desire. I still laugh out loud when I think of Harry standing there yelling, "Oi! There's a war going on!" completely bewildered by our behavior. But I must say that is the world's best description of a kiss.

"'But not till two o'clock,' said D'Artagnan, with the same calmness." --The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas pg 52

This was the line uttered in the funny scene where three best friends realized they had all come to fight the same boy who had offended them all. He had a duel with the first at noon, the next at one, and the last not till two o'clock. Something about the simplicity of his answer in the midst of the three best friends freaking out about what just happened struck me as very funny.
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Random Top Three of the Week:

Candy!!!

Magical:
1. Chocolate Frogs
2. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (purely for entertainment value--great at parties!)
3. Toothflossing Stringmints (in honor of my parents)

Muggle:
1. M&Ms
2. Twix
3. Skittles

The Three Musketeers and One Really Stupid Boy

I'm still reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (pronounced doom-ah, not dumb-ass). At this point, though, it seems like it would be more aptly titled The Three Musketeers and One Really Stupid Boy, as the main character is D'Artagnan, an eighteen year old boy that left home with nothing but an old horse (which he sold), a sword (which he broke) and a little money (which he spent on a new sword). With nothing but a sword, he endeavors to join the musketeers, the elite group of highly trained guards of the king. Although well received by the captain, he is naturally refused in his attempt to become a musketeer. Yet mere minutes after his conversation with the captain, through extraordinary clumsiness, ineptitude, and sheer stupidity, he managed to offend three separate musketeers! Yet he quickly becomes friends with them because he stabs one of their enemies. Boys. In a world run by men, like France in 1625, stabbing someone else wins you respect and repays your debts! Men are so irrational that way, as if bravery and violence can replace reason! I once read a quote that went something like: "If women ran the world, there would be no more wars. Countries that were mad at each other would just give each other the silent treatment." How accurate. And men think we're irrational.

Nevertheless, there is something attractive about D'Artagnan and the romantic period in which he lives. Sometimes I really wish I could lead a successful life by just heading out with a sword, with no particular plan, no N.E.W.T. courses, nothing but determination. These days, it seems like every waking moment is to prepare you for something. You take beginner level courses to prepare you for O.W.L. courses to prepare you for N.E.W.T. courses to prepare you for a job to prepare you for a higher position to prepare you to support a family to pay for an education to prepare your kids to get a job... and it goes on and on and on and on. We spend too much time preparing and not enough living. My goal for this year, my last year at Hogwarts, is to live. To focus not quite as much on preparing, even if my grades slip a smidgeon (ok maybe without my grades slipping... reminds me too much of my Boggart), and actually enjoy this year and have fun with my friends. Despite being so pragmatic, sometimes I wish we could go back to a more romantic time.

Voting

Trying to comment gives me nothing but error messages (may have to do with Hogwarts' magical interference, I'll ask the librarian, Pince), so I looked at these 9 blogs:

1. The Written Word
2. Becca's Blog
3. UNDERWATER
4. "So many books, so little time"
5. My Everyday Sticky Waffle
6. TheyCallMeFreshMoney
7. Stormy Days
8. Live, Laugh, Read
9. JoeChemo

And... Drumroll please... I would like to vote for The Written Word and Becca's Blog

A Whole New World... From Modern Day Sweden to Futuristic Farms to Medieval France

Having finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Animal Farm, I am diving into a new and completely different literary adventure! Recommended to me by Lavender Brown, I am now starting Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Amazingly, the book only cost $1.25 back in the seventies when ti was printed (that's about 2 sickles and 3 knuts, according to this converter: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/galleons.html). I wish I could still get books that cheap! I haven't gotten very far into the book yet, but it is a rather more challenging read than my last two books. All I've gathered so far is that the main character, D'Artagnan, is an arrogant little toerag with the emotional range of a teaspoon. He's an idiot with no sense of judgment who literally takes offense at everything. I can't help but be rather fond of him. I'm a huge fan of medieval fantasy literature, so I hope I will enjoy this book.

It's Friday, Friday, Friday, OH!

Sidenote: For once, I don't blame Sirius' mother for erasing Rebecca Black from the family tree. I'd be ashamed of her too.

Anyways, this week I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and honestly have no idea how many pages that was, but I know it was more than 150, so I'll use that number for now. I also read the entirety of Animal Farm, which was 114 pages. So for now, I can guarantee that I've read at least 254 pages this week, so 606 for the semester thus far. I will update this post when I have official data on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I already did my favorite quotes for the week, so this week's random Top Three is Saturday Morning Cartoons!

1. Pokemon (the original series: if Ash Ketchum isn't in it, don't waste your time)
2. Jimmy Neutron
3. Tom and Jerry

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Edit: Actually, I read 401 pages last week, so 753 total. I just made up a number for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in the original post.

Animal Farm

Yesterday, I read the entirety of George Orwell's adult fairy tale, Animal Farm. I have always been fascinated by political fiction, such as Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World because of the perspective they show on the future of both Muggle and magical societies. It's currently too early for an explanation of how modern-day politics appear to set the stage for many of the atrocities perpetrated in these books, but nevertheless, the parallels are there and I challenge you to look for them. To me, the most striking aspect of Animal Farm was the ease with which the innocent, good animals who truly hoped for a better future for them all, were manipulated by the pigs into monsters. The pigs lied to them again and again, eradicating history and tampering with their own memories. For the first time, I grasp the importance of learning an unbiased account of history (even History of Magic taught by Prof. Binns, who is so incredibly boring that he did not even realize he died). History is the rubric by which the present day is graded. If it is either not taught, or worse, is taught with an agenda, there is no way to accurately view the present. To me, the innocent animals represented all those who commit terrible atrocities, such as the Nazi soldiers in World War II, without full awareness of the consequences of their actions due to near brainwashing by authorities. The majority of people in any organized, statewide movement, such as Nazism, had no intention of harming others. Fear of authority obviously drove their actions, but so did man's natural propensity to obey. One look at Milgram's controversial experiment on obedience uncovers the atrocities man can commit simply because they are told to. Animal Farm is a great choice of book for anyone who wants a short book, easy to read, that provokes a great deal of thought.


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Quotes of the Week:
This week, all quotes will follow an Orwellian theme, essentially because Animal farm is still fresh in my mind.

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others" Animal Farm by George Orwell (133)

This satiric parody of America's proud Declaration of Independence summarizes the general theme of the book and condemns not only Communism, but also the democratic-republic that the West is so proud of.

"I will work harder" Animal Farm by George Orwell (75)

This is a tribute to Boxer, the best character in the entire book, and his tragic fate.

 Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. --Tytler

Where do you think your country falls on this continuum?

Reader Point

A book is like a ride at the amusement park that my Muggle parents used to take me to. You have your nostalgic merry-go-rounds, your refreshing log flume plunges, your haunted mansions, the infamous "educational" rides, and even the big Ferris wheel to give you a new perspective on the park below. But everyone knows that you go to an amusement park not for the cotton candy or the giant teddy bear, but for the roller coasters. Some roller coasters never seem to go anywhere. Others are over too fast to be worth the line. Others make you so sick that you lose the fun of riding. And still others beat you up every moment you spent strapped to the seat. But The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the coaster where the unique balance of tension and boredom of the chain lift literally lasts longer than the whole rest of the ride, but the ride is so exciting that you forget about every moment listening to the annoying clacking of the lift. While it started out very slow, Stieg Larsson's novel turned out to be one of those gripping crime dramas that somehow magically finds itself open in your hands when you're supposed to be doing something else. While the horrendously revolting criminality and extraordinary mystery glued me to the pages, the three-dimensional characters smiled up at me. To me, one of the most important criteria of a great novel is the extent to which the reader can empathize with the characters--protagonists and antagonists alike. Lisbeth Salander, a girl utterly unique, unlike anyone I've ever encountered, had such an incredible verisimilitude that she seems totally alive to me. I was so moved when the hardened, heartless girl finally softened, ever so slightly, from falling in love for the first time. Although the book disturbed me enough to give me nightmares (and waking nightmares), I nevertheless highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery, suspense, and wonderfully wrought people.

Friday

Today, I took the Jung Typology Test, created by a Muggle psychologist to determine the personality of the individual. Personally, I find his rational, systematic approach rather more reliable than the brand of hocus-pocus labeled "Divination." Prof. Trelawney can attest that I saw right through her crackpot tricks. Anyways, my results were Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging (INTJ), with respective strengths percents as 22%, 62%, 25% and 56%. My results placed me firmly in the "Rational" catagory, which I certainly will not argue. More specifically, it pinned me as a "Mastermind." I rather like the sound of that. In the words of a certain Mr. Burns, "Excellent, excellent." Although I somewhat lack the self confidence typical of Masterminds, most of the description seems fairly accurate. For more detail on the Mastermind, look up the results for the Jung Typology Test.

Top Threes

Passages of the week:

"forced to believe them by my act of trusting people"
from "The Farewell" by Edward Field

This passage, to me, is both ironic and deep. Obviously, the speaker was not forced to trust or believe anyone, so the line satirizes those who make stupid decisions at the recommendation of others and fail to claim responsibility for their idiocy. But yet, it portrays the "act of trusting people" in an almost negative light, echoing my inherent fear of trust and of being hoodwinked by those whom I do trust.

"Silvan Tomkins once began a lecture by bellowing, 'The face is like the penis!' What he meant was that the face has, to a large extent, a mind of its own."

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Best way to introduce a complex scientific and psychological principle EVER. Very insightful passage, great opening.

Okay, yes I know the following passage is an entire paragraph rather than a sentence, but the humor requires the entire paragraph.

"'If you go and do a shameful thing, such as shoot your parents so you can inherit their estate, you should have at least one friend to whom you could confide the cheesy details. You'd say, "I couldn't believe that was me, aiming the pistol at the back of Mom's head as she stood at the Mixmaster. I am feeling, like, totally remorseful right now. And I'm wondering if, like, it might've been a sugar rush from like, the Twinkies.' And the friend would say, 'Well, you were having some big mood swings. And the job market is tight, so naturally you were anxious about money. But those bright orange coveralls look rather striking on you. And this Plexiglass partition doesn't bother me as much as I had thought it would. And I don't think would've been a good parent anyway, so it's lucky that you won't have to face that question."

"Of lies, lying and the lying liars" by Garrison Keillor

Could I have shortened that passage significantly? Yes. But why? Why mess with comedic genius? Speaking of, did you know that stand up comedians have the highest average IQ of any profession? Watch comedic genius (like Bill Cosby) to see why!

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Random Top Three of the Week:

Top Three Things to Watch on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers
http://www.youtube.com/charlieissocoollike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THEM! Even my neurotic cat did!

S. P. E. W.

Muggle literature has opened my eyes to a severe shortcoming of my favorite charitable organization, The Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare. (of which I am naturally founder and president). However, after learning more about the disadvantaged in Muggle society, I passionately believe I should push the committee for a name change to the Society for the Protection of Everyone's Welfare.

Although Muggle society does not battle prejudice based on species, and no population of Muggle society is still systematically and cruelly enslaved, society still prefers some groups to others. Despite vast progress for equal rights for all, many groups still lack equal perception. I mean that, as eloquently exposed by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink, a person who firmly believes in fair treatment for a group may have an unconcious prejudice against them. This can create discrimination that the person hardly knows he practices. You probably don't believe that you harbor any unconcious prejudices. I challenge all of you to go to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ and learn about yourself. I horrified myself by discovering I have a strong unconcious preference for whites over blacks. Furthermore, I urge you to broaden your experiences and your perceptions to treat the underlying cause of much of today's prejudice--your own subconcious. And please consider paying 10 sickles to become a member of S. P. E. W.!

Moreover, I am currently reading an evocative tale of abuse, corruption, murder, promiscuity, rape and hatred and the effects they have on people. I am on page 355 of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The sinfulness in this fictional representation of modern Swedish society is repulsive and horrific, yet the impact on the various characters is gripping. Although I have naturally grown attached to the main character, Mikael Blomkvist, the enigma that is Lisabeth Salander is more fascinating. I cannot imagine a girl less like me than the introverted, tattooed, pierced, gothic, altogether terrifying, prodigy. Although we share the same intellectual level, she never applied herself in school or in any normal job. She mistrusts rules, laws, and law enforcement, and takes the law into her own hands. I, who would almost rather be killed than expelled, cannot fathom her blatant disregard for any sort of rule or order. Nevertheless, I have the greatest empathy for her. Unloved, with a traumatic childhood and a mother suffering from mental illness, she is abused both as a child and an adult. She endures the most horrific rape. Her story makes me want to cry. At this point in the story, about halfway through, I think her story will finally converge with Blomkvist's, and I sincerely hope her future is much brighter than her past. I also can't wait to see the conclusion of the gripping murder mystery that both Blomkvist and Salander are attempting to solve.

Well, it's time for the annual S. P. E. W. membership drive, and I hope to double membership this year. Only 10 sickles of dues! Also, check out the related Muggle project, http://thehpalliance.org/, an inspiring charity created by Muggles who believe they are emulating the lives of their favorite "fictional" characters. They believe those characters would love their work, and I must attest that they do.

Hermione, A History

Hello.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Hermione Granger, an eighteen-year-old student in my seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After my two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, dropped out of school to aid in the Second War against Voldemort, we re-enrolled for our seventh and final year of formal schooling. It seems only yesterday when, a nervous first-year, I was attempting to impress anyone and everyone with my knowledge in order to feel liked. If only I had known then that Hogwarts would become home to me.

But I digress. As part of my Advanced Muggle Studies course (I intend to work in the Ministry of Magic in Muggle Relations), I am required to do an independent project, fully immersing myself in one aspect of Muggle culture. Naturally, as the avid, accomplished reader I am (having exhausted 86% of the Wizarding literature in Hogwarts' library), I selected Muggle Language and Literature. My Professor and I agreed that, each week, I must read either 150 pages of Muggle popular fiction or 100 pages of literary fiction or nonfiction. I will attempt to read a mixture of genres. Furthermore, I must chronicle my reading in a popular Muggle venue for personal writing--the blog. Luckily, my dentist parents had already familiarized me with computers. I am one of two students allowed a laptop permit at Hogwarts. Therefore, this may also turn into somewhat of a personal diary because nobody I know has the ability to read my blog. In fact, to conclude my first post, I will share a sonnet (one of the most fascinating forms of Muggle poetry) that I wrote about my unrequited love, Ron Weasley.

When I first saw you on the Hogwarts train,

I hid how looking at you made me smile.

When you beat the troll soon to cause us pain,

I knew I wished to stay with you a while.

Though you can be stubborn, stupid, unkind,

Your every flaw I easily look past.

Such goodness in you I can clearly find!

When will you hold me in your arms at last?

While though with you I never feel alone,

We are just friends, do you too wish for more?

I long for when I can call you my own,

There is nothing of you I don’t adore!

What would I give for you to feel like me!

Oh Ron, in love with you I’ll ever be!

-Hermione