Outside Reading Quarter 2 Post 1

In the beginning of the book the main character, Jan, is on her way to a shelter, she is homeless at age 15. She' on a block where people try and sell her drugs and alcohol but Jan knows she must keep moving so that she can get to the shelter. When she first gets to the shelter a nun, who is the head at the shelter, asks her to explain why it is that she is coming to stay at the shelter. She explains to the nun that her mom would get abused by her stepfather, Dave, and how she would always swear to her that she wasn't going to take him back and continuously she did. She is brought to her foam mattress in the corner of a big room where 17 other teenage girls stayed, out of which, she was the only white girl. She starts telling us about her family situation. There was Dave, the temperamental, wacked up, abusive, stepfather. And her mother who was so weak willed. She explains how Dave and her mother have been together for 7 months. In those 7 months they have broken up 4 times. Each time they break up Jan's mother tells Jan that it is just "them two" now and that Dave isn't coming back... well... each time, Dave DID come back, after about the 3rd comeback, Dave and Jan's mom had a baby. They broke up and got back together a lot before one day, Dave and Jan's mom got into a big argument and Jan's mom told Jan that she'd never take Dave back again. Jan didn't believe her and only said that if he came back, she was leaving. Well, Dave came back after about a month and a half and now here Jan is, at a shelter. She also talks about how every time her ends a relationship, most of the time there is another one waiting, or sometimes there are 2 or 3 weeks where its just Jan and her mother. She is now at the shelter, she has 2 best friends, Treece and Shauna, and they are talking about Jan's curfew which is 9 pm and how that sucked for Jan because Treese and Shauna hang out with a bunch of people and go see movies and stuff without her. This is where the 1st section of my book ends.

Debate!

Political: These debates occur all over the place. The purpose of these debates is to see the opinion of that person and how he/she would do to fix it. It sometimes can help arrive at a better decision because they get many ideas on how to solve it.This debate is structured.

Education: These debates occur in all states and cities. The purpose of these debates is to figure out better ways for our students to learn and to educate all students. "No child left behind".Yes it does help arrive at a better decision. The debate is structured.

Outside reading: Quotes

1. "Instead, I'll wallow in my depression because today is Cinco de Mayo, and I'm stuck here in Illinois. It's the first time in years that i haven't spent this weekend recharging my batteries in Las Vegas, gaming, relaxing, and jump-starting my summer tan." (154)
- Jen Lancaster

I think this quote is significant the book because it shows how she misses her old sorority days, but at the same time she is choosing to stay and work at a job so that she can get her life on track. This strikes me as a turning point for Jen Lancaster.

Outside Reading 1: Sect. 2 Journal Post

In this section of the book, Jen, is searching for a new job. She tries jobs such as, waitress, dog walker, babysitter. None of which seem to work for her, she always ends up opening her mouth and saying something to her employer that gets her fired. We find out that Jen really does not like to work and that she is living with a homosexual man. They are pretty much fighting through out the whole section, he keeps telling her that she needs to keep her big mouth shut, she's no longer a sorority girl and that she needs to become lady like and get over herself. All she is saying to him is making fun of his homosexuality and how he doesn't have a good sense of style. So far I'm starting to get really into this book, but at the same time I think it's kind of stupid. She runs into a guy that she instantly falls for, but he finds her absolutely annoying with all her selfishness. I find that kind of, I don't really know the word... well its definitely the opposite of when she was back in college, she could get every guy she wanted. I predict that she will learn her lesson, woman up and stop being so selfish and eventually fall in love with a guy that loves her back.

Outside Reading 1: Sect. 1

I am reading the book
Bitter Is The New Black; Confessions of a condescending, egomaniacal, self centered, smart-ass, or why you should never carry a Prada Bag to the unemployment office by Jen Lancaster.

Yes, it is an extremely long title, but the book was much like it. The first 100 pages of this book were, in my opinion, very entertaining and sounds like what a college girl would really say, do and think. My reaction to this part of the book, well, i found it extremely funny and I liked it because she is like everything there is to be stereotyped about a college sorority girl. This part is mainly about her looking for a job and a bunch of emails going between her and her ex-boss, what she wants to say, and what she did say.

My prediction for the rest of the book is that she is going to graduate from college, get kicked out of her house, live in an apartment in a completely different neighborhood then wheres she's from and learn what its like to actually live in the real world. I'm really excited to finish the book.

This I Believe: NPR

1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16357141
2. Alice Brock
3. Making It Up As I Go Along
4. She believes in making things up, improvising as you go.
5.
- She invited 12 people to dinner when she only had 6 plates and 3 cups, she used tin cans, jelly jars for cups and hubcaps with tinfoil for plates. She made a steak dinner with one knife and they used scissors to cut the steak.
- When she closed her restaurant she left everything there, didn't look back, and moved to Provincetown to live and become a painter.

6. Favorite Passage:
Just because you have only six plates and three glasses is no reason why you can't invite 12 people to dinner. You can drink out of a jelly jar or a tin can. And there are lots of things you can use for plates — like hubcaps lined with tin foil. I once made a steak dinner in an apartment that had only one knife. We used scissors. It was quite memorable.

The Sea Inside Post 2 ,

After watching the movie, The Sea Inside, and reading the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly I have found that the two are very similar, but at the same they have differences.

Some similarities to the two is that they both were about quadriplegics. In the Sea Inside the main character, Ramone, wished to die because he did not want to be trapped in his own body. In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the main character, felt as though he was trapped inside a diving bell and was just waiting for him to die. Another similarity between the two is that they both were both true stories, both of the men had no idea what they were in for, their accidents happened so suddenly. These are some similarities between the movie and the book.

Though there aren't that many similarities between the two, there are MANY differences. Such as in The Sea Inside, Ramone falls in love with his attorney, Julia. He has a small affair with her and he was being taken care of by his brother and his family. In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the main character was hospitalized and was not really in love with anybody. Also the main character in The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, could not move any part of his body except for he could blink his left eyelid. In The Sea Inside, Ramone could move his whole head. The final difference I am going to mention is that Ramone commited "suicide." While on the other hand, the main character in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, died of natural causes. Who took care of them, the fact that one could move his head and one wanted to commit suicide are only a few of the differences between the two.

The Sea Inside Post 1

My general reaction to the movie The Sea Inside is more of mixed feelings. What I mean when I say this is that i thought the movie was an overall good movie, but at the same time it didn't really... get to me. Now that reason might be because it was in Spanish with English subtitles and it's kind of hard for me to take notes and read captions at the same time. Overall though, i found it to be a pretty good movie.

What I think about Ramone's request for suicide assist is that it was okay. I say this because I believe that if someone is in that kind of condition, and wants to die, why not let him? He was miserable, he was a quadriplegic and he felt as if since he could not walk or feel, what would be the point of him living? I think that the court's response to his request was thoughtful, but at the same time not so thoughtful. I understand that it is against the law to kill other people, but in this case, since he could not do it himself, they should've let it happen.

I think that his final action was very clever. Tricking all those people to give him the pills, over drinking and mixing a drug in his drink. Over a long period of time no one suspected that he was going to do what he did. For that, i envy him.

Outside Reading Quarter 2

Title: GirlBomb
Author: Janice Erlbaum
Year Copyrighted: 2006
Genre: Memoir
Page Numbers: 252


this is the book that i was wondering if it'd be okay to read for Quarter 2 outside reading project.