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1) Before this class I never read independently and would've never guessed it to be any fun. I know enjoy reading and enjoy reading Stephen King's books. I'll read in the car or before I go to bed for a half hour or so. I still don't enjoy reading books assigned by the school, but I've come to realize that doesn't mean I dislike all books and reading.

2)I read books about sports, action, and horror. Stephen King's horror/mystery books really intrigue me and I don't lose interest when reading them. I don't blog on a regular basis and found it to be very tedious, but was able to read the weekly amount,

3) I read in silence, at night in my room *desk or bed), or in the car. I lose myself in the reading and don't text constantly while reading. I don't talk about my book with anyone else I simply just enjoy reading it for myself.

4) I haven't read independently prior to this class, but I believe I will read more of Stephen King's books this summer.

5) I didn't expect poetry to be the main focus of this class. To be honest poetry isn't my favorite thing in the world and I really don't care for it. But this class showed me why poetry is so intriguing and can simply fascinate many people with it's deeper meaning.

Christine #2

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
32-87

Arnie has become obsessed with the car. He took it down to Darnell's shop because he needs to fix it up to make it street legal. It's the lat few weeks of summer and it seems that Arnie is pushing Dennis away. Dennis has been spending more time with this cheerleader girl and doing more chores around the house. The only time he sees Arnie now it seems is at work. All Arnie talks about is her, Christine, and fixing her up and riding around town in her. Dennis has the same dream that night. The next day Denis sees Arnie all beat up and bruised, and ask what happened. Buddy a tough arrogant bully around school was pretty close with Darnell and brought in stolen cars to the shop. Well Buddy started to push Arnie around and trip him a few times, but Arnie didn't care. However, when Buddy busted Christine's head lights Arnie lost it and swung at him. Buddy starting pounding on Arnie, but Arnie didn't back down and started waling out at him landing a couple of shots and eventually like a mad man knocked him to the ground where Arnie continued to beat him. Darnell came out in the knick of time to stop Arnie form basically killing buddy. That day Lebbay suddenly died from a heart attack, the same day the headlight was broken.

I BELIEVE THAT Lebbay CAME TO ATTACHED TO Christine AND SOME MYSTICAL BOND WAS FORMED BETWEEN THEM. i TRULY DON'T KNOW IF ANYTHING IS OUT OF THE ORDINARY WITH THE CAR YET, BUT DENIS'S REOCCURRING DREAM IS really creeping me out. I am amazed that Arnie wouldn't stand up for himself but once Buddy hit Christine (the car) he completely lost it.

Christine #1

Stephen king
Literary Fiction
Pages 1-32

Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and I would've never started to read his books if it weren't for this class. I honestly enjoy reading his books and find myself reading them instead of watching tv some nights. Christine is about a two friends Arnie (pretty much a very kind person, but a nerd) and Denis (a big time football player). One day when driving Arnie home from work they pass this car that is an old junker for sale on the road. Arnie immediately is attracted to the car and seems to fall in love with it. Dennis urges him not to buy it from the old man called Lebbay, but he does buy HER. Lebbay refereed to the car as Christine and never called it it, and instead addressed it as her. This really freaks Dennis out as Arnie starts to call the car Christine and Dennis gets a bad vibe from the car. Later that night Dennis has a bad dream of the car saying to "lets take a ride big guy," and Dennis refuses so Christine runs him over.

SO far i don't know where the story is going, but i really enjoy reading it. I love the idea of how the car is more than just an inanimate object and might be seen as a person. This is one of the better books i'v started to read this semester.

Night Shift #8

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 234-353

The Last Rung on the Ladder is a more depressing fear that could send someone into depression. Larry and Katrina were the closest siblings could get at a young age. Larry receives a letter from Katrina about a month after she committed suicide. Larry and Katrina grew up on a farm in Nebraska where the closest neighbor was 5 miles away. Larry grew up to become a big time lawyer, and move around allot (thats why he received her letter so late). While Katrina lived a rather depressing life as a substitute teacher, who was married twice and divorced twice. They played this game when there parents weren't home when they were young. They would clime up this old rusty rusty ladder to the top of the barn and jump down from the cross beam into a 50ft high hay stack. It was a normal day when they started doing it in the middle of the afternoon. IT was getting late and Larry said they would both do it one more time before their parents came home, but as Larry was at the top of the ladder he could hear the rungs cracking and felt as if the ladder was going to break. He quickly jumped down and was about to tell Katrina not to go up, but she was already halfway up by the time he got out of the haystack. She was almost at the top when the ladder broke, but was able to hang onto the last rung giving Larry sometime to place hay down so she could drop down safety. Well when Larry read the letter Katrina sent him it said, "I wish that the last rung on the ladder would've broke, things would be easier that way." The letter was dated 2 weeks before her suicide.

If I was Larry i don't know how i would cope with the depression and grief that would come from reading this letter. If only he would've stayed in contact with her or didn't move around as often she would most likely still be alive. Larry knows it to, that if he would've came to talk to her things would be better. I wouldn't be able to functions after reading a letter like that if my sister died.

Night Shift #7

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 206-234

Stephen King's short story, Children of The Corn, is easily one of my favorite stories in this book, maybe even better then the Bogeyman. Burt and Vicky are on a cross country road trip to California to hopefully rekindle their lost love before their marriage falls completely apart. Burt decides to take an exit of the turnpike to view the scenery of Nebraska, bad move. They drive on a open road surrounded by walls of corn stacks. For the past 2 hours of driving on the road Burt gets suspicious because they haven't passed one car. A boy came out of the corn filled all bloody and collapsed on the road. By the looks of it he was 18 and was killed by something in the cornfield. Burt plans to drop him off at the next town they come across. On the way to the town, they come across a very strange religious station, where it sounds like a young boy is preaching about the one who walks beyond the cornfield. They reach the small town to only find that there is no life in it. Burt can't accept the fact that something is wrong with the town and keeps looking around. In the bar he find that the calender hasn't been updated for 13 years. When he returns to the car he finds Vicky screaming as little kids with knives and axes take her away. He manages to kill one of them, but a whole swarm chases him. He heads into the corn field and runs for over 12 hours straight and eventually loses them. He then comes to an open patch in the corn field where he sees dead bodies crucified all of them looks like they just turned 18. He then saw Vicky who was brutally mutilated. He realized that these people where sacrificed but by who? He turns around and sees the one who walks beyond the cornfield.

The story in its entirety is very exciting and makes you think about all the small little towns out in the Midwest. I'm sure a town with a population of only around 50 people could vanish and our society wouldn't have a clue. Thats what is scary that an entire town was just wiped out in the middle of no where and nobody knew. There are counties in Nebraska and Iowa with very few people and only rows and rows of corn. The next time I pass a corn field I'll be thinking about the one who walks beyond the corn even if it is a made up story.. right?

Spiece Tournament

Got a basketball tournament this weekend lets go. We will be playing some very quality teams, hopefully we can get a couple wins. This is great practice for the upcoming varsity season at Homestead which should be promising. This year we are losing 6 seniors on the homestead team and only have 4 players returning to the varsity team, but still we have allot of young talent. My AAU team is very good, but the coach favors his son who is honestly not that good. Today we lost both of our games, both in OT, tomorrow should be better. Its hard to except allot this is our very first time playing with each other as a team.

Anthology Poems

Contrasting Theme: Warm Weather V. Cold Weather

Last Snow
BY HEID E. ERDRICH
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/240176

Ice Bound
BY WALTER BARGEN
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237346


The Snow Man
BY WALLACE STEVENS
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174502

“Alone I stare into the frost’s white face”
BY OSIP MANDELSTAM
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/185227

Snow-flakes
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173915

**Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening** (Video, Lonely winter cold)
BY ROBERT FROST
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171621

Lunch

Random thinking. I am so hungry right now. I can't focus on anything but food. I need to eat. I can't wait to run down the halls to the cafeteria, sneak to the front of the line and buy my food. I don't know whats for lunch today, i never do. Ill probably end up buying pizza, nachos, and ice cream. Now that I have gotten all my thoughts out about food its time to get back to work. I wonder what its like to go on a lunch break at a major company. I don't know maybe one day Ill find out, who knows.

Night Shift #6

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 181-206

Many people start smoking at a young age and can never quit no matter how hard they try. They start to develop the mind set that they need a cigarette to function and complete their daily routine. Well the the short story called Quitters Inc. has a strategy to no only guarantee you stop smoking, but improves your life satisfaction greatly. Dick Morrison has been a smoker since he was 18 and has tried numerous times, but he could never stop. One night on his way to a business meeting in Florida he runs into a old friend. Jimmy McCann use to be a smoker like him, but he quite by using a special company's help and now he is a manager of his company and is physically in the best shape of his life. Dick gets the companies card and heads over to their facility the next month. They make him sign a couple papers and then he is introduced to his new doctor Victor. Victor says the process is simple once you leave this building you can't smoke unless you won't your wife to electrocuted a little. He leaves the session and immediately lights a smoke. The next day he gets a call to come down to the office and his wife is there and they have here in the room with the electric floor. He begs them not to do anything, and they don't this is his first time being caught and they say he will only get a warning. Victor explains you get ten strikes, they include your wife being electrocuted, your children being electrocuted, then it changes to beatings, then the 9th one is they take your wifes finger, and the tenth results in your death. After that Dick refuses to have a cigarette no matter how much he is tempted. He makes it without one for a year and he is in great shape and has even been given in a promotion for his increased work activity. He has one last meeting with Victor and Victor tells him he has passed and that they will no longer be checking up on him REGULARLY.

I really love this chapter and it gets me thinking. If this were a true policy would people, who were smoking really be able to stop just with their will power? I think this should be a real company and I believe that its unconventional methods would really work.

Osama Bin Laden Dead

I'm amazed that after all these years he wasn't hiding out in a cave, but instead he was found near Pakistan's capital in a major complex. He wasn't trying to stay under the radar he was living in a gigantic compound. This amazes me and I'm also worried that Pakistan took so long to report his whereabouts. I believe that some members of intelligent agencies were backing him up and didn't want him to be found. But after many long years we finally got him and the manhunt is over, hopefully his death will stop AL Qaeda's terrorist acts, but i doubt we have heard the last from them.

Night Shift #5

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 142-181

The ledge isn't a story for people who are scared of heights. When reading this story i always thought that this would be one of the most scariest things to do in your entire. This story isn't scary because its about demons or imaginary monsters, but because its about a legitimate fear that many people won't admit, heights. Stan has fallen in love with the love of his life; however, that women is married to the a very powerful drug lord. Stan meets Cressner, the husband of the wife, in his penthouse on the 73rd floor of a skyscraper. He makes a wager that if he is able to walk along the edge of the building one complete time he will let him have his wife and freedom. Stan accepts the wager and the story proceeds with him successfully completing the challenge in a time of 5 hours. With his time on the 6 inch ledge only one false move away from death, the reader can truly feel his fear. Every wind that blew at him made me jump a little bit and then when the birds starting pecking at his ankle I thought he was a goner.He wins the wager, but Cressner crosses him holding a gun in his hands telling him he can go with his life and pick up his love at the morg. Stan is filled with rage and charges Cressner taking the gun from him and forcing him to walk the ledge just as he did. However, Stan had planned even if he does make it back he won't be leaving the building alive.

I would love to do this if i was securely strapped to the building. I believe that the adrenaline rush that being that high up in the air just hanging on a ledge would be exhilarating. I love an adrenalin rush, the most scared iv probably been in my life is when i went snorkeling around a ship wreck and saw about 20 Caribbean ref sharks circling the boat.

Night Shift #4

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 117-142

Have you ever wondered what would happen if automobiles somehow managed to come alive and hunted down humans. Think about it how would you stop an 18 wheeler truck who has no emotions and feels no pain. Thats what happens in King's short story Tucks. A couple of people are eating a truck stop when all over a sudden their vehicles start to move without anyone inside them. They watch as one of the truck drivers is run downed by a speeding truck and splattered across the road. They wait there for many days and believe that they can wait for months with the food available. But they soon realize no one is coming for them and more trucks pull into the station without drivers. They circle the store and then one of them just stops dead.... Gas. The cars needed gas and couldn't pump it themselves. Thus the people thought they would be safe, but they were wrong the truck rammed into the building breaking it down and surrounded the people. The truck played mores-code threw their stereos telling one of them to pump gas. At first they disobeyed then one of them was instantly run over. There life was then devoted to pumping gas for the vehicles around the world.

I can only wonder if everyone around the world was doing this. If i was them i would try to hop into one of the truck and see what happens. I also wonder what would happen if you tried to do that? Its a scary thought, millions of vehicles becoming aggressive towards humans killing them on sight.

Night Shift #3

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 82-117

I'm sure everyones heard of the bogeyman and knows how he comes out of the closet at night to kill little children. Well I've seen the movies, but I never new it was created by Stephen king in a short story. Lester Billings came to Dr. Harper to tell his story of how he lost his three children. Before he starts the story insists that Harper check his closest, nothings inside. He then tells how his three children were murder one by one at night mysteriously. Denny was their first child and when he was two they moved him onto another room. He started crying every night and said he wanted a night light, but Lester never put one in because he thought it would make him soft. The night Denny died he pointed to the closest and said "Bogyman Daddy." Well when he went to check on him later that night Denny was dead on the ground and the closet was a little opened. Then two years later Shirl said the same thing "Bogyman Daddy," but Lester just let her fall asleep again. In the middle of the night he heard a scream and ran into the room and saw a glimpse of a shadow slither back into the closet just barely opened. Shirl died in the same house as Denny. Then he caught the thing strangling his last child after they moved houses. He then heard Andy's poor little neck break as the thing was shaking him and instead of doing something he ran away to an all night dinner. Then Lester leaves the room after finishing his story, then returns to tell him Harper something, but he is gone and the closet is open just a crack.

This is my favorite story so far because it actually scared me. I was reading this at 11:30 at night in my bed an when I tried to go to sleep i kept looking at my closet. I'm not easily scared by horror movies I wasn't even scared by the movie the Bogeyman, but this short story got to me. Maybe it was that i was reading it alone in the dark. The night was quite except for a cold breeze outside. It took me an hour to fall asleep that night.

Fast Five

The new Fast and Furious movie came out this week and I can't wait to see it. I'v seen every F&F movie to this date and they are easily one of my favorite series. I love fast cars and races on the streets. The movies also have some of my favorite actors, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. The new movie Fast Five has also added a new character, who will be played by "The Rock" another great actor. I can't wait to see the movie soon and I will be sure to post and movie review over it.

Night Shift #2

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 37-82

The Mangler is the next short story written by Stephen King that I really enjoyed. The mangler is an old school laundry machine. Officer Hunton is sent to the store because apparently someone's arm got stuck in the the machine and was pulled in between the rollers flatting the poor women making for a slow agonizing death.Officer Hunton suspected that the safety bar wasn't working, but to his surprise when he tested it the machine shut off immediately; therefore, the women should have also set it off when her arm went to far into the machine. Hutton discussed the matter with his close friend Jackson and neither one of them could make sense of it. Then next week one of the steam pipes from the blue ribbon laundry machine broke off and burned 6 of the workers, killing 3 of them. Jackson believes that the machine is possessed by a demon. Hunton is then convinced that Jackson's assumption is correct when they find out that the blood of a virgin is one of the ways to posses an inanimate object. Cherry weeks before these incidents began cut her finger on the machine bleeding all over it, they discovered that she was a virgin.Hunton and Jackson attempt to preform an exorcism, but come to realize that the machine is possessed by a much stronger entity, the hand of glory. The holy water does nothing to it and it soon rises out of the ground using the pipes as legs. Hunton runs out of their screaming leaving Jackson behind to die.

I'm amazed by the creativeness of Stephen King's writing. I could never have thought of a laundry machine to be something you could base a horror story off of. In fact credits found it to be so good they made a movie of it. I'll have to watch the movie and compare the the book to it and see what the movie changed. I can't wait to read more of his stories, so far they are all so good.

Im a Scatman!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnQCk0u49w

This song can make anyone want to dance and if it doesn't then no beat on earth could get those people to grove. The musical beat of this song is just so energizing. The Scatman is simply the best artist to ever exist.

Night Shift #1

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 1-37

Night Shift is a collection of horrific short stories written by Stephen King. The story's are suppose to provoke the fear inside a human's mind making those final minutes before a person falls asleep in the pitch black dreadful. This is the first book I've read of Stephen King's and thought I could sample a bunch of his short stories before I decided to start buying multiple books of his. So far I'm very impressed and find myself unable to put the book down at times. All of the stories are good, but a select few of them are spectacular and one can truly not stop reading even if its 1 in the morning and one eye is closed. The first short story I'm going to share with you is titled the Grave Yard Shift. Hall works at a Textile Mill and has signed on to help clean out the basement of the factory over the week of memorial day. Warwick, the boss, has hired a bunch of men to clean out the basement during the graveyard shift (1-5 in the morning) because the the intense heat in the day. The first shift Hall discovered that there was more trash then any of them could've imagined and that there were tons of huge rats. These rats aren't just abnormally large they are literally the size of a germen Shepard dog. The next day he found a locked door leading to an even lower level. The workers could here the noise of thousands of rats coming from that door. Warwick tells Hall to go find the source of rats and Hall demands that Warwick comes with him. They both go down and discover that this floor goes past the buildings foundations right into the earth. They follow the tunnel and fight mutated rats with wings just like bats. They keep going and soon 10s of thousands of rats are following them. Then they see the impossible, a giant rat with wings the size of a mini van. The mutated rodent immediately attack Warwick and Hall runs away,but trips on a rat and they all swarm him as he starts to scream out in laughter.

I love reading these short stories and really liked this one because of the detail King gives about the main characters life and thoughts. I really like King's Gothic style of writing. The endings are all short and usually result in death there is nothing climatic of the endings and that annoys me, but at the same time it leaves the readers mind open to speculation. King is a literary genius.

Pen Spinning

Recently I saw a video on you tube about pen spinning and I'm now addicted to it. I have been trying to do the tricks in all my classes every chance i get, but I'm failing miserly. Every class i drop my pen easily over 100 times. The main pen spinners are in Japan where its a sport and they are insanely good at it. I need to stop this pen spinning business, but its very addicting. I find myself not focusing as much as i should in class and starting to rage after dropping it several times.

Fishing

In two weeks my dad, uncle, and I are going up to Pittsburgh where my family is from for our fishing trip. The second stalking of Tomas Mills is in 2 weeks and we were suppose to go to the first stalking, but the weather was to bad and streams were flooded. Hopefully the weather is gets better soon so we are able to go. We always have a great time and make many memories together. I still remember the fun things we did when I first when i was only 12 years old.

Summer Ball

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
Pages 157-214

The first day of practice Mr. Powers already shows that he is going to go hard on Danny because of hid grudge against his father. He makes Danny run laps around the court because made a noise when someone stepped on his foot. The coach barely plays him in games and when he does if Danny makes one bad decision he immediately gets taken out. He calls his father to get advice and his dad tells him to confront the coach and ask him what he needs to do better. When he goes to seek advice from the coach he is told that basketball isn't his sport and that he should play soccer instead. The next game Danny is put in towards the end and starts to do really good, he starts making his shots and beautiful no look passes. At the end of the game they are down one point and Danny does a double crossover to get past two defenders. He thinks he has an open layup and as he releases the ball and turn around to watch it drop though the net, he instead sees this huge 6'8" kid jumping so high that he could've put his elbow in the rim and grabbing the ball out of the air. The buzzer-ed went off and coach began giving it to Danny. The next games Danny didn't play at all and he decided to fake an injury to get out of camp. But then he remembers that Zach Fox looked up to him and what would he think if he quit so instead of giving in he doesn't quite and practices even harder. He and Rasheed become good friends and Rasheed knows Danny is by far one of the bets guards at the camp, even almost as good as him. Rasheed forgets about the past game and tells Danny that he was never friends with Lamar, who is a arrogant jerk. They make it to the championship game and Rasheed has convinced coach that Danny is really good, so he has been playing all throughout the playoffs and has been schooling everyone with Rasheed. Danny steals the ball from Lamar in the last possession of the game to beat his team and prove to coach he is a great basketball player.

Mike Lupica once again has successfully incorporated life messages into basketball. Instead of doing nothing about his problems Danny confronts his coach and asks for guidance. Even after being told he will never be good enough to play he almost quits, but then realizes if he quits at this he'll be a quitter the rest of his life. Therefore, Danny learns to never quit at something and to persevere through the struggles to achieve success. I also like how Rasheed and Danny were able to become friends after they got off on the wrong foot, both boys are really nice and good. In the end I'm happy Danny took it to Lamar and showed his coach that he really is a basketball player.