maybe i should start playing online poker

after reading this article, my question is one that many people have, "How were these kids, many of whom were too young to set foot inside a casino, outsharking the sharks?"
if you just sit at your computer all day playing online, how are you learning to play? i don't understand. i didn't even know you could make this amount of money playing games on line, i just always figured it was spam. i guess in his case they are for real when the computer tells him he just won 100,000 dollars.
my concern is that he doesn't even understand that the money he is making is real money, not just computer money.
"It is unclear whether Cates actually does understand that the money is real. On the second day of my visit, we took a trip to Best Buy. Cates had grown bored of playing poker and wanted to buy a video game. As we stood in the PS3 aisle, discussing which games looked good, I asked him if he had ever walked into a store like Best Buy — or perhaps a car dealership — and thought to himself, Hey, I can buy out this entire place. Cates smiled sheepishly. He said: “I’m not really into material wealth. Plus, I need to save up some more money. My fiscal goal for 2011 is to reach $10 million in liquid cash.” I asked what the difference might be between $5 million and $10 million, especially for a 21-year-old whose relative spending habits sit somewhere on the line between modest and monastic. He explained: “You can do anything with $10 million. Like, you can buy a house and still have around $5 million left over.”"
he obviously has a skewed view of looking at things after spending 21 years on the computer playing poker. he thinks he needs MORE. he has like millions. from playing games! get a life!

10 years from now...

There is one student in the article that pretty much has the same lifetime goals as me, Elivia Freeman says that she wants to be a neonatal nurse. That profession really interests me. ever since i was a kid i have wanted to work somewhere in that field. i am not sure if it will be in that exact workplace, but it will be similar. She just wants to be comfortable and well off, that is fine with me.
my sister dropped her biology major and picked up one in psychology so it is also really ironic that there is an aspiring psychologist on the list here.
the most delusional one here is probably the actress, Shauna Casale, i would tell her to pick a different career unless she wants to live in a box on the street.
Where do i see myself fin ten years?
i have no idea. i am hoping to live in a big city. maybe not huge, but like in a city somewhere. i want to be working in my career, not still struggling through college. i hope to have a tight bond with my family. i want to be married or something or atleast not alone and unsocial that would be bad. i just want to be happy.

pg. 1-68

it was just brought to my attention that the blogs were due today... apparently this was announced when i was absent. i knew this,i wouldn't have been so nonchalant about not blogging for tons of weeks. i started this knew book, 13 Reasons Why, everyone keeps telling me it is a really good book so i shall continue. maybe i can fit another blog in at midnight tonight since i missed so many...lol.
anyway so far in the book, this kid clay jensen recieves 13 tapes from this girl hannah who has committed suicide recently. hannah has recorded herself on each tape discussing the reasons why she killed herself and pointing the blame at the 13 people which led her to do so. each person who recieves the box of tapes, is apart of hannah's suicide which is a complete shock to clay. he has no idea what he might have done to cause her to kill herself, but so far, the story has begun to unwravel as she has already described how justin, jessica, and alex started ruining her life the day she moved into town.
i think that clay is the most recent one, that he is tape number 13, that he is the last one who led to her suicide. that is just what i have been thinking as i have been reading this book.
can't wait to continue and meet the other people who have contributed to the death of hannah. reminds me of Pretty Little Liars.

my headache of the week

if you haven't noticed, i haven't blogged in quite some time. i have been having extreme difficulties with this. between getting the flu at state, having to go through dance team workshops and tryouts, having an immense amount of homework because i missed two days, and just being plain exhausted, you could see why blogging about i book i have no time to read is causing me trouble. i finally had time to get to my recent one today in study hall. the only reason for this is because mr. jankowski told us that he was going to have to push back the All The Pretty Horses deadline til after spring break, which basically saved my life. so i should be getting to this blogging thing soon.

Crossed

At first, the cover art had not been released for the second book, but i found this yesterday and i found it very intriguing how similar it was to the first book. i love how it looks like she is breaking out. breaking out of society's expectations. its so cool and symbolic.

pg. 348- end

finally, i get to get a new book! woohooo
the last part of this book sets you up really well for the nest one. i almost didn't want to stop reading. i want the next book really bad.
after everyone is made to take the red tablet, they basically don't remember a thing and they are all confused on why they are certain places and where they left things. that part is kinda funny.
Xander comes and admits to cassia that the red tablets don't work on him. they don't work on a few others either. he knows this because they had to take it one other time too but he hasn't divulged that secret yet. i am very interested in that one.
Cassia's mom is transferred to the farmlands. probably because of the whole ky situation and they don't want her to be anywhere where she could possibly start a revolution of some sort. good luck with that.
they move out there and her dad mentions to an official that they think she will be a problem (actually trying to help her) so she can move closer to the province where she thinks he will be at.
That is basically where the book leaves you. Cassia, on search for Ky. i wonder what the next book will be about. i am very excited :)

pg. 290-348

This section is actually the best part of the book. the plot thickens and realize what the book is actually about and why it is so darn good and why there is more books and why you want them to come sooner than november.

Cassia is put to the test. she is basically the best sorter. she has passed all the tests they have thrown at her with flying colors and she is ready to receive her vocation but they said that she will have to perform a sort in real life first. god only knows what that is supposed to mean. They take her to the industry part of society, the part where Ky works. actually the exact work site where ky woks in nutrition. nutrition basically means scraping food off dishes. they want her to sort out the people she thinks in the group they have given her look like they perform their job the best and they people who don't. there is really only one problem with this though, ky is in this room and the officials say that the higher group will go on to receive a different vocation. this is basically a prisoners dilemma as she calls it. she wants him to have a better vocation, but she doesn't know what they will do with him. she puts ky in the higher group and she thinks she has done the right choice until a few days later when he is taken by a few officials out of his own home. His father informs everyone that they are taking him to war because the society is losing miserably and killing off everyone and that basically ky has no chance.

the officials come and make everyone take out their red tablet and swallow it. up until now, no one has no idea what the red tablet does and this is because the red tablet erases the memory of 12 hours later. officials don't want anyone to know what is happening in the war.

Cassia pretends to take her tablet, she wants to remember where ky is so that she can go search for him.

spring break in the big city. woohooooo

For the first time in my whole like i will be going somewhere on spring break. i am so darn excited i can hardly hold myself together. And it's not even like the normal spring break trip: "hey where you going?" ..."florida" shocker!
I am going to New York City baby!
for me this is really exciting. while we are there, we will be seeing to shows: the lion king, and how to succeed in business without trying. the second one is extra special to me because the star of this musical is... (hold for suspense) DANIEL RADCLIFF! i am so excited. i will be in the same room as harry potter. i will probably pass out or something.
the second most exciting thing is while we are there, the harry potter exibition will be touring in new york! how lucky are we?! i saw it while they were in chicago, but since then, they have added the props from the Deathly Hallows, and being an extreme Harry Potter fan like me, i have to go. I HAVE TO GO.
my only concern is that me and my mom are going to nyc alone. we have a horrible sense of direction. i hope we make it back...

Blog Assignment

After zooming through the list of popular children's books, the reading rainbow theme song is stuck in my head, even though it is only comprised of two words.
READING RAINBOWWW
I also remembered one of the books in the list, Love you Forever. I loved that book when i was a kid. Actually, I still love it. I saw it at Barnes & Noble the other day and read it.
I Distinctly remember the part of the book where the mother is really old an sick and because she took care of her son all his life, the son goes to her and holds her like a baby which i have always thought was a little deranged, but i guess as a kid you need a visual aid to see the care between a mother and son. whatever, I STILL LOVE IT, i'm going to go read it when i go home.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is on here. Everyone goes on and on about this book about how they love it and how it is the best childrens book they have ever read. never read it. I guess I am missing out.
All the other books I read as a youngin aren't on this list. I guess they weren't good enough. what about the puppy book!? my fave!

there is no truer of images.

pg. 208- 290

When all the artifacts are taken from the houses by the officials, the artifact that Ky gave Cassia is no longer safe. Ky gave her a compass, which the officials have no knowledge of him having, but when they take them, cassia is able to trust Xander and she puts it down his shirt for him to hide. he hides it in his bushes where it will be safe.

Xander and Cassia's relationship is a little, how can i put this? ... damaged? Cassia has informed Xander that she doesn't feel for him the way he feels for her, but instead she is in love with someone else which is totally illegal. he doesn't take this news at all well.

It is brought to cassia's attention, first by Xander because he loves to play games that Ky is extremely smart, but he throws every single game. he knows what move would be the winning move as soon as he starts the game, but he goes with the move the average person would take. later cassia confronts him and he claims that he only does this to stay unnoticed. Cassia says: "Ky can play this game. He can play all of their games, including the one in front of him that he just lost. He knows exactly how to play, and that's why he loses every time." if he were to win as much as he were supposed to given how smart he is, he would not be average, he would not work in a slum job. he would be watched. constantly watched, because he has shown skills that have made other people believe that he has talent others don't.

It is made known to cassia by Ky after Ky suddenly has two brand new poems that there is a place where people have saved things other that the hundred of everything. If you go to the basement of the museum and stand in front of the Oria Province exhibit, someone will ask you if they can help you with something, if you say yes, they know you will want contact with an archivist.

pg. 133- 208

Cassia has basically decided by now that she is going to pursue Ky.

apparently, people in the future don't write at all. they can't. the society trains them for one specific purpose each so if they ever decide that they want to rebel or want to escape, they don't know how to survive on their own because they only know how to do one thing and they have only been trained to do that one thing all of their life. because writing has basically been prohibited, they only use like touch screens now to send messages and do whatever they need to do but for some reason Ky knows hoe to write in the "ancient" writing technique of cursive which cassia thinks is absolutely extraordinary. Ky begins teaching her how to write her name in the dirt during their assigned summer hiking activity which they both excel at. It is here in the forest where cassia reads her illegal poems away from society and where Ky gives her some poems of his own which he has written just for her to tell his story on how he cam to be in this strange society and why he isn't in the outer provinces where he belongs.

Xander and cassia also have their first "outing" after their match. unfortunately, because it is protocol, they have to be accompanied by an official which is extremely awkward for the both of them because they have been friends for so long and have gone out by themselves so many times.

After cassia lends her artifacts to one of her friends fir her match banquet something happens and then all the artifacts all over have to be taken away which is really depressing. the artifacts are the last ties to the past and the one thing that cassia holds very dear to her heart.

Whose as obsessed as i am?

pg. 69-133

compared to the hunger games or even twilight, this book is extremely slow-paced. it doesn't even have that strong of a plot but yet i am unable to put it down. it is like magic. I forgot to mention that at match banquets after people have been matched, they get a microcard of their match's details on it and pictures and stuff because usually people have no idea who their match is. When Cassia gets hers she goes home and plugs it in and watches it and sees a picture of Xander, her match, but what is weird is that the screen then goes black and Ky's face shows up.

the officials claim that is it someone attempting to poll a prank or something and switch cards. They also reveal to cassia that Ky is an abberation.

After Cassia had visited her grandfather on the last day of his life, the officials had saved a tissue sample for the future where they were hoping to recreate and bring those people back through them. Grandfather puts Cassia's father in charge of this tissue sample, but when cassia returns home later on she finds that he has lost it. later it is revealed that it was Grandfather's wish for his tissue sample not to be returned.

Also while visiting grandfather, cassia is handed two poems that are not two of the list of hundred poems that were selected. this is extremely illegal and could basically get you killed or just ruin your reputation. cassia reads them and falls in love with their beautiful words. she then realizes why this poem was not selected as one to keep. it is a poem about fighting back against the authority.

my excitement for this stretched around the world forty times

pg. 1- 69

This book is really good first of all... i can see why it is so popular, i don't know what it is about this book which makes it so good, but i just can't put it down. it's not like it has this fantastic plot but its amazing.
anyway, the book begins in this dystopian world, where basically your whole like is planned out for you. As soon as you turn seventeen, you can choose whether or not you want to be put in the pool to be matched with someone else in the country. it is basically like the government is picking who you are going to marry. the main character, Cassia, has just turned seventeen so she applies for this and she o her luck is immediately selected to attend a match banquet to meet her match. to her surprise, and basically everyone elses, she is matched with her best friend, Xander. this is a very very very very rare occurrence considering the fact that the whole country is involved in this. usually girls are matched with people in other provinces and what not, but she was not. she takes this news strangely. she kimd of wanted to be like every one else...
with this news she goes to visit her grandfather who is supposed to die the next day. apparently, in the future everyone is made to die at the age of eighty which is kind of cruel... there is also so many other things about this future that are strange. apparently, they thought there was just too many books and poems and paintings and everything. too much history. so a long time ago, they hired a select few to sort out a hundred of each of these things to keep. now they only have that many things to watch and read. how boring of a wold to live in.

love isn't always what it seems

weekend blog assignment-- spellbound

1. Ashley White and Neil Kadakia

Overall, their motivations were basically the same: to win the spelling bee, but in both cases, it centered around different areas. In Ashely's case, she spent most of her time at school preparing for the bee, and studied alone at home. Her family needed the money and supported Ashley because she was very good at spelling and she wanted to pursue it to the national spelling bee. her main motivation was to stand out in the inner city school she went to and to win the prize for her family.

For Neil, it was a little different. His family did not need anymore money. His father was constantly spitting words at him and asking him to spell them, hiring teachers for him so he could learn as many languages as possible and just making studying the number one priority in his life. He did not know anything else except words. It seemed that Neil's main motivation was to win the bee to make his father proud and not disappoint him.

Matched

I think i am going to start reading this book. Someone recommended it to my mom and said it was similar to the Hunger Games trilogy. after looking into it, i could see a lot of similarities and it seems interesting. this one is also part of a trilogy, but the only problem is that the second one will not be released until november. tear. but if i like it, i shall read it again! this is what it says on the back:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

what is interesting me the most is the review on the back of the book. it says: "matched is a page-turning, dystopian love story, written with the soul. finally, a brave new world that readers from Twilight to The Hunger Games will claim as their own."

Those are my two favorite books. of course i am reading this book. and of course i will love it. it better not disappoint me.

pg. 545- end

he has a clear shot, a clear shot to end the very source of what caused the most discord in this new universe. but he can't even think about taking it. he sees just what Jack saw in Andrew the day of his disappearance. everything fades around him, like everything freezes. his mother's voice is now the only thing he can hear. but he refuses to listen to her, and Jack didn't even tell him how to beat it. she tells him to come with him repetitiously, that he can finally get out of there, but again he refuses. and then Caine comes into the conversation, asking questions, but this mother is not answering any of them, she just keeps insisting on the both of them to come with her. Caine is talking to Sam now, he wants him to go with her, he wants to rule. This mother keeps insisting, but they both keep saying no. and just then she turns into some sort of monster. the monster says: I'm your future. You'll come to me on your own in the dark place Caine. You will come willingly to me." and just then the monster fades, and they survive, they survive the disappearance.Back to the battle, but Sam still can't kill Caine. he lets him go, telling him to go back to Coates. go back where he belongs and that he could easily get to him.The book ends with Drake following Pack leader somewhere out into the desert into the darkness.this book is weird... i know. i'm not sure if i will be continuing the series.

who actually reads the books...?

check out this book art.

you can see at: corcholat.com/%2521PPM how they did it. this whole entire set up is books on a wall that have been painted. i think it is pretty awesome.

Goodbye Gone

i'm definitely abandoning this book after i finish it. too weird for me. i will read what happens in the series on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_(series)

it's not that i don't recommend it, it's just kind of weird and confusing. not my style.

pg. 522-544

Caine leaves to meet Sam in the plaza, but on his way there he sees tons of coyotes running away from there saying that "whip hand gone" meaning Drake is no where to be seen. Caine strikes up a deal with the coyotes and tells them to come back to the plaza and because of their hunger, they can have as many kids as they want. they come of course.

Howard goes to where Orc is and immedietly sees that what once was just pieces of gravel, has now turned Orc into a super human and mutated him. This immedietly reminded me of the fantastic four. and the one rock dude. i don't know his name, but it is pretty much just like that. He is suddenly really strong, but he does not care, he thinks all of this is a punishment of his murder of Bette and all he cares about is getting more beer.

most of the rest of this is Caine and Sam battling it out. Sam fires, Caine resists and uses his power to throw something or shield himself. it is an endless battle. they are both hurt in the end. the thing is, they do most of this fight, in the already burnt down building so it is already unsteady.

After Caine told the coyotes they could just have any kid they want, they basically attack everyone.

The end of this chapter ends with Sam having a clear shot at Caine, so close to the exact moment of his disappearance.

Cool isn't it?

how many paintings could we reenact? notice that instead of the huge skirt, the woman is carrying a bag of this exact painting. irony.

pg. 494- 522

At the beginning of this, it is made known that Astrid screwed up and now all the coyotes are running towards the preschool, which is great. little kids and big talking hungry animals.

Quinn is stationed on top of the church with a gun so he can shoot drake or whoever he can see, but he never budges, even when he has a clear shot. it is actually really infuriating. Drake is in prime view and Quinn is just standing there holding the gun up. sigh..

At the daycare, the coyotes come rushing in, snapping at the kids and they are all under Drake's control. Mary tries to defend herself, but drake and his knew whipping hand get her in a choke hold and nearly kill her. He tells them that the coyotes wont eat the kids until Drake tells them to.

a proposal is given to Sam asking to unveil all of his hidden people and lay down all of his weapons on the church steps so him and Caine can have a "fair" duel. Sam accepts, but he has a plan smarter than just giving up.

At the daycare, one of the girls with powers breaks down one of the walls and releases the hostages.

Diction Exercise- Poetry

Ghost Dance
by: Sara Littlecrow-Russell

dreaming
humanity
drown
renewed
whispering
threat
destroyed
broken
sacred
sins

Sara Littlecrow-Russell's hushed and motionless diction creates a unsettling image that alludes to the foreboding reality of the ones who were not so lucky while their lives still remained unharmed.