Twilight (Blog #7)

Now that Bella has settled in to a new school, new house and new friends, she's met many interesting people. There's Mike Newton who becomes obsessed with her right away. There's Eric, who also seems to be somewhat obsessed with her. There's also Tyler. There's also Jessica and Angela and Lauren. And then there's Edward Cullen. Just like the other Cullens, he's pale white, but very handsome, almost to beautiful to be true. When Edward first finds out that he's lab partners with Bella in biology, he becomes disgusted. She sits there uncomfortably. Then next day he doesn't show up, nor the next or the next. Although Bella tries to convince herself that she's not the reason he's gone, she can't help but wonder. After a couple weeks, he comes back as if he'd never been gone. In biology, he introduces himself and starts questioning Bella immediately about her life. At this point, Bella's obviously confused but has worked up her curiousity so much that she must find out more about this Edward Cullen.

Twilight (Blog #6)

So these past few months, the book to read as been Twilight. I didn't read it at first thinking that I wouldn't like it since everybody else did. I usually don't read on my own unless I'm assigned to. So, I let it go, until the movie came out. A friend invited me to go to the midnight showing so, even though I hadn't read the book like every other person in the theatres, I went, thinking it might be fun. Of course, I absolutely loved the movie and was surprised to hear the satisfactory but not overwhelming reactions around me. I thought for sure everyone would have loved it. Many people said they did but it wasn't as good as the book. I don't think that there has been one movie, ever, that is as good as it's inspiring book. So I thought if the movie was this good, the book must be amazing. I started reading the book and haven't been able to put it down. Of course it's hard to read alot with such hectic scheduals as a teenager but every moment I have, I'm reading. Since the premier, I've also seen the movie two other times and each time thought it was better than the first. I also own the whole soundtrack now and for some reason haven't been able to listen to anything else. It's like the whole Twilight phenomenon (books, movie, soundtrack, apparel) has nicotine in it or something, it's making me obsessed. Anyways, as most everyone knows, this amazing book by Stephenie Meyer starts out with a girl, Isabella (Bella) Swan who moves to Forks, Washington to be with her dad. She is not too enthused about this. She's never like the cold, wet climate, of course it's nothing like the previous climate she lived in, in Pheonix.

Twilight!!!! (Blog #5)

This past weekend's opener, Twilight got huge box office results! This article was written by Joshua Rich. The new Twilight movie, based off the book written by Stephenie Meyer, broke many records this weekend. First of all, it was obviously number one in the box office this week. Secondly, it's the best movie, directed by a women, in the box office ever! It's also number twenty-ninth best box office opener movie of all time. It's the biggest movie ever made by Summit. It's the fourth best opener of this year, so far. This movie has just been huge. Of course, seventy-five percent of the audience was screaming girls/women who had been waiting for this premier for ever! There was no surprise that, they have already declared they will do the sequel, New Moon. This weekend, in second came Quantum of Solace, then Bolt, Then Madagascar, and finally Role Models.

Quantum of Solace (Blog #4)

This article is about the opening weekend for the twenty-second james bond movie; Quantum of Solace and it's competing movie. Quantum of Solace came out in the Box officeat 70.4 million, that's is higher than any other James Bond movie. A little over half of the audience was over twenty-five years of age and about forty-five percent of those were female. The author says that women are really into Daniel Craig, and his bond-like features and personality. The men like him for his image and strength. Some of the viewers were also those who saw Dr. No when it first came out in 1962. The movie debuted overseas on October 31st and has made 322 million since. The feature film still hasn't debuted yet in Japan Australia, and Spain, which are some of the highest box office making countries. Other box office winners were last week's openers, Role Models and Madagascar. This article was written by Roger Vincent.

Teen's dad, expert: Viewers of webcast suicide played role (Blog #3)

This article is about a 19-year-old's suicide and the reasons why he did it. This article was written by Oren Dorell. In this article, Oren talks about Abraham Biggs' suicide on his webcam and how other viewers could've helped Abraham finish what he was going to do. Biggs' father, Abraham Biggs Sr., said those who watched, and the website operators, share some blame in his son's death. "I think they are all equally wrong," he said. "As a human being, you don't watch someone in trouble and sit back and just watch." Although this is true, other viewers said they called the police while watching, but the police were to late. Briggs was found dead in his father's bed from overdoses of several medications. Other viewers didn't take Briggs seriously because they either thought he was joking or said that he had threatened to kill himself before so they didn't take him seriously. This was a really unfortunate event, hopefully this doesn't lead to more videotaped suicides. The author stresses his concern for this throughout the article.

Internet access in the air? (Blog #2)

This article is about Virgin airlines now offering internet access in flight. This article was written by Roger Yu. This article talks about The Virgin airlines following American Airlines in offering the internet during flight. With this, flyers can email, download, and use secure websites in flight. This service is $9.95 to $12.95 depending on the route and how long the flight is. Since this feature has struggled the past two years, Virgin airlines is testing it out on one plane for a week and if it is successful, they will work on adding the feature to all of the fleet, 24 planes based out of San Fransisco, by the middle of next year. Although this feature seems to be continuely slow, customers (mostly frequent flyers/business travelers) seem to be very impressed and are looking forward to more added features like this one. In the future, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta, and Continental Airlines are looking to also get this service in their flights.

2nd Quarter Blog Post #1

This week, I read an article about how adavanced the ipod touch and iphone when it comes to games. This article was written by Stuart Andrews. This article mainly talks about how not more than a couple years ago, the most advanced gaming system was the PSP. With it's 480x272 widescreen display and graphics, you'd think that this was the best handhelds could get. No, the iphone and itouch's features top those of the handheld PSP's. The apple products have a better widescreen display of 480x320. They also have a little more clarity, they're brighter and more vibrant. The iphone and itouch also have more capabilities with their advanced memory. Purchases of games for the iphone are signaficantly higher than those of other cellphones, 25 percent to 7 percent. Many people question wether the iphone and itouches are the future of on-the-go gaming. Some consider these apple products like portable Wiis.

Outside Reading Blog

This week I read an article about some mudslides that occured this past weekend in China. This article was written by Chris Buckley. Chuxiong city is in the Yunnan province. It's a countryside near the province capital of Kunming. Most of the residents of Chuxiong are farmers who live in little villages perched up on hills. There is also alot of mining that goes on in this province. In fact, there was a mudslide in September that killed 250 people and the cause was damned up tailings from an iron ore. The province is mostly made up of steep terrain so theres no surprise for the mudslides, especially that it has been pooring down rain nonstop for the past weekend. Investigators, have no other reasons for the disaster, it is still being investigated. Unfortunetly these mudslides took the lives of 20 people. Of course, that death toll could go up because 42 people still remain missing. These mudslides also destroyed one thousand homes of the people who live in Chuxiong and many other public properties.