Outside Reading Blog #3

I finished Masquerade-the second book of the Blue Bloods series-yesterday. For my outside reading blog this week, I'm going to compare Schuyler's relationship with Jack Force to Schuyler's relationship with Oliver Hazard-Perry. Jack Force is perfect guy at Duschene. Schuyler describes him with perfect silver-blond hair, flawless physique, shining green eyes, and a heart-stopping smile. Schuyler immediately begins to fall for him especially after he shows severall signs of interest. First he begins to talk to her, then kisses her at Bliss's party, then kisses her again at the masquarade party-she doesn't find out that it was him who had kissed her until she was biting Mimi-, and continually shows a rare interest in her. However, there are a couple obstacles in their relationship. First off, Mimi absolutely despises the idea of Jack loving Schuyler-as she should due to the bonding code. According to the history of Blue Bloods, twin Blue Bloods are supposed to share an unsplittable love-bond that is never questioned. Jack doesn't seem to follow tradition since he's falling for Schuyler. Charles Force is another obstacle Jack's love for Schuyler faces. Since Charles has told Jack that Schuyler is a half-blood, he has tried to keep his distance. Also, Charles forced Schuyler to move in with the Forces so that makes is hard to love one-another. Schuyler and Oliver's bond is quite different. Ever since she can remember, Oliver and her have been best friends. Later, when Schuyler finds out that Oliver is her Conduit, their relationship begins to change. Although Oliver has always been there for Schuyler and has always helped her when she needed his aid, he feels constantly more and more sensitive towards her. Also because she has recently shown interest in Jack Force, he becomes jealous and cares about her even more. Although Schuyler has always known that Oliver loves her, she recently found out while biting Mimi, that Oliver is in love with her. Since Schuyler has continuously become more and more weak, she must take her first human familiar. Your first human familiar is supposed to be someone you have a strong relationship with and definetly not someone you don't know well. Of course, Schuyler asks Oliver to be her first human familiar. Oliver agrees with many hesitations but he agrees nonetheless. Schuyler's relationships with these guys are both very different. Schuyler's relationship with Jack is like the "forbidden love", while Oliver is hopelessly in love with Schuyler while she continuously leans on his shoulder for help.

Blog #2

Recently I've been noticing the changes in Schuyler. When I first met her at the beginning of Blue Bloods, Schuyler was emo-like. She only had Oliver as a friend. She pretended she didn't care about what others thought and souly focused on herself and her friendship with Oliver. She dressed in layers of old, vintage clothes that only she could pull off. Schuyler has a arrogant side of her that doesn't want to believe anything anyone tells her unless it makes perfect sense to her. She really only appreciated her grandmother and her mother. Since Cordelia was the only one to care for her and her mother continued to "live" in a coma. She even mistreated Oliver but her took it-because he had to. I started seeing changes in Schuyler when she started having interests in Jack Force. Soon after she started having feelings for Jack, she found out she was a Blue Blood. With her arrogant side, she was quick to deny she had experienced any of the side effects of the Blue Blood transformation. Jack Force was the first one to make her believe she was a Blue Blood. Soon after that, Schuyler befriended Bliss who invited Schuyler to the parties and the social gatherings that changed her. After she heard of the Silver Bloods, she became obsessed with finding out more about them. Not to mention, she did modeling for a famous jeans company with Bliss, which she would have never done before. More and more people seem to notice her beauty and her unreal resemblance to her mother, Allegra. Schuyler turns away from her friend, Oliver for a while but then soon returns and finds out that he is her Conduit. In Masquerade, Schuyler continues to be a changed person but manages to be friends with Oliver and Bliss. She has also started talking to Jack again which furiates Mimi. Schuyler still strives to find out more about the Silver Bloods and continues to carry out her own personal style and continues to impress.

Blog #1

For the first blog of my outside reading book, I'm going to do a character comparison. In the Blue Bloods series there are three main characters, Mimi Force, Bliss Llewellyn, and Schuyler Van Alen. All three of these characters are extremely different in appearance, background, and personality, the only thing that brings these three together is the fact that they are all Blue Bloods and that they all come from families with fortunes. All three also attend Duchesne, a school basically designed for the rich children in New York City with classes of only sixty. Mimi Force is the popular, perfect girl. She's intimidating and very exclusive. As Melissa De La Cruz describes her, she has a perfect body with curves in all the right places, flowing silver blond hair, bright green eyes and can get any guy she wants. Mimi has a Twin brother Jack Force is also everything perfect. As all Twin Blue Bloods do, Mimi and Jack have and inexplanable relationship. Mimi dates guys for no more than two weeks and does what she pleases with them but they don't mind since she's made them her human familiars. A human familiar is a Red Blood bitten by a Blue Blood to make them unconditionally in love with their Blue Blood significant other. Mimi does the same to her "friends" however she doesn't bite them, she simply intimidates them to become her friends which we wouldn't even call friends, more like followers or apostles. Bliss Llewellyn is one of these followers until she finds true friends that Mimi doesn't approve of. Bliss is a new student at Duchesne, she came from Texas. In Texas, she was the most popular girl, the head cheerleader, and the girl every guy wanted. She, too has a model figure with naturally curly, long, orange hair and a taller figure. As a part of her most vulnerable time as a Blue Blood, Bliss has had terrifying nightmares ever since she moved to New York City. The dreams were so bad that she would wake up not knowing where she was and sometimes wet from her cold sweat. Bliss also has trouble fitting in until Mimi befriends her. Besides Mimi, Bliss also eventually makes friends of her own. She quicly friends Dylan, an attractive bad-boy type that immediately attracts Bliss after he offers her a cigarette at a club. Bliss and Dylan end up having an intense relationship that fights walk-ins by her parents and Mimi's dissaproval. Bliss also makes friends with Oliver Hazard-Perry and Schuyler Van Alen. They bond over their interest in freeing Dylan from captivity and finding more information on the Silver Bloods. Out of all three girls, Schuyler stands out the most by far. She is the only one in school that can make layers of emo, vintage clothing look good. She also has her mother's beauty, not Beauty like Mimi or Bliss, a natural, hard-to-see beauty. Schuyler is actually not 100% Blue Blood since her father was a Red Blood. After the mysterious deaths of her classmates, the information that she's a vampire and her attacts, she is determined to find out more about the Silver Bloods.

Outsiding Reading Book Reflection

I chose to read Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz because I was intrigued when I read the back summary of it. I found the book when I was at a Book Store and saw a Teen Culture Book brochure and the book was suggested for those who enjoyed Twilight and other similar books. Blue Bloods is the first of a three-book series. It is about high school students in an exclusive, preppy school in New York City who experience the tragedy of one of their classmate's death and the mysterious happenings after.

Blog #4(semester 2)

This week I read an article called; Report Faults Treatment of Women held at immigration centers. This article is from the New York Times and was written by Dan Frosch. This article talks about a study that concluded that some immigration centers in Arizona have some serious health delay and mistreatment issues. The study also concluded that immigration officials are too harsh and too aggressive with the women when keeping them. These women suffered problems such as cancer and other severe medical conditions. These reports were considered biased by detainees, their lawyers, and other immigration center employees. Apparently mistreatment of women is not uncommon at these immigration centers. Immigration centers have been continuously encouraged and enforced to improve their conditions. Especially focusing on how the women are treated by detainees. Owners of these facilities insist that if there is a problem, it will be fixed. For example, if they find out that a detainee is incorrectly treating a woman, that detainee will be moved to a different facility. Many occasions of women being mistreated have occured. I think it is unethical and unjust to hold someone captive while they suffer. Especially if the suffering is in the expense of another being, such as a pregnant women being held in a detention center. The child could suffer as well as the mother which isn't right.

Blog #3(semester 2);

This week I read an article about culture in Buenos Aires. There, the argentinians feast on fatty red meats, go to local markets and dance the popular tango. The average Buenos Aires citizen lives in an older styled apartment on a small street or alley. Shanty towns are also popular in some areas. The streets are filled with small restaurants and stores so it isn't hard to find what you're looking for. Steak houses also take up much of the street blocks. Popular dishes from these restaurants include; the original, meaty, fatty, rare steak. A heart of palm salad. Empanadas. Blood sausage. and more. In Buenos Aires, there is also alot of poverty. Like I said before, many people live in Shanty towns. Shanty towns are very close, small, beat-down apartments that often don't have roofs, or electricity, or plumbing, or outside walls. When walking along the streets, many people will ask you for money usually having an excuse of why they need it instead of just saying that they can't afford what they need or don't have any money at all. Many people are also along the streets doing street acts for money. One of the most popular cultural events in Buenos Aires is to go see a Tango show. Tango is and artsy, sexual, but yet suffisticated dance usually performed by a man and his partner. It's fun to see these shows for the dancing, but also for the costumes and the food.

http://www.geographia.com/argentina/history.htm

Blog #2(semester 2); Twilight

In twilight, Bella faces the difficulty of accepting that Edward is a vampire. Throughout the book, Bella pretends that she doesn't care that he is a vampire, nor does she ever express her feelings about it. I don't think anyone could ever imagine falling in love with someone who could, at any moment, bite you, then suck your blood out until you die or become a vampire yourself. Although Bella acts as though she isn't scared and doesn't care, Edward insists she be a little frightened for his and her own sake. Because of Bella's "fearlessness", Edward also feels the need to prove to her that he can be very frightening, or a "monster" as he called himself. However, through all these mixed, expressed, and unexpressed emotions, thoughts, and feelings, both Bella and her lover seem to look further than the consequences of a vampire dating and loving a mortal. They still find a deep passion for eachother. A sense of understanding, a sense of connection, a sense of care for one another, and simple young love come out of both of these reserved characters in Twilight.

Blog #1 (semester 2); Hurricane Emily's damage

Hurricane Emily hit the Yucatan peninsula on July 18th, 2005. Although there was a lot of structual damage, there were few deaths. Most of the damage included the wreckage of power lines, leaving seventy percent of the population without power. The storm's strong winds were powerful enough to break a cellphone tower completely in half, collapse two gas stations, uproot street lights and much more. The streets were littered with uprooted trees, snapped telephone polls, bent street signs, and crumpled bilboards. Most resorts and hotels lasted through the storm and it's winds, except for Akumal (which is a popular spot for americans) was badly damaged. Thousands of tourists spent an uncomfortable night in a gymanasium in Cancun. Hurricane Emily also harshly affected Mexico's farmers. Corn, papaya, and citrus crops were completely wiped out. This article was called: Storm lashes out Yucatan, then goes out to Sea and it was written by, James C. McKinley.