top 10

      I don't really know if i have a top 10 favourite movies. there are lots of mopvies that i really like. I guess if I had to pick 10, it would probably go like this.

10. The Lion King- this was one of my favourite movies growing up, and I still like it. Everyone has seen it. And i've never heard anything bad said about it. it is just a good movie.

9. Forest Gump- I usually hate long movies, and this movie is quite long, but there really is no boring part of it. I would say it is in most people's top 10, i mean, everyone has said "run forest, run" a bunch of times in their life.

8. Napoleon Dynamite- I fully realize i will get criticized for this, but i don't care. This is one of the funniest movies i have ever seen. People always say that it is a terrible movie, but i disagree. The movie has absolutlely no plot, they dont even really make jokes, they just do sstupid things, and it involves stupid people. I watch it every time it is on tv.

7. Kill Bill- Tjis is really 2 movies, but so what, i like them both equally.the way they jump around is entertaining. the fight scenes are just awesome.

6. all 3 Lord of the Rings- I am watching the first one of these movies as i am writing this blog. I read the books, and in my opinion, this is one of the only instances where a movie has been better than the book it was about. They are so awesome.

5. the original 3 Star Wars- Notice, i just said the original 3, the next 3 were awful. These 3 movies haad the greatest special effects of all time, and i don't really see how that will ever change.

4. Ace Ventura Pet Detective- Jim Carrey is hilarious. these were my 2 favourite movies when i was young. hands down. I watched them both with my brother when i was like 6, and i made my mother go buy them both the next day. The second one i especially like, and i think it is the funniest movie ever made.

3. The Green Mile- The acting in this movie is so great. The plot is very unrealistic, but the acting is so god it doesn't matter.

2. Inglourious Basterds- Great acting, really funny. Brad Pitt was awesome in this. That German guy who played Colonel Hans Landa was amazing. It came out last year, and ive seen it like 20 times.

1. The Shawshank Redemption- hands down, best movie ever made. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are so good in this movie. awesome script, awesome in general. entire movie is entertaining

Themes in "Death of a Salesman"

          In Death of a Salesman, there are three very prominent themes throughout act I. One of these themes, is that Willy has failed to accomplish the American Dream. Willy has worked in the same company for many years, but even after so many years of work, Willy doesn't get respected by anyone at work. His boss does not respect the fact that Willy has worked for the company since before he was born. Willy has been unable to make a name for himself, or pass any life skills on to his sons, which are two key parts of the American Dream.
          A second theme in Death of a Salesman, is that Willy is the only unsuccessful man around. Willy's brother is supposedly rich. He made it big in Alaska, and Willy wishes that he had too. His best friend and neighbor, Charley is a successful business owner, and his son Bernard is a very high up lawyer, while Willy is failing at work, and one of his sons is an unemployed compulsive lier, and the other is a womanizer.
          A third theme in death of a salesman, is that of Man vs. Self. Willy hates himself. he tries to kill himself on several occasions. He drives his car off a bridge, but doesn't die. He tries to suck  in toxic gases, but doesn't die. He mutters to himself constantly, about how his brother is more successful, and his sons are losers. He has constant flashbacks to a time when his sons were successful, and he was well respected.

Death of a Salesman

           In Death of a Salesman, by  Arthur Miller, The main characcter, Will Loman, has two adult sons. Their names are Happy, and Biff. As a father, Willytries to teach his sons certain values. He does not care very much about his sons individuality, and just wants them to follow in his path, and be traveling salesman. He tries to teach them how to accomplish their dreams, but in reality, he is just projecting his own ambitions on to them. These are not favorable for his sons. They will not know how to live on their own, since their father has only taught them to do what he has done his whole life, and not be individuals.
           Willy Loman is also very paranoid, and unsure of himself. He always feels as though no one likes him, but he isn't sure if that is really true. He tends to mutter things, and can never make uop his mind about his past, or his sons. This reveals that Willy is a very unsure, paranoid person. Unfortunately, his wife Linda supports everything that he does. She won't let him believe that his paranoid and untrusting ways are actually harmful to him. Linda is supporting, but her support is negative, because she won't allow Willy to see his flaw, therefoire he can not improve on his habits.

rules?

        I think that everyone should agree that cheating is wrong. you should not copy off someone elses work, you should just study , or do the work yourself to begin with. However, lots of people cheat. we have all copied someone elses homework before, whether or not we care to admit it toi people. I think that cheating is a rule that is kind of hard to prevent. a teacher doesn't have anyway of prevfenting two students from getting together outside of class, and looking at eachother's homeowrk. And even if they do think t has happened, they usually don't have a way to prove it, unless the person was really not the brightest, and copied word for word. now that i think of it though, I don't think that I have copied off someone's homework yet this school year. That probably is a good thing though.
       There are alot of rules that are hard to enforce, just like cheating. Like texting during classes. I see people text during class every single day.I used to on ocasion do it myself, before my phone broke, and i couldn't use it to text. I'm not sure if the teachers are oblivious to it, or if they simply just don't care at this point. I nnotice people texting, why don't the teachers? I am in ADC right now, with no one for me to tutor, and so i decided to do this blog. there a still a bunch of people who don't have anyone to tutor, like me, and a bunch of them ar eprobably texting, because what else would they be doing? It's not enforced, so why follow it really?

Movies

          We watched part of the Scarlet letter in class yesterday. I must say, it was pretty awful. the acting was horendous, the special effects, like the "A" in the sky, were absolutely horrible, and it looked like a cartoon. i dont really think that special effects are even necissary for a good movie. I think that if a movie needs special efffects, they should spend the extra money, and do good ones, not crappy cgi. the best special effects are in the original star wars movies, all the aliens and stuff look pretty real, and because of that, those movies made a ton of money.
         My favorite movie, doesn't use any special effects whatsoever. It is "The Shawshank Redemption." its just a really good movie. the acting is awesome, with Tim robbins, and Morgan Freeman. i never read the book that it is based off of, so i can't really compare the interpretation from the book. Some movies that are from ooks, are not nearly as good as the book. I admit, i read all seven Harry Potter books, and I thought they were pretty awesome. The movies, on the other hand, i hated. The books were so long, and in my opinion can't be fit into on povie each. They leave out so much detail, and events, that are important in the book, and i feel like, had I not read the books before the movie came out, they would make little to no sense,
          It's hard to find a good movie. Most movies just seem way too long. I get bored easily, and when i movie  is 3 hours long, I usually turn it off in the middle. Like Avatar, it's just so long. I watched it with my brother, and i left before the big fight scene, because i had seen like 2 and a half hours of it, and nothing very interesting had happened, it wasnt worth the fight scene, because the rest was too long and boring.

Random Stuff

We wrote an essay in class today. I dont want to talk about that, so I won't.

     So, i don't like the school at this point in time. I am not aloud to ride the bus, because i technically live within 2 miles of the school. so i have to walk home, and my brother doesn't really like me, so he only sometimes picks me up, and if he does, he makes me clean stuff for him. so the other day i was walking home, and it was horrible.
      It started to rain, and so i got wicked wet. i called my brother to come pick me up, and he was like "oh good, i just made a mess in the kitchen and now i don't have to clean it up." i told him nevermind, cause ireally didn't want to clean up his nasty burned food. He goes to cullinary school,. but i still dont like his food, cause i can't even pronounce it. anyway, im walking hyome, and i stepped in this puddle, and my sock got wet, and thats just one of the worst things that could happen to a person. your sock gets all wet, and then it makes that really annoying squeaking noise. so i decided that didnt want to walk home with a wet sock, so i had to get a ride from my brother.
       the mess he had made cooking was horendous. he made this nasty looking curry stuff, and it was awful to clean. there was like ground spices all over the counter, and then this one pan had burned smelly vegetable that i had never heard of all over it. my  borther then said that it had tasted gross too, and so he went to taco bell. He reminded me of Cillingworth, because Cillingworth was crazy.

Half Days

      Sometimes I'm not sure whether or not I like half days. I remember when I was in elementary school i used to love half days, even though they only took off like an hour of the day. However, now that I'm in high school, they seem like kind of a disruption to your school schedule. You miss a a lot of classes, and the teachers will usually just assign you homework for both days, so it's not even really worth missing the class, since you just have to do the work anyway.
      Today is the easiest half day I could ever imagine. My first hour and a half I have study. There is nothing to do. Next period, I am a tutor in the ADC. The problem with that is, I don't have any student to tutor yet.Having no one to tutor, this period serves as another study. So basically, i have no classes today. This is very boring to me. I am not someone who can just sit and do nothing for a long period of time. Atleast if I was in class, I would be learning something, or having a class discussion, that would occupy me a little more.
      I'm not really even sure why we had an early release day today. Usually we have them, because the teachers have a meeting before hand, or something along those lines. I don't really think that should change the day for us though. They should either just have like an A.M. collaboration, or not make us come to school at all on this day. Honestly, the only reason i came was to get my progress report, because the school got cheap, and wont e-mail them home anymore. However, when i got to school, I found out that they had forgotten the Junior progress reports, and we might not get them today at all. This day was really not a great heads-up move on the school's part, in my opinion that is.

I Swear

       Our blogs are supposed to relate to something we talked about in class this week. However, we talked about writing essays most of the week, and lets be honest, writing essays isn't fun. So instead of writing about that, I will write about something we talked about on like the first day. That topic is swearing, and how it differs today from what it was way back in the day.
       Now a days, people don't really evewn think of swearing as being all that bad. tons of people use swears in everyday conversations. I do, I drop a swear in most sentences that I say when im not in school. Even in school, no one really seems to care about swearing. Everyday I hear f-bombs dropped in the hall, and the teachers standing right there dont care. Yesterday i walked into history, and when asked what the answer to the homework question was, having not done the homework, I just let out a word that is a synonym for fecal matter. Not only did no one care that i had just done something that would have gotten you beaten back in the old days, but they automatically just knew that I had not done the homework based on that short four letter response. This just goes to show you, that today's society has begun to think of swearing as socially acceptable.
       People who tell yoy not to swear, usually techers or other adults, simply refer to them as "four letter words". This annoys me greatly. When i am told to not use four letter words by someone, I get annoyingly sarcvastic, and begin to question them, using as many four letter non-swear words, with emphasis, as possible. I sometimes get in trouble for this however, so i should probably stop doing it. I probably get in trouble more for questioning the teachers wording, than i would if i had said the swear they were hinting at in the first place, because i know that the teacher probably goes home and starts facebook chatting with their buddy, using swears like it's nobody's bussiness.
       back in the day, swearing was practically taboo. if you swore you'd probably get your *rear end* beat. that would stink. When you hjit someone don't they usually swear at you for hitting them? So if someones getting beaten, and nthey throw out an insult at someone, do they just get beat mroe? it seems like it could turn into a very unfortunate never-ending cycle. I mean who really even designates what word is a swear? people now a days swear all the time, is that the end of it? or will people just come up with new swears, that others will be against, will it just continue on like that forever? Who knows.

Religion Today?

        Back in the old days, when The Crucible took place, religion was a huge part of life. Everyone in the Puritan community was strictly religious to the Puritan religion. Now a days however, I feel that things are much different when you're talking about religion. The country that we live in has freedom of religion. Anyone can be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or any other. There is no law against it. Many people are not religious however, they celebrate the holidays associated with their religion, but they hardly know anything about the religion, and rarely, if ever go to church. When asked what religion they are, they tell people, but are they really that religion, or are they actually atheist? I think that if you aren't religious that would make you atheist, but i don't know, and i bet most people have that same problem, so they just say the name of a religion that they have some roots to.
         I am one of these people. I was baptized when I was 2 years old, and that is the last time I have stepped foot in a church for religious reasons. No one in my immediate family ever goes to church, I doubt we even own a bible. I know little about Christian beliefs, and I don't really want to to be perfectly honest. All I do in the way of Christianity, is celebrate Christmas, and Easter, and even then, I dont pray or go to church. some people think that they need religion in their lives. I am fine with that, if you are faithful to a religion, and believe in god, thats fine, but I don't want to be forced to believe in something that i really don't find to be the truth.
         I have a problem with people who come to your door and hand out pamphlets in particular. I think that it is wrong to force religion on people, and so whenever someone comes to my door to "Spread the word of the lord," I am usually not very nice to them. I respect that they feel so strongly about something, but forcing religion is wrong in my opinion. A lot of people disagree with what I think, that religion is pointless, but they shouldn't judge me for that, because I do not judge them for thinking that it is necessary.
       

The Truth About Reading

       Today in class, we discussed the book "The Crucible." I don't really like reading books like this, meaning play type books. I really dislike reading plays, because its not natural. In my opinion plays are supposed to be performed, not read like you would a novel. I know that this book relates to what we are learning in class, but i would much rather read some other book on the salem witch trials, one that is historically acurate, and not in the form of a play, because I do think that it is an interesting topic.
       I think that English class sometimes even discourages students from wanting to read. I dont understand why we read novels such as "Great expectations" or "Oedipus" because they do not speak about topics that are significant to modern society, and I found neither of them to be very entertaining. I think that we need to read more books that students will like, and not books that are read soley to show different forms of plot structure. In all the years I have been in school, I have only read a few books that i enjoyed enough to even remember reading them. These include "Th Catcher in the Rye", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "And Then There Were None", and going back to fifth grade "Number the Stars." There were deffinately more books that I didn't mind reading, but I can't remember what exactly they were about, beacause I didnt enjoy them enough to give them that pleasure.
        The best of the books was "The Catcher in the Rye." I don't even know what it was about it, but I remember that throughout the whole entire book, there were almost no points where I grew bored of the story. The writing style of that book is extremely well done. I like the first person narration, but its not just that, its the way that Holden Caulfield speaks. It is very informal. that is the type of book that i like to read, it is very relatable, he talks like a normal person would, and not like hes trying to be an English professor.
        If we read more books like that in school, and less long novels from the 1800s, and Shakespeare plays, I know I personally would enjoy reading alot more. I bet alot of students would. However, as it stands, I feel like I am forced to read books that I don't want to read, instead of being allowed to read books that I do want to read.

the American Dream

       I dont think that i personally have been affected by the idea of the american dream. my interpretation of the idea, is that one has to work their way to where they want to be in life, and that there is always room for improvement. in my life however, i haven't ever really had to work my way towards anything substantial. i have always gotten what i needed.
       i guess the reason that i have always had what i need, goes back to my grandfather, who worked his way up from a poor family during the great depression, to living a normal life and having a fairly normal family of his own. he started his pursuit of the american dream, when he joined the navy on his 19th birthday. a year later, on December 7 1941,  he woke up to the sound of bombs, as Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed, was attacked. he then drove a small boat through the harbour, while the attack was going on, picking survivors out of the water.
       after the attack, he was stationed in phillidelphia, where he met my grandmother. after his 4 years of service were up, they moved to Wellesly, where my grandfather started his own auto shop. when my dad got old enough, he started working for my grandfather, and after working there for a few years, my dad bought his own shop in Natick, where he worked hard for years, until he acheived his goal, which was to own a second house for his family in NewHampshire. My father and grandfather having been living the american dream, by working for what they want for themselves and their family, which they have both done, and will continue to do.