Poem #4 - Burned

Burned

Laying out beneath the sun.
Wishing only to be tan.
Rub the lotion on my skin
Then wait for it to sink in.
Doing nothing
Super bored!
How long do I need to lay here?

When will it start to show?

Well maybe if I just relax

And maybe even fall asleep.

Hours past and I'm unaware

Of how red I have become!

It's only one side of me

And oh, the burn hurts so bad.

As tan as I wanted to become,

It turned around to bite me in the butt.

Poem #3 - Waiting

Waiting

The anticipation,
It's killing me!
These six weeks have been so long,
I really can't wait anymore!
I feel pretty confident,
But with this you'll never know.
I check the mail everday,
Waiting for that wonderful letter.
If I get accepted
I think I'll scream!
Dragging on
Day by day
I don't think it'll ever come!
But suddenly when I least expected it
That faithful letter arrived!
I got in! I got in!
Oh boy I'm so excited.
I can't wait to start a whole new life.

Poem #2 - Out

Out

One of these days
I'm going to get away.
Where to go I'm not sure
But it'll have a special lure.
Maybe somewhere to rest,
This I'll have to test.
Or how about a certain place
Where i can live at a fast pace.
How about somewhere far away
Maybe even just for a day.
While I know not where to go
When I come back I sure will glow.

Poem #1 - Love

Love

What does the word mean?
How do you really prove it?
Is it a state of being,
Or is it simply just a word?
Can you love one day but not the next,
Or is it really forever?
Is it something you should announce,
Or is it something you should keep secret?
Is it something you can physically express,
Or do they just have to take your word.
I guess its just that something
You have to find out for yourself.

Free Choice #3 - Novel Analysis

Seriously injured in the civil war, Inman can only think of one thing, Ada, the woman he loves and left back home in Cold Mountain. While he is off fighting, Ada is stuck in Cold Mountain attempting to make a living for herself on her father's run down farm. With the help of a friend, she learns to do all the handiwork herself. Meanwhile, Inman escapes the war and makes his way back home encountering many challenges and meeting new people along the way, but not all encounters help him along the way.

This novel was an interesting one. It was very descriptive, and very long. It actually took a lot to get through it. While some scenes were exciting, the book for the most part was pretty boring. It tells the tale of hope and enduring love. Ada writes Inman almost every day awaiting his return home. Inman, left with only a photograph and his memory of Ada, clings onto every hope he has of one day seeing her again. Ruby, Ada's farmhand and friend, teaches Ada everything she needs to know about living and working on a farm, and adds interest and humor into the life back in Cold Mountain. Once I finished the novel, I really liked it. The ending was part of what made the novel so good, but it took a lot to get through. I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves romance novels, and anyone who can read through any book they've started.

Free Choice #2 - Novel Analysis

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

"The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.
The second rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.
The third rule of fight club is two men per fight.
The fourth rule of fight club is one fight at a time.
The fifth rule of fight club is no shoes, no shirts in the fight.
The sixth rule of fight club is the fights go on as long as they have to.
The seventh rule is if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight." (pg. 50)

An apartment full of Ikea furnishings, a refrigerator full of condiments and no food. A crappy job. Tyler Durden. His world was boring. His life wasn't being lived. He went to support group meetings for fun, and suffered from insomnia. Then he met Tyler. He comes home from a business trip to find his apartment blown up. His windows were all blown out, his Ikea home collections and condiments were all over the pavement in front of the building. The only person he could think to call was Tyler. Tyler was everything he wanted to be and more. His life turned around when he moved in with Tyler. They started a fight club together, worked small night jobs together, then everything begins to escalate. The fight club begins to get bigger, with more people each and every week. The first two rules had been broken. What starts off as something a bunch of drunk guys did for fun quickly escalated to Project Mayhem, a group solely dedicated to causing damage and chaos around the city. He is sitting in a chair with the barrel of a gun in his mouth and Tyler is saying "the first step to eternal life is you have to die" (pg. 1).

This is one of my favorite books, and Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors. This novel is eventful, exciting, and makes you not want to put it down to see what happens. Chuck Palahniuk's writing is so different and distinct, that there really is no way to describe it. He likes to jump around. None of the chapters flow with each other, and every now and then it jumps to the past to expain something that is about to happen. When you're reading this novel it may seem hard to follow at first, but once you finish it, it all comes together, just like any other novel he has written. The movie does a good job of following the book, but like many, the book is just so much better.

Persuasive Analysis #4 - Sweeny Todd movie review

http://www.movie-views.com/films/S/sweeney_todd.html <--link to article This is an article about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street written by Ryan Cracknell. He does a good job of explaining the plot and summary without giving any of the twists and turns away. He is specific about what he likes, and what he would change. Sweeney Todd is about a man named Benjamin Barker who has a beautiful wife and child and is one day wrongfully accused of a crime he didn't do and is sent away. When he returns to London, he is without a wife, and his daughter has been taken in by the Judge Terpin. Benjamin changes his name to Sweeney Todd, and quickly works to getting his revenge by slitting the throats of the innocent and turning them into meat pies, preparing to kill the Judge.

This movie was directed by Tim Burton who has a very distinct type of movie. It's all very dark and gloomy, and as Ryan states, "I don't know if you can call something both detailed and sparse, but that's kind of what Sweeney Todd is like. The set designs and costumes are all very intricate but at the same time there's a beautiful simplicity to it all." I completely agree with that statement. Everything that is used in the movie seems so simple, but is in fact very decorative and fits so well with the entirety of the movie. Ryan says that there's a sense of deja vu throughout the movie. The movie takes place in only a few different places, so the set doesn't change a lot throughout the course of the movie. Also, the throat slitting begins to get a bit repetitive, because other than that, not much else is happening. "Even still, Sweeney Todd is uncomfortably fun. It's violent and over-the-top, yet despite its unsympathetic subject matter it's subject is surprisingly likeable."