Book Review: The Art Of Racing In The Rain...

The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein

This novel is probably my most favorite book I have ever read. The whole novel is told through the eyes of a Terrier-Labrador dog. Enzo is a loving dog with a human soul. This is the first book I've read that is told from a perspective of a pet. Anyone who owns or loves dog must read this book and enjoy it like I did.

Many chapters in this book are very random. If you ask me what is the book mainly about It would be about our pets love for the family. The only skeptical thing about this book is Racing and how it ties into the novel. Overall, if I had to rate this book on the scale from 1 to 10, I would give it a hard 8.

The book is very easy to read, and the chapters are short and "sweet", just the way I like it. So if you look for a unconventional love stories and an easy, less confusing read, give it a try.

My Ideal Community Ad

My Ideal Community: Alexandria

In my ideal world(not just a community) religion would've never existed, so science and technology would be super advanced.
There would be no money, no crimes, and no warfare. Anyone is already in my community so there's no need to have anybody join.
Because the technology is so advanced, humans can use 100% of their brain. People can create anything they wish and be completely free to choose for themselves.

The Giver: 5 Looks On The Book

Sameness.

I picked Sameness as my first word because in the novel by Lois Lowry "The Giver" it was major theme. There were no colors, everyone posesed the same things, different age groups had to wear same uniforms. It's a big part of dystopian society in the novel.

Memories.

Memories was a big part part of the novel as well. The only problem was that only one person in the community was appointed to keep all the memories - the Receiver of the Memories. The main reason was to protect them from their feelings. The rest of the community only had a memory of their life.

Family.

Family is also a big part of the novel. Families in the novel called "family units". To me it was an illusion of a family. Parents have to apply for children, so they really aren't their parents. There are no grandparents. True parental love and family togetherness doesn't exist in this society. It's actually doesn't exist.

 

 

 

Choice.

This novel makes you think hard about the choices their community made and why. The lack of choices they have in the community gave them safety but also made them less human.

"Stirrings".

The Community maintains this process using pills which suppress certain emotions, mainly romantic love, which they refer to as "Stirrings". I can't even imagine if someone would tell me I'm not allowed to feel or express my emotions.

Advertisement Post: "Wear Me Out."

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/2003-Print-Ad-Kenneth-Cole-Mens-Cologne-Fragrance-SEXY-GIRL-Wear-me-Out-/200659964419

 

Advertisement by Kenneth Cole is trying to sell fragrances for men and women. I couldn't find the original advertisement but it also has the women's fragrance as well. The hooks of this advertising are celebrity and sex. From the the add we can see that celebrity is Enrique Iglesias a famous Spanish pop singer. The advertisement portrays strong sex image.

 

The target audience of the image are men and women. We know that because the products are sold for both, women and men. We also see woman and a man in the advertising. The symbolism is you can wear Kenneth Cole fragrance just like clothes. The message in the advertisement is - buy our fragrances so your opposite sex wouldn't be able to resist you.

 

I believe this advertisement has a very strong message that appeals to their target audience. The message is effective. If I  had the money, I would probably look into buying the fragrance. Saying that, I believe this ad will be more successful with the male target

audience. But overall I like this advertisement by Kenneth Cole simply because the woman in the image is very sexy. Just shows you - how much images of sex can influence purchasing decisions.  

 

Works Sited

Goshgarian, Gary. "Culture Shock." The Contemporary Reader. 10th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 100-01. Print. 

Never Too Buff

http://www.bore-list.com/2010/12/incredibles-biggest-muscle-in-world.html

 

 

Good, Better, ......too much beef.

After reading "Never Too Buff" by John Cloud I realized how much men becoming obsessed with their body image and how much advertisement, beauty and media industries influence their minds. I see it everyday, many of my friends are becoming go-to-24-fitness freaks. We can blame the media because they tell us and show images of how a perfect body should look like. And then the chain reaction begins. Women look at the same images and think that this is how a perfect man should look. But I think that it is our insecurities and lack of confidence that drives us. All my life I only worked out to get in shape - not to look good for somebody else. So when I look at the pictures of buff men today, I just shake my head and try not to laugh. It's ridiculous and they should know better.

Just because they say they care .....

What does it take to be beautiful? How much do you think it cost to be beautiful, just a trip away from the beauty saloon? It's not always what it seems. I want to share this video with everyone just to show people how destructive a bottle of lotion could be. Sometimes we, a human race, are just to ignorant or uninformed about how we do thing in this world. Someday mother nature and our children will pay the price for it. This video is also my response to the first the first post on Beauty Pressure.

My life in one sentence!

I am BORN RUSSIAN pushing BLACK DISK ON THE ICE, don't have 100$, but I Have 100 FRIENDS, CALIFORNIA grown and looking for MYSELF in the mean TIME, I am KING.

 

Coffee + Eggs + Cold Mornings = English 1A

Good morning everyone. I hope you missed me. But I'm back baby. Man I how much I didn't miss this !!!! Did I forget to mention that I'm waking up every morning at 5:30am for the past month just to make it to school?!!! Oh yeah! :( It's going to be an interesting semester. Buckle down and hold on to your seats!!!

P.S. I HATE MORNINGS!!!

Why Stop with Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn'?

Why should we censor the our classic and contervesial book's like Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" and J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"? My answer to that - we shouldn't. These books are important to American culture and I consider them masterpieces. Alex Beam writes in his essay Why Stop with  Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn' that we should abandone all of the conterversial words and replace them with something more suitable.I think this is wrong and we need preserve the books just how they are.

Secret to Happiness: Flexible, creative, high paying work.

After reading "America's Bizarre Secret to Happiness: More Work" by Daily Mail I realized what most of my peers and I want from a job. One of our biggest factors is flexibility and creativity. If the job is boring and requires no creativity it's very tough to stay positive and progress. I also believe that most young adults want a finacial stability at very young age, so they can do what they want to in their free time. Not that many people would want to be lawyers, doctors or pilots if it only paid minimum wage. There are many more factors that you can add but those 2 are what every young adult in their 20's hopes to get receive when he starts his or her career.

Dream Job

Let me tell you about my dream job. My dream job is to become an web marketing developer. There are few reasons that made me want this job and it's something that I'm actually working on in college to acomplish that dream. One of the percs of this job would be traveling to many different cities and maybe countries and working on different projects. One thing that I hate is to be stuck in some office doing exact the same thing every day. The other thing is money, and to me, money does equals a start to happiness. It's one of the most high paid jobs straight out of college. I think when I acomplish my dream - I would be working because I want to and I love what I'm doing, and not because I have to!

Reflection Post

This semester in my English 100 class as a requirement we had to create a blog. I was supposed to post on my blog different posts. Honestly, I did not like it not one bit. I am trying to be a very private person and when instructor told us that we have to share our thoughts and opinions I wasn’t too happy. But it was necessary to pass the course so I had no choice but to conform and start sharing with the world. I don’t know if I’m the only person in the class that feels this way, but it was very challenging for me to write about things and know that someone that I don’t know might see it. I tried googling some of the topics I wrote about – and there it was for the whole world to see it. I guess it is kind of cool to see that something that I wrote could be seen by anyone in the world, who has internet connection; but for me my privacy is way more important. After this class I don’t think I’m going to continue my blog – I might even delete it because I won’t need it anymore.

I guess my blogging carrer will soon come to an end.

Iron Man: Movie Review

For my movie review I watched "Iron Man". After it came out in february of 2008, it instantly became one of my most favorite movies. The starting cast of the movie included Robert Downey Jr.as Tony Stark/Iron man, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, personal assistant of Tony Stark, Terrence Howard as Rhodey, Tony Stark's friend, and Jeff Bridges as Obadaih, Stark's partner in business and the villain .The movie was directed by Jon Favreau. The genre of the movie falls under categories of Sci-Fi, action, adventure and super hero. This movie is packed with action and humor. Robert Downey Jr. is becoming one of my favorite actors. I think of him as the next Johnny Depp. Downey Jr. plays a role of brilliant scientist/weapons developer and billionaire, who's under the circumstances becomes a superhero, using his own technology. The main messages of the movie are battle between good and evil, doing what is right and being resposible. One of the quotes that stands out from the movie is - "I want to protect the people, that I put in harms ways." by Tony Stark/Iron Man. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys humor and action packed "good guys beat the bad guys" movies. It's a great movie and YOU WILL LOVE IT! In my opinion it is top three comic book hero movie of all time.

Book Review: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, published in 2008 by Scholastic Inc., is a story of survival in the society in suppressive and controlled state.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem. Capitol surrounded by twelve separate Districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the Districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death in the arena on live TV.

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are the two main characters of the novel.

Katniss Everdeen is a sixteen year old girl from District 12 who volunteers for the Hunger Games as a tribute in order to save her younger sister Prim, whose name was drawn during the District’s 12 reaping. Katniss is a skilled hunter, archer and trapper. Katniss's past hardships (her father's death, mother's depression, and near starvation) have made her a survivor, and she will endure hardship and hard work to preserve her own life and the life of her family.

Peeta Melark, a sixteen year old boy, is chosen as male tribute from District 12. Peeta is a son of the local baker. He doesn’t have an outdoor skills like Katniss, but he has a strength. He also was great at baking, camouflage and painting.

At the end of the novel Peeta and Katniss, both, manage to survive due to a rule change by Gamemakers.

The main themes of The Hunger Games are survival, starvation, love, poverty. The main idea behind the novel is show people, no matter how big the obstacle they can overcome it if they try hard enough. Katniss and Peeta overcome many difficulties during the novel but they don’t give up. My most favorite character of the novel was Peeta because underneath all the pretences he was the one who actually was real. By real, I mean he was just an average person who did not pretended when he didn’t have to.

“What about Lover Boy?” (pg 216) This quote from The Hunger Games makes me smile. It also shows that Suzanne Collins uses humor in her novel. She keeps the reader light and reading.

I recommend this book mostly for the younger generation of women. I am not a fan of “fake” love stories and most guys agree with me. I also didn’t like that during Hunger Games the help just appeared from the sky from their sponsors, it all was little too confusing and unrealistic. Overall I give The Hunger Games a high thumbs down.

                                 GREEEN IS FOR WOMEN  RED IS FOR MEN                               

 

PBS Culture Shock

After completing the "You Decide" activity our final decision was that it was OK to use the video game image on the homepage of the PBS website. It wasn't very hard to make the decisions with my partner. For some people video games are form of art, but for most it's just a form of entertainment. Video games should be considered to be art. You have to be very creative and very smart to be game developer. There's only one picture that was too graphic. It was Andrea Mantegna's St. Sebastian. It was way more graphic than any video game picture that we saw on PBS website.
Video games do not make people kill each other. If a person is raised the right way by their parents it wouldn't be such an issue. My parents raised me right and I know what's real and what's not. The video game image does not portray reality and is ok.  The main objective of the game is compete and have fun and not to kill and be evil. Video games entertain us.

Cartoon Analysis: Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

For my cartoon analysis I picked “My Grandmother” cartoon on page 69. Junior is trying to tell about his grandmother. He draws her standing up with her arms crossed and smiling. He described in detail what is her best dish (salmon mush), the clothes that she wears. The cartoon also tells us, she’s a widow. Junior’s grandmother “makes money by selling beaded keychains on eBay” (pg 69). I assume that she somewhat fit for her age. I picked that cartoon because it reminds me of my grandmother Vera. She wears similar clothes and she's also so tollerant.

            The message of this cartoon is to get a good picture of Arnold’s grandmother. She’s poor old woman but she’s happy with what she has. The purpose is to understand where Junior comes from and make an image of his grandmother in your brain, so when you read the book you can picture people the way they really are.

6 word memoir

          Life is obstacles. Never stop leaping.

Kwiiirping it in my English class 2012

Kwiiiirp everyone!!!! My name is Alexi and if you reading this you are officially have been kwirped to my blog and you reading this because i'm in my english class.

This is my first post and we supposed to talk about the add that I found in Black Enterprise magazine. It's an advertising for Lincoln MKX.

It's an american luxury SUV. The add urges to buy to their class, individuality, prestige. The add is dark in color. The target market is men. Everything about this car is state-of-the-art technologically advanced.  From touch screens to voice control commands. Love this car. Only if I had the money...