I Just Play

My drums are my connection to rock

When I sit behind them and play

It brings me to the good days

I play in Led Zeppelin

When I’m up on stage

I am the man

My sticks fly

I just

play

The Old Man and The Man

Every time you earn your pay check all you get is the bare bones. Because it is picked off by the government to serve their needs. You lose almost everything you’ve worked for to the man. Santiago is the same. He worked for days to earn his pay check (which is represented by the fish). Then as he was bringing it home the man decided to take his taxes away from it. (This is represented by the sharks in the story.) This book is a metaphor for what is happening every day.

If you think back to the story, the old man goes out on a small boat by himself to try to catch a fish. Some will say that this was a mistake but I disagree. He is a wise old man and knows what he is doing. After a while he hooks a giant marlin. He reels it in for a few days, he then killed the fish and tied him to the side of his skiff. This is when the man comes.” Galanos,” he said aloud. He had seen the second fin now coming up behind the first.” (107) Here they are the leaders of the ocean the sharks. They are the head honchos they are the man. They are out to steal your hard earned pay. The man sees what you have worked for and takes what he feels he deserves. Santiago is to proud to admit he is unhappy.
Throughout the entire book Santiago is fighting the man. “he was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the gulf stream and had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”(9). this is the very first line in the book. The man is trying to bring Santiago down. He’s denying him of his lively hood. The old man is not working any less than the other fishermen but he is receiving less pay. This, of course is not fair but that’s how the man operates.
“In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao.” (9) Another way the man tries to bring Santiago down is by taking away the boy. The boy, whose name is Manolin was Santiago's best friend in the story. They had many great times together. But because of the situation they are separated. Santiago's personality is being tested. He is upset and tired. His buttons are being pushed and he is trying not to let the man get to him.
“They must have taken a quarter of him and of the best meat.”(110) This is the largest concept of the story. The man always takes away the best part of what you have received. This quote is referring to when the sharks have eaten a part of his fish. It’s just like when the man takes away you money. He takes away most of what you need. Santiago struggled to bring in the fish and then the best parts were stolen away.
The main point that I am trying to get through in this essay is that the man brings us all down. The man is a supernatural being who shows himself in many different figures. He is the government and any one who you can think of who tries to bring you down. In this story the man is showing himself in the sharks. Santiago is an average guy who is just trying to get by. He goes out and earns his pay, which is the fish. Then as you know the man came and took what he felt he deserved. That is what happens top an easy going guy just tries to get by but is shut down by the man.

Grandpa Moneybags

It was an average day at the household for Thomas who lived with his five siblings in a small house. Their parents had died in a car accident several years prior. Thomas was the middle child. He had two unkempt younger siblings, John and Doris, and two older siblings Michael and Jenna. Michael and Jenna took care of the rest of the kids. Jenna was mean and abused her power. Michael was nice inside but acted mean because of Jenna.
Once a week Tom, John and Doris would go to their wizened grandparent’s house. It was fun for them. They always had cookies and played cards. While the younger kids were at their grandparent’s house Jenna went clubbing and Michael worked on his novel. He is an aspiring painter and writer. One day as the kids were about to leave to their grandparents house the phone rang.” aaahhh” Jenna said. “Tom go get the phone.”
Tom walked inside the kitchen and answered the phone. “Hello” Tom said “its grandma honey let me talk to your sister Jenna.” Said Gram from the other end of the phone. Something didn’t seem quite right.
Tom walked in to the living room and gave the phone to Jenna. He tried to listen to what his grandmother was saying on the other end. Jenna pushed him on the ground and walked into the next room. All Tom heard was “oh that’s terrible I can’t believe it.” Jenna didn’t sound sincere with these comments. Jenna hung up the phone, looked at Tom and said “Grandpa’s dead” She didn't hedge like she would have if she cared.
Tom was furious and dolful but didn’t want to show his emotions. The next few days were hard on everyone in the family except Jenna who went about her normal business. Finally the day had come for the funeral. It was very sad and everyone was teary eyed. While they were at the funeral home Jenna pulled Michael into the room with everyone’s coats. Tom followed them closely behind. He heard Jenna say “Just a couple of hours until we get his money.” “How do you know he’s going to bequeath us his money”, Michael asked shakily. “He better leave us that money. I was so nice to him”, Jenna said.
Tom now knew why Jenna had been so happy these past few days, she just wanted his money. Tom didn’t know that his grandfather even had any money at all. He lived like he didn’t. After the burial they were going to hear the will being read. Everyone was in a limo because the lawyer said that the will was to be read at grandpa’s private island. They went to the docks and got on a boat, and sailed for about an hour. On the shore there was a table and ten chairs. The lawyer set up at the table and each family member took a chair. The lawyer opened up his brief case and pulled out a thick packet which was Tom’s grandfathers will. A few small items were given away first. Jenna was biting her finger nails waiting to hear about the money. Tom sincerely hoped that Jenna would not receive the money. Anyone could get it, just not Jenna.
“The money I have saved my entire life shall go to the person who most deserves it.” Said the lawyer as he was reading the will. “And so my two million dollars, this island, and the lovely estate that sits on it shall be left to…” Jenna was shaking, so was Tom. Tom knew that Jenna didn’t deserve it, and hoped that his grandfather knew it as well. “Thomas Michael Scott” the lawyer said finishing the previously started sentence. “What?” Tom said, happy and surprised at the same time.
“What” Jenna screamed? “There is no way! That money is rightfully mine”.
The lawyer handed a $2 million check to Tom. “This is the only record of the money. Without this check you will not receive the money or the island, so do not lose it!” the lawyer said.
Jenna looked at Tom with fire in her eyes. Tom could tell that she had turned into a malefactor. She wanted that money and there was no way Tom was going to give it to her. She jumped out of her seat and charged at Thomas. Thomas, who was much faster than her, took off running. He ran inside the house and up the stairs.His health was depleted so he hid in a closet which was too small for Jenna to fit inside. He couldn't beleive how truculent Jenna had become. He sat down and pondered the impasse he found himself in. He felt a large amount of trepidation. Jenna eventually gave up looking for Tom in the large house, and realized that at some point Tom would have to come out. She found two vines and tied using her dexterious them to a prodiscious log with a large girth. She then climbed her way up and tied the ends of the vines to the house so that it would swing freely when she pushed it. Jenna was very flexible. She then stood in front of the door and waited.
After about twenty minutes in the closet, Tom decided to see if it was safe to come out of the house. He walked to the front door and slowly opened it. As he did he saw Jenna holding a rather large log that was coming directly for his head. Tom very quickly ducked and the log swung over his head. As Newton’s Law states and object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. And so, the log swung back and clocked Jenna in the face. It’s pretty gruesome, but she deserved it, trust me.
“I’m sorry sis.” Tom said, as he ran to the boat at the island’s edge, clutching the check in his hand. He untied one of the boats and sailed home.Despite what happened tom suprisingly did not loath his sister.
The money Tom acquired was used to fix up the island house, wich was showing some sighns of decadence, and take care of his two younger siblings John and Doris who weren’t really mentioned in this story. Tom loved his grandpa, and would always miss him. Every day he thanks him for his life without Jenna. He is also grateful l every day for his great home and loving family.

“2nd Quarter Outside Reading Book Review”


Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling. Scholastic, 1997.

Genre: Fantasy

This story is about a boy named Harry Potter. His parents are killed by an evil wizard but he survives and everyone thinks he has destroyed him. Harry is left in the care of his aunt and uncle who are jerks and never tell Harry that he is a wizard. One day Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts which is a wizarding school. Harry goes to the school eventually and makes friends and enemies, including Draco Malfoy and Professor Snape. He finds out that there is a hidden object in the school and wants to know all about it. But there are many obstacles in the way.

“The story delights and the writing gives you goose bumps, The good kind.”
-The Boston Sunday Globe
My author writes in a way that is very easy to understand. The only problems I had when reading the book were when she uses dialogue she makes you read it like the person is saying it. So if you have a person with a heavy accent when they were saying “hey”, she would write “ay”. It was difficult to understand at points especially when Hagrid was talking. An example of this would be “Shouldn’ta lost me temper.” Or “It’s getting’ late an we’ve got lots ter do tommora.” That shows that sometimes it can be hard to understand what the author is trying to say but if you just take your time then it’s not that hard to read.

“And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.”

If this book got put in a fight against the movie the book would absolutely dominate. This book kicks the crap out of the movie they made. There is so much more added fun stuff in the book. There are even characters in the book that were left out of the movies, such as peeves the poltergeist. He floats around and bothers people. Also Fred and George are in the book more and are very funny. So what I am trying to get at here is that the book is so much better than the movie and if you don’t believe me then to bad because you are missing out. I think this is a great book and if you give it a shot you will too.

First Quarter Outside Reading Book Review


The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Ballantine Books, 1965. Genre: Fantasy


Summary:
This book is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who meets a wizard named Gandalf one day at his home. Bilbo invites Gandalf for tea at his home the next day, he accepts the invite. Bilbo is surprised by a group of twelve dwarves who arrive at his house. Bilbo gives them because he wanted to be polite. After the last dwarf arrives Gandalf shows up. Bilbo soon finds out that he has been selected to go on a mission. The mission involves walking a long distance to steal gold from a dragon named Smaug. A long time ago Smaug had captured a dwarf kingdom that one of the dwarf’s fathers ruled. Bilbo’s job is to steel the treasure from the dragon. They walk through the forest and over the misty mountains to find the dragon and encounter many obstacles in the way. They have to beet goblins, trolls, and spiders. Bilbo finds a magical ring that makes you invisible when you put it on. He found it in Gollum’s lair. They have to walk for many days to find the dragon that has the treasure.

Quote:
“There are very few works of genius in recent literature. This is one”
-Michael Straight, the New Republic.

Writing Style:
He writes with a lot of description, sometimes too much. Many of the characters sing songs that are typed in italics. The author every now and again adds some humor in the story, which is kind of like a surprise party. You don’t expect a book with description and seriousness to have many jokes. The book is written in third person. The author is pretty much telling the story as if he watched happen. Much like the Harry Potter books, there is a lot going on and it keeps your interest.

Book Quote:
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold.

This is an example of how J. R. R. Tolkien uses song in his story. This song is being sung by the dwarves the night before they plan to set off on their trip to the misty mountains. He uses song many times throughout the Hobbit, to help give a sense of what’s going on.

Wrap up:
Tolkien has a lot of cool things and concepts in his book. When things were happening this was a great book, but when he describes the color of each rock on their journey, he made me want to stop reading. The story is a giant road trip, and half of the story is just unneeded or repetitive events. It almost seems as though he rambles on about one thing for five or six pages. Apart from the walking around, this was a great book. I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy books of adventure.

Fishing For Trogdor

What is value? How would one define value? In a world where everyone is concerned about the economy and money and having the biggest gas guzzling cars credit cards will allow you to buy and pay for later, what matters? It makes me wonder if people know what value is.

I wake up to my dad’s voice. “Wake up, lets go.” He said. I looked at the clock, its five thirty on Saturday morning. I get up slowly and get dressed. I see my dad is making an omelet in the kitchen. The smell of omelet is swirling through the house. It smells like heaven. I am eating my breakfast and my dad says “were going fishing.” My dad hardly ever goes fishing with me and I thought it would be fun. I like to fish and I don’t usually fish with my dad so it should be good.
I grabbed my fishing pole and tackle box and get in the car. “Where are we fishing?” I asked. “We’re going to Lithia Springs. It’s an old reservoir for district two of South Hadley. A guy I work with says it’s filled with fish. He goes there all the time and catches a lot of fish.” He said to me.
We drove to seven eleven and bought some worms so we could do some old school fishing. We pulled up to a gate in the woods. The sun was just about to rise and the sound of birds filled the air. I look around, there is no lake. “Hey dad, where’s this lake.”
“I guess I forgot to tell you that it’s about a half hour walk to get to the water. It will be worth it though.” Said my dad. For the next half an hour my father and I talked about many things. My dad told me about old fishing stories and stories from his childhood. I thought it was very interesting to hear about my dad caught a 2 foot long frog on his fishing pole.

Before I knew it we saw a sign nailed t a tree that read “Reservoir” and it had an arrow pointing up a path that took a left turn. My dad said “well the water must be that way kido”, and I said in a sarcastic way “really, you don’t say”. He replied “Don’t give me lip boy, or I’ll smack you a good one”, and we had a jolly good chuckle. We both knew he was joking because my dad would never smack me.

As we approached the water we started getting attacked by a swarm of blood thirsty mosquitoes, you could literally grab a hand-full of skeeters (mosquitoes) out of the air. My dad said to me, “grab the bug spray, these damn things are everywhere.” So we put on OFF and continued our decent to the waters. We fished for three hours. We caught a ton of fish and we swapped many entertaining stories. It was an awesome and bonding experience with my dad, I will never forget that priceless morning.

I departed from my homestead. It was twelve o’clock on a Wednesday during summer vacation of 7th grade. I was just about to celebrate the one month anniversary of the purchase of my faithful IPOD TROGDOR! TROGDOR is the name of my first IPOD. It gave me many hours of musical entertainment. I was proud that I had kept TROGDOR in good condition for so long, because at many times I wanted to break the thing. I have almost always broken my favorite expensive item on accident.
I left my house to go over my friend Tyler’s house. We were going to have a fun time swimming in his pool. I was wearing shorts at the time, and TROGDOR rested gently in my pocket. I arrived at Tyler’s house and then realized I had forgotten my swim trunks. I forgot that TROGDOR was sleeping in my pocket. I ran and jumped in the pool. Tyler and I swam for about an hour. Not long after Tyler’s mom yelled, “LUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHH”. We exited the pool area and proceeded to dry off before ascending the house. I patted my pocket in intent to dry, but instead I was frozen in fear. TROGDOR had become wet. I pulled him out of my pocket, and attempted to press the life giving button. To m dismay, TROGDOR was not playing beautiful music, instead he laid there cold, dark, and soggy.

I rushed home and called my father at work, I asked him what would help bring TROGDOR back to life. He said it would be best to leave it in the oven at a low heat for a short amount of time. I did this, and was very anxious to see if TROGDOR would spark back to life. After about ten minutes, I pulled TROGDOR out of the oven and put him on the cooling rack. He was very warm, but dry. I pressed play and his screen lit up. TROGDOR lived to play music another day.


I value both fishing trips with my father and my IPOD for different reasons. I love my dad with all my heart. TROGDOR is a good IPOD, he picked me up, when I was bored and needed Hendrix. So think of this the next time your lonely, there is always another IPOD, but none like TROGDOR, and you only get one true, loving dad.

Garage Conversations

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian- Junior
A Child Called It- David
Setting- David’s house in the garage



Junior was on his way to visit his cousin David, who he hadn’t seen in a long time and didn’t remember much about him. His mom’s car was out of gas so he had to hitch hike. When he arrived he heard screaming coming from inside his cousins house.

“You are worthless. Since you can’t do your chores in time you don’t get to eat. Now go into the garage.”

He didn’t know what was going on so he walked around to the side of the house and saw that the garage door was about half way open. He looked in and saw a boy sitting on the stairs. He assumed this was his cousin so he went under the garage door. His cousin was filthy, covered with dirt and had on old clothes that were baggy and torn.

“David?” junior asked.

David jumped surprised he asked, “Who are you?”

“I am your cousin my name is Arnold but every one calls me junior. I came to visit you. I heard you mother yelling when I came. What was that about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Dave said

“Well she seemed very angry.”

“Yes well she gets upset when I don’t finish my chores in time.” David said.

“She doesn’t let you eat if you don’t finish you chores. That’s pretty harsh. Back on the rez I don’t have to do any chores. I just hang out with my best friend Rowdy. Except he doesn’t like me much right now but, how is life for you.” Junior said

“Fine” Dave said

Junior could tell something weird was going on but he didn’t want to be nosey so he didn’t ask.” So can we go upstairs and see your mom and dad. I’d like to see my aunt and uncle and your brothers my other cousins.”

“Yeah sure you can but I can’t go upstairs. Also go out to the front door.” David said.

“Alright ill ask my aunt and uncle if you can come upstairs.” Junior said as he was ducking under the garage door.

“No.” David said in a soft yell so his mother couldn’t hear him.

“What, why?” Junior asked.

“Look you can’t tell my mom that you talked to me. You can’t even tell here you were down here. It’s best if you just pretend I don’t exist.”

“Dude I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Junior said as he was coming back into the garage.

“Look, my mom is, well she’s just evil. She beats me, sometimes for no reason. She likes to play games by making up new ways to punish me. Sometimes she makes me eat spoonfuls of ammonia.”

Junior couldn’t believe what hear had just heard. “She really beats you?” junior asked. David nodded.

“That’s horrible. On the rez if someone beats you up you fight back.” Junior said

“You don’t understand she has complete control over me because if I don’t do what she says she doesn’t let me eat. I usually have to steal food just to eat. She burns me and she also makes me sit in the bath tub with a bucket of chemicals I get very dizzy and usually pass out.”

“You have to tell someone you can’t let this go on. I could get my friend to come over and beat her up he could beat anyone up. Hey I have an idea. You can come and live with me on the rez then we can call the police on your mother.” Junior said.

“No, my mom will find me and beat me if she finds me and I know she will.” David said

“ That’s why we need to get you out of here your mom is going to beat you if you stay here but if you come with me there’s a very good chance you will be away from her for ever.”

“I can’t I just can’t” Said David

“It‘s your only hope of survival. You can’t live with no food.”


“Okay but we have to go fast my mom could come down at any time.”

And so Junior and David hitch hiked back to the rez as soon as they arrived Junior had his mother call the police and David lived with junior and his family on the rez.