Read My Blogs! (Unless You Don't Want To)

I, being the genius that I am, noticed that some days I"ll write small blogs and other times I'll write long blogs. I also noticed that when I write a long blog, not as many people comment; and when I write a short blog, people do. Who else has noticed this? Or is it just me and people just don't want to take the time to read mine because, unfortunately, you don't know me as well as you know others. If that's it, then it's your loss because you don't get to be as enlightened. OK, fine, you'd be just as enlightened, just not in the same way.

I Ask For Your Opinion!

This is the letter I sent to that Letters for Literature contest. I was wondering what you guys (and girls) thought of it? Don't worry...I'm open to constructive critcism!

Dear Mr. Christopher Paolini,

I first read Eragon in the fifth grade. Now, about four years later, I, Moe Joe, have read this book at least 25 times! Eragon is one of my favorite books. It is a very good thing for me to see a book that is extremely well written and with an intense plot, that was written by someone only a little bit older than I am. This knowledge, I know, has given many other people who were previously scared to write stories (even though they had talent) the drive and confidence to express themselves through their writing.
Even better, I think you would be delighted to know that Eragon has had a very big influence on me. For example, when I was in fifth grade, I used to play pretend games where I had a dragon named Saphira and was blasting Urgals to bits left and right using magic. Reading Eragon changed my youth by inspiring my childhood creativity and interest in fantasy. I can only imagine what it must feel like to you knowing that being the author of such a popular book, you have literally changed the lives of many people. To me, that would be more than I could comprehend.
Another thing that I thought was very good about Eragon was that I read about how much effort you put into the writing, editing, publishing, and promoting of your book. Some people, such as myself, might have given up long ago. I probably wouldn’t have lasted a month. Your dedication shows up in your writing, too. All throughout your book are the constant reminders showing the importance of hard work. The character, Eragon, faces dangerous mountains looking for food for his family. Being in our world where machines are constantly making our load much easier, some of us tend to forget that we need to know how to do things ourselves. We’re becoming a lazier society with video games and TV. Eragon taught me that hard work is important no matter how much you dislike it. I think it was good for our society to finally get an extremely popular fantasy book with a good moral about working hard.
One of my favorite characters from Eragon was Roran. I know that he wasn’t a very well developed character in Eragon, but he actually had one of the largest impacts on me. He always seemed to be looking into the future and trying to decide what was the best course of action. After a while, reading about him kind of awakened me to how I thought I should be acting. I’m not saying that I was a bad kid; it’s just that at that particular point in time I wasn’t acting as well as I should be. I wasn’t planning at all or looking ahead. Roran was a kind of kick in the pants that I didn’t really notice was kicking me until I read the book for about the millionth time. He was one of the many factors that made MY life better.
My only wish for Eragon was that you could have been a little more involved with the movie Eragon. With a book of that caliber, it was a pity that it had to be shown in theaters with almost none of the original plot. I’m not saying that it was a really bad movie, because it was very well done as far as special effects and acting are concerned, but my friends and I were still extremely disappointed with how it turned out.
Finally, I would like you to continue to touch the lives of others with your writing because it makes a difference. I have enjoyed Eldest as well and I’m looking forward to your third book. As I’m sure you know by now, writers have a big impact on society and with an ever-changing world, we need plenty of good influences.

Sincerely,



Moe Joe

CALVIN AND HOBBES 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Under this blog is a strip of Calvin and Hobbes comics. They are really funny and I would like everyone to see them.

So, as you may have noticed, my comics weren't exactly one hundred percent there. For those of you who didn't see, they were chopped off at the seventy-five percent mark. This made them really hard to appreciate because you couldn't read any of the punchlines. So today, I decided to have a little bit of fun and try to fix them. I learned two things: 1-After resizing, it's still hard to read the words, even though you can now. 2-You can't resize all the pictures at the same time. What I mean by that is that in order to resize the photos you have to resize one, publish the post, hit edit, resize the next one, publish, etc. That's a lot of work! Doesn't that kinda make you wonder why that is the case? Is it just my computer? Is it a glitched computer system? Oh well, I can't do anything about it.

CALVIN AND HOBBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really sorry that the pictures are cut off from the post but I honestly can't fix it. Trust me, I tried!

OK, so these are really funny comics. They are Calvin and Hobbs comics, which are the best I think. Anyone familiar with them? When I was emailed these I was in a laughing fit for about ten minutes.

Also, if you have a feeble mind and a weak heart and an easy to upset stomach, PLEASE don't read any of these extremely cool photos of snowmen getting mutilated. THERE IS NO GORE (fortunately)!

Theater, Stagefright and Me

While trying my best to come up with a topic that someone would actually read (instead of skim through and not get a thing out of it), I remembered that some time ago I went to the dinner theater matinee. Yes, I know that I'm a little late in posting about this, but seeing as I enlighten people with my ingenious ideas, why not?

First off, I'd like to publicly announce that the dinner theater was awesome. Normally I would say, Nothing is as good as doing something yourself. I proved myself wrong. It was much better to watch these Shakespeare scenes. (Although I can't really say that because I wasn't in it). Everyone was really amazing and almost the whole thing was hilarious. By the way, if you didn't go, go next year because it was really good and you missed out. My congratulations to everyone who participated.

Now, I address those people who think, Oh, I could never do something like that. Two things for ya: 1-You have stage fright, 2-So do I. My stagefright makes me believe that if I had been in the theater, no one would come back the next year (or the year after). I wish I could do acting, but if I did I'd faint.

But there is Good news: I'm working on it and trying to get better. Here's the Bad news: It's not helping. Here's the Worse news: I'm opinionated and being opinionated and also having stage fright is really bad because you need to share your opinions with other people. That's kinda hard if you are scared of talking to them. But I'm trying to get better.

Actually, I kind of cursed myself. When I was little, I would have done almost anything on stage. It didn't phase me. I did several performing things. But when I was in fourth grade, I somehow managed to convince myself that I had stage fright. How weird is that? I convinced myself that I was scared of attention so much that I actually got it. I also convinced myself of a bunch of other really stupid things but I won't get into that can of worms right now. But, oh well. So the bottom line is Don't convince yourself that you're scared of being on stage. You'll regret it. I know I do.

Winter Wonderland

So by now you've probably noticed the snow on the ground. If you haven't then you should get out a little more often. We had 7 1/2" of snow at our house. That's a lot of snow! I absolutely LOVE snow, until I have to shovel it, so I was kinda excited. With that information you can probably infer what I got to do next. I had to shovel. I had been happily contemplating the many possibilities of fun and excitement I might have when all of a sudden, out of the blue, my dad tells me that the reason I got up at 8:30 in the morning was to shovel! Great way to start the day, huh? I just need to remember to be optimistic.

President

This is just a random thought that I have before I jump into my topic: I have written more this term than I ever did during my seventh and eighth grade years combined. Even weirder than that is that I don't really mind. Before I had always thought writing was stupid, but now I enjoy it!

Warning: I would recommend not reading this if you have the wrong opinions and are emotionally unstable. Also, if you think But I agree with what you're saying then I would like to congratulate you on your right opinion and advise you not to take anything said here personally.

Anyway, back to my topic, for the past year or two I have been told by various, anonymous people at Fairfield that President Bush and his administration are dumb. First I'd like to point out that the members of the Bush administration probably have more formal (and informal) education than the average ninth grader and most of the teachers. Second, do you seriously think that you could do any better? Are you an all powerful, omniscient person who can stop wars and better the economy with the wave of your hand? If you are, then I admit defeat, but seeing as magicians aren't around anymore (if they ever were) I really don't see how you can insult someone who is more qualified and doing their best.

Personally, I'm for Bush. I have supported most of Bush's world changing decisions and most of his not so world changing decisions. Granted, sometimes I don't agree with what he does but who doesn't disagree with someone at some point? I mean, COME ON people, grow up a little bit. Nobody's perfect but does that mean they are bad? No. It means they are human, like you, me, and the rest of the past presidents and presidential candidates. Anyway, would the other candidates have been any better? Probably not. Al Gore, one of Bush's major opponents in 2000, said publicly that he wouldn't have known what to do any better than Bush about 9-11 and that Bush was handling the whole thing pretty well.

So is Bush really doing all that bad for a next to impossible situation? I think he's doing great. And now for one of my favorite quotes from Albus Dumbledore. "Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice, between what is right, and what is easy." Well, we're in those dark and difficult times now and Bush is leading the war against terror. The road we should follow may not alway's be easy, but what the heck? Let's do what's right and go down it anyway.