A Million Little Pieces

James was put on a "Family Plan". His treatment is no longer the typical group sessions and lectures. Now he meets with a group of patients and their families. They talk about their addictions and how it feels. The families ask questions about the addiction, how it feels, why they do it, and how much does it cost. The patients answer honestly. Before all of this happens, the patient must sit down with their parents and tell them everything about their addiction, how much they use and how often. When James told his parents, they just started to cry. They couldn't even look at their son. I could never do that to someone, especially my parents.

FRANCE!

I am in France, visiting my sister, and I am blogging... The reading here in France is obviously in French. I speak french so that is a plus. I read the newspaper on the plane and it was interesting that they focused on our presidential elections. There was an article ridiculing Hillary Clinton and how there is no possible way she will win because she is a woman. The paper said that she made a humiliating speech that was an embarrassment to her campaign. I was shocked when I read this. Aren't newspapers supposed to be neutral and unbiased when writing articles? This article was on the front page...

Outside Reading

In my book, James is sneaking around with another addict named Lilly. They are becoming good friends and they break the rules to be with each other. Quite regularly they meet in a clearing that is in the woods where they cuddle and talk about their past. James tells his stories of love and his experiences with drugs. Lilly has black hair and deep blue eyes that are comforting to James. Lilly calms James and they are beginning to love each other. I think that they are impairing their ability to recover fully because they are distracted with love. They need to focus on recovery, not love.

Class!

As the book progresses, I see that the characters become more emotional and animated with what they are saying. Beatrice and Benedick are convinced that they are in love with each other but neither of them have confronted the other about it. They have not spoken to anyone about being in love and they have not confirmed what they over heard in the garden. If something like that happened to me, I would immediatly figure out if what i heard was true and I would confront the person about the situation. I think Beatrice and Benedick need to talk about all of this...

Don John is a sneaky man who just likes to cause trouble. I don't like him...even though he is played by Keanu Reeves in the movie...

Class This Week!

We continued to read Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. I think the play is confusing. There are so many characters to keep straight and their names are similar. There are so many different love affairs and different opinions about love, i just want to finish the book to get done with it. I really enjoyed Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth, but out of all the Shakespeare, I like this book the least. It helps that we read the parts in class but it goes fast and it is hard to comprehend all of the information that is being thrown at you. This book is difficult and confusing. I wish we could read Hamlet or another play.

More Outside Reading!

This week in the life of James Frey...he went for a walk in the woods and that is where he went crazy. He started to destroy this little tree that you could barely call a tree. He ripped off the branches, destroyed the leaves, and tried to pull the trunk out but it wouldn't budge. He was thinking of his life and how he ruined it. He was feeling frustration and defeat in his life and wanted to defeat something else to himself feel better. As he was trying to kill the tree, his friend Lilly saw him struggling and yelled for him to stop. He wouldn't. She asked him what he was doing and he just stopped as looked at her. Meanwhile, James' two roommates graduate the same day. James said his goodbyes before he went for his walk. I think James was jealous of their success of being sober and was upset that he hadn't come that far yet. He wants to get better. He is willing to try.

Outside Reading...Again

This week I continued to read A Million Little Pieces for my outside reading book. James is getting better, he had a "calm come over him" (Frey 151). He met a famous boxer that is now in rehab for drugs. They have fun talking and playing poker. James seems to be enjoying himself much more now that he has friends, he created a support system for himself. His friends don't want him to leave and they all want him to get better. They all want each other to get better. James started going for walks in the woods to collect his thoughts. That is where he found his calm. But the next day, that is where he went crazy...

Shakespeare!!!!

YAY! Willie is so much fun to read (and im not sucking up...i actually do like Shakespeare). I am very excited to read another one of wills great works, even though i know nothing about the play that we are reading. I love the fact that his plays still relate to our lives today. They aren't only boring history. The movie we watched was kind of lame but i guess it was a good transition into the unit. I wonder what we are reading next semester because this semester is almost over! Any ideas?

A Million Little Pieces

This week in A Million Little Pieces, James really wanted to leave. He was counting down his 24 hours that he promised Leonard he would stay. In those 24 hours, James's brother and James's two friend came to visit him. They came with presents that seem basic to us but was greatly appreciated by James. He received a nice shirt, shave gel, razor, and many books. They talked to each other and took a walk around the facility where they met Lilly and her grandmother. I think Lilly has a crush on James because whenever they see each other she smiles and is very polite to him. The men and the women are not allowed to have conversations with each other and Lilly is willing to break the rules to talk to James. When his friends leave, James goes and lays down, not wanting to leave or kill himself because he is so happy. The next day he has a new job, filling coffee rather than cleaning the toilets. He says his new job is much easier than his old job. One of his roommates tells the group the story of how he came to the rehab center. He was a severe alcoholic and it had an affect on his marriage and family. The group laughed at his story because he was crying so profusely. I felt bad for the man when i read that passage.

More Research Papers...

So i tried to start my research paper, but i find it impossible to find an appropriate grabber. Usually after thinking about it for awhile, i think of one that satisfies me but nothing has come to mind. My topic is abortion and i chose that because i am very interested in women's rights and i work at Planned Parenthood to help women. I see abortion patients and confused women who dont know what to do about their current life situation. I wanted to write my paper for them because i see their situation and if they had the child, he/she would not have the life that they deserve. People should support abortion to give children a better life.

A Million Little Pieces - Part 2

This week in my reading, James continued his attempts to sober up and to become a better person without drugs or alcohol. He has met another patient named Leonard who is older than him. When James tries to leave the rehab center, because he is giving up on his fight against drugs, Leonard stops him. He wants James to commit to quiting the drugs and the alcohol, to win the fight, not to cave in. Vexed by Leonard, James cusses and yells, refusing to go back to the center. James promises to go for 24 hours and if the situation does not get better in that time period, James can leave without a protest from Leonard.

Research Papers!

I have settled on a topic. I decided to do abortion. My question is "Should parental consent be required for minors to get an abortion?" I have always been interested in abortion and the ethical issues behind it. I have been in many arguments about abortion with friends, family, and even random protesters at Planned Parenthood. I am pro-choice and believe that women have a right to their own bodies and they can do what they want with it. It is the women's choice, not the government's choice. I have six sources to read over thanksgiving and abortion will be a great thanksgiving dinner topic. :)

Class This Week!

Ms. West had jury duty this week so she wasn't in class very much. We finished On The Waterfront and began our research papers. I am not sure what topic I want to do, definitely something that interests me, maybe abortion or assisted suicide or something. The research papers don't seem like research papers, they resemble persuasive essays more than research papers. We are just doing research to support our thesis that we are creating rather than writing an actual research paper. On The Waterfront was an average movie. I didn't really like it. The plot did not interest me enough. The issue with watching these movies and analyzing them for literary elements and the length of the shots, now when I watch a movie for pleasure, I look for those things and I don't enjoy the movie. I find it quite annoying.

A Million Little Pieces

My book is called A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I decided to read this book because of the conspiracy that is going on involving Oprah and the Plot of the story. This book is a memoir and was a part of Oprah's Book Club. Apparently, Frey embellished the plot to make it more interesting and dramatic, resulting in Oprah and other readers being very upset.
In the book, James is addicted to cocaine, alcohol, glue, gasoline, basically anything he can get his hands on. His family put him into a rehab center in Minnesota where he is going through withdrawals. He is going through some very hard things alone because he does not want to make friends and I don't think he is capable of making friends considering the state he is in. While he was high and drunk, James managed to knock his front four teeth out. At the rehab center, they are not allowed to give him pain killers when getting surgery or anything. He got two teeth capped and two root canals without Novicane. James is pretty tough and I am surprised he has not given up on the rehab like he has before.

Act III Prediction

I think that in Act 3, Chris and Ann elope to get married despite the objections from Kate and Joe. George leaves without Ann feeling defeated because he knows that the case will not reopen. The families find out that Larry is dead even though it was on a favorable day. Kate no longer feels that Ann is Larry's girl and she is comfortable with the marriage of Chris and Ann.

Class!!!

Ms. West was not in class yesterday...tear. For the past week or so, we have been reading the play All My Sons. We take turn reading the certain parts. I think it is an effective way of reading the book. It is much easier to read the parts and keep the characters straight when there are different voices reading the parts. I like the book so far. I think it will lead to the arrest of Keller and Ann's dad because of their faulty planes that they built. Chris and Ann will get married but Larry will return from war to comlicate the situation even more.

Until They Bring The Streetcars Back...Finished

I finished my book. The ending was very happy. Gretchen now lives with a foster family, all thanks to Calvin Gant. I was arrested and spent 30 days in jail all to save a friend. He ended up framing the father with theft and crashing his car into a store. When the police visited Otto Lutterman at his home, Otto stabbed a policeman and was taken to jail. There was a trial after Cal was out of jail. He was a witness. Otto was charged with First Degree Murder for killing Gretchen's baby, Little Jacob. Otto will be in jail for the rest of his life and will not be able to hurt Gretchen or Cal ever again. Cal's father also passed away while Cal was in jail. He died because of his job loss of driving streetcars, not because Cal was in jail. I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and well-written.

Until They Bring The Streetcars Back

This week in my reading, Cal saved his friend from committing suicide while he was drunk. His friend thought that his friends did not care about him and that the girl he loves did not like him. His friends do care but his love does not know about the suicide attempt or the fact that he loves her. Also, Cal and Lola began dating and they have said the "L" word. Cal is so happy that he has urges to wave at strangers and ring doorbells. The status on Cal's secret mission of saving Gretchen Lutterman is that he stole the body of her baby brother from the freezer. Otto Lutterman, Gretchen's father, chased Cal all over town with a butcher knife. Cal tripped and lost control of the baby and was almost stabbed. He jumped onto a streetcar and fled the scene. I am liking this book more and more as I read it. I am happy I chose it.

Class Last Week

Because I was absent on Monday, I was only present for Tuesday and Wednesday of School. On Tuesday, we were assigned our outside reading projects. The project seems reasonable, but the in-class essay seems unnecessary. I've never had to write an in-class essay about an outside reading book before. If Ms. West has not read our books, how will she grade the papers? On Wednesday, we posted on our blogs for the whole class. I enjoyed doing that because I only have time to do the bare minimum that is asked for the blogs. I liked being able to see my friends blogs and comment about their posts.

Good Fellas

I watched Good Fellas last weekend. That is now my new favorite movie. It was about a boy who becomes a mobster as a young boy. The movie is quite inappropriate for school because it involves drugs, violence, and swearing. There were many characters, but the narrator, who was also the main character, did a fine job at explaining who each person was when they were reintroduced to the story. As we saw in class, the scene lengths varied, including ones that followed the characters as they walked and talk to others. The movie was interesting because of the plot and the characters. They interacted with each other differently and it was intriguing to see how they react to certain situations.

400 Blows Extra Credit

The film 400 Blows was a strange film. It was spoken in French, making the film more difficult to understand. I found it tricky to follow the subtitles and watch the movie at the same time. The beginning of the story was not intriguing; a student was punished at school, and it seemed that there was no plot. My first impression was that I was not going to like this movie because it was boring and an old movie. I was not used to the film being played in black and white, or in a foreign country. My opinion changed as the movie progressed. I did not think that the film reflected a memoir; there were not any reflections on the character’s behaviors or looking back on his actions. Regardless of the strange vibe that the movie sent, there were many lessons that it taught.

National Coming Out Day!!!

HAPPY NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY! I am a part of gay-straight alliance. I believe in gays having rights because they are just equals. They are people just like everyone else and they should not be treated differently. I think that they should be able to get married and that nothing is wrong with them. One of my good friends is gay and he is an amazing person. His parents are not accepting people because he is gay, they think he has a problem and that it is just a phase he is going through. I want to help others accept gays and have them be comfortable with who they are.

400 Blows

I didn't really like the movie. It was interesting, but it was in french. I have seen other french memoirs and it seems there is a reoccuring trend in the films: there is no plot. I watched a movie called to be and to have, it was horrible. The film was about a boy at school who was struggling in his classes. 400 Blows was about a boy who had a difficult family life and he was a rebel. The issue was never resolved, and the ending was extremely anticlimactic. The scene lenght was long. It spent at least 3 minutes at the end watching Antoine, the main character, jsut running away from jail. The movie had its ups and downs, but in the end, i did not like it.

My Weekend

I went on an orchestra retreat this weekend for Minnesota Youth Symphonies. Being a percussionist, there is some down time when we are not playing, so I read. I read almost all of Until They Bring The Streetcars Back, it is surprisingly a very good book. I am liking it a lot. The boy in it, Cal, he is popular, but this weird girl talks to him one day, and now he is being nice to her. He bought her shoes. He eats lunch with her every saturday while she is at work, and her dad beats her. This book reminds me so much of the movie A Walk to Remember. I love that movie, even though it is sad...

Black Boy...We Finished!

Finally, we finished Black Boy! I did not like the book. Freshman year, i read There Are No Children Here, it was exactly the same as the novel by Richard Wright. Except a boy was shot and there was much more gang violence that the kids were involved in. I like that the final project for this book is not a huge test or an analytical paper, I think all of us have done enough of those to last us awhile. The fact that the memoir doesn't have to do with the book is interesting, because it really isn't a test on the book, more of a test on the writing style. I like that. I'm not looking forward to our next book because it probably has a similar theme to Black Boy.

Black Boy And Outside Reading

I think this book so far is quite depressing. At least every other page, there is a comment about being beaten or an animal being killed. The book is fairly intriguing, but not uplifting at all. My outside reading book is similar to Black Boy. It is set later than Black Boy but there are still references to being beaten. Slavery does not exist. I like the book, its for the Book Club.

Black Boy

In class, we started reading Black Boy today. I think the book will be interesting, seeing how the character has already burned down his house in the first three pages. I wish we were allowed to highlight and annotate the books, it would be much easier to study for tests. It would also help in remembering what was read teh previous night.

Summer Reading

I decided I'm going to read the Book club book. It is called Until They Bring The Street Cars Back.