Choose your Own Autobiography

Alright so since we last left off, I have been... Dealing with  a few things. The acting purgatory that is TV movies is finally ending, and I landed myself a lead role in a Broadway show. The show is a play called "Proof" the experience is an absolute breeze outside of my costar Anne Heche. Anne is a perfectly nice person, but her approach to acting is a little on the crazy side. By a little I mean she never does anything consistently even during actual performances, leaving me hopelessly awaiting her next crazy addition to her character. Everything from speaking in a high pitched squeal to appearing in the front of the audience is "explored" by Anne. Making the show a beautiful nightmare. After that  I decide to continue performing in stage shows while hopelessly trying to jump start my movie career. Countless failed rehearsals with all the same feed back: "Too Doogie!". Years and years of those two words until finally I land myself a supporting role in the sure to be hit "Star ship Troopers" ! The movie is filled with big stars the most notable of which is Madonna, who has a larger makeup team then the rest of the cast combined. She's always polite, but I never get a chance to meet her because she is constantly being crowded by everyone and everything. After re-writes and re-shoots clog my schedule, my faith in this production begins to dwindle. Rightfully so, it flops everywhere and goes down in infamy as a textbook example of sifi done horribly wrong. That's when it all happens, when my life changed forever. That's the beginning of how I met "How i Met Your Mother."

1. (Question 1) The main character is driven by nothing more than his appreciation and love of acting. It seems that whenever he puts conscious thought into accomplishing something it doesn't get accomplished. All of his major breakout roles or achievements happened by accident. At his summer camp he met a tony winning writer who just happened to be adapting a film. When he became Doogie his parents favorite man in television just happened to be writing a show about a young doctor who was our protagonist's exact age. These major life changes were circumstances more than choices. Neil Patrick Harris is extremely lucky.

2. (Question 9) I found it interesting that Neil would talk about every production he's been a part of in great detail. However in the period of his life when he was in TV movies he simply wrote a paragraph explaining very generally the TV movies as a whole. I understand there are probably too many to list, but I also find it hard to believe that in all those projects he doesn't have a single story worth putting in his book. Perhaps there is a sense of resentment towards the genre due to his time performing in them.              

"Vietnam Book One: I Pledge Allegiance" by Chris Lynch, Zach Cook

   (Black highlighted words spoil the ending!)

     The book ends with Morris and his Navy friends escorting another ship. The author leaves us with a description of the sound of a sniper's gunshot and someone yelling "Moses!" A great cliff-hanger.

      I think the ending was satisfying if you keep in mind that this story will take place in a series of books and not just in one. Although I would rather have had the author end the book on a good note or the end of a problem and not a cliff-hanger.
      If I could ask the author a question it would most-likely be, "what inspired you to write about Vietnam and especially from a US Navy point of view rather than a US Army point of view?" or my question would be, "will the next book(s) be following one of the other characters?"

     The main character, Morris, becomes more battle hardened as he fights the war. For example, in the beginning he was scared  out of his mind about going to war, but in the end, when the sniper shoot he gets down and continues with what he was doing.

A Country Called Childhood by Jay Griffiths, Nonfiction (post 3)

I didn't finish the book, but I think that's okay because most of the chapters ultimately say pretty much the same thing; children need more freedom. I agree with that, but sometimes it gets a tad redundant. There are two chapters that really stand out in my mind, and those are the ones I'd like to talk about.
In an earlier post, I mentioned the chapter, "Wolf Milk in the Ink". This chapter explores childrens' relationship to animals and nature. Animals, says Jay Griffiths, are crucial to childrens' happiness. Ever notice how some children are so attached to their stuffed animals? Griffiths has a brother who had a teddy bear when he was a kid that he felt was his guardian. Sometimes when he was having a nightmare, his teddy bear would come into his dream and make it better. The book says that this relationship is actually sort of tragic; stuffed animals are a substitute for the real animals that kids once played so freely with. This chapter has references to Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book; the true story of Victor, a child found living in the woods in France; another true story about a boy named Ivan Mishukov who made friends with a pack of feral dogs; and a movie called The Company of Wolves and the book it's based on. (Look it up.)
Another Chapter that comes to my mind is called "A Clockwork Child". It's about how children are so over scheduled these days. There are people who suggest that children who have a hard time doing things quickly should get dressed with a stopwatch and eat with a timer and do things to fast marching music. Needless to say, Jay Griffiths doesn't like that. Children shouldn't be labeled "lazy" or "dawdling." Having the freedom to decide what to do with your time is also crucial to happiness, Griffiths says. There's a certain calendar you can get called the French Revolutionary Calendar that, instead of calling the months by their official names, calls them things that actually bring the months to mind, and help children get a more healthy concept of time. September is "Fruit". October is "Foggy". December is "Frosty". Every day of the year on that calendar is represented by a tool, a kind of rock, an animal, or a plant. Jay Griffiths has a cat who was born on August 12th, which according to the French Revolutionary Calendar, is the day of the otter. So she named him Otter.

Question #5
A Country Called Childhood is definitely not supposed to be a step-by-step "how to parent" book. The things Griffiths talks about can be very controversial. She thinks children should eat when they're hungry and sleep when they're tired. She romanticizes children swearing and helping their parents with poaching, but it's all in context.

I would love to do question #6, but there are so many interesting passages in A Country Called Childhood that I could never decide which one to use. Anyway, it's hard to concentrate like that with my parents and brother arguing loudly the way they've been.

Question#7
One praise for A Country Called Childhood said that it will make you re-think your own childhood. I don't know about other people, but it certainly made me think more about mine. When I have a lot of homework and I start thinking that schools should not be allowed to give kids this much work, I used to call myself a whiner. Now I wonder if these feelings just might be justified.

Blonde Ops, Charlotte Bennardo, Fiction

Summary: Bec has been put under the watch of the new editor-and-chief, Candace Worthington. She is a strict, no nonsense, doesn't care about people below her, type of person. Candace runs a tight ship at the magazine and doesn't let anything go easily. She has even more added pressure because the First Lady is coming to visit. With the up-and-coming visit of the First Lady security around Candace, the hotel, and the magazine (office), have been increased. Secret service agents have been keeping an eye on every one and every thing. One day when Bec came back to the hotel after a long day at the office and found that her room had been searched. After so many years in boarding school she could tell when people had gone through her stuff. She went around the room collecting finger prints from things that had been moved. Her plan was to get things that had finger prints from all the agents, and Candace on them to see who it was that when though her stuff. Throughout the next day she collected things with prints from everyone on her list except two of the agents. She didn't find any matches yet. Bec also got back on the hunt for Parker. Bec, being a "techno geek", hacked her way into the systems of all the hospitals in the Rome area. She ended up empty handed. She couldn't find any trace of Parker in any hospital. She gave up for that night but was determined to find Parker Phillips at some point.


Question #1: Has the novel changed you...
This novel may not have changed me as a person but it did broaden my perspective. The book has shown me the type of life that Bec has lived. It showed me the relationship between her parents and her. That relationship where they don't see each other very often and live completely separate lives. Bec goes to her various boarding schools and her parents work, all around the world. That is just an example of how different their lives are compared to many other families. This novel also showed me a small part of what  Rome is. The city is lined with cobblestone streets and endless cafes and shops. It is also a bustling city with busy streets and amazing experiences.


Question #2: What are the main theme...
The main theme of this story is, to make the best of whatever situation you are in. Bec is thrown into this completely new world and is expected to got along perfectly fine. She is sent to Rome with no prior knowledge by her mother. Bec is expected to work at Edge Magazine (I know in the last blog post I said Vogue Magazine but it is actually Edge Magazine, sorry for the mistake) as an intern. She is sent blind into this situation and makes the best of it. She makes friends with some co-workers and one of the people who deliver packages to the office. Bec also wanders around the city, going to shops and restaurants and exploring the magnificent city. Unfortunately the author doesn't use any symbolism in the novel. (well at least yet anyways)