School related – Sokorra Lewis

book reviews, essay, general, School related, writing

The 2010 Book-it

Posted on January 5, 2010 by sokorra

Remember when you were younger and the library had special summer reading (or during the school year sometimes) that if you read so many gooks, you’d get a gift card to Pizza Hut (or whatever)? Well, my friends and I, seeing a similar non-organization based version of it, decided last year to have what we called ‘The Fellowship Book-it”. The Fellowship is a nickname we gave our group after seeing LOTR. Don’t ask. Anyway, the point of the Book-it is to get back to reading. And reading something that isn’t on the screen of one’s computer (Basically that news article on Britney Spears doesn’t count). If you have a Kindle, or an ebook program, that’s different.

The Goal: 50 books during the year. That is basically 1 book per week, with two weeks off.

Time Frame: January 1st – December 31st.

The Rules (of the fellowship version, its not exactly a standard):

– This is not a competition, its a goal line

– The story you read must be able to be found by itself somewhere. So a packet of short stories doesn’t count as five books. You can count it as one book (But point it out that its a group) If its an exceptionally long short story, an exception might be made (like the 28 page excerpt of St. Augustine I read last year. I counted that by itself)

– Text books count if there is reading involved. Math books do not count, there are more numbers then words.

– A book counts once. If you read it twice in one year, it still only gets counted once

– You can count books you’ve read before, as long as you actually read it again and don’t count it twice in the same year.

– If you start a book in 09, and finish it in ‘10, it can count.

Most people just keep a list of what they read. We are using a facebook group thing to keep track of what is what, and when someone reaches 25 we *plan* to have a pizza party. (we kinda forgot last year). Some people write reviews as they go along, and that is what I’m going to try to do

So I’m off to read. Expect my first review to come soon. Also, I read alot of Fandom fiction (movie novelization, spin off books etc) so expect some fandom talk as well.

If anyone would like to do this and has questions, feel free to comment or email me. Its just a fun thing to do. There is also a movie and TV episode versions I’ve seen, and I;m doing the 100 movies in a year one. Its my first year. So far so good, except I keep rewatching movies:)

School related

Weekly Readings (which so far I have failed at)

Posted on February 26, 2009 by sokorra

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – Ambrose Bierce

A man is executed over a stream from a railroad bridge. In the few seconds before he dies, he imagines his escape. However at the end, he’s hanging from the bridge.

A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner

An woman in town dies, and the town comes to her funneral, more out of curiousity then anything else. A Colonel had gave her freedom of taxes, so the town was trying to get her to pay her taxes, while also giving rid of a smell emitting from her house. They find out she had kept the corpse of her boyfriend in her house.

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

Discusses what several men in a group carry with them. Jimmy Cross carries not-quite Love letters from a girl named Martha whom he daydreams about, Dave Jenson – toothbrush, dental floss, soap, extra socks, foot powder, Ted Lavender (before he was shot, apparently, in the head outside Than ke) carried pot and tranquilizers, Henry Dobbs extra food, Michell Sanders – comdons, Norman Bowker – diary, Rat Kiely – comic books, Kiowa- new testament, hatchett,

They all carried several pounds worth of equipment and safety gear, armaments, and extra clothes in case of weather change. What they carry changes with the mission.

oh, and Ted Lavender carried this before he was shot in the head outside Than Khe on his way back from peeing.

The Darling – Anton Chekhov

A girl named Olenka falls in love and then marries the manager of a town theater. They do well together though she is happy and he is constantly despairing of the rain and how it will make them poor. Then he dies while on a trip to moscov. For months she mourns, till she met Vassily, a timber merchant and after a few days falls in love. Six years later Vassily dies and she becomes fixated on the Vet who would keep her company while Vassily was away on trade trips. He however leaves her to join the army. She becomes thin and worn and has no opinions. He returns several years later with his wife and son, saying he has reunited with them> She offers them her house, and fixates on showing love to the couple’s young son Sasha.

Happy Endings – Margaret Atwood

A story about endings to the phrase’ ‘John and Mary meet".’ A is a happy ending, b-e are various endings of both happy and sad (including one that doesn’t even include John and Mary.) F is the author basically saying the only true ending is “John and Mary die’. (actually gives me an idea…)

book reviews, book vs Movie, film, School related

This week is theme

Posted on February 7, 2009 by sokorra

So, this week in Intro To Fiction, we are studying ‘Theme.’ Which always makes me think of “The Jane Austin Book Club” where Prudie goes on about “Jane’s Theme” and kinda gets on the nerves of everyone else there except for Grigg (who was uncomfortable as it was) and Silvia who was a little preoccupied with her own personal crisis.

I actually like the movie, but don’t like the book. Which is an oddity because usually its either equal status or I like the book better. I like to watch the film first because its like having deleted scenes when you read the book. But in this case, THey changed enough of the book that I much prefer the movie. Not to say there weren’t times I wanted something from the book in the movie, but generally the movie was better. Plus Dean was a steelers fan:)

Another book that failed to meet the expectations of the movie was The Wedding Date (or Asking For Trouble if you want to read the book). The book and the movie share a common plot…Older sister is going to younger sister’s engagement party and hires an escort to pose as her boyfriend. The big difference between the movie and the book is:

The book goes over a longer period of time, from the engagement party till after the honeymoon
The names are different and everyone lives in England
Sophie (Kat in the movie) lives with her best friend and friends brother and they take an active role in the story. This plot is not in the movie.
TJ is in the book, in the form of cousin Tamara who has a simular role, except she (and apparently 95% of the family) doesn’t like Paul (Edward in the movie AKA the fiancée)
The fiancée is a jerk
Kit (Jeff) and Bianca (the sister, forget her name in the move) actually stay together, they run off together after the honeymoon.
Josh (Nick) isn’t an escort. He was filling in for an actual escort, since his friend was running the company.

Now unlike The Jane Austin Book Club, Asking For Trouble is equally as enjoyable as the movie. Its just that they are almost two different stories. And if I had to choose, I’d probably choose the movie. If only because I hate that Kit/Jeff won in the end of the book and that Paul was a jerk. Edward is lovable in the movie (half because of the character, half because Its Jack Davenport.

I’m going to be posting again tonight to get my entries up to the correct number. I’m two down (one after this entry) from being an entry a day since I started.

School related

Weekly Reading pii

Posted on February 5, 2009 by sokorra

The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros

Basically a girl (I assume its a girl) describes her family’s new home, which is run down and how it compares to her previous homes and the dream house her family has in their minds.

I Stand Here Ironing – Tillie Olsen

A mother, while ironing, goes over the 19 years she’s spent raising her daughter , wondering why the Teacher wanted her to come in and discuss Emily. She thinks about how Emily was a beautiful baby, but got sick and for awhile was thin and straggly. How Emily didn’t like school, and how she always seemed to be second best to her younger sister Susan who was five years younger. She also talks about having to send her daughter away a couple times when she was younger (once because she had no money to raise her with and once because the social worker thought it was best if Emily went to a special home for convalesce.

A Conversation with My Father – Grace Paley

A woman talks with her father whose having heart troubles. He asks her to write a simple story. She does, but he is not satisfied. They argue and she adjusts the story, before they argue again, continuously adjusting the story. The father sees tragedy in all stories, while thinking his daughter only sees the humor.

The Man Who Was Almost A Man – Richard Wright

I actually didn’t read this. Got tired of it the first five paragraphs and went and read a summery.

http://litsum.com/man-who-was-almost-a-man/

The Rocking Horse Winner- D.H. Lawrence.

I read this in high school and didn’t like it. Still don’t really enjoy it that much. Basically there is a woman who marries a man who is unfortunate in business and doesn’t love her. She has trouble loving anyone. But that really has nothing to do with the rest of the story. He just felt like telling us.

She has three children, a son named Paul, a daughter named Joan and another unnamed girl. They hear the house whispering about money, and how they need more of it. Paul asks his mother about it, confusing lucre for Luck and she explains that filthy lucre is money and that luck is what brings you money. That their father is an unlucky man, as must she be for marrying him.

Everyone is kinda disturbed by Paul’s fascination with his toy rocking horse and the strange look he gets when he’s riding it. And apparently he rides it well after growing too old for it.

So one day the Uncle shows up and learns that his nephew has taken an interest in Horse races. Paul explains that he and the gardener have been placing bets and winning large sums of money that they keep locked away. He plans on giving his mother the money in the hopes that the voices will stop. The Uncle doesn’t believe it at first so he asks the nephew who he should bet on in the race at Lincoln. The boy replies Daffodil. The Uncle, who doesn’t believe Daffodil will win as the odds are against her, places a five pound bet for each of them.

Daffodil wins, earning Paul 20 pounds (my keyboard lacks a certain symbol, and if this were now, this 20 pounds would equal about $40)

The Uncle becomes partners with the gardener and the nephew. He takes 5,000 dollars from Paul’s 15,000 pound winnings and takes it to the bank to be given in allotments to Paul’s mother (anonymously, as request by Paul for that would make them unlucky).

Paul’s mother asks for all the money, and Paul says yes, and the wall who whisper start going crazy. Paul’s mother starts to be concerned when she sees her son still playing with his rocking horse and still having this strange look in his eyes. Paul meanwhile is starting to loose, and while the Uncle tells to forget about it, he doesn’t.

One night, the mother comes home after an outing with her husband. She gets this strange feeling and rushes up to her son’s bedroom to find him rocking the horse again. He keeps rocking till he shouts out the winner of the next game and falls over. The mother rushes in, slightly terrified of what has just happened (and Mr. D.H. uses some awkward phrasing here). The son is ill, and the gardener and Uncle place the bet. However, after hearing that he won the race, Paul gushes about how lucky he is, then dies that night.

But the Uncle reminds the mother “Well, your son may have died, but he got you 80,000 pounds”

fanfiction, ncis, School related, stargate, writing

A bit of this and a bit of that

Posted on January 29, 2009 by sokorra

So I’m working on my homework assignment for Intro to Fiction. We are supposed to read a bunch of short stories and one of the appendixes. The Appendix is on Elements of Fiction. It should be an interesting read. I have to take a quiz on it tomorrow.

And I’ll have to sacrifice my poor computer to Linux. *cries* I’m just glad my mom said ok, and that I don’t have to worry about having to put it on my laptop.

Anyway, since NCIS is about the only thing coming through my muse these days, I will talk about that. I have two choices right now. I can either continue it the way I’m writing it, wherein everything is cannon except the deaths of Jenny and Kate, and everyone knows Kate is alive or I can rewrite it where half the mission is them finding out that Kate’s been alive all these years, kept in a stasis pod by the Trust.

I also have another choice in what will happen to the Ziva/Tony/Kate storyline. Originally at the start of the story Ziva and Tony were to be together, in a starting relationship, not quite concrete but the possibly was there. But though the story they come apart, partially because of Tony/Kate and partially because I have a future love interest for Ziva (there is a certain Major in Stargate-dom who is need of a love interest, not to mention a promotion.). The other option was that Tony and Kate would have almost moments, but at the end of this story, Kate goes off with her boyfriend David and Tony goes off to date whatever pretty lady comes his way (Ziva still getting the Major). And then I’d write a sequel that was a few years down the road where they actually get together.

I’m thinking the first one is probably the best. Although what do I do about David. He’s still Kate’s boyfriend, and they will have to break up. I don’t do cheating. And the ultimate shipper goal is that Kate and Tony get together at some point.

Although thanks to certain Fanfic writers I now have it in my personal universe that the week between SWAK and TWILIGHT Tony and Kate made headway towards being a couple. So I have it in my head that the two had a date planned for that weekend, which of course never happened due to Ari.

The plot continues to grow. Although should Ari have a part time job as a Trust Agent? Perhaps I should leave him out of this story. After all, there was a two parter with the express intent to kill him, so I should let him lie in peace.

Basic Plot as is right now is that the Trust wants to make hosts that are stronger then the usual bunch (People are idiots, just ask the guy who brought back the replicators). They hire a bunch of scientists, telling them that they want to create a group of super soldiers to fight terrorism and to be the start of a new generation of humans who have more immunities and such.

The Marine/Petty Officer victim of the week (I will one day start taking a count of who dies, because it seems like those two are the most hit on NCIS) will be apart of this group. He will have on his computer information about the selection process and how they got their materials. However, he will disagree with a Trust Agent and be killed and they will wipe his Hard Drive. But because they are stupid (as all good Villains usually end up being), Abby & McGee will work wonders and get the information back.

They will track down and find the ‘camp’ where all the testing is being done and where the children live once they are born. There are five children who have survived to toddler hood, 2 five year olds and 3 two year olds. One of the two year olds is Kat, the daughter of Kate & Tony.

I need to flesh out some of the stops between finding POVOTW and finding the kids. But that is the basic gist so far. I need to refamilarize myself with the Trust.

ooooo..>Athena. Got to remember to use her. After all, I don’t think she’s quite dead yet.

Basically the story will have a plot besides trying to bring those two together and ignoring canon death of characters. Though I have been known to do that, ignore canon. (see my Draco/Ginny collection).