Writing

A lot of my time today has been spent co-authoring a novel with Ryan. Thus I think that it would be prudent to write about writing.

Although I love to write, I dislike doing English books for school. Even though they would only help me be a better writer, it just doesn't do it for me. In fact, because of this, I don't remember many grammatical rules, I usually just write what sounds good. Because I read so much, this usually works, as evidenced by PSAT scores. Still, I am at a disadvantage. For the longest time I didn't know the difference between "a" and "an" so I was usually forced to guess. A few months ago I finally got around to looking it up (turns out "a" is before consonants, and "an" is before vowels). And that is true in so many things as well, I'm sure that Ryan constantly groans at my terrible quotation mark system and lousy semicolon placement. 

Pride and Prejudice

This year the Marion Home School Assistance Program High School play will be Pride and and Prejudice. I was cast as the role of Mr. Phillips, one of the smaller parts, of which I am eternally grateful. I haven't read the book before, and I only got my script just recently and have just glanced through, but it is apparent that this is a "girly" play. And anyone who knows me knows that romance makes me puke. Not to mention that because of the romance this will be a very awkward play, a fact that I'm not too pleased about. Still, I'm excited. I have plenty of friends (wait, I have friends?) in the play, and I'm sure that I'll have a great time just hanging out.

Les Misérables

A lot of my friends are really into the book Les Misérables (and alternatively, the play as well). I started reading the book about a month and a half ago, but due to the fact that I was super busy with finishing up school, and then working at camp, it took me longer to read it than usual. The book is split into five different "volumes". I had a completely unabridged version, which sadly, only had three volumes. As soon as I get the chance, I'll try to find the final two volumes.

Despite being 800 pages long, there isn't actually that much in the plot. The author, Victor Hugo, spent an excessive amount of time on foundation information. For example, the first 60 pages or so were an in-depth look at the life of a bishop; talking about his history, his view on life, his political opinions, and stories about him. But, the amount of time spent with the protagonist of the book, Jean Valjean, is actually very, very short. Later on we learn that he died. Even though he had a lasting impact on Jean Valjean, how important was the background information. In the second volume Hugo spent another 60 pages describing the battle of Waterloo, even though it was almost entirely superfluous to the story.

Throughout the novel many minor characters have quite a lot of time spent on them, and every now and then some philosophy will be thrown at you (a book inside a book, bookception anyone?).

That being said, it worked well. If you have the extra time to spare, you can really get sucked into Hugo's tale that he so magnificently weaved.

Fireworks

Due to the fact that today is the fourth of July, I went to see the Independence Day fireworks. Although it was just in a small town, they were actually quite decent fireworks, and it was an enjoyable experience.

It got me thinking about fireworks. They were of invented in 7th century China, originally intended to scare off evil spirits. Since then they have become a staple at all sorts of celebrations, especially the Fourth of July.

Hearing them go off with a terrific "bang", seeing the vibrant colours that emerge from the rocket, fireworks are great to watch. But one can not help while watching fireworks wonder if it is worth it. Fireworks are expensive, and it is literally money going up in smoke. Eh, I guess other people think so, and until they start thinking otherwise I'll enjoy it :D

When I remembered that it was the Fourth of July, I intended to give some good-natured bashing to the U.S.A. (because I'm Canadian). Instead, I settled for this. I hope you all had a great day!

Unabridged Books

All my life I've enjoyed books. But I have recently realized that although I've read many classics (think Robinson Crusoe, Around The World In 80 Days, and The Three Musketeers), most of them have been "specially adapted" abridged books with easier to understand language and a picture every other page. So, I was always under the impression that I had this all down. But, when I read a fully unabridged book like Les Miserables (I'm actually not done yet, but almost), with a gigantic number of pages, deep thoughts, and almost as many semicolons as periods, one has to wonder what they have been missing. Thus, I have decided that this summer, when I'm not being lazy, I think I'll try to rediscover some classics. A favorite of mine among the abridged novels was The Count Of Monte Christo. I'll see if I can find the unabridged version at the library...

Summer

Now that I'm back from camp for good for the year, I have half of the summer to myself. Except for a family vacation and helping out with a VBS, I'm not doing much else this summer. I believe that it will be nice to rest, recuperate, and prepare myself mentally for being a junior in the fall. I have a feeling that I will be slightly less social this summer, due to the overload I had at camp. I guess I'll just have to try to enjoy being a kid as long as I can :)

Well, That Was Crazy...

The month of concentrated blogging is over. I've had some pretty insane weekends, that's for sure. Now that I'm going back to simply doing a post a day, and allowing it to spread out, I don't know how I'll ever give an excuse for lack of ideas ever again. Instead of being under the wire to write a single post, it's more like being under the wire for seven. I wish that I had been more diligent about making up ideas at camp, though. It surely would have made the writing process much easier.

 Still, I'm happy with myself. My goal for this month was not writing seven blog posts on the weekends, but writing seven good blog posts on the weekends. Although I don't know what I kind of standard I had overall, I believe that pathetic posts were kept at a minimum.

Yes, I know that I missed two days. Sorry about that. I guess the score is 0-3...