My Portfolio is Elsewhere

Sorry I totally forgot to link everyone to my other blog with my portfolio on it, heres a link-

http://tendoshuradoningendochikushodogakido.blogspot.com/

Let's eat pudding together someday!
~Charles

Writing Remix- Poem

Writing Remix- Deadman Wonderland Poem

           

Bright Monday sunshine, streaming through

Shattered windows, turning pools of blood to fiery crimson.

Death, everywhere Death, echoes of screams long gone still

Ring in my ears. Convicted, jailed, sent away to a place

Of insanity and cruelty.

Deadman Wonderland, I have arrived.

Strange girl, white skin with red eyes,

Red like the blood of my friends

Leaking from their shattered bodies.

“Let’s eat pudding together someday!”

Love within me, nothing else like it,

Deadman Wonderland, I have arrived.

Carnival Corpse, consisting of conscripted captives

Tearing, slicing, killing, dying.

Branch of Sin, my own blood

Turned against my foes.

Ace Man, Shiro, Red Man, Love

All are the same, I will protect her

Deadman Wonderland, I have arrived.

A unholy priest, sent of an Angel, whether fallen

Or no, that is unknown. New friends, Senji

Karako and Owl, a rebellion is in the air. We must

Stay silent as night, as invisible as blackness, run from

Sakagami Toto.

Deadman Wonderland, I have arrived.

Break out, run, escape

The priest has come, his spells in hand with

Vengeance in mind. Owl has gone to darkness,

He cannot even see himself. Shiro, Karako, only I can save them.

I will protect my friends

Death and Love, Malice and Justice, they await now, within the depths of

Deadman Wonderland.

Worktime

Saturday- 1.5 hrs
Sunday- 2 hours

Video editing takes time kiddies!

Total of about 3 minutes or so done so far.

~Charles

The Desires of a Conflicted Man

Greetings, folks. As you may be aware, I am a rather big fan of manga and anime (freaking huge, actually). What do I want most in the world? I want to be able to manipulate reality and travel between anime worlds and the real world (or the power to jump into manga would be a cool alternative). With this power, I don't think reality would really matter to me anymore (only to the extent where I can bring others with me; friends, the like). I would probably use this "manipulate reality" power as well to get me out of school to spare me the trouble of years of effort. (weeewt go Logan). To get this power, well, quite frankly, I would kill anyone who tried to get in my way. Living in a fantasy world, getting away from the current world. That's all I try to do anyway- living in perpetual music zone, watching anime and reading manga and wishing so dearly I was in them, the whole shebang. No one can say I don't live for the unreal. In any case, I would achieve nirvana with this power, become even happier than I am when I watch and read manga/anime, as I am filled with sadness that it isn't real in the end.

Roger, from LOTF, is what I would call a "winner". I always liked Roger- I felt him to be a very intriguing character and I like the way he thought. His ultimate goal, it seemed, was to become an animal, to live off primal feelings and to in the end survive and enjoy himself, in his own sick, sadistic way. Roger wasn't about to let anyone stand in the way- he was willing to kill anybody and do anything to survive and live his own little sadistic fantasy.

On the flip side of things, Simon from LOTF seemed to have a completely different outlook. He most wanted to get everyone out safely, to save them  and bring them back to the side of good. He was willing to sacrifice even his own life for this goal, he became a martyr of sorts. Simon only wanted to help, in the end.

Poetic Mastery- A Rendition by Charlsicus Maximus

Ascend to infinity, gaze about
at the fires ablaze, shimmering
in the cool breeze, but deep inside
my cave, I'm snug and warm.

The clicking and clacking,
 mixed with the soft pitter patter of rain,
 drown out the screams of sanctimonius silence,
 echoing into the night.

Dawn breaks but I pay it no mind
There is only the next mission, the next line
to cross, the objective to be seized.
Chapters to be read and episodes to watch,
Spots of color, agonizing headaches
Yes I am a gamer and an otaku too,
wouldn't it be nice if I ever noticed you?

Devices used- Enjambment, alliteration, sibilance, paradox.


 Reading Details- Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai- 12 chapters, 1 hour (Friday)
Judge-11 chapters, 1 hour (73 page chapter one, goody goody) (Saturday)
Deadman Wonderland- 14 chapters, 1.5 hours (Saturday)
Total pages read- about 300

Inside the Fire

Inside the Fire, performed by a personal favorite band of mine, Disturbed, is jampacked with all sorts of juicy poetry. Heres a link to the lyrics, and a link to the song (not official music video).

Lyrics- http://www.metrolyrics.com/inside-the-fire-lyrics-disturbed.html
Song-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkhwK6Wlod8

First off, this is a song about suicide, plain and simple. A device used particularly strongly in this song is dramatic imagery, illustrating things such as
"Who had been rendered unwhole as a little child 
 She was taken and then forsaken  
You will remember it all, let it blow your mind again"
 We see here imagery of an abandoned child, powerless to help herself, alone and afraid. She was "taken" (we'll have to assume by Lucifer himself, but we'll get to this in a bit). 
Images of fire, contrasted sharply by the coldness of death, can be seen as well-
"Fire, all you desire 
As she begins to turn cold and run out of time 
 You will shiver till you deliver
  You will remember it all, let it blow your mind again".
Beginning to see a pattern? The "You will remember it all, let it blow your mind again" repetition is starting to surface, and it is the final line, leaving with a grim warning of things to come, stressing its importance immensely. 
Now, for the easy bit. This song has some pretty clear allusions to Hell and eternal damnation, but heres an example-"Devon lies beyond this portal 
 Take the word of one immortal
Give your soul to me for eternity 
Release your life to begin another time with her 
End your grief with me, there's another way
  Release your life, take your place inside the fire with her".

The "immortal", we must assume, is Satan, or Lucifer. "Inside the fire with her", I can only interpret as the protagonist being asked to join Devon, his lover, in Hell. We see a lot of destructive imagery, as well as a whole bunch of ls and rs (consonance), as well as frequent allusions to Hell and the process of sacrificing your soul to Lucifer. 
~Charles out

Reading Response

Over my break, I spent a large portion of the time relaxing at the beach. In between my afternoon naps in the cool shade, I took it upon myself to read a book from one of my all-time favorite series, the Redwall books. I read the book Mattimeo by the author of all the books, Brian Jaques (hope I misspelled it correctly). Whatever the case, after reading this book I came to appreciate the author's unique choice of words- from things like "vittles" to "vermin", this tale of adventure and betrayal, death and salvation was truly an intriguing experience.


I found a lot more symbolism in the book, quite a bit more than I might have expected. For example, while trailing the slave gang (sorry, spoilers!), the rescue party comes to a dark underground place, known as the Kingdom of Malkariss. Here, a multitude of rats worship an effigy of a fearsome polecat, who on the inside is nothing more than a frail, decrepit dictator. I found the resemblance to the stone worshipping in caves to certain cults rather disconcerting, especially when Malkariss is referred to as "King of the Deep" and is revered as practically Lucifer himself. The whole experience was not only mind opening, but also intriguing, as I would have never guessed a story about talking mice and badgers could be so religious. (in a hidden way, of course).


*Another note- this series often features adders, a type of venomous snake, as antagonists, often portraying them as cruel and heartless, but also alluring to some of those with less pure hearts.
(reference to Adam and Eve story, just to make sure we all know).




Reading Times- Tuesday- 2hrs.
Wedsnday- 1.5 hrs
Thursday- 2 hrs

Total Hours-5.5 hrs
Total Pages~300 to 350

Rewired-12th Century Edition

As you may have guessed, yes, I shall be working on improving my Crusades paper. Personally, and not to toot my own horn here, I thought it a masterful piece of work, but that's just me. I am taking advice from the dreaded comment section (see: YouTube ) and am going to work on improving my support as well as my organization overall. My citations also apparently had some glaring problems as well, although I'm not sure if I should include this in my general categories of improvement. Whatever the case, the organization may need a little tweaking as well as some additional info I shall include per my associate's requests. A visit to the Writing Center seems in the undeniable future.


The paper itself, although I think it was well written, it felt that I was leaving out details, that I was missing some key aspects of my paper. Another thing I'll be sure to correct is tweaking my research question to really fit with my paper, as I seemed to have drifted from the original purpose. Whatever the case, I shall work diligently on fixing my technical errors in the bibliographies and some of my citations. I wonder if the Writing Center will be of any help...

~Charles

Jane Goodall-Does it Really Matter?

Jane Goodall, beloved of the chimps of Africa, has been accused of plagiarism. Now, this really isn't a big deal, the only real repercussion being Goodall's loss of credibility and a couple hundred thousand bucks, but we'll examine it closely anyway. Goodall has been accused of copying and using un-cited sources in her new book, "Seeds of Hope". One possible reason for her use of this information is that while the majority of the book is her opinions and her interpretations of plants, when she comes to the history and technical aspects she is at a complete loss. Her specialty being chimps, she never really learned botany and as such was forced to go to these sources for more in-depth explanations and statistics.

Jane Goodall and her co-author (who may have been responsible for some of this plagiarism), should certainly take some steps to correct these errors. Errors which could spell the end for their book, and even as a writers of future novels.The solution to correct these errors should perhaps be accompanied by a public admittance of error and guilt. Proper citations should be accredited to each and every source she has not cited yet in her book. This was not a real serious offense and her image will probably help her to bounce back.

~Charles


Reading Times-
 Today (Monday)
Comments- 15 mins.
Jane Goodall Article- 25 mins
Sunday
Cage of Eden- 2hrs
Total Time- 2 hrs 40 mins
Total Pages Read- About 200

Nervous Conditions- What You've All Been Waiting For

(Before I forget, Reading deets- B Layer:around an hour, Saturday
A Layer: ~1.5 hrs, Sunday
 Total-2.5hrs, maybe a little more

This book brings to light many, perhaps unpleasant, subjects, especially things related to culture and identity, as addressed in our question for the year. The book to me performs reasonably well when paired with our goal of answering our year-long quandary. The book performs strongly in the "identity" and "culture" categories, although personally I found it be both despicable and quite frankly, irritating.

Identity in NC is of nearly vital importance, almost every character going through an identity crisis at one point or another. The "who we are" part of our year-long search for an answer is illustrated magnificently in this book, Tambu and company change themselves frequently based on their environment, and many of their changes are not for the better (ex.-Nyasha's anorexia and bulimia) Tambu finds herself in the midst of a roiling mind and is constantly torn between duty or friends, work or family. The book really is all about her development into the person she is today, so the "identity" portion of our guiding question has been established firmly by this book.

Culture is another massive factor in Nervous Conditions. The sheer quantity of Shona culture is almost overwhelming, which isn't always a pro but still includes many different instances of culture impacting lives. Singing and dancing were both fun and required in Shona culture, a staple in family get-together s and special occasions. When Tambu goes off to live on the mission, the singing and dancing stops as she enters a more dignified world of biscuits and cream, as well as forks and knives and balls and galas.

This book, while not being an enjoyable read, would certainly answer our guiding question for the year adequetely enough to complete the course. I have clearly showed the book's strong suits of identity and culture, both of which are huge pieces of the year-long question. The book was not terribly well written, nor very interesting, so I have a sneaking suspicion their will be dissent and some even outright hatred of this novel next year (this year was no different). The book, I grudgingly concede, should be included in the syllabus next year because it helps answer the year-long question, and for no other reason than that. Adieu,
~Charles

Nervous Conditions- Chapter 7

In Chapter 7, we see mostly Lucia's rebellion, but also get a little bit into Maiguru's as well. Lucia makes her vicous arguements and terrifies Takesure once again, and makes up her mind to leave, but not without her sister, Tambu's mother. In the end Tambu's mother does not go, and so Lucia stays to help her take care of her and her child. Lucia is also seen helping Tambu's mother get motivated by placing her son in the middle of the river and Tambu's mom must go and get him. With this "therapy" of sorts, Tambu's mother soon recovers enough to function in their society again. Lucia becomes a real, worthwhile person while Tambu's mother seems to be more and more worthless.

Meanwhile, there is an important meeting amongst the men (and Lucia), and tensions mount then finally break when Jeremiah and Lucia's acts are laid bare for the group to attack and criticize. Jeremiah is called lazy and essentially worthless and Babamakuru has to once again act as head of the family and tell him off. Tambu and the other young women overhear all of this, and giggling erupts. Takesure and Jeremiah go through a period of ridicule, in which neither actually does anything productive, and soon it's back to drinking and the like.

~Charles

Current Obsession- Fallout 3

This weekend, and much of today, I spent playing a the third installment of the Fallout franchise, Fallout 3. This game is made by Bethesda studios (best known for their work on Fallout and the Elder Scroll series). The story centers around "Project Purity", a project to clean the water supplies of the current post-apocalyptic wasteland and to try to make it more habitable again. The story follows the son (or daughter, your choice) of the head of Project Purity, your father. He escapes from Vault 101, your holding vault in which people withstood the nuclear blasts. The game from there is up to you, and man is it just ridiculously fun. I run around, choosing uncouth dialogue to treat other characters to, and journey through bogs and deserts filled with irradiated monsters. Rules are practically thrown out the window, as weapons such as alien disintegrates, Gauss cannons, and even hand-held mini-nuke launchers (beware the FatMan) are at your disposal as you romp throughout the Capitol Wasteland. One of the best thing about this game, in true Bethesda fashion, is the fact that your dialogue and choices permanently impact your game and your future to give you a more unique and in-depth experience. The Game of the Year Edition for Xbox 360 costs only $20 on Amazon (Game of the Year Edition means it comes with all the extra content and is a steal). I highly recommend purchasing it and seeing what your future will hold in the windswept plains of the Capitol Wasteland.
~Charles

Identity-Coexistent Planes

Well, as my fancy schmancy title suggests, I change on the environment, my change usually being in social order and how I conduct myself. At school in class, for example, I would not lounge about as I do at home, or spill drinks, or sleep. At school it is a different environment with different requirements and expectations, so that I end up being a totally different person when I'm at home relaxing. This applies to virtual reality and real life as well. In real life it is unlikely I would play "head soccer" (those that know me and my love of Dead Space will remember this) in real life, but in that other world there are fewer and much different rules, a totally different world and environment. I speak differently, both in matter and in demeanor when I play games, and both of these can change rapidly depending on the game. Enviroment mainly affects me in the rules and physics that make up that enviroment, so according to that theory: no one is truly themself unless we live in a world of no rules whatsoever-a world of anarchy. I salute you, Joker.

Reading Details-
3 hrs. Sunday- Nervous Conditions, chapters 7-10
Total Pages~96pgs

Nervous Conditions Chapter 6

Chapter 6 brings a lot to the table. We get a look at Nyasha's defiance and discover that Babamakuru is really not all the "good guy" he seems. He not only beats his daughter, but also verbally traumitizes her by disowning her and calling her a whore. She becomes withdrawn, completely isolated and severs all ties with Tambu and her family. Tambu is in a tough situation, as she wants to respect Babamakuru and the opinions of her elders, but at the same time she feels connected to Nyasha as a friend and disagrees with Babamakuru on this point. She feels cut off from her family and like her new family isn't really connected to her and barely values her. Nyasha strikes her father back, proving her sense of justice but at the same time, she is promoting disobedience in the household. Her mother, Maiguru, is torn by all of this, almost as much as Tambu. She wants to obey and care for Babamakuru, but her "lovey dovey" is now beating one of her children. The whole household is soon split, and everyone has their world in which to live.

Persona- Nyasha

Well, assuming any of these characters can type and had the equipment to do so, this is what would've been the perspective of Nyasha when she is beaten and called a whore-

(The following exchange is entirely fictional and takes place inside Nyasha's mind)

Father father father, it's always been between us, hasn't it? No one else has ever been truly my opponent, not Tambu nor Mother nor even the Whites- it has always been you. When you struck me, I finally understood. I finally understood that we are going to do this forever, that we will be locked in combat for an eternity. Now that you have stopped responding to me, taken me as the disgrace and disappointment I am and leaving me to rot, I have had time to think. I now know that I don't want anyone anymore- I don't want you, or Mother, or Tambu. I want them to leave me alone, in the darkness where I belong, where I can finally rest. I don't belong here Daddy; and now I finally know.

C Layer 1 Reflection

Seeing as I'm expecting to do these reflections for every layer, stands to reason I might want to try to learn how to do them right...
Reading Details-
2 hrs.- Nervous Conditions: Thursday
1 hr.- Nervous Conditions: Friday

On Thursday I annotated about 45 pages or so (Chapters 5 and 6)
On Friday I annotated about 20 or so pages (part of Chapter 7)

 I think, moving forward, I should work more on getting my annotations done earlier, although realistically that is impossible. There is simply too many other things to do and too little time, so annotations can get put off to the side, and I need to work on managing time and staying focused a lot more. The blogs I find to often be the most thought-provoking, the reading guides less so. 

Nervous Conditions- Chapter 5

This is where tension really begins to mount and we find out a little bit more about Nyasha. She is described as "loose" by the kids at her school, and oftentimes goes to parties dressed inappropriately, not to mention the inappropriate things she does at said parties. She and Tambu become closer, and she talks about how she hates her mom, and how their is no love in their family. Nyasha then reveals she is a smoker and offers a cigarette to Tambu, further showing her level of rebellion against morals and her family.

Babamakuru relates to Tambu that he hopes she is aware of her situation and how lucky she is, and she continues to succeed in school, making many new friends and even becoming friends with teachers. Nyasha continues to argue with her parents about her reading of an adult romance novel and tension mounts. We learn Maiguru actually also has a Master's Degree, although she is bitter for not going onwards and beyond and for no one really knowing or caring about her achievements and current status. And, for some strange reason, there are several pages about Tambu's menstrual cycle and how she deals with it. How and why this relates to the story still eludes me, and I'm not even sure I want to know.

Nervous Condtions- Chapter 4

The chapter begins with Tambu's wonder-filled car ride to Babamakuru's house and the mission itself. We get a sense of awe emanating from Tambu, who I imagine to be staring, agape, at the mansion presented before her. We see this also from her reaction to the fine china, the dining room and kitchen, and especially from the living room, where she said she would've been overwhelmed if she hadn't been prepared for it. Her ideas on modesty are also shown when she declines a very fancy biscuit in favor for a much plainer, regular one, although she really wants a fancy one herself.

On the flip side of this, the author goes back to her own perspective at the time of writing and gives us a more depressing view of a much more derelict home than her younger self was described as seeing. There was a pane of glass missing from the kitchen, the house got red dust in it frequently, the colors did not match and contrasted badly. Meanwhile, Nyasha seems to get even worse, and back talks harshly to her mother when she catches her daughter reading an adult romance novel. (we find that detail out later). Tension mounts as Nyasha and Tambu begin to become friends within a household of dissent and disunity.

Nervous Conditons- Chapter 3

Nhamo and the rest of the family come on home, including Babamakuru, and a huge party goes into full swing. Tambu sees her cousin Nyasha again, but she seems...different, somehow. Apparently all that time in England really changed Nyasha, as she now seems to have forgotten Shona almost entirely. Tambu heartily disapproves of her new attitude towards her "lower" family and this becomes a basis for Tambu's feelings towards Nyasha later. Apart from them, everyone has a great time, with singing and dancing and also very complicated family rituals. Near the end of this swaray, however, Babamakuru sits down and has a talk with his brothers and tells Jeremiah, Tambu's dad, that he especially is doing poorly and is making the family look bad. Babamakuru has to fufill his duties as head of the family and support his brother, probably not of his own volition.

And then the bombshell drops. Nhamo's death is solomnly announced and Tambu's mother goes ballistic, blaming white people, education, and Babamakuru in particular. Tambu is then invited to come to the mission in place of Nhamo, and she feels very pleased for this. Tambu's mother says that she will die if Tambu leaves, and Tambu's heartlessness shows when she immediately sets off and leaves her mother in a pile of tears and dirt.

Reading Details (Whoops, Forgot em)

This week I read-

1hr- Last Tuesday, read and annotated chapters 1+2 of Nervous Conditions
30 mins- Last Thursday, read and annotated chapter 3 of Nervous Conditions
30 mins-Sunday, read and annotated chapter 4 of Nervous Conditions
1 hr- Read manga, "Pandora Hearts"

Total Pages Read~ about 150 or so

Reflection

1. In my paper, I think next time I'll need to learn to learn how to deal with the schedule better. I like to be very on top of things and to have a defined schedule, usually, but I think I got too carried away with the procrastination on this paper, the schedule was just too broad for me. (I think ill probably have the same problem with my science paper). And this falls into what Dr D could improve- scheduling time in class better, I felt we did FAR too much grammatical review and spent way too much class time on much smaller details of our paper then we should have.

2. Feedback on this project wasn't very much- many comments and remarks I had to throw out entirely, for lack of a nicer way to say it. I will say that grammatical mistakes were definitely caught, but next time I'm hoping for more substantial review from my peers.

3. The strongest part of my paper are definitely the flow and writing style- I like to think I have my own "style" that adds a little bit to the topic. The weakest points would have to be my thesis and overall message of my paper- I'm not very good at having an overall moral/point and weaving it into the paper, and I personally think my thesis was a bit drab.

4. I really do enjoy writing and reading, history especially is intreresting to me. However, I'd like to see some further steps towards using Fiction and Fantasy in our English class, I'm sure everyone would enjoy the overall process and indeed, the overall product morel, and it could still be accurate and all that, those requirements just need to be filled in by Dr D.

Reading Times

This week, I read quite a bit, an hour a day for several days (thanks, mom) and of course Nervous Conditions.

Thursday- Dead Space: Martyr- 1 hr
Friday-Nervous Conditions- 1 hr
Saturday- Dead Space: Martyr- 1 hr
Sunday- Game of Thrones- 30 mins.

Reading/Work Details

This week I....

Wednsday- 1hr on Rough Draft, started and revised thesis and wrote first page and a half.
Thursday- Was recommended to finish my paper early paper by mother, and did. I worked for 3 hrs on paper, wrote pages 1.5-5. Added in many quotations, including primary source.

Total Work Done- Finished Rough Draft in 2 days and with over 4 hours of work done.

Reading/Work Details

This past week I...

Work on Outline- Writing paragraphs 1-3 summary, half an hour, wednesday. Thursday, writing summary of paragraphs 4-7, 1 hr or so.

Additional Research- Thursday, 45 mins re-finding a replacement primary source or two

Reading- 1-2 hrs of Cage of Eden manga, about 15 chapters (20 pgs. to a chapter) which is about 300 pgs or so (Read an hour on sunday, about 45-60 mins on saturday)

Research on the Crusades

So, its a little late, but better late than never, eh? Anyway, my research is on the Crusades, more specifically the 3rd and a perhaps a little on the 4th. My research question has to do with what the perspectives of the Christian and Muslims were at the time and what came out of those opinions/beliefs. The Christians were not all chivalrous and as religiously fervent as they may seem on the matter, while the Muslims were doing more retaliation than holy war if anything. I was interested by this topic because the concept of jihad (lit. "struggle") in the Middle East is fascinating, what with the betrayal, religious fanaticism, and violence that so thoroughly encompassed the land. What's that, invisible friend/sibling/parent? You want me to restate all that in a formal way? Sure, why not-

My interest in this research project dwells within my topic, the Crusades. The factors at play, whether they be greed, factionalism, or simple blood lust, all fascinate me in perhaps an unsettling manner. The answer to my research question, which poses a query as to what the Muslim perspective versus the Christian one was like, would end up as simple greed and religious fervor on the Christian side juxtaposed against the Muslim's disdainful and defensive views. I shan't divugle any further infortmation, the paper will soon be out of development and into the eye of the public before long.


Reading Details-
Today-1 hr - Detailed Outline- Did paragraph layout of paragraphs 5-end
Monday- 1 hr. and a half - Detailed Outline- Finished preliminary research and started outline, finishing up to paragraph five.

Moar Manga

Well I've read a couple other "vocab blogs" and they all use adroit. I dislike that word, among others, so I'm warning you, don't look for it.

My avocation in life, is, I think, manga/anime. I had lapses in favor for it, of course, but it's always there to welcome me back. My current obsession is with a particular manga, The Cage of Eden (I've talked about this before). The main characters, Akira Sengoku, is probably about 14/15, you know, our age. Nice kid, and he has two childhood friends, Akagami Rion and Arita Kouhei. Rion is his pseudo-girlfriend, Kouhei is his "right-hand man". In any case, when their plane crashes on a remote island, Sengoku is seperated from his friends. The plane is definitively busted, as it was an emergency crash landing, although no one is hurt. However, something about the island causes the newly arrived inhabitants demeanor change, violently. They kill the pilot (a plot twist later reveals who killed him) and begin to run amuck after they are attacked by an extinct carnivore with massive jaws.

Traveling about the island, Sengoku meets up with Rion and my personal favorite character who reminds me much of myself, Zaji, as well as a flight attendant named Oomori and a super-nerd genius (see-Joe Leo) named Mariya. Together, they all find that not only is the island inhabited with all manner of deadly extinct animals, it is massive and appears on no maps. It is a shamelessly bloody tale, with all manner of deaths including but limited to- falling, blunt impact, drowning, being eaten, ticks, and posionous grapes. I highly suggest everyone who has read to this point to check out the first 5 or so chapters, trust me, it gets really good.

Also....

Sengoku and his rival Yarai, who is a social pariah at their school,  are on a crusade to discover the mystery of the island, plagued by the raucous cawing of the crows of Death.

Research Update.......Processing.......

Well, research. What a fun, thought-provoking word. My current progress is at the 5 annotated bibliography stage, which is actually not bad. Sure, 10 are due Friday, but hey, I've done more with less time and resources. Anyway, the only concern I have is that I still haven't exactly mapped out the layout of my paper yet, and am still puzzling through the research. I need subjects, darnit, a lot more specific than my current topic (The Crusades). These sort've "mini subjects" will make up my paragraphs, give them real "meat".

You'll have to excuse me if my writing isn't the usual emotional rollercoaster, had my last driving lesson today. (Which I passed :D ) Anyway, my greatest challenge will be narrowing down all the information I have so that I can write a comprehensive paper, which I am actually looking forward to doing.

Reading-
Monday- 1hr (Game of Thrones)
Last Monday-30 mins. (Cage of Eden)
Tuesday-30 mins. (Cage of Eden)
Wednesday- 30 mins. (Cage of Eden)
Thursday-30 mins. (Cage of Eden)

Total Pages~250-300
Total Time-3 hrs.

Manga- The Dead and the Dying

Alright, well, I'll say this outright- I am engrossed by horror. I've seen quite a few horror films, including but not limited to The Last Exorcism, Insidious, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (so pysched for the newest one, btw). Anyway, horror genre manga is my new zone. I have two manga I'd like to say a little about and tell you why they're some of my favorites.

Deadman Wonderland- This is my second favorite anime/manga of all time, so I'll start with this first. This manga is a shamelessly dark and bloody story following the character Igarashi Ganta as he is imprisoned within the prison/amusement park, Deadman Wonderland. There he learns how to wield his blood as a weapon and meets other's like him, users of the Branch of Sin. He also comes into contact with Shiro, a strange albino girl who is a huge twist in the story at the end. Here's the opening title sequence, talk to me if you start watching and or reading it, and trust me, it gets so cool- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II9mI-uPdso 
(Opening sequence is clean, and even if you're not interested in this anime or even anime in general, its a good background song for the next part of my blog)

The Cage of Eden- This is an manga I just recently got into, and it surprisingly reminded me of Lord of the Flies, with a Jurassic park remix to it. It revolves around, man, what is that guy's name.....err, I think his names Genkudo, cant remember off of the top of my head. Anyway, he is on a plane with about 300 other people (massive field trip as well as a passanger flight) that crashes on a remote island. Much of the people have seperated and he struggles to find his childhood friend, Rion. Not surpisinly, they island drives people to insanity and in desperation, they all end up turning on each other. As an added bonus, extinct creatures such as the saber-tooth cat inhabit the island, preying upon the children and the few adults left. It makes for a very interesting read, find it on http://www.mangahere.com/

Thanks to everyone who read this far, anime/manga is just a peculiar hobby I enjoy,  try it out for yourself!

Reading Response

Alright, well, more reading responses. This week I have read...
Fairy Tail manga (2hrs) (sunday)
The Cage of Eden manga (1hr) (Friday)
Total of about 300 or so pages (those pages just fly bye, huh?)

I'm going to use my freepost to discuss the Cage of Eden manga and another of my favorite manga, but I'll give it a quick overview here. Now, usually I love really in-depth and complex charachters (see-Game of Thrones), but here I found that not all characters must be really deep or serious to be likable and to play major parts in the plot. I'll go into this in more detail in my other post, but suffice it to say that sometimes a simple character may be the most effective way to portray someone.

Alright, on to Fairy Tale. I honestly very much like the drawing style, but it's just not in me to keep reading it, so after what I read this week I doubt I'll read more. It's the plot, is what it is. It's just too boring and no one dies and it just......it bores me. However, they make wonderful use of complex abilities and really hit gold with the "magic guilds" thing. Fiction is by far my absolute favorite genre, but I should probably branch out into non-fiction soon. Anyone got any good non-fiction reads?