Summer Blog Post 4

There were many choices of books on the list.  After looking through all of them, I limited all the books down to Ship Breaker and Looking for Alaska. I ended up picking Ship Breaker because a friend of mine recommended it to me because he read it in 9th grade.  Some things that drew me toward reading this book is the title.  I haven't read a book with a similar title or plot. also it had one thing in common with many other books I read,  It took place in a dystopian society.  Many books that I have read in the past took place with a dystopian society.  Examples of books I read previously are Divergent and The Hunger games.
A reason this book is so good it is because it is relatable. The main character, Nailer, is a young teenage boy who is about our my age.  many of the characters are teens which helps you relate to the plot.
 I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read a book with some action in it but is also a very different plot than other books.  This book would be a good book for anyone that enjoys adventure and risk-taking decisions.  This book is very thrilling as Nailer, Nita, and Pima escape the golf Coast and Richard Lopez.

Summer Blog Post 3

Authors use many different forms of hooking the reader and grabbing his/her attention. Some examples that authors use to hook the reader are dialogue, description and creating a picture in the readers' mind. Poalo Bacigalupi gives conflict early on in the novel to attract the audience to his book. He engages the reader very early. This is one of the reasons that made me want to keep reading.
In the first paragraph in chapter 4, he starts engaging the reader, "In a way, the black muck of the oil was no worse than the blackness above. Nailer let his hands do the work of seeing.  He quested down along the rim of the door, sinking deeper, reading its outline. His hands touched a wheel lock.  Nailer's heart surged with relief" (Bacigalupi 32).
During that paragraph Nailer fell into a oil pocket while searching for copper in a ship.  While crawling through vents, the vents collapsed, dropping him into oil.  This intrigues the reader wanting him to read more and learn how he escapes.
Another example of how Bacigalupi uses his writing techniques to keep me engaged in his writing is by using dialogue. On page 127 there is a conversation going on between lucky girl, Nailer and Pima. By using dialogue it makes the story more interesting and it makes it easier to visualize a picture in my mind.
So once again I think Bacigalupi uses many techniques to make me want to keep reading this novel.

Summer Blog 2

In Ship Breaker, many characters want or desire something throughout the novel.  Almost everyone desires wealth of some sort, whether it is a lucky strike or they find a wealth of jewels.
Nailer desires a way off the island which he expresses through his decisions.  He desires to be free from his violent father. Sloth desires a lucky strike all for herself.  She attempts this by not helping Nailer when stuck in an oil pocket, aspiring to have all of the wealth for herself.  Richard, Nailers father, is much like Sloth and desires his own lucky strike as well.
Themes that constantly reoccur are characters gambling with the fates.  Characters make decisions that could either lead to great fortune or them losing everything.  For example, early on in the book, Sloth gambles with the fates.  Instead of helping Nailer, she gambles and leaves him in there.  Nailer escapes and she lost everything instead of having a fortune.  This also occurs when finding Nita, instead of killing her and taking her fortune, he saves her which can either take him from his father or be stuck with nothing at all.

Summer Blog 1

The book I have chosen is Ship Breaker as my summer reading book.  It takes place in a dystopian society where there is a very limited supply of oil and other parts of oil tankers. The protagonist is named Nailer, lives on Bright Sands Beach where they live in crews and tear apart any of the valuable parts of beached oil tankers.  Nailer is a member of the light crew which collects wires from the ships. He is considered very lucky after finding an oil pocket and living. When stick in this oil pocket he calls for help from a crew member, Sloth, who does not help him in hopes of hiding the oil pocket and keeping it to herself.  This is against the blood oath causing her to be kicked from the crew.  Pima, Nailers friend, is very loyal to her crew. She is on the verge of heavy crew and light crew.
There are multiple conflicts in this novel.  The first conflict is Nailer being stuck in an oil pocket.  A second one is a major storm along the coast which destroys everything on bright sand beach. After this storm there is a beached tanker hidden from other crews. inside of the ship is a large amount of wealth from diamonds, silver, and gold. But... there is a girl trapped under furniture who could claim the wealth. Nailer wants to save her but others want to kill her and claim the loot.
A connection that I made during the part of the book where Nailer is stuck the oil pocket is a book-book connection.  If you have ever read the Alex Rider series, Alex is tuck in a pocket of water where he also finds a door at the bottom of the container and he swims out into the water of Venice.  This is very similar to how Nailer finds a door at the bottom if the pocket to escape.
After he escapes they start calling him lucking boy. Will he continue to be lucky?  Will he be jinxed by his name?  I think that he will start acting lucky and eventually his luck will turn unlucky. He will be stuck in another situation and it would be as if he were stuck in that oil pocket again but there is no way out.

Lessons from Divergent

In my book, Divergent, you can learn various lessons from the actions of the characters.  Characters such as Tris and 4 make acts of courageousness and bravery.  The book teaches us that we cant choos to only become either selfless, brave, smart, honest, or peaceful.  You want to be like Tris and 4 and become a little bit of every characteristic.  You have to be brave, peaceful, selfless, courageous, and smart.  I believe that this is the moral of the novel.

How would YOU change the book? (SPOILER)

In Divergent, she makes a choice between 5 factions. SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read the first 50 pages of the book, she chooses to join the Dauntless. But how else could the book go if she chose to transfer in one of the other 3 factions or to stay in abnegation? Could there even be a book if she chose another faction.  If she chose Euridite, would she fight against them or would she join their cause? If she stayed in abnegation she would most likely not be able to revolt because she has not been trained.  If she was in either of the other two factions. She would not have known about the revolution.  So what other stories can be made if she chose different factions.

Final Blog Assessment- English 1B

So far I have read just about 100 pages in my book "Outliers". And this blog is going to be about what I have learned throughout the first 1/3 of this novel. (If you haven't figured that out from the title yet)
The first part of this book talks bout how you need not only talent, but you need lots of practice and opportunities. For an example of an opportunity, The Beatles, they are the most well known band across the world. They had a great opportunity to preform at Hamburg--although they did not preform here because of the high pay there or the conditions. In fact they were not great. But they practiced here because of the amount of time they get to preform on stage. They would preform almost 8 hours a day on a daily basis. This was an ideal opportunity for the Beatles and was a big key to there success as a band. Malcolm Gladwell states, "The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg 5 times between 1960 and 1962. On the first trip they played 106 nights, 5 or more hours a night. On their second trip, they played 92 times. On their third trip, they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two hamburg gigs, in November and December of 1962,involved another 90 hours of performing." Malcolm uses an anaphora in a way. He repeats "on the _____ trip". He uses this example to show the reader how much the Beatles played and practiced untill their first hit. In the picture below, the Beatles are in front of their stage that they preformed on for the beginning of their careers.

This is the club where The Beatles performed at in Hamburg, Germany

The second part of the book is the 10,000 hour rule that Malcolm Gladwell came up with. After much researching he noticed a pattern between various people or groups that became successful. After 10,000 hours of practicing they would become "a master" at whatever they practiced. For example Bill Joy, creator of Java, he spent 8 hours a day writing code and programming computers. He spent more time in Michigan's computer center than he did all of his classes. In the picture below is an example of code that Bill would have written.  He spent 8 hurs a day writing this code.

Example of Java Code

He described himself as "obsessed with programming". His opportunity was to work at the computer center as much as he wanted. This was Joy's Hamburg. After 10,000 hours of practice, he was one of the best programmers if not the best. After that he wrote all of the code for Java. He wrote this 35 years ago and we still use this program today. (Even though we recieve 'Java Updates' every day).  The only way he would have achieved this is by having the opportunity to work at the computer center and practicing for those 10,000 hours. Joy actually practiced well over 10,000 hours and therefore became successful.
These are the two main topics within the first 100 pages of "Outliers". To become successful at your profession/passion... you need talent and oppurtunity and 1000's of hours of practice and a legacy and timing.

Conversations with Tris

If I were able to talk to one character from my book, Divergent, I would talk to Tris. She is the main character and there are many things you could ask her.  The first question that comes to my mind is, How hard was it to leave your family and go to Dauntless?   Even right after her brother left to become Erudite. Can you all imagine spending your whole childhood with your family and then one day you are living somewhere else? I would want to know exactly how she felt having that happen to her.  Also one another question I would ask is, "When dauntless told all of the transfers that half of them would be cut and become factionless, how were you so confident that you would not be cut? These two questions are something that I really wish I could ask.

New book

I am about to start  reading Divergent because of everyone talking about how good it is and how it competes with The Hunger Games. I have seen many blog posts talking about how they really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it to anyone.  I want to read the book before I see the movie which I also heard was really good.  I have just started and have learned about 5 factions and being able to choose which faction you want to be a part of for the rest of your life.

Book recommendations

Outliers is a great book that can be read by anybody which makes it great read.  For younger people it might be a bit harder to understand who they are talking about cause they reference older bands and teams.  But it would still prove there point that success = Skill + Opportunity.  Anyone/everyone should read this book because it will help them with their success in their passion.  I am very happy that I read this book. It really was a eye opener in a way. Everyone would tell me that you need skill to succeed if I asked them how to be successful but very few would talk about opportunity.

Examples in Text

In my book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell uses questions as a way to talk to the reader. Throughout the book, he asks questions and gives small tests for the reader. On pg. 78, he writes, "Did you get that? I'm guessing most of you did. The correct aswer is C. But now try this one." He writes this quote between 2 examples from Ravens Progressive Matrices. Which is an IQ test.  The first example is the first question on an IQ test. The image to the left is an example of an easier question in the test.  The second Question is an example from one of the last few questions in the test.  The image at the bottom of this blog is the example that Malcolm Gladwell uses in his book. He talks to us about the examples and uses them to explain that how Chris Langan would be able to answer the second question easily.  The average reader would not be able to figure it out.

6 keys to success

I have been skimming through the rest if the book and the book is split up into 6 different keys. The two that I have blogged about are oppurtunity and 10,000 hours. Those are the first two keys. The third is timing. Where and when your born is a big part of how you can succeed. The fourth is upbringing leads to oppurtunity.   The quality of upbringing a child has been shown to be a main determinant of success of that child. The fifth factor is meaningful work. If you think your woe may have a purpose, you are more likely to succeed in your task. And last is your legacy.

Here is a link to a website that talks about these sections in more depth

slooowdown.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/summary-of-outliers-the-story-of-success-by-malcolm-gladwell-summarised-by-paul-arnold-trainer-facilitator-paul_arnoldme-com/

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/

This column by Krista Ramsey is about kids playing with Legos at Kenwood Town Center and how they learn and benefit from play with Legos. (In the era of violent video games and highly orchestrated "enrichment" activities, a humble pile of Lego bricks is still among the most captivating and creative sorts of child's play.) This is a quote from the column and it makes an impact on the reader by showing how just some Legos can be helpful and spark creativity into kids. They can do this instead of playing video games or being part of enrichment activities. Diction in this paragraph is used to make video games sound violent and uses words like humble and creative to make Legos sound like a great thing. Syntax amount the whole article is relaxed like you can have a conversation with her. It is informal and casual.

     Ramsey's writing style is casual and informational. She writes about her ideas and doesn't give certain plans of action to edge ute her Ideas. She just writes about them in a casual informal way. (Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of.) In this quote, she is talking about kids from a mothers standpoint. She is writing like she is talking to other parents which is what she wants her writing style to sound like.

     If I could ask Krista Ramsey 3 questions my first one would be where she gets her ideas from? After I looked through the list of her columns, she had a wide variety of topics. A second question is how long has she been writing and when did she know she wanted to write columns like hers now? A third question is why did she choose her casual writing style?

What have I learned?

So far I have read just about 100 pages in my book "Outliers".  And this blog is going to be about what I have learned throughout the first 1/3 of this novel.  (If you haven't figured that out from the title yet)
 The first part of this book talks bout how you need not only talent, but you need lots of practice and opportunities. For an example of an opportunity, The Beatles, they are the most well known band across the world. They had a great opportunity to preform at Hamburg. They did not preform here because of the high pay there or the conditions.  In fact they were not great. But they practiced here because of the amount of time they get to preform on stage. They would preform almost 8 hours a day on a daily basis.  This was an ideal opportunity for the Beatles and was a big key to there success as a band.
The second part of the book is the 10,000 hour rule that Malcolm Gladwell came up with.  After much researching he noticed a pattern between various people or groups that became successful. After 10,000 hours of practicing they would become "a master" at whatever they practiced.  For example Bill Joy, creator of Java,  he spent 8 hours a day writing code and programming computers. He spent more time in Michigan's computer center than he did all of his classes.  He described himself as obsessed with programming.  His opportunity was to work at the computer center as much as he wanted. This was Joy's Hamburg.  After 10,000 hours of practice, he w one of the best programmers if not the best.  After that he wrote all of the code for Java. He wrote this 35 years ago and we still use this program today.  The only way he would have achieved this is by having the opportunity to work at the computer center and practicing for those 10,000 hours. Joy actually practiced well over 10,000 hours and therefore became successful.
These are the two main topics within the first 100 pages of "Outliers"

This is the club where The Beatles performed at in Hamburg, Germany

About the author

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of my Novel, Outliers. He writes mostly about success and how it is achieved. Two other books he wrote are The Tipping Point and Blink.  

He was born in England and his father described him as a single minded kid. He was fascinated by his mothers writings and she became his role model. Later in life he became an internship with the National Journalism center in Washington. 

After college he did not have good enough grades to go to graduate school. He took a job at the American Spectator. After 10 years of working their he felt like he mastered writing and started working for the New Yorker. This is about the time where he wrote the Outliers.

Outliers summary

I am currently reading Outliers for my independent reading novel. I decided to change books at the last second because my dad recommended this book to me. It is written my Malcolm Gladwell who is also the author The Tipping Point and Blink. These books are all about success and how it is achieved. In Outliers, he takes some of the most successful people and shows how that person succeeded. He looks at people like Bill Gates, The Beatles, Bill Joy, and The Medicine Hat Tigers. He finds patterns in there success. One thing that he found is that the best of the best practice 10,000+ hours until they are the best at whatever they do. 

To be successful, you need more than talent. You have to have opportunities and practice. The Beatles had the Opportunity to preform 40 hours a week at Hamburg which gave them plenty of practice all because they had the opportunity. Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in the first two parts of his book. I would recommend this book to everyone because of the lessons it teaches.