I WILL NOT CONFORM!

Now, before I start this off, you have to realize that I love electronics and I'm all for moving forward into the future, but I'm also old fashioned as well.

I mean I'm a video blogger, social media enthusiast AND I have an iPhone! I don't think it's possible for me to get anymore electronically and technologically advanced than I already am.

DON'T SAY IT!

I am a writer and a reader. I LOVE the smell of a newly, just opened, freshly bought BOOK! Don't judge me, it's a beautiful thing.

However, I cannot get a handle on this whole e-book craze. I mean, I suppose it's rather convenient to have access to thousands and thousands of books on hand at any moment. But this still does not entice me to buy one.

I suppose if I were a faster reader or a long distance traveler, I might consider buying one of these e-books. But since neither of these characteristics are true, there is no reason for me to be even moderately interested in buying one.

The world is transforming and new "toys" are getting developed on a daily basis. But that does not mean everyone should go out and buy an e-book, at least not in my opinion.

I do realize as an aspiring writer, I should not be so negative about this, because I mean one day Steve Jobs is going to come up and swallow up anything made of paper and we will all have to conform to the life known as 'paperless', but I feel I should hold out as long as I can. (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I'm sure he could find a way).

As a book lover, I feel it's my duty to speak out against it as.

I don't have too many complaints about e-books, just the important ones. You don't get that new-book smell, you do not have a physical copy of the book on hand, and obviously the price of each book.

I get it. Writers need to make money too. And I have no problem paying $10-15 for a PHYSICAL copy of a book, but you're really going to charge me the SAME price for one bought electronically?

There are many more good things the e-book has to offer. These being access to thousands of books anywhere, takes up less space in a purse or bag, makes it easier to track down the book the book stores never have, we save trees and 'eliminates the middle man' for writers.

Cutting out the middle man in book publishing is something I should be grateful for. This makes it a lot easier for me to even begin to think I have a chance of one of my biggest dreams coming true.

Although I know that physical copies of newspapers, book, and other forms of reading material will not disappear entirely for a long time, there is still the fear in the back of mind in which it will happen.

But there is just something about a hardcover/ paperback that makes me shout 'nay' to this whole e-book nonsense.

http://bit.ly/hRkIfy

JRN415

Miley Cyrus: scandalous AGAIN?

Here we are again faced with another act of scandalous behavior from our very own Miley Cyrus. Cyrus is most known for her role as "Miley Stewart/ Hannah Montana" on the hit show "Hannah Montana" on the Disney Channel. For the record, Disney stars are known for being clean cut, angelic-like, role models for the youth. However, Disney stars are also known for their scandalous acts that tarnish their reputations as well as occasionally get them fired or "pursing more 'mature' roles".

Cyrus has quite the number of offenses against here with pictures leaking on the internet regarding all sorts of topical issues, hanging out with and dating people who are way too old for her, Vanity Fair pictures, etc. The list of Cyrus scandals goes on and on, and because of this not many were shocked by this new one.

This past Friday, upon browsing the Internet I found myself again stumbling upon another Cyrus Scandal. A video of Cyrus smoking a bong had leaked onto the Internet and TMZ picked the story up. There were jokes thrown around about the singer/ actress smoking marijuana illegally. However, Cyrus herself, as well as other source have said she was actually smoking the legal substance, Salvia, or Salvia divinorum. Which according to the article I read on www.nydailynews.com is "a hallucinogenic plant that users say offer a high similar to that of LSD and marijuana."

Even though the drug is perfectly legal for adults, 18 and older, there have been attempts at having it banned. California State Assemblyman Anthony Adams tried to get Salvia banned three years ago, and now because of Cyrus' use of the drug he's trying to get it banned once again. "Miley is a star and young kids are going to emulate her behavior," Adams said. This statement in most cases are true. Not all kids will necessarily run out and smoke a bong, but she is opening the door to make it appear OK to do so.

Cyrus just recently turned 18, legally she is adult, and legally she has obtained the freedom to do SOME adult type things. However, the persona that she has built growing up is being tarnished in her pursuit of adulthood. The fact that she grew up on a children's show puts her in a position of being a role model to little girls. There are so many little girls out there who look up to Cyrus and want to be just like her.

Yes, Cyrus should be allowed to act more "mature". However, there is a fine line between maturity and stupid decisions that come with age. Though the drug is legal, this is not something she should be putting out there for her fans to see. She may have no been the one who personally leaked the video, however, as a celebrity as well as knowing things can get leaked from passed experience she really should have thought something like this through. By participating in smoking said bong she is using the power she has obtained, irresponsibly and it truly a bad role model to the fan base that has come to know and love her over the years.

Post for JRN415

Source: http://nydn.us/ggH2MS

RED - Movie Review

I been contemplating my niche and I think it's appropriate for it to be come Book and Movie Reviews.

Saturday I went and saw Red. Prior to seeing Red, I had not heard about it and I had not seen any of the previews. However, I was quite pleased with the movie selection.

This movie starts off with Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) going about his day. Curious enough he makes a call to Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker) about a check that he has "still not received". However, as he tells her these he is ripping said check apart. This obviously shows his initial attraction to her, even though their friendship is long distance. It appears that this happens often and that they both enjoy the conversation exchanged.

This however, is cut short as something peculiar is up about Moses. We find him in his bed reading a book that Ross had stated she was reading. Upon falling asleep the plot is thrown for a whirl. Moses gets up to what is assumed as a trip to the restroom when a group of men with guns are seen inside his home. He seems totally oblivious to what is happening, but when the men are about to storm in and take them out, he catches them by surprise. Packs up his things really quickly, and gets throws their bullets in a skillet. Upon the heating of these bullets “shots” are fired within the home, which signals the people outside. The men outside then open fire upon the house a completely destroy it. However, Moses is took quick for them and they get taken out as well. He then escapes to get to Ross before they do.

We soon discover that Moses used to be CIA. But recently received the classification RED, Retired, Extremely Dangerous. It seems that this is why the men are looking for him. Ross and Moses have just been having friendly conversations over the telephone. But when he shows up inside her apartment she absolutely freaks out. However, he wants to keep her safe because he truly cares about her but, she is not too happy about this. He ends up having to forcefully take her because she is shaken up by the intrusion

They the end up going to see his friend Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) he helps in them in finding out why the men were after Moses and Ross. But they don’t exactly piece it together. They don’t really understand why until they go see Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich). He then informs them it has everything to do with the mission that they were on when they were still CIA.

This makes them understand what it is they need to do, and whom they need to find. Later they find other key characters that bring the movie together.

All in all the plot was very slow in the beginning because you really don’t have a clue about what is going on. You don’t know what all the roles are until they are all finally together and everything just falls into place. However, I believe that’s what gives the movie it’s edge. Although, the beginning was very slow it was a hilarious and over all really good movie. It was full of action, and I’m not really one to like action movies. BUT! I will say that I did rather enjoy it and that I would recommend going to see it.

JRN 415

Easy A - Movie Review

Today is a bit of a switch up, we've changed up things regarding blog post assignments. I have to write a blog about my beat. My beat is Entertainment. I'm not entirely sure what all that entails, but I decided that I would blog about a movie I saw this past weekend.

Easy A is loosely based off the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The movie starts off with Olive, a high school teenager, talking to a webcam, stating that she will be telling the true story of the accounts in question against her.

Not wanting to hang out with her best friend's family once again, she makes up a lie about hanging out with a college boy. Her friend, Rhiannon, let's her off the hook for the weekend. Of course, Olive does not hang out with a college boy, but she doesn't dare tell Rhiannon. Back at school on Monday Rhiannon wants full details, and by Olive's hesitance, she assumes that Olive has lost her virginity. Olive then lies to her and tells her that she did in fact sleep with this "made up" boy. Marianne, the school's religion fanatic, unfortunately, overhears their conversation and immediately begins spreading it around all over school.

This eventually leads up to Olive lying about sleeping with a plethora of boys and taking money for doing so. Although, she was not actually sleeping with these boys the students of the school gave her absolutely no mercy. Because they are reading The Scarlet Letter, in class one of the girls suggest she wears a huge A on all of her clothing. But she ultimately ends up doing it anyways. Olive doesn’t like lying and constantly reassures her parents that if anyone happens to say anything about her, that it’s a fallacy.

Towards the end of the movie, Olive realizes the error of her ways, resulting in the understanding of why she was making this web broadcast.

The movie was not too bad. There were a few questionable parts to the movie, but it was overall a pretty good movie, and quite hilarious.

HOWEVER, what I find intriguing is the way society penalizes women who are promiscuous. Olive was not actually sleeping with all of these boys, but the students were treating her as if she was due to their ignorance. Now I’m not saying that being promiscuous is all fine and dandy, because it really isn’t. But I feel that society is quicker to judge a woman that sleeps around, rather than a man, and I really do not think that it is fair. A man who sleeps around is just as at much fault, as a woman who does. Sleeping around seems to becoming more and more common in today’s society, and it is clearly wrong. But why aren’t men being judged for the promiscuous acts that they are committing as well?

1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV) - Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

JRN 415

Looking For Alaska

Here we are with another John Green book, he's not going anywhere, anytime soon though because the book I am going to be starting is also by him. However, this blog is about Looking For Alaska. This book was highly recommended by all my nerdfighter friends. If you don't know what a nerdfighter is, click it!

Looking For Alaska is a nut shell is a story of Miles Halter, Pudge, from Florida who transfers to a Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama to seek his "Great Perhaps". Upon arriving he meet his roommate Chip, otherwise known as the Colonel, who then introduces him to his new found crush Alaska Young. Unfortunately, Alaska has a boyfriend, Jake, who she is deeply in love with, but it doesn't stop her from flirting with Pudge. Pudge also becomes friends with Takumi and Lara through the Colonel and Alaska. His first full semester at Culver Creek is full of fun and pranking with his new found friends. They have brought so many changes to his not so eventful life. However, everything changes one night when Alaska Young crashes into a police cruiser. She dies instantly. This dumbfounds her friends and they spend the rest of the book trying to figure out why this happened and what caused it. To finally unlock the secrets behind the mysterious, Alaska Young.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm sure that if I were more of a cryer this book would've done it for me. However, the story was very enjoyable and heart-wrenching. I did not expect most of what was thrown at me, which was good and bad. I would not recommend it for younger children due to a few as I would put "uncomfortable situations".

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

I heard a lot of hype over The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. So of course, I had to investigate for myself.

The book is a compile of letters written to a girl referred to throughout the book as "friend" from a boy under the pen name of "Charlie". He has been told this girl is someone he can let everything out to, but he changes critical details like names to protect theirs and his identities. During the course of the time he writes to this girl, he basically just lets her know how his daily life is going. Letting her know almost everything in great detail. Sometimes a little too much detail. These going the lines of talking about family, friends, teachers, and anything else he has done with them. In the beginning of the book we are drawn back to an explanation about the loss of his dear friend Michael. This affected Charlie very much. Charlie is definitely a wallflower, and does not seem to really know how to handle situations like you or I would. This effects the way that he deals with people and how he feels towards others. Regardless of the way he acts he is a compassionate person and truly holds others higher than himself. Through out the book he is constantly learning and observing others ways of life with unbiased eyes.

I do not believe the book really deserved such hype. I will admit, however, that the book was very interesting, and the book had a very good plot. But, I did not care for the bits of the book that really went into detail and basically just scanned right through those parts. This is not something I would recommend for younger readers.

Scarlett Fever...SERIOUSLY!

Okay. I do apologize for taking forever to read Scarlett Fever. It had nothing to do with how interesting the book was. It was my lack of time to read. The bookworm that lives inside of me has not been too happy about this, and since I had a three day weekend I took all the time I possibly had to sit down and finish reading Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson.

"I guess I should shower," he said. "But all these flies are following me, & they think I'm their god. I feel responsible."

Scarlett Fever, the sequel to Suite Scarlett is just as great as the first. Scarlett is still having boy problems. Quite early in the book it is apparent that Eric and Scarlett have gone their separate ways, but that she is still trying to hold on. She knows she shouldn't, but she does. Her friends are now back from their summer vacations and are all ready to face the school year. However, Scarlett is still down in the dumps. Her friend Dakota tries to keep her away from thoughts of Eric, but no matter what she tries Scarlett improvises. She may not have the real Eric, but she's upped the view count on his commercial. Mrs. Amberson is still her boss even though she is no longer living in the Hopewell Hotel. Helping Mrs. Amberson run the AAA is quite easy, until Biggs are introduced into the picture. Amberson is constantly trying to land Spencer a decent role, and finally hits something with Crime and Punishment, but maybe it's not all it was cracked up to be? Amberson also, has her eye on Chelsea the star of 'The Flower Girl' and she is destined to keep her under her watch. However, her possessive mother doesn't want anything to go wrong, but is easily swayed. Amberson convinces Scarlett to 'keep an eye, but not keep an eye' on Max, Chelsea's brother, to set Mrs. Biggs at ease. Max is a bit of a trouble maker that annoys the heck out of Scarlett, but also has a lot in common with her. Halfway through the Martin-like shenanigans surface and you feel like everything is set to roller coaster mode. How does this wild ride end? Go read the book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story was predictable at points, but the way it spun off was clearly unpredictable. The great characters and dialogue kept me coming back for more. However, I was VERY unhappy with the ending. She ended it abruptly. Of course, she left it opened for a third book, but I want to know what happens NOW! I highly recommend any books written by Maureen Johnson. She knows how to entertain quite well, and keeps the reader coming back for more!

Dear Maureen Johnson,

I love your writing, it's truly magnificent. Please hurry up and write the third installment of this series, the anticipation is killing me!

Sincerely,

Sharayah