Emily Sparks

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Reuben Pantier

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What Happened to Goodbye Animoto

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My last vlog!!

My last vlog of the year is over Sarah Dessen's book What Happened to Goodbye.

Afraid

In What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen the main character Mclean moves around a lot. Due to this she tries to not get emotionally attached to anyone. But this all changes when she meets Dave. Mclean and Dave don't have your typical relationship. Dave is level headed genius who would do anything for anyone. While Mclean keeps herself at a distance, able to take care of herself. However, once Dave and Mclean continue to run into each other, mainly due to them being neighbors, things just begin to feel right. This scares Mclean because in the back of her head she knows that soon this will all come to an end, just like everything has before. One song that I believe Mclean could relate to is Afraid, by Vanessa Hudgens. The song talks about a girl being scared of falling in love again and in result getting it broken, so instead she decides to just retreat. This is the same thing that Mclean does in the book. The song says, "Just when it's getting good, I slowly start to freeze. Just when it's feeling real I put my heart to sleep. It's the memory I can see. Then this fear comes over me". In the book when Mclean realizes that Dave does in fact like her she then starts to back away because she realizes she does have real feelings for this boy. In the end she went with her heart and even though it was scary she decided to let her self fall hard for Dave.

I'll see you soon!

In What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen the main character Mclean moves around a lot. In the sixth grade I had my own experience with moving. I went from living in a small town named DuQuoin to living in the college town of Carbondale. Even though I only moved thirty minutes away I can still relate to Mclean. I can understand the want to leave and start over. Also, I can relate to the type of Independence she got after she moved to each place. After I moved I feel as if I grew up more than I had ever expected. Gaining this independence is the best thing that could have happened to me, and it is what I am most thankful for. However, Mclean and I differ in one main way. Mclean always chose to be a different person each time she moved. Me on the other hand never even knew how to be someone else. Even though she moved farther than I did each time, she still would never want to deal with goodbye. Being only thirty minutes away from my friends and family, I never had to say goodbye, just "I'll see you soon".

link up link up link up

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8492856-what-happened-to-goodbye
This website gives an accurate summary of the book as well as an accurate review.

http://sarahdessen.com/book/what-happened-to-goodbye/
This is Sarah Dessen's (the author) website. It gives a great backstory on how her novel was written, and how she developed the main character Mclean.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/08/entertainment/la-ca-sarah-dessen-20110508
This review from the Los Angeles Times gives a very good, realistic, review of What Happened to Goodbye.

http://sarahdessen.com/
This s website gives the insight to all of Sarah Dessen's books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Dessen
This website gives the background of Sarah Dessen.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/what-happened-to-goodbye?id=what-happened-to-goodbye
This website lists some of the most important quotes from What Happened to Goodbye.

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/13014066-what-happened-to-goodbye
This website lists even more quotes from What Happened to Goodbye.

http://moving.about.com/od/youremovingnowwhat/tp/coping_with_a_move.htm
Mclean moved to many new towns in a short amount of time, this website tells you ways to deal with that stress.

http://moving.about.com/b/2008/01/04/how-to-help-teens-deal-with-moving.htm
Being such a young girl it was hard for Mclean to move so often, even if she did not realize it. This website tells you how to specifically help teens with a move.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder
Even though Mclean wasn't diagnosed as having split personality disorder, she definitley showed the signs. This website explains all about the disorder.

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-split-personality-test
This website would have been helpful to Mclean in determining if she had a split personality.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/split-personality-symptoms.html
This website gives the symptoms to split personality disorder.

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/children_divorce.htm
Mclean had a hard time dealing with her parents divorce. This website gives some tips on how to cope.

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/families/divorce.html
This website also helps kids who are dealing with divorce.

http://www.wikihow.com/Category:Forming-Friendships
This website gives steps on how to form friendships. Mclean always struggled to find her own clique, and these tips could have helped.

4th Quarter is finally here!

Finally, my fellow classmates and I have have reached our fourth quarter as juniors at Carbondale Community High School. This means that we have also reached our fourth quarter of blogging!  I'm pretty excited about this.  Honestly, I really don't mind blogging, but the repeatativeness of it is starting to get old. I'm struggling to find new ideas to keep this blog interesting. On a better note, since it is the fourth quarter I want to end with a bang, and make this the best section of the blog so far! Last quarter, I didn't get as good as a grade as I had hoped for, but I still got an A in the class. This quarter I plan on trying new things and getting more creative, instead of just repeating what I have done on previous quarters. Also, I need to add more media into my blog to make it more interesting.
The book I will be spending this final quarter of blogging with is What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen. This book had 402 pages, and I was scared I wouldnt have time to finish it. However, I was able to finish it in about two weeks. While I'm not fond of most Sarah Dessen books, I really enjoyed this one. I was able to relate to it in a couple different ways that I hadn't  been able to in her other books. First, the main character Mclean moves around a lot. I moved at the end of my fifth grade year and can understand some of the troubles Mclean goes through. Also, there is a lot of basketball in the book. My family is obsessed with basketball. All of my uncles coach it, my dad is a coach, as well as my grandpa. My brother is a great player and is playing in college now. So overall I am excited to write this blog this quarter over What Happened to Goodbye.

Rules of Attraction VLOG

I'd Fight For You

For this blog I decided to connect a popular song to Simone Elkele's book Rules of Attraction. After searching my IPod one song really stuck with me. This song was Fight for you by Jason Derulo. Its upbeat tempo and lyrics really captured the essence of Carlos's and Kiara's relationship. In Jason Derulo's song he says "It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you, I'd fight for you, There's nothing that a hundred men, or more, could ever do, I'd fight for you, Just like the rain, down in Africa, I'd fight for you, It's gonna take some time but I know you're worth fighting for." Carlos has to fight for Kiara, to keep her safe, and to prove he really does love her. At the end of the book when he has to face the gang, he takes them down so he can keep Kiara and her family safe. He fought for their love, not even a Mexican gang could bring them apart. Even Kiara had to fight for their relationship. At first when they met she couldn't stand him. However, after a while she got to know him and eventually began to fall for him. When Carlos realized he loved her as well, he was frightened that could be too dangerous for her. Kiara had to fight to convince him everything would be okay. In the end no one could fight hard enough to tear both Kiara and Carlos apart.

Rules of Attraction ANIMOTO

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Rules of Attraction LINK UP!

http://www.simoneelkeles.net/rules.html
This is a website for Simone Elkeles, the author of Rules of Attraction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhEx0kaUlrU
This is the official book trailor. It does a good job capturing the characters.

http://theyayayas.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/rules-of-attraction-by-simone-elkeles/
This website gives an accurate summary of the book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Elkeles
This website is all about Simone Elkeles and her background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Mafia
Since Carlos was involved in a Mexican gang, I found it apropriate to add some information about such gangs.

http://www.nsastutter.org/?gclid=CKTn9rf4vK4CFWgQNAodbUhcqg
Kiara struggled her whole life with stuttering. This is the website for the National Stuttering Association.

http://www.stutteringhelp.org/
Kiara was adiment in fixing her stuttering. This website gives you tips on how to do just that.   

http://hikingincolorado.org/
Kiara was very into hiking. This website gives information on hiking in Colorado.

http://www.colorado.gov/
Place was a big part in Rules Of Attraction. Since Colorado is where the characters live, I provided a website containing information on Colorado.

http://autorepair.about.com/od/fixityourself/Fix_It_Yourself.htm
Both Carlos and Kiara were into auto repair. This website gives information on how to do it yourself.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/vintage.html
One of Kiara's hobbies was working on her vintage car. This website gives you knowledge about vintage cars.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/illegal-immigration/159463-why-they-leaving-mexico.html
Carlos is leaving Mexico because of gang violence. This website gives reasons for why other people leave Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War
In the book Carlos got caught up in the Mexican drug war. This explains more about the current drug war in Mexico.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/274533.Simone_Elkeles
This website provides different quotes from Simone Elkeles. Including some from Rules of Attraction.

http://www.greenbeanteenqueen.com/2010/04/simone-elkeles-interview-plus-giveaway.html
This is an interview done by the author of Rules of Attraction.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4268157-perfect-chemistry
This gives a summary on the first book of the trilogy which includes Rules of Attraction.

http://www.simoneelkeles.net/forum/index.php?/topic/626-perfect-chemistry/
This is a discussion page for the first book Perfect Chemistry.

http://www.simoneelkeles.net/forum/index.php?/forum/31-chain-reaction-3rd-book-in-perfect-chemistry-trilogy/
This is a discussion page for the third book in the trilogy Chain Reaction.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/33409.Perfect_Chemistry_Trilogy_Lovers
This is a discussion board for fans of the trilogy.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/48231-elkeles-wraps-up-perfect-chemistry-trilogy.html
This discusses the conclusion of the Perfect Chemistry trilogy.

Love of Character

      Kiara is a normal Colorado girl who loves her family, nature, and vintage cars. She has never been one of the popular girls, her best friend and only friend is Tuck, a flamboyant gay boy who helps her develop her Rules of Attraction. Kiara is a determined individual, who tries to be strong at every moment. Because of the fact that she had a lisp since she was little, she has never been very confident. By working on it and fixing it every day she was ready to show everyone how newly confident she was. I believe this is what led her to fall for Carlos. Since she had a new found confidence, and with being so stubborn she didn't allow him to play her like he did to most girls. Kiara is the type of person girls should look up to. She's the type of person who makes things happen for herself, and even though she was at first reluctant to the idea, let herself fall in love.
          Carlos is a hot headed Latino, who is bitter about his move to Colorado. After his big brother Alex got out of the Latino Blood gang, Carlos felt betrayed. Since Mexico was no longer safe for Carlos his mother sent his to live with his brother. When he gets to Colorado he makes his life much harder than it should be. He is so stubborn that he won't allow himself to even give this new home a chance. He would rather stay in his ways and make trouble, than be the guy his family knows he could be. When he first meets Kiara he is annoyed by her. The fact that she was just as stubborn as him, and dressed as if she had no one to impress did not appeal to him at all at the beginning. After Kiara began to let her wall down to him, is when the readers began to see the real Carlos, because as soon as she became vulnerable, he did as well.  The point in the book where the reader can really see that Carlos has fallen in love with Kiara, the girl unlike another that he has met, is when they are watching the movie and he thinks he has heard a gunshot, then he hovers over Kiara to protect her. Even though the gun shots were not real, the fact remains that Carlos risked his life to save Kiara. After this he continues to protect her for the rest of their lives.

    

Second Quarter Reflection!!

   
During my second quarter as a Junior I continued my blog. However, the second quarter differed from the first. I no longer was told exactly what to blog about, or practically how long they should be. I had much more freedom over my words. This was something I was a little uneasy about. I like knowing exactly what I have to do, and how long I have to do it. When I was given this freedom I was unsure of how to use it. This third quarter we are given even more freedom. We have no blog prompt to follow, and because of that I am a little nervous. I know I really enjoy doing the vlogs and animoto's, but I would really like to do something different. Maybe make my own "movie trailer". If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
          I received an A+ on my second quarter blog. It was even better than the first quarter grade. I was not very fond of the book I read last quarter. I had read The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. The book seemed to be lacking some depth, and it was just not something I could easily relate to. However I read Rules of Attraction this quarter and really loved it. This is the sequel to Perfect Chemistry, written by Simone Elkeles. It was the classic good girl falls in love with the bad boy, and the bad boy falls hard back, type of story. For me though, those are the best. It reminds me that maybe there is a little hope left in humanity. And maybe, just maybe I won’t end up as the crazy cat lady down the street who scares the neighborhood children on Halloween... This book was much easier to read, and stay interested in. I would recommend it to anyone. I'm excited to do more blogs about this great book!