Grease

I’m not the kind of person who likes to see plays and musicals, but just last weekend I saw a truly exceptional musical. I was with the Upper School choir on the CISMF trip, and on one of the nights we went to see a major production. It is called Grease, and it’s full of music, dancing, and a great story. Of the very few shows that I have seen, this is definitely the best.

Some of the amazing elements of the musical include, the great songs, astonishing actors, a famous country singer, big, grand sets, and a fluid plot. Some of my favorite songs of the musical are: Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin’, and We Go Together. The actors who perform these songs are brilliant; like Ace Young and Emily Padgett. Another famous name is Taylor Hicks who performed many old-fashioned country songs. For one of his songs he appeared out of a giant ice-cream cone that seemed to be solid. All of these elements came together for an amazing performance.

With each and every song, you wanted to get up and dance. The singers sung perfectly without any noticeable mistake. And the orchestra played the 50’s music very well too. The choreography for the singers was pretty cool; after a couple seconds of seeing them, it felt like you could do it too. The whole thing came together to be a truly remarkable performance.

P.S. I commented on emily M's blog

HTTYD

HTTYD

Mild Spoiler Warning

How To Train Your Dragon is an amazing movie. The story follows Hiccup, a weak, scrawny Viking, who is unable to fit in due to the fact that he can’t kill dragons. During one attack by the dragons on the town, Hiccup manages to take down the most rare and dangerous dragon called a Night Fury. Nobody sees the dragon fall past a ridge or Hiccup actually hitting it. Because no one believes that he took down a Night Fury he sets out to find the dragon and kill it. Once he finds it he decides not to kill the dragon, but to let it loose. After a couple of visits to the injured Night Fury Hiccup befriends the dragon. With time on his hands and craftsman skills, he makes a harness so he can ride his newfound friend.

            Toothless is the name given to the Night Fury by Hiccup because when he first saw the dragon he didn’t have teeth. After the first encounter though, Toothless is much more like a pet then a dreaded Night Fury, but he does show aggression whenever Hiccup is in danger or threatened. Because Toothless is injured, Hiccup makes an artificial tail wing to replace Toothless’ missing one, which Hiccup has to control when flying. So when Toothless and Hiccup fly together they appear to be in perfect harmony. Another odd thing about Toothless is; he has an uncanny resemblance to Stitch from Lelo & Stitch.

            The animation in this movie is really something to admire. For some of the scenes that take place in the air, it all seems so majestic with detail of the land below. The fire from the dragon’s mouths is also something that is very difficult to make realistic. And overall, the people look so real, and because they’re Vikings, it adds a very specific, and good, feel to it all. All in all How To Train Your Dragon is a must see movie that has stunning animation and a very good plot.

P.S. I commented on will's blog

Animal books are awesome. Anything book with talking animals will immediately be accepted onto my bookshelf. Aside from Harry Potter and other books like that, animal related books are the only kind I’ll read. Some of my favorites of this “furry” genre are: Redwall, Silverwing, and Warriors. Every summer when I’m at my cottage I always read and reread all of these books as I can.

There is one book that I have been holding out on for a reason, and that is Watership Down. I purchased Watership Down a while back but my sister, who was in grade 8 a while back, that I would be reading it for LA, told me. I’ve heard many good things about it from my parents, and I’m eager to read it. Now I’ve been told that we aren’t going to read it in term 3. Although I could read it on my own time, I would love to be able to read it for school. And now with our teacher asking us what we might want to add to the term 3 curriculum, this is the perfect time to bring up this argument.

Watership Down hasn’t been read by the grade 8s in a while but I think it is a very good book to bring back. One of the reasons it’s so great is that it’s about rabbits; how many books can you think of that are like that? Another thing is that Watership Down is a very known book, and gets a lot of praise. Finally the book is one that can provide a lot of work (not that I want work) for our teacher to give us. I think that reading Watership Down for class in term 3 would be great for us students and our teacher.

P.S. I commented on Andrew's blog

My blog

Please excuse my run on sentences, I feel it helps get the point across.

If you read this blog regularly (thank you if you are) then you have noticed that I publish a new post weekly. Well I have a problem with that! Having to write three paragraphs to the best of my ability each week is exhausting my writing. Writing is not something that can be pushed, it needs to come when you get inspiration. And when you have a busy life, inspiration comes more rarely and over all it is harder to write for a blog.

There are many influences in my life that really don’t help doing what I am doing right now. First is other school work, there are so many projects, and plain old work that when the time comes around to write a blog, you just don’t feel like anything good can come out of your pulsing head. Second is my social life, although I may not have much of a social life there is still enough chaos to give me a headache, but then I wonder what it’s like for other people. Third is my other writing, I am writing a book (which you will know if you read some of my previous entries) and I haven’t written a word in it for many weeks because my writing is going toward my blog (that’s not good).  All of these combined with the fact that my teacher marking this right now marks these blogs heavily really gets me out of the mood for getting my computer out and typing about a pointless topic.

Writing should be fun and enjoyable, but blogs aren’t. I realize that you, ***oh teacher***, have tricked almost our whole class into writing these blogs instead of writing journal entries, or short essays which are exactly the same. Now with this busy time of the year we are all very busy, (especially because of science fair) I ask that you lighten the load. ***It is but a dream to only do a blog entry once a month***(add a Shakespearean accent to those last star surrounded parts) but if that isn’t enough, then perhaps one every other week. And another thing, you have to mark every blog that’s written, so you have a lot of work out of our work. And lastly, in the one in seven billion chance that I have a fan of my blog, I apologize for scaring you with this information.

***Tristan*** =D

WATCHMEN (SPOILER WARNING)

There are only a few comic books that really make you think. Most of the time comic books have pointless superheroes fighting egomaniacal villains. Although Watchmen does have these elements, there is a huge amount of material that makes you ponder the way things are. Watchmen isn’t just a another comic book, it gets rid of the border between right and wrong, it gives a glimpse into an alternate reality, and it shows true human nature. Even though it is dark it’s possibly the greatest comic book ever made.


The book starts in 1985 with the murder of “The Comedian” who isn’t exactly a typical comedian (an assassin of sorts). After a failed police investigation, Rorschach (a costumed hero) does his own investigation in The Comedians apartment. It appears to Rorschach that there is a masked killer going after retired costumed heroes. Rorschach continues his investigation to find out who killed The Comedian while many other small side stories happen to reveal characters and an impending nuclear doom. When it all comes down to it, it turns out that it’s one of their own with a plot to prevent a war that could end the world but also kill millions of people. He had killed The Comedian because he figured it out. His plan was to use teleportation technology and a mutated creature to make it appear as in an alien tried to attack the world but failed. When other countries hear about this happening to the U.S.A. they stop fighting and offer help. In the long run the plan saved many lives but it also took many as well. It brings the ongoing question of what is right and what is wrong.


For every chapter there is a quote and some dense background info. The quotes always reflect on the events of the chapter. Some of them are from very famous people or places, such as Bob Dylan. The background info between each chapter contains information about character’s pasts, or other relavent information. Watchmen does contain adult...stuff, so reader discretion is advised for those who want to read it. All in all because of some very philosophical things, Watchmen is one of the best comic books ever made.

~Tristan J.R.M.~

Furry Fandom


Do you enjoy reading those newspaper comics about talking animals? Or find yourself staring at dog bobble heads? If any of these are true, or if you just have a liking for animals, you may be a “furry”. A furry is someone who likes anthropomorphic animals (animals with human traits). There is a huge world of furries on the internet, some good, and unfortunately, some bad. I will talk to you about some of the better stuff.

There are so many things involved in furry fandom. One such thing is artwork, out on the internet there are people who devote all of their skill to drawing Anthropomorphic animals, from web comics to full blown masterpieces. Many art sites feature an “Anthro” section, while some are dedicated to only furry art. There is also a lot of literature made in this genre. For example, Roar is a collection of short anthropomorphic stories. Once you see how much is out there, you realize that furry fandom is huge.

I really enjoy surfing around good furry sites on the internet. There is one web comic called Faux Pas (pronounced Fox Paws) which I absolutely love. There are also some great works of art on Deviant Art that I like to browse. I also enjoy watching fandubs on youtube, these are videos from animated movies, or stuff like that, with different voices added on top. All in all furry fandom is a very big part in my life.

Athos


Who knows what goes through a 9 year olds head.

During the summer when I was 9, I was very bored. To keep myself amused I would sit out on our deck in the warm sun with a pencil and a piece of paper. On that piece of paper something amazing happened. I poured out the extent of my imagination onto the white sheet. What came out of it was Athos.

Athos is an imaginary world that I made up. On it are islands, oceans, and every kind of landform you can imagine. I also made plants and animals that inhabit the whole planet; from fish and sea monsters in the ocean to canines and felines on the land. One type of animal I made is the liber, which is basically a liger. Another thing is the culture; most of the animals are nomadic and they all speak the same language. I made this language at the same time as everything else but due to some improvements I am making on it, I’m still working on that part. I had everything I could think of, down on paper.

Over the years I added island chains, continents, cave networks, and new rivers. It was quite cool how I made so much. Soon I sort of left it for a year then I heard about NaNoWriMo(which I have mentioned in a previous blog post). It was the perfect opportunity to continue Athos. And thus my book was born.

Right now my book is 20069 words long and counting. It’s full of everything; excitement, suspense, mystery, and a few philosophical moments too. I work on it whenever I get the chance, but it is still going slowly. When I can, I like to write at the bookshelf cafe. Being there really helps the speed and quality of my writing. With any luck one day it will be published and Athos will become a series of books, and maybe a bestselling series. It all came to me when I was 9 and it all evolved from there, and hopefully it will go much farther than it is now.