Title: Tithe

Author: Holly Black 
Point of View: 1st Person

      Into the room of lavish fabrics and plates of succulent cakes all around, we sit down and get ready to speak. I am meeting Kaye Fisher, the Kaye Fisher. From the New York Times best seller, Tithe.
      "So, Kaye, How have you been? Roiben is doing well, I assume."
      "Oh yes, he is doing lovely, I am faring. What is your name again?"
      "Tori. My name is Tori. Faring? Have you seen him since he claimed the throne?"
      "No, not yet. I am still waiting. I just hope he still finds me worthy as his Queen."
      "Ah, I see. I surely hope he does, from reading the book, I gathered that you two are quite in love and that you are plenty more capable of being his Queen than any of the other faeries."
      "Oh, really? Do you think so? That means so much, thank you."
      "Do not thank me, it is the truth, after all."
      "Have you heard anything of what he is doing after becoming the King of the Unseelie Court?"
      "Sadly, no, I have not. I do think that he is only doing what is best, whatever that is."
      Kaye's face falls slightly, the green hue showing through her weakened glamour due to all the metal here.
      "Tori? Can I tell you something?"
      "Of course, Kaye. What is bothering you?"
      "I am actually green. I am wearing a glamour."
      "Oh, Kaye, I am aware of that. Also, I am aware of your oil-slick eyes and quad-jointed fingers and toes."
      "Oh, you are? I did not know that. Wow, It feels good for someone to know. You know?"
      "Kaye, I do not think it is possible for me to understand that, after all, I am not a pixie like you."
      "That is true. Did you hear about Corny going crazy and stabbing Nephamael to death after I poisoned him with iron in his drink?"
      "Oh, yes. That was quite the show, don't you think?"
      "I thought it was horrid. It was all so gruesome and... well, unseelie."
      "That is understandable. Do you know how long it will be until I see Robien again?"
      "No, I have not the faintest clue or idea, I am so sorry, I do hope that you see him again though."
      "Oh, gosh. I really miss him. Can we go somewhere else? There is an opening to the Court near here, it would really help the iron sickness."
      "Sure, let's go."
      We begin walking to the Unseelie Court entrance about a block away.
      "Don't you just love the air, Tori?"
      "Yeah, I just don't know the feel of air like you do, I bet it is wonderful."
      "Not as wonderful here as it is away from this iron."
      "Well, yeah, but still, I bet it is great."



Alternate Ending:

Kaye's P.O.V.

      I watch Corny as he murderously stabs Nephamael in the chest, getting rid of the faerie that used him. All at once, all of the Unseelie Court folk gasp and turn, I turn too and see the Seelie Court Queen, Silarial walk in with her usual grace, pulling Roiben's sister beside her. As Robien's sister, Ethine lurches forward, attempting to get to Roiben, I suppose.
      Then Silarial speaks, "Roiben, Oh Roiben, are you ready to come back home, Roiben?"
      "Oh, I bet you wish, but no, I am now ready to rule as the Unseelie Court King. You may leave now."
      "I bet you are ready to come back, you just do not want to say so in front of your latest squeeze, Kaye, was it?" The Queen looks over to me with a flourish of her hand and nods in my direction. I attempt to keep a hard glare at her because, hey, she is trying to steal my boyfriend, what else do I do?
      "She is none of your concern, wretch. Get back to your Court and I will begin ruling mine. Okay?"
      "As you wish. I will be back to claim this Court as my own. Soon."
      Silarial stalks off and leaves us all to look at the damage of the Unseelie Court. It is completly ransacked and I just do not know what to do. I begin to walk off, assuming that it is what Roiben wants me to do. I get to the hidden tunnel way out and I feel a hand grasp my shoulder. I turn around and see Roiben, looking me directly in the eye with those silver orbs.
      "Were you about to leave, Kaye?"
      "Yeah, I figured that was what you wanted."
      He placed his hands on either shoulder and stared into my eyes and said, "I do not ever want you to leave my side."


                              THE END.

Short Stories: Reflection Time

Stories. What is the average favorite length? There are plenty to choose from: Novella, Novel, Series, Short Story, etc. Short story would not be my "flavor" or "poison", but it has to be done. Writing a short story is a very complex task. You would think it would be: write something choppy and to the point and ta-da, but it is not. It has to have a certain type of timeline and everything in order to be successful.

For me, the simplest part of writing a short story is creating the character that you will be portraying. It is simple and I can make it as complex and detailed as I please. The idea behind my characters is that I want them not to be perfect, but imperfect. I think they are more realistic if they have faults. I find perfection in imperfection. It really is the best way to describe beauty for me.

The most difficult part of creating a short story is that it has to be short. It can not be extensive or at least a little bit of a novella. It must be short. Max number: 1000 words. That is it! Gah! I can not take that hard fact of class projects. It is probably the most frustrating thing about anything I do. The problem about that is that I like to write. I like to write a lot. 

The main character of my "short story" is Miss. Kilah O'Donnell. She's a bit tiny, with a height of 5'4" and measurements of 30"26"32", she is a bit minuscule to many of her Scottish family members. Her luscious long hair is straight as newly printed paper dollars and as blue as the midnight sky. Often times, she wears it in two evenly spaced low pigtails down her back. She stands at a leaning angle to the left and stares at many people with her large almond shaped eyes. She does not speak. They all look at her oddly because of her eyes. One is a bright ocean blue, while the other is a  soft, pale purple. She watches everything, but speaks to hardly a soul. She is light on her feet and moves as if she were graced with the ability to float across the land. Kilah looks to others like a sort of ghost. Quiet and she comes and goes like the wind.

 

To conclude, the idea behind the writing of the story is very simple. Love is not always for the feint of heart. Some were meant to falll in love, but not to be together. The battle is not always won, but lost so often. It is an imperfect world. Not everything works out, not everything even gets the chance to start the bud of the blossoms of love.

4th Quarter CC#1: Is it OK for Parents to Monitor Their Kids Online?

In a debate-based article by Betsy Landers and Jeffrey Nadel in UpFront called "Is it OK for Parents to Monitor Their Kids Online", the authors defend their stances on "Yes" and "No". While Betsy is determined to sway you to her side of "Yes", Jeffrey is on the kids' side of "No".

Beginning out her side of the article "Yes", Betsy, the President of the National PTA, starts out sounding reasonable by stating, "Technology can open up new worlds to young people and provide them with rich learning expieriences, but it can also expose them to significant risks." So, I started off reading her side with a small nod. Yes, that is very true. The internet can be extremley dangerous. That is completley true. Give her a minute, though, she gets a little out of bounds. Somewhere in the middle, Betsy goes all out stalker on kids by saying, "You can't compare reading a child's journal to accessing his or her conversations online.. Internet.. should not be treated the same as a diary or private letters." Now,, when reading "accessing.. conversations" and "private letters", something tells me that she would think and notice her contradiction. A conversation online that was not told to anyone outside of the conversation or openly discussed on, say, a Facebook status, is, in fact, private. Seeing as it is a conversation, it is also a letter. Making it a "private letter" only meant to be read by the ones actually engaged in that conversation. Therefore, she is accessing the child's "private letters" online. She said herself that this is wrong, excuse me, miss, practice what you preach.

Smartly, Jeffrey starts out his long piece of work with the knowledge of a parents feelings by saying, "It is understandable that parents worry about their kids." He is right. It is very understood, mostly, by everyone around that parents worry about their kids. It is quite alright for them to do so; however, it is also possible to cross the imaginary line of protecting your child. Parents like Betsy are good at crossing that line. Now, leaning into the kid's brain, Jeffrey interjects, "Spying on young people is not only an invasion of their privacy, it also denies them the respect and dignity to which all people are entitled." Yes. He is someone who does understand that just because we are young people, that does not mean we are not people. We are very much equal to those that are older than us. Many older people tend to forget that.

Traditionally, the people ina debate would choose their own words of which to use, but today, I will be doing that for them. First up to the stand, Betsy Landers, ladies and gentlemen. Betsy thinks for a moment and speaks, "Parents who are monitoring their children's activities via technology are not crossing that line into invasion of privacy; they are cyber-savvy and protecting their kids." What she does not know is that by doing what she does, she is only betraying our trust. It is not a good habit to have. Lucky for Jeffrey, he know that. He knows just what to say, "Young people, who have grown up using computers and the Web, are actually better equipped in most cases than their parents to avoid the pitfalls of technology and recognize potiential threats." Oh, Jeffrey, how you manage to woo the crowd everytime, I may never know. How right is this man? Most of the time, what he is saying is true. Yes, there are those children kept under a rock, but the rest are free to learn before the parent even thinks to do so. It is often obvious when you hear them talk about it which is better equipped for the virtual world.

One connection I can make is to myself. My dad monitored my things like that for quite a while, I stopped telling him things a long time ago. It probably would not have happened so much, had he been able to trust me. Jeffrey knows what I am saying, "It's ironic-- and unfortunate-- that many parents who decide to spy on their children online do so out of fear that their sons and daughters don't trust them; they worry that if something does go wrong, their children may not feel comfortable coming to them... They push their children further away..." What did I tell you? He knows exactly what I mean when I write all of this.

Yes, it is okay for parents to worry and check out the news feed on Facebook or check what sites we are looking at, but is it really necassary to track our conversations? No, it is not. If we have something to tell you and we even think you need to know, even if we do not want you too, do not worry. we will tell you.

Third Quarter CC #4: Trying Times

In The New York Times's magazine Upfront, the article "Trying Times," Patricia Smith is arguing the hard-to-swallow fact that jobs are getting more scarce by the day. College is not only getting more expensive with each passing day, but jobs after and during college are getting harder to catch. Now, when money is needed by so many, we can not find it.

Kacey Herring, a 21-year-old college student, says, "The end goal is to work in entertainment marketing, but at this time, in this economy, I just need a job." She needs a job, so obviously she is having quite a hard time finding one, reinforcing the fact that gaining a job is scarce and harder to accomplish. These "trying times" are forcing some to take drastic measures and most will probably end up abandoning their hopes and dreams just to be able to pay for neccesities.

Carl Van Horn, a labor economist at Rutgers, adds to my delima by stating, " Today's young people are very foucused on trying to work hard and to get ahead, I don't think this is a generation of slackers." It is being bluntly said that working hard to get a job just is not cutting it. Generation Y is not made up of slackers, but people with depleted resources. This hard truth is something that is not helping anyone.

Barak Obama himself had trouble paying his debts. He told us about it when he said, "Michelle I know had at least $60,000. I had at least $60,000. So when we got together we had a lot of loans to pay. In fact, we did not finish paying them off until probably we'd been married for at least eight years, maybe nine." Wow. Even our president that is now in his second-term has had trouble with paying off school-loans. Who would have guessed that? It is hard to think of him anything less than a celebrity, yet it is now obvious that he is just as normal as you and I.

I can actually make a connection of this article to myself. I have been worried about college and how I will pay it for quite a bit now. Just making money is hard for me. Getting a job has been so hard for my brother and my best friend. Just being able to pay for gas is hard. It is really insane how someone can have better luck being eligible for disability than actually being able to get a job.

Noticing the current things in the working world taking place, I have a feeling there will be troubling times in the kingdom of GenerationY. Seriously, this is really sad.

Third Quarter CC#3: Callaway Channels Streisand at LA's Disney Hall

Josh Getlin, a reporter for Huffington Post, describes in his article entitled "Callaway Channels Streisand at LA's Disney Hall" on February 8, 2013 that a very gutsy jazz singer approaches the classics with confidence.

He begins the article with the lessons many jazzy singers know from the beginning, "It's an unwritten rule in the cabaret, jazz and Broadway worlds: If you're performing a solo show, think twice about singing classic songs associated with Barbra Streisand. Approach Liza with caution, and beware of Judy. " It is obvious that the classics are the ones that made it famous and let's face it, everyone normally talks about how someone tried to cover it and failed. There is one gutsy girl that knew the rule from the beginning and she is tired of being scared. Yes, Miss. Ann Hampton Callaway will be preforming the famous Barbra Streisand this Sunday.

Callaway explains her rather large leap by stating, "At my stage in the game I have dared myself to take risks with songs that I love, but previously stayed away from because I was so well-behaved." If she were to fail, what will become of her career? That is a fact that is not known yet. The research will be finished this Sunday, after she preforms show tunes like "Don't Rain On My Parade". Why is it that this girl has decided to take these songs made famous by Barbra, rather than others made famous by Judy of Liza? Maybe there is a close connection between the two.

It appears that there is a connection, when Ann reveals her secrets by saying, " I'm not just putting this show together out of thin air. All of that background has helped me create a performance that now truly reflects my own personal experience," and when Josh types,"The legendary singer has recorded two songs written by Callaway.." There is a deep bond between the two of them, then. Callaway has written songs for Barbra, one of which became Barbra's wedding song. Callaway wrote "I've Dreamed Of You" for Barbra, a show tunes extraordinaire.  The connection seems to have given this performer her confidence to preform the classic show tunes, possibly a few of the ones that she wrote.

A connection I can make this to is to Anna Kendrick in the movie Pitch Perfect during auditions for Capella groups. She preformed a song called "Cups(You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone)" that was originally made famous by Lulu and the Lampshades. This being a sort of classic song, it was a big risk for Anna to sing it, but amazingly, she pulled it off great. I am sure that the gutsy singer, Ann Callaway will do the same.

In conclusion, Ann will more likely than not, nail this performance at Disney Hall on Sunday. Props and snaps to this girl for taking on the big leagues of jazzy show tunes! Look it up on YouTube and you decide, did she get the gold?

Third Quarter Book Review #1: Twenty Boy Summer by: Sarah Ockler

"Nothing ever really goes away--it just changes into something else. Something beautiful." Something like mermaid tears, they turn into sea glass and we find them on beaches; something like Matt, Sam, Frankie, and Anna. Matt, the beautiful memory; Sam, the beautiful vacation; Frankie, the beautiful mermaid that is strong and sensitive; Anna, the holder of secrets and the mermaid tears she has collected throughout the years. Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer inhaled my being and twisted it all around, giving me a respect for those who have lost, for they have had the power to stay here and they did not need, nor want, pity to do that.

"Anna from New Yawk," a girl, a friend, a daughter, a secret-keeper, someone to hold you when you can not hold yourself up. She held Frankie, a mermaid of colors and wishes, for so long while she wept for Matt, her deceased brother. Anna said, "Weeping is not the same thing as crying, It takes your whole body to weep, and when it`s over, you feel like you don`t have any bones left to hold you up." She was right. She was there to hold Frankie, but she did not show Frankie that she needed to be held as well. Matt was her First Love and as far as she knew, he was also her last. From her birthday, where they first kissed, to the last night of the "before," where it ended. It did not end with a "goodbye" or a "we should just be friends," it ended with the sound of metal on metal colliding with asphault, grass, dirt, and a pole. A pole that Matt's car wrapped around. A pole that split Frankie's left eyebrow into two pieces. The pole that ended Matt's life. The pole that ended Anna's love's life. She said that, "When he died, I saw-- nothing. There was nothing left to see." She said that, "My eyes were closed and his mouth tasted like marzipan flowers and clove cigarettes, and in ten seconds the whole of my life was wrapped up in that one kiss, that one wish, that one secret that would forever divide my life into two parts." It was so hard for Anna to cope. One year later she goes on vacation. The vacation that he had been going on his whole life, every summer. The vacation that brought her the jars of seaglass, the postcards and stories. California. Where she and Frankie made a bet, that bet was called Twenty Boy Summer. They, together, would find twenty boys. Anna only found one, though and he called her "Anna from New Yawk." His name was Sam. He was the one to hold her. He comforted her when she needed it, at least for the three weeks they had together. He asked her what was wrong when she was so used to thinking, "I'm fine, thanks for not asking," but she was not fine. She was not okay or happy. All she knew is that Sam had walked into her life and began to help her put back the pieces. He made her think, "I accept the hard reality that I maybe might possibly be just the slightest tiniest littlest bit kinda sorta interested in him." That scared her, but she liked it.

California, a beautiful place where three weeks are spent. A place that helps put back the pieces. When Anna and Frankie went to California, Anna was not Modest Anna, Scared Anna, or Broken Anna. She was Crazy Anna. She was the Anna that tempted Frankie, rather than the other way around. It changed Frankie into a softer version of the Frankie from before instead of the Broadway-worthy mermaid from after. They met boys, they fought and they broke-down. They got closer, they spread further apart than ever before. California changed the scenery, brought back memories, and changed personalities. California definitely did not erase the past.

Sarah's style could not have made this book more realistic. It was already such a tear-jerker. If any other person had wrote this book it would not be nearly as good. The tears of joy and the tears of happiness brought it all together so seamlessly that it was almost like a movie that I stared in as Anna. She narrated it with such a emotional point of view that it is just perfect. I do not know any other way to describe it.

Read this amazing book. It will swallow your world with you in it, then it will spit you back out. "It breaks your heart and puts it back together again," spoken by Jo Knowels. Those are true words of wisdom. Read this book and you will truly know what Anna means when she says that weeping takes your whole body.

Third Quarter CC#2: 'Women Don't Paint Very Well.'

Spiegel Online interviews Georg Baselitz, an egotistical male artist, and he states the quote of the moment, "Women don't paint very well." Spiegel writes an article revolving around this, noticing the worst pieces of this mysogenstic man.This may be the reason and purpose for this article.

Baselitz blantly states, "Women don’t paint very well. It’s a fact." Just the sexism is so strong in this and it makes me want to puke. I do not understand how the gender has anything to do with the artistic abitlity. Maybe one day, this man will realize his wrong doings and apoligize. Yeah, that is a thought.

Spiegel, an online interviewer, wonders, "Maybe this whole interview is a desperate ploy to revive the tail end of an unfulfilling art career? Nevertheless, it puts a pit in our stomachs when a museum-level artist can make such offensive statements and the whole trainwreck is simply referred to as "unfortunate commentary."." This is the part where Georg realizes his mistake. Maybe he just wanted to baffle the world and readers. We may never know. This man is, however, a very mean man that I would like to call mean words. Unfulfilling, a word that we are using to describe this man's career. Maybe that is why he is saying that women do not paint very well.

Spiegel types, "In an wildly insulting interview with the online German publication, the artist "smiles mischievously" while unloading shockingly curmudgeonly cranky sexist statements." Sexist is a word that even Spiegel uses to describe the infamous Georg. Saying something that he wanted you to know that he was thinking, I would say this is some "voice" being added by Spiegel. You can really tell that he is saying his mind, even if he crosses it out.

A connection to my friend, Sarah Rudd. She is the best painter I have ever seen. She is also a female. If Georg believes that "women simply don’t pass the test," he has obviously never seen Sarah work. When you watch her paint, it is like a magical trance in the way that she moves her hands with the brush. Every stroke makes it look closer and closer to being nearly perfect. You just can not say that this woman can not paint very well. Painting is her life, art in general is her life.

The type of writing used in this article is insane. I love that Spiegel wrote this article, it gave me room to vent, something I needed to do. All of the different offensive statements that this guy uses is just flabberghasting. Really, he thinks he can get by with these harst statements? I am ready to show him why they say, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."