http://h1.ripway.com/EricsMyBeau/03%20The%20Twilight%20Zone.mp3

Outside Reading: Day 9 - New Book

In an effort to not ruin the ending of Jerk California, written by Jonathan Friesen, I have started to read a new book and blog on this new book instead of continuing to blog about my last book, resulting in "spoilers". The new book i have began to read is one of the three book choices we were given in class recently. Of course I didn't choose this book to read then, I choose Slaughterhouse V by Kurt Vonnegut, but I chose one of the other books presented. This book is called The Weight of all Things by Sandra Benitez. So far, I have enjoyed this book, evcen know I know most of the beginning of the story through our classes fellow students presentations. Although this book is much different than Slaughterhouse V, it isn't that hard to transition between the twpo writing styles because The Weight of all Things has an interesting story, with a attention getter in the beginning. Instead of just giving a bunch of semi relevant details to the point of a literay induced coma, this book begins the story with the most "exciting" part of the book, which is the death of Nicholas, the main character's mother.

Outside Reading: Day 8 - Final Predictions

In an effort to write something new and not just blog about the same old thing I find interesting in this book, however interesting it may be. I'm going to make some very broad, general, but also specific predictions about the ending results of the book. First of all, obviously, I predict that Jack will "hook up" with Naomi, and she will overall help him with his problems. Helping Jack with his problems would be more than just being supportive; I predict that she will help him, not only with his family problems, but also with his tourette's syndrome. In relation to his family, I think, and hope, that Jack’s mom realizes she’s better off without the boob of a man old Bill is. This would result in her leaving Old Bill and his beautiful “prized” child. If Old Bill had any “man” in him, he would know he has medical issues as well, and apologize to Jack. From my personal experiences, having all of this stress taken away reduces the affects of Tourette’s syndrome, making life easier. Although losing stress doesn’t eliminate jerking movements, and ticks, having extra stress, especially a certain situation, makes any ticks and jerking movement’s sky rocket.

Outside Reading: Day 7

Tonight I will be writing about the short section I read, I am doing this because of the unique style of this section. What is happening currently is Jack is in this dream like state, in which he awakes to a man with a "deep voice". I'm focusing on this topic because it is unusual for this book, so far, to be so abstract, one could say, in its writing style. This writing style reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse V, in which most of the story is just a elaborate dream or illusion by the main character. I found this especially interesting because I am nearing the end of Slaughterhouse V so the similarities in the two books, which are both very different was somewhat exciting. One thing that plays a large part in Jack’s thoughts are thoughts of his father. This is especially interesting because Jack’s mother seems to start changing herself and acknowledging her past. Acknowledging her past may in the end help her leave Old Bill, who beats her and treats her horribly. This is good because Jack begins to lose a lot of respect for his mother because of her choices to stay with Old Bill.

Outside Reading: Day 6

Since I read quite a bit earlier and I'm going on around 4 hours of sleep accompanied by an aching body, due to the wonderful delights of prom, today's reading was shorter than most. Today I'm going to focus on the way the book is being written, as in the structure of the events, which events are emphasized to show importance, which ones aren't, and those kind of things. When writing a scene including Jack and Naomi, Friesen typically includes an embarrassing mistake on Jack's part. This creates, as mentioned in other posts, some humor, but also a small bit of tenseness in the reader. This is created because the book makes the reader want for Jack and Naomi, crudely put, but "hook up". So the fear of Jack losing all chances with Naomi is constantly present. What I have found to be even more interesting, and another sign of rising action, is Friesen's use of Jack's real father again. Jack returns home in a mental mess, thinking about his father and Naomi. He soon awakens to his old "family" going about their day. Old Bill makes a nasty remark, and then the Old Coot takes a swing at him, and knocks him out. Jack’s mother yelling out the door that Jack is his real name, and that he is a Keegan follows this. This could be seen as a climactic point, but the emotions of Jack following this leaves things still up in the air. Yes, the climax of a book isn't going to solve everything, but this doesn't change anything for Jack all that much; he still goes on his way, twitching and jerking.

Outside Reading: Day 5

Today, well this evening, my reading consisted of little "action" one might say, but still packed full of excitement. The girls that Jack is practically in love with, isn't scared of him anymore, and by that, I am talking about the whole running at Naomi with an axe ordeal. In the spectrum of effeminate traits in men, I tend to have a few, which is why I found this section exciting. The part I've read over the past few days, (I only read about 2 pages on Monday) dealt with Jack's feelings towards Naomi associating them with his Jack's real father's letter. The Old Coot gave this letter to Jack; it was from Jack's father, explaining everything to him, and even a section about finding the right girl for him. This part would typically be boring for the "average guy" but I grew up in a house with a mother and a sister, so the romantic/chick part of me enjoyed this section. I guess al the years of overrated chick flicks ended up doing me some good in the world! A very exciting part, which isn't necessarily positive for Jack at the moment, is when Naomi witnesses Jack twitch, which has happened before, but this time she confronted him about it. She basically asked him why he did all of that stuff. I see this as "growth", one could say, in their relationship as friends at least. Eventually I predict Jack will give her all the dirty details on Tourette's and even his whole family life, but for now, he just blew it off by saying it was a long story.

Outside Reading: Day 4

As mentioned in my last post, Sam has many run-ins with Naomi, all of them entertaining, which will be mentioned late on in the post. In this section, Sam has moved into the Old Coot's house, and begun working for him. Since Sam lives with the Old Coot now, the name used most often is Jack, so from now on or until another name used, "Sam Carrier" will be referred to as "Jack Carrier". The Old Coot, being somewhat mysterious and unpredictable, informs Jack at 5AM that they were running late for their "big job". It turns out this big job is a gardening job at Naomi's house. After being instructed to different gardening tasks, Jack, being florally illiterate, couldn't complete these. So the Old Coot gave him a chainsaw, to go cut down some trees. Now, here is the funny run in with Naomi that I was talking about earlier. Jack see's Naomi walk out the door, and impulsively runs towards her to greet her, but since it’s around 7AM, she isn't awake yet. At 7AM having a man run at you with a running chainsaw would frighten anyone. Every time I read Naomi's name, I just wait for something "silly" for Jack to do. After some coaxing by the Old Coot, who is family friends with Naomi and her parents, she finally comes out and talks to Jack. The book has too many funny things not to shortly summarize them, as I have been doing recently. Anyways, I still am enjoying this book probably more than any other book I've ever read, because of the book itself, but also the similarities it has to my life, especially with Tourette's Syndrome.