I lost the game.

Haha. The title of this blogpost is EPIC.

Anyway, here is just a youtube video of Indus Valley's amazing sailboat :D
Thank you Livy, Canek and Diego for working together to build this boat. Indus Valley pwned.



(And thank you Jeffery for giving me the song used in the video.)
And thank you Taylor for hauling our boat into the bay and chasing it when it was sailing away.

Lol. Laugh Out Loud. Lawl.

First off, I would like to thank my friend Brandon for showing me this.

This is absolutely hilarious. Try it with your blogs! You can use other types of "Dialects" for your blog.

http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=jive&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tayloritablog.blogspot.com%2F

Funny stuff. Haha.

Gates of Fire and the Taco Song?!

This is for Livy :P

Ok, while we were reading Gates of Fire, we saw the quote on page 322: "No horses or beaters, just two dogs per man." And we both started LAUGHING. It reminded us of our inside joke called the Taco Song :)

Literature is awesome :D.....especially when it makes you laugh!




This is also to introduce the Taco Song and its awesomeness :D

Dialectic Journals for books 7 and 8

Book 7

Page 318: "Leonidas offered the parties wine from his personal store and poured the libations from his own plain cup. He addressed each man , squires not included, not by his name, but by his nickname, and even the diminutive of that. He called Doreion "Little Hare", the Knights play name from childhood. Dekton he addressed not as Rooster, but "Roo," and touched him with tendermess upon the shoulder."

I remember when Charlotte was talking about this moment in class. It's a small paragraph, but it has a lot of meaning. Like Charlotte said, King Leonidas knows so much about his men, that he knows there childhood names. Not only that, but he refers to them by their childhood names. Now how cool is that! If Leonidas knows there childhood names, it means that he obviously has the means trust and cares for them. He doesn't act superior among them, instead he blends in with them. Leonidas is probably a role for the spartan warriors. I personally would like to be called my childhood name by my teachers or friends. It shows they know me.

Page 333: "The opposite of fear," Dienekes said, "is love."

When I read this, I had no clue what they meant. I personally thought that the opposite of fear is courage, bravery, or fearlessness. I thought about that quote and how it related to the story. What I determined is that their love for fighting for Sparta over powered their fear and that's what lead to there incredible patriotism. That's why they were so strong against an army that was much much larger than theirs.

It might also be one of those "love conquers all" things. I'm not really sure, but I will stick with my first statement.

Book 8

Page 360: "In the final moments before the actual commencement of people, when the lines of the Persians and Medes and Sacae, the Bactrians and Illyrians, Egyptians and Macedonians, lay so close across from the defenders that their individual faces could be seen, Leonidas moved along the Spartan than Thespian foreranks, speaking with each platoon commander individually. When he stopped beside Dienekes, I was close enough to hear his words.
'Do you hate them, Dienekes?' the king asked in the tone of a comrade, unhurried, conversational, gesturing to those captains and officers of the Persians proximately visible across the oudenos chorion, the no-mans-land.
Dienekes answered at once that he did not. 'I see faces of gentle and noble bearing. More than a few, I think, whom one would welcome with a clap and a laugh to any table of friends.'"

Oh my goodness. That was an intense moment. Dienekes is probably getting that horrible feeling of killing innocent people who are great friends and great men. Knowing that good men are fighting and you could possibly murder them is a stab in the guts. This part of the book just spoke to me. Either kill people you know are good men? or fight for your civilization? It's one of those decisions that no matter what you will feel bad about it in the end possibly. But, this also shows that the Spartans aren't ruthless killers. They were intelligent people who had feelings and dedication. Sparta rules :)

Page 364-365: "The ear could hear His Majesty bawling orders, so near at hand ranged he upon his chariot. Was he calling in his foreign tongue for his men to cease fire, to capture the final defenders alive? Were those to whom he cried the marines of Egypt, under their captain, Ptammitechus, who spurned their monarchs order and rushed in t0 gift what Spartans and Thespaians they could reach with the final boon of death? It was impossible to see or hear within the tumult. "

You can imagine by these few sentences what is going on. It's a turmoil, a large stream of clashes. Later on page 365 it says: "...overwhelmed by the insuperable onslaught of heaven."
Ok, it's official. Gates of Fire was very INTENSE. This should be called the Gates of Intensiveness. It describes the madness going on. I really like the onslaught of heaven. Two words that stand out. Heaven, a place of peace. Onslaught, brutal attacks. Oxymoron!

This event reminds me of the black Friday riots. The screams and voices of desperate shoppers roared the malls, and someone was killed from their stampede.

Thank you.

There are many things I am thankful for this year and now I would like to list them with a bunch of cheer!

I'm thankful for teachers High Tech High Media Arts
Because they inspire me to learn and follow my heart
I'm thankful for my friends at Patrick Henry High School
Because even though I'm not at the same school as them, they are still cool.
I am also thankful for my new friends at HTHMA,
Since you guys totally rock, hurray!
I'm thankful for my family,
who have a home for me daily
and I'm thankful for the Twilight Movie
because it was groovy!
(I'm also thankful that it was one of the best movies ever and it totally enlightened my week!)
I'm thankful for savior Jesus,
and our new Toyota Prius.
Along our troops and music,
and the moments in my life that are " classic"
I must say,
I will have much to thank on Thanksgiving day

Secret Life of Bees

Last week, I saw Secret Life of Bees the movie. It blew me away. The movie was slightly different, but it also included many similarities. The differences in the movie compared to the book I noticed was the way Zach went to jail, the relationship between the Bees and the Black Mary, and how May died

The first big difference I noticed in The Secret Life of Bees movie was when Zach went to jail. In the book on page 179 to page 180, it explains how one of Zachs friends throws a bottle at a mans head and they police takes Zach and his friends away because none of them would admit who through the bottle. In the movie, Lily and Zach go see a movie together. There were two separate theaters that were for white and colored. Zach and Lily both go into the colored theater and a group of white men beat up Zach because he was watching a movie with a white (Lily). I was a little confused during that part of the movie, but I believe that Zach was kidnapped by those men and the police didn't want to do anything to help them.

The relationship between the bees and the Black Mary between Lily isn't very strong in the movie compared to the book. The only time you really see Lily interacting and deeply feeling connected to the Black Mary is when she touches her heart and when she is learning about the story of the Black Mary. But, a similarity that occurred was when Lily approached the Black Mary statue and fainted (page 111). Also, Lily didn't seem very connected with the bees either. Immediately as she is learning about how to bee keep, she says "I love you, I love you" in the movie. In the book, she keeps on saying "I love you, I love you" in her head as the queen bee lands on her forehead.

The part everyone started to tear up and snort big sniffles during the movie was Mays . Yes, in the movie May does by drowning herself just like she did in the book (page 192-193) but the events leading up to it was different. Instead of May finding out about how Zach was in jail from the Boatwrights, Zachs mom tells her instead. May does freeze up like she did in the book and collapse, but when she said she was going to the wall, August didn't argue with her about someone going with her. Instead it just flips to a screen of May walking out of the house.

Other minor differences was when T-Ray finds Lily. In the movie, Lily never called T-Ray to ask him what was her favorite color, instead he was staring at the wall were the map of South Carolina was. He notices there was a bump where the city "Tiburon" is. Also, when Rosaleen and Lily run away and they sleep across from each other from the river like in the book, when Lily wakes up, she is walking with Rosaleen. In the book, she wakes up and freaks out because Rosaleen isn't there.

I truly enjoyed this movie. It was very powerful, even if it was confusing for some people if you didn't read it. I actually liked some of the changes they did in the movie, for example, the issue with Zach. It was heart warming and a great reminder of the book by the wonderful author Sue Monk Kidd.

Gates of Fire Dialectic Journal 7-9

Chapter 7, page 59:

"I felt it was my doing, my brothers death, as if I had willed it in secret and the gods had somehow responded to this shameful prayer. It was the most painful thing that had ever happened to me. I felt I couldn't go on living, but I didn't know how honorably to end my life."

Dienekes is having a strong feeling of regret. He is explaining how the pain of is brothers death being his fault is something that gives him great sorrow and to the point that he wants to commit suicide. This part of Gates of Fire reminds me of Secret Life of Bees. He feels that the death of his brother was his fault and Lily felt the death of her mother was her fault. The feeling of regret is very overwhelming and it surely haunts you for a long time or even for your whole life. It made Lily in Secret Life of Bees feel lonely and unloved while in Gates of Fire, Dienekes wants to take his life. Regret leads to sorrow and the loss of a loved one can be such a strong sorrow to lead someone to wanting to commit suicide.

Chapter 8, page 75:

"This is my shield. I bear it before me into battle, but its not only mine alone. It protects my brother on my left. It protects my city. I will never let my brother out of its shadow nor my city out of its shelter. I will die with my shield before me facing the enemy."

I really like this quote. Its very meaningful, powerful and it really makes me think. It represents bravery and especially honor for someones community and family. Putting others before yourself is represented in this quote. It obviously relates to war, as in fighting for your country and people. The shield represents that you died fighting for what you believed in or many other reasons that could be considered honorable or heroic in your eyes. If you were to die, you would die with the honor of a warrior who fought for your people and community. That is what the shield represents in the quote. This quote can also be changed, but still hold a very strong meaning. Instead of shield you can say my heart and instead of a brother and city, you can say friends and family. Then it would represent the bond and love of friends and family. Whenever there is a quote that I really like, I change it up to see if I can make it into something else meaningful. This quote is an excellent example.

Chapter 9, page 77:

"When they hit, he was good for nothing for minutes at a stretch. If he could not find a way to reverse this condition, he could not when he reached manhood and made a warrior; he would lose his citizenship and be left to choose between living on in some lesser state of disgrace or embracing honor and taking his own life."

Wow! Thats a burn straight to the heart for Alexandros! If he can't recover from the situation hes in, he will lose the chance to earn the title he is working his butt off for! Being a warrior is a big title and if you lose it, as it says "living on in some lesser state of disgrace of embracing honor and taking his own life." Thats horrible! The choice of living in disgrace or suicide. This shows majorly how honor plays a big role in society. Its like saying if you humiliated yourself today, its equivalent to death. Thats a scary thought I must point out. This also might of applied to other civilizations as well.