The Rule of Galbatorix

Everyone has dreamed of the same fantasy, of a time where there where nights in shining armor, a princess locked in the highest room of the tallest tower, and a land where dragons where either feared monsters or beloved companions. In the four book series by Christopher Paolini known mostly as the Eragon series. To quickly summarize such an enormous series, there is an evil ruler known as Galbatorix who was suppose to be the last dragon rider, is the ruler of all the land. But a secret dragon egg hatched to a young man named Eragon who raised it to become a fully grown dragon. Now Eragon must help the rebels, known as the Varden, overthrow the evil king's rule and start a new world where people don't have to live in fear. But the question is, will Eragon be able to defeat Galbatorix? Who will survive their battle? The reasons why it is so hard to tell if Eragon could defeat Galbatorix are like balanced on a scale, they pretty much even it out perfectly. You want to think that Eragon could win, that good will always triumph over evil, and spread light throughout the world were darkness thrived. But when you see how strong Galbatorix is, given that all the dragons he killed to become the king, and stealing their heart of hearts, which makes the person who has it even stronger. Galbatorix killed somewhere around one hundred dragons and taking their heart of hearts which made him even more stronger. The man has been living for over two hundred years! And he's still going strong! He uses magic to keep him young and strong, and also the fact that his dragon is the size of my school, when Eragon's dragon is somewhere between one half or even a fourth that size. It really does seem that evil would win this fight... From looking at all the facts, I honestly believe that Eragon will not win. That he will be killed, but in the last seconds before his death either he or a third person will hit Galbatorix with a blow so strong that it slowly kills him. I think either that or that Galbatorix would kill Eragon's dragon, and right after Eragon would kill him. I'm not quite sure because I'm not too far into the book and there are numerous ways this book could end, but if I had to pick, it would be one of those two. Whatever the outcome will be, I'm excited to read all the way to the end and find out.

Mysterious Head Master

In all our lives there are mysterious people, people who keep secrets from others. Don't get me wrong, we all have secrets, but some people's entire lives are a giant secret to others. One of these people is Dr. Nero, the Head Master of H.I.V.E. in the book H.I.V.E. by Mark Walden. Dr. Nero's whole life is in secrecy, and two of the biggest secrets is how he got the other half to one of his students necklace of the Yin and Yang, and his whole life at H.I.V.E. Wing, the student with the necklace, just has the yin of the two, but when Dr. Nero jumps in front of Wing to save his life from a monster, it rips open the doctor's shirt to reveal that he has the perfect match to the Yin. This event takes place in the end of the book and doesn't explain why until the next book sadly, so not even I know the reason. Another secret that Nero has is practically his whole life of educating kids to overthrow governments and upset the peace of the world. Nero's plans for the students of his so called "school" are incredibly ridiculous, but the fact that he's been doing it for many years is an incredible fact that it works. What he wants his students to achieve is to accomplish impossible tasks, but to do them in style. Instead of shooting missiles at an aircraft carrier, he teaches them to think outside the box. One of the greatest examples he gave was how one of his graduated students sunk an aircraft carrier, but used a giant robotic squid. Instead of blowing up a building, another graduated student created a giant robot and let it rampage throughout the city. Dr. Nero's vision is obviously insane, but it is admittedly tempting. Most kids dream of being the goody goody superhero who saves the day, but they are secretly attracted to the evil side. They get the better weapons, costumes, and most are billionaires. They are also free to do what they want, not being held back by the restrictions of the law. To be able to do all of this, he must be very secretive and not show his weaknesses, or to say it simply, be secretive.

People Change

People change in this world, doesn't matter if they want to or not. They might not change for the better, but they will change. Friends turn into enemies, enemies turn to friends, it happens every day. Usually changes happen from traumatic experiences, like losing a loved one. But one of the worst of them all is war, and that is what the characters from Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers had to go through. They killed in cold blood, they watched their friends die in front of them, and they themselves were as close to death as possible. Through all this, they would never be the same people.

Richard Perry, or Perry as everyone called him, was one of the main characters of this book. His experiences in war alone would be enough to give anyone nightmares. Perry watched his friends get torn to pieces by explosions and bullets. When he was wounded, Perry was carried away from the battlefield in a medevac chopper, which stands for medical evacuation. He and his friend Brew both got flown out, and as the medics worked on them in the helicopter, they held hands. The book described his hand feeling cold, limp, and lifeless. Then he watched his friend get put into a body bag as the medics zipped it up.

Another traumatic experiences for Perry was when he was searching in a village for remaining Viet Congs who were terrorizing the villagers. As he walked into a hut, from his backside one aimed a gun at his head from point blank and pulled the trigger. The only response he got was a few clicks from his gun, the Viet Cong's gun jammed. So then the both had a quick fight using fists and the butts of their guns, and Perry eventually knocked the Cong down to the ground. He took out his M16 and unloaded a full clip into the Cong's face, tearing away flesh, bone, and muscle. Still scared, he slammed in another clip and started firing more rounds into the dead man's face. Once he was done there was a lump of flesh, a little bone, and a tooth. That was all that remained of the Cong's face.

Being in a war can really mess with your head from all the horrible things you see. Some people have nightmares, others need to be put into a mental institute. The book never did say what happened to the characters in the book except for the people who didn't survive the whole book. They grieved for the dead, yet were happy at the same time that they weren't the one in the body bag. Whatever happened to them, they would never be the same group of little boys who went into the war.

"Big Yellow Taxi" and "Field Below"

Both of the songs "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Field Below" are very sad and depressing when you read though them. They talk about sadness and missing something, but if you listen to the actually song and not just the lyrics, it completely changes how you feel when you hear it. "Field Below" is a slow song with rain in the background and a sad person singing it, and that is mainly what you would expect. But when you listen to "Big Yellow Taxi", it is completely different from what you would expect. The singer sings the song really fast and upbeat, and almost sounds happy. Instead of being sad when you hear it, it makes you think that the person has moved on and is no longer sad about it.

So Good

ChOcOlAtE mIlK
aS sMoOtH aS sIlK
a TaStEy TrEaT
i CaN't WaIt To MeEt
ChOcOlAtE iS gOoD
fOr ThE sOuL
iN mY fRiGe ThErE iT sToOd
MaN i Am On A rOlL
sO nOw I eNd ThIs HoRrIbLe RhYmE
iF yOu LiKe ThIs PlEaSe GiVe Me A dIme
BeCaUsE tHiS tOoK qUiTe SoMe TiMe

Not Highly Educated

I believe that the speaker in the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes is a person who isn't so educated. I picture them being from the south and speaking with a matching accent. He seems sort of nice but a little depressing and sad. He keeps using weird comparisons like a splintered staircase which confuses me somewhat. It's a metaphor for how his life hasn't been easy like other peoples. The reason I think he's uneducated is because he used the word ain't instead of hasn't.

Johnson

Everyone knows someone who is bigger than them. Bigger, stronger, more intimidating. In the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, that person is a man who goes by Johnson. He is built better then a skyscraper, and to top it off he gets a hulking M60 machine gun. These two combined demand fear from everyone and thing in that gets in their way or on their bad side. Johnson is a killing machine and no one ever wants to mess with him.

Most of the time, Johnson has a stern look on his face. He rarely shows emotion, the only time was when his Lieutenant died. If you would meet him he probably wouldn't look or smell to nice because during war you have to go weeks without a shower. His clothes would be tattered and worn, and he would look like he went to hell and back. His face would look like he saw a ghost, and he would stink to high heavens.