Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, is a great book. Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t put the book down. For those of you who haven’t read it, I strongly recommend this book. It’s wonderfully written and I don’t think I will find a better book out there. Check out what Natalie, who introduced me to this book, has to say about Twilight. When I first found out that the book was going to be made into a movie, I was excited, but at the same time, I felt that I would be disappointed. At first, when I heard that there was going to be a movie, the casts weren’t chosen yet, and I didn’t really want a movie version of the book. Most of the times, books are written first and later made into a movie. Moreover, I had my own visions of the characters. The beauty of a book is that you can always use your imagination. So basically, I had the perfect Edward (one of the main characters) in my head and I didn’t want it to be ruined. On the other hand, I was excited that there’s going to be a movie because I like to see different interpretations of the book. For example, I read the fourth series of Harry Potter and later watched the movie. The movie turned out to be good and I wasn’t disappointed. This is not a great example because before I read the fourth book, I watched the previous movies; therefore I had a clear and concrete picture of the characters. To be clearer, the characters were REAL people. Going back to Twilight, this is the first book and there weren’t real people to represent the characters. So when I was reading the book, unlike Harry Potter, the characters were imaginary, perfect, yet unreal. But now that they have chosen all of the casts and started filming, I can’t wait for the movie to come out. I am pretty satisfied with the casts, although I didn’t really imagine the characters to look like them. List of the casts:
Kristen Stewart as Isabella Swan (At first, I didn’t think she suited Bella, but later, I changed my mind. She does look like a Bella to me)
Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen (Acceptable, but not very vampire-looking.)
Billy Burke as Charlie (Bella’s Dad)
Ashley Greene as Alice (Almost fits my picture of Alice, but not quite)
Nikki Reed as Rosalie
Jackson Rathbone as Jasper
Kellan Lutz as Emmet
Peter Facinelli as Carlisle
Cam Gigandet as James
Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
Elizabeth Reaser as Esme
“To conclude, I would like to make a few comments about Rob and Kristen, who are the true heart of this movie. First, they are both amazing actors. Second, they are channeling Edward and Bella like nobody’s business. Third, you might want to bring a paper bag to the movie, because their on-screen chemistry may cause hyperventilation. That is all.” –Stephenie I have posted a picture of the Cullen Family (taken from Stephenie Meyer’s website)
(Left to Right: Jasper, Rosalie, Esme, Edward, Carlisle, Alice, Emmet)
On the way home from school, my brother and I were talking about something very random. “If you do something nice, you will get something nice in return,” I told him, but he didn’t agree. He told me that if you’re too nice, people will take advantage of you. In my opinion, it all depends on the person. For example if I do something nice for a good person, I doubt they will take advantage of me. In the other hand, if it was a bad person, they would take advantage. I told my brother “Well then, I’ll just do nice things for good people.” “But you never know if that person is good or bad, you don’t know them well enough to judge them,” he argued. I think he had a good point. You don’t know for a fact if someone is good or bad. You never deeply know someone enough to know for sure if that person will take advantage of you. Sometimes a person acts really nice and you think that they wouldn’t do anything to hurt you and all of a sudden, he/she back-stabs or takes advantage of you. Anything can happen because life is full of surprises. You do not know everything in life. In my opinion, your life is not planned out, therefore, anything can happen. Anyways, I believe that you should always try to be nice to people, but at the same time, keep in mind of the type of person they are. When I do something nice, I don’t exactly expect something nice in return from that person. My question is: If you’re nice, shouldn’t nice things happen to you? Isn’t that the way things work? You do something nice for someone; something nice in return will happen to you. I mean, if you’re always purposely doing something bad, I don’t believe that good things should happen to you. Anyways, this little thought was in my head and I just wanted to share it and know what people think about this.
Yes, a hotel made out of ice. Doesn’t that sound awesome? After a friend informed me about this, I became interesting about this particular hotel. There are ice hotels located in Sweden, Canada, Norway, and Romania. (more…)
The harp, the harp played by angels floating on soft, white clouds, is a majestic instrument. I have always wanted to play the harp for various reasons. The harp itself is a wonderful and antique instrument. What makes the harp so fascinating and appealing is the sound it produces. Another aspect is the complex and unique shape of the harp. Uniqueness gets a lot more attention than unoriginality. Well, with no doubt, the harp is a very unique instrument, which called my attention. Unlike all other stringed instruments (guitars, violins, cellos), its strings are perpendicular (not parallel) to the soundboard, or sound hole. In contrast of its complexity, the harp is made up of three main parts:
The Soundboard/Soundbox (body or resonator)
The Neck
The Strings
There are many types of harps, which come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. The most modern is the pedal or concert harp. This is the harp that I would love to play. I liked this one the most because of its shape. The soundboard is made out of Sitka spruce, which is the the same wood from piano soundboards. To make this kind of harp, several kinds of woods are necessary. These woods include willow, birch, pine, spruce, and maple. Not only are there a variety of woods, there are many metals too, which include brass, bronze, gold, and steel. The strings can be made out of nylon, gut, wire, or silk. Typically, there are forty-seven strings in a concert harp. These are some components that make the harp so intricate. As I am writing this entry, I am researching some information about harps to learn as much as I possibly can. This information is interesting to know, although it is not very useful to me right now. I learned that each string represents a white key on the piano. Then I wondered: what about the black key on the piano? What represents that? Well, I discovered that harpists use the pedal to play an “accidental”, which is the black key on the piano. Learning this information encouraged me to want to play the harp. The reason for this is because the harp is similar to the piano, in spite of all the different characteristics. Since I know how to read music, playing the harp would be slightly easier for me. Also, while playing the piano, my fingers are very relaxed, enabling me to fluently move them. To play the harp, your fingers have to be agile and well-coordinated. I am always amazed when I watch harpists smoothly dance their fingers on the strings, creating a beautiful high quality note. Similar to the piano, you don’t only play one note at a time. Sometimes, you have to play a lot of notes at the same time to make a harmony. Therefore, harpists pluck many strings at the same time, which seems very complicated. But when I think about it, playing the piano is very complicated too. The reason it doesn’t seem so complicated is because I have been playing the piano for a long time and I am used to it. So I guess if I start playing the harp, with no doubt, it will be hard. But after a while I don’t think it would be so hard. I am very eager to play the harp, but this is not something that falls into the place of “I want, and I get”. First of all, if I start taking lessons, wouldn’t it be reasonable to have to own a harp? You have to practice to get better, therefore, if I don’t have a harp, I wouldn’t be able to practice. Moreover, the harp is not a very common and popular instrument, unlike the guitar and piano. I am hoping that in the future, I will be able to experience the feeling of playing the harp.
Martin Luther King Jr. is an inspirational role model. Not only was he an inspiration to his nation, he was an inspiration to the world. He was a leader. His actions gave black and poor people hope. He believed that all black and white people can live together equally and in harmony. Even though what you believe might not be possible, the result in the end is not what’s important, it is what you did to get to the results; either the results are good or bad. Many of you have heard “One person can make a difference”. Some people disagree about this, in the other hand, other people agree. There are many individuals that have made a difference. The people that I think had an impact on the world are Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr. relates to my previous post: Freedom of Speech. He had plenty freedom of speech. As I have stated before, he believed that black and white people should be equal. He was not stopped when saying his opinions about this. In fact one of his speeches “I Have a Dream”, which took place in August 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial, became very well known. Moreover, it was during the March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (more…)
What is freedom of speech? To me freedom of speech means when you have the right to say what you feel without crossing boundaries. By “crossing boundaries” I mean that you do not offend people, or violate their rights. Freedom of speech is included in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (more…)
