one piece volume 39

one thing in this volume of the series is when usopp tells nico robin not to doubt luffy and the strwahat crew. he said that luffy and the rest of the crew would even follow her to the depths of hell if they have too. that shows something about luffy's character. he is very loyal and really cares about his crew. and most pirates well i'm not really sure about them. maybe they are loyal maybe they're not. luffy usually portrayed as a happy and carefree person. luffy's loyalty is not something you see much these days.

loyalty is something important in life. it shows you care about the person you're loyal to. you'd do  anything for them. in one peice volume 9, 10, and part of volume 11 to get nami back luffy fought and beat arlong the person who was holding her back. when nami was 10 arlong killed her adoptive mother and took advantage of her map making skills. he said when she gets 100 million berries the he'll st her village free. after arlong was defeated nami joined the strawhats again. 

these days people often betray each other or their friendships fall apart because some misunderstanding. i may be wrong but i don't really see loyalty much. loyalty is something that runs deep. you care a lot about someone. you'd do anything to see them happy. i don't think i have much loyalty. i have people i care about but it's so deep that i would do anything for them. wish i did. maybe i would be someone different. 

betrayal stings

In the book  Brothers to the Death by Darren Shan Larten was being heavily influenced by his blood brother Wester. and not in a good way. Usually sibling influence should be good for us but both Larten and Wester are vampires. When they were young Wester's family was killed by a vampeneze. They are like vampires but they drink more blood. As a result he had such a hatred for the vampeneze that no matter what they said it could not be vanquished. In the end it led to Wester's death. 

Wester killed Alicia a woman Larten loved. Sylva Alicia's daughter however saw him and many years later when Sylva saw him again she told Larten that he was decieved. Wester betrayed Larten. he killed Alicia knowing that Larten would hate the vampeneze and speak out against them. He knew that larten had a high position in Vampire Mountain. So by killing Alicia he used her death and Larten's greif for his own agenda. And by doing so he betrayed his blood brother in the worst way.

When we trust someone the way larten trusts Wester we never expect the worst of them. 
when we are betrayed we find it harder to trust someone because we're afraid of getting hurt again. Larten felt hurt and betrayed in a way we can never understand unless we go through it ourselves. what is important is that if we ever get hurt like that it's how we deal that matters.

the cover of the book. that is Larten and his pet spider Madam Octa.

going on without me

I am reading Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James patterson. Max is suprised at how her "flock" doesn't listen to her anymore. they are 98% human and 2% avain. they are human bird hybrids. as she is the leader of the group they used to do whatever she says but now they want to have a home and stop running. Max doesn't want to because she says she has to save the world. the thing is that her flock is changing and she doesn't like it.

from what i have read so far is that all the flock (except max) agree with fang that they hide and find a home. i think i can understand why. when you live the the way they do always on the run, not knowing who to trust except each other. it gets tiring. while Max knows she has to save the world i think the rest of the flock is being a bit selfish. as Max points out that if the rest of the world is destroyed then they won't have things like cable. also max says that if the world is destroyed then they will be fried by the sun for the lack of oxygen. 

as i said before the flock with the exception of max are all changing. they want to stop running and now they listen to max as much. but all change is not good. in my opinon they have became so tired of being on the run that they want to find a home. fang tells max let the whitcoats destroy world. they should be out of their equation. but Max says that she feels like she has to save the world.

people always change. that is something they can't really control. just as max can't control her flock changing we can't control that either.

a mother's stingng words

Now for all of us hearing our mothers tell us that we are failures is really bad. but after readin the Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan if your mom is a goddess that is bound to hurt. a lot. But Annabeth has even more worries. First there is the Prphecy about the 7 greek and roman demigods who will unite to defeat Gaea. then she has to worry about the mark of Athena and the prohecy that comes with it.

Wisdom's daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome,
Twins snuff out the angels breath,
Who holds the key to endless death,
Giants bane stands gold and pale,
Won through pain from a woven jail.

we all want our parents to say they are proud of us and not complete failures. for Annabeth that hurts a lot because her mom being Athena the expectations are higher. her mom barely cntacats her becuase she is busy with goddess duties. I think I can relate. my mom does not say outrigt that I am a failure but she prabley thinks it or that I will fail in life if I don't work harder. Annabeth says her mother seemed angry and said she wanted revenge. she called Annabeth a failure because Percy was in the roman camp. 

In the beginng Annabeth was acting the way she usaully did. but she changed a bit. she seemed nervous and a liitle scared. In the original series she always seemed calm but now she seems more wary. Also her mother affected her in a negative way. Annabeth says even though it's been a month since she saw her mom her words still stung. I mean it takes me a few days to get over my mom yelling at me.

everyday battles

"you fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"

Chiron 

The sea of Monsters

I kinda understand what Chiron is saying. Percy is part god and part human. he is affected by both and he affects both. Although the Greek gods exist the way it affects Percy is not uncommon. I know the way my parents want something for me affects me. I am not sure what I want and that affects me in a way. A lot of people who come from other countries are also affected that way. They want to fit in so they abandon their culture because if people made fun of them it would affect their self esteem. There are things in life that will affect us those are our "battles". It may be culture or something else but we are always affected by the things that happen everyday. 

I am not sure of what i want in life. and that affects me in a big way. My mom want me to go to a specialized high school and that also affects me. the future is unclear and we don't know what we really want. these are the battles we fight everyday. the unease and self doubts we have are our internal battles. the future is also another battle. although we don't fight big dramatic battles for humanity we do fight battles that are important for humanity. 

In the end we have to fight ourselves. we have to fight the unease and self doubts the way Percy fights Luke and monsters. like Chiron said the monsters don't really die and always come back. Heroes like Percy always keep them at bay and we have to do the same things. our doubts are our "monsters" and we have to keep them at bay because they never die as well and will always come back. that is the life we live.

Being Real

I walk and talk and talk the way I do because I’m not gonna let anyone define me.  Melvin from “Am I Blue”. If only people were more like Melvin.  Most people these days act the way people and society want them to. They don’t act like themselves. They’re afraid that if they act like themselves people will make fun of them or beat them. In the beginning of the story Vincent is getting beat up by Butch Carrigan because he thinks Vince is gay. “You little fruit,” he snarled. “I’ll teach you to look at me!”

Melvin says that gay people are everywhere. He tells Vince “Listen honey the world is crawling with faggots. But most of them are in hiding because they’re afraid they’ll get treated the way you did an hour ago.” What this quote is saying is that people are afraid of the way society or the people in society will treat them if they let people know something like they are gay. Most people will react to this new badly. But people like Melvin don’t seem to care what society thinks of them. People like that are rare.

Melvin says he won’t let people define him. That shows he isn’t afraid of how people will treat him.  Vince gets the gaydar for a while and about 1/3 of the people he see’s are different shades of blue. Which means they are either gay to some level.  On the news when the news anchor is interviewing the governor he talks about homosexuality like “the gay threat to the American youth.” Vince says he can’t forget those hypocritical words since the governor was also blue.

People are afraid of what people from society will think of them. So they hide parts of themselves from others. A lot of young people who come from other countries such as Bangladesh or India usually abandon their culture and try to fit in. They’re afraid of getting teased. A lot of Muslims these days also try to hide their religion. They’re afraid that they won’t fit in. I never had to go through that so I can only imagine how they felt. But I also don’t really care what people think of me because I’m Muslim. 

nothing was as it once was

A moth brushed his face, but it was a peach blossom. A peach blosssom filcked him but it was a moth. Nothing stayed put. Nothing had a name. Nothing was as it once was. 

Ray Bradbury says that nothing will stay the same. the Civil War has changed everything. it has also changed Joby as well. Because "In the Drummer Boy of Shiloh" Bradbury says "nothing stays put" he means that nothing stays the same. Not even us. As we grow up and mature we see things differently than we would as kids. 

when I was a kid I would always think that the world is good. That the bad guys will always be put away. that is how innocent we are. we think the world is good and it will stay that way. It doesn't. The good people will sometimes be put away while the bad guys sometimes get away free. People will always suffer one way or another. 

the world is constantly changing and so is the land and people on it. we don't stay the same. As we change our views and ideas change with us. When Bradbury says a peach blossom can be moth or vice versa I think he's referring to how nothing has a name. anything can be anything. It's kinda like if you drop your books and someone helps you pick them up do you really remember their face or remember them at all. they're just a face in the crowd. they could be anyone.

the author then says "nothing was as it once  was" he could be referring to anything. people, ideas, thoughts, points of view. they don't always stay the same. In the beginning Joby felt scared, alone, and thought he was lower than everyone.  After the general talked with him his attitude changed. he changed a little. just like he changed we change to. everyday something happens that makes us change our ideas a little. 

nothing ever really stays in one place. we go from one idea to another. one thought to another. I am constantly going from one idea to another. so we all will change. maybe not now but who knows when. 

cross my heart and hope to spy

"the trustees and I felt it was important that Gallagher Girls learn how to communicate with, and trust the men you'll have to work with someday"
Trust. We stake our lives on it, but it's a subject that not even the Gallagher Academy can teach. When do you let your guard down?Who do you let in? And I knew at the moment, as i sat beside my mother, bathing in the warm spring light, that those where the questions a good spy never stops asking.

the dictionary definition for trust is reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence. My definition of trust would be to know you can always count on and believe someone. in the book though Cammie says that those are the questions a good spy never stops asking. she knows she can trust her friends Macey, Bex, and Liz and her mom. 

trust is different for everyone. some people can easily trust others. while others depending on how they grew up don't trust as easily. they are suspicious and prabley only trust those they know well. they must have went through a lot. so only those they know well they trust. ic an never imagine what they went through. all the peole i  know i can trust. so cammie living as a spy must be difficult.

reading response to twelfth grade kills

Vlad's father Tomas is alive after Vlad thought he was dead for eight years. when his father comes back he feels angry, betrayed, and guilt for feeling angry. his mother is still dead. after a while Vlad and his Guardian Nelly (his mother's closest friend) are both able to forgive him for all the pain he caused them. his uncle Otis however can't. Vlad's father being alive was a shock when everyone thought he was dead. Tomas told them that he was only trying to protect Vlad from the people who wanted to kill him (Tomas).things aren't always what they seem and often the people you think you know aren't who they seem either.

Vlad's father wasn't who Vlad thought he was. he only wanted Vlad's power so he made his mother his slave so that he could have Vlad. Vlad's friend Vikas turned out to be with Tomas the whole time. Tomas killed his mother Mellina when he found out that she was planning to take Vlad away turn him in to Elysia for his crimes. he also killed the vampire she cantacted to help her. Vlad thought that his father loved him. he didn't.  in the end Vlad killed his father after he killed Nelly. he (Vlad) said that he prabley saved the rest of humanity when he killed his father but that still left him feeling guilty. 

in the end make sure you know the people around you. they're often the ones you think you know but you don't. in Vlad's case his father was a power hungry man who just had him so that he could kill him and take his powers. it's like John from i don't want to kill you. his father was a violent man who never loved him or his mother and sister. even though he beat them he still loved his father because he was "dad". he hated him but still loved him too. the same thing with Vlad. he still loved his father because he was his "dad" even though his father didn't love him in the end.