Static Image

The theme for my static image is derived from the film Forrest Gump. What I am trying to portray in my image is the theme of freedom and escaping calamity. I portray this by depicting a bird soaring away from a city in ruins, but leaving a feather floating down in it’s wake. The image also bears the quote from the film that reinforces the depiction: “Dear God, make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far, far away from here.”

The bird is symbolic for freedom, so I placed it to the right of the image, flying away from the burning city. The bird represents Jenny, who when she was young prayed for God to turn her into a bird to escape her abusive father. The bird is soaring upwards into the heavens and moving on to the spiritual world and leaving reality behind, which I use to symbolise Jenny’s death.

The feather represents Forrest, who gets left behind by Jenny several times, and indefinitely after her death. Forrest then has to float around—feather-like through life, completely oblivious to all the destruction going on in the world.

The city in ruins is metaphorical for all the pain and suffering that goes on in the world, whether it be physical or emotional. There are buildings and trees on fire as well as a mushroom cloud, which represent things like the Vietnam War and Jenny’s abusive father.

I chose black as my background because it represents all the darkness and emptiness of the metaphorical city. It represents the suffocation that Jenny felt when she was living with her father.

The quote “Dear God, make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far, far away from here.” is spoken by Jenny while her father is chasing after her while she is in her corn field. She wanted to escape her father, and all the pain that he caused, so she prayed for God to turn her into a bird so she can fly away. I chose white for the colour of the writing because it is God-like and it pierces through the darkness. I also placed it above everything else to symbolise it being a prayer from the heavens.

Wow!

Wow! This is my first blog entry in over 3 months! I would like to say it was because an elephant fell on my face meaning I couldn't post, but to be honest I have just been lazy. In fact, I only remembered that I had a blog a couple of days ago!

This post is going to be short, but I would like to tell all of my hard-case fans (that's right!) that I will try and make more of an effort to post more often.

But for now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


CHERIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif

I have read this book many times and it still remains as my favourite book. It follows a 12 year old boy named Percy Jackson that is suddenly attacked by monsters at his boarding school. He finds out that his best friend is a satyr (half-man, half-goat), and he also finds out that he is a half-blood (a child of a Greek god). He gets taken to a camp (Camp Half-Blood) for other kids that are children of Greek gods, where they get taught how to read Ancient Greek and how to fight like a warrior. After spending a few days at the camp, and without finding out who his father was, he is finally claimed by the God of the Sea: Poseidon. This spelled great trouble Percy, as this meant he was a child of the Big Three.

After World War II, The Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) swore an oath that they would not have any more children as they were too powerful and dangerous. Zeus had already broken this oath when he had a daughter named Thalia. Thalia was killed by monsters three years previously, and as she was dying Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a pine tree. This pine tree now protects the borders of Camp Half-Blood so that no monsters can get into the camp (unless they are summoned by someone within).

Anyway, the world is at risk because Zeus' master bolt has been stolen, and he is framing Poseidon saying that Percy had stolen it. So Percy gets sent on a quest (along with Annabeth and Grover), to retrieve the master from the Underworld because they believe that Hades has taken it. Along the way, Percy encounters various monsters (e.g. Medusa, Echidna) and gods (e.g Ares, Dionysus) overcomes them all. When he confronts Hades, it turns out that he doesn't have the bolt and that Percy had it in the backpack that Ares had given him. Someone had also taken Hades' helmet of darkness.

In the end, it turns out that Percy's friend Luke was the one that stole both of the items and tried to cause World War III so he could resurrect the Titan Lord Kronos, who planned to over-rule the gods and start a new era. Anyway, Percy manages to return the 2 items back to their owners and prevents the war. Then Luke tries to kill Percy and escapes.

I really enjoy reading the Percy Jackson series, because it is written in first person (which catches my attention) and it is all about Ancient Greece in modern times. I give it a 10/10.

I Am Not At School Right Now

All of my classmates are at school right now, but I'm not. No, I am not wagging but I am also not sick. Then why am I at home? To be honest, I don't know. Yesterday my mum randomly said to me "Do you want the day off school tommorow?". Me, being the average teenage boy obviously responded with "Um. . . okay." So here I am at home alone with nothing to do. Well except blog and watch TV that is, so I'm not complaining.

The only excuse that I have for not being at school, is that I am really tired from performing in the school production Alice in Wonderland last night an the night before. Tonight is the last performance night, and there will be a cast party immediately after that goes for about an hour. I won't be able to take school off tomorro though, because Josh and I are leaving at luchtime to go down to Tauranga and then to Opotiki. We are going to some persons 21st birthday party on a marae which will be quite interesting. I will write a blog entry on the trip when I return!

I am bored of this blog entry now. I might go play basketball or Playstation or something.

Blog Explaining My Storymabob

The blog that I just posted was my creative writing assessment for English. I have areal problem with writing short stories, as I have to get all my ideas into the story. In my assessment I wrote about half of it as a draft and then completed it on the computer, so I was just pretty much making the story up as I went along instead of publishing. We were only supposed to write about 300 words, but when our designated time to complete the assessment was up I had already written 600 words, and I had barely even started my story. Our teacher decided to be kind, and gave us the weekend to complete the story. So I sent it home and put it on my flash drive, so I complete it at my dad's house. But when I got to his house, I plugged in my flash drive and it wasn't there! I was in a state of panic and I didn't know what to do.

Come Monday morning, I was absolutely crapping myself (not literally) because I knew we would only be allowed about about 20 minutes to touch our stories up. I heard that our teacher was annoyed at Aleisha who had written 820 words, so I was worried. But I relaxed a little when I saw the Seamus had written literally about 20,000 words.

I went to the classroom next door to use the computers and refined my story. I typed up a quick ending, and I came up with a way to describe my story.

Long beginning, no middle, short end.

I also came up with a reason.

Ran out of space and time.

I was absolutely astonished when our teacher handed out the marks. I had got an Excellence! I was overjoyed and a little puzzled, when the teacher began "Luke-", but I cut her off and said "Long beginning, no middle, short end?". She nodded and continued handing out marks to other people.

Future of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula (creative writing)

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! That was the sound that signalled a leak in the dome. Our dome. The dome that now surrounded the Whangaparaoa Peninsula from all angles. This was the 8th leak this week! And it just so happened that I was the on that had to fix it each time. The 8th time that I have lying in my pod in the middle of the night and been rudely awakened by the loud, dreary sound of a female voice over the intercom that was as old scratchy as an elderly lion deprived of its food. This morning the voice said: “Jacob Cleary, please report immediately to Sector C, Area 4 to repair a minor leak on the first interior layer in the dome.” What? Another interior leak? 67/68 of all the leaks over the past 3 weeks have been interior. That must mean that it was happening from inside the dome and that maybe even that someone was trying to sabotage The Mission. I was frightening yet amazing how very right I was.

I gave no further thought to the matter, as I had to get to the site as quickly as possible otherwise we might lose too much of our oxygen into the deep abyss of space. Additionally, if any radiation from Blast 904 got through we were screwed. Big time. It would mean filtration, and that wasn’t easy. It takes about 6 full days to do, and in which time all the residents of The Peninsula would have to remain indoors and wear safety masks, because if anyone came into contact with even a milligram of it, they would die.

I scrambled out of my pod and threw on my radiation suit like a madman. As I rushed past the door I snatched a quick glance at the calendar. 19th November 2452, Earth Time. It was the 6th anniversary of the Break-Off. The date when the Whangaparaoa Peninsula broke off from New Zealand (literally) and became an independent nation. It also happened to be the 2nd anniversary of the execution of The Mission. The secret plan to send the whole Peninsula into space, and land on the colony on Jupiter. The mission that was said to take 2 years and 1 day to complete. That was tomorrow. Everything was going to plan, and we are set to land on Jupiter within the next 24 hours.

I ran down the metal corridors, my feet making an ever persistent Clang! every time they hit the ground. I cautiously stepped into The Chute, careful not to bump anything. I quickly punched in the code C7, and I immediately got sucked down feet first into the tube that was just wide enough to fit me. I have been doing this for years, but still nothing compares to zooming along at the speed of light (well not really, but close to it anyway!) and feeling all my troubles disappear. It gives me a sense of freedom. It makes me forget about the cruel world that lies outside our dome and all the people that didn’t survive, or all the ones that are still suffering. Flying through the tube like a bullet, with the artificial wind resistance in my hair makes me feel like one of those bird things that you see in the artificial textbooks.

As I screeched to and exited the chute, I noticed my best friend and wok colleague already working on the leak. He always got there first. His name is Grodfrond and he is an Outsider (we can’t say alien anymore) from planet Carebon 6. He is about 7 feet tall, has a large orange head and blue scales. His eyes are as big as the moon (not quite literally), and he has a long, bulbous nose. He had only come onto the Peninsula a day before we launched into space. He had escaped from his home planet where he was treated like a slave. He almost never talks, but when he does he talks about his home planet and how we pretty much saved his life. He was the most humble, caring, kind being that could exist, and I believe that the human race could learn a lot from his example. He was playing his part so well, no-one suspected a thing. . .

I was so concentrated on fixing the leak that I barely noticed the two large men in big, black suits approaching Grodfrond and grabbing his arms. I finished repairing the leak and turned around. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” I yelled, wondering why they would want to arrest someone so innocent. The men in suits refused to answer and remained pushing Grodfrond into their vehicle. They slammed the door and one of the men approached me. “You're friend has been convicted of the attempted sabotage of The Mission. He is the one causing the leaks. He was sent here from his home planet to sabotage our mission and kill everyone aboard the Peninsula.” Before I could respond and stand up for his innocence the man walked to his vehicle and took off, leaving there with a million emotions going through my head.

1 week later

The man wasn’t lying. Grodfrond was guilty and everything he had told me was a lie. How could that happen? How could I be fooled so easily? As punishment Grodfrond got banished from the Peninsula, not that it would do much good, as he would just return to his home planet. We were now safely on Jupiter, ready to start our new life, hopefully without deception and chaos.

By Luke Taylor

List of Books that I Need to Read

The new Percy Jackson book is coming out soon, and every time a new book comes out in a series I have to read the whole series again from the start. So it has got me thinking about other books I should read, and other series that I haven't read before or not for a long time. So I thought I would write a list on my blog of all I books I need to read, and in the order that I am going to read them. (P.S. As you may have guessed, I have given up reading the Lord of the Rings for the time being. I will put it on my list though.)

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
• Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters
• Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse
• Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth (new)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vile Village
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Carnivorous Carnival
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Slippery Slope
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Grim Grotto
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End
• The Golden Compass/The Northern Lights
• The Subtle Knife
• The Amber Spyglass
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
• Stormbreaker
• Point Blanc
• Skeleton Key
• Eagle Strike
• Scorpia
• Ark Angel
• Snakehead
• Deltora Quest: The Forests of Silence
• Deltora Quest: The Lake of Tears
• Deltora Quest: City of the Rats
• Deltora Quest: The Shifting Sands
• Deltora Quest: Dread Mountain
• Deltora Quest: The Maze of the Beast
• Deltora Quest: The Valley of the Lost
• Deltora Quest: Return to Del
• Deltora Quest 2: The Cavern of the Fear
• Deltora Quest 2: The Isle of Illusion
• Deltora Quest 2: The Shadowlands
• Deltora Quest 3: Dragon's Nest
• Deltora Quest 3: Shadowgate
• Deltora Quest 3: Isle of the Dead
• Deltora Quest 3: The Sister of the South
• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
• The Lord of the Rings: Appendices
• The Davinci Code
• Artemis Fowl
• Artemis Fowl: The Seventh Dwarf
• Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
• Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
• Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
• Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony
• Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (new)
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Golem's Eye
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Ptolemy's Gate

Wow. That is a lot of books. 72 to be exact. I wonder how long it will take me to read them all. Years perhaps. I will underline the name of the book once I have read it, so I can easily monitor my progress. I will also probably add more books to the list eventually. I will put the book name in bold when I have started reading it, italics when I am halfway through and I will underline it when I am done. I will also write a review of the book on my blog when I am done.

Midnight Blogging

12:54 am
I am tired, bored, and my eyes hurt. I don't really know why I am writing a blog entry past midnight, I really don't. I could just go to bed so I can wake up for Alice in Wonderland rehearsal but no, I decided to write a blog entry instead. I don't even have anything to blog about so it is pretty much completely pointless. Maybe in a few years time I will read this entry and think 'Now why the hell did I write that?' Then I would remember that I was a crazy mushroom muncher from Mars. Yeah I don't know what I'm talking about either.

1:01 am
I am still tired. My eyes still hurt. Maybe I should go to sleep. Or maybe I shouldn't. I don't know. If you are reading this entry you are wasting your time, because I certainly am. I guess I should go downstairs and crawl into bed, falling asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Oh crap, my mum is home. BYE!

Smoking

I think that smoking should be illegal. What does it do apart from shorten our lives and waste our money? I have thought on this topic for quite a long time, and I think it is finally time for me to speak out.

I am sick of walking down the street all the time, walk past a person that is smoking and catch a big whiff of smoke. Just think of all the toxins going into my body! I have even resorted to holding my breath each time I see someone smoking, then finally breathing out when I am far away from the source. I don't want to breathe in the smoke and tobacco that emits from the mouth of these selfish beings. That's right, I said they were selfish. They are depleting the ozone layer for absolutely no reason apart from their own enjoyment, and then they exhale and force us to breathe in their waste. It's unacceptable.

I don't have anything against the person that smokes, as it is not completely their fault. The sale of tobacco should have been outright banned years ago, before it became a part of life for people. Now it is too late, and if it gets banned now it will just cause a lot of strife. It will open up mass black markets to distribute the stuff, and it will involve lots of more people to go to jail or have charges laid on them. It will also cause some people to go out of their minds, the people that are addicted. They will go insane and that will cause large problems for the government and other social services.

Ever since I was young I decided that I would not smoke. Never let myself get hooked. I decided that once I was past the age of 20 I would try a cigarette and then never touch one again. I say over 20 because apparently people that age have a lot more self control than teenagers do, which will hopefully stop me getting addicted.

My Voki. (Push the 'Play' button)

Get a Voki now!

Life

This is going to be quite a deep blog entry about life.

I love life. I can't imagine not living. I would like to believe in reincarnation but I just can't see it happening. That means we have one shot at life. One chance to get it right. I want to live my life to the absolute full, and not leave anything out. There are no second chances at life. You just have to do what you can with the opportunities are given. I always get annoyed when I see people throwing away their life, their only chance, by smoking, binge drinking, drugs etc. They are just letting their lives waste away, not doing anything productive. I can sort of understand their thinking though. That is probably be their idea of living their life to the full. Too bad they don't realise what they are actually doing to themselves.

I want to make sure that I don't waste my life. I don't want to be one of those people that grow up, get married, and die. I want to do something special with my life that gets remembered, leaves my mark on this Earth. I'm not sure what for or how I am going to do it, but I will do it somehow.

I am at an age at the moment where my future is still greatly undetermined. I am at an age where a lot of what I do will effect my future. If I screw up now, don't focus at school, I will find it hard to to back on the rails. If I decide to become rebellious, it could mean that I won't end up getting into a good NCEA class, leading to not going into university, leading to not getting a good job. I have to make sure that I live my life right, and make sure I don't throw away my life.

Copter

Some people honestly have no life. My high score is only 5412. This guy over doubled my score. I repeat, NO LIFE!

University

I am definitely going to go to university, but I'm not sure what I want to study. I will probably do a Bachelor of Arts and something else. My sister did a law degree and she said it was really boring, and that the only thing that kept her going was her Bachelor of Arts. A lot of the subjects in that course appeal to me. History, French, Classical Studies, Mathematics, Philosophy, Ancient History and others.

As for my other option, I have hardly any clue. I could possibly do a sports science degree, but I am not really sure what that includes. I can't really think of anything else that I can do, as I don't have any ideas for a career path.

University is very important to me. My mum didn't go to uni when she was young, and she very much regreted it when she wanted to get her degree just a few years ago. She said that is was much harder to learn and remember things as an oldie, rather than a youth. I am not going to make the same mistake, and I am going to get my education out of the way so I can live the rest of my life.

Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant

Paul Pierce Celebrates With the MVP Trophy

The Boston Celtics. New NBA Champions!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Well, yes! But nooooooooooooooooooooo!. Yes!, because the Boston Celtics have won the NBA finals for the first time in 21 years. Noooooooooooooooooooo!, because I missed the whole freakin game because I was at school and had Alice in Wonderland rehearsal after school. The whole time I was at the rehearsal I was fidgeting restlessly, hoping with all my heart that the Lakers could beat the Celtics, forcing the game 7 on Friday so I could watch the whole game. But luck wasn't on my side. The Celtics absolutely annihilated the Lakers in a 131-92 victory. And the replay is on at finishes at midnight tonight, and I can't watch it because I have to get up early tomorrow for another rehearsal! I can't even record it because my mum hasn't set up our DVD recorder so we can't record anything on SKY!!!!!!!

Oh well, I am happy that the Celtics won, and that Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce finally have their first championship rings. Pierce got the well-deserved Most Valuable Player award for the finals, and fans all over Boston are cheering for joy.

10 Years Time

In ten years time I see myself travelling the world, hopefully with the love of my life, or if the right girl (or guy [but mainly girl]) hasn't come along yet, then I will go with a mate (probably Josh). I would have just graduated from uni (not sure what in yet), so I will be full of knowledge. Hopefully whoever I go with and I will be fully loaded so we could stay in each country a few months at a time, so we can get the full feeling of each place. We won't leave any countries out so we don't miss out on anything. Because my brain will be bursting with knowledge from uni, all I will then will be experience. Experience that I can gather by traveling the world.

After we have travelled to all (or most) of the countries, whoever I am travelling with and I will settle down in one country for a few years (probably the UK or the USA. Over there I will use my knowledge and experience to get a good job and earn lots of money.

After a few years I will move back to New Zealand to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula to settle down and start a family and stuff. I will probably go back to school and get my Doctorate in whatever.

I would also like to go somewhere with my basketball. It would be great to represent my country in the sport, or even make it into the NBA. If something like that did happen, I would probably have to put my travel and education on hold which will be quite hard. It is really important to me that I go to university and get my education, because I know I will regret it later in life if I don't.

Zimbabwe

This is my work on Zimbabwe for my Social Studies homework.

Zimbabwe is located in the southern part of Africa and it is surrounded by land in all directions (or landlocked). To it’s northwest is Zambia, to the east is Mozambique, Botswana to the south and South Africa to the south. The majority of people in Zimbabwe speak Shona, which is one of two native languages in Zimbabwe, although the official language of the country is English.

Zimbabwe used to be called Southern Rhodesia and it was controlled by the United Kingdom, up until after the civil war. On the 18th of April 1980, the country became an independent nation. It got it’s new name of Zimbabwe, a new flag, and a government led by Robert Mugabe. Mugabe became Prime Minister and Canaan Banana became the first president. In 1988 the government abolished the prime ministerial office, and Robert Mugabe became president. In 2000, Robert Mugabe began to reclaim land from the white population (mainly farmland) and redistributed it out to 250,000 Africans.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a shortage of funds, which has led to causing shortages of imported fuel and goods, and also hyperinflation. Critics blame it on Mugabe’s land reclamation programme.


Facts
· The capital of Zimbabwe is Harare, and it is also the largest city.
· Its total area is 390,757 km squared. The 60th largest in the world. Only 1%of the land is water.
· Zimbabwe’s population is 20,010,000. The 68th largest in the world.
· GDP= $400,000,000,000. The 80th largest in the world
· GDP Per Capita= $188. The 178th largest in the world.
· Zimbabwe’s motto is “Unity, Freedom, Work”

Happy 60th Blog entry Anniversary!

Yay! 60 blog entries!

I am Bored

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bored right now. I am just waiting for Desperate Housewives to come on (Shut up! It's actually a very manly programme!) ad I have nothing to do except blog. Dang. I have run out of blog ideas. I know, why don't I just write some random sentences, and see what comes out.

Billy the man frog lives on a banana. One day he lifted up a nose hair and spanked the giant monkey from across the road. Little did he know, that his dried up goober brain cheese ball was rolling in the dragon, and that it was screaming a song full of tranquilisers and boogers. People from the 19th century used to keep lollipops in their butt holes to keep them warm in the winter, even though it is illegal on other planets. Helicopters from Pluto like to dance on evil monkey sausage men on Sundays, maybe even stopping in time t lick the evil marshmallow anvils from hell. Gregory the Sasquatch likes to play in the sand with no clothes on. I strongly advise you to close your eyes when you are around, otherwise you might just get too excited. Or as Mr. Tubby puts it best "Did you see what she said?". Meowie was a mushroom burger and sleeps on the moon frog if the floor is wet.

Wow. That was weird. Well I managed to kill 10 minutes. Bye!