Newscast Blog: The Walking Dead Premiere

     Yesterday, October 23rd, Sunday, possibly the biggest and most hyped season premiere in television history aired. The Walking Dead: Season 7, Episode 1. After waiting for over 6 months the fans are finally given the answer to one of the greatest mysteries in television history, who did Negan kill? But why did Negan want to kill someone? Well, in the episodes before that Rick and his group meet a man by the name of “Jesus” and his community the Hilltop. But the community was beginning controlled by Negan. So Rick made a deal, if Rick and his group killed Negan the Hilltop would help them out and give them some food. The Hilltop agreed and Rick went out to kill Negan. Instead he killed a ton of Negan’s men, which made his furious. So Negan got Rick and his group and trapped them. Then Negan killed someone but the community couldn’t see because the writers made it so you couldn’t find out until the season premiere.
     The community was in a uproar when the season finale of The Walking Dead aired over a 6 months ago. After the episode aired fans speculated for months about who did Negan kill and finding evidence to support their claim. People thought it was Glenn due to him being the one to die in the comics. Others thought that it was Abraham due to the popular “Orange Crush” theory. The “Orange Crush” theory explained that since Abraham didn’t die his comic death people thought that the Orange Crush that was shown in a multiple episodes said that Abraham because Abraham was red hair. Then if it wasn’t those two then people thought that it was the fan favorite Daryl because of the impact it would give. But yesterday the community finally got their wish. They found who Negan killed. But in the months leading up to the episode, things had been figured out and leaked. Leaked clips of the death were shown. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor who plays Negan accidentally said that there would be more than one death. Also the script for the episode was leaked. Which said who died in the premiere.
     But yesterday we got to saw who got Lucilled by Negan. It was Abraham and Glenn, they both meet their gruesome end in the premiere. Abraham was picked during the initial “Eney, Mene, Meny, Moe” sequence. He was picked and gave a peace sign to his lover Sasha. Then Negan hit him right on the top of the skull with his baseball bat. But Abraham got back up and told Negan something that I won’t repeat here and then Negan hit him again killing him. Then Negan went to town with his baseball bat on Abraham’s head. Then out of grief for his lost friend Daryl punched Negan. But instead of killing Daryl, Negan made a example out of Glenn. He hit on the head so hard that Glenn’s eye popped out. As Glenn was dying he said one last thing to Maggie his wife, he said “Maggie, I love you”. Then Negan hit him again, and again, and again. Then with his sick and twisted charm made a joke saying that “Lucille is a vampire bat”.
     After the episode the community was divided. Some were mourning the lose of two of their favorite characters. Others had pitchforks in hand waiting for Rick to get revenge on Negan. Other people loved Negan. But the community has to say that Jeffery Dean Morgan’s portrayal of Negan was great and the community will soon love him or love to hate him.

1st Quarter Reflection Blog

     The first quarter of school is done and over with. I wonder how I have progress since the end of seventh grade? Since the beginning of seventh grade my writing was amazing and in eighth grade I think it is even better. I think that since I started eighth grade my writing has a improved a lot. I was good at writing in seventh grade. If I had something that I was really passionate about something or knew a lot about a certain person or topic, I would be able to write for days on end. In seventh grade we made iBooks around the end of the school year. Everyone did an iBooks and was facing off against someone else to see who made a better iBook. It would be look at by my teacher at the time Ms. Baldassano. Her mom, dad, brother, and then fiancé Tommy. Everyone in my class either lost or won, but not for me. Me and my opponent’s writing was so good that they weren’t able to decide you won and who lost. Now to eighth grade. I’m still pretty good at writing. But know I think I’m even better at it. Due to us having to write our blogs in a TIQA format I now know how to write in a complete paragraph. It was everything. It has a topic sentence, quotes, analysis and most of all it is an easy format to write in and for that thank you. Eighth grade in my opinion has helped me further progress my writing skills to new heights.
     So far in the first quarter I think that I will be on pace to beat the 10 book challenge by the end of the 3rd quarter. In the start of eighth grade we started the 10 Book Challenge. In which I’m doing great in. Since we have started the 10 Book Challenge I feel that I have been reading a lot more. I usually never really read. I don’t really like to read to be honest. Most of the books I’m not really interested into. Like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter, books like that are uninteresting to me. In seventh grade I time I would only ever read is a sequel to book we read in class or when MAP and PARCC testing come around. But around 4th quarter last year I started reading more and found books that are interesting to me. I found the book series called The Phoenix Files. I read the first one and I was hooked. Then I found out that was about 6 books in the series and I was ecstatic. I only finished the first book in seventh grade but still I was excited. Then when The Walking Dead season finally rolled around and I watched it was interested in reading the comics. I read all three compendiums and I’m now on the newest issue 157. Now in eighth grade I have probably read more books in the first quarter then in the first 2 quarters in seventh grade. In the first quarter I have read about 5 books. The book I read were Lincoln's Grave Robbers, Maus I and II, The Giver, and The Phoenix Files: Contact. I think that I will be on pace to read 10 books by the end of 2nd quarter but I will probably finished at the end of the 3rd quarter.
     I think that I had a very good 1st quarter in school and in ELA. In 1st quarter in ELA I feel that I accomplished my goals that I wanted to achieved in the 1st quarter. When I walked through the door of the ELA classroom I didn’t really have any goals besides the usually such as get good grades, don’t be late, and turn in my homework on time. I almost got all my goals accomplished besides the homework one. But in the 2nd quarter I want to add new goals and accomplish the goals I didn’t do in the 1st quarter. I want to have all my homework done and turned in on time with 100% effort put in. Something I didn’t do in the 1st quarter. I want to get good grades which is a goal everyone should have. I also want to beat the 10 book challenge in which I’m halfway to completing. I also don’t want to get in trouble like in 1st quarter in ELA sometimes. But other than that I thing that I accomplished my goals in 1st quarter and had a every successful quarter in not just ELA but in every class. I hope that I will be better in 2nd quarter and overall have a better quarter than last quarter.

The Giver Movie vs. Book Blog

     In the book The Giver and in the movie The Giver there are two scenes in both that are very different, that scene is the Ceremonies. In The Giver movie it diverts from the book a lot. We are going to examine what happened in the Ceremony in the movie and see what is different. In the movie Ceremony is very different from the book version. In the movie Jonas is around 17 to 18 years old. Same with Fiona and Asher. Now to get to the ceremony. It starts off with the “Ceremony for Release to Elsewhere.” A minor diversion from the book as that is a separate ceremony from the Ceremonies that happen in December. They don’t state when it takes place in the movie. Then after that there is the Naming. Which happens in the book. After that point the movie is spot on but then we get the Ceremony of Nine in which Lily partakes with. Then we have the main ceremony. The Ceremony of 18 because I think that is how old Jonas is in the movie. Jonas’s birth number is 52 instead of what it was in the book. Also when Jonas wasn’t called there was a hush in the crowd like it was described in the book. In the movie The Giver they divert from the book it was based off of. One of those examples was the Ceremony scene. We have seen what the Ceremony was like in the movie now where are going to see what they got wrong. In the book the Ceremonies take place in December something the movie forgets to mention. In the book the Ceremonies kick off with the naming. The Ceremony of Release is a small ceremony of the old. The Ceremony of Release can also happen anytime. Also in the book Jonas is 12 while in the movie he is 18. A huge age gap. Also another difference between the book and the movie is that Lily is 8 years old in the book but she is 9 in the movie. They also had the Ceremony of Twelve of the other ceremony in the movie. Also Jonas’s birth number was 19 instead of 52.
     In the movie version of The Giver we finally get to see what the community looks like. In The Giver movie we see what the community looks like. It was nothing like I imagined. The community in The Giver gives us the reason certain thing happened and did not happen. We know about the rules and such but we have never been or seen the community. But when we saw the movie we saw what the director visualized in his head to be the community. He imagined it to be a sci-fi community. Which is nothing I imagined in my head. I imagined the community to be just like our community but a little be downgraded. But we got a sci-fi inspired town. It was probably to advance the plot and story of the movie later on but still I didn't like the change.
     In the book and movie The Giver, the ending is very different from each other. In The Giver, both the book and movie endings are different. We are now going to find out how they are different. First thing, first. The ending in the movie is surprisingly better than in the book. Now, I'm not saying that the movie is better than the book but you have to give them credit, Another thing is that he are given a satisfying ending in the movie. We find out where Jonas and Gabe are and how they are doing. We see what happens to the memories when they are released from Jonas and back into the community. But in the book we are given a ending that doesn't really satisfy or really deserving for a book like The Giver. We don't get to see what happens with the Giver or the community and the book just ends abruptly. It is overall a underwhelming end for such a good book. We don't see anyone else's point of view besides Jonas’s which I don't really like. Also in the movie Jonas and Gabe aren't weak, and starving like in the book. But in some sense the ending for the movie is also kinda bad because when Jonas gets the memories to come back to the community he sees a house which for a story perspective doesn't make any sense. We know that the only humans and buildings and in the communities. There is nothing but nature in Elsewhere but in the movie we see a house that presumably has people in it just sitting there. It doesn't make sense.

The Giver Blog: 2

In The Giver we have learned that Jonas is a dynamic character. During the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas’s birth number gets skipped. The chief elder skips him and he starts freaking out. “Jonas prepared himself to walk to the stage when the applause ended and the Chief  Elder picked up the next folder and looked down to the to call forward the next new Twelve. He was calm now that his turn had come. He took a deep breath and smoothed his hair with his hand. “Twenty,” he head her voice say clearly. “Pierre.” She skipped me, Jonas thought stunned.” This shows that Jona is selfless. He doesn’t care about PIerre or what job he is getting. He only cares why the Chief Elder skipped him. He doesn’t pay attention to the Ceremony. He only cares about himself and why he got skipped. Later on in the story Jonas escapes from the community into Elsewhere with Gabe and he changes. “Gabriel had not cried during the long frightening journey. Now he did. He cried because he was hungry and cold and terribly weak. Jonas cried, too, for the same reasons, and another reason as well. He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself.” When Jonas is picked to be the next Receiver he changes. At the beginning he can’t see color, doesn't feel emotions, and doesn’t care about others. But slowly during his training he changes. He starts to see color, feel emotions, and become less selfless. In the memory of war Jonas sees are dying boy on the field. The boy begs for water. Jonas sees his arm is torn into shreds and he can see the bone. Instead of tending to his arm he fights through the pain and gives water to the boy. Then at the end of the story Jonas escapes. But before he goes home to prepare. He learns that Gabriel is going to be released. Instead of leaving him, he takes Gabriel with him saving him in the process. Then in the quote Jonas changes and instead of caring his own well being, he cares about the well being of Gabriel and becomes a dynamic character.
     In The Giver, we learned that he theme of the book is “Looking into the past creates wisdom.” When, The Giver was tell the story about Rosemary he said what happened to the memories. “But there were those few terrible memories, the ones that overwhelmed her. For a while they overwhelmed the community. All those feelings. They’d never experienced that before.” The Giver knew when Rosemary was released there would be chaos in the streets. He knew from the memories. The memories that he had gave him wisdom. From the memories he knew that he would have to fix the community and keep it in order again. During, Jonas’s training he changed. He learned things about the community that he didn't know. During the training Jonas knew that this community wasn't what it looked like. He realized that this is far from a perfect world. Sameness, Jonas found out that no one can see color. He didn't understand it. Then Jonas found out about the things people in the community don't know. They don't know about Christmas, snow, grandparents and much more. He also found out that they don't know about love. The people in the community don't know about love. The don't feel emotions or feelings. Jonas feels love and emotions. Then Jonas found out what release is. Release is the execution of someone in the community. The elder, young, and the troublemakers are all released. Release is also the reason Jonas escapes from the community. This also shows how “Looking into the past creates wisdom.”