I find plastic surgery quite interesting. The fact that someone is willing to undergo drugs, being cut open and pain all just to change their appearance is something i find sad. It is my opinion that society is to blame for making people believe that the way they look simply isn't good enough. But sometimes people take things too far like have 50 plus surgeries to look like someone else. An example of this is a woman in Britain who wanted to look like Queen Nefertiti who has been the perfect example of beauty for many years.

http://personalityspirituality.net/2009/08/23/i-am-nefertiti/

something else that interest me is when people are put in a position of power the things that they do with their power. Some of the worst rulers in history are thought to have been absolutely crazy. Incest, rape, murdering their family members and genocide are just a few things these rulers did when in reign. These are some of the worst Caesars of Rome.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/emperors/tp/070810-5-Worst-Roman-Emperors.htm

This week's class we discussed layering to make our stories interesting and keep our readers entertained. I believe it's an important factor in writing because it adds to our writing and you can go anywhere you want with it. You can make all the stories tie in at the end or you can just explain each character in further depth. A good example of this is a show i love and am sad has just finished. American horror story changes it's storyline every season which adds to the excitement but this season you get a glimpse as to how all the stories go together. It tells the story of all the freaks and all the things they've faced on their own and finally together at the freakshow.

This week I'm reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott. It's a recommendation from my brother and it's a book i can relate to so far. I think that its a book that many people will relate to because we've all found ourselves in a position where everything seems to just be going wrong. I've only just started this book and look forward to completing it. 

This week I'm also following Steven K. Scott who is the author of the book I'm reading this week. I'm not really into self help books but, the way that Steven talks about his book makes you really want to read it. He talks about his life prior to going into his tenth job, he speaks about how lost he felt and didn't know why. Exploring self doubt, relationships and anger. Things we can all relate to.

http://www.stevenkscott.com

surprise entry!!

I'm very into architecture and design it's something that always fascinates me. Whether it's ancient or modern it always catches my eye. I've recently come across an article about a hotel being built resembling a modern day Hanging Gardens of Babylon which no one really knows if this garden existed. Either way it looks spectacular. 

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3016850/innovation-by-design/a-modern-day-hanging-gardens-of-babylon#5

                                  Book of Hours 3

One of the things i found interesting this week was an article about a boy from Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York. Like most New Yorkers who have Facebook and don't live under a rock, I follow a page called Humans of New York. This page photographs people in the city of New York and tells a little story about them. The boy in the article was photographed and something exceptional happened thanks to him.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/24/living/feat-humans-of-new-york-harvard-fundraiser/index.html

Something else that caught my eye was this next article about a woman finding spider eggs in her new bananas. According to the article this is something thats unlikely to happen but will definitely have me doing a triple take the next time I'm in the produce isle. 

http://www.livescience.com/47783-spider-eggs-imported-bananas.html

In this week's reading we learned about leaps and subtext. Telling just enough so that readers can get an idea of the character but not too much so they get bored and are able to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. This makes the story more interesting and fun to write. I

 found an example in a movie. Training Day was a movie that came out a few years about a guy who wants to become a cop to better a community and a cop who is a crooked cop with ulterior motives. In this scene you get a sense that Denzel Washington's character isn't all that great of a cop but we don't know yet just how bad of a person he really is.

This week i'm reading Crank by Ellen Hopkins it's a book i've already read but is one of my favorites. It's about a girl who is living a regular teenage life but her parents are divorced. One summer she goes away to see her father who isn't exactly a stand up guy. There she meets this boy who she finds very attractive but he is into somethings that she's never been introduced to before.

This week i'm following Charles Bukowski who is a very interesting writer. I didn't know much about his personal life but he's work is intense. Reading his short stories is like going into the mind of a dirty, perverted old man and just as gross as that sounds you can only imagine his writing. I find intriguing because it's a very different mind to explore. I learned by going on his website that he has a file with the FBI which isn't very surprising and that he was also an artist.

http://bukowski.net

Surprise entry

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-likely-cause-of-addiction-has-been-discovered-and-it-is-not-what-you-think/

This is an interesting article i came across on Facebook about addiction. Apparently everything we've learned about addiction is not completely true. Whether you believe in what this article is saying or not it's worth the read because it does raise some interesting points. 

I found this article online and while we all know that healthcare and medicine go hand in hand it did make me wonder just how much of it was actually care and how much of it was actually a business.

http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/exposing-the-fraud-and-mythology-of-conventional-cancer-treatments.html



The next article i found was about a billionaire with New York City's largest duplex. When i hear or read these kinds of stories it's interesting to me the way people choose to spend their money. I mean sure it's their money to do with what the please but, why would someone need to own the biggest, largest anything? I'd like to explore the psychology behind it.

http://gothamist.com/2015/01/17/billionaires_row_duplex_breaks_reco.php

I think descriptive writing is very important not only does it improve your writing but it makes it easier to read. The reader can relate to what you're seeing or feeling. The following is a link to help better understand how to do this as a writer.

http://www.novel-writing-help.com/descriptive-writing-2.html

The following is an interview involving the actress that plays Lisbeth from the girl with the dragon tattoo. It's a very horrible scene and reading it was much worse than watching it on the big screen. It got me thinking about power, control and revenge and the fine line that blurs them.

I recently learned that one of my favorite authors is helping out book stores not go out of business. This is great to know because a lot of bookstores have been closing due to apps and iPads and kindles. When borders closed nationwide it sadden me because i grew up loving books and spending hours in that particular book store. I'm happy that he's doing this for bookstores.

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Surprise Entry!!!

The subway is over 100 years old! Who knew? I certainly didn't, the thing i ride everyday and perhaps take for granted is over 100 years old. Helping the 75% of New Yorkers that don't drive get to where their going.

book of hours

Book of hours: Week one

       In this week's entry is something interesting I found was an underwater hotel that is coming soon. The name is poseidon and gives guest a new experience unlike any other. The reason this interests me is because i've always been fascinated by the ocean. It does cover 70 percent of our planet, and it also hasn't been explored completely. Imagine the kinds of things that are under our ocean that we've never seen. This hotel is definitely a place that I would love to visit someday.

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/10-of-the-worlds-most-dangerous-prisons/?view=all

     This is something else i found quite interesting for this week's book of hours entry. While being in a resort and being in jail are two very different experiences, they are both an experience where you are in a place with other people eating, sleeping and sharing dining locations. Imagine a jail underwater freeing up space above water for other buildings like school's or hospitals.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/the-9-weirdest-writing-habits-of-highly-effective-authors/

Writer's block is something that happens to everyone, which is why it is important as a writer to get into some good writing habits. Here are a few interesting writing habits by some famous writers.

        Book 1: This book is a badass novel about a girl (Lisbeth) who has a pretty rough life. Despite her shortcomings she is a genius and has photographic memory and is a computer hacker. Another main character in the book is Mickael a magazine editor who finds himself caught up in some sticky situations and needs the help of Lisbeth to solve this mystery.This book inspires me in my writing because it tells different stories that connect to each other. It's one of my favorite writing styles in literature. 

http://stephenking.com/news.html

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. His imagination always runs wild and he writes some of the best stories I've ever read. I just learned he has a new book out called Revival. Cannot wait to get my hands on that.

surprise entry

This was something cool i found online. Tattoos on the tongue. Apparently that's thing, a very weird thing.

January 11, 2015