Interesting Quote.

Page 38, " There were many religious pictures, but the one Carrie liked the best was on the wall above her chair. It was Jesus leading lambs on a hill that was as green and smooth as the Riverside golf course. The other were not as tranquil: Jesus turning the moneychangers from the temple, Moses throwing the Tablets down upon the worshipers of the golden calf, Thomas the doubter putting his hand in Christ's wounded side (oh, the horrified fascination of that one and the nightmares it has given her as a girl!). " This quote really sets the stage for how Carrie grew up and how religious her mother is. Her mother raised her telling her that almost everything is a sin. Things such as breasts, periods, and her neighbors are all sins. I think the picture of Jesus with the lambs represents Carrie. Carrie is pure and normal deep down inside, but is surrounded by bad influence and darkness with her powers and her mother. This is represented by all of the scary pictures that give Carrie nightmares. I think it also shows the deep effect this strict religion has had on Carrie. She could be a normal girl, but she is forced to act different to satisfy her mothers beliefs. Deep down I think Carrie knows her mother is wrong and hates her for what she has done to her, but she still loves her mom and can't just rebel or leave her. As Carrie has gotten older she has experienced more of the outside, and normal world. We see her first experience an outsider when she walked over to her neighbors yard as a child. Her neighbor was sun bathing and Carrie told her that her breasts were a sin. Carries mother freaked when she saw Carrie talking to the neighbor and started hurting herself and screaming. Carrie ran back to her mother but hesitated as she liked talking to the teenage neighbor. She ended up going to her mother because she didn't want to hurt herself. This shows that Carrie loves her mother and even though she might not agree with her way of life, she will accept it so her mom doesn't hurt herself. I think Carrie will eventually break though, because she has to deal with not only her crazy mom, but the bullies at highschool who taunt Carrie daily.

Opinion of Carrie

So far I have really enjoyed the novel Carrie by Stephen King. It is very unique and suspenseful. We see Carrie being picked on and constantly under a lot of stress. The book keeps switching time periods by going back into the past to show how Carrie was raised, as well as skipping to the future to show short interviews and doctors notes about Carrie. The past shows us how messed up the environment Carrie grew up in was. Her mom is a Jesus freak who thinks everything is a sin and really raised Carrie in a bubble. The future shows us that some type of freak accident occured like rocks raining on Carries house, and no one elses house. There are also doctor reports about Carrie and having telekinesis powers. I really enjoy the book and like how they are really developing the character and slowly moving towards a big event where we see Carries powers. She slowly has been able to move things due to a high amount of stress and large amount of emotion, and I believe it will be her mom who pushes her over the edge. Also there has been a lot about her relationship with her mom as a child, but we are yet to see her interact with her mom in the present. It will be interesting to see because it seems like Carrie respects and hates her mom at the same time. Page 50/240

Carrie blog response

The first book I'm reading is Carrie by Stephen King. The most important thing I've read so far has been the opening scene. Carrie, a 16 year old high school girl, gets her period for the first time while in the showers at school. This scene is very important because it sets the stage for who Carrie is and what her powers are. We see the girls taunt and make fun of Carrie as if she is an animal, and this shows how Carrie is an outcast at high school. It also shows the large amount of emotions she bottles inside, and as she lets them out we see odd things start to happen such as light bulbs breaking and objects moving. This foreshadows the telekinesis powers that Carrie might have and also what might cause her to finally break. Page # 21

A Trip to Barnes & Noble

When I first walk into the store I would probably just walk around and see if anything catches my eye. I think the most popular books would probably be on display or out in the open so I would look at those. Then I would try and find a sports section for books and biographies. This would probably be my number one genre of books. Next I would look at the horror books because I like scary novels like Stephen King. By then I should find a book that I like at Barnes & Noble.

Why isn't Mike Vanderjagt Still Kicking In the NFL?

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201101/why-isnt-mike-vanderjagt-still-kicking-nfl

I read an article about recently retired NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt. Mike currently lives down in Florida and works in a pizza place with his brothers. The pizza place is at the very tip of Florida, almost hiding from the world. Mike retired from the NFL in 2008. He has the best field goal percentage of all time. He made 86.5 percent of all of his kicks, missing only 36 field goals in his entire career. Vanderjagt was considered a jerk and very cocky by fans and even players. Mike seemed to walk around as if he was a skilled player and even gave attitude. He is know for giving negative comments about the Colts team saying he didn't see them going anywhere. Peyton Manning, the quarterback of the team, responded harshly to these comments. He called Vanderjagt and drunk and an idiot for saying those things. Although Peyton and Mike have moved on, it ruined Mikes career. Mike has papers proving that he wasn't drunk, and never has been an alcoholic. He hasn't shared the papers with anyone, he just wants the world to know what Peyton said was false. But fans still think beer or drunk when they hear his name. This gave Mike a very bad image. But what a lot of people don't know is how hard he worked to get to where he is. He was cut from multiple colleges and ended up playing football in Canada in the 90's. Colts recruited him, and he ended up leading the team in scoring in 1999. He says even though he walked around with confidence, he always went out on the field thinking if he missed the field goal, he would be cut. Eventually Mike quite after he went from amazing to mediocore, and that wasn't good enough for him. But it seems his comments and Peyton's reaction never left him his whole career. This can be compared to current players such as Michael Vick who was involved with dog fights. Also, Big Ben who has been convicted of multiple sexual assault cases.

Lets Start Paying College Athletes

I read an article called " Lets Start Paying College Athletes", by Joe Nocera. Nocera describes how college basketball and football are huge money making business, yet the college athletes get paid nothing. Together the two college sports generate more than six billion dollars in annual revenue. The coaches of the sports are making hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. Recently signed Ohio State coach, Urban Meyer, signed a $24 million dollar contract. The biggest revenue making element of college sports is march madness. It costs billions of dollars for a TV company to get the rights to broadcast it. CBS just paid $10.8 billion to have the rights to televise march madness. Nocera believes that college athletes, especially football and basketball players, should be paid and he came up with a plan to do it. His plan involves 5 elements. First is that they take a free market approach when recruiting players. They will offer actual contracts to players and let the player decide which college and contract is most appealing. Second is a salary cap and minimum salary per player. He wants $3 million to be available for football team salaries and $650,000 for basketball. The minimum salary per player would be $25,000 dollars. Fourth each college player with receive lifetime health insurance. Fifth a union will be formed for both current and former college athletes.
Two economists named Andy Schwarz and Dan Rascher helped Nocera come up with his idea. They don't agree with the N.C.A.A.'s argument that college sports are amateur and that if it wasn't then it would lose the college brand and lose peoples interest. I agree with the idea of paying college players. I think they are putting way too much time and effort into the sports, to not get money out of it. Also many players could play without the intention to go pro, but the sports can interfere with their other classes and internships that would offer them job opportunities after college. The players getting paid would help with this. Also it could stop the ridiculous strict rules that don't let the players receive any present what soever. I'm not sure how I feel specifically about his 5 rules, but I agree with the general idea of paying the student athletes.

Long reads 1

http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/printthis.php?file=feature2.php&issue=2012-01-01
I read about the death of a boy named Andrew Burd. Andrew was a foster child who was adopted by the Burd family. The mother was named Hannah and the father named Larry. They were very religious and Christian and spent a lot of their lives helping other and going on mission trips. The adopted Andrew and he began to show odd signs. He would always be hungry no matter what and ate and ate. He threw tantrums and became very violent to himself when he wouldn't be fed. The family says multiple times, they refused to give him more food and he would go to the bathroom on the floor and rub the feces all over himself and the house in anger. One Andrew became very ill and started throwing up. He ended up dying the next morning, and the cause was food poisoning. They said that he had 3 times the average amount of salt in his system. The mother was convicted of child abuse and murder. They found bruises on his body, his nose, brain damage, and blaimed it on the mother. Hannah had never hurt a child and never broken the law. The only bad part about her past was her father, who murdered a 16 year old boy. After being in jail, they appealed the case and found that there was insufficient evidence, and a salt poisoning expert thought that is was most likely an accident.
I think that Hannah did it. She seems to have done many missions where she helped kids, but I think it hurt her to know that she couldn't help Andrew. He was out of control, and it seems that she abused him. He had bruises on his body, and bruises on his nose which could show that she held his nose closed while she forced him to eat. I think she could have forced him to eat out of anger of him always being hungry. Also she knew that he had a possible eating disorder, and yet she continued to not let him have seconds or more food, causing him to throw fits where he would rub his feces all over the house and himself. I think this is poor parenting to let her son hurt himself and do that to himself.