Boston suspects intended second attack in Times Square, New York officials say.

Angeles Martinez 

Non-Fiction-Like Post. 

Link: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/25/17914667-boston-suspects-intended-second-attack-in-times-square-new-york-officials-say?lite  

Okay. So everyone here knows about the Boston Marathon thing, right? If you don’t, well, it’s basically there were 2 bombs that went off during the Boston Marathon. About 3 people were killed-an 8 year old boy included. [The poor boy was just waiting for his parent to finish the race…waiting like a good kid at the finishing line…]

Apparently, they had caught the person who had done it. [There were 2 people.] One person died, the other was alive and brought to questioning.

Right now, I have currently finished reading “Boston suspects intended second attack in Times Square, New York officials say.” In this article it says that the brother-yes they were brothers, or so I’ve been informed-the brother who survived, he had admitted that he and his brother had planned to set off 6 bombs, yes you read right, 6 bombs off in Times Square. “The suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, first told investigators that the brothers were headed for New York to party after the marathon blasts, but he said under later questioning that they changed plans on the fly and intended a second attack there, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.”  

I was watching the news before, and it said that these people, their own mother won’t come and see them. Their father, he’s coming to the US to discuss matters, but their mother, she refuses to go to the USA.

I kinda feel bad though. In Social Studies, we were discussing what would it be like to be the President’s Kid. Someone said, it’s like being famous but for no reason. I can’t help but thinking about the mother. I feel bad for her. When you’re the President’s kid, you get pressured and looked at a lot. And the mother here, the news reporters were surrounding her, questioning her about why she won’t go to the US, why she won’t see her son, and all that. I personally feel bad for the mother. She has to be judged on why she won’t see her son, who killed a child, bombed places, admitted to bombing, injured so many people, and just basically is hated by everyone. She’s being judged on what her son did, and it must be hard for her. Since she claims that her son is innocent, she must think-like every other parent-her child couldn’t have done this. ““America took my kids away from me,” she said. “I’m sure my kids were not involved in anything.”” That’s what people who reported this said.

Back to the Times Square thing. In this article it states that the brothers had planned to set off the bomb in Times Square on May 1^st-which of course hasn’t gone off.  The brother who survived though, since he was hurt during the shooting that happened on Friday, he can only write and shake his head when people ask him questions. Though the hospital says he’s in fair condition, he doesn’t seem to be talking. But he writes, writes most of what him and his brother planned to do, where to bomb and all that.

I personally feel bad for everyone here-even the bombers, but not really them so much. I mean, what could have caused them to bomb Boston and possibly Times Square? The mother says “America took my kids away from me.” Well, lady, no offense, but did America really take your children away? Did we tell you to bomb Boston, injuring people and hurting a little boy? Did we tell your son(s) to come to America in the 1^st place? No. We did not. You think they’re innocent? I don’t think so, your own son, he’s writing things down about what and his brother did! I feel bad for you, yes, but, you can’t blame this on America lady. Your children was targeting New York next, they admitted this. I feel bad for you, but, it’s not right blaming America on things your own sons decided to do.

Twisted

 Angeles Martinez 

804

Contains some spoilers.

I have currently finished reading a book called Twisted by Francine Pascal. It’s basically about a girl who…doesn’t fear anything. Not the people trying to kill her like every week, not the people who judge her, and certainly not the girl who will do anything to bring her down, Heather. 

Gaia [the girl who’s Fearless] has most things girls [and probably some boys] want-a killer body, she’s smart as hell, and she can break codes, and fight amazingly-she basically can bring anyone down. But everyone else has what Gaia wants to be the most-to be “normal.” Gaia is known to be a freak, and she doesn’t want to be a freak, she wants to be able to walk down the hallways of her own school and not have people ignore her.   

Personally, I think Gaia can’t really see what she has-like most people on Earth. Okay. before I go into Gaia, I feel like I have to go in deeper to what I mean. So. Let’s take a person for example. Heather. [I just took her name] Heather has everything, a loving boyfriend, awesome grades, “good looks,” amazing and  a lot of friends, her family usually gives her everything she wants. But Heather thinks she doesn’t have anything. It’s not that she’s spoiled [Okay, she might be just a bit, but just like, go with the flow]. See, humans tend to overlook everything they have. They want everything they don’t have. It’s human nature. [Yes, there may be some scientific way for this, but…meh?] everyone wants what they can’t have. It’s like with money, when you have a lot of money you don’t know what you want. but when you don’t have money, you want everything, the coffee that you usually have, the bagel or muffin that you have for breakfast. It really doesn’t make you spoiled though. what I think is that for humans, the reason we don’t appreciate or overlook what we have is well because we think that thing will always be in our lives. I don’t want to sound insensitive but it’s just how it is. Human nature sometimes makes us think that whatever we have will always be in our lives. Like Heather, she always thought her good friends, amazing family, and all those other people who love her, she thought they would always be in her life, so she overlooks them. Everything she doesn’t have, she wants, since it’s something she probably thinks wouldn’t be in her life a long time until she gets it. even if it’s just something as simple as an iPhone. Heather thinks that the iPhone should be in her life to give her happiness, internet, faster-stuff, things like that.

I think Gaia is sort of doing the same. Yes, she’s a “freak” that no one knows how to be friends with-except Ed and Sam [Sam’s complicated but STILL]. Ed Fargo has been Gaia’s friend-best friend really-for a long time. [Um. Like. 4 books is a long time, don’t ya think? :3] He’s been there Gaia for a long time, helping her with things like when people try to murder her like every week or so [People these days…]. And in this book, he helped Gaia when she found out things like oh, um, her date is a serial killer trying to kill a bunch of blondes that look a LOT like Gaia, and when Sam is like, making shit real complicated. Though, Gaia doesn’t seem to making it seem like  a lot. I can’t really blame her. Ed isn’t the type of guy who wants to leave Gaia, and he seems to think she treats him fairly. [Apparently, being noticed by Gaia for him is amazing and heavenly ._.] But it’s Ed…he had another girl of his dreams break his heart and he’s a bit…lonely, so, er, yeah. BUT either way, I feel Gaia is overlooking people like Ed. She doesn’t seem to think he will leave her, she overlooks him. So Gaia, you tough little girl with amazing powers, ya need to be more grateful on who is in your life as your friend, everyone seems to wanna kill ya so…yeah. You can’t overlook people who are actually nice when you’re in a situation like you are in right now. 

Lily of the Nile

Lily of the Nile

Contains some spoilers. 

Has another book mention, also spoilers to that. 

I have currently finished reading a book called Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray. It’s actually a really interesting book-and no it’s not about a girl named Lily living near the Nile River. Its close, sorta, it’s about a girl in Egypt (Where the Nile River is.) her name is Cleopatra Selene.  Cleopatra Selene is the daughter of Cleopatra the 7^th. She has a twin [Alexander Helios] and a little brother [Philadelphus]. All of them are children of the great Mark Antony.  

Everyone probably expects Selene’s life to be all amazing, since she’s the daughter of the great Cleopatra. She’s beautiful, well respected, and she’s part of a great family whose motto is “Win or Die.” But sadly, it’s not so great anymore. It was, for the 1^st 10 years of Selene’s life. But then it turned around. Octavian (Or Augustus, as he’s known later) has finally been able to take over Egypt, as he wanted; he finally brought down the Great Family. But, Cleopatra won’t go down, so in this book she has Selene bring her a snake, to kill her and her two closet servants. She had 2 options though, live and be tortured by Octavian or die peacefully to join her already dead husband. She clearly chose death, though she was sorry for her children for they had already lost her father, lost their kingdom, and now were going to lose her... so, before her mother sent the children away she gave each child a gift; the gift of her “magic” which had helped her rule and a necklace for each child that contained their own proclamation-a saying- inscribed in it. Selene’s necklace and gift changed her instantly and forever for her mother stated she was “The Resurrection.” When Selene left her mother’s presence with her twin brother Helios and younger brother Philadelphus they all knew it would be the last time they ever saw her again. And with that, that was the end of Cleopatra the 7^th.

Of course, I’m not going to just leave it like that. I’m not going to leave it a summary. What I want to bring to the topic is something that keeps bugging in my mind. See, before I read this book, I read “Cleopatra’s Daughter” by another author (this was an awesome book, you guys should read it. c:). Both books basically had the same plot, Cleopatra’s Daughter Selene watching her kingdom get turn all Roman-like, and how she grows up and makes a few changes later.

But there’s something different. In the 1^st book (Cleopatra’s Daughter) Selene was feisty.  She put up a fight in not wanting Egypt turning Roman. She wasn’t going to give in easily to also changing Roman, like the Romans who took her and her brother away-happened in both books. You could see the way she fought every step of the way.

While in “Lily of the Nile” Selene seems to just give in, her brother Alexander is what Selene is in Cleopatra’s daughter, but Selene in this book, she rather live more than the other Selene (Wow, this feels weird and confusing.) Selene in CD (Cleopatra’s Daughter) wanted to live yes, but she didn’t bow down to obey Octavian so she could live. No! She showed him that she could be loyal and wasn’t a threat, but she didn’t give in so easily; the Alexander in LOTN (Lily of the Nile) had been pissed off at her. He wasn’t in CD, he just wanted her to calm down more, but the one in LOTN, his personality is completely different.  It’s as if both twins changed personality. And many little things have also changed; I couldn’t help but point them out in the LOTN while I was reading. For one, Selene was the artistic one! Not Octavian! And Julia-she didn’t like Selene that much and was in love with someone else not one of Selene’s half-brothers. Those were little things, yes, but they bugged me a bit since one story told this and then the other story told that! Ugh! Books why don’t you have the same facts? You confuse me so!

If I had to choose which book would be better though, I would choose the 1^st one. I liked it better when she fought for her roots. I liked it better because it was more…I don’t know how to put it. Of course I love Lily of the Nile, it’s really good but Dray just confused me so much. Maybe if I had read this book before Cleopatra’s Daughter it might be that I liked this book more, I don’t know. I’m also not trying to convince you what book you should like. This is just my opinion. All I’m saying is you should read both books, I would be rather interested in what you think, especially if you thought that Lily of the Nile was better. I guess I like characters who put up more of a fight…another thing I find weird too…I’m not usually a fan of historical-fiction book, but this one, I really like, well both books I really like. Meh. Maybe it’s just me. Just read both books! Tell me what you think!