Killing the Bear

As I read the short story Killing the Bear by Judith Minty, I was reminded by the camping trips I have taken.  I feel like the protagonist wanted to protect her dog.  I would protect my cat with the same defensiveness.  I feel the protagonist idolized bears when she was a child and had teddy bears, but now real bears are a lot wilder.  She is marking down the days of calendar to bear season or marking off the days she hasn’t found any bears.  I feel she was very prepared for a bear attack, but was scared when it actually happened.  I felts like she was using the bear’s death to make money and I was surprised that she turned out to be a hunter, with how scared she was acting.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was called “the only important writer of his generation who was solely a man of letters.”  He was painter as well as a writer.  Pope said Anne Finch is “better than all the other female wits and hence a lonely exception.”  He thought women were limited to “pleasure and power.”  Anne Finch responded to his comment, saying “Men make bad mistakes when they underestimate women’s power.”  Pope was master of style, metrics, language, and satire.  He was controversial and made enemies who wrote criticism of his works in “pamphlets, satires, and squibs in the journals his entire literary career.”  His audience was mostly men, because he was controversial to women.  He was the first write to build a career upon his works.  He wrote satires of women and responded to female authors.  He wrote letters, a mock epic, with a visual imagery of nature.  He moved on to subjects that were “philosophical, ethical, and political.”

Lord Byron

Lord Byron studied lyrical verse in college.  He incorporated the bisexuality of Grecians into many of his poems and into his novel, Don Juan.  He was famous in London.  He gave the royalties away to maintain his status as an aristocratic amateur.  Byron was born into two aristocratic families and supported the Whig party.  He was handsome, had an eating disorder and had affairs with women and men, including his half-sister.  He was ostracized and left England in 1816.    John Pilidori made Byron as the inspiration for the title character in “The Vampyre.”

Addison and Steele

 Joseph Addison and Richard Steele are the first pairs of collaborators I have read from their century.  These friends since childhood, seemed like an odd couple, seemingly polar opposites.  Addison was charming, reserved, calculated, prudent, political, wealthy, and was good at Latin verse.  Steele was impulsive, rakish, imprudent, greedy, in debt, and wrote under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff.  Their goal together, was to establish “a new social literary ethos transcending the narrowness of Puritan morality and the exorbitance of the fashionable court culture of the last century.”  They were innovative in the essays and the fact that Addison was wealthy and a former politician, probably brough them a large audience.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

             Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey “planned to establish and ideal democrat community in America.”  Coleridge went from being a radical to a conservative.  Coleridge collaborated with William Wordsworth and finished some of his poems, after Wordsworth’s death.  He was “repeatedly charged with gross plagiarism” and struggled with an opium addiction.  His friends thought he lacked “applications and staying power,” but had “great promise.”  Mary Shelley was a fan of his work and used one of his stanzas in her book, Frankenstein.  He wrote about political and gothic subjects.    

Finch, Prior, and Swift

    Anne Finch was a Countess of Winchilsea, so she grew up around rich writers.  It didn’t help because at the time women weren’t accepted as writers.  Her audience were probably people with religious education background, other aristocrats, and women.  She wrote poems based on stories of the Bible. 

            Matthew Prior was a diplomat, but a man for the public.  He didn’t belong to aristocracy and that made him more available as a writer.  He was friends with Jonathan Swift.  He found himself in trouble by the law with his job as Secretary to the Embassy.  He was a successful writer and made a lot of money, because he appealed to the general public.  His writing was simple to read, while being brilliant.  His poems are self-explanatory, and he wrote as a lyricist while writing satire and epigraphs. 

            Jonathan Swift was clergyman for the Anglican Church and was against anything that threatened his faith.  He had Meniere’s disease in his adult life.  He was the master of Prose.  He believed in “Proper words in proper places.”  He reminds me of Wilmot in his satire.  Although he was a man of faith, he was controversial.  He even wrote a piece called “Argument against the Abolishing of Christianity in England.”  His audience were probably people who were anti-Catholic and believed in separation of church and state. 

The Mother

I had to read Lynn's criticism of the short story, The Mother. I like when Lynn explains to us what he thinks new criticism is, and that we should only use and examine the words the author has written, instead of the author’s background, time period, or reasons for writing what he or she did.

I like the way he goes through line by line, and takes notes, calculating what it means and how some lines contradict others. I liked how he set up the guidelines for shaping our essays, brainstorming ideas to write about, and drafting your critique of someone’s writing.

When he writes, “It [abortions] can’t make “you” remember or keep “you” from forgetting” in note A, the critic seems to believe that the mother is haunted by her decisions. I also agree with the critic, when he wonders “if your child is not living, is that person still considered a mother?” I like how he wants us to look at the intent of the characters and what is important about what they are telling us.

Like the critic, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was little confused by the line “you got that you did not get.” He writes “Either you got them or you didn’t, it would seem.” It got me thinking of what that sentence means and I think it means that speaker has hope for the children who she aborted, and hopes they got a second chance at a new life somewhere else.

The critic asks us to examine why the poem is called a certain title, like this one is called “The Mother,” even if it is about her abortions. My initial response was that the author wants us to believe she is the Mother of guilt or regrets, but now reading through this critique, one reason for the title being “The Mother” is to refer to her being the mother and letting the readers to know it was a female telling the story, and not the father.

I like when he wrote, “It’s fine if your ideas aren’t similar to those above. In fact, it’s great because I would certainly be bored if everyone thought the same things.” Anybody who critiques a poem isn’t going to have the same set of notes. People think of different things when they read something, and none of the thoughts we have are good or bad, they are just unique.

I thought it was interesting when he asks us to think, “What holds it together?” referring to the poem. He basically says to examine the work and it is okay to ask questions. I like how he sets up a basic formula when drafting your essay from your notes, and the notes in the margin.

Like the critic, I also thought the mother was dividing herself in half, “as a murderer and a murder.” I agree when reading poems we need to develop a theory and a thesis of what we think the poems means, and give several reasons why we think what we think about it.

Usually when I write a paper on someone’s writing, I try to be objective in my response and look at both sides of the equation. I think with this certain poem, if you’re Pro-Life, you should look at it like someone who is Pro-Choice, and vice versa. I think when critiquing, you need to develop a different feels for the writing from all of the issues. I feel like the author of this critique did the same. I feel like the critic also didn’t put a personal stance of the mother’s decisions. I think you have to remain neutral and look at both sides of the issue like he did.

In conclusion, I think this critique of “The Mother” will be very helpful to me when I do the other assignments on other poems, because he set up a formula to follow. There wasn’t much I didn’t like about his critique, besides some of his notes that I commented on above. He did give reasons for why he wrote what he did that I didn’t agree with, and made me think more about the concepts with a different perspective.

Critical Approaches to Literature

Gidget by Frederick Koehner
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Summer Semester Begins

I just started summer semester at Weber State, and I will be a junior at the end of this semester. I'm taking three English classes (British Lit: Neoclassical/Romantic, Critical Approaches to Literature, Structure of English) and it will last 8 weeks. I have to say that I like how short it was compared to other semesters (15 weeks).

Young Adult Literature

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Beauty by Robin McKinley
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Clique by Lisi Harrison
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
Jake Reinvented by Gordon Korman
Kit's Wilderness by David Almond
A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird
Prom by Laurie Halse Andrson
Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle
Shooter by Walter Dean Myers
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Uglies by Scott Westerfield
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

California

On Friday, we drove to Las Vegas where we stayed at the La Quinta next to Nellis Air Force Base. For dinner, we went to the pizzeria at Circus Circus and shopping at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, which are two traditions of ours.

On Saturday  we woke up and had breakfast at our hotel. We then drove to Costa Mesa, California. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel by the John Wayne Airport.  We ate at El Torito, which the best Mexican restaurant in California.

On Sunday, we went to the O.C. Swap Meet. After the swap meet, we went to church, which meets right next to the Newport Temple. For dinner, we ate at the Crab Cooker and then walked down the pier.

On Monday, we went to Disneyland. We went on Indiana Jones adventure, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Astro Blasters, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Mark Twain Riverboat, Storybook Land Canal Boats, and the Jungle Cruise. We ate lunch at the French Market in New Orleans square which has really good clam chowder in bread bowls. After we left the park, we walked through Downtown Disney. For dinner, we went to Taco Bell, before driving back up to Anaheim to our new hotel.

On Tuesday, we drove back to Las Vegas, with a stop at the Prymm Outlet Mall. We stayed at Circus Circus and went shopping at the new Town Square Mall and the Disney Outlet Store.

Norah Jones

A Little Piece of Ground

A Little Piece of Ground is the first book I've read by Elizabeth Laird. I have never lived outside of Utah, but I have traveled out of the country to the Caribbean and Mexico. This book gave me the sense that living in the Middle East is scary, because of the constant terrorism. The protagonist of the book is a 12 year old boy named Karim who lives in Palestine, during the Arab-Israeli conflict. This book reminded me of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, because of the child surrounded by war. Like Liesel in The Book Thief escapes by reading books, Karim escapes by playing soccer. He and his friends just want to play soccer, but they have a curfew based on the invading soldiers.

On page 61, Karim is silently screaming about the suicide bomber, calling him a "hero." When he is rooting for a suicide bomber, his sense of value for the human life is tarnished. Abu Fiesal tells Karim war "is not simple." Karim's actions show he doesn't understand the threat of war around him and gains a better understanding by the end of the book. He seems very unbalanced, but brave. I think the war would drive anyone crazy. I thought it was sweet of Karim to take care of the kittens in the field, and it was sad to read Ginger getting run over by a tank.

The book gave good insight into how the Iraqis feel about soldiers being in their country. I can understand the frustration Karim and his friends are feeling. The book's writing is slow paced, because the author was overly descriptive. The ending seemed flat, although it is reassuring that Karim's final words are "We'll survive," showing hope for the future.

Bunyan, Butler, Wilmot, and Dryden

             I have been reading John Dryden’s poems for my English class and he is so doom and gloom, constantly talking about judgement day, how justice will be passed who don’t follow the rulers or God.  His poems seem full of vengeance and they are depressing, because is he of the Puritan faith.

            John Bunyan is similar to John Dryden’s writing, but a little lighter.  He focuses on God’s wrath, but he also writes about God’s love.  Bunyan grew up poor and saw both sides of God equally, while Dryden grew up rich.

            Samuel Butler is a very visual writer.  He takes you through the scene is trying to set. 

John Wilmot is an anarchist, antireligious, and the most  risqué out of the four authors.    His writing is full of satire and not full of doom.  He was brave for questioning authority and making fun of people in charge. 

The Giver

The Giver is the second book I have read by Lois Lowry. I read her book, Number the Stars, when I was in Elementary school and it is one of my favorite books. When I started reading The Giver, I hoped it would be as good as Number the Stars and it met my expectations. 

The Giver is about a 12 year old boy named Jonas who lives in a society where there is no sex, no war, no pain, no aging, and no crime. Jonas is given the task of becoming the receiver of memories from the past, where there is currently no snow, sunlight, colors, or love. Jonas was a very believable twelve year old and I don't think he could have survived in this dystopia and be sane. I found the plot reminded me of The Tripod series by John Christopher and Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, with all their teenage protagonists leaving a dystopian world for freedom. The writing is fast paced and I liked the open ending, which shows hope for happiness.

Jake, Reinvented

Jake, Reinvented is the first book I have read by Gordon Korman and I thought it was an okay story. The narrator is Rick, a senior in high school and football player. He tells us the story of Jake Garrett, a newcomer to his school who instantly becomes popular. Jake throws a party every week for his teammates on the football team. After two weeks, Jake is Rick's new BFF. Rick learns Jake used to be a nerdy math tutor for a girl named Didi, when he was a sophomore. Jake moved to a different school and reinvented persona, so Didi would go out with him. Didi does notice him but she already has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend Todd is jealous and tries to bring Jake down a notch. Through Jake, Rick realizes his true feelings for his friend Jennifer and realizes Todd is a jerk. The writing is fast paced, but the ending is flat. I wanted more development from these characters. This book teaches you can't expect happiness coming from other people.

Prom

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a senior in high school named Ashley, who could care less about Prom.  She is ready to move in with her drug dealing boyfriend and ready to leave high school behind.  When the math teacher steals all the money for prom, Ashley helps her best friend Natalia plan a new prom.  She is not allowed to attend because of too many disciplinary problems and library fines.  So, Ashley has to decided whether to stay home or sneak into a prom she worked hard to plan. 

Beauty

Beauty by Robin McKinley is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  It focuses on how Beauty grows up with two sisters, Hope and Grace, and how they ended up involved with the beast.  The beast demands one of the daughters in return for their father picking a rose, and he sends Beauty to him, because the other two sisters are married.

Dreamland

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen is about a sixteen year old girl named Caitlin O’Koren.  Her sister runs off to New York City and leaves Caitlin devastated, with no contact.  Caitlin would rather live in her dreams than live for real during the day.  She starts dating an abusive drug dealer and is ignored by her parents.  She gets addicted to the drugs as well.

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman is a controversial book.  They say everyone has daemon attached to them, in the form of animal.  The villains are called Gobblers, who are people taking children to the North to separate them from their daemons. 

Historical Fiction

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz
• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King
• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
• Kit's Wilderness by David Almond
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Pearl Harbor 1941 by Nancy Holder
• Sarah's Key by Tatianna De Rosnay
• Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
• The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• Witch Child by Celia Rees
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Fantasy Reading List

Alice in Wonderland by Louis Carroll
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and The Beast by Robin McKinley
The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
Golden Compass
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Matched by Ally Condie
Miss Peregrines: Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Night Circus by Erin Morgestern
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.F. Baum
Watership Down by Richard Adams
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

The Kiesha'ra Series

The Kiesha’ra Series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is about two shape shifters, named Danica and Zane, who come from two enemy families.  They have to get married to bring peace to their kingdoms. 

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

 True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi is an adventure story.  Charlotte reminds me of Elizabeth Swan in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Charlotte is young girl who has to sell on her father’s pirate ship from Europe to America.  She is heroine when the crew declares mutiny on the captain. 

Kit's Wilderness

 Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond is a fantasy adventure story.  Kit and his friends play a game called Death, where they take turns, pretending they are dead and have left their bodies.  After playing the game, Kit feels something supernatural and he starts seeing the ghosts of his ancestors who died in the mines.  

Into the Wild

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst is a fantasy adventure book with a clever concept.  I love fairy tales.  The protagonist is 12 year old Julie who lives in a world where fairy tale creatures exist.  Her mother is Rapunzel, her grandmother is a witch, and her cat is Puss in Boots.  Her father is a prince who was killed helping Rapunzel escape the forest.  They have the seven dwarfs over to her house for dinner a lot.  The fairy tale creatures who have escaped the Wild, have to repeat their stories over and over because of a supernatural object.  Julie has to go rescue her family out of the Wild.

The Clique Series

 The Clique by Lisi Harrison is similar to its young adult predecessors such as Gossip Girl and The A-List.  All three series deal with mean girls.  This one doesn’t have the graphic language and sex the other two do.  This one is for middle school girls and how hard junior high is.  I was picked on a lot in junior high because this is the development stage between the maturity of a kid and the maturity of an adult. 

The Chocolate War

 The Chocolate War by Robert Comier definitely measures up to his other books, After the First Death and Tenderness.  Cormier has an interesting writing style and writes about problems other authors don’t dare to write about.  What starts out as a hazing ritual after refusing to sell fundraiser chocolates ends in a brutal beating.  I had to sell chocolates while I was in junior high and they weren’t very good so I doubt people would buy them if it wasn’t to support the school.  I liked how Jerry was able to stand his ground surrounded by peer pressure.  It made it seem like all the teachers at the school were menacing. 

Shooter

 Shooter by Walter Dean Myers is a very sad book about because of similar events that have happened at Columbine, Virginia Tech and even as close to us at Trolley Square in Salt Lake.  The book is very relatable and the characters are believable.  The ending shows us we need to help people overcome obstacles. 

Whale Talk

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is about a high school senior named T.J. Jones, who struggles with racism, bullying, society, anger, and fear. He is adopted and lives with his foster parents. His mother is a lawyer and his dad is stuck on a day when he accidentally ran over his girlfriend's son with his truck.

Because of his mixed heritage, he is discriminated against a lot by his peers. There are two men in the book named Mike and Rich, who make T.J.'s life harder in and out of school. T.J. has to control his anger a lot through out the book, because of the actions of these two men. T.J.'s dad always advises him to take "Not one minute for revenge."

T.J. joins the swim team and finds solace with the other outcast members. Being on the team, bonds the boys, and makes them feel like they belong somewhere. The boys look up to T.J.

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle by Stephen Dunning is book of poetry and photographs. The poems are short and easy to read. The poems have a broad range of subjects and interesting styles. Books like this one are helpful to get young adults to like poetry.

Feed

Feed by M.T. Anderson is about a group of teenagers. A boy named Titus is described as gorgeous, because his parents modeled him after a popular actor. He had has the Feed all his life, which is a microchip run by a corporation, hooked into his brain, giving him access to the Internet and television. He and his friends don't even think for themselves, relying on the Feed for instant gratification.

Titus' girlfriend Violet didn't grow up with the Feed, but her parents bought one out peer pressure. Titus is surprised when Violet wants to talk about current events and is able to hand write notes instead of just sending it as an I.M. The other teens think Violet is weird and when she challenges them, they call her names.

The book presents the dilemma of growing technology, capitalism, and knowledge. Except for Violet, there is not a lot of character development. The other kids are so addicted to the Feed, they are the same at the end.

Speak

I first read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson about five years ago and recently read it again for my Young Adult Literature class. I have read several of Anderson's other books, so I am familiar with her writing style, which is descriptive and sharp.

Melinda Sordino, the main character, doesn't talk to anyone. After a horrific event at a summer party, every one at school is mad at her for calling the cops. Her three best friends dropped her as a friend. These three friends and Melinda's parents are too involved in their own lives to notice Melinda's pain and change of personality. Melinda spends most of her time, drawing and painting, with the help of friendly teacher, Mr. Freeman. Melinda learns through her experiences, everyone should find their voice and make sure they are heard.

Uglies

Uglies is the first book in the quadrilogy by Scott Westerfeld. The book is written in third person, but the main character is a sixteen year old girl named Tally Youngblood. In her world, there are Uglies and Pretties. When someone turns sixteen, the are able to get three operations to make them into Pretties. All the Pretties live in their own compound, don't have to work, and shun the Uglies.

Tally is really excited to turn pretty and can't understand why her friend Shay wants to run away to Smoke, a town full of runaway Uglies. When Shay disappears, Tally is blackmailed by Dr. Cable to find Smoke and the missing Uglies, or else the doctor won't let her have the surgeries.

The first couple of chapters seemed to drag on, but then the pace picks up. The books shows that no matter where you live or in what decade, people will problems with self image. It shows how far some people will go to look perfect in every way, very reminiscent of the Hollywood mindset. The only time we hear of Tally's parents is when they come to her dorm for her birthday. I think this book would be appropriate for any read who has a problem with body image.

The Book Thief

This is the first book I've read by Markus Zusak. He has a German mother so she must have sparked his interest in Nazi Germany and two of his books (including this one) have been chosen as Michael L. Prinze award Honor winners.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, is narrated by Death and tells the story of girl named Liesel who lives in Nazi Germany with her foster parents. Liesel steals books and takes care a Jewish man named Max hiding in the basement of her house. Her foster mother Rosa is very stern disciplinarian and her foster father Hans is a kind teacher. Max draws and writes stories for her to read. Liesel spend most of the time reading and dreaming about her dead brother while the war is at her doorstep. The Mayor's wife lets her steal books from her house and makes her cookies, because Liesel reminds her of her dead son.

I thought Liesel and her parents are believable. Liesel was very brave and matured greatly in the three years the book takes place. This book would be appropriate for all young adults and I would recommend it to any reader who has read books about the Holocaust before.

Carnival Triumph

This was my fifth cruise. I have previously cruised on the Spirit, Inspiration, Victory, and The Valor. My parents have been on the Paradise, Elation, and Monarch of the Seas. We flew from Salt Lake City to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday night and stayed at the Plantation Hotel. It was a dive. Don't stay there. We rented a car at Alamo.


Saturday Oct 20

We drove to Miami and dropped the car off at Alamo. We took the Alamo shuttle to the seaport. Since my mom has to be in wheelchair because she has Multiple Sclerosis, we got to the front of the line and were on board by 1:30 pm. We stayed in cabin 8278 on the Veranda deck, but we prefer the Rivera deck, because it doesn't rock as much. We had the 6:15 dining time and were at table 173 in the London dining room. We sat with a couple from Texas, and a couple from Missouri. Our head waiter was Yudi, and he was very friendly. Each night he called us by our names and was very fast and helpful. This was the first dining room, where the lights only dimmed and didn't blink. After dinner, I went to watch TRIVIA: SOMETHING ABOUT NOTHING hosted by the social host Chris. After trivia, there was Latin DANCE CLASS to the song "Copacabana" taught by one of the male dancers. After that we watched GAME SHOW MANIA hosted by social hosts Chris and Amanda. Then we saw the WELCOME ABOARD SHOW, where we met the cruise director Brad Calabrese, the singers, the dancers, the Assistant cruise director Bonnie, and the other social hosts Paula and Murie. The comedian Mike Panzeca was hilarious.

Sunday Oct 21

After breakfast on the Lido Deck, we went to TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE TALK hosted by Brad, since we had never been to Grand Turk before. THE NEWLYWED NOT SO NEWLYWED SHOW was quite interesting. For the first time in the five cruises I've been on, a same sex couple was chosen in the drawing for the newlyweds. This was the first formal night. I tried the Spaghetti Carbonara in the dining room, and it was very good. WONDERFUL WORLD is the better of the two shows. This was also the first night that we smelled the sewage smell that I have read about in the reviews. It's mostly in the Lounge and the decks surrounding the Lounge.


Monday Oct 22

In the morning we went to MUSIC TRIVIA, SEA FUED, and IN THE BAG. We were in SAN JUAN from 5 to 12, so we just got off the boat for a couple of hours and went shopping near the port. Since we were during the evening, the dining room was open seating from 5:30 to 8:30. We went to the Austin Powers DANCE CLASS taught by one of the female dancers. The show was Grammy nominated vocalist CECIL PARKER.


Tuesday Oct 23

We arrived in ST THOMAS from 8 to 6, so we took a cab to Red Hook, and then took a ferry over to St. John. We sat on the beach while my dad snorkeled at Trunk Bay. When we got on the ferry to go back to ST. Thomas, it started pouring. Then we went shopping in Havensight. The NEW WAVE MAGIC show starring Kevin &Caruso was okay. I had seen several of their tricks before.


Wednesday Oct 24

At the SHOPPING TALK for Grand Turk, Bruce seemed to giving the freebies to people in the fifth row in the middle, or the sides in the front. We all got a free Del Sol plastic ring on our way out. The LOVE & ROMANCE GAME was hosted by Amanda. The BATTLE OF THE SEXES was hosted by Chris. I skipped the HYPNOTIST SHOW, but my dad went and he said the one last year on the Valor was better.

The ship was decorated for the M&M's sponsored Halloween Deck Party and there were ghosts, pumpkins, black cats, and a castle background for pictures. The guests and crew had some interesting costumes, such as a towel animal, togas, Zorro, and a devil with cereal boxes around their neck on beads.

Thursday Oct 25

We were in Grand Turk from 7 to 5:30. We signed up for the ISLAND BUS LOOP "THE GUANA" in Grand Turk, which took us to the Grand Turk Lighthouse and the Her Majesty's Prison. It wasn't worth the money. The bus comes by every fifteen minutes to pick you up, since the island is only 7 or 8 miles long. The bus driver said most of the resorts are on Provencales, but they are building two in Grand Turk. This was the second formal night. The show CENTURY CAFÉ was good, but not as good as the other one.

Friday Oct 26

The DEBARKATION TALK with Brad was at 11 am and he told us his list of the top 10 funniest questions asked by guests. The social host Amanda was one of four employees of the month. At the CRAZY LIDO PARTY, Murie, Chris, and Amanda taught us the Cupid Shuffle, the Ketchup dance, and the Mississippi slide. They also had Carnival Color games. The LIAR'S CLUB was hosted by Bonnie. Amanda, Brad, and Chris were the panel. They brought up 4 guests at a time and had them determine which one was saying the real definition of not often heard words such as lavacan, fullfart, pudd, and erectarine. GAME SHOW MANIA II was hosted by Murie and Chris. CARNIVAL LEGENDS was better this year than last. Brad was Dolly Parton. Chris was Cher and Ashley, the karaoke host, was Sonny. They had guests playing Gloria Estefan, Frank Sinatra, Ricky Martin, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Garth Brooks, Elvis Presley, and Britney Spears.

Saturday Oct 27

This Debarkation was the worst one I have ever experienced. We were number 30 group and had to wait till 11:10 am to get off the ship. We didn't get out of the terminal until an hour later. Since our flight didn't leave till the next morning, we were going to go to the Bayside Mall, but it costs 10 dollars to park as the minimum. So we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and went to the Sawgrass Mills Mall and went to Sonny's BBQ for dinner.

Orlando

On September 15th, we flew to Orlando, via Denver. We stayed in a condo in Kissimmee. Our condo is pretty nice. I have my own bedroom, bathroom, and sitting room.

On September 16th, we went to Animal Kingdom. We saw Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo:The Musical, and rode the Kilimanjaro Safari. After our nap, we went to Epcot. Rode the Living Seas with Nemo and Soarin'.

On September 17th, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We saw Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and The Enchanted Tiki Room, and rode the People Mover, It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

On September 18th, Mom and I stayed in the condo while Dad went to his conference. When he came back, we went to Carrabbas for dinner and then went shopping at Downtown Disney.

On September 19th, we went to the Florida Mall, Chick-Fil-A, and Wal-Mart.

On September 20th, we went to the Lake Buena Vista Outlets, Sonny's BBQ, Old Town, and then it started raining.

On September 21st, we went to MGM studios.

On September 22nd, we flew home.

Jackson Hole

We got back yesterday from a family reunion in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The family reunion was for my mom's side of the family.  We stayed at the Virginia Lodge.

On Thursday, we drove to Grand Teton National Park and went to the Colter Bay Lodge and gift shop. That night, we went to the Bar J Ranch for dinner and watched their program.

On Friday, we all met at the Alpine Slide. Then we went over to the park near by. After our nap, we went shopping in the shops next to the Town Square. For dinner, we met at the park. That night, we went and saw "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. It was fun, except we were on the front row, so they picked on us.

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My Celebrity Look-A-Likes

Maui

My family and I were in Maui from May 5-May 12. We had a good time. We visited Haleakala National Park and did the road to Hana, which made me sick. We went to Big Beach, Hookipa Beach, Kaanapali Beach, Lahaina Beach and Koki Beach. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe, Royal Lahaina Resort Luau, Fred's Mexican Cafe, and BJ's Chicago Pizzeria. We went shopping at Queen Kaahumanu Center, Lahaina Front Street, Shops at Wailea, Whalers Village Mall, Lahaina Cannery Mall, and the Kahului Saturday Swap Meet.

Grease: You're the One That I Want!

Including the songs from Grease, here are the songs they performed on the show.

• "All By Myself" by Celine Dion
• "All That Jazz" from Chicago
• "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley
• "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from The Lion King
• "Can't Help Fallin' in Love" by Elvis Presley
• "Don't Know Much" by Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt
• "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston
• "Ease on Down the Road" from The Wiz
• "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross
• "Faith" by George Michael
• "The First Cut is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow
• "Fun, Fun, Fun" by The Beach Boys
• "Hard to Handle" by Otis Redding
• "Heaven" by Bryan Adams
• "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
• "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett
• "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)"
• "It Takes Two" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
• "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol
• "Phantom of the Opera" from The Phantom of the Opera
• "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison
• "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder
• "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall
• "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams
• "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar
• "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley
• "Take that Look Of Your Face" from Tell Me on a Sunday
• "These Boots are Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra
• "Walkin' in Memphis" by Marc Cohn
• "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Diana Ross
• "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes
• "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin
• "You're Still the One" by Shania Twain
• "(You're the) Devil in Disguise" by Elvis Presley

Las Vegas

I just got back from Las Vegas last night. My parents and I stayed at the Palms. I haven't been to that hotel since they put the Fantasy tower in. The pools hanging over the edge of your floor, sure would be scary to swim in. It would feel like the pool could drop at any minute. We stayed in the Palms tower.

My Mom and I went shopping a lot. We went to three different malls. I prefer the Meadows Mall, though. My Mom nearly bought the whole Disney store. She collects disney beanies, antenna toppers, and figures. It was kind of funny to see her lap full of stuff almost to her chin, while she was sitting in her wheelchair.

We saw "Santa Clause 3" at the Brenden theatre in the hotel and I liked it. The next movie I really want to see is "The Holiday."

It's a lot warmer in Las Vegas than it is here, a 30 degree difference. I'm glad it snowed here while we were gone, and has now stopped.

Carnival Valor

Day 1 Sunday

My Dad, Mom, and I flew in on Saturday night into Ft. Lauderdale and stayed at the Yankee Trader, which has an oceanview. We returned our rental car in Miami, and took the bus from Alamo to the port. Embarkation was breeze. My mom has Multiple Sclerosis and with her having her wheelchair, we got to use V.I.P. line. So most of the time was spent waiting for the elevator. The ship is gorgeous. The flags are a little duller in color than the pictures I've seen and I really like the eagles on the columns. Our Cabin was on the Riviera deck room 1439. I'm used to sleeping on this deck, because it doesn't rock as much as the upper ones. For lunch, we went up to Rosie's Restaurant on Lido Deck. I had the chocolate raspberry pie, and it was delicious. We waited for the second announcement of the muster drill, before we went up. It wasn't bad. After the muster drill, we went up to the Lido Deck for the sail away and listened to the band Eclypse play.

We were at the 6:15 pm seating in the Lincoln Dining Room at table 110. There were only us 3 at a table for 8 the whole entire cruise. Our waiters were Felix and Maryna. After such horrible service on the Victory last year, it was great to finally have some good service. For dinner I had the fruit, a Caesar salad, the Chicken ala Grecque, and the Apple Mousse cake. The first night our dinner was tad ruined because of the drunk lady at the table across from us who kept yelling and laughing the entire time. There was a couple next to them at a single table that asked to be moved, because of her.

My dad checked his bill after he ordered our shore excursions and found a bill for $5.18 in the Bronx bar that he didn't make. He went to the purser's desk to complain, and the lady told him it would be gone off his bill by the end of the week when they verified the signatures on the receipts.

Welcome Aboard Show was good. The Cruise Director is Brett Alans, the assistant cruise director is Kelly, and the social hosts are Dan, Charlotte, and Alan. They had the dancers and the singers do an act and they had a comedian named Michael Macy, who was the best of the three comedians we saw. After the show we went up to Lido deck for some ice cream for my parents and some hot chocolate for me.


Day 2 Monday

For breakfast every morning I had a muffin and some strawberry yogurt. I figured I'd be eating more for dinner, so I wanted to keep Breakfast a light meal. My mom and dad are a big fan of the omelet bar.

When we docked in Nassau, we went to the straw market and then took a taxi over to the Atlantis. It's better take a regular taxi than a water taxi, because you have to walk a couple of blocks if you take the water taxi, whereas the land taxis drop you off in front of the hotel. The Atlantis was really pretty and neat to see after seeing it a lot on television and in movies. When we got back to the pier we went to Hard Rock Café for some t-shirts and then went back to the straw market, and my dad bought a watch. We went to get back on board, my dad realized he must have knocked his sail and sign card out of his pocket reaching for his sunglasses. So my mom had to verify him with the security guard. My dad had to go to the Purser's Desk and get him to print him a new one.

For lunch, we went up to the Fish and Chips bar and the fish is really good. In the American Lobby, Alan hosted the cornhole contest, which is throwing beanbags through a hole cut out in a ramp.

For formal night, we got our pictures taken with the stairs from Titanic backdrop. For dinner I had the prime rib and the strawberry bisque. The show was the "Nightclub Express." The singers were Penny and Lawrence. Penny was the singer when we went on the Victory last year. Lawrence was the better of the two. The dancers are incredible.

Day 3 Tuesday

It was a first day at sea. In the morning Brett did a Travel Talk for St. Thomas and St. Maarten. For Lunch I had a roast beef on a baguette from the deli and it was good. In the American Lobby, Alan hosted Name that Tune and Dan hosted Battle of the Sexes: Beat the Clock. It was funny, and the Men won. Since there weren't a lot of chairs, people kept standing in front of our booth. It would have been better if it were hosted in the Ivanhoe Lounge. For dinner I had the fruit cocktail, a Caesar salad, the Penne Mariscos, and the Raspberry Vanilla Cake. The Raspberry Vanilla cake has real raspberries in it. Our travel agent Charlie from Rainbow Travel called our room and met us at our table, because we had never met him in person before. The show a couple of comedians. One that was a mime, and juggled. The other was the winner of the Carnival comedy contest, who has cerebral palsy, and was pretty funny at the beginning of his act, but ended rather uneventful.

Day 4 Wednesday

When we docked in St. Thomas, we had to go up to the One Small Step disco for immigration. Then we got off the ship and went to the Havensight Mall for shopping. While we were shopping, it started pouring. We went on the Coral World tour. We had to meet for our tour in the disco at 12:30. It was very interesting seeing the turtles, the sharks, the fish, the stingrays, and the reefs. It was good for people who like to snorkel, but don't like to get wet.

After we got back on board, we went and got some pizza from the lido deck. It's always good. Then when I was taking a nap, I heard some noise that sounded like hammering coming from deck 0. For dinner had the Farfalle with Turkey and Peas, and the warm chocolate melting cake. The chocolate cake is the menu every night, under alternatives, and is one of the best desserts they offer.

The show as supposed to be a singer, but couldn't fly in due to engine trouble and ended up in Bermuda instead. So they grabbed Glenn Miller, the hypnotist from the Elation and he did the show instead. Glenn had people making out with Alien dolls, being Victoria's Secret models, members of the Village People, impersonating Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, and men hiding balloons under their clothing. It was hilarious. My dad liked it so much, he went to both shows. The only bad thing was the Glenn told people if they came and visited his table where he was selling his hypnosis CDs, they would get a 50 dollar bill. Too bad his CDs are $100 a piece.

Day 5 Thursday

I was up all night sick, because the ship was rocking so badly. I had to put on my motion sickness bracelets I usually only wear on the airplane. That's the first time in 4 cruises, I have gotten sick. So I was really tired when we docked in St. Maarten.

We took the St. Maarten Island Tour. It was supposed to leave at 9 am, but we had to wait 15 minutes for two people who never showed, so we left without them. To make up for the tour guide gave 15 extra minutes in Marigot to shop. We also stopped at lookout point. When we took this tour 3 years ago, it also had a stop in Phillipsburg at the beginning, not just at the end.

In the afternoon My Dad went on the Pinel Island Snorkeling Tour. Even though Brett said it was the best snorkeling in St. Maarten, he said he only saw 3 kinds of fish and it wasn't worth the money.

For dinner, I had the rigatoni, a Caesar salad, vegetarian Lasagna, and New York Cheesecake. I like all of them. The show was supposed to be a singer and a comedian, but the comedian couldn't fly in because of weather conditions. So Brett did a card trick and tried to get one of his parrots to talk, but all it said was hi. Yolanda Barber, the singer was very good. She sang songs from Motown like Marvin Gaye, and Gladys Knight. She even got Lawrence, the singer in the two Vegas shows to sing "Ain't No Mountain High." There was a guy in the audience named Bob who kept trying to dance with Yolanda when she was singing in the aisle. He was hysterical.


Day 6 Friday

In the morning they had Trivial Pursuit Trivia, Sea Feud, the Morning Show Live, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The Sea Feud is family feud, and it was a bit hectic, because they had 15 teams of six, and if they knew the answer, everyone from their team had to jump up and yell out their team name and answer. The Morning Show Live had Q and A with Kelly and Brett was interesting. We learned that the crew has 28-day menu, what the dancers' jobs are beside the shows, and the boat has enough fuel for 2 weeks.

In the afternoon, Brett hosted the Newlywed Game and Deal or No Deal Bingo. The Deal or No Deal Bingo was pretty fun. It ranged from a penny to $1000. The lady got $250, even though the deal she took was $50. I thought that was nice of them. She had a dollar in her case. After that Kelly, the assistant cruise director hosted "The Great Game Show," which is 3 rounds of 3 people answering questions from song clips.

It was also the second formal night. I had the Bing cherry soup, a Caesar salad, the surf and turf, and the caramelized apples on a pastry. The surf and turf is shrimp and filet mignon. I didn't care for the dessert. I wish I had gotten the Grand Marnier Soufflé instead. Our travel agent Charlie from Rainbow Travel bought us all sodas in the dining room, so that was nice of him.

The show was "Far From Over" and it was tribute to 1980's, which included Madonna, Pee-Wee Herman, and the Eurhythmics. I wish that it had some songs from INXS, Duran Duran, or the Go-Gos, but it was still good. I ordered a virgin Raspberry Daiquiri before the show started and when I went to drink it; it tasted weird like cough syrup. That was my first taste of alcohol, and since I am a Mormon, that is a bad thing. LOL. So I had to wait for the waiter to come back so I could exchange it for one with no alcohol. It was on the receipt correctly, but the A was missing in the N/A.


Day 7 Saturday

In the morning they had Entertainment Trivia, Win a Cruise Bingo, and the Debarkation Talk. In Bingo, there were two finalists, so they had to draw a ball from the machine, and who got the highest number won the cruise. Brett gave the person who got the lower number a set of free watches from the gift shop.

In the shops today they had 2 for $30 Carnival Valor t-shirts. I bought a couple and a blue lanyard to put my house keys on. While we were waiting in line, we overheard a man telling the gift shop employee he was mad they didn't have wine for sell in the gift shop. She said if he wanted to buy some, he would have to go to the dining room.

Lunch was the chocolate buffet. They had fondue, different chocolate cakes with fruit, and milkshakes. I got some chocolate cheesecake and it was good.

In the afternoon it started raining. In the Ivanhoe Lounge they had a Saturday Night Fever Dance Class and Dan host the Love, Sex, and Romance quiz.

For dinner I had the mango soup, a Caesar salad, the chicken fettuccini, and the lemon crème brulee. Our waiters Felix and Maryna signed our Valor picture for us. My dad gave Maryna some extra money, because every time we saw her outside of the dining room and in port she would come and say hello to us.

Since "Legends" show didn't start till 10:30 pm., they had a couples dance class, big band music, and coverall bingo to fill up the 8:30 show time. The couples dance class was the cha-cha and they were dancing to the song "Smooth" by Santana. During which my Dad complained to the Purser's Desk again, because the drink charge was still on his bill. They gave him a bill dispute form to fill out.

"Legends" was okay. There were a couple of good singers, but the rest not so much. The legends people had to audition for were Madonna, Britney Spears, Elton John, Elvis, Garth Brooks, Ricky Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Gloria Estefan. They had two girls from the crew dressed as Sonny & Cher and It was really funny seeing Brett, the cruise director dressed up as Dolly Parton.



Day 8 Sunday

Debarkation is the worst part of the cruise. It's bad because you have to get off the ship and go home, and it's bad because you have to start carrying luggage around again. They need 3 lines out each door rather than 1 line that wraps around the entire building. We got off the ship at 9:05 am and then didn't get through with customs till 9:45 am.


In conclusion, I liked this ship and enjoyed this cruise a lot. I thought the dining room service was great and I thought the crew was friendly. I also liked the islands we visited and the entertainment was good.