Emily Z's Blog

The other day, I had been having a bad morning. Many random things annoyed me, and it felt like nothing had gone the right way. I had not gotten much sleep the night prior, because I had had a bad headache. Then, second period came. My second period is yearbook, and my friend, Nina, and I were delivering a paper across campus to a different class. When we were about halfway there, we saw a man standing on the roof, which is not that unusual at my school. We didn’t think much of it. Suddenly, a blue and yellow bouncy ball comes jumping down from the roof. Nina and I look at each other in confusion, then she decides to pick it up. We held it up to the man on the roof because we had assumed he had just dropped it. This man we had never met before then pointed to us, signaling that he had found it and meant to give it to us. We laughed about it the whole day. I am writing about this story because it reminded me that something very small, maybe done by someone you don’t even know, can brighten somebody’s day.

Ending this month, I am on page 209 of the book The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan. This book is about Apollo, Greek god of the sun. Punished by his father Zeus, king of the gods, Apollo has been turned into a mortal named Lester Papadopoulos. The now powerless god is now faced with many problems such as the loss of power over the Oracle of Delphi, demigods mysteriously disappearing and on top of it all, being under the control of 12 year old demigod Meg McCaffrey.

So far I am really enjoying this book. The author throws in sarcastic humor throughout the book, as Apollo can be unaware of his own ego. He finds a comedic way to subtly show us how obviously wrong Apollo is when narrating, while he still remains unaware of his flaws. This makes the reader connect with the other characters as well as the author over how oblivious our main character can be (He is getting better, don’t worry).

My favorite character in this book is Will Solace because he is calm. A quote that shows this is, “‘I’m terrified. But one thing you learn as head counselor: you have to keep it together for everyone else’” (page 87). This is what Will says shortly after he learns that his father (Apollo) has been turned mortal, while dealing with his friends’ disappearances. This proves that although Will may get scared at times, he learned to stay calm in order to keep everyone else calm.

My favorite quote from the book is on page 144, “‘Practice is the only way to improve.’ She scored a seven on the red ring, but she did not seem at all discouraged.” I like this quote because the girl who said it is very competitive, so you would not expect her to be ok with failing. Also, I appreciate the way the book has lessons built into the story, even when there is much comedy, too.

If I could invite any three people to dinner, I would invite Taylor Swift and two of my friends, Whitney and Lucy. First off, I would invite the Grammy winning pop singer, Taylor Swift, because I love her music. I could ask her many questions about how she writes songs and how she survives performing for hours many nights in a row. This is because it is very impressive for someone to write hundreds of original songs, then have enough confidence to release them and potentially face criticism, no matter how much effort you put into them. Also, many people would not be able to sing well while dancing for three hours in front of a huge crowd of people. Next I would invite my friend Whitney. Whitney is always a great friend to talk to. She will always listen to whatever stories you are telling and respond and react no matter how boring your story really is. Finally, I would invite my friend Lucy. Whenever I am with her, I am always confident that I will have an amazing time. She is caring and always happy, and I think she would bring a lot of positive energy to this outing.

If I could have any job, I would want to be a writer. One reason is that I could write about anything I want. I could decide to write long novel-like books in any genre, or just things like articles. This would make me feel important being able to share my ideas and opinions. Another reason is I would have the freedom to choose to write whenever I want most of the time. One day, I could write for hours and the next write for just a short amount of time. My final reason is it would not be boring. This is because I could entertain myself by writing about things that interest me and make the writing pieces to my liking.

If I was invisible for 24 hours, the possibilities would be endless. The first thing I would do is steal some money around my house. With that money, I would go shopping and buy things I like, such as jewelry (I would just leave the money on the counter). Next, I would try to scare and confuse people by saying weird things near them to prank them. Finally, I would sneak in to a concert. I would move right next to the stage to get a good view without even spending any money.

This month, I read the book The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. This book is about two groups of powerful demigods going on their final quests to stop the goddess Gaea from returning to power. A group of two demigods along with a satyr must bring an ancient statue of Athena from Rome to New York in order to stop the Greek and Roman demigod camps from killing destroying each other. The second group of demigods must travel to Athens to fight the giants and the other allies of the earth goddess before they wake her.

The reason I would recommend this book is the relationships of all the characters. Riordan does an amazing job of building these relationships, whether with friends or enemies. There are opposites who end up becoming good friends, enemies to friends, and friends to enemies all in one story.

My favorite character is Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite because she is thoughtful. An example of this in the book is, “She thought about the old rule of Aphrodite’s cabin: that to be recognized as a daughter of the love goddess, you had to break someone’s heart. Piper had long ago decided to change that rule…You should have to make someone’s heart whole. That was a much better test. (395)” This shows that even when she is told it is right to hurt somebody, she fights against it. She even decides to make somebody feel better. This can be hard for some people to realize, but many people like Piper, who think of others’ feelings, are what keep people happy, which is why she is my favorite.

My favorite quote from the book is on page 229, “‘No one can hate you as much as someone who used to love you.’” This is what Hylla says when a giant Orion is trying to get revenge on women because he fell and love and got rejected by a woman. I like this quote because it can apply in real life, not only in the book. It can warn people to be careful around love ones because love and hate are very similar.

I live on an abandoned island. When I was on a boat, it crashed, and I ended up on a beautiful tropical island filled with palm trees and lots of other plant life and clear blue water surrounding it. After waking up in my hut by the water, I start my day by collecting food by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Then, I eat my breakfast made out of the food I found. Then I go for a swim in the cool water for fun. In my free time, I enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with being alone on an island. I then do chores such as washing my clothes and cleaning and expanding my hut. Before the sun sets, I make a blanket out of the resources around me, then use it as I start to go to bed, as it is now nighttime. I finally fall asleep in to the cool ocean breeze and the stars shining above me.

Last month, I got braces for the first time. I walked up to the chair very nervous about how they would feel and look. As I was getting them though, I was surprised to find out that it really did not hurt much getting them on. All of the orthodontists were very nice, too, making the process a lot better. I have never liked going to the dentist, which is why this all surprised me. When they were done, I even got to spin a wheel and win a gift card. For a few hours, my teeth felt fine, but after a little while, they started to get sore. It has gotten better though and altogether this process was much better than I thought it would be.

This month, I have been reading The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. I am on page 206 out of 502. In this book, a group of powerful Greek and Roman demigods are working together to get to Athens to fight the ancient giants in order to stop the goddess Gaea before she rises from her sleep in just a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the two demigods Nico and Reyna, along with their satyr chaperone, Coach Hedge, have to transport a statue called the Athena Parthenos, which is meant to bring peace, from Greece to New York to stop their two camps from battling each other.

I have really enjoyed this book so far because it is cool to me to see all of the characters become close friends with each other after many books in the series of them not knowing each other very well. It brings happiness to even the moments where they are deep in battle or even when people are dying.

My favorite character in this book is Reyna because she is protective. A quote to prove this, “Anger hammered in Reyna’s chest like a hot spike. She’d already lost her pegasus. She was not going to lose her dogs, too. She slashed her knife through the ghost’s chest (81).” This was in the story when she saw a ghost hurt her metallic dog. This shows how much Reyna hates to see people she loves get hurt, and instantly feels the urge to protect them and get whoever hurt them back.

My favorite quote from the book is when Connor Stoll says, “‘Look, Clarisse, Annabeth sent me a message from Tartarus. From fricking Tartarus. Anybody who can do that…hey, I listen to them (139).’” I really liked this quote because sometimes Annabeth can get overlooked, so it was satisfying that the author gave her that recognition. It was also surprising to hear from Connor, who is usually just joking around or playing pranks on people, so he does not usually praise people like that, so I think many readers really appreciated it.

A quote that I feel that I can relate to is the Dumbledore quote, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.” What he meant by this is even when things seem sad and gloomy all around, it is possible to ease the dark mood if one person can find the strength to raise their head and find something happy, this can give others the will to think joyful thoughts. I strongly associate with this quote because at times in my life when everyone around me is feeling down, one of my friends will say or do something happy and that instantly brightens the mood.