The Prince vs. Hamlet Prince of Denmark

If you want to be supreme overlord of the world then read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli and the secrets to world domination will be  unlocked for you. If you want Religion to impede your progress as you attempt to reclaim your royal birthright then red Hamlet Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. That is basically in a nutshell what these two books are about in a nutshell. Aspiring Kings and Queens, Lords and Ladies, Emperors and Empresses, and Khals and Khaleesi's should take note of the lessons that can be learned from these two pieces of literature. One of the crucial lessons that can be learned from The Prince is how a prince must handle an internal dispute. A smart prince would take advantage of external forces either allying with them or destroying them would give him/her the merit needed to take power.If only Hamlet had followed the teachings of Machiavelli then maybe he would have lived to become King of the Danes, but instead he chose to ignore external elements, like those of Fortinbras and his army. If Hamlet had allied with or destroyed Fortinbras it would have added a stable base from which to reclaim the throne. Hamlet would have been looked at as the savior of Denmark and would have had more support to become king. But instead Hamlet was blinded like religion which should never get in the way of a prince who follows The Prince.

Video Games, Pt. II

Christmas, 2006. The months of waiting were over for me, I finally had an Xbox 360. The first game I experienced on it was Call of Duty 2. For me and millions of other Xbox fans, Call of Duty 2 is the Zeus of video games. From it, all other 360 shooters descended. Part of Call of Duty 2’s campaign took place in Normandy, France. I used to take family vacations to Normandy and playing Call of Duty 2 was just like being back in Normandy. The maps in the game were modeled after the towns in France. After a half-century nothing much had really changed in the French towns and villages. The only real difference was the buildings in the game lacked the bullet holes that the towns in France are covered in. After Call of Duty 2 came Rainbow Six: Vegas and Call of Duty 3.

While I was busy with my new Xbox 360, I kept hearing more and more talk about something called Xbox Live. All I knew about it was that it was the best thing ever created: a multiplayer system connected to the internet that allowed anyone to play with everyone. I got Xbox Live February 10, 2007 and I’ve been wrecking fools as tuckar (online name) ever since. The first games I played online were Rainbow Six: Vegas and Call of Duty 3. They solidified my love affair with online first person shooters. With Xbox Live I was smashing on fools and talking mad ish to anybody else with a headset. After the summer of 2007 Halo 3 and Gears of War came out.

Neither Halo 3 of Gears of War had much appeal to me; I played them simply to pass the time until Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Out of all the games I’ve played, COD4 was hands-down my favorite. It was so new and unreal, it was the first Call of Duty to give the player a customizable profile, but it had only scratched the surface of what Xbox live would become. After COD4 came so many new and awesome games it would be pointless to list them all, but if there is one game that stands by itself its Fallout 3. I can’t even begin to explain that game right now. I’ll talk about it in part three.

Video Games, Pt. I

            I’m not exaggerating when I say that playing video games is one of my earliest memories. Gameboy, Nintendo, Playstation, PC, Xbox, Call of Duty, Mario, Mortal Combat, Resident Evil, Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Need for Speed, Forza, and all the rest. I’ve owned them, sold them, played them, bought them, and borrowed them. The first system I can remember owning was the classic Nintendo 64. I kept it out in my sunroom and I would wake up at dawn, sneak past my snoozing brother, and brave the cold to be the first one to play. I loved playing that thing as a kid. I remember I only had like six games and I would just replay them constantly and sometimes I would never even make any progress, but I’d keep playing because it was still awesome. I would never buy new games for it either; I would always just rent Super Smash Brothers from Blockbuster and beat it like ten times before I returned it. Later in my childhood, I would get a PlayStation 1. It sucked. I traded it in. Then I got a Playstation 2 and my journey into serious gaming began. The first two games I had for it was Tony Hawk’s ProSkater 2 and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Those two games took endless hours of my invaluable time, but oh my god they were fun. I think I bought all the Tony Hawk games, they’re so nasty. Then I got an Xbox for Christmas, I remember seeing them in the cases at Sears and standing their endlessly playing the free demo, I was mesmerized. I spent days playing the Star Wars: Battlefronts and the first Call of Duty on my Xbox. Then I was introduced to Halo: Combat Evolved. I asked my mom first if I could buy it, but she said no because of the M rating it has. So I asked my Dad and he bought it for me. Thanks dad. Halo was unlike anything I had ever played before. It was so intense I was too scared to get past level six. I didn’t go back and beat the game until I was fourteen, well after I had beaten Halo 2 and owned an Xbox 360, but that is a story for another time. In 2006 Xbox 360 came out, I didn’t have one until 2007. Part two picks up from there.

Interview.

1. What inspired you to write this story?

-My mother inspired me to write this story because she is not only my mother she is also my best friend. And if my mother ever where to die I would still do whatever I can to just talk to her because I know she would always be listening. My step mother also inspired me to write this story because she has been battling breast cancer for over a year now and has been so strong through it all.

2. What kind of background info did you draw upon for this story?

-For this story I used both books and movies to draw upon my story. I read the book Ellen Foster it was about a girl dealing with the death of her mother and an abusive father. The book was written in diary form, so that’s where I got the idea to write my story in letter form.  I also watched the movie Forest Gump to try and relate my main character to Forest. They both are lost and trying to find themselves. Forest embarks on many different adventures, while my character Brooke thrives to do the same.

3. How did you decide upon names for your characters?

- Three years ago my step mother Amy became pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. She wanted to name them Brooke and Adian because Brooke meant water and Adian meant fire. Unfortunately she lost the boy, but Brooke was still able to come into our lives. Brooke is sort of like a miracle baby and she is one of the smartest little girls I know. So, I had my main character be named Brooke and her best friend, and soon to be one true love is named Adian. In my story my main character Brooke has two twin brothers named Willy and Billy. I just thought it was cute having twins have similar sounding names. For the babysitter I gave her the name of Vicky because it is ver. For the babysitter I gave her the name of Vicky because it is very similar to the word icky and that is exactly how I wanted to portray that character.

4. What kind of environment do you write your best in?

-Like many other writers I prefer to write in a very quiet and peaceful setting. My room is where I do most of my writing.

5. What influences your writing?

-I like to watch a lot of movies and read books so I like to bounce my ideas off of them. My family also influences me because I have such a large family and each of them has gone through a lot and I look up to them because of all of the struggles they have overcome.

6. What makes your book unique?

-Personally I think by writing this book in letter form makes my book unique. I’ve read many books written in diary or journal entry form, but I haven’t seen a lot of stories written in letter form. I also think it is unique because my main character writes to her mother only once a year on the same day as her mother’s death.

7. What is the main theme of your book?

-The main theme of my book is never give up. My main character battles an endless fight and through it all she never gives up.  I want the reader to understand that any obstacle can be overcome if you just put your mind and heart into it.

8. How did you come up with this?

-I came up with this theme from two people my step mother Amy and my Nana. Both my Nana and Amy have been battling harmful illnesses; Amy, with breast cancer, and my Nana with Leukemia. Throughout it all they never gave up and they always had a smile on their face.

9. Do you read outside school?

-On occasions yes I do, but mostly I read fiction novels. I like creative books, or fantasy books, but I don’t think I could ever write a book like that.

10. How long is you book going to be?

- I don’t want to give the ending of the book away, but I will tell you that the book will stop when Brooke is in her early 20’s and will continue on by a new character.

11. What makes your main character different from the rest?

-My main character Brooke is different from the rest because she has something to fight for, her twin brothers. Brooke is forced to go through brutal beatings from her father and she takes them no matter what, because she knows if he isn’t hurting her he will go and hurt her brothers.

12. Is your story going to have protagonist vs. antagonist set up?

-Yes, Brooke will be the protagonist while her dad will be the antagonist. In the beginning I had the babysitter Vicky be the antagonist, but as the story goes on her father becomes the antagonist.

13. Do you anticipate how the fifth graders will react to your book?

-To be honest I don’t think that my story is for a fifth grade reading level. It’s very graphic and I’m just not sure they would understand what is going on.  I think my book is for more of a high school reading level.

14. How did you plan your writing process?

-To plan my writing process what I did was write down each age of my main character then under each age I listed what happens to her during that age.

15. Is your book a chapter book, or more of a story/ tale?

-My story is written in letter form and I made it so that each letter is one chapter.

16. What is your favorite children’s story?

-When I was a kid my favorite story was the Giving Tree. I would read that book every day. It was such a great story about friendship and I will definitely read it to my children if I have kids someday.

17. Who is your favorite author?

-My favorite author is the writer of the Twilight books Stephanie Mayer because she writes in a way where you feel like you are in the story. She knows how to keep you in the book and always wanting to read more.

18. What other books that you have read relate to your story?

-I think the book A Child Called It is very relatable to my story because that boy in the story also goes through abuse from his parents and throughout it all he never gave up just like my main character Brooke.

19. Why are the twins Willy and Billy so important to Brooke?

-The twins were born only a few days before her mother’s death, so the twins are the only thing she has left of her mother. They both look like her mother and she knows that if her mother were still alive she would want Brooke to do whatever it takes to protect them.

20. How do you feel after you read your own story?

-After I read my story I feel proud of myself for all of the hard work that I put into it. Also, I feel a bit emotional because I really connect with my main character. I really want the readers of my story to also connect with my main character so they understand that you should never give up. 

comments for free-write blogposts

http://sydneycochran7.blogspot.com/2011/10/perseverance-key-to-success.html?showComment=1318795858462#c5557652321778038124

http://adamferguson16.blogspot.com/2011/10/land-of-gweeblets-prologue.html?showComment=1318795477637#c4735762385777842177

http://codydaveyenglish.blogspot.com/2011/10/waking-up-to-music.html?showComment=1318794899996#c7318201485039259427

http://alexjosephson.blogspot.com/2011/10/controversy-is-cheerleading-sport.html?showComment=1318794321267#c4233742740226234040

http://ajcarverenglish.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-moral-compass-what-i-live-by.html?showComment=1318793996910#c4507851813929684046

http://scriordan94.blogspot.com/2011/10/abridged-technology-interview.html?showComment=1318793593651#c5662725611690945643

Much to blog about nothing...except the Bruins.

            The lighting in the packed train dims in and out as it whips by the lights in the tunnel, the music blasts in my ears as I listen to the beat. My brother is sitting next to me laughing at the dirty joke our friend just told him in a whispered voice. The crowd on the train is restless with excited anticipation for what the next several hours will bring. The train comes to its final stop at south station after having completed the short trek from Braintree. Fan by fan the train begins to lighten as the flow of black and gold colors spill out of its doors. My brother, our friend, and I walk with a certain swagger of pride for our team as we head towards the row of doors at the end of the track. As we pass through the doors our senses are overloaded by a euphoria of bright neon signs, and the supersonic hum of a caffeinated crowd preparing for a timeless ritual.

The house of worship is the Boston Garden; the ritual is a Bruins hockey game. The Boston Bruins are my favorite sports team to watch and I one hundred percent believe that they are the best hockey team in the world, second only to team USA. They have the perfect balance of skill, determination, and statistics. Last season when they swept across Canada from East to West going six and done against the best our syrup drinking neighbors could offer, I just knew we were going to get the cup. It also helped that the last time they went undefeated in Canada they won the cup in ’72.

            Watching the bruins score a goal in hockey is the best feeling in the world, there is literally nothing else like it. It’s this rush that only runs through your body for a few seconds maybe even less, but it literally has me standing in applause every time. So far it’s been a rocky start to the season, but with the best goaltender in the NHL, the best defensive line, the largest player (Big Z), and some of the best rookies to play the game, I’d say our chances of winning another cup this year are superb…knock on wood.

comments on this i believe essay's

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