Tagged by Taiger

Rules:
1. Follow this format
2. Copy/Paste the rules
3. State who tagged you and add a link to their blog
4. Write 5 crazy things you did as a little kid
5. Tag 5 people

Crazy Things:

1. I was a violent child. I threw things. The worst thing I threw was a hammer. It hit a girl on the head. Eeeps! I think she still hates me.
2. I ate an entire bottle of... Tylenol, I think it was. Ended up in the emergency room.
3. A few days later I ate a bottle of multi-vitamins. Ended up in the emergency room again.
4. Few days later I ate some nuts and bolts from my dads tool box. Went the emergency room and got a blue teddy bear that time. (I was apparently a very hungry child.)
5. I used to be very paranoid. Every little thing was something coming to get me! Ahh!


Huh. On analyzing these things I've realized something. Maybe all those swallowings and emergency rooms have something to do with why I can't swallow pills now. And maybe my throwing past is the reason I can't throw anymore. I'm not quite as angry anymore. I use words more than violent actions to express my emotions; but I'm still paranoid.

Crazy.

This meme has been floating around for a while. So if you haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged.

~Enna Isilee

I listened to this book, something I haven’t done in a while. I think if I had actually read it, my opinion would have been very different.

It’s the story of Merle, and takes place in Venice, Italy, but in some other version of Venice where stone lions roam and mermaids are captured as pets.

It’s hard for me to properly judge this book because I listened to it. It was slow, even for listening, and nothing really seemed to happen. It ended right at the climax, and instead of making me think “I want to know what happens next!” it made me thing “Well, that was dumb.”

There were parts of the story that were interesting, but a lot of it was just cliché and rushed. I may listen to the sequel if I can find it, but if I can’t I won’t worry about it.

~Enna Isilee

The last post was creepy, so I'm posting this just for the sake of posting.

Random Things Currently Happening To Me:

1. I just applied for a job at the library doing what I already do as a volunteer (but now I might actually get paid! GASP!)

2. I went out to dinner tonight and ate a lot more than I should have. Heh.

3. I'm SO excited for the next SBD contest. I want Out of the Wild SO bad!

4. I entered "The Heart" into a poetry contest, just for kicks.

5. I'm in the middle of spring cleaning (I intend to write a more in-depth post on this topic as soon as the cleaning is done).

6. I get to meet Brandon Mull.

7. The sound of ticking clocks is driving me insane!!!

I think I'm done now. Okay.

~Enna Isilee

I just noticed that it's been over a year since I first created this blog. Of course, you readers wouldn't know that because I've hidden all the posts I wrote from January 2007-June 2007. I first intended this blog to be a place to put my writing, and what I was writing at the time was this really interesting story about modern human evolution. But I guess I also went through some kind of violent phase. This is the first post I ever posted on this blog on January 19, 2007, it's a piece from the novel I was writing and it's a bit creepy:

"A Piece of Evolution"

Ben threw himself at Chloe, arms up with feral claws and teeth extended. In a flash her arms were raised in self defense, his stick still in her hands.

The sound she then heard was like a finger swirling water, a gentle swoosh, that sounded so peaceful.

She watched in horror as Ben’s legs were slowly separated from his body by the terrible black stick, his eyes widening in painless shock. There was no blood, but of course there wouldn't be.

“No,” was the only whisper that escaped from her ice cold lips.

Yeah... kinda odd. And there's some background information that your missing, like what exactly the stick is. But still... I think it was during this time I had recently discovered Dreadcrumbs, and my mind was poisoned. ;)

Anyway...

These are my entries to the contest Sarah Beth Durst is hosting. Some of them are lame, but I thought some others were good, considering chatspeak is one of my personal taboos. This was actually pretty fun:

If you didn't notice the post about my feed, be sure to look at it below. It works now.

Anyway. I've noticed that on some people's blogger blogs they have a part in their sidebar that says "Recent comments" then it will show who's recently made a comment. How can I do that? Anyone know?

Thanks!
~Enna Isilee

I just got an e-mail from Q saying that Miss Erin had found my blog feed! I plugged the address into Reader and it worked! So if you want to feed me (heh) here's the address you have to use:

http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2223957653109030851/posts/default/

Thanks Q and Erin!

While talking to some relatives, my cousin, while speaking of her son, said:

"He can eat hamburgers until the cows come home.

Or... don't."

You may not find it funny. But I sure did.

This is not the type of book I usually read. Not a bit of fantasy in it. But my librarian told me I would love it, and my librarian has good taste, so I believed her.

It’s the story of a girl who thinks herself unattractive, paranoid, and delicate. Then her family takes in a little Mexican boy, and this delicate girl has to travel across Mexico to take him home, even though she desperately wants him to stay.

This book was interesting. Not in a good or bad way. As I said, it’s not what I usually read. There were parts of it I thought were very interesting, and others that made me yawn and say “move on!”

If you like stories about an awkward girl turning into a woman, and discovering what it really means to love, then you’ll like this book.

~Enna Isilee

Tagged by Hope and Liv

Rules:

1/ you link back to the person who tagged you. (Check)
2/ post these rules on your blog. (Check)
3/ share six unimportant things about yourself. (Almost Check)
4/ tag six random people at the end of your entry. (Okay)
5/ let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs. (I think every meme should have this rule)

Six Random Things About Me...

1. I have odd spelling habits. I always add an "e" to random, so it's randome. And I always capitalize the word idea, so it's Idea.

2. I still sleep with a blanket I've had all my life.

3. I can't swallow pills. I really can't. They make my throat close up.

4. I'm pretty much allergic to M &Ms

5. I hate fish, except for Tuna.

6. The only place I'm double jointed is my thumb, which I can bend completely backwards and twisted.

There you are.

I tag... Felicity, Taiger, Q, Esther, Anidori-Isilee, and... hwalk.

~Enna Isilee

The heart is the symbol of love.
But love doesn’t come from the heart.
The heart is a muscle, made only to keep us alive.
Pump blood.
In.
Out.
It’s the brain that causes true emotion.
At least, that’s what they say.

Can they explain why, then,
The heart quickens?
The blood runs cold?
Then warm?

Or can they explain why, then,
The brain goes into a fog?
Words are lost?
Then unnecessary?

When they can explain why, then
I will give you my brain.

Until that day,
I give you all my heart.

I have a couple seconds so I'll post this in regards to the TFT reading challenge.

Link to your review like this:

Squeaky Books (or your username if you prefer): Wildwood Dancing

Any questions? Feel free to ask. I may be a bit slow to answer.

My play opens tomorrow, so I don't have much time to post. Don't count on another post until Saturday, at the earliest.

Wish me luck!
~Enna Isilee

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

~Henry Tilney

Ha! Those of you who know me know that I love this quote. I've even put it on a T-shirt! I laughed out loud when I saw that this was the quote for this week. And a good week for it.

I do read your blogs.

I have all of you on my Reader feed, so I am alerted whenever any of you post something new, and I do read it. I know I don't comment on other blogs much but that's just because I don't have any time. My play opens in three days, and I'm in a bit of a panic. Plus I don't like to comment blandly on blogs. If I actually have someting to say then I'll say it.

So I just wanted to let y'all know that it's not a one-way street. You read my blog, I read yours.

Except for some people, like Becky's Book Reviews. Whenever I open her blog it freezes my computer.

Anyway. I'm done now.

~Enna Isilee

You can't tell, but there is another row of books behind that jumble. Then I have another shelf that looks just like that, and a smaller bookcase stuffed to bursting.

I get new books every week. I dunno what I'm going to do! A bookshelf would be the obvious answer, but I can't exactly afford one and I'm not sure where I would put it. *is really hoping my mother reads this* though if I had some parental support... ;)

Anyway, that's my current dilemma. I'm going to try and stack them into neater piles at least.


*sigh*


~Enna Isilee

I had a whim to host a reading challenge, so I'm going to. It's a fairly simple one and the rules are this:

Read 4 books about twisted fairy tales by May 5, 2008

And here are the exceptions:

You may read a book that is not directly based on a fairy tale, but has a very fairy-tale theme (i.e. Sarah Beth Durst's Into the Wild)

You may read more than 4 (duh)

And I think that's it...

I intend to read:

Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird, Vivian Van Velde
The Princess and the Hound, Mette Ivie Harrison
Beauty, Robin McKinley


If you would please sign up using the little sign up thing below (I hope it works).

In about two weeks I'll set up a new post for you to link to your reviews and such.



The End.

"What can any body's native air do for them in the months of January, February, and March? Good fires and carriages would be much more to the purpose."
~Emma Woodhouse

Today I went to a class that talked about how to become a better reader and it was really interesting.

The teacher started off by having us calculate our “words read per minute” I kind of messed it up because I thought we were supposed to stop once we reached the bottom of the page, even so my rate was about 380 wpm. Average.

Then he talked about how we learn to read. First we recognize letters, then groups of letters, then words, then word shapes, and then groups of words. Most people stop there.

But he talked about his friend who wanted to train himself to be a better reader. He followed certain techniques and worked on it for a long time. Now that friend reads 1100 wpm, four lines of text at a time. Crazy right?

But I know what some of you are thinking, speed doesn’t make you a better reader does it? You can comprehend more if you slow down a bit.

Nope.

While speed doesn’t exactly make you a better reader, it is an element in becoming a good reader. Your brain finds that ideas are easier to connect and understand the faster you read them. And this man who followed the techniques found that he no longer saw words, or word shapes, or even groups of words, he saw pictures. Reading was like watching a movie for him because he was able to effectively absorb the text.

We were all aghast. How did he do it? That seems impossible. Four lines of text at once? That’s crazy!

Well, the teacher didn’t really expect us to be able to do that very soon, but he gave us some simple techniques to improve our reading skills:

Pause
When you have just finished reading something, especially in difficult text, pause for a moment and let the text sink in. If you don’t do think you could become “glassy eyed” and realize half-way through the next page that you didn’t comprehend anything you read.

Preview
Also a technique used mainly for difficult text. There are different ways to do this:
---If there is beginning info (i.e. author name, summation, etc) read that.
---Read the first sentence of the first few paragraphs so your mind knows what to expect.
---Or do whatever feels comfortable

Point
Follow the text with your finger. Sometimes words themselves distract us and we miss what we’re reading because we’re thinking about the words on the page. By having your finger run along the page you have something to anchor yourself.

Posture
People weren’t meant to read sideways or upside-down. So unless you’re reading something that doesn’t need to be fully understood, read it right-side-up.

Purpose
Why are you reading this? Is it for fun? School? A test? Adjust your technique accordingly.

Paraphrase
Used mainly for very difficult text. If you don’t understand a paragraph, rewrite it in six words or less. Or you can you symbols and pictures.

Practice
These won’t come naturally. You have to practice them. It may seem like you’re taking a step back and that it takes you longer to read something using these strategies, but you’ll never get better if you don’t practice.

~

Those are the techniques. Some of them I don’t agree with, namely “Point” because I can never get my finger to move as fast as my brain or my eyes, but apparently it works. And hey, I wouldn’t complain if I could read 1100 wpm.

So that’s basically my entire class. It’s almost like you were there! ;)

ADDED: Because of this class, I got a perfect 36 on the reading portion of the ACT. It works! It really works!

~Enna Isilee