Reading: Catching Fire

New summary through page 297

The games have begun! Katniss can't focus on the game because she's too worried thinking about Cinna's beaten body, but she realizes she needs to suck it up because he risked his life for her making her mockingjay dress and now she's ready to fight.
Katniss takes off after the gong sounds and starts swimming towards the Cornucopia. With her first idea to being to grab a weapon, Katniss begins thinking like a Career now. She meets Finnick at the Cornucopia and he's got it in their mind that they're allies. Katniss thinks this is fishy and is ready to send an arrow whizzing through his heart when she sees he has Haymitch's golden flamed bangle on. She realizes that he has given it to Finnick with the message that she must trust him in the games. The three have come to the conclusion that they're also in an alliance with Mags.
This year's arena is composed of salt water and dense jungle. Already there are dead bodies covering the ground and in the water (there's about six, but Katniss is unsure). It's not long before Katniss considers shooting Finnick. She believes their alliance will go no where because one of them with have to kill the other eventually and he's too valuable to let go loose in the games. She let's it pass for the time being and reminds herself that she could always kill him in his sleep.
Peeta slashes his sword unknowingly through a force field and is thrown to his back to the ground. He's unresponsive and Katniss is certain he's died of heart failure. Finnick tosses Katniss aside and begins to do CPR on Peeta and it's a miracle it's worked. Katniss's guilty conscious takes over when she realizes now she'll forever owe Finnick for saving Peeta's life. Finnick becomes curious as to how Katniss was able to know there was a force field there. She makes up a lie about how it sounds similar to the fence that surrounds her district when it's lit up, but the strange thing is, Katniss can only hear it out of one ear. Are the doctors who fixed her ear on her side?
After climbing a tree Katniss reports to her alliance that "the force field has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really...There's the Cornucopia, the sea, and then the jungle all around. Very exact. Very symmetrical. And not very large." She doesn't see any other water source besides the salt water near the Cornucopia. Maybe the Capitol left out water to make these dreaded games go by faster?
Katniss goes off solo to find a water source and hunt. She gets a death tally of eight bodies. While she's out she manages to kill and animal. When she's skinning it she notices it's mouth is wet, so there must be water near by. Giving up for the day she returns to Peeta and the gang. The four have used the Gamemakers' force field to their advantage. They've set up shelter near it, hoping they could drive enemies into it, and they've begun to use it as their 'safe' source of fire since it produces zero smoke.
At night the dead tributes are projected into the sky and they learn that the men from 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 are dead along with the women from 8 and 10. After the anthem a silver parachute comes bringing a gift. Once it's opened no one recognizes the the hollow metal tube. Given some time Katniss realizes it's a spile and tells the gang that it's used to get sap out of trees.

(These are the tools that they have so far, and since some of them are unfamiliar here are pictures. The first is an awl, which they used to drill a hole into the tree. The second and third are of a spile.)






They've hit the goldmine! Water comes streaming out of the tree and through the spile. Finnick takes watch over the camp and the other three while they sleep during the night, but Katniss wakes to the ringing of a bell, in fact, it rings twelve times. Finnick and Katniss have no idea what this could mean. It begins to rain and through it Katniss hears a cannon fire, another tribute is dead. When the rain stops Katniss notices the fog, but she notices its too uniform to be natural fog. She realizes the awful odor and her skin begins to blister...

Cliff hanger! Stay tuned to find out what it is.

She's a Trickster!

We’ve all see people like the Harlem Globtrottters doing incredible things with basketballs, but have you ever seen someone do similar things with a soccer ball? Indi Cowie has been making up and performing her own freestyle soccer routines. Now I bet you’re thinking “Freestyle soccer? How is that possible?” The sixteen year old superstar has won several talent contests with her usual skill. One of Indi’s favorite things about performing her talent in front of an audience is being able to “hear the oohs and the aahs” and “sense the shock.” Indi has been dribbling soccer balls since she began to walk. When she was a sophomore she tried out for the Glasgow Celtic women’s club and made the team. Everyone can see that soccer comes naturally to Indi; in fact, upon the first meeting of her coach, Paul Brownlie, “was blown away by how creatively she could dribble the ball.” While observing Indi two words should come to mind: “technique and determination.” She spends ninty minutes every day practicing her free style in her garage. Hoping she will improve to greater heights, Indi trains with a boy’s club team. Surprisingly, Indi struggles playing as a team member. She has been taken off the field several times during games due to her lacking of sharing the ball. Indi makes her selfishness into a positive by believing that she likes to freestyle because she does not “have any teammates to worry about.” The motivation and talent packed into each of her routines has begun to inspire people across the globe to try free styling.

In Ten Years...

After listening to some of the high-school seniors dream jobs I had my own opinions about them.
Damian Dumas has been inspired by his own high-school counselor to follow in her footsteps. He comes across as friendly, open, and caring. I could definitely see him succeeding because he likes to help those around him. He holds their trust and he's reliable.
Carli Harwood hopes to be a physical therapist. When she was younger she actually had to go to physical therapy and that's what got her into the idea of this career. She wants to have an easy going and stress-free life while still hoping to have a high income. She feels that she has the work ethic to keep her going in the field. I mostly relate to Carli because I've been thinking about becoming a physical therapist. I want to be able to help others and improve their lives. I'm really interested in the human body and how it works so I'm hoping this is a good possible career choice for me.
Now this one I found interesting at first, but Salome Zamora wants to become a baker, however not your average baker. In his bakery he will have normal foods like any other bakery but he wants to help those who need medical marijuana. Because he's interested in helping others in abnormal ways he plans to bake the marijuana into foods for those who require it. He's got a good idea going for those who need it and thank God he's going to require the costumers to show their medical cards before he sells them a good. Who knows what the world would be like if he didn't.
In ten years I plan on being graduated from high-school and possibly college (I plan on graduating but depending on my major who knows when I'll get out). Lately I've been considering the options of becoming an elementary school teacher or a physical therapist. I think I'll be happy with my life if I'm able to help people in my community. In addition to graduating I hope in ten years that I'll be married and possibly working on starting my own family (this is weird thinking about it, but I mean I'll be 27 or 28 then so I mean anything could happen).

Reading: Catching Fire

Here's a new summary up through page 265 ending Part II: "The Quell"

Katniss can't stand the idea of training around any of these tributes because she's actually starting to like some of them and she knows that in order to save Peeta they'll have to die. Being the typical Katniss, she leaves her private session with a bang. She finds a target dummy, hangs it (practicing her knot tying skills), then paints the name Seneca Crane on the body in bloodred berry juice. Will this turn the Gamemakers completely against her during the games? Peeta and Kantiss decide that they'd rather play the game without allies which doesn't seem like a smart move now. They've both scored twelves in training therefore making them the biggest targets in the game. The two have come to the assumption that President Snow has given direct orders to the Gamemakers to kill them in the arena. Of course throughout this section Peeta's being the sweet guy he is and Katniss feels guilty having to listen to him dropping hints about his love for her.
The atmosphere between the team is changing. Effie is letting Peeta and Katniss take care of things on their own, the stylists are acting strange, Haymitch isn't coaching them for their interviews, and they all seem to have an "I don't care" vibe around them. President Snow required Katniss to wear her wedding dress to the interview. When Katniss is twirling and showing off her dress she notices smoke rising from somewhere. Courtesy of Cinna, Katniss's beautiful white dress goes up into flames and she is left wearing an exact replica design of her wedding dress, only now it's the color of coal and has added feathers. He's planned it so she now resembles a mockingjay....DUN DUN DUN!
Katniss remembers Cinna's words "Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself." Katniss is so worried now because Cinna design could easily be considered an act of rebellion.
During Peeta's interview Caesar brings up the point that there will never be a wedding after the games because he and Katniss will be dead. Peeta reveals that the two are already married, well not offically, but they claim to have done a District 12 wedding ritual and told no one of it. The crowd in shocked and as they're recovering Peeta drops another bomb. He says that they would've waited until after the games if it wasn't for the baby! The question is now, is this true or did he make it up? I mean the two have been sleeping together a lot lately...
At the announcement of this everyone goes crazy and Peeta's interview is over. When the national anthem plays all of the tributes have joined hands, symbolizing unity between the districts, but little do they know they've staged their own uprising.
Anyway, it turns out Peeta's made up the pregnant thing. The two run into Haymitch after the interview and he tells them that the Capitol has sent everyone home and has cancelled the recap of the interviews on T.V. They begin to question whether or not the Capitol will stop the games. If they'd have to stop the games then Katniss and Peeta would have to make this rumor true, don't you think?
Realistically, the Capitol would never cancel the games, and they all know that. Since tomorrow begins the games they know they'll never see Effie again so they leave a verbal thank you and goodbye message with Haymitch, and they leave one for him as well. His last bit of advice for the couple is, of course, to stay alive.
The next morning it's the same situation as before: Katniss wakes up, gets sent to the hovercraft, has a tracking device in her arm, and takes off for the arena. Cinna leaves her with the reminder that he's still betting on her to win it again. The two part but before Katniss leaves the hovercraft she notices three Peacekeepers enter the room. They pin Cinna and hit him in the head causing him to fall to his knees and they continue to beat him.
In the arena Katniss notices the blue waves that seem to wash up over her boots and take over the area in every direction. She now realizes that "this is no place for a girl on fire." Ah best line yet, and who knows what the future holds?!

Quarter Poetry

To finish off the other half of the Action List for 3/22 I picked my favorite poem of the quarter. I really liked Karley's "The Pressure of the Game" for multiple reasons, those being:
1. She wrote it herself, how awesome is that?
2. I feel like I'm actually on the green with her
3. I admire how seriously she takes her sport, she's so serious she'll write a poem about it
4. I like that it relates to life, having to make decisions without knowing the outcome
5. I can feel the pressure she's under
6. I also like how 'in the moment' it is

#995 Finding Money You Didn't Even Know You Lost

Out of the list of 1000 Awesome Things I instantly knew which one was my favorite! I have a habit of putting money in jeans pockets, coat pockets, drawers, and various other places (I can't tell you where all my money is!) and I love re-finding it. Sadly, I don't just do this with money. I lose other things, but I always manage to find them somehow, once again, usually when I'm cleaning my room. However, I hate it when it's something with multiple parts. For example I'll lose my gym lock and key. I'll find my lock in no time, but not the key. Then later, I'll find the key, but not the lock. I think I should make a resolution to know where everything is...maybe a good idea? This inspired me to want to make a list of different things in my life.

Children's Books Flashback

Although the pictures are old-fashioned and drawn in black and white, I like the ones from Invitation, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass because they're very detailed and I like the idea that they're sketched. I don't remember reading some of these books when I was little, but I remember watching movies about them like Alice in Wonderland or Madeline. As for Good Night Moon, the first time I read it was actually two weekends ago when I was babysitting for a family. I've never read The Story of Ferdinand, but it has been alluded to in some of the stories I've read or shows that I've watched. When I was little I can remember playing 'school' with my sister while reading her books from Little Golden Books and Harold and the Purple Crayon. Of course my childhood was filled with Dr. Seuss's simple and almost colorless drawings and rhymes. From the 1960's section of the time line and forward I recognized several of the book titles.