I read the books. 

I saw the movie.

And I’m here to tell all you people who are freaking out about the fact that the movie “ruined the integrity of the relationship between Peeta and Katniss” is nonsense. So Peeta didn’t lose his leg; big deal! It was still obvious that he loved Katniss, and the true spirit of the characters was still there. I don’t think the fact that Katniss whispered his name rather than screaming it was that big of a deal. 

Now it could be that I am just totally off on this. I mean, I’m not a fanatic. I’m a fan, but I wasn’t one of the people standing in line to see a midnight premiere. I could just be way under-reacting to this whole situation. However, I love reading, and I love movies, and I enjoyed both the book and the movie. Books and movies are two different genres, presented and experienced in completely different ways. I don’t think we all need to panic when one is better than the other. Obviously, if you like reading you’re going to like the book better. If you don’t read, you’re going to like the movie better.

Calm down, people.

I love to read, so my favorite genre was the literacy narrative. Reading and writing have influenced my life more than almost anything else. In middle school when I felt I had no friends, books were an escape. As I got older and gained a more rational view of the world, reading became a window to the world around me, a portal to places and times I was unable to reach. Writing was, and is, a way of expressing myself. Not only stories and poems, but songs as well allow me to express my emotion and provides an outlet for stress. This is why the literacy narrative was my favorite, because it was the one to which I most related.

I have two younger brothers and a younger sister, and none of them really like to read all that much. They say it’s a waste of time unless it’s a really good book and that the classics are too difficult to read. I completely disagree. Books like “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, or “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin do more than just bore students and provide entertainment for a few. These books retain the richness of our history. Text books record facts and everyone has to go to history in order to learn our roots and why we are the way we are. However, the feelings and experiences of common man are preserved in historical literature. In addition, these classics make history something with which we can relate. In “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austin is not just talking about the Bennett sisters’ quests for husbands, she is discussing the inner workings of a woman’s heart. She touches on different types of women through the characters of the book: sweet Jane, independent Elizabeth, practical Mary, flirtatious Lydia, silly Kitty, and nurturing Charlotte. In “Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte examines a destructive relationship and its fall-out. All of these are historical truths as well as current issues that everyone deals with, preserved in the hallowed pages of classics. One can chose not to read, but without classic literature we are left with a hollow understanding of our ancestors.

I know we are supposed to post on this, but I’m going to be totally honest, I have no idea what to say. I just don’t have that many opinions about writing that I want to arbitrarily share, other than I like it and people should read and write more often. So that’s all for now.

I’m not sure this was where I was supposed to put this and if it wasn’t, would someone please tell me where it is meant to go?

So today I want to talk about blogging, because I’ve never done it before and even if it isn’t interesting to anyone else, it is to me.

I hate technology. Now before you go freaking out about all the good stuff technology has brought us, let just appease you by saying, yes. It has revolutionized not only our social interactions but also advanced the worlds of medicine, communication, business, and dozens of other arenas. These are all, arguably, good things and I’m not disputing that. I’m just saying that my laptop has a mind of its own and I don’t appreciate his rebellious attitude. His name is Armando, because I am one of those people who names everything, and he likes to complicate my acedemic life by doing things like disconnecting from the wifi randomly, logging me out of sites without my consent, and deleting files that I needed. So this blogging thing is really intense for me. Already, he has logged me out of Tumblr and then, when I tried to log back in, told me that my account did not, in fact exist. Not only is this infuriating, but my genius brother has this annoying habit of saying “it’s user error” when I ask him for help. For this very reason, I often try to figure it out without assistance, which leads to all the aforementioned obstacles and annoyances.

But the thing is, I love to write. I have been writing since I was eight years old and I am also very opinionated, so I think blogging is awesome. The opportunity for anyone to be able to put their ideas and thoughts out there for people to read is absolutely wonderful and I have greatly enjoying writing this whole rant. I just wish blogging didn’t involve using my laptop, Armando, and the freaking internet.