I'm a Mountain Man??

The last book fest is this week and I presented today!

YAY FOR NO MORE BOOK FESTS!

It's the same deal as last time - I "read" a book, made a book cover and had to talk about it.

This time, my presentation was different though! No more games here!

I read The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar: A Fearless Adventure in Grammar, Style, and Usage by Gary Spina (and yes, I've decided to award him the Longest Book Title EVER award). I had no clue what the heck I was going to do for book fest until yesterday afternoon. I called Jereme to see if he had a possibles sack I could use and steal some Mountain Man-esque stuff from him. He graciously obliged because he's one of the best brothers, ever!

Then, I went to DI today and bought me a flannel shirt for $2 (two dollah, Ashley, two dollah!). I went to my first class packing all of my gear (wearing hiking boots), and then on to book fest where I braided my hair and introduced myself as the Mountain Man Guide to Grammar!


I talked about the author for a bit, and then explained what a possible's sack was, and showed off the one I borrowed from Jereme (and his really cool home-made canteen that everyone was impressed with!) and then I made the coolest connection ever. And here's where it got interesting.

Remember how I said I had no clue what I was going to do until yesterday afternoon?? That's a bit of a lie. I fine tuned it as I was setting up this afternoon. HAHAHA. Oops. As I was setting up my possibles sack display, I realized that the book was actually your own personal possibles sack (say that 4 times fast, I dare you) when it comes to writing!

*angels singing my praise*

Sister Hawker seemed impressed and apparently I am one dang cute Mountain Man.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
1. My blanket. (You know it's a bad day when the blanket is number one on here...)
2. Sappy music that can make you cry when you know you need to but just can't seem to make it happen on your own.
3. Leslie's amazing photography skills. (There will be a post about this soon, I promise.)

Book Fest Round 2!

We had the second book fest this past week (Monday and Wednesay) and I had to present on Wednesday.

I read Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest from 1791. It's considered the greatest of all gothic novels and the jewel of Radcliffe's career. "Gothic" doesn't mean the same thing in literature as it does to us today. A gothic novel is anything that has to deal with something supernatural - for example, Bram Stoker's Dracula is a gothic novel. As is Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

I LOVED this book. It's outlandishly ridiculous but it's amazing. It's Victorian, but with ghosts and murder and kidnapping and sword fights. As I was explaining it during my presentation, one of the girls in my class said, "So kind of like The Princess Bride?" And that seemed about right.

I redesigned my book cover yet again so I could play on InDesign some more. (Still love it, just in case you were wondering.) So here it is:

Before:

oooooo....

After:

aaaaahhhh.....

For my presentation (since the last one wasn't such a hit, apparently) I decided to play a little game again, but this time I had typed up little scenarios from the book involving all of the characters several times over. For example, I had: "The man you love - who has just saved you yet again from the evil Marquis - has been hit on the head and is bleeding profusely. You don't think the doctor is capable, what do you do?" And then the person reading would explain what they would do and why, and I'd explain what the characters did.

I think this round went over a lot better than the last round because Sister Hawker complimented me several times and was using my presentation and book cover as good examples in class on Friday as we discussed Book Fest.

If you're looking for something interesting to read - pick it up!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me toady:

1. Alli. Thank you so much, love, for Friday. You're the bestest ever. For reals.

2. Elliot started a conversation with me about killing John on Saturday. If only he knew... Bwahaha.

3. I designed a website for Sister Soper over the weekend and we'll see on Monday morning if my design gets chosen.

4. Laundry Day.

5. I've seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 4 times in theatres. I've only paid twice. :o)

6. I got an invitation to a certain someone's bridal shower. ;o)

Book Fest part 1

A while back, I told you all about Sister Hawker's Book Fest that I have to do three times this semester - it was a big project...

Well, today was the first day and that means I'm done with this round and don't have to do this again until November! :o) YAY!

I knew right away that I wanted to re-design my book cover for my visual, because I had no idea what the picture on the cover of my copy was until I finished the book...

So here we go!

Before:

After:

I used InDesign CS4 to redesign it and it turned out so good that my teacher came to my presentation table, interrupted my presentation with an unpleasant glare, and said, "Where's your visual, Sister Conley?" I explained that she was holding it. HAHAHA. Poor Sister Hawker, she felt bad, but I'm hoping that means I'll get a good grade on at least that portion.

Can I just gush real quick about how much I love InDesign? Seriously - I want to be an editor for a publishing company so I can do this. I love editing (my new slogan is: Lauren Conley - bettering the world one typo at a time), but design is so much fun, too! It took me a little over an hour to put together.

For the other parts of the presentation I turned my reading guide into a tri-fold brochure, which seemed to go over pretty well. And for my actual presentation portion, I created a game of memory with all of the character's names. If the people at my booth found a match, I told them all about that particular character, and answered any questions they had. Sister Hawker gave me a run for my money, but luckily I BS EXTRAORDINARLY well for a Mormon. :o)

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. InDesign. I want it, I want it, I want it! But it's SO expensive! ...maybe one day...

2. Goth Pod. Really - he makes my day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I wish he was mine. And yes, I know that's coveting and I'm going to hell.

3. My funny quotes note on FB. I laugh every time I re-read it. Even though I already know what's on it.

4. I think I spent a grand total of MAYBE 4 hours preparing for book fest. That's including creating a powerpoint, new book cover, reading guide and planning my presentation. And I feel pretty good about it so far. I got a lot of compliments, at least.

5. I'm the chief designer for my OTHER English class, and that means more InDesign time for me! YAY!

6. My new favorite Christmas song: "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. Seriously - the Pogues do it best.

I'm a Nerd.

The highest level English class you can take at BYU-I is English 495, and I'm enrolled for Fall semester.

Sister Hawker, the teacher, emailed us maybe one week after the end of the Summer semester to give us our first assignment. Yep, she gave us a 6 week notice. And it's probably a good thing she did.

Does that mean that I did anything about it until I got back from Arizona one week ago? Definitely not.

Our biggest assignment is called Book Fest. Sister Hawker sent us the syllabus and 3 booklists. From what I gather from the syllabus for this assignment (yes, this ONE assignment has it's own syllabus...), here is what we are supposed to do:

• Pick one book, (or two plays; or one author's collected works + something else) from EACH list. (More on the lists in a minute...)
• Make a powerpoint presentation arguing whether or not to keep the book in the traditional English "canon"
• Create and deliver a 15-20 minute presentation (which will we have to give in front of the English department and our classmates - the classmates will grade us) to expand our powerpoint and the other things we have to do...
• Make a reading guide. The reading guide has 4 parts: a) A 500 word summary of the book, b) A 500 word personal review of the book, c) A 100 word biographical summary of the author, and d) 20 developed discussion questions that incorporate literary criticisms.
• A visual adaptation. We can make any of the following: book cover design, movie poster design, family photo/family tree, video game, film or stage set, movie/play book.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm thoroughly excited for this whole experience!

So I opened up the lists when I got back from Arizona. (This is the part where you all get to see the OCD, borderline completely mental side, of me) I went through each list and highlighted any book I hadn't read before in yellow (we're not allowed to re-read anything). After that, I put an orange star next to a book that sounded interesting purely based on the title and/or author. From there, I tried to narrow down my choices so when I get to the bookstore I can make my final decision there - and this is where it got interesting.

Recommended Booklist has 83 total books on it. I have highlighted in yellow 11 books. Yep, 11 books out of 83 that I haven't read. From those 11 I narrowed it down to 4 orange stars.

Non-Fiction Booklist has 79 total books on it. I have highlighted in yellow 7 books and out of those 7 books, I have 3 orange stars.

The Canon Booklist has 103 total books on it (these are the books that English teachers on campus have decided that every English student MUST read at some point in their lives). I have highlighted in yellow a whoping 10 books!! Out of those 10, only 4 have orange stars by them.

The fiction books I have orange stars next to are all by either Hemingway, Eliot, or C.S. Lewis.

Next step: go to the bookstore. YAY!!!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Catching Fire comes out next week!
2. Enchiladas on Sunday.
3. LBS
4. Barnes and Noble emails me weekly with coupons and such, and they've recently started emailing me book suggestions based on past-purchases. I am in SO much trouble.
5. Bryce's not-so-silent auction on Thursday in Beverly Hills at the Aqualounge. It has a 1920's theme. And I'm supposed to dress up. Uh oh.
6. Waking up to a text and thinking Bryce was asking me to runaway with him. He wasn't. I didn't finish the text before I closed my phone and went back to sleep. HAHAHA!