The Alchemist

I was right about this book being absolutely hilarious. While reading the book, I can see the movie playing in my head, which just makes it more interesting to me. Sadly, though, the movie has influenced my opinion of the book in a slightly negative way. In the book, the characters are described in, to me, surprising detail. The characters I then see in my head do not always match up with what the actor I saw in the movie looks like. I also think that there are some characters in the movie that are not in the book, and that can get confusing when I try to match the book character with the corresponding movie one. Although, other than that, the movie and book are very similar. Sometimes I will read a sentence or paragraph of dialogue, and I will remember the movie character saying the same thing. That made me ecstatic! Usually, when books are made into movies, they are changed to where it seems like the movie is just a loose interpretation of the book. This is not the case for Big Trou...

Help me, I have fallen through the rabbit hole. This week I buckled down on research and digital editing. While I was researching, I would be looking at how to do something, and it would discuss other processes or talk about features that I did not know, so I had to look those up, and I just fell further, and further into the rabbit hole. It was a good fall though, and I learned a lot. One thing I looked into this week was the rule of thirds, which separates a photo into a 3x3 grid. It is said to be beneficial to put the subject(s) of the photo on either one of the lines or points of intersection because the eyes are naturally drawn there and it makes the photo balanced. One of the links I saw was about how controlling this rule was, and how a lot of times the photos using it were boring or had a lot of bad negative space. Instead, it showed paintings and photographs using other “rules” or techniques, like arabesque lines, dynamic symmetry, and coincidences that were not real coincide...

I originally planned to read the book Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, but I changed my mind. I recently watched the movie Big Trouble with my parents, it was absolutely hilarious, and while reading the program information, I saw that it was based off a book by Dave Barry. The movie is so weirdly, absurdly funny, and includes weapon selling Russians, teenagers with daddy issues playing a water gun game (apparently called Killer), which leads to them being arrested multiple times, stupid cops, stupid panty-hose covered criminals, love at first sight, a bomb, and some other crazy things. From what I have read on Wikipedia, the book follows a very similar plot line. I decided to read this book instead because, as I said, the movie was very humorous, and I generally think that books are better than the movie, so hopefully it will be even better than the movie. It will be a little different with this book and movie though, because I usually read the book, then watch the movie, so I probably l...

This Saturday I went to the park, which was pretty fun. The only bad thing was that it had rained multiple times during the week, so the trail I went on was very muddy. It was so muddy that I could only go 20 or 30 feet, then had to turn around. I got some good pictures, but I am going to have to go back to get the photos I was planning on taking. There is a creek that runs alongside part of the trail, but, again, it was just too muddy to get to that part of the trail and photograph it. Over this week, I also have created a short list of things to start looking into, and how they affect a photo. This list includes the rule of thirds, lines in the photo, different patterns or types of symmetry, viewpoint, and depth. I have not yet started researching anything for the digital editing part of my project, so I want to start on that this week also. I am not sure how much I will have to look up for this part of the project, or how much will just be me experimenting with different buttons an...

I have gotten my project pitch for learning/mastering photography approved and have started working on what I am going to research, where I am going to take photos, and what I am going to do for my final project. So far, I got the camera I will be using for my project. It is my aunt’s Canon Rebel T6 that she got with a lens kit, so I have a normal (I guess??) lens and a super zoomed in lens. I have taken a couple pictures out in my backyard of flowers, trees, and ripples in water puddles. I think they look pretty good, so I am excited to see what I can do once I have better technique and have edited them. I also checked out a couple of books from the school library to read. My goal for this week in the research aspect of my project is to look through the books I checked out and figure out what I need to research more. I paged through them a little bit already, and I am not entirely sure how much they will help because I am one step above knowing nothing about the technical aspects of ...

Signposts: Theme Tracker  - Again, (because its a  theme ), we see the i nterconnectedness of everything . This time though, instead of just including beliefs, Coelho adds objects too. Beginning on page 149, Santiago begins a conversation about what love truly is, that includes talking to the dessert, the wind, the sun, the hand that wrote all, until he reached the Soul of the World and found the Soul of God also.  This part of the book shows the interconnectedness of physical objects, such as the dessert and the sun, with beliefs, such as alchemy and the Soul of the World, with religions and feelings, like love . It ties all (or most) of Santiago's lessons together, and puts what he has learned into the real world for him to really begin to learn about the Soul of the World.  Other Things to Notice: Character Development  - I thought it was interesting to see  how   Santiago dealt with setbacks  in the beginning of the book verses at the end....

Signposts: Theme Tracker  - One of the themes in this book is the  interconnectedness of everything.  This is clearly seen on page 92 when Santiago notices that God had been placing the omens in his path, and he says  "he had never thought of them in terms of a language used by God to indicate what he should do" . This theme is seen through this quote as the belief of omens it intertwined with God, and we also see God intertwined with Allah, and omens connected to alchemy and beliefs of people like the camel driver.  Words of the Wise  - One page 106, Santiago receives advice from the camel driver again, but this time the camel driver is also quoting and telling the story of a seer. During this story, the seer says that  "if bad things are [coming], and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur" . One of the reasons this quote caught my eye was because it reminded me of something  I have heard before which is that if ...

Signposts: Aha Moment  - Santiago's "aha moment" on page 58 is when  he realizes what he has accomplished and is proud of himself  for it. Even though we know that Santiago has a greater treasure to find, I think it is still important to recognize that he sees what he has accomplished so far as a treasure. He was proud that he learned about crystal, about the wordless language, and about omens, and believed his prize was to be in Africa, to have met the thief, and been able to double his flock without spending any money. As he is thinking about returning home, he even says that he is excited "about the day when he would disembark at Tarifa as a winner" (58). This is not only an "aha moment" for Santiago, but  another lesson for the reader to be happy and proud of what we accomplish, even if we have not yet met our Personal Legend .  Words of the Wise  - Throughout this section, there are many instances where Santiago learns something from another c...

Signposts: Again and Again  - Coelho repeatedly writes about  Santiago's job as a shepherd, and how he loves it so much because of the freedom it gives him to explore new places and see new places  (although, I have to admit that this does sound pretty great). To travel and experience the world around him is Santiago's dream. I believe that the emphasis on this freedom to explore is foreshadowing for how this need will cause Santiago to find his true pot of gold at the end of his Personal Legend. I think that at the end of the story, Santiago will not wish to continue to roam Andalusia or Africa, but find that his true dream is something else.  Memory Moment  - An important memories we read about in this section is of  Santiago telling his parents he did not want to be a priest, but rather a shepherd   (and his memory of the merchant's daughter) . His memory of explaining to his father his need to see the world gives us some background not only to ...