The Great Gatsby

From reading F Scott's Fitzgerald's classic masterpiece, The Great Gastby, I have gained major insight into the lifestyle of the 1920's. People liked nice clothes, fast cars, lavish parties, and not to mention good liquor. But all of these things rolled into one huge extravaganza proves that even with this luxurious lifestyle, none of it is worth living if you cannot be with the one whom you love. Jay Gatsby, man who truly goes from rags to riches, learns this lesson the hard way as he fatefully takes the blame for a murder he did not commit in order to save his loved one's reputation, only to have it thrown in his face as he is murdered and nobody even attends his funeral. This book is filled with symbolism, reoccurring themes, and life lessons no man or woman is soon to forget. Jay Gatsby lead a life of greatness, yet with whom much is given, much is expected. He threw all the lavish parties he possibly could have in his castle of a home, yet he suffers the same fate that all men do, and that fate is a death accompanied by true sorrow as all of the people who enjoyed his riches have no respects to pay at his funeral. Where he is buried by only his neighbor of three months. A truly wonderful work by a truly wonderful author of the ages.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This NY Times bestseller and motion picture is undoubtedly one of the best international books I have yet to read. Taking place in Sweden, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tells the story of Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.From the vulgarity, to the violence, and the suspense, this book shows that authors can publish a book and make millions off of it even after they've been dead for almost twenty years. I read the book prior to seeing the movie and I personally believe that Steig Larsson's work provides the reader with a better imagination of what Sweden looks like and how intense a dark night in a Scandinavian winter can be. He also tells more gruesome details than what the movie has to offer. I am on the second book in the trilogy and I wold advise anyone who hasn't read these yet to join me and get to it!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon we are greeted by a multitude of highly trained Chinese fighters who were taught the ways of the Wudan warriors. These include the main character, Li Mu Bai, Shu Lien (his lover) and their frenemy, Jen. Li Mu Bai has a strong desire to teach Jen the proper ways of Wudan fighting because he sees a great amount of potential within her, but she has no discipline, is very disrespectful and rude. Jen can fight her way against any opponent and most likely win, but if she let Li Mu Bai train her in the ways of Wudan, she could be the greatest woman warrior China has ever seen. However, before Li Mu Bai has the chance of turning her fully towards the good side, he is shot by a poison dart by his greatest foe and only Jen knows the remedy to cure him. She attempts to make it in time but she is too late and Li Mu Bai dies in the hands of his lover. Because Jen tried to cure Li Mu Bai before his time ran out, one could tell by watching that she was now open to the idea of training with him, and in order to commemorate his loss of life, she honors him by finishing the movie at Wudan Mountain.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

To appropriate my school blog, I have decided to revert back to the always faithful book reviews. My latest read is Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Granted, I did see the movie before I read the book but I find them both equally entertaining. In the story, two men are headed to Las Vegas with a wide assortment of drugs that they plan to take during their journaling of the Mint 400 dirt bike race out in the Nevada Desert. During their journey, the two men are constantly high on very powerful drugs such as acid, mescaline, rum and tequila, and the most powerful of all according to the narrator, ether. And I quote from the story "But the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge.." The readers come to find out that this happens to be true. The men both inhale ether one night before hitting a night on the great city of Vegas and lose complete control of all motor functions, responsibility, and sensibility. The worst part is that they are watching themselves crumble apart, but there is nothing they can do about. Throughout the story the men are constantly losing control of their situations at hand because they are always under the influence of some type of chemical. But because this story is about the American Dream, the drugs win and the men end up not having to go to jail or getting shot because of their recklessness. I really enjoyed reading the book after I saw the movie because number one: Johnny Depp is the perfect man for playing the main character and Toby Macguire makes a random hitchhiker appearance which amuses anyone. I mean who really saw spiderman getting picked up in the middle of the desert by two acid freaks? Secondly, because this portrayed an excellent image of life in the early 70's, outrageous in all the wrong ways,

In Class Thoughts

What am I still doing here? It's been four years and I'm still being reprimanded for having the back of my shirt tucked in, chewing gum, laughing when I'm not supposed to. I feel like a damn 6 year old boy even though I turned 18 over two months ago. I understand its catholic school, I mean I've been through this all my life but now its REALLY starting to get to me. I only have a couple months left. 53 days of school actually but I always ask myself if I'll make it. Lately I've been cutting out early because I simply can't do a full day of wearing a shirt and tie and learning things that are of no interest to me. Over the years I've heard of this sickness, "senioritis," I'm beginning to think its for real.
Where am I going? I've yet to receive my college letter determining whether or not I'm going to school. This somewhat worries me considering I do want a formal education and the college life appeals to me. If I don't get this letter ever I think I'm going to move to either Mexico or Australia and do a little soul searching.  Maybe be a bar tender or some other menial labor job and do a lot of surfing and living. I've always to do a different culture for at least a year to see what its like living in that culture for all the holidays and traditions they have
This summer I bought a house with seven of my closest friends from school. It should be a hell of a time but I'm wondering if we'll get sick of each other before the season is over. I've been imagining living with seven other boys in a decent sized town house might get a little cramped but it is what it is and I'm sure regardless it'll be a crazy amount of fun.
I'm ready to actually start living.

Drop It Like Its Hot

May of Sophomore year, I was 16 and I didn't care much about anything except having an awesome end of the school year into a sweet summer. I had two really good girlfriends, both seniors at St Mark's. Their names were Sarah and Sarah. I would hangout with them on a regular basis during freshman and sophomore year and they were my two biggest influences that helped me open my eyes to a whole new way of living life. As their senior prom and graduation rolled around, they started caring less and less about school and Delaware considering they were moving to Arizona in a few short months. They invited me to their senior prom and I was going to be shared as their date. For a second, just imagine how cool I felt. I was a sophomore taking two of the hottest seniors at St. Mark's to their senior prom. If that isn't cool than I don't know what is. Prom is now three days away and the Sarah's have other plans on their mind. They decide instead of going to prom, (which they think will be lame) they sell their prom tickets and buy tickets to see Snoop Dogg in Atlantic City at the House of Blues. I thought this beat prom by a long shot so I too sell my ticket in order to buy my Snoop one instead. Night of the concert rolls around and my parents actually think I'm going to senior prom. In order for me not to get caught since they are expecting prom pics and I already rented a tux prior to getting my ticket for Snoop, the Sarah's and I take fake prom pictures and send them to my parents as cover up for prom. Genius. Right before we leave we find out that our friend Mike(also a St. Mark's senior) is seeing Snoop too! We pick him up on our way to AC as we prepare for a night to not remember. After a two hour car ride to AC, we're already tipsy and experiencing life like none other. I step onto the boardwalk and instantly start taking pictures with famous rapper Big Krit and he lets me try on his $40,000 Stewie from family guy chain, entirely made of gold and diamonds. After some boardwalk travel, we step on in to the House on Blues in anticipation of seeing one of my west coast idols. For a little backround information, the House of Blues is a relatively small venue with no seating, just standing. We end up about 15 feet from the stage, I could probably have felt Snoop sweat on me. Snoop steps on stage around 10:30 and by now I'm already smashed off tequila and 4loko that these awesome australian guys were cool enough to buy for me and my crew. I start dancing with the Sarah's and Snoop is giving a hell of a show. After he gets the crowd nice and crazy, he decides its time to get us insane and plays his hottest song, "Drop It Like Its Hot" I'm dancing with Sarah DeRita when the song comes on and we lose our minds to the words and heavy bass. After that I pretty much blacked out and don't really know what happened. I ended up in Sarah Derita's house around 3 am and wake up at 3. I come home to my parents thinking I was at prom, little do they know I just had the sickest time of my life in Sin City.

This is where it gets interesting. Approximately a month goes by and by now I've told all my friends and cousins about my awesome night in AC and they're in utter disbelief. One afternoon my loudmouth cousin Tyler goes on a nice jog with my dad and decides to tell him about Snoop, unbeknownst to him that he thinks I actually went to prom while Tyler thinks my dad knows I went to AC. I get a call from my dad later that day referring to me as a mastermind schemer(proud moment for me). I didn't get in any trouble and I couldn't have expected a weirder reaction coming from my dad who happens to be a State Trooper.
A day in the life of Ryan Mayberry.

iAddict

iPhones everywhere, a sea of iPhones all on different websites, apps, facetimes. People so addicted to their iPhones they suffer from mild headaches after a long day of staring at a screen of 4.5 inches x 2.3 inches. This is the nightmare I have at least once a month, of people too consumed into their apple product to even give my face a glance. The worst part is my nightmare is becoming a reality. Everyone in my family has an iPhone, and I am the only one who isn't addicted to theirs. To show the addiction in plain sight, here is an example. The other night, we had a family dinner, all five of us. This is pretty rare nowadays considering four out of the five of us work or are busy with some other activity. As I was trying to see what was new with my family, especially since I was in a good mood and was genuinely curious of what they had to say, I was disappointed when I looked up from my steak and mashed potatoes to see that everyone was checking their stupid smart phone. (how ironic). My sister was on Instagram, my brother on twitter, my mom had the audacity to sit there and play an intense game of scramble with friends, and my dad checking his email. Come on people, get real. Needless to say I became infuriated and got up from the table and finished my dinner in my room. No one even bothered to ask where I went. Its not like this legitimately hurt my feelings, but rather angered me and made me want to do away with my own iPhone and send a reality check to the rest of the Mayberries. 

        I see iPhone addicts everywhere I go now, especially school. I understand that you need to text someone in class or even play a game now and then to pass the time, but constantly snapchatting out of your bookbag? Unless you are naturally that conceded, who really wants to see your face every 30 seconds?

         I don't wanna come off as a technology hating hippie, but people, people, get real.