Whales on Stilts: a book review by me

Whales on Stilts: M.T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lily thinks of her self as an average twelve year old and why wouldnt she when her two best friends--Katie Mulligan of Horror Hollow and Jasper Dash, Boy Tecnonaut-- are famous for the daring adventurous adventures which they both have series on. But Lily's averageness chnages when she finds out that her dad works for an evil scientist who plans on taking over the world with whales, on stilts! Katie uses her smarts along with the help of her two pals to save the world and her grandma from this whale invasion.

I loved this book. It took me the first five pages to realize that Anderson was making fun of the sci-fi fantasy thriller as well as a lengthy list of other things such as product placement and popular yet stupid movie lines. This book had me laughing out loud.
a couple of my favorite lines:
"My mother was a Razorback whale. My father was a very lonely sailor"

"I was a little worried that you had fallen asleep or were you were calling from the john. Your uncle Sid does that, you know...Sometimes he grunts while talking."



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i had a bazillion ideas...

this past week i had so many ideas of things i wanted to post about, but alas my slacker side got the bets of me (well i dont really know if it was my slacker side because i was frantically doing homework and trying to figure out how to upload a mission photo-which took FOREVER- that i was supposed to have dome last week so i guess in a round about way it was my slacker side because if i had done my h-dub when i was supposed i could have blogged. okay that's enough of a side track)
ANYWAYS, i encountered many things that i wanted to share with you.

1. on friday i read this article in the salt lake tribune. anytime i hear anything about breast milk it takes me back to 10th grade english when my teacher was talking to us about how beneficial a 'mommy farm' would be. The article talks about how a california company is selling breast milk that is donated my women (obvi becasue its impossible for a man to donate breast milk) to hospitals. The article talks about the ethics, more or less, of selling this donated mommy milk. I found a few gems in the article while reading:
"A California company is eyeing Utah for its abundance of notoriously health-conscious, breast-feeding moms."
a. notorious: widely and unfavorably known. really, why would health-consciousness ever be considered 'unfavorably known'. could this be because of the word of wizzum that the many latter-day saints support? humm.
b. "Utah mothers breast-feed at rates, well above the national average..." this made me laugh out loud.
c. the article also mentioned how mom donate, sell, and trade their breast milk online. strange? i think yes is the correct answer.

okay thats enough about boob milk. now on to better things (at least in my opinion)

2. La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's most Enchanting Language.
Its a book I'm reading, one of my besties said when she saw it she just had to buy if for me. so sweet! im so glad she did becasue i LOVE it! I'm only about fifty pages in, but man its so good. the author is just talking about how much she loves the italian language, with words and phrases thrown in that are in italian. "everything just sounds better in italian". and she could not be more wrong.
im currently in Ital 322 advanced composition and let me tell you its kicking my butt. sometimes i just get so discouraged becasue i feel like i will never be able to speak this wonderfully beautiful language. i hide the tears that well up in my eyes during class and hope no one will notice what an idiot i am. doubtful. its at times like these when i have to remind myself why i am studying italian. because i love it. thats all (and the men are on the attractive/romantic side). the more i study the more i love it and the more i get frustrated that i am not progressing as much as i would like. but i love it and i seriously cant image my life now if italian is not a part of it. Dianne, the author, helps to remind my why i put myself in this high anxiety situation. so i trek on, not giving up simply becasue i love the language.

here are a few lines from the book that make me smile...
"...a single word in Italian can reveal more than an entire paragraph in English"
"Take, for instance, Tommaseo's entry on Italy's national pastime (present and future): flirting, which translate into fare la civetta, or 'make like an owl'." She then goes on to describe the difference words that italian have to describe the type of fliriting from a civettino, a precociois little boy flattering a pretty woman, to zerbinotto, a fop tpp old for such foolishness.
"A shrewed furbacchione who obtains a learning a coveted building permit for a rectangular, cement-lined hole in his backyard by describing it not as a swimming pool (prohibited by law) but as a storage vat for water that local firefighters might need to douse a blaze"
she also describes congiuntivo as the sexiest verb form.
whats not to love about this book or the italian language. She talks about how one cannot separate the italian language from their culture. i think that is why i love this language so much. its so rich and full or life, love, passion, tragedy...okay thats enough of a rant about my obsession with la bella lingua

there was more i wanted to write but i didnt write down my inspiriations on my tiny post-it so those ideas will float with the wind until they land again.

i hope all of you have a great week.
you can expect more post as i recommitted my self to being a better blogger

who are you!?

Sunday night i am sitting at my computer doing some last minute homework that i forgot about when my phone starts humming the charlie brown theme song. i have received a text. this was rather exciting since i havent received a text all day. i click the option to view now. its an unidentified 801 number. here how our following conversation went:

?: hey whos this
me:you first
?: ben montclair
me: dont be offened but i dont know who you are. how do you have my number?
ben: no idea. where are you from
me: california...lodi to be exact
ben: hmm. name?
me: ashley campbell
ben: oh youre like 19 huh
me offended: no.do you go to byu?
ben: i did
me:seriously how do you have my number? you texted me first
ben:idk?
me: did someone give it to you? was it in your phone? i reallu dont understand. also you dont have a fb do you? yes i looked you up. failed.
ben: haha. wait whats your name
me: ashley campbell. also how long ago did you leave byu? like 2 or 50 years ago?
ben: 2. lol you work in the mtc
me: nope. went there a few times as a volunteer
ben: hmm.
me: this is really funny. but really you have my number so...think hard because this is going to drive me crazy.
ben: sammys?
me: ive been there before for a few concerts and stuff. do you know an alexi trottier?
ben: who?
me: shes one of my friends that knows like everyone. i though maybe that was our connection. obviously not it. question: why did you text me in the first place?
ben: remember meeting a guy cause you texted him and he was mad first but later you met up at sammy where you got his pic?
me: haha. no. did that happen to you because thats funny. did you live in the miller apts last year?
ben: nope. picture time?
me: what?
ben: like send me a pic
me: you first

he then sent me a picture of himself. did not recognize him at all, but he is pretty cute. i then sent him a picture of this creepy old lady that i have in my phone. he thought it was funny.
i still dont know who he is and he doesnt know who i am. will we ever figure it out? if you know a ben montclair please tell me because im really interested in how he got my number.

yip yips

just discovered this. my favorite parts are the beginning and ending. wahahahahaha.


also to answer your question yes i just learned how to upload videos to my blog.

THESE people MY friends

thanks kj for always quoting this.

miss. campbell

so i have started my "field experience". I currently go to a seventh grade english class every morning for a few hours. It has been interesting. here are a few selected bits from my first week with the sevies as the eighth graders call them:

mrs. fuller: its the best thing since sliced..........!?
boy in class: HAM!!!!!
mrs. fuller: umm no.

as i was correcting their conflict stories i came across this little nugget, or maybe i should say big nugget.
....and then batman threw a grenade at the door and it exploded BOOB!!! and then the joker.....

im sure there is more of this to come.
this just confirms to me that i am in the right major.