Home stretches are great places to trip up

I find it awkward to have ended that last entry where I did with no follow up. It was supposed to have a lot of follow up. Unfortunately I've been that busy. More than any of the hundred and on things standing on my shoulders, it's been my English report, due this week.

First, to any of you who want to say "oh, how silly of you, you should have gotten it done sooner, my, my, how stupid of you," I have been working on it, but it's like my science fair: no matter how early you start or how much you get complete, most of it is going to be done on the last day. Up to now I've been focusing on what to write, and now that I have a subject, I need to fill it with content.

In case you didn't read or forget what this project it about, I need to write a five page (double spaced) report on "how have your literary experiences affected the developement of your philosophy of life?" It needs to include references to the books I've read, a second source (review, critic or well written hear-say) of a book I've read, and two quotations (one long and one short).

The first part was the hardest: finding a philosophy. After hours of searching, I decided to make one up. It's basically the idea that wecshould continually progress and move forwards throught our lives, evolving, developing, changing and living as full a life as possible. Now all I need to do is expand on that and find references to literature.

The first point I'll make on the philosophy is to never give up, to always keep moving and never loose hope. This is easy to find in any story, especially ones with heroes. Also, don't stand still because the world keeps turning, it doesn't stop for you. I'd really like to quote Fullmetal Alchemist here (立って歩け前へ進めあんたには立派な足がついてるじゃないか Stand up and walk. Keep going forward. At least you have strong legs to take you there), but I'm not sure if my teacher will let me use examples from comics in another language.

The next point is not to let anything hold you back. Try to live without regrets, accept what is and move on. This doesn't mean forgetting or running away, all that will ever do is hold you back even more. To move forwards sometimes you have to face things head on (I suggest a tackle). I would like to have a quote or something here to back me up, but I doubt I'll find one.

Next is that we should continually change and develop (unless you've magically found a way to make a whole series of books about perfect people who never develop or change and just keep repeating how lovely and perfect they-oh wait, it's called Twilight, bleh). By this I mean personal developement in every aspect, whether that be hobbies, skills, career, physique, or even philosophy. I should imagine that I can somehow relate character developement to books, but I'm not sure how.

Then there's talking about diversity, how it's important to get everything you can out of life (actually, to avoid seeming like I'm repeating myself, I should put this before developement). Whether it's travelling to far off places, just having and adventure in your own backyard, or seeing what's around the next corner, talking about the places you'll go and the things that you'll see (yes, I'll be referencing Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places you'll go). I hope to get a good quote out on this one. It really is a good idea to open your eyes and look around.

Finally, I think the last part would be not to settle. To keep going until you've wither found what you're looking for or you're six feet under. This will make up two parts, first, that like the first part, you should never give up (and here I'll be referencing a writing on Douglas Adam's Hitchtiker's Guide), and second, that if you do find what you're looking for in life, then it's fine to stop. This is a philosophy of getting from point A to point B, but once you're at point B, you probably won't need it any more.

So, I think that's a good run down of my ideas. All I need to do now is turn that into a five page report and remove all but the third person.

Actually, now that I think about it, this is a nice tie-in to my last post, which was about my point B. Anyways, I still need to either re-write that post or give it the closure I was and am too tired to ad then and now. Goodnight.

Oh, but first, just to gie you an idea of what literary works I've read, here's a list of all the books and series I remember:

Dr. Seuss (too many to list)
Where the Wild Things Are
Ender's Game (and series)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and series)
Discworld (and series)
Twilight (and series, in full, I had my reasons for reading it)
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
Tuesdays with Morrie
God's Debris
Neverwhere
Nineteen Eighty Four
The Time Traveller's Wife
The Catcher in the Rye
Bushido
Shogun
Gaijin
Childhood's End
The Sea Wolf
Great Expectations
The Kite Runner
Different Seasons
The Crucible
The Crysalids
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Raisin in the Sun
The Giver
The Outsiders
The Cay
Inherit the Wind
Harry Potter (and series)
Animorphs
Jumanji
The Hobbit
My Side of the Mountain
Hatchet

Listened to audiobooks of
The Divine Comedy
A Breif History of Nearly Everything
A Breif History of Time
Monday Mourning
The Polar Express
(many by Sue Grafton)
The Haymeadows
Merlin and the Dragons
The Invisible Man
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
Alice in Wonderland
The Lion The Wtich and the Wardrobe
Casino Royale
Sherlock Holmes

Poetry:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (yes, that's how it's spelled)
The Raven

Japanese:
Fullmetal Alchemist
D.N.angel
Bloody Monday
Naruto
The Journey of Shuna

There's definately much more, but that's all I have for now. Goodnight.