"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll, page 112 to 214

In this next section of Alice in Wonderland, Alice and her cat start to wonder about Looking-Glass house and the secrets that hide in there. As she enters this mysterious house, she finds a lovely garden full of many talking flowers. She also finds many answers that don't make sense in reality, but make sense to Alice in her dreams. Such as the reason why flowers can talk here is that the soil is rough, keeping them awake, and outside, the soil is soft keeping them asleep. Further on, she stumbles upon a large chess board, and many of the pieces are moving about, especially the Kings and Queens. Later on, Alice notices that she has shrunken once again, and also that the woods, or wilderness, was the chess board where every area is a different block on the board, where she would meet different pieces of each team. She encountered Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and also Humpty Dumpty, which I had no idea was in this book. Moving onto more blocks as a pawn to become a queen, Alice encounters a field where there are many pieces from both sides fighting, even the White King and the Hatter. Although, this is where the section ends.

"I see nobody on the road." said Alice.
"I only wish I  had such eyes," the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much I  can do to see real people, by this light!"
(Carroll, 194)

After reading this from the White King Chess piece, I started laughing very hard that i had to tell my brother, once he had heard it, we both started laughing because the King was literal when it came to seeing 'Nobody' as a person, even though Alice meant that she didn't see a single person on the road. Then I thought that she is dreaming again, like she did when she went to Wonderland.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll, page 9 to 111

In this very first section of a very famous book that was made into a Disney film, then into a more recent movie, Alice wakes up from a dream to find herself in her garden, under a tree as her sister is trying to get her to be more awake. Although, Alice starts to dream again and spots a white rabbit, dressed neatly with a pocket watch. This immediately was odd to Alice, but even more peculiar was the many other characters that she had encountered in wonderland. For example, she ran into the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they were having tea. There were many events that occurred as Alice was trying to get back to her garden, like cake that would make one grow and a drink that would make one shrink, and especially talking animals. As Alice passes through Wonderland, eventually meeting the Cheshire Cat and playing a game of crochet with the Queen, she is then placed on trial, among others that were convicted of stealing the Queen of Heart's tarts. Like many other events, the rules made no sense to Alice, which was very amusing to read, until she eventually grew larger to start yelling at the Queen and waking up to her sister's voice. Thus, ending Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" the Hatter said turning to Alice
"No, I give it up." Alice replied, "What's the answer?
"I haven't the slightest idea" said the Hatter.
(Carroll, 62)

After reading this, I started laughing because in the more recent version of this book into a film, Johny Dept, as the Mad Hatter said this at the very end, when he asked Alice about the similarity between a raven and a writing desk. After that I started thinking about it also, still trying to figure out the answer to this riddle.

ROAR Post # 5 Slam by Nick Hornby Pages 244 to 309

Beginning this next and final chapter, Sam starts off with the birth of his son, Rufus. As earlier mentioned in the book, Rufus's nickname was Roof. With Rufus being born on September eleventh, Sam moved in two days later in with Alicia. The next morning, Sam wakes up with Roof crying, and the beginning of his previous dreams are starting to happen right before his eyes. Later on he gets into a small fist fight with a stranger, and accidentally kicks him in the crotch area, very similar to what happened in his dreams. Sam also gets into a fight with Alicia about their personal relationship and about how he might have been happy if the other guy, the one he got into a fight with, was the father. Later on, or in the story its a couple of weeks after the fights, Sam gets a call from his father about visiting him with the baby. After that, Sam goes home and starts talking to his Tony Hawk poster about his father and how he would write a book, without his father being in it, and starts to get even more separated from Tony Hawk, up to the point where he thinks his advice is pointless. Sam then gets into worse fights with Alicia that almost have him ending up not seeing Roof again. By the time the book came to a closing, Sam concludes by saying that every story has a beginning, middle, and end, where his story is going to stay in the middle for a long time, and started to answer questions about what happened after the end of the story, or rather the middle.

"It wouldn't be so bad if Roof had looked round and gone, you know, " Hooray! Daddy!" But he didn't, because he was one day old.

When reading this quote from the book, I started to thin that it would really cool if babies would be able to talk the day after they were born. This would mean an automatic super baby, sort of like supernatural powers, like the Fantastic Four. Powers that would have been involved in rays that enhanced their regular human abilities.

ROAR Post # 4 Slam by Nick Hornby pg 184-245

After having meetings with Alicia about her being pregnant, with his mother, her parents, and other strangers, Sam is starting to want his old life more and more as the story progresses. Although, at the same time, Sam was starting to get closer to Alicia's parents as this story developed. Instead of using last names with the, they got so close that they started using first names with one another, even though her parents were already using Sam's first name. Further on into the story, Sam falls asleep again to wake up into another dream. This dream was the same as the one before, where he is starting to feel more omnipresent. After meeting his future with Alicia and his baby, Sam starts to talk more with her family, such as her closest siblings. He also starts to spend more time with his child, and at the same time, his baby has his first words in the story. As he is in his dream, Sam comes to the point where he doesn't even remember his child's name. Then comes the point where Sam is at the end of his dream, having conflict on what to do next, and to seem like he's not from the present, being the past for Alicia. All this starts to get confusing for Sam all at the same time. By the next chapter, Sam admits that he is going to have a baby named Rufus, and also admits that is all that readers will have to know. Now he starts to know more facts about his dreams and reality, such as that he will be getting a baby, and that his mother is going to have one, which doesn't bother him at all because he already saw it coming in his dreams. Later on, in the skate park, Sam finds out that Alicia was in labor, about to give birth to his son any minute.

"Oh bloody hell, I thought. I don't really know my kid's name." (Hornby, 210)

After reading this quote, I thought to myself "FINALLY!!!" because i always hear British people say bloody hell as another way of swearing. It also reminded me of Harry Potter because they were British too. Although, this may be stereotypical because I'm not sure if British people actually say it, or it might just be a way of being funny. Another funny thing that I found about this quote from the text was that Sam didn't know the name of his child until the next child came. Even if it was in a dream, Sam was in a dream, meaning that he had the power to control, or maybe not, not all people do. After thinking all this about dreams, I started to remember that someone told me one day that dreams are based on one's experience and memories.

ROAR Post # 3 Slam by Nick Hornby Pages 123 to 184

In this next section of the book, Sam isn;t seeing much of Alicia as last time. This shows that he and her are getting more and more distant from one another. After going to a new city while having his mother worried sick, Sam finds a job, to be able to support the fact that he will be a father. Sam leaves the fact that he has a pregnant girlfriend ( more like ex-girlfriend), in a way running away, and ended up getting a job where he didn't really expect to have one in. Although, he is getting paid and staying in a hotel, Sam is doing pretty well, but has been away from home for a few months already. Other than being at work, Sam was starting to have some more man versus self conflict about Alicia being pregnant, and starts to see things in three different time frames: the past, present, and future. Then all of a sudden, when Sam was starting to feel high and mighty with his life, he gets a package from his mother, but instead of a regular messanger, it was Alicia, who appears once again in his life to reveal their future from the pregnancy test. The section ends with the plans that Sam and Alicia are going to make in the future, for them, their family, and their baby, since they're going to keep it.

"I was living in three different time zones at once" (Hornby, 140)

After reading this quote, it reminded me of something scifi. At first, it reminedd me of movies like The Matrix, or Star Wars, because he had the ability to live in three different time zones. Sam would immediately know the past, live in the present, and look into the future. This also reminded me of more holiday stories such as A Christmas Carol, with how Scrooge has to go into the past, present, and future, to be able to change his perspective towards Christmas.

ROAR Post # 2 Slam by Nick Hornby

 In this next section of "Slam" by Nick Hornby, Sam spends more time with his girlfriend, Alicia, and eventually comes to the time where she wants to have sex. Although, it isn't inappropriate for this to happen, especially because it is a bildungsroman, Sam agrees, and later on comes to the point where they have sex again, but this time unprotected. Ever since then, Sam has been feeling weird, and never spoke of that night, not even to the one he spent it with. As his birthday came closer and closer to the present day, Sam starts to feel 'bored' of Alicia because its the same thing everyday and every time he goes over to her house: eat, watch TV in her room, and sometimes have sex. He starts to feel as though they're starting to break up, up until he gets a message from Alicia, saying that she needs to talk to him urgently. As terrified as Sam was at the moment, he knew what was going to happen, and admits that he just messed up, that night started to make his life go down hill. After finding that Alicia was three weeks late for her period, both start to assume that she is pregnant. Once this thought had occurred to him, Sam started to dream as if her was the father of his, and Alicia's, baby, and immediately coming to the decision that he wanted his old life back.

"One night I got a very sad message from her. It just said ... Actually, I don't want to tell you what it said. You'll end up feeling sorry for her, which isn't what i want."

After reading these sentences from the text, I was starting to get curious about what it said. I really wanted to know what Alicia texted to him and why it would make readers like me feel sad for her. Although, other than that, the way Sam was being gentle with the readers made it feel like he was a real person, with emotions and everything. Nothing like a robot, that wouldn't have a life at all, except when it wants to do something, but it won't match the qualities of a human being, no matter how close it can get.

ROAR post # 1 "Slam" by Nick Hornby pages 1 to 61

In the very first section of this new book of the next term, Sam is another student that likes to skateboard and has an interest in the arts and designs at his school. in the very first section of this book, Sam introduces many peopl in his life that is important to him, being Tony Hawk, his mother, and a girl named Alicia. Tony Hawk is his idol, in his room he talks to a poster of Tony Hawk and recieves answers that he generates himself after reading a book about Tony's life. Alicia is a girl that he met at a party that his mother wanted him to go to. At first they intimidated one another, and eventually got closer, then after a while of spending so much time together, Sam's mother thinks its unhealthy to see too much of Alicia. What they decide to do is go out to see a movie. In the end, all his mother wanted to know is if he was having sex with Alicia because of all the time that he spends out of the house with Alicia.

" 'I don'twant to go to the cinemas with you and your boyfriend," I said. Do you see my plan? This was my way of finding out what was going on.' " After reading this in silence, I started to laugh maniacly because this is what most characters say when they're on a roll. I started telling my brother about what had just happened, where Sam and Alicia are just starting to talk and she wants to hang out. This felt like television in my head because the author made me feel like he was connectiong with me, and other readers.