Bringing Down the House Week 6

In the chapters that i read the blackjack team was becoming more and more successful now that Kevin had gotten promoted to Big player alongside Fisher and Martinez. Kevin begins to fall in love with Vegas and says that he is now living a double life. He has a girlfriend back at MIT but i forgot her name and he has trouble keeping the Vegas secret from her and everyone else. Every weekend he come home with like 10000 and has to hide it in his dorm room. He has so much money that he has to pay everything in 100 dollar bills in order to get rid of all of them. He buys a bunch of cool expensive things like a huge tv and a brand new snowboard and other things like that. Since he is buying so many nice things his girlfriend and family get suspicious and think that hes dealing drugs. He brings his girlfriend to see his parents over thanksgiving and then tries to tell his dad about card counting but doesn't have the balls to do it. His father grew up in china and had a really hard life at a young age and had to over come a lot so his dad would be mad if he thought he was cheating or stealing or whatever so hes worried to tell him. Kevin also meets a cheerleader for the Rams i think who is a very very very hot girl and i think he cheats on his girlfriend a lot(it doesn't really say). At the end of this section that i read they kick out Mickey because Martinez Fisher and Kevin have gained enough money to fund the team without the financial help of Mickey. Mickey takes it sort of well but also gives them advice which seems kind of ironic because it seems as if later on in the book he will mess it up for them or something like that.

Bringing down the house week 5

One thing that i find that is really cleaver is the way that they set up their system once they are in the casino. First, all of the spotters come in one by one with 5 minute increments inbetween each other as to not create suspicion. Each spotter chooses a table to sit at and they do not raise or lower their bets at all they keep it all the same because the spotters are not their to make money, they are there to figure out the count and then give the Big player or the gorilla a sign to come in and play that table when the count is high. A high count consists of basically anything in the teens and then 12 11 10 9 are still pretty good as well. The sign that the spotters give the big players and the gorillas for them to come and play that table is that they cross their arms and put them behind their back. When the Big players get to the table they have to know how good of a count they are playing with so that they can keep the count going in their head, and also they need to be able to know how much to bet so in a very clever scale they made a system to tell the big players what the count is. The spotter will make a remark/comment/question/etc. with one of the following words to tell the big players the count. Tree-1 because 1 looks like a tree. Switch-2 because a switch is binary. Stool-3, 3 legs. Car-4, 4 wheels. Glove-5, 5 fingers. Gun-6, 6 bullets. Craps-7, lucky seven. Pool-8, 8 ball. Cat-9, 9 lives. Bowling-10, 10 pins. Football-11, 11 looks like goalposts. Eggs-12, a dozen. Witch-13, witch number. Ring-14, 14 carrot gold. Paycheck-15, get payed on the 15th. Sweet-16, sweet 16. Magazine-17, name of the teen magazine. Voting booth-18, age you can vote.

Bringing Down the House week 4

In these chapters Kevin starts to play with the blackjack team and Kevin starts out as a spoter. Kevin is still clueless on how much they will actually be making from this so he is surprised to hear that from his 6 hour shift, the team made 38,000$, which means that he made 2,500$. The majority of the money goes to Mickey and the other investors which does include Fisher and Martinez who have kind of upgraded to small investors in order to make more money for their work. Fisher and Martinez are the big players which makes their jobs the highest risking and they should be paid a whole lot more money, more money then even the investors who shouldnt even be their considering that Fisher, Martinez and the others have enough funds to fund their own team without Mickey or the investors. Mickey is a useless coach of the team and makes well over 50% of the money, and he never even plays a single hand for the team because of how dangerous to the casinos he is. Just to try it out the team(Martinez and Fisher) allow Kevin to be something more then just a spotter on his 2nd night of blackjack, but instead of being a big player they allow him to be a Gorilla which is where you wait for the count to be high and then just throw your chips in without thinking until the count is low, which is differant then a big player because a big player would split, double down, vary his bets based on the complex formula that they have. One thing i learned which i think would really give the counters an advantage is playing more then 1 hand at a time at one table. I had no idea that you were able to do this, but if the count is high it would be very beneficial to have a bunch of hands going.

Bringing Down the House week 3

In this section that i read kevin returns from the casino he went to back to his normal life as a student. A month after he gets back he get taken from his swim meet to go to an old math room where Fisher and Martinez are trying to get Kevin onto the Blackjack team. Kevin meets Mickey who he finds out is the top dog of the blackjack team. Kevin is told about other basic strategies and is asked what he knows about blackjack. Kevin is impressive to the group and they tell him that he is accepted if he can pass the test. A week later Kevin arrives at an underground chinese casino which is run by a local gangster, and Kevin is supposed to act like its Vegas. Kevin receives the clues from the spotters and goes to a table with Martinez and Mickey. Everyone seems to be watching him as he wins over 600$ and he starts to have a whole lot of fun. Somebody then comes and drags him with a bag over his head to an enclosed room and he is asked if he knows what the count is. Kevin says 7 and he is correct so he does pass the test( it turns out to be JUST a test all along). Kevin and the team head to Vegas and Kevin has to carry all the money through, and he also caries a bunch of chips because a 500$ chip looks exactly like a 1$ chip. Kevin also learns that Mickey is a very notorious blackjack card counter, and if he is ever seen with him by a casino he will probly be taken to the back room and beaten.

Briging down the house week 2

In these new chapters i learn that Kevin learned about counting cards and he was introduced to the Vegas lifestyle through his two friends Martinez and Fisher. Martinez is amazingly good at math and finished grad classes by freshman year, and Fisher is a giant, 6'3'' 220. They both are really good at math and both dropped out of school. They still go to MIT though which would confuse you at first but then you learn that its because they are still in the math club which is how they make their money. Martinez and Fisher kind of let Kevin into their secret by telling him to come to a famous boxing match in Atlanta, they also show him a stack of 100's which really surprises him and makes him wonder about his friends. First he thinks they are drug dealers, but then when they arrive in Atlanta he learns that they make their money through blackjack. Martinez and Kevin get picked up in a limo by the casinos owner and later are put in an extremely nice expensive room. they then hit the casinos and Martinez gives Kevin a huge stack of 100's to play with which equal out to 10,000$. Kevin is unsure if he wants to because he doesn't know anything about blackjack, but Martinez reassures him that he will help him. They end up making over 10,000$ and Kevin learns how they can afford such extravagant lifestyles. Martinez and Fisher also teach Kevin the basic strategies they use to make a lot of money.

Briging down the house week 1

I have not read much of the book so far, but from what i have read i have learned about the main character; Kevin Lewis. Kevin is an MIT student who has finished all his premed things but isn't even going to go to med school, he just finished it to make his dad happy. Kevin in the bulk of his free time and even into some of his school time, counts cards and makes a fortune. The book says that no one really knows how much Kevin really has but they guess that it has to be around 4-5 million that he has made off counting cards. I haver not learned how they actually go about counting cards but i am eager to find out. After watching the movie in Disney, one of my fellow teammates told me that basically it is face cards make the count -1 and every other card makes it +1 except some cards in between. Kevin and his spotters give each other signs to tell each other what the count is and if the table is hot, or, like in the first chapter, signs to get the he11 out(hand through their hair). Kevin is sort of a shy kid in real life(back at MIT), but when hes in Vegas he lets loose, it says that he has partied with people like Kevin Costner, Micheal Jordan, Howard Stern, and Dennis Rodman. Also it tells of how he has to bring the money to and from Vegas, he has to tape the money to his chest, thighs, arms and back and also has to stick some in his pants.

Outside reading book project

The book that i choose is Bringing Down The House by Ben Mezrich. The reason that i want to read this book is because my brother, David, recommended it to me and told me that i'd like it alot. He read it and toldme that it is the book that 21, the movie, is based on. In disney last week for spring break, our whole lacrosse team was really bored with the lack of cool things for 17 year olds to do there, so we went to 21. I absolutely loved the movie. I love gambling, and i love blackjack, and this whole book is based on blackjack in vagas, and how they count cards.

Mortal Prey week 7 post A

Vocab
Fawn(173)-light yellowish-brown
cobbler -a person who mends shoes.
Skeptical(255)- showing doubt

Figurative Language
1. Looks like a podiatry convention- simile because it uses like or as to compare something.
2.the jailer gave rinker the be good look, like she was going to do something bad-maybbbeee similer cas it uses like or as.
3. he remebere what she smelled like, the nice smell of perfume and a little beer, the time they danced in her wichita saloon.- imagery, cas it appeals to the five senses and it explains about it.


Quote
Ill start killing agents' husbands and wives and you know ill do it.
_this it helpful to the story because you know that she will do it, so the FbI have to make a huge decision, call her bluff, or release the only reason why Rinker doesnt skip town, her brother gene.

Theme
the theme of this is that no matter how good you are, someones better.

Mortal Prey week 7 post B

IN this part, Rinker calls Lucas and tells him that if anyone does anything to her brother, or if they put Gene in prison she would kill the families of the FBI agents. Then later she calls a newspaper and tells the same thing to the newpaper person. later while lucas is in an FBI meeting she calls back and actually does say the exact same thing. * this makes me wonder alot, i wonder if this was like a missprint of if this is how it is supposed to be, becasue parts of the convo seemed a little out of place the first time she called him. "yeah, i heard you were hit pretty bad." he sounded calm enough. "Im really sorry anout the baby. My fiancee is pregnant... and im doing that whole trip myself. gonna get married in the fall."... this goes on for a page and a half. and later on when in the FbI meeting they say the exact same convo which was a convo off the top of there head, which means they asked personal quistions, had a few odd comments, and things like that, and still the convo was copied word for word. it was like it was being played on a tape recorder, except it wasnt because both times right at the end it had differant issues, like one lucas was all alone and the second time they treid tracing the phone call.

Mortal Prey Week 6 post A

Vocab
rigatoni-a tubular pasta in short, ribbed pieces.
doobie- no deffinition was available.
Figurative language
1.Rinker picked up the paper, didnt take in the headline at all, but saw the man in the orange suit and the chains, and then a click of recognition but she couldnt place him, and trhen she thought, NO, no...- imagery because you can imagine the look of surprise on her face.
2.Rinker laughed-- almost a quick cough. the guy had some balls.- imagery, can imagine this fake laugh
3.Pollock leaned into her line of sight until she could see her blue eyes and asked, you okay? -imagery cas you can imagine that picturee in your head.



Quote
"she thought about crossing to St.Louis, since Davenport was there. But the pile of quarters was right in front of her, with a couple..."(147)-- this is an important quote because it shows that Rinker might actually like Lucas Davenport since they had past relations together, and since it says that she wanted to go back to stlouis cas he was there.

Theme
It doesnt matter how high up your job is, you might be better then someone who might be higher up then you.

Mortal Prey Week 6 post B

So far in this book it says its a mystery book, and i can kind of see why they call it a mystery book, except for its only a mystery book because theres cops involved, we already know all the info basicaly except for who hired paulos killer to kill him (i forgot his name), they had let us know the killers name and the drivers name, and then i forgot the names, and they let us know exactly where Rinker is, so i dont really see how its a mystery. most mystery books ive read, you get to hear one side of the story, and your clueless about the other side of the story, For example itd be like hearing what Lucas does without knowing anyything about Rinker. In this book though its differant, you hear what Rinkers doing and where she is, and then you hear what Lucas is doing and also where he is. Then it goes back to Rinker and the cycle continues, it doesnt seem like much of a mystery to me if i already really know everything in the book, theres not much to find out except for if they catch Rinker or not. Its not that much of a mystery also cas its not like there following clues to get to rinker, they just are in the same city looking for her, so it seems more like an action book then a mystery.

mortal prey week 5 post B

These chapters are a lot more action packed. Lucas heads home after finding nothing in Cancun, but not before he makes an illegal copy of the FBI report on Rinker. He then talks to his boss and they talk more about there plan when the new governor is elected in the next 2 months. Rinker Buys some guns from an ex pro golfer who runs his own golf shop that also sells guns if you know how to ask for them right, which she does. Then rinker starts driving to St. Louis and on the way calls some of the people whom shes going to kill. On mostly all the calls she doesn't say things, or she doesn't say its her, but on one of them she talks to the guy and says that he killed her lover and her baby and that she is going to kill him, he says bring it on. Rinker goes to the guys house, steals his guns, kills his dogs and doesn't kill him. She meets up with a girl who she had helped along time ago escape from police when the lady had killed her own husband, rinker being an expert, kept her hidden and then had the lady post down in St.Louis if she ever needed her. Then Rinker gets to actual St.Louis, does a few chores and then goes to kill her first of 4 guys that she thinks tried to kill her. Lucas is immediately called in and he drives down there, and meets an FBI agent who used to be a cop and makes friends with him and his old cop buddies (they kind of do there own side investigating). the FBI is kind of gay to Lucas and some look down on him since hes just a cop even though hes 10 times better then any of the FBI agents.

A person mentioned in the book that with enough patience and planning, anyone can kill just about anyone in the world, which kind of intrigued me because it kind of makes me think of basically all terrorist attacks that have happened... IT doesn't really matter how much precautions we have because with enough planning and patience and enough work they will get it done, which is kind of scary, but its the truth.

mortal prey week 5 post A

Vocab
Rotarians(93)- A member of a Rotary Club, a major national and international service club. Clout(93)- a blow, esp. with the hand; cuff
Concierge(79)- a person who has charge of the entrance of a building and is often the owner's representative; doorkeeper.
Skirted(108)- to pass close to; miss narrowly
Subsidiary(110)- serving to assist or supplement; auxiliary; supplementary

Figurative Language
1."Pollock's apartment was a two-bedroom only technically-the second bedroom might have been more useful as a closet. Pollock called is her shit room, because that's where she put all the shit she didn't use much."(90)- imagery because you imagine what this apartment looks like, especially the second bedroom she has.
2."Pollock had always been too tall, too skinny, with hands and feet too big for her bones.(90)- imagery, you can imagine what she used to look like when she was younger when she knew Rinker.
3."Over the years she'd put on sixty pounds, and limped with the weight and weariness, like a woman fifteen years older.- imagery, because yo can just picture what she looks like now, after hearing both how she looked before and how she looks now.

Quote
" Don't lie to me. I'm coming to kill you, and i wanted to give you time to think about it, instead of just popping up and shooting you in the head. I want you to think about what your losing: all the rest of your life."(71)- This is an important quote because it lets the reader know that rinker is planning on going back to St.Louis and also its pretty cool how shes telling him that shes going to kill him and then eventually she does, it doesn't matter if he knows or doesn't know because she can still kill him even with his protection.


Theme
The theme from before keeps on building, telling you to be loyal to the ones you say you will be loyal to and not back-stab them. Also another big theme is that it does not seem to matter how high up Lucas is(weather hes a police or FBI) he still can help just as much as anyone since hes so smart. So maybe it doesn't matter how high up you are because you can still make a difference in the position your in, if your good enough to. Or, maybe its not how high up you are that shows how good at something you are. I cant really put this one into a theme at the moment.

mortal prey week 4 post B

I think the book is very neat how it always switches from Lucas' point of view to Rinkers, telling what both of them are up to at that moment, and it almost makes it seem like they are both good guys even if Rinker is killing dozens of people. In these pages i read, Lucas is in Cancun looking for Rinker, but is smart enough to be just looking for info on her because he knows shes obvioulsly skipped town already. On the other hand Rinker goes to one of the connections she knows and it talks about how she uses this young couple with a sailboat to sneak back into the states from Mexico. The young couple run a smuggling business of smuggling people one at a time in and out of the states through there sailboat. Rinker then when shes in the states visits a man who rinker helped out long ago, the man sells rinker a cheap(but nice) car, which will be untraced for a about a month or so which lets us know that the climax and action of the story will be in the next month of the book(i think). then as expected she goes to St. Louis to kill the people who tried to kill her. Back in Cancun Lucas talks alot with the local chief of police and they mostly talk about random stuff like shoes and stuff, they dont find out mch stuff in Cancun. They talk to Mejia and they get him kind of involved. They also look at all the places she was at. Mallard likes Malone also.(they are the 2 FBI agents). If these chapters the action dies down a bit and it just isnt all that exciting.

mortal prey week 4 post A

Vocab
Ramshackle- loosely made or held together; rickety; shaky
Methodically- performed, disposed, or acting in a systematic way; systematic; orderly
Harem-the part of a Muslim palace or house reserved for the residence of women.
Equivocation-the use of equivocal or ambiguous expressions, esp. in order to mislead or hedge; prevarication.

Figurative Language
1.Martin's eyebrows arched a bit, and he cocked his head to the side(41)- this is imagery because you can imagine the expression on his face.
2."Lucas looked down at himself. He was wearing ran slacks with a gray cast, a black silk Hawaiian shirt with red-and-gold cockatoos, a medium-blue tropical-weight wool-knit jacket, and loafers that were the casual variants of the Mexican man's.(41)- Imagery because you can imagine why they were giving him crap about what he was wearing cas he looks like the typical tourist.
3. the man called octavio Diaz was lying faceup, nude, on a stainless-steel medical cart. His face was covered with blood(55)- his eyes had been poked out-and his arms and legs were black.-this is imagery because you can imagine what his dead-tortured body looks like.. This sentence was also going to
4."... and that the black faux wrought-iron leaves at the top of the gate, eight of nine feet up, were essentially knives".(44)- this imagery helps to show how the Mejia family is worried about people finding info, and still trying to look like they are just an innocent wealthy family that got there money the clean way.

Quote
"Besides, you dont need him to tell you," Lucas said, Still talking to Mejia. "Watch your computer. The FBI leakes like crazy and the names will appear. If Rinker starts shooting, there will be lists in the newspapers. In your search engine, put in 'organized crime,' 'St.Louis,' and the word 'shot.' "(48)- This is an important quote because it gives Mejia everything he needs to know about how to find some of the people, and it will lost likely end up helping the FBI even though Malone yells at Lucas for saying it.

Theme
A theme in this book so far is sort of to be loyal, because Rinker is going after all the people that werent loyal to her(aka the people who tried to kill her), and also she rewards the people with alot of money who stay loyal to her.

mortal pray week 3 post a

skepticism-skeptical attitude or temper; doubt.
tasseled(19)- a pendent ornament consisting commonly of a bunch of threads, small cords, or other strands hanging

figurative language
1. with lucas hunched in a business-class seat, ready to brace his feet against the forward bulkhead when the impact came.(29)- this is imagery because you can imagine this.
2.Given that they were roofers, and that when they saw him they eased the bottles down behind their legs and out of sight...(18)-imagery cas i can imagine what that loked like when they tried to hide the beer.
3.one scar in particular slicing down across an eyebrow onto the tanned cheek below.(19)- imagery cas yuou can picture this.

quote
"it's her?"
"Clara Rinker," mallard said (25)
this is an important quote because it shows that lucas davenport and rinker have been like enemys for a while and she has probobly been in most of his other books considering that mallard also says that noone else has had as much exp with her as lucas has.

theme
for me its been really hard to pick out any themes because its still just laying down the normal information for the rest of the book.

week 3 post b

Yes ok, even thought I haven't really read much of my book so far, this time I read a good 20 pages and so much has happened. 1st. The point of view is still coming from rinker and right off the bat we learn that she is the reason that paulo died, she was the one that was being assasinated, not him. Another thing we find out right off the bat is that paulos family is a huge drug lord family and his dad is like the main drug lord in mexico so that's why they are so rich. Rinker makes good friend with the guard that's supposed to be protecting her and together they do target practice for hours in a day. Then rinker knows that sooner or later paulos dad will find out that his son was only a casualty in killing rinker. Rinker runs away and the story switches over to lucas davenport for the first time. Lucas is engaged and is building a new house and the house is way behind schedule. Lucas gets a call asking him to go to cancun and the reason lucas is choosen is because rinker and him I guess have a lot of experiance and there trying to catch rinker. It appears that rinker must have been in the previous books. Lucas is affraid of flying and also fears his pregnant fiancee will say no. But supprisignly she tells him to go cas he's driving the house builders crazy, and with him gone she'll finally get to do some wedding planning. So he goes and arrives in cancun. That's all I read.

Mortal Prey Week 2 Post B

So i havent read much more on the book but i read for a little while, i learned that the person who got shot was named Paulo Mejia, who i guess was a very important/very rich man. The lady who also got shot is named Rinker and she was Paulos girlfriend and was carrying his baby. When she got shot the bullet went through him and a piece of the bullet went all the way through and went into Rinkers stomach. Rinker wakes up in the hospital crying and learns that Paulo is dead and says that she is pregnant and that no1 else knew but her and paulo, Paulos brothers who are there tell her that she used to be pregnant because the bullet hit the baby and it died. Rinker Cries more. She is in the hospital for a week, then goes to the Mejias house in cancun to better recover where she tells the father to find whoever killed paulo and kill them. ON the other side of the story... the driver kills izzy who was the shooter and also kills the worker at the very small airport he is at. i dont know why the driver killed the shooter, all i know is that the shooter was scarred because he had just killed Paulo Mejia son of Rual Mejia who is apparently a HUGE NAME.

Mortal Prey Week 2 Post A

Vocab
perfunctory(13)- performed merely as a routine duty
demurred(14)- to make objection
Figurative Language
1."When you find them" Rinker said through her teeth "When you find them, kill them"(11)- the way the author makes sure that you know that she says it through her teeth projects an image into my head so its imagery
2."... his white grin and black tousled hair and his weekened bottle of American-Style Corona..."(13)- This is imagery because it explains her image of him in her mind and what she keeps seeing whenever she thinks about him.
3."Cancun is Paulo"(12)-personification or simile, its put in a format that would make it sound like personification, but it makes more sense to call it a simile. i Dont really know at all about this one, i havent done stuff bout figurative language in like 2 years.
Quote
"When you find them" Rinker said through her teeth "When you find them, kill them"(11)- This shows how pissed off she is and how she wants to get revenge on the people who shot paulo and her, kinda foreshadows her role in the book.
Theme
A minor theme that shows up is loyalty/friendship/family im not really sure because this girl was goign out with this rich guy and now that hes dead, his rich family(dad and brothers) are taking care of her.

Mortal Prey Week 1 Post B

I chose the book mortal prey which won the Minnesota book award or something in like 2005 or something. I chose this book because my mom has read this and said it was good and also i guess my brother enjoyed it also, so i am guessing it wont be too bad. The book is a mystery that takes place in Minnesota in present time, and the main character is a made up detective who lives in Minnesota named Lucas Davenport. I did not get to read much of the book tonight before i did this blog but i read enough to do a blog on it. So far some random guy named Paulo who seems to be rich(considering he has his own driver to drive his bmw for him Pg.2) has been taking this one girl(didn't say her name) out every day for lunch and one day he gets shot at by a guy named Izzy. The driver of his car pulls out an Uzi which shows that ya this Paulo guy was probably important. Next it goes to the point of view of Izzy Cohen, the man who shot him, and it describes that he and his driver escape and go to the woods of there hideout thing and dump there gun and then are like at this airstrip or something. thats how far i have gotten. A question i might ask is, if this is a mystery book why would they give us the killers name like right away, because thats not my kind of mystery book, i wanted to be using the clues also and figure out who it was also.

Mortal Prey Week 1 Post A

Vocab
palmettos(7)- Any kind of palm (tree?) having fan-shaped leaves
cobbles(5)- Coal in lumps larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder, most likely pavement

Figurative Language
1. She rolled and pushed paulo down on the cobbles and turned his head to keep from drowning in his own blood and began screaming at the driver.- This is imagery to me because i can see in my mind what happened and what this looked like
2. "... with the full italian Cliche stage setting- Sienna orange walls, bottles of Chianti with straw wrappers, red- and-white checked tablecloths..."- This is also imagery because it is explaining the restarant and it gives the reader the picture of what the restuarant looks like, which is imagery.
3.The airstrip was a tin-roofed, concrete block building, surrounded by ragged palmettos, with an incongruous rooster-shaped weater vane perched on top- Again this is imagery because it is giving the reader the details of the airstrip terminal.
Quote
"There's no bottom" the driver said. "the hole goes all the way to hell." - This is an important quote because it shows that the water hole that hes dropping the gun that he just shot someone with will not be found anytime soon since the whole is very deep and very narrow.
Theme
I cant really find a theme so far in the book since ive only been able to read so little of it so far, but you can kinda guess that the book is goign to be a mystery if that counts.

Minerva- I wont back down

The sister i chose was Minerva because she is a strong women who wouldn't back down to anything, not even Trujillo. Throughout the book so far we have found out that Minerva is not afraid to speak her mind and that she is a very opinionated women. She inspires me because she seems like the boldest and most daring of the three sisters so far in standing up to Trujillo the fascist dictator. Minerva has done some risky things so far like sneaking out and then lying about it, or how she has said/written things about Trujillo that could get her killed.
The song that i thought best fit Minerva was "I Won't Back Down" By Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers because i thought this song would be perfect for her since Minerva is such a strong women who wont back to anyone.
The lyrics in the song that relate to Minerva are pretty much the whole song, but most of all it would be the second verse...

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
in a world that keeps on pushin me around
but I'll stand my ground
...and I won't back down

These lyrics are perfect for Minerva because first of all shes doing what she feels is right which is standing up to Trujillo. Secondly, she is doing this pretty much by herself while the rest of the world is just living with it which kind of relates to the second line of lyrics. Lasty, ive said this before, but she doesnt back down to anyone which is word for word in the song in the last two lines.

I Wont Back Down Video
I Wont Back Down Lyrics

week 7 post b

oh wow where to begin... i finished the book over break and there were some pretty sick things that happened. One cool part that happened was that harry found out that Snape was good all along and that him and Dumbledore had a plan all along and that everything was basically going as planned. Voldemort kills snape because he thinks he has to in order to get the elder wand from him because voldemort thinks snape was the one who killed dumbledore which is true but he is not the one who first beat dumbledore in a duel. Malfoy did that first. Snape right before croaking wips up a memory for harry to watch and that is how harry finds out snape was good all along. Another cool part that happened was that harry survived another killing curse, because he finds out that he was the final horcrux and that the killing curse killed the horcrux and did nnot kill him. right afterwards he pretends to be dead and narcissa plays along with it because she fears for her sons life who harry tells her is still alive and in the castle. this just makes harry look like a god later on when he stops pretending to be asleep and helps save some of the people he loves. then after he does that its time for the final showdown between harry and voldemort. Like predicted harry asks noone to join in during this fight between him and voldemort and everyone says ok. Harry and Voldermort exchange a few words, then they talk about the good stuff, Harry lets voldemort know that Snape (his closest Death Eater) was good all along ( theres gasps from the crowd). After that, Harry talks about the Elder wand and lets Voldemort Know that harrys the true master of the Elder Wand. Harry also then tells Voldemort to try and feel some remorse for some of the things hes done, he says that that is all he has left to do. voldemort gets pissed about this and then the battle starts. Harry Wins.

Week 7 post A

Vocab
solicitous(724)- anxious or concerned
clamor(753)- A loud uproar from a crowd of people
Figurative Language
1.A group of four people emerged from th mist, standing alongside the very last carriage. Their faces only came into focus when Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Albud had drawn right up to them(755)- This is imagery because this is how the author is introducing Ron Hermoine and there two kids into the story 19 years later and you can picture how it goes down.
2. The two giants crashed along behind the Death Eaters; Harry could hear trees creaking and falling as they passed.(727)- Once again this is imagery because you can picture what it looked like to see the trees creaking and falling to the giants following the group. and you can imagine what it sounds like which is apart of the 5 senses so its imagery.
3. The whisper was barely audible; her lips were an inch from his ear, her head bent so low that hher long hair shielded his face from the onlookers.(726)- this is imagery also because you can imagine what this looks like for narcisca to put her hair over harrys face, ask him the question, get a responce, and then lie to voldy and say that harry potters dead.
Quote
so it all comes down to this, doesnt it? whispered harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."- this is an important quote because it is the last thing said to voldemort by harry potter before harry kills voldemort, also this quote helps explain to the readers what is going on and later it helps explain why harry was able to kill voldemort.
Theme
a theme that shows itself again and again in this book is tightness, because its really sick how harry potter is fricken tight throughout the whole book, and how he keeps getting nastier as the book goes on.