Fail

This is a limerick fail.

The meter is totally and completely off.

It doesn’t rhyme either.

And it doesn’t have enough lines.

Sorry

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in so long, I’ll try to get back into the habit of blogging.

Where is it?

Where is my little green pen?

I dropped it, but I do not know when.

And although some day,

It’ll turn up okay,

I’d rather not wait until then.

The Red Pyramid: By Rick Riordan

DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK!

Another wonderful book by the author of the Percy Jackson series, “The Red Pyramid” is beautifully fresh, while sticking to the theme of mythology from ancient times. I have discovered, after reading the book twice, that the two stories do actually take place in the same version of our world. The story is about two kids, brother and sister, with very different lives, until the book takes place. Their mother died and their father travels the world because his job takes him all over.

Carter get only as many belongings as will fit in a suitcase that’s small enough to fit in the overhead compartment on a plane, because he journeys with his dad. His father is black and his mother was white, so you’d think that Carter would look slightly lighter than his dad, but no. His father told him that he must always be impeccable in looks and in attitude because he would be judged more harshly for his color. His father is great, but he is the sort of person you desperately don’t want to let down, so Carter is constantly struggling to live up to his standards.

Sadie also leads a difficult life, though hers is much different. She lives with her grandparents in Britain, so she has a British accent. She wears combat boots, tattered jeans, and a leather jacket. Brightly coloured streaks adorn her hair and she is over all a rebel. She is viewed as “the different girl”, “the girl with the absent father”, (those are direct quotes from the book by the way) and she figured she might as well entertain those who singled her out. She feels abandoned by her father, and she only gets to see him twice a year..

To be continued…

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I confess, I was disappointed in this movie. If you think it extremely dull to read people ranting on about what directors do wrong when they make their movies, I suggest you stop reading now. I know, however, that you will continue to read just for the heck of it nevertheless. If I am wrong, you will not know; thus I am (and was) safe in my previous statement. Anyway… first of all, they changed the plot-line completely. There were pearls in later books, but there was nothing about going all over the U. S. to get them. Percy, Grover, and Annabeth do wind up in the Lotus Hotel, but they don’t get held back by guards, only their minds. Then again, I suppose it’s more difficult to show thoughts in movies. However, they weren’t in Vegas to get a pearl, they were there because that’s where the entrance to Hades was. I wonder why… not. Anyway, The makers of this movie also left out Ares, and mangled the facts about the gifts of Luke and so forth. Here’s what really happened: Luke gave the three secret questers nothing but the flying sneakers. Grover wore these, because Percy didn’t want them. The flying sneakers were designed to drag the wearer towards Tartarus (the deep pit of eternal darnation) which is where Zeus and friends put the cut up bits of Chronos. This secret plan would only activate when the shoes were in Hades. Chronos  would steal the body of Percy and rise again. (Luke was working for Chronos in case you hadn’t figured that out). As it is, the sneakers met a very angry Chronos. I forgot to mention this earlier, but Ares (god of war) gave Percy a backpack of supplies in return for a little favor that almost got Percy and Annabeth killed. Ares had previously gotten/stolen (I forget which) the Master Bolt from Luke, and enchanted the back pack so that the lightning bolt would appear in Percy’s backpack when he got to Hades. Ares did this because he enjoyed bickering among the gods. Also, the director of this film totally changed the personalities of the characters. Percy is supposed to be unsure of himself and not arrogant. They did his ADHD right though. Annabeth is not supposed to have brown hair, she is a blonde. I realise that is not really personality related, but it is important. They also left out her love of architecture. Grover was probably the worst though. In the movie he’s way into girls and knows his way around and is pretty smooth in general. In the books, however, Grover is a skinny wimp who’s greatest wish is to get permission to go off in search of Pan, the nature god who had gone missing. Then there were the trivial things like the misrepresentation of Charon and actually most of the underworld. They also left out Cerberus, the three-headed puppy. There was also the small matter of leaving out Dionysius who was the camp director in the books. All in all it was a poor representation of the book, and I am disappointed in them.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an intriguing book, because is does not only contain quite a few illustrations, much of the story is shown through the illustrations. For instance, it does not describe a chase scene and show pictures of the chase scene, it describes the chase scene by showing pictures of it. It is “written” in such away that it would be incomprehensible if read aloud. It starts out showing the moon. Then the view broadens to show the moon over Paris, and from there, a Parisian railway station at dawn. The place is teeming with life, already, and a young boy makes his way to the upper level, and through an air-vent in an abandoned hallway. The next thing you see is an old man, selling clockwork toys, in a booth. You can see clock hands reflected in his eyes. He is staring suspiciously at a large clock nearby. He can see the boy through the five. Then the boy behind the clock sees the old man arguing with a girl. All this is told in pictures, and far better than it could be told with words. Only then, does the author start to use words in his book. 45 pages of pictures before words are of any use. To the observant reader, the pictures are worth a thousand words. Anyway, after a page or so of words, the author, Brian Selznick, switches back to pictures, then words, then pictures, then words, and so on throughout the book. I dare not tell you more of the plot, for fear of shattering the mystery, but I will tell you that this unique book ranks up there with some of the best books of our age.

The Time I Saved the San Jose Airport: continued…

“Oh, DUH! WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE?! IT”S SO OBVIOUS! NOW I FEEL REALLY STUPID!” yelled Cleo in anguish, and with this he set to bashing his head against the wall. I scooped him up to save him from further injury and whispered in his ear to gather together his fellow kitties and tell them the plan. He nodded and bounded off. I, in turn, slid down the metal cable I had come up by, and ran to my family’s car.

My dad warned me for the seventh time how dangerous running off could be and I waited patiently till he was done. At long last, I got in the car and was about to close the door, when I saw a black cat running towards me. “Will you be coming back? The rest don’t need me to help with the great sucking of moth-life, and I need a place to stay.” Cleo mewled piteously.

“In a week, but you can come with me now if you like.” I replied. And so, to this day, Cleo lives in harmony with my other two cats, my parents don’t know of him, and the San Jose Airport was saved!

Unconvincing Excuses

Revelation

Face-Off