Ender's Game review *SPOILERS*

Hello and welcome to another book critique and I will be doing the brainchild of masterful author and LDS member Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game. We step into the shoes of Ender Wiggin, a six year old struggling with his dysfunctional family, and a a bully which he beats to death, yeesh. However that doesn't stop from being drafted by the military, in which me makes new friends and enemies and survives the ordeals ahead. His god like intellect allows him to beat the games they have they have there and emerge with him and his teams on top. No matter what kind of new thing the commanders throw at him, he always finds a way to overcome. Back at home his older siblings talk about something called Locke and Demosthenes which is leading to tension among the I.F. and Second Warsaw Pact. When Ender and his sister do get to meet after a few long years, it seems to her that Ender has changed drastically, and maybe not for the better. Sometime later he is promoted to a Commander of the Fleet and sent to war against and intelligent arthropod race called in slang as 'buggers.' Once again he overcomes those trials and as the final challenge destroys a simulation of the bugger homeworld. But SPOILERS...

It wasn't a game.

Quality of Writing: Brilliant

Pacing: Top Notch

Plot: Kept me on the edge of my seat

Characters: memorable

Enjoyability: exceeded expectations 

Insightfulness: not to shabby

Ease of reading: Hard to understand at times 

Morals: Around PG-13 levels which is suprising even for a member of the church!

Verdict: a great read but I advise caution for younger viewers.

War of the Worlds review

I'm so SOOOO sorry on the delay, I just ran out of ideas. But anyway here I am. Now for those of you who don't know, I am a voracious reader, did you know my first book was Frankenstein. After that I was hooked, expanding my literate appetite even further, flipping through numerous books and iconic novels, and now this. It opens in late 19th century England with the martian landing and to no surprise things go downhill fast, things really get interesting when I get to see the martians use their heat ray, a toxin called black smoke, the iconic tripods.

Ahhhh, bliss

The British army is helpless to fight them off and it ends badly with thousands cut down like what in a field. The narrator wanders through the desolation, running into an artilleryman and curate. His brother thankfully manages to flee the country, others weren't so lucky. As if you thought extermination wasn't bad enough in book 2 (earth under the martians) the extraterrestrials begin rounding up those who weren't lucky enough to be dead, and terraforming the place with umm... red weed? Heck they even crafted their own city near London. However in the end the martians began leaving as soon as they came because they have zero immunity to the pathogens that we have endured for so long, when the narrator found that out, he shouted my favourite line that went something like this: "why bother with guns when all we had to do was just sneeze on them." This isn't just another typical sci-fi work, as it also explores the issues of Social Darwinism, colonial and imperialism, and natural selection.

Quality of writing: you know what to expect from H G Wells

Pacing: Pitch perfect

Plot: Very intriguing in a genre that can be very cliche

Characters: Enjoyed the Narrators adventures

Enjoyability: Very much so

Insightfulness: Very good

Ease of reading: Easy to understand for novel from 1898

Morals: It's from the 19th century, what would you expect?

Just so you know this was done on my 'The Book Lover's Journal: my personal reading record

Some random humor: jokes of the week merged into one

What is a clumsy man's favorite place to vacation?

Trip-oili

What do you call a Republican who is a pain in the rear?

An elephant in the room

What is a skin condition favourite horror movie?

The Exor-cyst

How come rubber bands are so deceptive?

They Stretch the truth

How come rubber bands are so deceptive?

They Stretch the truth

How does a farmer examine dead bodies?

With a ne-crop-sy.

What did some mud do when it saw a nice painting.
It admired it

A merry Christmas indeed

Another December 25th has come and gone in a matter of hours. Can you believe it!? Well on the bright side we got 11 more months 'till the next. This Holiday really stood out to me because the gifts I recieved were small in size but large in value. Here's my top five.

5. Telus World of Science passes for 2015

4. Several books 

- A reference book on doctor who and a graphic that features a crossover with the Star Trek Universe

- A magazine on Hockey's greatest rivalries

- A history of science fiction

- The Guiness Book of World Records 2015 (actually that was a gift to Grayson)

- America Again by Stephan Colbert

3. A $25 Cineplex gift card to see Battle of the Five Armies (and Mockingjay pt 1)

2. And 2 Wii U games

-Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate

-Assassins Creed 3 (It was rated M but the imdb parents guide to care to that.)

1. But the real prize was...

A second iPad, just kidding, it's an android the JXD S8700: designed specifically for gaming. But this beauty can play RETRO GAMES!! I already got Contra, 3 old Legend of Zelda titles, and the first six games in the mega man series. There's more to come as Google Play allows emulators so I can play more classic titles!

Anyway I had a great Christmas, and who knows what my birthday on Jan 3rd will offer.

Sweet Victoria

Apologies for the delay. This post is about my wonderful trip to Victoria for the thanksgiving week (Canada.) After a pleasant flight across the gorgeous wilderness we arrived at the wonderful place otherwise known as Vancouver Island. We took a tour of Sidney, (not a Aussie wannabe by the way,)  posed at some attractions, and visited the local aquarium where we admired ocean dwellers such as jellyfish, trout, sea cucumber etc. And a anemone tried to devour my finger and dissolve it. Soon after we ate the five and dime restaurant, and headed over to fisherman's wharf (the Canadian one) and watched the seals get free lunch in the harbour. We then arrived at a nice apartment (nicer than where I live but more expensive) and slept cozily through the night. The next day we had a little shopping spree at a farm that was growing pumpkins then headed back to Sidney where my mother happily found sea glass every foot or so, caught eye of some pinnipeds, (Grayson said they were orcas) and I struggled to get a decent photo without me being so squinty. Then we headed over to my Grandpa Bahir's house where we talked, had KFC and my family was happy to receive a few gifts from them.

After we visited with them, we did some sightseeing around town, helping ourselves with chocolates at Roger's chocolates and doing some browsing at Monroe's books. But not before we got a glimpse of the awe-inspiring Maritime Museum. My favourite parts of the museum was seeing the detailed models of the ships and then learning about Canada's own version of the Titanic: The Empress of Ireland. On another day we visited the Royal BC Museum. Some of the main highlights was the exhibits on theVikings, the Natural World and a history of Canada in that region. One of our favourite places was the Victoria Bug Zoo. They had everything including stick insects, cockroaches, spiders, scorpions and a whole colony of ants. It's been there for 15 years and they still can't find the dang queen. When we left, I watched my brother help himself to a packet of deep fried mealworms ( BBQ flavour) . And to think this is a guy who doesn't like tomatoes.

Later we wandered through some other streets and found another bookstore as well as Chinatown. The Chinatown in Victoria is the oldest Chinatown in Canada and the second in age to San Francisco's Chinatown.

The next day we returned to the spectacular Butchart Gardens. We admired the flora and fauna which comes from varying parts of the world including Italy and Japan. After the gardens we had lunch at the SeaHorse Cafe along a dock and the headed to the Butterfly Gardens. Seeing every dazzling species shows that God must have been in a good mood when designing these creatures. There was even a collection of all the cocoons that they emerged out of. There were more than just butterflies, but also tortoises, flamingos, birds of paradise and even poison arrow frogs. We then took a walk on the BC coast then headed back to the apartment for the night The final day we did some sightseeing along one of the channels. There were a number of highlights, from a diving board foundation to jumping fish, and even two seals, or as our guide calls them a 'seal' of approval. Speaking of, we went back to Fisherman's wharf to feed the ones that hung out there. After that we headed to Odgen Point Breakwater, where we walked down the pier and was mercilessly soaked by the waves. The next day we said goodbye to Grandpa Bahir and later Victoria.

Back to Seminary

Hello everybody, I'm back. Now my topic for today is seminary. An inspirational talk in church today gave me the idea to do this post. It starts out with me being jolted up by my alarm clock faster than the time when I foolishly put my finger on a plug that was partially through the plugin. I wake up at 5:45 AM so getting a full 8 hours of sleep is a hit or miss. We drive for a few minutes then I arrive at the church. What used to be sleeping on the chairs before class is now listening to my friend Tyler perfect his piano skills. Oh, and for some reason even though it's September he thinks christmas is around the corner and wants to play hymns having to do with it. Just because the icebox-like weather is so soon doesn't mean a winter holiday is. Also on some occasions because my teacher Brother Law uses an a projecter with an iPad to show lessons with it, we use it to play apps on it to, from Flappy Bird to Fruit Ninja. Honestly I should bring my iPad Air to Seminary, I got an assortment of games my classmates will love. Another game we love to do on Fridays is play Mafia, except we call it body-body. I could tell you what it is or you can just google it. The most interesting thing I learned is when Christ was crucified, and arose into the spirit world he organized a mission there to teach souls who never heard the gospel then went out the door that said "Employees Only."

My day at seminary is ended freezing to death at the bus stop before it comes. Don't worry I always live to tell the tale.

High School: First thoughts

Just recently in September I started High School at McNally. I was terrified at first about what would happen but that all vanished on the first day. My timetable was more exciting than in Grade 9. The courses I'm starting include Forensics, with my favorite part is watching Forensic Files (as mentioned In the last post) on some days; Psychology; and photography. Language Arts in more enjoyable as we're doing short stories, novel and graphic novel studies, Shakespeare and film studies (including Almost Famous, the Breakfast Club and V for Vendetta.) We're doing Globlaization in social studies and I'm finding math to be a lot easier. Speaking of, I won't have ANY MATH CLASSES IN SEMESTER TWO!!! I just recently joined the Smash Bros. club there and let me tell you, it's a ton of fun! I have a 45 minute lunch break where I head over to my aunt's house where my loving Grandpa is waiting for me to sit down and eat while watching the Colbert Report together. I've also gotten used to taking the bus to and from school and it's a lot more manageable than I expected and it's very convenient. That's all I have to say really. See you 'till the next post.