carter's blog bog

I think that Anson Hones did support Texas being annexed to the US, because in the very beginning of his speech he says “The great measure of annexation, so earnestly desired by the people of Texas, is _happily_ consummated. Another reason I say this is because in column 2 paragraph 3 it says “The lone star of Texas… obscurely shown for a while… and has passed on and become fixed forever in that glorious constellation… the American Union. in column 2 paragraph 2 last sentence it says “The surrender is made with the most perfect cheerfulness.

This week I was in the car with nothing to do and I read this quote out of pendragon 3: The Never war” …Saint Dane had hit the jackpot.  He found the perfect moment in time that he could manipulate and send three territories into oblivion.”  I chose this quote because it inspires a sense of hopelessness and that the antagonist has almost won.  I also chose this quote because just before that in the story, the protagonist Bobby Pendragon and supporting character ‘Gunny’ VanDyke had just made a huge mistake that actualy helped antagonist Saint Dane come one step closer to victory.

This is one of the books that I often read just for entertainment, not to maintain an influential place on the reading wall.  It seems like people are too taxed all the time, and often when I’m trying to read something, all of a sudden, “it’s time for Ethan’s lacrosse practice, everyone in the car!” When I was reading this I noticed that when I actually look at the words, not just skim over them.  For example today I learned that Denduron is pronounced “den-doo-ron” not “Ded-noo-ron” its as if I do  a first and second round reading for everything, not just school documents.

Whenever i read these books, it  always brings me back to where I read the first in the series, so this book brings me back to one of my favorite places in the world, camp Hayo-Went-Ha.  I often wonder what my life would’ve been like if I had just debunked this story as another backwater dragons and magic book, hence the name ‘pendragon’ I thought it would have something to do with writing and dragons, but I was completely wrong.  This is one of the 3 series that I got absolutely hooked on, the other two being the Inheritance cycle and Percy Jackson.  In fact I’m kind of sad because Percy Jackson has shot off in a different direction, and the last Pendragon book came out two years ago, so all that’s left is the inheritance cycle, which, by the  way, is on it’s last book, if it ever comes out.

I was struck by this part of the author’s writing “The rich black soil was cool against Roran’s hand.  He picked up a loose clod and crumbled it between his fingers, noting with approval that it was moist and full of decomposing leaves, stems, moss, and other organic matter that will provide excellent food for crops.  he pressed it into his lips and tongue.  The soil and tasted alive full of hundreds of flavors from pulverized mountains to beatles and punky wood and the tender tips of grass roots.  This is good farmland thought Roran.  He cast his mind back to Palencar valley and again he saw the autumn sun streaming through the field of barley outside his family’s house–was the Anora river to the west and the snow capped mountains rising high and either side of the valley.  That is where I should be, following the earth and raising a family with Katrina, not watering the ground with the sap of men’s limbs.” As per Brisingr pg 505 paragraph 1-2.  It shows that the supporting character Roran resents his cousin Eragon finding Saphira, Eragon’s dragon, and that he would rather be back at his home and not far away in a strange land, fighting a war.

I was reading this book for vocab words, and it’s just one of those book’s you reread over and over again, in fact this is my 5th time rereading it, I do not want to be left in the dust when book 4 comes out, I am not joking when I say that If it is not a shool night, which I doubt it will be, I am going to read the entire book that night, no matter what it takes!  As you can see I am obsessed with this series.  As a reader, on a scale of one to ten this book would get a ten ( I’d say eleven but that would be mathematically incorrect). 

This, in my dad’s words, is a very ‘wordy’ book, kind of like Dickens’s Christmas Carol.  For a few reasons, that I will explain later, I am the only person in my family who has kept reading this series.  One of the primary reasons is that in the second book, Eldest, there is a lack of excitement which caused us, along with the release of Harry Potter 6 or 7, I can’t remember which, to abandon the series.  another reason is that one of my little brother’s friends Caleb told him a big secret, and Ethan  decided to stop reading the series.  The third reason is that, as I stated before, my dad thinks this is a very ‘wordy’ series, and as a lawyer he is rather picky about using the least amount of words in a case.

For our utopia, as the developer it is my job to decide the shape of our utopia, which is an island.  There will be 5 major lakes and 3 major rivers in our utopia, two being man-made by our two large hydroelectric dams, and three being natural.  Our main city is the center for imports and exports, and has a population of 5,000.  There are smaller communities scattered across the island, used for farming, mining, manufacturing, and solar power.  The total population of our utopia is around 10,000 as I stated before, 5,000 in the city, and 5,000 in communities across the island. 

The most abundant community on the island are the farming communities, which harvest grains, fruits, and vegetables.  Another community is the mining community, most of which are stationed around the mountain on our isle, which beneath it holds many ores, including copper and gold, which use robots to extract copper, gold, and other metals for electrical components built on the island.  The third type of community is the manufacturing community, which make products for our utopia, all of these are completely pollution free, and have Co2 filters implemented in them to catch any polluting gasses created by chance in the manufacturing process.  After a product is made, it is put into an airlock which quickly processes the stray pollutants in the air and sends them out to be shipped by high speed rail.  The final community is the solar power community, in which the natural energy given off by the sun is turned into clean electricity.  One unique solar plant is stationed at the top of our utopia’s mountain, where all day, every day it creates clean efficient energy, which cannot be said for our other solar plants which do not function at full capacity when it is overcast.

The only thing on our isle that causes pollution on purpose, is our space launch faculty, which we hope to by 2050 replace with a space elevator, which can function with zero pollution.  All electrical devices that use batteries in our utopia are rechargeable, and we never use anything that cannot be recycled, including our space launch system!  Which uses a 100% reusable, more advanced version of the Ares rocket.  Our recycling program does not end on earth, some of our missions into space are to retrieve old satellites and rocket parts.  Each of our communities has it’s own hospital, school, church, community hall, grocery store, and a variety of other stores and restaurants.

In our utopia we try to keep polution out, and sucess in.

Developer, Carter Hanson

I saw the symbolism in this passage ” ‘Kerosene’ he said because the silence had lengthened ‘ is nothing but perfume to me’ “.  It shows that, as a fireman*, and being around flammable gasses all the time, that the smell of kerosene (or other flammable gasses) is about him constantly.

While I was reading this I began to notice that the style of speech used in this was a lot different that what he was used to, in fact, it kind of reminded me of some of the old movies I’d seen with my grandpa.  So I did the thing I usually do when starting the book, but not for this one for so,e reason.  So as I flipped to the copyright info page and found that the book was originally published in 1953! So it seems that all books about burning themselves (does that make them suicidal books?) were not written in the 90′s-10′s.

I also noticed that when I rad this book, there was a distinct, oh how do I put this, Attitude or tone to the book that made it seem like the ‘America can do anything’ of the 50′s and not the ‘uh-oh we’re in trouble’ of the 2000′s.  Which kind of brings us to last week’s AOW.  America was once a giant, and now it’s a 6’5″.

* this is not  conventional rides-in-red-truck fireman, this guy’s job is to start fires, not put them out.

When I was reading Eat This Not That 2011 this term struck me “the only thing wrong with food in America is that there is too much stuff in food in America that isn’t food… the less ingredients something has, the better it is for you…”  This struck me because it made me realize that they were right!  Al l the processed foods I see have ingredient lists way longer than they need to be!

During Lunch today I was sitting there eating my food, and my friend Alex Johnson came up to me and he had one of the burritos the snack bar sells.  The ingredient list was an inch and a half long!  I can’t believe it! I mean, what happened to beans, cheese, meat, and a tortilla?!

Also I started to wonder, what about other foods?  What about hot dogs, pizza, and other foods we all love?  What horrors lie beneath the wrapper there?  This book has totally opened my eyes, and made me realize…

…I should just pack my own lunch.

Acorn Community:

Pros: Good Honey, Not so much pollution

Cons: Shared income

The Farm:

Pros: Large Community

Cons : No meat!

Twin Oaks:

Pros: Diverse community, Democracy

Cons: Income sharing

Victory City:

Pros:No pollution, no crime

Cons:  Too secluded: no outdoor areas within the city

Of the six utopians societies, I woulsd think that the ecological utopia would be the most likely, for the fact that the amount of pollution in the world is rising, and I beleive that there is one city in Dubai with 0 pollution, but I could be wrong.  Steps are being taken to slow pollution, alternative energy, such as solar and wind are being further developed, and almost every river in the united states of reasonable sise has some type of dam in it, producing hidroelectric energy.

This would be a problem, because in developing countries around the globe, the first and most obvious choice is to blaze the trail paved by developed countries, such as the US and Britan, to burn coal and oil, hurting the environment greately.

Book Theif , very procrastinated

When I was reading this book this quote struck me “…Her brother was dead. One eye open.  One still in a dream…” When I read this it meant to me that the girl didn’t want to believe that her brother was dead, and that she’d rather that she was still dreaming.

One word I would use about the girl is shaken. I would use this word because the death of her brother obviously jarred her into disbelief. Also the dejection of losing her brother probably led her to thievery.

I was shocked that the author would kill off the brother so quickly, I always thought that when you’re writing it is best to let readers get to know and love  your characters before killing them. Of course I am, after all, an armature writer, so I really wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.

Escape velocity

I Could see the symbolism in this passage of text “  ‘Three mounths’ Nero said, his eyes closed and his head tipped back.

‘three months?’ Otto asked curiously

‘since I felt the sun on my skin,’ Nero said with a contented sigh.” This symbolises in the book that the characters are now free from the physical and emotional restraints that have been placed on them by H.O.P.E. and the overlord.

When I was reading this book, I noticed that many times when the characters were in a dire situation, they were almost always able to get out, never in a cheesy way like ‘then all of a sudden the storm let up and the ship was saved’ it always involved either sacrifice made by the characters, or by cunning strategy.  An example of the characters using cunning strategy is when Raven was able to escape from the twins Constance and Verity was when she was pretending to be incapacitated, but when she was about to be executed, to dodge her stolen sword and simultaneously swing her handcuffs into the path of the sword .  An example of sacrifice made by the characters is when HIVEmind was able to temporarily control the overlord and let Otto destroy him so that the Overlord was vulnerable.

One funny thing that happened to me while reading this book was that I accidentally read the book after it first and than the book I just finished, which obviously led me to conclusions that I never would’ve come to if I had read the books in the correct order.  Along the topic of choosing the wrong book, it actually was not the first time I did that.  I actually accidentally grabbed the boom 2 ahead of escape velocity, rogue.  as you can see I am not the most observant person when it comes to reading