The Lightning Thief

You, know, I just realized there are two author I have not yet talked about even though I have read multiple works from them. Let's start off with Rick Riordan, shall we?

The first book I read from him was The Lightning Thief.

I had borrowed the book from my mom's coworker only because the coworker insisted and my mom wasn't saying anything to get me out of the situation. I was convinced that I would not like the book because it dealt with Greek mythology, which was always tragic and graphic and hard to understand.

Imagine my surprise when, a few chapters in, I could not put the book down!

The book is written from main character Percy Jackson's humorous first person perspective somewhere in our modern-day New York.

Odd things have been happening to Percy his whole life, and his ADHD and dyslexia and tendency to blow up school property have not helped things in the least. He has been expelled from every school he ever attended, and his home life isn't that great either, what with his step-dad making a mess of the place and being incapable of holding down a job.

Percy's one sunny spot in life is his mother: Sally Jackson. She works too hard for too little reward, but as far as Percy is concerned, she's the best person to ever grace earth with her presence.

So instead of telling his mom about the most recent and most terrifying event in his life, Percy clams it all up least it spoil a weekend trip with just him and his mom.

Turns out, that one mistake just may have cost Percy his mom's life.

This book is filled with danger and mystery and twists all over the place, but it's also filled with humor and love and the best kind of heroes - the kind who survive each battle thrown at them, even if just barely.

Also, when it came to all the Greek stuff running around our modern world, Riordan did a great job of explaining how that worked so that even stubborn people like me have no choice but to admit they understand.

Wow, long post. See you tomorrow!

Lame Days and Poems

My days are mostly uneventful now that summer has started. Here, I even wrote a poem about it:

My days are lame
and so is this poem
because it doesn't
rhyme.

But lots of poems
don't rhyme.
Teachers all say
they have meter.

I'm going to say
this has meter too
and leave it to "experts"
to divine my hidden meaning.

So, didja like it? Work of brilliance, I assure you. And so will those experts; they love finding brilliance where the poet him/herself will just say he/she just wrote whatever.

I think I've dazzled the public enough for one day. If I continue this post much longer, you won't be able to handle my geniusness.

So, until tomorrow!

Harvest Moon Pt. 10

Should I give you a Harvest Moon update?

Hmm, I don't know if I should or not, but I'm going to.

I have recently begun playing Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns again, but this time on a glitch-free version. I've so far made it to the middle of summer, which is about where I gave up the last time I tried playing this game on that glitched copy.

Because I've made it to the middle of summer, it means I've met five of the six eligible bachelors. The only one I have yet to meet is Mikhail, the violinist, or so a few walkthroughs tell me.

I have also so far spent both of my seasons on Konohana, mostly raising crops with a few animals. I'm thinking I'll move to Bluebell maybe in the start of the second year.

Let's see... Anything else I can give you an update on?

Well, I have no idea which bachelor I'm going to want to marry, so I'm just courting them all. Which I probably would be doing even if I had decided on one.

I do know that there are two bachelors which I definitely will not be marrying. Maybe I'll talk about the bachelors I've met tomorrow? Or should I probably wait until I've met the last available bachelor?

Maybe if I talk about each of them extensively enough and play lots of ToTT these next couple of days, I'll have met the last one by the time his turn comes around.

Later!

Extra Stuff

I currently have way too much stuff in my room.

I have about double the amount of stuff I want in my room, actually.

Can you guess why?

It's all my college stuff. Now that I've moved back out of college, I have all my normal stuff in my room plus all the stuff that used to be in my room at college.

Now I've got two rooms worth of stuff crammed into one room, and I can scarcely get anywhere except from my door to my bed and closet, which are side by side and probably the only reason my closet is accessible too.

Sigh. The joys of no longer getting to live at home full-time except for a few months out of the middle of the year.

I wonder how much of this stuff I'll lug back to college come the start of the fall semester?

It won't be everything that I brought home with me because I brought home a lot of surcies (small trinket gifts from the college) that I kind of wonder if I should just throw away because I'll probably never use them here or at college.

Anyways, that'll be something for me to figure out at a much later date. I only brought it up now because it was the only thing I could think of to blog about.

Later!

Yard Saling Stuffz

This past Saturday, I went to a few yard sales with my dad.

Aside from his forcing me to drive, it was pretty cool. I picked up a couple puzzles (small ones; only 250 pieces), and Daddy got a new desk chair for Mommy.

Both puzzles I picked up I have by now finished. I pieced together one of them Saturday after returning home, and I started and finished the second one yesterday after getting home from church.

Both of them were the same style of puzzle, which is to say that they were both "framed." Whatever the picture was that I was trying to put together, the two outside rows/columns of puzzle pieces made up a frame.

One puzzle was of a lighthouse and the surrounding water and sky. The other was a house in the fall with tons of pumpkins and a few apples being gathered around.

The Saturday before this past one, I got a DVD copy of the movie The Swan Princess. I really debated over whether I wanted it or not. Even though I like Odette and the plotline is pretty good and the villain goes from fun to evil to an evil sort of fun and the royal queen is hilarious... I just don't like Derek.

Now, I'm not going to go into a rant about him and how he never really proved in the end what Odette wanted from him. I'm going to control myself. Somehow.

All I'm going to say is that I did eventually decide to get the DVD since it was only a dollar. And that I look forward to next Saturday's yard sale.

Summer Boredom

I'm getting a little stir-crazy this summer already.

Yesterday, I could scarcely hold still. I wandered from my room upstairs to the living room downstairs to the back room, the whole time talking to my dog about who-knows-what.

I finally plopped myself down in the living room next to my dog and started brushing him.

My dog sheds. A lot.

So brushing him can produce anywhere from three to an infinite number of handfuls of fur, depending on how long you're willing to sit there brushing him.

I brushed my dog for probably about an hour, and most of that time I was singing.

I didn't give myself a sore throat, but I noticed for the first time that your tongue can get tired.

And then later that evening, I was still bored and stir-crazy. I probably gave my mom a heart attack when I cleaned up a portion of our dirty supper dishes. Granted, I only wiped a few dishes and stuck them in the dishwasher, but still.

This morning, I still want to do something, anything. My parents took me out for breakfast since both of them have the day off, but I'm still hoping to do something else.

Wish me luck!

Cross-Stitching

Have I ever told you that I cross-stitch sometimes?

Well, I do. I've made a kitty-cat, puppy-dog, Ariel, and Cinderella. I've also made something that was for Mother's Day a couple years back as well as a map I drew out myself.

And a few years ago at a sale going on in my area to raise money for something, I picked up a pattern that showed two wolves out among a snowy forest howling at the moon.

It's a pretty complicated pattern, although there's really no reason why I shouldn't have finished it yet.

And yet, here it sits on my desk, only one wolf finished and parts of the background around him, plus a few trees next to him.

I still have another (bigger) wolf to finish, plus most of the rest of the background.

Honestly, I probably would have more done by now, but lately when I've worked on it this summer, my thread keeps breaking. How on earth am I supposed to sew with broken thread pieces half hanging from my needle and half stuck in the material?

At the very least, I'm sure you can imagine it's frustrating. I'm also worried that if it keeps breaking, I won't have enough thread to finish the pattern when I finally do make it towards the end.

Grrr.

Well, I guess I'll probably keep working at it off and on over a few more months/years/decades. Maybe one day I really will finish it.

See you!

PC Games Pt. 2

Continuing off of yesterday's topic, there are a couple other childhood games of mine that I've replayed this summer.

One of them was Freddi Fish: The Creature of Coral Cove, a point and click mystery game. Something I noticed as I was playing this time that I didn't notice as a kid were all of the objects throughout the game that I knew I needed without knowing why I needed them until later.

I also just now realized something else. The plotline of the game was to find the sea monster and figure out why he's been terrorizing the fish at Coral Cove Park. Why on earth - or under the sea - would Freddi and Luther just swim right up to the sea monster's new home? Did they just expect to ask politely and get an answer (which, turns out, that's how it happened)? But did they have any contingency plan in case the sea monster tried to eat them?

Oh well. It was a pretty fun game, at any rate. Maybe mostly because of the nostalgia, but still.

Another game I replayed was The Game of Life, kind of set up like a board game on your computer that directs you through life from college to marriage to your first kid to retirement with all the bumps along the way.

I remembered getting more fun out of it as a kid than I had when I played it recently. I wonder if part of my problem was that I was playing it myself against two computer characters. Maybe most of the fun comes from the real people you compete with.

Well, there you have it. Yay for kid games! =D

PC Games

So far this summer, I've gone over all my old computer games and reinstalled a few onto my laptop to play.

The first one I replayed was Oregon Trail. I'm sure you all are familiar with the game where you have a wagon and a family to get from one state to Oregon in one piece?

The first time I replayed, my captain leader guy seemed to constantly shoot himself "accidentally" when he went out hunting, and he finally died of either infection or blood loss. One time after a hunting trip, he got bit by a bear - and there weren't even any bears in the area! Sigh, but my second attempt proved much more successful, and my team made it to Oregon in one piece. =)

The second game I replayed was Cute Knight. The background is that you're an orphan girl who just turned 18 and has three years to find out who she really is.

There are multiple endings to this games, almost countless endings. There is only one true ending, however - even if there can be variations on that ending. So far, I have maybe about half of the endings gained, including the one true ending where my girl finds out who she really is.

Another game I replayed was a game of my dad's: Stronghold 2. It's a game set in the medieval age, and you're tasked with building a successful community, either for the peace or protection of your citizens and resources.

I played in the mostly stress-free free build for a while until my dad convinced me to try the peace campaign. So I did, and it was fun; but now that it's over, I'm wondering if there's anything else on that game aside from the war campaign.

Well, I guess that'll be all for this post. Au revoir!

Labeling Pt. 2

Okay, so you may or may not have noticed I've labeled quite a few of my posts; I'll get working on the rest eventually.

I've come up with almost 20 labels that seem to apply to the majority of my posts, the most prominent seeming to be books, college, and story from my life.

I totally just realized that, as of all the posts I've labeled so far, I've had about 80 posts dedicated to books.

That makes me happy. Hee hee hee.

I wonder how much I can increase it, now that the only books left that I've read are only one or two by an author. Goodreads is telling me that I've read more than 250 books.

Anyways, the current labels seem to apply for most of my posts, but not all of them. I'm keeping a list of blog posts that I currently can't think of a good label for. So far, I've reached 6.

Maybe if I can't think of something good for them by the time I've finished with my other posts, I'll just create a category for miscellaneous posts, or different posts.

I actually like that. "Different Posts." Maybe that'll end up being what I go with.

Well, we'll see. Anyways, see you later!

Labeling

Okie-dokie, I've figured out how to label some of my blog posts.

Really, it should've been obvious. I see the word "Labels" every time I write out a new post.

And yet it took a while before I finally figured it out. Summer must be making me go soft, since there are no assignments making me stretch my brain.

But I'm okay with that. For now.

Two months from now, that might be cause for worry. But for right now, I really don't have to do much thinking. Yay!

 Anyways, I think I'm going to cut this post short so I can go back over my posts and label a bunch of them.

Ciao!

Dream

I had a weird dream last night. I've been dreaming a lot lately, for some reason; it's kind of fun.

Last night, it took me a while to fall asleep. I was exhausted, though, so I'm not sure why I couldn't sleep.

Anyways, I guess I did finally sleep, because I dreamed I overslept. When I looked at my clock, it said 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Then when I went outside to be with friends, they were celebrating the fact that it was Christmas!

Not only did I apparently sleep late into the day, but I also seemingly slept through several months late into that day.

Applying logic, it's a wonder I was still in my own bed and not in a hospital room.

Also, my room lights weren't working. All the bulbs in my ceiling fan except one had burned out, and I have some kind of bulbs that don't even shed much light when working together. So one bulb still working was pretty pathetic in the providing vision department.

Then I turned on my lamp, and suddenly it was too bright and I still couldn't see anything.

Not sure when I figured out it was a dream. But oh well. Sadly, it's not Christmas. Happily, I haven't slept half a year away.

Catching Up

So now that I've finished up talking about a bunch of authors and their books, should I catch you up to speed on my life?

That'll be more or less easy today, since it's been so long. But it won't really help me in the long run.

Well, let's use it anyways, I guess. I have finished my first year of college, so I will be starting my sophomore year come summer's end.

This summer so far, I have read a few books, read the beginnings of others and decided I didn't want to finish them, played the Sims 2, rediscovered the Oregon Trail, and reinstalled another computer game from years back called Cute Knight.

When I installed Oregon Trail and Cute Knight onto my laptop, I expected it to take a while. I was shocked and pleased when it took less than a minute. Does it have something to do with the fact that the games are older and my laptop is newer?

I don't know if that logic applies. My dad once told me that if my computer was too new, the older games wouldn't work on it anymore at all because the games weren't designed for that type of computer.

Did I just luck out in having the newest laptop possible that will still work for those games? I guess stranger things have happened.

Wrapping Up

Well. I think I've just about run out of authors from whom I've read more than two books.

Aside from Rick Riordan, anyways; but I don't really want to talk about him, even though I'm a fan of most of his books that I've read.

There's also the Once Upon a Time book series that I've told you somewhat about in the past. I haven't told you about all of those books, but it's the series where I've said Cameron Dokey has made contributions that end up being my favorite in the series.

I've also read a series by Jenni James called The Faerie Tale collection, which, as you may be able to guess, is another series that retells fairy tales. It's okay. It would be better if James toned down on the excessive amount of kissing between protagonists. The books are advertised as clean romance for teens; I guess as I was buying the books, my mind latched onto the 'clean' part and didn't realize the 'romance' part played such a huge role.

Oh, and I just remembered a series I just finished this past week: three books, River of Time series, by Lisa Tawn Bergren. Two girls accidentally go to the past, and our protagonist (of course) falls in love. The first book ended more or less predictably, but the other two books really add to the story. The series as a whole is okay; there were parts I liked and parts I didn't, plus the occasional moment where I wanted to scream and throttle a few characters.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. Basically all of the other books I've read are just one or two books from the author. Sometimes that's because that's all they have out; sometimes it's because that's all I care to read from them.

At any rate, this post/series seems to be over. Have a great day!

Once Upon the End

Once Upon the End is James Riley's last book in the Half Upon a Time series, and I am going to have to try super hard to avoid fangirling about this super awesome book.

Three more months have passed since the end of the last book. May is in hiding, Phillip is back home, and Jack seems to be the only one actively working. The last book hinted at the fulfillment of the Evil Queen's prophecy, but this book leaves no doubt; we find out exactly which boy betrays May, which one dies, and why.

We also time travel a couple of times into a different world. Our world, the one May grew up in.

Penelope, who was introduced in the last book, becomes a main character in this book. I really liked her personality and her interaction with her 'true love.' Even though Riley gave her an ending that hinted that all would work out, I would've preferred to see it written a little more clearly.

May's ending is one of the few that is wrapped up all neatly so that we the readers get a good feel concerning what's ahead for her.

May I fangirl a little? Just a bit?

I LOVE JACK IN THIS BOOK! HE IS SO AWESOME AND CAME THROUGH THE BIGGEST CHARACTER ARC/DEVELOPMENT ANYONE COULD EVER DREAM OF. JAMES RILEY IS A GENIUS! I DIED WHEN JACK'S PART OF THE PROPHECY CAME TRUE!

Ahem. Okay. So. Twists on everything. That's what Riley went for, and man, did he ever achieve. I highly recommend this series. And, according to GoodReads, this series contains the only books Riley has written (so far).

Twice Upon a Time

Twice Upon a Time is James Riley's next book in the Half Upon a Time trilogy.

In this book, three months have passed since the events of the last book. Our heroes have discovered that allegiances are not where they were thought to be, and that they could not have been more wrong about the identity of May's grandmother. Rather than Snow White, Jack and friends set the Evil Queen free from the Huntsman's capture.

So now our heroes are trying to discover May's true identity as well as defeat the Evil Queen.

We go from Neverland to pirates to merpeople to fairyland. Prince Phillip finds his Sleeping Beauty, much to his dismay and May's. And Jack makes a decision that forever changes everything, much to May's extreme horror.

I wanted to strangle a couple of fairies in this story, one in particular. The one that laughed in the scene before Jack made his choice. You'll know what I mean.

But, wow. Practically nonstop action in this book, just like the last. But also like the last book, Riley makes sure a couple of his heroes get a few seconds' breather every now and then to become better friends.

Even if there is that prophecy hanging over their heads.

In the last book, the Evil Queen claimed that the Mirror had told her the future: One of May's companions would betray her, and the other would die.

By the end of this book, May is certain she knows which is which. And it hurts. A lot.

Half Upon a Time

Half Upon a Time is James Riley's first book in his series Half Upon a Time.

The main character in this book is Jack, son of Jack the Giantkiller and grandson of Jack whose title I forget, or maybe he never had one. Anyways, our current Jack is of the story of Jack and Jill, although we don't figure that out until the next book.

In this book, Jack meets a girl named May. Well, meet is sort of a polite word, considering she drops out of a portal in the sky and nearly splits Jack's head open when he tries to kiss her awake. According to her strange outfit, May is a princess from Punk, although she fervently denies any connection to royalty.

Everyone knows Jack is not the best man for the job of rescuing May's grandmother, Snow White, who has been captured by the Huntsman. Jack completely failed his class on princess rescuing, after all.

But although everyone, even Jack, seems to believe otherwise, Jack is a lot smarter than he seems. Even when they run across Philip, a much more traditional Prince Charming and hero, May and Jack stick together as if their lives depended on it, despite the number of mishaps that Jack always seems to get blamed for.

This story has so many twists and turns that it can be a bit difficult to follow at times, but stick to it. I really liked this book and the next, but the third book made every single bit of confusion worthwhile. Stick with me over the next few days, and maybe I'll find a way to tell you why without giving away too many spoilers.

C.S. Lewis

So, as I'm pretty sure you already know, C. S. Lewis has written much more than The Chronicles of Narnia.

He actually has over 300 distinct works to his name, according to GoodReads.com.

Admittedly, though, some of his works seem to be repeated in a way. His list of works includes each of the seven books set in Narnia as well as a few collections, such as a single book putting together the first three books, or even all seven in a collection. There is also mention of the graphic novel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

But despite that bit of deception where numbers are concerned, Lewis has certainly written more than any of the other authors I have talked about thus far.

I'm pretty sure that at least the majority of his work is founded in Christianity, as he is known as one of the few authors of his century to defend the Christian faith so widely, publicly, and steadfastly.

Oo, scrolling through Lewis's list of works, I just discovered his book A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia! I wonder why my bookstores never have it? It looks interesting!

Maybe you'll stumble across a title you find interesting too. They're way too numerous to list here, but go to this link and you'll find the list GoodReads has collected.

Chronicles of Narnia Pt. 3

C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia is a pretty awesome series.

My favorite books in the series are probably those centered around Caspian, but it's because of Reepicheep that I love those books so much. Reepicheep is a talking mouse who, or so I'm told, represents faith.

Speaking of representing, a lot of people call Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia (especially The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) an allegory. But I'm pretty sure Lewis himself said that that was not the case. Well, if I'm understanding the term "allegory" correctly, anyways.

Let me explain. Lewis did not write about the events in Narnia with the intention of mirroring what God has done in our world. Lewis wrote the Narnia books to answer his question of, "If God were to create an entirely new world, how might He go about it?"

As is obvious to anyone who has read the books knows that Aslan is Narnia's version of Jesus. But I must admit, I have a bit of a problem viewing it that way because Aslan has done things Jesus Christ never would.

For one example, Aslan goes back on his words at times. He told Lucy multiple times that no one is ever told what would have happened. However, back in the prequel, Aslan told Digory what would have happened if he had stolen an apple.

So, even though I know this is Christian fantasy, I enjoy the series much more when I read it as just fantasy. Aslan becomes more lovable when I don't try to compare him with my wonderful and perfect Savior.

Chronicles of Narnia Pt. 2

Back on the vein of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, I believe we have three books yet to go through.

After Prince Caspian comes The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movie for this book almost reached the amazingness of the movie for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. At any rate, it was much better than Prince Caspian. Concerning the storyline of the book, King Caspian has set out on a sea voyage, searching for the seven lords his evil uncle banished. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace show up on the Dawn Treader for no apparent reason. Personally, I'm of the opinion Eustace needed Narnia the same way Edmund did in his first trip, more than Narnia needing anything out of their visitors from another world.

The next in the series is The Silver Chair. Sadly, I'm not a big fan of these last two books. It's like the quality has decreased or something. At any rate, Eustace and Jill show up in Aslan's country, and he sends them to Narnia with a mission: Save the king's long-lost son. Their journey is peppered with odd dangers and grating arguments, as Eustace and Jill spend the entire time fighting and blaming the other for things gone wrong.

The final Narnia book is The Last Battle, and it depicts Narnia in its final days, then the end of the world of Narnia. I'll admit it, I'm not a big fan of this type of book in general, so Lewis's attempt at it was doomed for a less-than-thrilled reaction from me no matter how great a job he did. The series in general is pretty awesome; I just much prefer the first five books over the last two.

Maybe tomorrow I'll talk a little bit about the series in general, now that the individual books have been described.

Chronicles of Narnia

Okay, so this next author, I'm sure you've heard great things about before, so I'll keep this to just one post.

C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia are not by any means his only works, but they are, I believe, what he is most known for.

The prequel, The Magician's Nephew, is pretty good. Very nice how Lewis goes about having Aslan create Narnia and the other countries that have yet to have names and histories. And I'm a big fan of the cab driver.

His most famous Narnia book is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I don't think you even need me to say how much I loved this.

Up next in chronological order, though not necessarily the order written, is The Horse and His Boy. I think everyone was a bit hard on Shasta throughout the whole book; he couldn't help his upbringing. But other than that, I really enjoyed the adventure that took place in the same world all the way through, and I liked seeing more of the other countries in that world.

Several hundred years later in Narnia, Prince Caspian takes place. For those of you who have seen the movie, I HATE THE MOVIE WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING AND I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS BOOK. Good, glad I got that out of my system. Seriously, though, Caspian is awesome, and the book shows him and Peter cooperating in a way that would make Aslan proud, not fighting over trying to get Peter to relive his glory days.

Okay, so scratch what I said about just one post. I've covered a little over half of the series, so I'll wrap it up in my next post. Happy weekend, everyone!

Jessica Day George

Jessica Day George is an okay author, in my opinion.

She has written a couple books that I really like, several books that I think are okay, and one book that I really could've done without reading.

She has also written, according to Goodreads.com, three other books that I have not yet read.

Wednesdays in the Tower continues George's Castle Glower series. It seems to be about the Castle behaving strangely, expanding much more than usual for no apparent reason. Everyone has their hands full with all of the stuff they find. I would like to get this book when I have the chance.

Thursdays with the Crown is the third book in the Castle Glower series, and it has yet to be released. Apparently, in October, we'll continue to follow Celie as she continues to attempt to solve the problem of the Castle's strange behavior.

Altered Perspectives is a book not only by George, but by several authors. It seems to be a collection of deleted scenes and alternate versions of the author's normal book. In George's case, we get to see a deleted scene from Princess of Glass.

So, there you have it. All of Jessica Day George's books and my thoughts on them. Am I getting better at writing these things? Somehow it doesn't feel like it, but I hope I'm improving at least a tiny bit... =/