Happy Independence Day!

Alaska: Day 2, 3, and 4

Because there isn't going to be a lot of pictures for each day, I've put them together in one post.

Day 2: At sea


Ionic columns decorate one of the cruise's main dining rooms. (Glad to have put my art history to work :D)








Awww... A dog made out of towels on one of our beds







Day 3: Ketchikan, Alaska

Sorry, no pictures from this stop. I ate too much the day before and got sick and since the photographer was me... well...

Day 4: Juneau, Alaska


A zoomed in view of the Mendenhall Glacier. Isn't it beautiful in its own way?








The Nugget Falls which are next to the Mendenhall Glacier







The Glacier Gardens

An upside down tree? Yup.












Devil's Club. Evil-looking thorns dominate the stems and the undersides of the over-sized maple-looking leaves.








Oooo... Pretty ice. :D









The Dawes Glacier taken from the ship.

Alaska: Day 1

I'm back from my Alaskan cruise so I thought that I'd share some of the pictures I'd taken.

Sorry that the "N" is cut off the word Norwegian.










Our cabin equipped with a balcony.













The cruise's decks offered a nice view of the Seattle skyscrapers.







The Oasis Pool: Swimming? In Alaska? Burrr...









A gorgeous view of the sunset from our cabin.









Off to our next stop: Ketchikan, Alaska.

Going to Alaska!

I'll be going on a cruise to Alaska for a week so I don't think I'll be able to blog on the ship but I will be posting up pictures once I get back.

Riddles

1. What has no beginning, end, or middle?

2. What has to be broken before it can be used?

3. What gets whiter the dirtier that it gets?

4. You heard me before, yet you hear me again. Then I die, 'til you call me again. What am I?

5. If you have it, you want to share it. If you share it, you don't have it. What is it?

*Answers posted in comments

School's Out

I'm so glad that summer time is here. Now I will have more time to blog seeing as I haven't been on for quite awhile.

The Underworld

A quick, short poem that I wrote in Humanities at school. Just thought I'd share it.

Dark and dreary,
breathless and cold.
Underneath the earth,
awaits your deathly fate.
No need to fear,
for it will only get worse.
The harsh cries of souls,
will bleed your ears white.

Going on Vacation

I'm going on vacation for a month so I probably won't be posting anything until the end of August. Until then, have a great summer and happy blogging.

Wolf Island

By: Darren Shan

As usual, Darren Shan’s latest installment blew me away with the layer upon layer of action, suspense and the dramatic scenes. The woven in humor adds a really nice touch to the already great piece of work and breaks the tense atmosphere a bit. The writing is very fast-paced and leaves you with a pounding heart and a thirst for more. I can’t wait for the next book that comes out in October.

The clock is ticking for Grubbs Grady as the mysterious shadow gains more power with the increasing amount of demons joining its side. He and a small group of friends desperately search for answers which leads them to the Lambs, who specialize in studying and killing werewolves. From there, they learn something that if used wisely could aid the Disciples in their quest in destroying demons, if not, bye-bye humanity.

Sons of Destiny

By: Darren Shan

Darren Shan did a good job on wrapping this series up but the way he did it also made me full of questions. It is interesting though that once I finished book 9, I was thinking that an ending of this series could be that Darren dies and *cough* *cough* again. I thought this because I didn’t want *cough* *cough* to die and leave Darren alone. Funny that my thoughts became reality. What I didn’t expect and didn’t like is Darren changing the past because then all he had sacrificed and been through was all in vain other than saving his life and putting another child to defeat the Vampaneze Lord.

The time has come for the two hunters, Darren and Vancha, to face the Vampaneze Lord and his protector. Before that happens thought, Darren must confront his sister, Annie, and tell her the truth after eighteen years of believing he was head because Annie’s son, Darius, needs help. After Darius’s safety gets settled, Darren learns that Cirque du Freak is in trouble and believes that it is the Lord of the Vampaneze’s doing. Sure enough, it is and the time has come to decide who the Lord of the Shadows is going to be. When the victor is revealed, Mr. Tiny, who has been watching, tell the two a shocking truth that makes all of what they had done a sick game and in vain.

If I Stay

By: Gayle Forman

This book is a beautiful piece of work, combing past memories of how Mia’s life was before the accident and how easily a life can be ruined with the present. It almost made me cry as friends and family visited Mia and told her their feelings about her choice in staying or leaving. I really like the cover because it is symbolic by showing that even if everything that matters to you is gone there still is hope to survive.

Mia is a seventeen year old girl and has been faced with many tough choices with her career and her boyfriend but soon, all of those choices don’t matter anymore. On one snow-day with the whole family taking the day off, they decide to visit some friends and relax. Their plans are soon disrupted when they get involved in a deadly car accident where both parents perish instantly and leave Mia and her younger brother in critical condition. Understanding that it is her fight and choice, Mia is faced with the dilemma of joining her family on the other side or staying.

River Secrets

By: Shannon Hale

River Secrets started off with a slow beginning and it lacked action and dramatic scenes until the end which made the beginning and middle a bit boring. It wasn’t that catching or attractive but the suspense made me keep reading. I’m thinking that it needs more excitement even though the main character is supposed to be invisible and stealthy which means avoiding melee with his enemies. Overall, it was a good read and I really liked it.

Bayern has won the war against its neighboring nation, Tira, and the two nations have accomplished an uneasy peace until the Tiran assembly gathers to decide whether to go to war again or made peace. Before the meeting, the ambassadors of each country will go to the enemies city and a group of soldiers are sent to escort each ambassador to their destination. Unexpectedly chosen, Razo, who is a horrible swordman, is part of the elite group sent to protect their ambassador to Tira. As they depart to Tira, it is Razo that discovers the first dead body and it is he who must figure out who is the mastermind of the burnt bodies before Tira decides to wage war against Bayern again.

Lord of the Shadows

By: Darren Shan

Immediately eye-catching. It beings with a big BANG! and kept it like that until the very end. Like many of Darren Shan’s books, it was fast-paced and filled with dramatic and action scenes that spiced the book up. It is getting more intense and sometimes desperate as the hunters try and kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. There wasn’t too much suspense but there was some shocking surprises that made me think “No way!”

After traveling with the Cirque du Freak for two years, Darren believes it is time to resume the hunt for the Lord of the Vampaneze when he learns that the next stop will be home. Darren Shan is finally going home after eighteen years abroad. Once he arrives, he notices that it is not the safe place it used to be. Now, there are scores to be settled and old enemies are waiting to draw some blood. The final showdown has begun.

Death's Shadow

By: Darren Shan

Disgusting and vivid. The thought of all the blood, guts, flesh and bones that were spilled in this book was amazing and terrifying at the tame time. It amazes me at how cruel demons can be and how evil evil can actually be. There were many twists and turns with action scenes woven together. It was very fast-paced that I had the pages turning at a breath-taking rate and I couldn’t stop.

After the demon apocalypse has come and gone, new hope emerges as Bec, a girl who has been trapped in a cave for many centuries, is finally freed from her prison and as powerful as ever. After a werewolf attack, the Disciples are wondering if there is another force working against humanity. Beranabus, Grubbs and Kernal find out that there is yet they don’t know what it is although they know it is plotting to destroy humanity. The race to save humankind has begun again though this time the foes are smarter and stronger.

The Lost Queen

By: Frewin Jones

Great book. It began nicely but then the quality started to decline a bit with the lack of action though it did pick up near the end of part two. The flashback to Tania’s earlier mortal lives were an interesting add on to the story. I actually didn’t expect Tania to find her mother so late into the story but I guess it had to be or the book would be a bit too perfect. Once the action scenes came to lie in the story, I couldn’t stop reading because it got so interesting. I really like the sparkling and bright cover, though Tania looks way different from the book.

Tania was an ordinary girl, living her life in the Mortal Realm but then she got swept away into a different world where she learns that she is a Faerie princess. Now she has returned to the Mortal Realm after defeating the evil Gabriel Drake in search for her long lost mother, Queen Titania. Her return isn’t a smooth one. Tania and her parents have had an argument about her disappearance and there are sinister forces rising to power in Faeries. Gabriel Drake is haunting Tania’s mind and the two worlds are about to clash together.

Demon Apocalypse

By: Darren Shan

Intense and dramatic from beginning to the end, this book will have your eyes focused on its words no matter what. The twists abd turns take you from human annihilation to a desperate chance to save them. It was fast-paced and filled with action. What I thought that could be added to make the story more intense is to have short and choppy sentences like before. During the first three books, Shan used short and choppy sentences and it made the stories more intense but from the fourth book onward no more choppy sentences.

Grubbs Grady is stuck on a plane with doomed passengers, three familiars, a woman who he used to trust, and a demon master determined to get revenge on him. It is the end of Grubbs Grady, or at least he thinks it is until a bum saves him by pulling him out of the plane and flies, yes flies, to safety. There, he learns that the bum is a magician named Beranabus who devotes his life in preventing demons from crossing into the human world. Beranabus also has an assistant named Kernal Fleck. Soon, the trio are off destroying demons in Demonata but what they don’t know is that demons have invaded and killed off mostly everyone.

Killers of the Dawn

By: Darren Shan

Just when I thought this series was degrading in quality, the Killers of the Dawn soared into the books I loved. Suspenseful and dramatic to the very end, I gripped the book tightly and finished it in one gulp. I have just one question: Why is it that almost always the hero/main character’s mentor always get killed valiantly? It gets so annoying and sad once you get to know a good-hearted person and then BAM! he or she dies. Is it because the author wants to prove to the readers that the main character has matured and is capable of making wise decisions?

Their cover is blown. Now Darren Shan, Mr. Crepsley, Vancha March and Harkat Mulds are in more danger because they are still being chased by the vampaneze and on top of that the police and an angry mob are after them, too. All of their enemies want to get a share of the foursome’s blood but only one will get it. The vampires need to prepare for battle because if they don’t go searching for it the vampaneze will bring it upon them. Will they triumph or let the Lord of the Vampaneze slip from their grasp again?

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

By: Ally Carter

Don’t Judge a Girl by Her cover is a great book and I really like it. Despite that the book felt boring in the middle with nothing really big going on there was a lot of suspense since everyone was afraid for Macey’s safety and they didn’t know when their enemies will strike again. There were many twists and turns because you would think that the bad guys are going after one person only to find out next that they were actually going after another.

Macey McHenry’s dad is about to accept the nomination for vice president of the United States and, of course, Cammie is invited to the event. She is very excited and thinks that the end of her summer vacation is going to be a blast but it has not been even twenty-four hours when she and Macey find themselves in a kidnapping plot and they are lucky to come away with a broken arm and a minor head injury. Weeks later, the Gallagher Girls are back into the game as they go back behind the safe walls of their academy but Cammie just can’t shake off the memories of the kidnapping attempt and vows to find out the truth of the kidnappers but some things are best left alone.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie

I went to see the movie at midnight when it first came out. I was caught off guard at how funny it was because I expected it to more intense because Lord Voldemort is getting more powerful and I don't think that the movies before were that hilarious. It has been a several years since I read the Half-Blood Prince so I pretty much forgot everything and can't compare it with the movie but I think it stayed similar to the book with some minor changes that overall did not change the movie too much.

Hunters of the Dusk

By: Darren Shan

This book was great. Despite the eyes in the background the greenish color is slightly calming in an eerie way. The book is getting a bit boring thought with the same main characters and there is not as much action as before. But I guess it’s fitting to have Mr. Crepsley and Darren and another Prince go on the hunt since the series does revolve around Darren. It’s not as fast-paced but the humor makes up for it because I cracked up several times while reading.

After six years of being a Vampire Prince, Darren begins to long for the time when Mr. Crepsley, Harkat, and him were on the run in the outside world while being cooped up in Vampire Mountain. Little does he know his wish is about to be fulfilled. Mr. Tiny, leader of the Little People, soon comes knocking on the vampires’ door with words for aiding them in their war with the vampaneze. Three hunters are chosen and have the fate of the vampires in their hands as they are given four chances to kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. Mr. Crepsley and Darren are chosen and they will meet the third on their travels to defeat the Lord. They soon find themselves in grave danger but that must mean they are getting close to finding their enemies