Hannukah in Savannah

Sorry it took me so long to write this post. When I wrote the title down, I was sitting in an airport trying to access my blog from my new iPod Touch. (Sorry if I start to brag a little. I can't brag in real life without getting punched or countered by my brother, but I can't be punched here. (Maybe countered though.))

Right now, I am on vacation for winter break in Savannah, Georgia. I flew to Atlanta on Monday, and spent the night there. Then we drove most of the next day to Savannah. I spent the first night in Savannah with my friend, Jeremy. He had to leave to go to New York yesterday, though. Today, we went to see Marley & Me in theaters. It was terrific, yet sad. I'll talk about the movie later. We spent the rest of the day cooking, arguing with Jordan, watching an Ice Age 2 marathon, and playing around with my iPod. Tomorrow is my Grandma's birthday, so we are going to a reunion like thing at one of the family farms. I miss all of my friends and family at home though, so I want to go home soon.

Now, on to Hannukah. On the first night, I got an iPod touch (it is awesome!!!) and it is awesome!!! I've been going crazy with getting apps, music, and videos for it. I've realized, that it is much better to have an iPod with a screen, than a shuffle. I've only ever had really bad shuffles, so I'm glad for a change. On the second night, my Uncle Aaron and my Aunt Jenny got us a video game, and a pellet rifle for us to shoot airsoft pellets at the beach. (Don't worry, we won't shoot anyone. And if we did, the airsoft pellets aren't that dangerous. They would sting, but not injure.) Last night, no prestents, but tonight, we got a really old board game that we haven't used yet. 4 more nights to go, and 6 more days until New Years Eve.

Well, that's all I have to talk about for now. I'll write about Marley and Me, and the two Batman movies, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which I saw recently, soon.

Upcoming Fantasies

From now on, my other blog, Upcoming Fantasies will be deleted. I don't really write on it, an it has no real point, so it is just taking up space. Bye, bye, Upcoming Fantasies.

Snow Day!!!

Yes! Our first snow day of the year was today. We (my brothers, our friends, and I) went outside for the morning, and then went inside to play. Sadly, this morning, I had to spend a while inside working on homework. I need to learn not to procrastinate. (This isn't really how much it snowed.)

Warriors: The Power of Three: Long Shadows

I just finished reading Long Shadows, the fifth book of the third series of Warriors. I can't say it took me long. I got it after school on Tuesday, the day it came out, and started it that night. I stayed up until about 11:00 reading, and didn't put it down for more than half an hour at school the next day, and read for about two hours afterward. I finished it around 5:00 in the afternoon yesterday, and I loved it! I think that it was the best one out so far. It had so many twists, that I can't mention without spoiling the book, that made it so great, although I was surprised at how little went wrong. The first problem they solved smoothly, the second problem ended well, and only the third big part had some trouble, and I can't say it ended well.

The third series of Warriors is definitely the darkest. (Even the names sound dark. Starting with the second, there is Dark River, Outcast, Eclipse, and Long Shadows. The last was supposed to be called Cruel Seasons, but the publisher thought it was too dark and changed it to Sunrise.) However, in all of the third series, only one cat has died, and not until the fifth book. More cats died in the first book!!! And the authors say that they are always trying to think of new ways to kill the cats. I hope they puts some of those evil methods to use soon.

Either way, it was a terrific book, and I would highly recommend it. Now, I'm reading Inkspell.

The New Haircut: The Weirdest Hundredth Post Ever!

I have a positive and a negative, or, in more exact order, a negative and a positive. First, as you can see, I got a haircut. Shoot. I've had really long hair for such a long time, and now, it's all gone. Kathryn was really smug (not sure if this is the right word) about it. She has been trying to talk me into getting a haircut for months. I hate haircuts...

And on a more positive note, sort of, the only good thing about my new haircut is that, it means that this is Bookworm's 100th Post! Hooray!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

This month is National Novel Writing Month! I found out about it yesterday and decided that this would be a good chance to get to work on a story I'm writing. If you go to the website, you can sign up for the NaNoWriMo challenge. The goal for the month on the site is to have written a 50,000 word novel by November 30. My goal, however, is 10,000 words by the end of the month. Right now, I've got a good start. I'm at 2,856 words. I think I'll be able to reach my goal, especially considering I started yesterday. I'd already had about 1000 words of it done before November, but I've gotten almost 2000 words in the past two days, so I think I can make it. If you want to find out more about my story, go to My Page on the site

Pillage

Wow. I just finished reading Pillage, Obert Skye's new book. It was a really great story, (especially the dog piling salad) until I got to the end! That was one of the worst endings that I have ever read. I mean, the boy finds out that one of his best friends is a bad guy, and it's like he's not even surprised!!! The guy turns into an ogre thing, and all he says is "You?!?" How unemotional can you get? Then the rest was the whole Star Wars thing, where the crazy uncle is actually the dad. Then they win and they all go in for cookies. Yay (Brian says in a bored voice.

Luckily, the rest of the story was great, so it wasn't a waste of time. Also, the cover looks really cool!!!

City of Ember

Wow. The City of Ember was surprisingly better than the book. Then again, the book wasn't that great. The movie was much more exciting. It's a good thing that my little brother, Jordan, hadn't read the book, else he wouldn't have wanted to see it. The book was way more boring. I think they did really well with it. My favorite character was Doon. He was pretty cool. I liked how he liked to invent stuff and take care of his giant moth. Well, it wasn't that great, so I don't have much more to talk about.

Christopher Paolini Book Signing

Awesome.

I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Christopher Paolini, at Seattle Town Hall. He is the author of Eragon, so I got Eragon, 2 copies of Eldest, and Brisingr signed. I would have gotten just one copy of Eldest signed, but one of my copies was mangled, so we got a nice, neat paperback for $5. Not only was it a book signing, but it was a big party!

When my mom and I first got there, some guys from the Seattle Knights, a group of people who were taught to do theatrical sword fights, greeted us. Then, my mom and I went over to some of the stands, a picture thing, and a "fortuneteller." Luckily, it didn't cost anything. I hope it was right (which they rarely are) and I will do well in school. Then, we went and got some cookies.

For the next part of the party, we went upstairs to watch the Seattle Knights put on a show. It was silly, but the sword-fighting was pretty cool. Afterward, Christopher Paolini came up and talked about the books. Something that he said that his favorite line that he wrote was an Urgal saying, "Die, puny human!" Afterall, what's the point of writing a fantasy novel if you can't say things like that!

After his speech, he started signing books. It took hours for us to get a turn. On each ticket, there was a letter. First, they called A's to line up, then B's, and so on. We were D's. A's took an hour. B's took 45 minutes. C's also took 45 minutes. We had to wait in line for about half an hour. Throughout the wait, we got to talk with some of the Seattle Knights. One of them had 60 pound armor on. Another we talked with talked about the Seattle Knights, training, her armor, and what kind of things like that she did. When we finally got the books signed, my mom was really peed by the wait.

It was a really cool experience, and I hope he comes back someday.

Brisingr

Wow. Brisingr, Book 3 in the Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini, was terrific, awesome, amazing. Overall, it was one of the best books that I've ever read. Two of my favorite scenes in the book were surprisingly, not ones that are spoilers, so I can describe them here!

In the first one, Roran and some of the solidiers of the Varden are attacking an army of the Empire's men who are attacking Surda. During the battle, which takes place in a raided and small Surdan village, Roran is able to find a good place to fight. There is a wall of wagons blocking off most of the allyway, so that only a few solidiers a a time can get through. There are a couple of archers on the rooves of the surrounding buildings that are helping Roran. Roran is getting beat up anyway, but the mound of Empire bodies that he is fighting on is steadily getting higher. By the end of the battle, Roran is beat up, but Carn, the spellcaster with the group heals him and tells him that overall, Roran himself killed 193 solidiers. It was such an awesome scene.

In the second scene, Rorans leadership is challenged by an Urgal that is in the group Roran is leading. The only way for them to settle the disagreement without him offending the Urgals on behalf of the Varden, is for them to wrestle for leadership. Surprisingly, Roran was able to tire him out and he won. It was a great scene.

I loved it. By the way, tonight, I get to go to the Christopher Paolini book signing. I am beyond excited.