Happy birthday, Ezra and Jordan!

Whoa. Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been really busy with end of the year projects and such. I've got a lot to talk about over the next few days before I leave for camp for a month and a half.

But for now, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my brothers, Ezra and Jordan. Ezra's is today, and Jordan's was on May 26. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

Tag! I'm IT!!!

I got a tag from Bettina to answer some questions about books! This is the first time I've been tagged for something, so tell me if I'm doing something wrong... or right.

Tell me about the book that has been on your shelf the longest...

On my dad's shelves, of which we've got four huge full ones (he had to give a bunch away when we moved to Seattle), I have no idea. We have hundreds of really old ones. He just told me that he thinks that he's had some old copies of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for the longest.

On my shelves, I have a few books of my dad's that are really old, but of mine, I think that they are either The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, the Young Wizard series, or some old Harry Potters. I remember reading Ga'Hoole in 3rd Grade, Young Wzards in 4th Grade, and the Harry Potters are just pretty old, and I'm not sure how long we've had them. Oh, and we've got some old Spiderwick books from when I was in 4th grade too.

Tell me about a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (i.e. a person, a place, a time, etc.)...

Hmm... This is a tough one. I'll go by the examples...

Person: I'm gonna trave back to the Young Wizard series by Diane Duane from the last question. For those who don't know what it is, the first book is called So You Want To Be A Wizard, and it is about a girl who, running into the library to escape from bullies, finds a book called So You Want To Be A Wizard. You know how there are those guide books for little kids, like So You Want To Be A Doctor, or stuff like that? Well, that was the kind of book Nita found. She takes it home, does what it says, and of course, she's learning how to be a wizard. I remember that this book got me into that same habit a long time ago. For maybe a year or two afterwards, whenever I found a guide book about wizardry or stuff like that, I would always get it and try to follow the instructions, hoping that somehow, against all odds, I'd become a wizard. It never worked, of course, but that main character reminds me a lot of myself, and how gullible I am a lot. Of course, it's not gullible if it's true. So, I guess it's only me. ^_^

Place: The Spine, in Eragon. Of course, where I went, it was sort of the opposite. Instead of mountains, it was a ravine. Close to Kathryn's house, if you go down her road, there is a huge ravine, covered in ivy, thorns, and loose dirt. One day, we decided to try to go down there, and it was hard to get there, but once we got there, it was almost like a sanctuary. No people, tons of wildlife, and pure quiet, other than a trickleing stream. That is how I always pictured the Spine. As a place where no one would venture because of the possibility of danger, but upon arival, there isn't much danger at all.

I'll skip time. I can't think of anything for that one.

Tell me about a book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used book store, prize, etc.)...

I have a lot of books, and it's very difficult to remember the story of each one. There are a lot I got from my dad, one of his old ones, like the Belgariad, Ender's Game, and Calvin and Hobbes, there are a lot I got as birthday presents, some I had to get for school, and some I just happened to come into possesion of, but I think the coolest way I got a book was the ARC from J Scott Savage for Farworld: Water Keep. I was going crazy over it! I read it three times in a month, and wouldn't put it down. I was just eexcited to know an author.

Whoa!!! There was one other one I forgot! For my Bar-Mitzvah, my friend Alex tried to send out for a signed copy of Warriors from Erin Hunter. He sent her a letter, and thought she'd just passed it off or didn't get it. In fact, she didn't get it until two months later, when she sent back a signed copy of Eclipse (Warriors, not Twilight), and a letter back. He gave me both, the letter which is on my wall with the rest of my book related posters, and the book, which said, "Happy Bar-Mitzvah, Brian! Erin Hunter". I was freaking out over that one. I'm such a bibliophile, or I guess a better way to say it would be to say book fanatic, or book freak. Or Bookworm.

Tell me about the most recent addition to your shelves...

The most recent edition... I haven't been to a bookstore in a while, cause I've been rereading a lot of books lately. It was either Hunt for the Dark Infinity by James Dashner or The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan. Both were terrific, but DarkIn was more story like. It was terrific, by the way, if I haven't already posted about it. (Wow! I haven't!!!)

Tell me about a book that has been with you to the most places...

Like Bettina, I haven't been many place. I'd have to say that Eragon has been the most places. It's been to camp a few times, it's been to NY, Savannah, Atlanta, Seattle, Florida. Being my favorite book, I carry it around a lot. It's never been out of the country though.

Tell me about a bonus book that doesn't fit any of the above questions...

Hmm... I could do my favorite book, which would be Eragon, I could do the book I'm anticipating most right not, which would be Warriors: Sunset (5 days) or The Last Olympian (May 5, I think), I could do most read book, which could be Eragon, Harry Potter, Charlie Bone, or Lost Years of Merlin, there are a lot of possiblilites. I'll just go with all of that for now.

Oh, and I tag:

Anna, (and if they happen to read this, J Scott Savage and James Dashner) ^_^ Everyone else has already been picked!

WASL Testing 2009

WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) time again. Today, I took the Math WASL, and it was one of the easiest Math Tests I've ever taken. There was only one problem I had trouble with, and that was because I was just being really stupid. Tomorrow and Thursday, I've got Reading WASLs, and on Friday I've got Science. Wish me luck!

Lastly, Happy Birthday Kathryn!!!!!!!!

San Diego - The Rest

Well, here's the outline of the rest of my trip. I just got back yesterday:

Seaworld - Day 2: We spent that morning at the beach, and hung out with Dan again until about 2:00, when we went back to Seaworld. We rode the Atlantis rollarcoaster (Ok), went to a Pet's Rule show (Ok, sorta lame. The animals were cool though), The Sesame Street/ Elmo 4D show (I can't believe they made me go to that. It was beyond lame.), Rode some Raging Rapids ride twice. You're sorta in a raft, and go through a bunch of water things, like waterfalls, water guns, and waves. You get soaked. The first time we went, I got a little wet, but not too badly, while 3 of the 6 in our raft got wet. The three that didn't, including me and Ezra, wanted to go again. The other's including Jordan, reluctanly agreed. Those three were nice and dry afterward... I wasn't. Ezra was though. We were going to go to another Shamu show that night, but we were too cold and wet, so we went home. I spent the rest of the night watching Batman Begins on TV. It was a pretty boring day. Better than Day 1 though.

Legoland - Day 1: Terrible. Not even gonna talk about it. Lame coasters, long lines. Terrible. The only semi-good thing about it was miniworld. They had lego sculptures of cities around the world, like DC, New Orleans, Vegas, New York, and a few others. Not too bad.

Pool - Day 1: We spent our last day there at the pool of the hotel we were in. It was ok. My eyes were sore after a while, I got a bit sunburned, I played some pingpong. It was pretty fun playing with my brothers. That night we watched one of the funniest movies ever, A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Hilarious. I'll talk about that later.

We came home afterward. The first half of the trip was by far the best. Second half was really boring. Since I missed two days of school for the trip, I now have a ton of work to make up. We started reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, we started two big projects, and we started a really important unit in Math that I need to learn.  Great.

San Diego, so far.

So far, I have mixed feelings about this vacation. The weather has been on and off. It was nice the day we got here, so we went to the beach, it was nice the next day, so we went to the San Diego Zoo, it was supposed to be nice on Thursday, so we went to Seaworld... wasn't so nice, and it was very nice yesterday, so we hung out at the beach again.

Beach - Day 1: We splashed around in the water, chased eachother around, and lay around in the sand. It was okay.

San Diego Zoo - Day 1: Amazing!!!! The Zoo here is huge, and has such amazing animals. They have about 5 Aviaries to go into (lots of birds), Giant Pandas, A really lame Sea Lion show, Giant Tortises, Komodo Dragons, lots of snakes, including a two headed one, an awesome Gharial, or something, and some nonexistant Polar Bears. It was a ton of fun!

Seaworld - Day 1: We spent the morning watching a load of shows. First was the Dolphin show, which was really amazing!!!! We sat in the Soak Zone, so of course, we got soaked. They had 4 dolphins and some wierd whale, that looked like a giant black Beluga. Next, we saw Shamu! We sat in the Soak Zone, (with ponchos this time), and only got splashed once. I'd already seen the show in Orlando anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed. Finally, we went to see the sea lion show. It was a dress rehearsal for a brand new show that was officially opening today, so we got to watch a few scenes over again, due to the messups. It was hilarious! It included two sea lions, Seamore and Clyde, a sea otter, whose name I can't remember, and a huge manatee. It was called Sea Lions LIVE! and was the sea lions and their tamers making fun of a bunch of TV shows. They made fun of Superman, American Idol, Iron Chef, Dancing with the Stars, and Survivor. It was so funny! Sadly, we left right afterward. It was freezing all day, with overcast skies.

Beach - Day 2: There are two beaches. One across the road, which is the Pacific Ocean, and one right by our house, which is a little bay. We went to the bay first, to play frizbee, then we went across the road to boogie board and Skim Board. Ezra and I spent the whole time boogie boarding with a kid from Colorado that we met, Dan. He's Ezra's age. It was a ton of fun boogie boarding. We're planning on going back to boogie board with Dan again today. 

Jordan wants me to take him down to the beach for now though, so I'll write about the rest of my trip in a few days.

Spring Break, San Diego, and reads

Finally!!!!! Today is the first day of Spring Break for me!!!! Wow. There's only a few weeks left of school. Then it's off to camp, then just a few weeks of Summer left, then High School... Wow. Everything is passing so quickly.

I got off really lucky. No homework for my vacation except for setting up a Science Project, which I can't do quite yet. On Tuesday, I'm gonna go to California for the first time with my brothers, My dad, his girlfriend, Jackie, and two of Jackie's kids, Emmy and Caroline, both of which are older than my brothers and I. My friend Marek got unlucky. He's going on a roadtrip with his family for 8 days into the middle of nowhere with his hyperactive little brother and no computer. Kathryn is even luckier than me. She's going on her annual trip to Hawaii. Lucky her. So many kids at my school are going there. I've never been to Hawaii, and I want to soooo badly. 

Well, we're going to San Diego. A huge zoo, Seaworld, and best of all, the beach!!!! Warmth!!!! It's been freezing for weeks here on Mercer Island. It's torture. And it's been raining. If it's going to be cold, it should at least snow instead of rain.

I've also got a mission over spring break. Kathryn wants me to read a book called The Shack that she's been going on and on about, saying somthing about it "strengthening her relationship with God." We had a long argument, or well, you can't really call it an argument. It was more like a discussion about religion. I told her I'd read it if I could start it before the end of break. I had already been planning to read The 13th Reality 2 over spring break (finally!) and before that, I have to finish rereading Brisingr. I'm probably gonna finish Brisingr tonight, so I'll be done with 13th Reality in a few days. Does anyone else know about this book, The Shack? It was a New York Times Best Seller.

The Merchant of Venice

Last Friday, I went to see the Shakespeare comedy, The Merchant of Venice, with my dad. It was preformed by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, and they did a TERRIFIC job! This was the first Shakespeare play I've ever seen, and I loved it. (Picture, from left: Lorenzo, Salario (I think), Antonio, and, uhh, I forgot his name.)

****Spoilers****

There were a lot of funny moments, and Gratiano, one of the comic relief characters, did a very good job, but I wouln't call it a comedy. It was funny, but, and this is a lot more visible if you're Jewish, it was a really sad and cruel story. My dad and I had a discussion about this in the car on the way home. Shylock was made into the terrible person he was by the protagonists of the play. They pushed him around his whole life, spat on him and called him a dog, all because of his Judeaism. All he had was his money, his religion, and his daughter. He had no friends or kindness. Then, when Jessica, his daughter, ran away to be with a Christian, Lorenzo, and stealing a large sum of money from him in the process, Shylock went nearly mad. He had lost nearly everything. Now all he had left was his religion and his chance for revenge. When Antonio's ships did not come back, and he could not pay back Shylock, Shylock was ready to take his life after he Antonio was proven guilty. Shylock wanted his revenge so badly, that he refused twice what he'd given Antonio from Bassanio. That's when Shylock literally lost everything. P0rtia came in disguised as a lawyer and lost Shylock his money, his home, and his religion even. They forced him to convert to a Christian. He could either take Antonio's life, and lose his own, or he lost everything. He'd even have to give half of it to his run away daughter and her husband. Shylock really is a sad story.

*****Spoilers over*****

Even through the sad story, I still loved the play. Great acting, especially by Shylock, Antonio, and Bassanio. Oh, and by Jessica. She was played by an intern even.

Invite-Only Private Fencing Program..... I WAS INVITED!!!!

This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was at my fencing class tonight (I missed last week because I as sick, so tonight was my first night in the intermediate class) and the instructor asked to talk to my dad. I went and got him, and the coach told us that he was reccomending us for an invite-only fencing program at the Sammamish Plateau nearby. He said that I had a lot of potential as a fencer and wanted to give me some private lessons to see if I should permanantly join!!!! This is the kind of program that gets people scholarships, and even into the Olympics!!! This is so cool!!! I'll tell you more when I know more!

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

This was an amazing, touching story about a calico cat who is abandoned at the edge of a forest by her owners. The pregnant mother wanders the forest until she finds a sad old hound dog, Ranger, chained to a post by a house in the bayou. He is maimed in one leg, having been shot by his owner, the evil Gar Face, years ago. Now, the chain is all that keeps him there. She sympathizes with Ranger and they are instant friends, living in the shadowed area under the crooked house. When the kittens are born, Ranger is like a father to them. And they are given one rule: Stay in the Underneath. Puck and Sabine respect this rule, until the trickery of a sunbeam gets the better of one of them. As Gar Face breaks up this family, Ranger, Puck, and Sabine must find a way to bring it back together. 

Meanwhile, there is magic at work in the Bayou Tartine. A thousand years ago, there lived Grandmother moccasin, an old snake, bitter after the betrayal she felt when her loved one fell for another and she morphed back into her serpent form. She has waited for many years, lonley but for one companion, the Alligator King. Until she meets her daughter, Nightsong. She is a sweet and loving companion, with a voice like sweet honey. They are happy, until another betrayal tears Grandmother Moccasin apart, and she sets out to wreak her revenge and gain a new companion. And she bides her time...

This story was amazing, told by the trees of the forest. It has the perfect balance of mysticism and reality, and a thousand emotions bundled into it. I really loved it. It was also a National Book Award Finalist! It's funny how I learned about it. I really had no desire to read it. I read it to participate in an author chat on Wandsandworlds.com It was a really fun chat. I'll be sure to post the link when it is released.

Work, work, and, uh, more work

Whew.... I've had so much homework this weekend. I missed most of last week, and had to make up all of the work this weekend. The flu has been going around Mercer Island, and my family caught it. My mom's boyfriend gave it to my mom, who gave it to Jordan, who gave it to Ezra and I. Luckily for me, most of the school was sick too. Over 200 kids were out on Tuesday and Wednesday!!! Even a lot of the teachers were sick.

Well, I just finished (sorta) my massive load of homework. I had 4 math assignments (I only finished 1. My math teacher is very lax on all of that, and said I had a while to do it all,) 2 science assignments, 4 history assignments, 3 language arts assignments, and a spanish assignment. What a load! And even worse, the trimester ends at the end of the week, so I need to make sure everything is in by then! I've also got a huge test on Friday on To Kill a Mockingbird. I'll write about To Kill a Mockingbird once I've watched the movie. I finished the book a while ago, but I havn't seen the whole movie yet.

Sorry I havn't posted in a while. It's not that I've been busy, but I havn't had anything to write about. I havn't seen a movie in ages. No new books to talk about, other than To Kill a Mockingbird. Hmm.... Oh! I do have a book to talk about soon. I read The Underneath by Kathi Appelt a few weeks ago, and participated in an author chat on this chat website. I'll talk about that one soon, too. Hmm... I havn't gotten much work done on The Necromancer Apprentice. Yeah, nothing new has really happened. I'm seeing two Shakespeare plays soon, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. I tried reading The Merchant of Venice, but I gave up pretty quickly. It took me 10 minutes to even vaguely get the first page. And these are small pages.

Well, that's all really. I'll post soon. Oh, and to Bettina (and Jacoby. You havn't really talked 'bout them) good luck on the SATs!