MaximumRideMonthlyReview

Sigh. This is our last monthly review on our tenth grade year. So sad. To make this last monthly review special, I will put more personality into it or something else to make it special. I will try. As you can read from my blogger my regular literature circle letters introduced and guided you along some of the moments of this book. Now is the time for the final review for the last book.

5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
To start this question off, I will introduce the author's background. According to Wikipedia, James Patterson retired his everyday job of advertising in 1996. He then devoted his time in writing novels and series like Maximum Ride and The Women's Murder Club. "He holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 55 New York Times bestselling titles." was stated in Wikipedia's article. I will have to say that that is a good achievement in life. James Patterson is sixty-three old and yet he amazingly achieved that in a matter of time. "Alex Cross" is his main series, it was his most proud series and also his first. "Alex Cross" is known to be one of his greatest works on his writing year. I couldn't find anything about why he wrote this particular book, but I read about the movie in 2013 and why he would want it. "James Patterson has had an "online rally" which has led him to arrange to have a movie based on his best selling teen series; Maximum Ride. The movie will be based on the first three books, but it is unknown whether it will also be based on the recently published fourth installment and newly released fifth novel, MAX."

7. If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?
You could guess what book I'm going to compare it to, yes, you are correct it's none other than The Hunger Games and it's second book Catching Fire. Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment is an exciting story about kids and teenagers on an adventure to save one of the youngest of them all. Maximum Ride is a thrilling, suspenseful fantasy book while The Hunger Games is a science fiction, thrilling, and suspenseful fiction book. As you can see, these two books are really similar but one is more of the fantasy side and the other you can relate to. In The Hunger Games, Katniss the main character doesn't have wings and is a full whole human. In Maximum Ride, Max is ninety-eight percent human and two percent bird. Katniss is more like us and we can compare our relationship with her, but with Max that's kind of hard to compare with. Both books are about survival of the fittest. The genre may be the same but the plots and characters are completely different.
But in my opinion, I enjoy The Hunger Games more. Yeah I enjoy fantasy and angels and vampires more but the entire story plot about survival amongst full humans in more interesting. I guess it does matter who the person is and what type of books they like to read. So to sum everything up. The Hunger Games Series < Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment. But I shouldn't judge by reading Maximum Ride's first book, I should at least try the other books in the series before I make a judgment like that.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
For this question I chose to write about Fang, one of the males in this book. Fang is fourteen years old in Maximum Ride : The Angel Experiment. He becomes older by one year in the next book, referring to Wikipedia. So he's six foot three. "He is 6' 3". He has olive skin, dark eyes and jet black hair that matches his jet black wings. His wing span is 14 feet across." Quote taken from Wikipedia. Describe by the book, Fang is the strongest member of the "flock" and he takes near fatal wounds from protecting his fellow members from danger. Some say that he has a small amount of Raven DNA in him, because of the black wings and also his size. Fang is a loner, in my opinion, he doesn't show his emotions and he is the quiet type, but one person can get through to him, Max. I wonder why. I wasn't suppose to spoil the entire series for myself but by reading Wikipedia's article about Fang, I spoiled the entire other books for myself. And now I'll spoil it for every else, this is a warning if you don't want a spoiler then keep scrolling until the end of this paragraph. Warning. Fang and Max get into many relationships with each other. And Angel proved their love and tastes to each other, and who couldn't trust Angel with her amazing reading minds power. Later on, Angel sees Fang future and she predicted his death, later on she was right Fang is the first "experiment" to die from the "flock." And here's a quote on what Fang enjoys and part of his personality "From School's Out Forever and so on, it is shown that Fang takes great pleasure in seeing Max getting jealous over him... Fang also gets easily jealous when seeing other guys hanging out with Max, shown in The Angel Experiment, School's Out Forever and Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel." Who would have known that quiet Fang was the jealous type?

Well that's the end of the third question, and also the end to our amazing journey of blog posting for book reviews. The final blog post I'll have to do for this class is the Final Post, which is also a Semester Final like the previous one a few months ago. Hope you enjoyed this book review.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartThree

Okay so this is the final literature circle letter for my tenth grade year! xD Yay! After this one will be my final final blog post for assignments in Sutherland's class, which will be the monthly review. Well after this year, I might continue writing on this blog just for the hell of it, or forget about it completely. :] I'm pretty sure that I'll forget about it unless I have Sutherland next year for eleventh grade. Okay so here's the assignment.
So me and my group has finished reading the first book of the Maximum Ride series, I think everybody finished, and so far no one has posted their lit circle letter yet, so I'll be writing and quoting the last paragraph of the book!

The Voice came right back to me : Thats more than theree questions, Max. And sometimes whteher someone i syour friend or enemy is all in how you look at it. But if you must know, i consider myself your friend, a good friend who loves you very much. No one loves you more than I do, Maximum. Now listen. I ask the questions, not you. You're just here and the Voice actually chuckled, for the ride. For the incredible , indescribable Maximum Ride.

During this part of the book, there was a mysterious voice that came out of nowhere. But it helped Max to find the institution. Well do you think that voice is a friend or a foe or maybe some cyber net thing that is using Max to help it defeat some things? In my opinion, I think that voice is actually something that is using Max and the others to complete it's mission. Right now I wouldn't know what their motive is, but i think it's something bad, and we wouldn't know who... unless we read the next book in the series. Am I right? xD

Okay so this is the last book literature circle letter, I will type a little message. I don’t think I will be able to write another lit circle letter, so don’t be sad. I’m really sorry to those who have read this… yeah I don’t know who reads this… xD And hope you enjoyed my book reviews! Class of 2012! xD (Yes that was a really random and unnecessary line to say.) Oh yeah the picture above is the manga version of Fang, the second eldest in the book.

Deuces

Since Nathan Wong wanted to blog about deuces and this was our last blog post of the year, well that's what I heard so okays. Also if you noticed, we wrote about the same topic last week also. xD
There are two different kinds of deuces, Vietnamese version and Chinese version. There might be more but those are the two main versions. According to Wikipedia, the Vietnamese version has other names like Killer, Up the Hill, and Thirteen. I have heard of people who call it Thirteen or Deuces but never heard of someone calling it Killer or Up the Hill, but I can guess why they named the game those names. Killer because the two (deuces) can kill any card it wants and it's the main "boss" as for Up the Hill, it could have been named that for the rankings and level of each specific card. So in the Vietnamese version of deuces, the ranking from highest to lowest numbers or characters are 2 K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3. The shapes in order are heart ♥, diamonds ♦, clovers ♣, and then spades ♠ as the lowest valued card.
This game involves up to four people with each person holding thirteen cards, even if it’s three or two people there should be thirteen cards in their hand. As for people who just want to play for fun, they can have as many cards as they want but it must be equal among the players. Once a combination is played, the next player must beat it with a higher combination including ranks and levels. Different combinations are singles, pairs, triples, and a straight with at least three cards played and up to any level until the Aces. Other special combinations are chops which is a sequence of the same number consecutively, like 3 3 4 4 5 5, and it must be more than three pairs. Paired sequences can beat the “killer” or deuce in the game. This game also involves instant wins which are four deuces, six consecutive pairs, and three triples (which are rarer than six consecutive pairs).
In the beginning of the game, most people would make up their own rules and the others would have to agree with it. Most people use this game to gamble and others like people younger than the age of ten would just play for funs or pocket change. According to Wikipedia again, you can change or swap cards with another player, but it’s not really fun if you can switch cards. Without swapping cards, you can use your brain and knowledge to win with a horrible hand that didn’t require changing. And if you change cards, you would be giving other players the chance to win.
Wow, I never knew that Deuces would be so complicated and that the way we play was wrong based on Wikipedia’s version. Oh well, I guess you don’t have to play it right if you want to have fun. :]

RulesOfLove♥

In the 1800's, there was no such thing as a steady relationship. You could go out with anyone you wanted. Everybody showed their emotions and feelings without embarrassment. Now during this time of day, most people are shy and ask one male or female. And other people would cheat on one another and ask two or more people out. It just depends who it is, I guess. Love is a huge part of this world; it's one of those things that make this world go round.
Some rules for dating or love relationships between people:
1: Ask the person you really like, not just a crush but someone you would want to spend your entire life or at least love until you hate...
1A: Responding truthfully to the question someone asks you.
2: You shouldn't care about the other people's comments or opinion. Do what you want.
2A: If you’re happy, you real friends will be happy too. :]
3: When in a relationship, you have to sacrifice some things in order to keep your relationship steady.
4: But all relationships have a limit. Once that limit is reached, the relationship is over.
5: Age doesn’t matter, you just have to enjoy and love that person.
A good relationship depends on trust and faith with each other. And the people around you have to be happy no matter what, hating you just because of the person you’re dating are not a reason. Some relationships have limits and others don’t. Apparently I know or knew of a relationship with limits and sadly it reached the maximum level. The meter reached off limits that it exploded. And last but not least, age shouldn’t stop you from loving a special someone. It just means more to love, I guess. Love is everywhere no matter what the consequences are.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartTwo

Hmm.. I have no idea how to start this lit circle letter, so I'll start it by talking about how I don't know how to and start from there. Okay, enough of the stalling and time for the actual lit circle letter. I have decided not to spoil what happened next so I shall skip to another part of the book!! Hahaha... sorry if you were expecting for a spoiler because you're too lazy to actually read the actual book!
For the first quote, I will use a quote of a question that came from the book and expand the answer.

School - What could be scarier than that?

Many students may know the reason. And the "flock" of 98% human and 2% bird will know also. After this section, they found out the horrors of school and what we suffer every weekday! Jk. But yes, school is that bad. I'm sorry if I'm using this lit circle letter to badmouth school. But this question did pop up in the book my group is currently reading.
Even though they're school is different and for them and only them, the experience may be completely different but it's still school. And school is really bad!

It was a mishmash of flashing images, drawings, maps, streams of code, silent film clips of people talking. It was exactly the stuff that had flooded my brain during my attack.

Flashback. During some serious fight, Max had a weird flash of images described in the quote above. And then later in the book, around the end of part two, someone showed him the images on his MAC. He literally flipped his MAC around to show her. And they were exactly the same. Hmm... another suspenseful moment for the characters. Will they be fine until I start reading part three? What will happen? How did the character find the images on his MAC? Some of us will never know and others will just pick this book up and read it. Chyeah! xD

Mahjong.

For this week's blog post, I will be writing about mahjong. Mahjong is a very famous game for four players that originated in China. Many people use this game as a form of gambling and others coughunderagedkidscough just play for fun and amusement. There's also a Korean varuation that allows for three players only. The Korean variation is just like Japan and Malaysia's. According to wikipedia, this game involves skill, strategy, and calculation and a degree of luck. But my own opinion, is that the game of mahjong requires every ounce of luck you have in you. If you don't have luck, don't play mahjong. But I guess you also need to think about each tile and try to ruin your opponent's plan or strategy.
To begin I will tell you about the basics of mahjong, there are exactly thirteen tiles in everybody's hand except for the first person who starts. The person who starts it off has to discard a tile and then the next person has to pick up a new tile and discard one and so on. This keeps going on until someone plays all pongs or kongs or straight and so on. Pong is three of a kind and kong is four of a kind. I'm still a beginner at this and still get confused but I'll get use to it.
Now time to tell you about the most recent game I had. It was on Sunday May 9th. It took place on Park Street in Alameda. We were just hanging around around and we all just ended up at Quickly's. The person who would usually carry a mini mahjong set was named Pat Pat Long or Hao Ming Long, everytime you see him he has a set on him. So Nathan Wong, Pat Pat, me, and some random asian guy grabbed a table and moved some chais and played mahjong.
I lost so many rounds and then suddenly I won a round and then another, two in a row! I'm so proud. Then during the last round, before I had to leave, I think Nathan Wong or Pat Pat won. I forgots.. hehehe. xP
Oh yeah, Nathan Wong's way to win is to keep most of the dragons to himself. In mahjong there are white dragons (the tile with the blue border), green dragon (green tile), and the red dragon (the tile with 5 red strokes). The first time that his plan became effective was when two other people waited for the a green dragon tile, and he had one or something. But I shouldn't be complaining or anything since he helped me win with that one tile, he helped me stall the other players until I got the tile I needed to win. Hehehe. He helped me without knowing xD. When he reads this post, he will know. (Some information in this blog post may be false because of my horrible memory but it's okay, I guess.
Oh yeah and we're going to play again tomorrow which is Wednesday May 12, 2010. xD Yay.

MAXimumRideTheAngelExperimentLitCircleLetterPartOne

Wow, that was a long title for a blog post about a book. And one question, do you know why I capitalized the first three letters in the title of the book, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment? It was because the main character or the narrator is Max. Get it? Maximum... Max. I'll assume that you got it, so moving on. Max is ninety-eight percent human and two percent bird, but has a complete set of angel (bird) wings, which I don't get. It's only two percent and it's a whole set... weird. Okay so since Mr. Sutherland assigned a requirement for this specific lit circle letter, I shall follow it and get full credits! :D So here is the quotes.

I pressed my lips together. I was doing the best I could. "Maybe not," I admitted. "We'll never know. Jeb's dead. Now everyone get your gear together." (35)

When I read this I thought hmm... Max is the type of person who seems like a leader and the most responsible one. The one who keeps everybody's promises and helps them through the hard times. Max is one amazing and tough chick. You wouldn't want to mess with her no matter what happens. Hmm... this book might get exciting as Max gains more confidence and awareness. New challenges will head towards her. Physically and mentally, I'm sure of it.

"Okay, okay," the Gasman said suddenly. "I have an idea. It's risky, and Max will kill is when she finds out." Iggy raised his head,. "Sounds like my kind of idea." (122)

I chose this last quote because it was the last quote from part one of the book. And also it seemed so interesting that I wanted to add it in. I mean like I want to know what's the idea. It's risky and yet they still want to do it even though they know that they are in danger if they decide and fail at this plan. Don't you want to know what will happen next? I will tell you that next time unless I decide not to spoil it for you readers who haven't read it yet. xD

ShortStories

So I've been having hard times thinking of a new blog topic... so I decided to look through my documents on my computer. And see if there were anything interesting to talk about and guess what. I found this really really short story that I wrote last year. It's not as great as the Crimson Fighter and that one other horror story, The Melody, but it's still a story that I personally liked. So here it goes. Oh wait before I show you the one I wrote, here's one of my friends really really short story. It's appropriately named Requested.

I looked at the blank piece of paper in my hand and the pen in the other. I had forgotten about this day, what was it called? Ah, yes, request day. I sighed with a yawn after, looking outside with a gleam in my eye. I temporarily ignored the piece of paper in front of me.
The sky always blue was empty; it was saved for a few clouds lazily drifting through. The sun was shining brightly along following it by ninety-degrees Fahrenheit. I didn’t care much. It was nice in here, and it had air conditioning.
A soft gust of wind breezed by, delivering a flowery aroma surrounding me. I grinned just a bit. This was most peaceful; I wouldn’t leave this for the world, this place with such a magnificent view.
However, my eyes were caught by the forgotten slip of paper, slightly crumpled in my hands. I grinned once more, and began to write. When I finished, I placed the slip of paper into a black box located near the door. Not noticing the black ink contrasted with the room. I gave a sigh and leaned back, with the wall supporting my back as I took in the view once again.
This year’s request:
Please give me a window.

I love that one because it was short but simple and explained a lot. Okay so here's mine. It's titled, Pleasure to Life.

Driving along a crooked cliff, two people drunk drive. Wait, hold on, let's start at the beginning. Rewind.
There were two guys, both with relationship problems, had met each other in the most upsetting place. The bathroom. One guy, Dave, had just randomly started talking to himself about his problems. Ben entered the bathroom, and answered Dave's questions to himself. Ben knew how Dave felt, so they told each other their stories. It took a while, but the thing was that they stayed in the bathroom talking to each other. They never thought of talking over a cup of coffee or getting some food, instead they just stood there.
When they finished, the next they knew, they were headed for the nearby bar. They drank all night long, not knowing what would happen if they drunk drive. Dave and Ben were drunk enough to know that they had two cars, they only took Dave's, the worst driver between the two. They headed towards the highway, not knowing where it will lead, Instead, of going to he nearest town, it lead to a cliff instead.
This is exactly where we started off from! Well let's just continue.
So they were drunk driving near a crooked cliff, the road was narrow. Dave fell asleep while driving, they were both about to see their lives flash before their drunken lives. The car did one mistake and turned. Beep, Beep! Dave's head pressed the horn to the car. The whole car flew off the cliff with both Dave and Ben still in it. Crash!
Neither Dave or Ben's bodies were found, no one knew where the car landed. It just disappeared out of nowhere.

Such a nice memory to remember... xD