Topic of Science Fiction

The world of Science Fiction has a wide range from looking into what happens in the future caused by people and what else there could be in the galaxy.  The future, which is predicted in the Sci-Fi novels, short stories and poems is usually warns about problems in the future and how electronic devices help yet hinder humans. Sci-Fi novels deal with technologies that will revolutionize how we interact and make life easier.  Many of the wonders that people could only imagine 50 years ago have now been created or at least something that has it function. Some of the Sci-Fi is still future for us today but most likely there will be in the future something that will be a time where it comes true. The challenges of writing Sci-Fi are to not over exaggerate ideas so that they can actually happen. “Tomorrowland Is Here” talks about how people have slowed down in writing Sci-Fi novels, and instead get caught up in the store looking at all of the cool things. Robots are a very interesting topic in Sci-Fi; they have the power to think in some cases and are able to act like humans. Some Sci-Fi books warn against doing such things because sometimes robots are over protective and then they terrorize humans. Other than that they can be very helpful if controlled by humans to do helpful things. There are dangerous tasks that people wouldn’t normally do, and they also help make things get done faster to help finish the work faster, as mentioned in “Robots Among Us”. There are many problems that humans face and extinction is one of them. Humans have many wars and the result is sometimes deadly. Cloning is a very good solution put up by Sci-Fi to help solve the problem do the diminishing amount of people and will leave the dangerous tasks for them to do while the “real” people are able to live in luxury. “Send In The Clones” talks about how making clones are bad and can be like losing a part of yourself by re producing humans. Cloning is a very real part of our life today and it is now possible to clone animals and people but no people have so far been cloned. Sci-Fi goes into the ability to jack into cyberspace and control things inside without using your actual movements. More than Human… or Less talks about how there is no jacking into cyberspace but it is being tested in modern days. It is also predicted by “Who Goes There” that in the future that the identity will be proved by looking at iris scans, implanted computer chips and cameras recording them for the rest of their lives. T.V.’s are predicted to be wall sized and families are transfixed by them all day and night, in “The TV Family.” “Beam Me Up, Scotty” discusses about new and different ways of traveling from one place to another. They talk about teleporting and being able to be transported at the speed of light from one place to another, NASA is trying to make this technology possible but so far it is not.”We Come In Peace” talks about aliens and predicts what would happen if they came peacefully and not peacefully. The benefit if Sci-Fi is being able to have a good imagination and think about the future. Scientists can use the ideas in Sci-Fi to think of ideas to make in the future.

I Am From.... By Patrick Yang

I am from

Why don’t you come

 

I am from a world in pain

People who know of nothing but gain

 

I am from a world of green

But to be me, none can be seen

 

I am from a culture of greed

Of which I see no need

 

I am from where all who work to be rich are slaves

To fill the hole in their heart with the money they crave

 

I am from the two lands apart

The land my parents had to part

 

I am from a repeat of history

Yet there is still so much mystery

 

I am from within my soul

Looking for parts that make me whole

 

I am from doors left open

Place for futures to reopen

 

I am from a city where time is money

You might even think it is funny

 

I am from the city where money talks

Many people prefer to take walks

 

I am from a city with lots of waste

Another location for companies place

 

I am from one of the richest places

And all people it embraces

 

I am from where many people desire to come

Less and less this place doesn’t look glum

 

I am from hotdog stands

And music bands

 

I am from the things I see

My city is sits next to the sea

 

I am from my own intentions

Doing as I please

The Beast Pages 137-170

The story The Beast by Walter Dean Myers ends with a happy ending. They story ends only telling the future of Gabi and Spoon. The Beast lives on in the past of its victims and is a temptation for the weak. The strong can live with the burden in them and act as if it doesn’t affect them at all. Gabi in this case seems to be healing and with the help of Spoon. She is willing to go on in her life. She has gotten a job and is has started going to get help to get over her drug problem. If she was weak then she would have fallen back to The Beast during the time Spoon was away. Monica is a good example of what The Beast can do to the weak. She had no support and was weak on the inside so she still has not given up drugs and cannot face reality. Only those who are strong can use the challenges faced in life to bring a better future.

The Beast Chapter 12-13: The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is used as a symbol of confusion. When Spoon leaves there are a lot of things that happen and people get confused during the time he was gone. Gabi was so perfect in the eyes of spoon when he left and then when he came back he realized that Gabi was a new person. When he came back she was confused and she didn’t know what to do with her future. She gave up on her dreams for her future. She cared after that for the little things, she was more concerned on what to do for the next hour and day and not her future. After Gabi took drugs she couldn’t turn back, it was better for her to take drugs instead of facing herself or anybody. Spoon is trying to save her but now the only way to save her is to stop her from taking drugs.

Many people get lost inside if the Labyrinth and they mostly don’t get out when they get in. People like Clara get lost, she was perfect before he left and then she got pregnant. Scott, before Spoon left, was very good friends with Spoon and Scott ended up dropping out of school. The only way out of the Labyrinth is to get help. Monica talks about how she had nobody there for her when she was sucked into the world of drugs. Now she wants to help those who are affected and stop people from falling to “The Beast”. Drugs seem to be very good for people who want to get away from everything in their life and sometimes living a lie is better then living your life. If you run fast enough you can still excape.

Black Clouds Poem By Patrick Yang

Black Clouds

Small, Cold, And Dark

Covering the Night

 

Looking For Some Hope

Looking For Some Light

 

Covered, Surrounded and No Way Out

Backed Up In A Corner 

Looking For Some Life

 

Turn Left and Turn Right 

There’s No Light in Sight

 

Unpredictable Sadness Looming over Head

The Light at the End Is Covered In A Cloud Of Black

 

Stepping Forward, Stepping Back

Like A Candle with No Match

Life Is Plain and Mundane

 

A Cloud in A Sky The Color Has Left

Things Have Changed and There Is No Back

 

From blue to black

These clouds fade away

Make Up RRQ #5 for 2/24/09

17.  Which character would you like (or not like) to be your friend? Why?

I would not like it if I were friends with Capricorn. Capricorn one of the villains in the book Inkheart and he was read out of the book “Inkheart” by Mo. After that he believed that Mo was a magician and could make anything he read come true. Capricorn started off by getting all of his followers back and created a castle for himself. He then started to scare the people living near his village so they don’t come by and see what he was doing. In a way he had total control in what happens there and anything he wants he can get then. He abducts people such as Mortimer, Maggie, Elinor and Dustfinger so they do what he wants. If I met him he would try to sue me of just make me afraid of him.

Big Joe's Funeral by Walter Dean Myers

The Story Big Joe’s Funeral is a story filled with irony. Basically the story was about Big Joe and he decided to end his health insurance and have a funeral party for himself with the money. It is ironic since the money was supposed to be for his death and it seemed as if he but it would seem that he just wanted it to come faster. Big Joe is a very kind person and he lends money to people whether or not if they were trustable or not. I think that the message is respect in this short story. Big Joe is a much respected person in his community. He also wants people to show him respect during his funeral with their speeches. In the end of the story, Big Joe lends money to somebody in his community to bail out her husband from jail.  Having this funeral/party I think helped let Big Joe know who his friends were and how much they cared about him while making their speeches about him. I personally feel that it is a waste of money to buy yourself a fake wedding since it is expensive. I feel that he is tempting fate and mocking death in a way saying that he won’t die but wants to have a chance to experience it.

Fallen Angles by Walter Dean Myers Finish of the book

I think that the end of Fallen Angles, the book is very interesting but over all I think it was an ok book. I think that this book is more concentrated on talking about how the people living in Nam were and how the people who went there have been affected by the war. I wouldn't say that the book was as great as I expected it would be when I first finished the first 70 pages. Basically the book tries to stress the effects of war. I would not go as far as to say that it tries to make people not want to go to war but just to show the bad things that happened in Nam. In the end there is an ending that is somewhat happy to the main character since he gets to go back home. I think that everything that happened in Nam is not something that “Fallen Angels” should have to see and will most likely scar them for the rest of their lives. 

Fallen Angles by Walter Dean Myers Page 1-70

The book Fallen angles is a very interesting book. By the end of the first 70 pages it leaves us on a great cliffhanger that was not expected at all. The characters start to question what they are doing in Nam. It is clear that all of them are not prepared and are afraid even though they want to join for different reasons. So far the book talks about them more then the war. They main character is called Perry and he has a sad story. Like most of the people in the army he is a fallen angle. A fallen angle is the term discussed in the book as "children" who can’t vote but are old enough to join the army. Everybody has a different reason why they want to join the army. Perry wanted to do something in his life. His parents were divorced when he was small and he has a little brother. His mother was talking care of them and Perry’s little bother looked up to Perry. Perry finished high school and then didn’t go to college but signed up for the army. I feel very bad for him since I don’t think that he should go so young. I think that he should have the ability to live life a bit before going to war. War is very gruesome and anything can happen. Perry writes back to his family every so often to talk about the war. The author stressed out how dangerous war is when he kills off Jenkins because of a bomb in their base. So far in the story they haven’t needed to fire their weapons once but I think that this is where it starts getting interesting.

The Streak Blog

The streak is a short story by Walter Dean Myers. The short story shows how luck is just a state of mind. They start off talking about all of the bad things that have happened to Jamie Farrell within the past 2 days. He is not happy about what has happened and shortly after he started turning around his life. He was able to according to his friend have as much good luck as bad. He decided that he could have 7 good things since that was the amount of bad things. it seems as if it was working his luck but then as it runs out he realizes that it is not only him but that everything happened during his good luck streak was coincidence.

I think that the story is very interesting. They start out by making you think that they are saying that there is such thing as a streak of luck. In the end when Jamie gets the girl he wanted for the date she told him how it seemed to be her lucky streak. That showed him that everybody has luck and that it was not just him. It was a life lesson to him that life has its ups and downs.  Everybody will have what they call bad times and also good times. I think that anything bad or good is your own opinion and you decide what is good and what is bad. Something you find bad might not be bad for somebody else and instead it might be the best thing that has happened to them.

The message of the short story is that there is no such thing as luck. Jamie Farrell thinks that there is such thing as bad and good luck because he kept getting "bad" luck.  After seven things that he considered as his bad luck, he finally has some good luck. He thought that he could do seven things as he wanted them to happen. In the end he realized that is isn’t like that and what happened to him that he called good luck were just coincidences.

Hidden Talents by David Lubar Blog #2 Pages 36-116

It is remarkable, the author finally explains the reason behind his title but how far does it run? Is it only a coincidence that these few children have these "hidden talents" or is it everybody including martin? Could they all be part of an experiment as hinted by Mr. Briggs that the school has not discovered an answer to yet or it a joke. I think that the author’s story finally begins in these pages to tell the plot of the story. It is very interesting and if Martin’s experiments prove true then the school could be like a magnet of all children who have these "hidden talents." So far we don’t know if or if not they want to experiment on them or not and if it is for good science or bad. By studying them if they can find out now they are able to have these talents so they can try to make anybody have them. That could be good or bad depending on their intentions. I want to know how this book ends.

Hidden Talents by David Lubar Blog #1 Pages 1-36

This book so far seems to be good and promising. It talks about Martin Anderson who is known to “mouth" and he has been kicked out of school because of it. i sympathize for him but at the same time I don’t. It is his fault for doing so many bad things but I think he doesn’t deserve to be in a "school" with some people who are out of their original state of minds. It is sort of a juvenile detention facility since they all live there and everything is over looked by people and the bells. I feel that because of his father’s harsh judgment, he was sent here. His father’s harsh judgment was caused by his fathers who use to be strict to him. I feel that alone the mother would not have enough courage to send his son there unless it was absolutely necessarily, which would be like if all schools in the area rejected him. I think that he is better than that and can change but at the same time he needs to know how great his life was and how much worse it is now. 

RRQ Wensday January 07, 2008 Page 44-61

#18 If you could change one thing in the book, what would it be? Why would you change it?

There are many things in this book I wish that I could change since it is very tragic. I feel that if I had to choose what to change I would change the thing that started the falling of the dominos. By taking Adolf Hitler out of the picture then Germany wouldn’t have started gaining so much power and the entire World War II could have been averted. Millions of people’s lives could have been saved by killing or not letting Hitler come to power in Germany. If he hadn’t then everything in the book might have not happened at all. 

RRQ Tuesday January 06, 2008

# 19 What has surprised you in the book? Why?

In today’s reading I am surprised by the power of the Germans. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel the main character is a Jew and he is living in the time of Hitler and World War II. I feel bad for him since he worries that he will be captured in war and killed. I think that when the Germans came in to their town and lived in their houses they were acting like spies, trying to learn more about their community. I was surprised that the Germans would capture them and make them workers even though they were so nice to them. I thought that they would just leave but then they took over and took everything from them and made them prisoners.