My bday!

December 23 2009,
  I had the best birthday ever, did you know that? But, what you might ask is why is it the best birthday ever? It started yesterday. When I woke up, everyone greeted me a happy birthday! I was really happy and active, and then, I went of Facebook to see if my friends greeted me a happy birthday. Next, I took a bath and waited for a long time for my family to finish, and then after that, we went to Pondok Indah mall to get the movie tickets to watch Avatar. When we're almost to the cinema, I saw my 5th grade teacher Mrs Dindorf! How surprising! At one o clock my family decided to go eat at Kenny Rogers. Since it was my first time to eat there, it was actually delicious. Then, at 3:10, we went to Cinema XXI and went to our seats. The movie was completely awesome! It was like the wrath of the humans vs the revenge of the Na'vis! Well, now, I really felt bad about myself because I was much of a spoiled brat. How? After we watched the movie, we passed by E store, and I wanted an Ipod Nano for my birthday. My mum and dad said that they can't afford it that much, so I was really miserable. At the car, I was sobbing and weeping badly, and I thought that was a little babyish. What's even worse was I had a fever. After that, at my house, I was really complaining about the Ipod Nano to my mum and dad,  but they told me the times we had fun like watching Avatar, eating at Kenny Rogers, the bowling party I had last week. I thought my parents were right, so I ignored my wants and thanked what the experiences my parents gave me. I was happy again, and we had spaghetti carbonara for dinner. It was scrumptious, and then, I had to blow the cake my mum baked for me. My family sang a happy birthday ( but my little brother's singing was quite annoying because his was the loudest), and I made a wish and blew the candles. My family became joyful and merry. They told me to get the plates, so I went to the cuboard on the center and grabbed the saucers but my dad told me that was too small, so I went to the top left cuboard and I grabbed the plates but my dad said that it was at the bottom. I opened the cuboard and grabbed the big plates out. But, my dad said " Look what's beside it" , and it was an Acer Aspire One! I was so joyful, and then, I hugged and thanked my parents for giving me a mini laptop! I learned that to not cry too early because there might be a catch right behind it. This is how I got a mini laptop and this is why I had the best birthday ever!



I always wanted an Ipod Nano.....

but instead, I got a mini laptop.

                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                  

Journal Writing: The last week

15/11/09
I
Today's the day of the VPA concert, and I'm screwed because I didn't bring my VPA concert uniform. My strings teacher is gonna get mad at me so much, and the performance starts at 1:10pm! Also, my phone ran out of pulsa. If I could just borrow someones phone (hope it has pulsa) and call my mom to bring the uniform, then I'll no longer have problems. I hope that could happen. Anyways, that's the bad news. The good news is that I can't wait for the sem break on friday! I could play Warcraft and spend time with the whole family from the Philippines! It's gonna be awesome! But now, I just have to wait for it and spend time solving my problem. Now that's what I call another problem! Well, I really don't know if it's a problem or not, but anyways, at the VPA concert, we're gonna play this music called Rhythm and Blues. It may look really hard but if you practice it many times, it may sound easy.

10 meanings through pictures

Exhaustion-

Methodically-

Swoon-

Abruptly-

Muttered-

Inflammatory-

Fettered-

Prophet- 

Mimicking-

Incredulous-

Journal Writing

I was thinking about something which makes me really embarrassed and ashamed and that something is "How does it feel like to be short?". I know it sounds awkward and weird but I wanted to find out how it feels like. Here are the good things about it. Being short can make you really sneaky and crafty, for example, Napoleon, he may be a midget but he's intelligent that he looks. Also, being short can be a little funny like this short filipino who's really hilarious at this filipino show. This essay might be awkward but I'm quite fond of writing weird things.The bad thing about being short is that you might beaten at sports, for example, basketball. Well, I think that's the only bad thing, and you don't get bullied at all. Again, I know this essay might be awkward but again, I'm quite fond of these weird things.

Darren Shan: Lake of Souls

****

Wow! It's been a long time since I summarized my last book. Well, I finished reading this book like about at September! Anyways, after Mr Crepsley's funeral, Harkat and Darren went to the Cirque du Freak. There, Truska enlarged the size and repaired Darren's old pirate costume but Darren didn't really want to wear due to his maturity. Harkat and Darren was there for years until Mr Tiny arrived. It was Harkat's time to see who he actually was when he was alive and find his destiny. How does Mr Tiny do that? For the humans, it's pretty hard but for this guy, it's a piece of cake. He forms a portal and pulls Harkat in to another world. Darren wanted to go with him too so he stepped inside the portal, and then, they're in a lost world. The world they're now in is quite more disgusting as I expected to be. It has unusual creatures such as a mutant toad which has these jelly like globes around its body or people with pink hair! What's really surprising is that the world Darren and Harkat's in is actually the future! That's only if Darren dies and Steve Leonard becomes the Lord of Shadows. I think if you read the Lake of Souls, you'll understand why there are random people with pink hair, and you'll understand the " Darren dies and Steve Leonard becomes the Lord of the Shadows" thing if you read the next book, Darren Shan: The Lord of Shadows. I'll recommend this book to people who likes weird things.

5 meanings through pictures

Placid-

Brisk-

Wrath-

Unequal-

Subtle-

Topic: Why is fresh water scarce?

!) List the main reasons for water scarcity.
The main reasons are hot deserts and low rainfall.
2) What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia.
A drought is a period below average precipitation and if I was living in Ethiopia, water would barely found because it has many droughts and the Ethiopians don't have enough money to buy water. 
3) How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water? It doesn't infiltrate making the water run off instead.
4. a) What is El Nino? El Nino is a climate which stands for hot climate.
    b) Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia. Because Australia is near the equator.
5) Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83.
a) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?
b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino.

Water Treatment Plant

In this field trip we got to learn how the water gets clean in the city. The trip to the water treatment plant took for an hour and 10 minutes. I was often asleep in the bus. And finally, we were there, standing in front of a building, but there was more behind it.

Speaking of what's behind it, they are machines or stations which has a job on cleaning water. The first one is called the course and fine filter. They both take out the garbage from a certain river. For what purpose? To make the water clean and to prevent germs from the garbage spread into the freshwater. Sometimes or often, when the machines stop working and, the garbage and dirt keeps on flowing, there's this tool called the power pump (the first thought in my mind that it was kind of a super machine or something) which stops the flowing and prevents them from spreading on the clean water.

The second station is when the water gets added with alum. But it makes you wonder, what is it and what does it do (and trust me, it's not aluminum)? Well, it's kind of hard to explain what alum is but it's some kind of solid particles which makes the dirt stick together. That blob of dirt is called floc.

The third station is like the sequel to the second because it's when the floc slowly settles at the bottom. This station is in a reservoir. The water is more than 6 feet deep and, it looks clean but it's still not potable because there are more processes to do before it's clean. Speaking of more processes, the next one is the fourth station.

The fourth station is when the water is still in the reservoir but this time, there's sand in it. This type of sand is not found in the beach, but it's a special one. It's used to clean the water from the remaining germs (or coli) found. After that, disinfectant was added.

The last but not least station is when the water is transferred to the lab, to test if it's clean or not. The lab also compares the dirty river water to the processed water. The processed water cannot be drinkable but it's good for showers or any other which is not related to drinking.

After that, we went to the control room. Obviously, the control room is in charge of controlling the whole water treatment plant. There were many handles and buttons, and nobody dared to touch a single one to what might happen. Finally, we rested and then, we watched an animated movie which reflects on the water process. It was really hilarious and funny, especially Bondol the eagle. After the movie ( like as usual), we went back to JIS.

Geoactive, p. 227, #1-6

1.What percentage of the world`s supply of fresh water? The percentage of the world's supply of fresh water is 2.5%
2.Where is the worlds supply of fresh water found? 2% is found in ice on land, 0.49% is found in soil and groundwater and 0.01% is found in lakes and rivers.
3.Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
It's because most of the water found is mostly salt water and there's few freshwater in the world.
4.Observe the map of world`s average annual precipitation(opposite)
(a)Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa. In the southern tip of Africa, there's like 500-1000mm of the average annual rainfall, but in the northern tip, the annual rainfall is under 250mm which means from south to north, the rainfall decreases.
(b)Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia
along the Tropic of Capricorn. In the West part of Australia, the average annual rainfall is lower than 250, compared to the East part, the rainfall is more than 2000. So from West to East, the rainfall increases.
5.Observe the map above of water availability per person
(a)Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person? Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Russia, almost most of the parts of Australia, Central Africa, Canada, the upper part of South America and Costa Rica.
(b)Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water available per person? Almost most parts of China, Mongolia,  The Middle East, The north west part of Africa, the southern part of Australia, Japan, and most parts of Europe.
6.Observe the diagram of water use.
(a)what are the main uses of water? The main uses of water is with the reservoir.
(b)Which uses have increased the most over the last century? The reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage  increased most over the last century.

Bintaro Lama

This was the 3rd time I'm gonna go to a kampung. At first, I thought we're just gonna visit Bintaro Lama but we're also gonna make a slide show or a video about the 3 stations we're assigned to.
Nicholas, Nathan and I were at stations 1, 3 and 5. Station 1 introduces the sand filter, a thing which traps bacteria in the groundwater. How? Let's say that the groundwater gets poured in the sand filter and it passes through the sand, gravel and small rocks. Why does the sand filter need those solids? It's because they trap the bacteria while the ground water passes through it.
Station 3 shows another way to clean water through SODIS which I'm not sure of what it stands for but it's kind of like Solar Disinfection. Why is it called that way? It's because this process includes solar heating. First, you clean the water bottle( the water bottle should have no texture and should be transparent so when it dries in the sun, the heat will burn the germs in the bottled water) inside and outside, and then fill it with water( which came from the sand filter) . When the water goes on the top, make it overflow so that the oxygen feed on the germs. Then, you put it on a roof of a house so that the sun can burn the remaining germs. The bottle stays there for 6 hours. Station 5 shows the water quality test and the tubility test. First, they will show you a really long cylinder which is like a graduated cylinder and they will fill it with water. This is called the Turbidity Test. This test shows how clear is the water. How can you tell? On the bottom of the tube, there's an X sign so if you look through the tube and water, you can tell if you can see the X sign clearly. Another tool of measuring water's quality is called the PH4, a tool which measures acidity. P stands for percent and H stands for Hydrogen, and I don't really know what 4 stands for. On the PH scale, from numbers 0 to 14, water is simply the baseline which is in 7 and it also means that it's neither acidic or basic. Acidic things can be lemon or hydrochloric acid. Basic things can be soap or ammonia. And after we visited all 3 of the stations, we sang with the kampung kids a washing hands song, and then we washed our hands. After all of the jingle, we went on the buses and we went back to JIS.

My poem: Hurk, in the book, A light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

This video shows a reader named Rgee Gallega reading the poem Hurk. Sorry that we didn't make a title and the graphics yet because we're still working on it.

Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, and Infiltration

Evaporation: The time when water turns into gas and becomes water vapour. Almost all of the water contained in the air. Another way to get water is called transpiration, when there is water loss in plants. But if there's combined water loss in the atmosphere from evaporation and transpiration, it's called Evapotranspiration.













Condensation: This is the opposite of evaporation because water vapour changes from gas to tiny droplets of water that is very hard to see. Those tiny droplets are so hard to see, air can carry it. We recognize them as clouds or fog.











Precipitation: After the process of condensation, while the air are carrying the tiny drops of water, they start to increase in size until the air can't carry them so instead, they drop them, causing precipitation. Although, rain isn't the only type of precipitation but snow, hail and sleet too.










Infiltration: During precipitation, some of the water which falls on Earth may be stored as ice, snow and icebergs but also, the water can be stored underground. How? It's through a process called infiltration. How does it work? The raindrops falls onto the earth, passes through the soil and makes it underground. Although they made it, they usually make its way to lakes or rivers. Then why are there wells and springs if the water's in the lake or river already? Well, that's because some of the water stays underground, and that type of water's called groundwater. It's also another type of storing water.

Personal Narrative: The day my dog had a broken tooth by Rgee Wharlo T. Gallega

Yes! It’s out! Wait, wait a sec, you heard me say that? Well, I know, I know, you don’t know what I’m talking about do you? Ok, let’s take a flashback. 1 hour ago and my story will begin.

It’s a beautiful day and I walked to my backyard when my dog jumped out and licked me! Disgusting isn’t it? Well, what’s kind of weird is after licking me, she bit my foot! Ouch, ow and ouchy! It was the first time she bit me and I somehow saw small tooth marks but it didn’t hurt badly. Next she went off, took one of my mom’s slippers and started chewing on it! And then shakes it until it slams on the door and then bites something else leaving more tooth marks and drool on the poor slipper. She even chewed on my shorts and my little brother’s teddy bear! I was wondering why she’s biting on anything that stands on her way?

I decided to call my mom and she came downstairs. I told her what happened so she checked inside my dog’s mouth and there was a broken tooth! One of the maids knew what to do, she got a piece of sewing thread, wrapped it around the dog’s mouth and ……I don’t want to say this because it’s painful but she pulled it out! My dog started yipping and yapping loudly! I felt sorry for the poor animal but it was worth it because if the tooth wasn’t removed, my dog would still bite things and ruin them. Don’t worry if that’s the only story I wrote because I have more stories, like the time I went back to the Philippines. Right now, I’m still on it, typing about it and that will be my forthcoming story, The Day I went to the Philippines! But now, how’s my story? Good or bad? Anyways, like in the movies, The End!

Vampire Mountain the Movie

This video is about interviewing the author named Darren Shan who wrote the book, Vampire Mountain. It also involves an interviewer who will ask Darren 3 questions about a location, a word and a character. Made by: Rgee Gallega

Darren Shan: Killers of the Dawn

**

A really really sad story. Darren, Mr Crepsley, Harkat and Vancha were running, being accused that they were killers of the students in Darren's school but the vampaneze actually killed the students. Steve revealed his true colours that he is a vampaneze. Darren's allies were surrounded by the police, the vampets and the vampaneze. I thought this was really really unfair and I was wondering, why did the author support the antagonist more than the protagonists? That's why I hate this book. But what's even worst was when Mr Crepsley died! How? They met Lady Evanna and they asked her where they went( she has one of the powers to track living or non living things). After that, they found a whole lot of vampanezes and vampets all over the place in a cave! How can 3 vampires, 1 little person and 2 people fight all of them? Well, those 6 protagonists are skilled but can they get outnumbered by 100 vampets and 100 vampaneze? I don't think it's that easy. Vancha and Darren guarded Mr Crepsley while he fights the Vampaneze Lord while Harkat, Alice and Debbie fight the others. The good guys were winning and Mr Crepsley defeated the Vampaneze lord! But a really bad thing happened( that's why I didn't like this book.), Steve pushed him into a pit of stakes with fire! Like a whole army of vampires come out and then Mika Ver Leth saves Larten but that didn't happen at all like Mr Tiny predicted.That's why I really hate this book.

Definitions of Vocabulary 2

1) Rowdies- Really naughty and inappropriate people but they're not nefarious.
2) Resurrected- A living thing brought back to life.
3) Pledge - A really strong promise or vow.
4) Brazier - An iron square grill where you grill hotdogs.
5) Putrefy - To make something fetid.
6) Spontaneous- To act something without thinking or planning.
7) Discreetly - To act without giving any attention.
8) Martyred - Someone who dies due to belief.
9) Proposterous - Totally out of whats going on.
10) Scouring - Old Days: Trying to get tiny parts of something using your eyes.
- Present Use: To search for something without stopping until you find it.

10 sentences featuring I or me

1) The worlds best ventriloquist taught me how to talk with the mouth closed.
2) A really beautiful painting somehow winked at me!
3) Smelling the really disgusting fetid smell of the cowhide bone was horrible to me but good to my dog.
4) In a museum, a corrugated banner almost fell on me!
5) In a restaurant,someone spilt acidic and bubbly frothing on me and my friends!
6) At the cinema, I bought popcorn and nachos for my friends while they watched the movie.
7) At home, I was wondering if eating salad is the best choice.
8) When it's 2012, I wonder what will happen?
9) At the magic show, I saw the magician pull a rabbit out of his hat!
10) At last, I could get a really good laptop with wireless internet!

Darren Shan: Allies of the Night

***

The eighth book is really sad ( even sadder than Trials of Death) because Darren Shan sees old faces but they're new nightmares. Before that, Darren, Mr Crepsley and Harkat( Vancha went to Vampire Mountain to report the Princes what happened but he will come back soon ) were in the city, tracking down Vampaneze and avoiding the police. They rented a hotel as normal people with fake names. Darren's fake name was Darren Horston, Mr Crepsley's was Vur Horston and Harkat's was....... well, he really didn't have a fake name but he was in disguise anyway. Since Darren lived in the city ( the same city in Tunnels of Blood ) he wanted to find his girlfriend and check if she is still there. But he had to go to school and fill out forms from a school inspector. I wanted to say is that throughout the 7 books I've read, Darren battled many enemies including the deranged and mad vampaneze, Murlough and the fierce wolf man but throughout those 10( or 11) years as a vampire, he almost forgot everything he've learnt when he was a human! School was his worst fear yet because not only because of studying but evil enemies await him. Anyways, at the first day of school, he was bullied by these Australian students. Then, he was sent to the principal( well, he's not in trouble but an orientation). The principal's name was Mr Chivers and he was 30 minutes late! Darren realized he cycled to school. Mr Chivers lead him around the school( I forgot, the school is called Mahler's as in Mahler, the music composer ). After that, Darren went to the first block, Geography. It was easy for him but at the second period, Darren's math teacher, Mr Smarts bellowed" you don't even know how to do Algebra!". Well, it's because Darren learned the ways of a vampire too much, he forgot how to do math. His third block, English was an exciting surprise ( find out for yourself if you wanna know what happened after that. Hint: Darren hasn't seen his _________ for a long time). This is a very good book but with a very very very sad ending.

Darren Shan: Hunters of Dusk

*****

In the seventh book, a war called War of the Scars has started between the Vampires and the Vampaneze and Mr Tiny goes to Vampire Mountain and tells the prophecy to the Vampire Princes that the only way to defeat the Vampaneze Lord was to send 2 vampires. Non-vampires were also allowed to come but 2 vampires was the limit. The 2 vampires were Darren Shan and Mr Crepsley. Harkat Mulds joined in too. Their journey starts at Lady Evanna's cave so she can tell them that they have 4 chances to defeat the Vampaneze Lord and what lies ahead of their journey. Lady Evanna is a sorceress with really strong powers but not strong as Mr Tiny's. Before that happened, they met a Vampire Prince named Vancha March who chose to live in the wild and he joins in their mission. Vancha and Mr Crepsley told Darren that Evanna was not a witch( although she looked like one, she isn't). When they reached the cave( the place was filled with frogs!), they saw Evanna who looked liked a witch and since she didn't liked to be called a witch, Darren asked if she's a witch. When Evanna heard about this, she was furious and started shouting, blaming that it was Vancha and Mr Crepsley's fault that they did not tell him not to call her a witch. To show proof she isn't a witch, Lady Evanna magically transformed into a beautiful woman( who kind of looks like Cinderella). They stayed and relaxed in her cave and then the next day, Evanna said that she would come with them. So Lady Evanna, Vancha March, Larten Crepsley( that's Mr Crepsley's full name), Harkat Mulds and Darren Shan setted off. Their next stop was the Cirque Du Freak circus because they thought that the Vampaneze Lord was there. Darren was excited about coming back to meet his old friends especially Evra Von the snake boy. There, Evra introduced Darren to his son, Shancus( I forgot his other children's names). Both father and son, were good at performing at the circus. But somehow, at midnight, Darren heard voices outside his tent and he realized that Evanna was talking to a group of Vampaneze( and a servant with a hood)! He alerted Vancha, Larten and Harkat that they were here so they attacked them. The vampires were winning but Vancha was about to battle a vampaneze when he let him escape with the servant. I thought tha t Vancha was really foolish but the reason why he let the vampaneze escape is that he is his brother! But who was the servant? Well, Vancha said that his brother's the royal protector of the Vampaneze Lord so that was actually him, disguised as a servant! They lost a chance to defeat him. The 3 vampires and the Little Person went up to Lady Evanna why she was on the side of the Vampaneze? She said that she was on nobody's side and she was asking them questions. This is a really good book because there was a surprising ending!

6 sentences featuring I and Me

1) My dad and I will go to the Philippines this semester break.
2) My friend and I played Xbox 360.
3) My brother and I played basketball.
4) The gym teacher talked with me and Bob
5) The principal got mad at me and Bob.
6) My parents at found me and Bob.

Darren Shan: The Vampire Prince

*****

This book has a happy ending but also has a sad ending because Kurda Smahlt got executed because Darren told the Vampire Princes that Kurda killed Gavner and he was also in the side of the Vampaneze. When they found out, they needed evidence so Darren led them to the place where he found like about a couple of dozens of Vampaneze. Then a battle began between the Vampires and the Vampaneze. In the middle of that, Darren was battling one of them and wounded him badly. The vampaneze died for no reason. Anyways, The Vampires won but Arra Sails died from a Vampaneze( he has a birthmark somewhere on his cheek). Darren was furious so he...... well I really don't want to say it but he killed him. 2 days later, he felt bad about himself that he didn't give the poor vampaneze some mercy and also, he remembered the good times with his friend Kurda and how friendly he is. Thinking about him, half of Darren's mind is full of hatred and thinks Kurda deserved it but the other half felt as if Kurda was being friendly, nice and loyal to the Vampire Race. Oh, I almost forgot, the reason why there was a happy ending is because that Darren Shan turned into a Vampire Prince and that is also my favorite part because throughout the 5 books of the Darren Shan Saga, he has fought many great battles for his friends and the Vampire Race and also, he warned them that there were Vampaneze in their territory, planning to attack so he deserved to be the leader of the race.

Hank the Cowdog: The Fling

******

This is a really good book because Hank meets his old pals and he goes stealing sausages and other stuff like that.

Before that,in the ranch, Hank and Drover saw a cattle truck full of cows passing by when it stopped. Drover was scared of trucks because they spit out smoke and their engines growl so he ran to the machine shed. On the other side, Hank hates trucks full of cows because cows because cows are dumb and clumsy and he also hates cattle truck drivers too. So he sends his secret chemical agent which ate on the tires(he was peeing on the tires!). Then the driver saw that his tires were wet so he had to drive to somewhere else. Hank was happy that the cattle truck drove away. But before that, he realized that he was in the truck(well, I didn't know how that happened but I think that his paw or foot got stuck)! When he was in the cattle truck, he was surrounded by cows and they were real mad at him because Hank insulted them. I really felt sorry for the cowdog. Anyways, the truck stopped in a town and when the driver saw Hank, he threw him out into the sidewalk! To make it even worse, a dogcatcher found Hank and caught him! That was when he met Ralph, a basset hound who was the dogcatcher's pet and Hank's old buddy. Later, both of the dogs escaped( it was quite easy because the cage door was open).After they escaped, Ralph makes a fling, where both of them do naughty dog stuff like stealing peoples food, staying in the middle of the road and more. I like to recommend this book to naughty kids and especially naughty dogs.

Hank the Cowdog: Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game

The series is about a dog named Hank who protects his owner's farm( or for short, he is head of ranch security) and goes on many fun adventures with his partner, Drover.

In the 37th book, Pete the barn cat tells to Hank that in every end of a rainbow, there was a pot of gold. Hank doesn't believe it but when he saw a rainbow, he knew that at a very end of a rainbow has a pot of potted chicken! So he and Drover goes out in search of the treasure. In the middle of the journey, Rip and Snort, two coyotes block their way and try to steal the treasure( or what they call it, potty chicken!). So Hank had a plan to challenge the two coyotes in a game called The Deadly Ha Ha Game where you have to say "ha" and the opponent says "ha ha" and then you say" ha ha ha" and so on until one of you start laughing. I was wondering how can they laugh by saying the words? Anyways, my favorite part of the book is of course, where they play the Ha Ha game. I would like to recommend this book to people whose favorites are comedy, action and adventure. Oh and I forgot, this book is rated *****

Darren Shan: Trials of Death

***
Previously in Vampire Mountain, the Vampire Princes presents Darren a test so he can be proven to be loyal to the Vampire Race. The test is called The Trials of Death and has 52( or maybe over 52) trials in total but Darren has to choose 5 in random choosing. The first one is the Aquatic Maze where he has to go to one of the five exits in fifteen minutes carrying a rock( a heavy one of course) or the maze will be filled with water and he will sink. I thought that the maze was an aquarium full of fish but it wasn't. Vanez trained and supported Darren by letting him practice in a smaller aquatic maze. Mr Crepsley said that he and the vampires will prepare a huge feast if Darren finishes through the maze. The second trial is the Path of Needles and it's smaller than the first one but twice as deadly. In the Path, there are stalagmites and stalactites. When Darren was at the middle of the trial,
a stalagmite wobbled, fell on him, stabbed through his stomach but somehow, Darren was still alive(I was wondering how he became alive, was it because of his half-vampire abilities?). Anyways, the third Trial is a place full of fire bursting out of the ground. This Trial was Darren's worst one especially at the end, his skin was pure black like he looks like a lump of coal( Do you see the book cover? That was how he felt!) The fourth Trial is the Wild Boars when Darren has to battle two mad and aggressive boars. I thought that the two boars would turn into pork chops that easily but I didn't know that they had tusks! Gavner gives him only a club and a spear. Darren almost died from the fourth trial but Harkat Mulds( a person made of dead body organs of a human) saved him from the boars. Unfortunately, the Vampire Princes called that a cheat and Darren and Harkat's punishment is to die in the Hall of Death( they die by falling down on stakes). Mr Crepsley disagreed that Harkat must die because he was the messenger from Mr Tiny( he sent a message which kind of said like" The Vampaneze Lord shall rise" or something like that) and Gavner Purl helps Darren to escape. Somehow, Kurda Smahlt kills Gavner and betrays the vampires and joins the vampanezes. Well, I really didn't have a favorite part because the book had a sad ending

Darren Shan: Vampire Mountain

****

It was time for Darren to meet the leaders of the Vampire race called the Vampire Princes in a place called Vampire Mountain. Darren Shan and Mr Crepsley sets off leaving Evra behind. One of the circus freaks, Mr Tiny(he's an old man who can resurrect dead people) sends them two blue hooded zombies called The Little People( they are the ones who were resurrected). On the way, Darren and Mr Crepsley met one of the vampires named Gavner Purl, a vampire general( they are like soldiers who punish bad vampires and this was the second time they met). The next day, Darren met some bloodthirsty wolves but the thing that was weird is that the wolves licked him instead of biting or harming him. When Mr. Crepsley and Gavner saw the wolves, they said that the wolves are cousins to the vampires. Then, they continued to get inside Vampire Mountain(that's because the princes were in it).

Darren Shan: Tunnels of Blood

*****

The third sequel of Darren Shan is an extremely good book because it has many twists . At the start of the book, it was almost Christmas and Darren, Mr Crepsley and Evra moves into the city. Darren explains to Evra what the city looks like and how humans live in it and also, he explains to him about Christmas. Even Evra loved watching TV all day! I was thinking how it felt like watching TV 24/7. What's quite weird is that Mr Crepsley is always out at midnight( because he's a full vampire) without telling Darren and Evra what's going on. So they followed Mr Crepsley every night which leads them into tunnels full of blood. At first, before I read this book, I was asking myself that why the title was called Tunnels of blood. Then I found out that why it was called Tunnels of blood because it was the home of an evil and mad vampaneze called Murlough. Following Mr Crepsley was a big mistake because he was battling Murlough and Darren was in the middle of it( Evra was hiding in a room). Somehow, Darren wasn't noticing that he was blocking Mr Crepsley's way to get Murlough and he escaped. Mr Crepsley was mad at Darren but they didn't have time to argue here because they have to fetch Evra. When they came into the room Evra was hiding, he was gone. I knew that was it was that nasty Murlough who kidnapped him. My favorite part was at the ending because Mr Crepsley setted a trap for Murlough( you should read that book of how that happened).

Darren Shan: The Vampire's Assistant

*****
After Darren became a half-vampire he was too dangerous to live with his family because vampires and half-vampires have incredible strength and abilities that might harm a human. He was sad about having no friends to be with( he doesn't even want to be friends with Mr. Crepsley!). But Mr. Crepsley had an idea of making friends with the freaks of Cirque Du Freak to cheer Darren up. The next day, he introduced Darren to a snake-boy named Evra Von and both of them became best friends. And then after that, Darren and Evra became friends with 2 humans named Sam Grest and R.V.( which standed for Reggie Veggie) My favorite part was when Darren Shan and Sam fought the wolf-man( a half man and half wolf) who ripped R.V.'s hands off. I was very sad at the ending of the book because Sam got eaten by the wolf-man. The wolf-man isn't evil because he was naturally born mad.

Darren Shan: Cirque Du Freak

*****
This book is about a boy named Darren Shan who loves watching horror movies and reading horror books. He had an ordinary life as a human until one day, his life changed forever. On that day, he found this newspaper ad in a trash can. The ad was called Cirque Du Freak( or in English, it is Circus of Freaks) and since Darren loved horror, he wanted to go to the circus. So he and his friends, Steve, Alan and Tommy decided to make a plan to get there. The plan was that Steve goes to the ticket booth at midnight( because he's the best at sneaking out without his parents noticing) and buy four tickets. Unfortunately, he got 2 tickets because at midnight, he saw that the ticket seller got arrested by the police for illegal ticket selling. Now the question is that how did Steve get the 2 tickets? The answer is: When he was watching the ticket seller getting arrested, a short man randomly went to Steve and gave him 2 free tickets for no reason. I was wondering, who will get the 2 tickets and how will the four kids solve it out?
The next day, Steve told Darren, Alan and Tommy that he got 2 tickets instead of four. They discussed who will get the 2 tickets? Then, they came up with the results. They gave one ticket to Steve because he was the one who sneaked out and get the tickets but who will get the other ticket? Steve came up with a contest. He shredded a piece of paper in to small bits, he puts them into a jar, and then he gets the last ticket and puts it into the jar too. The goal to win is to get the ticket by picking from the jar one time in each turn. Tommy and Alan kept on ending up having paper bits on their hands but when it was Darren's turn, JACKPOT! He got the other ticket. Now that was part of the story the next part is when Steve and Darren go to the circus( you should read the book if you're interested in it and want to read more). To make a long story short, the freaks in the circus were amazing and horrible at the same time and Steve recognized one of those freaks, Mr Crepsley( he's some kind of like a spider trainer because he owns a spider named Madam Octa) because he is actually a vampire. Then Darren steals Madam Octa so he could pet her but Madam Octa poisons Steve. So Darren finds Madam Octa's real owner, Mr Crepsley so he could ask him what was the antidote to cure Steve. But Mr Crepsley made a deal that if he cures Steve then he would turn Darren into a half-vampire. This is a very good book because it is full of horror and suspense. I would recommend it to the people who loves horror and vampires

Characterization of Darren Shan( he is both character and author but I'm talking about the character)

The Saga of Darren Shan is about a boy named Darren Shan and the primary protagonist who becomes a half-vampire and he goes on many adventures like fighting vampaneze and learning the way of a vampire.

On page 2, the author has shown that Darren Shan cares about his vampire friends like Gavner, Arra and Vanez because they have been helping him pass the Trials of Death and they have always protected him since the last book. Darren's thoughts were like this "... Finally we arrived at Vampire Mountain, where the vampires lived in a network of tunnels and large caves. There I made friends with a bunch of vampires, including Seba Nile, who'd been Mr Crepsley's teacher when he was younger; Arra Sails, one of the few female vampires; Vanez Blane, a one-eyed games master; and Kurda Smahlt, a General who was going to become a Prince soon. "

On page 3, Darren Shan's main problem in the book is that he has to pass the Trials of Death to prove himself that he is loyal to the Vampire Clan and on page 10, the Trials of Death is also one of his fears and also in page 11, passing the Trials are Darren's dreams.

And on page 39, the half vampire has an interest on food. Darren Shan has Darren Shan( the half vampire) saying .... "I remembered Vanez's advice, stood perfectly still, shut my eyes and refused to budge until I the panic under control. I concentrated on the thought of the feast that awaited me. Fresh meat, wild roots, and fruit. A bottle of human blood could perk me up. Dessert- mountain berries, hot and juicy".

Darren Shan, brought to life by his author is a caring and serves the world of vampires

with his life. I wish there were vampires in this world.

The Earthquake yesterday

2nd September, 2009

I didn't expect an earthquake to happen but it actually did. Yesterday, at the Middle School campus, at lunch break, about 12 o clock, a black snake( I have no idea what type of species it is) slithered out of a hole near a tree freaking out many students as it passes by. I was noticing why that snake randomly slithered out of that hole? Well, it's actually because that most of the animals could sense if there's an earthquake before humans do. 3 hours later, the earthquake began as in BOOM BOOM BAM BAM.An earthquake starts when its tectonic plates underwater rises up but one of the tectonic plates rose up than the other in Indonesia causing a tsunami and 536 people died from that earthquake. I really don't know how those 536 people died but I think they died because maybe some or many died from falling buildings and bridges and died inside a building( like that house on the top right corner) but most of the people died in West Java. Most of the people in Indonesia needed to evacuate from their homes so they would be safe.

About Anthony Horowitz

Biography
Anthony Horowitz was born in Stanmore,Middlesex, England into a Jewish family.Raised in "a Jewish enclave",Horowitz lived an upper-class lifestyle.His father acted as a "fixer" for prime minister, Harold Wilson.Facing bankruptcy, Horowitz's father removed his wealth from his bank accounts and hid it away under a false name. He then died and the family was never able to track down the missing money despite years of trying. As an unhappy and overweight child, Horowitz enjoyed reading books from his father's library. At the age of eight, Horowitz was sent to the boarding school, Orley Farm in Harrow, London. There, he entertained his peers by telling them the stories he had read. Horowitz described his time in the school as "a brutal experience", often whipped by the headmaster. Horowitz adored his mother, who introduced him to Frankenstein and Dracula. From the age of eight, Horowitz knew he wanted to be a writer, realizing "the only time when I'm totally happy is when I'm writing". Horowitz now lives in North London with his wife Jill Green, whom he married in Hong Kong on 15 April 1988. Green produces " Foyle's War, the series Horowitz writes for ITV. They have two sons, Nicholas Mark (born 1989) and Cassian James (born 1991). He credits his family with much of his success in writing, as he says they help him with ideas and research.

Books he wrote
Anthony's first novel was The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bowler but it was renamed as Enter Frederick K Bower. It was published in 1979 when Anthony was just 23. His second novel was Mishac, the Magician and the Mysterious Amulet which was published in 1981 and he moved to Paris to write his third book. He then, made the first Pentagram series and the series' first book, The Devil's Door-bell was released. And then the Groosham Grange novel was released in 1988 and then the second novel, Return to Groosham Grange was out in 1999. After that, The Diamond Brothers series started with the first one, The Falcon's Malteser(1986), Public Enemy Number 2(1987), South by South East(1991), The Blurred Man(2003), The French Confection(2003), I know what you did last Wednesday(2003) and The Greek who Stole Christmas(2007) . And then there was the Alex Rider Series which started in the year 2000. In the series the novels are Stormbreaker, Point Blanc, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel and Snakehead. And finally, he made the Power of Five Series( which is my most favorite series and kind of like the Pentagram series). Anthony's phenomenally successful series of books about teen superspy Alex Rider and the Power of Five have delighted children all over the world. Right now, Anthony Horowitz's forthcoming books are Crocodile Tears, Yassen and the final book, Endurance Point in the Alex Rider series and the Radius of the Lost Shark in the Diamond Brothers series. Anthony Horowitz is my favorite author because he is very creative and he writes books with action and horror too.

Alex Rider: Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz

*****
This book is the sixth book of the Alex Rider series. It is called Ark Angel. The series is all about a 14 year old boy named Alex. He is a super spy who saves the world from danger. His parents died from a plane crash and his uncle died too so he lives with his housekeeper named Jack Starbright. In the sixth book, Alex was in the hospital because he got shot by a sniper( who works for Scorpia, a group of terrorists and Alex's number one enemy) between the shoulder and the ribcage and he had to stay there for a week . But then at midnight, a group of gangsters called Force Three come in the hospital and kidnap a Russian boy named Paul Drevin( who was next door of Alex's room and the son of a billionaire, Nikolei Drevin). Unfortunately, they got Alex instead because he switched the room numbers around. Alex fought them back with medical equipment like the medicine ball and a defibrillator( those electric pads in the movies)he knocked out all of them except the driver so Alex was knocked out. After that, he was lead to the leader of the gang( who had tattoos all over his face). Somehow, Alex was in a middle of a war between Paul's father and the gang but they were teaming up because Force Three tried to kidnap Paul because his father didn't like him as a son and Nikolei is trying to bomb Ark Angel, a space hotel and his latest creation yet. My favorite part was when Alex fought the gangsters with the hospital equipment.I like this book because it has a lot of action and suspense. I like to recommend it to those people who like books with action and super spies because this is the perfect book.

The Taiwan flood caused by Morakot, the worst typhoon in 50 years

Typhoon Morakot has caused massive damage in Chiayi City of Taiwan and it killed more than 500 people from mud slides and the flood. As you can see, this is a girl who was rescued. She looks like as if she was a victim of a mudslide. Typhoon Morakot rained 2 and a 1/2 meters of water every two days in Taiwan. Since Taiwan has a lot of mountains, the flood rose up instead of spreading out. After that, it rained on the mountains while passing through the ground and its rock . Once the water passes through the ground and rock, both of them become slippery and then it creates a mudslide which kills or bury the people on the bottom of the mountain alive. The reason why Taiwan gets a lot of typhoons is because it's not near the equator like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea or maybe it's because of Global Warming and also, it makes the people sad because some or all of their family relatives died from the typhoon. It also destroyed a major hotel and if Taiwan wasn't mountainous, there would be less deaths.

Hello!!!!!! My name is Rgee( it kind of sounds like R-G not Riggee or something like that).I'm from the Philippines but I'm in Indonesia. Right now, I am in Middle school typing. I like Middle school because it has many food choices and you have lots of things to do there. : D