17. I Am Number Four Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies

Pittacus Lore takes us to another set of new perspectives this time with his prequel (sort-of) I Am Number Four Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies to the I Am Number Four series which garnered a five-star rating from The Daily Patrick.

I bought this book last Christmas because my (rich-kid) cousin asked me to choose a book that she will buy for me as a gift and I chose this because I just love the series and if I buy Rise of Nine, I would want to collect the rest of the sequels which would cost me a lot of money. The thing is I do not want to buy a book that is in the middle of series. It has to be the last or the first or all of them. That is why I decided to buy this one.

Now let’s us go back to the book.

The book is divided into three parts:

• Six’s Legacy. She’s pretty awesome and badass and all of those but her character is still kind of flat to me—as flat as her Cepan. This is where the saying, “Like mother, like daughter,” considering the fact that the Cepan stood as their parent. This part is the most boring. Two stars.
• Nine’s Legacy. In this chapter, we jump on to Nine’s shoes as he and his Cepan tried to live their lives to the fullest while trying to maintain caution at the same time. As Nine meets a charming girl that swept him off his feet, the threat of the Mogs increase. The ending also leads to where The Power of Six ends—Nine’s meeting with Four. Two stars.
• The Fallen Legacies. This is actually interesting. In this part, we are in the perspective of a Mogadorian child named Adammus who is the son of a General. He tells the story on how he witnessed the killing of the first three members of the Garde—One, Two and Three. Five stars.

The last part of the book is actually a modern myth. What I love about it is that the story still happens today. Take this for an example, your son wants to be a poet but instead you force him to become a doctor. There is the fear of the Mogadorian to fail his parents so he sacrifices his own wants but unfortunately, in the end, his desires emerges slowly. The Mogadorian for me is a hero because he tried to save everybody’s life, and he was only being consumed by fear—his dragon—that is why he couldn’t take action.

This book is informative. It will answer a lot of questions in the series. If you’re a big Pittacus Lore fan, you have to read this. If not, read it anyway.

It’s time for me to go. Ciao! xoxo

May 19, 2013 — The Patrick Times

This week is pretty much great for books so here’s what I’m reading, will read and will check out. I almost didn’t make it.

Inferno by Dan Brown

In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford’s Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however,nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called “Gobblers”—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person’s inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

 

Cancelled shows =(

Can’t believe that the following shows are cancelled:

• Smash
• Go On*
• The New Normal*
• Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23 *
• Golden Boy*
• 1600 Penn
• Touch
• How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of your Life) [I've watched the Pilot]
• 90210*
• Fringe
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager*
• How I Met Your Mother*

*shows that I’m watching until the last episode

Too bad.

We still don’t have news for Hannibal yet.

Dexter gets last season for 2013-2014.

CW Shows

So… next week is the CW upfront thing. This is probably the worst and the best week of my TV life (God, I’m such a loser for using that term).

Well, let’s see.

Arrow got renewed. It’s a really great show. It is in fact CW’s best show as of the moment but I didn’t have the time to watch the entire season. I’m still on the seventh episode I think.

90210 got cancelled. Well, it was pretty obvious to me that when CW cancelled or finalized Gossip Girl, 90210 is soon to follow since GG has better ratings than 90210. I’m still catching up with it. I’m on the sixteenth episode of the season.

Hart of Dixie got renewed. I haven’t watch the other half of season one but I will probably catch up since it was a really nice show. I said to myself a month ago that if HoD got renewed, I will continue watching it. And I will.

The Vampire Diaries got renewed. Okay, obviously but what’s happening in the show is kind of boring so I’m predicting its last full season would be season 6. I mean, I love TVD, but if we’re going to show some crappy story lines just so we could extend it, just finish the show epic.

Speaking of Vampires, The Originals which is the spin-off of the Vampire Diaries is going to hit TV on Fall. What do you think? Oh, I hope Caroline would be there.

Beauty and the Beast got renewed. I don’t know why but I’m not watching the show. Well, I’ve watched the pilot episode but I don’t know if it’s interesting enough. But since it got renewed, I’ll watch it while it is summer.

The Carrie Diaries got renewed. Yes, please. I think the target audience of this show are the fans of GG and 90210, and probably Sex and the City fans. The show is cute so…

Supernatural gets renewed. Yey. This show is pretty strong. The writers are terrific but I’m kind of smelling the cancellation flu. Since the show had really great years, I think it will end with a final season–probably a full tenth season.

Nikita gets a shortened final season. God, that’s disappointing. CW obviously believes in this show. And this is probably much better than the other big shows. The writing is terrific. To be honest, I’ve never seen a great show like this get so underrated. I mean seriously. I am about to watch its third season finale. Remember when I said last year that if Nikita doesn’t get cancelled after season two, they should cancel it after season five. I’m a big big fan of the show. It’s incredible.

I think I just want to get that out of my chest. I will give you an update on Nikita’s remaining number of episodes.

Cold Side of the Street

The child sat on the bare ground, crying. She has been crying for half the day, hungry. She hasn’t eaten anything yet since yesterday, hopeless. She lost hope since she was left there–on the cold side of the street.

Her body was scratched with grease. Dirt from the smokes of belching vehicles stuck to her skin. The only light she could see was from the blinding sun and the occasion pale streetlight. Hope was no longer available.

Even the anticipation of the light from the rising sun didn’t comfort her darkness. She was pure until the violent streets of society and the devastating pressure of poverty ran her over, sending her to the air and landing hard on the cold cement.

—

I made this like a month ago. I just saw it so I decided to share it. This is pretty much unfinished but here it is anyway. I don’t even know what this is. Comments are needed.

Now Reading/Book Grab: Dan Brown’s Inferno!!!

Yup, three punctuation marks!

It came three hours ago as a late birthday gift from my cousins who are pretty awesome and thoughtful!

I’m reading this at the moment I shut this laptop down. Are you reading the book right now? I remember three days ago when I was in a bookstore. I was just really sad that it costs 895 pesos and the only money left that I got were 900 pesos excluding my transportation fare so I decided I’ll just wait for a miracle and it did.

At first, this day was really awful but as of now–this evening–it’s pretty heavenly. I’m starting a new project called “B.” It’s a novel I think but I still hope it will become a TV series where I could write its episodes you know. Well, anyway, I’m going to indulge myself in Dan Brown’s head now. Goodbye!

The Vampire Diaries Season 4 Finale

Graduation is probably one of the most biggest events of our high school life—or probably even our entire life. It is a commemoration of the progress you have been working on since your first day which was years ago. It is a celebration of the future that is ahead of us—a bright clean path that is waiting for your vehicle to take. As much as happiness is involved, there is also grief waiting for you as it is also the time that you are to embark on a journey alone, equipped with life lessons you have learned from the people you love.

God, I feel like I’m giving a freaking Graduation speech to my batch but I just do not have anything better to do so…

Today is the season finale of the fourth season of one of the most successful CW shows—The Vampire Diaries. Well, I’ve been telling myself that Elena being a vampire is okay since she became one because the show’s name is The Vampire Diaries, not Two Vampire and a Human Diaries. (See what I did there?) Speaking of etymology, when was the last time Elena or Stefan wrote in their respective diaries? Season 1 or season 2? I know it’s not really relevant now in the show but I just wondered. Do they still write in their diaries?

Graduation is this episode’s title today obviously because all of them are graduating. This wasn’t really an exciting episode but more of a depressing episode because it only focuses on goodbyes. Goodbye to vampirism, goodbye to life, goodbye to high school, goodbye to an ex, goodbye to a best friend, goodbye to a ghost, goodbye to air, goodbye to Mystic Falls, goodbye to death and goodbye to old self were probably this episode’s about. If you watched the episode, not a spoiler, you’d know which goodbyes is for whom that I’d mentioned. Unfortunately, we haven’t said goodbye to Silas yet. Yup, THE BITCH IS STILL ALIVE. Well, he is immortal so why are they trying to kill him? Why don’t they just love him or something?

Sorry if that was a spoiler. I’m a bitch, I know. Moving on, what could be the next thing for season 5? I know The Vampire Diaries is a really good show but then again, sometimes we just ran out of stories to tell so what could be season 5, 6 or 7 all about now that peace (not entirely but close enough) is finally in Mystic Falls. I don’t know why but Silas is the most boring antagonist of the show. Let him die and find another one. Instead of creating big and strong antagonists, could the writers just create minor problems and flaws to fix inside the characters? (No, I’m not talking about Elena’s emotionless episode which was a pretty low move for the writers because her episode took about 4 or 5 episodes minimum)

Here’s what I wanted for season five: It would really be a great twist if Stefan took the cure. And then, Rebekah holds a grudge on him. It would be awesome to see Rebekah and Matt’s romance but of course put it a couple of episodes where their relationship is complicated. Then, Caroline and Klaus will take New Orleans by storm but again put a few hurdles in their relationship. And then, Damon finds his great grandson or something. I also want a flashback! Probably a Katarina flashback. And I’d also include a new regular on the show that we could love that will be probably killed by the next season finale or something.

Well, these are just ideas. My ideas. Give me credit, Julie Plec if you’re going to take a few of my suggestions.

Okay, that is all.

 

A Poem for Lunch: A Poem for Myself by Etheridge Knight

A Poem for Myself by Etheridge Knight

I was born in Mississippi;
I walked barefooted thru the mud.
Born black in Mississippi,
Walked barefooted thru the mud.
But, when I reached the age of twelve
I left that place for good.
My daddy chopped cotton
And he drank his liquor straight.
Said my daddy chopped cotton
And he drank his liquor straight.
When I left that Sunday morning
He was leaning on the barnyard gate.
Left my mama standing
With the sun shining in her eyes.
Left her standing in the yard
With the sun shining in her eyes.
And I headed North
As straight as the Wild Goose Flies,
I been to Detroit & Chicago
Been to New York city too.
I been to Detroit & Chicago
Been to New York city too.
Said I done strolled all those funky avenues
I’m still the same old black boy with the same old blues.
Going back to Mississippi
This time to stay for good
Going back to Mississippi
This time to stay for good-
Gonna be free in Mississippi
Or dead in the Mississippi mud.

TV Recap: The Second Season Finales of Once Upon a Time and Revenge!

I know I’m a little bit late but who cares? I post anything I want.

Once Upon a Time

The show has a lot to offer because of its multiple storylines and its genre as fantasy.

In this final episode of the second season, Storybrooke begins to be apocalyptic as Regina’s black diamond is set to explode with all of her strength. I actually thought that the solution for all of this—the moment Emma looked at Regina—was true love’s kiss! I mean, that was what happened last season. I kind of guessed that if Regina kisses Henry, the explosion would be stopped but no, something even cornier happened—Emma also has superpowers. I mean, if you think you have superpowers, wouldn’t you try to use it as soon as the people you love are in danger?

Well, we also have the most shocking revelation in this season—no spoilers, I promise—which is about the Captain Hook and Bey thing. It really caught me off guard. I was like, what the hell? This would also mean hell for Rumpel if he finds out. Speaking of Rumpel, didn’t he want to kill Henry because of the prophecy and all of that? Why is Mr. Gold trying to save him? (To honor his son? No. I don’t think so.)  And since the gang is now in a pirate ship, there’s this very large possibility that the Little Mermaid could finally join the show! What do you think? What do you think season three will be all about? In my opinion, I just want the writers not to navigate away too much from the original characteristic of our beloved fairytale characters. I mean, the story is really getting far and I don’t want the characters to go further away from their original persona.

Revenge

I sat with my mother when I was flipping channels one day and when I paused on one channel because it was Revenge, I said, “Mom, this show is really good. This show is the best.” And she was like, “It should be. Just look at the title. It’s Revenge.”

And in my head, I was like, “I know!”

Moving on, Revenge’s two hour finale is probably the best thing that happened to the season, of course, beside the Amanda Clarke’s death episode which was the best among the two seasons to be honest.

I just have to say that this show is out of control. During the first season, you could totally understand the show from in and out but for this season, sometimes you just go, “Wait, what just happened?”

The show has a lot of storylines that is going out of control. The plot of today’s episode which involves a lot of revelations is pretty much the climax of the two seasons (but I still like the Amanda Clarke’s death episode better). Everything just blows up.

An explosion, a character death, a killer on the loose, a police arrest, a return and plenty of revelations are what Revenge is serving us up in this season finale. It was pretty much epic because a lot of things are going on for each character—I mean, they all have their own big serious problem.

I think I said “Oh My God!” several times while watching the show. It really made me scream. Revenge is like a rollercoaster ride—it’s wild, fast and just makes your stomach turn because it is just good. I don’t really know other American soap-operas but I think basing on our local shows, I know how soap-operas work but this show is not your average soap-opera. This is Revenge.

In conclusion here is a quote from the episode Truth:

Darkness scares us. We yearn for the comfort of light as it provides shape and form allowing us to recognize, to define what’s before us. But what is it we’re afraid of, really? Not the darkness itself, but the truth we know hides within.

Hopefully today, I’d like to talk about the season finales of The Mindy Project, 90210, The Vampire Diaries, 2 Broke Girls and New Girl but then again, I’m going out to watch two films in the cinema today so let’s just see. Thanks for reading!

 

A Poem For Lunch: If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.