Full Tilt: Blog #2: Ride #1: The Carousel

Now that the intro section of this book is out of the way, I can move on to what I've been planning to do with these blogs. As I mentioned in the outside reading reflection, this book contains 7 rides, all of which have a deep meaning with the main character, Blake. These rides are very deep and I will analyze these rides in each bog, one at a time. Maybe provide a little back story between rides, if it's necessary, although (typically, one HUGE exception) not much happens between rides. The first ride that the Blake goes on is The Carousel. The Carousel is very important because it is the first real ride that Blake goes on in the park. Looking at it, it looks like a normal carousel, nothing special. Blake notices one thing about it though, and that is that all of the animals are mascots for the colleges he's considering going to, since he's leaving in a month or so. As soon as the ride starts though, it is very apparent it isn't normal. The ground beneath Blake, Russ, and Maggie (his friends) disappear, and rocks and a grassy plain appear. Soon, everyone on the ride was riding an actual animal, and those who flew off or were knocked off...to put it simply, or as simply as possible: die or "become a part of the park" (ex: they become the rocks in the ride, forever). Also, the being of Cassandra will basically attack Blake on every ride, and she tries in this one. I'll get more into that later. I guess in addition to talking about the rides I can talk about Cassandra. Anyways, now time to analyze. Think of the thoughts going through their heads as the ride transformed: it's amazing that they didn't freak out and die. Also, in terms of Blake noticing the mascots were all from colleges how knows, do his friends notice? What could they do even if they did? Why/Why would/wouldn't he tell them? These are all good questions and I'll simplify the answers cause I'm probably already done. No, not much, because he wants to, because he's afraid they'll react badly. Done.

A Sad and Tearful Goodbye To Chosen Articles About Videogames....and Blog #1: The Kamikaze

*cry, cry, cry, whimper, whimper, whimper* No more chosen posts...no more video game topics...no more...uh...PS3 related-stuff. It's sad really. At least the book to read can be chosen, unlike past years. I don't want to read The Complete Works of Shakspere: Volume XXXXXXXXXXVVVVVVI. The book I'm reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. Some other famous books by him include Downsiders and Speeding Bullet. Anyways, this is Blog #1 and the topic in this book I'll be discussing for this is the ride that Blake, Quinn, Maggie, and Russ (the main characters) go on: The Kamikaze. To be honest, I still don't know what I'll be talking about at this point, but whatever, I'll wing it (that expression makes no sense). Okay, so The Kamikaze is a rollercoaster that the main characters go on very close to the beginning of the book. It is a rollercoaster with a thematic show: the track appears to dissapear as though you will...well...DIE, but it's not real. Of course, the main character Blake knew nothing about this shows, and was terrified when he saw the track fall. He actually thought he was going to die. This raises the question: What if he responded differently? Differently than just basically praying to god that is. What if he actually tried to jump off the rollercoaster during the ride, or somehow messed up something by trying to get out, and created some deadly chain reaction? By deadly chain reaction, I mean think like Final Destination 3...then again, I really doubt you've seen that Ms. Jarrett. Anyways, if he had responded differently, and somehow was injured or died, what would then happen? Could he sue them for not knowing what would happen, or is it all his own ignorance and fear? We will probably never know...oh look I'm at 301 words. Well, I'm done.

Outside Reading Reflection

The book I chose for outside reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. I picked this book to read for many reasons. First of all, I really like the cover...wow that sounds dumb. But it’s true. The cover looks cool. Also, this book overall sounds really good. Going by the description on the back: “In order to escape, Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep personal fear…” That overall sounds really awesome. To me, and I don’t know why, I like the sound of the structure of this book. I like things where there is like a structure, a list of levels (kind of like a video game). One final reason that this book interests me is that it sounds like a thrilling book. Not scary, but thrilling. For some reason, no books or movies seem to scare me. Anyways, due to these reasons, I chose the book Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman to read for outside reading this quarter.

Blog #15: The many ways to die in N+

Blog #15. YAY the FINAL blog...for this quarter. So, to celebrate the final blog, we have a completly random topic. Yep. N+. Blog#15: Find a text about someone overcoming odds. Yeah. I noticed that this one and Blog#2 are basically exactly the same thing. Just worded differently. Very slightly. Anyways, N+ is game about a ninja guy. He tries to collect money...and gems...and...uh... This is to hard to explain. Here's a video showing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ5slv3RDqA. N+ started as a freeware pc game, then went to the Nintendo DS and PSP. The game is notoriously hard, but still very fun. As the title of the blog says, there are many ways to die. Many many ways. Now that the summary is done, the general opinion topic for this post: difficulty in games. Personally, I like to play different games with many varied difficulties. I like games from Mario Kart (racing game, very simple, easy pick-up-and-plauy) to Devil May Cry 3 (Action-adventure game where on the 2nd highest difficulty you die in 1 hit, and enemies are super-powereful). Overall, we should not complain about difficulties too much, because it is good to be challenged in a game, and to many people, it is also fun. If we didn't want any challenge at all then we'd be playing "HAPPY HAPPY FUN FUN RAINBOWS BARBIE AND MY LITTLE PONY I-X" for the next 890,756 years.

Blog #14: This week's SingStore update is full of love songs

Blog#14. Yay only two left! Oh, wait. Nevermind. We'll still have another 15 blogs next quarter. I seriously do not see the point of these blogs. Then again, I'm not even sure if you read these or just check them (Ms. Jarrett). I suppose me saying they are pointless won't get me anywhere though... Lame. Blog#14: Find a text about love. Unfortuanently, Resident Evil 5 is not (that much) about love. I guess I could talk about *HUGE SPOILERS* but those would be *spoilers*, and that would be bad. So..now we talk more about Singstar. And love songs. Lame. Short Summary: Singsatr is a singing game that now has many love songs available for purchase, such as The Bangles – Eternal Flame, Westlife – If I let You Go, Will Young – Leave Right Now, Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power of Love, and Sara Bareilles – Love Song. Um...I know I'm supposed to have some opinion about it, but...nothing comes to mind. People want to sing love songs, whatever, fine with me. I won't stop them. But there's no way I'm singing them.

Blog #13: Yes, Resident Evil 5 has a 5GB install

Blog #13: Find a text about war. Guess what? This means....more Resident Evil 5 topics!!!!!! Yay! This is great timing though, since Resident Evil 5 comes out this Friday. I'll be getting it in about, oh: 2 days, 21 hours, and 3 minutes. Give or take a few seconds. So, the next Resident Evil 5 topic: Yes, Resident Evil 5 has a 5 GB install. In case one doesn't know exactly what that means, I'll explain. Let's use the PS3 as an example. The PS3 has three different versions: 40 GB, 60 GB, and 80 GB. I personally own the 60 GB one, and for some reason I actually seem to go through the GB quickly. Probably because I download demos, games, videos, trailers, and install games. When you get a PS3 game it automatically installs itself on your HDD (Hard Disc Drive) which makes the load times between levels more faster, and overall makes the game perform better. Unfortuanently for me, I will have to clean out my PS3... Anyways, although the install is sometimes annoying in how one has to make room for it, it does overall benefit the owner of the PS3. Sometimes though, the game installs can be annoying because (ex: DMC4 took 30 min to install) the installs can take awhile. Overall, in my opinion: Installs are worth it, sometimes annoying, but overall very benefical to one's gaming experience.

Blog #12: New PS3 sci-fi action RPG heads to 'Mars'

Blog #12. You know, I was just thinking how nice it was when we could write about anyhting we wanted. Ah, the good old days. As in a few months ago. Blog #12: Find a text about imperialsim or colonization. Now, this blog actually made me have to look. By typing "impearialism" and "colonization" in a search box. There was only 1 videogame realted article. That's it! Not good enough. Mars is a future PS3/PC sci-fi rpg coming out, that I've never heard of, that takes place...on Mars. Oh, and the colonization piece of it: 'The game takes place 200 years after the colonization of Mars. Inexplicably, the orbit of Mars is altered, causing a communications breakdown with Earth and exposing the inhabitants to solar radiation.' Yep. Now, this is actually fairly interesting. If we tried to colonize mars, would it negatively affect us? Could Mars actually be physically altered by our presence there (i.e: orbit changing)? If we did have the ability to colonize Mars, would we consider the outcome? I personally believe (in order): Maybe, yes, and most definently not. So, either way, no matter what...Earth is screwed.