Brotherband

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog.  I know I have been slacking off but I decided that today I would write a quick book review of "Outcasts"  the first book in the new Brotherband series. 

I enjoyed this book a lot.  There is something about the mix of fantasy with historical context that just makes me feel like I am part of the book.  The characters were very relate able and believable, just a little bit too fantastic for real life though.

Premise:

This book follows young Hal as he enters manhood.  His father was killed in a raid and Hal never got to know his father who was one of the most esteemed warriors in all of Skandia.  Hal is unlike the other Skandians though as he was born of a slave mother and is always considered Arulean at heart and not Skandian.  Hal is also extremely smart and likes to create new inventions throughout the book.  His ingenuity both help him and hinder him as he completes his brotherband training. 

I won't give away the end of the book since it is still extremely new, but I just wanted to say that this book is probably one of the best young adult adventure books that I have read.  The training sequence alone made me want to go back to the weight room and regain what I had before I discovered the joys of sitting in front of a TV or computer and couch potatoing out. 

Det har været et stykke tid siden jeg har skrevet indlæg på denne blog. Jeg ved, jeg har været slacking off, men jeg besluttede at jeg i dag ville skrive en hurtig boganmeldelse af "udstødte" den første bog i den nye Brotherband serie.

Jeg nød denne bog en masse. Der er noget om den blanding af fantasi med historisk kontekst, der bare får mig til at føle som om jeg er en del af bogen. Tegnene var meget relatere dygtig og troværdig, bare en lille smule for fantastisk til det virkelige liv om.

Premise:

Denne bog følger unge Hal, da han kommer ind manddom. Hans far blev dræbt i en razzia og Hal aldrig kom til at kende sin far, som var en af ​​de mest ansete krigere i hele Skandia. Hal er i modsætning til de øvrige Skandians skønt, da han blev født af en slave mor og er altid betragtet Arulean på hjerte og ikke Skandian. Hal er også meget smart og kan lide at skabe nye opfindelser i hele bogen. Hans opfindsomhed både hjælpe ham og hindre ham, som han afslutter sin brotherband uddannelse.

Jeg vil ikke give væk i slutningen af bogen, da det stadig er meget nyt, men jeg ville bare sige, at denne bog er formentlig en af ​​de bedste unge voksne eventyr bøger, som jeg har læst. Uddannelsen sekvens alene gav mig lyst til at gå tilbage til last rum og genvinde, hvad jeg havde, før jeg opdagede glæden ved at sidde foran et fjernsyn eller en computer og sofaen potatoing ud.

One Day before Travel

Well instead of shopping or doing what I am supposed to do I decided to make a quick entry into the great world wide web.  Kind of funny that you are able to talk about almost anything you like and people may actually read it.  Today I found that work is driving me bonkers... quite literally I have no idea which way is up and which way is down.  It is almost like being caught in a rip tide and moving away from the beach.  The washing machine motion turns you all sorts of ways and at the end of the churning backwash from the tide you finally rise out of the sea and notice that you are a long way from getting back to shore.  That being said I believe it is time for a vacation, a time to relax and recoup. 

If you read yesterday you know that I get to go on a train tomorrow.  A great way to travel if you don't have a time crunch since the Rocky Mountains are a very unforgiving environment and can take their toll on any form of transportation.  During this train trip my goal is to actually start the novel that has been working its way around my head and take time to relax and not be anything for anybody.  The week that I am away will be fun, but so full of activity that the idea of over ten hours where I don't have to do a thing is really kind of a fun idea. 

My nephew and niece are coming up from Las Vegas for the week which should be a lot of fun.  My nephew is really into dinosaurs now and the eastern Utah desert is a great place.  With places like Cleveland Lloyd Dino Quarry and the CEU museum he has so much that would be fun to see.  My niece enjoys life and would be a hoot to accompany us on these excursions. 

Tomorrow is the day of travel and many a good book to read on this journey. 

Time for travel

I have reached the point in the preparations of traveling that I can't stand.  It is now about 36 hours til I get on a train and head to the fabled spot of Huntington Utah.  A small quaint arid town at the foot of a beautiful mountain range, made famous by mining for the mystic emery county coal.  I said that I can not stand this part of the preparations and now I get to explain why.

First:  Work, I have one more day of work and I already know the hardship that comes with the last day before an extended break (people working for the schools do get these every now and again, but definitely more often then those not employed by the schools).  The kids will be a little on edge due to the great week off called thanksgiving break.  One of the few breaks that actually has a holiday name in it by the way. 

Second:  House-  this one is strange because there is so much to do.  I must pack and clean all that I have expanded into.  The basement currently looks like a donation center store room with no organization due to the expansion of clothes, books, gadgets, electronics, and magazines that have found their way out of my room and into living room, laundry room, store room, and bathroom (don't ask).  This leaves me only tonight and tomorrow night to get these things in order and finish all packing before the big travel day.

Third:  The travel day.  I don't know why but I get very anxious about travel.  I know that modes of transport today are safe and that really isn't the problem, it is the idea that I have to get out of my comfort zone and make my way to a new destination.  One day I will be okay with changes in my norm but today is not the day.  Not to mention that we get to take the train.  A great way to travel through some of the most beautiful country in the United States, but 13+ hours on a train with many strange and fascinating people.  It is a long time for somebody that has self diagnosed ADD to stand.  There are only so many computer games that one can play before boredom sets in, as well as so many pages of a book that one can read before they lose interest.  I am blessed with the ability to not sleep or get comfortable in confined spaces and as such usually have a hard time traveling for long distances in anything. 

There is my apprehensions for Saturday.  I am excited however to see family and friends.  Yes I am friends with my family, as strange as that may sound.  The best part about traveling is reaching your destination and getting to enjoy the company of good people that you know and trust. 

Big Bang Theory

So recently I have been reading Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time."  I picked it up thinking it would be an interesting read, and one that might keep me intrigued to the end.  So far it has definitely lived up to those expectations.  In the first three chapters Hawking writes a short discourse on the different views of the universe.  From the Geocentric to the ever expanding universe he has covered it all.  Anyway at one point he was talking about the big bang and how it may have been started and what could happen at the end. As I was reading this chapter I started to think about what was being said, and thought well I may have a theory that could go on after the big bang.  I was thinking that the natural state of matter is entropy, or a form of chaos.  Nothing in the physical world is without entropy, be it a child's bed room to the bits of the human cell that are striving to break out of the cell membrane and leak all over the place.  Everything involves entropy at some level.  This made me think that the most chaotic place, theoretically, was the universe pre big bang.  Even though the theory of relativity claims that time does not start until the big bang actually commenced, many scholars have talked about the universe being about the size of a pin head before the big bang happened.  I digress, if all this energy and matter were condensed into the size of a pin head it would not take much to make it want to expand or explode.  But the natural state of things is a state of entropy so as the universe expands there will be less and less until the universe stabilizes.  From what I know, which is not much ergo why I am reading about physics and what not, this stabilization could start the big crunch.  Once all matter is stable and no longer moving away from each other could gravity or some other form of force eventually bring the universe back to the state that it once was?  I guess that was a long winded version of my theory but there it is.  Chaos to Order to Chaos again. 

By the way, if one were to adopt the idea that the natural state of matter is a state of entropy one no longer needs to worry about cleaning or keeping order since that is natural.  Just joking of course.

Decided to rebound and restart.

A couple of days ago I made the decision to go ahead and erase everything on the blog and start anew.  So today is the day that I get to restart and create an online journal of thought, action, and story.  Actually what a blog is supposed to be I presume.  Anyway  I decided that on this go around I would spend some time looking at science, pop culture, what I'm reading, how I'm feeling, etc...  So Posting will come as I decide I want to share and may come a lot at a time or very few at a time.