Virtual vs Reality

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline

Crown Publishers

2011

Realistic Fiction

The book Ready Player One, takes place during the year 2044. The main character of the story’s name is Wade Watts. Earth is not the fun future that most people thought it would be in the past. Most people don’t even want to look at what has become of the earth so people use this technology called OASIS. OASIS is a virtual world with over thousands of planets. Wade, as you can probably guessed, also uses the OASIS but he doesn’t just play it to escape from the real world. He plays it to find the Ultimate Lottery Ticket. It is a giant treasure that holds a massive fortune and unremarkable power. This does however lead to conflicts which, if i give away will spoil the story.

“It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.”

This books writing style is somewhat familiar to me. I haven’t read any of his other books but there is an author who writes similarly to him. I would be interested in reading more of his books.

“My avatar slowly materialized in front of the control panel in my stronghold”s command center, the same spot where i’d been sitting the night before, engaged in my evening ritual of staring blankly at the Quatrain until a drifted off to sleep and the system logged me out.”

I read this book because it reminded me of this show I watched. As i read through the book the similarities appeared more often. For example, both the show and the book take place in a virtual world.

I will rate this book a 2-4 paws depending on the person. This however depends for most people. If they aren’t that interested in games then they probably will not like it.

Evacuation of Kadul

Author’s Notes

1.I think the reason i wanted people to read this story was to understand that you must do whatever you can to survive.

2.The story itself was very easy to right because it interested me. I went with what could be the most shocking.

3.I had a little bit of trouble writing dialogue. I can’t picture conversations in my head.

4. I think i should try to get the story started a bit sooner. So i don’t bore the readers.

“Kadul was a place of luxury and pleasure. Some lived high above the clouds eating the finest delicacies and drinking the finest wines. Others lived on the sandy earth scrambling for any food they can find. Those differences in living changed when the sandstorm hit. Everyone came together trying to protect themselves from the harsh sand that could strip paint off cars or flesh from bones. My squad and I were given orders to come to the city and get the last bit of survivors out of the city and away from harm. However when we got to the city, plans changed. Now we are like the city… dying and alone.”

Captain Riley walked ahead of his two squad mates who were stopping to take a break. After All, walking 3.7 miles in the desert wearing body armor and carrying more than 50 lbs of equipment isn't easy. Captain Riley never really desired to be in the military. Before he was recruited he was just an ordinary guy who had an ordinary job and lived in an ordinary apartment. One day, Riley finds out that hes getting fired because of budget cuts. That was his third time getting fired by “budget cuts”. He was starting to believe that his bosses just didn’t want him there. After he got home, he called his friends telling them his situation and asking if they knew of any job openings. His best friend Andy said he could join the military. Riley took it as a joke but slowly began to realize he might not have any other choice. So he joined. That's his story. After about 5 minutes the sniper of the squad, Ben, caught up with Riley. Ben was this over ambitious kid who just wanted to fight for his country, so he signed up. After a couple weeks of training his commanding officer noticed his excellent aim with a rifle so he recommended Ben to the sniper program. Ben was the head of his unit. He had only missed 2 shots his entire career in training. One was a misfire and the other was when his buddy tripped over him during a shot. Riley was lucky to have a soldier like Ben with him.

“ The city looks like some ancient ruin.” Ben said as he examined the city. “ I hope we find someone alive in the city.”

“ I do too… Would be a shame if we came out here just to find the city full of dead civilians that we were supposed to rescue.” I Said.

 The two heard footsteps from behind. They turned expecting a civilian but it was just the last member of their squad, Drew. Drew was a carefree guy who tended to make stupid jokes whenever things got too tense. Drew was a tall Caucasian male with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. Drew had to have had a rough time growing up. He used to live Detroit. He had a family of 1 older brother and 2 younger sisters. When he was around the age of twelve his parents got into a really bad accident on a highway. Both of his parents and 1 of his sisters died. His older brother barely got a scrape and his other sister and him got a minor injury. Because of him and his siblings being orphaned so suddenly, his older brother had to start taking up jobs. Eventually when he and his sister got old enough they got jobs too. Around the age of 17, Drew and his siblings were doing fine. They had their own apartment and everything. One night however Drew’s older brother didn't come home. Drew left his sister in the apartment to go look for him. Drew found him, robbed and stabbed in the alley behind their apartment. Drew called the cops but they never found the culprit.. Now since they didn’t have enough money to keep up with the rent Drew signed up with the military. He still tries to stay in contact with his sister but its getting harder because of this mission.

As they approached the city the shadow of the tall buildings started to fall over them. They entered the city and surveyed their surroundings. What they saw was not pretty. There were cars everywhere. People crashed into each other once the storm hit. Some people tried to run from their cars to the shelter of the buildings but were quickly torn apart from the sand. We tried to force the image out of our mind as we kept going deeper into Kadul. We figured that people would be waiting in a place that has survival supplies like food water and shelter. We pulled the map out of Drew's bag and marked any place that would have those supplies. We took another look at the map and headed out.

After a day we had only searched three places, a hospital, a hotel, and the mall. So far all we’ve found we’re places filled with sand and not a trace of any life. We decided we would stay in the mall for the night. We had one person stay up in shifts to keep a look out for survivors or any type of threats. At sunrise we took any water we could find to refill our canteens and headed out. We started out towards our last location. It was an aquarium in the center of the city. If there were any survivors they would have to be there.  We decided to take the main road there in case there would be any survivors still wandering around. There was an occasional glare from the sun off the sand but the tall building covered it most of the time.

After a hour we reach the courtyard of the aquarium. the building itself was just a giant circular dome decorated in all types of sea animals. We headed towards the door but just then Ben caught  something out of the corner of his eye. It rolled over to him. He looked down and yelled “Grenade!” We ran for cover. As it exploded we came under fire from unknown enemies. This was just a search and rescue mission. We weren’t informed of any hostile in the area. Who are they?...

The Glorious Snow Day...Inside!

The Glorious Snow Day… Inside!

Value. When most people hear this word they immediately think about money or something that costs money. Well value is a lot more than just physical money. Its about priceless moments too. I’m talking about peeling off that cover on your phone or just waking up to the smell of bacon. Its these priceless moments that I value. I value them every time they occur and i try to make them occur as much as often.That is what value is to me. I hope that i might have changed someone else’s mine on what value is too.

I guess i should start with the priced items. I chose my Xbox. I chose my Xbox because its pretty much what i spend most of my time on when i’m at my house. I've had it for about 8 years now. I actually have a resounding total of 35 games. I have never broken my Xbox or any game which is surprising to me because all of my friends have at least broken one of there many Xbox’s. I enjoy spending time on my Xbox. It takes my mind off of the real world and put me in a virtual world for a short time. That's why i enjoy my Xbox.

My second item is priceless moment. Mine is always waking up on a snow day. Its just so good. You wake up exhausted, get out of your bed and work yourself to your window. You rub your eyes as you look out into the bright, white wonderland. Now if you were like me then the first thing i would do was go back to bed and sleep for 3 more hours. After that i’d wake up, take a shower, then go downstairs and have a huge breakfast. After that i’d finish any homework i didn't from yesterday then go play Xbox for a bit. Eventually i would have to go shovel but i usually put

that off until about 1 or 2. I just love those day because i can just be lazy and not have to worry about anything.

I guess these items are similar because i really enjoy both. They kind just let me relax and take my mind off the stressfulness in my life. I do both of these inside my house. They’re both really enjoyable.  There kind of connected in a sense. Like, i play my Xbox during snow days. I really don’t know how these two would be connected i guess.

These items are different in a lot of ways. Like for instance, i can play my Xbox at anytime really, but snow days only happen once in a while. Snow days involve the weather and my Xbox doesn't. I have to go outside and shovel on snow day but i don’t have to on regular days when i play Xbox.

I value these items in different ways. I value my Xbox by buying more games for it and making sure nothing breaks it. I also put money into it so i can buy add-ons and updates for it. I value snow days in a different way though. I value it by doing special things on that day. Like eating that big breakfast for example. I usually just eat a pop-tart or something. I also get to stay in my junkie clothes all day.

I think value isn't just money. Value is more like valuable moments.

Speak Final Assessment

Speak Final Assessment

Response 1: Trust me, there are many times where i have to say something that is the opposite of what i really want to say. Most of them are with my family of course. Like, one of the worst ones was when i was discussing with my mother about my grades. I was doing really bad in one of my favorite classes. My mom said i was missing a lot of assignments in that class and i said that i wasn’t. I knew i had turned them in but my mom didn’t believe me. She always trusted what the website said over me. I was really angry. I wanted to tell her that sometimes teachers make mistakes or are slow when they put up grades on the website but i knew that arguing with her would just make it worse than it already was. So what i did was i just nodded my head and ill talk to her tomorrow When i went against my inner voice it just made me get angry. Angry because i couldn’t speak up about how i really felt. But i had to do it or else i would just feel more guilt than anger about fighting with my mom.

Response 2: Sometimes i speak what's really on my mind. Whenever i do i feel really proud of myself when i do. For example in my math class i was sitting there listening to my teacher when he called on my brother to come up and solve the question he put on the overhead. So he went up and made a really stupid mistake but because it was so early in the morning he didn’t notice and kept on going. I started hearing whispering about that mistake from the people around me and eventually it turned into laughing. At this point he was already sitting down and people were laughing at him. I was so angry that people would do this. My brother also encouraged me to stand up for him because i knew he would do the same for me. I pretty much told them to stop and after a couple failed attempts they finally listened. It felt great that i stood up for him.

Response 3: During speak Melinda suppresses her inner voice a lot. It makes her shy, hateful, and she always pushes people away. Luckily she makes friends with heather on the first day of school. She isn’t hateful, or shy on the inside. Its just that she doesn’t want to have any sort of interaction with anyone in that school except her Art teacher Mr.Freeman. Her main problem in the story is the fact that everyone in the school already hates her even though none of them even know her on a personal level. THe worst part that makes her who she is in the story is that her best friend is dating the man who raped her at the party and she doesn’t have enough courage to speak up.

1st Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Metro 2033

Dmitry Glukhovsky

Gollancz 2011

The story of Metro 2033 is about a young man named Artyom.Artyom is a 20 year old man originally from pre-apocalyptic Russia. He lived through the bombs but only just as a baby. Metro 2033 is about a post-apocalyptic Russia. The last remnants of humanity hide with fear down in the bowels of the metro. Above ground is wasteland infested with irradiated creatures and is covered with radiation. Most people fear what is up there and won’t leave there shambles in the tuut vnnels. Some people are brave enough to go up ground but most of them are apart of 2 of the 3 main factions of the Metro: The Nazis or the Reds, which are both ruled by power hungry fools who are trying to take sections of the tunnels from the other faction. These factions in general don’t care much for the civilians just trying to hide from this fool war between the two. But the last faction cares as much for the people as they do themselves. These people are the Rangers. Artyom is a part of the rangers and his goal for this story is to stop the most dangerous creatures from destroying the last remnants of civilization.

“The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. a few thousand live on, not knowing if they are the only survivors on the planet. They live in the Moscow Metro -  the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is Humanity's last refuge. It is a world without tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct - the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price.”

The writing style of this book is very weird. I haven’t read anything like this before. I can’t even compare this book to another book because its so unique.

“He was rushing through a dark tunnel with head-spinning speed,lying on a section car that was no less than two meters long. There was a light smell of burning in the air and Artyom thought with astonishment that it must be fueled with petrol.”

This story was very unique and thats what i enjoyed about it. It had a lot of description and detail which just made the book more creepy than it actually is. He described it in a way that made me connect with the main character’s fear, anger, sadness, and happiness.

I give Metro 2033 4 Paws - Pounce on it

Speak Reflective Reading essay

Speak Reflective Reading Essay

1.Quiet: I Feel like quiet is a good word to describe Melinda because she never really talks out loud during classes or anything. Even when she does she isn’t very loud.

2.Outcast: Outcast is possibly the best word i have for her. Ever since she called the cops her old friends haven’t talked to her. No one really likes her anymore.

3.Frustrated: I think she is frustrated because she can’t tell anyone what happened at the party. It is eating her up inside that she can’t tell anyone. Not even her parents.

4.Alone: In the story she doesn’t really have anyone to talk to other than Heather, Mr.Freeman. and her conscience. She feels like she can’t even talk to her parents.

 

5.Pessimistic: Ever since the beginning of the book Melinda hasn’t really been positive about anything. She has always just went along not enjoying anything about life.

The best word that describes Melinda to me is outcast. It perfectly describes who she is in the story. She goes to school everyday talking to no one there except Heather. People just don’t avoid her either. They throw food at her too. “Thwap! A lump of potatoes and gravy hits me square in the chest.” (8)

The thing about Melinda and this word is that she kinda is making herself an outcast too. She isn’t trying to make new friends or anything. She is just accepting being an  outcast. They dont want to talk to her and she doesn’t want to talk to them. Thats just the way i see it.

The Portal

Katniss from Catching Fire

Ender from Ender’s game

Setting: Ender’s Ship

Its been 1 year since the ending of the war with the buggers. There has been no sighting of buggers or any type of threat since then. Ender was now in command of a mighty flagship. All to himself. He misses Valentine often.  Out in the empty void of space can be lonely for a boy his age.  He does have his crewmates but its not the same as his sister. Whenever he gets really lonely, which is  pretty often for ender ,he likes to wander the ship to see all of his crewmates. This sometimes takes him very late into the night. This nightly ritual will leave him very exhausted by the time he gets back to his room.

One night as he was wandering the bowels of the ship. He finished the hallway he was walking down and turn to leave but before he could a strange glimmer of light on the wall caught his eye. As he walked closer to it his gut told him to back away from it. But his brain told him otherwise. Afterall, it was his ship. As he got closer to the light  his gut feeling got stronger but he kept going.Then suddenly the Portal opened  and a strange girl dressed in hunting gear fell out of it…

Katniss left her house early in the morning. The sun was still rising over the horizon. She thought since it was her last day at home she would spend it in the woods. She left the district the same way she always does, through the hole of the fence. She decided not to hunt this day. She would be using the bow a lot more in the next couple days. She made her way through the woods and kept noticing strange things. Trees were knocked over. Animals were killed for no purpose. She got to cave that had a strange feeling about it. She wanted to explore it more but she had to go back and talk to the others about it.

The next day she went back to the cave. The feeling was even stronger this time. As she entered the cave the feeling got stronger as they got deeper. The strange occurrences were even more frequent as she got deeper. She eventually got to the end of the cave. There was a giant hole near the end. It looked manmade so she immediately got curious. She wanted to go down but it looked like she couldn’t go down without gear. She ran back through the cave but it felt like it never ended. She thought she saw the end of the cave so ran as fast as she could towards it. She was surprised that when she got there she was back at the giant hole. She thought she just took a wrong turn but she knew she was right. It seems that the cave didn’t want her to leave. She decided to try and scale it without gear. She got about 2 feet down then she slipped. She thought she was going to die down there in that cave. alone and by herself, but as she fell there was a bright lighter that got brighter as she fell. Then there was a flash.

When she awoke it was dark. She thought she was still down in the cave but as her eyes adjusted she started to see seemed just pipes. Katniss turned to her right to see a small boy looking about the age of 8 staring at her. He seemed just as surprised as she was.

She ask “Where am i?”

The boy couldn’t speak but after a minute he collected himself and said “On my spaceship……”

“ You’re joking……” she said sarcastically

“I’m not…….” he said with the same tone of sarcasm

“This can’t be a spaceship!” she said, raising the tone of her voice

“And why can’t it?” he said in a calm manner

“Because we’re underground!”

“Underground?........ We’re not underground, you must be mistaken.” he said with a hint of confusion

“I’m not mistaken, i’m right! I just fell a good 2 miles down into a cavern! I’m positive we’re underground!” She was now shouting

“*sigh*...... You won’t listen to reason so follow me….”He begins walking down the hall.

“This is so bizarre.” Katniss thought to herself. “First i just fell down a giant hole that felt two miles deep, And i lived. Now i just met a kid who thinks he’s the captain of this spaceship! At least, if it IS an actual spaceship, these could be just some underground tunnels. Well only way to know is to follow him.”

“HEY, WAIT UP!”