review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I finally read Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I wasn’t intending to read it, mind you. I had the first chapter that Barnes and Nobles gives you for free and I wasn’t overwhelmingly thrilled. I had said that I wouldn’t pay full price for the book. It hadn’t read as bad as some books I’ve had to read for school, that after that crucial first chapter, I picked up and threw across the room. (The Hobbit, what can I say I just didn’t like the writing) I said that I would not go out of my way to read it but if it came to me for free… I would read it. I can’t argue with a free book.




After reading the free sample, I realized that part of the problem was that the entire story was written in present tense. That is just sloppy writing. The editor should have remedied that problem. It wasn’t a thrilling first sixty six pages. The plot was set out in a normal fashion and there were no immediate catches to the reader’s eye. Afterwards, I was not further inspired to read the rest of the book.




Then, I was presented with a free copy of the full book. I decided to give it a second try. The first part was about the same as I remembered. The story and plot was a basic one. A post apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a minority “aristocracy”. There was a plot device was the more common fish out of water and trying to survive. There was some brief intrigue thrown in, in the way of a mild love interest and almost a love triangle but not quite. The book felt incomplete and unfinished. There are sequels available but cliffhangers are for TV and movies , not for books.




All in all, I don’t think I would reread this book. That is my judgment of a books worthiness, it’s re-read-ability. I have books I have read 20 times or more because I love the characters so much and their stories seems so real. This story just seems so out of sync with real life. Not with reality, I understand it’s a fiction book, but real emotion and how people relate to one another. I couldn’t put myself in one of the character’s shoes and say, “YES!, that’s EXACTALLY what I would do!”.

Her

You’ll never love me
I’m not pretty or thin
I’m not up to your standards
I’m never gonna win


We’ll never be the perfect pair
They were always right
They said we were too

 different
They say how much we fight


You two will work much better
She seems much better for you
She'll make you happier
She better not make you blue

Okay… So I’m not so consistent as I should be at writing my blog.  I just don’t have the discipline to sit down and write everyday.  I’m not as able body as I should be.  I thought having Dragon would help with the typing.  It does.  It doesn’t make me have five to fifteen minutes everyday that is mainly pain free.  It doesn’t give me clarity.  I’m giving it my best.  I apologize for not doing better.  I will do as well as I am able.  Upcoming soon will be my opinion on all eleven doctors, some book reviews, and some other stuff.  I will try.  I’m also work on songs and a novel so the time that I have is divided.  Thank you for your patience.

Watch "For You" on YouTube http://youtu.be/T2suhIpCCiI

Rules of three

1. The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted on by an external force.
2. F=ma The acceleration of a body is parallel and directional proportional to the net and inversely proportional to the mass.
3. The mutual forces of actions of two parallel bodies are equal, opposite and co-linear.


My family like all other families has inside jokes they make.  One of the common threads that always seems to come up is Newton’s third law applying to more then gravity.  Seeing as it has been, hmm, awhile since I was in high school science I look up the actual definition.  I, for the life of me, could not for instance remember the exact wording of the third law.  I knew that there were at least two other laws but could not really remember them, either.  So in what way does Newton apply to real life, other then keeping us grounded?


Well to start let us start at the beginning.  Take a look at the first one.  That’s a conundrum and a whole bunch of pretentious vocabulary words.  Basically, it says that you stay going the way you are going until something else interrupts this process.  I think that should be called the sloth rule.  It could also be referred to as the dead end job rule.  How many people just sit their on their butts and do nothing?  Why?  No reason not too.  How long do they waste in meaningless jobs when all it would take would be one little push and they might be the next boss or world magnate? Not that I’m one to talk.  Without that push, they are simply Schrödinger’s cat, that unknowable principal that all possibilities exist until one path is chosen.  But this first law also applies to more then the world of finance.  World Politics comes to mind.  Sounds like a policy of leave them alone and they will leave us alone. Religions see above.  Of course this requires so civility , so I wouldn’t count on it any time soon.  Even as far down as party etiquette, the rules of Newton are painfully constant, at least to the waistline.  The velocity of a dieting body remains consistently moving around the food table unless the body is acted on by an external force. (Person pulling you bodily away from the table or more embarrassing running out of food)


How about rule two? The most confusing sounding rule of them all.  It’s the rule of inertia. In other words, you are pushed only as hard as you can take. Casear Millian uses this, for example, when he says that you get the dog that you can handle.  We constantly push people harder or stronger then us but somewhere we believe that we are able to take it.  We are able to bear our crosses.  If we didn’t have the money, we wouldn’t gamble it.  This seems to me, to be the rule of cliché. 


Now, to rule three, the one that started this rant in the first place.  All actions have an equal and opposite reaction.  If you hit someone, the will hit you back.  If something happens, then something else happens.  My karma ran over your dogma.  Every religion mentions just rewards and just punishments.  Science is just a religion with it’s own commandments.  This is similar to the fourth commandment because it happens to have a reward.  The fourth commandment for those not familiar is Honor thy Father and Mother for thy reward in heaven shall be great.  I see a parallel with every action has an equal and opposite reaction. They both state cause and effect.  If your open up your eyes, you may see the light.  Who know whether it would be a prism or a rainbow or a covenant? 

My FIRST Doctor...

So everyone says you always have a soft spot for your first doctor.  I think I like Doctor Who despite my first doctor. My first episode was the first episode of the new version.  I am too young and too American to have seen the original.  There had been no expectations.  I had watched other modern BBC programming but never a sci-fi.  For some reason there is no vivid recall of a lead up to that first episode. I don’t remember a great advertising campaign, or someone telling me about it. I just remember watching it.  Then suddenly the doctor was a part of my life, as much as if I had grown up watching the original serials on Saturday mornings in Britain. 

Chris Eccleston may be other things but he just will not be remembered as Doctor Who. The only important thing he did was further the plot. He introduced us to Rose and Jack. For that we should be nothing more then grateful but as the doctor he just didn’t impress me. 

Then… REGENERATION

David Tennant will always be my first doctor no matter who I actually laid eyes on in which temporal order, after all this is the doctor. Here was this bright eyed intelligent young old alien, quick witted who had morals and cool adventures every week. Every episode was fast paced and full of these great little puzzles.  The doctor was always there to save the day, but there was a big picture going on too.  American television, with a few exceptions, had been lacking these key ingredients. The good shows had a tendency to either get cancelled or bounced around from night to night.  Every Saturday night, I got to see my doctor, all summer. 

Then Jack got his OWN show, TORCHWOOD.  I made it through the off time between Doctor Who by surviving on this spin-off police procedural.  It was battling aliens every week, X-files but everyone knew what was out there.  Of course, there was that unerringly British inclination to kill someone off every week too, but it keep you guessing.  Who will be the last man standing? (Please, dear god, let it be JACK!)

Five years, I had my wonderful, quirky doctor.  Times were great. Then the clouds started to gather.  Rumors began that David was leaving the show. NOOOO!!!  It couldn’t be true, could it? I not only faced losing my first doctor but would the show even go on without him?  And what about the fate of Torchwood?  Would I lose all my television show at once like a nuclear bomb?

Then REGENERATION…

Sound Down Shout OFF!

Every time I go to the movies, turn on the TV, or listen to the radio I find myself wondering, “Are these sound engineers deaf or just making money on sideline businesses such as hearing aids, and replacement headphones and subwoofers?”.  The Human eardrum can register certain ranges and frequencies of sounds.  It can pull one noise out of many, like someone calling your name to you from across a crowded room.  But too many noises, too many frequencies and it becomes a cacophony, mush.  We also recognize certain frequencies easier than others.  Some pitches provoke pleasing feelings. Some tones transmit terror.  The feeling that has recently been evoked in me is anger.  When watching anything with an audio track this anger is evoked.  On a consistent basis, the vocal track (speaking parts in TV and movies/mid and high range in songs) is put at a lower volume then the rest of the score. The background track/special effects track for movies and the commercial/special effect/background/ promotion music track for TV and the Road-Rocking-Wake-me-up-from-the-second-floor- how-can-you-even-stand-to-sit-in-the-car-with- that-music-playing bass line for the radio is utterly too loud and disrupts the rest of your Movie/program/music.  In a Movie Theatre, you must simply cope with the volume as is.  When watching a movie or TV show at home, you must sit with your hand poised precariously on the volume button constantly hovering between low and high to compensate for some editor’s inability to delicately balance high and low frequencies.   Don’t they understand that music is not a line or a wave but complicated mathematical figure involving time space and relative dimension?  Frankly, half the industry should go bad to kindergarten and relearn how to add and subtract. 

Epic

Epic exists only in poems and dreams.
We no longer know hoe to be bold.
We only care to breathe and survive,
Leaving Souls empty and hearts beating cold.


Paradise has gone missing for good.
We've stopped looking for treasure and gold.
We've begun caring only for shelter and warmth.
Fairy Tales are things only to be told.


Before Love is lost forever,
We must come to our senses, I'm told.
We must recover Joy and Wonder.
We must re-enter the fold.