Mockingjay

                At last, I have read the third and final book of the series, The Hunger Games, which is Mockingjay probably named as such because that specific bird was the symbol of the rebellion in the story and probably gave a great ending to the series. I loved it. Again, many unexpected events happened and in some of the events I’m, like, close to going insane as I try to pull myself together and continue to read (XD). There are some parts that annoyed me a lot because it’s like I want this to happen and instead it becomes the opposite but, nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the book a lot. If I were to rate the whole series using a scale of 1-100, I would give it a 99 (only because some people I wish didn't die, died [lol :D]). I still seem happy after reading the book though because I like the ending (:D)… A LOT.

                So if you’re probably wondering why I’m so ecstatic, you would understand better if you read a short (?) summary of the book. (WARNING: Spoilers up ahead)

                The 2^nd book ended in Katniss learning about District 12 being obliterated and in Mockingjay, she learns more about how everything ended up in them having to live in District 13 which (up to this point) was thought to be in ruins after the Capitol destroyed it. District 13 is governed by President Coin who needs Katniss, who seems to disagree at first but later agrees to Coin, to bring all the different districts together to battle the Capitol. There is also her undying desire to rescue Peeta back from the Capitol because he was left in the arena during Katniss’s rescue because she thinks that the Capitol would be torturing him to get more information about the rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss’s idea of why Peeta was tortured changed when Peeta was finally rescued and brought to District 13 because when he saw Katniss again he strangled her. They realize that Peeta’s memories of Katniss have been altered and he now thinks that Katniss is a mutation out to kill him. District 13’s medical team does their best in rehabilitating Peeta and he seems to progress but at a slow pace.

                When all the 11 remaining districts have finally been united, District 13 sent its troops to the Capitol. Katniss was sent to the Capitol too and was part of the Star Team. A few days later in the Capitol, a member of the Star Team dies and they send Peeta, who was quite well already but not  fully recovered , to replace her. A tragedy happens and the current commander dies and transfers his power over the Holo (the device which enables the commander to know where traps are) to Katniss. Katniss, later on, wants to continue on instead of go back to the base so she makes up a whole new mission which is to kill President Snow. They advance through the Capitol and later on Peeta, who’s horrible memories of the Capitol are refreshed bringing him into a state of being crazed into the desire to kill Katniss, decides they must kill him in order to have a smooth flow through the dangers that they would be facing but Katniss doesn’t kill him and neither do the remaining members of the Star Team. They continue on, facing traps, mutations and other enemies, and also the noble deaths of members of the Star Team until they are only left with 5 members including Katniss and Peeta.

                The Star Team finds some place safe to stay for a while with the help of a Capitol citizen who is part of the rebel force but can’t stay long. After their stay, they come up with a plan to get to President Snow’s mansion. When Katniss, who seemed to be the only one to reach the mansion at that time, gets to her destination she sees that there was a bombing in the mansion already and in the process of trying to heal the wounded Katniss’s sister, Prim, gets killed in the second explosion leaving the Katniss and the other members of the Star Team injured.

                As Katniss awakes she realizes she can’t speak because of the shock from her sister’s death and realizes that the war is over and also that she would be the one to execute President Snow in front of the survivors of the war but before that, she was able to have a chat with President Snow and her talk with him reveals the true purpose of the war which was so President Coin would gain all the power so when the time came for Snow’s execution, Katniss assassinates Coin instead and was sent to trial but in the end she was not imprisoned and returned to District 12 which was currently being rebuilt and after some time, all her wounds (physical and emotional) heal with the help of Peeta and they “`grow back together” which makes Katniss realize that they are meant to be together and do end up together. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the book and also the series.

                The ending which was the 2 main characters ending up together made me as happy as a child with a large piece of candy. I could conclude that this series is one of the best that I’ve read so far.

               

                I would also like to thank Suzanne Collins for producing the wonderful books of this series.

                I also want to share a poem with you regarding the whole series.

My Poem Regarding the Whole Series

The books were all nice

Reading them was like a vice

I enjoyed the things I’ve read

Remembering my doubt and what I’ve said

About how boring the series would be

But it wasn’t boring at all, really

Books aren’t meant to be judged by their cover

They’d have to be read before compared to another

As though I wondered how it would end

And how many broken hearts would they have to mend

It’s nice to see that they ended up happy

Even better than how I have expected it to be

The 2 stayed in love with each other too

I wish it was the same for me and… Ted (?) 

(Well… I can’t say you because you aren’t the one meant for you, get it?)

View my other blogs about the Huger Games, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Image source: 

http://0.tqn.com/d/bestsellers/1/0/k/C/-/-/mockingjay.JPG

Catching Fire

   I’ve finally read the second book of the series, Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins which is Catching Fire. It is also a good one but not as good as the first book anyway but, still, it’s a good one. I really like how in this book and in the first one of the series, it would be quite hard to guess what’s going to happen next so Suzanne’s books keep most readers hanging on for more. It really is hard to stop reading because of how every chapter gets cut short which also indicates that more of the details would follow in next chapters so you probably won’t understand a chapter without reading the next ones to come. That might be the reason why each book is divided into parts which help because I think it would be like watching a movie while having LBM so you would have to take long, long breaks from watching then it would be hard to understand the movie.

   So here’s the long story made short. (Let me AGAIN warn you of spoilers up ahead)

   When Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games as a pair (which shouldn’t be) this was seen as the spark that spreads the flames of rebellion of the 12 districts against the Capitol so the President of Panem, President Snow, wants Katniss to put off the flame that would sooner or later grow out of her control but Katniss realizes it is too late because after their victory tour (which was the last hope of putting out the flames of rebellion) one of the districts, particularly District 8, had an uprising and showed defiance toward the Capitol.

   The next Hunger Games was one which was very surprising because the tributes were to be picked from the existing victors of each district so Katniss would have to be part of the Hunger Games again. In the Hunger Games, Katniss decides that she would do everything to make Peeta be the victor but her efforts of keeping Peeta alive were not continued because she was actually part of a bigger plan, which was to be the leader of the rebels in the war against the Capitol so before the Games even ended, Katniss was taken by a rebel hovercraft wherein her wounds from the Games were treated and where she also saw the whole picture of the rebellion that lead to the destruction of her home, District 12.

   The main reason why I think that the last book was better because this one was more of a sad book because Katniss was seen to be having a hard time to clean up a mess she think she started but was actually the act that started and helped in the war against the Capitol by fueling the rage of the people against the Capitol without her even knowing but still I liked it because of the fact that Katniss doesn’t seem to pretend to love Peeta but instead falls for him, I think (:D), because she shows that she really cares for him and she knows that he cares for her too. <3

(I think I won’t be including a poem just yet because I think that the poem I did for my previous blog,The Hunger Games, would be what I would say for this book too.) 

Coming soon, my blog on MOCKINGJAY, the last book of the series. :D

If you are interested in viewing my teacher's website, visit http://www.sirvincent.com     

Image Source:
http://heylady.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/catching-fire.jpg

The Hunger Games

I’ve just recently read the first book of the series, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I’ve found that when I started reading it by 6PM of the night I, couldn’t stop until at 3 or maybe 4AM the next day I’ve finished reading it. I kept saying to myself that, “Ok, after this chapter, I go to sleep,” but I kept saying that after every chapter I read so I decided to finish the remaining 3 or 4 chapters.

One of the factors that kept me reading was the fact that throughout the story, the main characters were all so tense and so I didn’t want to stop because there was the “what happens next?” feeling that pushes me farther to read more and more of the book. Also, there are parts in the book where I’m – in Filipino—kinikilig (to feel a thrill, to be thrilled, to have a shivering, exciting feeling) because of the parts that involve the main character and the other character who tries to woo her.

So let me give you a short synopsis of the book (warning: If you have not read this book yet there are spoilers ahead).

In a country called Panem where a Capitol rules and 12 very much poorer districts surround it, there lives a girl named Katniss Evergreen who strives to hunt in order to earn money for her family and also to feed them. She and her best friend Gale go to the woods and hunt there (which is illegal in District 12 where they both live).   

   

In every year every district sends one boy and one girl aged 12-18 known as tributes to a competition called The Hunger Games where every 24 tributes will fight each other to the death until one is left standing. This year, Katniss’ s sister’s name, Primrose, was drawn for the girl to be sent so Katniss immediately volunteers to replace her and both protect her because Primrose still is so young and the boy was Peeta Mellark.

The 2 tributes from District 12 saw their competition at the Training Center in the Capitol which, by the way, is so amazing with all the very large buildings there are unlike those back home. This intimidates them a little but both of the tributes leave a lasting impression on everyone before the Games start.

During the start of the game there was already blood-shed  and almost half of the 24 tributes died. The next days that went on were to help the tributes survive. When only 6 tributes were left, the rules suddenly changed and the 2 tributes from the same District were allowed to win as a team granted that they are both alive. This makes Katniss happy because she has Peeta to team up with instead of kill. As the 2 team up, Katniss tries to pretend she is madly in love with Peeta in order to get the sponsor s to bring them food for them to continue living. At the end, the 2 tributes from District 12 win the Hunger games and this is the first time in about 30 years that their District has won.

When Katniss and Peeta soon come home from the Capitol, they start slipping away from each other because Katniss is confused about her feelings for Peeta. That ends the 1st book.

This book is one that makes me think this thing happens next but then it doesn’t so for me this is one of the most unpredictable books I’ve ever read. As I read the book some endings form in my imagination like, the main character will be the only one left standing or that no one would win. What I was so disappointed about was when Katniss and Peeta ended their “relationship” (I don’t really know what they consider it) but still I enjoyed the book and now I can’t wait to borrow the next book, Catching Fire.

So here’s what I think of this book:

For every page that I read

More, is what I need

I keep going ahead and read on and on

And then find myself hooked on far too long

It’s a nice series I say

I can’t stop reading until the next day

I think of reading the next book soon

To feed more things to my brain with a spoon

It’s fun if you understand how it feels

Maybe spend on some books with your own bills

Coming soon is my blog on Catching Fire, the second book of the series.

See: http://www.sirvincent.com                                                                                                

Image Source:

http://markreads.net/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hungergames.jpg

I'm Fair, You're Fair, Some Aren't

               Sometimes, you’re right but it’s not at all instances that you’re right so sometimes you’re wrong. You may win or you might lose. You may have given your best that may be better than what others could give or maybe not. The main point here is that whether you’re wrong or right, good or bad, short or tall, or whatever you may be, you should be treated fairly regardless of anything else about you. We are all equals and therefore we must treat each other equally.

 For the case of some people, it’s entirely different. These people have different standards like how rich one is, how handsome/beautiful someone is, how close he/she is to me, and so on and so forth. They take things to a different level, their level. Where they go ahead reject other’s thought and just start to take in only their own thoughts. They start to lock out the ideas of other people. They dwell in their very own little worlds where they think that they have all the power when in fact they don’t because they also forget that they are like us too, human; therefore, they are just as imperfect and flawed as everyone else.

Being unfair becomes the seed of many negative things. Like for example, a judge at a certain competition chooses to favor the school he came from and decides to make the school he had problems with be forgotten and put to last place when it is clear that the contestant that came last should have been first or at least got a better rank but instead got nothing because of that judge who was unfair. See how much negativity being unfair brings? Being unfair is like the wormhole of destruction that sucks in the happiness of the people who were treated unfairly.

People who think that being unfair makes them “stronger” than others think wrong because being fair makes one person much stronger than many of those who aren’t. It’s just some simple logic. If one does what’s good, one is better than others who do evil. Sometimes it’s hard to do what’s right because of being too pressured by other people but doing what is right is better than bringing someone down with oneself and stepping on other people’s egos before one could do what one is supposed to do. Wouldn’t it be nice if one does what is better for oneself and those around him? Yes it would be because one would be better than others who do wrong toward others by being unfair.

So let’s just all remember to be fair

And make others aware

That it’s always better to be right

Than be wrong and lose the fight

But be right by doing what is good

Not by being unfair and misunderstood

If others care and I’m sure they do

They’d be better by doing good too

Don’t bring anyone else down

So no one would frown

Do what’s best

Others will do the rest :D

See this in my website:        http://www.lotsofstuff.ueuo.com/fair.html

Or see http://www.sirvincent.com

Where I Learn is Your Business

Saint Louis University Laboratory High School is where I study and in this particular blog post, I would like to share with you all a very short history and description of my school (Saint Louis University Laboratory High School) and the university it belongs to, (Saint Louis University).

It all started in the year 1911 when a CICM missionary, Rev Fr Séraphin Devesse, opened up a small room so he could teach a couple of young boys. That start was what sparked the development of Saint Louis University. Now, SLU has a college campus with more than just one small room and also, SLU has more than just a couple of young boys as students. Now, thousands of students study in SLU and they’re not just boys, now SLU also has girls studying on its grounds. Now, SLU is about to celebrate its centennial and looking back, it’s really been so far since the start of SLU’s development because the development of SLU is, up to now, ongoing. From a small room to a very large University we can see how fast a developing institution thrives to become excellent and to live up to the title, The Light of the North.

So with all these facts, you can now see that my school started from scratch and now even I am part of it. In every fellowship, group, committee, sisterhood or brotherhood, and the like there must always be a leader who keeps that certain unit together; without that leader, that unit is T-O-A-S-T (Truly Overly And Seriously Toast :). Currently, the leader of the university I belong to is not other than Fr. Jessie M. Hechanova. I am very thankful for him because without him Saint Louis University would be TOAST.

For me, I am currently in the high school department because of the fact that I can’t be accelerated into being a college student because I’m not really that smart. Now each of the departments of Saint Louis University are like branches branching out from a big trunk of a very big tree and for each branch there would be someone who would be holding the pieces together so that he and the leader of the main trunk would work together to make everything work. For the current branch I’m in, the leader is Dr. Joel Cabanilla. I don’t really know that much of the other branches but at least I was able to give you a better understanding of my school.

So for now, enough about the tree talk. Let’s talk about the other things about Saint Louis University.

Every once in a while – whether in elementary, high school, or college –, masses are held to help each and every one of the students to be closer to God and in these masses, our very own parish priests are the ones who celebrate the masses with us which makes me very thankful to them for without them there would be no Christian Spirit in this institution.

In every branch, there are also the teachers and/or professors who are those behind all the excellent students teaching and coaching them for the future. These people are like the muscle and bones that make all the parts of the body move same as through with us, they are the ones who keep the students moving, working, thinking, studying, and doing other things like sports or something. They are there to develop a student’s Creativity and Competence (not one without the other)

So we’ve mentioned the President, the Principal, the Parish Priests, and the teachers. The only thing s left are the… students.

The students are like the blood that flows through the body, without blood – or should I say students – the body can’t live at all. Students are the ones to be trained, to be crafted, to be taught how to be good people for the world and for the community in the future. They are responsible for each other and with each other they learn to be Socially Involved.

So as you can see there are 4 main values that I’ve pinpointed in my previous statements and these are having a Christian Spirit, Creativity, Competence, and being Socially Involved. These four main values are the 4 core values of Saint Louis University. These values are responsible for the honing of not only the student’s attitudes but also that of the faculty and staff’s values and attitudes.

You could probably see that we can’t be what we are without one or the other so I say that we can’t be what we are now without everybody else’s help. As they always say ( I apologize for the cliché) “There’s no ‘I’ in team.”

As expected I’m going to include here my short poem.

School it’s not just about children

That would be just too much of a burden

Everyone is here to help

No one will just sit down and yelp

It’s hard to do things alone

And sometimes we just want to stay at home

But really, we can’t

Then later on we realized that we went

Because in school it’s just like that

We just don’t stay and ask the question what

We stay because there’s the why and why not

And this is what will help us easily untie the “knot”

Image Links:

• http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Saint_Louis_University,_Baguio_City
• http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs624.ash1/27533_130847360269647_9728_n.jpg
• http://www.slu.edu.ph/images/stories/sluimages/frjess.jpg
• http://leafstitchword.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/toasterandtoast.jpg
• http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/store/images/products/pc046-cartoon-priest-clipart.jpg
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhha811Z-2iFTDJcpOjNxd5Muy2XoHk41wLYQ0ytG1wJLgE6KsuRO13f4Ss71Puvo8SUP81nVrLoBmZMbBRVPiKz_dXie09jBzT3y14gzy4TBjti07C1_JpZ127h5Js-VsxOC3tWy8vTT4r/s400/Teacher_Cartoon.jpg
• http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSaTLIMu6nYq3xPKqJBSqqOr_s9hS9zQL9ynaEV0Caz1Vn2vYQ&t=1&usg=__RI-OzqwjrVp9L8aA9rhGs-H8g8k=
• http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/UNN/UNN396/holy-spirit-christian_~u10620691.jpg
• http://theblissfulsoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/2Creativity.jpg
• http://www.gobaguio.com/files/Pictures/slu.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/SLUat100.JPG/150px-SLUat100.JPG

Just for You, SLU

I’m just so proud of my school because it will be celebrating its one-hundredth year as an institution of education. Saint Louis University started as a small school teaching the local boys about basic education and about Christian Religion and now it has its own elementary, high school, and college branches. For almost a hundred years, my school has been teaching so many children and young adults about how to be a better person for the community and this will have helped them to have a better future. My school has done so much for all the students who have gone and studied on its grounds. My school has been labeled “The Light of the North” which makes me even more proud of it. My school has helped so many people so as a student of SLU, I am in great debt to it; I must have something to give as a gift to my school, so I could show my appreciation for my school.

Usually we give gifts, and more often than not, I see that gifts are mostly given during a person’s birthday. In this blog’s case, it’s not a person who would be receiving my gift; it’s for someone – or something – else; it’s for my school.  When someone tries to find a gift to give to someone special, it would take hours and hours and HOURS to find the perfect gift for that someone. Now I’m having exactly that problem. I do not know what to give as a gift to my school.

So let’s try to look at my options:

1.       Money? (not so special)

2.       Food? (schools don’t eat)

3.       A corny song? (one; it’s corny, two; it’s not needed cause we already have a school song)

4.       Fist fight? (not such a good idea, plus I can’t pick on someone not my own size[I’m large])

5.       A cat? (there are too much cats in school [and proof is the poop in places] thank you very much)

What a waste of options. Well, I guess the very best thing I could give (not to mention the best I could think of) is a prayer.

A prayer is nice, right? For me, it is just right and it’s not just because I can’t think of anything else but because one; my school is a Christian school, two; the Almighty Being who would be listening to my prayer – I hope – would be pleased, three; my school deserves to be appreciated, four; I would really like to thank my school, and – last but not the least—five; maybe those who would be reading my blog would actually thank my school too. So I guess it’s decided that I’m gonna offer a prayer of thanks for my school as my gift to it. I’m going to TRY MY best to make the best thanksgiving prayer for my school ever!

                So instead of my usual poem, I would be posting in my blog my “gift” for my school for you to read.

Father God who is good and loving,

My school is one that is very giving. I’d really love to see the day it would be celebrating its very own 100^th birthday. So there’re so many things I’d like to say. But for now, Father, I would like to show my thanks for my school.

I would like to thank my school, because it has trained me with all its rules, because it has protected me from being too ignorant, because it has kept me from being part of chaos that’s rampant, because it has given to me the very best and that is knowledge about the world and how to live in it. These things it has given are what I am very lucky to receive. I would also like to thank You, Lord, for my school has given me the privilege of being called a Louisian and being one is no joke.

Father, may most, if not all, know more about what my school does for them and may they also realize that my school really deserves their appreciation. Father, I also thank You for blessing me with the opportunity to be able to study in a private school known as Saint Louis University Laboratory High School.

May You continue to hear me out and may You also continue to guide my school as it will be striving to achieve another hundred years of service to the young people of Northern Luzon so that it may continue to live up to its title, The Light of the North. Amen.

(Fine! So it may not be the best prayer ever but it’s the best prayer I could give)

Home? Which Home?

My School :D

I spend almost 10 hours every day for 5 days in a week (that makes, more or less, 250 hours a month for 9 months every year) in the same building, same room. This year I am now studying in a classroom called 3 Mapagpakumbaba containing 19 students. I have 11 teachers; each having a subject to teach us and every day we have 2 breaks (one for recess [20 minutes] and one for lunch [an hour]). The 30 people I meet every day were the ones I met the day before today and the day before that. So if you think, “Hmm, I’m thinking that you’re talking about your home, with students and teachers and subjects” you’d be so wrong.

You’re probably wondering why the heck I’m doing all this Math here. You’re probably not minding my blog title and still wondering why I’m doing my Math. Well, I’m doing my Math because I’m trying to give you a better understanding on the school I am currently studying in. My school, Saint Louis University Laboratory High School, is where I study, where I learn.

School, school, school. It’s always that and sometimes, almost always, we just wish that it would be vacation already; however, with all the hours we spend every day with our classmates and teachers, we can’t help but find more reasons to go to school aside from just to get a good education. In time, we get closer to everybody, we form bonds and links that – after time passes – will be harder to break. We are relational beings who, in a way, easily connect with our fellow beings. School’s where we find friends and new family, aside from the one we already have at home.

In school, we get to discover things. Especially in this school, there are many great things that are learned and are put into our minds that would eventually stay in our heart for the rest of our short lives. We find lots of reasons for getting out of bed and taking a cold shower and eat cold food and everything else that’s cold and those reasons aren’t just about learning things. We can call our school our other home.

When I was young, I was always taught that a home is a house but is different from a house because there are people living in it that love each other. To be more technical let’s take a definition from the internet. A home according to thefreedictionary.com (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/home), a home is a dwelling place together with the family or social unit that occupies it. A school is a place where we dwell with social units occupying a room called a classroom, so technically a school is a home.

I consider my school as my other home because right now in my current stage of development, I hate being alone, I don’t want to be left out I need my classmates and teachers to show me the way, and by way I mean the right way of course. My current teachers and classmates now are the BEST that I have had during all the 10 years I’ve already been spending in going to school and having my education, so far, so that makes my life in this school a life in a home.

Let me now bring to you another short poem about my blog post.

My home not house, my school

Some people don’t think it’s cool

Sometimes this makes progress fast as a mule

Everywhere they imply a rule

To be followed and taken seriously

Or else we’ll start to think deliriously

This education we have is a true and useful gift

And might just be the big shift

Form a bad future to a good one

Just like going out from darkness and finally seeing the sun

 Image Link:http://www.friendster.com/photos/10361567/47800166/33633