Book Review: Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series

Last week I started reading the first book: "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief". Before reading these series all I knew about them was a blurry memory of the movie. The book is totally different from the movie and I made a comment about that in this POST. I finished the whole series (five books) in two weeks, and I consider that fast because I usually take half a week to a whole week to read one book, specially these ones because they are over 300 pages. All five books had the perfect amount of action and mystery, maybe the one thing that lacked over the first four books was romance, however it's acceptable because at the beginning Percy was only 12. The last book had a lot of action and the battle took about 80% of the book! Every quest was well written and planned, the characters were hilarious (specially Tyson), and the ending was perfect. 

When I was reading the first book I thought Hades was the bad guy (SPOILER) however, Hades turned out to be one of the good guys. The problem that led all of this to happen began with the god's ignorance towards the importance of their children. Dyonisious turned out to be a really good guy too. The ending was very surprising, I would never have thought that Luke could become good. He was just driven by his hate until he must have realized he was wrong. 

These series would've become a lot more popular if the movie had stuck to the book's plot, and if they had filmed the sequel right away rather than 3 years later. 

This series have been really good, and I would totally recommend it. Next stop: The Heroes of Olympus Series. I thought these series had other characters, but I read the description of "House of Hades" (book 4) and it mentioned Percy. So now I'm really excited to read them, just because of Percy and Annabeth. I really fell in love with those too. 

I can't get over the fact that I laughed A LOT with these book, primarily thanks to Tyson and his childish personality. Pony! he called Chiron, Chicken Pony! he called Blackjack and Fish Pony! he called Rainbow. That's what cracked me up the most. 

Books:
"Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief" 
"Percy Jackson and The Sea Monsters"
"Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse"
"Percy Jackson and The Battle of the Labyrinth"
"Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian"

YouTube Daily Shoutout #26

This first video is a cover of the song Animal of Miike Snow by Brandon and Leah. Brandon's father is Bruce Jenner, former Olympic and father of the Kardashian and Jenner kids. Leah's that was the guitarist of The Eagles. They got married and started doing music. Brandon's voice is so beautiful while Leah's is so unique and delicate. 

This second video is a from Anthony (smosh) and Kalel. They are making some drawings to people who send them stuff, and the drawings are totally improvised. I laugh a lot from these two. 

And last is a video I uploaded. It's from the Farewell Presentation we did at school, and these are the girls from my class dancing some traditional Chinese Dancing, a friend of mine doing a Kung Fu routine, ending with some modern dancing. They created the choreography from scratch and it turned out really good. 

Week #10 (07/01/13 - 07/07/13)

It's finally July!! Way past half the year! What about that? Oh my God this year has gone so fast, I can't believe next month I'll be moving out of my country! I can't believe this is my last month at FSU. July's not gonna be a very active month, rather a very busy one due to college and stuff.

On Monday I finished "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire and I literally gave it 5 stars! I said when I was halfway through the book that how can it get more interesting if the happy ending already happen on the middle of the book. Wrong was I, the story got more complicated and I liked it a lot. Now I'm gonna star reading "One Tiny Lie" by K. A. Tucker which is the sequel to "Ten Tiny Breaths", now this one is the sequel to the little sister's life when she's off to Princeton. This should be exciting. Now that I'm going off to college I like to read novels related to college, I feel related to them. The rest of the day I played Hay Day and did a paper due Tuesday, as always at last minute. Also a very big bird landed on my window! It's called Gallinazo here in Panama. It was HUGE, it's the second time I've seen one of these at home. The first time it was in front of my car and I realized when I got in and totally froze. This bird was bigger than my printer! And when he landed it had its wings all open. Traumatic. Also the total calories I consumed is humongous, I feel so bad. I didn't even realized I ate so much. I guess this is the purpose of counting your calories and I discovered that eating Mac and Cheese is not good. I consumed 2443 calories in total D: I also finished my paper in record time, I finished before 8:30 and I started today at around 5 or 4!

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to the library so they could teach us how to use the university's data base for our Final Paper (the research paper). After trigonometry, which was endless, I went for a froyo with Alex and bumped with my mom and that since they were picking me up because dad was using my car. I don't get why I couldn't use my car if my dad and mom went together to pick me up. At home I napped, read, and did nothing else at all; later at night I was curious if there was any photography course at USF because I have some spaces in blank - 3 spaces - and it turns out there is! Photography for beginners, Intermediate Photography, Advanced Photography and Special Topics Photography. It's so awesome that I can get to fill my blanks with subjects I like, there's also Keyboard Skills I so I can learn how to play the piano. How awesome is that? I think I'm going to take Photography I my second semester and then leave the other ones for my blank spaces in my last year, so that I can have some relaxation classes. Nothing is definite yet, but I do hope it works the way I'm planning. Countdown until Tampa from now: 46 days :)

On Wednesday I woke up at 8 AM and fell asleep again, that compared to the days when I woke up at 3 PM is such an improvement. It means that I'm getting used to waking up at 7 AM for classes. Alex came by because she had a lunch with some of her other friends nearby and it was easier for her to come here instead of her home. She came at noon and we hung out in the afternoon until 4 PM. Christian also came along, and I had forgotten how funny Christian was. I had a great time teasing Alex and laughing with them. I miss Rod :( it's been a while since I don't see him, I miss him so much. Lately our phone calls have been very short because we are both tired from college and doing homework. For dinner I had sushi from Sushi Express, a breaded roll. I'm always craving sushi but when I get it and am halfway through it I get sick of it, it's so weird. I think that's because there's took much of it. 9 PM and I still haven't studied for Thursday's English quiz :)

Thursday was a rough morning for me, I can't wait to go to Tampa and don't have to drive myself to school. I have tons of homework for next week, I'm gonna literally die from stress. At lunch I bumped with Alex at the library and we went together to the classroom, and she told me some gossip I'm really not content about... That saddened me the rest of the day. After class I stopped by Blockbuster to rent a movie and Rod was there to meet me, we spent like an hour searching for the right movie and ended up picking A Thousand Words starring Eddie Murphy. We stopped by McDonald's to buy some lunch and we used his discount from being from USMA. When we got to his house and decided to watch the movie we realized we left it in the car! And my car as at my place, so we would have to walk all the way there to get it so we decided to watch something online. We clicked on Spring Breakers starring Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudson, but the beginning was so sexual we paused it and started watching YouTube videos. Ricci, Rod's little brother, was bugging us all day. I was fine with it but it was getting into Rod's nerves. How cute that he now can greet you and say good bye, and count to 15 and also sing! It was so cute. Anyway, Rod was pretty pissed and that actually ruined our hang out. At the end of the day when he dropped me off, he was feeling ashamed and I was mad at him for ruining the day but I said something funny and we both laughed and that kind of lifted the tension and we were laughing. I love that even when we are mad, we can laugh at ourselves and be happy again. More than a couple of friends of mine applied for a Taiwan Scholarship, which usually awards people from my school because we are linked with Taiwan. But this year they only granted two and it was because Alhan and Sandra were the three highest positions at school, and those scholarships were set in stone. I thought my friends were going to get it, I'm really sad :( This year the scholarships organizations have been granting less and less scholarships than past years. I know how they feel, I mean, I lost a scholarship too with SENACYT; and let me tell you those people are VERY DISORGANIZED. They only thought that helps me through is that bigger things are waiting for me and I'll show them wrong. 

Friday was errands day, I woke up at noon and head out to pick up my passport. I finally have my Visa for college! No more paper work until orientation, YES! After that we stopped by the bank to get a new credit card for me for college; however, we didn't get anything done because my dad is the account's administrator and he's at the mine until the week after next. So funny what happened at the bank, here you can check it out: Spreading Joy? I also started with my Research Paper about the History of Lego, and so far so good. I hate research papers because you have to search and search and cite, and too much stuff compared to personal essays in which you just write. It's 10 PM and I've got 4 and a half pages from my 10 pages Research Paper. What am I going to do? I have only one more bullet to address and the conclusion, and that's not going to occupy more than 5 pages. I need to come up with more bullets or expand what I already have. I'm in trouble :( Close to midnight I was curious about the Lego collection I had, and went to the room it was to check it out. I was all dusty but other than that in perfect conditions. I moved them to my room and started playing for like an hour. I forgot how cool was playing with Legos, it's such a shame that I didn't had enough to keep building stuff. 

How to Come Up With Topics for Research Papers

I know several people that when they are able to chose a topic for an essay or a research paper they chose something really boring like World War II, or Abortion. The key to a successful paper is to write it about something you like. I've never written a paper about Racism or an Invasion when it's not mandatory. I always chose something I'm really interested in, that way I won't get bored researching about it. 

How to come up with an interesting topic? What are you into? Music, iPads, Dancing? Now combine that with:

History of (blank) 
Production of (blank)
Uses of (blank)
How to (blank)
Impacts of (blank) in society/children/future

And that's how you write an interesting paper for both you and your audience. 

For example, I have to write a research paper and I chose "History of Lego". 

"With more than 20 billion Lego bricks produced per year, more than 915 million ways to combine six Lego bricks and with a production of 306 million tyres a year, Lego, the world’s largest manufacturer brings joy to our children since 1932 (Lego Facts). Lego is a simple toy destined to become a complex structure. Kids, and even adults, from all around the world buy these simple plastic bricks in order to build bigger things such as a replica of the Eiffel Tower, or the Chinese Wall, or even Hogwarts from Harry Potter. We all know how successful the Lego brand is right now, but how did it all start?"

I learned lots of things about my favorite toy, and it's got enough facts for the professor to be satisfied. 

If you like Lego, you might also like this video:

Good Reads #2

For most of you is summer time! How exciting? Well not for me, I enrolled in summer term. Nevertheless, I still read quite a lot. And here are some readings I would like to share with you:

This name will sound totally bizarre  and it's not one of those, let's call them cliche book, those who become famous and have a movie and so on. This book was written in 2009 and it's called "Tales of the Madman Underground" by John Barnes. It took me more than  my average time to finish this book, besides that is over 500 pages, I had a really rough week that week. So back to the book, is about a group of teenagers who call themselves the Madmen Underground, this group was created in school to help children that had problems or act abnormal in class. The truth is, they do have problems at home, but the group never changed a thing because the instructors where, well... incompetent. This book narrates the story of Karl Shoemaker and peeks into everybody in the group's troubles. I learned a lot of humble from this book. It reminded me a little bit of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", they don't have as much similarities but still. 

Book #2 I recommend is called "The Edge of Never" by J. A. Redmerski (btw. just dicovered that it has a second part, I'll be giving you feedback of this one later when it's published). This book is not the normal romantic novels in which the boy meets the girl in school and they both have superpowers or whatever and they fall in love and more BS. I liked this book because the place they met was unusual, the activities they did were too. I mean they were on the road. I think a story is more exciting if it's on the road rather than a specific place. This book was one of the first ones I read after my three year long reading break, and I totally fell in love with it. The end was super shocking (in an amazing way) and I'm super excited to read the sequel. In conclusion, this book is very different from those you've read, and it'd worth a shot. 

And finally, book #3, for the fans of superpowers and heroes, is the Lorien Legacies. The Lorien Legacies consist of four books so far: "I Am Number Four", "The Power of Six, " The Rise of Nine" and soon to come out "The Fall of Five" by Pittacus Lore. I actually watched the movie several years ago, but as every reader tells you: the books are so much better than the actual movie. In this case the movie changed a lot of things. One thing I don't like about movies based on books is that most of the time they skip the very beginning of the book; usually the beginning of the book is the principal telling you his story, how he or she got there or just a peek of their personal thoughts. 
I actually discovered the book after I saw a movie, and I was in no intention to read the series. But one day at Target, I was searching for the Divergent series in hardcover so I could have it in my bookshelf additionally to the kindle version I have. And as I was walking through the aisle an old lady saw me taking a book: "Free Four", which was a little extension of Divergent; and asked me if that was part of the Lorien Legacies. I politely said no, and recommended the Divergent series, because the old lady was looking for something to read. As I recommended her my favorite book at the time she did the same, and I ended up purchasing "I Am Number Four".This book is about a group of alien kids than come from a just-destructed-planet, and their mission is to stay alive and develop their powers. They are distributed all over the world (initially only 9 kids), and their enemies are on the hunt for them. The thing is: they can only kill them in order, that is 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. This book was very very good, and for fiction fans this would be like the next Harry Potter (but not as great OBVIOUSLY). 

Week #3 - Vacay (05/06/2013 - 05/12/2013)

Monday I slept until 11:00 A.M that's not late for me, that's usually the time I wake up when I'm neither tired nor hyper. But today I had the privilege because I'm on my one week vacation! I went for lunch with my two best friends to La Nostra Pizza (which if you are in Panama, is located in front of Do It Center in El Dorado). We shared a Big Jim which had pepperonni, salami, chicken and ham. I also got a roommate request via RoomSync in Facebook (I'm going to University of South Florida this Fall). I never though I'd get a request... I'm shy, quiet, and pretty much a couch potato. The good news is my maybe roommate is too! How exciting to have someone as your roommate who is almost exactly like you. And at night I went to MMA. Today was full locks. Yuck! I got a sweat bath again.

My anniversary outfit: Wool sweater from
Zara and a Tribal skirt from Forever 21

On Tuesday I went to lunch with my BFF again to T.G.I. Friday's. We had the executive lunch where you can have an entree, main, and dessert for only $10. Then she came to my house and just hung out and watched YouTube videos (she's a big Rita Ora fan). At 7:00 P.M. my boyfriend took me out for dinner for our third anniversary. We went to La Hacienda Real, which is a Guatemalan steakhouse, my boyfriend ordered entails and I had a filet Mignon. We joined our meals with an amapola and a melon smoothie, and for dessert a strawberry cheesecake. The service was really good, and the quality of the food was outstanding. The tenderness of the steak was unique. And at the end of the day I fell asleep reading "Ruby Red" by Kerstin Gier. So far it's been a really good choice of reading. 

Wednesday was a lay back day. I woke up at 11;00 AM, did nothing for a while, had fried chicken for lunch, and went out to buy those plastic bags that shrink your clothes for my trip to Seattle. I also rented some movies in Blockbuster ("The Five-Year Engagement", "Rise of the Guardians", "Iron Man 1", "Wreck It Ralph", and "Here Comes the Boom"). I watched "The Five-Year Engagement" starring Jason Segel. I give it 3.8 stars. The beginning was a bit off, but I liked the end, plus I love Jason Segel. And at 9:30 PM I went for my MMA class. Guess what? I was the only one who showed up... Is it better to be the only one? or worst? In my case, it was for the better. The coach focused more on my techniques and helped me with special movements, because I'm very short, and some movements are harder to do the regular way.

On Thursday I woke up early to play tennis with my two cousins in the Sheraton Hotel. We are awful, but we play because we have played our whole life (that we have played our whole life doesn't mean we are good at it). After the match we went for lunch with our moms and our grandma. I had a sancocho (Panamanian soup), my younger cousin had some waffles, my older cousin a wrap, and mom and my aunt a salad and my grandma had a bandeja tipica (a dish full of native food). Have you heard "Warrior" of Demi Lovato? The lyrics are insane! I love how Demi writes, and also the way she sings it; because I can feel the pain in her eyes, even if I'm not seeing her. It's amazing. I also finished "Ruby Red" by Kerstin Gier, the epilogue blew my mind! However the actual ending of the book was kind of lame, although the end of "Ruby Red" was kind of lame, I bought "Sapphire Blue"(the sequel).

Good Reads

Here are some books I recommend for this month of May: 

"Wait For You" by J. Lynn is about a freshman who decided to leave her hometown in Texas and go to an out of state college. She decided to leave due to reasons of her past (boy problems), and she had no intend to have a relationship in her new life. However, she met Cam. Cam is so so so so sweet! I fell in love with him. Their love story is amazing. I give this book 4.8 stars.

"Avoiding Commitment" by K. A. Linde is somehow like "Wait For You", somehow in the sense that their present lives are affected by their past actions. However, I liked better "Avoiding Commitment". This story was so much original, and captivating. "Avoiding Commitment" as a sequel: "Avoiding Resposibility", which if you read the first book I'm sure you won't resist reading the sequel. I give this book 5.5 stars out of 5! I won't tell you who I fell in love with, because that would spoil you so bad. 

And if you are tired of silly romances and want some goddamn action on your readings, here is: "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. I read "Divergent" on December 2012, and every time someone asks me for a recommendation I recommend this book. Personally I didn't like "The Hunger Games" that much, and I would definitely choose "Divergent" over "The Hunger Games". Divergent is about a society divided into different sections depending on your personality. Amity (friendly), Erudite (knowledge), Dauntless (brave), Candor (honesty) and Abnegation (selfless). A war develops because the bad guys are trying to eradicate those who can qualify in more than one section (divergent).  I'm into romances a bit more than action novels, but this was definitely a 5 star.

Week #2 (04/29/2013 - 05/05/2013)

Monday was free because of Labor Day (here in Panama), so I decided to wake up at 7:00 AM (didn't happen) to spend the whole day studying for my math test. It all began with my finger touching the snooze button, one, two, three and plus more times until is was 9:30 AM. I can't believe I spent from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM studying, that's a new record for me! Of course I had my little breaks (including random dance breaks).

I did my exam on Tuesday, I don't wanna jinx it so I won't tell you how it went. Later in the late afternoon I went for a jog. I love running, because there's nothing else to think about than to keep up. I love the soreness in my muscles, and the pain it brings afterwards. I feel great with myself, inside and out. There's just one thing.. Every time I run I feel like I'm getting bigger rather than smaller, unlike MMA that does make me smaller. Today I ran 4 km. I also finished "It't Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini, totally recommend the book. I read Little Women when I was in 11th grade, and lately I've been craving to finish it. So I bought the Little Women series (Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys).

On Wednesday I spent the WHOLE day studying for my Biology Final. Thank God "Little Women" only cost $1 because I got pretty bored, so I decided to leave it alone until I crave it again and leave it again. So, new book: "Ruby Red" by Kerstin Gier. My boyfriend gave it to me as a gift for our 3rd anniversary this May 7th :).

I did my one to last Final Exam on Thursday, it was Biology. 5 chapters in one exam, studied in one day: INSANE. I think I did pretty well, plus there were like 20 points of extra credits and extra credit assignments. I mean.. with that much extra credit who wouldn't go well? The rest of the day I just battled with falling asleep while studying for my Psychology Final.

And finally Friday! I did great on my Psychology Final! The rest of the day I slept, saw "New Year's Eve", and doodled. I did a Pikachu, I'm not that good at drawing but it makes me relax and have fun. About the movie, I can't believe I haven't seen it until today. I already saw the one of Valentine's Day, and I like these movies. It's funny how you can tell many stories in one movie and connect them someway at the end. What we need now is a funny Thanksgiving's movie.

Enjoy everyday as if it's your last. 

YouTube Daily Shoutout

I discovered JacksGap about a week ago, it's hilarious. And his also handsome ha ha. So I thought this would be a great idea to do sometime... Maybe never; but nonetheless, it's in my bucket list.

Beatrice Miller was my favorite contestant in The X Factor US season 2. Her voice is so unique, I love her voice to death. Plus here she's doing a cover of "When I Was Your Man" which is from my favorite singer Bruno Mars, and I loved her performance.

And finally, some Smosh!, you can't really go to YouTube without watching at least one Smosh! video.

A Powerful Mind - How To Manage Stress

There are two types of stress for me: the one where you are totally blocked and you barely make it through just before falling into the deadly tentacles of death, and the one where I feel it extremely easy to finish a task thanks to the motivation of stress.

Now. How do I transform the first type of stress (let's call it the Tentacles of Death), to the second type (the Anchor To Happiness)? For me it's simple, maybe for you it's different but we may have some similarities. What I do is visualize myself finishing everything I have to do, and when I finish visualizing it I realize it's really simple. And that whatever is stopping me from getting there is pure bullshit.

So whenever I'm blocked I just visualize, for example: today I have to study five chapters of Biology for the day after tomorrow. Gosh that sounds like a lot doesn't it? Well maybe if I just spend an hour on each chapter without any distractions, I might finish and still have time to catch up on my reading this week (It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, that's where I got the tentacles and anchor stuff).

The only obstacle in between you and your Anchor of Happiness is yourself (actually just your mind), and how can you counter the Tentacle of Death? With mind itself. Mind vs. mind. You are your own enemy.

Recommended book: It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, what I learn from this book (and I haven't finish it yet) is that school might seem like a huge problem, like getting a job and having a place to live are all you need. But really, that's not the meaning of life. It's not up to me to describe what's its meaning, but I think you get the idea.