Alex Rider : Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz - Print Review

Ian Rider's Car

A Four-teen years old boy Alex Rider had just found out that his uncle, Ian Rider, had died. The Police told him that his uncle died in a car accident, which Alex believed until he saw the bullet holes in the window of his uncle's BMW. Turns out, his uncle works for Britain's top spying agency - MI6. Alex was forced to join the force by Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones. His Mission was to find out what was the deadly secret of the Stormbreaker computers created by Herod Sayle. After all the training, MI6 told him that Yassen Gregorovich was the man who killed his uncle. When Alex was ready, Mr Smithers give him the secret weapons that he needed. Alex was disguised as Felix Lester, who won the contest to meet Herod Sayle, but that boy is somewhere in
Florida. Staying in Herod Sayle's house give him a great advantage. He had found a note stuck to the ceiling, which was written by his uncle. He tried to figure out what it was until he reached a set of secret stairs, and Alex thought that was where all the secret is. Through out the stay, Alex saw Yassen Gregorovich, managed to escape and kill men on quads and made tons of mistakes that he shouldn't have done. Luckily one day, Herod Sayle told him what Ian Rider did as they were chatting because he was getting suspicious. When Alex got the chance, he went to the library for help. There, he noticed the code on the bottom of the note was actually representing a book, and the diagram represented a passage way to get to the other side of the door underground. Alex started following it immediately, since his uncle was there before him, his uncle had left some pretty useful stuff in the tunnels. After all the hard work , Alex finally managed to get into the room, and discovered a deadly secret - Herod Sayle is attaching a disease that would kill thousands of people once the computers are activated ! Alex escaped and came through traps, but as usual he found his way around them. Knowing that he must warn the prime minster who was going to activate the computers, he made efforts trying to attempt the plane. He was trapped though, all sorts of security cars and guards were surrounding him, he tricked them into attacking each other. Alex finally arrived at London, just in time to stop the computer activation. Sure enough, he did. He knew Herod Sayle did it for a reason - to take revenge on the Prime minster, but he was killed by Yassen. Yassen told Alex to never do this again and saluted as he flew away on his plane. Alex was proud of himself, even though he had injured himself quite a lot of times, but he had saved thousands of children!

The Main Idea of this story is about Alex making all the efforts trying to finish the job that his uncle left off- to find the horrible secret of the Stormbreaker computers. While he's doing that, he gets in trouble and all sorts of obstacles lay ahead of him. Through out the book he finds new discoveries and saves the world.

Characters in this story:

Main Characters:

 Alex Rider - The fourteen years old boy, who goes on the mission called Stormbreaker.

 Herod Sayle - The man who created the dangerous computers

 Mr.Grin - Butler/The man who kept on sending killers to kill Alex.

 Other Characters:

Ian Rider - Alex's uncle and a MI6 spy.

Jack Starbright - House Keeper/A girl who takes care of Alex.

Alan Blunt/Mr Blunt - Chief executive of MI6

Mrs Jones - Head of operations ( sends spies on missions)

  

Crawly - Driver/ employee of the MI6

Mr. Smithers - The man who makes all the secret weapons for the spies to carry.

Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Fox - members of the K unit training center

Nadia Vole - A employee at the Sayle enterprise

Yassen Gregorovich - Assassin/ contact killer of Sayle Enterprises.

The best part of the book was when Alex found out the deadly secret of the Stormbreaker computers, because that means he had succeeded on his mission. The whole point of this mission was to found out the secret of those computers and Alex managed to do it. Also, when he discovered the secret he was able to stop them since he know what was in the computers . He was warn the Prime Minister so that nobody gets infected from those computers.

The worst part of the book was when Herod Sayle was about to kill Alex, because it would be sad and depressing if Alex died. It also wouldn't be exciting to read the other books if the main character died in the first book. Therefore, the ending was predictable ( Alex can't die or the gun had no bullets in it , anything to prevent Alex from dying ) So that wasn't a good thing to read about and that's why I didn't like that part of the book.

In my opinion, this book was well written and exciting. Although it may include a lot of violence, but mainly it's made up of adventure and action. I really recommend this book , it's just want you want if you like action, adventure and hidden secrets/ mystery. Have fun reading this book, and by the way you should read the series too. It gets more and more exciting. So you should seriously start reading this book!

Rating :9/10 

 

 

X&Y by coldplay - Music Review

The lyrics of this album is pretty good with no bad words. The album starts off with the song "Square one". Square one is about someone who's stuck in the same old  mood and place. Their life just wouldn't be exciting or moving on. In other words they are trapped in square one. "What if " is the second song. This song talks about all the things that could go wrong and how to solve them. The third song which is " White shadows is about people missing opportunity and have lost something, then tries to make it up.Which every white shadow in this song represents. Here comes the forth, "Fix you". Fix you is basically about when you don't get what you want , rich your goals or whatever you wanted to do, never give up, someone could be there to help you and go through it together. Moving on " Talk" is the fifth song. When you can't get through or having trouble with something you should always talk to someone. If someone else is like that you should help them as well. If you paid attention to the title you'll know that the next song is the title of the album. " X& Y" is about going through something together and never let each other go ( love song). This next song will relate to all our lives. " The speed of sound" is the next song. It is about how fast life goes and if you miss something you'll never get it back, so you must not waste your life and treasure every good moments. " a massage " is the eighth song. It is basically about a person that trying to get  a massage (``I love you``) though to the person he loves. The next song called "Low" is about when your life is plain and you never know what's going to happen, until you try. This next song is super romantic called " Swallowed in the sea" which is about two people that belonged to each other and nothing could drive them apart. The eleventh song is "The hardest part" which is about when someone broke another person's heart. "Twisted logic" is the 12th song. That is about " Don't go after something that you don't belong too or something that will make you step back. If you don't then you'll step forward." Til Kingdom comes" is another romantic song. It is about a guy that waited a long time to be with a girl and she's everything to him. The last song is called " How you see the world" It is just your perspective of the world and all the good things and the bad things that happen and how you can take it. What a long album!

The mood of the album is mostly romantic songs.Because this album is dealt with love. For example ; X and Y, Til Kingdom comes and Low.  So, the songs may sound quiet most of the times as for other songs in this album sounds pretty exciting. Like I said in the beginning, there are no bad words in this album which makes it appropriate for the children and teenagers. That's also pretty impressive for an album with love songs in it. This is an album that is really creative.

The best part of this album is when I got to listen to "fix you". This is a song that explains " not everyone is perfect", but someone will help you to be " perfect ". Not only were the lyrics great, but the background music too. Also,in the song it says " lights will guide you home " . I think that means "follow your path to success" or" go for your dreams. This song was very encouraging and has a beautiful instrumental sound.

The worst part of the album is when the song "white shadows" came on. To tell you the truth I don't really understand it. So I had to read the lyrics over and over again, just to find out what they were trying to say. Another thing is that it talks about the white shadows at the first two verses and talk on to something else in the other verses, so it confused me a bit. That's why I thought this was the worst part of the album.

In my opinion, this album was really good. Simply because most songs in this album has awesome instrumental music and the lyrics were well written as well. So I suggest you listen to this album, it won't be as exciting at the beginning, but it will get really awesome so just be a little patient. If you are patient then you'll find out the goodness of this album, like the caramel in a chocolate. Have fun listening to this album!

Rating : 8/10

Movie Review - The Hobbit :an unexpected journey

                                                                                    

There once lived a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. The old wizard Gandalf  had come to take him on an adventure. When Bilbo accepted the contract with the dwarfs and Gandalf , he was part of their team. They had a map, and there is a secret passage inside the mountain. Only the elves can read it. The dwarfs wanted to get back their homeland that was taken from them by the dragon named Smaug. Meanwhile, Radacast notices something is wrong. Of course their  mission wasn't easy now, they had to face the goblins and trolls.With Radacast's help,they escaped the goblins and into a cave where they found swords and other goods. They went to the elves palace for the reading of the map's hidden words. They had to fight against the trolls. While the dwarfs were fighting the trolls, Bilbo fell off the bridge into a dark place. That place was where Gollum lived, he had dropped the golden ring, which Bilbo kept. As the team got out of the cave they were immediatly attacked by wolves. Azog had come to kill Thorin., but Bilbo stopped him. Gandalf had called white birds to help them during the fight . They finally got away on huge white birds , but what they didn't know was that the dragon was awake. Their adventure continues.

Characters in this movie:

 Main Characters:

Gandalf - The Old Wizard

Bilbo  - The Hobbit

Thorin - The Prince and the leader of the dwarfs

Other Characters:

Balin, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Nori , Dori and Ori - The Dwarfs

Thoror - The Dwarf - king

Thrain - The father of Thorin

Radacast - a wizard and animal lover

Elrond - Lord of Rivendall

Galadriel - Co - ruler of  Lothlorien

Sarumen - an istari and Wizard.

Thranduil - the elvenking

Tom, William and Bert - Three of the trolls

The great goblin - king of the goblins

Gollum - a stoor and ancient ring bearer

Azog - Orc captain

The best part of the movie was when Azog was about to slice Thorin's head off, but Bilbo stopped him by running into him with  a sword. That was the best part because Bilbo showed bravery and saved Thorin's life. Also, when Azog was about to slice Thorin's head, it's over for the dwarfs. Luckily, Bilbo stepped in to stop Azog which showed he kept his promise ( to help get the dwarfs land back). Because of him, Thorin knew he had the chance to get his homeland back. That's what made it interesting and exciting.

The worst part of the movie was when Bilbo denied the contract at first. It wouldn't make sense for the hobbit to have" an unexpected adventure " if he already denied the contract to go on the adventure. It makes you confused and you would know what happens next ( he would run to the dwarfs to accept the contact)  so  that would make the part not very interesting. Another thing is that they already planned everything out and Bilbo just denied the contract, that showed the dwarfs failed to get an extra person and will have to go on with one person short. Isn't that not fair? It's like Gandalf lied to them( Gandalf said the hobbit would be sure to help them out ) and Gandalf was so sure that the hobbit would help them. The front cover of the movie is all about the hobbit going on an adventure, and he just denied the contract which was sad and not a good part in the movie. But luckily, he signed the contract the next day.


In my opinion, this movie was pretty good considering the fact that it had way more good parts than bad parts. I suggest you watch this movie. It has a lot of action, humor and a catchy ending. Overall I liked this movie because I like movies that has those three characteristics. If you ever watched the "lord of the rings" movies, you'll like it even more. This movie deserves a lot of people to watch it and enjoy it.

I give this movie a 8/10

Is Social Media a good thing or a bad thing?

One word, both. Social media is a good and bad thing. It's half and half. It's good because it can make connections between people , it's also a easier way of contacting each other. It' also bad because there will be dangerous situations like : Strangers pretending to be someone you know, people posting pictures of you etc.......That's why, social media is a bit of both.

Let's talk about the good side of Social media first. It is a good way of contacting your friends. You can chat with your friends anywhere, and stay in touch. For example ; When your friend goes on vacation, and you miss your friend you could contact her/him through social media instead of spending money on long distance calls. Another thing is that you can share a lot of things with your friends. Like, posting a picture of a place that you've been to, or your brand new pet etc....Most importantly, it links you and your friends together.

Now, onto the bad side of social media. What if  a stranger pretends to be someone you know and asks you to meet them, and you thought that was actually your friend, you could get tricked and get kidnapped or something. Also, someone take inappropriate  pictures of you without you noticing and posting it on any kind of social media.Then people would stay away from you just because of that picture and they would think that how you actually are. However that's not the most scariest thing. The scariest thing is that you could get cyber bullied and you don't know who's doing it to you. For example ; You could get threats on social media, someone could say mean things about you continuously and you can' t ignore them. They could also post a nasty comment about you and convince a lot of people to turn against you. Something bad could happen to you. So always be careful on social media. You never know. Always be cautious!

Now you know that social media has both sides. It's very good and very bad at the same time. Make sure that you never set your profile picture as your face because someone could search you up. But you could always stay in touch with your friends. So, that's what social media looks like if never been on social media and why it's both good and bad. Always enjoy what's good about it, and always stay safe from what's bad about it!

What's in the beef?

Warning! E. coli is in the beef. The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has found out that the dangerous toxin know as E Coli has been making a lot of people sick. It turns out that the XL foods of Brooks, Alberta are where all the problems started. Luckily we had the CFIA on the case. They found out what's wrong and now the USA is taking over the operation of the brooks plant so no more beef will be infected. We were safe from those bacteria because of the work of the CFIA agents. But what might happen if we didn't have that team? What would we do without them? Would we still be safe?

No. I don't think we'll EVER be safe from the E.coil out break if there were no government food inspection agency. What will happen is that people will continue to be sick and the population would decrease. In the article it says “In the U.S, an estimated 73,000 people a year are sickened by the bacteria, and 61 die." That was what was already happening when the CFIA began to investigate. Just imagine how many people would suffer even more if we didn't have a CFIA team? Think about it, if we didn't know where that disease was coming from we don't even know if it contained E.coli or not. We might not even now if it was even THAT harmful. Since so many people are sick and dead. The population would go down as well.

The reason that make me fell reassured about the safety of Canada's food supply is that CFIA has made sure that the problems that had made people sick has been resolved and that the XL foods said they would make sure it never happens again. The reasons that make me feel less certain about the safety of the food I eat is that not all people ate that beef or other foods that are contaminated with E.coli to have that disease. It was passed on, more and more people were becoming sick because it was spread across the country. That's the dangerous thing. Another thing is that the serious infection is what made the disease spread. In the article it says" Symptoms can show up within hours or may take up to 10 days to appear." and " Some people show no symptoms at all but can still pass on the disease." That means when you don't seem to have symptoms you would think you are okay and then accidently pass it on to someone else. Also when someone doesn’t show symptoms at all and you think they are perfectly fine, the disease will pass on to you when you have caught their germs. Scary things like those could happen any day.

Man, I don't know how we would have survived the disease if there was no CFIA team. That would result horribly. Fortunately, we do have a CFIA team and they saved the day. “The agency said it was confident that the problems that had lead to the contamination of beef had been resolved." That was what the article had said. So I guess we are safe from the disease. At least for now.

Intelligent life on other planets? Maybe. - my point of view

This is a good question. It's also hard to answer as well. I mean, if I don't think there is intelligent life on other planets.  I have a hard time explaining why if  there's a  question that is : why would scientists still trying hard to find one ? Why don't they just get it over with and say " no such thing"? But if I say that I think there is intelligent life on other planets, then I still will have the same kind situation like the first one. But this time there is another question:" How came for years after years scientists hadn't found any life yet? It has to show up sometime if it exists right? Here's the good part though: It's in my opinion.

I do think that there is life on other planets. Why? Because scientists have found some things that a life form would need to have. I read a article from "The National Geographic". It said in the article that scientists have found "sugar "in space which is also referred to as organic molecules that is made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Scientists said that the carbon- rich molecules are another source of  the building blocks of life. So there might, just maybe that life could exist on other planets.

Another thing is, because that scientists have been searching so long about this. They had such a strong desire to keep an eye out if there has ever been life on mars or other planets. It inspired a lot of people too. I think that there has too be a reason that so many people believe that there is intelligent life on other planets. There is more people that believe it than people that don't. Most people do, I think it's because scientists have given them hope by believe in it, or most importantly found evidence that there could be intelligent life on other planets.

Since I believe in it, then I suppose that maybe, just maybe one day there will be intelligent life on other planets , or not. Well, let's find out in the future.

Three things I want to change about myself

     No one is perfect. But you can change things about yourself. Now, what I'm about to change about myself  isn't about being perfect, but it is about what will be important for me.
The three things I want to change about my self  : being gifted at science, to be more talkative, and the ability to manage time.
     
     I'm not saying that science is my worst subject, but I am saying I am not that good at science. I want to be a doctor when I grow up, to do that I must be good at science first in order to study medical school. My standard right now is not good enough. I know this sounds more like a goal than like something that would be changed. But my point is that it is not that easy to be good at it. Science involves thinking and understanding. Unlike history where you just have to memorize what you learned. I think being good at science is a major step to being a doctor. There is something that I could do though. That is when ever I don't understand something I could always ask the teacher or do extra studying at home.

     Have you ever been quiet most of the time? either you are shy or just don't like to join in conversations? Well, to tell you the truth that's exactly the  kind of  person I am. But I don't want to be like that. I mean, when I grow up probably have to communicate with all sorts of people that I don't know. If I won't join in with my classmates in conversations now, what are the chances that I could make conversations with other people that I don't even know years after? So I need to remind myself these words : I NEED TO TALK MORE! Because this is very important. I should join in conversations with my classmates more often. Then that will change.

     Now, this is the most important thing of all! The ability to manage time is my worst ability. I should seriously pick up the pace. Because every time I plan something the timing for something it always goes over the time that I expected to finish at. I hate it when this happens. If I had the ability to manage time, it would save me a whole lot trouble. I need to finish things in the time I expect myself to finish. So I will be able to make time for other things. This is important because being able to manage time is the major key to getting a job and what your boss will expect from you when you have the job.

Those are the three things that I want to change about myself, and I believe in myself that I could do it. I hope I will not forget about what I just wrote. I will accomplish this!!!