Chapters 14-16

I read three chapters again this week. I guess I’ll just get right down to it then, chapter 14 was when Eragon and Arya finally returned to the Varden. His 12 elf body guards come to meet him and everyones yelling stuff like hi shadeslayer and stuff like that. Oh and some lady yells “Will you marry me?” . Anyway eventually Roran and Katrina pushed their way through the crowd and greeted him. Basically it was a lot of greetings. Eragon, Arya, and Saphira werethen invited to Nasuada’s tent to catch up and stuff. However there were lots of people there who also greeted Eragon. And as one group of people left another group came in. Eventually Saphira had to growl to get them to leave. The main thing Nasuada and King Orrin wanted to know is what really happened at Helgrind. Before he can say though Orrin and Nasuada get into an argument about how they have equal power and stuff -.- sigh. Eventually they come to an agreement and Eragon tells them exactly what happened. Then after everyone has left besides Eragon and Nasuada she invites him to a dinner later for political stuff. As Eragon goes to get all dressed up and clean he does a little thinking about Murtagh’s old sword which he keeps under his cot. Eventually he decides he shouldn’t use it and puts it away. When Eragon arrives at the dinner he is surprised that it is filled with his friends (a gift from Nasuada). Eragon enjoys himself and the food. During the party Roran asks Eragon to marry him and Katrina. So Eragon suggests the ceremony be conducted in a month or so. Roran says however it can’t wait or else everyone would be gossiping, I honestly laughed at that part (if you don’t get it you fail). Anyway later he also talks with Nasuada again and she gives him the next two days off to relax. bye

Chapters 11-13

This week I read three chapters…whoa…so yeah I guess I made up for the one chapter over break. These chapters were pretty boring though, with only one thing of interest happening in each one. Other than that it was just a bunch of unimportant filler. The interesting thing in chapter 11 was that the elfish mages sent to protect Eragon arrived. Oh yeah this chapter is from Nasuada’s point of view. Anyway some other unimportant things were that the main elf looked like a werewolf and one of Nasuada’s guards talked with her about a motto. Chapter 12 was back with Eragon and Arya. All they really do in this chapter is walk along the road. Until some soldiers stop them and try to force them into the army. I will now account the deaths of the soldiers as this was the most interesting part of all three chapters. Eragon killed the first guy by throwing a pebble denting the helmet and skull of the soldier. Then he grabbed one of the soldier’s spears and killed that guy to. Meanwhile Arya is just kicking/kneeing other soldiers and killing them. Then 4 of the remaining soldiers rush Eragon, he twists around the first guy and slashes him with his own sword, he breaks the necks of the next two, and finally punches a guy right in his chest so hard he flies back 12 feet with a big dent in his armor. At this time Arya is still fighting two soldiers and one is making a run for it. Eragon runs after him and the whole way the guy is begging Eragon not to kill him. However Eragon catches him and strangles him. Then he and Arya stab the dead soldiers so it looks like a battle between soldiers not an elf and a dragon rider just punching people. They decide not to walk on the road anymore. Chapter 13: probably the most boring of the three, Eragon and Arya are sitting around their campfire with Eragon wining about being uncomfortable with killing people and asking Arya lots of questions. He makes her a flower with magic and she is all happy and stuff and she plants it in the ground. Eventually some glowing orb things show up and the touch them and its all happy. By the way the orbs are spirits. Oh and they turn the flower Eragon made into a gold flower with diamonds on it that is still alive. That’s how it ends…

Annotation #2

Martin, Terry. "The Health Risks of Smoking." About.com. 18 June 2008. 7 Dec 2008
<http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tobaccorelateddiseases/a/smokingrisks.htm>.

Terry Martin, the author of this article, was a smoker for 26 years and is now helping others to overcome this horrible habit. Her article lists the numerous ways smoking over 4000 chemicals (one puff of cigarette smoke) can harm your body. She lists effects such as, “Smell and staining” of the hair, “Less sense of smell”, “Wrinkles”, and “Cancer”. Eventually listing over 20 different body parts smoking affects.

Annotation #1

United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service.
The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services--Secondhand Smoke Exposure in the Home. By the Surgeon General. June 2006. <http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307-0-5924&artno=0000249408&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=&title=The%20Health%20Consequences%2E%2E%2ESecondhand%20Smoke%20Exposure%20in%20the%20Home&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=Y>. SIRS Government Reporter. ProQuest Information and Learning. North Library, Anytown, TX. 7 Dec. 2008 <http://www.proquestk12.com>.

The author, the Surgeon General, uses information he has gathered to show the effects of secondhand smoke on children and adults. He showed that most second-hand smoke damage happens within the home and other indoor areas. He gave facts and statistics supporting his argument, such as “Almost 60 percent of U.S. children aged 3-11 years-or almost 22 million children-are exposed to secondhand smoke.” and “Secondhand smoke exposure in the home has been consistently linked to a significant increase in both heart disease and lung cancer risk among adult nonsmokers”. He also suggests a law be made banning smoking in the home and other indoor areas to limit the effects of secondhand smoke.

Chapters 9-10

Ok I’m back to two chapters again. This week I read chapter 9: Escape and Evasion and chapter 10: A Delicate Matter. Chapter 9 is from Eragon’s point of view again. It’s pretty much just him running the whole time. There’s a brief conflict with some soldiers but Eragon makes himself invisible and that all until he reaches the town of Eastcroft. He preferred to bypass the town but he couldn’t and went inside the gates. He went to the local inn to find a place to sleep for the night. In the bar in the inn he noticed someone at a table. It was Arya. They talked about the current position they were in and why she was here. In the morning they left the city and contacted Nasuada. That chapter ends with them continuing to run. Chapter 10 is more from Roran’s point of view. At first he is lifting some boulders and training. Then he went to his house and prepared himself to meet with Nasuada. When he arrived he and Nasuada talked about the problems occurring because of him. She is not sure whether she completely trust him or not yet. So to prove his loyalty she wants him to go to battle under a veteran who would report to her about his abilities and such. However Roran wishes to delay his sending so that he and Katrina can be married by Eragon. Nasuada agrees but wants him fighting the day after. And that’s the end of that. Bye.

Chapter 8

Because I’m lazy and its thanksgiving break I decided to only read one chapter. I read chapter 8: Winged Tidings. Ok so it’s right after the trail of the knives and were still seeing things from Nasuada’s point of view. The chapter starts with Nasuada unconscious and her helpers trying to get her to wake. She gets up and continues to refuse to treat her cuts. They talk about this for a while and Nasuada continues to refuse. Eventually someone tells her that they see Eragon and Saphira. Nasuada is glad they are safe and goes to Saphira’s special landing area. Once there she can just make out Saphira shining in the distance. As Saphira approaches though Nasuada realizes that Eragon isn’t with her. When Saphira does eventually land Nasuada greets Roran and Katrina as they dismount. Then she continues to ask about Eragon and his whereabouts. Saphira tells her that he decided to go his own way. Rather than explain Saphira just shows them her memories of Helgrind and Eragon and the fighting that happened. After that Arya (elf) runs off to try and find him. Nasuada yells to her not to go but it’s too late, Arya is already gone. Well there you go maybe I’ll post a two chapter post next time…if your lucky.

Chapters 6-7

Continuing in Brisingr, this week I read chapters 6 and 7; entitled “To Walk the Land Alone” and “The Trial of the Long Knives”. In chapter 6 Eragon doesn’t know what to do with Sloan so he asks the queen of the Elves (Islanzadi). After a brief discussion of the current status on the warfront they decide on Sloan’s fate. Eragon then goes to tell Sloan of his judgment. Eragon will not kill Sloan but instead will send him across vast land to go to the Elfish city of Ellesmera. He forces Sloan to take binding vows to not only go to Ellesmera but also to never see nor contact his daughter ever again. Sloan breaks down at this and curses Eragon. Nonetheless in the morning he heads out on his journey. There is also a reward unknown to him that he will receive if he truly regrets his crimes. The elves will restore his eyesight. Then in chapter 7 our gaze moves to Farthen Dur where the Varden (rebels) has its base. We see Nasuada (leader of the Varden) having an argument with a nomadic tribe’s warlord, Fadawar. He wants his people to be placed in positions of power in the Varden because he is related to Nauada. However she believes people living in Farthen Dur could do a better job. Eventually he challenges her to the Trial of the Long Knives. The winner is decided by who can endure the most cuts on their arms and the winner becomes leader of the Varden and the nomadic tribe. They took turns cutting each other until eventually Fadawar summits. And that’s pretty much how it ends so good bye for now.

Book choice

Im gonna read Brisingr for Quarter 2. im readin this book because its the third and final book in the Inheritence (Eragon) series. Also ive already started it and dont want to re-read the stuff i already read at the end ofthe quarter...so ya I pick Brisingr by Christopher Paolini.

Chapters 4-5

This week I read chapters 4-5, Divergence and Rider and Ra’zac. I left off last time just when Eragon opened the cell and revealed Sloan. He had been sleeping and was awoken by Roran trying to free Katrina. When he opens his eyes…there aren’t any, the Ra’zac pecked his eyes out. So now Eragon has a problem. He’s debating whether to kill Sloan or let him live. He reasons that if he let him live the town’s people would just kill him because he is a traitor. So he can’t bring him back. He could also just kill him right now and say he found him dead. But he can’t bring himself to do that because he is Katrina’s dad and because all heroes are pushovers. He decides on a dangerous plan to do I don’t know what and proceeds to release Katrina from her chains and Eragon tells her that her dad is dead. Eragon tells Roran and Katrina to ride Sapphira back to camp while he looks for the Ra’zac as he says. Reluctantly all three leave and Eragon is alone in the cave. At first Eragon tries to make a deal with the remaining Ra’zac, but it eventually turns into a fight and Eragon kills the Ra’zac. Now he goes to get Sloan. First he puts a sleeping spell on him then lifts him onto his back. He descends a cliff with Sloan and that pretty much ends the chapter. Till next time.

Chapters 2-3

Welcome back to my blog. That was a really boring introduction. Whatever, this week I read chapters 2-3 in Brisingr, Around the Campfire and Assault on Helgrind. In Around the Campfire it’s the night before Eragon and Roran go inside Helgrind. There is nothing to interesting in this chapter. They just do a bunch of stuff like showing of scars, Eragon heals some scars, and they talk about how difficult tomorrow will be. Eragon does try to teach his cousin some magic and a way to defend his mind from being read. Roran fails at magic but does create a pretty strong barrier with his mind…until a noise startles him and he fails at that to. That’s all that happened in that chapter. The next chapter, Assault on Helgrind, was when they actually went inside Helgrind. SURPRISE! Anyway before they went in they did notice the slaves attached to the rocks (see last post) were gone. That meant the Ra’zac were there. First they flew over it to try and find a way inside. They didn’t see a way and decided to blast their way in. When they touched the walls though their hands went trough. It was a hologram! The Tower of Helgrind was actually just a big cave. Suddenly out spring the Lethrblaka (the Ra’zac’s mounts and parents) and attack Sapphira. While Sapphira is fighting those two the Ra’zac attack Roran and Eragon. Eragon used a spell to blind one of the Lethrblaka and then Sapphira killed it. Meanwhile Eragon was being protected by Roran when Roran got sliced by a Ra’zac. Eragon then either knocked out or killed one of the Ra’zac and disarmed the other. Sapphira and the remaining Lethrblaka rolled out of the cave and continued to fight. The injured Ra’zac carried the other out and away into the tunnels. Eragon and Roran chased them. They followed the dark tunnel until an arrow was shot at them. Eragon and Roran avoided it and Eragon used a spell to light up the cave. The light reveled and stunned a Ra’zac behind and in front of them. Roran immediately attacked the one behind with his hammer and crushed its skull. The other Ra’zac escaped. Sapphira had returned and had killed the second Lethrblaka. Roran then set to work at freeing Katrina from her cell well Eragon searched the other cells. He found what he didn’t want to find Sloan (town butcher/Katrina’s dad/betrayed Roran). And that’s how the chapter ends. Ok I’m tired now seriously I’m going to go take a nap or something.

Chapter 1-The Gates of Death

Hello everyone! Let me start with my amazement at the lack of comments on my last post, I practically set you guys up with that one. Anyway Brisingr has finally arrived. I’ve read the synopsis of Eragon and Eldest and I read Chapter One “The Gates of Death”. I really needed that synopsis otherwise I would’ve had no idea what was happening because it’s been like a year or two since I finished Eldest. I’ll summarize the synopsis for you. First off Eragon was a poor farmer boy living with his uncle Garrow and his cousin Roran. One day Eragon found a blue stone. Eventually it hatched into a dragon and Eragon named her Saphira. He then meets Brom who eventually tells him about the dragon riders and becomes his teacher. Brom teaches Eragon magic and how to fight with a sword. However Brom is killed by the Ra’zac (evil creatures controlled by the evil king Galbatorix) who would’ve killed Eragon to but Murtagh stepped in and drove them off. Wow this is way too long I’m going to skip some stuff and make it real brief. There’s a big battle with the Varden (rebels) and the urgals (ork type things). Murtagh goes missing. Eragon trains with elves and they fight another big battle. Surprise there’s another rider. Gasp! It’s Murtagh! Plot twist! Murtagh is Eragon’s older brother! OH SNAP! Oh and Eragon promised to help Roran get his fiancée (Katrina) back from the Ra’zac. That’s the synopsis now for chapter one. In chapter one Eragon and Roran are outside a tower called Helgrind where they believe Katrina is being held. Before Eragon can search the tower with his mind (ya he’s that good) some priests (most have missing limbs) show up to do a ceremony. It’s pretty bloody so I don’t know if you want to look away or anything. Well it starts with the head priest who stands on a stone tablet. Then two other priests slash his shoulders with swords and fill cups with his blood. The cups are passed around and everyone drinks. Then they asked for a volunteer. A relatively young man volunteers and stands on the stone tablet. He’s given a sword…then…he…cuts his hand off. Then the priests leave but not before attaching two slaves to the stone for the Ra’zac to eat. Eragon then searches the tower with his mind looking for Katrina and the Ra’zac. He believes he senses Katrina but the Ra’zac aren’t in the tower. To test if the Ra’zac are around or not Eragon and Roran decide to come back tomorrow morning and if the slaves are gone the Ra’zac have come. It ends with Eragon and Roran going back to camp. Wasn’t that fun!?! Anyway this post is done so………………bye.

uhh...I'm not sure

Well, Brinsinger still hasn’t arrived and the issue of Popular Science I was taking articles from doesn’t have anything good left. Not really sure what I should blog about…let me just dig around my room a little…couldn’t find anything. TO THE INTERNET! I’ll find the weirdest and most random story ever on BBC. I’ve narrowed it down to Goat ‘condoms’ and a naked tourist swimming in Japan. The goat one seems a little more appropriate so I’ll go with that. The article is called Goat ‘condoms’ save Kenyan herds and can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7648860.stm. Now it’s not as bad as you think, they don’t actually put things around the goat’s…parts, it’s just a piece of rectangular plastic strapped to the male goats stomach. It’s placed there so the goats can’t mate obviously. The reason for this is that there is a drought currently. So the herders don’t want baby goats during periods of no rainfall when the mother would be too weak to care for them. However when the rains come off go the goat “condoms” (or olor) and the goats can mate again. The olor saves the hassle of separating the male and female goats and the cost of an extra herdsman that would be necessary to keep them separate. I thought that was a good random story. For next time you better hope I get Brinsinger.

Breaking Open the Unknown Universe

Hello there it’s me again. Just thought I’d let u know in case u forgot who I am Adam. Anyways I bet you can’t guess where I got this article. Okay fine maybe you can it’s from Popular Science…again (Don’t worry as soon as I get signed copy of Brinsinger from my cousins I’ll read that (unless my brother steals it)). Back on topic now, this article was all about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). After 14 years it’s finally complete and they’ve started smashing protons together. The LHC is located under a small town called Meyrin in Switzerland. The LHC is the largest, most complex, and powerful (it can crush a bus) science experiment ever. Its only goal is to smash particles together and try and create the unknown. Above is a picture of the magnets that can crush buses. The LHC smashes protons together with such force and creates so much energy people are worried it will destroy us all. However the LHC will not doomed us to nonexistence. It just proves how far humans are willing to go to fulfill our endless curiosity. Some things the LHC is looking for are the Higgs particle, dark matter, and anything else that just happens to appear. The amount of data the LHC generates each day is about as much data on the World Wide Web. Since over 99% of the data it generates will be useless the scientists can just dump it, however some data will be sent to hundreds of computers worldwide. Well that’s all I got for now come back next week for most likely another Popular Science article.

Burning the Tide

Woot. Second post. All five or so of you must be super excited or somethin. Well anyways the article I read this week is also from Popular Science (what can you say its science and its popular). Anyway the article was about Alan Burns the old and his quest to harness the power of the waves (just finished invocation trying to return to normal language). However Burns isn’t doing it the ways most do. Most people float a high-tech buoy or something similar to that on the ocean’s surface. Burns is putting his devices called CETO (named after a Greek sea goddess (cool huh?)) under water where they will be more resistant to storms. Since waves are much more consistent than the sun and wind it seems to be a very logical source of energy other than oil. Burns believes that soon there will be huge demand for renewable energy sources (btw before this Burns was an oil man). He hopes his CETOs will bring in big profits as a cheap renewable way to get energy. The only possible problem the CETO has is that it’s at the bottom of the ocean were waves are weakest. However Burns hopes to make up for this by making CETOs cheap and keeping them underwater where they will be safe from storms. That’s all I got for this week…so…bye.

The Driving Airplane Gets Real

Hello everyone, I’m sure you are all excited for my first L.A. related post. This past week I read an article in the magazine Popular Science about a flying car or driving airplane as the Terrafugia Company prefers to call it. The article goes from page 42-48 and it’s all about The Transition. The Transition is set to go on sale next year and is scheduled to start flying in November. In the upper right of this write up I have put in a few pictures of The Transition. Anyone can buy it but only pilots can fly it. It was very difficult for Terrafugia to make The Transition meet all Federal Aviation Administration and all National Highway Transportation Safety Administration standards. However they did it and made an airplane that you can take on the roads, fit in your garage, and keep you safe. On the road The Transition’s top speed is 80 mph while in the air it has a cruising speed of 115 mph. The Transition will cost about $194,000 each and will be able to carry two people. However the biggest problem for Terrafugia is getting money. The company started with $30,000 which was awarded to their CEO Carl Dietrich for being the most inventive young engineer at MIT College. Now they have to get investors and customers who will buy The Transition. To help with this they’re taking The Transition to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to unveil it at the Experimental Aircraft Association show. Well that’s it for this post. Come back next week after I’ve read something else.

First Post

Yay! first post. I'm just testing...