Book Review: Havoc

[WARNING: Spoilers for the previous book so beware!]

Kids going missing! Mysterious people appearing and darkness shrouding one thing. A comic book named Malice.

Havoc is the sequel to the story called Malice by Chris Wooding where you meet Seth Harper and his friends Kady and Justin that help him to take down the terrifying tyrant known as Tall Jake but at the end of it they send Seth out of the comic world that they have entered by a chant knowing the risks of him forgetting all about Malice because that's how this twisted world works and you grow to understand as you read.

A book later we have Seth wandering around England wondering where his best friend Kady is and where the heck he was for the past few days while Justin and Kady make their way around the dark world of Malice to find the underground organisation against Tall Jake and wait for Seth there. 

I think that Havoc is a great follow up to Malice as it adds on information to what things are and how they work. I particularly like the character development watching them go from scared to brave and learning their way around the place. There are small slices of comics on the pages that are also relevant to the story with the comic inserts are when the characters are being watched by countless readers excluding yourself. 

This book is one I would recommend for most likely boys around eleven years old to possibly even eighteen as it is fast paced and a little dark with creatures lurking in the shadows. 

What a Rip-off!

I was around the age of ten years old when I went to the local take-away shop near my house. I forgot who I was with but I remember that we asked for fish and chips but they ended up giving us these weird cracker things instead of hot chips. They were a lot like chips from a bag and they were green and pink so we were all extremely confused with what the heck happened. We didn't go back, we just ate the chips quickly and had it over with.

It was really weird but I think the person must have heard wrong or maybe there was some other type of chips that we didn't specify for. I have no idea but I hope they weren't purposefully trying to scam us otherwise I will hunt them down and get a refund, even though we already ate the chips.

Now stop…CAPTCHA Time.

If you haven't come across this before CAPTCHA is basically the little security thing that protects people from spam. It uses two words one that is simple and easy to read while the other is a different word entirely and looks somewhat like this. CAPTCHA is a play on words because it also sounds like the word capture and it captures the bots.

Capturing the spambots is only one of the two jobs that the CAPTCHA was designed to do, the second job is to translate words as the second word you type out is a word from an archaic book. CAPTCHA is used to determine what these words are and helps people preserve them online for future generations. I know that it's annoying to have to fill out but it helps the world digitize books to keep on the internet and to keep spam away from whatever or whoever you're viewing.

Cross Country

Anxiety shot through my veins as I waited in the group of the year eight girls. I was fine with cheering but the actual run gave me a severe case of nervousness and it wasn't good. I almost cringed as the sound signaling the start of the race went off and so I tried my best to jog my way around the large group of multi coloured girls. 

About halfway I had a bad feeling in my chest and it hurt so I slowed down a little to try to keep pace but it felt like I had already given away most of my energy so I tried to regain my strength once more. It still hurt but I kept running because I didn't want to get over taken by the small group in behind me so I trudged forward as much as I could.

On the second lap I knew I was really far behind so I focused more on staying ahead of the group around me and as soon as I made it to the final part I put on more speed than I had before. I ended up making two hundred and twenty fifth and scoring a few high-fives along the way but once I got to the end I almost collapsed from exhaustion and tried to get my breath back to it's usual pace. Quietly, I made my way to where the Rimu House students were sitting and cheering for all the runners and got there just in time to watch the year eight boys shoot off.

I stood by the rope that outlined the track and cheered ecstaticaly for Lachlan, a boy from our house who was in a close lead. I grinned as I watched the array of colours moving across the school and cheered for those coloured red, continuing to splat red across my body in support.

In the end I'd enjoy Cross Country if I didn't have to run because I love to cheer for people but I'm not so good at running.

How to Make a GIF Presentation.

Rage Mario!!

This game is possibly the most rage inducing online game ever. It is like the classic game of Mario with the platforms, jumping and everything but instead your player is a cat and you enemies are small white ovals that look like King Boo from the original game. The instructions and so on are in Japanese so I'll explain the gist of it.

The point of the game is to make it to the end and to keep moving up in levels but you have to get around all the obstacles without dying. The twist here is that there are hidden traps and so on so you have to do this as creatively as you possibly can because the way this works is that if you progress through normally you'll run into countless traps and things that will kill you and let me tell you, the tune for the death gets really annoying really fast.

There are traps everywhere created to make you go, "What the?" and flip countless amounts of tables. You can not trust anything so if you plan to play I advise moving through with caution.

I believe that anyone new to this game will end up with the amount of lives going into negatives sooner or later. This game is known by a few people but those that do know of it also know that anybody who can beat the game without cheating is a legend.

Cats apparently have nine lives, anyone who has played this game knows that this is rubbish. In this game cats can have over one thousand lives and I should know having played it more than once.

Cat Mario vs …These Guys

My Dad the Asylum Worker/Mum the Kindergarten Teacher

Dad first worked at a gas station before I was born and then became a youth worker, a football coach and then what he is now. My father's job is to look after people with mental disabilities or people that are just insane. I have never been to where he works before but he tells me about it. He works from really early in the morning and comes back late in the day, I'm not sure what times exactly because I don't see him often. One of the things he told me was how if the patients try to leave they can't stop them once they leave the facilities perimeter and can only be asked nicely to come back they also get given activities to do like colouring in and the like.

My mother's job is to look after children which is almost the same thing. She works at a kindergarten from eight o'clock to I think around three. My first time there was fun but none of the kids believed that I was really my mother's daughter. I've enjoyed helping out there as the children are all ecstatic and fun to play with. Everyone is kind to me there and I like the kindergarten as it is unique with it's beautiful garden and D.I.Y play areas with a large tree sitting outside the center.

Mum enjoys working with children and is kind to them. I'd say he is one of the favourite teachers because the kids seem to like her a lot, she also likes to dress up for them as her alter ego: Nanny Mihi and she tells stories to them.

My favourite thing about my mum's job is that I can play with all the little kids and make friends with them. My favourite thing about Dad's is that he can tell me stories about it and I can make jokes with it.

A Heated Argument

"You butt! Get back here!" I hissed toward my youngest sibling who was avoiding the dishes once again.

"God, that fat idiot is probably planning on trying to get out of it again." Ethan, my oldest sibling, growled despite that fact that it was his own problem.

"Shut up Ethan, we don't need your comments to make everyone feel like ship." I frowned.

"Language, Maia." He gave a warning tone that only fueled my anger even more.

"Oh, you should talk you hypocritical douche bag. When you swear it's fine but when it's anybody else…oh nooo, you've upset the damned king." I spat, glaring as much as I could at my brother's infuriatingly calm expression.

"Maia…" He sighed, "You're not my critique." That condescending jerk thought he was the boss didn't he?

"Yeah? I can critique you all I want you condescending bastard!" I yelled.

"What was that?" He asked walking away,"I can't hear you." His voice was dead and monotone with a hint of anger lying in there. 

"OI! YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP AND DO THE DISHES." Mum shouted with her voice shaking with fury and not wanting to upset the beast we did as told with a few harsh comments here and there.
"You're just a whiny little-"
"Ethan." Mum growled darkly as she sat in the lounge watching T.V
"What? What am I doing Mum?"
"You will not speak to me like that!" She steamed, standing giving the warning that ship was about to go down. In response I absconded to my room.

In the Darkness of the Night…

A white, red splotched skirt whipped in the cold, harshness of the wind with nothing but the light of the moon to show her fair face. Dark bangs covered her expression besides the large grin across her face. In her hand was the handle of a cold dirty metal knife and as she brought her head backwards to laugh you could clearly see blood scratched across the young one's face showing no trace of emotion other than the look of pure insanity crossing her eyes. 

She giggled darkly as her knife created more meshing sounds, the sound that was so fulfilling and hilarious filled the night along with the sobbing and screaming of victims. This girl who was once so sweet was now more than just a child under the light of the thin moon. Each time she hacked restlessly at her target she would screech in a voice sounding so demonic, "YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME." Every time she finished however this phase of rage would only fade as she would inspect her work.

She kept on her slaughtering rampage until her dress was completely red along with the rest of her body and as the sun rose up, the madness left her eyes. She fell to her knees sobbing with deep remorse, calling for her parents that were now no more than flesh and bones. Her tears rushed down like the streams from a shower head and as she cried her heart out there was something blurry on her shoulder. A shadow in the shape of a cat, a shadow that no one but the girl would be able to see, or hear and it whispered into her ear, "That was fun, no?"

Video Ezy Shenanigans

"Hey! Wait up you big jerk!" I shouted at my older sibling who was walking at the speed of light.
"Nope," he smirked, concealing a laugh as he shot forward towards my other sibling who was far ahead.
"YOU DOUCHEBAG!" I yelled as I struggled to keep up with him, however I eventually caught up with my brothers.
"What took you so long Maia?" the one on the scooter taunted. That little piece of-
"Come on Logan! Let's go~!" the older one suggested as they both sped off again. Damn. Damn this all. Why did we have games overdue?! Mum had asked us  to drop some games and videos off at Video Ezy that were overdue and I was really sad to be parting with Final Fantasy XIII and my brother was equally upset over losing Assassins Creed Brotherhood but we were getting new ones too.

I breathed in as I finally caught up with them at the blue store and jogged through the doors. Almost immediately I made my way to the small game section and kept my eyes on the games with the PS3 format. I groaned, noticing most of my favourite ones were either the wrong format or cost too much. We had each been given five dollars to use there so I trained my eyes to the best priced ones and the best formatted ones. It seemed my older brother was having the same issue as myself as he scanned the white, wooden shelves.

After a while my brother held a game up to my face with a grin, "Hey, I'm gonna get this. Cool huh?"
I inspected the cover and nodded in agreement "Yeah, it's been a while." It was Call of Duty Black Ops, the first one that I would've thought had considerably less players now that the second one was out. I searched for my own game, eventually grabbing Tekken 6,  an arcade type combat game and the youngest got one that I forgot the name of.

Once our business was over we exited the store, "Hey, how about we get some fish and chips for lunch?" Ethan pondered as he blinked over at the mini putt area. We all knew that it sold takeaways too so we nodded and trailed over.

Finally we started for home which wasn't too far away and we chased each other home until I was ditched again and slowly plodded home. When I was home I glared holes into my brothers' face, "STOP DITCHING ME!" He only laughed in amusement.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just eat the chips." What a jerk.

Idiom

Curiosity killed the Cat.
This idiom means that being inquisitive about things you shouldn't be can cause you trouble or you should stop pursuing the subject altogether. My brother says this when he wants me to stop asking about things for example when I lose something and I suspect him and then ask he'd say "Curiosity killed the cat." So it's also a little mysterious.

Dialogue in the Playground

"Yo what up my friends?" I asked as I plopped down on the wooden steps next to three of my friends.
"The sky?" One of them answered with a finger aimed upwards.
I deadpanned, "Really?! You and your realism!"
Tyla rolled her eyes, "What are you going to do about it?"
Without even having to think I replied, "Nothing," I pouted, "I'm too much of a wuss."
"Yep!" Paris agreed loudly.
"Thank you so much," I replied with heavy sarcasm lacing the words.
The blonde laughed and responded, "No problem," obviously not catching the sarcasm in there.
"That was sa-"
I was interrupted by Catherine who interjected with, "Minyow!" and began to meow randomly.
"Wenk!" So now the lunchbox decided to move around and be weird. It proceeded to climb all over my face and eventually sat on my shoulder.
"Seriously Kiwilinguinow?!" I asked looking at the mixed species lunchbox.
"Wenk!" was the only reply.
I groaned and swatted it away, "No. Don't touch me." I then slapped it repeatedly until it stopped trying to climb my face.

My Uncle Joe

My uncle Joe likes to play tricks on us, the cousins, and to tell us some of his many stories even if they might not be true. He used to be in the army, I'm not sure if he still is or not but he's got the uniform and once with all the family on my Mum's side we watched a tape of him marching when he was a lot younger. 

Uncle Joe could be the personification of cheekiness and my other uncles could be in second place. When I was younger he told me that he had put a curse on my ring finger so that I couldn't raise it when my middle finger was down. His immediate family is my younger cousin Tenesia and my aunty Dallas. What I think is cool is that he's travelled the world and has seen a lot of places. I remember when he used to have a large dog named Jessie too. She was really cool even though she had dragged me through grass once but unfortunately she died.

 If I were to see him on a normal day he would probably have a cigarette hanging from his lips and he would widen his large eyes and teach me a new trick like how to fix his puzzle-like egyptian ring. Sometimes if it was an old game he'd say something like,"Here's one me and your mum would do when we were younger." And then chuckle in his rough, gravelly voice. 

His skin is quite dark and he has an even darker, shaven hair across his head and his chin. Once he grew a moustache and my brothers and I made fun of him for it and it's still an inside joke to this day. Also, whenever he comes for a visit we all turn out walking up Mount Maunganui 

Laptop Power

During class yesterday we had a discussion about laptop chargers coming to school.

If we were to let a whole lot of students charge their laptops there will be hazardous cords everywhere and the power bill will rise. Another problem is that eventually a lot of people will end up with chargers at school if even only one person is allowed to.

One of the suggestions from yesterday was to pay a 25c fee for charging or to have those with a low percentage of power sit up front and to share Ms Campbell's charger.

I believe that we should be able to let people charge their laptop if their percentage is below around 50% as it would be fair to do so. I know that it would be a bit of a hassle but if you can adapt it than it should be able to work. 

Movie Night

Generally in my family the weekends usually means just sitting around at home and eventually being yelled at by Mum because we don't do anything. This time was an exception as, after a lot of waiting and doing the dishes, we got to go to Video Ezy which was very very exciting because we had to do a lot of work to get there.

At the store I was actually just wearing my pajamas but that was normal for me. I buzzed around the store happily looking for a game to buy in the PS3 area but almost straight away my happiness fizzled when one of the games that I had wanted was the wrong format…It was for a Playstation 2 when we only have the Playstation 3. I was so upset and my older brother was taunting me about it so I hit him across the shoulder, even though he wasn't bothered it made me feel better.

After a while I spotted another game that I really wanted which was Bioshock Infinite but I was a little hesitant about choosing it because I was still in the middle of choosing like seven other things and I spotted a really scary game which gave me a chill, Silent Hill. In the end I got Final Fantasy XIII because I recognised the game from playing a few other versions of it.

A little before we left I noticed that on the screen inside the brightly lit store had just made it to the credits of Wreck-It-Ralph and there was a song playing so on a whim and just for fun I danced randomly to the music. Sadly my mother was calling me to go and my brothers had already left so I danced out of the store, gathering strange looks as I went.

Once we got home it was basically a race to the television where my brother set up his Playstation to play the discs. As we were waiting for Mum to come to the lounge Ethan and Logan, my brothers, began to play a short game Assassins Creed Brotherhood and they had played it before so they already had saved files to play from.

Later when Mum decided to show up we watched Wreck-It-Ralph which is one of my favourite movies. My favourite part was the final race between the characters from Sugar Rush which is a game from the movie.

Finally when it was over Mum left to go to bed and told us not to leave it too late to sleep. The only thing we did was play Assassins Creed and my brothers kept on insisting on me to play but after a while I faded into a sleep. That was what I did in the weekend.

Cat Shenanigans: Homework

(G2: Give to your family. Prepare 3 formal three course meals.)

For the appetizers there was some cream and onion dip with crackers and vegetables on the side. It seemed pretty simple but once I placed all in the fridge to let it cool it tipped to the side and spilled some of the dip across the plate. I was very frustrated but I tipped it the right way and continued on.

Next was the hot dogs, mostly because I'm lazy but I didn't want Mum spending too much, so I pulled the sausages out of the freezer and put them in a pot filled with water and just put it on the stove to cook. While that happened I prepared the bread but I didn't add cheese because I couldn't see it in the fridge…oops and set them out on plates with two each and one for myself because I wasn't too hungry.

Appetizer and Hotdogs

As I moved around the kitchen I almost tripped over Jack-jack, my brothers cat who was eyeing the food suspiciously so I picked him up and placed him outside in the rain.

Once that was ready I started adding the ingredients for the chocolate pudding and mixed it by hand because the beater was ancient and didn't work. I could tell it was going to take a while so I set the food out on the table but almost immediately Jack-jack had made it back into the house and began climbing onto the bench.

Dessert and a bowl of cream to go with

I attacked him and pinned him to the ground under a blanket and kept him in my brother's room while I called Ethan and Logan for dinner. He was being such a hassle of a cat.

They ate it and seemed to enjoy it but still teased that it tasted like death until Mum got them to shut up.

Later on the cat had gotten out and was meowing at me again so I made him a special dish. It consisted of cat food, cut up sausage pieces and milk in the other half of his bowl. He was happy with that and so was I because I didn't have to do the dishes.

I wonder…

Theoretically I wonder what would happen if I ate myself and whether I would become twice as big or disappear completely?

I wonder what the discoveries now will lead to in future, what new versions of things will there be?

I wonder what life is exactly, how does it work?

I wonder how languages were made and who made them.
Answer: Unknown because nobody has been able to find direct evidence left over from the years before but it has been researched and nothing absolute was found. It has been agreed however that it came from behavioral things like simple gestures.


I wonder how accents came into existence if we were all from the same place originally.

I wonder how the Earth was known to be a sphere before people went to space.

I wonder how people figured out that we could eat honey and how to get them from bees.

I wonder why nobody can think of a new colour that doesn't currently exist.
Answer: Because it simply isn't possible as our eyes have to have more ranges of frequency for it to actually happen. Due to this we are limited to our current colour wheel which isn't really that bad.

17th Avenue Cemetery

The previous week we visited the graveyard that sits at the end of Seventeenth Avenue. Everyone got there by walking with a buddy and we gingerly entered the grassed area. I had been to two other cemeteries in my entire life and this place reminded me of a family member on Dad's side's Tangi. I can't remember how he was related because everyone just called him "Papa Richard." I think he was a great uncle.

We were there to gather statistics and I was surprised with how beautiful it was behind the small clearing of trees. There were graves set out in rows everywhere and some of the trees left behind bright trails of leaves, it was almost a scene from a movie. My favourite one was a one person, simple, concreted grave at the front where there lay a man who was a sailor with a quote that I can't remember.

I wanted to walk around more but the area I was working out statistics in consisted of the frontward clearing which was nice and serene. The aura of the cemetery was sorrowful as you would expect but I still kept my spirits in a high demeanor and still paid respect, making sure to tread lightly across the ground in case I accidentally stepped over people.

As we left we cleansed our hands with water to get rid of the tapu or spirituality of the cemetery.