Showdown, by Ted Dekker

I read Showdown after I read Saint so I could get a few clarifications that complicated things in Saint needless to say everything made sense after I had read everything and looked back on the things that hadn't made all that much sense. Showdown delivered more then expected, and gave spine tingling jitters to the biggest horror junkies or to at least those who true understood the meaning behind all of it. In one of Mr. Dekker's recent blog posts he said: "It occurs to me that I tend to write Naked Novels. Meaning my characters are deeply flawed, struggling with real evil, living in worlds in which the darkness is dark and the light is anything but gray." He writes with a vengeance and deep awakening in each and everyone of his books...

I'm just copying strait from Mr. Dekkers website since I can't find my book's sleeve, why can't siblings understand the importance of individual property?? Here is a bit of Mr. Dekkers intellectual property:
Showdown
It begins on a lazy summer day in a small, secluded mountain town named Paradise. But in Paradise, nothing is as it seems.
When a stranger named Marsuvees Black appears and announces he's come to bring hope and grace to Paradise, the town isn't sure how to respond. He offers dazzling love, hope, faith, and fun . . . the kind of fun everyone desires but is too timid to pursue. He knows the unspoken secrets of each person's heart--and has the power to grant them.
Tucked deep in the nearby canyons is a monastery long hidden from the world. Within its walls is power beyond comprehension. Yet that power is quickly slipping out of control.
As dark clouds and sandstorms shut Paradise off from the rest of the world, the unthinkable happens. Readers will be shocked as they discover the true secrets of this sleepy town. The ultimate collision between good and evil begins . . . with Showdown.

Amazing. Reading this book I almost wanted to pull my own eyeballs out after all that had happened to the poor town... Once again Ted Dekker spins a story pitting good vs. evil, an all or nothing fight to the bitter end action novel, that underneath it all seems more a story about a boy lost, searching for love and hope in the midst of chaos. Showdown is a book for again, older more mature readers and absolutely anyone who thinks they have self pity issues. There are big problems in the world out there, this book really shows the fight between good and evil with flare and ingenuity. The beginning chapter was the only part of the book that really threw me, but after digging into the book everything became so twisted it didn't matter. Great ending, amazing plot, secrets unveiled at just the right moment...the funny thing was that my mother wasn't all that impressed by this book as she has been by Dekkers other writing, but I loved it. I cryed, and smiled, and let out that huge breath of air I hadn't realized I was holding until I let it out. A 4 out of 5 stars for sure!

Saint, by Ted Dekker

I actually read Saint before I read Showdown which should be read first, but when I was down in the boondocks for another baseball tournament with John, Saint was the book on the shelf at Wal-Mart so while our coach put his son up at bat I read the mind twisting, good vs. evil, "search for identity" thriller, since from experience with my brothers team nothing all that thrilling tends to happen during the game. Since I read Saint first, I do believe I will review it first. Here is the description on the back cover:

I know a few things about myself. I know that my name is Carl. My wife is Kelly. I love her more then my own life. I f she told me to kill you, I would.
I'm a captive, deep inside Hungary-no one knows I'm here. I can put a bullet into a ten inch target at 3,000 yards. They tell me that I'm the best sniper in the world. Sometimes I sit in my dark hole for days without moving so that they don't hurt me. I can kill a man with my bare hands.
I know a few things about myself. My name is Carl. They call me Saint.
I think they want me to kill you.

Ted Dekker is a genius. The beginning was a little complicated, but the deeper I got into the book the better it got, different twists and turns you'd never expect, people and characters really formed the story more then the actual plot. The settings really were unimportant after a while, that's how deep the characters presence on the page was, reading it I began to wonder if the things they were doing were physical possibilities, Mr. Dekker gave such compelling cases for every action and emotion he had his characters exhibited. I wouldn't recommend this book for younger readers, but for teens and adults this book is a must read for anyone who finds fascination in the supernatural versus science type books. The positive elements of this book are just too numerous to list, and the not so great parts where few and far between and mainly had to do with the breaking down of Carl's character and identity, but everything had a place in the book and made sence in the end. I would give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars, for plot, characters, and romance--no humor and it seemed a little sad, but a very very good read.

Iced, By Carol Higgens Clark

So far in the past month I have finished four books and have started another. The first book I finished was Iced, by Carol Higgins Clark.
Here is the description on the back:
P.I. Regan Reilly has high hopes for her Aspen vacation. But a mystery soon has the chic detective snooping rather than skiing. Million-dollar paintings have been disappearing, and an old friend of Regan's-a folksy ex-con named Eben Bean- has vanished too.
Everyone except Regan believes that Eben has gone bad...again. Her hunt to find him leads away from the tourist crowd into the founding families of this former frontier town. She never expects to get in hot water with a wild and woolly seventy-something lady who has a shocking secret she'd die to keep. Or get in over her head trying to save a famous portrait a dangerous criminal would kill to steal. Now the snow is falling, the plot is thickening , and Regan is engaged in a different winter sport, one that's right up her alley--trying to catch a thief!

Hook, line, and sinker, described by Publishers Weekly as "the quintessential beach book..." My Aunt brought a lot of books with her when we were on vacation she recomended it to me so I tryed out the book while developing melnoma (tanning) Here is my relentless review (my atempt at being funny, only nobodies laughing...great). I would recomend Iced, for it's humor and it's plot--plus the ending was really good, a real cliff hanger--cordinating romance and mystery in a good way without being cheesy, okay maybe a little but no book is perfect...besides Kiki Strike!! Regan was a very realistic character that I think a lot of single women could relate to, and I would recomend this book for mainly women in there mid-20's to the grannies in nursing homes, I know my Babcia (Polish for grandmother) would like it. As I look back on the book now the only "bad" part would be the ending was a bit of a give away in some aspects, even though I didn't realize it while I was reading it. A good book on the whole, 4 and a half out of 5 stars definatly!

Edger Allen Poe and the Murders in the Rue Morgue

I drew these pictures in the second to last school I was in, so that would be sixth or seventh grade I think seventh since I was homeschooled for most of sixth. Anyway we were doing a unit on Edger Allan Poe, and we were listening to some of his stories, we listened to each twice as we answered questions or study guides but those got old really fast so our teachers brought in play dough to help "stimulate the mind" or you had the option of drawing or reading along. At the end of each session anone who had done a craft (the crafts had to go along with the story) could dislap it for a token or ticket thing that we could turn in at the end of the week for a candy bar or some other treat. So I ended up drawing Madame l'Espanaye and her daugher Miss Camille L'Espanaye , the two murder victems in Murders in the Rue Morgue--great story--The Madame had been thrust out the window and crushed on the cobble stone below with lots of bruises and had her head detatched from her body, and she also happened to clutching a tuft of hair; Miss Camille had been shoved up the chimney and also fashion and array of bruises, on top of being covered in soot. Here were my interpretations:
Madame L'Espanaye
And Miss Camille

Summer vs. Winter

Some days I'd pick summer for i's warm weather others I'd pick winter for it's cold weather. Some days I'd pick summer for it's long lazy days, others I'd pick winter for it's energy and activity as everyone bustles around getting Christmas gifts and singing carols in the streets. Some days I'd pick summer for it's energy and activity as everyone rushes off to the beach for that great tan (if you ask me most people's definition of their perfect tan makes them look like ommpaloompas from Charlie and the chocolate factory!) others I'd pick winter for it's long lazy days, the ones were you can just lie in bed all bundled up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate (organic non-dairy mind you). Summer, winter... summer, winter...summer, winter... WINTER!! Lets face it--winter has WIN as it;'s first three letters how could it lose to summer?? Here is my reasoning:

Summer is long humid full of awful tans, skin cancer, moving season, everyones always shopping or lounging around, nobody (my age) seems to be doing anything interesting with there time--besides sitting by a pool developing melanoma while they lust after the life guards! Boring. Period. Now let's look at winter: full of happy memories (I just know someones going to ask about all the children in orhanages who only have misary in their lives, donate to your church and help fix the problem instead of using it as a counter argument about the merriment of the Christmas season!!), people whislting christmas carols in the afternoon , spreading cheer, love, mystery, promises, joy, love, hope, wonder, love, beauty, love, love, more love, and not to mention one of the best promises! a blanket of snow some where, maybe not on your front lawn, or anywere in your town...or state...Texas...Oklahoma...Arizona...but snow is falling somewhere!...like ohio, and Chicago. So in the middle of summer headed to a barbaque with one of my younger sisters friends families, just so happens her dads a senator so everyone has to look nice but not fancy and I'm struggling to find a decent tee-shirt that my mother aproves of, all of my apparel is either winter oriented or belongs in a surf shop, so here I am in my third shirt of the morning: long sheeves scrunched up to my elbows, black, high V-neck, with a shell pendent necklace. The other to shirts where: blue tee from Ambercrombie (it's amazing the things you find at thrift stores!), and a nicer black tank top/ but it tends to look like a wife beater...
The outfit I'm wearing I can destinctly remember wearing with a scarf (actualy the one I'm wearing in my profile picture!), corduroy jacket/coat, and boots or Chuck's I forget which (instead of flip-flops and minus the shell necklace) while walking to school in the middle of January.

The Great Escape, Boys Like Girls

Fun video!

Yum...bacon, why I'm becoming a vegan

Sure looks like bacon to me!

There is no guilt in veganism! no little dead pigs or cows or chickens!! No dead, decomposing, rotting animal corpse shall ever touch my lips again (or make its way down to my stomach)

Looks like good eatin' dosn't it!
Poor chickens all of them will be boiled to loosen their feathers then have them beaten away--very painful, most of this occurs while the animal is still conscience if the machine that is supposed to take them out of conscienceness misses or malfunctions, very likely to happen since greedy farmers are sending their animals down conveyor belt of doom thousands by the hour.More bacon!! I can't tell if thats it's brain or a muscle or something else (ew) but yeah that's a pig with worms infiltrating it's body, that's no doubt already chalk full of steroids, growth hormones, and pesticides so by that point it doesn't really matter until you realize its all going to end up going down your throat if you chose to eat it...

so now I'm off to the grocery to get organic substitutes and soy, fun!!

No touchy

A middle school (thank you Lord that i am in two days officaly graduating from such a horrible place) in Vienna, VA Kilmer Middle school counslers have banned all in school physical contact (audible sound of jaw snapping open--who knew it acutally made noise??) here is an is the aritlle that explains the story.

stories like this remind me of that x-men character, Rogue or something, who couldn't be touched because she sucked away peoples life force or energy, this puts people in her position, wierd.
I read the article and i swear in school suspensicion because of leaving an assigned table to show minor affection? wow, maybe the guys jealous or just a freaked controling ego maniac with his own issues on seeing people touch, i don't buy his spew about "teens need boundaries" yeah we do, but they also preach about never understanding why we are so lacking in the field of comunication. did they ever think maybe it had to do with the fact that they're shutting it down? Yeah, yeah i'll give them there case on PDA but hey ever wonder why your teenage daughter has such a low self-esteem? would it have anything to do with the fact that she might be feeling rejected or forgotten among here peers?? or how about never being accepted by guys or lets put in to the action this stupid ban, what if, just what if,someone had begun to show intrest and the school board shut them down??? I'm not talking about making out or holding hands in every single class, but a hug showing that someone outside of your family cares for you isn't a bad thing for the self conscience of a teenage girl. it's amazing the heart to hearts that happen in the girls bathroom and lunch table, a girl fails a test, girl gets acussed of spredding false rumors, etc. verbal cat fights are more common then physical ones.

Hot animation from the New York Flim Acadamy

Go froggy go!



It's so funny!!