The Legendary Dragonite

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Tonight I reached level 27 in Pokémon Go. Many people have stopped playing that game, but as with everything for me, it is either all in or nothing. Guild Wars = all in! Aion = naah. Pokémon Go = yeah! So I am one of the loyal players of Pokémon right now. I think the game is great, I walk more now, and with updates coming all the time, the game gets interesting again every month or so. The buddy system that came a while ago was huge. But the latest update which didn’t seem like much actually did something enormous as well. The nests where the Pokémons pop up are now revealing more uncommon Pokémons and especially the evolved versions. Like today for example, I caught a Wigglytuff, Gengar and a Dewgong within 20 minutes of each other. And right before those I saw a 2400 CP Dragonite. Funny story that I thought deserved a blog post.

So, a while ago, when the game was rather new, I guess it was in July-something and I was probably level 21 something. My boyfriend was just below me and his sister level 15. We went Pokémon hunting in Slottskogen here in Gothenburg. Lots of lure in one place so we sat down, and soon heard someone scream Dragonite. One of the rarest Pokémons in the game. We saw it. Mine was 400 CP. Jesper’s was 47 and Nathalie’s was ???. For Jesper it was easy-peasy, didn’t take many tries to get it. I thought mine would be fairly easy, but to be on the safe side I started with an Ultra Ball right away (Pokéball<Great Ball<Ultra Ball). I used all my Ultra Balls (around 20), some of my Great Balls (15-ish maybe) and it escaped. Nathalie (who is only 12 years old) used all her Great Balls on it, and decided to try with a normal Pokéball. And she gets it, and the CP turns out to be 800 something. So unfair!!

Story number 2. Several months later without even spotting Dragonite again (and yet it seems like everyone in this stupid town has it because all the gyms have at least one), I saw one that was in the area. And I noticed that right when I sat down on the tram to go to the train station to go to work after school. Was today finally going to be the day when I got my Dragonite? I didn’t have time to get off the train. So I went off at the next stop, jumped on a new one to go back to try and catch it. I found it directly, and it had 2400 CP! Crazy! Once again I started with Ultra Balls, but I could only use 2 before it ran away. Twice now. So unfair! I think the game felt sorry for me though, because within an hour I had caught not one… not two… but three fully-evolved Pokémons. Gengar, Wigglytuff and Dewgong.

It is great that rarer Pokémons spawn now, and I hope Dragonite will come more often than every three months. I want it!! It’s annoying to have 122 Pokémons in my Pokédex, but have seen 123. Not too many left until I have them all (151).

Stupid, addicting game.

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Upcoming TV shows

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This week I have gotten two very good pieces of news. Two new TV shows are coming (I think next year?) based on books I recently read. Apparently Netflix is doing a series about the unfortunate Baudelaire children, the book series of 13 books, which I recently read. One book will be covered in two episodes so the whole series should then be 26 episodes long. And Count Olaf will be played by no other than mr. Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother) and the show will be Netflix’s most expensive show yet. I am excited to say the least. Hard to imagine Neil as Olaf, but the picture on this link shows that he will do just fine (maybe even better than Jim Carrey, though he did a pretty amazing job in the movie from 2004 (covering the first 3 books of the show). Why didn’t they do the rest? That movie was actually pretty good!). This was the first I heard of this TV show, so I guess reading them this spring was a smart move from my consciousness.

The second piece of good news is even better than the first one. One of my favorite book series, Throne of Glass, will be turned into a TV show (maybe next year?). I am currently reading the 5th and second to last book in the series, Empire of Storms and it is incredible. About a third read so far. I can’t wait for this show! And I sure hope they will make it good, because the books are amazing. Here is a link to the website I found the news on. It will be called Queen of Shadows (like book number four).

Review of “1984” by George Orwell

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1984-george-orwellTitle: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Series: –
Genre: Science Fiction, Political Fiction, Dystopian
Pages: 328
Published: 1949, Penguin Books
My Grade: 5 out of 5 posters

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell’s prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of “negative utopia” -a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions -a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.

 

MY REVIEW

Wow! Just wow. It has truly been a delight to read this extremely dark dystopian novel. After about ten pages I felt connection to this book because of the way it was written. It has now been 67 years since this book was first published, it came out right after WWII, it’s forever ago!! But you couldn’t tell (like with Lord of the Flies). I don’t know how to describe it, but the words Orwell used, the sentence structure, it just made so much sense and I felt the flow when I was reading it like I have never done before.

And then comes the story on top of that. Wow again! It is not a story in a way that the characters move around and do stuff all the time, not like Lord of the Rings for example, or Maze Runner. This is just simply about a man in a big-brother society who questions big brother. You get to follow his line of thought, you get to see him fall in love, and seemingly getting away with it all. I can’t really say anything that won’t spoil, but most of the book was just a long way towards the end where everything happened. I still don’t really understand how or why it ended like it did. The last page and what happened there, I totally get, but not the part before that. It was really a mindfuck-read. I didn’t expect it to be, but it really was. This book kind of reminded me of the movie Shutter Island (I haven’t read the book yet, Patient 97, but it is on my list).

It’s scary to think about really. I know it is a made-up story, but how can a country (or empire maybe? I don’t know what they called it) just so easily buy everything that Big Brother says? One day the news sadly announced that the chocolate ratio had gone down from 30g per week to 20g. And literally the next day the news announced that the chocolate ratio had increased to 20g and everyone is super happy about it. No questions whatsoever about the news the day before! It is the same with everything Big Brother tells them. Winston (the main character) understands how, but not the why. The end of the book explains why, and it is scary because that is probably true in reality too.

It is hard to write reviews without spoiling. To sum it up, it is an easy and very enjoyable read, you kind of have to be focused while reading it to not miss something, lots of things happen in the end and after it is all done, you can’t stop yourself from asking “what the fuck?” Definitely one of the best books I have ever read, so I strongly recommend everyone to read it, especially people who love dystopian future novels. Crystal clear five!

Review of “Magic in North America” by J. K. Rowling

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History of Magic in North America - [J. K. Rowling]Title: “History of Magic in North America” + “Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”
Author: J. K. Rowling
Series: –
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 16 + 32
Published: 2016 (on http://www.pottermore.com)
My Grade: 5 out of 5 snakes

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

 

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MY REVIEW

I recently rediscovered pottermore.com and I am not dissappointed. I did not know that Rowling wrote stuff on there related to the Harry Potter universe, but she does, and it is so great! Short stories about everything. So far I have only read two of the things posted there (two bigger writings) and they are both about the wizardry world over in America. History of Magic in North America is a short description of, well, the history of magic in North America. It was too short in my opinion, it seems like a very interesting history and I would love to know some more! Maybe Rowling eventually will write a series that takes place at Ilvermorny? Because that sounds like a really cool place. That would be the greatest thing ever.

The second thing I read was the history of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Longer than the first text and written like a short story. I haven’t really read Rowling’s original writing (since I read all the Harry Potter books in Swedish) before, but after reading this, I really really want to read the original series in English. Is that a project I will take upon myself next? Probably.

These are short texts, but if you love Harry Potter, you should most definitely check them out. On pottermore.com there are also writings on the other schools. 5 out of 5, since, well.. it is J. K. Rowling.

 

Review of “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

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Lord of the Flies - [William Golding]Title: Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
Series: –
Genre: Fiction, Classic
Pages: 205
Published: 1954
My Grade: 4 out of 5 smoke detectors

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

When a plane crashes on a remote island, a small group of schoolboys are the sole survivors. From the prophetic Simon and virtuous Ralph to the lovable Piggy and brutish Jack, each of the boys attempts to establish control as the reality – and brutal savagery – of their situation sets in.

The boys’ struggle to find a way of existing in a community with no fixed boundaries invites readers to evaluate the concepts involved in social and political constructs and moral frameworks. Ideas of community, leadership, and the rule of law are called into question as the reader has to consider who has a right to power, why, and what the consequences of the acquisition of power may be. Often compared to Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies also represents a coming-of-age story of innocence lost.

 

MY REVIEW

I am surprised at why I didn’t read this one in school many many years ago. Doesn’t everyone read Lord of the Flies in school and have to write analyses on what the deeper meaning of the book is? I didn’t and therefore felt that I really should read this and see why it is so loved by teachers. I definitely see why it is considered to be a classic. And it is most definitely a book that fits right in with today’s societal problems. The main story of young boys getting stranded on a deserted island is an exciting story in itself. It is an intriguing scenario where most people can only imagine what it would be like, what they would do and what their new personalities would develop into. I honestly felt uneasy at several points in the story and I also caught myself making faces on the train on my way to and from work. It is a brutal story and it is hard to imagine why some of the 12 year-old boys could cmpletely change personalities and become violent-loving tyrants. It is really sad. The sides, represented by the rule-abiding nice-guy Ralph and the bloodlusting hunter Jack, can be compared to society. Ralph stands for politics and democracy and only tries to do what’s best for everyone, keeping the fire alive so a ship can see them and come to rescue. Jack wants to have fun, he wants to go hunting and loves the drama and stands up to Ralph. He gets lots of followers and in the end the good side only consists of Ralph and the smart, but rather disliked boy Piggy.

One thing that didn’t really feel good when reading this, was that I never really knew the characters. Most of them were just names, but still mentioned a lot. It was first at the end where the names were fewer that you understood them better. It was also written rather inconsistently. It almost felt like there were two different authors. This is a book meant for children, but in some places it was written with many difficult words that I don’t even know and had to look up. But in most places the language was normal. It should have been consistent throughout in my opinion. It would have been easier to read, either way. The characters felt their age, however. It is not often that a book nowadays has characters that act their age, they usually come off much older. But these boys really felt like 12. Good.

I don’t really know what else to write, it was well worth my time, and I do get it why students read it in school. But maybe more kids would appreciate it more if they waited some years. I give it a 4.

Review of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by J. K. Rowling

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Title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two
Author: J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne
Series: Harry Potter #8 (of 8)
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 343
Published: 2016
My Grade: 5 out of 5 love potions

 

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

 

MY REVIEW

A new Harry Potter story? I was ecstatic when I learned about this fantastic piece of news a while ago. I had no idea what this new book was about before though, I like having no expectations on.., anything really. I did know that it was about Harry’s son, 19 years after the Deathly Hallows, but nothing more than that. So after reading four pages of this book I had to open up Google in the dark of our bedroom and look up if I really had the right version of this book (since I am reading it on my eReader – a Kobo GLO HD if anyone is wondering, the best thing I have ever bought). Turns out, this book is the script for the play. That was a surprise I did not enjoy. I was expecting a new amazing story written by J. K. Rowling, like the old books were written. So I was hugely disappointed at first. But once I got into the story I enjoyed it very much and finished it in two days. The story is amazing and very easy to read, the pages just fly by in that format. And I think that the reason I could get so into the story is because I have read the previous books and know the environments and could picture it all while reading the short environment descriptions and dialogues. My plan was to reread the seven books before this one since I haven’t read them in English and I read them when they came out many years ago. But I got impatient and it worked out well anyway. But now on the other hand, I really really want to reread the original seven.

If you have read the previous Harry Potter books, you will love this story where Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy (who is my favorite character by the way, he makes the book even better) tries to do something heroic but it obviously doesn’t go that way. Even though I was disappointed at first, it won’t take the grade down from a crystal clear 5.

Review of ‘The End’ by Lemony Snicket

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Lemony Snicket - The EndTitle: The End
Author: Lemony Snicket
Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events #13 (of 13)
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 337
Published: 2006, Scholastic, Inc.
My Grade: 3.5 out of 5 grapes

Since this is the last book in a series of 13, and I didn’t come up with the idea of expanding my blog and writing reviews during the first 12, I will try to write this review on the whole series with this one as the base. Here’s a link to all the books on Goodreads.

 

 

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Dear Reader,
You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of THE END. The end of THE END is the best place to begin THE END, because if you read THE END from the beginning of the beginning of THE END to the end of the end of THE END, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.
This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can’t stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.
It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so THE END does not finish you.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

 

MY REVIEW

It is always a strange feeling that comes after finishing a book series. And especially a long one. The End was the thirteenth book in the series about the unfortunate events the Baudelaire children experienced.  Even if they are considered books for children, I am glad I decided to read them now, as an almost-adult. But I can also see the benefits of reading them as a kid since the books are not only intriguing, but they are written in a rather educational way. It would probably be appropriate to add ‘dictionary’ as one of the genres since the books are always describing both difficult words and sayings and honestly, I have learned a lot. While at the same time they were easy to read and follow.

The characters felt a bit unreal, but it is a story meant to entertain children, and a normal 14-, 13- and 1-year old would not be fun to read about, so I did not bother to think about that at all after the first two books. Their personalities are interesting though, age aside, and my favorite would be Sunny, the baby, she is cool.

Something I didn’t really like about the books was that the first five or so, had the exact same story. And it got a little boring and a little hard to want to continue like that for thirteen books. But, it changed and all the rest of the books had different stories. Another annoying thing that I found while reading these books these last few months, was that the mysteries the siblings were trying to figure out, made me curious and eager to read more. And then it made me very frustrated when no real answers were given, but rather more questions. Sorry for that spoiler.

To sum up, the series was really good, no time was wasted while reading it, but I don’t really feel that a straight 3 or 4 would be correct, so I will give a 3.5 as the final grade for this book/series.

New job

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I think I have written something about this new job that I would get this fall. Well, three days have passed already with preparing for the upcoming school year. I feel rather confident with the role as a teacher that I will have. We are three brand new teachers (who never ever worked as teachers before) and we all got the teacher education (which is normally 5-6 years) in 2 days. The other teachers there are very helpful, but when it comes to the planning of my 3 courses I am pretty much on my own. I have read the course syllables and they feel strict, but at the same time I can do whatever as long as I go through all the points in the central contents and test the students on the grade requirements. I am glad my classes don’t start until August 31st. That gives me 2 week to prepare. I am surprised that 3 full classes are only 30% work. It feels like a lot.

The school anyway is a small computer game developing high school where I will have one course in each year. Basic engineering for the first-years, CAD for the second-years, and Construction for the third-years.

This week is full time with preparations, next week the students are arriving and I will there to greet the new ones on Monday and then I have 2 days off (after 8 straight days of work) to prepare and I think my own studies start that same week. I will only take 2 classes this fall since I can transfer the 3 German classes I took in California. That will be so nice, study 50% and work the rest and make more money and make my debt smaller. I just hope that UCSD will be able to send my transcript to Chalmers and that it will work out, otherwise I am pretty screwd since I have now only applied for two classes and 50% loans. Otherwise I have to take one more class before getting my Master of Science.

 

I think it will be a fun fall. I will probably play less Pokemon Go (I am halfway to lvl 25) when it gets colder, and that will probably make me play more Guild Wars 2 (one of my new co-workers play as well, so that’s awesome!) and read more. I am almost finished with the last book in the Unfortunate Events series, but before I write my first book review I need to come up with a template that I will follow. Maybe I will do that now. I am too tired to keep doing the school planning now, there’s another day tomorrow.

One extra day in Greece

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

So, our flight was delayed by 12 hours yesterday. Instead of being home at 2 pm we came home at 4 am. We were tired, and I couldn’t really sleep tonight, so 10 hours work today was not very fun.

We got picked up at the hotel at 8:30 am, we checked in and waited for takeoff at 11. We got information that it was delayed until 12:30, but at 11, we were told that we had to wait for 12 hours and that we would be driven to a new hotel where we would get a room, lunch and dinner and then driven back to the airport at 9 pm. So our day consisted of a lot of bus rides and waiting. We had lunch at the hotel right when we got there. It was not very good. Then we had to wait until 2pm to check in. Until then, we walked around on the hotel area and looked at the pool area. It was cute, but not many sunbeds. The room was not very nice, definitely not 5 stars. We put our stuff in there, changed into swim wear and then went down to the pool and were actually lucky enough to get two sunbeds. The pool was 3m deep, and that was fun. We read some, played around in the water and just waited for time to pass. At 7 pm dinner was served and it was pretty much the same food as for lunch. The people working there were not very nice and even rude and tried to charge us for drinks when it was supposed to be included. Right after dinner we went down to the beach (this hotel was just a stone throw away from our luxury hotel) to watch the sunset before packing again and leaving for the airport and hoping for the best. The transfer was supposed to come at 9pm, it arrived at 9:45 pm and the plane was supposed to takeoff at 11pm. I was seriously getting comfortable with the idea of spending the night there.

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We got to the airport 45 minutes before takeoff, but boarding didn’t start until 11, and because of lots of traffic, we didn’t takeoff until midnight. We landed in Gothenburg at 2:30 am and got home about an hour later and went to bed at 4. I am so tired right now.

It was nice to have one extra day in Greece, but it could have been better if we would have skipped the whole checking in and waiting at the airport when the personnel knew at 8am that this would happen. I will contact my home insurance and hope that I will get something for this. We didn’t have to pay anything extra in Greece, but we did have to pay for taxi since we didn’t get a ride from Jesper’s mom as was planned since she was on a plane to Portugal when we landed.

It was a great trip, still the best I have ever done, even if yesterday was sucky.

Tsambika

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

I had written so much text, and then my computer crashes and this one time, Word doesn’t give me the option to open an unsaved document. Stupid computer!!

I won’t write all that again, but will do a short summary since it is really late and I am tired and have to get up super early tomorrow.

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I am bad at doing relaxing vacations, I am tired, so today we spent the whole day at Tsambika where we lay on the beach, reading all day. It was warm, so we spent a lot of time in the water. We snorkeled only once since the water was rougher today than it has been. We found a cave, but didn’t go in because we didn’t want to rip us up when the waves would have pushed us against the sharp rocks.

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I finished the last book in I am Number Four Series “United as One” and I feel sad. 7 books and 15 companion books are over. Because of this I decided today to expand my blog and make a travel/book review blog.

We had dinner at a restaurant here at the hotel. Fancy pancy Asian food which was delicious.

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Now it is late, so no pictures from yesterday will be posted today, but will be uploaded tomorrow (it takes time to go through lots of photos, especially from a dive).

Goodnight for the last time from Rhodes.