I Made That! - A Bit on 3D Printing

The age of 3D printing is upon us.  We used to manufacture solid objects, now we print them.  Printing no longer means just words on paper, it means objects with three dimensions.  We print in plastic, some colleges and labs print in metal (printed metal parts are now used in Boeing airplanes), and one company is attempting to print a liver from live human cells.  By the end of 2014, the world will see the first printed human organ, a liver.

The head of our 3D club printed a part for a dishwasher that had broken.  It worked.  The MakerBots (produced by Stratasys) can be tricky to work with, I’ve managed to mess up mine at school three or four times, but when it works, it’s rewarding to think I designed this!  Plus, you can say, “I made that.”  I printed a set of chain links and carried them around for the rest of the day (they became my good luck charm, until I lost them).  A friend is printing a 3D chess set, another a phone case with spinning gears, another a toy car with working wheels, and I am printing a plastic dragon.  Here’s a printed phone case:

No, I did not print this, but we are in the process of printing one just like it.  The gears actually spin!

Rangers Apprentice Book 1: The Ruins of Gorlan - by John Flanagan

Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan had me laughing out loud, on the verge of tears.    

This book is for everyone:  guys, girls, and people of all ages will like it and end up laughing.  It’s fun to watch these characters solve mysteries and take on deadly missions.

The book follows the journey of a castle ward named Will, who knows very little about his past to include his last name.  The first twist happens early in the book when Will gets selected to be an apprentice to the mysterious ranger, Halt.  

Flanagan’s characters are well developed and their personalities make this book hilarious.  My favorite character, Halt, is not who he seems. Despite his gruff voice and tough reputation, he cracks many jokes at Will’s expense with a straight face, making fun of all the things he does wrong.  Flanagan pokes fun at teens through the character of Halt.  I ended up laughing at things I’ve done before.

You’ve got to love Baron Arold.  Because of his high-ranking position, everyone takes him seriously.  Arold enjoys making jokes and puns, but the others don’t get his sense of humor.  For example, Arold catches Will after he climbed up the outside of the tower into the Baron’s room.  Arold dismisses him and says “And Will? Use the stairs this time.” If it were anyone else, Will would laugh.  But he is puzzled and embarrassed.  

And Arold’s assistant is incapable of anything but yelling; Horace, Will’s friend, jokes around and teases Will and Halt about their secretive ranger ways; Alyss, tall and elegant, accompanies Will on journeys as a Courier; and Old Bob is the crazy farmer who breeds ranger horses.  The characters make this book.

And hey, if you read this and like it, you’re in luck, there are eleven more, book 12 just released this winter!

Divergent Movie - Veronica Roth

I saw this movie twice, once with my friend and once later with my tennis team.  The second time I fell asleep. 

I liked it the first time but it was not the best movie I’ve ever seen.  The actors were well cast and the costumes were what I had pictured from reading the book.  The producers recreated the dystopian world Veronica Roth imagined; the graphics and scenery were realistic.  They left out some of my favorite scenes and lines which made the book special for me (i.e. the spinning of the ferris wheel when Four and Tris climbed it).  I didn’t like Shailene Woodley. Sure, she looked like a good Tris, but her acting was subpar.  Ok, I’m a bit prejudiced since I’m not Woodley’s biggest fan, but there were scenes in the movie that you could tell she wasn’t in character.  I watched an interview with her, and she said “Tris is just a normal eighteen-year-old …”  Tris is sixteen.  Read the book Woodley!

The second time I saw it, my opinion dropped even lower.  The scenery, the graphics, and the simulations were well done, but the music did not fit with what was happening in the scene.  During a solemn scene there would be random techno music and I thought what? 

When I compare the movie to the book, I’m disappointed. The movie had the potential to be great.

If you haven’t read the book, go see the movie.  If you have, wait for it to come out on video. 

The Journey of the Marked - By Rebecca P. McCray

Many authors try to get their book published.  Not all make it.  Rebecca P. McCray’s debut novel, The Journey of the Marked, will.  The good writing, the setting, and intriguing story line make McCray’s book worth the read. I found this as a critic for LitPick, a site for new authors and teen readers.  After I read the summary, I downloaded it and finished in a day.  It’s new so you have to buy the eBook from Amazon for $3.99.  I prefer hard copy books, but this was easy enough to read and let’s face it, a quarter of book sales are digital.

Readers don’t like changing points of view and McCray rotates narrators each chapter between the five marked and their parents.   This lets the reader understand the characters in depth and get inside their head.   As I was reading I’d find I was longing to hear what was happening to them.  I feel like I know these characters and would want to know them in real life.

McCray writes formally and sometimes makes me laugh.

“They were probably traveling clothes common to Humans, though she lacked sufficient knowledge of the species to be certain.”  Chapter 1

It takes a couple chapters to get used to, but it’s entertaining.  It reinforces how different their world is from ours today.  

McCray’s setting makes this book, like how the setting in Harry Potter and The Hobbit makes the story come alive.  She creates her own planet (Zolei) with twenty different species.  She tells the story of the five marked, their parents, and what happens to them.  Eros, a human, is the leader and a strong fighter; Kenrya, a tenacious Arlian; Tip the Liput, an expert mechanic and tinker; Prizene the first female Krystic ever to be marked; and Azetan, a warrior who can breathe under water.  

Throughout their journey to a safe haven, they meet people who help them and people who want to kill them.  They make friends, help creatures, and save lives.  I liked how McCray had placed old men in the forest, whose purpose was to help the marked reach their destination.  She shows us there are people who will help those in need, regardless of the risk.  It also shows how even after you finish the most exciting endeavor, there is always another adventure. 

I wonder what will happen to Eros and the group; will they still be hunted?  Will they ever be safe?

The Strand Book Store (Broadway and 12th)

Have you been to the Strand book store in New York? If not, you’re missing out.  The Stand’s four floors hold over 18 miles of books:  new, used, out of print, and rare.  It also carries bags, journals, t-shirts, and ninja pens.  The basement has non-fiction and half-price books and the top floor has a collection of rare books, where my mom spent an hour and a half.  She bought Lang’s Crimson Book of Fairy Tales for thirty-five dollars, and drooled over a first edition of Winnie the Pooh going for three-hundred.  I spent way-too-much time in the two aisles of Young Adult, going title by title, reading book jackets.  The Strand is different from Barnes & Nobles because it allows people to sell books back to them and prices books below Amazon.  Most are about a dollar below list price.  I bought nine books, two used that cost five bucks each.  Next time you are in New York city, check out the Strand.  

http://www.strandbooks.com/

Divergent - By Veronica Roth

On March 21 Divergent will be released in theaters.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.

Tris gets the biggest change of her life when she transfers from the selfless Abnegation to the Dauntless faction, who live by the rule YOLO.   A short, fierce blonde, she is the first to jump off a building that leads to the entrance of the Dauntless cave.  Four is her instructor for the initiation. He maintains the tough guy attitude, even going so far as to nick her ear with a knife to teach her a lesson because she is so stubborn.  

What do they have in common? Both are Divergent and if anyone finds out, they are as good as dead.  

When my friends told me I had to read this book, I didn’t because it reminded me of the book Matched, which I disliked.  So I was wary when I first started.  Veronica Roth did a good job and I liked a few things in particular.  

Roth’s characters are normal people who are put in abnormal situations.  Any girl who has had to make tough choices that anger her family can relate to Tris, just like any guy who has ever been afraid of losing someone they loved can relate to Four.  And anyone who has ever feared being discovered, whatever the reason, can relate to the characters in this book.

Roth’s scenery is vivid.  On page 147 she writes, “For a few seconds I see only a dark blanket over the land in front of me, just faint differences between building and sky and street and ground.”  Let that sink in for a moment.  Roth describes the land at night from the top of a ferris wheel and I can see it:  the buildings, the trees, the trains, like the folds of a blanket.

Roth set up her world separating humans based on their traits.  The book shows the readers what would happen if every person were stripped to a single attribute, and whether or not the damage can be fixed.

See you in the theaters next week.

The Lord of the Flies - By William Golding

Shout out to all the freshman across the nation who are reading The Lord of the Flies and are wondering why 

William Golding wrote this book to tell the story of boys stranded on an island and to say that without government or rules, humans would become savages.  The question is, do you think that’s what would happen? In the beginning, the characters are annoying.  They remind me of my brother who bursts into my room and shoots a Nerf gun at my head.  They are a bunch of twelve year olds stuck on a strip of land in the Pacific Ocean, what else would you expect?   Golding gives them a chance to be alone without adults telling them what to do, no bedtime, no bath, and writes about what happens.  I’ve read four books for English class and this ranks second behind Diary of a Part Time Indian because that was funny while Flies had me wanting to throw the book across the room.  Golding shows us how humans can act and the horrible things we can do to each other.  I was disappointed because maybe there is some of that in all of us.