Halo Night 7

            Earlier tonight, the seventh Halo Night took place. Mitchell, Pat, Matt, Jake, Colin, Andy, Graham, and myself were all in attendance. Of course, we were using the boss Battlefield setup to enjoy the game.

            Some tears were shed (mostly by Jake), but good times were had by all.

            We kind of made a mess.

           
             And, of course, we had a Nerf fight.

             It's a good start for the break.

Battlefield Night the Fourth

            As we approach the break, NJAB, my brothers, and I are preparing to maximize the utils we derive from our free time. How would we go about doing that?
            Battlefield, of course.

            Tonight was the first of many gaming nights that will be taking place at the Rabalais residence. Tomorrow is Halo Night 7, where the carnage will continue on Reach. Expect a blog post on Friday or Saturday.

            In the meantime, some photos.

Airframe Again

            Today I finished Airframe. It was pretty good, though I would say that it wasn't the strongest of the works of Crichton that I have read. That said, it was still a good story. It was an interesting change of pace, as there was almost no action in it. It dealt more with corporate espionage, the airplane industry, and the media's representation of information. It's nice to read a book that isn't about action but still manages to be fast-paced and tense.
            I feel like I learned a lot from this book. My perception of the FAA is a bit different, and my awareness of the JAA (the Joint Aviation Authorities) increased from zero over the course of my reading. I also found out a lot about planes that I didn't expect. For example, did you know that there can be over 100 black boxes on a large airplane? I didn't.
            I liked this book for many reasons, but the educational aspect was the part I liked best.Michael Crichton always weaved a story around facts that he researched, so the stories always feel real. Airframe was no exception to this trend.

Airframe

            For my independent reading assignment, I chose Airframe by Michael Crichton. I chose this book because Crichton is one of my favorite authors and I want to read more of his books. So far I have read State of Fear, Prey, and Rising Sun, and all of them were excellent. I think that any book by Michael Crichton would be a book I could enjoy.
            The main reason that I like Michael Crichton books is that they present a lot of facts about subjects that I find interesting. For example, State of Fear was focused on the subject of global warming. It gave (and cited) a ton of facts about global climate change, and it forced me to think about it. Most books don't do that, so it's nice when one comes along and educates you in an unexpected way.
            That's what I'm looking forward to in Airframe. I hope that it can help me learn about airplanes and the travel industry as much as Rising Sun taught me about Japanese business and culture. Here's hoping that the book is good.

Stocks

           For SUPA Econ, we were asked to invest an imaginary $20000 in the stock market. We had to invest $10000 in the DOW market and $10000 in more aggressive stocks. After that, we monitored the stocks in preparation for the paper we have to write. The project is due on 12/27.
           After about a month of monitoring, my brother and I are going to sell our stocks. If our stocks are up 10% total at the end of the project, we get bonus points. Unfortunately for Mitchell and I, we are only up about $760. I hope that Amazon stocks skyrocket by tonight or else we probably won't get the points.

Holmes

            Sherlock Holmes, the most recent adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character, is one of my favorite movies. I've read a few Holmes books, including A Study in Scarlet and The Hounds of the Baskervilles, and I really enjoyed them, so it was nice to see a movie about Holmes that didn't suck. I found the characters and their dialogue to be witty and engaging, and the plot was exciting.
            One of my favorite things about this movie is that it represents Holmes in a form that is closer to Doyle's character than most other adaptations since then. In most modern depictions, Sherlock is a brilliant detective with perfect logical methods and always has his game face on. This isn't how the character was at the beginning. In the books he would enter periods of near depression between cases. He would do drugs like cocaine and morphine just to keep himself stimulated, much to the chagrin of Dr. Watson, and would not leave his house for days. The movie keeps the character more true to his original form.
            I was excited to hear that we were watching the movie in class, especially since the sequel comes out tomorrow. I plan on seeing it on Saturday, so keep watching the blog. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows might be the first movie to get a review on the fastest growing blog on the internet.*


*Not even close.

A Hero's Return

            After nearly two weeks away from home, Oswego High School's #1 graduate will be making his triumphant return this Saturday. That's right, Mason Rabalais will be home for the holidays. After destroying some finals at Auburn University he has earned a month's respite, and I'm sure cold New York is his dream destination for a winter sojourn.
            During Mason's stay, I imagine that we will get the triple Xbox setup running again downstairs. Long-time followers (has it been two weeks already?) might remember the ultimate gaming station that Mason, NJAB, and I played on. Expect new posts about our Battlefield shenanigans and Halo Night 7, which will be happening on December 23.
            By a strange coincidence, Christmas happens to fall on one of the days that Mason will be here. I am entertaining the idea of giving him a present, but I don't know what to get. If you've got any good suggestions, please leave a comment below.

Book Review

            The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is an interesting read. The pacing was different as the story often jumped from the main story to a loosely related fact or formula, such as chapters 149 151, where Christopher, the narrator, jumps from reading a letter from his mother who he assumed was dead to an explanation of the calculation of animal populations (pages 90-102). This method of storytelling is nice, though, as it is a departure from the boringly linear stories we normally read at school.
            Reading a story from the perspective of someone with Asperger's syndrome is interesting. The writing style reminds me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest because they both are narrated by a character who doesn't think like an ordinary person does. In The Curious Incident, however, the narrator seems to be able to distinguish between what's real and what isn't, which makes the book easy to understand. This makes the book more accessible to the average reader.
            The ending was heartwarming, I wanted to know if there was an escalated level of animosity between Mrs. Shears and Christopher's dad and what effect that would have on Christopher. Other than that, I think the ending was pretty good. This was definitely one of the best books I've read this year.

Quote Reaction 2

            Henry David Thoreau believed that in order to live well, we need to reduce the amount of material goods we have. Otherwise, these things begin to dominate us. Take a position on this and explain.

            I mostly disagree with Thoreau. The problem is that we get too attached to our possessions, not that we have too many (I won't exclude myself from this). People seem to forget that things are replaceable and they place sentimental value upon the lowliest of objects.  If we can move past this notion, we can own as much stuff as we want and not have our lives be consumed by it. However, some people do seem to be incapable of ridding themselves of their things (just watch Hoarders), and these people prove Thoreau to not be completely incorrect.
            Given those exceptions, I think that Thoreau just had a problem with materialism. He could have easily picked another target for this statement. He could have chosen religion, or money, or people, as I think these are all things that can consume a person's life if they don't manage them properly, but he probably just didn't like the way people became attached to possessions. I bet he was a communist.