Over Sea, Under Stone

Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper is the prequel to the popular The Dark is Rising.

In this book Simon, Jane, and Barney go on an unexpected quest to find a goblet that tells of King Arthur's times. However, they are not the only ones looking. They are on the righteous side, so people from the dark side are trying to find it before them.

I give this book two thumbs up (9/10), for a good plot, a good page turner, but most of all, the characters. Characters are what make a good book, a good book. If the characters are all perfect, or all snotty (and not funny), then I regard the book as a "not so good book" because without good characters the book and the plot isn't carried out with the same gusto if the book had had great characters!

Good Job Susan Cooper for writing this book!

I highly recommend this book for ages nine to sixteen, for people who like adventure.

~minkster

p.s. If you haven't read the series, I recommend that you do so.

Why Read?

Why be such an avid reader?

Reading is fun, depending on what book you chose. It increases your vocabulary, and gives you ideas. You can immerse yourself in a different world, go on a quest, or save the universe from ultimate destruction.

You can also get away from who you are, and what you are doing, and just DEAR (Drop Everything And Read).

It can relax stress (at least for me).

However, you have to get the right book that will work for you, because if you don't, you probably won't enjoy it one bit.

So off to DEAR time!

~minkster

Weekly news and comments 2

This week of posting has been very exciting, and so, in honor of that, I will blog about a free program called scratch.

Scratch is a very easy program to use, and lets you make your own game, animation, or short story. You can make your own figures, and best of all, it's free!

Also, you can publish what you make to the web site, so that other people can see/play you work. You can play their game/animation to!

So you can use the easy-to-use program, join the community, play games, and learn while you're doing all of it!

~minkster

Y Pulse, Continued

This is the second post, so if you haven't read the first one, I would suggest that you read it.

This post is about some of the other things that happened at Y Pulse.

The first point I would like to bring up, is that most of the websites, and/or companies that presented, were for everyone (adults and kids, male and female), or they were for girls (well, almost every presentation).

Next, an interesting topic that I picked up at the book presentation, was that books one day will go from the hard copy that you now enjoy, to online, or with a portable device that would be cheap. Some people said that this change would happen in the next five years. Now, despite that, some people will still want the hard-copy, and that's great! Book stores will still be around, but will be more tech related.

My third point is that, if possible, this conference is a great booster for anyone who is creating a business. So, if you are doing something related to teens, you should probably check this conference out!

~minkster

Taxis

AAAAAAHHHHH!

Whizzing past the water, changing to land, you peek at the spedometer, and realize, you're going eighty on a fifty-five mile-an-hour speed-limit.

Why do they go so fast?

I think they go fast, because that way, they can make more money by getting more people once they're finished with you.
So, is this better than a bus?

In my opinion, no. Bus drivers lose their job (well, in some companies) if they're pulled over for speeding, and so, busses are better if you have lots of time for where you're going. If not, take a cab!

~minkster

Y Pulse

So an overview of Y-Pulse... but first, what is Y-Pulse?

This years 2008 Y-Pulse was stellar, lead by Anastasia Goodstein. The conference was about teen marketing, and technology. Speakers Ranged from Justina Chen Headley (an author), to MC Hammer (hip-hop, dancejam.com), and everything went on schedule, and was very exciting.

Who was at the conference?

Starting out companies, starting authors, and CEO's of companies, all people, focusing on tweens, but mostly teens.

So, where was the conference located?

Good old San Francisco. The confrence and the lodging was in Hotel Nikko.

What was your favorite part?

I really liked some of the social networking confrences, but no confrence was bad- for all of the people speaking were very good, and knew what they were doing.

~Minkster

For More information on Y Pulse click HERE.

Audio File

I was casually strolling the web, when I came upon a masterpiece of a sound technology called Audacity. I did a quick download and... in about 60 seconds, it was downloaded.

What I most like however, though, about audacity is the ability to scroll through your work, delete sections, and have lots of special effect possibilities.

I highly recomend this program to all who are in need of a good sound editing program, and also to all people who just like to have nick-nacks! So there you are, AUDACITY!

~minkster