Father Tree

Father Tree

            Sitting placid and sweating on a bench, I wonder, “What am I going to do with my life?” That very moment, I see my father walking down the park road. Tall and sturdy, he walks down the path, wearing his black wool overcoat, the complete picture of cool and collected thought, even on a scorching summer morning like this. With a hot black coffee in one hand, and pitching out dried pieces of bread to the birds with his other, he looks to me the ideal image of a man’s man.

            I stand myself up, walk over to the hazel tree that shades my bench, and look for a branch that’s just at the full length of my reach. I break a twig off from that branch; quickly rush up to my father, and plunge the jagged broken edge into my father’s eye. I dig and grind the twig all the way to the back of his skull, feeling the splintering edges mesh and grind till it my hand is doused in cold blood. My father stands there for a moment, staring out of his one good eye, but then makes a plummeted fall backwards, as I yell, “Timber!”

            I kneel down next to my father, and reach into my pocket to produce a small vial. I open it, and I let slip onto my father’s still warm corpse a few of my mother’s death bed tears. I stand up, bush off the gravel and dust from my knees, and let him lay there in peace.

            I walk that bumpy road everyday now to my new job, feeling the small pebbles press up against the soles of my shoe. I tip the top of my hat to my father’s corpse, walk towards the right of the path, always making sure not to step on my father. People do look at him from time to time, but never long enough to stop and break the pace they are walking.

            By next summer, all traces of my father’s body are gone. By the time next spring came, the twig I planted in his eye slowly pulled my father into itself, and became a fully grown hazel tree. Right in the middle of the road stands my father’s tomb, right there for everyone to see and mumble complaints about, right where I can look up to him every day, nod the tip of my hat, and tell him how much I love him. 

The Eye of the World (Book One of The Wheel of Time series)

I just finished the first book in The Wheel of Time series, The Eye of the World. I actually listened to this one as well on audio book, and it took me quite awhile to get through, since it spanned twenty-four cds. The book really is great, and since a lot of people of our generation have really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and have more recently gotten into The Song of Ice and Fire Series, aka Game of Thrones TV show, I figured a review on a epic fantasy story would be a good idea.

This story is a lot more like Lord of the Rings, then Game of Thrones, because it has strong fantasy ties right off that bat, and less political. This story if a heavy fantasy tale that goes through the classic, set out from a small village on a great adventure, type of story. The town we start in is called The Two Rivers. It's a very small town on the fringes of a kingdom, with one inn, and mainly produces tobacco and wool. We come into this town with Rand al'Thor, the main protagonist, and his father, Tam al'Thor. The town is a bit worried at the moment because winter seems to be lingering longer then it has in year, making it difficult to start planting crops. Rand runs into his friends Matt, Perrin, and Egwene. They're all childhood friends, and you can tell right off the bat that Rand and Egwene are looking to further that friendship, since both of them are sixteen and have that classic "he's/she's my childhood friend" that fall for each other vibe. Everything seems pretty simple and calm in the two rivers, and there is even a festival to look forward to tomorrow. They actually have a gleemen, basically a bard who also does tricks and stunts as well, performing at the festival. The two rivers people are overly excited about this, since they rarely have anyone come to their small town. 

That night though, after Rand and Tam return home, their house is attacked by Trollocs, which are giant monsters with the heads of animals like wolves, eagles, panthers, etc. Rand and Tam manage to make it out of the house, but Tam is injured, and Rand has to carry him to the town. Rand arrives at the town to find that it was also attacked. Rand finds out that an Aes Sedai, which is basically a female wizard, named Moiraine, and a Warder, which is basically the best warrior you can think of, and then double that thought, named Lan, helped save the village. Moiraine tells Rand, Matt, and Perrin, that they were the ones being targeted by the Trollec raid, and that can only mean their master, the Dark One, is after them, for some unknown reason. Moiraine and Lan tell the boys they have to leave the village right away, or they will bring another raid upon the village. They leave that night, in order to make less of a fuss, and end up taking the Gleemen, Tom, and Egwane along as well. 

This story really is a great read if you are looking for a heavy fantasy book, with thirteen books after the first,  and some very well rounded characters. I think anyone that liked Lord of the Rings would defiantly want to take a look at this book. The book is a little over eight-hundred pages, but is surprisingly addictive, once you start reading it. If you are looking for your fix of magic powers, treasure, young romance, and simply a story a leaving home, and challenging the beliefs you were raised on, then this is your book. Alright guys, hope this blog sparked an interest in you to pick this book up, and tell me what you think if you do pick it up. Thanks for reading.

Girls of the Wild's

This is the first manhwa I've actually reviewed on this blog. A manhwa is just like a manga, but its created in Korea. I've never had a physical copy of a manhwa, but online the only difference from a manga, that I could notice, is that instead of 18-24 pages, that a manga has for each chapter, a manhwa will usually have 3-4 super long pages. I've seen a lot of interesting ways to play around with this type of format, and does offer something that a manga do not. Not saying that the format is better, just that it has its own advantages.

Girls of the Wild's takes place around a young man named Song Jae Gu. Song has enrolled in a high school called Wilds High. Since he got a full ride scholarship to the place, regardless or grades, and it is located close to his house, it's a pretty good deal. Song is a first year in high school now, but has to work at a job to provided for his younger brother and sister, since his mother ran out on them when their father died. I've actually seen this same type of set up and other manhwa's, and wonder if this is just both authors using the same set up to make a sympathetic character, of it this type of thing is common in Korea. Either way, Song is just trying to get through high school unnoticed, with good grades, so he can get into a good college for his siblings, or at least find a better job. However, what Song didn't know, is the Wild's High was an all girls school for the last 42 years, and he is the first male to enter the school, since it just turned coed this year. Most men would instantly think of this as a blessing, but Song is just trying to keep his head down and get out of school with high grades. Problems start though when the principal of the school tells all the girls to help Song integrate into the school, and anyone who befriends Song, or helps him in anyway, will receive bonus graduation honors. The principle is doing this to try and increase the femininity of the girls of his school, mainly because this school is also the sponsor of The Wilds fighting tournament. With girls enrolling to Wilds High, for the last 42 years, to show their fighting prowess, the principle is worried that the girls lack life experience with the opposite sex. He isn't trying to have all his students go and have sex with Song, he is just trying to get them used to talking to boys, going out to lunch, and anything a normal high school girl would. Problem is, that all the girls simply look at him as a way to get ahead in the school standings. He is instantly targeted by a handful of the schools top students, meaning the schools top fighters. He has also managed to piss off the Queen, Yoon In Gyi, the schools top and undisputed champion.

This series is definitely one to look at if you'd like to see the spineless Song make his way through the Wild's. Most of the main characters are very well rounded, and you really feel for them when things are looking down for them, and you'll find yourself cheering them on when they are trying to become more then they are. This is a very inspiring story at the end of the day, and makes you feel fortunate for having everything you take for granted. I know it inspired me to go out and make more of myself. Also, its only 59 chapters, and ongoing weekly, so it would be easy to catch up to the current story. Hope you guys check this manga out, and buy it when its available in the US, if you have the spare income. Thanks for reading.

Digital Fortress

So this past summer I've been doing a job that basically requires me to drive to Florida NY, which is about an hour drive, pick up some suitcases, and then drive back home. Who knows what's in those suitcases though O.o. Nah, its just boring mail. Still, I figured that instead of just jamming out to the radio everyday while I drove up there, I would get a few audiobooks from the library. I actually think I've gotten through eight books that way this summer. Digital Fortress was one of the first, and caught my eye since it was written by Dan Brown, who is better known for his books Angels and Demons, and The De Vinci Code. I was also recommended this book by a friend a few months ago and figured it was as good a time as any to pick it up. The story is set up around an United States Agency who's main purpose is cracking digital codes. Code breaking has been a fundamental part of war since ancient times, and became especially important in WWII, when the allies had to use cryptologists in order to break German and Japanese coded messages. After that war, the usefulness of cryptology became very apparent, and so the United States National Security Agency was created (in the book). Their job was mainly to decode messages that the US intercepted as quickly as possible. A big change happened though with the age of computers, and information was easily accessible by this agency through peoples unprotected emails. After many convictions because of lax digital security, long digital codes were made to increase security. In order to counter this new obstacle, the U.S.N.C.A . used a method of hard cracking, which basically meant they had a computer try every combination possible on the messages they wanted to see. This went back and forth with longer codes being made, and better computers to counter then, until the U.S.N.C.A created TRANSLTR, a advance code breaking computer the could handle the hardest codes in several minutes.
Our story really starts here, when TRANSLTR is challenged by a code it cannot break, called Digital Fortress. This Digital Fortress was created by a former colleague named Ensei Tankado, who believed, "We all have the right to keep secrets." He built Digital Fortress in order to to combat TRANSLTR, and has said he will release it to the highest bidder in the next twenty-four hours, or to the public in the case of his demise, unless the U.S.N.C.A. admits openly about the existence of TRANSLTR. The story starts off with us seeing Tankado having a heart attack in Spain, the same day these events unfold. The main protagonist, David Becker, is asked to go to Spain in order to retrieve all of Tankado's belongings, in the hope he had the code to access Digital fortress on him. Things get complicated for David, who is only a language consultant for U.S.N.C.A, when he finds out that Tankado gave away his ring, which might have the code on it, with his last dying breaths. David has to race against the clock in order to find this ring before Digital reaches the end of the bidding time, or before NDAKOTA, Tankado's partner, who is t release the Digital Fortress to the public if he gets word of Tankado's disappearance, or untimely death, finds out that Tankado's already dead in the heat of Spain.
This book has a lot of twist and turns, like most of Brown's books do, and is only not as known as his two hits, Angels and Demons, and The De Vinci Code, because it isn't as controversial. I personally think its better then those two, and has a great audio book reading of it. The show is stolen a little by Commander Trevor Strathmore on the audio version, since the voice actor decided to give him a voice very similar to that of Sean Connery, and is part of why I recommend the audio version. This really is a great book to pick up if your into light science fiction, or just like a good mystery story at the end of a day. Thank you so much for reading, and hope you take a look at this book.

Parenticide

This is a really rough first draft that I threw together late last Monday night for my Tuesday morning prose poetry class. For it being just that, I thought it didn't come out so bad. I'll have to add a bit more imagery, to really flush out the poem, but I figured I would share this first draft now, and then repost the update. Hope you like it. Also, read the ending note

Parenticide

           The word “hate” is a word that truly should be saved for the most wretched and depraved people someone can think of. That is why I think every adolescent, or young adult, should tell their parents that they hate them once. Once, and only once. Make sure it’s said on a warm summer morning when things have been going pretty well between the two of you for the last couple of weeks. Make sure when they are up about to rush off to work, or off the hair salon, you get there full attention and say in a flat, and lifelessly calm voice, “Mom/Dad, I really hate you.” Make sure when they say the “what’s” and the “why’s” to answer them, cause they are your parents, or stepparents, or even adopted parents, after all.

Make sure to tell your dad how you hate the stiff smell of coffee that he makes in the morning, how he praises you when you do something good, or how he reminds you to get a job, when you’ve had one for the last three years. Make sure he knows how, yes, even though our house has the most lights on the block come Christmas, that all the people who come over for the house party really hate him as well, and the men will never invite him out with them on their golf trips in the summer where they hit a triple bogie, but play still because they love the sport. Make sure that he knows that even though he was there for you when you got sick, when you got bullied at school, when you won your first game on your sports team, and when you needed someone to check under the bed for monsters, the secretly wished he hadn’t made it to the game, because he was in a car crash, or that he was the one sick with cancer or necrotizing fasciitis, just so you didn’t have to deal with your cold, or that you wished that there was a monster in the closet, and that it ripped him limb from limb.

Make sure, if it’s your mother you catch that morning, that you show her the same amount of honesty you showed your father. Make sure that you let her know that she honestly makes the worst chicken-parm this side of the hemisphere, that how she did look good when you were younger, but has put on several pounds in the last few years around her belly and hips, and how no one cares about her interior decorating. Make sure that if she really could have been, “a great actress” or “a great singer” if she wasn’t busy having you, that she should have been those great things, because the thought of having been inside of her for nine months, the idea of being part of her filthy body, the very thought that she had given birth to you, often makes you think of suicide at night.

Make sure to say all of this, and never speak of it again.

Make sure that if you win the noble prize later in life, or win MVP on a sports team, or win the lottery, or make it big on Broadway, that you make sure to thank mom and dad for everything they did. Make sure they see the sincerity in you expression, and that you really mean it when you say it, because they won’t hear what you’re saying. They’ll just hear what you said that day years ago. Over, and over, and over, and over, and until their dying breathes, that’s all they will remember about you.

Also, this is not about my own parents. Well maybe it is in part, but I think its just an exaggeration of how I feel at times. I don't hate both my parents this much, so just let that be known. 

Mistletoe

Ok, well now its time to share part of one of my short stories. I'm only sharing the first part since its the only part I feel comfortable with sharing so far. If anyone sees this, and asks for the rest, I'll post it. Also, give me some feedback on how to improve this story. Haven't worked on it in a long time, but I'd really like to start up on it again and finish it!!!

Mistletoe

            “I love you”, the words escaped my lips before I know what I was saying. The only proof of my words existence was a momentary white vapor that fell off my lips into the frigged winter air, and then even that faded away. I expected a scream, maybe a laugh, or even just a look. Katie did nothing though, just continued on skating around the lake like she didn’t hear my words. She spun, she danced, and she made love with the ice as she skated across it as always. I thought that she probably didn’t hear me, so I said again, “I love you.”

            “I heard you the first time,” though she wasn’t looking at me when she said that, just setting up her next jump. She landed it on one leg and gracefully began carving her dog name, Rocky,  into the ice in simple weaving manner.

            “Alright”, I didn’t mean to raise my voice but she was ignoring me at what was to me a semi important moment, “do you want to say anything then?” I was just sitting at the bank of the lake in my snow boots since I twisted my ankle the other day and figured skating on it would be a dumb move, even for me.

            “Not in particular.” When she said those words, I remember just telling my body ‘alright just die right now, no pain please, just die, die, die’. I looked out on her on the ice and wondered if that’s all there was to it, that she knew I felt this way all along and just wanted to simply ignore it and hope I never brought it up. She just kept on skating in her nylon pants and sweater like we were talking about what movie to see or about how many times Mr. Peters, our math professor, said ‘Yeah that’s great’ today.

            I looked down and yelled “Why the hell not!”

            She skated over towards me, stopped for a second and said, “Well, I just don’t know what it means.” As soon as I looked up, she was off again spinning on one heel.

            “What do you mean you don’t know what it means?” I could only think at the time that she was trying to come up with a bullshit answer to avoid my confession or something along those lines.

            “It’s that simple. I don’t know what it means, or means to you at the very least. People throw the word ‘love’ around so much, but most have no idea what it means. We are just taught from movies and fairytales that you say you love someone, and you live happily ever after. That’s not how it works though. Love is different with each couple, you know? Some peoples love is bonded between their children, their work, their bodies, and sometimes convenience. Each one is love, but just a different type. So tell me, what love do you have for me?”

            I never had thought of love in that way; all I ever really knew was that I loved Katie. If I had to put my finger on a moment in time that I realized I loved her, the realization seemed to dawn on me only a few days before my little confession. The two of us were at my house for a small Christmas party that she has been coming to for the last ten years. It was a pretty normal occurrence at this point, and my family was always happy to have Katie over. She had a blue ruffle dress on, which she normally would never wear so clearly her mother forced her to, and was obviously was dragged to the hair solon since it was wavy and shimmering. We both watched some Christmas movie specials together as usual and grabbed a bottle of apple cider and brought it to the roof, pretending it was really champagne. After we climbed back through my window, I grabbed Katie’s arms and said, “Wait”, pointed up at some mistletoe I had set up there just for this moment. She looked at me and tilted her head, almost as if she didn’t recognize me or was trying to see me in a different way. She just stayed there staring at me so I figured it was alright for me to try and kiss her. As I moved in to kiss her cheek, Katie grabbed my face and pushed her lips against mine. Our eyes were still open, and she had those dominating and even agitated eyes that she only shows me; they faded though and her eyes closed as she moved her hands from my face to my neck. I grabbed onto her neck and waist and felt her move against me till we heard someone coming up the stairs. Katie jumped away, and it was my mom calling us down for dinner. Katie smiled at her and ran down the stairs to the table. Right after dinner Katie said she had to go home, so we never had any to talk about what happened till now.

            “Well the other night I figured, I guess I thought it meant something more than just a simple mistletoe kiss.” Katie was at the far end of the lake, so I had to yell for her to hear me. After my words had reached her she turned around and was speeding right towards me. I figured she was just pissed or who knows what, and was in a hurry to chew me out for what I said. She didn’t stop though; she jumped off the ice and tackled me into the snow. She might be a girl, but she was skating fast, and I was just standing there, so she knocked the air clean out of my lungs. When I brought my head up, Katie was mounting my stomach. I tried to get up, but she pushed both my shoulders back down into the snow bank and leaned her hands on them, so I was stuck there beneath her trying to catch my breath.

            “Is this what you want?” Her eyes were sharp and prodding, and I actually felt a bit scared of her. Katie took her sweatshirt off and threw it on the ground right next to me. All that was left on her now were a pair of skates, some tight nylon pants, and a bra. “If you want my body, I’ll give it to you. I have always been attracted to you physically, so I wouldn’t mind that, if that’s what you want.”

            “No. Well yes, but no.”

            “Which is it?”

At a time like this I thought I would be shaking or lost for words, afraid of embarrassing myself or just losing a friend possibly. The words though, they just poured out of my mouth as if some ancient ancestor of mine, who might have been a real man, had taken over. “I want it all! I want your figure skating body, your prickly heart, your straight A’s brain, your tomboy attitude, your cold hands, and your love. I don’t want one, I want them all, and everything else you could ever offer.” I threw Katie over onto her sweatshirt and was the one holding her down now. Her blond hair was spread across the snow as if they were fingers looking for something to grab. “I want you to be my woman and no one else’s. I don’t care if other people look at you, but at the end of the day I want to be the person who is closest to you. I want to hold you against me and I want to fall asleep with you every night.” I felt the air rush back into my lungs but still felt breathless. ‘Whose words are these?’ I wondered. I knew I felt this way but could I really be saying them?

            “Boy Robby, I never knew you were so greedy.” Katie’s eyes were as sharp as normal but they had a glimmer I didn’t recognize. That smirk made me wonder if she was happy with what I said or merely amused at what she was hearing.

            “Yeah, I’m greedy when it comes to you. I don’t want anyone else to have you but me.” All the courage I felt before had nearly left me at this point, and I felt my legs getting ready to run me off into the woods and keep running for hours till I was lost.

            “Well, I can’t say I’ll never have anyone else other then you, but at the moment, the only person I want is you. I love you, you dipshit”, Kaite started to blush and turned her head away when she said that. She peaked back over to me as I stared and said, “Stop staring at me you bastard! God, it’s embarrassing to get stared at if you didn’t know.”

            “Since when?”

            “Since when what?” Katie was staring at her right hand which I was holding down against the snow. I loved seeing her weak for once rather than always being the girl that could beat almost every guy in any sport.

            “Since when did you love me?”

            “God, I have loved you since I have known your stupid ass, so about fifteen years.” Her green eyes that usually look bold and vibrant looked like they were trembling and watery.

            “Why didn’t you say anything then?”

            “Because you are the guy here not me, remember? Also, I did ask you out once before if you already forgot you ass!” Katie’s smirk faded and I remembered the moment she was talking about right away.

            Most eighth grade boys are pretty oblivious to what girls want or are thinking, but I always felt like a had a pretty good idea of what Katie was thinking. Katie and I were sitting on my porch, taking off our biking helmets after a day of mountain bike racing. Out of the five races I won one, and it was only because the chain in Katie’s bike jammed. Katie was taking her right kneepad off when she said, “So Robby, who are you going to ask to go to the eighth grade dance?” I looked over at her and saw she was simply staring down at her feet and fixing her shoes. I felt like she wanted me to ask her out. I was almost certain of it even. The only problem was the small piece of doubt that was telling me, “Someone probably asked her out already and so she is just wondering who you asked out now. She is just making conversation, not telling you to ask her out.” That small amount of doubt made me worry if I might freak Katie out by asking her out and possibly lose her as a friend by doing so. I couldn’t lose Katie as a friend, she was the person I thought of every day and talked to on the phone till one of us passed out almost every night.
            So I said, “Me? I’m not going to a stupid eighth grade dance. Even if I wanted to go, who would I ask out?”

            Katie’s nimble hands froze mid weave of tying her shoes right away and her arms swung down to her sides. “Yeah, who could you ask out anyway?” Katie shot up from the porch and grabbed her helmet and pads and jumped on her bike before I could get a word out. She yelled as she biked away, “Hey I got to get home; I’ll see you in fourth period tomorrow.” I saw Katie bike down the block to her house, throw her bike on the lawn, and run into her house.

            “Katie, that was back in eighth grade. If you really wanted to ask me out why didn’t you just say it more directly?”

            Katie’s head snapped towards me and it looked like she was trying to kill me with her glare. “You know how hard it was for me to even ask you out? I cried so much that night that I thought I was going to have to call out sick the next day because I couldn’t face you. That was one of the worst weeks of my life. Better yet, you actually knew I was asking you out and just ignored the chance?”

Katie was yelling and I really couldn’t blame her. All I could really say was, “I had an idea that you were asking me out but I was an eighth grade boy, and worried about losing you back then.”

Katie’s eyes softened for a moment but then were back to glaring curses at me. “Don’t give me that cheesy line, that’s cheating. Besides, you are a man right? Or am I wrong about that?” Katie actually broke one hand free and grabbed down at my groan, though by how wide her eyes got I think she wasn’t actually expecting to feel anything through the thick pants and was only grabbing me there for dramatic effect.

“Why are you like that?” she yelled, “God get off of me you pervert!”

            “Well you threw yourself at me; mounted me, threw your shirt off, and had that weak look on your face to top it off. How do you expect me not to react to any of this? Also, didn’t you just say you love me?”

            Katie’s eyes shut down and it looked like she had just realized that she had actually ripped her shirt off. “Yeah I do…but what does that have to do with this?”

            “Well, that means you take me for both the good and bad. I can’t really say this is all that bad though, is it? I mean, at least you know I am attracted to you.”

            Katie looked down, and I swear she was nearly going to cry. I didn’t want her to cry and was about to say something, but she said, “I guess its fine, but I’m not ready for that. Especially not out in the woods in the fuc-the damn cold. My ass is numb as it is from being held down here so long!” I had nearly forgotten that Katie was only wearing nylon stockings and must be freezing by now. I picked her hips up and brought them up onto my thighs. Katie looked like I had grown five heads right in front of her and started screaming, “Don’t grab my ass you pervert! God, pick me up at least!” I leaned down to pick her up as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She was still giving a small pouting face as I pulled her up and against my chest. I thought she would freak out by me pulling her so close to me, but instead she pulled against me harder only mumbling “fuck you” into my chest.
 

A Town Where You Live

Since last time I covered Suzuka, obviously I would cover Seo Kouji's current manga,A Town Where you Live, next. Seo decides to throw the reverse from Suzuka, which had the main protagonist moving from rural Japan to Tokyo, and decided to make the lovely Eba move from Tokyo to rural Japan! Eba moves into Haruto's house, since her father was an old family friend of Haruto's family, and she decided she wanted to go to high school in the country. Haruto objects right away, cause really, what guy wouldn't object to a beautiful young girl, same age as you, moving in with you for the next four years. Yeah, Haruto's a bit slow when it comes to love, but he does have a crush on a girl in town named Nanami. She is also in the same grade as Haruto and Eba, and has gone to school with Haruto since forever. The series, as of today, just hit is 200th chapter! The road they travel down these 200 chapters and a long and boundless road, full of heartache, promises, lost chances, hope, friends, lost loved ones, and plenty of pretty girls smiling. I'll have to say that it is pretty hard to predict what exactly will happen next at time, which is why I enjoyed this manga so much. One or two things you might say, "yeah, could have seen that coming", but while you were waiting for the one even to happen, a cascade of other events unfold simultaneously. I'll have to say I feel I actually like A Town Where You Live, more then Suzuka at this point, mainly because this manga is always evolving and changing, and it feels a bit more realistic because of this fact. I don't think this manga takes itself as seriously as I just made it seem, cause there is a ton of humor throughout, and fan service for days, but I think this manga really does hit some hard life situations that shake the characters and the readers. All in all, I suggest you start reading this manga as soon as you can, because its one of those manga's that comes out on Wednesday, and has you itching to read the next issue from Thursday till next Wednesday.