Book Review: Uglies

      Imagine a world of flying cars, hoverboards, and incredible beauty.  Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies barreted me with the emotions and moral choices contained within its folds.

     A story can only be as unique as its environment.  If this is true, then  Uglies would most definitely be one of the most unique stories I have ever read.  The setting ranges from a super high-tech town, to valleys of orchids, to a camp in a valley.  The setting of Uglies stars in the high-tech town of New Pretty Town, or rather, the outskirts, in a place called Uglyville.  Tally Youngblood, the main protagonist in the story, constantly dreams of when she will become a pretty and move to New Pretty Town.  New Pretty Town is where all of the new pretties live after they have had the operation.  The town is always crawling with activity ranging from parties to parades.  The town is also brimming over with extraordinary technological advances.  Unused items can recycle themselves and everything is automated.  During a point in the story, Tally drops a plastic mask after finding what she was looking for, but before she can pick up the mask and put the disguise back on, the cover had already recycled itself and absorbed into the carpet.  Later on, the setting changes to a camp ground in a valley.  Not much can be said of the camp ground, because too much information on the story may be told.  However, the valley is described as being extremely beautiful.  The area is also described as if a feeling of true freedom were felt when seen from high in the mountains.

     Uglies is packed with morals and moral choices throughout the book.  Simply put, any choice, large or small, can have a much greater impact than one might have initially thought.  Through much of the story, Tally conflicts with herself on whether or not she truly wants to become pretty and what she’s willing to sacrifice to get what she wants.  Tally also gradually realizes how many other people she will effect with her moral choice.

     Uglies is a very unique story in that this adventure can easily pull the reader in and hold them there.  I would definitely recommend Uglies to anyone who likes Sci-fi technology and an engaging read. (425 pages)

Universal Signs

   Have you ever noticed universally understood symbols or sayings?  I mean something like a thumbs up, or a peace sign.  This is random, I know, but I guess most or some people think about it at one point.

   Crossover words and cognates also remind me of this.  Crossover words are same words with the same meaning in two different languages.  Cognates are words that sound very similar to the same word in a different language.  That was just something I picked up in Spanish class.

   My original idea for this whole post was me actually thinking about when people connect a whole bunch of /'s, |'s, and "'s and other keystrokes to form a larger picture.  Almost as if it were a collage of punctuation marks.  But back to my main train of thought, why can't I find any readily made thumbs ups punctuation collages?  Perhaps no one has thought of it, or decided to put it on the Internet that was search able through Google?  You're guess is as good as mine at this point.  You've probably seen someone post a sign of punctuation's somewhere though, be that YouTube comments or forums.

It all starts with a thought

So I'm sitting here in class trying to type this and listen to Ms. Gillmore at the same time. Me catching bits of what's she's saying, "...wiping the memory completely..." "...tonight's homework..." which is reading. See, I can still pay attention. But I have to finish this so I can get to other subjects. I'm going to go think some. Is it possible to think about all the things you can think about? That's a hard question... I'll stop rambling and get back to work... it all starts with a thought.