Let’s talk about books. Everybody has a favorite book, or at least, one that would read once and once again. I’ve always loved to read, and one of my favorite books since I first read it is “Ender’s game”, by Orson Scott Card. Do you know it? It’s set in a future where mankind has barely survived two invasions by the "buggers", an insectoid alien race, the world's most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into "Battle School" at a very young age to supply commanders for the expected Third Invasion. If you want to know more about it, read the text in italics, if not, skip it!!!
**SPOILER**
Andrew Wiggin (Ender) is a brilliant six-year-old boy, born as a third child into a United States that only permits families of two children each, thus his very existence required permission from the government. Ender is the youngest in a family of 5, both his older brother and sister (Peter and Valentine) are very intelligent, but Peter is evidently cruel and sadistic, while Valentine's temperament is nurturing and sweet. He has been closely watched for years 
through a monitor on the back of his neck. As a Third, and as an exceptionally smart student, he invites scorn from the children surrounding him. At the end of the first school day after the removal of his monitor, the bullies of the school begin teasing and mildly attacking him for it. In response and to defend himself, Ender beats the ringleader, Stilson, until he could no longer get up, to end not just that fight, but all future fights with the bully and his gang.
The next morning, members of the International Fleet, or IF, arrive at Ender's home to offer him a place at the Battle School, a space station where children are trained for military command. Colonel Hyrum Graff, the leader of the Battle School, believes that Ender is the last hope for the survival of mankind against the alien Buggers. He reluctantly accepts.
Life at the Battle School isn’t easy for Ender. His caretaker, Colonel Graff, isolates him from the others, which forces him to face his problems alone and to become stronger from it, rather than relying on others for his strength. It also makes him work hard to make friends and stay ahead of his enemies.
Due to his extremely high aptitude for tactics and leadership and to the teachers' deadline to ready him for the coming war, Ender is advanced through his training much faster than the other students, and becoming the best of all of them.
Ender is promoted to command of his own army, years earlier than usual, setting him up for resentment from his peers and pushing his abilities to the limit (intentionally). Despite having only 3 weeks to train instead of the standard 3 months before their first battle, his army completely annihilates their first opponent with almost no casualties. After that, he never loses a battle, despite engagements that are (deliberately) weighted against them.
After some time, he is allowed to go home on a short leave. Not wanting to see his family, he is kept isolated from everyone at a small lake in the woods. The IF, worried that he is no longer motivated to continue his studies, employs his sister Valentine to motivate him.
After these three months, Ender returns and is promoted to Command School, almost six years early, to learn to combat the Buggers in space instead of being restricted to the more abstract training games. He is taught by Mazer Rackham, the genius behind the previous human success against the buggers. He will be augmented by a cadre of his best friends (and the best commanders) from Battle School; Ender assigns them to individual flights or squadrons of ships while he remains in overall charge.
Ender and his "dream team" begin to fight ever-more-challenging battles, in which his team must frequently fight with outmoded hardware, and the enemy frequently outnumbers them and quickly learns to adapt to Ender's tactics—even the ones that won yesterday's battle. Fatigued in mind and body, his team slowly succumbing to exhaustion, Ender begins to lose hope.
In Ender's final exam before graduating from Command School, he and his team find themselves in possession of a small fleet, approaching a planet that is literally swarming with Bugger ships, outnumbering his own force a thousand to one. Ender duplicates his final battle at Battle School and destroys the planet around which the Bugger fleet is orbiting (taking the surrounding fleet with it), demonstrating that he is far too ruthless to be trusted with command of an actual battle fleet.
When the simulation ends, Rackham and Graff tell Ender that he has not been playing a game, and had never played against Rackham, but instead has been commanding real ships across interstellar distances; this task was made possible via the ansible, a form of instantaneous communication making use of Philotic Energy. He has just commanded the fleet attacking the Buggers' home planet, and destroyed the entire race once and for all.
When Ender learns that he has been playing a game with real peoples' lives, he lapses into four days of exhausted depression, completely void of reality, dozing in and out. Feeling the full weight of the deaths he has caused, made heavier by his apparent love and respect of the Buggers, developed over his interaction with them, he refuses to respond to anyone for a time, until conflict breaks out at the command center. Immediately after the end of the Bugger War, war breaks out on Earth in a dispute about who gains control of Ender. The impact is clear: Ender cannot return to Earth because he would simply be used as a tool of the dominant government on Earth, eventually led by Ender's older brother, Peter Wiggin. Fearing for Ender, his sister blackmails Peter into leaving Ender in peace, allowing him to be sent out on one of the first colonization ships as the governor of the new colony on a former bugger planet.
**END OF THE SPOILER**
Orson Scott Card wrote it in 1985. The novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2007) winner of both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. Card continued the series with Xenocide, Children of the Mind, but they’re nothing comparable to Ender’s Game. Many generations have enjoyed the novel, and if you haven’t read it yet, try to find some free time to do it, because its really worth it! keep tuned!
Thursday 31 May 2007
Ender's Game
Tuesday 29 May 2007
Yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!
Maybe you've recognized the title of today's post (part of the lyrics of the song the pirates sing), and if not, you only need to take a look at the first image here to realize what I'm going to talk about. Yes, that's right, The movie "Pirates of the Caribbean". I watched "At the World's End" last saturday and I have to say that it was great!I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't watched it yet (what are you waiting for?), so I'll just tell you some parts of the plot (nothing you don't know so far).
First of all, for those who don't know, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is the third in the Pirates of the Caribbean films following The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest.
In previous movies, they tell us how Lord Cutler Beckett executes anyone associated with piracy and commands Davy Jones to destroy all pirate ships. To confront Beckett’s assault, the nine pirate lords making up the Brethren Court have been summoned to convene 
on Shipwreck Island. However, the missing Jack Sparrow, pirate lord of the Caribbean, never appointed his successor, and therefore must be present. Captain Barbossa leads Will, Elizabeth, Tia Dalma and the Black Pearl crew to rescue Jack.
Jack, stranded in the Locker for some time, begins hallucinating. The Pearl is soon dragged to an ocean shore by crab-like creatures, and Jack is reunited with his old shipmates, although he is initially reluctant to rejoin a crew that have attempted to kill or mutinied against him.
The Black Pearl remains trapped in the Locker until Sparrow deciphers the chart, realizing the ship must be capsized to return to the living world... But will they be able to do it??
The special FX are a plus in the movie, as they are, as always, superb. The pirates are also awesome (especially Jack Sparrow and Barbossa). It was a nice surprise to find Chow Yun-Fat in the cast, who was brilliant as always!
So, just to finish, if you like pirate movies, and you liked the previous ones, you really need to watch "Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End" as soon as possible!! and Keep tuned!!
Sunday 27 May 2007
Happy Birthday Mr. Lee!!!
This British actor was born in 1922 in London. After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the RAF during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948).
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s but didn't achieve stardom until his association with Hammer Film Productions, which started with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), all co-starring Peter Cushing. Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he also made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1972) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976). By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. Lee's career was revitalized in the early 2000s by his appearances in two blockbuster film franchises: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (as Saruman the White) and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) (as Count Dooku). In 2001, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries.
Well, let's thank the IMDB for this biography *blushes*. Mr Lee has always been one of my
favourite actors, I was a fan since I first saw one of his Dracula movies (black and white yeah!). It's amazing to see how such a brilliant actor has made so many different movies that I really like (Lord of the Rings or any Fu-Manchu movie), and he's even become better in acting with age!but thats only a personal oppinion I guess.Something that Mr.Lee and I have in common (that i know of!) is the birthday...so here I am, a year older, and trying to see if i got any wrinkle last night.
I'd like to thank all the people that has wished me a happy birthday, for doing so, and I would also like to repeat, as I did in the headline: Happy Birthday Mr. Christopher Lee!!
Friday 25 May 2007
Me, myself and Nausicaä
This is the first post in this blog "Nausicaä of the Virtual Valley", and this is Nausicaä talking to you!!!First of all, let me welcome you to the Virtual Valley, a small place in this huge virtual world, in which ill share some of my thoughts with you. So please, come in, take a seat, and make yourself at home.
I hope you're comfortable enough as for to leave your comments and share it with the rest of us, inhabitants of the Virtual Valley, so this experience becomes the most interesting possible for both of us.
I guess I should start by telling you about myself. As you've probably noticed, English is not my mother tongue, so be patient and help me correct my mistakes ^^.
I was born (almost) 25 years ago, and since I was a kid I've always dreamt of exotic places, full of new cultures, new beaches, mountains and lakes...First books helped me develop those thoughts, but now it's Internet the one that gives me the chance to really explore those new and unknown cultures, not only by visiting the websites but also meeting lots of amazing people that I'd have never known if it wasn't for this great invention. It's been a while since I graduated from University (Mass media and communication). When I got my first job, I had to write a lot, mainly news and that kind of stuff, but I never did it for the pleasure of writting, although I had often thought about it. I decided it was about time to start doing it, and here I am!a Newbie in this Blog thing, but still full of excitement.
Some of you have already asked me what I am going to write about, and honestly, I have no clue! This is only my first post here, but it wont be the last! So keep tuned, and don't be shy, because the show is only starting!
