Merry Christmas! Hope you enjoy your holiday!

~CityLover

My Review on Rise of the Guardians

Recently, I watched Rise of the Guardians, a nice holiday movie.  Jack Frost is invisible to everyone but the guardians--Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, and the evil Bogeyman, named Pitch. 

Slowly, Pitch takes over the children and make them stop believing in the Guardians by giving them nightmares so HE could be believed in. When only one kid left still believes in the Guardians he teams up with them to defeat the evil Pitch.

This movie is hilarious and adventurous, and it's always making you think. My favorite character is the Easter Bunny, because he seemed humorous.

Overall, my rating out of ten is a 6. Usually, I am the type of person who watches movies over and over again, but I wouldn't recommend watching this more than once. 


Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_the_Guardians

My Trip to the Science and Industry Museum

I am so sorry, it's been almost 3 weeks since my previous post. A few weeks ago, I visited the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago; it was amazing and a building full of wonders! Of course, you wouldn't be able to explore all of it in an entire day. 

One of the exhibits I visited was the Charlie Brown exhibit. While I was there, I learned about the author, Charles Shulz, and how he came up with the idea. I also learned about his life and read multiple comics too! They were hilarious!

Another exhibit was called the U-505, the only German submarine in the United States from World War II. Did you know that the Germans first invented the submarine to use in World War II? They actually brought the entire submarine in for people to see! It is HUGE!

There were more exhibits, but I wasn't able to see all of them. I hope you go to this fascinating museum! And, before I forget, it might be wise to bring LOTS of snacks along, maybe even your lunch. Many families did that while I was there. Just a hint. ;-)

Charlie Brown! :-)

Place to create lightning!! I might post a video of it later....

~CityLover

Model of a small town with mountains and more amazing landforms.

Model of downtown Chicago and Willis Tower

My Review on Lincoln

A few days ago, I watched Lincoln (played by Daniel Day-Lewis), a very well-made movie by Steven Spielberg. It's about Lincoln's last months in office and what he did that had a tremendous affect on the United States. In the movie, the Civil War is going on, and Lincoln tries to persuade the South to end the war and abolish slavery. He writes the 13th Amendment and tries to get it passed by the Congress. For it to pass, the Amendment must have two-thirds majority in Congress. The movie shows how Lincoln and his people had to deal with the opposing party to abolish slavery from America.

This movie is truly a movie that makes you think and compare the parties back then and what they believe in today. One line in the movie that caught my attention was "Euclid's first common notion is this: "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other." What Lincoln was trying to say was that slaves are humans, and so are we. So we are all equal. The movie might be a bit difficult to understand if you don't know any background about Lincoln's presidency. Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president because he made a huge difference in the history of America. He was brave, courageous, caring, kind, and intelligent.

Below are some links to articles from the Time magazine. 

Interesting article: http://nation.time.com/2012/10/25/abraham-lincoln-confidential/
Steven Spielberg interview: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/25/steven-spielberg-talks-with-times-rick-stengel-about-ambition-compromise-and-what-to-wear-while-filming-a-president/

My Review on Wreck-It Ralph

Recently, I watched Wreck-It Ralph, a hysterically funny and adventurous movie, with my friends. I loved this movie a lot, and I'm sure you will too! 

Every night, when the game arcade closes, the characters from video games come to life. Wreck-It Ralph, is simply a brobdingnagian bad guy from a video game called Fix-It Felix Junior, where Ralph wrecks a penthouse, and it's always up to Fix-It Felix to fix it. (Obviously) Ralph is always tired of Felix getting all the attention, a nice penthouse, a nice family, and his life being perfect.
He goes off to find a medal, but since he's a bad guy, people do not believe in him, until he meets the sweet, funny, annoying little girl, Venellope von Schweetz in Sugar Rush, a car racing game. 
Will Ralph get his medal and will Venellope win the game before Fix-It Felix Junior goes out of order? Watch the movie to find out! 

The graphics and animation of the entire movie are impressing and stunning. Wreck-It Ralph is a movie that will never get old, it will always be one of my favorites! A favorite character of mine is Vanellope von Schweetz, (pictured with Ralph, above) because she is entertaining and gleeful. At times, she can be very sweet, and at other times, she can be annoying. But overall, my rating is an 8 on the scale of 1 to 10. I love it and I know you will too! 

~CityLover

Picture source: http://www.majogoblog.com/2012/09/wreck-it-ralph-showing-in-philippines.html

Happy Birthday, MPRG!

Today is my very good friend's birthday! So I just wanted to shout out happy birthday and may all your birthday wishes come true, MPRG!

~CityLover

President Obama's Victory

Sorry, I haven't posted in a VERY long time, but last Tuesday, President Obama won against Governor Mitt Romney for the president of the USA. I just want to say congratulations to President Obama! Many polls had predicted that Romney would become the next president, even the newspapers. In one newspaper, I saw that the people had already printed an article about Romney as president the day after Barack Obama won. Here's a picture of the page from the newspaper (click on the picture to read the article):

The Beacon Street Girls

From left to right: Avery, Isabel, Charlotte, Katani, Maeve, and Marty.

I have been reading a series called the Beacon Street Girls by Annie Bryant. The Beacon Street Girls is made up of Katani Summers, fashionable and organized, Charlotte Ramsey, smart and caring, Avery Madden, athletic and funny, Isabel Martinez, artistic and sensitive, and Maeve Kaplan-Taylor, also fashionable and thoughtful. They adopted a dog, Marty, who loves attention, and are, of course, best friends.

The first book in the series is called Worst Enemies/Best Friends. At first, Isabel is not part of this group and everyone dislikes one another. At the end, they turn out liking each other and becoming closer friends. The second book, Bad News/Good News, is where Isabel comes in. At first, only Charlotte and Maeve are willing to be friends with her. Charlotte is also planning on moving because of her dad's job.

I haven't read the next one or some of the books after that. But here's a list of all the Beacon Street Girls books I've read.

• Worst Enemies/Best Friends
• Bad News/Good News
• Fashion Frenzy
• Maeve on the Red Carpet
• Ghost Town
• Katani's Jamaican Holiday
• Freestyle with Avery
• Promises, Promises
• Just Kidding
• Charlotte in Paris 

I hope you enjoy this series!
~CityLover

P.S. Happy Birthday, Madster!

Bon Jovi Concert

A few weeks ago, Jon Bon Jovi performed a few songs for the Barack Obama campaign. In my city, we are able to vote early in this election, so he came to persuade us to vote. His performance was spectacular! Below are some pictures I took. I hope you enjoy them!

Quotes from Steve Jobs

Courtesy: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/galleries/2009/fortune/0911/gallery.steve_jobs_rare_photos.fortune/images/1984b_nseeff_computer.jpg

As you have probably heard, Friday, October 5th, was Steve Jobs' first death anniversary. People all over the world still miss him and I'm sure people at Apple miss him too.

In his memory, I'd like to share these quotes with you I found on cnn.com.

1. "What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds." -1990
2. "I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous." -2005
3. "I think death is the most wonderful invention in life. It purges the system of these old models that are obsolete." -1985

To read more, please click HERE to go to cnn.com.

iOS 6 is Out!

iOS 6 has been recently released and I am excited to see the new features! I am going to wait before I download it onto my Apple products because I have heard that Maps isn't turning out real good. But I've also heard that Siri's capabilities has improved. Now you can make a dinner reservation by just asking Siri!

Apple has created a new app called passbook that comes with iOS 6. Apparently,
Passbook was made so you can store all your coupons, passes, and cards right on your device.

I hope you enjoyed reading,
CityLover

Apple's Newest Products

On September 12th this year, Apple introduced its most recent iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPod Nano.
The iPhone 5, is approximately 18% thinner than the previous version and has 4G LTE. The screen is larger than the iPhone 4 and has iOS 6.

The 5th iPod Touch comes in multiple colors: red, yellowish green, black, white and salmon pink. Also with iOS 6 and Siri, Apple extended its screen as well. The new iPod Touch has an A5 chip and a Retina Display just like the 4th generation.

If you purchase a red product (Any product, even a case) from Apple, a percentage from their profits donate to Africa to fight AIDS.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you need more information or would like to see the keynote, visit apple.com.

Picture source: http://www.apple.com/product-red/

School!

School started a couple of weeks ago and it's absolutely overwhelming! I'll probably only post on weekends due to loads of homework, quizzes, and tests! Anyway, here are some books that I recently completed.
1.The Selection by Kiera Cass
2. Matched by Ally Condie
3. Love, Stargirl

I'm currently reading A World Away by Nancy Grossway.

~CityLover

Neil Armstrong dies at 82

Very recently, Neil Armstrong died at age 82 in Cincinnati, Ohio because of blocked arteries.

Neil Armstrong--1969

He was an American astronaut, aerospace engineer, test pilot, and a United States Navy officer, where he took part in the Korean war. He was the first person to set foot on the moon with Aldrin being the second. His mission with Buzz Aldrin in 1969, known as Apollo 11 was a success.

Later, he was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon, Congressional Space Medal of Honor by Jimmy Carter, and in 2009, the Congressional Gold Medal.

"This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for man kind." ~Neil Armstrong

Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong

--------CityLover

Different Teachers, Friends, SCHOOL!

This semester, everything for me has changed because of my new school. I have new teachers, new friends and faces (Although some faces are familiar), and a new layout. I'm used to a one floor school but my new school has two! My classes are on both floors so I have to get to each class on time in a matter of four minutes. I'm also going to play volleyball for my school team, Vikings and going to join different clubs!

I still miss my old friends, though! :-)

-CityLover

My Review on Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Earlier today, I finished a great novel called Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. 

Once Stargirl arrives at Mica High, she changes the quiet school with her kindness, awkwardness, her weirdness. As Leo Borlock, the director and producer of the school's TV show, Hotseat,  befriends her, he urges her to be the one thing she doesn't want to be: normal.

Stargirl is a really good book for all ages. My rating is a stunning seven out of ten. There are many ways to describe this novel: Inspiring, wonderful, different, clever.

I hope you like this book and find it interesting!

~CityLover





Picture source: http://tchr2tchr.blogspot.com/2012/02/book-look-star-girl-by-jerry-spinelli.html

Curiosity~Mars Rover

Nov. 26, 2011 Launch
Photograph by NASA

On Monday morning, around 12:31 A.M. (Central time), a rover called Curiosity landed on the surface of Mars. NASA launched Curiosity on November 26th, 2011 around 10:02 A.M. (Central time).

It was 2004, when the idea was brought up to send a rover to Mars. So really, it took the scientists eight years to work on the mission.

This rover was sent because NASA wanted to figure out and see if there was life on Mars and they wanted to collect data and temperatures for future astronaut missions. There are many more reasons. They also wanted to figure out if water used to be on Mars.

Below, is the video of NASA's "7 Minutes of Terror".

My Review on J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter

Recently, I completed a book called J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter by Marc Shapiro. This wonderful biography describes J.K. Rowling's life when she first started writing the Harry Potter series. Although this book is old, (Published in 2000) it gives plenty of information about the past.

If you are a fan of J.K. Rowling and her great books, I highly recommend this biography and I encourage you to read it!

~CityLover








Picture source:  http://us.macmillan.com/jkrowling/MarcShapiro

Catching Up!

Sorry, I haven't been posting for a VERY long time! There's a lot of things I wanted to post about so I'll just include them in one small post. First of all, the 2012 London Olympics started two days ago. The Olympics started in Olympia, Greece in 8 B.C. to the 4th century A.D. Now, it occurs every four years in different places around the world.

Second of all, yesterday, I visited Minnesota and the Mall of America. The drive was five hours long but seemed like twenty! The Mall of America is the biggest mal in the United States. Overall, the trip was great.

~CityLover

My Review on the Amazing Spiderman

A few days ago, my friends and I watched the Amazing Spiderman, a really awesome movie.

 

Peter Parker, a teenager, lives with his aunt and uncle. His parents leave and never return when he is young. He soon finds his dad's work bag with research documents and finds that his dad used to works with Dr. Curt Connors at OsCorp. He then goes into OsCorp, sneaks into a lab with spiders and gets bitten by one. He soon discovers the powers he receives from the spider.

 

He meets Dr. Connors, a man with one arm, and gives him the equation that is based on his dad’s research. This equation makes it possible to grow limbs in animals. When Connors is alone, he injects the formula into his body thinking that he could grow his arm, but slowly turns into the Lizard, the villain of the movie. Watch this movie to find out how Connors forms back into a human and how Spiderman saves NYC. 

 

My rating for this movie is an eight because it was such an amazing movie!

Cool Fireworks Pictures

On the 4th of July, I took some pictures of the beautiful fireworks. 


Below are some pictures I took of the fireworks with manual focus and manual mode. 
I hope you like them!

My Review on The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

I recently read a marvelous book called The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. This book is about a young 11 year-old girl, Calpurnia Virginia Tate (Callie Vee) and her life at the turn of a century.

This book takes place in Texas 1899. Callie Vee has to survive one blazing hot summer with her six brothers and her cantankerous grandfather, who is a naturalist. But as she becomes more interested in science and the world around her, her relationship with her grandfather evolves into a more positive one.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate has a problem in every chapter, but it eventually gets solved.

My rating for this wonderful book out of ten is a stunning eight! This author, Jacqueline Kelly, really brought the book to life and I strongly reccomend it.

Jazz Festival

Yesterday, my dad and I attended the jazz festival, which lasts three days and occurs annually. I took plenty of pictures and even shot some videos! The jazz festival was very fun and I hope to go again next year.

Four people played as a quartet. One played the piano, another played the drums, a man played the trumpet and one played the cello. They were very talented and by just hearing their music I wanted to play along!

At the jazz festival, there is more than live music. There is plently of food, shops, clothing, games, desserts, and much more! I bought a blue raspberry shaved ice. Shaved ice is basically a snow cone, but Hawaiian. It was absolutely delicious!

Below are some pictures I took at the Jazz Festival.

Adorable dog tied outside Buffalo Wild Wings (Near the Jazz Festival)

Jazz festival sign

Herky, our university's mascot, as a jazz music player.

Someone playing the piano

Cellist

People listening to the wonderful jazz music

Chess player moving a piece

Forever Young

I apologize for not posting anything for three weeks! I read a very interesting article today about America's 21st century spoiled children on The New Yorker. This article really grabbed my attention so I thought you would really think about this as well.

Carolina Izquierdo, an anthropologist at the University of California, went to the Peruvian Amazon and spent time with the Matsigenka, a tribe made up of 12,000 people. During her time there, she observed a girl, Yanira, who not only helped with the chores but also fished for crustaceans, cleaned, boiled, and served them. She wanted to be useful without anybody asking her to do anything and can you guess how old she was?.......She was only six years old!  Now, I'm not saying that every single six-year-old in this country should be able to do this, but should be helpful in the household.

Here's another example from the same article. This time, it's an eight year old girl who was sitting at the dining table to eat, but there was no silverware laid out on the table. She knew where it was kept, but instead, she said, "How am I supposed to eat?" Her father, not telling her to get the silverware herself, went and grabbed it instead. This example tells me that this girl is spoiled but if her parents are treating her like a baby instead of making her independent, when she is older, she won't be able to do this or anything else on her own.

From this article, I think that if parents are taking charge, hovering over their children's lives and doing simple things for their children, their behavior will continue to be childlike even when they are older.

There is other interesting information in this following link: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/07/02/120702crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=all

I highly recommend this!

Thanks for reading,
CityLover

London Olympics 2012 and More...

I love the Olympics! How about you? This year, London will hosting Summer Olympics, which start on July 27th.

Sara Errani

Today, I watched the tennis match between Maria Sharapova (Russian) and Sara Errani (Italy). Sharapova won her first French Open and a career Grand Slam in that epic match.

Tomorrow is the men's finals between Nadal and Djokovic.


Picture source for Errani: http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2012/06/07/New-No-1-Sharapova-in-French-Open-final/UPI-61941339083935/

Picture source for Sharapova: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/tennis/story/2012-06-06/french-open-womens-quarterfinals-maria-sharapova-petra-kvitova/55416832/1

Maria Sharapova

The Last Day of School (2012)

Today we had our last day of school! I'm transitioning from one school to another. I felt unhappy, but eager for next year. I will miss all my friends that aren't coming with me such as Sid, Kenken, Ding, MPRG and more! I'll even miss my other friends that will see me later on such as Wing, Madster, Mo, Jenni, and Jen! During our whole school day, we did a variety of activities. We played with the parachute, we danced (Some songs the teachers played were, "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill you)", "Call me Maybe", "Dynamite", "Boyfriend", and the theme song from Phineas and Ferb!),  we had a silly string fight, and more! We also had a walk-about for kids that were leaving (me). I received lots of hugs, high-fives, and good-byes! I will truly miss all of my friends at my school. During the end of the day, we also had a award ceremony. I received two awards. One for being a school store manager. My teacher picked a boy and a girl from my grade to get the core virtue award. It was me! I never expected that! I'll really miss everyone! But then again, can't wait 'till next year!

My Trip to the Capitol of Des Moines

Des Moines is truly a wonderful place to visit. Yesterday, I went to the Capitol of Des Moines. It's very special, because the dome on the top is made out of gold leaf, a very thin and fragile piece of gold. If you just hold it on your hand, it will disintegrate because of your body heat. It uses the most amount of gold than any other capitol in the United States. This building is so beautiful, especially the dome from the inside. The building has a lot of history in itself. Now, I want to visit this building over and over again, and I recommend you do too! More information about this building can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_State_Capitol

Below are some pictures I took while exploring the magnificent Capitol. I took these pictures in the manual mode and same with the focus.

I was underneath the dome and in the center. Right in the middle is an eagle and an American flag and that represents the Civil War.

U.S.S. Iowa. This warship was built and used during WWII and a few other wars.

Statue holding a lamp

There is a huge collection of dolls representing the first ladies of Iowa wearing different outfits, but they all have the same exact face!

The dome and the the flags of the US and our state!

Mosaic of education

Beautiful chandelier

Smallest book in the library which was published in the 1600s!

My Review on the Taste of India

On Mother's Day, my family and I went to an Indian restaurant called the Taste of India in Cedar Rapids at their new location, where they moved about six months ago. We were huge fans of them before they relocated. So we were eager to visit them again, but our visit was disappointing.

They had a very few choices at their buffet. Both non-vegetarian and vegetarian food items were limited and the food didn't even taste like pure Indian food. The tandoori chicken tasted fried instead of baked. Really, the tandoori chicken is baked in a clay oven called a kiln or a tandoori oven.

The service was horrible. The waiter didn't come refill our drinks and not even water. We were very thirsty after that.

My experience at this Indian buffet was not what I expected and it was disappointing. My rating out of 10 is a 3. The restaurant was big, but dark.

I hope you learned plenty about this restaurant.

Thanks for reading,
CityLover

Happy 1st Anniversary, CityLover's World!!

If you could remember last year on this very same day, May 14th, I wrote my very first post! For this post, I would like to dedicate it to my followers and readers. I like how you read my posts, vote on the weekly poll, check out the different pages and become a follower. Thank you! This year, I hope to write fantastic posts just for you!

Thanks, again,
CityLover

The Track Meet

I recently had my track meet, a fun event that surely everyone had fun at. The weather was super hot and from the moment I got there, I thought, how would I survive for this weather for about four hours? But, fortunately, I did.

Each person has three events in the track meet. My events were three-legged race, co-ed tug-of-war and hurdles. I think I tried my best on all of my events, but really, the track meet is just for fun and having fun with teamwork and getting exercise.

For three-legged race, my partner was TK. We have been practicing a whole lot and I think we did great even though we did not make it to the finals. We made it in 2nd place along with another partnership but the people in charge took in the other partnership that tied with us. But overall, I personally think we did awesome!

On my co-ed tug-of-war team, there was Wing, Joon, Soph, Jenni, E Thomas and me. We had three tries and for the first war, we lost but I still had courage. The good part was that we defeated the other team for our second try but we got beat for our last war. If you read my earlier post on the track meet last year, I think it's similar to that but we won last year because the other team didn't show up, but this year it's a bit different.

Hurdles! My heart was racing when the announcer called this event. There were only three hurdles per person. I didn't miss any hurdles and I jumped over all of them and I came in 3rd place so I didn't make it to the finals but I thought it was alright.

I loved this track meet and I hope there are many fun ones to come!

My Review on the Avengers

A couple of days ago, I watched the Avengers, a hysterical, funny, action filled movie. This movie is perfect for the whole family even though its rating is PG-13. The main part it's PG-13 is because there is an abundance of violence as well as some cursing.

In this great movie, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Iron Man team up as the Avengers. The Tesseract, an endless power source, is being fought over by Loki, Thor's evil adopted brother and the humans.  Loki has a gigantic army with him and it's up to the Avengers to stop him from stealing the Tesseract.

I think this movie would make more sense if you watched Captain America, Thor, Iron Man (And the 2nd part) and the Incredible Hulk. I have seen Captain America and Thor and this movie made perfect sense to me.

Each Avenger has its very own power, for example, Thor owns his hammer that nobody can handle except Thor, himself. Captain America has his power shield, which blocks anything.

My rating for this movie is a 9. It's now one of my favorite movies in addition to the Hunger Games and the Harry Potter movies. This movie has a mix of every genre: comedy, sci-fi, and suspense! I love this movie and I hope you enjoy it!





Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%282012_film%29

Thanks for reading,
CityLover

The President Slow Jams the News

Hey CityLover Readers! This Jimmy Fallon video is about "Slow Jamming the News" starring Jimmy Fallon, Barack Obama and The Roots. The important message of this video is that the college education should be less expensive without increasing the interest rate on student loans.  (Read more on CityLover's World "President Barack Obama's Speech on Affordable College Education".)

 I hope you find this video hilarious and informational!

President Barack Obama's Speech on Affordble College Education

Recently I attended President Barack Obama's speech on affordable college education. My parents and I waited in line for five hours before we were able to see him. His speech was very inspiring for many people.

When college students need federal student loans, they pay interest on them similar to all other loans, but on July 1st this year, the interest rate will double, so President Barack Obama is trying to stop that from happening. He also said that before he and Michelle got married, they were both poor and that they had a mountain of student loans to pay. But after they got married, they grew even poorer. They paid all their student loans just eight years ago. President Barack Obama included many things in his speech such as telling Congress--"Don't double my rate!"
 (http://twitter.com/#!/search/dontdoublemyrate) 

I think this speech is important because by the time I go to college, college education will be very expensive, and I sincerely hope that this does not happen, not just for me, but for anybody. I support Barack Obama very much on this issue. 


Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post.
CityLover : )

Secret Service

President Obama

President Obama

The audience's feet hanging down from the upper level.

 

My ticket