Since the last blog post, Orr gets into another dream, one that was suppose to end the war going on and to make peace for all humans. That did happen but the consequences of bringing all the humans together in peace was that they stopped fighting each other so that they can fight a new threat... aliens. Aliens have invaded the moon and has become a threat to all of mankind, which brings all of mankind to come together to fight this one common enemy. Orr fights with Dr. Haber about this and eventually leaves, and doesn't come back for a week. The lawyer, Heather, then starts to look for him because she had sudden urges to go back to her old workplace from the old reality instead of the new one in the current reality. She then meets up with Orr and discusses the whole reality changes idea. She admits that she believes it because she remembers the old reality and is having anxiety over the changes in the current one. Eventually she suggests that she will put him to sleep and tell him to dream about Dr. Haber becoming a better man so that he wouldn't use Orr anymore and she also tells him to dream about the aliens no longer being on the moon. Then, she does her night routine happily until everything becomes dark and she could hear sirens in the background. She panics and tries to wake Orr up. When Orr does, he says that the aliens left the moon and invaded Earth. Meanwhile, panic is everywhere and there is a lot of death. Dr. Haber is panicking and trying to find Orr so that they can undo the chaos that is occurring. They meet up and right before the aliens attack the office, Dr. Haber quickly puts Orr to sleep and tells him to dream about peace. Then the aliens break open into the office and Dr. Haber expects to die. Then, the aliens explain that they didn't mean any harm and that they equipped no weapons for any type of war. The aliens didn't intend to inflict any type of harm onto the aliens. Dr. Haber is relieved and Orr wakes up. The conflict dies down and eventually the aliens and humans were able to coexist peacefully. Orr does a couple more dreams with Dr. Haber to make life more peaceful and eventually the world was prosperous and filled with grey people. (To remove racial discrimination.) However, because of this, multiple people began to cease to exist, including Heather, due to the change of history in the current reality. This causes a fight between Dr. Haber and Orr, which Orr leaves and becomes depressed. He eventually meets a alien at a antique store who gives him advice and a disk of music that contains the sound "With a little help from my friends" by the Beatles. Still depressed, he walked home and played this there. He fell asleep to it and in the morning, he was able to meet Heather again but this time, she was grey too. They apparently became married in this new reality. Then, they go to Dr. Haber's office one last time because he just needs one visit with Orr to finish his research. He does that and helps Orr with what Orr wanted all this time which was to remove the capability of changing reality with his dreams so that he could dream normally again. This worked and they left the office excitedly! Dr. Haber was happy because he got all the research out of Orr that he needed and he was going to continue his research by doing it with himself. Orr then asks Heather on a date and that could've been the end of the story. However, something goes wrong with reality because of Dr. Haber's experiment and Orr started to panic. He left Heather to stay behind and he ran to the office. When he got into the office, he ran to press the off button. Then, he blackened out and when he woke up, he saw that everyone's colors were back and they weren't gray. It seemed like almost everything turned back to how it was before the visits with
Dr. Haber. With some few exceptions with some people in the world were still gray but most got their color back and the aliens were still coexisting with humans. However, despite how much Orr looked, he couldn't find Heather. He became depressed again and got a job with the alien he talked to earlier. He spent the rest of his time there and eventually, he was able to spot a woman who was carrying some eggs. She looked like Heather so Orr decided to talk to her. Apparently it was Heather but she had a different name and was a legal secretary instead of a lawyer. She remember Orr but only up to when he was doing therapy and when he was asking to get out of Dr. Haber's control. However, she couldn't remember much of anything else related to the realities. Orr explained how he got out of therapy and how he was done with the dream business. Despite Heather being more of a stranger than a wife, he was still content and happy to see Heather being alive again! They had a wonderful talk and asked Heather if she wanted a cup of coffee at the cafe across the street. She agreed and they walked away from the store... THE END! This book had a clear theme of morals and decisions. This was shown in the book by having Orr dreams of these different realities that were based off of a certain topic Dr. Haber told him before Orr dreamt of the new reality. The different realities questioned your morals because Dr. Haber was intentionally using his dreams to change the world for the better, at least in his mind. Though we watch the world change in Orr's perspective and it is not as desirable as Dr. Haber thought it would be. The idea sounded good on paper but when put into execution, the reality that was shown was not as pleasant as they hoped. I also see this theme in real life where there are conflicting morals between people and it's hard to figure out which one will be the correct solution or not. In both the book and in real life, sometimes your morals get challenged and it's hard to figure out which option would be best for you and everyone else. Sometimes things don't work out for everyone and one solution might help someone but will hurt the other. It's a common theme I see in the book and in real life so it's really cool to see the book be able to express those emotions out of the viewer and to make them question their thinking. This book left me speechless. The characters in the book were very well written and this book really makes you question a lot. You think about how it would be great for the world to not be overpopulated and for racial discrimination to never had existed but this book shows you an example of that and makes you question if even the bad stuff is sometimes required in life to keep everything balanced and happy. If it were to never have happened, people would never learn and fight through experience. If conflict never existed, we would never learned freedom. The book makes you reflect if a "Utopia" is really what everyone wants and if a Utopia for one person is the Utopia for everyone. The Utopia in the book was where everyone became grey because everyone in the world were just together. The population was lowered from previous events and the cities became prosperous. There was a no overpopulation, no poverty, no racial discrimination due to everyone being the same color, and there was no conflict or wars in the whole history of the human race. This happened due to one of the forced dreams Dr. Haber made Orr to dream, which forced this dream into reality. On paper, this world seemed like the perfect Utopia and Dr. Haber was an absolute genius for making it. However would that be truly a Utopia? Sure you removed some problems but the world became plain. The food had no taste and there isn't any variety to the world. There is also low chances of getting illnesses and cancer became basically instinct in this "Utopia", however they did this by "Controlled Killings" by the government by those who might be ill which would be considered immoral if it didn't have a benefit to it. It makes you question a lot like, would it be better to kill off a couple people who are ill to make sure the whole rest of the world is sickness free or would you let them live and risk the chance of the illness to spread. This book talks about these topics all the time and it's really interesting to question your morals to see the positives and negatives to each scenario. Honestly I can just go on for days about how much this book really makes you think and question how the best scenario for life is. One thing I got out of this book is that, there can never really be a real Utopia, one that benefits everyone and can make them happy. We can always try to make the world better but we should never take the control from people and their lives. However, that control can cause consequences and pain for others. Each and every good solution you think of has positive consequences and negative consequences and there is never a true good answer. Every action you take will hurt someone or some thing but it will also help someone or something. This book showed me that there is a two sides for everything and that even if you have the best of intentions, you should never have any control of anyone else's life except your own. I would love to talk more about this but I would instead recommend you to read the book yourself. This book was incredible and it allows you to think very deeply about reality. How the past can affect the present and depending on the action we take, the reality as we know it can change. If I had more time, I would reread this book and just get lost in the concepts and philosophies they mention! Unlike other books I read, this book seems like a book I could read again without getting bored. With other books, they have a story, beginning to end and if you know it already, why bother? Though, this book is just very intriguing with the content they bring that I feel like if I read again, I could just get lost in it just like the first time I read it! I would definitely recommend this book who is interested in concepts of dreams and different realities because this book did a wonderful job illustrating different concepts and philosophies about them. I would love to say so much more but I think it would be best to have someone read this book because it sure is an interesting experience! "When I read The Lathe of Heaven as a young man, my mind was boggled; now when I read it, more than twenty-five years later, it breaks my heart. Only a great work of literature can bridge--- so thrillingly--- that impossible span." --- Michael Chabon I will comment on Rachna's, Matthew's, & Maddi's blogs!
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A lot has changed since I last read. Since then, Orr went to a couple more appointments but Orr is slowly coming to conclusion that Dr. Haber was taking advantage of him and his power to alter reality with his dreams. He confronts a lawyer about this, which she doesn't believe his story but is intrigued anyways. They then agree that the lawyer would visit their session as someone who is hired by the government to make sure that the activities in the session are within the human rights for the patient. They both arrive at the facility and they do the normal routine except Dr. Haber talks about overpopulation and how it is a bad situation before he puts Orr to sleep. Then, the reality changes and the lawyer gets completely frozen in shock. But after a while, the lawyer forgets and the visit ends...
This reminds me of some research I did beforehand on dreams and how it is important for the body and how they might be created so it was interesting to see the connections to real life studies to the book. Like how there is a light sleep and a deep sleep in real life and there is s-sleep, d-sleep, and all kinds of sleep in the book. It's very interesting to compare the two and see the similarities with them! Overpopulation was a big problem in this book and in real life. Overpopulation was a concern for many and it has undesirable effects for Dr. Haber so he decided to decrease the population because of that. Using, the power Orr has with his dreams affecting reality, he decreased 7 billion people to just one hundred thousand people with one dream! Afterwards, he was able to drink some alcohol that wasn't available earlier because of supplies being low to help everyone. This reminds of the struggles of housing and supplies that we have in real life because we have a huge population and we also have to worry about the threat of a nuclear war, just like what happened in the book... I will comment on Rachna's & Matthew's blogs! This book takes place on Earth and the main character, Mr. Orr gets sent to this medical and mental health facility where he meets Dr. Haber who does some tests with him. Mr. Orr was taking drugs to suppress the dreams he had and Dr. Haber's goal is to convince Mr. Orr to stop taking those drugs. However it's harder than it seems for him because Mr. Orr believes that his dreams can affect the outside world and that dreams are made by emotions from your unsocialized self so his unconscious selfish desires come true into reality with his dreams. He has been taking drugs to suppress those dreams even since then but the doctor still tries to see if they can help him. Dr. Haber then suggests that Mr. Orr should dream right in front of him to determine the results of his dreams. Dr. Haber puts the man to sleep and makes him dream of a horse. Mr. Orr does that and after he wakes up, it is revealed that the mural in the room was a horse, the same one he dreamed of. Though, the mural was actually of a mountain before his dream and Dr. Haber, at first, had problems remembering the mountain. Then after a few seconds, forgets the painting of a mountain and automatically accepted the horse mural as reality. He had a backstory for the mural and everything. So it's really interesting to see how Mr. Orr is thought to be a crazy person but can actually alter reality against his will.
I haven't read a dystopian novel before but this novel is very intriguing to me. I am going to assume that this book is different compared to other dystopian books due to its focus on psychological concepts and philosophy about dreams. I think it's very interesting and I get absorbed into the science and philosophy of this book. The discussion about dreams and why they are important stood out to me. The new technology they have for dreams and the equipment they have are also very interesting like the Augmentor, the machine that can make records of people's dreams. It's such a interesting world in the book and I can't wait to read more! The book takes place on Earth and the world is still suffering from pollution in the air, just like the reality we live in. The effects of climate change are taking an effect on the environment in the book. (Pg. 27) I will comment on Rachna's and Matthew E's blog! Science Daily March 22, 2018 "Great Pacific Garbage Patch growing rapidly, study shows." L. Lebreton The picture is linked with the website containing the article. We have been polluting the ocean for years and it has been only getting worse. Pollution in the ocean affects many species of fish and makes the quality of the water
uninhabitable. The pollution releases chemicals into the water making it dangerous to everyone. This is a problem that is happening now and this problem is only getting increasingly dangerous. A new study has shown that one area in the pacific ocean called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" has 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the area. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be located between California and Hawaii and it is the largest accumulation zone for ocean plastics on Earth. To be able to increase the amount of surface area of plastic to be surveyed, they used a C-130 Hercules aircraft. It was fitted with advanced sensors that allowed it to do complex scans to confirm the amount of trash located in the garbage patch. The analysis revealed that 92% of the mass in the garbage patch consists of larger objects, and 8% of the mass contains micro plastics, with pieces smaller than 5mm in size. This is intriguing because it was thought beforehand that the garbage patch consisted with smaller plastic objects instead of huge plastic objects. This information surprised the pollution science team and the analysis shed some light on the situation of the garbage patch. Hopefully now the results of the analysis will provide the team with new data to develop and test their cleanup technology. Though the analysis underlines the urgency of dealing with the pollution situation and if it doesn't get fixed soon, the amount of plastics will increase tenfold. The reason that this garbage patch exists is because of multiple reasons. One reason is that plastic is hard to recycle for more use and it isn't easy to get rid of. Two, most people get rid of it by leaving it on the ground which due to winds and other environmental circumstances, the plastic eventually makes it's way to the ocean. And finally, plastics takes more than decades to decompose and while it still exists, it will continue to poison our world today. I am happy that the team is trying their best to find ways to clean up the trash but I am worried that the trash will go back onto the land. Then, the trash will find it's way back to the ocean. I believe there is no easy way of cleaning of plastic so I hope that we can find a way to reduce the amount of plastic made so we have less pollution in the water. I will comment on Rachna, Matthew, and Maddy's blogs! New York Post March 10, 2018 "Gunman in California vet center shooting was ex-Army rifleman." by the Associated Press. The picture is linked with the website containing the article. In this incident, a former veteran, Albert Wong, armed with a rifle, shot and killed three women who were tasked on providing help to the veteran. The women who were shot were two therapists and the program's director who's goal was to help him with his PTSD. The Incident took place at the Pathway Home in Yountville, California. The victims were found dead on March 9th, at 6 PM.
The incident started when the killer entered the room while the three people were eating cake and toasting. Then, he walked in, armed with a rifle, and he held the three hostage. The cops came and the killer had a eight-hour standoff with the police. When the police arrived to the building, they found the three hostages murdered and that the veteran had committed suicide. The victims who were killed in this case was the Pathway's director, Christine Loeber, psychologists, Jennifer Golick, age 42, and Jennifer Gonzales, age 29. One of the victims, Jennifer Gonzales, was visibly pregnant and has been pregnant for seven months, according to officials. Another victim, Christine Loeber, was a very dedicated therapist who would even sleep in the building, inside her office. On Saturday, March 10th, the officials declared that it is too early to determine the motive, but it was clear that those three were targeted. The police will continue their investigation with hope to find more clues on the possible motive of the killer. It is currently unknown on what the motive is but considering that the killer was a veteran, it could've been from anxiety or trauma. These psychologists risk their lives to help these veterans recover from their trauma but unfortunately, it might've not been enough to ease this particular veteran's pain. However, this is purely just speculation so we'll have to wait for the detectives to use their judgement to figure out the motive. It is horrible that this tragic incident happened and I wish the best for the families involved with this. I hope an incident like this never happens again and I hope the authorities make the appropriate measures to prevent this incident from happening again. I wish the families good luck with their lives and I hope they can cope from this incident. I will comment on Rachna, Matthew, and Maddy's blog posts! On the train ride to New York, the train has some difficulties with buffalo herds. The train driver didn’t dare to run past them because the driver would’ve hit the first buffaloes so the driver decided to wait. It took 3 hours for the buffalo herd to pass and after that incident, the train driver tried to go faster to make up for lost time. Also during the train ride, Passepartout attends a mormon history lecture inside the train for multiple hours, though fix and fogg didn’t care to join in. After a while of good success time wise, the train starts to slow down due to the accumulations of snow that is blocking the wheel of the cars. To pass the time, they brought cards to the train so they can have fun while waiting. Then during the card game, Phileas is greeted by the American Colonel that attacked them earlier. He challenges Phileas to a duel in the train and Phileas Fogg accepts. Both of them were supplied with two six-barreled revolvers. When they were about to duel, they hear screams of terror that echoed through the interior of the cars.
The American Colonel and Phileas Fogg, with revolvers in hand, rushed towards where the noise was at and they see that the train is being attacked by a band of Sioux. The chief leader tried to stop the train but instead accelerated it with terrific velocity. The Sioux invaded the cars by getting on the roof of the train and opening the passenger doors to get in. When they get in, they would go into a hand-to-hand combat with the passagers. The travelers were able to defend themselves bravely and Aouda was like a true hero with the revolver. She was able to shoot the Sioux in the broken window when they passed by. Though, there were many tragedies, even though twenty Sioux were mortally wounded on the ground, several passengers were shot or stunned in their seats. The conductor who was fighting beside Mr. Fogg got shot and fell to the floor. At that moment, he cried, “Unless the train is stopped in five minutes, we are lost.” He said that because the train was about to pass through a garrison which would give the Sioux the advantage. Phileas offered to stop the train himself but Passepartout insisted that he would do it. Then, Passepartout uses his old acrobatic skill to work his way through the cars and made it to the front car. He was about to use the brakes of the train to slow it down so that it made a complete stop. Everyone became relieved and were grateful to Passepartout but Passepartout seems to have disappeared shortly after his heroic save. A couple passengers including Passepartout had disappeared and people suspected that they were taken prisoners by the Sioux. The American Colonel had been wounded so he was carried away into the station of wounded passengers. Aouda was safe with Phileas Fogg who had been in the middle of the fight but somehow didn’t receive a scratch. Fix was minorly wounded in his arm and Passepartout was nowhere to be seen. Phileas volunteered to go off and search for the couple of passengers by himself. This surprised the captain and he was touched by his bravery that he decided to pick 30 troops to go with him to rescue the missing passengers. Phileas asks Fix if we wants go with them and surprisingly Fix declines. Then, Phileas and the troops leave and Fix gets really mad at himself for not going. He questions why after following this thief step by step all around the world, why would he let him leave into a desert plain without him. He starts to give up hope on his quest because he feels like Phileas now has the perfect chance to leave and not come back. Couple hours later, the engineer and the conductor got themselves up and they got the train up and running. Then, they announce that they are ready to leave. Aouda runs up and protests that there is still the missing passengers who are still missing. The conductor insists that they are 3 hours behind and will have to leave as soon as possible. Everyone lines up to the train to board it except Fix and Aouda. Fix the detective is conflicted on what he should do. Should he go and abandon the mission to maybe take up another case? There has been no sign of Phileas in hours so it might be pointless to stay. He was ready to take his seat in the car but a irresistible influence held him back. The stations platform was burning his feet and he could not stir. Anger and failure plagued his mind, he wished to struggle until the very end. The injured passengers made their way to their seats and the train began their engine. The train had left, but the detective stayed behind. Several hours has passed since that decision. Fix sat motionless on a bench in the station and was on the edge of the platform, peering through the snow. As night approached, it became intensely cold. Absolute silence was rested on the plains but at dawn, there was some figures that could be made out in the distance. There was Phileas Fogg with Passepartout and the missing passengers! Apparently, Passepartout struggled with his captors but Phileas was able to come on time to save Passepartout and the others. They got reunited and started to head back to the station. Phileas and Passepartout reunite with the others and Aouda feels relieved. Though there is still the problem of the train, which luckily the next train arrives in the evening. However, Phileas is 20 hours behind schedule and needs to find a way to recover his remaining time. Fix the detective suggested that they will use a sledge with sails from a man he talked with the previous night proposed to him. Mr. Fogg examined the vehicle and then decided that the wind is strong in the direction they are going so they decided to use the sledge slide down the harden snow at 40 miles per hour. They flew about two hundred miles to their destination at Omaha. When they arrive, they immediately went to the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to travel to their next destination. They breezed through many states with antique names, with the main goal in mind which was to get to New York. The train stopped in the station of at the very pier of cunard line and Phileas rushed for the China, for Liverpool but the ship had started three-quarters of an hour before he arrived. Phileas’s last hope, lost in an instant. They left the pier and slept for the night. In the morning, Phileas looked around with little hope left to find a way to make it to England and eventually he found a boat called the Henrietta. He went up to meet the captain to see if he can sail off to Liverpool. The captain declines but Phileas offers money, the captain still declines. Phileas Fogg has a hard time negotiating with the captain because the captain doesn’t want to go off his intended path. Phileas then offers to be dropped off at Bordeaux which is on the path he is taking. Phileas offers to give two thousand dollars apiece for the trip there and the captain accepts. When on board, the captain gets locked up in a room by his crew members because they didn’t like him that much. This was under the influence of Phileas because he took the wheel and decided to sail off for Liverpool because that would be the only way he could win his bet. If the captain wasn’t willing to sail off to Liverpool, then Phileas will just take his ship and sail off himself which is exactly what he did. The captain was furious and muffled screams of anger can be heard outside the room. Fix became confused and kinda amazed by these actions of Phileas bribing the crew members, locking up the captain, and using the wheel like a skilled seaman. Fix then hypothesized that Liverpool isn’t Phileas’s true intentions at all and Mr. Fogg would go to some part of the world where the thief, turned pirate, can quietly hide himself in safety. Hours has passed and they are halfway there but the coal for the fuel of the boat is running out. Mr. Fogg called the crew members to take the captain out so he can talk to him. Mr. Fogg gets lash out on by the Captain but after he calmed down, Mr. Fogg asked to buy the upper part of the ship for him because the vessel is about to be burned because the coal has given out. The captain freaks out and is furious that he lost a fifty thousand dollar vessel. Mr. Fogg offers sixty thousand to the captain which completely shocks the captain. Captain remained unmoved for a while until he agrees because the boat is old anyways and he made a big profit. He completely forgot all his anger and grudges against Phileas. The vessel burned up but they were able to make it to Queenstown Harbour. Despite making it back on English ground, Fix decided not to arrest Phileas right away. They boarded a train in Dublin and then they finally disembarked to the Liverpool quay. After a long and tiring journey, Phileas Fogg finally made it back to England, only 6 hours away from London. Phileas steps out of the train and as he does, Fix puts his hand on his shoulder, showing his warrant, and said, “You are really Phileas Fogg?”. Mr. Fogg says, “I am.” and he got arrested on the spot. The police held back Passepartout as Phileas was being taken away. Passepartout explained the situation to Aouda and all she could do was cry. After spending time in jail, he didn’t express any emotion at all. No anger or worry, just complete silence. He pondered if he was still out there to finish his journey, would he have made it? He looked at his watch and then to the Custom House clock, then he realized that his watch was 2 hours fast! If he was out there on the train to london, he would’ve made it there on time! An hour and thirty minutes later, the prison door opens and reveals that fix the detective was wrong on arresting him. The robber that looked like him was arrested three days ago so Phileas Fogg was free to go. His eyes brightened and he was suddenly filled with hope. Phileas Fogg and the others raced out of the prison and went into a ordered special train. Then, he finally arrived to London and he looked around the clocks all over London to find that they are all striking ten minutes before nine which means that his bet about the journey around the world in eighty days was ruined by five minutes. Phileas Fogg had lost the bet... Or so he thought. After his disappointment, he went to bed and woke up the next day. It was on that day that Phileas felt alone because he was now poor which means he would lose his other rich friends. He lost the bet and they wouldn’t respect him anymore. Aouda felt bad that he felt like that and she wanted to let him know that he wasn’t alone. She confessed that she loved him and asked Phileas if he wanted her to be his wife. Phileas exclaims yes and Passepartout arranges their marriage ceremony… or at least he tried. It was impossible because the day was actually Saturday which means he can still win the bet. Passepartout drags Phileas to the Reform Club and ends up winning the bet at the last minute. There was a huge crowd betting on who would win and they cheered long and loudly when Phileas Fogg arrived. The secret to his success was that he traveled eastward which he was traveling with the sun so that he was able to gain an extra day because of that. If he traveled westward, he would’ve lost the bet. Despite being rich again, his decision on marrying Aouda didn’t change and he was super grateful to Aouda in the end because if she didn’t propose, he would’ve never won the bet. Wow this was actually a much more interesting book then I remember. We actually had to read this during 6th grade but I completely forgot what happened in it and I didn’t expect it to be this interesting! I’d probably recommend this book to a friend because it can be very exciting to read how Phileas is able to make it through country to country despite the circumstances thrown at him. I thought the twist at the end which revealed that he only won because he went eastward was really interesting and creative. There was a lot of twist and turns in this book and it was enjoyable to experience them so yeah I think this is a good book to recommend to people! If I had to write a sequel about this book, I think I would have Phileas, Aouda, and Passepartout try to go around the world in 70 days or less. They had to go through so many situations that delayed their time and it seems possible that they could’ve made it faster around the world if they were under better circumstances. Phileas, Aouda, and Passepartout would probably be the main characters again because Phileas and Aouda could be doing the journey again for the memories or as a nice vacation. Also Passepartout is great and useful so of course he’s one of the main characters. It would be cool if Fix was able to have a major appearance in the book, maybe secretly helping Phileas and co on the way around the world. That would be pretty cool! I think the main conflict could be that they are actually chasing a criminal this time who is going around the world and it could be a happy ending for Fix at the end because he finally was able to catch his criminal and prove that he is a great detective. In the end of Around the World in 80 days, he kinda leaves in shame and is considered a failure in the police force so maybe in the sequel, he can redeem himself! I would think that would be a cool send off to the books and all the characters can be happy in the end. I think that would be a nice and cheerful ending which is probably what I would do if I wrote a sequel to this book. I will comment on Rachna's, Matthew's, and Maddy's amazing blogs! Unaware of the events that unfolded with Fix the detective and Passepartout, Phileas buys necessary supplies in the english quarter and then decides to go to a hotel with Aouda for dinner. Phileas becomes confused on why Passepartout doesn’t return at bedtime but he didn’t bother worrying about it. When Passepartout didn’t appear in the morning, Phileas kept his cool and packed up to aboard the Carnatic with Aouda. When they arrived to the port, they noticed that the Carnatic wasn’t there and they were informed that the Carnatic left Hong Kong 12 hours earlier than the stated time. It would take another week for another steamer to come. With this news, Fix was ecstatic because that would definitely be enough time to get the warrant to arrest Phileas. Though that hope was quickly demolished when Phileas persuaded a pilot boat to go to Shanghai so they can make it to the San Francisco steamer. They make the bargain and Fix askes to take the ride with them and Phileas accepts. Phileas attempts to make request for gold to find Passepartout before he departs but sadly no one could find him on time before they left to continue their journey.
On the way there, the ship has experienced a typhoon which took 6 hours worth of distance away from their time. After everything calmed down, the wind was slow and dying out which almost cost them the trip. Though, on the Shanghai river, they see the San Francisco steamer leaving at it’s stated time and they try their best to signal that they need to stop the steamer to allow them on. They send them a signal by hoisting their flag and shooting their cannons at it… Meanwhile… after Passepartout passed out, two waiters carried him onto a smoker bed where he rested for three hours. Luckily, he woke up with the thought of duty in mind and struggled to fight against the effects of the narcotics. From instinct alone, he yelled “the Carnatic! The Carnatic!” and then he ran towards the Carnatic right before it was went off. He managed to fall unconscious on deck and he was dragged by sailors into the second cabin. He recollects his thoughts and he hopes that Fix was gotten rid of. He searches throughout the cabins and realizes that he doesn’t see his master and Aouda on board. He starts to think that they aren’t up yet and he asks around to find where they may be. He asks the purser where his master and Aouda could be? The purser breaks the news that there was no young lady on the ship and he gives Passepartout the list of passengers that boarded on the Carnatic. He then realizes that he knew that the schedule for the Carnatic changed and he was going to tell Phileas of it before he got drugged. He feels horrible that he didn’t tell them sooner and he blames himself for them not being able to make it on the Carnatic. He feels devastated about Phileas losing his deal and potentially being arrested. Then, he became depressed on the whole rest of the boat ride there. When he arrived in Japan, he has no money left so he was left to starve by himself. After a while of thinking, he decided to change his garment for japanese clothes so that he could possibly get a job to get cash that will allow him to satisfy his hunger. He wonders around until he finds a sign that says that a acrobatic troupe is going to America for a great attraction. Passepartout is excited to have a chance to go to America so he followed a clown to the Japanese headquarters. After meeting with the Honorable Mr. Batulcar, Passepartout signs up to be a French Clown for the act of a celebrated Japanese Troupe and almost everyone was there to watch the performance. The final act of the performance was a pyramid of actors wearing extremely long noses which is supposed to represent the “Car of Juggernaut”. The artists were grouped to themselves on their long noses and the one who had the base of the act was Passepartout. Passepartout wore a costume with vari-colored wings and a 6 foot nose. The pyramid of actors were getting set up and it almost succeeded until one actor abandoned their role and left into the audience. The actor who ran into the audience was none other than Passepartout who saw Phileas in the crowd and ran to him as soon as he saw him. Everyone reunites with each other and they proceed upon the American Steamer. After boarding the American Steamer, Fix finds out that Passepartout made it back with Phileas and they have reunited together. With this new knowledge, he ends up changing his plan to arrest Phileas because his warrant he just got is currently useless. He meets with Passepartout again to talk with him again and Passepartout gives him a beating for what Fix tried to pull off. After they settled down, Fix explains that he got the warrant to arrest Phileas but the warrant is useless if they are not on english ground. He then explains that his new objective is to make sure that Phileas does go around the world in eighty days so that he’ll return to England where Fix can finally arrest him once and for all. Passepartout reluctantly allies with him but promises that if he sees any sign of betrayal from Fix, he’ll twist his neck. They make the deal and the steamer makes it to San Francisco right on time. When they arrive, they notice that there is a huge protest happening nearby. They try to walk past it but they ended up getting stuck in the protest which apparently was related to England in a bad way. They got stuck in the conflict and were attacked by the protesters. Phileas Fogg was in the way of being attacked until Fix jumped in front of the attack instead of Phileas. Fix took the blow so that they could escape the crowd. Fix followed with them. If I was in this book, I would try to be friends with Phileas Fogg but I would still be cautious of Fix. Even though Fix has proven to be a decent ally to the group recently, he definitely isn’t 100% trustworthy and might betray them at any second. I would try to help out in anyway I could and I would’ve protected whoever I could during the protest. In non serious moments, I would try to bond with Aouda and Passepartout so I can try to cheer them up during the journey. I would try my best to bring hope and courage to the group so they would be determined to complete their goal of going around the world in eighty days. I will comment on Rachna's, Matthew's, and Maddy's amazing blogs! They continue their trip through the wilderness with the Elephant until they witness a woman being taken to the pagoda of Pillaji. The guide tells Phileas that the woman is going to be sacrificed against her will and Phileas volunteers to try to rescue her because they have time.
They entered at night and sneaked through the drunken Indians at the temple. Guards were guarding the entrance so they tried to go to the rear of the temple. They attempted to use knifies to remove the bricks of the temple until someone heard them and shrieked. Phileas & co hid from the noise and noticed that guards are now guarding the rear of the temple as well. With no other option in mind, they decided to wait until morning. In the morning, they carried the woman to the sacrifice site and got prepared to burn her alive. All seems hopeless until someone comes up and takes the woman into his arms. It appears to be the old rajah who somehow got resurrected and everyone becomes paralyzed in fear for the moment. The old rajah leaves the area, holding the unconscious woman in his arms, and tells Phileas that it’s time to leave. The old rajah was actually Passepartout in disguise who was wearing the old rajah’s pyre that he wore when he died. The moment when the party of four (Phileas, Passepartout, Sir Francis, and the Guide) disappeared, the Indians found the old rajah’s body and they realized that they were tricked. They tried to follow in pursuit of the party but the party of four was already outta there. After they reached a safe place, Phileas offers to give the Elephant to the guide for his devotion from the whole process and the guide gladly accepts. Then, the woman awoke and she was delighted to see that she was saved. Sir Francis explained the events of what occurred and she was extremely thankful to them. Though, she began to become nervous about the tribe finding her again but Phileas assured her that she will be escorted by him to Hong Kong where she can find shelter there until the affair was over. She gladly accepted the offer. They then reached Benares which has Sir Francis Cromarty’s destination so he parted ways with the group. They arrive to the station in Hong Kong but on the way out of the station they get interrupted by a police officer who wants them to follow him. Phileas agrees because law is sacred to Englishmen but Passepartout is nervous. They are led to a barren room that has barred windows and the officer told them that they will meet with Judge Obadiah at half-past 8. Officer leaves and Aouda, the previously unconscious woman, blames herself and thinks that they were captured because they rescued her but Phileas believes otherwise. At half-past 8, the officer leads them to a courtroom filled with a crowd of europeans and natives in the audience. They meet Judge Obadiah who seems to be a fat, round man who prepared a wig for his head before the trial. He calls the witnesses and three indians appear. Passepartout thought they were the priests who were going to burn the woman alive but it turns out that this trial was for the incident when Passepartout accidently disrespected their temple at Bombay. Fix the detective was watching in the background and was determined to get them detained. Everything was going accordingly to his plan. He set them up by getting the police officers to arrest him on the spot at Hong Kong and to get the witnesses to prove that Passepartout was guilty. The english law protects the religion of the Indian people so Passepartout committed a serious crime. Phileas admits that Passepartout is guilty of that crime and the judge condemns Passepartout either an imprisonment for fifthteen days or a fine of three hundred pounds and as master he also takes blame so Phileas gets condemned for either imprisonment for a week or a fine of one hundred and fifty pounds. Phileas pays the fines because he has the right of bail. In the disappointment of Fix the detective, and Phileas takes his leave with the others onto the carriage. Fix is disappointed because he hoped that Phileas would take the week in jail so he can finally get his warrant to arrest Phileas for the theft. He stamped his feet with disappointment and he plans out his next move. He follows the crew and he knows that Hong Kong is the last English ground that he can arrest him on with the warrant and if he makes it beyond that, it gives Phileas the chance of an almost certain refuge. He realizes that he either needs the warrant to come or he needs to delay Phileas’s departure. He decided that he should warn the english authorities in Hong Kong and he wants to question Passepartout more. The detective walks up and acts surprised to see Passepartout on the Rangoon. Passepartout shows the same expression of shock as he says that he thought that Fix was still in Bombay. Fix explains that his last destination is in Hong Kong and Passepartout starts talking about the events that occurred with the woman. Fix is not interested in the conversation and is disappointed that there wasn’t something he could use for his advantage. The two of them has a glass of gin together and then, Passepartout starts to think of the suspicious habits of Fix the detective. He thinks that Fix might be following Phileas step by step and he is wondering what Fix’s objective is. Then, he theorizes that Fix is an agent of Fogg’s friends from the Reform Club to observe him to make sure he really did go around the world in 80 days. Passepartout becomes excited of his discovery despite it not being Fix’s true intentions. Fix and Passepartout meet again and Passepartout asks if he is going to around the world as well, hinting that he is the agent of Peninsular Company. Fix is confused and starts to assume that Passepartout knows that he is an detective but he worries if Passepartout told Phileas or not. Fix continues to keep his cool and he attends to stick with his original plan. When they landed on Hong Kong, the young woman wasted no time to look for her cousin, Jejeh, though as they looked around, they found out that Jejeh went out to Holland. Phileas offers to take her to Europe and she reluctantly accepts. Fix is outraged by the warrant not coming through, so he plans to tell Passepartout about the theft in hopes to delay Phileas. Fix invites Passepartout to an old building to talk at. While they started drinking, Fix explains everything and asks for Passepartout to help him turn Phileas in to the police. Passepartout declines because Phileas has been a real gentleman. Fix asks for him to forget the conversation and to continue drinking. Then, while Passepartout was distracted, Fix slipped some narcotics into his drink and Passepartout passed out. He plans to make sure that Phileas will not remember to make it to the Carnatic so he wouldn’t depart further into his journey. Currently, Fix’s relationship with Passepartout has gone sour. Before they were on good terms but not anymore. I mean, Fix just put Passepartout to sleep, potentially making him get left behind by Phileas because he needs to be on time for the Carnatic. That was kinda harsh in my opinion. Phileas probably wouldn’t want to leave Passepartout behind because despite Passepartout being Phileas servant, I do believe that Phileas does care for Passepartout. Sadly I am predicting that Phileas Fogg won’t have a choice but to leave his servant behind because he doesn’t know his location and he needs to be on the Carnatic on time. Phileas might be devastated but he probably is going to continue his journey anyway. He also needs to help out Aouda who is looking for her cousin. Aouda is extremely grateful to Phileas and is hopeful that she’ll find her cousin. Even though Phileas cares for both Passepartout & Aouda, I think he should express emotions more. It might be too late for Passepartout but I think Phileas should show more expressions so they can connect more. Aouda seems to be very important to the story so having a bond with her could help benefit Phileas’s quest for going around the world in eighty days. I will comment on Rachna's, Maddy's, & Matthew's wonderful blogs! The book starts to describe the so called “gentleman” called Phileas Fogg who is rich enough to have a mansion and servants to serve him. We meet a person named “Passepartout” who explains that he is a very talented man despite Phileas’s harshness towards him. Passepartout takes the role of the servant to Phileas and starts to investigate the mansion. The mansion is well arranged and sparkly clear, showing gentleman features. Seeing this, Passepartout becomes content with his surroundings and with his “master”.
Then, a group of princes of English trade and finance meet up for a chat. In their chat, they mention that there was a robber who stole 55 thousand pounds from the bank and their only description was that the robber was like a gentleman. They discuss the chances of the robber getting away but they think it isn’t likely due to the fact that you can go around the world in 80 days so the robber is surely going to be caught. They conversate for a bit before they mention that going around in 80 days is impossible, Phileas challenges that notion and bets twenty thousand pounds that it is indeed possible to go around the world in 80 days. Phileas then departs with his servant, Passepartout, onto their journey. His bet became quickly popular and people would bet on either side, though it became one sided against Phileas after a while, due to the fact of the police having suspicion of Phileas being the bank robber who made a bet to travel across the world to escape his deed of thievery. They went through Suez and traveled on the Mongolia while signing on their visas as proof that they made it through there. The detective is convinced that the robber is Phileas so they sent a request to London to arrest him in Bombay. On the way there, the detective talked with the servant and asked if there was a ulterior motive for the trip. The servant said he didn’t know of such a thing and didn’t think much of it. He thinks “I see that it is by no means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something new.” Then, they proceeded to visa their passport again to reach Bombay with a 2 day lead compared to what was expected for their time. During their visit in Bombay, Passepartout accidently disrespected Indian traditions and he was assaulted at the temple. Passepartout escaped but who knows if that deed will come back to bite him. On their way to Calcutta, it is revealed that the railway isn’t finished and only goes up to the hamlet of Kholby. The servant and Sir Francis (one of his whist partners on the Mongolia) are enraged about this but Phileas, calmly, explains that they can make it to Hong Kong on the 25th to still make it to Calcutta on time. They struggled to find a means of transportation to Hong Kong until Passepartout thinks of using an elephant as transportation. An indian from a hut showed them a elephant that was used for warlike purposes but it has half domesticated. Kiouni, the elephant luckily wasn’t far away and Mr. Fogg decided to buy it for two thousand pounds! The elephant was equipped and readied for the journey ahead. That was my summarization of the book so far. I know that this is an intriguing journey that will have a lot of twist and turns in this book. I am interested in what the detective is going to do and how he plans to arrest Phileas Fogg. I think that the detective will be a big hindrance to Phileas’s plan to go around the world in 80 days. The detective is only going to be an obstacle for Mr. Fogg to overcome. I also do believe that something will go wrong to Philea and his elephant. He will have to depart with his elephant at some moment and I doubt he will be able to take it all the way to Hong Kong. I think that Phileas will somehow find a way to make it there on time in 80 days but we’ll see what happens. This book has been interesting so far and I would like to see how this turns out. This blog post will use information from multiple articles. The first one is from the News website called Forbes which the article is called "The Nintendo Switch has beaten the first year sales of the PS2 in Japan!". The article was created on January 1st, 2018 and the author is "Ollie Barder". The other articles will be sourced below in the link section. The first article is about the sales that the switch has made in Japan. It talks about the most sold game console in the industry, the PS2, being challenged by the sales of the Nintendo switch. This is huge news because previously, Nintendo has done poorly with sales with the Wii U but now they are being a contender for the most sold game console in history. It's incredible that the Switch has managed to beat the most outsold console in their first year of sales in the gaming industry. A record that hasn't been beaten since the 2000's. After the devastating fall of the Wii U, it's great to see a comeback from Nintendo with their latest console. According to the data from article 2, the Switch didn't do as well as the PS2 for the first 5 months but the Switch quickly caught up and the sales of the Switch went way above the sales of the PS2. Overall, the PS2 has sold 3,016,622 units in Japan and the Switch has sold 3,258,083 units for the first year. Even the game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has major success as well. The Legend of Zelda series has been around since the 1980's and many of the games has become favorites of the fans. Though out of the 18 main games from the series, Breath of the Wild has sold the second most with at least 4.7 million sold from the end of September in 2017 according the third article. Only being beaten by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time which is considered by some to be the best video game of all time. Yet, this is only the first year so Breath of the wild will probably sell more and in the following years, which could make this the most sold game in the Zelda series! Nintendo has learned from the mistakes the Wii U has made. They have provided more third party games and allowed developing companies to put their games on the console, creating more games for the switch and the interest for the Switch grows. The Wii U had very low third party support which made the Wii U have a low amount of games to play on the console and people didn't have interest in the Wii U in the beginning because of that. Nintendo was never able to recover from that. They were able to make a couple successful games on the Wii U but by the time they hit the shelves, the gaming fanbase given up on the Wii U. They have clearly learned from this with the Nintendo switch. They have new releases each month and allow third party support with other companies to make more games. Thanks to that, the switch has a wonderful game library and it will continue to grow for years to come. I have stuck around during the Wii U era and had fun with some of those games that were made on that console but the Switch has definitely improved compared to the Wii U. I am glad that they learned from their mistakes and improved for the better. They have made major improvements which contributed to their major success. Without improvement, a console cannot be very successful and is doomed to failure. Luckily, Nintendo realized it before it was too late and now we have the amazing phenomena that is the Switch. Next, I will comment on Matthew's & Rachna's wonderful blog posts where you can experience their opinions on current events as well. Until next time, have a wonderful day! ~Michael Quinn Links:
1. www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/01/01/the-nintendo-switch-has-beaten-the-first-year-sales-of-the-ps2-in-japan/#711600d6685f 2. nintendosoup.com/nintendo-switch-surpasses-ps2s-first-year-sales-japan-thanks-huge-restock/ 3. nintendeal.com/news/breath-of-the-wild-is-japans-highest-selling-zelda-game-in-almost-20-years/ |
AuthorI am a big video gamer and video game enthusiast. I love a lot of video games and I am currently playing Miitopia! Archives
June 2018
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