Linnea’s Blogs

In March, I started Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; I am on page 150. Jon Krakauer tells of his adventure as a client and journalist on the Adventure Consultants Guided Expedition in the spring of 1996. Krakauer goes into great detail, chronicling not only his expedition but provides mini anecdotes on the other simultaneous Everest expeditions and past Everest expeditions (for example, Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 summit of Everest; the first of its kind.) My favorite character was Jon himself because he is kind. There’s a quote on page 148 to support this idea on page 148, “…snapped a few photos of Doug posing with a flag the Kent schoolkids had asked him to carry up the peak…” In this line, Jon does what one would call “an act of kindness”, which is why he is kind. My favorite line can be found on page 25, “None of the climbs I’d done in the past, moreover, had taken me to even moderately high altitude. Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet—not even as high as Everest Base Camp.” I liked this line because Krakauer acknowledges how big of a challenge climbing Everest will be compared to some of the other climbs he’s done. This acknowledgment also tells me he’s also in the process of mentally and physically preparing himself for this endeavor.

I think an interior designer would be the perfect job for me. I want to be an interior designer because you can be creative. What I mean by this is that as an interior designer, you can make your own decisions about what furniture and/or accessories go in your client’s living space, whatever it may be: a house, a mansion, an apartment, a condo, etc., and no one else can influence them. As an interior designer, I want to own my own business and hire my employees; me and my employer may have different ideas as to what makes a “good” employee. I also feel that work-wise, being an interior designer is less stressful, especially when you own your own business, because you can decide how much work want to do, and hand what you don’t want to do to your employees and have them do the work.

In February, I read The Martian by Andy Weir. This sci-fi novel tells of astronaut and botanist Mark Watney and his attempts to survive on Mars in the wake of the Ares III crew’s departure following a catastrophic dust storm. I chose to read this book because I had watched the movie that’s based off this novel several times, and my mom was also encouraging me to read it. And I have to tell you, it’s an amazing novel; it’s a perfect visual representation of this work of sci-fi. Mark’s my favorite character because I enjoyed his excellent sense of humor and his descriptiveness. On page 2, he describes how the pre-mission process works, and describes a little bit about how Hermes operates, “We got to Earth orbit the normal way, through an ordinary ship to Hermes. All the Ares missions use Hermes to get to and from Mars. It’s really big and costs a lot so NASA built only one.

Once we got to Hermes, four additional unmanned missions brought fuel and supplies while we prepared for our trip. Once everything was a go, we set out for Mars. But not very fast. Gone are the days of heavy chemical fuel burns and trans-Mars injection orbits.Hermes is powered by fuel ion engines. They throw argon out the back of the ship really fast to get a tiny amount of acceleration. The thing is, it doesn’t take much reactant mass, so a little argon (and a nuclear reactor to power things) let us accelerate constantly the whole way there. You’d be amazed at how fast you can get going with a tiny acceleration over a long time.

I could regale you with tales of how we had great fun on the trip, but I won’t. I don’t feel like relieving it right now. Suffice it to say we got to Mars 124 days later without strangling each other.

From there, we took the MDV (Mars descent vehicle) to the surface. The MDV is basically a big can with some light thrusters and parachutes attached. Its sole purpose is to get six humans from Mars orbit to the surface without killing any of them.” I think a reason for Mark’s descriptiveness is because he is writing in a log, and also because some regular person may read them, and he doesn’t want them to be confused. My favorite line can be found on the last page, page 369, “This is the happiest day of my life.” I liked this sentence because it represents Mark’s joyous mood because he is finally going home after a year and a half of hanging around the red planet.

If I were invisible for twenty-four hours, there are so many things I would do. Firstly, I would purchase myself gallons upon gallons of pink lemonade and one-hundred share size bags of candy (Skittles) and drink and eat it at my friend’s house. My parents would never had let me do this if I were visible, mostly because they’re worried about my sugar consumption. Secondly, I would steal some books from my local library. I’m always complaining to my parents about how I don’t have enough books (that are my reading level) to read. Doing this will not only solve this ongoing problem, but it will also make my parents happier because they won’t have to tolerate my complaining anymore. Finally, I want to go and buy all the clothes I wanted that my mother had rejected. I’m always complaining about how I “don’t have any clothes to wear”, so doing this will solve this problem.

It was November 7, 1931. My family and I were living in Hawaii, on the big island. We lived there for ten years until the United States military got word that the Japanese military was planning to bomb Pearl Harbor (on December 7, 1941)! Upon hearing this, the governor announced an immediate evacuation for all Hawaiian citizens. My family and I evacuated as quickly as possible to the nearest dock, where hundreds of large ships were waiting for their passengers. As soon as we boarded, the captain (a military officer tasked with getting the citizens to safety), started to give commands to his crew, telling them who did what and giving a brief explanation of how he wanted the tasks completed. After, he announced to the passengers how long we were supposed to be on the ship (approximately three months), and where our destination would be (Jamaica).

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About a month into our escape voyage (December 7, 1941), the captain announced that the Japanese military was coming! By the time we all rushed under the deck, it was too late. The ship had exploded.

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The next thing I knew, I was awaking from a very deep sleep. I think I passed out shortly after the ship exploded. I checked the condition of my hands. They looked terrible. I was probably banged up all over, but there was no way to tell. It took a while for my brain to register that I was floating around on a small piece of driftwood, presumably a remnant of the ship I was previously on. I wasn’t sure where I was or where my little piece of driftwood would take me; I imagined I was going north (towards Alaska) judging the fact that it was getting colder and colder as the time passed. Knowing that there was nothing I could do about my dire situation, I lay down and fell into another deep sleep.

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When I awoke again, I was on the shore of a large island, with snow-capped mountains and forests of pine trees. It was foggy, and a light mist fell from above. The more and more I explored the oddly remote island, the more my hunch was proven correct: I was stranded on an Alaskan island.

As Rachel was walking around an outdoor circus, she came by a large popcorn machine. “This popcorn machine is so cool! thought Rachel. “I’m gonna head home and look them up to see if they have it on Amazon.” Sure enough, they had it, so she ordered one for a shockingly low price ($15), set to deliver the next day. The next morning, she awoke to the sound of the doorbell. It was the popcorn machine, which was already filled with hot, buttery popcorn! “What if I rented a private room and invited all my friends to eat popcorn, drink sodas, eat pizza, and chat?” she asked herself. She took the machine inside and sat down on the living room couch to call her friends (Amy, Emily, Jordyn, and Rita). To her surprise, they all not only said yes; they all sounded excited and enthusiastic about the idea as well. Afterward, she looked up a nearby building that always had a sign advertising their rooms that you could lease a room from them for an affordable price ($10/hour). After finding their website, she called the number of their secretary.

“Hello?”

“Hi, I was wondering if I could lease a room this afternoon; I want to have a party and hang out with my friends.”

“How long will you need the room? What times?”

“About two hours; from 12-2.”

“That’ll be $20. You can pay when you come.”

“Thank you.”

She then texted her friends the information the secretary had told her, told them what they should bring, and that she would be there 15 minutes early to set everything up (tables, chairs, the popcorn, and the pizza). She left her condo at 11:15 to allow herself enough time to order the pizza and fit everything into her car. At the pizza place, she ordered the pizza, gave them her phone number so they could text her once the pizza was ready, then went back to her car and played games on her phone until they texted her. At the front desk of the lease building, she paid the secretary the $20 fee, told her that her friends would come within the next 15 minutes, and that she just came early to set everything up. About 15 minutes later, her friends showed up, and Rachel partied harder than ever before.

This month, I read the prequel to the dystopian series The Hunger Games titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I have not yet finished this novel; I’m on page 212. This novel is about eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow and his experiences as a mentor for the tenth annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus was hoping to get a tribute from one of the career districts (one, two, and four); when it came time for the tribute assignments, he was given the embarrassing assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, (Lucy Gray) the worst of the worst. Disappointed, Coriolanus tries to make the best out of his unlikely situation.

My favorite character (so far) is Lucy Gray. She’s my favorite because she is grateful. On page 121, when Coriolanus gives Lucy Gray some crackers, she “…immediately ripped open a packet and stuffed one of the two crackers into her mouth, chewing and swallowing the dry thing with difficulty. She pressed a hand against her stomach, sighed, and ate the second more slowly. The food seemed to focus her, and her voice sounded calmer. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘That’s better.’” Based on this information, one can infer that even though Lucy Gray may not have thought they were enough, she didn’t show it because she was so grateful.

My favorite line can be found on page 99, at the end of chapter six, “In one movement, the tribute yanked Arachne forward and slit her throat.” Suzanne may have put this shocking and unexpected line at the end of the chapter to create suspense and make the reader read on to see what will happen later.

This quote means that whenever you are asked to do something, ask yourself: should you complete the assignment the right way, regardless of how dangerous, tedious, or difficult it may be, or the easy way; the way you would prefer to accomplish the task, but choosing this path may lead to incorrect or even unwanted results.

In my life, more often than not, I pick the easy way over the right way. I usually pick the easy way because I’m too lazy. For instance, I had the option of going to run club (I really hate going there) and then have no time to do homework, or stay home and complete my homework (I had a lot of homework that day). I picked to stay home and do my homework, mostly to get out of run club. My choice would eventually backfire, though; after I finished my homework, my parents said that based on how long it took me to complete my homework, I would’ve been able to go to run club and still have been able to finish my homework.

I greatly admire my friend, Colin. I look up to him because he’s kind, supportive, and optimistic.

He’s kind because he greets me with a wave and a smile everyday. My other friends do this, but they either don’t say hi everyday, or their tone isn’t as cheerful as Colin’s. Colin’s also kind whenever I ask him a question. He not only replies with a very helpful response, he also uses a positive tone of voice. When Colin is supportive, he gives me positive words of affirmation, including “Good job!”, or “Nice.” (he uses this one fifty times more.)

My word of intention for 2024 is fun! Looking back at last year, I felt I could’ve done a few things differently in order to make the most of my time.

For example, my mum said she had a fun surprise for me and my sister one day. As usual, that resulted in us asking her over and over what it was that we were doing. It was a Korean thing, so she told us the name in Korean. As always, we were super confused. Once we got there, to my sister’s delight (and my utter horror), she had taken us to a Korean karaoke studio.

Another example was when my mum offered for Patty (our nanny) to take us out to Yogurtland. It was a hot summer’s day, so in theory I would’ve said yes, but the alternative was swimming with my cousins in their family’s pool. I picked swimming, mostly because I would’ve been super depressed for the rest of the day about eating melted frozen yoghurt. I highly regret my decision.

To sum up, I will try to take more time to think about my two (or more) options, and to pick the one that seems the most enjoyable at that moment. This will benefit not only my well-being as a whole, but doing this will also allow me to socialize more (social skills are something I need to improve on).