I couldn't think of anything else to write about, so I decided to write about the Reading Counts book I just finished. 

I started reading the book, which is called Ender's Shadow, a few months ago during the first quarter. I took a really long break to read The Mark of Athena, but once I finished, I resumed. The book's author's name is Orson Scott Card. It's a parallel novel to his famous book Ender's Game, but instead of focusing on Ender Wiggin, it focuses on one of his best soldiers, Bean, in the exact same time setting as the first book.

The story focuses on Bean, who was orphaned on the streets of Rotterdam, Belgium, as an infant. We learn in the book that Bean is so small because before he was actually physically born, he was stolen by a scientist and had his genes altered, which makes him an experiment. This genetic mutation, called Anton's Key, causes him to be very small in childhood and very tall in adulthood as well as almost inhumanly smart.

The first part of the novel is centered around Bean's time in Rotterdam. He joins a "crew" of fellow orphans led by Poke, his best friend. There are many rival gangs and finding food is tough. This does give small, hyperintelligent Bean some experience on the street. He also makes enemies in Achilles, a boy with a gimp leg who turns out to be the exact opposite of the person everyone thought he was when he kills Poke shortly before Bean leaves.

When Bean does leave, he goes with a nun named Sister Carlotta to Battle School, an academy for training children for war and battle against alien invasions -- namely, the Formics, who have invaded earth twice before. Here he is recognized for his intelligence. One of the teachers assigns him to compose a list for brilliant student Ender Wiggin. His list includes himself, Ender's close friends, and some people from his own launch group. Ender helps shape the person Bean becomes here.

The third and final part of the novel contains the climax. After being rushed after Ender himself through Tactical School and Command School, Bean and some of Ender's other friends and allies are all in a sort of "focus group" that's led by Ender and supposed to finalize their training. Bean is not dumb, though. He realizes that what they are going through is, in fact, a real war. They're commanding the battle that decides the fate of the world. 

I finished the book on Tuesday and I took a Reading Counts quiz on it the next day. I scored 9/10. Thankfully, the book was long enough to complete my Reading Counts word goal. I really liked this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction books.

As you probably know, Tuesday, November 6th was Election Day in the U.S. Election Day is not a federal holiday, but it is still notably observed in the U.S. 

One of the privileges we have as U.S. citizens is the right to take part in our own government. Voting is a right, not a privilege, and the only time voting rights are suspended after they are granted at age 18 is when the voter is convicted for any crime. Children aren't legally allowed to vote, but I don't think that means that they can't be involved and have an opinion about politics. Kids are the future, and it only makes sense that they should start forming opinions at a young age.

The two candidates running for presidency this year were Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, from the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. In order to win an election, a candidate must get 270 electoral votes. Electoral votes come from states and are determined by the state's population. For example, California, the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes, while Wyoming, the least populous state, has just 3. 3 is the lowest number of electoral votes a state can have. The number of states itself comes into play when calculating the popular vote. President Obama won that too. 

Obama won by getting 303 votes. The "swing state" -- or always undecided state -- that determined Obama's victory was Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes. 

I think Obama, who is a re-elect, deserved to win. I believe the basis of his campaign was stronger than that of Mitt Romney and he had more people, evidence, and experience to back up things he said in ads, debates, and the likes. I also don't think Mitt Romney was fit to be elected because I think he undermines the struggles of basic Americans, but that's another subject. 

Either way, I think voting is one of the most important aspects of American citizenship, and this election was a fair and memorable one. I hope to see President Obama further improve our country as he has been trying to do in the last four years. Both of the candidates worked hard to get where they are.

I didn't know what to write about for Free-Write Friday, so I decided to write about my cats!

I have two cats. We've had the two of them since December 28 of last year. Both of them are female and both of them came from the same shelter. The first one we got is bigger than the other because she's older, probably about 8 years old. Her name is Sumi and she's really quiet but she likes eating and licking things. She was given to the shelter as a surrender from her past owner.  The other one is much younger and smaller. Her name is Taina and she's way more playful. We think she's about 2 or 3 years old but when we got her, we didn't know anything about her. That's where her name comes from. "Taina" is Russian for "mystery". My mom lived in Russia when she was in her early 20s. We always keep our doors open so that if the cats want in, they won't have to wail and scratch at our doors. We brought Sumi home first because Taina had to be spayed before we brought her home. My parents did not warn us at all. They just called and said they were coming home with a surprise.

Before we had Taina and Sumi, we had a dog named Beanie. She died about a year before we got our current pets now. A few years before she died we had another cat, a tom named Koji. He died when I was 8 so I don't remember a lot about him. He was a long-haired Siamese cat. My grandma chose his name if I'm correct.

I was never really an "animal" person because for a while we had no pets at all, but I really like my cats. I think it's a privilege, not a burden, to have pets that love you and that owners should always care for and love their animals. There are lots of animals that live their entire lives in shelters and pounds with no one to even glance at them. Having a pet is a lot like having a child, since it's a great, living, breathing that has both its ups and downs.