Zicker describes a must-read.

Whether you crave action, humour, or romance, the series "Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan has something to offer you. From the very beginning, this book captured my attention when a small, orphaned boy named Will nervously prepared for the most important day of his life: the day he might be recruited as a knight. Will is devastated when he is dismissed by the knight commander because of his size and a bigger, burlier boy called Horace is offered his dream job instead. However, contrary to Will's belief his fate still hadn't been decided. Little did he know another had kept a close eye on him all along . . .

That other was the kingdom's ranger, Halt, a mysterious man renowned for his wit and skills with a bow and arrow. Halt adopts Will as his apprentice and teaches the young man the art of being a king's ranger. During his time with Halt Will journeys to untrodden places while fulfilling the missions that the king assigns to his rangers. In the beginning, Will is impatient and annoyed with Halt's teachings, yet soon he discovers becoming a ranger was the best thing that happened to him after all.

read more...

by ocean10kv

I recently began attending a college of the arts, and one of the courses I selected for first year was Hot Glass. It was one of those courses that doesn't really help out with what I intend to do with my future, but I needed a course to fill my time table and figured it would be interesting. I have to say, out of all my courses it is by far my favorite. The course is incredibly dangerous seeing as you're working with glass in a state between solid and liquid, and it's impossible to gather the glass without the heat burning your arms.

Aside from the scary aspect of it, glassmaking is quite beautiful. The things my teacher has demonstrated to us such as making glass creatures, bowls, vases, etc is mesmerizing to say the least. So far we haven't really started any projects of our own, the teacher has simply let us play with the glass to get a feel for it. In doing so, these are the objects I've created. I don't really know what these glass blobs are, so let's call them paperweights shall we? I'm quite proud of them.

read more...