Book Ideas

I recently had an idea for a book that I wanted to write:

The background over the story would be a terrorist regime taking over a nation and killing, reeducating, or enslaving anyone who had contact of the outside world, in any way. All the children were put into reeducation camps away from their parents and were given serums that altered and essentially erased all memories before Year Zero. At this point, the only adults left alive were either enslaved to feed the ruling class of children, entirely out of site of the children as well, or the ruling class of High Elders that oversee the whole nation.
Nearly fifteen years later, a kid about to turn 18 begins to have violent nightmares and flashbacks of a world he doesn't understand but somehow is familiar to him. Every night he sees the kind face of a woman sink below the surface of a red river. Confused about what this means, he seeks help from The High Council. Alarmed by the sudden relapse of a time he should have no memory of, the High Council, exile him and send a death squad after him. Learning to hide in the forests he finds a man, older than anyone he has ever seen. He's 32.
The kid will try to ask the man of the past but the man has suffered several mental and physical injuries that affect his memory and speech. The death squad will learn of his whereabouts and kill the man right after the kid understands that there was a time before Year Zero. Running toward the ocean, the kid will be met by a small group of rebels that take him on a boat and lead him to an island where he discovers the true history of the world.
This is just an idea right now but I am hoping to start writing soon. I got this idea after watching the Killing Fields, a movie following a journalists escapades during the time of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, where the regime tried to kill anyone who had knowledge of the outside world and restart history to begin with them. What happened was pretty terrible but I just kept thinking what would it be like if something like this happened on a global scale? What would life be like?

Kony 2012 to MOVE DC: Invisible Children

If you haven't had the chance to watch it yet, please watch "MOVE" by the Invisible Children. It helps clear up some of the earlier controversies that took place after the first video and it shows an opportunity, that does not require payment to the organization, to help get governments to confront and pressure Kony.

The video first details the early success that the organization exhibited with the first Kony video and lists the goals that it achieved during its success. The main thing they wanted to achieve was 500,000 views for the previous video for that year. They clearly achieved that and more in less than 36 hours. The whole objective of the video was to get people to find out about Kony, and begin to become aware of the disastrous effects of his campaign in the central african area, near Uganda and Sudan.

The next segment talked about the organization and its volunteers falling from cloud nine, after several of the people who watched the video, began to call it a scam and began to turn away from the issues at hand. They further attacked the filmmaker, Jason Russell. This, in turn, gave him a mental breakdown which later defamed the video as a conspiracy even further. Jason Russell, apologizes for his behavior and explained what led him to the his mental collapse.

The final segment reaffirmed that the video's subject was a real thing and needed to be dealt with. It tells viewers of a way that they are hosting to appeal to governments to address the LRA problem. If you want to participate, make your way to Washington DC on November 17, 2012 for a huge rally that will force government leaders to hear your voice.

I know this isn't under one of my usual topics but it needed to be said. Please help the Invisible Children force Joseph Kony to stop his destruction and bring him to justice.

Lifeguard App

I was a lifeguard this summer--best summer of my life--but one thing I wish I had to help me was an app for lifeguards. Every day they work, lifeguards are required to go over their training to keep it fresh in their minds in case of an emergency. Sometimes this becomes difficult. Maybe there are time constraints, medical problems, or forgetfulness that may prohibit a trained lifeguard from remembering every detail of their training. If there was a lifeguard app, things could be different.

The idea I have for this app would have two main parts to it:
1). the app would automatically would push notifications to your phone  being the "tip of the day" or "never forget" messages that would be set at random and come to the phone every day.
2). when the app is open the user could take practice tests or go through the lifeguard manual that would help jog the users brain when remembering his/ her training.

There would definitely be security precautions that would definitely take place to ensure that only lifeguards can use this app. The user would have to put in their certification information that could only be obtained after taking a class. This makes sure that this app is not a replacement to the actual training needed to become a lifeguard. Also, if the user fails multiple practice tests in a row some of the information would be sent to their current supervisor. This ensures that if the user is not keeping up doing anything to remember their training, then he/ she would not be allowed to take care of the people at his/ her pool.

This is just an idea I had, but if there is anything out there that is anything like this then please comment.

Down and Out in Paris and London

If you have ever read 1984 or Animal Farm, you  know that George Orwell is an excellent writer. He completely immerses his reader into the setting and the story he tries to convey. This third book, Down and Out in Paris and London, is written very much the same. Though the first two books were quite dark reads, Down and Out, despite what some may think, has more of positive outlook on life.

Down and Out is about an English language teacher, who is first in Paris, finding himself without a job. With the help of his friend, Boris, the two currently “down and out,” scavenge Paris for a job while trying to keep their money supply from dropping, while also trying to keep up the appearance that they aren’t struggling. Soon they find a job, two actually, and all goes well for a while. Then our main character returns to England on prospects of getting his job back, when it turns out he has to wait another month before his employers come back. He is “hard up” again and finds the helping hand of Paddy. Paddy helps the protagonist by showing the “do’s and don’ts” of English poverty. After a month, his employers do come back and even though he is pleased to have his job back, he expresses what he never realized about poverty and those engulfed by it. 

The moral of Orwell's story is not the fact that poverty is the end, because it is not. The moral of the story is that even at the lowest point in life, there are still people out there who will lend a helping. Throughout the book, the protagonist is helped with other people of common interest to find a steady job, or to find a place to live. The homeless and the unemployed are not some inhuman monsters. All they are are people who have had a bit of bad luck.

This could be a good movie that would serve the purpose of subtly influencing people to be kinder to the beggar on the street, or to donate a little more money to charities. Or, they could model a documentary about this novel that instead of subtly stating what people should do would directly show how good deeds greatly influence the lives of others. If it its a movie already, I'm not surprised, but if not, someone should definitely make it one.

The Pendragon Ten

After my last post, I was asked what other books I would want turned into movies. Of course this is a particularly hard question. Sometimes the story, shouldn't be turned into a book because usually when it is turned into a movie, it usually is a lot worse than the book. But if I was given complete directive license, the next movies I would make would be from the Pendragon series by D.J. Machale.

I'm not sure how many people really know about these books so i'll give a summary. In the series there are a total of 10 books, on the side their are some spinoffs about the origins of some of the characters found in the original series. The story starts with Bobby Pendragon, with his seemingly perfect life, and his friends Courtney and Mark in Stony Brook, Connecticut. His life is turned around when his Uncle Press tells him the certain people need help. While running into an evil that he will never forget, Bobby and Press find themselves in another world, in a different time, on the other side of the universe. In these books Bobby finds his calling as a Traveler while helping others during a turning point in their world's history that is being pushed to chaos by the evil from before, Saint Dane. With help from other Travelers, Bobby tries to save everyone and everything from that chaos. The books in order are: The Merchant of Death, The Lost City of Faar, The Never War, The Reality Bug, Black water, The Rivers of Zadaa, The Quillan Games, The Pilgrims of Rayne, Raven Rise, and The Soldiers of Halla. 

These books are great books for kids in middle school. And this could bring in plenty of revenue because it's not like any other story out there right now. The imagination that D.J. Machale has poured into these books is priceless and visionary. Deep-seated in the book lies important morals such as too much technology (Reality Bug) or animal rights (Black Water). These are great reads and they would make great movies  under my directorial genius. 

Movie: The Gone Series

If I could produce and direct any movie, I would want to showcase the Gone series. For those who haven't read it, you definitely should. The Gone series is written by author Michael Grant, and currently there are 5 books completed out of the 6 said to be released. In order these books are Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, and Fear. The covers are kind of stupid but they aren't what matter.

What matters is the story plot. In this story, kids in Perdido Beach are left behind in a freak phenomenon where everyone 15 and over, parents included, disappear. Without explanation. What's worse is a border is formed, enclosing a twenty mile radius, completely cutting the kids from the rest of the world. Immediately you'll see kids trying to restore order when other problems arise. What's even crazier, the kids of Perdido Beach immediately start changing in ways never expected. Life in this new world, the kids of Perdido Beach call the FAYZ, is essentially what happens when all hell breaks loose.

These books have promises of being great movies, because the storyline is pretty easy to follow, it has action guys can get into, some of that lovey-dovey drama that girls like, and a bit of mystery and suspense that will engage the audience. However, that's not all these books are about. These books depict the process of building a civilization from scratch. Who will be the leader? How will we find food? Who will protect us? Mind you, these aren't simple questions with not so simple answers. The FAYZ offers many obstacles that stand in the way of some of the main characters: Sam, Astrid, Cain, Diana, and Little Pete.

If no one ever made these books into movies, the books themselves are a great read. If the covers are too much for you, I'd suggest covering them or simply taking the cover off. But once you pick the book up, you will never want to put it down. Stephen King says:

"These are exciting, high-tension stories told in a driving, torrential narrative that never lets up. There are monsters, there are kids with mad-crazy super powers, there’s the mystery of where all the adults went. Most of all, there are children I can believe in and root for. This is great fiction."

Why it isn't a movie already, I'll never know, but what I do know is that who ever makes it would make a lot money.