The Hunger Games Swaps: Panem Info

I am making this post to compile all of the information I have gathered about Panem to help the members of my Hunger Game Swaps on Swap Bot. Feel free to use it for whatever you want. I took as much as possible directly from the books and official sources, as far as I know everything stated below is confirmed, unless otherwise noted.

I know I missed a few people from the districts, particularly people mentioned in Catching Fire and Mockingjay. If you know someone I missed, please let me know. Also, if you see something incorrect or missing, let me know. I am trying to keep up with information, and I know some knew stuff is being released with thecapitol.pn but I am not perfect, and want this to be as accurate as possible.

NOTE: Information I am covering goes across The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. If you have not read all three books and do not want spoilers, then you may want to look elsewhere.

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History of Panem: Panem was formed at an undetermined time in the future out of the remains of North America after war and disaster destroyed it's countries but altered it's landscape. Panem originally consisted of the Capitol, surrounded by 13 Districts. Seventy-four years before the start of 'The Hunger Games' was the end of a period known as the 'Dark Days' where many of the districts rebelled against the capitol. The rebellion was ended when District 13 was 'destroyed'. In Catching Fire this was found out to be a lie based on an agreement that District 13 would not blow up the capitol in exchange for pretending to be destroyed.

I don't know if any specifics were giving for the rebellion, but If Panem 74 years ago is anything like Panem today, it is probably due to poor treatment and severe segregation of it's citizens. It is also mentioned many times that people feel war may reduce their numbers too greatly, so presumably the population of Panem is far less then current North America (current population is approximately 528,720,588 million).

As punishment for the rebellion, every year each district must send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12-18 to fight to the death until one remains, while the whole country watches.

As far as I know, no official map of Panem has ever been given. Many people have speculated based on details given in the books.  This map was made by a teacher who teaches these books to her kids, and she has pretty sound reasoning for each placement of districts, but again, this is NOT official. Just an educated guess.

Capitol: The capitol is the center of Panem. ONLY the capitol has contact with all districts as the districts have very minimal contact with each other and knowledge about each districts is vague. All of the wealthy live in the capitol, although it is revealed that many people are deep in debt, most likely due to their 'never wanting' life style. Many people in the capitol are ignorant of the goings on in the rest of Panem. They do not understand the starvation and suffering. To them the Hunger Games in entertainment (no on from the capitol must participate) and they watch with furver, bet on the games, and many spend absorbent amounts on their favorite tributes.

What we know about the capitols location is there is mountains protecting it from most or all of the districts (part of the reason the districts lost the first rebellion) and the capitol itself is fairly square. The capitol is completely dependent on the districts for everything, they do not produce any of their own food or energy.

District 1: District One is known as a 'career' district in the games, as tributes often train for years to compete in the games and will gladly volunteer to take another tributes place. The tributes from the three 'career' districts are often volunteers and make up most of the winners.

District One makes luxury items for the capitol, although I don't think it is ever expanded on what that means exactly.

Notable Persons: Glimmer and Marvel (Tributes from the 74th games)

District 2: District Two is known as a 'career' district in the games, as tributes often train for years to compete in the games and will gladly volunteer to take another tributes place. The tributes from the three 'career' districts are often volunteers and make up most of the winners. District Two is considered to have the closest relationship with the Capitol and was the last to join the rebellion.


Officially District two is known for stone quarries and masonry work, but unofficially they are the center of defense for the capitol (formerly the job of District 13) and supplies and trains Peace Keepers.

Notable Persons: Cato and Clove (74th games), Enobria (returning tribute for 75th games)

District 3: There is not much known about district three other then it's industry and a few small tidbits. District three is known for electronics. This is thought to include a variety of devices, everything from mines to holo projectors to everyday things like sewing machines. It is my theory that in order to do more complicated work, people in District Three are better educated, because when Beetee is explaining things, no else seems to understand, even though it seemed easy to me.

Notable Persons: Beetee and Wiress

District 4: District four is known as a 'career' district in the games, as tributes often train for years to compete in the games and will gladly volunteer to take another tributes place. The tributes from the three 'career' districts are often volunteers and make up most of the winners.

District four is known for fishing and providing seafood, so there for it must be on  the coast somewhere. Most people outside of District four, cannot swim, at least not well.

Notable Persons: Finnick and Annie

District 5: Next to nothing is known about District 5. Only recently it was confirmed that it's industry is power, but it is uncertain what kind of power. If one district produces power for the whole country, my thoughts are that it is fairly small.

Notable Persons: Foxface (74th Games)

District 6: Next to nothing is known about District six, although it was recently confirmed it's industry is transportation. Presumably it is in charge of manufacturing and maintaining cars, hovercrafts, and trains.

District 7:  District seven is known for lumber and paper goods. It is thought to be located either up north or Down south/south west where dense forests are located.

Notable Persons: Johanna Mason

District 8:  District eight is known for producing textiles and manufacturing clothing, or at least peacekeeper uniforms. Most people work in the factories, it is even revealed in Catching Fire that students (and teachers) go to work in factories after school.

Notable Persons: Bonnie and Twill (Refuges passing through the wilderness by District 12 in Catching Fire)

District 9: Very little is known about District Nine until recently when it was revealed that District Nine's industry is grain. It is believed most people work in factories that involve processing and refining grains for various uses (food, oil, fuel, textile).

Notable Persons:

District 10: It is revealed in (I believe) Mockingjay by a refugee from District 10 that it's industry is livestock. The person in question was in charge of impregnating cattle with frozen embryo's to keep genetic diversity. Presumably this district is in charge with the care, breeding, and possible slaughter and processing of livestock and their products (ie: eggs, milk, ect).

District 11: District Eleven in confirmed by Katniss in Catching Fire to be one of the largest districts. District Eleven is in charge of a large amount of food growing and production. During harvest season EVERYONE works, sometimes until after dark. It is also most likely towards the south or west because it was warm even thought it was winter. District eleven has the most information after twelve and thirteen. Much of the district including the majority of people and the district center are in disrepair. Most people live in shacks/poverty. The border is described as having a massive fence, constantly electrified with Barbed wire coils on top and guard posts along the fence. They are swift to punish, the use of corporol or even deadly punishment, even on children is not uncommon.

Notable Persons: Rue and Thresh

District 12: District twelve is where are main character, Katniss is from so we know a good bit. District twelve is sort of the 'forgotten' district. No on really pays it much attention and it does not get a lot of supervision. District twelve is responsibl for coal mining, and unlike many other districts, the citizens do not start work until they are 18. It is believed District twelve is somewhere in the region of the Appalachian in the Virginia/West Virginia/Kentucky region Most of District twelve lives in poverty.

Starvation and disease related to malnutrition are not uncommon.  People receive no regular health care as they can not afford it and must rely on home remedies and Katniss' mother (an apothecary's daughter). There is a black market called the Hob where people may sell, buy, and trade illegal goods including the illegally hunted meat that Katniss and Gale catch.

Punishment for lapses in the law are fairly lax as many of the Peacekeepers will buy things that they know to be illegal goods and some are even friendly. Corporal punishment is rare untill a new head peacekeeper is brought in during Catching Fire. District twelve is one of the smaller districts with only about 8000 people. After the bombing in Catching Fire, only 800-900 people survive and make it as refugees to District thirteen.

Notable Persons: Katniss, Peeta, Haymich, Prim, Madge, Darius, Greasy Sae...

District 13: Everyone in Panem accept a select few believe district thirteen was destroyed seventy-four years before 'Catching Fire'. However, there was a MASSIVE underground network of bunkers where a fairly decent population survived and continued to build a life and live. District thirteen becomes the center of the rebellion against the capitol. It harbors the displaced residents of District twelve and anyone else who shows up.

Things in District thirteen are VERY strict. Food and supplies and kept under strict control and you use ONLY what you need and nothing more. There is no waste. All of the districts people are well cared for and educated, but are severely lacking in fun and entertainment. At the age of 14, everyone is inducted into the military and refereed to as 'soldier' and are trained in combat.

The population of District thirteen has fluctuated over the years. In recent times, there was some sort of pox epidemic which killed many people and made others sterile so they NEED the District twelve people to help maintain a good population.

Notable Persons: President Coin

Halloween, Harry Potter Camp, & Halloween ATC

So Halloween is in ninteen days, yea! I doubt I will get to do anything besides scouts for Halloween again but oh well. I still need to finish some projects, I need to get finish the necklace charms for my co-worker especially.

Next weekend, me and my co-leader are going to take our girls to a Harry Potter GS Encampment. I volunteered to teach Tea Leaf Reading, and my co-leader is teaching about werewolves. We are also teaching Quiddich which should be fun. I should get some interesting pictures out of this especially since we are suppose to be dressing up.

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And now onto what seems like my obligatory art update!

I like this one because I think it looks like nifty wallpaper. Who wouldn't want a spooky Halloween border.

I tried to make the hand/skull realistic and accurate, I don't know how that turned out but I still think it's skull-tastic!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the little dots are gemstone stickers. Simple and very fall-like. :)

Who doesn't?

I don't know where I went wrong with this, maybe the color's aren't vibrant enough, or maybe the texture of the card makes  it look odd. The picture doesn't help either.







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Well there is my post for the day. Tomorrow I get to spend most of the day with my someone special so I'm pretty happy (because her weekend at my house was clearly not enough).

Nanowrimo & Storybook &Inchies

Short post today, no rambles. First off, I am SUPER excited about NaNoWriMo coming up. I have had a general story idea picked put for months and can't wait to get started on it. I just need to pick a gender for my character. o0 I am going back to fantasy this year, after doing horror for two years in a row, but I have come to love horror, so maybe I will sneak a little in!

If anyone else is into NaNoWriMo feel free to friend me  AngelicLizard. If you don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month aka November where the goal is to write 50k+ words in 30 days. This is my 4th year participating, last year was my first year winning. This year I want to beat my previous word count AND finish my novel. Last year I kept stalling when it came to getting the plot going, I am going to try not to do that this year. :)


And on to a little art :)

Today we have 1 dozen inchies for the 1 Dozen Inchies- October Swap.

Next, we has to share a spooky story, and I made mine into a little book and drew a picture of the sisters in the back. I will post this story sometime this month, I want to edit it first.

Well I told you it would be a short update. Enjoy.

Book Review Friday #1: The Hunger Games (and other stuff)

*NOTE* If you are here because you are looking for me talking about the Hunger Games, please scroll down. :)

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First, I have about a weeks worth of blogs with art to 'catch-up' with what I've done, and then I will try to post art 1-2 a week. I want to expand my blog to include other things, but it will still involve a lot of art/writing/photography because I love it a lot. But, ideally I want to post art/swaps 1-2 a week, and book reviews on Friday. I don't know if I am going to try doing anything else. I will talk about any interesting places I go to, but they are almost guaranteed to be accompanied by photo's.

Speaking of photo's I am working towards getting a body for my floating head, and I have decided that my next investment will be a camera. A nice camera. A DSLR. My point-and-shoot is no longer cutting it for what I want from many pictures, although it will be a go-to for carrying around everywhere. Right now my contenders are a Canon Rebel and a Fujifilm (can't remember the model). I have been wanted a Rebel for a while now, I have read reviews and honestly never found many negatives towards (at least none that would matter to me). However, I LOVE my Fujifilm point and shoot, I think it is an awesome camera, and I went for a Rebel because at the time I first started considering DSLR's fujifilm didn't have anything comparable, but I missed something and now they do. I read a review online and it seemed very positive, but I have a lot of time and will do much more research.

I am considering starting a Girl Scout blog/website because I think I have a lot of good ideas to share. My only thing is, I want to wait until I get the new, back-ordered badge book because they are re-doing the program. I got to see it last night and thought that it looked awesome, but I will see more when I actually own it.

Okay, that is all the rambling I have for now, I shall proceed to the bookness!!

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So since I have an opinion on everything, I thought I would share more with the world wide web with doing some reviews and since I am a big huge nerdy nerd for books I will start with them. I applied for two sites that give you free books in exchange for reviews, which I thought would be nice for when I can't afford to have new books and want something to read.

Book Review #1 The Hunger Games

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a Young Adult Dystopian fiction book. The Series take place an unknown time in the future. The world was ravaged by war, tragedy, and natural disasters and out of the ashes of North America, Panem was born. Panem is a country divided into a capitol and twelve districts. There were thirteen districts but District Thirteen was destroyed  seventy-four years ago during the 'Dark Days' when a rebellion took place. As punishment for that rebellion, every year each district must provide one boy and one girl between the ages of 12-18 to be sent to an arena where they will be followed by camera's every move they make while they fight to the death until one victor remains.

The story follows Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl from District Twelve. She has taken over the duties of providing for her mother and twelve year old sister Prim after the death of her father in a mining accident five years ago. She is a strong independent girl who uses the skills her father taught her to illegally hunt and gather food outside of her district boundaries in the 'forbidden wilderness'. Her shock comes when her younger sister is chosen by random at the annual 'reaping' for the Hunger Games. She immediately volunteers to take her place, although she considers it a death sentence. Her fellow tribute is Peeta Melark, a sixteen year old son of a baker who saved Katniss' life five years ago when she was starving by intentionally burning bread and giving it to her. 

They are both whisked off to the capitol where before they fight to the death they are dressed up and presented as a team to the eager capital audience. Katniss is opposed to the idea of them being presented like a team, because as tradition dictates, only one can survive. Dressed up by her stylist Cinna, Katniss is an immediate favorite, and becomes immediately known as 'The Girl on Fire' due to the real-looking flames on her outfit. Before the games, her fellow tribute Peeta reveals on a national interview that he is in love with Katniss. She is in disbelief and believes it to only be a ruse to protect himself. 

In the arena Katniss must use every skill she has to try to outwit her enemies as she struggles with the terrible acts she must commit, her humanity, her feelings for the games and the other players, particularly Peeta. Eventually it comes down to Katniss and Peeta, and through an act of defiance and an attempted double suicide, they are both declared victors, but the capitol, is not happy and a dark future awaits.

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Review:

Suzanne Collins immediately pulls me into the world of district twelve. I instantly want to know more and more about it, and the fact that many of my questions are left unanswered at the end, makes me want more. I think Suzanne Collins writes in a way that is easy to understand and appeals to a wide audience (the books are rated for ages 12 and up, I am 24 and not the oldest reader by far).

.The book does feature a lot of graphic violence. The majority of the story is spent in an arena where 12-18 year olds are trying to kill each other. But Collins does a great job of narrating in a believable, raw way. There is no glorification of violence, Katniss takes no satisfaction in killing the others, even though they are trying to kill her. That is the second thing I enjoy about the book. The characters are believable. Katniss is strong, skilled, but she is a teenager, she is confused about many things and struggles with her decisions and morality. Killing or not killing is not easy for her. 

Collins even challenges the reader to question the authenticity of her characters through the narration. While Katniss is being groomed for presentation before the games, she wonders about her prep team. All they seem to worry about is frivolous nonsense, but Katniss wonders at times what she would be like if raised in the capital. This gives the reader the prompt to question those and other characters. I have to give any author  kudos for that, because the characters really do make the book, and the characters here are strong.

Prim is an instant like for me, as was Rue, and then comparing the two, I absolutely melted when Rue died. I cried. I was singing the song as I read to myself, and my voice broke, I felt as If I was there, holding her tiny hand as her skin went cold.

I really can't find much to complain about about the book, and I could talk about philosophy of them all day. The absolute perversion of the games is frightening. First the contestants are children. 12-18 year old children, made to fight for the death. Second, they are dressed up and paraded around before the world they are sent to slaughter. Third, people place bets on the outcome and it is honestly viewed as good entertainment for the people in the capitol. Fourth, I find none of this to be unrealistic. The way the world is heading with reality TV, child soldiers, and video-taping fights instead of helping people. I could see this as a reality, and that is part of what chills me the most.

Ok, one complaint. The ending left me wanting more and my library had NO copies of Catching Fire. Every. Single. Copy in my ENTIRE county library was checked out and many of them were on hold. Not fair. But honestly, if you are a fan of YA or distopian fiction, I would recommend it. :)

Scouts and Catch-Up: Zombies!

So okay, I am going to have a busy weekend. Tomorrow morning/afternoon will be my 'down-time'. I will be doing laundry, finishing my last train story, working on clay projects, and planning things for scouts. We have a Harry Potter Encampment for scouts on October 21st-23rd. Me and my co-leader volunteered to help run sessions. I will be teaching tea leaves, she will be teaching about werewolves, and we are both teaching Quidditch. I have never helped with a community event that wasn't planned by my family, but it will be okay. We are also going to be in costume. She is dressing as Lupin, I will be Trelawny. Woot! :)


I will be making a costume, and I will share some of the stuff I come up with in case anyone is interested in stuff for kids :)

So, here for my 'catch-up' series is a 'Zombie Fashion Magazine' I made for a fashion photo shoot swap. I think it turned out really cute, enjoy.


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Reading and Catch-Up: Inchies and Matchbox

So the last six months, I've been reading a lot. I've read at least 23 books (not counting the series I read twice, twice). So I think starting on Friday I will talk about some of the books I've read. Maybe that will be a Friday thing, talking about books.  Whoo hoo! Right now I am reading 'Slumdog Millionaire', I will probably finish that today and then will move on to 'A long way gone.' Yea book worm! *wiggles*

In my Halloween Spooktacular group I won the September WTA 'Skully September' which means everyone who signed up has to send me something skully. Yea!

Today should be another easy day at work, and it's nice outside, so yea! Thursday is going to be a long day though. I work 7-4 and have a community meeting for scouts 7-9 and in between I have to go to the post office and find dinner. Fun fun fun. I probably won't have an update Thursday unless I get up early enough.

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Today's crafts are two sets of Halloween Inchies and One Halloween Matchbox.

Inchies #1

I like the spider web and the pumpkin the best. I think they look nifty. I don't know if people have a problem with it but I draw most of my inchies rather then use paper and die cuts and stamps. I don't have a lot of those, I am new to paper craft. It is basically a bunch of pretty paper I inherited and that's it. I can also sew inchies, but honestly they take 20-60 minutes depending on how detailed I make them and I reserve to only do them for myself or people who I really like and I know will send me something really nice in return.

Inchies #2

Teeny Tiny cat on a wall. Super cute :)


Halloween Matchbox

First, I apologize for the grainy photo's. These are part of the batch I used my ipod to photograph. Second, this is my first matchbox. It's simple but I like it (shiny spiders). If you can't tell, the green paper has a silver spider web on it. :)

More Spooky Catch-Up: Spooky Books!

So here I am for another post of art-catch. Unfortunately today I really can't think of anything else to talk about except it's freaking cold  in here and I am wearing two layers and can't get warm!!! Ah!!!! And I have to take the bus and will be in a box outside working today. Prospects for warming up today, are not looking good. On to Spooky Books!!

So I made three Spooky books for the Tiny Halloween Swap, 13 Days of Halloween Swap, and candyLESS Altered Box Swap. The first one I have pictures of the inside covers and outside covers, the second two, one has a plain inside cover, the other I never took a picture of  for some reason... :)

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Book #1

Have I told you how much I LOVE spider webs. Drawing them, watching them. There is a spider out back. I TRIED to take pictures of it's GORGEOUS and massive web but all I had for a background was off-white siding and a cloudy sky. It was barely visible to my eyes, and my camera couldn't catch a bit of it :/


Book #2

Book #3

Okey dokey! There are all my spooky books. I have to remember to make my girlfriend one. I might make one for my friend at work too, to go with her charms. :)

Now I need to go kindly e-mail/message people in my swaps that haven't sent yet.

Playing Catch-Up: Spooky Creature Inchies

So... I have been super crafty this week. I finished a Halloween scene in a 250 count matchbox, at least 3 ATC's, two inchies, and two new pages in my art journal. Plus I made some new ghosts, I haven't baked them yet so I don't know how translucent they turned out. BUT I am still catching up, so you will have to wait to see any of that. I want to get everything up ASAP so I will probably be doing many posts a week, because in November, I will be powering down on craftiness and amping up on the writing for NaNoWriMo.

Right now I have most swaps done and ready to hang out. I have five and half to do, but many are done and ready to go when partners are assigned (loving senders choice). Once I get all/most of my Halloween swaps in, I will post pics of what I've received. Some really awesome ATC's and inchies so far and a nifty as hell wall hanging.

I am also swapping art outside of swap-bot. A girl I work with (HUGE horror fan, especially Michael Myers) is going to make me a custom pony in exchange for three chibi's for necklaces. Yea!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Right now my to-do list is as followed:

Finish Art Journal (9-13 pages to go)
Take Photo's for Autumn Challenge 2011
Hunger Games District ATC's 1-3
Zodiac Inchies: Taurus, Virgo & Capricorn
*Make 3 charms for Amber
*Finish Last Train Story

And planned projects:
Art Wall
ATC and Inchie Displays
Panem Art Map
Katniss Wedding/Mocking Jay Dresses (Doll Sized)
Halloween/Cosplay Costume



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Spooky Inchie Time! I think I lost my camera and took pictures in low light with my ipod so sorry they are a little fuzzy.

 Spiders and a cat sillouette. Classic 'spooky' creatures.

 Bat and Raven, and a shot of the backing I put all the inchies on. I love the raven. :)

Werewolf silhouette and more bats. Yea Bats!

Zombie chick and spider web. I think this spider web looks awesome. But I'm biased.

Witch and Skeleton. I like drawing skeletons even though they take forever. :)

Well that is my update for today. If things go as planned I will make at least two more entries this week, but I am going to aim for one a day Monday-Friday. Lets see if I can stick to it. Might leave out Thursday because of my hours that day. We'll see.

Catching Up: Harry Potter ATC's

So, Im not going to lie, I am a big Harry Potter nerd, I have loved the books since before they were HUGE and I like all the movies. I saw #8 at the midnight premiere, in 3D. I had to go a few towns over to get tickets, but I didn't care, it was awesome.

So.... I happened to find a Harry Potter ATC swap and I jumped on it. It was simple, make an ATC for each house and one for Hogwarts. I decided to use the house colors as a backdrop and feature each house's mascot. Simple but classy. For the Hogwarts ATC I used all the house colors and an object representing each house, and a quote from book seven that I like.

First up is....

Griffyndor! I think my lion looks kinda sleepy, but I think it turned out pretty decent, although my girlfriend pointed out that he has no ears, but the picture I was referencing, the lion was SOOO fluffy I couldn't see his ears.

I really like this one, I think the background looks awesome, and the badger is super cute. His body is a little too long, but, he is still super cute.

Ravenclaw: I like the colors, although it is hard to see it in this picture. I am not sure how I feel about this eagle, it's fierce but oddly chicken like. I think... o0

Slytherine! I really like this one too, I like the background, I think it looks awesome, and I really like the snake too. I made it not look fierce on purpose, 'cause you know not all Slytherine's are bad.

Here is my Hogwarts ATC, I think it's pretty cool. I like the different patterns I used. :)

So there are my Hogwarts ATC's, for all you Harry Potter nerds (and not) enjoy!