The Flying Scribble

Tintin and His Ginger Quiff

2012-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

(cue dramatic John Williams music)

In a world before Hiccup and Toothless...

Harry and Hedwig....

and Sam Gamgee and Bill the Pony, there was...

Tintin, the Belgian reporter and his brilliant fox terrier Snowy out to save the world from evil bad guys in a series of comics written by the amazing artist, Hergé aka George Remi. There’s no shortage of globe-trotting, slapstick comedy, dangerous villains, and crazy (but funnily plausible enough) adventures with a colorful cast of characters in these books.

The Adventures of Tintin are greatest comic books series ever written. Seriously. (Although I should tell you, I might have a slight disadvantage picking the best of the best of comic books seeing as Tintin are the only comic books I read. Heh) In these intelligent, layered, well-researched, beautifully drawn, satirical books, Tintin and Snowy travel the world and deal with everything from Al Capone to South American revolutions to Eastern European politics to sunken treasure to horrible Opera singers to the excess of the Soviet Union. And oh yeah, they go to the moon. THE MOON. Twenty years before the real first lunar landing. These books have EVERYTHING except romance and provide a wonderful snapshot of the 20th century.

There's a reason why some people want the series to be called the Adventures of Tintin and Snowy.

And the film just last Sunday won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature. Er, I *may* have teared up a bit when they announced it. (Umm, ahem, yes, I know I shouldn't take these film award shows waayyy too seriously...but I mean, it's TINTIN!)

But however wonderful that award is, the award is a Golden Globe and that’s the issue: The Golden Globes are given by foreign journalists, the keyword there being foreign. The movie has been overlooked (*cough* BOMBED *cough*) critically and box office-wise on this side of the world, obviously because Tintin is indubitably and unapologetically European. (I bet you my bowl of Cheerios that the Oscar's going to Rango.) Belgian or not, no childhood hero of mine should have to suffer through this embarrassment, so here here are six reasons why you should go running to see it now!

(1) It’s visually stunning. Pulling a Chris Traeger (from Parks & Recreation), I’ll say that’s it LITERALLY the most gorgeous animated feature I’ve seen. It is brilliant- no PHENOMENAL animation and use of motion capture. It’s jaw-dropping and I almost fell out my chair while watching it with my 3D glasses on. I remember when the first sneak peek pictures came out my brother and I went around the house in a rampage that Spielberg and Jackson were going to ruin our favorite childhood hero’s story. We went into the theater sweating, begging Spielberg that everything will go alright (because we have a telepathic link with Spielberg obviously), and two hours later we were able to wipe the sweat off our brows while walking out because it did. Thank you animators at WETA digital.

This was LITERALLY my pose for the entire two hours sans Snowy.

(via markeeto)

(2) The story’s just infectious with its energy. It’s an adventure story: a classic, quaint, smart early 20th century adventure story. This is Indiana Jones decades before Indiana Jones came to life. It starts quietly enough: Tintin’s enjoying an afternoon walking around a flea market and he happens to find a model ship of The Unicorn. From there the story jumps forward and never stops as Tintin heads out to find the secret of The Unicorn before the villains do. It’s exhilarating and I haven't had this much fun watching a film in a loonng time.

(3) Cinematography and transitions. It’s an animated film so it’s probably a bit easier getting the cameras around everything but hey, credit is due where credit is due. The filmmakers have to think creatively about where to place the cameras, right? And they do. The camera sweeps all throughout the film, following Tintin's escapades through windows, on the streets of Brussels, in the Moroccan town of Bagghar, and etc, so so so beautifully. And the transitions. Holy. Cheesecakes. WHEN TINTIN AND CAPTAIN HADDOCK SHAKE HANDS, THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN AND THE HANDS TURN INTO SAND DUNES. WHO THINKS OF TRANSITIONS LIKE THAT?!?! And The Unicorn BURSTING through the sand. And the chase sequence. AHHH. The way Tintin turns the motorcycle handles around to use them and a wire as a zipline. AHHH again. I might get a heart attack just getting too excited about it.

I LITERALLY cannot wait for all the behind the scenes special features the blu-ray's going to bring. (via)

(4) Tintin’s introduction scene rocks. That is all. And his gravity-defying quiff got a special scene (psst..the scene involves mirrors).

The biggest issue with the film that American critics seem to be having with the film (besides the mo-cap) is Tintin himself. Everyone seems to want a backstory for him. After reading each book countless times, I can say that he just doesn’t have one. He’s meant to be enigmatic. I don't think I've realized this until I came back from the film, but the biggest mystery in the entire series of mysteries is Tintin. From what we the readers know, he has no parents or family to speak of besides Snowy. He doesn’t have much of a life outside of being a reporter, no determinate age (I always thought he was in his late teens/early twenties), and we don’t know what the deal with his name is (is Tintin a pseudonym for his journalistic activities or what?!), but that’s okay. Hergé gives us everything we need to know about him:

Tintin's a ginger, quiffed reporter whose signature outfit consists of a beige trench-coat, a blue sweater, and brown plus fours. He’s whipsmart, adventurous, eager, innocent-ish but calculating, dynamic, and ridiculously good-looking for an animated character. He also knows the meaning of truly packing a punch.

And Jamie Bell captured him very well. The mannerisms, the expressions and the tone he gives to Tintin are perfect. The rest of the actors (Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, etc) nailed their roles as Captain Haddock and Thompson & Thomson respectively. And Daniel Craig was surprisingly sinister as the bad guy.

Real Tintin is wondering how and why motion-capture Tintin looks better than he does...

... while motion-capture Tintin has just noticed that his quiff is fashionably triangular instead of rectangular like in the books.
(via brokensunday)

(5) It will make you smile. It made me smile and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one smile-inducing scene for everyone (and OF COURSE it will because the screenplay was written by the hilarious and witty British writing trio Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish). One of my favorite scenes is when Tintin’s trying to figure out why everyone’s after his model ship of The Unicorn, and a grin comes on his face and he says, “...And I know where I’ll find the answer...the library!” I'm sorry everyone. I tried to but I couldn't stop myself from awwwing. It was too adorable. How many characters do you see these days exclaiming enthusiastically that they need to go the library to get information besides Hermione?

(6) It’s a lovely tribute to Hergé. Hergé's the artist who's inspired everyone from Walt Disney to Brad Bird. If you pick up a book after seeing the movie (hopefully!), you’ll see that there are little details the filmmakers sprinkled throughout to show their love and appreciation for Hergé's world: Tintin’s apartment had red armchairs and a desk next to the window; Tintin gets knocked out numerous times (I assure you that I’m not a sadist! Hergé has Tintin getting clubbed or hit with a brick or rake or wine bottle or something almost all the time. It just won't be Tintin without those scenes); there are guns and aeroplanes; Snowy saves the day plenty of times; Captain Haddock can swear colorfully and the bad guys are refreshingly old-fashioned. Though some might disagree with me, even though it’s not animated in the traditional sense, the art and design of everything is still very Hergé. There is nothing out of place here, except for a few lapses of reality but I’m not even going to go there.

So yeah, in conclusion, GO SEE The Adventures of Tintin! And thank you Spielberg, Peter Jackson, WETA, the writers, Jamie Bell and the rest of the cast for not being afraid to bring out their inner Tintin nerd while making this film. As the cartoon series Tintin would strangely say, “YAHOOO!”

"I LITERALLY cannot wait until Steve lets me stop doing all this publicity stuff."
-Jamie Bell

the one starting again

2011-09-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, mes amis!

It's been a while, eh? I think I'm just going to skip the omg-i'm-so-sorry-i-haven't-blogged-i've-been-too-busy-with-school-and-life-and-EVERYTHING-and-did-i-mention-i'm-a-senior-now? because everyone's already heard variations of that, so I'll cut to the chase:

Today's a Monday, and here's something thought-provoking for a Monday- a JJ Abrams talk on storytelling and his inspiration. The truth is, I haven't seen anything from JJ Abrams unless you count the Star Trek and Super 8 trailers and 1.5 episodes of Lost, but judging from those, everything else I've read about him or seen in an interview of his, and this talk, he's nothing short of a genius (and zealous) filmmaker and storyteller.

His talk is one of my favorite TED talks along with Sheryl Sandberg's:

Not really bookish or anything, but I admire her. :)

I'm hoping to post at least once a week because I've really missed writing here. I just never had anything interesting to write about at all, unless you count getting to eat a Pizza-in-a-Cone in Providence, Rhode Island. (It was seriously a pizza in a cone.) I consider it one of the highlights of my Providence trip:

(More on the Pizza-in-a-Cone to come later!)

I also got a tumblr in the time I vanished. I took the title Objarkas from Plain Kate by Erin Bow which is so lyrical yet very eerie at the same. Honestly, I don't know if I'm going to be keeping the tumblr because it's a total time-sucker but it is the site which I'm updating the most right now (and there are so many beautiful things there), so if you want to see what I'm up to, I suggest heading onto over there. :)

Ciao for now,
Nonie

p.s. Goliath is coming out on September the 20th, which also happens to be tomorrow! I won't be able to read it for a couple of weeks, but still- it's finally releasing! *flails*

today's the 28th of July...

2011-07-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

... and two very exciting things popped up while I've been roaming around New England and stumbling over Rhode Island's beaches* these past few days (in the 100 degrees heat which is always great...NOT).

1) The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner received the 2011 Mythopoeic Award! (Actually this was a couple of weeks ago, but I only found out about it like...yesterday.) :D I can't imagine a more deserving series. If you haven't read any of the books yet, go straight to the library to hold the Thief (the first book). Don't make me track you down to throw the books into your windows or hide them under your pillows! You wouldn't want that, and tracking you down would make me feel weird, so uh...please read these books?

2) Exclusive pictures of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale released thanks to Entertainment Weekly! I refuse to post the EW cover here because the photoshop is a tad ridiculous, so instead here are my favorite stills** from the movie they've shown so far.

Best friends.

Josh/Peeta. With an apron. And bread.

Before anyone freaks out about Josh's seemingly still brown hair, remember that it's just a lighting trick! Take a look at the slideshow. His hair is definitely dirty blonde and it falls in waves over his forehead; don't worry. :)

*takes sigh of relief*

I think the Hunger Games makeup crew got it right, don't you think? :D

* Rhode Island's beaches are made up of shells and rocks, so we couldn't have this dramatic run up to the water with our hair flying behind us, and with smiles and laughter etched onto our faces. Instead we had to slowly walk over rocks so we didn't fall and break our teeth, while occasionally letting out a tiny squeak or two. Still, the view was breathtaking.

** Is it just me being sappy, or is the still with Jennifer and Liam is too adorable? Awwww.

*** EDIT: More Hunger Games promo pictures are right here (thanks to Bookshelves of Doom)

Waves

2011-07-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hiya! Believe or not, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth after seeing Harry Potter. Hurrah! There’s just been a lot of work to get done over the weekend, and sadly, I can’t find the USB cord for my camera and I really really wanted to post a couple of pictures from the midnight premieres because everything was fantastic there.

 But it’s been 4 days since the release of the movie, and it seems that the USB cord itself dropped off the face of the earth, so I don’t think I can put off writing about the movie any longer for a couple of pictures.

Tee hee, I can hear some of groaning, “No Nonie! Not another Potter post! The official teaser poster for the Hunger Games came out! That's the new movie news. Get with the times already!" but hey, I never got closure on last week. :D So here’s Day #1 (or Day -3) with just a couple of my thoughts on the film:

I walked out of the theater wanting to jump in the air and cheer with happiness. That never happened before with a movie before. Of course, it’s not fair to judge it like that since this series holds a sentimental value with many people but still; we have to acknowledge that the filmmakers did a good job here. Coming from the bottom of my heart, I think this is the best film in the series. :D

I'm pretty sure most of you who wanted to watch the movie have already seen it, but I can't be too sure, so beware of spoilers!

The first part was all about the dynamic of the trio, and this second part is all about Hogwarts, and Harry himself of course. It was just a bit surprising seeing Emma and Rupert not having much to do.
Call me silly, but in the first few shots of the Gringrotts heist scene, I actually thought it was Emma under all the Bellatrix make-up. Helena BC was that phenomenal. She nailed Emma's facial expressions.
I loved Professor McGonagall’s geeky, happy giggle after setting the statues to life. And she had the first tear-inducing line in the movie: “It’s nice to see you Potter.” The audience burst into a big “AWWWWW” when she said that.
Fred's death scene from the book is not here. The scene they replaced it with, where he's cornered, alone and wandless, by a Death Eater, is chilling. It's horrible to watch, but so cinematic.
I can’t even talk about the Snape vs. McGonagall duel without getting speechless.
Actually, there are so many scenes in this movie I couldn’t talk about without getting inarticulate, just because of the sheer awesomeness of it all. Like in my notes about this movie I wrote a couple days ago, I had "EEEEEEEEEEEEE" written out next to McGonagall’s name just because I just couldn’t explain it any other way.
Next to Alan Rickman’s name I have this random scribble. It’s not even an “EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Just a large, random scribble on the page.
And that, friends, should explain how incredible he was in this movie. Even an “EEEEEEEEEEEE!” can't describe him. He stole every scene he was in, and played broken-hearted-but-nevertheless-heroic Snape with perfection.
I would like to hand over an award to the person who decided to to put in the line “You have your mother’s eyes” line in Snape’s death scene. That was GENIUS. Everyone says that to Harry, but it means so much more when said by Severus Snape. Everything else in his memories was heartbreaking, especially the scene where he's holding a dead Lily, crying, with baby Harry in the crib sobbing. Just heartbreaking.
His death was also the most horrid. It's not shown directly, but seeing the silhouette of Snape and hearing it was dreadful. I hate Nagini.
But hooray for Neville for cutting its head off! The whole scene is just epic. I think I cheered the loudest here. I’m very, very, very thankful that they didn’t mess up the Prince’s Tale or Neville’s role in the story. The character developments of Snape and Neville were my favorite parts of the book, so they were the two parts I was most anxious about, but they delivered. Thank you, thank you, thank you Steve Kloves and David Yates!
Neville’s line about being mad about Luna was the cutest, and most spontaneous thing about the movie.
I loved Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)’s scene when he hesitates to go over to the Death Eaters, and loved Narcissa Malfoy too. The scene on the bridge where Draco and Narcissa kept on walking but Lucius turned around, looking around a bit lost and sad was a wonderful way to end the Malfoy family storyline.
The third tear-inducing line after McGonagall’s and Snape’s was Dumbledore’s: “Harry, you wonderful boy. You brave, brave man.” Michael Gambon delivered that line faultlessly. Some people started crying so loudly that it got distracting. Heh.
I loved how they showed a disgruntled Filch getting ready to clean up the castle during the final scenes. Once a Hogwarts caretaker, always a Hogwarts caretaker. ;)

Staring contest time.

The Technical Parts

I’m sort of curious as to why they decided to not have the huge crowd of people during the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. To make the victory more subtle? I did like the Harry-Hagrid hug though.
I'm also curious as to why they decided to make Bellatrix and Voldemort turn into confetti-like pieces when they died. (But evil people never die normally in fantasy movies so...hmm...)
The screenwriting was great. They changed the book for sure, but it all fit somehow.
But Tonks and Lupin deserved more (or they should've gotten in a line before the battle about Teddy!). Lupin's line about Teddy would appear to come out of nowhere for the audience members who didn't read the book.
The music by Alexandre Desplat is beautifully haunting; it’s the ideal soundtrack for this movie. Just listen to "Severus and Lily," "Statues," "Courtyard Apocalypse" and "Lily's Theme."
Um, though I love Desplat's score, I definitely burst into tears when I heard the original John Williams theme during the epilogue. Hearing John Williams sort of sealed the ending; It all started with John Williams and ended with John Williams. It was the perfect way to bring it to a full circle.
I'm one of the HP epilogue-lovers *ducks from flying shoes* so I enjoyed how the epilogue played out here. I think they did good job aging the actors, and Albus Severus was adorable. (A couple of people did snort when Harry said his name, though.) :) I just wished it was longer though. Another two minutes wouldn't have hurt...
Who else liked the Chocolate Frog jumping out the window like it did in the first movie? :) The little references to the other movies made me happy.

There's so much more I could talk about, but ah, I think I shall end here. :D

I think they ended the series in the best possible way. It still amazes me that they kept the series going for 10 years with almost the same cast and crew they started with. It was breathtaking really. This is a bit late, but thank you to all the directors, the crew who brought the world alive, and of course the actors, Daniel, Emma, Rupert, and all the supporting actors for bringing the characters, the ones we love or love to hate, alive. And of course, thank you JK Rowling for putting everything in motion. :D

Geekiness Alert: After discussing with friends and brother, we all realized that instead of comparing Voldemort with Darth Vader/Anakin, it should be Snape vs. Darth Vader.

Voldemort = Emperor Palpatine! Full character discussions likely to come soon. :D

Geekiness Alert over.

"Please excuse my mawkishness Harry but..."

2011-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Day #2

...In about 3 hours Deathly Hallows Part 2 is going to start rolling in the theater, and well, then it's going to end. It's been an emotionally draining week to be honest. I've finished rereading the books, and I just finished our HP movie rewatch. I hate being mawkish but ~~MY CHILDHOOD IS ENDING IN 4 HOURS NOOOOOO!!~~ it's going to be....strange, for the lack of a better word, to not be able to call up my friends about the new HP trailer or to not watch a new Rupert Grint interview on Mugglenet.

It is the last couple of hours before the movie so here are a couple of my favorite moments from the series: quotes, fanart and gif-wise. :)

"A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley...He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices:
"To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"

"But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve ft mountain troll is one of them."
- Sorcerer's Stone
What Hermione says (Order of the Phoenix film):

“Wit beyond measure is a man’s greatest treasure.”
-Luna (Order of the Phoenix)

"It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

- Dumbledore (Chamber of Secrets)

"When in doubt, go to the library."
- Ron (Chamber of Secrets)
"So top grade's O for Outstanding," Hermione was saying, "and then there's A-"
"No, E," George corrected her, "E for 'Exceeds Expectations.' And I've always thought Fred and I should've got E in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams."
- Order of the Phoenix

"Percy wouldn't notice a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing one of Dobby's hats."

- Ron (Order of the Phoenix)

(Neville by Forbis)

“We’ll all keep fighting, you know that right, Harry?”
-Neville (Deathly Hallows)

(Lily's Letter by Shyduck)

When I’m 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I’ll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, “After all this time?” And I will say, “Always.”

- Alan Rickman

(Snape and Dumbledore by Kyla79)

‎"No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So, whether you come back page by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

-JK Rowling

I believe that this is what I'm going to be like when I watch the movie. ~~NOOOOOOO I AM NOT PREPARED FOR THIS!!~~

The Artistic Talent of Harry Potter Fans aka Fanart

2011-07-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Day #3

SPOILERS FOR DH!

(Ron Weasley's Bloody Brilliant Day by yaytime)

(harry potter by Ekara)

(Neville Watercolor Sketch by feliciacano)

(Being Harry Potter's Friend by Kumul8--click for larger version! :D)

(teddy tries to remember by burdge-bug)

(Burrow Deluxe or Ron is rich by Vivalavida)

(Enough Responsibility by burdge-bug)

(Snape's Sense of Humor by girl2004)

And I could not stop laughing when I saw this. :D

Hogwarts Hogwarts Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please...

2011-07-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

Day #4

One of my favorite aspects of Harry Potter is Hogwarts. Any school student can connect to the

setting because there's always teachers: eccentric teachers, caring teachers, the everyone's-

favorite-teacher teachers, strict teachers who always assign you loads of homework even though there's something important coming up, and teachers who'll hate you no matter what you seem to do (very very rarely though).

(Hogwarts Staff image via link)

And our school has a team system. It's very similar to the four houses in Hogwarts except we don't get sorted in on our first day and we get randomly placed so it doesn't matter at all. What makes it fun is that some of our teachers care and instead of calling them teams, they call them houses. :D

Oh, and then there's the endless social drama that we have to try earnestly block out because it's nearly impossible to get back out when we're pulled into it. Not good.

Definitely more exciting than the drama are the classes. Learning our subjects is a bit different than learning Hogwart's subjects, because umm Harry's subjects are...magical. Writing an essay about the toxins in soap for Chemistry is not like writing up an essay on the purposes and benefits of a bezoar for Snape's Potion class, but the classes can get similar (or *cough* you can pretend they're similar if you're a ~~desperate~~ Harry Potter fan).

Last year my friend and I while thoroughly discussing how similar our school was to Hogwarts in Chemistry class compared our teachers to Hogwarts' teachers, and our classes to Harry's classes (because you know, it's important to learn the skills of comparing and contrasting!)

When we compared classes we saw that:

Chemistry = Potions.

US History = History of Magic

English = Charms (the comparison is a stretch but both classes are fun and we learn vocabulary and latin prefixes from both of them!)

Biology = Herbology

Personal Fitness = Quidditch class from the first book

Math = Arithmancy

Astronomy = Astronomy :D

Defense Against the Dark Arts was left out of the list unfortunately, because it's a bit too magical, unless you count Personal Fitness as DADA because you're definitely learning how to defend yourself sometimes (learning how to run quicker is part of defending yourself)...

And there's also Transfiguration but there's no hope at all with finding a class we can equate it with.

So yes, if you ignore DADA and Transfiguration, you'll see that there's not many differences between we learn and what Harry and his classmates learn or between our schools and Hogwarts (except the fact that Hogwarts is a boarding school ~~and it's not real~~ ). YEAH.

Who's your favorite Hogwarts teacher and what's the one class you would like to

if you got the chance to go there? My favorite teacher is McGonagall. I think she and I would've

gotten along splendidly...maybe. My favorite class probably would've been Charms though, or

maybe DADA? :D

"Now let's have a beach party...in London!"

2011-07-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

Day #5: Harry Potter Youtube Frenzy

14 minutes and 37 seconds of Harry Potter spoofery for your viewing pleasure. Ah-ha! :D

An egoistical Harry is priceless. :P

This montage saved this year's Oscars. Hurrah!

(P&P trailer here because it's so much more funnier if you've

seen the original :D)

(Stranger than Fiction trailer here)

This is probably one of the weirdest parodies I've seen, but I'm saying that's a good thing. :D (It's produced by University of Michigan students (yay!) and the lyrics for Act 1 Scene 1 is right here)

GAH. There were so many more videos I couldn't find. I should think about bookmarking them next time if I ever find them again, don't you think? Heh.

And the final countdown begins

2011-07-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

*cue the final countdown music*

Day #6

How it all began:

It was a TV Spot that changed everything. I think it was the TV spot below in fact, because I vaguely remember laughing at Ron's response to Professor McGonagall transforming into a cat, and this was the only spot I found with that scene in it.

My brother and I turned on the TV on a November night after working on what seemed like countless hours of homework. My dad just happened to walk in as soon as the spot started running, and watching it together, all three of us got amused with the various complications the characters were getting into in it (someone blew up a feather!). My dad especially liked the graphics in the McGonagall transforming part, so as soon as the spot ended, he immediately asked us if we wanted to see it. We answered with a yes, as eagerly as a 7 year old and a little 5 year old could.

So off to the movie theater we went a couple days later and I walked out of the matinee show blown away. Three best friends! Harry! Ron! Hermione! Magic! A mysterious school! Weird teachers! Hagrid! Dragons! Evil villain! It was my first foray into a fantasy world and I was delighted in every bit of it.

Then I got the real book for Christmas, which changed everything once again. JK Rowling became my author hero and the world of Hogwarts and the magic became real. (....And Dan, Emma, and Rupert became my favorite actors in the whole entire universe for portraying my literary heroes onscreen.)

It's strange to think it's been a decade from that point, but it has been a wonderful decade. :)

If you're a Harry Potter fan, how did you first get started on the series? Or...if you're not much of HP fan, where did you first hear about it? :D

I can hear the crickets chirping over here

2011-07-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

Next week I'm planning to do something Harry Potter-y everyday because the end is coming on Friday (it's here already?!), and I've been a poor poor fan indeed. So everyday starting from tomorrow and ending on Friday, I'll be posting Harry Potter related videos, art or.....umm, oh, er...yeah...I haven't exactly planned out anything yet, but expect SOMETHING!

Meanwhile, here's John Green's video on conquering his biggest fear, heights. *shudders*

As someone who's downright terrified of high places, I found John Green's act very inspiring and heroic.

Tuesday Tribulations and Miscellany

2011-06-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

the tribulations:

1) The release of Bridge of Clay by the awesome, clever, brilliant, awesome Markus Zusak has been delayed (yet again). I've read that it's supposed to come out this September (September 1st to be exact!), but it doesn't even have an amazon page yet. A little puzzled when I saw, I searched and searched the web until I came upon this answer about the book by Doubleday (Markus Zusak's publishing company).

If you don't feel like pressing the link, I'll spare you the news quickly: We now have to wait until 2013 for the book. Nooooooooooooo.

2) I landed on a spoilery review for Goliath. NOOOOOOOOOO The review though was only mildly spoilery, and my eyes only caught one thing before my mouse clicking reflexes started working again and I clicked out of the page. Of course, that one thing ended up being something something I was looking forward to seeing. EPIC FAIL.

I learned my lesson. I'm never ever ever going to look up reviews for it anymore.

Please excuse me while I weep and gnash my teeth on the other side of the room.

the miscellany:

1) Bill Gates read (and really liked) the Hunger Games. No really, it's true. That's pretty cool, yes? :)

2) I want to watch Super 8 sometime before it leaves the theater because it seems like the type of movie that should be seen in theaters.

A little tidbit about this movie which got me waayyy too over eager to see it: it's called Super 8 because the kids are shooting a film with a super 8 camera. (I like cleverly named movies.)

I should also mention that it came out on my birthday. That little birthday fact could be playing a big role in my increasing want to see the film more than other reasons. Heh...because really, when's the next time that a Steven Spielberg movie (a critically successful one at that too) is ever going to come out on my birthday?! ;)

3) It's happening again. Articles similar to the the Harry Potter farewell/in memoriam/good-bye articles that came out during the release of Deathly Hallows are now slowly coming out day by day.

The site I really want to point to for this is Tor, for their insightful and profound homages to JK Rowling and HP several of its bloggers are writing (as part of their Harry Potter celebration, Potterpalooza).

They're all worth a read, but some of my favorite essays are:

Bouncy Prose and Distant Threats: An Appreciation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone

Mischief Managed: An Appreciation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Rewatching the Potter Films: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Genre in the Mainstream: The Literary Merits of Potter

The Boy Who Lived...With His Gran

Growing Up Potter

And though this essay's not part of the HP celebration, it's HP related and I've been wanting to link it since forever so, here you go:

Ron Weasley, Romantic Hero?

I would also suggest taking the time to read the comments too. Most of them are just as thought-provoking and touching as the essays themselves. :)

Hope everyone is having a good (and hopefully tribulation-less) Tuesday!

And the Oscar for Best Animated Feature of 2012 goes to...

2011-06-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Shanella and Pixar (on twitter) for letting me know that the first official teaser poster for Pixar's 2012 release Brave came out! It's beautiful and intense. The title design, the lighting/sun/sky behind the title design- I'm rendered speechless.

From just the teaser poster and the concept art, it looks like the film will be sort of like Pixar + How to Train Your Dragon + Braveheart + Tim Burton all put in a blender to create a perfect mix of animation + story. :D

And let's see...since this is a Pixar movie:

It's going to be a treat visually (If the poster can give me chills because of how stunning it looks I'm sure the movie's going to be 100 times more stunning!)
characters are going to pretty awesome
the story will probably make us tear up at least a little bit at the end (or as in the case of UP, maybe in the first 5 min)

This is definitely going to be a must see next summer! It really does look fantastic. So fantastic that I'm going to predict that this movie's going to be #5 on my best Pixar movies list! (#5 because Monster's Inc, Toy Story, Ratatouille, and the Incredibles are non-negotiable in my world).

The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the debating that starts whenever a Disney movie comes out. The debates are usually about two things: Princesses and Pixar vs. Disney. (When it comes to Disney princesses and fictional princesses in general, I agree with Meg Cabot. When it comes to the Pixar vs. Disney feud, I think that Pixar rocks and I can never NOT like classic Disney animation soo it's a draw between them for me.)

Hm, I can imagine the headlines already:

"FINALLY Because of Pixar, We Have A Princess We Can All Root For"

"Pixar's Brave Princess Braver than Disney's"

"Brave's Princess is how an animated role model should be"

"Pixar's Scottish Princess Takes the Cake For Best Animated Princess"

"Pixar Princess Beats Disney's Tangled Princesses"

...and etc.

(No, of course I'm not still sore about the Academy Award's Tangled snub...and Tangled's loss to Toy Story 3 for Best Song. Ha ha, what's makes you think that?!).

If anyone's going to see Cars 2 this weekend, have fun seeing the teaser trailer for Brave!

Gallivanting through Florida, Part 2 {Misadventures in Universal}

2011-06-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sooo...I'm not exactly what you would call a thrill seeker (I'm not one for surprises) and I have a huge fear of heights. (Would my boggart be a high diving board or something? Maybe.)Because of the two aforementioned qualities of my personality, I don't particularly enjoy roller coasters much to the dismay of my friends. But because I didn't want to be a party pooper and ruin everyone's mood, I put on my brave face and calmly stood in line for the rides with everyone else.

If Sam can bravely carry Frodo up Mt. Doom, then gosh darn it, I can bravely get on a one minute roller coaster ride

Something went really strange that day because it seemed like we got stuck on almost every ride we went on! Getting stuck on a ride was not, to put it simply, fun, especially for someone like me who doesn't particularly enjoy dangling around 100 ft (or higher) in the air like others for long stretches of time, but looking back on it, our escapades in Universal wouldn't have been half as memorable if the rides didn't stop every now and then.

The best rides we got stuck on:

1) Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls: The electricity shut off right before we were about to fall off on the drop. And then it started right before we could say anything and we plunged down quicker than on any water ride I've ever been on before (I don't think we were supposed to fall). I screamed like I never screamed before.

2) The Hulk: Technically I didn't get stuck on it, but my group members did! I didn't go because my brave-Sam-on-Mt-Doom-face fell off as soon as someone suggested going on this:

...and I couldn't muster enough courage to put it back on, so my advisors and I ended up sitting in a cafe nearby and enjoyed some nice lemonade while waiting for everyone else...FOR OVER ONE HOUR. It was on a Wednesday morning, so there was no one there at the park so we realized that something was fishy when my friends didn't come back in ten minutes. When we went back to the ride to see what was up, the ride attendants were telling nearby questioners that some of the riders were stuck and there was no way to get them down. HAHAHA. So we had to wait for another half an hour until the ride started properly moving again.

3) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: We were speeding through the castle, and then suddenly, everything- the video they were playing, our carts, lights-shut off. We were in the complete dark and I could hear some startled screams and voices. A couple minutes later we heard an announcement from the ride attendants apologizing for the inconveniences. Then our carts started bobbing up and down. Up and down. In the dark. For a long time. More startled screams ensued. The ride started up again soon, and we did end up seeing the familiar faces of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson on the screen again much to everyone's relief.

Butterbeer!! I liked it very much.

I could not get some Fish & Chips at the Three Broomsticks. :(

Spiderman waved at me right before I snapped this picture. I also got a very awesome picture with the Green Goblin (not pictured). His smile was the epitome of EVIL (as usual).

Universal Globe!! No matter where we went that day, I had to make sure we got at least one picture in front of the globe because you know...it's The Globe or as I knew it when I was a little girl, the globe that always spins around before every Jurassic Park movie. It's every bit as sentimental to me as Disney's Castle.

Universal was our last theme park during our visit. The next day, we woke up early, and sadly said good-bye to the 95 degree weather and the greenery we rarely have up north during the month of May. *tear*

I did some catching up with the world done on the bus ride back to airport:

Moral of the post: Fear of anything can become overcome if you put on a brave face doing it, unless you're scared of roller coasters that can make you feel like your face is melting off. Fake it till you make it, some people say. That and...deep breathing really helps.

Gallivanting through Florida, Part 1 {Running Around Disney}

2011-06-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hello. :) Long time no see, eh? How's summer been for you? I hope all of you are doing fine. I've just narrowly survived junior year of high school, and I've used this first weekend of summer to put together bits and pieces of myself I've lost these past few stress-inducing weeks. :)

I've hit a road block with blogging. I've read no books in the past three weeks, nor have I seen movies worth writing about. The linkage I've created a long time ago is now outdated (I mean, every Hunger Games fan knows that Donald Sutherland (!) is going to be Pres. Snow right?) For that reason, it seems I've no other idea than to talk about the most exciting thing that's happened to me this past month: Orlando, Florida! (Disney's at least a little fun to talk about and hear about, right?)

In the first week of May, I've had a lucky opportunity to go to Orlando, Florida with a school team for a national competition and it was GREAT. Meeting and becoming friends with students from all over the country was interesting and eye-opening just seeing how different people are in other regions of the country. I've never spoken to that many people with different accents before (or had that many people point out my mid-western "accent").

Just some pictures and my narration:

Flying over the evergreens. At this time, my friend and I were discussing whether or not we'll ever see an alligator during the course of the trip (we didn't).

No one was actually smiling for being in Orlando when this bus pulled up because this was outside the airport when we had been waiting for our bus to come for over 2 hours already. Being the good friend I am, I tried cheering my friends up as soon as I saw the bus (not ours) but no one cracked a smile. I did end up comforting our travel agent, who was a bit frantic at the time seeing as her clients were very UNHAPPY though she didn't know I was smiling and goofing off because of the Orlando board.

The fact that I started laughing as soon as I saw those two panels just shows that it doesn't take much to make me laugh. :P We went shopping right away at Downtown Disney as soon as we finally reached our hotel and unpacked. The comics strips shown above were in stores all around Downtown.

And so we went shopping for the whole day basically and ate a lot of divine Ghiradelli ice cream.

And...

STORYTIME! When I was holding a Mickey Mouse Stars Wars light-saber in a store and started to wave it around, this random boy, who couldn't be older than eight, came up to me and started hitting my light-saber with his and said something about battling against evil (I'm really not making this up). WELL, since I couldn't just walk away (the boy was getting very into his Jedi role), I started hitting back (softly of course!).

And so there we two were- me, a sixteen year old girl, and an eight-year-old kid having an all out battle between good and evil in the middle of a Disney store. At the end of our battle, the kid later complimented me on my Jedi fighting skills and skipped gleefully away. Yes, I apparently have mad Jedi skillz. Fear me!

We spent the second evening in the Disney Hollywood Studios. Guess where the real buildings stop and where the set starts!

(We were competitive, networking students by day, Orlando tourists by night- we only went to the parks after 5 everyday)

Hollywood studios was absolute heaven because it has a bunch of filmmaking events. Because my advisor knew I liked seeing all behind-the-scenes shows, she took our group to the Indiana Jones stunt show where we saw how they did the camera work, produced stunts, etc. I would've ran down onto the set pieces if they allowed people to down and particularly asked the cinematographer guy to let me sit in his chair, work with the camera, and revel in doing so...but of course I couldn't.

Since this was my first time in Disneyworld and one of my friend's also, we both plotted to get a picture with all the Disney characters. Alas, we ended up taking pictures with no characters at all because by the time we went to the parks everyday, it ended up being too late. But, in Epcot (another Disney Park which was just as amazing as Hollywood studios) the next evening, we did get to see...

~~college guy in an Aladdin suit working for a summer job~~

ALADDIN!!!

His bodyguard lady kicked my friend and I out of his line (to get a picture) because he had to go on break. So sadly, he ended up being the only Disney character we got within 10 ft. of, and the

song Prince Ali ended up getting stuck in my head for the rest of the evening (though the

latter's not necessarily a bad thing :D).

Lots and lots of ducks galore.

And...the final Disney event of the trip, Disney's Electrical Parade which was its own magical experience in itself!

One of the dwarves totally waved at me, yo.

So Disney was thrilling. It's such a happy-making place though I've never heard that many crying babies in my entire life. Of course, if Disney was a bit overwhelming for me, it must've definitely been too much for the poor toddlers. My advisor gave my friend and I tours around Disney since we were the only two in our group who haven't been down south before, and we made sure to hit all the classic Disney rides such as the Spinning Tea-Cups and Dumbo, and ate omg-totally-delicious-mouthwatering-scrumptious funnel cakes all throughout.

Part 2 of Orlando coming tomorrow!! Muhahwahaha. What? You think I'm going to leave you with just Disney? There's still Universal to go through! We got stuck on A LOT of rides which was pure torture for me because 1) I hate heights and 2) I have an intense dislike of roller coasters in general. So yes, tomorrow = Universal, but for now, I'll just leave you this:

anticipating...

2011-05-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

You guys, I just saw that the official blurb for THIS SURE TO BE VERY AWESOME book that I am eagerly waiting for came out, and I had to write about it.

*takes deep breath*

So THIS SURE TO BE VERY AWESOME book is called GOLIATH, by Scott Westerfeld. I can honestly say that this is the most highly anticipated book for me of 2011.

Here’s the new, official blurb that got released onto the Simon & Schuster page:

*Spoilers for the previous two in the trilogy of course*

Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaimAlek's throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren't technically enemies.

The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is as it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld's brilliant trilogy.

*******
Please allow me to go all fangirly for a second:

OMGOMGOMGOMG. EEEEEEEEEE!!! AAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! *throws confetti* EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

*takes a deep breath* Okay, I’m all done now. ;) *phew*

Now that I’ve gotten rid of all of that, I should be able to write rationally:

My review (and hopefully not a gushfest *blush*) for Leviathan is here. When I read it last summer I fell hard for the story, the characters, and omg, the era (EEEeeee WWI era! <-- so much for being rational). I slept with it under my pillow everyday, no joke.*

Then along came the sequel, Behemoth, a couple months later in October and I loved it just as much as I did the first (hmm...I never reviewed this book...maybe I ought to?).

Now, the final book in the trilogy is coming out this fall, and I can hardly wait for it, though the release date has been moving around. First it was sometime in October. Later, SW announced that it would be released the 13th of September, and now apparently, the date has been pushed back a week to September 20th. *sigh*

Some VERY VERY VERY LUCKY people might have already gotten an ARC of this SURE TO BE AWESOME book today in BEA, from 1-2 today, Scott Westerfeld was there signing GOLIATH ARCS. *cries*

But it’s okay. I can wait 117 days. I have waited before for HP, Hunger Games, and other series, so I can definitely wait for this book.

I have predictions for this final novel as to what will happen to Alek with his royal title, Deryn, and certain revelations, but they shall come later, maybe the day before the release date. But Scott Westerfeld told Alan Cumming that the story will have a happy ending, so thinking positively, there will be! Hehehe. Can’t wait to read reviews when they start coming out. :)

* Well for two days, but that’s because I read the book at night and I had to put it somewhere before I fell asleep...

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

2011-05-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun-but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predicability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.

-totally copied down from inside cover

So there I was last week, strolling down the shelves of my school’s library, wondering what to do. In my left hand I had 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, and in my right I had An Abundance of Katherines and I was reading the blurbs for both, trying to decide upon which book to quickly check out before the lunch bell rang. Umm...Johnson or Green? Road trip across Europe or road trip across midwest USA? Er...Envelopes or Katherines?!

And then of course, I ended up picking Green, the road trip across midwest USA, and Katherines because of the line about the Austro-Hungarian Archduke. (If you know how geeky I get with anything that has to do with the WWI era, my decision shouldn’t surprise you so much. :D)

I read the book after school.

And then the next day in class when we had free time.

Then after school again.

Then the next day, I took it out of my backpack in the same class and read it. And I finished it. Then I closed the book and thought about it while sketching stage floor plans for the rest of the hour.

And now I’m finally getting to write this review a couple days later.

I don’t know how John Green does it really. He manages to create the craziest and sometimes unbelievable scenarios for high schoolers and well, makes them believable. I’ve never seen or heard of a girl who runs away and leaves clues for her friends to find her, or of a heartbroken guy leaving on a road trip to discover a mathematical theory about relationships, but hey, his stories work. ;)

I adored Q in Paper Towns. He was smart, funny, nerdy, and oh-so-obsessed with Margo, and Colin’s exactly like him, expect he’s more smarter (in a prodigious type way), (not funnier though), nerdier, and oh my goodness, even more obsessed with his Katherines. For that last reason alone, Colin Singleton, the Chicago prodigy, was um, a bit exasperating? I wanted to knock some sense into him in the beginning. WHY OH WHY was he moping around about the 19th Katherine dumping him so much when he was intelligent and had so much to live for other than a relationship? But then, that was the point, I thought. Colin’s full of himself sometimes, and with him getting so frustrated about being so textbook-y, his insecurities about himself, shine through. If Colin didn't have his insecurities, his character development wouldn’t have been more interesting and thought-provoking.

Hassan, Colin’s jocular, religious-but-not-really best friend, was one of my favorite characters. His dynamic with Colin, how he helps Colin get back on his feet with encouragement and silliness, and how he improves himself in the process is heartwarming. (There’s this scene at the very end with Hassan that left me relieved and grinning like crazy. Seriously, I couldn’t stop grinning like a lunatic for several pages.) I liked Lindsey Wells and thought her relationship with the duo and her personality was interesting. And oh the setting? The story was kind of refreshing, being set in a farmland. I actually thought Gutshot, Tennessee was real for a second in the beginning.

About the actual story itself, there are some parts that dragged, but there would always be a scene so poignant, so touching right after that all the traces of the dull part vanishes. The situations Colin and Hassan get into with wild feral boars, crazy interviews, and the Katherines were funny and silly but always end up moving you in some way or another.

The writing (.....Must...Resist....Gushing...Must...Stay...Calm...), John Green’s style, flows, as I said before when reviewing Paper Towns. It’s never strained and the dialogue is always rhythmic and natural. John Green’s writing style highly impressed me when reading Paper Towns and Katherines reminded me how brilliant I thought it was again.

And...adding to the awesome writing, characters, and story, is the format of the book. I learned several German, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Ancient Greek words because of its footnotes! Green’s hilarious, quirky notes about Colin, the languages he knows, and what’s happening/Colin’s past were always quite informative and also quite hysterical. It feels like the format makes the book sometimes. ;)

An Abundance of Katherines is a coming-of-age tale about being careful with insecurities, finding out what you truly need in life, sticking by your friends through thick and thin, and being okay with yourself, being (and staying) unique by being yourself, and making math interesting. I enjoyed it very much. Even though it’s considered lighter fare than Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska (which I still have to read), the book being about high school grads and all, the language is a bit strong and there’s some stuff being talked about, so I recommend it for people....13+.

If seeing that Archduke Franz Ferdinand makes a cameo here somehow doesn’t excite you like it did me, I hope this review did! An Abundance of Katherines, though not perfect, is a truly lovely story. John Green is SO good with his formula.

-Nonie

Riddle: What do Katniss Everdeen, Tintin, and Colin Singleton all have in common?

2011-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

(Answer to the riddle included in the comments.)

1) Twitter burst into excitement today, and the server died for a while and that’s probably because EW released a brand new and shiny exclusive picture of ~~Jennifer Lawrence~~ Katniss Everdeen!

Fierce and brunette with a bow and arrow in hand- YES, Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss! EEEEEEEEP. (I’m glad Gary Ross and his crew weren’t joking about sticking to the character descriptions in the books. :D) The Hunger Games outfit (bow, arrow and mockingjay pin included) is making the fangirl hidden inside of me dance, but I probably won’t give in to the temptation until the trailer comes out.

*cough* Now they just have to release Josh Hutcherson’s picture as Peeta.....and I’m ~~praying~~ hoping that his transformation will be good as Jennifer’s (since I put a lot of expectations on his makeup crew before) I’m waiting with bated breath and crossed fingers...

2) For any Tintin fans out there, the trailer for the movie came out a couple days ago!

The aeroplanes, fights, Thompson and Thompson, and the Unicorn crashing into the waves all give out a Tintin vibe so I’m pumped for the movie. The motion capture is kind of.....eerie or weird? I don’t know what I think of it but I’m just hoping I’ll get used to the animation before December (with it being directed by Steven Spielberg, there's no way I can't not watch it, even with the animation!).

3) If you’re into YA, and you haven't read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green yet, then

read it! That’s all. I keep on saying this, but I’m going to write a proper review for this soon (no, seriously, I will!), but I whole-heartedly recommend it. Just don’t get put off with Colin Singleton’s character too soon, because it's worth it in the end. Why yes it is. :D

Ciao for now,

Nonie

Because Thursday is the day before Friday

2011-04-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Because it’s Thursday and not Friday yet, I feel obligated to post this:

*****

Last week, I got my hands on a new camera so I scavenged around looking for good photo ops and angles and the like, and I ended up taking this picture:

I just like the colors....and the sun. :D

The sky turned into this like 10 min. later-

I realized that I take pictures of clouds...A LOT. But at least I'm not a cloudy person-hahaha!(All right, all right. I'll stop with the punny joking.)

*****

I JUST got the Girl Who Was on Fire from the library. (You know...it’s that anthology written by a group of YA authors about that one series...er...what was it? The Fire Games? The Hunting Games? The Hungery Games? Oh yeah, THE HUNGER GAMES!!!) I’m super duper excited to read this. I already read some essays that were available online for some time, and they were fantastic. Interesting, in-depth, thought-provoking, well-written, and fun, so I thought I would pick it up. And now it’s here so I can READ the whole thing!! I feel like jumping with happiness.

*****

Um...what else? Well, there’s the new (and pretty good) trailer for the last part of Harry Potter:

Heh. :P (I mean, I am a Harry Potter fan, so I had to stick the trailer in a post sometime.) And I sort of already watched it like 35 times (hmm...or was it 37?) Analyzation (aka Nonie’s ramblings about it): SNAPE! I’m overjoyed (really) to see Snape so many times (epic Snape apparation scene at 1:18 with some amazing music playing in the back) and a glimpse of the Prince’s Tale. I got depressed when I saw Tonks and Lupin reaching for each other’s hands, but the depression turned into happiness when I heard Ron speaking his one line, and when I saw (I think) Oliver Wood (yay!) flying over the castle. And the Battle at Hogwarts scenes with their brilliant special effects made the trailer even more fabulous than it already was (yay for Professor McGonagall’s army!).

Oh, and I really can’t tell you how much I love how the trailer starts with the original Harry Potter theme sort of. (I LOVED the whole trailer, but Harry Potter trailers are always good, and it’s been a while since I heard the original John Williams theme.) The most randomest/most amusing part was the Harry-grabbing-Voldemort-and-jumping-off-a-roof scene. My first thought about that: UMM...Harry/Daniel Radcliffe did NOT just grab Voldemort and jump of a roof. So I replayed it, and I realized that he did, and now I can’t wait to see what that’s all about on July 15th. :P

(And this is random but I just realized that Voldemort doesn’t wear any shoes and seeing him walk bare-footed threw me off for a min. Er, that’s probably because I never thought about Voldemort’s shoes before...that’s a bit weird...okay, I'll stop now.)

*****

Recent Book Recommendations:
Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Smiles To Go by Jerry Spinelli

and

The Girl Who Was on Fire (because I already know that I'm going to think that it's amazing by the end of the read.)

I’ll write some reviews soon and actually put some bookish content here, hopefully as soon as AP testing week is over (in only two weeks...eek!). Right now, I need to go back to studying. :)

Happy Thursday!

Saturday, Um, Friday Five

2011-04-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

Even though it’s almost the end of Saturday, let’s pretend it’s Friday, so I can do Paper Hangover’s Friday Five! :D I really was going to do it on Friday, but I umm...got caught up with other things, so I’m doing it today....20 minutes before Saturday ends....

Ahem, so the topic: What five characters would you trade places with for a day?

1. Hermione Granger (of Harry Potter)- This one is a no brainer for me. :D She’s been a role model for me since I was little. Not only is she intelligent, loyal, brave, she gets to hang out with Harry & the gang, and she gets to take the most awesome classes. I would LOVE to take Ancient Runes or Arithmancy, and I think I would find Muggle Studies fascinating too. ;)

2. Cammie Morgan (of Gallagher Girls)- She goes to Gallagher Academy...a school for SPIES! I would be able to finally realize my life-long dream of becoming spy if I went to that school (Yes, I really, really wanted to become a spy when I was younger (and still kind of do...)- I blame you, Spy Kids, Mission Impossible, and James Bond).

3. Deryn Sharp (of Leviathan)- She’s a quick thinker, adventurous, (sharp), determined, and she gets to save the day plenty of times (she’s just EPIC). Also, the extreme fear of heights I have now would be replaced by an undying love of it instead! (I would die if I had to live aboard the Leviathan now. *faint*)

4. Sammy Keyes (of Sammy Keyes series)- Along with Hermione, Sammy was another role model for me. She’s a detective, and one a hilarious one at that too. :D I would eat Gram’s oatmeal for breakfast, sit with Hudson on his porch while drinking lemonade, see what Marissa and Casey are up to later, and see if there’s any mystery to solve in the meanwhile.

Random tangent: When I was in middle school, I bought a pair of converse high-tops because I wanted to be just like Sammy (they’re her signature pair of shoes), and go around and solve mysteries. Then I realized that nothing really happens where I live so the become-a-high-tops-wearing-12-year-old-detective-like-Sammy-Keyes-plan failed epically. *Sigh*

5. Sophie Hatter (of Howl’s Moving Castle)- She’s smart, funny, kind, and umm... lives in a moving castle with Howl *cough* I would also try to make a spell and say hi to Michael. :D

Who would you want to trade lives with for a day? Hope you all are having a nice weekend so far! :)

So the Hunger Games Cast Came Out...

2011-04-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

So, I've been somewhere else for a while (and totally skipped writing in March-oops) working on the usual- schoolwork, tennis, final exams, worrying about college, and whatnot, but I had to come back to lay out my thoughts about some important news here:

The Hunger Games movie has been cast (but just the main trio though)...

and it was announced back in March that Jennifer Lawrence will be playing Katniss Everdeen!

I’m absolutely thrilled about it because a) She CAN ACT (as seen in Winter’s Bone- Her character is actually very similar to Katniss’s in the movie, and she’s gotten numerous awards/nominations/*Oscar nomination for Best Actress* for the role), b) She went through a grueling audition with Gary Ross, the film’s director, and she passed, so obviously she captured Katniss pretty well, and c) Suzanne Collins thinks she’s awesome.

Yes, I'm very excited to see her as Katniss. :D

Then, just last Monday, castings for Peeta and Gale came out! Peeta will be played by Josh Hutcherson (left), and Gale will be played by Liam Hemsworth:

The good news is that when I read about casting is that I didn’t cry out/scream “What?!!!!” like I did when the Percy Jackson movie casting was released a couple years ago. My first thought was, “Okay, this can work."

And after thinking about it for a while (and seeing fan art), I believe that it actually can.***

I actually don’t know anything about Liam except for the fact that he acted besides Miley Cyrus in the Last Song and I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say anything about his acting, but I think he has the-Gale-look. He’s tall, lean-ish, has a rugged look about him, and I can totally imagine him with black hair, leather-soled boots, hunting gear, and squirrels and rabbits strapped to his belt and around his shoulders, and walking around looking a bit solemn. (And he and Jennifer Lawrence look like cousins! Yay!)

Now about Josh Hutcherson...It’s been amusing, but a little bit more shocking/disturbing to see all the hate he’s been getting (more than the other cast members) because he’s Peeta and not Hunter Parrish or Alex Pettyfer. So I really wanted Hunter to get the role, but for more superficial reasons. (I mean, he LOOKS THE PART already.) But thinking about it now, I'm really happy that Josh got the role, even though he doesn't look like Peeta, who by the way (to non-Hunger Games fans), looks like this:

JH is basically the exact opposite of who Peeta is physically. He’s got brown eyes instead of blue, really dark brown hair instead of blonde, and OMG his hair is definitely not falling in waves over his forehead. But who really looks like Peeta anyway ~~except Hunter Parrish~~?

The good things about Josh: He's a little more stocky than the others, but that’s what Peeta’s described as right? Stocky not lean. Medium height. Strong enough to haul 100 lb flour bags arond. Soft-looking. Boyish. Not a pretty pretty boy. JH fits each requirement perfectly. All I have to say about his dark hair and brown eyes is that if the LOTR makeup crew transformed dark-brown haired Orlando Bloom into white-blonde haired Legolas convincingly, I have no doubt that the HG makeup crew will be able to do the same.* (There’s nothing a little Hollywood make-up and magic won’t fix!)

About his acting, I’ve seen Josh Hutcherson in almost every movie he’s been in (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) and he’s a great actor (which is probably why I’m not worried about his casting). He knows about emotions, he knows how to be charismatic, and he’s good with action sequences, so there's no way he won't be able to pull Peeta's role acting-wise. JH beat out Hunter and Pettyfer (and......everyone else who auditioned), so he was much better at being Peeta than everyone else. Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins both said that they knew that he’s perfect for Peeta, that he was their first choice, and that he had great chemistry with Jenn in the screen tests, and I believe them and I have faith in Josh. He wanted this role badly, and he got it, so we should give him a chance and see what he’ll do with the character.**

No director or author wants to purposefully ruin their story, and it sounds like the HG movie team is trying to make the best movie they can. The whole cast (so far) is enthusiastic about their characters and the series (especially Josh :P), they know how big this series is and how much responsibility just landed on their shoulders to get everything right, and since Gary Ross promised to dye each character’s hair their respective hair colors, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. So...thinking optimistically, JH, Jenn, and Liam will of course blow our minds away when we see the movie opening weekend March 2012 of course.***

Meanwhile, we should trust Gary Ross's vision for the movie. He and his crew know more than us about what's going to happen. (Now I'm really excited about the trailer! :D)

Thoughts, complaints, revelations, etc about the Hunger Games movie or something of the sort? Write away below in the comments. :D

*Hey HG Makeup Crew! *Waves* If you guys are reading this somehow, you know I’ve put a lot of expectations on you. Sorry about that, but you will be able to change JH’s hair right? And make sure his hair is falling over his forehead in waves right? Because that’s sort of important to the HG fandom (*cough* and me *cough*). If you don’t change his hair, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans...

** Disclaimer #1: I am NOT JH’s agent who stole Nonie’s Blogger account to put her client in a positive light or a devoted JH fangirl (definitely NOT the latter!). I just think he shouldn’t be judged so quickly and be given a chance. He won over Suzanne Collins (and Peeta’s her character), so who knows? Maybe by the time we see Josh in March, we'll all be saying,"Hunter Who?"

*** If the movie doesn’t turn out so well, and everyone ends up being horrible, then that just means I wasted the whole post (hopefully) boosting everyone's morale about it, but I actually think it’ll turn out well. I think Suzanne Collins being in the movie crew will mean that the movie will go in the right direction and it certainly looks like it is so far. :)

P.S./Disclaimer #2: If the movie doesn't end up being too good, and you've raised your expectations about the movie because of this post, but are disappointed in March, then I am not to be blamed. Personal opinions are opinions of that person alone, and I am just stating mine. Heh.

The Beginning of the End. Or Probably Not.

2011-02-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure the whole world knows about the Borders-filing-Chapter-11-bankruptcy right now. For my town (which has three Borders bookstores), there are some good news because of it and some bad news. The good news is that there will still be two Borders standing. The bad news is that one will be closing, and unfortunately, the one that's closing is mine (great, huh?).

Truthfully, when I first read the article about the closing in my town's newspaper, I was okay with it. Of course I was upset, but it all seemed gradual. Everyone knew that it had to happen one day or another. (I think I was still in denial- How can Borders (especially my Borders) close?! They're bookstores! They're educational! They help improve literacy! They apparently serve great hot chocolate and have an awesome Jane Austen/Charlotte Bronte collection!)

After finally going to visit the store, the news hit me. My Borders is closing. This is what I saw when I first walked in:

Isn't that just plain scary?

And then I turned around and saw HP and the Order of the Phoenix on a nearby shelf. Right there I realized that this is where I bought all the last three Harry Potter books. This was where my family, friends, and I stood eagerly in line until 4:00 in the morning of July 21st, 2007 to get Deathly Hallows in our hands. This was where I bought all my Percy Jackson books, the Hunger Games trilogy, and basically where I bought all the books I cherish deeply today (and also where a saleswomen first introduced Twilight to me- before it become a phenomenon), and now it's closing?

I don't know what else to say now; the denial's gone, but the truth is still settling in. There are only two things (entertainment-wise) I really need to function well in my life: a bookstore and a movie theater. Sadly, both seem to have unpredictable futures ahead of them. As we can see, the movie industry is suffering huge losses as well. Theaters are shutting down, studios are filing for bankruptcy, and Hollywood is facing uncertainty, just like the publishing industry has been from what's been happening to books and bookstores. There'll be unemployment now, and according to Shannon Hale, an estimation of 10% decrease in sales of books.

Does the bankruptcy of Borders signal what's going to happen to other bookstores in the future like Barnes & Nobles and indie bookstores because they can't keep up with online retail stores sales like Amazon? *cough cough* It better NOT. Because just like what Shannon Hale (again) wrote about the bankruptcy, brick-and-mortar stores still matter enormously.

This is wishful thinking but I'm 98% sure that bookstores will continue to thrive (as long as they sell e-books and e-readers now just like B&N), and so will movie theaters because one day movies will become reasonably priced again so theaters will be able to show them and people will be able to view them! And really, I like going to bookstores. To browse, and to find the books I really want to read. I especially love going over when there's a brand new release to see the excitement within everyone, and to see people quickly running over to the shelves to go get the shiny, new books before anyone else, or to stand in line to receive the book and break into a huge smile when the book finally lands into their hands.

It's just like how I love going to movie theaters during opening weekend to see everyone walk quickly into the theaters to grab the best seats, and to hear a hush fall over the crowd when the opening titles come on. Sometimes if the movie is really popular (as in the case of Harry Potter or Toy Story 3), roaring claps and cheers come on instead of the hush, and because I'm sentimental and weird, I start tearing up and start thinking about how amazing it is to be able to enjoy and celebrate something together (Yeah, like I said, I'm weird).

And I guess that's what they do, bookstores and movie theaters. They bring communities together, and I don't think we can survive without them. Well, I can't at least, so I'm hoping they're here to stay. *fingers crossed*

- Nonie

Linky Links

2011-01-29T15:40:00.000-08:00

Just some links I’ve been wanting to share (some for a looong time):

Stephanie Perkins’ post about her journey as a writer is so inspirational, and then Kiersten White’s post about dumb girls made me rethink some things...

Attolia fans: I found this page on the Queen’s Thief fansite, Sounis, that shows the gorgeous concept art for the Conspiracy of Kings cover. It’s amazing to see how much work goes through making the physical book itself and be able to look behind-the-scenes.

Dean Hale (Shannon Hale’s husband) wrote this heartwarming post on his blog, Dread Crumbs.

Congrats to Shannon Hale herself, for being mentioned on NPR on her birthday! :)

Choco, in In Which a Girl Reads recently wrote about her favorite underappreciated books. Mine? The Courageous Princess by Rod Esponisa (a lovely graphic novel), Sammy Keyes (my favorite mysteries when I was in middle school but no one seems to have read these!), and basically the rest of Wendelin Van Draanen’s novels. What are yours?

Scott Westerfeld put up some footage of a real Tasmanian Tiger. It's strange to think that they're not really roaming around Australia anymore.

Want to know what books topped the NY Times bestsellers list during the week of your birthday? Find out on Biblioquest’s International! Some bestselling books on my list are The Chamber by John Grisham, Disclosure by Michael Crichton, and Beyond Peace by Richard Nixon. :D What books came out during your birthday week?

James Dashner's right. I really, really liked the King’s Speech. Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon, because wow, everything was just so elegant: the acting, cinematography, the music...

Speaking of the King’s Speech, the Oscar/Academy Awards nominations came out a couple days ago if you haven’t seen them yet. The nominees aren’t as predictable as I thought they would be, so I’m really looking forward to February 27th now. ;)

But it looks like the academy made a huge mistake with the Best Animated Feature category because why isn’t TANGLED there??!? I mean, Toy Story 3 is going to win anyway, but a nomination is a nomination, and it was a critical and box-office success! (And...I unquestionably adored every bit of it.) It deserves a nomination! :(

*sigh*

Anywho, in a somewhat related note, Meg Cabot back in December wrote about the Princess Thing. It’s worth reading. :D

Anddd, that’s all for now. Ciao for now! I'll have a review of Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly very soon...

-Nonie

About the Bouche de Noel...

2011-01-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

It's always been a dream of mine ever since I started French, to bake a perfect Bouche de Noel for Christmastime...

So I did make one this year. It didn't look at all like my ideal logs, but hey, it looks okay :-D (but please don't laugh when you see the pictures) -

A very chocolatey filling...

It turned out to be real tiny (about 6 inches in length to be exact). Why? Well, for some strange, mysterious reason unbeknownst to me, 2/3's of the cake got burnt and turned charcoal black. The sight of my beloved cake left me in anguish and completely shattered (seriously), but fortunately, it didn't do the same to my mom who just quickly salvaged the edible 1/3.

The frosting part didn't turn out so well either because the cake broke into pieces as soon as I started rolling it up to start spreading the cream, so then I had to turn to my trusty home-made chocolate filling to glue them all together again.

And call me weird, but despite all these mishaps, I'm quite proud of how the Bouche turned out to look almost like a real log with real tree bark, layers and all (see last picture), even though yes, I know the cake's not supposed to be like that. And...it didn't taste bad. A little too chocolatey perhaps because of the extra frosting I had to use for gluing, but overall I liked it. :D

Anyway, after the whole incident, I resolved to just write a letter to Santa in French next year for extra credit. I'm still a little burned out from all that cooking...

-Nonie

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T20:55:00.000-08:00

Before the ball drops in New York City (in 5 minutes!) and 2011 gets here on the East Coast, I just wanted to say, Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a fabulous 2010, and here’s to an even greater one. :)

Thank you for being lovely readers. :D

Best wishes,

Nonie

top favorites of 2010: books

2010-12-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

I achieved my goal of reading 52 books this year. Huzzah! It's not much compared to some others, I know, but good enough for me. :D Here are my absolute favorites of this year that I would recommend to all:

YA/MG

East by Edith Pattou

A beautiful fairytale retelling with lyrical and soft language, lovely romance, engaging main characters, and a magnificent cover. While each retelling of the old Norse tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon were fabulous in their own way, I absolutely adored this one. :)

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

Add a tablespoon of Jane Austen, another tablespoon of Harry Potter-style magic, and a heap load of humor and you'll get S & C. An enchanting story (told through letters) of two cousins and the wacky adventures and mischief that they get through in Regency England. It was just spectacular.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

The last book in the MBS series! It has it all- exciting story, unsolvable riddles, endearing characters, and awesome chase sequences. It was a great ending to a delightful series.

The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson

Like I said in my review, Mary Pearson wrote this realistic/contemporary story in a rather magical way. The characters were captivating; I loved the attachment between all of them, and how they grow together during their road trip. And the ending is so brilliant and lovely and magical and wonderful and all the other adjectives for the previous words. I really, really liked this one.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

So...I raved about it a lot during the last couple of months. Need I say more? :P I guess I just really liked how it was a WWI retelling (that era is fascinating), and the characters were beyond awesome, and though I'm really not into all that technological machinery type of things, I liked reading about them too.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I had my quibbles with it too, but all in all, it was a mind-blowing conclusion to this series. This one was the most thought-provoking out of all of them. I mean, even after four months

after I read it, I still think about it from time to time but maybe studying government in school has to do with a little bit of my

lingering obsession with this series.

And it's interesting to think how similar it was to the LOTR ending and how Katniss is very similar to Frodo, and then compare JRR Tolkien's background with Suzanne Collins. Tolkien was a soldier in WWI, and Collins knew about everything from her father serving in Vietnam, so no wonder their books had the same message and they chose to go the realistic way.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

One of my favorite fantasy novels of all time now. It was fantastic, and after I read, I had that "OMG, why hadn't I read this before?!?!?!" moments. (Right, and I watched the movie a couple days ago. It was strange but I liked it enough. :D)

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

It just felt so refreshing, reading this book. It didn't have the main character fall in love with a Werewolf OR a Vampire, and she wasn't head over heels in love. Everything in this book felt so real. Loved the light-heartedness of it all, though the ending was really, really strange.

Heist Society by Ally Carter

I've loved fictional thieves or spies ever since I was little, and that's why Ally Carter's new book was perfect for me. It had everything a great heist story needs- a weird but loyal crew for the hero/heroine, a crazy villain, and a seemingly impossible heist that the crew needs to pull off by the end. It was riveting to the very end.

Classics

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

While I avoided Jane's book in freshmen year when I was supposed to, the story kept following me around, and I even promised Jane that I would read it one day (umm...I just felt guilty about putting it aside). And lo, that day came when I sprained my ankle one day and had to stay home. I don't think I need to say more about it since it's been out for about 200 years, but no wonder it's a classic and well-loved all around the world even today. The characters are hilarious and very relatable to. It's just timeless.

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald

I ended up liking this more than I thought I would. The writing suited the age very well, and gosh, it was tragic. I know I need to reread this a second time.

Plays

You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart, George Kaufman

The characters are absolutely ridiculous, the predicaments they get into, hilarious. Loved this play when I saw it onstage, and loved it when I got the script and read it for myself.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

This is probably the best story/play written about the Salem Witchtrials, and depressing, but

umm...bewitching nevertheless (ha ha). The character development was top notch, and it was a riot acting it out. :D

Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan

I had to watch this movie for a project in US History, and was immediately enthralled by it. Sure, maybe the Frost/Nixon interviews were not as important as the play or movie make them out to be, and sure, maybe some of it was inaccurate, but it's a BRILLIANT script, and a BRILLIANT movie (acting-wise, script-wise, technically, etc). I'm interested in journalism, media and films, so being able to study and take apart the script that had it all was amazing. (And um...I love this movie poster to pieces ---->)

Honorable mentions: Paper Towns by John Green, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve, Behemoth (Leviathan #2) by Scott Westerfeld, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Er, I think I just listed every book I read this year. :P

But anyway, Happy Reading!

-Nonie

Happy Holidays! :)

2010-12-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have a two week break from school, I got all exams out of the way, and I finally got all my presents bought/made and wrapped, and put under our tree. Now, I can just drink some delicious hot chocolate and watch the snow fall gently on our lawn, whilst imagining how this year’s holiday food project for my French class, a Bouche de Noel, will turn out.

Fingers crossed that my log will look like this:

or, maybe like this (without all the ornaments):

I will have pictures posted soon, I promise. :D So, before I start to prepare my Bouche de Noel, I just wanted to drop by and wish everyone, Merry Christmas! Best Wishes to everyone everywhere. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, a great time with family, and lots and lots of merriment (and delicious food)! :)

Castles and Crucibles and Paranormal Things

2010-12-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

(It's too bad there's no other words for Paranormals that start with the letter 'C'. It would've been an alliteration. :D)

Now, on with the show- There's been a lot of studying, French, snow, Christmas decorating, more brownies, and everything else lately, but I've managed to read three awe-inspiring books that I just need to write about here!

Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones

It's a classic in a way that the Princess Bride is a classic. Both are not said by literary critics that they're classics or anything, but they just are. Almost everyone knows about the books, and mostly everyone has read them (or in PB's case, the author himself declared it a classic). I read the Princess Bride earlier this year, but I've already told my story with that in another post. This post (or this spot in this post) is all about Howl's Moving Castle. This is another book that I've never bothered to pick up despite everyone else doing so, and oh my goodness, I should really stop listening to myself when it comes to books!

Howl's Moving Castle is a completely charming and whimsical story. All characters are extremely likable and the situations they end up in are hysterical. I found that the Wizard Howl is a lot like Gen from the Queen's Thief series, which is not a bad thing at all. I have a soft spot for Gen and, let's just say that Howl came very close to replacing him. :P (Howl was a contestant in the final battle of the YA Fantasy Showdown-against Gen!-so I knew he was special. Hehe) The other characters- Sophie, Michael, Calcifer, Percival, Lettie, and the rest all had their own charm and wit like Howl. The romance was sweet, and the action enthralling. The beginning might be a bit slow for some (I admit that it was for me), but as soon as the story really starts (with Sophie getting turned into an old lady), it all became rollicking, good fun.

I adore this story so much that I don't even feel like watching the film version! It's shocking to me because I've never let my love for a book get in the way of watching a film. Hm.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

It's a play, and a good one at that too. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it's one of the best plays ever written, although I'm not one to judge as I'm not a particularly voracious script reader.

In fear of spoiling anything, I don't want to say too much about it, but I will say that The Crucible takes place during the Salem Witch Trials and it's intense. We had to read this- correction- act it out everyday in class, and that got quite interesting as we went on (and all our acting skills improved*). It was sort of like reading the Book Thief in that they were both painful to read (in a good way of course!), but whereas with the Book Thief, I started sobbing uncontrollably when I finished, with the Crucible, I just got angry and ended up ranting to my friends for a while (I'm sorry, guys!). I'm quite over the ending now, but it still makes me sad/mad whenever I think of it and how unfair it was to everyone else who were actually living in Salem during that time.

The play is fantastic and I recommend it to all. No doubt, it'll make mostly everyone unhappy or furious, but the dialogue and characters are great. Each person has a different motivation for their actions, and their motivations shape the whole story. The conflicts within every character is interesting to look at and the conflicts make the play a truly fascinating look into the Witch Trials. Miller did change several historical things, like the ages of characters, to fit the central conflict, but I believe that everything else is quite accurate. If you do read this, get some friends together and read this out loud or really act it out. It's so much more fun that way. :)

Quick note: Some themes might be too much for younger readers, so I would say that this play is strictly for readers and actors 13+.

Paranormalcy by Keirsten White

All the other reviewers wrote their reviews for this book that it's a fresh take on the paranormal genre, and it is! It's completely different from all the vampire/werewolf novels out there and reading it is like taking a breath of fresh air on a wonderful Spring day. Paranormalcy's not plot-heavy; it's a light and breezy book, though still very gripping. What I really enjoyed about it was the writing. Kiersten White's/Evie's voice felt very real to me and not at all contrived. It's hard to explain, but it was something I liked a lot about the book.

I know that my review for Paranormalcy is shorter than the other two reviews, but don't let that fool you! I loved it as much as I did the others. :)

------

Ahh. So my reviews are over. Hope you enjoyed them, and hope you check out the books/play I pointed out. Although none of you might need my opinion of Howl's Moving Castle or Paranormalcy (they're loved enough as it is), the Crucible is seriously worth reading. Anyway, this December look out for hopefully more recipes, more reviews, and oh hey...even maybe a audio review or two (or though that may start next year). :)

Also a very urgent question: Does anyone know the proper code to put snow on your blog?! I've been trying all day to find some codes, but none of them are working! Maybe blogger just hates me at the moment.

* But I learned that monologues are really not my thing.

Yes, Tom, we really do say boo-yah.

2010-11-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

To brighten up our Tuesday (or the couple of hours that's left of it), here's a hilarious video of the Harry Potter stars trying to speak American. Boo-yah!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

-------

And from what my friend showed me in the morning, it looks like there's a new way to Hogwarts from New York City! :D As you can see in this picture, there's a new Platform 9 3/4 in the Union Square Subway Station.

Umm...how amazing is that? :D (In New York too!)

--------

On a totally unrelated note, Bookshelves of Doom, showed us the first couple of stills from the new Tin-Tin movie (directed by both Steven Spielberg *and* Peter Jackson, and slated for a release late 2011 or 2012). Anyone here a Tin-Tin fan? They're not well-known here, but they've been my favorite graphic novel series for a long time! (Okay, they're the only graphic novels I read...unless you count Calvin & Hobbes, and C&H comics are not exactly novels).

A lot of stills can be found here, and here. The movie is said to be based on Red Rackham's Treasure, but judging from a couple of the pictures, the film crew seem to be including bits of the Crab with the Golden Claw also. The animation looks...strange (aww...Snowy looks odd), but at least they got the signature pose right somewhat. I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see the whole thing.

(But seriously, if you like mysteries, adventure, action, and a wonderful cast of characters, and you haven't read Tin-Tin yet, you're missing out!)

-----------

Have a nice Thanksgiving break, everyone! Boo-yah!* :D

P.S. See Deathly Hallows if you haven't yet! It's wonderful; I think it's my favorite one after Prisoner of Azkaban. Everything is amazing about it, especially *spoilers* the first couple of scenes (so much emotion!), a certain dance to this song, Dobby (now who can forget Dobby?), the trio, the scenery, the acting, the editing, screenwriting, and the cinematography (chase scenes!). Yep, it's great. :) I do think that people who read the book will have a way easier time understanding everything though. My friends who haven't read the books didn't like it as much and got confused mucho, but my friends who read it said that it's their favorite of the series, and it looks like the same thing happened with the film critics.

*Wrong context, but very fun to say. :)

A Very Potter Friday

2010-11-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

Something big is going on today.

Really big.

Really really big.

Really really really really big.

Really reall- All right, I think you already know what I’m going to say. ;)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!!

Eeeeeeekkkk!!!!

Yes, I know that everyone already watched at midnight 17 hours ago, but my family and I (and a couple of friends) are going in just 1 hour and 28 minutes.

I’m a mix of nostalgia, happiness, sadness, and EXCITEMENT right now. I just can’t believe that it’s it’s ending. Like, really ending. NINE years ago, when I was tiny at the age of 7, I went to the movie theater with my family to watch Sorcerer’s Stone, because my brother and I (and my dad, I have to admit), really really liked one trailer. I completely adored it and fell IN LOVE with EVERYTHING- the characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy, Neville!!!), Hogwarts, the teachers, Hagrid, Fluffy, so yes, everything.

And then I got the book for Christmas.

And...it basically changed my life.

So, I totally had life changing moments and life changing people, but if I ever had to pick a life changing book, it would be Harry Potter. It was my childhood. And it created so many memories that I’ll never forget.

And it was all because of the movie (or the movie trailer). (Yes, I watched the movie before I read the book. :D) The past few days have been filled with the same excitement I’ve felt when Deathly Hallows came out. A couple of my friends and other students in my school wrote “The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened” on our basement wall, with fake blood...and teacher permission of course. ;) Last night I made brownies to celebrate with my friends at lunch today.

(Notice the scars I carved onto the brownies at the last minute? Hehe. :P)

Now, before I start getting all weepy and stuff (I can feel the tears coming on and I have to save them for the movie), I’m just going to say that Harry Potter is made of awesomeness and...I’m really really really really really really excited. (Hehe, I think you really get my point now, right?)

Have a Happy HP & the Deathly Hallow release day!

Oh yes, here’s the Sorcerer’s Stone trailer! (So many memories are suddenly jumping in my head now.)

Now I'm off to go to the theaters!
 

I Made Up A New Word ( Or Meeting Scott Westerfeld)

2010-11-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

So, I got this amazing opportunity to see Scott Westerfeld last Friday. I have proof:

First slide of his presentation!

The event started at 7, but since I got just a little paranoid about not finding seats, my brother and I went there a half hour early. (And it turns out, there were seats!) We quickly sat in the front row, but then my seating dilemma started. Did I want to sit in the very front row, right in front of the podium where he was going to talk, or did I want to sit a little in the back so I could take better pictures? Well, I couldn't make up my mind, and the introductions started before I could move, so we ended up having to stay in the seats right in front of his podium. Heh heh.

(So...I guess that explains the lack of good pictures. Sorry!)

Oh yes, before I forget, here's that new word I talked about in the title: authorstruck.

All right, so it's not very original...or new. I'm sure tons of people have already used that word in their writing, but it's exactly how I felt when I saw him.

Scott Westerfeld is hilarious, witty, and very, very knowledgeable. You can just tell that about him by reading his blog, but hearing him for real reaffirmed it. The way he explained everything was entertaining, and there was just so much to learn. :D He started off by telling us about his inspiration for Uglies, thinking about the science involved in it, and how the Uglies series led to Leviathan, and continued from there. Here are some tidbits from his talk:

When his friend moved to Los Angeles, and first visited a dentist there, the dentist pulled him aside after the appointment and asked him if he wanted a 5-year-plan to perfect his teeth (and make them look like Tom Cruise's). That got Scott thinking about the role perfection and beauty in our lives, and Uglies started from there.
It was the Japanese version of Uglies that made him start thinking about illustrations in books.
Apparently, the Uglies is full of Japanese and Australian slang. I knew that adding wa or la at the end of everyone's names in the books was sort of a nod to Japanese custom, but I didn't know that adding -ies to the end of words was Australian. :D
He doesn't have anything against characters whose names start with a Z. ;)
If he feels that the story is slowing down, he makes his characters jump off of something (so true!).
He had always wanted to write a story about a girl dressing up as a boy to do something cool, so he used Leviathan as an excuse to write about a character like that.
He named the jellyfish creature in Leviathan a Huxley, because one of Darwin's good friends (and critic) was Thomas Huxley, a man who studied invertebrates (especially jellyfish).
Justine Larbalestier (his wife and author, who was also there!) pointed out that Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves is one of Scott's new favorite books (out of the ones he read recently), when Scott was asked by someone about books he recommends.
For you NaNoer's: They talked about NaNo for a while and gave a couple of tips, and told us that they have a bunch of NaNo tips on their blogs. (Scott and Justine wrote tips on alternate days last November-Scott's tips start here, and Justine's tips start here.)

When it was time to sign books, we got in line by rows, so I ended up being person #3 in line. This being my first actual book signing, I totally forgot that we actually got to talk to the author, and being #3, I had no time at all to think of anything cool to say to him, and this is what ensued:

Scott Westerfeld (as I approach him nervously): Hello!

Me: Um, hi!

Scott Westerfeld: How are you doing?

Me: Good...how are you doing?

Scott: Great! *starts signing Leviathan* So, do you have a question?

Me: Ummm....nooo?

Scott Westerfeld: *laughs*

Me: Errr...

Later, however, after he gave me my books back, I gave him a little spiel about what a history geek I was and how fascinated I am by the WWI era, and because of that I totally geeked out when I heard what Leviathan was about. We ended up talking for a couple minutes about WWI, how it started a new era technology and a way of living, and how it's not fair to WWI that WWII always steals the spotlight all the time in literature and basically everything else. (In retrospect, I wish I didn't use the words geek or geeked, but hey, I was being honest. :P)

I thanked him afterwards, and walked away with my books, definitely authorstruck.

----

The funny thing is, until a couple months ago, I never liked Mr. Westerfeld much. Or, I didn't know if I liked him, because I never read his books. Back when I was in 8th grade, my English teacher, who's a big fan of Scott Westerfeld, introduced his books to us in the beginning of the school year (she was also at the event last friday, yay!). After that, Uglies became the Twilight of my school, before well, the real Twilight became popular. Everyone read it- my friends, girls especially and boys too (to my surprise), and I even saw other teachers carrying the books around. After seeing everyone with his books, I guess I got rebellious and decided to go against the status quo, so I opted to read Markus Zusak and Jerry Spinelli books instead. ;)

Now my friends are all laughing at me, as I wait for my library's copy of Uglies to get here, so I can finally read it, years after they have. Three years ago, I rebelled against Mr. Westerfeld's books and ardently refused to read them, but just a week ago, I sat in the front row during his presentation, sitting forward in my seat, trying to catch his every word and stood in line, eagerly waiting nervously and excitedly in line to say hi to him. Life is full of irony sometimes. :D

----

After I got home, I saw a tweet from another person who was there, saying that anyone who lives within a one hour driving distance of Mr. Westerfeld's events should go because it's totally worth it. I learned about writing, cat parasites, manga, women revolutionaries, and loads more, so I have to say that I totally concur with his tweet. :)

I just had to take a picture of this slide during his presentation, seeing as two of my favorite characters are on it. I adore Alek and Deryn. :)

The end.

P.S. Justine Larbalestier is so right about Leviathan signings. There were just a couple of teenage girls and boys. The rest, I noticed, were all adults..

Things I Loved These Past Two Weeks

2010-10-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

This song:

It’s hauntingly beautiful and I loves it. :)

This book: Umm...is it too late to mention Behemoth? I breezed through the book two weeks ago and I adored it. I can’t decide about whether or not I liked it more than Leviathan, but let’s just say that it rocked. :)

And another book: Well, we can't forget a little something called the Lost Hero! (I was going to make some brownies to celebrate when I got it last week, but I couldn’t. Hmm..maybe tomorrow?)

Anyways, I started it, and...I like it. :) It feels nice to go back to familiar grounds and be with old characters again. The only thing I’m sad about is the fact that several characters from the PJO series made no appearance, including Percy. *sob* Luckily, the next book in the series has his name in the title (or should I say his title in the title), and that right there confirms that it’s going to be spectacular.

This movie: I like documentaries and documentaries do sort of count as movies, right? The Cove is about Dolphins and... it’s interesting, to say the least. It is slightly disturbing, now that I think about it, but I enjoyed it when we had to watch it in class. Seeing it will make you want to pick up your picket signs and start advocating for animal rights everywhere. It's so...*shudder*

This picture:

Well, it's not the picture I like (sorry for the quality); it's the flower. I took this picture several days ago when I realized that it's the only living flower/plant outside anymore. Maybe I like this flower so much because it's becoming really, really cold here, but it's still surviving somehow. I guess that just amazed me...

Just seeing this movie poster in our theater made me jump up with joy:

Less than a month! :)

And, finally, this Calvin & Hobbes comic strip:

I never hate writing assignments, but after weeks of being buried under writing assignments about rhetoric and style, seeing this just made me smile. :)

My Life in Books

2010-10-07T18:35:00.001-07:00

I saw this meme over at Squeaky Books and I thought it'd be fun to try it. :D All you have to do is type in a title of a book you've read this year at the end of the sentence. It took me a while, but voila! Here's my list:

In high school I was: Flipped (Wendelin Van Draanen)
People might be surprised I'm: Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
I will never be: Cleopatra's Daughter (Michelle Moran)
My fantasy job: Poison Study (Maria Snyder)
At the end of a long day I need: A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry)
I hate it when: You Can't Take it With You (George Kaufman)
Wish I had: Predator's Gold (Philip Reeve)
My family renunions are: A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare)
At a party you'd find me: Gone (Michael Grant) -> Tee heee. :P
I've never been to: The City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)
A happy day includes: Broadway Lights (Jen Calonita)
Motto I live by: Only the Good Spy Young (Ally Carter)
On my bucket list: The Miles Between (Mary E. Pearson)
In my next life I want to be: The Great Gatsby (Scott Fitzgerald)

Ta da! It sure is difficult but you'll find yourself giggling over your answers once you start it. :D If you do it, put your link in the comments so I can see! :)

Oh, hello October

2010-10-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Nonie's advice of the day: If you have to film something for a project or something, remember not to shoot in a portrait format! Let's just say that the process of flipping everything back is not pretty and very tiring. Don't say I didn't warn you...

With that said, it's October now, so I changed the layout (yet again) to suit the wonderful season of Fall. :)

With that proclamation, here's some quick thoughts/news:

- Junior year is hard. When I first got my class schedule, the first thought that entered my head was, Haha. With no math and no French, this term is going to be so easy...muhahahahaha!

And...I can truthfully tell you that, sadly, it's not. But I shall conquer Junior year! Muahahaha!

- Everyday as I walk into Government, I think about how much I miss studying US History. I miss hearing lectures on Benjamin Franklin and the importance of barbed wire. I really do.

- Doesn't Megamind look hilarious? It's coming out November 4th, and I don't think I'm going to see it, but it looks like it'll be great!

- I've been rereading Leviathan (or trying to read is probably a better way to put it) to catch up on the whole story for the release of Behemoth. There's no one like Count Volger to cheer you up when you're feeling dreadful. :P (He's one of my favorite mentor/wise teacher characters in literature. :D)

- Speaking of Leviathan, here's nice, little excerpt* from Behemoth I found on the Simon & Schusters site (eeeeeek!). If it came out yesterday or today, it would've been perfect, but alas, it's releasing next Tuesday, so we have to wait three more days (unlike some lucky people who've already gotten it)! Even then, I won't be able to read it until next weekend or maybe even a couple of weeks after that. Oh well. At least we know that Behemoth will have more of Keith Thompson's gorgeous art!

* If you want to hear Alan Cumming's version of the excerpt (which, like Scott Westerfeld said, is made up of awesomesauce), here's the link. :)

Ahoy Me Hearties!

2010-09-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrgh, maties!

Confession: When I be wee, I be fascinated wi' Seafarin' heartys (along w' Spies an' Detectives). I think I read ever' book I could find about them. The most fascinatin' Pirate be Blackbeard (well, he be th' most famous). :D

My favorite fictional Sea Dogs be:

Patchy the Pirate

Red Rackham (an' Captain Haddock)

Captain Hook

an' who can forget Jack Sparrow (or ortin' ta I say Captain Jack Sparrow) an' Barbossa?

(Who do ye find the most interestin' (or who's yer favorite)?) :D

Well, that's all th' talkin' like a sea dog fer today, shipmates. ('Tis tirin'.) Reckon if ye haven't do so yet, go aroun' an' tell someone Arrgh!!

(Oh aye, an' how can't be International Talk Like a Pirate Day if we dasn't play this tune at least once?)

Yo ho yo ho, a Pirate's life for me...

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Fair Winds!

(I translated with English To Pirate Speak. :D )

In which I apologize again...

2010-09-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

...for the severe lack of posts, but I promise a more profound posts soon! For now, I thought I would direct you all to some fun things this wonderful Friday evening until I do so. :)

First off all Scott Westerfeld showed us an amusing video today, in which he disturbs Alan Cumming's recording to talk about the audiobook of Behemoth and the Leviathan series itself in this delightful, little interview. :D

My favorite part?

[Alan C: Will there be a happy ending, Scott? :0

Scott W: (pauses) Of course, Alan.

Alan C: Yay! :D ]

I loved how they were trying to be serious in the beginning but failing miserably at it. Alan Cumming's so cool in Spy Kids. Seriously. And he made a fantastic Mr. Elton in Emma. :D Oh, did I mention that I like his glasses too? :P (I need to get my hands on a audiobook of Leviathan soon!)

On a whole different note, Leah Cypress wrote a guest post for Confessions of a Bookaholic about why the epilogue worked for Mockingjay and the whole Hunger Games series a couple days ago. I thought it was interesting to see to see what an author had to say about. Hehe, I personally thought it was perfect. (Yes, I understand that I'm in the minority about this. :P)

Speaking of the Hunger Games, a couple of freshmen and sophomores in my homeroom this year are huge fans of it! Last Wednesday, we had this hour long talk about the whole series, and what worked about it and what didn't. It made me so happy because I don't know a lot people that read the Hunger Games, so finally being able to talk about it freely was truly amazing. :D Next week, we're planning to have a full discussion for Mockingjay. Yay! I've been waiting for a chance to debate about it since forever (aka right after I finished it..). ;)

I also changed the layout for this blog. Thoughts or suggestions? I still can't decide on whether the title should be white or orange. (For some reason I'm not able to let go of the orange. Hmm.) Oh, and I'm sorry if the blog description is hard to read. (There are some weird technical issues with Blogger Draft. Argh.)

Hee hee, so as usual, I will end this post promising more profound posts. Er, hopefully, they will be profound. I have a few ideas in mind for a couple of posts but...hmmmm. Well, ciao for now. Have a nice weekend everyone. If you're a student, I hope the first few weeks of school have been going well for you! :D

Yesterday...

2010-09-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

....when we were wandering aimlessly in our mall, I spent some time in the candle shop (because who doesn't like walking around scented candles? Mmmm....) When I walked past a stand of tiny candles, I randomly picked one up and sniffed it. It was lovely. :) And then, you know in Pride and Prejudice (2005), when Keira Knightley is in front of Pemberley in her carriage, she makes this choking/laughing sound, right? I think that's the sound that escaped my lips, when I saw what flower the scent came from:

Evening Primrose!

And it was the first time I ever saw one too, ever.

Talk about a very weird coincidence.

Clearly, the Hunger Games characters are determined to stay in my thoughts, even weeks later...

(Sorry if the picture is fuzzy; it came from my brother's cell phone.)

Summer is almost over...

2010-09-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

And there are so many awesome movies I've seen this summer that I haven't been able to mention yet! Agh. To sort of make up for that, here are 5 movies that rocked my summer:

Toy Story 3

Best movie of this summer, hands down. :) It was adorable, heartwarming, and poignant (at least to me :D). The last five minutes are the most heartbreaking last five minutes that I've ever seen in a movie, and my love for Pixar grew even more (if that's even possible). I definitely connected with this movie a lot more because of my age, that's for sure. I probably wouldn't have cared about the story half as much if I was 8 or 9.

Sense & Sensibility

I haven't read the book, but the 1995 movie is fantastic. :D The story, the cast (yay Kate Winslet!), the script, the acting, the costumes, and the scenery are all wonderful. The funniest thing for me was seeing Alan Rickman (hehe, Severus Snape) as one of the romantic heroes. It took me a while to get adjusted to seeing him in a non-villanous role, but I loved watching him. :D

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I was so worried about how they were going to transfer the book to movies, but after we

finished watching it, I remember turning to my family and saying, "Now this is how a book to movie adaption should be." Everyone did a wonderful job bringing the story to life! It was hilarious of course, but it was also heartfelt and sweet, and displayed the truths of middle school in a not-so-exaggerated way.

There is never a boring moment, and you can't help but adore Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley. He is Greg. And...they change the ending a bit, but I think I prefer the ending of the movie to the ending of the book. DWK fans will love this, but also a younger sibling with a dire need of a good movie will appreciate this. I know mine did. :)

Sherlock Holmes

Yes, Sherlock Holmes participating in street brawls for fun felt totally out of character, but Robert Downey Jr. and Judd Law were just ah-mazing. I admit I...umm...fell asleep in the middle, but it wasn't a bad movie at all! It was just a little slow, but the ending completely made up for that. Heh..heh..It was actually kind of creepy.

Independence Day

A simple, 1994 sci-fi movie. I ended up liking it more than I thought it would. The ending, though cheesy and anti-climatic, was awesome. :)

(Yes, I'm starting to like older movies a lot for some reason. :D)

What were your favorite movies this summer? There's a ton I didn't get to this summer, but there's always next year. :)

Mockingjay

2010-08-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

by Suzanne Collins

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

(Don't worry. There aren't any spoilers.)

Suzanne Collins is brilliant. She created a story like the Hunger Games trilogy and ended it amazingly. I loved the book. I did. I absolutely loved it. When I first started reading the book this afternoon, I promised myself that I would go slowly. Savor each line and word. Laugh at all the jokes, tear up at all the sad parts, etc. That definitely did not happen. I breezed through the pages in a couple of hours, because I couldn't put the book down. Mockingjay was breathtaking and stunning (not to mention inevitably devastating) conclusion.

I loved that the relationships are fully explored between the characters. The relationship between Haymith and Katniss was the most profound and heartwarming, and I loved the Haymitch/Katniss/Peeta team. Speaking of relationships, I thought Suzanne Collins wrapped up the Peeta vs. Gale battle nicely, though it was bittersweet for me.

Characters like Gale, Prim, Finnick, and Annie have much larger roles than in the past, so seeing them sort of break out of their shells was great. I did miss several characters though, and I was completely saddened by what happened to a few of them.

Most people seem to not like the epilogue, but I thought it was beautifully written and haunting in a way. If you read it, what did you think about it?

---------

That's all I can write about Mockingjay right now without ruining everything. I still have to take in a few things. When I first finished it, I was literally stunned. I started sobbing on the last page, and I didn't know what to think about it at all other than it was incredible and that it's over. Now I'll say that Mockingjay is an amazing finish to one of the best stories I've ever read in my life, and I'll miss Katniss and Peeta and Haymitch and everyone else. It was a wonderful ride and I'm thankful for Suzanne Collins for it. :)

To appease our appetites for Mockingjay until tomorrow...

2010-08-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

Scholastic just released a sneak peek of the first chapter! *hyperventilates*

Just a couple more hours...I think I'll be able to make it. ;)

(Oh, and we all know what Katniss thinks at the end is not going to be true, right? Because if what they think happens to be true...I'll be very, very sad. The good thing is...it's probably not true...)

7 Things Right Now

2010-08-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

1. As I'm writing this, I'm watching a Star Wars marathon with my brother. The movie playing now is the Empire Strikes Back. I'm not much of a Star Wars fan (I rarely watch or read anything sci-fi) but...

2. I have to go to school tomorrow (and for the next couple of days) early in the morning, to train for something I signed up for last year, and I'm nervous. In retrospect I wish I didn't sign up for it, but at least I'll be getting some experience. But now as I am nervous, I feel like indulging myself in something I wouldn't normally indulge in (like watching a Star Wars marathon), and you know what? It's working...sort of. :) Yay for Star Wars, and George Lucas, and Anakin Skywalker, and Hans Solo, and of course, C3PO, but...

3. I was so nervous during the day that I couldn't even read, didn't want to take a walk, didn't feel like listening to any music, or do anything at all. For that reason, I put the Fellowship of the Ring down, and agreed to watch the marathon with my brother.

4. It's funny. People don't watch movie adaptions of books because they don't want the movie to ruin the wonderful story the book presents, but I was reluctant to pick up the Lord of the Rings books until now for the exact opposite reason. I love the LOTR movies so much that I didn't want to get disappointed to see if the filmmakers ruined the book. Thankfully though, they haven't. They just took out a lot of scenes, but they didn't change anything. Phew! But did you know that Frodo is 50 when they start on their journey to Mordor?! (Let's just say that it took me a couple of days to accept that fact.)

5. I think Paper Towns would be a brilliant movie, if made by the right people, of course. The last scene in the book would be amazing to film. :D If I filmed the last scene, I would have Q's narration playing in the background, because I really liked what he had to say then.

6. I've been having a bit of writers/bloggers block, so I want to ask you, the readers, what do you want to see on the Flying Scribble?

7. It's now 10:20 PM, and the Star Wars marathon nearly ended an hour ago. I started this post nearly two hours ago, and during the two hours, the Empire Strikes Back ended (poor Anakin), I ate some late dinner, and started getting butterflies in my stomach again thinking about tomorrow and this week. Gah.

Well, as Obi-Wan and Yoda would say when they depart with others, may the Force be with you. And in my typical style, I say, have a fabulous week everyone. :)

Edit: As soon as I posted this, I checked Google Reader and I saw that Sarah Beth Durst also posted about Star Wars. Hehe. She watched the marathon too! :D

A quick review of Paper Towns

2010-08-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

The story follows Quentin or Q as he is commonly known, who is very much in love with his neighbor of 16 years, Margo Roth Spiegelman. When she drops by his window in the dead of night, asking to borrow his car for a revenge campaign, he takes her, and things finally start looking up for their relationship. But the next day, Margo doesn't come back. She doesn't come back the day after that. And the day after that. Everyone decides that she's gone forever, and that she'll never come back, but Q finds clues that seem to be specifically for him, and he becomes determined to get her back.

So...Paper Towns, Paper Towns. Since I label this as a quick review, I'll just list a few things aspects I loved and the aspects I didn't love as much:

Q's narration is one of the funniest and wittiest I've read. I simply loved what he had to say, and this was my favorite quote in the whole book (pg.59)-

"I always felt like you had to be important to have enemies. Example: Historically, Germany has had more enemies than Luxembourg. Margo Roth Spielgelman was Germany. And Great Britain. And the United States. And czarist Russia. Me, I'm Luxembourg. Just sitting around, tending sheep, and yodeling."

^There's an abundance of quotes like the one above, so you can imagine how happy I was while I was reading through. :D

The characters were actually very believable. I can imagine them walking down the halls in my high school.

Margo, I didn't like much. *shrug* Maybe because Margo Roth Spielgelman is not someone I would hang out with if she were real. (I would hate to get on her bad side. *shudders*)

Sometimes the crude humor went too far for me. Too far that I almost put it down, but because this had so many rave reviews, I just decided to continue it. I'm really glad I did, because the ending was my favorite part of the book. I absolutely adored the ending.

The writing was...lovely. It wasn't choppy, or anything. It flowed. And the dialogue was incredible. Maybe it's because he worked for radio stations and such, so John Green knows how to write dialogue that sort of seeps in naturally, but it was lovely. Not lovely in the sense that I would go around and say what the characters said, because I didn't like what they said half the time, but it was just natural. It didn't seem fake or contrived. Like I said, it flowed.

I loved the beginning, but the middle slowed down considerably, but, just when I thought "Oh no, this book is going downhill!", the book redeemed itself with its last few chapters! The road trip, the climax, the last few pages-I absolutely adored everything. I admire how John Green ended the story, and I especially liked how he resolved the Q/Margo thing. It wasn't cheesy. It wasn't utterly romantic. It was...perfect and fit the novel nicely like a nice pair of jeans. :)

So, in the end, despite not liking certain aspects of the book, I decided that I did enjoy it overall, but I'm not sure if I would recommend it or not because of the strong language. If you can take that, I would go ahead and try it. I'm having trouble thinking of who exactly to recommend this for because I think the book will mean something different for everyone, so I guess you'll just have to read it and see what you think of it yourself. :D

Just so you know...

2010-08-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the release of Mockingjay (and you know, pass the time until Aug. 24th), the awesome Heather, at The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl, created the YA Fantasy Showdown, where some of the best-known YA characters are pitted against each other in battle, and guess what? We, the readers, get to pick the winner, by reading the stats and mock battles written by the Showdown team, and casting our vote for who you think has the skills to move to the next round.

Just for you to get a sense of how cool this is, there's Edward Cullen going against Katsa from Graceling (Katsa's going to win definitely :P), Percy Jackson fighting Sam Templeton (Percy!!!), and Westley vs. Eugenides (Whoever chose to pit Westley against Gen is a genius. Two of my absolute favorite characters, EVER, fighting against each other...I don't know who to choose!)

See? Even a couple authors are joining in on the fun and working to advocate their characters. So, what are you waiting for?! Go on, and cast your votes! It's going to be amazing, and I wonder who's going to be the ultimate winner (probably... Katniss) :D

Leviathan

2010-08-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

by Scott Westerfeld

(Read summary or watch book trailer [love the way they use the illustrations!])

I started reading Leviathan last week actually, but I got distracted by the Candy Shop War and all its goodness, so I couldn’t get around to finishing it until last night. And by last night, I really mean 1:30 this morning, because yes, it was too good to put down! :D And for those who know me well, know that I need my sleep, so for me, staying up late to finish a book says a lot about it!

Me reading Leviathan at night:

*minor spoiler alert with the link-don't click on it if you haven't read the book yet!*

Me at -

10:00: I’m so glad I can continue this book again! Now where did I leave off? *picks up book and starts reading*
10:45: *looks at watch* Woah! It’s 10:45 already?! I better get to sleep. Okay, I guess I’ll just end at pg. 200, because I like nice numbers. :D
11:00, at pg. 200: Oh, um...is it pg. 200 already? Well, um...I’m still in the middle of the chapter, so I’ll just put the book aside when I’m done with it...
End of chapter, probably 11:10: Er, this chapter ends with a cliffhanger! I can’t stop reading now!

11:30: Alek! I know you’re noble and courageous and nice and stuff, and I greatly admire those qualities in you, but what are you doing?!
11:35: Deryn! Why did you just do that?! Alek just helped you out!
11:38: Okay, I know it’s 11:38, but I really, really want to know what happens next. Okay, fine. I’ll stop reading at pg. 300 for sure.
12:17: *stares at illustration on pg. 306, amazed by the epicness of it (and ignores the fact that pg. 300 passed a while ago)*
12:38: So, it’s already tomorrow, or today! Ummm...what to do, what to do...Well, there’s only about 100 pages left...Oh, what the heck. I’ll just read it, because I won’t be able to sleep anyway.

1:28: *turns to the last page of the book and finishes reading* Holy moly! It was amazing! Now I can finally sleep.
2:00: Hey brain, I know Leviathan was fantastic, but I’m trying to sleep, so can you please stop thinking about it? Thank you.
2:24 (I believe): Zzzzzzzzzz (hehe, finally!)

----------

So, was Leviathan worth staying up until 2:30 AM for me? Yes, totally! The story was completely absurd (Clankers vs. Darwinists? Fabricated animals vs. Machines? Really, now?) but I loved how Scott Westerfeld made it believable in a way. Through its absurdity, it seems possible that such a reality could’ve existed, if the one we had didn’t. How he managed to create all the characters, and how the story plays out was wow. Like really, wow. And I’m really glad it’s about WWI, because 1) WWII gets more time in the spotlight, so reading a book about WWI for once was like a breath of fresh air and 2) personally I find WWI a bit more intriguing than the second (there's so much more tension, so much drama...), and without learning about WWI, it’s impossible to learn about the roots of WWII.

Now, back from the history (before I start talking endlessly about the wars), and to the rest of the review: The characters especially were endearing. I loved Alek and Deryn, who are probably my favorite main characters I've read about in a loong time. Alek reminded me a lot of myself (heh, getting into trouble *cough*), and Deryn was the courageous, quick-thinker, and I admired how she dealt with the situation at hand. Count Volger was an epic character, I thought. In fact, he reminded me a lot of Snape, for some reason. Hehe. :P Basically the whole cast of characters in the book were made of pure awesomeness. :) I cannot wait to see how it all turns out for them!

The cliffhanger at the end (which wasn’t really a cliffhanger), felt abrupt. Way too abrupt. And that’s the only flaw I could find with the book. I turned the last page expecting something to read, but all I saw was the afterword. All I could do afterwards was stare at that page in disbelief that it was already over, trying to see if anything was written in invisible ink or something, and thinking “What? That’s it?! It ends with this?!” :0

But despite that tiny disappointment, Leviathan is a pretty awesome book filled with an enthralling story, exquisite illustrations, and fantastic characters that you’ll root for until the end! I loved how it set up the stage for the next book in the series quite nicely. It came out last year, so I think many people have already read this, but if you haven’t yet, I wholeheartedly recommend this to you. :) Lovers of history, science-fiction, steampunk stories, and thrilling storylines will especially love this delightful book! :D

---------
And yay! It's a series!! Woo-hoo! I have something to look forward to now with the Hunger Games, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid ending soon! The second one in the series is called Behemoth, and it's releasing October 5th.

I wish they kept the style of the first cover, but hey, at least we don't have to wait so long to get it! :D

today's a good day to be happy

2010-07-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

In other words, things that are making me smile (or laugh, because I'm definitely more of a laughing person) right now are:

- At last, a day with a cloudless (or almost cloudless sky) and the sun. And, today's one of those days where it's not too hot and not too cold. It's just a nice, peaceful summer day. :)

- The past few days have been filled with thunderstorms, mini power outages (or as my brother kindly reminds me the correct term each time- brownouts), and overall a very gloomy atmosphere, although...the storms did provide for some good sunset photo-ops. :P

- Spending a couple of hours on a Saturday evening reading Only the Good Spy Young and finishing up Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. The last few pages of Dog Days are pure gold. If I wasn't in a bookstore at the time, surrounded by other people, I wouldn't have had to restrain my laughter so much (which was very hard, by the way)...

- Reading old essays, journal entries, and the like. Those are always fun to read. ;)

- Almost finishing up with my AP English homework, and starting with my AP Government homework. Reading through the entire Constitution is not as tiring as one may think, though it is very hard to concentrate when the sun is shining, and just *calling* you to run outside.

- While cleaning out my room, I found not one, but three $5 fine forgiveness coupons for my library, so now I have $15 to waive fines with! Yippee! I mean...*cough*cough* Me? Need fine forgiveness coupons for the library?! That's preposterous! Why would I need them in the first place? *cough*cough*I always turn my books in on time *cough*cough*

- Speaking of the library, I just checked a couple minutes ago, and I have this book waiting for me to pick up! For some reason, I feel really really really excited to read this book. So excited, that I'm literally bouncing as I'm typing this. I haven't felt this excited about going to the library to pick up a book since well...a very long time, and I have absolutely no idea why I'm sooo eager about this book as I am right now. Maybe it's the luscious cover? Or maybe because it involves candy?! Or maybe, it's just because it looks just plain old fun.

- Reading Shannon Hale's old interview with Brandon Mull. That picture on the bottom of that post is very, er, priceless. :D

- Seeing old elementary school friends who I haven't seen in 5 years!

- And, of course, reading through this post is certainly making me smile (and laugh along the way). :)

--------

So what's been making you smile lately? :D

Talks and Laughs

2010-07-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

I recently ( like just about an hour and a half ago) learned how to make and edit podcasts, and I'm really excited about that that. So anyway, because of that, I've been wondering...would you like to hear audio reviews of books and/or movies perchance? It's just going to be maybe two to five-ish minutes of me talking about the book/movie/something else, saying it if I recommend it or not, and everything else that goes into a proper review, so you know, just like a typical review, except audio style, and maybe with a little music here and there. I won't stop writing reviews, and the audio reviews will be there like once a week or once every two weeks. It's just a little experiment for this blog. :)

And maybe...if it's successful, and I learn how to improve it, I'll also have a few guests on the show! (Ok, now i'm getting a little too excited...ha.)

So what say you, wonderful readers? I'm still just contemplating about the idea, so I sort of need some input. I put a poll on the sidebar. :)

And for a few Thursday laughs:

July Revelations/Thoughts

2010-07-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

- Though this summer has been enjoyable, something felt wrong about it, and then two nights ago, I realized why! I didn't make a summer to-do list. Hehe. As an organized/ OCD person, I can't live without planning and lists. I have 21 things to do, and if I don't get them done, I'll turn insane. But I'm just so glad I figured what was wrong because that weird feeling was really getting to me.

- So it took 3 days to download Illustrator, and gah! I think it might be my favorite graphics application! And OMG, the new iMovie is simply awesome too!!!!!!! (<----- You can tell that I'm really excited about it when I'm using waay too many exclamation marks than necessary!) Since I don't need my brother to teach me iMovie like he had to with Illustrator, it's so much more fun. I feel like myself with iMovie again. Yes, I am a technology geek. :)

- I'm reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (about time, eh? :P), and I love Sam. He's interesting to read about, and my, all the attention and admiration the prose got is well deserved! It's gorgeous and enchanting. The only problem *ducks from all the shoes that will be thrown at me* is that Grace's life is diminishing little by little with each page since she's soo caught up with Sam, but since this is a romancish novel, it's excusable...

- On Sunday, 2:30 Eastern time, the Soccer game between the Netherlands and Spain will start! I'm so fired up for the match because Soccer is the only sport I watch, and it's the final game for the World Cup championship! Eep! I was so sure that Germany was going to take the cake this year (I mean, they beat Argentina 4-0...), but this is okay I guess, since I don't exactly have a team I'm rooting for. The match should be very interesting, and may the best man, er, team, win! If you're watching the World Cup, what do you think about the game at this point?

- And, before I forget, I created a blogroll. Tell me if I missed anyone!

Words of Wisdom from Samwise Gamgee

2010-07-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Because we all need some inspirational quotes to keep us going through life (me, especially), here's one of the most encouraging and inspirational quotes, I believe, ever written in literature:

"It's like in those great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were; and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it as when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it'll shine out clearer. Those were stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances to turn back only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something."

-Samwise Gamgee*

Thanks to From Elysium for reminding me of this beautiful quote. :)

* Whenever I think of Sam or the Shire, this tune starts to automatically through my head. So peaceful, reassuring, and brilliant in a way... :D

AHHHH!!!!

2010-06-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter trailers never cease to amaze me.
I. AM. SO. EXCITED.
Excited is not even the right word to describe my feelings right now.
The Deathly Hallows is going to be epic.
The music, the action, the dialogue. Everything is perfect in this trailer.
My favorite scene? At 1:33:
Voldemort-"Why do you live?"
Harry-"Because I have something worth living for." (<<----Very epic line, is it not?)

And..umm...did anyone else start tearing up when watching this trailer, or was it just me? As much as I am excited to see this movie, I don't feel like seeing it because it's the end of my favorite series ever, though, of course I'm going to go because I need to see the end. Er...

Books, two beautiful books

2010-06-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

So, I've been reading a lot these past few days. Ok, only two books, but compared to the number of books I've read during the school year, it's a lot!

The first book I read was The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson. The story is about Destiny Faraday. She feels abandoned, lost, and bitter. When a car suddenly shows up on her school's ground, she and her friends decide to go on a road trip in search of a fair day. A day that will actually go right, and one where everyone can be content with what happens.

It was amazing. Just amazing. And bittersweet and heartbreaking at points. It's the kind of book that after you finish reading, will make you curl up and ponder about the topics and questions it brought up during the story. In this case, the story is all about fate. Is everything just a coincidence or is it fate? Is there such thing as destiny anyway? And what do numbers have to do with anything? The topic is strange, but intriguing.

The story is realistic fiction, though it's realistic in a rather magical way (if that makes any sense), and I think that 's why I love it as much as I do now. The last 50 pages...wow. The ending made me catch my breath. It's splendid, and I truly admire Mary E. Pearson for tying up the story that way. I thoroughly enjoyed The Miles Between, and I can't recommend this book enough. It's unforgettable, and I know I'll have a hard time giving it back to my library. ;)

-------

Now, the second book I read was Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran. Anything that has to do with Ancient Rome and Greece always fascinated me, so obviously, just seeing the cover made me want to read it. :D The book itself was pretty good, and very, very abundant in historical detail. I learned so much about Rome from reading this- the cruelties women and the poor went through, the corruption, the politics, the architecture, family life, you name it.

Cleopatra's daughter, Kleopatra Selene, was an interesting person to read about. I don't know much about Egypt, so this was my first time reading about her children.The problems Selene and Alexander went through with growing up in a country that wasn't their own was understandable, and I loved Selene's growth throughout the book. However, I wish the book continued, because I would've loved to hear about her marriage, and her rule as Queen. Also, the romance, though sweet, is very abrupt. It spans the last few pages, and not enough time to taken to develop it, so it feels awkward..

Well anyway, despite the two issues I pointed out, the book was great! If you're a history geek (like me!), or you love political tension or a lovely book in general, you'll love this book. Though it took me a while to get into it, I enjoyed it, and I think there should totally be a sequel! It would be awesome if there was a book about Selene's life after marriage and such. (Michelle Moran, if you landed on this page somehow and you're reading this, please please please?)

Ahhh...Summer Vacation...

2010-06-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

The final bell rang on Thursday, so basically, yeah, what time is it?! It's summer time! BTW, I don't mind HSM, and i'm just so happy about summer, I just had to put that in. :P And oh my goodness, I have time to read now! And not just my textbooks, but books I want to read, like the Red Pyramid!

I put it on hold about two months ago, and 108 holds later, and I finally got it from my library last Wednesday (yay!). The plot was fascinating and there were plenty of explosions scattered around the story (hehe, basic Riordan style :D). I hardly know anything about Egyptian mythology (Greek and Roman mythology was more fascinating to me), so I enjoyed brushing up my knowledge on Egypt and its' myths. The characters are extremely likable, especially Carter and Sadie's Cat, Muffin (who turns out to be more than meets the eye). Carter's no Percy, but I found his narration to be one of my favorite things about the book. He was adorable. Sadie, Carter's younger sister who's 12, acted more like a 16-year-old, so I thought was a little off.

Ok, now this is such a minor thing, so minor that it shouldn't even be mentioned, but I will

because I have to or I'll go crazy. Here goes: *a really teeny tiny spoiler* I disliked Carter's wardrobe change at the end. I know, I know, it's such a small thing that Rick Riordan did, but honestly, what's wrong with a nice button-down shirt, slacks, and dress shoes? It's professional, sometimes adorable, and as Carter's father says, impeccable. I can't believe Rick Riordan changed that. :(

So, anyway, to put it simply, I savored this book from start to finish. Mythology is again, mixed in perfectly with the modern world. Percy Jackson will always be special to me, so I don't think it's fair if I compare them. The story in the Red Pyramid (without comparison) is simply amazing, even if some plot lines seem repeated, and well, it's fun to be back with Mr. Riordan's writing again. Did I ever mention how much I love his humor and style? Love them.

P.S. On pg. 52, there's a little mention of Percy Jackson which completely made my day. :)

I'm Sixteen?

2010-06-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Today's my birthday, and shockingly, that means I'm sixteen. My, how fast these past years have gone by. I still remember my 10th birthday like it was only yesterday. (And now, I'm sixteen?!) It's going to be so ridiculously crazy this year, but going to be so much fun at the same time (er, hopefully). :P Hmmm...let's see what happens. :D

Passing on the ability to be Over the Top

2010-06-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

Anyone love Quaker granola bars? I started eating them several weeks ago (I know! Only several weeks ago?), and now I feel silly for saying, but Quakers' granola bars (especially the chocolate chip granola bars or the fully covered by chocolate granola bars) are very addicting. They are yummmmmyyy.

Anyway, on to the important stuff:

Soo, I got the blog award from Elle (thank you so much again for my first award!), but I didn't give it to anyone. I just wanted to say that every blog I read is excellent, but I just wanted to make sure to give to people I know haven't received this yet..so, I hereby give the Your Blog is Over the Top to:

Rachel: Ummm, maybe it's because I myself can't bake to save my life, so I like people who can. I love her recipes, and basically anything else she has to say! Plus, I enjoy her English style. Though she's been gone for several months, she returned, saying that she'll be back for real in a couple of weeks, so I'm anxiously waiting for that to happen. :D

and...

Priya: A fellow Harry Potter obsessee (who by the way just posted the new thrilling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I teaser trailer yesterday), who I'm starting to get to know. Her reviews are short, and sweet, she's usually the first one to post up awesome trailers. She can also write poetry, and well, basically, her blog is fun to read in general. :)

So yeah, that's it. Hope you like the award, guys. :) Have a nice rest of the week, everyone. And for a few of us who still have a couple weeks of school to go, hang in there. We can make it. :D

FLIPPED

2010-06-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

I've been wondering what happened to the film, Flipped. The cast and crew shot here in the area where I live all last summer, and before the end of August they packed their bags and left. Almost 10 months later, I started wondering what happened to it. Why were there no stills or trailers or any interviews or anything else concerning the movie anywhere?! I know it's not the most-looked-forward-to movie of the year, but there should've been a press release or something here and there.

So there I was, wondering about the fate of the film, and hoping it wasn't shelved or forgotten, then two days ago, on Steph Su Reads, there was an interview with Wendelin Van Draanen, the author of the book, with a link to her blog. Now, I haven't been on her blog since, um, I think last September, so I just decided to check it out, and oh, guess what? This appeared:

That's right, the theatrical poster for the movie! Ahh, everything is so perfect about it! The tree, the horizon, the "You never forget your first love" caption (which is a little dramatic, but hey, it's a film made in Hollywood :D), Bryce and Julie, and Rob Reiner, who directed the Princess Bride, helmed this project, so it shouldn't be too wrong-He's great at adapting books to films! Well, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know when I get excited, I get really...ecstatic! Really, really ecstatic. So I guess you can tell that for the rest of the evening, I was in my happy place. :D

Then yesterday evening, GreenBeanTeenQueen, revealed the theatrical trailer-

-sooo...that caused quite an eruption in my house. Of course I had to show it to everyone in my family! The schools, the homes, the trees, they were part of my town, and the cast and crew were here! I am so beyond excited for this movie. The cast looks great, especially Callan McAullife who's playing Bryce. I mean, he's playing the main character, and judging from the few scenes they have here, he's going to be excellent. :) The whole film looks great, the spirit of the story is there it seems, I get why the screenwriters decided to set the story in the 50's (I totally agree with them too), so I'm crossing my fingers hoping for it to be wonderful! And I hope it is a success. Wendelin Van Draanen and her story deserves it...and the cast and crew deserves it I guess, but she is the one who started it all.

*Sigh* Now I wish I visited the sets when they were here! (If they didn't allow me, I would've sneaked in. Just kidding of course, um, I think. :P)

A Return/Birthdays/Nixon/Some Lucky People/And an Award!

2010-05-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Bonjour mes amies! Après un mois, je suis revenu. (Translation: Hello, my friends! After one month, I have returned. :D) I can't believe it's been one month already since I last written something. Yeesh. See, at least I'm still alive. All the homework, tests, and term papers haven't killed me...yet. :P

But, May 17th was my blog's first birthday! Hip hip hooray! Time for a virtual birthday party, and a short speech! Well, first of all I want to thank everyone for reading this blog, and getting to know everyone else has been great. I know I haven't been blogging much, so thanks for sticking with me. Now, in honor of the Flying Scribble's birthday, here are some virtual birthday brownies for all. Don't worry, there's enough for everyone, so you can take a piece:

And perfectly to go along with the birthday celebration, the awesome Elle has given me my first blog award! *sniff sniff*
Thanks Elle. *sniff again* It made my day. :D Since I got it on May 18th, I'll consider it a birthday present for the blog. :) I'll get to the meme soon!

I've also gotten my braces off after two years. Having straight teeth feels so surreal, but I actually kind of miss my braces. They were part of my life for a while, and suddenly not having them anymore feels strange still. Heh, heh. Oh, well. :)

Frost/Nixon the movie is AMAZING. Eek!! I could talk about the movie and the subject for days, but I'll just say that if you like journalism, history, and great filmmaking, you'll love it. I have to research the subject for a paper we have to write, and I'm glad I picked this movie. I really don't know if I should pity Nixon or not. I mean, was he really that bad? He was strange for sure, but interesting, but maybe, just maybe, he was a little misunderstood. Hmm...anyways, I LOVED this film, and now I get the whole Nixon administration. Our textbook made Nixon's story so confusing. tsk tsk.

Also, I finally got a Conspiracy of Kings, and it's sitting on my bed waiting to be finished this weekend. I also started reading Sense and Sensibility, so hopefully I'll get a couple of reviews up in the next couple of weeks. Unlike some people who get out of school today*cough* Cate *cough*, I still have three more weeks of school left, so I still won't get around to writing much.

So yeah, 3 more weeks until freedom! Until I have more time to write, or until vacation starts, ciao! And thanks for sticking around. I promise I won't ever leave this blog for one month ever again. er, hopefully. (As you can probably tell from this post, I'm still a little out it.) Oh yeah, and I have a little advice for future high schoolers: Never miss four consecutive days of school. Not. Good. At. All.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

2010-04-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

It's hard to write an original review when the book's been around for 200 years, so I'll write a poem reviewing it instead. (BTW, I think I should warn you that the poet in me is severely lacking. :P)

Jane Austen's beloved love story
with
intelligent and lively Elizabeth,
and proud but dashing (and smart) Mr. Darcy,
is
unforgettable,
timeless,
adored by most,
and now, even me.

Ta-da! :D

So I did finish the book, and I cheered with happiness! To understand my happiness, you have to know about the relationship between P&P and I: Last April, we got an assignment in English in which we had to read a novel by a foreign author, and basically we had to write a letter to the author about it and such. I picked P&P because I thought it would be fun reading old English, but I didn't know anything about P&P before the assignment other than it was written by classic author Jane Austen, it was a love story, and the most recent movie version had Keira Knightly playing the lead role.

To make a long story short, there was some family chaos that erupted at the time, so I couldn't finish the novel (but I finished the letter thanks to my grandfather, my friends, and the first ten chapters I read), but I made a promise to Jane Austen's memory that I would read it someday, and that someday was yesterday, because I sprained my ankle the day before playing Tennis, and I had to stay home from school. :D

Now about the book, all I can say is that I think that Jane Austen was a brilliant observer of the society around her. The characters are realistic, and show true emotion. There's at least someone that we can all relate to in the story or someone like the characters that we see all the time wherever we go. There's immense truth in the pages about how everyone views the world, about pride and prejudices, and about first impressions and how they're not always correct. For a while, it felt like I was reading a foreign language book, because of all the "translating" I had to do, and it took me twice the time it would take for me to read a similarly lengthy novel, but it was worth it. :D

Oh, honestly, I really can't explain my immense love for this novel and I know I'm doing a really bad job explaining it, so I'm just going to conclude with me recommending you to read it too someday, and saying that I will be reading the rest of Jane Austen's novels. (I think Sense & Sensibilty and Persuasion are up next in line for me. :]) Oh, gosh, I love the classics.

Earth Day!

2010-04-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today is, as we all know, Earth Day! Hooray! :D Last year, I made an environmental blog for journalism, and for my very first post in the blogging world, I wrote a bunch of awesome (and some frightning) facts about our very own planet. I just thought I would pull them out again in honor of today:

-The Earth is actually pear-shaped! Scientists have found that the top is pushed in and the bottom bulges out. Weird, isn't it?

-Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface, now they only cover 2%.

- The largest ocean on earth is the Pacific, which was named after the pacifists who were killed and tossed into it by pirates and malevolent mariners.

- 80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface.

- Roughly 2,000,000 pounds of space dust enters the atmosphere from space every year and reaches the planet's surface. Some scientists claim that they bring space microbes that cause the flu!

- There are about 10.5 million species existing on the planet now.Environmentalists are predicating that more than half are predicted to go extinct.

-There is 97% of salt water and only 3% of fresh water. (Since we're consuming the fresh water so fast, that 3% is probably soon going to disappear.)

I think Nathan Hale put it perfectly when he wrote today and said, " I am glad that we have an Earth." :)

---

Every Earth Day (and actually every holiday), I always look forward to the Google logo! Last year's was this:

This year's is this:

Which one do you like better? I still like last year's, but this year's is very pretty too. (BTW, yes I do like to save all the fantastic, special Google logos that I see :D) Anything special you do in school or other places for today? In one of my classes, we ate a scrumptious Chocolate cake with a tree on it. :D (Oh, and we went around and cleaned our campus, like we do every year :P)

Oh, cloudy day, how I feel so conflicted about thee

2010-04-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

I wish today was sunny, not cloudy. It would make me feel better about studying for the APUSH exam and finishing up the rest of my homework. :P Hmm...

Well, onto the main reason why I'm posting- My latest obsession has been watching piano covers for my favorite movie songs or tunes! :D I don't know why, but one day during spring break, I saw a magnificently done cover of "A Whole New World" (found later in this post), and then I started listening to others I could find.

I adored all of these sooooo much:

This one brought so many memories back, (as well as this one) and I love this tune in the Anne of Green Gables movie. This took me back to the shores of Prince Edward Island. Ahhh...

Part of Your World is one of my most beloved Disney songs of all time. :) This cover is soo beautiful...

I actually just watched Aladdin two weeks ago, and like many others, fell in love with this song. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to this video. :D

This one made me tear up! (Well, this is from the second most emotional parts of the movie!) At least it ends happily. I love the Lion King...

(I recommend seeing the other covers from this user ^. They're all amazing, and well done.)
-----

*sigh* Aren't they all lovely? These videos added a little happiness to my day, and I hope they do to yours. :D

Teehee...now, back to studying for APUSH!

An announcement by Mr. Riordan, and recipes!

2010-04-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Percy Jackson fan in me was very overyjoyed when she saw the following in her google reader:
- Rick Riordan, the author of the amazing Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, has officially announced the title for the new Camp Half-Blood series! While the cover hasn't come out yet, we do know that Book 1, will be called The Lost Hero, and it will be released on October 12! Here's a little blurb about the book that came from the official press release:

After saving Olympus from the evil Titan lord, Kronos, Percy and friends have rebuilt their beloved Camp Half-Blood, where the next generation of demigods must now prepare for a chilling prophecy of their own:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Now, in a brand-new series from blockbuster best-selling author Rick Riordan, fans return to the world of Camp Half-Blood. Here, a new group of heroes will inherit a quest. But to survive the journey, they’ll need the help of some familiar demigods.

Am I excited? Yes, I think a little. Ok, not just a little... A LOT. I can't wait for this series, and I'm just so happy that we'll see a few of the old characters again. I've been so used to waiting for a release of a Percy Jackson book every Spring that now I can hardly believe there'll be none to look out for this May. :( So...yay for the announcement of the new book! I'll be waiting anxiously for Mr. Riordan to post up the cover, and the rest of the information from now on.

Speaking of Percy Jackson, Heather from the Secret Adventures of WriterGirl, posted up a recipe for Percy's Golden Ambrosia. It sounds delicious. (Maybe I'll make these for the release of the new CHB book in the fall. :D) Here's the second one she provided. :)

The Princess Bride

2010-04-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, and you've killed my father. Prepare to die."

:D And that phrase up there, as many probably already know, comes from the classic, the Princess Bride. One word I would use to describe this book: clever. It's dazzlingly clever. The dialogue is clever, the characters are clever, the setting is clever, and the author-oh my goodness. I was halfway through the book when I realized who the author really was... (I hope I wasn't the only person who did that. Everything was so convincing. :0)

The Princess Bride has officially become one of my cherished books of all time. If you haven't read this yet, drop what you're doing, go to the nearest library or bookstore, and read it (well, put it on hold if you have to first :P), because it has: (Oh, I just love this part of the description)- fencing, fighting, torture, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, hunters, bad men, good men, beautifulest ladies, snakes, spiders, beasts of all nature and descriptions, pain, death, brave men, coward men, strongest men, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion, and miracles.

:)
------
And now for my most favorite quotes in the book, (along with the one up there) *Minor Spoilers*:

"You have dizzying intellect." - The man in black

Inigo: "I donna suppose you could speed things up?"
The Man in Black: "If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a tree branch or find something useful to do."
Inigo: "I could do that. I have some rope up here, but I do not think you would accept, my help, since I am only waiting to kill you."
The Man in Black: "That does put a damper on our relationship."

"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."- Westley

" Well," Inigo began, "ten years is what? About thirty-six hundred days. And that's about- I figured this one out once, so I remember pretty well- about eighty-six thousand hours. Well, I always made it a point to get four hours of sleep per night. That's fourteen thousand hours right there, leaving me perhaps seventry-two thousand hours to account for."
" You slept. I'm with you. What else?"
" Well, I squeezed rocks."
" I'm sorry, my hearing sometimes fails me; it sounded like you said you squeezed rocks."
-Inigo to Yeste

-----
(Of course, there are a ton more quotes I would love to write, but I have to stop somewhere don't I?)

I would also like to say that the movie has become one of my favorites too. It has perfect casting, and just like the book, it's suspenseful, funny, witty, delightful and basically, it's awesome. It's one of the few movies that, I believe, does justice to the book it has been adapted from (partly because the screenplay writer is William Goldman, himself). It's definitely not one to be missed. :D

The Princess and the Frog

2010-04-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

My friends and I got together yesterday afternoon, and after a loong series of emails and phone calls about what movie to watch, we finally decided on the Princess & the Frog. I've been wanting to watch it for a long time, (I mean, a traditional, hand-drawn, Disney movie, in 10 years?!), so let's just say that I was a little more than ecstatic to watch it. After finishing it, I guess it's fair to say that I really, really, really, really liked this twist of the Frog Prince. (Is that enough reallys? :D)

It's post-WWI New Orleans. The film follows Tiana, who's a hard-working girl, saving enough money to fufill her (and her father's) dream of becoming a chef, and owning a restaurant. Along comes Prince Naveen, who comes from the fictional kingdom of Maldonia, who dances his away into the city for the Mardi Gras masquerade ball in hopes of finding a rich girl to marry, because you see, due to his carefree lifestyle, his parents cut him off, and now he's totally broke. Everything is turned upside down, when he gets tricked by a voodoo master, Dr. Facilier, and he's turned into a frog. After finding Tiana, and convincing her to kiss him (because he believes she's a princess due to the costume she's wearing), she turns into a frog herself. Together, with a couple of new friends, they go on an odyssey to turn themselves back into humans, and learn about themselves, and maybe even find true love along the way. :)

There were four things I absolutely LOVED about this movie: the characters, the animation, the culture, and basically the story. Each character had a well-developed personality, and for this reason I was especially enchanted by Prince Naveen (hehehe :P). We got to know him more than we do the other princes. He's a bit of a weirdo at first, but he's cool and quirky. The last couple of scenes with him and Tiana were especially sweet, and I just liked how supportive he was of Tiana and her dreams. :D The other characters were also eccentric, like Ray the Firefly, Louise the Alligator who dreams of becoming a Jazz musician, Mama Odie the crazy voodo lady, and Tiana, herself.

The animation was sweet, and I liked going back to the original way of hand-drawn movies after watching CG movies all the time. It was...refreshing. And, I enjoyed seeing the Mardi Gras celebrations, and hearing the different style of songs. Though the songs weren't as good as other Disney songs like the one in the Lion King & the Little Mermaid, a few were still catchy. Oh yeah, and the fact that I understood all the little bits of French that were spoken made me happy. :P

The Princess and the Frog tells about how hard work is also needed along with hoping and wishing, friendship, finding out the difference between what you want and what you need, and like all other Disney movies, love. :D It's quirky, sweet, cute, hilarious, and maybe even a little heart-warming at times, and...it's a Disney movie! Now, who doesn't like a good Disney fairytale rendition, huh? Huh?! :D

Revisiting the Goose Girl- Audiobook style!

2010-04-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

So, I finished listening to the Goose Girl audiobook last night. My thoughts on it? Well...

- AMAZING STORY!!! AHH! Each time I read or reread one of the Books of Bayern, I'm again reminded about how brilliant Shannon Hale's writing is.
- It was a Fullcast audio production so instead of one person narrating the story and voicing all the characters, there were multiple actors acting/voicing different parts. Everyone (err...their voices) fit their characters perfectly, especially the actors for Geric, Enna, and Selia.
- The person who voiced Razo made him sound like a 10 year old though, so that disturbed me.
- The audiobook let me relish my favorite parts of the story again (*Gasp* Geric is the...?! Talone?! Ugh, Ungolad!)
- At the very end, there's a little commentary by Shannon Hale, and umm...it was actually the first time I heard her voice, so I was kinda surprised by how she sounded. You know how when you read someone's blog, or article, or something else they wrote, you start hearing their voice (or how you imagine it) in your head, right? And when you hear their real voice, you get taken aback for a while. Well, that's how I was last night. (But it's always fun, matching a face with a voice. :D)
- I think the audiobook increased my love of the story even more. The whole audiobook experience was so enjoyable, and even my brother dropped in to listen to the climax. :D Even if you've already read the story, like me, it'll be fun to go through it again. :) (I'll definitely be rereading the whole series again soon.)

After I finished the audiobook, I've started thinking about the Books of Bayern again, especially the leading ladies. I love Ani. I love how she changes and grows throughout the story. Shannon Hale rocks for writing a character like her. Then there's Rin. She's just like me on so many levels. So much that while I was reading, it sometimes it felt like the story was about me, and my feelings. Anyway, I was just thinking about connecting with the characters, so I wanted to ask something.

So, my lovely readers, if you've read the Books of Bayern, who are your favorite leading ladies of Bayern, and why? Who can you relate to the most? :)

Psst...

2010-04-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

I changed the layout as I promised. What do you think? Oh, and I have break all this week, so I'll try to write something everday! :D

And because I feel like posting it, here's one of my favorite Disney songs:

Which reminds me...I have a tennis match tomorrow. Hopefully it'll rain (like we're expecting it to) and get canceled, because as of right now, I still feel very unprepared. Yeesh. :P

something like a journal entry

2010-03-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post for several days now, but I've been too unmotivated/uninterested, and bascially, have a general lack of something interesting to say. However, today, I am determined to say something, at least, because the time I have right now, might be the only time I'll have available for a while. I don't much much to say, so how about a few life updates? :)

Well, I finished finals last Friday. Luckily, they weren't too hard! :D Though several questions in my APUSH final (aaahh!!!) bugged me, I'm positive I did well in all of them. And because of our finals, we got to have a 3-day weekend of just relaxation and no homework for once. :)

Which brings me to what I did over the break. I read (!), practiced Tennis a bit, and FINALLY watched UP (I think I've been wanting to watch it since last spring). Speaking of reading, I read Calamity Jack (Jack is awesome!), Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Paparazzi Princess, and the newest release in the series, Broadway Lights. I enjoyed the books a lot, but Austin seems to be getting more and more annoying as the series progresses. He's just so passive, and too sweet. If you read it, what do you think?

During the last term, and for my APUSH test prep, I'm planning to read some historical fiction/biographies/interesting non-fiction books that my teacher recommended for us. Here's my list:

1. Gone With the Wind
2. The Great Gatsby
3. Uncle Tom's Cabin
4. A People's History of the United States
5. To Kill a Mockingbird
6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
7. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
8. There Eyes Were Watching God

Anyway, I watched UP! :D And can I just say it's one of the sweetest movies I've ever seen?! All Pixar movies are sooo lovable, and this one is no exception. If you haven't watched it yet, you have to watch it. No, seriously, it's that good. (And Russell is so adorable!) :D If you get a little emotional like me, prepare to cry in the first 5 minutes...and the last five minutes.

I'm going to change the layout soon. I know, I know. If you've been reading this for several months, you'll know how many times I've changed the layout. I think this one is my 7th or 8th layout. It seems that I'm just a little picky when it comes to design and stuff. :P

Oh, and, twelve more weeks until school's out! I cannot believe my sophomore year is ending already. This year seems have gone by in a blink of an eye. Which, by the way, is really frightning me. Thinking of junior year with SAT's, ACT's, college admissions, is really, umm....pressure-y (sorry, I don't know what else to say!). It seems that whatever I do is not enough, and it gets so frustrating. I'm trying to live one day at a time, but that's just waay too hard for me. Not one day goes by now, without me thinking about what's going to happen, and...yeesh, it does get annoying. *sigh*

Oh, and I'm hoping to start something like a film/media club thing at my school soon. I'm getting excited about it, and right now I'm working on getting some cameras to use from the media peeps at my school, and we have to think of a name for the club, of course! It's definitely not going to be film/media club, but something more exciting, more professional, and more...glamorous. :P Now, I just need 8 or more people to come on the first day to officially make it a school organization *coughcough--points at two certain people who should be reading this*

On this exciting note, I shall end this post. :D Maybe, just maybe, I'll get write some reviews later this week, or next week. Maybe. Well, if I don't die in Tennis practice, that is. :P

Here's to hoping for an incredible new term, and that everyone finishes off the school year well! :)

things that are making me smile

2010-03-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Sunshine pouring through my window. It's making me want to jump up and sing "There's Something About the Sunshine" from the *coughcough* Disney movie Starstruck. *coughcough* FYI, I only watched that movie because I was curious about how they were going to go about with the story, of course. :D

The snow, melting. It means that spring is right around the corner! Just seventeen more days...

Anti-communism propaganda movies from the 1940's in APUSH. :D A little exaggerated maybe, but hilarious, and definitely very interesting.

My orthodontists said I'm going to get my braces off in 6 weeks! *sob* I never thought this day would come.

My friends telling me what's it like to get the braces off. I guess I can expect a lot of drool, dust when they take the braces off.

Seeing and talking to some of my old 9th grade classmates after school, yesterday. It's been such a long time since I've seen them...

The Goose Girl audiobook. I love listening to this, especially when I'm making flashcards for French or other classes.

Nathan Hale following me on twitter!

Rachel's recipes! I've learned that cupcakes = Fairy Cakes in the UK. That's so sweet! One day during the summer, I'm going to make them all.

Getting back on track in school. It always takes me a couple of days after vacation to start doing things regularly, and I'm not the procrastinator anymore. Yay, homework! (Being positive helps with the procrastination problems. :D)

Honey Nut Cheerios, my comfort food and one of my favorite snacks. I don't think I can survive without them.

The Oscars are on Sunday! Did I ever mention I have this deep love for the Academy Awards? I can't wait for this one (though I only watched like two movies on the whole list of nominees).

writing this list is certainly making me smile. ;)

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

image

Blog Update

2010-02-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone! I've been wanting to write, but I don't know what to write and the days have been going along just like that. Hmm...I think I have a case of blogger's block. It's really frustrating when that happens. :/

Well, in order to appease those frustrations, I made an About Me page and also a Books page! :D The links can be found as tabs below the header. The About Me page is...about me, and has some fun facts about my interests. The Books page has bookish fun facts about me, and has links to my goodreads page, and the book reviews I have written. Umm...any other page I should add? I feel like I'm missing something, but I don't know what...

---
So, I guess that's it. Our term's coming to an end soon, and I have to concentrate more on my work, so I must say farewell for a couple weeks. Ciao!

P.S. I touched the Berlin Wall last week. No, really, I did. My french teacher was there when they knocked it down, and apparently they let spectators take pieces of it as souvenirs. Last week, she passed it around the class, and having a piece of history in my hands felt so surreal (I've always wanted to use that word!).

My thoughts on the Lightning Thief: the movie

2010-02-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

It's really funny to me, because it feels like it was only yesterday that Rick Riordan wrote on his blog that Logan Lerman and Brandon T. Jackson have been cast as Percy and Grover. That was waay back last March. Now 11 months later, the movie has come out, and right now, I'm sitting on my bed, writing a review of it. Time went by fast didn't it? :/

Well, anyway, I went into the movie last night with mediumish expections. I was scared they were going to ruin everything, and, I was hoping so badly that it would be at least a little decent. But...I enjoyed it! :-D (I'm so happy right now. *squee!*)

~Spoilers~
Ok, let's talk about the cast first, shall we? :) I think the highlight of the cast was (not so surprising after watching tons of interviews) Brandon T. Jackson. He totally stole the spotlight in all the scenes. He added a new dimension to Grover, and the new toughness was a nice add to his character. At first, I did miss the timid/frightened Grover, but as the movie went on, I started loving this version of his character more and more.

Logan Lerman was PERFECT...I was kind of sad that most of the comedy scenes went to Brandon (and that's my biggest complain about his character since I loved Percy's humor in the book so much), but Logan still had a few (like the Capture the Flag scene :-D) and comedy scenes or not, he was wonderful as Percy. (I'm still amazed at how they found a guy that looked 99% like the Percy in my imagination :D) In the movie, they add a little more angst to Percy's character, and, oh my goodness, I loved him in every scene. (No, I didn't like just because he is quite good-looking. He was really great.) ;)

Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth was OK. I was disappointed that they didn't give her much of a role. (I noticed that they gave all her lines in the book to Grover in the movie). They took out everything I admired about her character- her strategy skills (she brags about them, but doesn't show them), her know-it-allness, her pride-but oh well.

The adult cast was awesome! I especially loved Kevin McKidd as Posiedon, Uma Thurman as Medusa (my, the Medusa scene is probably one of the best in this movie!), and Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, and the rest did great too. :)

So, on to everything else now:

Hmm....I think about 60% of the book is changed around, but it's still a pretty good adaption. This had plenty of clever, hilarious, and epic scenes.

I liked the pacing the movie. Everything wasn't too rushed (though Percy could've grieved more about his mom), and the writers still kept all the major scenes and dialogue that were in the book. I think it would've been better if it was longer though.

The soundtrack wasn't too bad either...

The Olympus scene, and the beginning scene with Zeus and Posiedon were kinda cheesy. The dialogue was weird, and a little bit too dramatic. Hehe...some of the dialogue in other scenes were cheesy too. There was also these voiceovers by Posiedon which were done because Percy and other demi-gods sometimes hear their parents talk to them in their heads because they're not supposed to directly talk to them. Those were done so...I don't want to say badly, but that's the only way I can say it without being too mean to them.

Ok, I think the biggest problem I had with this film, was Luke. Jake Abel was nice as Luke, but the problem is, he's only in like, umm, 4-5 scenes? And what was up with no Annabeth/Luke? His character is not well-established, and so it's hard to care for him or understand him. They make him so forgettable. And also, the climax scene was weird. Oh, and no one knows what happens to him in the end! After the climax scene, no one ever mentions him again. Oh no, poor Luke. :P

Oh yeah, and the Persephone's pearls subplot was so unnecessary. It's this part that made it so un-PJOish. Why couldn't they keep the original quest?

Well, they also made things more intense of course! Like the scene between Percy and Gabe before they have to leave for Camp, or that scene when they go down into the Underworld. The intensity was great.

I liked the first half of the movie so much more than the second half. The second half felt a bit choppy (with the climax/Olympus scene/etc.) and I thought they could've done it better.

I'm glad they aged up the characters, and I can see why they decided to do that now.

I thought the last and final scene was done well. It was too cute. :)

So overall, I was happy with this. Honestly, I'm not picky about book-to-movie adaptions that much, and I don't get upset if things are not literally translated from the book to the screen (they can't keep everything in...it's a movie...). As long as the characters and story are true to the book, I'm satisfied. I just thought that they could've tried more to stick to the original story, but I'm glad I saw The Lightning Thief on the big screen. It's worth a watch if you're a PJO fan* or if you want to watch a fun, light-hearted movie. :)

P.S. After the movie ends, stay seated during the credits for an extra scene!

*Though if you're a PJO purist, it'll probably be better to stay away from this. :P

Eeep!!

2010-02-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I say eep!, or eek! in every other post, but this time I finally do have a really exciting reason to say it for.

The title and book cover for the third and final book of the Hunger Games trilogy has been revealed today by Scholastic! And here it is, basking in all it's glory:

Isn't it so brilliant?! It's so peaceful and majestic...eep!! :-D Mockingjay is coming out August 24th. I don't think I can wait that long...

aaahh!!

*faint*

All for La Chandeleur :)

2010-02-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling sick all afternoon yesterday, so I stayed home today. I'm bored now, of laying down in bed all day, so I'm going to write a little bit about making crepes! February 2nd was La Chandeleur (the Day of the Crepes, though originally known as the Virgin Mary's Blessing Day), so for our French class, each student had to bring five crepes to eat. (Yep, we had a little crepe party going on. :P )

I wanted to wake up at 5 in the morning, so I would have enough time to make my crepes all gourmet and such, like this:

but my alarm didn't go off, and I ended up waking up at 5:40. I got ready fairly quickly, and I made my crepes in about 30 min. (Phew! I didn't miss the bus!) Well, because of the lack of time, the crepes didn't turn out as fancy as I had originally planned.

They were all tiny, so they fit into a small sandwich box

because the mix didn't spread all around the pan like it was supposed to:

One wasn't even a circle at all! What do you think it looks like?

And these are all my five crepes:

I think the one on the top was the best. Hehe...as you can see, I sort of burned one crepe, but the good thing is each student ate their own! We only shared the toppings. (By the way, I think Nutella is the best crepe topping, ever.) My crepes might've been small and weird-looking, but they were quite tasty (if I do say so myself :P). I love making crepes.

-----

If you have a sudden desire to eat crepes after reading this post, I suggest using this recipe. They're quick, and easy to make! Not to mention, delicious. :)

the first image via google images

East

2010-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

by Edith Pattou

East is a beautifully crafted tale about love, family, growing up and I enjoyed reading it immensely. The story is told in the point of view of five people- Rose, her father, Neddy (her older brother), her mother, and White Bear. The multiple perspectives threw me off a bit at first, but as I got more into the book, I realized how much better it was because of them. You got to know each person in and out, and could easily connect with them. (I particularly thought the White Bear chapters at the beginning were beautifully written, because Edith Pattou captures his emotions so well with such few words.)

The story is wonderful mix of Beauty and the Beast, the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and is actually a retelling of an old Norwegian folk tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. There are some parts that will made me smile, grip the book tightly with fear, gush with happiness, maybe even tear up, but once I started, I never wanted to put it down. (I can assure you that I had a difficult time trying to persuade myself to close it, and continue my homework. :-D)

I wholeheartedly give East five stars, and especially recommend it to Shannon Hale fans, or anyone who loves a good fairy-tale retelling (although anyone can read it and enjoy).

P.S. Isn't the cover so pretty? C'est magnifique, non?

The Penderwicks

2010-01-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

by Jeanne Birdsall

The Penderwicks is about four sisters, Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty (short for Elizabeth), their dog, Hound, and their father, when they get fatefully stuck in Arundel, a fancy estate where their summer cottage is. Being stuck in Arundel turns into a good thing when they meet Jeremy, the landlady's son. All together, they explore Arundel and see all that it has to offer, face strict parents, and learn what true friendship is.
-(Very cheesy summary, I know.)

Ah...what can I say about this book, other than it was one of the BEST books I've ever read in a long time? It was just so sweet, and peaceful, and very...umm...how do I say it? Summer-y. To quote the blurb on the back of the book, "this is a story as breezy and carefree as a summer day." When I was reading it, it suddenly felt as if I got transported to a hot July afternoon, and I was sitting in my backyard, underneath some shade, and watching the story unfold. :-D

I adored all the characters, especially the Penderwicks family! I loved the relationship between them, and how they worked together to solve their problems. The four Penderwick sisters were all likeable and relatable in one way or another. Being the oldest child in my family, and having spent the several past few summers hanging out with my younger neighbors, I could relate to Rosalind quite a bit (but I don't exactly remember being that mature when I was twelve). I liked Skye's need for independence, Jane's love of books, and Batty was just cool being Batty. :P

The plot itself was fairly simple, yet charming. The story and the characters start to grow on you as you go along. I enjoyed the first few pages, but it wasn't until a certain apology made by Jane a couple of chapters in, that it wholly won me over. I wish I could quote it, but sadly, the book is back in the library shelves, where it belongs. But anyway, I don't know how anyone can not like a story that involves rabbits, delicous brownies, books about the Civil War, cranky moms, a teeny dash of romance, great escapades, and crazy, wild bulls. Yeah, seriously, it's really good. ;)

I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes a wonderful, cozy, feel-good, quick read. It's just what you need if you feel like escaping the cold for a while. :)

The Case of the Mysterious Footprints

2010-01-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

Last night, I looked out my window to find these in my backyard:

Footprints! Very un-human-like footprints! They started from the side of my house, and went into my backyard. Well, they definitely didn't come from humans. There's my footprint right next to it to prove it.

Judging from this picture, it looks like it came from a dog-

The only problem with that was that is that the footprints were quite large, and all the dogs on my street are tiny. The picture below raises the possibility that the animal either has claws, or hoofs...maybe...

The real creepy thing is that...the creature only has two legs. Well, that's we think because when I went outside and checked, there was only one pair of footprints. If the animal had four-legs, there would've been two pairs. *Shudders* And it's strange how it looks as if the animal was placing one foot directly in front of the other. The footprints are in a straight line (my footprints are on the left)-

They stop abruptly in the middle of my backyard, but my dad just said the snow probably covered the rest up (and I'm pretty sure he's right about that).

-------

Umm...so, does anyone know any two-legged, hoofed and/or clawed animal? Well, whatever that creature was, I hope it's long gone from my neighborhood. *Shudders again*

An Epic Fail (as some people would say)

2010-01-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today was crazy. Probably one of the craziest day of the school year yet. No, not crazy. It was disappointing. Upsetting. Frustrating. Self- confidence-diminishing. Sad. About a month ago, my friends and I in our business class decided to team up for a University business plan competition that high school students can enter in. We started it, but our idea was huge, and we needed permission from certain groups of people, and a lot of financial and other legal documents. So over winter break, we decided to forfeit this year, research more, become experts on our plan, and work on our business plan little by little each month this year, and get it finished and polished for next year's competition.

The day we came back from break, we told our business teacher, who was also our very supportive advisor for the whole thing, about taking our time with the plan, and entering next year. She agreed with us, and emailed the man in charge of the competition about taking our our names. The guy, emailed back, and told us that we should enter even if our plan is horrible, because (as he said) "we have nothing to loose." So there we were, staying after school everyday, getting the permission from the group we needed, looking up all the financial aspects of the business, trying to finish all that we needed, and with that, there also were tears, fights, staying up until midnight sometimes, and getting distracted by tongue twisters on the internet involved.

We didn't finish. We were so close too. I guess my friends and I knew that we never would, even when we agreed with our teacher, when she told us that we could still enter the competition. She became enthusiastic with our idea, and helped us as much as possible this past week. See, that's the problem. We didn't care that we didn't finish. It was just that, in the end, we disappointed our teacher. Our teacher, who stayed after school every day and finish, trusted us, and helped us get everything we needed. Maybe we didn't disappoint her, but her face fell, when she came over to us this morning to ask us about our business plan entry and my partner told her that there was no way that we could turn it in this evening.

I almost burst into tears when I saw her look change from hopefulness to sadness when my partner told her our news. It was worse than we could bare. I know that we really did have no chance of finishing, but I hate failing, or disappointing people. Especially people who work so hard to help. And at the end, I ended up doing what I hated.

Life can get so weird sometimes.

In 2010, I'm looking forward to...

2010-01-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

Books (in the order they come out):

Calamity Jack- Sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, of my favorite graphic novels of all time. It also happens to be coming out this Tuesday (Jan. 5th). As you can probably tell from the title, the main character is Jack (a thief who belongs to a certain fairytale that involves a beanstalk), who I fell in love with while reading RR, so of course I have to read it as soon as it comes out!

Heist Society (Feb. 9th)- written by Ally Carter (author of the Gallagher Girls series), and it's about clever, teenage thieves. What's not to get excited about? (And isn't the cover just gorgeous?)

A Conspiracy of Kings (March 23)- The fourth book in the Queen's Thief trilogy (but I guess it can't be called a trilogy anymore :P). I LOVED the first three, so I was ridiculously happy when I heard there was a new one coming out! Can't wait to see Gen again, though I read it's mainly about Sophos, another charming character who was first introduced in the Thief. (Hmm...what is it with all these theives? First Jack, Kat, and now Gen.)

Only the Good Spy Young- the fourth book in the Gallagher Girls, but it's about spies, not thieves this time. Coming out June 15th! Just in time for my birthday. :)

Films:

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Look, another thief!)- I hope it'll be good, for Rick Riordan's sake at least. If they mess it up...well...let's not go there yet...

Alice in Wonderland (March 5th)- Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Roald Dahl + Charlie and the Chocolate Factory= most hilarious movie ever, so Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Lewis Carroll + Alice In Wonderland should be pretty good.

Toy Story 3- Yay! I can't believe a third one is coming out! It looks like it would be a great movie judging from the sneak peeks.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I - Er, does this need an explanation? I CANNOT WAIT. I know it's going to be my favorite HP movie ever. It'll be torture waiting for the second part to come out in July 2011 though. (I can't believe it's ending....*sob*)

Life:

I can't think of any exciting thing happening to me except that I'm turning 16 this summer. (Actually, I'm more nervous about this than excited, but I guess it's not everday you turn 16).

Oh, and if all goes well, my family might be going to Italy this summer for a couple of weeks.
--------
Looking through the list again, it looks like 2010 will be an epic year full of thieves, traveling, and awesome films! Hopefully, this year will be as good as it looks like. :P

Time to reflect on the year

2009-12-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

This year, I read 49 books. Compared to the...umm...I think 10 (*cringe*) books that I read last year, it's a lot! Ahem, so, for a little challenge and fun, I decided to pick out the top ten of the year. Enjoy!

Nonie's Top Ten Favorite Reads of 2009 (in no particular order):

1. The Queen's Thief trilogy (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and the King of Attolia)
2. The Hunger Games
3. The Last Olympian
4. The Goose Girl
5. The Mysterious Benedict Society (and MBS and the Perilous Journey)
6. I'd Tell You I'd Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You
7. The Penderwicks (and also the Penderwicks on Gardam Street)
8. Forest Born
9. The Year of Secret Assignments
10. Graceling

Phew! This was my first time creating a top ten list for books, and I never knew it would be so difficult (yet fun)! Honestly, sorting everything out in the list was one of the hardest things I've done in a while. Mostly all the books I've read this were great, and I loved all of them, so it was especially hard to pick out the best ten. Since I couldn't decide between the sequels for a few of them, I just decided to put them all on the list. (After all, they are in the same series anyway.)

Here's a list of books that I loved that I couldn't bare to not mention them in this post, because they ROCK too much not to tell about: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover, Catching Fire, Secrets of My Hollywood Life (1-3), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Into the Wild and Out of the Wild, Rapunzel's Revenge, The House of Dance, Miss Spitfire, The Importance of Being Earnest, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Dragon Slippers

Well, now that you saw the book lists, I'd like to present to you, another list...one not as arduous to make as the first one, but was still difficult-

Nonie's Top Favorites Movies watched for the first time this year (in this order):

1. Avatar ( it really is brilliant)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Felton, and Michael Gambon are amazing in this)
3. Princess Diaries
4. Pride and Prejudice (BBC w/ Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle)
5. Indiana Jones (1-4)
6. Pride and Prejudice ( 2005 w/ Kiera Knightly)
7. Pirates of the Caribbean (1-3)
8. Where the Wild Things Are
9. Sky High (cheesy but at the same time, quite funny :P)
10. The Mummy (hehe...)

So there you have it. My top ten reads of the year and the top ten movies of the year. 2009 was a great year for the me, books & media-wise. I got introduced to a ton of amazing new authors and new movies, and my family had a little bonding time during the summer with most of these movies, so they're special to me. :-D

Well, time for me to conclude this post, sooo...hope everyone had a fantastic 2009, and that you'll have an even better 2010! Happy New Year's!

So I made some Chocolate Mousse...

2009-12-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

For extra credit in French, I had to make some Mousse au Chocolate, all by myself. (Eek!...Le horror!) So, since I had to, I did. Alas, since I'm not such a wonderful cook, everyone else in my family was a little frightened to try it (oh, and they were just a teeny bit freaked out about raw eggs in the mousse). My brother was the only one brave enough to eat a spoon of it at first. Fortunately, he declared it edible and ate some more, and the rest of us slowly tried some. Unfortunately, a while later my brother announced that he got a huge stomachache, so the rest of us quickly took a step back from the mousse, and everyone else made me promise to never make it again.

The End of my Chocolate Mousse adventures.

Hey, at least I tried, and, I'm still getting the credit for making it (hehe).
:-D

Next year, I'm making the Buche de Noël for extra credit (there's always special holiday extra credit available every year in French), so hopefully that'll turn out ok, and not cause any stomachaches. Luckily, I have twelve months to practice. That should be enough time to get it right, right? :)

P.S. If you make some Chocolate Mousse in the future, I advise you to use ReadyWhip whipped cream (when you add the finishing touches on the mousse), instead of CoolWhip. ReadyWhip is thicker, has a better texture, and makes it look like a dessert made in a five-star gourmet restaurant. I used CoolWhip, and it dissolved in the chocolate in this really weird way that made it look soapy. So, yeah, ReadyWhip is pretty awesome.

Edit: My brother kindly pointed out to me that the ReadyWhip whipped cream is in fact not spelled like ReadyWhip; It's ReddiWhip. How embarrasing! *blush*

A Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

2009-12-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I ever mentioned anything about it on this blog, but I adore Calvin & Hobbes. I've always loved them. The Christmas comic strips are one of the most funny, heartwarming, and touching ever.

(Sorry the pictures didn't exactly fit right. I provided a link to the strips if you can't see it properly. :-D Hope you like them!)

This one is hilarious and shows Calvin's dads' sense of humor (which I find very close to my dad's sense of humor):

Calvin writing a letter to Santa:

I have to admit, this strip makes me tear up a little whenever I read it, and it's one of my favorites.

I love this one a lot too.

And finally, because it's Christmas Eve:

Wishing everyone a wonderful, joyous, and a very merry Christmas!

A moment with irony

2009-12-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, we were supposed to have the first snowday of the year. According to weather.com, it was supposed to snow all night, and have around 6-7 inches. So Wednesday night, I come home, eat some fruit snacks, and start working. A couple of hours later, my mind starts thinking about the snowday. If we were going to have the day off, why finish all of our homework right then? I finished all my major homework; I only had a few worksheets left that could be finished in 30 minutes, so I could wake up at seven, finish everything by 8, and enjoy the rest of the day. So that's the schedule I decided to follow. I put my schoolbooks away, and start watching TV.

Turns out, we didn't have a snowday. There was only about two inches of snow on the ground, and two inches of snow is not a reason to close school (at least not in Michigan). With a little bit of groaning, my brother and I go back to school, and return to our regular schedule. During lunch, one of my friend admits he didn't do any of his homework because of the supposed-to-happen-snowday. Laughing, everyone at our table admits that there was some homework that each of us didn't do, and we take whatever we had to have done out, and finish it during lunch.

Later that evening in church, another friend of mine told me she stayed up until 11:30 doing her homework Tuesday night. I told her I did most of my homework, but confessed that there were a few worksheets that I slacked off on. She laughed, teased me, and took a bite of some carrot cake that we were eating at that time. Thursday morning, I find out that her school got the day off because some power failure (and her school is only about two minutes away from mine), and our school, was the one of only buildings in the area that managed to get electricity that day. Yay for us. :P

Lesson learned: Even if a snowday is expected for tomorrow, finish all your homework, just in case the weatherman is wrong, and maybe when you do all your homework when a snowday is expected, God will reward you with a lot of snow. ;)

( P.S. But usually, when a snowday is predicted, it ends up being a snowday. One day last year, where we had this suprise blizzard in the middle of April, and we got the day off. Now, that, was weird. )

This Thanksgiving....

2009-11-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful for:

- God
- life. :)
- my family-Though they do drive me crazy sometimes (especially my brother), I can't imagine living without them. They support me, and encourage me through my hard times, and keep me on track in life.
- my friends- Who else laughs at my sometimes not-so-funny jokes and helps me out when I need help in Algebra? ;)
- laughter
- love
- good health
-My high school- Yes, like my family, it sometimes makes me want to rip my hair off my scalp, but I'm thankful that I go to a place where everyone cares about giving the students a valuable education and life skills to help us in the future. All of the staff are super nice and funny (even the security people). It's an overall great place, and I'm glad that I'm going there. (Oh, and our school has houses :-D.)
- music
- books, of course!
- ...and movies!
- coffee shops that are homely, warm, and smell great
- Google (because their google reader, docs, mail, and other products are so efficient!)
- the holiday season :)
- funny people and things
- sleep. Getting more sleep time is great.
- scarves
- tasty food
- my home
- this blog- I started it for book reviews, but it later turned into a place where I can post some random thoughts, so it sort of turned into a journal/review blog. Now I have this deep attachment to this blog.
- you! Thanks to anyone who visits this blog! :)
- my "giving thanks" mood.
- anything else I forgot to write in here but I know I'm thankful for it.

Hope you all have a delightful Thanksgiving!

What's this? A new book cover?

2009-11-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

While I was looking around Amazon for a few things, I came across this:

While the picture on the cover makes for an epic billboard, it, sadly, doesn't look that great as a book cover (even if it does have Logan Lerman on it :P). The image was meant for bigger things than a paperback book, and it's a tad bit too movie-posterish, too hollywoodized for this. It feels as if the effect that the picture is supposed to have on you is getting suppressed. (Err...do I make any sense?) It does have many similarities to the original cover though: the back of Percy's head, who's in a body of water, facing an overcast New York City. Doesn't the title font look the same too?

Whimsical Thoughts #3

2009-11-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

- A few weeks ago I saw that little interesting Caterpillar, which I named George, crawling on a sidewalk on my school's campus. Since it was black with this big red stripe going through the middle (I'm sorry for the bad quality of this picture), I had to take a picture of it. It was quite an exotic Caterpillar. :P

- Thanksgiving is coming up in two weeks! The good new about that: A few of my family members are coming to visit from India. That'll be fun. :-D The bad news about that: Our first term ends the day we go back to school from Thanksgiving break. Unfortunately, that means our finals will be the week after Thanksgiving, which means I'll have to find time to study for all my classes while my relatives are here wanting a tour of the place I call home. Talk about bad timing.

- Everyone seems to talking about the end of the world lately; even in my church. We had a service on that last week, and 2012 the movie comes out today. I don't believe the world's going to end in 2012, but if it does, I'll be very annoyed. 2012 is my graduation year, and all that effort we're putting into school is going to be for nothing. But like I said before, I highly doubt the world's going to end, so that's that.

- My brother and I took my mom out to see Where the Wild Things Are for her birthday two weeks ago. I absolutely loved it. It was a fresh, very raw film and Max's characterization was great and lovable. The Wild Things themselves were great characters, but at the end, they got a teeny bit scary. Maybe it's just the big sister in me, but I kept wanting to jump in there and protect Max whenever they had their wild temper tantrums. The only negative thing I would have to say about this movie is that it felt a little slow a couple of times. But that's it though. It's a beautiful film, and I highly recommend watching it.

One last thing- I have a twitter now! I've actually had to start one for journalism last year, but I've never started using it until a few days ago. I put the link for my twitter on my sidebar. I think I'll be able to update that more than this blog, and have a little fun putting random things on there.

I'm sorry for the lack of any interesting things, but I do have a couple of reviews coming up this weekend. :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

This year instead of taking my neighbors out for trick-or-treating, I'm just going to stay at home and watch all the Halloween specials on TV, while passing out the candies to everyone. That way, I can steal some candy from our stash in the pantry whenever I feel like it, and I won't need to put together a costume at the last minute! Muhawhahhaw! (Yes, I can be very evil sometimes. :P)

Anyway, hope you all have a safe, fun Halloween! Don't get too scared by all the witches, ghouls, skeletons, pirates and fairies walking around your neighborhood. :)

(image from google images)

In honor of the lovely, cold rain today

2009-10-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Here, it's pouring down heavily. So for that, a short poem for everyone:

First Winter Rain by Matsuo Basho

First winter rain-
even the monkey
seems to want a wintercoat