Psst...

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

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

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!

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Blog Update

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...

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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

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!!

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 :)

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.

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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