Ahoy Me Hearties!

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...

...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...

....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...

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

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...

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

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