Questions from Katie!

Because I'm at a loss as to what to write, I'll be answering random questions from Katie.

Q:What all did you eat today?

A:Haha, this may be embarrassing. I nibbled on food all day today. It involved some granola bars, a petit four, cottage cheese and mandarin oranges, peanut M&Ms, ham, and a popsicle. There may or may not have been some more in there. Heh.

Q: What do you think of when I say "Marshmallow"?

A: I think of this time when I roasted marshmallows as a kid. We were out in the woods around our house, and we had built up a fire. I think one got dropped on the ground, and our dog Bruno ate it. It got stuck on his nose, and he spent a long time afterwards trying to lick it off.

Q: What is your favorite frozen yogurt topping?

A: Kiwi! I don't know why, but I just love kiwi on top of vanilla frozen yogurt.

Q: Would you rather be burning up/almost dehydrated or FREEZING cold?

A: I would rather be burning up, I guess. Neither sounds very enjoyable, but when I get cold my feet go all numb and frostbitten looking.

Q: Explain the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

A: Well, you see, the explanation involves me making things up completely, since I have no idea what I'm talking about. A long time ago, there was a storm so bad that it swept away all of the animals in the world into a big tornado (which is a Spanish word, but the storm was before Spain). When the winds finally died down, all of the animals were deposited topsy-turvy on the villages, the rivers, and the hills. It was a great mess, but as they fell from the sky, the people shouted "It's raining cats and dogs!" THE END.

A Paper? For Math?

Yes, I'm writing a paper for math. I think it's part of a "writing across the curriculum" program that was instated at my school a few years ago. There really isn't writing all of the way across the curriculum like they had probably hoped, but all I know is that I have to write a math paper once a year. I don't really mind, but this year I got the most vague and general topic possible: math in space.

So I've been scrambling to find somewhere, anywhere to find info about this. I don't even know where to start. Even the internet seems to be at a loss when I make searches. I went to the library and picked up two books (The Facts on File Dictionary of Astronomy and The Universal History of Numbers). There's no way I would read either of those books on my own, and they certainly aren't light reading. They did look promising, so let's hope something useful is in them.

April Showers

Apparently a monster storm is heading this way. I don't really care much about it as long as I get out of school, but that's probably unlikely. I'm going to go ahead and cut this off here, before the power goes out.

...

Three hours later...

My power knocked out the internet just as I was clicking publish. How's that for humor? All of the sudden the lights were flashing on and off, and hail was hitting the windows so hard we had to shout to hear each other. Let's try publishing this again.

Hello Again

I'm back for the second blog of the day. I spent most of today just relaxing after a long, stressful week.

I don't think I've announced it here on my blog, but I've finally picked which college I'm going to, and I have my housing lined up! After so many months of dragging my feet and deliberating (but mostly dragging my feet), I picked Auburn. It was a strange move for me, since I've pretty much rejected college football and large campuses all of my life. This should be an adventure.

I'm excited to start getting the stuff together for my dorm. I've always enjoyed planning how to decorate my room, and this is a chance to get a fresh start at that. My I've already purchased my comforter for my bed, and a lamp to match it.

Words are Curious Things

Hah. The blog everyday thing lasted... a day. Without Katie around to pester me, it's far too easy to forget. So instead, I'm rewording it to be "A Blog for Every Day in April". I can do that. So today, you get two blogs!

I'm growing a marigold in my windowsill. I've just decided to name it Gerald. His little cotyledons (thank you, science class) popped up out of the dirt last night.

But enough of that.

Blog Everyday in April...

... or something like that. Katie has convinced me to give it a shot, but I don't have nearly enough to say to do something every single day. This should be interesting.

So there's one other event in April: Script Frenzy. It's like National Novel Writing Month, except you have to write 100 pages of script in 30 days. It's not nearly as hard as writing a 50,000 word novel, and I found last year that it wasn't that great of a challenge. I probably won't be doing it this year, just because with graduation and such coming up there are more pressing things. Last year I finished it in... about a week? Mariah finished it in well under a week, so I don't think either of us are doing it again.

Yesterday I bought a new album, Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars. I've been listening to their music for a couple of years now, since I got one of their live albums for free. Most of their songs are duets, and I'm always fond of that kind of music.

Now, today was April Fools Day. April Fool's Day? I'm never sure if there is an apostrophe or not. There weren't nearly as many pranks as I had expected, but there were a few, including some cupcakes that weren't actually cupcakes (cold mashed potatoes and meatloaf in disguise), taped sink sprayers, and the like. This day isn't as epic as I remember it being, but then again, I've never been much for pranking.

2010 Movies in Summary

As a farewell to 2010, I'm going to list out every movie I saw in theaters and give each a quick review and rating. Ready? Go!

01/01/10: Avatar

While this movie has stunning graphics, the message in it reminds me too much of Fern Gully for me to enjoy it as much as everyone else seemed to. 2.5/5

01/16/10: The Princess and the Frog

It was nice to see a 2D film again, but this one was nothing special. 3/5

02/05/10: Dear John

I laughed my way through this movie. Unfortunately, I don't think that's what they had in mind when they made it. 1.5/5

04/02/10: How to Train Your Dragon

Love this movie. It's the best animated movie I've seen in a long time. The plotline of it reminded me a lot of the movies from my childhood in the 90s. 4/5

04/10/10: How to Train Your Dragon

What? I liked it that much and my family wanted to see it.

05/07/10: Iron Man 2

Not nearly as good as the first one. Still, it was better than a lot of other superhero movies out there. 3/5

06/25/10: Toy Story 3

This was such an incredibly sad movie. Pixar has always been a hit and miss thing for me, and sadly I didn't like this one as much as I had hoped to. 3/5

07/23/10: Inception

I love movies that make you think, and this is certainly one of those movies. This was my favorite movie that I saw this summer. 4/5

08/02/10: Despicable Me

A cute, if predictable movie. I try not to ask too much of my animated kid movies. 3/5

08/13/10: Inception

I can safely say that it was still confusing even after a second viewing. And now months later, I can say that it does make a little bit more sense after a third.

11/18/20: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

That title is a mouthful. A faithful adaptation of the book, I think this was one of the better HP movies. 4/5

11/19/10: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

It was watchable for a second time in 24 hours, which is more than I could say for The Half-Blood Prince.

11/25/10: Megamind

The realm of kid's animated movies seems over-saturated with superhero type movies, but this one wasn't too bad. 3/5

12/24/10: Tron: Legacy

A much better movie than I had expected. I wouldn't mind watching it again. 3.5/5

Movie Review: Tron: Legacy (PG)

I had to be forced to go to this movie. Both my mom and my brother wanted to see it, and since I really didn't want to sit at home by myself on Christmas Eve I decided against my better judgement to go anyway. Every review I had read about the movie up to that point except one had slammed the movie, so I didn't have high hopes.

I had known that I was going to go see it eventually. Ever since my mom first saw the trailer she said she wanted to see it. In preparation, I was going to watch the original. Since it was nowhere to be found on netflix instant play, and the DVD cost a ridiculous 80 dollars on amazon, I resorted to the less than reputable method of watching it in ten minute chunks on youtube. I couldn't make it past the first 10 minutes. Not a good sign, but it could just be due to the dated feel of the technical talk in the film.

After I left Legacy, I was pleasantly surprised. True, the scripting was still a bit forced (in different ways, at least), but the visuals were stunning and I even enjoyed the electronica soundtrack. It actually ranks pretty high on the list of movies I've watched in theaters this year.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (PG13)

I'm over a month late reviewing this, but here it goes.

Watching this movie just reminds me that the era of my life that started back when I was six or seven is finally drawing to a close. Not to be dramatic, but these books were my life when I was a kid. I would read them over and over and over again, so now that the last few movies are now being released I'm a bit sad.

I rode to the movie theater with one of my teachers (her blog is here). She was dressed like Trelawney, a sharp contast to my own muggle attire. I think we drew some weird looks on the walk into the theater, but we were among our own kind when we stepped into the theater. There were about 20 of us there together, stretched out over a row and a half. We had Tonks, Hermione, Darren Criss' Harry Potter (from A Very Potter Musical), Rowena Ravenclaw, George Weasley sans ear, Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin girl, plus many more. As I settled into my seat, I took to watched the other costumed people walking in. There was a woman dressed as Umbridge who had her outfit spot-on. The costumes are always my favorite part of midnight premieres.

When the movie itself started, I noticed immediately that this was going to be unlike all of the previous ones. The mood was darker, and not in the teenaged-angsty way of the sixth movie.

The movie was over two hours long, but I think the pacing wasn't too bad. There weren't parts that I felt like just getting up out of boredom like there had been in the previous movie.

It's been nearly three years since I last read the final book, but aside from a couple of scenes it stayed pretty true to the original. Now, I'm not one of those book purists (at least, not anymore) who cries foul if it strays even the littlest bit away from the source material. I've come to realize that the novel and the movie are two completely different media and what works in one doesn't always work in the other. I think Deathly Hallows part 1 successfully avoided the pitfalls that come with adaptations. They succeeded in making a movie (albeit a bit long-winded) that didn't completely alienate the fans of the books.

I'll definitely be staying up past midnight for the premiere of the last movie. It's the definitive end of an era in my life, and I think that justifies an all-nighter.

Movie Review: Megamind (PG)

Going to see this movie was a last-second thing. I was doing other things at the time, but when my family called and said they were going I decided to give it a shot. I'm not much for animated superhero movies, especially since they all seem to be repeating the same plot.

Megamind does fall into that category, just with a more modern twist. It was an interesting twist that I saw coming from a mile away, but there ya go. I won't say more just in case.

This movie wasn't unbearable and it was cute at some parts. Overall, I wasn't too disappointed but I wasn't too impressed. One of those movies that could go either way.

Would I watch this again? If it was between this and other recent superhero movies, yes.

My rating: 3 out of 5

NaNoWriMo 2010!

Success! I even finished with more time to spare than I did last year. I always love doing NaNoWriMo, but it's such a wonderful sigh of relief when it's over. I actually have free time again. I might post a review of a movie soon.

Day 3

No writing today. Too busy. This is when my head-start comes in handy.

Day 2

So, I was just going back over what I've written so far and got so distracted by what I had written in one scene that I forgot that I was formatting it. That's a good sign that I'm writing something I would enjoy, right?

I went to the doctor today and couldn't go to school since I was trying to rest from being sick, but of course I didn't get any writing done with all of that extra time. Even though I didn't start writing until 9 at night, I've still managed to keep my lead on the daily word count, but only just. Hopefully, I'll pull even farther ahead with my buffer tomorrow.

Now with chapter 2 out of the way, I'm finally getting to the wild, unplanned frontier of my main story arc. I feel like a pioneer wandering out into the wilderness, armed only with a flashlight and a vague map that has landmasses shaped like food stains, "Here there be plot bunnies" marked in blank spots, and lakes that vaguely resemble character deaths. This should be fun.

5911 words (1855 words ahead of last year)!

Day 1

Day one for NaNoWriMo is drawing to a close. It's been a productive day writing so far. It's all I've done this afternoon since I'm determined to get ahead in the very likely case that I won't be able to write some days. I'm 2548 words ahead of the minimum for the day, which gives me about a day and a half in case something happens. I'm also 1177 words ahead of where I was at the end of the day last year, so that's an improvement.

I've finished the prologue and chapter one, so I think I've (somewhat) set up the backstory and I've started my plot on the event that sets off the main course of events.

Let's see where this goes from here.

4215 words!

7 hours to go...

Just a little over 6 hours to go until NaNoWriMo 2010!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. All throughout the month of November, several hundred thousand people--writers and non-writers alike--get together while still crazed on sugar from Halloween candy and write 50,000 words in 30 days. If you know me, you've probably seen my NaNoWriMo winner shirt from last year. It doesn't matter what's going on in November, it's not November without this event for me now.

I might give you updates on my story occasionally through the month here. It all depends on how utterly exhausted I am after writing, working on my thesis, and all that other stuff.

Wish me luck!

Harry Potter and World-Building

The Harry Potter series will always hold a special place in my heart. I've read the first five books more times than I can count on two hands and a foot, and the last two a handful of times each. In my (relatively short) lifetime, I've only come across one other series that even made me want to reread all of them. Something tells me this is a phenomenon that happens only rarely, and only with those books that really mean something to us.

There are many amazing things about these books that people have written whole books (and theses!) on. But there's one aspect that I've been thinking about recently that I want to talk about. The Harry Potter series exhibits some of the best world-building that I've ever read.

I have had an unusual first encounter with this series. I was around six years old. I had been reading fairly well since kindergarten, and the reading level of the first book was simple enough so that I could read it on my own. Of course, my mom was reading the book to me so that she could explain and edit the story if needed (My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure she glossed over the "dueling" scene that had Harry wandering out at night to fight Malfoy. That scene scared me when I read it on my own later).

I remember looking at the cover, staring at this kid so much older than me in this magical world. I wanted to see this magic, but so far all we had seen was a rude cousin and a zoo that only hinted at anything magical. I wanted to read about the amazing things. So one day I picked up the book on my own and started reading in the middle of the book (awful of me, I know). It was a scene that had Harry and Ron talking. But strangely enough, I imagined them as these two young boys, talking on a playground next to the brick wall of the school. Where was the magical world?

I had skipped right over it. What I had missed were the chapters that so wonderfully and quickly set up this whole new world right in our own. Because I skipped over this, all I saw were two little boys barely older than me talking on the playground, the best setting I could come up with on my own with my first grader mind. But when my mom read it to me that night, and I got the story properly, I was taken to a world I never would have been able to imagine. And there was no going back after that.

I think it's because this magical world does have clear ties with the normal world that make it all the more believable. Who hasn't seen a locked, unmarked door and wondered what was behind it? Who hasn't seen something ordinary and imagined some fantastic idea behind it? Or the train station through the solid brick wall? This series fueled my imagination for my entire childhood.

I think it's time for a rereading.

To Utah!

Behold! A picture blog to feast your eyes upon!

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On our way to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport!

The Dallas Airport. Very modern looking.

Ogden: Home of this sign.

Also home to this Mormon thing and a collection of painted horses.

A theater themed like ancient Egypt. Can't get much cooler than that.

My water had a strawberry in it. Imagine that. Much better than a lemon, that's for sure.

Something was on fire. We spent the drive theorizing what it was.

Here you go, history nuts. The monument at Promontory Point.

If train A leaves the West traveling 100 MPH and train B leaves the East traveling at 100 MPH in a winding, curving fashion and the distance between the two is a whole continent, how far from the East will it be when the two trains meet?

Salt Lake. It smelled really nasty. This is how I think the moon would look if it had water on it.

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For those of you who follow me on facebook, I'll be uploading more pictures with people in them there.

Movie Monday: Groundhog Day (PG)

I was less than a month old when this movie came out, but then again, most of my favorite movies are before my time. I'm going to start a series of themed blog post days, and that makes today Movie Monday. I thought this would be a good first movie since I had been thinking about it earlier through a long, strange train of thought. It led my along its winding path to think that if I was stuck in today, doomed to repeat it over and over, that wouldn't be too bad. After going crazy like the character of the movie does, I could spend my time doing various things and learn life lessons along the way. But to be sure, I definitely wouldn't kidnap a groundhog and drive off a cliff with it.

From a storytelling standpoint, I really love the characterization of the main character and how his imprisonment in time slowly changes him and makes him a man everyone looks up to. He learns from his mistakes (and he makes plenty of them), becomes a better man, and even manages to befriend and save everyone in the town at some point. I wouldn't recommend this movie for younger audiences, but it certainly is among my favorites.

Before School Blues

I'm well into my last week of freedom before the school year starts, and the mixed feelings are already setting in. But I'm not going to miss the long hours with nothing to do as much as I'm going to miss the food. It's nothing amazing and just out of the Food Channel, but there's something wonderful about not having to eat cold peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that taste more like refrigerator and ziplocs than they do anything natural. You know, the kind where the jelly's soaked through the bread and gone stiff, like the sandwich bled out and died in your bag.

I'm going to miss having whatever I want for lunch, so for the next four days I'm going to enjoy lunch. Here's what I had today for lunch:

That right there is the extent of my cooking skills. I overcooked the egg a bit, but it was still delicious and it disappeared within minutes. Later I got creative and made a smoothie:

I know it looks gross and you would probably give me raised eyebrows when I told you what all I put in it but I assure you it was delicious for a first try at making smoothies.

Here's to enjoying varied foods for lunch while we still have a chance!

Movie Review: Despicable Me (PG)

So I finally went to see this movie the other day. It was a long drive up to the movie theater (nearly an hour), but we had to go there since it was the nearest Rave theater that had it in 2-D. I can't see 3-D so Katie was kind enough to change theaters.

It was a cute movie. Some of the sequences in it reminded me of old Loony Toons cartoons where all of the humor was in the character getting blown up or squashed. I found the main character to be a bit creepy at times but I think that was purposeful, and his turn around at the end was really sweet.

But the real adventure was after the movie. The bottom dropped out of the clouds as I was on my way home. The rain was coming down so hard I could hardly see the taillights of the truck in front of me so I stopped at the nearest gas station to wait it out (if that doesn't get me a good driver award, I don't know what will). While I was waiting I ran inside, bought some pretzel M&Ms (which turn out to have the texture of Whoppers, but the taste of a semi-stale pretzel inside), then hopped back in my car and took of now that the rain had slowed. I made it about a mile down the road before being stopped by... a raging river? Across 119?

One hour later, I finally got home. At least we got that rain we needed.

Would I watch this again?: Yes

My rating: 3 out of 5