This is going to sound ridiculous, ok, well, it is ridiculous, but I am soo freaking angry that they moved the release of the Harry Potter movie back eight months!! Well, maybe not angry so much as sad. Which is really ridiculous, because I don't even really love the movies. They are fine, and they still have the Harry Potter spirit, but they aren't nearly as good as the books. And yet still, I am upset. I was so looking forward to November Harry Potter Craftathon (haha, only Mel would understand) and now I have to wait for next July!
The other thing that sucks about it is that they moved the opening right after they released the trailer and new pictures. Just as I started to get more excited, they pull the rug out from under my feet. Those bastards.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
I can't believe...
that I read Breaking Dawn. I finished it yesterday and I have to say that it was a pretty painful experience. I had read the other three (the first was fine, the other two...not so much) so I felt compelled to read the fourth and it was even more awful than I expected it to be. The plot was weak, characterization non-existent, and Meyers' writing skill is mediocre at best.
I guess now that it's over I can return to reading real books, that is, books that I don't think a child could have written.
I guess now that it's over I can return to reading real books, that is, books that I don't think a child could have written.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Greece!
So, I have posted picture of my trip on facebook but I have only just gotten to the Greece pictures, so I thought that I would give me blog readers (both of them) a little preview.
Temple of Athena-Nike on the Acropolis.
Me at the Parthenon.
Parthenon.
Elesia, Hollie, Me, and Albert at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Me and Hollie at Epidaurus.
The flowers there were gorgeous.
Me and Mrs. Coon at Mycenae.
Colby, Me, Mrs. Coon, and Italo (our amazing tour guide) at the entrance to Mycenae.
Temple of Athena-Nike on the Acropolis.
Me at the Parthenon.
Parthenon.
Elesia, Hollie, Me, and Albert at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Me and Hollie at Epidaurus.
The flowers there were gorgeous.
Me and Mrs. Coon at Mycenae.
Colby, Me, Mrs. Coon, and Italo (our amazing tour guide) at the entrance to Mycenae.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Interesting "Best Books" List
I saw this on my friend Erica's blog and since I have a fascination with books and book lists I had to check it out. This British woman wrote this list of the 100 best books and I have to say that I find the list quite interesting. Completely wrong, but interesting. I think that it's odd that she listed "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a different book from the "Chronicles of Narnia," when it is actually one of "The Chronicles." She did the same thing with "Hamlet" and the "Complete works of Shakespeare," which in itself is an interesting selection in this list. Maybe it's because I haven't read the complete works, but I really can't imagine that his entire body of work deserves to be on the list. Come on: Titus Andronicus, Pericles... I think you would have many people contend that these do not belong. I just think that his work his much too contested (you either love it or hate it) to list it all here.
As much as I enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" I would not go so far as to put it on this list. It was interesting and well-crafted but not enough to be "best books" material. Same goes for "The Lovely Bones." Also, and perhaps most importantly, "The DaVinci Code"?! Is she serious?! Don't get me wrong, I read it, enjoyed it, and was even so intrigued as to read the rest of Dan Brown's fiction collection, but there is no way I would ever put it on a list of the best 100 books. The plot was definitely intriguing but the characters weren't developed and the writing itself was just average. How does Dan Brown make this list and Toni Morrison not?
Despite my issues with the list I do think that some of the selections were well-chosen. "The Handmaid's Tale" is amazing, and I absolutely love "The Color Purple." "Pride and Prejudice" is my favorite book ever and I love "The Bell Jar." Evelyn Waugh is an incredible author and it's also great to see Kazuo Ishiguro on the list. And, of course, I was pleased to see Harry Potter make the list, though I am sure that many people might disagree with its place on this list (I do love those books for a reason, you know- it has an interesting plot, great character development; it's well-constructed and well-written.) Anyway here's how this goes:
1. Read through the list and mark the books you've read in bold.
2. Italicize any you started, but didn't finish.
3. Color the ones you loved in green.
4. Publish the list on your blog!
1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of PI - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
As much as I enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" I would not go so far as to put it on this list. It was interesting and well-crafted but not enough to be "best books" material. Same goes for "The Lovely Bones." Also, and perhaps most importantly, "The DaVinci Code"?! Is she serious?! Don't get me wrong, I read it, enjoyed it, and was even so intrigued as to read the rest of Dan Brown's fiction collection, but there is no way I would ever put it on a list of the best 100 books. The plot was definitely intriguing but the characters weren't developed and the writing itself was just average. How does Dan Brown make this list and Toni Morrison not?
Despite my issues with the list I do think that some of the selections were well-chosen. "The Handmaid's Tale" is amazing, and I absolutely love "The Color Purple." "Pride and Prejudice" is my favorite book ever and I love "The Bell Jar." Evelyn Waugh is an incredible author and it's also great to see Kazuo Ishiguro on the list. And, of course, I was pleased to see Harry Potter make the list, though I am sure that many people might disagree with its place on this list (I do love those books for a reason, you know- it has an interesting plot, great character development; it's well-constructed and well-written.) Anyway here's how this goes:
1. Read through the list and mark the books you've read in bold.
2. Italicize any you started, but didn't finish.
3. Color the ones you loved in green.
4. Publish the list on your blog!
1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of PI - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Tagged- ABC's
I was blog surfing while bored at worked and noticed that I got tagged by Erica. Since I have nothing better to do, I decided I would fill this out. Yes, my life is boring.
A- Attached or single: Single, most definitely.
B- Best Friend: Casandra and Jordan.
C-Cake or Pie: Pumpkin cake...mmm.
D-Day: Sunday, as long as I don't have to work.
E- Essential Item: Books. I always have to have one with me.
F- Favorite Color: Green.
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears. I like to bite their heads off :)
H-Home town: Born in Butte, MT but raised in Kearns, UT
I- Indulgences: Glamour magazine, Kelly Clarkson, cheesecake
J- January or July?: Well, they each have their ups and downs.
K-Kids: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA! No.
L-Life is incomplete without: like Erica said, family and friends.
M- Marriage Date: I am more the "always a bridesmaid never a bride" type.
N- Number of Siblings: Two brothers, one sister, one brother-in-law.
O- Oranges or Apples: oranges.
P- Phobias or Fears: failure
Q- Quote: "Not all those who wander are lost."- J.R.R. Tolkien and "As though to breathe were life!"-Alfred Lord Tennyson
R- Reason To Smile: Despite my cynicism, I truly can't think of ONLY one reason to smile. There really are quite a few.
S- Season: Autumn.
T- Tag Three: See below
U- Unknown fact about me: For the most part I hate all seafood, but I randomly crave tuna fish.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Mmm...chicken.
W- Worst Habit: Worrying, popping my gum, and I can't believe I almost forgot this- but um, tardiness, hehe.
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: just had my teeth x-rayed a few weeks ago.
Y-Your favorite food: You can't ask this question to a fat kid. It's not fair.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Aries
So, Cas, Tecia, and Staci if you read this- you've been tagged.
A- Attached or single: Single, most definitely.
B- Best Friend: Casandra and Jordan.
C-Cake or Pie: Pumpkin cake...mmm.
D-Day: Sunday, as long as I don't have to work.
E- Essential Item: Books. I always have to have one with me.
F- Favorite Color: Green.
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears. I like to bite their heads off :)
H-Home town: Born in Butte, MT but raised in Kearns, UT
I- Indulgences: Glamour magazine, Kelly Clarkson, cheesecake
J- January or July?: Well, they each have their ups and downs.
K-Kids: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA! No.
L-Life is incomplete without: like Erica said, family and friends.
M- Marriage Date: I am more the "always a bridesmaid never a bride" type.
N- Number of Siblings: Two brothers, one sister, one brother-in-law.
O- Oranges or Apples: oranges.
P- Phobias or Fears: failure
Q- Quote: "Not all those who wander are lost."- J.R.R. Tolkien and "As though to breathe were life!"-Alfred Lord Tennyson
R- Reason To Smile: Despite my cynicism, I truly can't think of ONLY one reason to smile. There really are quite a few.
S- Season: Autumn.
T- Tag Three: See below
U- Unknown fact about me: For the most part I hate all seafood, but I randomly crave tuna fish.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Mmm...chicken.
W- Worst Habit: Worrying, popping my gum, and I can't believe I almost forgot this- but um, tardiness, hehe.
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: just had my teeth x-rayed a few weeks ago.
Y-Your favorite food: You can't ask this question to a fat kid. It's not fair.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Aries
So, Cas, Tecia, and Staci if you read this- you've been tagged.
Blergh.
I had an interview for a job today. Blah. I hate being an adult and looking for adult jobs. I can't wait to have my adult job, I just don't like looking for it.
Monday, August 4, 2008
So Excited!
Ok, since my life is pretty lame right now, I thought I would post two things that make me ridiculously, pathetically happy.
#1
Yeah, that's right. I can't wait. The movies aren't nearly as amazing as the books (they are not even close!) but I still have yet to let go of my Harry Potter love and so I am definitely excited for this movie. I about peed my pants when I saw that the trailer was up.
#2
Hehe, I just thought that I would stick with the theme, ya know? Set to hit the market on December 4th, the book includes the Tales, as translated by Hermione, illustrations, and "historical notes, personal reminiscences, and insights [about] wandlore" found in Dumbledore's personal papers after his death. Oh. My. Gah! Seriously, I am so excited! I know, I know; it is nerdy. But you know what else I know? I know that I don't care how nerdy it is. Harry Potter is amazing. J.K. Rowling is a genius. It's just how it is. And it makes me ridiculously, pathetically happy.
#1
Yeah, that's right. I can't wait. The movies aren't nearly as amazing as the books (they are not even close!) but I still have yet to let go of my Harry Potter love and so I am definitely excited for this movie. I about peed my pants when I saw that the trailer was up.
#2
Hehe, I just thought that I would stick with the theme, ya know? Set to hit the market on December 4th, the book includes the Tales, as translated by Hermione, illustrations, and "historical notes, personal reminiscences, and insights [about] wandlore" found in Dumbledore's personal papers after his death. Oh. My. Gah! Seriously, I am so excited! I know, I know; it is nerdy. But you know what else I know? I know that I don't care how nerdy it is. Harry Potter is amazing. J.K. Rowling is a genius. It's just how it is. And it makes me ridiculously, pathetically happy.
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