Mirror Sight review

A long time ago I did a review on the Green Rider series, prior to reading the fourth book, Blackveil. Now I've just finished reading the fifth book, Mirror Sight, and I'm very excited to review it.

If you've read the previous review, you'll know that Kristen Britain is not my favorite author when it comes to prose and her actual writing. I love her because of her plots. This most recent book, however, was significantly better. There still are parts where I was mentally correcting and editing her work, but I tend to do that with most books.

And again, like in her previous books, the plot was the significant factor. She definitely upped her game in this recent book too, just as she did her writing. There is rarely a down moment, keeping her readers hooked until the very last page. Although I always believed these books were meant for young adults (ages 13 and older), I can see that it's progressed more into an adult fantasy. Not to say it's anywhere near in graphic sex scenes as George R. R. Martin, but it does include more romance than the average book I read.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
And on the topic of Martin, this book is a close contender when it comes to character deaths. I don't think it's even possible to have as many as Martin, but it's the few that just want to make you cry. I'm not an emotional person. I'm normally happy when an author takes a different path and kills off nearly all the characters, or the main character. However, with every death in this book my heart dropped. Britain did a great job at connecting the reader to the characters, even if they were just a small element.

This book was full of surprises for me, but by far the biggest one was just finding it. Normally Britain takes forever to come out with new books, but either I wasn't paying attention to the time passing, or this one came out much sooner than I expected. I suppose she's getting more serious about writing now.

Faith in Humanity, Never Lost

Alright, onward with the writing. Although, the next subject in the book is more of a ramble.

Something you had that was stolen

I've actually been pretty lucky that I've never really had anything stolen from me. In gym class, I think it was grade ten, I was too lazy to get a lock for my locker, so I just kind of put my stuff into an unlocked locker and trusted that it would be safe. I came back from gym one day, and the twenty dollars in my wallet was gone. I got a lock after that.
Then in grade eleven, while in foods class, I had taken my rings off. We were running a little late that day, and the next class was coming in as we were just finishing cleaning up. Some bitch took my ring off the desk where I had it with my other stuff, then walked out of the room. My cooking partner was even angrier, and luckily for me, had seen who took it. The next day she came to class and gave me the ring back. This is the same ring that I bought in Florence, and is still one of my favorite pieces of jewelry, so I was delighted to get it back.

Other than that, nothing has really been stolen from me. I've lent out a few books and never got them back, but that's mostly my own fault for not keeping track of them. I've had a few pieces of clothing go missing, but they're probably lost somewhere in my sister's room. They'll show up one day. I guess I just live in a place that is mostly good. Even when I went to Italy, in the middle of Rome with gypsies and thieves everywhere, my mom was the only one that got robbed.

A Note from Me to You

I realize it's been a while since I posted any of my writing. So I'm going to crack open the ol' 'Things to Write About' book and start at it again.

A Note From Me to You

It's been a long time.
I would say six, maybe seven years?
Of course, I'm still here.
You give me a nod of acknowledgment
every time you laugh
every time you cry
every time you make a fool of yourself.
But I'm dying.
If you do not let me back
the person you are,
who you used to be,
will die too.
All you need to do is
remember
the long summer days
and cold winter nights.
When time was judged by breakfast, lunch and dinner
or the setting of the sun.
You remember what the sun is, right?
You hide behind a glowing screen now.
Your laughter is three letters long
and rarely more than a smile.
You remember what a smile is, right?
It's not a colon and a sideways D.
It's a brightening of the eyes
and genuine happiness made visible.
You remember what happiness is, right?
It's your childhood.
And I'm dying.

The Amazing Spider Man 2 review

I finally got around to seeing The Amazing Spider Man 2! It was amazing.

First off, I'm going to just say that I will always love the newer Spider Man movies better than the old ones. I know the old ones stuck to the comic version better, but they were just cheesy. I hated Toby Maguire, and when you hate the main character, it kind of ruins the rest of the movies.

The new Spider Man movies, even if they don't quite stay true to the comic books, are just better. I think this is because Andrew Garfield actually has humor, and feeling, and everything that is needed to not be the stoic and boring character that Maguire was. Always smiling or having a stupid looking face is not good enough. In fact, I think the best scenes with Garfield are when you cannot even see his face.

But onto the actual movie. One of my favorite parts was the cameo of Stan Lee, and when he says 'I recognize that guy' upon seeing Spider Man. Just perfect. I think I was the only person in the theatre that laughed. Everything else was great, but that's what stuck with me.

Just a short review today. I never cared for Spider Man before, but it's now becoming one of my favorite super hero movies, right behind Iron Man and right before Thor.

Clone Wars review

So summer arrived this week. It's too hot. Too damn bloody hot. So I've been kind of avoiding my laptop. And by that, I mean I've been spending maybe an hour less on it than usual. I did manage to finish off the Clone Wars on Netflix though!

When I first started watching it, I was skeptical. I thought it would be some stupid spin off that was made simply to sate the need for more Star Wars. Actually, that's probably true. Still, it was done so well!

My favorite part, by far, are the clones. Unlike in the movies, they're given personalities, names and actual lives. Not to mention they can actually hit stuff with their blasters. It's almost heart rending to know what happens in the movies, and the clones are basically brain washed to join the dark side.

A near second for my favorite part is Asoka, the padawan of Anakin. She just so... Spunky. I hate to use such an archaic word, but it's all I can think of to describe her. *SPOILERS AHEAD* Of course, they had to get rid of her somehow before the end of the series, as she's not present in the movies. I thought she would be killed off, but near the end of the fifth series, she is caught up in a plot to bring down the Jedi order, and accused of planting a bomb that killed many. After being cast out of the Jedi Order, it's eventually revealed that it was someone else that planted the bomb. However, she could no longer trust the Jedi to trust her, so she just walks off into the sun set. I was hoping she would actually be promoted to a Jedi Knight, but I like this ending better. It means that she probably never died. Still leaves open the question as to why she never fought back, or never used her skills to fight the dark side during the times of the movies, but still, a good ending.

Even the graphics were pretty good. It's animated, so I expected it to be similar to cartoons of these days, the ones meant for little kids. These were somewhere between the old 2D style and the new overly 3D style, and it was perfect. It can be seen best during the fighting scenes, which are far better than anything the movies could have done.

All in all, I would definitely suggest it for anyone that enjoyed the movies, or even just likes science fiction type shows.

Responsibility and Shit

I normally have Thursday off of work,so I like to think it's my productive day. That normally includes sleeping in, playing video games, sitting on my computer, and maybe doing the laundry and dishes. Maybe. Today, however, I actually did something important! I started getting my dental benefits sorted out from work. I say started, but I guess I'm actually almost done. It's been so hard to get people to help me. I asked at least three people about dental at work, including two of the managers, and they were just like 'we don't know much about this. Here's a phone number'. And that phone number ended up being the wrong one. But After filling in some forms and sending them off, I waited for about three weeks to get some sort of number, or card, or whatever would make sense to half to easily make claims and stuff. Ends up, the package they gave me to 'explain' the medical and dental benefits, has a tiny little number on the back that I'm supposed to use. Of course, no one told me this until I called in today. Because, you know, that's and obvious number to look for, right?

But it's done! Almost. I still actually have to put my claim in, but I was given directions on how to do so. Hopefully there's no more complications.

I probably should also go see a doctor about this lump under my chin. It feels like of like a bug bite, but I felt it some time in December (I think), then it went away. It reappeared a couple other times, but never when I had time to go to a clinic. Unfortunately, I don't have time to make an appointment with my doctor, not to mention I don't even know who my family doctor is, nor where he is. Not to mention I'm one of those people that kind of just shrugs off things like this. 

Eh, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Surprise!

I'm so proud of myself. I planned and threw a surprise party for my friend, without her finding out until the right time. I don't think this amount of planning will ever happen again in my life. It was hard.

So my friend went to Belize for school for about a month or so, when she came back about a week before her birthday. She didn't plan anything, so I decided that I would. I've always wanted to do something like this for a friend, mainly because I wish someone else would do it for me. The problem is, all my friends love having birthday parties, so they always start planning their own about a month in advance. I jumped at the chance this time, and despite everything, I don't regret it.

Alright, it really wasn't that hard, I'm just lazy. Originally we were planning on having it at her house, and just had to ask her parents to get her out of the house for an hour or two. But I'm so socially awkward, that I didn't actually want to talk to her parents. Not to mention, if she picked up the phone, I would have to come up with an excuse as to why I wanted to talk to her parents. So I had her cousin text her aunt (my friend's mom). However, it ended up that my friend was using her mom's phone, as her own wasn't working. In the end, we planned that everyone would come down to my house, under the pretense that my friend, her cousin and I would be hanging out. Luckily, her cousin comes over to my house more often that she goes to my friend's house, so there was no suspicion.

So they day came (Sunday), and everything actually worked out! Only one person didn't show up, and another person came late, both because of work reasons. We had a great time, or at least I did. The best part was the present we gave her, which I think was a bigger surprise than the actual party. We all went in together to buy her a Wii U. Her reaction was priceless. I wish we had filmed it.

Anyway, I'm done with planning for the rest of the year!

Wickedly Good

Damn it, I did it again. To be fair, I don't even think I turned my laptop on yesterday, and today has been busy. I'm only just getting around to the blog now.

Anyway, I promised a post about Wicked, didn't I?

All I can say, is that it was amazing. Even my dad was raving about it, and he doesn't generally care for musicals. Of course, we were sitting all the way up in the nose bleeds, but it was still great. When more than four people sang together, it was hard to understand the lyrics. I'm not sure if that was just where we were sitting, or if it was the sound system. Maybe the signers were just out of sync. It's hard to say. Luckily, when it's only a few people, it was a lot easier to hear, and it was great. I'm not much for musicals either, but I enjoyed at least half the songs.

The main reason why I wanted to see the play was because I had read, and loved, the book it was based on. Now of course, since it was a live production, not everything followed the book. However, it did follow it better than most movies follow their books. It was severely downplayed on the violence and romance parts to make it family friendly, but that was okay. Those parts from the book I wasn't much interested in watching anyway.

Now, this list will include spoilers, as I'm going to point out the differences. (what I can remember, at least)

Book- Nessarose was born without arms, and therefore could not balance enough to walk
Play- Nessarose was born without the use of her legs
Book- Elphie and Nessarose have a younger brother, named Shell. He isn't too important, as far as I can remember
Play- Their mother dies giving birth to Nessarose, and therefore there is no son
Book- Elphie goes to school before Nessarose and proves herself as a very smart, capable and head strong young woman. Nessarose arrives later, and becomes the darling of the school
Play- Elphie accompanies Nessarose to the school to take care of her. It's implied that she would never have gone to school had it not been for her sister
Book- Fyrio (probably spelled wrong), is a Winky (also might be wrong), so as far as I remember, he had blue skin and diamond tattoos... or something like that
Play- Fyrio is a dashing young man that looks perfect human
Book- After something happens (I can't remember what), Elphie runs away from the school. She later goes back to see Mrs. Morrible, and finds her dead on the floor, beaten to death with a blunt object. She is found here and is accused of murder. It's later found out that it was actually Galinda that did this
Play- Elphie is tricked into giving wings to the monkeys, and after refusing to aid the Wizard, she is blamed for this mutilation and labelled as Wicked. At the very end, Galina has Mrs. Morrible arrested
Book- There is a large time lapse between when Elphie and Fyrio run away together, and when Elphie is found living in an abandoned castle. There is another time lapse between Fyrio leaving her, and her moving into said castle
Play- No time lapse. A day or two at most
Book- When she sees Dorthy coming for her, she also sees the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow. She scares the lion, rips the scare crow apart, and I can't remember about the Tin Man. She does not try to kill them
Play- Dorthy is accompanied by the Tin Man and the Lion
Book- At some point, Elphie has a son
Play- No son, or even pregnancy. I suppose the ending leaves it open for those possibilities though
Book- Elphie dies
Play- Elphie hides under a trap door, and is later found by Fyrio. They live happily ever after


Now there is a very good possibility that I was wrong about several things, or left other things out. It's been at least three years, probably closer to five, since I read the book. My memory is far from perfect, and I can't remember everything.

All in all, a beautiful musical. The costumes and props were the best part. Absolutely stunning, from the massive dragon above the stage, down to the simplest background. There were just so many details in everything. Unfortunately, we were so far away that the only way we could see the details was with the binoculars that my parents brought. Binoculars are hard to use with glasses...

I would definitely suggest anyone see this, as long as they have a hundred dollars or more to spare.