happynesses
i have a new blog (in addition to this one)! happynesses! please visit and tell me whatever silly things make you smile 🙂
book nite
a few of the girls preparing edibles
every couple of weeks a few girls and i get together and discuss books. we also talk about what’s going on in our lives since we all pretty much work from home. we pass books around and talk about upcoming ones we are excited about—–>like Mockingjay!
we’re totally going to have a Mockingjay party once it’s released. i’m trying not to go overboard, but this kind of thing doesn’t happen often. sooooo, i was thinking i’d try to find some mockingjay pins like Katniss wears. and maybe make some cupcakes with a mockingjay on it. in “catching fire” a cracker with a mockingjay makes an appearance so maybe something with that, too.
i recently stumbled upon mockingjay.net and found that Hot Topic is now carrying themed t-shirts. they look amazing!
blog award!
i’m excited! i just received a blog award from Zee at Zee’s Wordly Obsessions! thank you, it’s been a while since i’ve received an award! so now i’m supposed to share 7 things about myself:
1. i have a bachelor’s degree in Physics & Astronomy from the university of georgia.
2. after i worked really hard to get that degree, i decided that was enough of that. my real passion is reading and i hope to be able to get my master’s in library and information science so i can become a librarian–whenever the stars align.
3. i have been married to my high school sweetheart for almost 5 years.
4. we have two dogs, sugar and chewy, who are pains in my ass but i can’t seem to let them go.
5. i have an obsession with anything old and antique. i like to mix old and new. i also like to take old things and turn them into something more beautiful and functional.
a tarnished old candelabra...
plus a few old mismatched teacups...
becomes my new jewelry stand!
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6. i hated reading all through high school and a lot through college.
7. my nephew was born last month! in doing so, he created two sets of grandparents and a bunch of aunts and uncles for the first time!
william and me
i’m supposed to give this award to 15 other bloggers, preferably ones that i just found, but i’m afraid i haven’t yet gotten that many! i’m slowly working my way through the blogosphere. but here are my picks:
Alita.Reads.
Badass Bookie
Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog
Eep! Geek!
Mindful Musings
The Book Junkie’s Bookshelf
The Ladybug Reads
Habitual Viewer
The Sweet Bookshelf
even more changes
i’m so proud. the books in the background and header are my very own. i love that they are incredibly old–they have that awesome musty leathery smell, heaven (or weird, depending on how you lean). i moved the list of reviewed books to its own page called “books read” up top. i figured this way i can list all the books i’ve read and link to the ones with reviews. i got depressed when i looked at the 2009 list because it was so small. when in fact, i read so many more–i just didn’t review them. happy to report that i’m in a reading frenzy at the moment (desperately searching for the reviewing frenzy). i’m already into my third book (prophecy of the sisters) in just a little over a week. boo-yah!
percy jackson and the olympians: the lightning thief — movie
first off, i liked it. two hours went by and i remained fully immersed. the action sequences had a lot of umph and power so i was glad they didn’t try to make it some soft pansy kid movie. well, it couldn’t be a kid movie since most of the cast was approaching mid-twenties and 12 year old percy was actually 18, but who’s nitpicking? i mean, annabeth’s blond curly hair was brunette and straight and grover’s gangly acne-ridden awkwardness was replaced by a stronger, older, comedic brandon t. jackson. but you know, alexandra deddario has beautiful blue eyes that are striking against her dark hair and actually perpetuate a sense of godliness and brandon t. jackson was an amazing comedic relief. and his CG goat legs came out great. so no harm done.
i heard that the director chris columbus replaced the chimera with the hydra because he thought the chimera was lame. but the hydra shows up in the second book. i guess he’s just going to leave it out of the second movie since it doesn’t play a huge role. and why make medusa beautiful (uma thurman)? but i guess the hydra was enough ugly for the movie. WHERE WAS CLARISSE???? THALIA????? and more importantly, WHERE WAS ANY MENTION OF KRONOS????? oh wait, i think they did mention him in the museum. it just kills me that a movie will fail at building an underlying thread when the whole story is already written out. instead, they will introduce a backstory all at once when it has less of an impact. i mean, when the trio are in the underworld, there’s no tartarus and krono’s voice trying to suck percy down. no shoes with wings trying to fly grover into the abyss. luke does give percy the shoes with wings but they aren’t used at all how they are in the book.
i have to say that my favorite part was the lotus casino and hotel. perfection. lady gaga songs and all. and the effect of eating the lotus flowers…you have to see it. i didn’t really like the camp on screen. they didn’t have separate cabins for each god. they even made it so that poseidon built a lodge specifically for percy only. the gods were made to be more influential in their children’s lives. and instead of the long standing rule that gods can only act indirectly with half-blood offspring, the movie made it so that zeus made this rule because poseidon was becoming too involved with percy. AND there’s no mention that “the big three” made a pact to never procreate again. AND there was no waiting for your possible god parent to claim you. everyone just accepted that percy was poseidon’s kid. i’ve learned long ago to separate my book and movie experiences so that if something does match up, i’m impressed. i’m excited to see the rest and hope that the liberties are at least kept on the same level as this one.
the lovely bones – movie
wow. good gracious. that was awesome. can i first say that the casting was utterly perfect. who knew marky mark could act? or at least show that much emotion? and emotion is one thing that the actors didn’t hold back on. i love it when actors really cry when they’re supposed to cry instead of just making pouty unhappy faces 😦 and they weren’t just crying. they showed anguish and it was beautifully and tragically done. saoirse ronan (pronounced seer-sha) as susie salmon is breathtaking. i knew saoirse was the ish after seeing “atonement” and “city of ember”. she’s my new hero. she was completely unafraid to embrace the entire spectrum of emotion that the story requires.
and reece ritchie who plays ray singh was a perfect match. in the few moments that he interacts with saoirse in the movie, he completely captured the fact that ray was in love with susie. ray’s feelings for susie could have easily lacked the depth it had in the book but reece pulled it off in a way that made me cry. we should all be so lucky. the way the movie progressed had me concerned about the part where susie inhabits ruth’s body and finally looses her virginity to ray. but peter jackson (in all your wisdom, i bow to thee) decided that in the movie version ray and susie would not kiss before she died, instead susie would possess ruth to finally get that first kiss from ray. it wasn’t lacking in the least. the rape was not shown at all which was another thing i was concerned about. what happened during susie’s brutal murder was implied, which made it all the more deceptive and disgusting.
susan sarandon as susie’s grandmother was a breath of fresh air, just as the character is in the book. brilliant acting. i’m already comfortable seeing rachel weisz in roles like she played in “the constant gardener” and “definitely, maybe” so i felt she captured the intelligent and untamed nature of susie’s mother wonderfully. and is stanley tucci creepy or what?! those fake teeth and that comb over do wonders.
the movie is also beautiful to look at. the effects were appropriate and blended seamlessly with the story line (although tons of people disagree). and the music wasn’t afraid to get crazy. it was effective in a way that amplified your perception of the scene. saoirse’s voiceover was done perfectly to help narrate through the passing of time. not even a trace of her irish accent. she’s amazing. especially when she delivers the line “these were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections — sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent — that happened after I was gone.” made me cry. sappy me.
my eyes burned fiercely through the movie. i’m not kidding when i say that reece ritchie plays a mean ray singh. when he delivers one of my favorite lines “you are beautiful, susie salmon” i cried every time. and yes, he gives the line more than once, yay for kleenex. and the ending when susie reaches her ultimate destination and meets the other victims…no words…just tears.
thank you peter jackson for staying true to the book, as you always do. and the liberties you took were perfect and no less genius than your previous adaptations (minus the king kong remake).
blog awards for me!
a HUGE thank you to alita over at alita.reads. for bestowing on me the following blog awards:
Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.
i would like to give this award to my friend mendie at the spectator who is finding TONS of friends as i write 🙂
and next is:
this one goes to natalie at mindful musings for being one of my first few commenters 🙂
a wrinkle in time
wow, have you read this book? it’s supposed to be a children’s novel but it was written in such an advanced way and contained some very complex elements. if you read it when you were little, i suggest reading it again because you’ll probably get something completely different out of it. first of all, i’d like to bow in appreciation for all the physics this story incorporated. the plot is based on the fact that space-time can be “wrinkled” to travel from one place to another instantaneously. there’s even illustrated diagrams 🙂 stuff like this never ceases to amaze and excite me which is probably why i got my degree in physics and astronomy.
meg and the other characters use this means of transportation (called a tesseract) to try rescuing her missing father. meg’s father has been lost to “the black thing” which the characters must venture into. meg’s reaction to the black thing is chilling:
what could there be about a shadow that was so terrible that she knew that there had never been before or ever would be again, anything that would chill her with a fear that was beyond shuddering, beyond crying or screaming, beyond the possibility of comfort?
“IT” is the being who manipulates minds in order to spread the blackness. there are some very compelling scenes in this story that don’t fall short of ripping your emotions apart. from witnessing meg’s mother’s breaking heart to realizing that wonderful calvin is loved by no one to meg pouring out her love to save her brother. the premise of the story is simple: a misfit realizes she would endure all the pain and misery of the world in order to enjoy all the love and happiness it can bring. but the book is written so expertly that i was happy to go along with it.
this isn’t just an emotional rollercoaster though! when the characters arrive in a world controlled by IT, i found myself on the edge of my seat. the descriptions of all the children bouncing their balls in sync and all events happening at the allotted time made my skin prickle. it’s a small book so read it. you’ll be glad you did.
movie notes: what?! i just went to imdb and saw that there is, in fact, a movie. how did i not know this? i’m going to tvshack.net to see if i can find it. it looks pretty cheesy though.
my first blog award!
i’m so excited! i got my first award from Natalie over at mindful musings! thank you! the description is as follows:
“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken– excellence, grace, and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.”
i don’t yet have 5 other blogs that i visit frequently. i mean, i do, but i would prefer to give this award to newer blogs that i visit and seeing how i’m not “choosing unwisely” or not “not choosing at all”, i think the chickens will leave me alone. congrats to the following:
running with scissors
so i just got done with this book. first of all, it’s a memoir so there is absolutely NO fantasy here people. although, the events of augusten’s young life are so extraordinary that it seems like a work of fiction. man, this guy’s life was messed up.
running with scissors
let’s see, it’s definitely rated R and i definitely found it addicting about half way through. i typically look to stories as a form of escapism. not necessarily because i need to escape something in my life, but to explore places and situations i would never be a part of. in this case, i got to experience what it feels like to live life with absolutely no rules and guidance–to have complete freedom as a kid and how it can royally screw you up. after getting absorbed in augusten’s chaotic freedom, i was happy to return to my life with relief.
this memoir chronicles augusten’s life as a pre-teen and teen growing up with a psychotic mother and ultimately being adopted by his mother’s shrink. WTF, right? he writes with such humor and thank goodness, because the things that happen in his life are vulgar, disgusting, unpredictable, and sad; and only his humor could balance all that.
fyi: i would be very hard-pressed to recommend this book to anyone. it’s definitely not a “casual read”. i would have never made it through this book if i didn’t already have a love and appreciation for books in general. it’s a departure from my usual reads, but i like to shake things up a little. you know, live large.
movie notes: i haven’t seen it yet, but it will be my next rental cuz i’m obsessive like that.
07/31/09 edit: i have seen the movie and i must admit that they did a bang up job. evan rachel wood is great, n’est-ce pas?
the bookend. 