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Harry Potter (aka. Gypsy)
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[19 Aug 2010|06:39pm] |
It's been an interesting week. The birthday itself was okay. Dinner at home, cake and ice cream (so much for that diet -okay, I know I don't really need a diet, but I realized two months ago that I couldn't fit into any of my belts. Not good. I'm not trying to do anything too drastic. Just about 5-9 pounds. I already eat relatively low-fat, I'm attempting to stop the snacking and cut down the soda, and exercise). The interesting thing of that event was my dad forgot. He came home after we had finished dinner and blown out the candles on the cake saying "That's not today is it?" Is it too much to ask for my own family members to remember my birthday?
I finished the final edit on Hired by a Demon. I had sent it around to a couple of betas, tossed in their suggestions, re-worked the end (honestly, it's now got three alternate endings, like some of the DVDs out there). Mom's proof-reading it now, and then I'll order my proof copy from createspace (got a free coupon for one as reward for entering the contest), and start the great agent hunt. Mom's about halfway through it and she thinks I have a chance at finding an agent. So, here's hoping.
And today's birthday outting with Jill and a newly returned ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6) bluehobbit was wonderful! Such good food from Bucca di Beppo and went to see Tales of Earthsea afterward. For some reason I had been expecting the story to be about the first book, but it was actually from a lot later into the series oddly. It was still good though. Not quite as good as the director's father's movies, but still good.
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| Supernatural! |
[03 May 2010|02:42pm] |
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And I'm actually getting caught up on Supernatural!!! After several years of being out of the loop after our UPN network died and all the shows went to digital cable (which we don't have), they're actually showing re-runs on TNT. I made it through all the episodes I had seen (which turned out to be the entirety of season 1) in two weeks (two episodes a day). I'm now somewhere in season 2 enjoying episodes I've never seen before and loving every minute of it like I had never stopped watching it. And all the genre/injokes are just so much fun!
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| Black Pearl Pictures |
[11 Mar 2010|09:03pm] |
I know I've been promising these for a while. We drove all the way out to Barber's Point and saw the Black Pearl, the day after the tidal wave was supposed to hit. And by that I mean, the ship I mentioned a couple of posts ago, that they brought here to use for the filming of the fourth Pirates of the Carribean movie.
I've got to say, it was neat to see in person, though it would have been more impressive if it actually had the masts up, and the figurehead on, and actually been in the water and not surrounded by scaffolding (and junk). There was also a fence (and a guard) keeping us from getting any closer. Though I will say I was suprised there weren't more tourists around. Besides us, there were maybe only about 6 others there taking pictures. And, no, they didn't take the ship out of the water because of the tidal wave scare. They had actually taken the ship out of the water shortly after it arrived here for preparation for the movie.
( ship )
( ship )
( ship )
( close-up of front )
( even closer of front )
( close-up of one of the guns on the side )
( close-up of back/captain's quarters )
( close-up of back/deck )
( back-half/scaffolding )
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| THANK YOU!!!! |
[31 Dec 2009|11:11pm] |
I just noticed ![[info]](http://l-files.livejournal.net/userhead/368?v=1321200805) logospilgrim sent me a present!!! Thank you!!!! (Sorry, my e-mail has been beyond full lately with notifications from facebook, and it's been crowding out my regular e-mail).
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| Book Review: Dracula the Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker |
[29 Dec 2009|02:42pm] |
Dracula the Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt
I'm glad I didn't sacrifice my own money on it. And I was very happy to return it to the library when I finished it.
Same complaints as earlier. He didn't have any original characters in it. There were seveal side characters as well as the police detective who were from Bram Stoker's original notes, and a handful of police constables who were named for actors who have played Dracula. It just plain lacked imagination. And it got bogged down in excessive facts (historical/London). Seriously, every chance he got he was tossing in construction of buildings, what people were eating, what the topic of the day was, what material and accessories everyone wore, the history of buildings, how many seats were in the theater, every mention of technology that was new that day whether it was relevant or not. Then there was the changing around of dates so he could include Jack the Ripper and the Titanic. Alot of the running around London felt like it was done from a tourist point of view since he was naming streets, and referencing statues all the time. And in all that endless factual items, he didn't actually describe things, how things felt and looked. Not to mention Bram Stoker himself was a character and Dracula actually told him his opinions of the novel and Vlad's history. And the author just felt the need to give us Bram Stoker's entire biography, while he was at it, during the story. And he killed off all of the heroes from the original story, and I do mean ALL of them. *grumble* The second half of the book does pick up pace, and I think the reason for that was that he had stopped with the endless tossing in of excessive historical details and facts and had actually gotten into the action of the story. But the very end read like a piece of fan fiction (or a badly written movie).
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| Princess and the Frog |
[25 Dec 2009|10:14pm] |
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Princess and the Frog - Went to see it with Mom earlier today. It was refreshing to get back to the old drawn style. The market has been getting way too innundated by computer rendered cartoons. But, it felt like Disney cut corners with this one. I mean, it was simplistic animation (in the style of The Emperor's New Groove), very little detail, and there were even scenes where it felt like just the same picture in the background while only the main characters moved. In the movies like The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast, you actually noticed all of the bubbles moving or the wind in the hair, etc. There were some neat numbers, but nothing that stuck in my head. It really makes me wish they'd stick closer to the original story. One of the main complaints Mom had with it was that the Shadowman turned the prince into a frog for no good reason (other than that he wanted to). Not to mention that it was really driving messages (like having a family is more important than career). While we did like the New Orleans location, Mom complained that it didn't make sense for the Prince to be from some made-up place with some random accent. In all, I thought it was on par with Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules.
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| On Dracula: The Un-Dead |
[21 Dec 2009|03:58pm] |
Granted, I'm only two chapters into Dacre Stoker's Dracula: The Un-Dead (The sequel to the original classic), then again the story might draw me in yet, it's a little too early to actually judge. But right now I have two complaints. The first being, he's doing that annoying summarizing the previous book in the first chapter. Seriously, EVERYONE should know the story of Dracula by now. He shouldn't have to summarize it. But yet, he does (I know everyone does it when they are writing sequels/additional volumes, and that includes JKR). It bogs the story down and for once I'd like to see someone just integrate it into the book little bit by little bit so it doesn't slow down the first couple of chapters. Second complaint is for being the much touted sequel to the classic Dracula, you'd think he could use some of his imagination and create interesting new characters. Nope, we have the characters from the original book, one son of two of the characters, and Countess Elizabeth Bathory ...yes, he grabbed one of the most famous vampires from history rather than create one of his own to make a whole new legend (and even more irritatingly, he shortens her name to Beth).
It's like no one has any original imagination out there any more.
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| Novel Writing |
[09 Dec 2009|04:48pm] |
It's nearing that time of the year again. Amazon.com's annual writing contest! If I actually push writing between now and the contest start date, I might actually make it! It wouldn't be too hard. The contest starts on January 25th. It means I'd have to write just over 2 pages per day until then (to make it to my goal of 300 pages...though I don't think I need that much for the actual contest). Main problem is that I'm still stuck editing. I have another 100 pages to edit through before I'll be ready to get going on it again (mainly because I'm trying to add in a couple of extra characters, including one main character, and work on relationships more since I seemed to have tossed feelings and emotions in favor of action).
*deep breath* I'm gonna do it!
And I totally forgot to post, I made it over 200 pages! I was wavering for the longest time since it would hit 200 and then I'd edit it back down under 190.
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| Alice! |
[07 Dec 2009|10:52pm] |
Specifically I'm talking about the 4 hour movie of Alice that SyFy (*shudder* I swear, I'm never going to get used to that name) channel spread out onto two nights. Awesome! Worlds better than Tin Man (probably because it actually had some romance in it, unlike Tin Man). And one of my favorite Primeval actors got to play the romantic/heroic Hatter!
What hit me was that apparently I have really grown up on far too many various versions of the story. Because I could pick out so many pieces they were referencing, even though they had done it sci-fi style with a futuristic Wonderland that looked more like a ruined New York city, with human versions of the characters, and one very wild and crazy plot-line. It's sad how I could pick out the poems mentioned (Jaberwocky, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Little Crocodile, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee had a Great Battle, Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat...) In other words, it's making me really anxious for the Tim Burton version (which I saw a long preview for in the theaters two weeks ago while wearing 3D glasses when we went to see Christmas Carol -which was awesome in 3D BTW).
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| No more outages, please! |
[04 Dec 2009|12:22am] |
I'm very much tired of having our power go out each night. It's irritating and right in the middle of my primetime shows. Last night it was out for about half a hour, which meant I missed the last 20 minutes of NCIS. Tonight it went out for a full hour, and I ended up missing the last 10 minutes of Flash Forward and pretty much all of Fringe. *grumble*
All I can say, is that it really doesn't instill much faith in me in our Electric Company, since it seems like it goes out with the slightest gust of wind.
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[25 Nov 2009|04:48pm] |
(Image on wikipedia)
This is the culprit that woke me up crack of dawn this morning. Any of you have pet lizards? Because I'm wondering if this is normal behavior or if I should be hunting for eggs underneath the dresser in my room.
Mind you, we have a lot of lizards in the house. Usually they keep hidden, but every so often we see them skuttling around from room to room. And it just doesn't help anything that my dad prefers to leave the front door wide open whenever he's home.
Each time I leave a plastic glass of water (with just a little water in the bottom) in my room overnight, it wraps itself around the cup, and knocks against it until it falls over (and then it scrambles around on the inside and dashes off as soon as I flip on the light). So, last night, I forgot to refill my nightly glass of water, so there was only a little bit in it. I woke up to the lizard knocking against the glass, so I took away the glass and put it on top of the dresser and turned the light back off. I woke up a minute or two later (at least it felt like that) to the lizard knocking against the side of the wooden dresser next to my bed. Light goes on and the lizard runs away. Turn light back off. Knocking sounds starts again. Turn light back on. Give lizard a rather dark look. It runs away again. Turn light back off. Knocking sound starts again. *grumble*
Gecko web <---I like where it says this short, slow-moving species. Obviously they've never tried to catch it themselves, because those things can really run when they're being chased.
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| Vampire Diaries |
[24 Nov 2009|04:18pm] |
OMG! I finally finished reading all 5 volumes of the Vampire Diaries! That last one honestly felt like the size of two of the previous books combined. It really didn't need to be that long and shows just how the publishing industry is trying to get people to write longer novels so they can sell them for more money. Because I was just looking at it going, I'd personally edit out every other paragraph and still have it make sense and read faster.
In all, I thought the series wasn't worth bothering reading it. It was too much teenage drama, most of the characters were self-centered, shallow, superficial, and very selfish. Personally, I did like Bonnie and Damon, but the series just didn't focus on them enough (considering they're really just side characters with the main characters being Elena-cheerleader socialite type and Stefan-Edward ripoff), even that last installment that touted itself as being Damon centered, really was mostly Elena centered. Admittedly I was determined to make it through since my friends wanted reviews of it, and now I can say I've read it.
I will say, the books are absolutely nothing like the TV series (though that actually has more teenage drama than the books). While the names are the same, everything else is almost completely different. The TV series doesn't follow the book plotlines whatsoever, not even vaguely. The girls themselves are completely different. The only things that are the same is that the Salvatore brothers are vampires, they have to wear rings to go out in the day, Katherine who they both loved in the past made them into vampires, the brothers personality-types, that Stefan is in love with Elena, that there is a diary being written in every so often, and that Elena looks exactly like Katherine... and that's about it. Seriously, they've killed off characters that are supposed to survive several books.
And I should note that however much I complain, I really do like the character of Damon from both the books and the tv series. I think Ian Sommerhalder is perfect playing him. He has all the mannerisms down exact, the impossibly enormous ego, even the sly brilliant smile, and the way he can look like he's plotting all kinds of trouble and mischief, and actually look like he slips every once in a while when a plot doesn't go according to how he wanted, or when someone happens to see through the callous/evil exterior that everyone expects of him.
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| haha |
[19 Oct 2009|10:03am] |
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Guess who found her soft drawing charcoals. Several months after I needed them though. Found them in a box of random stuff, none of it being art supplies.
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[11 Oct 2009|11:47pm] |
Last week was rather slow in general. Spent most of it doing a hack and slash job on my novel and cut it down by about 12 pages (within just the first 4 chapters). I didn't cut out anything major. Just a lot of the rambling descriptions, so in theory it should be a bit faster paced now. Though I still haven't hit 200 pages. Each time I get close, I edit and the number keeps dropping. One of these days...
Main point of posting, Surrogates was awesome! Probably the best movie I've seen in the theater in weeks. Though I do see why people were complaining a bit on the end. Seemed a bit over-indulgent of the Bruce Willis character to go for solving his own problems and figure that it was best for the rest of the world. And no one seemed put out by the loss of his partner.
I see I wasn't the only one who thought Defying Gravity wasn't working. It got yanked already. I haven't seen it on the schedule in 3 weeks and that was only after airing 3 episodes. It's too bad since it was decently made and had good stories and reasonably good acting. The only fault I had with it was the scrambled chronology editing.
Vampire Diaries! I'm actually reading my way through the entire series. And disliking it every inch of the way. Okay, maybe not every inch. I do like Bonnie (Elena's psychic friend) and Damon (the 'bad-boy' vampire older brother of the hero Stefan). I'm also trying to work my way through the TV series. And that isn't much better. I absolutely hate Elena in the book. She's this ultra-popular, petty, greedy, spoiled, superficial blonde. In the TV series, she's a Bella clone. The TV series is just as much teenage highschool drama as the books, but with sex. And they wrecked everything I liked about Bonnie. I loved that she had a head of curly red hair, blue eyes, was bubbly and scattered and obsessed with everything druid. Instead they cast her with an african-american girl and made her descended from the Salem witches. Though I do think the brothers are spot-on and Damon is every bit rebellious, dark, power-hungry, with a heavily hidden soft side as in the books. Though it really isn't following any events in the books in any way shape or form.
(But there was a cute moment in episode 4 where Damon was reading Twilight and commented to his girlfriend that he did see just was so interesting about Bella. She turned to him and asked why he didn't sparkle. And he said the book got vampires all wrong. hahahahaha love it!)
Also went to a book sale this weekend. This was just a small fund-raising event by the library near my house. Paperbacks for 50cents per. I ended up picking up 4. Two of them sounded a bit like my own novel (they were both set as urban fantasy, which is why I'm really wavering now on setting). Mom said I should try to find out who their agents are so I can have some examples of people I should be pitching to whenever I get around to finishing mine. Her suggestion was to leave the setting the way that it is and let whatever agent wants it suggest if I should change it or not. Saves me editing time, I suppose.
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