More Books!

More books! More books! 8D I have the distinct feeling this isn't something I should be excited about, that it's something that SHOULD happen at any given time; but college pretty much ruined me in that. I will never again be able to finish a book without truly appreciating it or truly hating it - appreciating for giving me something wonderful to think about, or hating for seriously wasting my time. Like that one book I got from the library a while ago. Talk about a book that would never end... =_=

Anyways. I've mostly enjoyed the books I've read on vacation so far. I'm just a little uncertain how I feel about the romance in one of them, although the romance in the last two books I've read was a bit strange.

Beauty Sleep. By Cameron Dokey. Traditional Sleeping Beauty, in some ways. Definitely changed in other ways. The curse and alteration was the same. The way they came to pass was not. And I don't want to give too much away, so I'll simply say this is the book where I'm not so sure about the romance. If it took place in today's world, I would definitely disapprove; but since it doesn't, I'm not sure. =/

Midnight Pearls. By Debbie Viguie. This story is definitely a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's story of The Little Mermaid, rather than the Disney version that I'm most familiar with. I do like the story, and I like most of the characters most of the time, although a couple times I wanted to slap one guy upside the head for being so blind. Not in the romance department, though: there was something else he failed to notice. I guess my only complaint with this story could be that it ended big. It started small (with just a fisherman and his family), but by the end there were a lot of characters who needed dealt a proper ending.

These two books, by the way, are part of a Once Upon a Time series, to which more than one author contributes to. I feel like I should just put out there that Cameron Dokey is so far my favorite author in the series, although I have yet to read any of her works outside the Once Upon a Time series. See you tomorrow! Oh, and happy New Year's Eve!

Reading Time

Guess what! In the last few days, I've read three books and am working my way through a fourth! *squee!* A few months ago, that wouldn't have gotten me all excited. It really wouldn't be outside the realm of normalness. But since starting college, I've had next to absolute zero free time. It was only in the last month or so of college that I started figuring out how to force time for pleasure reading.

Sigh, but these last few days have been bliss! Not only have I actually had tons of time for reading, but I've also recently bought several new books! Thrilling to read something new and love it! Shall I do a quick head count for you?

Cassidy Jones and the Seventh Attendant. Serious drama right there. Tons of action, too. But the thing I've been most thinking about since finishing it is the love triangle. Cassidy and her long-time crush have finally gotten together! Great, right? Maybe, maybe not. It's been implied in the first two books that Cassidy's neighbor has a major crush on him, although she always thought (and I agreed up until this book) that it was all for show, considering he's protecting her from herself but only a select few know that. But now in this book, I don't know, something's made me realize that maybe the neighbor's feelings are actually somewhat on the romantic side. Hmmm. =/ I'm really not sure which side of this love triangle I support.

Tuesdays at the Castle. The Castle is alive! It can create new rooms and make others disappear; it can stretch hallways and open passages through windows or fireplaces; and it has a definite will of its own. It chooses who it wants to be king, and it makes known when certain unsavory characters come visiting. It gives big, bright rooms to good people; it shrinks the rooms of bad people. And it has a favorite inhabitant - a young eleven-year-old princess named Cecelia.

Hmm, that's only two, but this post will probably end up being too long if I add the third. Maybe later, then. =) Bye for now!

Mother Gothel

I. Am. So. Tired.

Why? I could hardly sleep last night.

Why? I don't know.

Why? ENOUGH WITH THE QUESTIONS! I SAID I DON'T KNOW!

*fear*

...Great, now I'm the bad guy. =_=

... ... ...Recognize that last quote? Yeah, I didn't plan that until I wrote out that second why, but it fit in pretty well, don'tcha think?

For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, I'm talking about Disney, of course! The movie Tangled, to be more specific. Mother Gothel, to be most specific. She blew up kind of like that when Rapunzel kept asking to leave her tower, and I actually saw a FanFiction story a couple years ago where Rapunzel was a toddler asking why and Mother Gothel blew up at her. I forget how the author of that story worded Gothel's shout, but I remember how at the time it struck me as absolute perfection.

I'd like to encourage you to go find it and read it, actually. It's in the website FanFiction.net. Look under the category for movies, and look for the sub-category for Tangled. It's rated either K or K+, since I never read anything rated T or M.

...I feel like it's painfully obvious that I made this post up as I went along. That's not to say that it's not all true, or at least true at the time as far as I could tell, but I mean basically that I was winging it. And since I'm now no longer quite as tired, I'd like to thank you for waking me up, dear readers. I'll probably still fall asleep on the ride to church, though.

101

Good morning! Sorry this post is a bit late; I was finishing a really awesome book. But at least since this is my one hundred and first (is that proper English? I don't know how else to say it) post, I don't have to sit here and wonder for five minutes what I want to talk about.

One hundred and one. Can you guess what I want to talk about? I bet you can't. Even if you're thinking about 101 Dalmatians, you're only half right. How many of you have seen Disney's second 101 Dalmatians movie - Patch's London Adventure?

I rewatched it relatively recently, and my topic today is going to be Lars - that eccentric artist who paints black spots on white canvas.

Naturally, the instant Cruella de Vil saw his work, she fell in love with it. And Lars was happy to find someone who understood and appreciated his work so thoroughly.

May I be the first to say their first meeting or two were nothing less than downright creepy? Lars had that weird way of moving and talking, and he got waaay too close to Cruella sometimes to ever sit well with someone who knew how evil she was. And Cruella seemed to love Lars far too well for someone like me who hadn't seen the movie in several years to remember if Lars was a villain or actually semi-decent.

Those of you who could actually follow that last sentence and have actually seen the movie recently enough to remember it probably know what the turning point for Lars was. SPOILER ALERT. Cruella brought him Dalmatian puppies to skin and turn into canvases, and he insisted that, eccentric though he may be, he was not a sicko. ♥

That line alone was enough to win me over to his side of things for good. Why have we not seen more of him, I wonder? An unappreciated artist, for sure. Go spread the word and therefore the love. Lars is awesome, in a very weird but wonderful-to-dogs kind of way.

One Hundred and Sims

First of all, THIS IS MY ONE HUNDREDTH POST! Oh, so exciting! Big milestone, people; big milestone!

...I'd go on and on about that topic; but as exciting as it is, I really don't have any more to say on it. o_O So let's move on to second of all: Sims 2!

Okay, okay, I know I had that whole series a while back about Sims 2, but I have a new development to share. Remember the guy I made to marry Brandi? He had a daughter of his own - same age as Dustin, the two became step-siblings. And for that daughter, I had made another family - this one with both mom and dad, with a teenage son. I intended for these two teens to get together and eventually marry.

They did eventually meet as teens, become friends, then love interests. They went steady for as long as they were both teens. Then yesterday I moved them off to college together. I set them up in the same dorm, although it was really tempting to get them their own house on campus. Nothing improper would've happened, but apparently I care about the reputation of my Sims, even if they can't have reputations. o_O

Anyways, so they and six other Sims were in the same dorm together. Eventually, my male Sim proposed to my female Sim! And then eventually, they GRADUATED! Goodness, if this is how graduation feels with my Sims, I'm so scared I won't be able to handle one day having actual kids go off to college and graduate and stuff.

Anyways, then I moved them into separate houses - my female into an old temporary cheapie, and my male into a place I fixed up all nice for their eventual family. And then I threw a wedding party and they got married! AND THEN THEY WENT ON A HONEYMOON! I'd never thrown a wedding party until then, so I guess the honeymoon just comes with that - but I would've thought that honeymoons were impossible in Sims 2 without Bon Voyage!

All in all, very exciting! Happy 100th post, everybody, and I'll see you tomorrow!

The Lone Ranger

So. My family and I watched the new Lone Ranger movie yesterday. Before I share with you my opinion of the movie, I'd like to add in a sort of disclaimer. Action movies aren't really my thing; I mostly watch them just because it's something I get to do with my family. But before you think my opinion is completely worthless, I do like the movies I've seen that come before and after The Avengers, and also the movie The Avengers itself.

Oh, and another quick disclaimer. I'll try to keep spoilers out of this, but this post might contain a couple anyways.

Now on to The Lone Ranger.

It was an entertaining movie, I guess. Or at least it had a lot of entertaining parts. But it also had a lot of really gross and/or irreverent parts. I probably wouldn't have used the word irreverent if my dad hadn't used it before, because I don't know anything about the original Lone Ranger. Was it a movie, a TV show, a comic strip? I don't know, but Daddy does, and says this movie wasn't very respectful towards the original.

I also felt like the main character changed with his clothes. One moment he was an incompetent city boy, the next he seemed completely at home in the saddle as his horse walked on a cliff. I don't remember him having a Texan accent when he was in city clothes, but I definitely noticed it in a couple of other scenes.

The captain from the US government also confused me. I thought he was a good guy acting on misguided principles or something like that, but he turned his back on the truth pretty quickly just because he didn't want to believe that he had slaughtered the innocent. Understandable that he didn't want to be responsible for such a cruel act, but unforgiveable that he blinded himself to that fact and thereby started working with the villains.

I do like the horse. Silver. The spirit horse. But how did he and the Indian manage to drag an unconscious John to the top of what looked like a column of dirt and a very unstable-looking man-made tiny platform???

All in all, I really wouldn't have minded if I never saw the movie. But this post is biased, so you may feel much differently about the movie. I respect that. And I will see you tomorrow. =)

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

...Yeah, apparently I'm using the royal "we" now... Or not. o_O

Haha, anyways! Merry Christmas, my dear readers! I hope your Christmas Eve went well and your Christmas Day will go even better!

I, for one, had a pretty good Christmas Eve. The only thing that could've been better was if my brother hadn't been sick. That's two Christmas Eves in a row now, I think. I hope next year will prove healthier for everyone.

At any rate, I spent most of the day trying to finish a 1000-piece puzzle that was in the living room so I could move it to make gift-unwrapping easier. I didn't finish it, but I almost did. So I moved the poster board the puzzle and its stray pieces were resting on to the dining room while we opened presents.

My dad, for what just might be the first time since childhood, was surprised at some of his gifts. The surprise he liked the best was probably the coffee mug that had a gun for a handle.

My mom's gifts were all on her wish-list except for two of the three things I had gotten her: 2 CDs with kids' songs. I think she liked it. I hope she likes it when she plays it. I know she likes kids' songs in general.

My brother, despite being sick, managed to be delighted at a good many of his gifts. For once, he seemed to be excited about an arts and crafts activity - tie-dying. I got him the dye, but a white hoodie was a little bit out of my price range. He got money for Christmas, though, so I think he'll manage, right?

As for me, I got two new Sims 2 expansion packs (University and Open for Business), half a dozen new movies (including a brand-new copy of a movie I got at a yard sale that didn't work), and books! ♥

Again and again, merry, merry Christmas! Have a holly, jolly Christmas this year! =D