I should’ve made this post AGES AGO (sometime in the region of two or three months ago, to be precise)… but somehow it never occurred to me to do it, or I just couldn’t be bothered, or something…
ANYWAY THE POINT IS
For reasons unique to my magical brilliance (please don’t take that as if I said it in complete seriousness), I’ve relocated my blogging activities to this place:
http://crackcrimsonincendiary.blogspot.com
(:
On Tuesday 24th February 2009, my good friend Vespera and I were sitting in a train eating ice cream and comparing operating systems to horses and other equine things. We came up with this really random pile of weird:
On no account are you meant to take this absolutely seriously because it was something two random highschoolers thought up for fun. ^^”
And if you think we’re biased because we listed 3 Windows OSs and one Mac one… that’s because we sort of… are… in that we’ve only ever had much experience with Windows and haven’t used Macs much at all. Heheh.
That being said though, when you think about it, it does make… um… at least some sort of sense?
^^”
A while ago I said that I would read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer so I could decide for myself exactly how puke/swoon/awesome-making it was. Well, guess what… I gave up. Yes, I failed my own mission by deciding to utterly abandon it. Why? Well… honestly, it was just too boring to keep reading. I could not be bothered to continue reading it. It just wasn’t that interesting. Maybe because I’m biased due to exposure to all the anti-Twilight material out there, maybe I already knew basically all that happened in the book so I wasn’t kept hanging on by wanting to know what happened… but seriously. That book was not that good. I’m not the type to stop reading something because I know what’s going to happen, I’m the type to stop reading something if it is utterly boring and so non-gripping.
That is sort of how I would describe Twilight.
Here’s a lazy point-form-type review of the first half or so of the book I read before giving up because it was boring.
Awesome Stuff About Twilight:
~the Twilight-brand vampires aren’t actually bad… I like the idea of the colour-changing eyes, that was quite cool. And the whole cold-marble-glittery thing… maybe that wasn’t so cool but it was still kinda unique. I give kudos to S. Meyer for that.
~the dialogue, namely the Bella-Edward dialogue. That was actually quite well-written in that it was fun to read. It was interesting and amusing.
Totally Bogus Stuff About Twilight:
~it has an unbelievably slow plot. or maybe I just don’t like romance novels filled with romance and nothing else.
~it’s BORING. the parts that aren’t dialogue are filled with giant paragraphs all about Bella’s thoughts and other mundane stuff. It is SO BORING.
~Bella is annoying – the way she looks down on Forks and everyone who inhabits the place. Also, she does not appear to have any character. Usually by HALFWAY THROUGH THE BOOK you’d be able to describe the main character – especially in a novel filled with so much characterisation and non-action. I mean, okay, if the book is an action thriller like Matthew Reilly’s books, okay, you’d be forgiven for not having very much characterisation. But Twilight is not an action thriller! Twilight is a freaking romance novel that is characterisation-filled! Or at least, it would be if Bella HAD any character. Honestly. I’ve been stuck inside her mind of almost half the book and if you asked me what kind of person she was all I’d be able to say is that she’s quiet and sort of stuck up and really annoying and really in love with Edward. Hmm, okay, maybe she does have character… just… not a lot of it.
~There are FIVE GUYS hankering after Bella in the book. FIVE? MARY-SUE MUCH? Okay, maybe it’s not so Mary-Sue, I mean it’s possible, but the way that it’s so OBVIOUS that the guys like her makes it all stink of Mary-Sue-ness. Maybe if SMeyer had made it a bit more subtle it wouldn’t be so bad
I just realised that my lazy review has turned into a rant about Bella Swan’s annoyingness.
So much so that I guess you’d be forgiven for thinking that I don’t like Bella because I’m jealous that Edward likes her… but honestly. No. I am not an Edward Cullen fangirl. Or any type of Twilight fangirl for that matter…
Final verdict about the first half of Twilight that I could be bothered to read?
It’s… not… that… good… at all.
Yeah. I’ll leave it at that…
It’s the first day of February. Last day of the first month of summer. Oh GOOOOOD. I’m getting sick of our ridiculously hot weather. Which is actually pretty normal I guess but I still don’t like weather that’s consistently hovering around the thirties [Celsius].
You know there’s something wrong with the weather or the news when you check the news on your mobile phone browser and the first headline you see is something along the lines of “Sydney now 26 C”.
Air conditioning is nice.
ANYWAY, FEBRUARY.
The first thing I think of is Valentine’s Day.
*wikis Valentine’s Day*
Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world.
Let’s just call it V-day. It’s so much shorter to say… I think I got that abbreviation from one of the MK&A So Little Time books… anyway…
In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery.
A day on which lovers express their love for each other. How lovely. Cards, flowers and confectionary… CANDYYY!! 8D …Yes, I’m sorry, I just had to say something stupid like that. But yeah.
I think I’m starting to sound cynical ._.
But I’m not. No, really. =]
The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine.
That sentence sounds so clear. Now that WAS sarcasm. What does that sentence mean, it’s confusing. Does it mean that it was named after two Early Christian martyrs, two of whom were named Valentine?
The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
Oh heyyy. I just saw something interesting…
Courts of love
A point of controversy was the existence of “courts of love”, first mentioned by Andreas Capellanus. These were supposed courts made up of tribunals staffed by 10 to 70 women who would hear a case of love and rule on it based on the rules of love. 19th century historians took the existence of these courts as fact, however later historians such as John F. Benton noted “none of the abundant letters, chronicles, songs and pious dedications” suggest they ever existed outside of the poetic literature.[20] According to Diane Bornstein, one way to reconcile the differences between the references to courts of love in the literature, and the lack of documentary evidence in real life, is that they were like literary salons or social gatherings, where people read poems, debated questions of love, and played word games of flirtation.[19]
Okay that sounds very strange. Hearing a case of love and ruling on it based on the rules of love? What?? How are you meant to do that? “I pronounce thee guilty of a case of crippling infatuation which may or may not be love.”
Um.
Okay that was retarded.
Hmm, literary salons… word games of flirtation… poetry… debates… that sounds more normal.
More normal than hearing cases of love, at least.
First week of school has now happened… more like first two days technically but first week sounds better. And it’s Saturday. I’m already rambling. ANYWAY.
Teachers love lecturing our grade as to how this is an important year. Lovely. I swear, every single lesson that was the first thing the teachers said… or at least almost every lesson. It’s like in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix how the fifth-years all get lectured on OWLs.
Our Muggle-world equivalent lectures may well be the reason why we (Scrandoms in general I’m talking about) were pretty dead during recess and lunch. Quiet. Not at all unlike our hyperactive, loud, disruptive selves.
This is, believe me, deeply unhealthy. Scrandom noise is good for the soul. Usually.
But yeah.
I’m in a class with Maigraithe and no other Scrandom. Mai is not a hyperactive notewriter, or a huge talker, or an eager searcher of distraction in classes… which means that this year I’ll probably spend all my classes (at least all my roll call classes) actually doing work. When I’m not graffitying my books, that is. Or drawing. Or doodling in gengeral.
I <3 drawing+scribbling in class.
Anyway.
But no, I’ve decided to actually work properly in classes.
However in Maths I might break that resolution seeing as I’m in Vespera’s Maths class for the third year in a row and she IS a hyperactive notewriter. Haha…she’s in a class with ‘Laine and Fio, who are both apparently quite studious.
And YESZ! I transferred from IST to VA properly! w00t~!!!!
Don’t ask me why I picked IST in the first place… as if I could ever work properly in a classroom filled with distracting computers… I don’t even like computer classes much anyway. All I like doing on computers is browsing the Net, MSNing, listening to music, and doing art stuff.
But yeah.
Now I’m in VA! Awesome!
Okay I’ll shut up now.
Back to school…
Heh…
On the first day me and Tian [uhh, I still can't figure out how to add in links in visual editing mode...] came to school each wearing nail polish (her, purple; me, red and black) and about 5 or 6 pieces of goth/emo/metal/black/silver jewellery each. We removed the most obvious pieces (bracelets, cuffs, dog collars) during year assembly though because otherwise we would be a bit dead if caught. But yeah. That was fun.
I seem to have pretty okay teachers… my Science teacher is strict and insane but awesome. Insane because she TEACHES SO MUCH. But that’s a good thing. My English teacher seems fine. My VA teacher (assuming it’s the same teacher that the elective VA class had last year) apparently is really nice to her elective VA students, which is good.
Oh, I just remembered. I think this year the elective VA students all have to do one of those giant canvas paintings.
Urgh….
Oh well, better than doing a big IST project than involves programming and listening in class and stuff.
Anyway…
Maths teacher – good. Geography teacher… well she’s okay. She talks a lot. Her voice inspires me to create awesome drawings… that sounds weird. No, she’s kind of boring… I have her for Commerce as well! GAH! I want my last year’s Commerce teacher, he was awesome and his rambling was so much more interesting to talk too…
History… haven’t had a History class yet.
PDHPE… teacher’s okay.
German… ditto above. She teaches a bit slowly though. Which is annoying.
That’s about it yeah…
Yesterday, the second day of school, we all returned to our scary hyperactive selves.
Heh… we decided to cancel the present-giving aspect of Christmas this year. We were having a group discussion and I think I was the one who yelled “Everyone, stop talking! Listen!” Thing is, we happened to be sitting in the ampitheatre, and on the steps all around us were various Year 7s and 8s and they happened to stop talking and stare at us as well…Oops…XD
Lunchtime was insane. Very loud. I got tired from talking loudly and laughing.
I HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT ALREADY.
Well at least I didn’t get one on the first day… just on the second…
And I have Maths homework on quadratics which I’m currently unable to do because my textbook-on-a-CD is too scratched to function properly, which sucks.
I’ve now been on the computer for way too long and I should go now before this laptop explodes. =]
Before I start…
If you don’t know, Avatar: The Last Airbender (aka Avatar: The Legend of Aang) is an animated kids’ TV show that screened in the US for three seasons. It’s set in an Asian-influenced world where the landscapes, architecture, clothes, etc. are all obviously Asian and where the characters have the power to manipulate certain elements (you know, the fire/earth/water/air thing). In this blog post I’ll mostly be referring to it simply as Avatar.
I recently came across this blog post. Take a look.
I have never watched an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender in my life and thus am pretty neutral about the show, but I think this issue is important enough and ridiculous enough to blog about.
What is this issue?
The fact that there is going to be a live action movie – three live action movies, in fact – based on the Avatar TV show, and THE CAST IS WHITE.
WHITE.
Okay, I have nothing against white people, let’s get that clear. But think about this.
In the Avatar TV show, as I’ve said before, pretty much everything is Asian. The characters all have some Asian influence. There are no blondes in the show, because the world of Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world and there are no Asian blondes.
But people decide to make a film out of it, sure they keep all the Asian-ness…EXCEPT FOR THE PEOPLE. Instead of Asians, they cast white actors in the roles.
There is something deeply stupid about this. Stupid and racist.
Yes, this is an issue more centred in the USA seeing as that’s where Avatar aired and that’s where the movie’s being made. But the whole issue concerns everyone: Avatar lovers, haters, I-don’t-care people… Asian, white, African-American, whatever race you may be.
If you want to do something about this, head on over and read Derek Kirk Kim’s blog post. He explains the whole thing better than I do, and there are instructions for petitions and where to send letters of complaint.
End.
So I’ve now read the preface and chapters 1 through to 6 of Twilight.
I have to admit, I’m starting to like it now. There are some things that irritate me but it’s quite fun to read. Especially the dialogue. The dialogue’s funny.
Things that irritate me about it though are…
~How ridiculously popular Bella is
~How ridiculously bipolar (well, switching moods every five minutes or less) that Edward is
~How Edward tells Bella to stay away from him and yet he continues to seduce her
There’s a couple of redeeming qualities about Bella though. I mean, so far she’s done pretty much nothing but at least she doesn’t act like a complete damsel in distress… as in, she still bothers to get pissed at Edward instead of full-time swooning at him. I mean, she does swoon but she still gets angry at him. It’s pretty funny, actually, reading about how she’s so mesmerised at him and pissed off at the same time.
The dialogue in this book is well-written in that it’s funny and entertaining.
I’ll add another update later…
So far I’ve read the preface, the first two chapters, and about two paragraphs of the third chapter.
So far, it’s actually not that bad. It’s sort of boring I guess, and Bella’s annoying how she’s all martyr-y and looks down on her Forks classmates so much but apart from that it’s okay…
I’ve recently gotten a copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and am going to read it so I can decide for myself what all the hype is about and whether it really does suck that much, etc. etc.
Will be posting a blog with my thoughts about it… some time in the near future.
Or rather, Hobart. Seeing as when I went to Tasmania a few days ago I only went to Hobart and its surrounds.
Tasmania: the little island state at the bottom of the country which is so often overlooked and forgotten. When I was younger I really wanted to go there for some reason… I think it was just the fact that it was a tiny island that appealed to me.
Anyway.
Tasmania is a really, really small place. According to the trusty Wikipedia it has a population of 500 000. Canberra has a population of over 340 000. Adelaide – 1.1 million.
And then you get Sydney, with 4 or 5 million.
You know, I thought Sydney was a pretty small city, and then I went to Hobart. Hobart is TINY. It’s so deserted. Okay, maybe that was because we were walking around on a Sunday afternoon, but still. It was really surreal because in the section known as Hobart city I swear I did not see a single McDonalds store. The first I saw was at some place called Sandy Bay. It’s so abnormal.
Yeah, I know I sound like some culture-shocked and kind of snobby Sydneysider…heheh…
But nah I’m not really dissing Hobart or Tasmania. It’s a nice place. It’s just way too quiet for my tastes and definitely not the holiday destination to take two bored technology-addicted teenagers to. I didn’t mind it, it just wasn’t a hugely fun place for a family holiday.
Let’s see, that holiday consisted mostly of either sitting in a 8-seater rented monster of a car, listening to the babble of voices, shouts and the robotic tones of a GPS… or randomly walking around sightseeing and taking family snaps… or me randomly taking lots of photos. I took so many photos over there… blame Blair and his infectious photographing.
The two most interesting/fun places in my opinion (that we went to) were Port Arthur (the old convict jail place) and the Cadbury factory at Claremont.
Port Arthur because it was a museum-type place and it was also pretty big with heaps of old buildings and ruins. Actually it was sort of depressing because the whole place was steeped in convict history, but it was KIND OF interesting as well. We watched a bunch of actors perform and they were pretty good. Also, the ruins make great photos… We learnt some pretty morbid things there. Such as…
Did you know that in the convict/transportation era of England’s history, apparently from the age of 4 you were able to work, from the age of 7 you were legally responsible for your actions, from 8 you could be executed by hanging and from 9 you could be transported to a penal colony?
*shiver*
That’s quite extreme…
The Cadbury factory on the other hand was not in the least depressing. Duh, chocolate… actually there was a slightly depressing aspect which was the fact that we could no longer take factory tours because of some OH&S issue. Apparently if you went to a room where they made chocolates with nuts, to head into an un-nutted chocolate-making room you had to change all your clothes or something. This new rule came in around March last year if I remember correctly… which coincides nicely with the fact that in March an Australian Army Cadet died on a bivouac from eating a ration pack that contained peanuts. (The guy was allergic to peanuts, though for some reason he ate the ration pack anyway even though it said that it contained peanuts…)
Wait, no. I think the peanut incident with the AAC happened in 2007.
And the Cadbury thing happened in 2008.
Or maybe I just have a crap memory and am confused.
Yeah, anyway…
Seeing as there were no more factory tours all we did at the Cadbury factory was walk around the souvenir shop, watch a presentation about the history of chocolate and Cadbury, which was actually quite interesting and made funny by the presentor who was funny in a kind of cheesy lame-but-still-funny way… and of course there was the Cadbury chocolate shop where we bought a lot of stuff. Tooth-rotting, waistline-expanding, really nice stuff.
Like, you know, chocolate…
——-
My ending verdict on our little island state…it’s nice, but quiet. Like, really really quiet. It’s also got some pretty nice land and waterscapes too… but very quiet! I wouldn’t live there. No, I like Sydney too much XDD
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