Busy Busy Senior Year

Long time no see. For good reason anyway. I've needed to focus on my classes and applying for colleges as I come to the halfway mark of my senior year. God it's going by so fast.

I can't begin to say how much has happened. Been to Japan, grandmother passed away, assistant directing a school play, so many gaps that I just don't have the time or mental capacity to fill it. I just needed a break from fixing up my personal statement. I'm not even sure if any of my seven followers really read this anymore.

Maybe as senior year starts closing I'll update this more often. I really do miss writing about my life on my own spare time just to get away from the world and forget that I have a month to finish up a yearbook spread and over fifteen days until I need to apply for colleges.

I really do want a degree to hopefully get me a job in writing. Maybe an editor or a reporter for a newspaper. Or I could change my major into theater arts because of my growing love for theater.

Well that was a good little break for now. Supernatural time..

Hoping to get more active with this shit

So school starts again tomorrow and it's the beginning of the end of high school as I go into my senior year. Already college is on my mind and all the fun things I want to do while still in school. I would come up with some more sentimental bullshit but I think I'll worry about that when I graduate.

I'm gonna spend the last day of my vacation being lazy, watching Firefly, writing and picking up some last minute supplies for school.

Maybe I can have more to write when I'm not so busy worrying about school...

Hello Old Friend

Jesus Christ I never update this thing.

So it's been two months. Junior year's over and I'm onto start my senior year next month. I haven't really been away from my computer much to not update this. For most of my summer I've been watching TV, knitting, and doing summer homework.

Yeah I went to Florida for a couple weeks to visit my dad, hung out with friends, but other than that, not that much has been going on. Really I've been using Tumblr more often for blogging and very few people actually even read this thing but I don't feel like deleting it for whatever reason.

Maybe when Senior year comes around I'll be posting again. I dunno. It's whatever. Maybe I could post some of my short stories, poems and essays on here. Just writing stuff whenever I have time for creativity.

BLUH

I haven't touched this in a long time. Been occupied with Tumblr. Don't know how often I'll actually update this old thing.

School's been mentally draining. I only really have time for school, school and more school. It's getting really annoying and after AP exams I'm just so freaking done with it all. And I gotta go through another year of this and I gotta go to Counseling AGAIN cause I don't want a freaking science but no one seems to understand that. Ugh!

Just.. yeah.. I'm so done

On top of the world

This song is just so damn catchy and it makes me feel happy and wanna dance like a dork. It's my new favorite song.

It's stuff like this I just need a break from pure insanity that is school just for myself to relax so I don't blow a fuse. Just got a lot on my mind with a ton of school work mainly from my AP classes along with standardized testing which I've so far done no studying for even though A) I should look over stuff from forever ago and B) It's easy and the last time I'll have to take it. Not to mention AP exams which are in a month. The joys of being an intelligent student the US of A. Why can't I just take school in Finland where it's supposedly a breeze? Oh well.

At least summer is less than two months away and my birthday just a month. I'm hoping I can be able to see Star Trek Into the Darkness when it comes out exactly on my birthday cause that'd be just awesome. Need to start thinking of who I wanna invite to my birthday party. God I'm just getting old.

Just feel like typing

So I accomplished all of my homework and finishing the first season of Torchwood. At the moment I'm baking some freaking delicious cookies with lots of chocolate chips. Let's just hope I can be able to eat with my teeth problems. I got Invisilign a few weeks ago which are basically plastic braces you can remove. Thing is I gotta change them out every two and a half weeks so the new ones hurt for a few days and now I gotta wear rubber bands too. Why couldn't we have just been born with perfect teeth and not have to worry about all this orthodontist crap.

So for the rest of my spring break, I'll mainly just be sitting on my butt watching TV, knitting my soon to be 8 foot long scarf, maybe catch up on some school work not due Monday, and going out to see my sister for her 19th birthday. For now, I think I try a fresh cookie out of the oven and finish A Study in Pink.

Spring Break 2013

So I'm back after a couple weeks without a computer which was being sent to get its harddrive replaced cause it got diseased. Yeah not really one of the best things to happen to a computer. Not to mention how extremely inconvenient it is when most of your school work is on a computer especially when your teacher wants you to upload stuff to a certain website and blahblahblah. You get the picture. But luckily it's spring break and I can rest easy... cept for the homework. Not that any of it is hard, it's just really tedious. Just reading and answering questions, prepare for the AP exams in May and well yeah you get the jist of it. On the bright side though I got my scores back from the SAT I took earlier last month and I got a 1622. Not bad for a first time taking it eh? I should take it again but I gotta think of what dates won't make me rip out my hair since the next two dates are close to AP exams and semester finals. Oh the great joy of being an 11th grader.

As for my spring break I really don't have much planned. Hang out with a friend to do homework and catch up on the following TV shows:

1. Supernatural
2. Torchwood
3. Hetalia

Yeah talk about an eventful life huh?

I just need to update this thing

Yeah I haven't been on in forever, so I thought, why the hell not update? Can't say too much is going on other than academics but some overall life's been good. More tedious work is showing up especially with school ending in less than three months and AP exams in just two months. Essays, more American history, the works. Oh and our school's spring musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown is opening in less than two weeks. Gonna work backstage again like the little techie I am. I got to see a run through and it's going pretty well so far other than the demon set pieces on wheels, specifically Snoopy's doghouse. Last thing we need is an actor falling and breaking his/her neck.

In drama class actually we performed scenes in front of an actual student audience that we direct/act in. I thought mine went really well for the time we got even though I'm a perfectionist and wish we had another week. And of course it didn't help with the mini heart attack I got from someone's phone backstage going off. Yeah, I get really hyped up for this kind of stuff and I get all jittery like I drank twelve cups of coffee.

My mom turned 42 on the 28th last month. We went to a place in San Mateo called the Melting Pot which serves awesome fondue. Yeah, you cook your own food but it's worth it. Crazy expensive though. Oh and I was a dork and made her this card.

Yes it's cheesy but I think it's freaking adorable. And c'mon you only turn 42 once. Might as well take advantage of that.

My friend Francisco got into Doctor Who and has managed to reach the fifth season in like two months so it's really fun to obsess over how great a show it is. And also to inwardly wait for him to have his mind blown with whatever episode is next. I just like that about friends when you're able to have this one obsession you share and have great conversations about.

I finally took my SAT this morning. Been up since almost six in the morning and I regret nothing. I got up early enough to make myself a big breakfast of an omelette and cereal and was able to stop by Starbucks and get some hot chocolate and a cheesecake brownie which is freaking delicious. And for the most part, the SAT was pretty easy. It's nothing that complex: an essay, reading, grammar, algebra, and geometry. Though the math sections were really hard cause there's so much I don't remember. Luckily when in doubt, I just left them blank so I wouldn't get marked off for wrong answers. I'll be waiting a few weeks until I get my scores and hopefully I get a good score.

Big

Recently, SVCT has had a show going on for a couple weeks; a musical known as Big, which is adapted from the film of the same name made in 1988 starring Tom Hanks. I saw it because I need to see a performance for this semester for Drama class, and few friends of mine were acting in the show.

It starts with a 12-year-old boy named Josh Baskin who makes a wish at a Zoltar Speaks fortune telling machine to be "big" after being too he is too short to ride a carnival ride. This backfires as his wish comes true overnight, and little Josh has turned into a grown-up. Forced to leave his home, his friend, Billy, helps to find another Zoltar machine to wish him back into being a kid again, while Josh learns to cope and fit in the adult world by being hired by a failing toy company. As the days pass, Josh finds himself conflicted between abandoning his family and friends for success and the first woman he is falling in love with and vice versa.

I saw the 1988 movie a few months ago and as an adaptation goes, and a musical one for that matter, I liked it a lot, especially with how this production created a spectacular performance. With a cast of teenagers and preteens, with the exception of Zoltar, I really did love and appreciate to see young actors start out in their careers and show that they can pull all the stops to give one hundred percent effort into a great performance, despite that one or two voices weren't exactly great. Another problem I did have with the musical was the acoustics and technical problems with mics on those singing. The playhouse is a really small theater and a lot of times the orchestra was overpowering the singers and I couldn't hear any singing. There were even instances where the actors were trying so hard to sing loudly but the mics made static and other problems. It didn't help I could hear the technicians in the sound booth who clearly have no idea what whispering is.

Other than that I have little complaints. The actors brought their A-game, the sets were cleverly designed to just roll on and off and I really did enjoy a musical adaptation of such a good movie. I wish broken legs to the rest of the performances of Big.

I can feel my brain thinking

Happy February everyone. Okay where the hell is 2013 going? It's really only been a month? Jesus...

So I've finally found a rare moment of peace where I don't have a crap ton of homework to do and it's almost time for a week long vacation. Hey, maybe the teachers will decide to lighten the load and not try to murder us with multiple assignments. I got so stressed last week I was near the point of breaking my stepdad's crap computer and screaming at my mom. I swear, do any of these teachers really even know what us students have to go through? We have lives too outside of academics. I mean, yes, I would like to look into what colleges I want to go to in a year but I don't have time because homework can take up to two or three hours depending what I have to do. It's so obnoxious seeing my email just load up with colleges from all over kingdom come going "Hey! Come check us out! Take our online survey!"

Just stooop!

So I'm happy this weekend is a lot more relaxed so I can just calm down, do whatever I want to, and take time to spend with my family, especially with my stepdad now home from Japan after another month long visit. He bought me, my sister and my mom yukatas but now the trick is trying to figure out how to put them on. I found a video on YouTube so when I have the patience I'd like to wear it and perhaps take a few pictures to share cause I picked out a really pretty one.

Today's just a lazy day with everyone parked on the couch rewatching the first season of Homeland.

When You Wish Upon A Star

Yeah I was on Tumblr recently when I saw quite a few posts with mainly negative feedback about the redesigning of the Disney Princesses. Being the Disney fanatic I am, I thought why not give my own opinion on the new designs?

First off, I know that it's Disney marketing and they grow over the years to appeal to the people who buy the toys for their kids and they're not going Disney sequel screwing up the characters, blahblahblahblah. I'm just basing this off design and what I think. I'm not really in particular for the whole sparkles and crap. It makes me forget about the characters and sees them as marketing tools, which yeah they kinda are with the franchise for little girls and crap.

And this is all strictly based on personal opinion though I will try to keep an open mind too. None of the princesses are listed in any order of liking, just the years they were brought onto the big screen. I'll try to give the best I can but I'm positive you can look elsewhere on the internet for more thorough explanations. Enjoy my little spit ball of ranting!

With Snow White they really didn't do much of anything. Just added sparkles. She's still plain but beautiful on her own without needing much compared to some designs where she's just blinged out with a crown and jewels galore. I still like Snow White sparkles or no sparkles.

Before anyone argues "original design", let's remember that Cinderella in the original movie was strawberry blonde and her dress was white/silver. How they got blonde and blue dress out of that I have no idea. Maybe the person coloring got high and just didn't care. So let's just go with what we got.

Ugh, God this is just all wrong. I'll say what's already been said; they made her a Barbie doll. It just looks absolutely wrong just in the face and hair alone and it's really distracting. While the dress is really beautiful and sparkly and stuff, just... that's not Cinderella. That's a Barbie doll dressed up as Cinderella. All wrong.

All that's really changed here is the hair and the sparkles on the dress and a slight alteration to Aurora's dress. The hairstyle just looks a bit awkward to me cause I'm used to the bangs and curly hair she originally had. But to be fair, this is a more natural look and it does look really beautiful.

Little complaints about Ariel. Her dress is an alteration to the pink one she wears in the movie and I think it looks beautiful. Other than that and wavier hair, I got nothing. I like this design.

Holy hell where did that hair come from? That's another change with I don't have a problem with but it looks awkward compare to the original and I don't think it totally suits Belle's personality of not really flaunting her beauty all that often. Her dress is actually gold which I will admit does look more elegant than yellow. Overall, I like this design okay.

Oh hey look! A victim of white-washing! Yeah that's been a main complaint with the next few princesses was the white wash. I won't lie, it doesn't look good and they should have just left with normal skin tones for whatever they originally had with Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan.

Anyway, I don't really have a lot to say about Jasmine but the one strand of hair is a bit of an eye sore and they have her in a ponytail and not a big braid. That's all for her.

I think I just vomited in my mouth.. Is Pocachacha wearing make-up?? Ah, no! Just no! Take that off!

Ugh, earrings, lose them. Eye sore. And 'scuse me? What did you do to her necklace?! I thought there was no gold in Virginia! Are you trying to screw over our history entirely?! Why would you alter one of the key items of her whole appearance?! Gah!!

What was the point of doing this? This absolutely represents nothing of the Native American princess when you've dolled her up in make-up and unnecessary jewelry and ugh.. this is one of the worst ones. I'm not gonna lie.

Buuuuuut to give the designers credit, at list they didn't slap on sparkle all over her outfit and tried to keep it natural. The stones actually look really pretty and matches with the dress. Other than that, yeah this is pretty bad.

NO.

First off, I have to point out that now that I'm older, I kinda hate how Mulan is always marketed all pretty and dressed up when it clearly does not suit her at all. Did anyone really watch the movie? She is clearly awkward and clumsy and not comfortable doing any of that at all. So it makes no sense to always doll her up when her character is not like that at all. And that's my main problem with the design is that it doesn't fit her character at all. Hello? Continuity anyone? I remember her chopping off her hair with a sword! Are we seriously gonna forget that and assume she just spontaneously grew it out?! Ugh!

While the outfit does look really beautiful, it's the worse design because it's a pure insult to the character who is displayed as a strong yet clumsy young woman who doesn't do the fancy dresses.

I got nothing here. Just sparkles and for some reason they forgot to draw in the dimples. Next one.

Overall, I hate Rapunzel's 2D design. It's just awkward and has no reason to be made into 2D. I guess they didn't want to have an awkward 3D princess among 2D princesses, but yeah, I don't like it. And why is there never a design with her hair cut? I think that'd look really pretty! Other than that, just sparkles. I got nothing else.

So yeah, the designs are very hit and miss. Maybe from here and from other observations you can make your own conclusions about how the princesses look and I hoped you enjoyed hearing my opinion/ranting.

On an end note, thank God that Merida isn't an official "Disney Princess" cause if they tried putting a crap ton of sparkle on her, I'd want to see her just rip the dress to shreds.

The Movies and My Body Being Weird

On top of being busy with school these past couple weeks, I got the stomach flu this past Thursday which is no freaking fun at all. It's been going around at my school and I had to be one of the unlucky souls to catch it. I went through a whole night of being woken up by stomach pains which led to vomiting which happened three times. I stayed home that day just writhing in pain, trying to keep down whatever food I could, puking three more times and getting a low-grade fever. At the end of the day I was only able to keep down special electrolyte water (not Gatorade cause that's pure sugar and that easily left my stomach) and four crackers. So I took another day to get some rest and be sure I could keep food in my stomach after God knows how much Pepto. And really the rest of my weekend has been trying to eat and gain back lost weight from my stomach flu, buying cute boots, catching up on homework, helping my sister make a hilarious video which I will feature below and you should watch and share with your friends, and (what else?) blogging on the Tumblr.



On a few more side notes I'm am happy to see my boys, the San Francisco 49ers, FINALLY win the NFC Championship and make it to this years SuperBowl. This will probably be the best party my mom will host on the negative side that my step dad will still be in Japan when the SuperBowl happens.

And this month I took part in viewing two awesome movies, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Les Miserables. Both: Super amazing and spectacular films. Both had great and fantastic images to be put on the big screen with great acting. The Hobbit follows the book along with the added information from Tolkein's notes. So excited for the next two movies. And Les Miserables was just a great emotional experience. I cried so much and enjoyed every moment of song which of course was the whole movie. Both are great films and if you have time now to see them on the big screen, do it. They're incredibly long movies but every minute is worth it.

New Year, New Semester, New scarf and Tshirts

Happy belated New Year folks. Well my vacation will soon be coming to a close and that means... School... Damn..

Junior year is known as the busiest and by God is it true. Gotta take a lot of tests, gotta start thinking about colleges to go to, it's a freaking mess. On top of which, the school work just piles and piles, especially with AP testing around the corner in a few months. With the grades as they are up to date right now without report cards being released, As and Bs in every class except for Physics with a 79% .... The stupid tests contribute to that but eh. Not going into a science field of work any time soon. And it's so freaking close that I really in the end don't give a crap. Well no matter on the psycho academics, there's also the spring musical I'm excited for.

This year we're putting on You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Since I can't sing, I would definitely still love to be a part of the production in any way possible. I'm actually interested in assistant director if the position is hopefully available. Only trouble is I'm not too familiar with the Peanuts (I was sadly bored by it as a kid) and better study up on the characters and the musical if I wanna know what the hell I'm doing. But hey, any way in helping with the musical is better than sitting on my butt on the sidelines doing nothing.

Today was a very happy day for me in the shopping department. I went into Hot Topic cause it was having a sale and it was buy a T-shirt and get another half off and there were new Doctor Who and Hetalia shirts and... Well this is what happened

Luckily there were new Avengers shirts that my sister wanted so she got one while I got a Hetalia T-shirt and two Doctor Who shirts; one with ALL eleven Doctors and the other with the 10th Doctor's explanation of time (AKA wibbly wobbly timey wimey). So as you can imagine, I'm super happy!!

I also finished a new scarf today. I made it an infinity scarf and it's all blue and green and oh so pretty~~ Yeah. I love knitting <3 p="p">
So do I have any resolutions for this year? Eh, kinda. Most of them on an academic level cause school is evil but here's what I got.

1. Be assistant director for musical and/or play
2. Take SAT at least once
3. Learn to drive
4. Start looking at colleges
5. Go to Fanime
6. Sell scarves and make a bit of money

Well that's it so far. Sorry I can't be uber fancy and make up some meaningful paragraph about the new year on the spot. But here's a quote I found the other day that I now love.

“Every girl is expected to have caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes. Everyone else is struggling.”

- Tina Fey

Happy New Year... Almost

Well I will say that my vacation has been running smoothly and my homework is slowly, but surely getting finished. I just really am so done with school after the hell produced by the month of December. Other than homework most of my days have been spent knitting and finally watching Sherlock.

Speaking of, here's what I got for Christmas:

1. A portable DVD player
2. A "fancy" Snuggie (that I can't walk in or else it looks awkward)
3. Three pairs of knitting needles
4. Six balls of yarn
5. A new camera with a tripod
6. Sketch books
7. And two whole anime series: Soul Eater and Haibane-Renmei (haven't seen)

That reminds me I haven't updated my anime review blog in forever... Probably need to give that some TLC.

So yeah, I've started knitting. I'm thinking if I make enough, I could sell some scarves and make a bit of money. I know I got a crap ton of yarn so I just gotta make free time to make more scarves lol

Well that's about it really. Nothing else really spectacular going on during the holidays. But hey, no place like home for the holidays, right? Right.

Crap...

God I never update this thing as much as I would like to. That's probably to blame due to the fact I'm just too lazy to write creatively and such, and my classes have become the spawn of Zuul by assigning me a crap ton of homework before finals week, which is next week.

Soooo I'll just give a brief summary of what's been going on since I got nothing better to do while Tumblr is temporarily shut down.

1. Spent week in Florida with Dad during Thanksgiving break
2. Went to Winter Formal
3. LOTS OF HOMEWORK

Yeah, isn't my life so eventful?

Oh wait I take that back, I did see Rise of the Guardians last night which is a fantastic movie. Probably the best I've seen out of Dreamworks since How To Train Your Dragon. I love everything about it; the creativity and imagination, the characters, the story, and of course the animation itself. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it.

And uhhh. Yeah. I've mainly just been consumed by school. It's been stressful but I know I can pull through once finals are over. At least the bright side of it is that I get to be Loki in my Drama final because we're acting out our own scenes we get from movies and stuff.

I don't wanna be the bad guy anymore

So I finally got around to seeing Wreck-It Ralph last week, and any positive words you have heard about it is 100% true.

With the set up of the story and the comedic voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, and Jack McBrayer, it was really awesome to see it set inside the world of an arcade with video game characters from Street Fighter to Sonic. It created a great film for kids and an even greater film to the nostalgic adults who grew up with these arcade games.

The story is as basic as the title says. Ralph no longer wants to be the villain of his game due to the lack of appreciation while his colleague, Fix-It Felix Jr, is praised greatly. Frustrated and jealous, Ralph leaves his game in search of glory so he can be revered as a hero. Upon leaving his game, he encounters colorful characters like Sergeant Calhoun from a first-person shooter game, Hero's Duty, and a hyperactive glitchy girl name Vanellope Von Schweetz from the racing game, Sugar Rush. Unfortunately, one event leads to another and Ralph not only risks having his game unplugged due to his absence, but risks the whole arcade of disaster. But that's as much as I can reveal without spoilers.

The main characters:

• John C. Reilly is truly up there as one of the most comedic actors, and he doesn't disappoint as Ralph. I almost forgot that he can pull off as a serious character while still able to get out humor. That's what Ralph is. He's a nice guy, but knows when to be serious. Can be timid and a big goofball, but is easy to snap and make frustrated. He starts off as greedy and unacceptable of who he is, but forgets his greed to save those he truly cares about.
• When I saw Sarah Silverman as Vanellope, I thought she was going to portray an incredibly annoying kid. She starts off as kinda annoying but Vanellope proved to be a sweet and funny girl with a huge drive and passion to become a racer no matter what everyone else thinks of her.
• I remember seeing Jack McBrayer as the one awkward kid from Talladega Nights and I saw a lot of that geeky and awkward personality in Felix. He's not the strongest guy but he's still so determined to save his game no matter what it takes to bring back Ralph. He's just an overall goofy guy full of determination.
• Sergeant Calhoun is a bit more of a minor character, but Jane Lynch's name is shown on posters and stuff so might as well have her. Lynch is often type-casted as a very sarcastic character who really doesn't care what comes out of her mouth. Not that it's a bad thing because she's always hilarious in that weird way. Calhoun's a big no-nonsense soldier in that very humorous way, yet is programmed with a tragic past, so you do feel pretty bad for her.

The animation:

As animation goes for Disney, it follows the formula of bright and colorful with dark and scary. It takes advantage of taking place in the world of arcade games and not just including old games like Q*bert and Pac-man, but taking advantage of pure creativity with their original worlds of Fix-It Felix Jr., Hero's Duty, and Sugar Rush, though mostly Sugar Rush. I swear just looking at that part of the movie instantly gave me a cavity with an entire world made of candy. And it also takes advantages of maybe one too many puns but they're hilarious. There will be about a billion references not just to old video games but modern day stuff to, so if that's a pet peeve of yours, you may not enjoy this movie, but that doesn't destroy the film in any way. I also liked how some of the characters movements were very "8-bit". Very blocky and it suited very well for such a world.

The story/message:

While having a ton of comedic moments, the story does take time to be serious and really do make some tear-jerking moments. Yeah, I'm a bit of a baby. Again, it mixes bright and colorful to dark and near depressing. I really liked how it was about stereotyping and labeling, and this story went with a great route and told really nicely. It gave a nice blend of humor, drama, light, dark, and great animation. One of the best family films of the year.

I also should point out the animated short shown before Wreck-It Ralph because it's truly groundbreaking in animation. The short is called Paperman, and it's about a man in 40s NYC trying to get the attention of a girl he met in a chance encounter by paper airplanes. It's silent and black and white but it's a very sweet and cute romantic story, including some great music. But good god the animation! By far Disney's finest. You can find a couple videos online about it, but the animation is a combination of 3D animation overlapped by traditional 2D hand-drawn animation. I almost thought I was watching a 2D short. It is so creative and it looks like a piece of art. The short unfortunately isn't fully available online yet, but you can find featurettes about the short online until the short is available but just.. Agh! It's the best artwork I've seen out of Disney since Brave and its short, La Luna. Go see it!!

Happy (Belated) Halloween

That time of year has come and gone again and now the year is slowly making its way towards the Christmas season. Now those Christmas decorations in stores make sense to have out now.

As for Halloween, it was a splendid Halloween this year. Saw great costumes, went out trick or treating and have been recently suffering post-Halloween exhaustion and I didn't even eat a lot of candy XD
This year I went as Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. I let my mom do my make up and hair and it was freaking awesome! I kinda scared some people a bit cause I looked pretty pale. By the way, this picture was taken by a student XD I look so terrifyingly model-ish with that pose.

Among the other costumes at school I saw the following:

Doctor Horrible

Flappers

Link

Mormons

Octomom

Harry Potter vs Mr. Miyagi

Billy Mays

Malcom Reynolds

Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins

Billy the Puppet (off the tricycle)

Tom Cruise from Risky Business

But the best one of all was...

Mitt Romney and his binder full of women

It was the most terrifyingly hilarious costume I've ever seen period.

After school and later on that night, I went with my friend Jamie to trick or treat around my neighborhood, and we got a lot for what we did in two hours. My neighborhood is mostly filled with little kids under the age of ten so a lot of people were bound to have candy. Hershey's, Snickers, Pixy Stix, you name it, they got it. Of course some houses had spooky decorations that almost made me stray away cause of my paranoia for stuff that surprises me due to my sensitivity to loud sounds. Though the best house we were at was this one house that just had a sign on the open window saying candy, and of course, it's pitch black inside. Likey-do, I didn't wanna go near it, despite Jamie egging me on, but I went over when a Reese's was thrown out the window. Then she ran away in terror when she saw a Death Eater mask at the window. That was actually pretty freaking hilarious.

As for my weekend, we're finally building the set for the play, The Butler Did It, which is less than a week before opening night. With all the people we had show up just today, we had a lot done and it was awesome. The best part is that they only really need like two people backstage, so this year I can watch the play from the audience, but I'll work in house for the rest of the weekend.

Now to go dilly-dally on Tumblr~

I need a vacation...

While my parents are in Japan, half on vacation half working, I'm still in Cali with some neighbors for a week. Not that it's bad but my weekend has been crazy busy.

Yesterday I had to take my PSAT... at eight in the morning... which meant I had to get up at 6 am so my parents could drop me off and still get to the airport on time.

My breakfast: One bowl of Lucky Charms, a banana, a cheese stick, and one tiny 90 calorie can of Coca-Cola.

Snack during test break: Nilla wafers (that I gave to my friend), goldfish crackers, a HoHo, and a Capri Sun.

I know I'm oh so very healthy. My mom suggested the Coca-Cola for caffeine but man did it backfire later in the afternoon..

Luckily the test was super super easy cause it was just basic geometry and sentence structure and grammar and vocabulary. And afterwards, I was offered Red Robin for lunch which sounded amazing. And the rest of my weekend has been composed of mostly finishing my crap load of homework while working with a tired body. I had such an extreme sugar crash I didn't feel like getting up the next morning...

I've also been reading a book for my independent project called How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer.

Okay I'm gonna go with true story of my week here; I right now hate this author because my group was originally supposed to read another book by him called Imagine. Problem though is that book was recalled by the publisher for plagiarism and fabricated quotes. I can't believe this moron would freaking do that when he's a freaking journalist. Actually change that, he got fired because he also plagiarized for another job. God, I think that's the number one rule in writing: Don't plagiarize.

This non-plagiarized work however is... Okay. I don't really read non-fiction that often... Okay I don't read non-fiction at all. I'm a fantasy/sci-fi reader. I only read non-fiction when I have to do projects or research.

I'm not too far in but I don't really like Lehrer's writing style. Maybe I'm just being nitpicky but it seems really disorganized and lacks focus. It's supposed to be about how the brain works and how we make decisions but it constantly goes back and forth to examples, scientific research, logic, emotions, oh my God, it's too much.

I dunno. Maybe I'll find some odd way to enjoy it eventually but it's whatever.

Here's some food porn before I say adieu

Here we have a chocolate cake with mint chocolate icing, covered in Hershey's chocolate bar shavings. Enjoy staring at its beauty while your mouth drools.

Disney Villains (Part 2)

If you followed my previous post, you saw that I listed off half of the Disney villains I think to be great  funny villains but also the "meh" villains. Now we're slowly transitioning to the biggest baddies of all. I hope your favs get up here and remember: No Pixar villains (that will be a separate post eventually) and this is based off the of the 2-D animated films I have seen.

10. John Clayton (Tarzan)

Still a bit of a "meh" villain cause his motive is very weak. It's money and power, and not to mention he resembles too closely to Ratcliffe. What makes him different though, is how ruthless and violent he is and the great extremes he goes to just to get what he wants. If you really hate animal abusers, you'll hate this guy. 

I gotta say I was almost tempted to not have him on this list but what really makes him unique that still makes me cringe to this day: his death. Clayton's the only character I've seen to actually be hanged and it's pretty scary. Took me years to see the shadow of his body after it happens..

Well anyway. Next guy!

9. Shan Yu (Mulan)

Out of all the villains I've listed, Shan Yu is definitely one of the more merciless ones. He's just having fun being such a bad guy with an immense amount of power. And when you put him with that intense music, it makes him and the Hun army very intimidating.

Motive? "By building his wall he challenged my strength. Well, I'm here to play his game." Yeah.. that just about says it. Shan Yu hates being overpowered and wants to prove that he's the strongest out there and is ready to challenge anyone who steps above him. Even a woman disguised as a dude who has a body count in the hundreds via avalanche.

Ruthless and crazed with strength, Shan Yu's the guy who will never underestimate his enemies and fight to come on top... Until he gets blown up with fireworks.

8. Mother Gothel (Tangled)

Much like the Evil Queen and the Wicked Stepmother, there isn't much to Gothel other than a really vain woman. Unlike those two women however, she doesn't seek to bring a miserable life or even death upon the female lead. Gothel kidnaps and locks Rapunzel away to use her hair to stay young forever.

I put Gothel pretty high because of how manipulative she is, and she does it for 18 years. She gets away for so long telling Rapunzel that the outside world is a dangerous place when the real danger is right in front of Rapunzel. Gothel is a great actress in showing how much she "cares" for Rapunzel and treating her like a loving mother. Yet once Rapunzel starts growing her independence, her true colors show for how big of a liar and how cruel of a woman she really is.

Gothel also gets points for being the first Disney villain to die of old age. Once Rapunzel's hair is cut, she turns into her real age and just eventually turns into ash. By far one of the most unique of villain deaths out there.

7. Scar (The Lion King)

I'm coming at the point where I don't feel like I gotta say much about these villains. They're so well known I don't even have to specify their qualities that make them so evil. But I'll do it anyway.

Scar follows the classic Disney path of a vain and power-hungry dictator. Willing to kill anyone to get the title of king, including his own brother, creating one of the most iconic Disney deaths. He's scheming and ruthless, but once he gets into power, he becomes a Prima Donna. You think he'd take advantage of his power, but just likes sitting around doing nothing and then complaining or snapping when no one does their job or criticizes him.

But of course he entirely doesn't lose interest when Simba returns to the Pride Lands, and they're forced to face one another. When you look at him then, he can be cowardly when he's against intimidation, yet still maintains his brutality until the end when his ignorance betrays him, and he betrays his minions who eat him alive.

6. Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmations)

Another animal abuser on the list, Cruella is the most iconic and memorable of the Disney villains. She's fashion-obsessed and egotistical but also impulsive, sadistic, greedy, and extremely bipolar. She can be calm and collected one moment, but the next she's a psychopath chasing you off a cliff with her car. Nothing like a crazy woman behind the wheel trying to kill you.. Don't know if that's a sexist joke or not..

Like I mentioned before with Yzma, Cruella is just hideously glamorous. She's a very skeletal woman covered in a massive fur coat. Like I gotta say her motivation; gathering enough Dalmatian puppies to create fur coats like a fashion monster. And the longer it took for her to get her way, the more reckless and psychotic she got.

Cruella: Giving an entirely new name to fashionably insane.

5. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

TOO SIMILAR!!!

Trivia: Ursula's design was actually based off of a drag queen named Divine. Unfortunately, Divine died of an enlarged heart before the movie was finished. I'm sure if she saw it, she thought Disney made a twin.

While the original sea witch from Hans Christen Anderson's story was neutral, Ursual turned out to be a dark and sinister octopus woman with a massive craving for power. She has the power to manipulate and easily fill the merpeople's heads with deceptions of granting them. She's also very easy to piss off as shown by how the movie got to its climax: Her "poopsies" Flotsam and Jetsam were killed. So she does have a heart for whatever she considers her "children" and goes on a rage when it's taken away from her. And she was pretty scary and had a bit of a graphic death for a Disney film.

Always a crazily, enjoyable villainess, and then she gets stabbed with a ship.

4. Jafar (Aladdin)

Now we're getting closer and closer to the most popular villains of all of Disney, with Jafar regarded as the #2 Greatest Disney Villain, though not on this list.

Motivation: Power. A familiar motivation for many Disney villains. He's sadistic, narcissistic, dark but also cunning and having a dark sense of humor and class like Ratigan. I always seem to quote any of his funny moments because he's so enjoyable. His design is also amazing because he's just drawn to look so dark and sinister. It's funny because just on his appearance alone, he's the very obvious bad guy, yet he's so deceptive and manipulative, especially over the puppy-eyed Sultan. But he can also be very short-tempered and impulsive, which led to his unfortunate ending of being trapped in "itty bitty living space".

3. Gaston LeGume (Beauty and the Beast)

LeGume = "Peabrained"

Gaston is the most unique villain because if you didn't know who he was and what movie he's from, your first impression would be that he's the hero. In fact, that's how the town sees him; a hero and eye candy for every female.

He knows he's strong and handsome which leads to a great deal of pride and ego, though the people of the town are too oblivious to see that. His goal is to make Belle fall in love with him and marry him, no matter who or what gets in his way. Problem though is that he's the biggest sexist pig that Disney has to offer and Belle's -1000% impressed by the way he degrades women. He easily gets frustrated when he doesn't get his way and won't take no for an answer and goes to the extremes of putting Belle's father in an insane asylum just to get her hand in marriage.

And because everyone in the town loves and trusts him (and not to mention are very gullible), Gaston manipulates them into paranoia about Beast and gathers a freaking mob to go to the castle. Yet his arrogance and extreme desire for Belle makes him the monster while Beast becomes more human (literally and metaphorically).

2. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)


Can't have a Disney villains list without the Mistress of all Evil now can we?

Maleficent is by far the most memorable and most popular of all the Disney villains. Next to Chernabog from Fantasia, she's a big representation of all that is evil, though her motivation is pretty weak. Remember that she originally wanted to kill Aurora just because she wasn't invited to a baby shower. Yet she goes to such vengeful extremes, it makes her scary and sadistic.

Her sorcery allows her to be strong and powerful and makes the heroes wonder what her next move will be. Who can forget when she turned into a giant freaking dragon? How can anyone top that?

Despite how evil she is, she just has this elegance and class that makes her enjoyable and easy to take seriously. Hell, she's so popular she's the main Disney villain in the Kingdom Hearts series. Though if you wanna look at her based on the video games, she's a nuisance.

Yeah, in Kingdom Hearts 1, she was a big threat until you killed her and learned about Ansem. Her comeback in Kingdom Hearts 2 was completely pointless seeing as how half way through the game, she stops contributing anything in achieving whatever pointless master plan she has seeing as how the other Disney villains have lost interest and I'm just waiting for Master Xehanort to turn his back and stab her in the chest. It's not exactly appealing either when she has Pete with her. God, he's even more annoying and such an eye sore. Bottom line, Maleficent just needs to find other plans (or at least a new sidekick..) and was a thousand times more of a bad ass in the movie.

Now I bet you're wondering how can I top Maleficent, the most well known and popular out of all the Disney villains? I've seemed to have named all the popular ones and the ones I've grown up with as a child.

Well the scariest and most evil of all Disney villains is...

1. Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

By God, like I even need to say it. From a movie that took a lot of risks as just an overall family film, it created the darkest Disney villain period. Frollo does all the twisted, bastardly, villainous acts, and takes them to the nth degree.

Driven by a strong prejudice against gypsies, he kills a mother, almost kills her baby, locks said baby in Notre Dame for 20 years and lies to him about the outside world, lusts over a woman, goes on a near genocidal rampage, all while claiming to be doing it by the word of God Almighty. What a great Catholic man.

That's what really makes Frollo a great villain. He does all these nefarious acts but he's complex by claiming to do them for pious reasons and backing it up with the word of God but he fears damnation as much as the next guy. Hell, he even freaking lusts over Esmeralda and hates it as he's slowly slipping into temptation and pure madness. Much like how the original Victor Hugo novel challenged the corruption of church, it challenged the corruption of faith and power and how having so much power makes you into such a big monster.


And just everything he does and every way he looks just makes him more intimidating. The voice, the black robes, the near permanent frown on his face, how he sings, the extremes he goes to, even up to that freaking choir. He's just a walking nightmare.

I always thought his death was scary because he freaking sees a gargoyle come to life and give him a devilish grin as he slips into absolute insanity. Then Frollo takes his plunge into (a symbolic) hell. God it was pretty terrifying.

So that concludes my Disney Villains list. Hope you enjoyed seeing your favorites on here.

Disney Villains (Part 1)

So ever since my list of Disney Princesses, I've been coming up with lists of other types of Disney characters. I tried going for male leads but I'm not sure where to go with yet. So in the mean time, I'll just do Disney villains.

Before I start, I will point out that this is a long list (hence why this post is part 1) and it was very hard for me to do. There are just so many great villains that I remember from my childhood that I remember so well. So instead of 10, I made it a list of 20 villains. Now I made this list that goes from the funniest villains to the meh villains to the biggest bastards of Disney. And this doesn't have any Pixar villains cause I'll do something separate for those, and this is only based off the Disney films I have seen.

Welcome to...

~Liz's Top Disney Villains~

20. Yzma (Emperor's New Groove)

Hands down, Yzma is the best funny villain period. She's evil, greedy, power-hungry but also eccentric and hard to take seriously 100% of the time. I like how she tries to act like a bad ass but always looks over minor details and screws up. Leads to funny reactions and moments with her. And when she's with Kronk, priceless! Those were the best parts of the film was just the two of them because it's such an odd duo, especially when Kronk has the mind of a newborn baby and the innocence of a puppy.

Rewatching Emperor's New Groove, I noticed Yzma's design was pretty similar to Curella de Vil. She just has this hideous glamour about her; trying to hide how old/frail she is in nice clothes. Lots and lots of purple.

On the whole, Yzma is just the best part of the film. I enjoy seeing her over and over again with how hard she tries to be evil, yet always leads to comedy.

19. The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

Like I gotta say much about her. The Queen is just a pure psychopath and mad just like all the other characters in Wonderland. What makes her enjoyable is seeing what Alice is thinking of the right thing to say or do around her because her huge mood swings and sensitivity could get her beheaded. It makes the ending pretty suspenseful and makes her funny.

When you get down to it, she has no motivation other than just getting rid of whatever pisses her off. She just a giant child in an adult's body creating a "fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant". I did find it interesting when Alice became huge and the Queen felt extremely intimidated by how huge Alice was. So she does have a weakness of being suddenly overpowered and anything larger than her. It makes her more child-like in a sense.

I will say though I also did like the Queen in Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. It's Helena Bonham Carter so it's obvious she'll bring out the pure madness of the Queen but to the nth degree and makes her a big threat by making her a serious villain.

Old or new, the Queen of Hearts truly is a mad woman.

18. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

He tries being such a big bad pirate but the moment you put him near the crocodile, forget that. He turns into the biggest coward ever as that crocodile craves for his flesh.

Hook's motivation is really just revenge on Peter Pan for cutting off his hand. He's menacing, manipulative, and even murderous (kills two of his own crew men in the film) and despite how clever he is in finding loopholes, deep down inside, Hook is still best known for how cowardly and hilarious he is. But he's also just down right sadistic, especially towards kids. He doesn't care who gets in the way as long as he gets his revenge against a ten-year-old.

While his evil ways are overlooked, Captain Hook is most memorable as one of the best funny villains ever.

17. Prince John (Robin Hood)

Yet again, a big child in an adult tyrant's body. Though I think this is taken to the nth degree seeing as how the villain in this film has more focus than the Queen does in Alice in Wonderland.

Like a majority of Disney villains, Prince John is power and money hungry. What sets him apart though is that he's just immature and childish. He's just purely jealous of how big of a favorite his brother, King Richard, was over him. And it especially shows whenever his mother is mentioned. He can still be threatening but again, he's just a big child. Something I've recently noticed is that whenever he and his sidekick Hiss get into arguments, it makes them sound like an odd married couple. Thinking about it now, it's pretty funny and it adds on to making him an enjoyable character.

16. Dr. Facilier AKA The Shadow Man (The Princess and the Frog)

This was a new take for Disney to do a voodoo witch doctor as a villain. It adds on for a ton of creativity. I actually saw the one of the inspirations for his design was Cab Calloway, and it does show. I can definitely see it remembering this villain in The Princess and the Frog. Plus he's just designed so well. As chief animator Bruce Smith described, "a love child of Captain Hook and Cruella De Vil"....... Um... Ew..

Anyway..

Dr. Facilier's motive is to become filthy rich and take over New Orleans while giving all the souls there to his "friends on the other side" to repay his debt, which is never actually specified, but I'm assuming it's his ability to use black magic or whatever. He's actually scared of not paying back his "friends" and if he screws up, which he does, he gets dragged into the underworld. So in an interesting story device, they're not minions of the Shadow Man, but he's actually affiliated with them and just asks for help when needed. In a lot of ways I kinda compared him to Rasputin from Anastasia. Selling his soul to the underworld, having a magical item he can't break, and even similar deaths.

Like some Disney villains, Dr. Facilier is manipulative by promising to change their futures and/or lifestyles, but he's a smooth-talker and charismatic while also being the scheming bokor (voodoo magician that practices both black and white magic) that he is. But I also think he's a lot of fun. He just enjoys what he does by manipulating people to give them happiness but turning his back and making them regret what they wished for.

15. Hades (Hercules)

A lot of people would consider Hades as the best funny villains, and I think so too, especially when you have the voice of James Woods as the villain. Unlike the passive deity presented in mythology, James Woods turns Hades into a fast talking evil god of death making his mannerisms seem similar to that of a car salesman or a lawyer.

Hades's motive is to surpass Zeus, who for some reason isn't referenced as his little brother, and take over the Cosmos and Mount Olympus. Sadly he's very sloppy in, oh I don't know, not keeping track if Hercules was actually killed as an infant. He's one of the more laid-back villains who only poses as a great threat with his over-the-top mood swings or is getting stuff done. When things don't go his way, he just loses it and explodes. Literally. It makes him even more enjoyable.

14. Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)

Looking back, this is a completely underrated Disney animated film. Which sucks that I got rid of the tape years ago cause it's a great movie. And this is a great character who is voice by the great Vincent Price who later said that Ratigan was his favorite role.

Ratigan is based off of Professor James Moriarty from the original stories of Sherlock Holmes. The motive is just to gain a heavy amount of power and wealth, but Ratigan is very malicious and sadistic and just enjoys every second of it. He has a formal and rather dark sense of humor, but he's also charismatic, intelligent and not to mention highly egotistical.

A lot of what makes the character is him trying to stay so calm and sophisticated, but slips back and forth between being calm and going into a violent rage. By the film's climax, Ratigan is just so full of insanity that it's plain terrifying. But it keeps you on the edge of your seat until it's all over and makes him so great to watch.

13. Governor John Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)

Yeah... We're at the "meh" villains. And that's really what I feel about this character is just "meh". Mostly cause this has been such an overdone villain archetype: the greedy bastard who refuses to listen to reason. Just a racist snob who wants gold but is too stubborn to believe he'll never find any.

I guess you could say he's charismatic and manipulative but there's also not really much else to him. It's a villain that's been done before and overall, it's just boring, especially when nothing new is done to is. Hell, it's been done recently in James Cameron's Avatar.

So yeah, not a fan of Ratcliffe. There are so many better villains out there.

12. Queen Grimhilde AKA The Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

Anyone wondering where the real name is from, it's from old publicity stuff. Anyway.

When you really look at her, the Queen isn't really that interesting for a Disney villain. Just a really vain woman going to extremes to be the "fairest of them all". But her design is just purely amazing. Ever notice how she never smiles? And when she turns into an old hag, it's pretty freaky. Used to make me jump a little. Other than that... Yeah there's really not much to her until she become old. That's when she actually becomes really threatening and pretty scary. She. Just. Loses. It. You can almost see the insanity in her eyes until the very end.

11. Lady Tremaine AKA Wicked Stepmother (Cinderella)

Now we're transitioning into the biggest baddies of all Disney, starting with Lady Tremaine.

She doesn't possess any magical powers or physical strength, but she's just pure evil all because she has control of one person's life. Why? She's not gonna gain anything out of it. She just does it because she knows Cinderella is a thousand times prettier than her and her daughters and just because she could. She just does anything in her power to make Cinderella's life miserable while Cinderella fights back with patience and hope.

She's just cruel in the way she's trying to crush any hopes and dreams Cinderella has. To make it worse, her daughters are just as evil. I think the most intense part was when they just started mercilessly ripping up Cinderella's dress that she made from their old clothes. Anastasia and Drizella are the biggest spoiled brats to ever hit the silver screen thanks to their cruel mother.

Now that's just half of the Disney villains. And don't worry, we have a ton of baddies to go.