Dog Day Sundays

Almost time for a new week at school to sta- OMG I JUST REMEMBERED! WE GET FRIDAY OFF AND THEN IT'S SPRING BREAK! YES!!!! God bless four day school weeks!

So other than boring school stuff, we have our spring homecoming where it's once again Battle of the Sexes. Which kinda doesn't make sense to me since last year there were sexual harassment problems, but I digress.

I've finished reading two books this weekend. First of them being Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I have to read it for my English class and it's a really good book about a dystopia where firemen start fires and burn books instead of putting them out. It's a good quick read for anyone interested. The other book I finished is Catching Fire from The Hunger Games trilogy!

Hunger Games has been my recent obsession since all of my friends have been saying it's a good series, even prior to the movie coming out. So now I'm on the final book, Mockingjay, and despite the mixed opinions I've received, it's been worth my time reading all of them.

Adding on to finishing the 2nd Hunger Games book, when I went to the mall yesterday and went into Hot Topic, there I saw a small section just for Hunger Games merchandise which made me super happy. So I bought myself the replica Mockingjay pin. All the employees there are Hunger Games fans which was another plus and were super nice and fun.

And one thing led to another when we decided to go see The Hunger Games movie while we were at the mall which has its own theater. And... It didn't really meet my expectations. It's not the worst piece of cinema I've seen in my life but... Yeah, it could use so much work. I'll do a review of it since I'm already here.

First off, the camera work. For the most part if the camera's not still, it's either extreme closeups or extremely shaky camera and it looks pretty bad. No offense, but it kinda looks like you gave the camera to Michael J. Fox. You could barely tell what was happening some of the time and it made me very queasy and get headaches. It doesn't help that my family was stuck in the next to the front row since we arrived just as the previews started. I felt like I was gonna throw up.

Another thing that bugged me was the lack of explanation of a lot of aspects of the movie. This is one of the few films where you actually need to read the book if you want to understand what's going on. Marina, who hasn't read the books at all, was very confused at the end about what was going on. She had no idea if they were even living on planet Earth and a whole bunch of other things. Some characters they don't even mention by name! Case in point: Effie and Seneca. Yes! They don't mention either by name even though everyone knows they're there! I mean you have this kinda middle-aged woman wearing crazy colors and is all proper in a way that looks silly and a guy with a funky beard design! And the way they were portrayed was so amazing I was sad when I never heard their names.

The other characters met my expectations though I would've like to have seen Woody Harrelson as more of a drunken mess when he was Haymitch but I think that's just based on personal opinion.

When it came to visuals, it was.. a hit and miss. When you saw the people of the capitol it was just vibrant with all sorts of colors. As my sister would describe, "A world ruled by Japanese bubblegum pop". Yet when it came to the Games, I would've liked to have seen more. This may be a PG-13 film but the books are so descriptive on violence that it's pretty scary. I didn't really find the scenarios displayed in the film true to the actual struggles for survival in the books. In the books, Katniss had a difficult time finding water and shelter, and towards the end, Peeta was practically dead he was so injured and sick. I found it very unrealistic if you left a group of 24 teens in the wilderness to fend for themselves in a battle where only one comes out alive.

Some scenes were bang on the dot just as I imagined but I kinda spoiled a bit too much already so I'll avoid going into detail. But I did like how they added what was going on outside of the arena such as the people of District 12 viewing their two tributes struggling, and Haymitch persuading sponsors to send medicine and stuff to Katniss and Peeta.

Just one more critic and that is, the people sitting behind me who never read the book. I got kinda annoyed when I heard them whisper, "So-and-so died??". Pretty obvious you guys never read the book and you would've known that most of the characters will probably die and this particular character died in a different fashion.

So to sum it up, this is a film that you definitely have to read the actual book to understand most of the plot and sitting as far away from the screen as possible so you don't vomit from the crap camera work, but again it's not the worse movie I've seen; it just meets in the middle of my standards for a good film.

Holmes!

Okay so for sure for sure this will be my last post before Costa Rica. Hahaha!

So today with nothing else to really do I went out with my friend Jamie and her dad to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie and go out to FroYo afterwards. And let me just say that it is amazing!! I haven't seen the first one due to complications involving crappy DVDs from Netflix, but the second is just... too amazing for words. Full of action, drama, and comedy rolled into a great two hour film. And let me just say that Robert just looks hilarious in drag. Nuff said.

The previews were quite interesting which included previews of Joyful Noise and Rock of Ages. Both of which I really want to see now cause they look hilarious and funny. Rock of Ages is really interesting cause of the plot line you can pick up straight from the previews. That and Tom Cruise has beautiful long hair in the film being a rock star. Hahaha!

My only real complaint about the whole thing was the morons who don't have any common decency to shut off their phones. I mean is it that hard to do so? It shouldn't! But no. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one girl a couple rows in front pull out her iPhone for a moment and then put it away. The BIG problem was this one person who DIDN'T silence their phone and everyone heard their stupid annoying ringtone. TWICE. Seriously?! If you're not gonna have any decency to silence or shut off your phone then why did you waste your money to come to a movie theater?? If you do intend on using your phone, silence it, turn the light down low, and sit in the back where no one has to see you and get annoyed. I know I like to use my phone being a teenager with friends who live on the East coast, but at least I have the common sense to put it away when I'm in a theater because it's basic common knowledge to shut it off because it's rude! Ugh, well done people. Just great job for being totally rude.

Whew glad I got that fish rage out of me.

So for sure this will be the last post I'll have before going to Costa Rica. Till the new year, Addio!

XOXO,

Liz

I want it to be Thanksgiving already..

So a three day weekend has passed and the next vacation won't be until next week when he have the entire week off for Thanksgiving.

Thursday went by ending with a bunch of homework, of all days before a three day weekend.. By the end of this week we have to finish talking about the industrial revolution and finish reading Julius Caesar. And drama had their Chile's night which was sooo filling. Nothing like a bacon cheeseburger to end my night.

With Veteran's day off and nothing to do, I decided to have my movie party. Got help from my step dad to set up an old VCR he had cause I seriously wanted to watch The Thief and the Cobbler. Look it up cause it's an awesome animated movie. Along with that we also watched The Producers (2005 version) and Hetalia: Paint it White! My friend Jamie got it on that day and was able to come over so we could watch it. Everyone got their fill of Hetalia for the day making a bunch of happy otaku girls.

Weekend went by uneventfully with really nothing to do. God, I don't even remember yesterday. Oh yeah... I helped finish building the set for the school play that's coming out this Thursday. The set looks just great and made Mrs Brown so happy. It looks like my great grandmother's house and we love it! My sister and I even got a hug too she was so happy.

I feel kinda bad she can't be all bubbly like that in my first period class because she has to put up with a bunch of obnoxious kids who can't shut up. She had to give a girl a referral to the office because she lost all of her participation points for the day. Sounds harsh but I can't blame Mrs Brown if I was in her position. I'd be losing my mind. Heh, actually I'm losing my mind because I have to be in the same room with these people. It really annoys me when people just stop caring about their grades and would rather fail than try at all. And it sucks cause it happens in Algebra 2 as well. I swear I'm gonna lose my mind the next time I hear someone say "When are we gonna ever use this later in life?" Is it really THAT difficult to just do the stupid homework? You need three years to graduate so deal with it! Math is used for pretty much EVERYTHING. Without math, the human race wouldn't exist right now and neither would all the technology we use. So just use the brain God gave you and think before you say crap like that.

I just irritated when people think they know everything when they don't and it annoys me and I'm sure a lot of other people too. Not just in academics but in the music we listen too as well. Like Lady Gaga and Marilyn Manson. I just get so mad when people bash on music artists for the stuff they create. If no one has seen Lady Gaga's music video to Judas, you can imagine how many people would go berserk to someone portraying themselves as Mary Magdalene. I gotta admit that when it first came out, I was really shocked that Lady Gaga went that far with her music career but hey, it grew on me. I like her music and that song because it's about FORGIVENESS. Take a few minutes to let the song go through your head and you'll understand. It has nothing to do with her bashing religion, or being stupid and a slut which she isn't. People, she went to Julliard for God's sake! Lady Gaga is actually a smart person. She's just different because she wants to be an idol that says "It's okay to be yourself" and that's what she is doing and is proud of it.

It's the same thing with Marilyn Manson. He's a unique guy and I just feel like bashing someone's head in every time someone blames him for contributing to violence and murders which he DOES NOT. My friend Maribeth loves Marilyn Manson (She even has a sweater that she was wearing when she hugged him) I have not seen any violent behavior out of that girl. Marilyn Manson grew up in a rather messed up childhood which led to a rebel phase when he was in high school. He makes music so kids who're like him feel that there's one in society where they will be accepted instead of feeling like they're freaks. It's all going back to being yourself and proud of who you are.

Wow... I did not expect this rant to come out..

XOXO,
Liz

Movie Review

So in the past few days I've finished three animes, saw Tangled for the first time, and hung out with Jamie roaming around downtown.

Tangled was a really good movie. I kinda thought it wasn't gonna be good for whatever reason, but anyway, I saw it on Netflix, added it, watched it, and loved it. While I am gonna miss the old traditional animation on Disney princess movies, I did love the CGI in this movie. It was really beautiful and the story line based from the Brothers Grimm's tale of Rapunzel. It was just like any other Disney princess movie I grew up with: Sweet, romantic, and of course, plenty of music. Really loved that movie and for anyone who hasn't seen it: Go see it now!

On another note, I'll be starting up my sophomore year this upcoming Thursday and I'm so looking forward to it.

XOXO,
Liz