Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Kayt Kakalina's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, July 12th, 2009
8:16 pm	I have a psychotically fast-paced sociology test to study for, have no art inspiration, reaffirmed that ADD and long sermons do not go well together, and Shep was dead when we got home. This is not a good day. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
5:09 pm	You know, I keep putting off updating until I think I've got something interesting, and then when I start to type I forget what it was. Why? Maybe I should just put together a list of webcomic recs like I did for blogs. Or maybe I could do fanfics instead. I think my to-read list is over 200 stories by now. So I'm taking a Sociology class this summer and it's pretty cool so far. Supposed to be nearly 4 hours, but the longest we've gone is 3 so far. Today we split up into groups and reported on a subculture that a member of the group was part of. It was surprisingly fun; we did the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that one girl was a part of. The other groups were boring--soccer players, people who go to the gym, NOVA (the college) students, and athletes. I've decided that I really like saris. Was looking up stock for someone on DA and came across a whole bunch...gaaaah, pretty bright bold colors. I wish I could find tunic-tops or even regular shirts with those kind of colors and designs. Considering that the summer is half-over, I've decided to get started on my to-do list. This includes: *Clean room, including desk *Sell manga/stuff on eBay *See if those Pokemon cards are worth anything. *Repaint final project and post paintings *DRAW ART DARNIT *Finish that mini-manga from 2006 because I refuse to give up on anything. So, I've been watching the 12 Kingdoms anime. I read the first novel, so I was surprised at the changes in the anime, like the addition of Youko's two classmates. Overall, it's pretty good but Youko's English voice is pretty grating. The story goes pretty slowly for the first 5 episodes or so, but by the end of the second disk it's finally moving pretty quickly. Lee's been collecting Claymore and Beauty Pop, too. Claymore is pretty fun, although the story starts taking longer to get through after volume 2. It's pretty interesting, though the art style can be wonky (really long torsos). Also, the lettering is excellent. Beauty Pop is just awesome. It's what would happen if the non-clothing part of "What Not to Wear" was emulated by a bunch of super-talented high-schoolers. It's very good because the main character is very unique in a land of ultra-perky (or woah-is-me-angsty) shoujo heroines. Kiri is not quite apathetic, but she's close. And 8 volumes in, there's barely a hint of romance but the action is picking up. It's quickly moving up among my favorite series. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
5:19 pm	Meme answer: Weather You ever have that feeling where you're going stir-crazy because you really want to write but you have nothing to write about? That's me. Luckily, I remembered a post I made a few months ago asking people to ask about stuff (anyone else want to ask?). Right now, I'm answering immortalmoon's question: This is going to be a bit weird but... talk about the weather :) Not just in general of course, but you've talked about your excitement with snow before, so it applies. I know you've lived all over, so what place had the best weather? What kind of climate do you prefer? That sort of thing. The first thing you have to understand about me is that I'm an Air Force Brat and moved roughly every two years until Dad retired, and then once more for his new job, so I've lived in a variety of climates. Let me give you the places, in order: England, Florida, Germany (Ramstein), Spain, Arizona, Germany (Bitburg/Spangdahlem), Hawaii (x2--Aiea and Hickam AFB), Georgia, and Virginia (with Tennessee for college). I've enjoyed everywhere I've lived, although it was probably affected by how old I was--2nd and 3rd grades in Spain, for instance, meant that I was young enough to have fun playing with the roughly 15 kids that were sorta-kinda-near my age. The base school (~30 kids) sent all high schoolers 2 hours away to the Navy base, so if I'd been a teen I might have hated the limitations of living on a tiny Air Base. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Friday, June 26th, 2009
9:08 pm	Speed Racer (has addicting end-credit songs) Watched Speed Racer tonight. Was shiny and okay, but not something to own. The first thing you notice when you start Speed Racer is the colors. A lot of movies go for a desaturated look, but Speed Racer ups all the colors. The world is a rainbow-bright mishmash of the 50's/60's and a 7-year-old's vision of the future that is half-CG. (Fun fact: the only physical sets in the movie were ther Racers' house, the bad guy's offices, and the hotel.) In fact, this seems to be literally live-action anime. If you've ever wondered what an anime or cartoon world would look like in the real world, this is it. Comic-bright colors, cars with gadgets straight from Wackey Races with the tracks taken straight from Hot Wheels toys and costume designs that could come from nothing but cartoons. Alternatively, the races are also like watching a live-action Mario Kart game. It's not high-class entertainment, but it's not a horrible movie, either. Rated PG (but for some gesturing and strong swearing I'm surprised it's not PG-13) it's a just-for-fun movie that's good to watch in a group. The plot is basic (Speed races! Bad guys do bad things! Speed races more!) but it's easy to lose track of the smaller characters their stories. There's not a lot to say about the actual content. The downside was that medium-minor characters are easy to forget (along with their personal story), but otherwise it's only gogin to disappoint if you're expecting something other than a cartoon-turned-movie. The story was basic, movie shiny, and the car gadgets drool-worthy (wouldn't you love to be able to jump over other cars in traffic?). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 15th, 2009
5:32 pm	TP's Melting Stones The Georgia house will finally close next week, after a year on the market! Huzzah! And I have a kinda-sorta job interview-type-thingy tomorrow, maybe. I'm not exactly sure: the lady (it's a post office/Fed-Ex/Kindo's-type place that's a family business) said she'll be calling and already asked when I go back to school. It almost sounds like she's ready to hire me (yes, please!), but a)I don't to hope too much and b)that would be a very short interview, then, consisting of my little "hi my dad mentioned that you might be looking to hire" spiel, handing in my resume, and a short conversation on working at Publix and what I've done before. I finished Tamora Pierce's Melting Stone. MS is set in her Emelan-based world (the Circle books) and follows Evvy, the stone-mage from the Circle Opens series. Apparently, it's the first-ever book that came out as an audio-book first and the print version followed later. Spiffy. Or not. All her other books I've read are pretty good about telling the reader who these people are if you haven't read previous series set in the same world and with the same characters (Including this, she's got two quartets and two single books set in this world), but this one wold have been pretty confusing if I hadn't known the characters and their background. Rosethorn, for example, was explained in few more words than "she was dead but Briar and his sisters brought her back to life," which would have left me going BWUH? if I was reading that with no other info. And the plot was just so simple, it was...not boring, but not the best, either. The book is really short, just over 300 pages, so there wasn't a lot of room for extras, I guess, but it was hard to get into the story. Still, it was fun just to read about those characters again. Melting Stones is a good read if you're familiar with the Emelan world, because it is a good book, just short. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
11:08 am	Gleefull, gleeful, we adore glee You know what I have? I have tammypierce's autographed business card thanks to the awesometastic slr2moons, that's. what I have. :DDDDD I also have Miracle Girls vol. 1 and Alice 19th vol 1, thank you immortalmoon. My Alice 19th collection is now complete! immortalmoon's sale reminded me that I need to get rid of some more manga. I'm still pruning them--the newest victims are Utena (2-5), Meru Puri (1-2), Pantheon High (1) and Mark of the Succubus (1). Will try eBay again this summer, hopefully. I've still got series that didn't sell when I was doing it last year (Negima, The Dreaming, more...). Oh, also in the way of glee, I sold back two of my textbooks. Online buybacks are total ripoffs--worse than the school bookstore, and that's saying something, but I only took a loss of $10 on one, so it's okay. Of course, the other I took a loss of $45, but the only other option I had was burning it (which was very tempting, BTW--was the workbook we DIDN'T EVEN USE for a freshman course, and it's not very sell-able. A few people did burn theirs, actually). I finally re-drew Ichigo's Love...Triangle?, which was still popular despite being 3 1/2 years old and drop-dead ugly. I stuck the old one in my scraps for comparison, and I'm very happy that it's one less horrific fanart that I will keep getting notified about. (Obviously, the answer if that I need to draw a lot *more* fanart, quickly, so that people ignore the older stuff.) And I still have no job. Woe. But I do have some babysitting to do, so there's that. Plus, the son of some family friends (we've known them since I was in kindergarten; they're currently missionaries to the Ukraine) will be a freshman at TNU this year! Whee! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
9:42 pm	The handcuffs are shiny. AND THERE IS A GUN. There is a cop in our dining room right now. Why? Because my little sister Betsy's bike was stolen RIGHT OUT OF OUR FREAKING GARAGE. I got home from Quantico (Marine base; turning in job apps and some minor shopping). Family came out to help unload groceries. Was inside for about 10-15 minutes. Garage door was left up because Dad was expected home and was riding his motorcycle so he can't easily open it himself. Bets went to take the trash out and noticed Lee's bike lying on the side yard. None of us have ridden our bikes recently, and as I'd gotten home 15 minutes earlier we knew it hadn't been there then. My bike was still in the garage (not worth stealing, it's covered in cobwebs and the tires are dead flat), but Betsy's was gone. After telling Mom and verifying that yes, the bike was gone and nothing else was, Betsy and I walked the neighborhood. There were tire tracks in the grass leading to the main road, but we couldn't tell where they went from there so we heading one direction to a large group of kids playing ball in the street. They said they hadn't seen a pink mountain bike, so we went in the other direction, asking everyone who was out and looking for any tire tracks in the grass. No luck, so we went back, Bets wrote down all she could about the bike, and later this evening we called the police. They sent someone out. Came in and read the paper (at which point I type the title up there because WOAH REAL COP) and then asked to see the bike and ask us questions (basic info) and then I went and got Betsy to answer the questions about what happened. Lee came out then, so when the cop wasn't looking we were mouthing things along the lines of THIS IS SO COOL and ASDF;LKJ A COP WOOOOOOAAAAH at each other. Things got infinitely cooler when he actually dusted for fingerprints. Which he said he'd be giving to forensics, because he found a handprint. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool. Of course, we know there's very little chance we'll get the bike back. It stinks, especially because Betsy rides her bike the most of any of us. But the epic coolness of the cop...well, doesn't make up for it, but, you know, there was a cop. And at least getting a bike stolen isn't as nasty as getting poo smeared on your front door like in Georgia. Did I mention he dusted for fingerprints? With the little feather duster and everything. HE DUSTED FOR FINGERPRINTS. Current Mood: childish GLEE (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
5:56 pm	I'm so behind on computer stuff Wow, has it really been two weeks since I updated? Life's been going pretty fast, the time has just flown. I can't believe I've been home from school for a month now! Went down to Georgia for graduation last week, since we knew about half of the group's graduates. It was a very nice ceremony and was GREAT to see everyone again (yes, I was there a month earlier for Easter, but it wasn't the same). After graduation, a big group of us went to see Terminator: Salvation. I went because it was the last chance for who knows how long until I see them again, but the movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't have to plug my ears and squinch my eyes shut as often as I thought I would, anyway, because as violent as the movie is, a lot of it is explosions and metal clanging, not blood. I've never cared about anything Terminator-related before so I can't tell you how this fits in which pre-established canon and its offshoots, but I understood the plot easily. Metal and CG was cool. Oh, at at the end there was a naked-guy terminator that made me giggle with all the strategically placed camera angles and objects to obscure him. Lee and Betsy had their dance recital(s) yesterday--Lee had two pointe dances (Swan Lake and Rihanna's Umbrella) and one ballet technique dance (Swan Lake, different selection) and Betsy had her clogging class that was baseball-themed. It was very fun, especially Umbrella (ballet-pointe to Umbrella=WIN) but the recital? Was THREE HOURS LONG. AND THERE WERE TWO OF THEM. Oh, more about movies: while down in GA, we also got to see Race to Witch Mountain (huzzah for dollar theatres). It was VERY good, good humor, good special effects, goodgoodgood. I also watched Lost In Austen, which was 3 hours long because it was originally a mini-series. It was okay and an interesting premise (modern girl gets stuck in Pride and Prejudice, but wasn't pulled off very well, plus the ending just plain bad. More on that here. In lieu of a job, I've taken up Pokemon training again. Is fun, and I've got an egg containing a Pichu with Volt Tackle if anyone wants it. Or I can breed a Piplup. *Is having fun now that she's found the daycare* (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
11:45 pm	It is late, but there is too much GLEE to wait until morning POKEMON GOLD/SILVER REMAKE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLLE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE GLEE (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
1:00 pm	Fail!books are fail. TV!fail is amusing. Princess Ben: By Catherine Gilbert Murdock. This was...interesting. I liked it, but it wasn't spectacular. I think it was trying to twist normal fairy-tale plots but couldn't quite do it. (Princess' parents are killed, is forced to suffer under the care of the regent, her aunt, who abhors her and makes her learn princessy things like needlework; Princess discovers secret magic room, learns magic, saves kingdom from invaders.) For once, Ben (short for Benevolence) isn't really a likable character--not that you dislike her, but she doesn't make you really root for her. And while certain characters do get better at the end, the total 180 in relationships was a throw. Meh. Chalice: By Robin McKinley. Yes, I know, I'm a glutton for punishment, but the problem with McKinley's books is that the premise is so interesting, so promising...but the story just falls flat. And Chalice even has some gorgeous cover art going for it; I can honestly say it's one of the prettiest books I've seen. The basic story is that Mirasol is the new Chalice, sort of a mage-thingy tied to her Master's lands (her demesne) and tied to the Master of the demesne himself. Both are tied to the land--if there is no master, or a weak one or a weak bond (other retainers make up the rest of the Circle, like the Weatherauger and so forth) among any of the Circle, the land will basically fall apart and die. Well, the last Master and Chalice died months ago in a fire, but they were horrible at their jobs anyway and just wanted to party, so the land's in sad shape. The old Master's younger brother is sent for--he left to become a Priest of Fire 7 years ago, and is no longer human, so everyone has a hard time adjusting. And then at the end of Overlord comes to instill a new Master--can this Master and Chalice save their lands? Oh noes! As always, McKinley takes FOREVER to explain things, what a Chalice is, a Master, and then never explains other things--we can never really get a feel for what the magic actually is, even though it's central to the plot. And the Overlord? Why does he exist? Is he tied to his underlings' lands even though they are Masters? If he's so powerful, does he have a Chalice-equivalent? Does he actually serve a purpose? (The answer the the last one is "no".) And for a middle-sized book, there is precious little story and plot. And the whole Fire-Priest, although being played up, is never enough use and is just confusing. As is the end. I feel the need to comfort myself with something witty that makes sense, like Bimbos of the Death Sun. On another note, we were watching some show a couple nights ago; a mother is at a mall, her child gets lost, she's panicked and the police arrive, &etc. Well, the mall she was at was supposed to be *our* mall. Supposedly, since they mentioned it by name and all. Gave us a good laugh: When the police arrived, we got a shot of their cars: Prince William County Police (should be Sheriff). And instead of winding though the gigantic commuter parking lots to the sedate curbside--there's probably a good quarter-mile of parking lots and smaller roads connecting them between the mall and the main road, and nobody walks around because why would you, there's nothing else here, but the police jumped out of their cars onto a busy sidewalk with people strolling around in nightwear like they were in the District and run up shiny black stone steps through the automatic doors (we have flat concrete slabs, no steps, and manual doors) to the distraught mother, who is standing by the [nonexistent] stairs (it's a gigantonormous mall to be sure, but FLAT. If it were multi-story, then it wouldn't take forever to get from Torrid to Books-A-Million) and is taken to sit down by some [nonexistent] plants in a [nonexistent] central square. Unfortunately, I didn't watch the rest of the show, but that was fun. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 8th, 2009
11:04 pm	It feels good to read again! Home! Hoopla! I'm signed up for a month of weekly diving lessons (I can't tell whether it's good or bad that I have no depth perception without my glasses) and am searching for a job (ha). So, after failing (due to laziness more than anything else and because the IRC on campus has a decent selection of YA books) to locate a library in Nashville, one of the first things I did was check out some books. I've gone through 9 (6 manga) since Tuesday, so I have a few to write up. Skip Beat: Between the letterer's and the general fandom praises, I figured that picking up volume one at the library wouldn't hurt me. I'd ignored it earlier because the preview they had shown in Shojo Beat turned me off, but maybe it got better. It did, and I like Kyoko, but at the same time there are parts where I prefer to just skim (for embarrassing situations, mostly). It was good, but I know the series is long and still ongoing, so I think I'll put it off until it's finished and I can read it all. Kitchen Princess: Somewhere between being appealing and being stereotypical shoujo sparkliness is KP. Very pretty, and fairly interesting (and it was nice to see a main character reply to bullies, for a change), but it's so incredibly predictable. If I can ever borrow the entire series in one go, I'll do so, but I don't think it's worth the money to buy it or the effort to search too hard for all the books. Ghost Hunt: Not quite up to Kindaichi for interesting cases (and since they're ghosts, there's no clues to solve mysteries like Kindaichi's), but this was my favorite of the manga I checked out. There's one case per volume (not counting any side stories) and judging from the books (I got the first 3) once you've read the first so you know who the characters are, you should be able to read them in any order with minimal confusion, since character revelations are small and infrequent. While the supernatural cases are fun, the characters are the best part. A team of exorcists from everything--Buddhism, Shintoism, Catholicism (priest is a foreigner, of course, but luckily is not overdone), and whatever else they think will work. The characters play off each other nicely and there's a good balance between argh-what-is-this-person-hiding and getting answers. [into books now] Dragonhaven: A Robin McKinley book; be ye warned. I wrote up a review here, so I'll not talk too much about it. It was good--very good, very interesting, and the epilogue was mostly satisfying (mostly because I love details and knowing what happens to people). But the problem, of course, was that it's Robin McKinley. She has such a slow, wordy style and especially the way she starts--oh, why can't she just START a book without it feeling like some mopey recollection of something? And she loves to give info without details or answers, and half the time she doesn't give anything (which was part of my problem with Sunshine, there weren't enough answers, and I tried to like it, I really did). It's such a turn-off, even though the book was good I really had to force myself to keep reading in some spots, mostly the first chapter: 34 pages of PLEASE SHUT UP AND GIVE US A STORY AND INFORMATION. Belle: By Cameron Dokey, it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It was good, quintessential fairy-tale flavor, and has there EVER been a B&B story where (if they're not evil) Belle's two sister's are not somehow more outgoing or better in some way, and Belle herself is all "oh WHY do I have this name, I'm so boring/plain/shy and it doesn't fit me, I want to be a recluse and garden/carve wood/insert reclusive activity here!" Not to say it wasn't good, it was very good and the curse/solution was very unique. But at the same time, at least the beginning was pretty stereotypical (although they get points because the girls still had their original mother, not many stories let them have one at all). Bimbos of the Death Sun: By Sharyn McCrumb. Yeah, I was iffy at the name, too--only read it because Mom told me I'd enjoy it (which brings up the question why did Mom pick up a book with that title?). Of course, she told me what it was about so I thought it was hilarious. BotDS is a murder mystery that takes place in 1989--one of the characters remarks that the original Star Trek has been over for 20 years--at a sci-fi/fantasy con. It's awesome. It mainly revolves around one Jay Omega, engineering professor who's also the author of a book (BotDS) which is really about computers and they affect women, apparently, something about sex-linked diseases (it actually sounds interesting, but we don't learn any more than that other than he hates the cover because it looks raunchy and sexy when the thing is about computer for goodness sake). He's a guest author at Rubicon but has never been part of any fandom-related anything, so he's shown the ropes. Everything from Dungeons and Dragons to cosplaying to fanzines is covered. Anyway, the *star* of the con is Appin Dungannon, a successful author of sci-fi who is an egomaniac and generally hates his fans (and takes delight in abusing them). He gets murdered--considering this is on the back cover, the book takes a decent amount of time to actually get to the murder, but it really doesn't bother you because it's not dragging--the story is just elsewhere, and it's so fun besides. At just over 200 pages, the paperback is short and should be a must-read for anyone who's in any fandom, especially if they've ever been to a con (applying this to Kawaii Kon was scarily accurate). If you look up anything I've just talked about, look up this one. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
4:33 pm	Social networking FTW! People who enter the Witness Protection Program have to change their names. If you were in that situation, which new name would you choose? Sponsored by "In Plain Sight" on USA Network. Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 19 at 10/9C. View other answers Karlisle. Or Karlyle, but I prefer the former. It has been one of the banes of my existence that "Carlisle" is ONLY a boy's name. I mean, you can shorten it to "Carlie" and everything. So I retaliate against whoever decides on names by naming my Pokemon trainer "Karlyle" in Pkmn Diamond. (Wow I'm so rebellious.) Seriously, though, I was born in Carlisle, England, and it's always been one of my favorite names. And my favorite letter is K, since, well, my name starts with it. So combining the two gives me one of my favorite names. (I think it looks more feminine with a K anyway, doncha think?) Speaking of Karlisle, that's my username on Lunch.com, a social networking site for reviewing anything and everything. It's fun and you should definitely check it out. If only to see a picture of me decked out in glow-bracelets and necklaces from our school Glow With the Flow end-of-the-year party. (Will talk about that later.) Also: 4 finals down, 1 (+an extra-credit essay) to go! And to complete this post of Kayt-really-just needs-to-talk-because-she's-gone-stir-crazy-from-Philosophy-papers is something new on DA: Sailor Hunny Moon by ~Celestial-Selene on deviantART (Comment on this)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
10:55 am	Ah, finals. I figure the best thing to do is just copy from my diary entry from last night 7:21 pm: Will be updating this all night. Just FYI. ((No, I don't know who I'm talking to. My diary is the invisible audience in my head.)) Writing persuasive speech critique. ARGH I hate watching my speeches. 9:24: WHY AM I SO EASILY DISTRACTED? IT IS 11:24 AND I'VE FINISHED ONE THING ARGH! 11:47: A though: why do I have an insane desire to blend in and stand out at the same time? 3:19 am: Finished typing. Studying now. Thank you God for Jenny and her package--I need sustenance! 4:03: It's 4 am. 4:36: BED. Hallelujah! ((8am final.)) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
10:38 pm	The song I'm listening to keeps pronouncing it TOH-KEE-YOH and it's driving me nuts--OH OH, TOKEEYO~ Book meme snagged from tehmerlechan. Because it's BOOKS and impossible to resist. 1. What author do you own the most books by? Tamora Pierce (tammypierce), for sure. I own 24/26 of her books (waiting for paperbacks of the other two), and I love them all, though it took me longer to enjoy her Circle (Emelan-world-centered) books, since I'm more partial to medieval fantasy and swords and such. I'm pretty sure the J.K. Rowling and Steph Meyer are in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, since I own all their stuff (save for thewizard tales book, I've got the 2 textbooks for 9 of JKR's and 5 of Meyer's). Oh, and 5 of Eoin Colfer's Artemis fowl books, plus one or two others of his. 2. What book do you own the most copies of? Um, the Bible? With three copies--the falling part one I got when I was 8, the Rainbow NIV my youth pastor gave me, and my NIV Study Bible, because I'm a geek for notes. For book-books, though, I honestly don't think I've got copies of anything. No shelf space, see. 3. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Howl, from Howl's Moving Castle (both book and movie). But that's not a secret, considering my Facebook status is "Howl is ♥♥♥". Besides him...Marak from The Hollow Kingdom, which is weird 'cause if I met him, I'd be kicking his butt and thinking he was a jerk. But he's so fun to read about~♥ ( Read more... ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
9:08 pm	Book reviews Edit:// Oh hey, changed the name and subtitle of my journal. Think it fits? Mmm, yummy books. I was bored, so I went to the IRC (teaching resources) in the library today. I avoided it for months after I came here because I thought it was *just* teaching reources, children's books, etc. But they've got multimedia stuff, a craft station, and best of all: a decent selection of teen/YA books (and some graphic novels/manga, but not enough to care about). Checked out two books during TNT: Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki fans should have heard of this!) and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party, as well as two others yesterday: The Neverending Story and Redwall. I read Octavian first. It was definitely interesting, and if I can find the second volume I'll read it, but the latter part delves into more historical fiction and I really don't like that all that much, especially American historical fiction (yeah, go figure, I much prefer English or Greek). It's a very well-written book and also beautiful; the pages are thick and cut uneven to give it an old-time feel, but even though it's part of the plot, it still felt like a jolt when the book [however gradually] shifted away from it's more mysterious, almost mythical beginning to the realization that the real world exists in this book and what exactly is going on. Now, Howl's Moving Castle (Dianna Wynne Jones) is something I was actually rereading. I first read it a couple years ago, wanting to read the book before I saw Miyazaki's movie. It was one of the rare instances where, in my opinion, the movie was actually better than the book. Which is not to say the book is bad--far from it, it's quite good. But it also requires careful paying attention to details or, if you're like me and get so lost in a story that you tend to speed through it, a bit of re-reading. So I was not too fond of it. But I saw it sitting out on display in the IRC and figured I'd pick it up again, being in the mood for something fantastical. It helps that that cover is something that just makes me want to pick it up. What I found: it was much better the second time through. Part of this is because after watching the movie, I had images of people and things already fixed in my mind, and no matter how they changed, I at least had a basis. Case in point: Calcifer. In the movie, he's a cute little orange ball of fire. In the book, he's "a thin blue face, very long and thin, with a thin blue nose" and curly green flames as hair. He has purple fire for his mouth, two green flames for eyebrows, and orange flame for his eyes (Wikipedia). Hard to imagine, even with the illustration on the cover, right? The movie gave me the basis for what he was and how he moved and everything. Much easier to imagine Sophie and Howl as well. HMC is incredibly addicting. If you like fairy tales or fantasy, I definitely recommend reading it. The writing is full of wit and the character acknowledgment of stereotypes was funny without being over-the-top or breaking the fourth wall. Howl is one of my all-time favorite characters (both book and movie) and the book gets so much more in-depth than the movie ever does. The third book I finished today (haven't started on the last), and that was Redwall (Brian Jacques). Now, I've heard of this series for forever and now good they are, so I figured I'd pick one up. Couldn't find any volume numbers, but since it's the Redwall series, I figured that with the title, it's a good start (apparently, it's the 2nd in a trilogy?). Whatever it is, it was easily understandable, no feeling like the characters were being reintroduced or that we should know the book's world. It was an engaging book, so after the first couple chapters it was nearly impossible for me to put down. The writing is one of the biggest turn-offs for me. I like writing that has flavor, personality, or humor thrown in, like Tamora Pierce's books, Harry Potter, Twilight, and Howl's Moving Castle. Redwall's tone gives it a soulless feel--not that the writing is bland, but that the narration simply narrates and does not attempt to insert emotions unless it's talking about the characters. I want to describe it as feeling epic, actually. The very tone of the book feels like it's telling the tale of a great battle, a great warrior, which it does. It's not quite on the feeling of Paolini or Tolkien, but it's closer to them in terms of narrative emotion than Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl. The story itself is straightforward and overall unsurprisingly, but not bad, bland, or boring, and it at times does surprise a bit, although I-never-saw-THAT-coming plot twists are nonexistent. The story is good and interesting, although a certain female character felt totally worthless, like "hey, I'm the typical girl whose life goal is to do girly things like man the kitchen and play nurse and never speak until spoken to." She did serve a purpose, but was so forgettable and never had lines, it was frustrating and the book's worst and weakest point, so it's a good thing she never plays a major role. Overall, a good book, but not one that, at least for me, is a good book to pick up and read a few lines from any random place, which I do often when I just need something to read without getting in-depth. Book comfort-food would be the best way to put it, I guess, and HMC is a much better choice for that once you've read the story through once. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 20th, 2009
5:32 pm	TNT@TNU: Top Nazarene Talent I will try to keep this as short as possible, but I'm feeling so chatty today... TNT Day 0 (Thurs 16) Showed up at the stage at 4:30 for a sound check (was in the choir) that didn't happen for another half hour or so, and froze. Learned that the choir would have to stay on the stage for the entire Opening Ceremony, or roughly 3 hours (including when we were there but it hadn't started). Decided to forget about the all-black thing so I could wear my cape when I wasn't singing (was OK anyway). Couldn't locate any Georgia district people because there was no seating by district this year, boo, and it's hard to find specific people in a crowd of 1200-2000. TNT Day 1 (Fri 17) People arrived sometime after I entered, so the population of campus was double when I emerged from Wold Lit(9/25 people there). Wandered around looking for a schedule, gave up after walking from end-to-end of campus, and went back to my room until my 1:00 class (thank goodness I got those sub sandwiches--no need to venture into the hoards for lunch). Ran into the lady who gave me a ride to choir two years ago and got to talking. Choir this year isn't by the same people...should be interesting, and hopefully not painful (the product of one half-hour rehearsal). Decided to be 15 minutes late to class so I could go with her and see the GA Senior Youth puppets compete. After class (14/25 people), wandered out to the soccer field where GA girls were supposed to compete in 10 minutes. Never located them (later found out they had to forfeit because they were also on the basketball team playing at the same time) but ran into GA peeps: Suzie, Heather, and Kris from the mission trip last summer (Lee, remember?), and met Suzie's husband. Heather and Kris are in the awkward position of having moved to East Tennessee district in October, so they have to root for both them and their *home* GA district. Sat out enjoying the warm, clear weather (first time in FOREVER--and I kid you not, FOREVER-- that it has not rained during TNT), ate dinner in the Tent, which pwns the Caf because we get cans of soda, ice cream sandwiches, popcorn, and cotton candy (good place to go for concessions to watch games with), watched East TN beat another district in girls' basketball, then watched GA cream their opponents in the same. Then TNT's Got Talent (for non-TNTers and non-TNT things, like beat-boxing, twisting yourself into a human pretzel, and flag routines), then to the Roadhouse tent to watch my friends perform. Afterwards, wandered down to softball field (one of the few places stuff was still going on), ran into Jason who introduced me to a girl from his district (North Carolina) who'll be coming next year. (NOTE TO SELF: Ashley, pre-med!) TNT Day 2 (Sat 18) Was up at 7:30 (on a Saturday. Ick!) to go take the follow-up survey to something I did last semester (60 buck for 4 hours of staring at a computer is worth it, though), so I didn't get to do much until after lunch. Went to watch choir, only to find that GA, who was scheduled to go last, had gone first. Boo. So I wandered around, looking at the art (GA's Senior Youth Mixed Media was a laminated collage with a Bible verse. Seriously. If I had entered ANYTHING this year, that woulda be me and something interesting to look at), sports, and stuff. It was actually pretty fun, being able to wander around and not worry about having to show up for any specific events. Oh, but Trebs did sing on the Quad. We're not going to talk about that. For a Saturday performance, we (including the director) found out on WEDNESDAY we were performing. She wasn't there, along with four or five other girls, including one who had a solo in BOTH songs we were signing. After dinner, I grabbed my friend Rachel (from Kentucky, but her family didn't go to a Naz church so she didn't know anyone from KY district) and made her an honorary Georgian for the awards ceremony. GA came in 2nd overall, losing to East Tennessee, of all places. (Really, ET? I demand a recount, because we beat them in sooo much stuff.) It wasn't all bad, though. Georgia is officially the loudest district! ♥ Had to catch all the people I knew to say goodbye afterwards, trying to find them in the monstrous crowd before I went to bed. I know people complain about TNT, but I actually had a really, really fun time. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 17th, 2009
11:47 pm	Finally updated dimensionkayt with my SM/TMM fic, so I figured I'd mention it here. (Although I'm wondering if I should've put in that note that I included at FFN, saying that I wrote the first chapter 2 years before the 2nd and really had no idea where I was going with it? Hahahah, the fic itself is based on a rant just as old that most OC-kids of magical girls--Mews and Senshi in particular--are really, really close to their parents. Even the adopted ones for couples like Michiru/Haruka and Minto/Zakuro. Even so, it's still fun for me, since it was written purely for fun and I wasn't overthinking the details like I do everything else.) Fic: Pick a Daugher, Any Daughter TITLE: Pick a Daughter, Any Daughter SERIES: Tokyo Mew Mew/Sailor Moon RATING: PG CHAPTERS: 2/2 GENRE: Parody/Humor SUMMARY: Determined to find the perfect clone-like daughters, Haruka and Michiru hold auditions for the roles while Minto and Zakuro wait for their turn. However, there's that pesky Magical Girl Guidebook to follow... [Chapter 2: Now that the Sailor Senshi are done, it's the Mews' turn to find those perfect daughters...] ( “One daughter per magical girl, that’s it!” ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
10:07 pm	Honestly, I just want to smack Nanoha's family SO MUCH Okay, so you're the mother of a nine-year-old third-grader. The third-grader has been acting a bit strange over the past few weeks (although the general opinion is to let her figure it out by herself), but she decides to confide in you (although not *everything*). It'll probably be dangerous, she tells you, but she wants to finish what's she started with her friends, even though you'll probably worry, and so she has to leave home for a while. Do you a) Encourage her to take up creative writing, since she has such an active imagination? b) Take her to the hospital because she's obviously unwell? c) Refuse to let her go and keep a very close watch on her in the future? d) Answer "c" and also insist she tells you the whole story, since without the magic and transforming ferret-boys, this story most likely consists of "so I met this girl and she's sad and we fought but I really think she's a good person and I want to be her friend, and these other people I met today can help me do that so I'm going to go live with them for a while, okay?" e) Tell her to have a nice trip? If you answered "e," YOU FAIL. THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE LEVEL OF ABYSMAL FAIL YOU ARE. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
7:52 pm	Home sweet home I'm in warner Robins! Glee!!! Drove down yesterday afternoon/evening, met with friends and stayed about 5 hours, which was about 3 hours longer than I planned, discovered I was locked out of my house, went back to the friends' house to spend the night, and spent most of the day reading and watching movies on my laptop waiting for the realtor to show up and unlock the house for me. (It's all good--I finished Wall-E and started on HSM 3). I'm happy that I still know my way around even though it's been nearly a year since I was here! Went to BaM and bout Ouran #8, just because it's awesome. Also got the sequel to The Looking Glass Wars (Seeing Redd? Has Redd in the title, anywho) and I, Coriander because it's a fun book, and those two were both about $14 off their list price, since they're older, I guess (and hardcover! ♥) Currently at Atlanta Bread Co. to eat cheesecake and use their internet connection. Going to a get-together dinner tomorrow with homeschool people, although I've seen a few already. The people who were nice enough to let me spend the night ("um...it's too late to call the realtor and I'm locked out of the house, can I stay with you?") have been awesome and also loaded me up with food, so I don't have to worry if I don't feel like eating out (although I'm trying to hit places we don't have in VA or Nashville, like Sonny's (southern/BBQ) and Georgia Bob's (ditto), and maybe McCall's (family-run sandwiches that are the best in the WORLD), but I doubt I'll have time to get over there. Oh, and Bojangles, which is basically like Popeye's (if you don't know that, it's a fast-food chicken-and-biscuits places). And tomorrow's EASTER! I'll be going to my home church and surprising everyone, and seeing if I can get myself invited over for an Easter lunch. XD If not, then I could go and work on that TMM plotbunny that popped up in the middle of Philosophy class last week (dear brain: y u no wrk wen i need u to?) If you haven't already, go comment on my previous post, please! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
7:57 pm	Meme time, to procastinate dressing up for the Boonie Awards tonight Comment with something (or things) I talk about in my journal--people, places, even fandoms, anything--and I'll make a post explaining it. If you've ever wonder what a Nazarene actually is. Or Trebs, TNU, why I still love Tokyo Mew Mew, who the heck those family members I talk about are, or absolutely anything else~ Byargh, I have nothing to wear to the Boonies! Maybe just a nice top would work...I wish I had prettier shirts. (2 Comments |Comment on this)