Okay.

Laptop? Check. Notebooks? Check. Markers and highlighters? Check. Flashcards? Check. 

Three-Act Plot Guideline? Check. Juicebox? Check. 

Let's finish this plot planning once and for all. 

In the name of fun.

Kristy and I are going to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part One on Tuesday night. I just read a review that said the honeymoon scene is 45 minutes long. We're going to need a LOT of soda.

Speaking of food and drink, here is my edited version of a Breaking Dawn drinking game.
Most of this is off the internet but some are my own. I expect that taking this list will improve the entertainment value that the movie provides by 100%.

Take a sip of your beverage:

• When Edward bites a human
• When there's a toast at the wedding
• When the movie tries to justify Jacob's impending imprint
• For each of the bruises Edward find on Bella
• When the camera pans to Jasper
• Charlie ignores the obvious signs that his daughter is in a really bad relationship
• When someone turns into a werewolf
• When Alice makes that stupid smile of hers
• Every time Bella stammers
• Every time a camera shot lingers too long
• When someone compliments Bella

Take a huge mouthful: 

• When the creator of this monster makes her painfully obvious cameo appearance
• When Edward breaks the headboard (good grief, I feel disturbed just typing that)
• The getting-ready-for-the-sex montage occurs
• For each transition between horror and soap-opera that the movie takes

Chug for the duration of: 

• The wedding kiss
• Any vampire sparkling
• The wolf telepathic pow-wow (I've heard you might stop breathing if you try to chug through this scene, but we'll give it a shot anyway...)
• Bella drinking blood

Empty the bottle for: 

• THE IMPRINT

I don't know if I'll come back alive, even without alcohol....

I've never felt this way before....

So, the trailer for The Hunger Games was released today or yesterday, or something. Kristy posted it on facebook this morning and I've watched it three times now. 'One of those goosebump trailers' as Justin called it - the kind of trailer that has big swells of music between the different mood changes that gets you all excited. I was totally excited watching this trailer, and not just because they cast Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, heh. Here it is:

Yeah, you get where I'm coming from with the whole goosebumps thing? It's a good trailer.

The problem is, I didn't like the book.

Now, before any of you Hunger Games fans freak out ... well ... nah, whatever. You can freak out. I'm about to explain the problem that I found with the book, and I don't really have anything to tone it down with, or a "however" or an "on the other hand" to conclude with, so if you feel insulted by the above statement feel free to look away now. I would hope that you're more curious than that.

Anyway, I purchased a copy of the book in 2010, because I was in America at the time and ever window and shelf in Barnes & Noble was covered in Mockingjay, the conclusion to the trilogy. So I thought, what the hey, I'll see what all the hype is about. I'm pretty slow on the uptake when it comes to  fandoms (see this post). The copy at B & N was about $23.97 or something ridiculous, so I went to Walmart and got a cheap paperback version for $6.90. Much better. I read it over a few days on the back porch at my Grandpa's house, but after the first few chapters it hadn't really grabbed me. Reading material was scarce however, so I kept going to the end.

The problem I had with the book was partly the writing style, but to be more specific, Katniss' voice and her emotional detachment to things. I'm gonna pull a Dana here and quote directly from the book to give you some examples of what I mean:

We [Katniss and Peeta] turn back to face the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays. Oh well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Maybe someone else will kill him before I do. (pg. 33)

The boy from District 1 dies before he can pull out the spear. My arrow drives deeply into the center of his neck. He falls to his knees and halves the brief remainder of his life by yanking out the arrow and drowning in his own blood. (pg. 233)

She's rather factual, isn't she? Sure, I get that they have to kill each other to survive. Yes, Katniss will just have to get over the idea of killing people to save her own life and not worry about who is dead. But that's just the problem! There seems to be no shock for her about the brutality of these games. She doesn't get used to it - she already is. I understand that she would have seen the games beforehand, so she knows what to expect, but I as the reader have not. I wanted to be able to grow with Katniss as the story progressed, not catch up to her. A reader should either be ahead or on par with their narrator, and on for the emotional part of the story, I felt like I was being left behind. 

Not to mention there's a weird/lame fake-romance storyline that develops in the second half of the book. Not sure what I thought of that. 

I enjoyed the concept of this novel (even though the whole dystopian thing wasn't much explained), but  found it hard to connect with the characters. 

NOW - here's the clincher. The reason why I started this post in the first place. We have a movie coming out. And unless a movie is really, really bad, if you like stories, you're more than likely to get emotionally involved with one. Movies can quite often be much better at emotionally involving the viewer than a book can, simply because it's visual (and there's epic background music). A film is able to capture more of your senses than a book can. Don't take me wrong, I love books. That's why I'm feeling a bit weird about this.... 

I've never felt this way before.... 

Is it possible that I could enjoy the movie more than I enjoyed the book? 

Is it even possible for a movie to be better than a book? 

March 23rd, folks. March 23rd will reveal all. Stay tuned. 

So, I got a little sidetracked...

...and thanks to Kristy and Jessie my main characters have dress styles. Hee.

Hayden Connors

Sienna Hawthorn

Jordan Elliott

Josh Elliott

Thompson Lewis

Lily Bryce (the antagonist) VS. Marcus Kitch (her shapeshifter disguise)

ARLKSJDKLASNBIAMEXCITEDFORMYWRITING.

Flipping holidays can't come soon enough! Holiday time means writing time (and friend time, but that's not what this post is about...).

Having one of those moments where the story idea in my brain is positively bursting with AWESOME and I just want to write it. As you've probably heard I'm revisiting my superpowers story, and revamping the characters that have been with me since 2008. It still shocks me that they've been around that long. Finally, I think I've figured out what their story is supposed to be. And who doesn't belong in the story. Many a character has been scrapped. Also many have died. But that's a different novel, to be written one day when I'm famous and my readers are begging for the backstory....

Totally pumped for the epicness that will be this book! I'm using NaNoWriMo to bust out 50k for it, which is kind of cheating since I've already started the story, but seeing as NaNoWriMo is made for personal gain, I guess I can use it for the best benefits possible. Right? Heh. We're all NaNo rebels sometime or other (or every time if you're me...).

I was talking to Keira yesterday about the authory things that I wish I could do but don't yet have the skill. Number One is better foreshadowing. I wish I could master foreshadowing for a huge series like Harry Potter. JK Rowling is a genius. Don't believe me? Go read The Prisoner of Azkaban again.

The second thing is pushing my characters one step further in the way of er ... torture. I don't know how else to put it. Basically, when you write a story your character has to get past many bad obstacles, and each time they escalate, pushing the character to their limits. I can never seem to get my characters to the step that breaks them, or nearly breaks them, depending on your character. A perfect example of this is Amy in The Doctor's Wife. While she and Rory are lost inside the TARDIS (I still don't know if I'm supposed to capitalise all the letters or not!), Rory gets shut behind and door and Amy finds him only seconds later, or so she thinks. Turns out for him it's been hours. That's step one. Step two is when she's tricked into thinking Rory has waited his whole lifetime for her, and to her horror she finds an old Rory still sitting behind the door. Now, if I had written this episode, that's as far as I would have taken it. The genius bit comes in step three, the moment that breaks Amy. The moment that pushes her over the edge, and gives us a real insight to her character, and makes us care. Because we knew that the old Rory was just a fake one put there by the badguy, so now that the scene is over we don't care anymore. The writers need to scare us. To make us feel what Amy feels. So when Amy next turns the corner she sees DIE AMY DIE graffitied all over the walls and the dead skeleton of her husband Rory, and she just breaks down. Now don't lie, your stomach twisted when you watched that didn't it? You felt it that time. Now the writers have got you to care. And when the real Rory comes around the corner, perfectly fine, confirming that what Amy saw was just a hallucination, the relief that you feel is the WIN for the writer. Yeah that's right, they've got you to love their characters. And THAT is what I want to master. Not everyone realises how important step three is in pushing your character to the limits. It's the final hurdle. Right when you think everything is going okay, something ten times worse gets in the way and you groan at the TV or shake your book in frustration because you just want the character to get through and be all right! You care now. I want to make my readers care like that.

Anyways, the post just sort of became a rant and ended up twice as long as I thought it would. So I'm going to go now. Off to continue this stupid plastering. Have a lovely Sunday!

P.S Had a ridiculously long conversation with Keira last night about names. We came to the realisation that Karen Gillan is a really, really terrible name (especially when you add that her middle name is Sheila! What is wrong with her parents?) and that Amelia Pond is a beautiful, wonderful, roll-off-the-tongue name. I love writers and how much thought they put in to names. :)

Bored girl is bored.

Enter random blog post about a random subject!

I'm literally waiting for plaster to dry (on my model for a TAFE project), so what better way to pass the time than to blog about something. I was thinking of just posting this on tumblr and making it short and snappy but hey, we all know that's just a dumb waste of time. Let's make something of this.

This post is about: My Favorite Voices on the Planet.

This blog post is brought to you by (in no particular order):


1. JJ Field

You might know his voice from movies such as Death on the Nile and Captain America. Just listen.




2. Armie Hammer 

You would have seen him twice in The Social Network. A little disappointing there's not really two of him, right? He probably has the most beautiful American accent in the world.




3. Emily Blunt

Best known for The Young Victoria and The Devil Wears Prada. A little trivia: she appeared in Death on the Nile alongside JJ Feild. I wish I sounded like this. And as I side note, I couldn't help myself and had to pick one of her interviews with Rupert Friend.




4. Alan Rickman

Obviously.




5. Emma Stone

If you are unfamiliar with films starring this girl, you need to crawl out from under your rock and watch Easy A and The Help, RIGHT NOW. I've heard some people say her voice is weird or that it's a put off, but it must be the American in me because I love it. Aaaaaand I'm so excited for this movie. SO EXCITED.



And speaking of Spiderman....

6. Andrew Garfield

Because I just love everything about him ok? And his little salute is so cute. *fangirls*

Maybe it's just the lack of Christmas vibe? Or the lack of a Pond....

I was possessed by some weird compulsion to rent the Doctor Who Christmas Special when we were up getting movies tonight at Network video, despite a little voice in my head (possibly Keira?) telling me that it was terrible compared to the rest of the series. I got it anyway and now I'm sitting here watching it and kind of wishing it was over. Yet for some reason I can't turn it off. Maybe because the only thing I'm paying attention to is that glorious little bounce in Matt's fringe....

Fact drawn from this experience: Doctor Who is boring without Amy.

Conclusion drawn from this fact: Matt Smith and Karen Gillan cease to be amazing without the other, and hence should get married and have babies with epic hair.

Concluding conclusion drawn from this conclusion: Doctor Who might cease to interest me without the epicness of both Eleven and Amy. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it....

On another note, I also watched Sunshine tonight, and am happy to say that my love for Danny Boyle continues (he's also the director of Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours, which were even more amazing). All the sound effects and subliminal frames were really cool. Go watch his movies!

Can I have your hair? Can I have it?

I hear climax music and a Scottish accent coming from the TV so I'd better return my attention to the Doctor and see what I'm missing! Tata.

So I've been watching Matt Smith run around in a bow-tie: A Doctor Who Review, Part 1

Did I say that out loud? 

Well, not really. I typed it. But yes, you read that right. I have spent the last week watching Series 5 of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan aka Lily Evans.

Why, you say?

Why, after all this time, do I suddenly show an interest in the TV show that I've previously bashed?

Here's my explanation. I follow a lot of people on tumblr who love Harry Potter. A lot of people who love Harry Potter simultaneously love Doctor Who, and for the past week or so my dashboard has been bombarded with images from the recent episodes, a lot of which look exciting and pretty. Especially Matt Smith and Karen Gillan's hair. Here is one example of what I have been seeing:

This looks strangely intriguing! I said to myself. Indeed, I felt there was something different about these pictures/GIFS from the latest episode (or possibly episodes) than others I had seen. A new director, perhaps? A bigger budget? Maybe even just extra good graphics by the tumblr gang. Whatever it was, the TV show seemed to have a new spark, something that wasn't there before. Maybe something just sparked in me. Actually, if I'm honest I think the cinematography is what hooked me.

I wanted to watch whatever episodes everyone else was watching, but I realised that I couldn't do that without at least a little context. So last week I marched up the street and rented the first three discs from Series 5. And here, my friends, is my review. My personal opinion on the first 9 episodes with Matt Smith as the Doctor.
I will not be watching any of the previous series', but I might continue on after these episodes. What you must know, is that my current opinion on Doctor Who is based solely on these 9 episodes alone and that I do not intend to extend my opinion back to anything before Matt Smith. I have kept my viewing of Doctor Who a secret so as to avoid things such as "oh, but David Tennant was so much better", or "but you don't know any of the story before this!" or, "oh my gosh Erin like Doctor Who. WE MUST MAKE HER WATCH IT ALL".

Therefore, now that I have revealed this to you, I allow you to give comments, but not to drown me in all the goodness of Doctor Who fandom. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan hair fandom is accepted. 


Each brief review will be followed with my "Current Doctor Who Status" which is how I feel about the show based on the episodes that I have watched, and this status will evolve with the build up of each episode.

So folks, here it is. The opinion of me, the girl who once bashed Doctor Who, on Doctor Who.


Episode 1 - The Eleventh Hour


I was worried that I'd gone mad as I popped the disc into my computer and flopped down with Justin to watch the tardis (TARDIS? Tardis? Is capitalisation important?) fly crazily through the skies of London, but once the Doctor sat down in front of Amelia Pond with a bowl of custard and some fish fingers and said, 'Look at you. Just sitting there!' I felt a little better about just sitting there, watching Doctor Who... Especially since I knew about the whole custard and fish thing from Charlie's video.

Terrible graphics and dorky badguys are pretty much a given for Doctor Who, so I was prepared. However, when Amy stepped into the room that she didn't even know existed (emphasis for effect) and that freaky serpent thing nearly snapped her neck, I was actually rather impressed. Especially when it transformed into a human using a dormant mind and the man and the dog moved and barked together because they were the same life form. That was actually pretty cool. The suspense built up as the episode continued, we met a cute nurse named Rory, the freaky serpent turned into a freaky woman with freaky twins, Amy collapsed, the freaky serpent turned into itself, and the Doctor saved the world and whatever. Not bad for a pilot episode.

Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is not that bad. 


Episode 2: The Beast Below


The episode that follows the pilot of a TV series is never very good, so I admit that my expectations weren't as high as before. That said, this episode really let me down. Honestly, it reminded me why I didn't watch Doctor Who. All the melodramatic music, the plot devices that spiralled into uselessness, the Queen that took herself (or her acting?) too seriously, and that sad story about the Star-Whale and the fact that it loved all the little children and blah blah blah. Not to mention the Doctor got really upset with Amy over the video and the beast saving thing. They barely know each other! I though he was a bit unfair. And she was a bit stupid. In short, this episode was lame, and I have nothing more to say.

Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is so cheesy it hurts.  


Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks

In an effort to continue my effort and salvage my low opinion of Doctor Who, I continued on to episode 3. I can't say that seeing the word "daleks" in the title was very encouraging, but hey, I was watching Doctor Who. It's inevitable. At this point, Mum came into the room and saw what we were watching a groaned, but I found out later that she's never seen a single episode.

Going back in time is always an improvement from going into the future, in my opinion. Important things have already happened that the viewer might care about, and the real past is always less cheesy than the imagined future.

Winston Churchill and his army of daleks was much more interesting than the space whale. I found myself a little bored with bits of this episode, particularly the Doctor's lengthy speech and random outbursts over the daleks. I was a bit confused. Possible this is because of my ignorance of the previous episodes, but also possibly because the daleks were ridiculously stupid and couldn't tell a detonator from a shortbread biscuit. I also have a big problem with the daleks' arms. They're just not scary. It's like they've got a whisk on one arm and plunger on the other (they probably did for real in the 1960's). Not very gripping in my opinion, no pun intended.

And, as a side note, if I were Amy I would've freaked out when the Doctor disappeared in the tardis to meet the daleks while she stayed with Winston. Amy, if you don't remember, he didn't come back for 12 years the first time!

Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who could be bit a more scary. 


Episode 4: The Time of Angels

I asked for more scary, I got more scary. Don't Blink is the only good episode from the David Tennant series that I've seen (made a billion more times awesome by the appearance of Carey Mulligan), so I was pretty excited that the angels were returning.

During the episode, I got so excited I nearly wet my pants. Who knew a BBC science fiction show starring a man in a bow-tie could be so frightening?!

First, the angel comes out of the TV while Amy's trapped in the room.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, Angel dust comes out of her eye.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, they enter a giant cavern full of statues to hunt down the angel.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, ALL THE STATUES ARE WEEPING ANGELS.

And just when you thought you would probably die if it got scarier, the voice on the radio is actually the solider who has been killed by the weeping angel. Justin nearly cried.

Just when you thought the characters were going to get out alive and you were going to start breathing again, Amy's hand turns to stone and the Doctor's torch is going out!!!!!


They get free, but then they get trapped. And the episode ends. And you're lying there waiting for your lungs to expand for the first time in 45 minutes. Then Justin rolled over to face his bedside and saw this:

And freaked out like I've never seen him freak out before. I was in some crazy headspace between total horror, total hysteria, and total oh-my-gosh-that's-the-funniest-thing-in-the-world.

Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is scary and awesome. 


Episode 5: Flesh and Stone

Glad that episode 5 continued on with the Weeping Angels, the next morning I kept watching. The fear factor had dissipated slightly now that it was 11am rather than 11pm, but built up again once Amy starting counting down from 10 ... Justin figured out what she was doing by the time she said 9, so we waited in tense anticipation for the Doctor and River to figure out what was going on. I must admit that the Weeping Angels are probably the best monsters ever invented, because you have to keep your eyes open to stop them coming at you, but if you look into their eyes for too long you can't open yours! It's brilliant. Unless you're the Doctor, you can't win.

That said, this is my honest opinion on everything, so I have to add that there were a few dramatic moments that bothered me a bit - particularly the piano score playing in the background while the Doctor gave his "you have to start trusting me" speech to a sightless Amy. I want to throw something at the TV and yell, "stop taking yourself so seriously you stupid show!" They're too low budget for that sort of thing. It sounds like a soap-opera.

Speaking of bad things, I just remembered there was a kissing scene at the end. I was very confused. And it wasn't even because I don't know what happened before this series. The end of this episode was just ... confusing all together.

Anyway. It wasn't all bad, as I said. That's a couple of bad bits in a lot of good bits, so we're still going good!

Current Doctor Who Status: Thanks to Matt Smith, I'm actually enjoying Doctor Who. 




Episode 6: Vampires in Venice 


The cute nurse from episode 1 is back! I spent most of this episode going, "poor Rory" which annoyed Justin a little bit. Thankfully the Doctor was nice about the whole thing and brought him along and Amy got nicer as the episode progressed. So maybe the fish things were a bit lame, but I must admit I liked the fact that the vampires weren't really vampires. It was a nice twist and it made me forget about the usually bad graphics that Doctor Who is known for ... oh, except for the when the sky starting boiling, or whatever. That was a very sad-looking effect. In fact, that whole scene was a bit sad. Was the rain actually boiling hot, or something? The regular citizens seemed to think so, but the Doctor and his companions weren't very bothered ... I was a bit confused. 


For me this episode was marginally above what my original expectation of a Doctor Who episode would be, so I was still interested to see more. 


Current Doctor Who Status: I am uncharacteristically eager for more Doctor Who.




Episode 7: Amy's Choice


 I was really angry at this episode when it first started because it appeared to have skipped five years in the characters' lives for no apparent reason - that is, until it was revealed that it was possibly a dream. Then it became awesome instead of stupid.


This was probably one of the more exciting episodes because there was the suspense factor of not knowing which 'world' was the real one. Although that dream guy and the fake ice on everyone's faces were a bit lame. I'm also unsure on my feelings towards Amy's character, because on one hand I kind of like her sarcasm because it adds humor, and on another she can be a bit annoying. She and Rory are also a bit cute, though. 


And if you're going to add interesting plot devices such as the TARDIS (Tardis?) floating towards a cold star, can you at least explain a little more about this? Because it turned out that the cold star WAS in the real world and yet that's what had made them think maybe it was the dream world, and so then the star was real but then was it real? And why was it cold? Yeah. Confusing.


Current Doctor Who Status: Confused. Why am I finding so many little things to pick apart and yet I still want to keep watching?? 




Episode 8: The Hungry Earth


This episode was honestly a bit boring. I mean, I didn't really care about any of the other characters except the Doctor and his companions, and we'll all know they'll be fine... right?

I took note of the engagement ring foreshadowing at the start of this episode, because no TV show spends precious minutes on that sort of thing if it's not important, so I knew it would mean something.

So, the ground attack some miners really wasn't that exciting. It got a little better when we found out there were actual bad guys, but the episode's minor (note the difference in spelling) characters were all a bit annoying and boring. Especially the wife. Urgh.

Current Doctor Who Status: Oh, poo. It's a double episode. Guess I haven't got a choice but to keep going. 



Episode 9: Cold Blood 

So the Doctor goes down into the earth and finds some weirdo reptilian civilization who claims to have owned the world before humans. Big whoop. I got a bit more interested when Amy nearly got dissected, though. That's the kind of suspense I like! And to top it off, once the lizard-man got distracted she took his unlocking remote thing. Now we're getting somewhere.

It was terribly predictable that Mrs. I Just Want My Family was going to kill the captured lizard-woman on the surface, so can't say I was freaking out there. Just looking at the screen going, 'You're an idiot.' And then turning to Justin and going, 'She's an idiot.' And then looking back at the screen saying, 'This is stupid.'

And then RORY DIED. And then I was sad because that was the reason for the engagement ring foreshadowing. And then Amy forgot him. And then the Doctor couldn't tell her. And then he realised that the piece he pulled out of the crack WAS PART OF THE TARDIS. Ohmygoshaspoasleblasyahilkbelbeasojlkenrl.


Current Doctor Who Status: I have a confession to make. When we were at Engage (so Kristy, Oliver and Dan, I'm talking to you) and you guys said that Doctor Who was on the next night, I texted Justin and told him to tape it so we could watch some of the recent episodes when we're up to them. So you know what this means. I like Matt Smith and Doctor Who. But not David Tennant. I'm sorry I'm weird. And I didn't tell anyone because my decision on the show wasn't finalised. But I guess I just have to say it... I ... like ... Doctor Who. The end! 


So there you have it. You're probably just as shocked as I am. When I can get my hands on the next few episodes I will probably write another post. For now, I leave you with some hair eye-candy.

Admit it. You're staring.