The Tripods Attack

You know how I am always meaning to write up nice, wonderful book reviews but never get the time to?

This was one of those books. My friend Elena wrote up an excellent review. I could add a few things, but its been awhile since I've read the book. :P Elena pretty much summed it up, though.

To read her review please CLICK HERE.


PS I will update this blog again sometime. I have many, many things to post. I think I've given up on posting anything left from 2009, like Christmas. And stuff from January and the likes. Hmm. This blog is becoming much less of an "updating family and friends" and much, much more of a "Shaylynn's rambling thoughts". Which is okay. But I still want to get some of my pictures up.

So, I am really quite terrible about this whole "reviewing" thing... I love reviewing books, movies, games, etc. but keep forgetting. So the reviews you readers get are going to be rather short, random ones...

Awaking, by Claudia Cangilla McAdam, (edited by one of my favorite authors, Regina Doman) is a story about a girl who finds herself transported back to Jesus' time... She is now a Jewish girl-- could she really have ever been an American teen in the twenty first century? But Ronni/Seraphina knows what will happen to Jesus. And she believes she is meant to stop the crucifixion.

Most Bible-time-travels stories are rather... well, boring. But Awakening isn't. Ronni's story is intricately entwined with Biblical figures. I learned alot about the Jewish culture and little facts about the Gospels that I hadn't known before. Best, the story is genuinely exciting. I always love a book that leaves me asking for more.

A quick and easy read that is entertaining and enjoyable. What could be better? :)

Percy Jackson-- Lightning Thief

Time for a quick review! I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians-- The Lightning Thief in theaters with some family friends. The books were enjoyable. They had a nice twist on the Greek mythology, and I found myself thinking back to the books this year as I have been studying Ancient Greece. I haven't read the books in awhile, though.

The main premise is that Percy Jackson finds out he is a half-blood, a demi-god. His father is Posiden, the god of the seas. The gods are still alive and powerful in our world. They move with world powers-- currently living on the top of the Empire State building. Someone has stolen Zeus' thunderbolt and Zeus thinks it is Percy. Won't say much more. :) Read the books, they are very fun though not genuis.

If you know me at all, you know I am a book purist. Movies rarely live up to my expectations. I am fine if they want to take creative liscene, or what have you, but too often the movies stray from the meaning of the books. Percy Jackson and the Olympians was just what I exspected. A good movie in an of itself, but nothing like the book.

Changes in character were my biggest pet peeve. The protagonists are no longer 12 year olds, but 17 year old teens. Grover, a saytr, is very girl-struck in the movies (so is Percy, for that matter). Annabeth is no longer a grey eyed, tomboy strategist who wears a magical Yankees ballcap and calls Percy "Seaweed Brain". Instead, she is a very pretty teen girl who might/might not be in love with Percy and is quite the warrior. Other characters were messed with, too.

The plotline was changed around, and some major points left out. (These points affect the later books, so if they plan on another movie, I don't know how they will do it).

But it is an enjoyable movie if you don't mind the changes. :) I would write about the good parts, but I really don't want to give away the plotline (READ THE BOOK).

Born of Hope

Do you remember the Lord of the Rings fanfilm The Hunt for Gollum that I mentioned? There is a new film out by the same people.

I have found another Lord of the Rings fanfilm! It is called Born of Hope (see the movie, and the website, HERE). 

It is the story of Aragorn's parents. The story is not told in Tolkien canon (aside from a reference to the gravestone of Aragorn's mother).

I don't have time for a proper review, but I enjoyed this video very much. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you must watch it.

Outdoor Challenge

Time for a little review!

This is one of my favorite Wii games, next to Gutair Hero, Wii Fit, WiiResort, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games. This is Outdoor Challenge *cue heroic drumroll*

This has got to be one of the most engaging video games I have played. I have not played Dance Dance Revolution, but the mat is similar. In Outdoor Challenge, you run, jump, bang, bend over, stumble, and hop all over the mat, completing dozens of activities. Some of these include: Mountain Boarder (like skateboarding), Jumprope, Mine Cart, Mole Stomper (use your feet, not a hammar!) and Sprinting. Those are some of the one-player games. There is also a pretty good selection of two player games, where you can compete against, work with, or challenge another person.

If you do it for an hour at a time, desperately trying to reach the next level or next high score, you get quite the workout. Sweatin' within da first ten minutes kinda workout. :) It also challenges your balance-- leaping back and forth as quickly as you can across the mat can make you trip and fall. But that is the fun part. :)

Today, I finally reached the last level. After stomping on 223 mole heads, sprinting in place for 2 minutes 32 seconds, back flipping on a skateboard, and sliding down a very interesting tunnel, I BEAT THE LAST LEVEL. But there is no way I am bored of it. I'll still get on all the time in order to keep my high score far from my brothers' reach. By the way, if you make it to the last level, wait for the credits to finish. It unlocks a Master Level. :)

The hardest parts of this game are learning (you have to learn how each activity runs, get a feel for the mat, etc.) and finishing (The last level was pretty difficult!).

Stars: 4.9999999999 out of 5

The only cons: the game only goes up to two players, and it hurts if you have flat feet. You can't wear shoes on the mat, so if your feet are uber-flat like mine, all the running in place can give you a cramp. But that doesn't affect 99.99999999% of the population, so forget I said anything.

Newsletter

Okay, I know that most of you have heard me rave about Regina Doman's Fairytale Novels.

As you probably have also heard, I spend 90% of my computer time on the fourm, which is manned by faithfilled, crazy fans of Regina Doman (people like myself, in other words). We have interesting discussions on everything from religion to music, random discussions on everything from school to ear wax, and of course the Family Tree, which is a major roleplaying section. Book reviews by fellow teens, sharing and critiquing of art, poetry, and other scribblings... Anyways, it is wonderful.

We, the fourm, would like to present you with our second every newsletter! I found this site called Issuu where you can publish documents online. Thanks to that site, I can now share this issue with you. :)

It is a monthly newsletter that we put together. This issue is 18 pages long, but I do suggest printing it out and reading the whole thing. Its worth it.

This month's theme is RAIN.

Oh, yeah, my username is Nenetta. Now you know what I wrote/drew in there. :P

Click here to see it!

And from the lovely Admin comes this note: 

If you would like to recieve the entire paper as an e-mail attachment (in .doc format), please send your e-mail address to inkandfairydust@yahoo.com under the subject heading "Ink and Fairydust Subscription"

And I can personally vouch that Elena will not  spam you or give your email address away.

Pride and Prejudice

It goes without saying that Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, is one of my favorite books. (Most girls will agree with me on this, but those strange males never seem to realise the genius of it). Fine Linen Drama is going to be preforming a play of Pride and Prejudice this spring. Poor, poor, poor me, I shall be moved, and I shall miss the oppertunity to act in a non-musical preformance of my favorite book.

We recently watched the latest version of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightly. It was very enjoyable, but I think they could have done better. First off- its impossible to do a good interpretation of this book in a two hour movie. Just like Lord of the Rings, it demands good time to tell the story properly.

The characters and their development in the movie were very good and fairly true to the book. However, the casting left much to be desired. The actors did a wonderful job, but some of them just weren't right for their part. Lizzy and Wickham were cast fairly well, but Bingley... Not how I imagined him. At all. Mr. Darcy, at first, does not seem like a Mr. Darcy at all, but as the movie goes along, you can really see him as Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bennett just wasn't right- they messed up his character.

Most movies are very vague interpretations of their story, but this version of Pride and Predjudice followed the storline nicely. One of the best things about it was the dialogue. Jane Austen chose the perfect words, and the makers of this movie kept the original wording (except at the end). However, alot of the words are little-known, so I suggest using subtitles.

Its a good version to watch if you just want to get through the story quickly, or you love dazzling cinematography (the lighting, effects, and costumes were amazing). But if you want to see justice done to the book, watch the 5 hour BBC mini series.

 

Its been awhile since I've seen it, but it is worth the 5 hours. It is not as dazzling but does a much better job with the storyline. Plus you can follow it even if you've never read the book or a synopsis. (My brother watched the Keira Knightly version with us and was totally and utterly lost. Well, I guess he also hated it because its a love story)

The Hunt for Gollum

So I finally got around to watching this!

The Hunt for Gollum is a fanfilm based on the Lord of the Rings. It is set between Bilbo's birthday party and Frodo leaving the Shire. Gandalf was worried that Sauron might have knowledge of the Ring, and Aragorn was sent to find the creature Gollum.

Overall, I was pretty impressed. The script was good, the actors resembled the actors in the real movies, and the CG was amazing! All of the landscape shots were CGI (computer-generated images, CG for short). And the music, costumes, and props were wonderful.

The fight scenes left some to be desired. Maybe its just my personal taste, but I thought that the choreography could be better, and the gore could be less. :)

And this was my favorite bit- SUBTITLES! Yup! It had subtitles! Which makes it much easier to follow. (not that the sound quality was't good- it was great- but its easier for me to understand stuff visually)

You can watch it here. Make sure you have time- its forty minutes long. There is supposed to be another one coming out!