Saturday, April 26, 2003

Subject | "There is a desert, far, far away..."

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Blargh. Yes, it's a new entry :P it's been awhile, hasn't it?

I think I'm getting nervous now that there is less than 8 weeks left in the school year. I have a real chance of getting an A in pre-calculus this semester (I got a B last semester), and I'm being very careful to study and not make errors and crap... I really, really want an A ;_; it would make me so happy. History is getting sooo boring T_T Not the fault of the teacher, I guess, but everything just makes my head tired. World War I is full of all these alliances and troops being mobilized and Germany going and bugging everyone else and mustard gas and just other unpleasant things, and I already know WWII will be very similar. I have a B, of all things, in Beidelman, and since there's no way of knowing why it's so or how far I am from an A, I'm working even more than I was before, Chemistry is a pain, and then I'm just stressed out from everything else >.< thank god swim season is over soon, and that computer science is an easy class.

That was a particularly boring paragraph. But I'm not particularly interesting these days; I'm so overworked, hence why I'm not blogging. I'm very unenthusiastic about everything >.> part of it might be attributed to being sick (I caught the flu over springbreak and now sound like a dying moose), and I'm even more irritable than I normally am (amazing, huh?). Bleeeech. I got another review that complained about me being some dead writer, but the person did it so nicely that I feel awfully bad. I tried writing fanfics the other day, though, and the writing was so very stiff and unnatural, it was like the first chapter of Kaitou! all over again, damn it. I keep saying I want to be a writer, but I'm not doing any writing (or, as my sister often reminds me, reading any classic novels to prep me), and it's rather forced these days that it's really quite gloomy.

As this blog entry is turning out to be. I did go to the mall with Sarah on friday, which was quite fun, although remind me not to try DDR when I'm sick; too physically exhausting - I coughed for ten minutes afterwards, oops. We want to go see X-2 on friday, but it'll have to be after swim practice.. that would be May 2nd :) I turn sixteen the next day, isn't that neat? I keep talking about it.. I'm awfully happy around my b-day, usually. (It would help if I was healthy.) Last year I kept reminding people about it because I was so annoyed that swim finals was held on it as well. This year, I don't think that's happening :P

How funny, just read this:
"The newspaper survey, posted Saturday on its Web site and to be published in its Sunday editions, estimates Rowling's fortune at $444 million... That placed her at 122 in the ``Rich List,'' 11 places ahead of the Queen, whose worth was estimated by the newspaper to be $397 million [widely disputed]..."

Harry Potter really does make quite a bit of money. When she sells rights to the movies of 6 & 7 (I don't think they're sold yet; contract was for 1-4 & then five, I believe), I hope she sets up a huge price, which will undoubtedly be paid. WB makes a hell of a lot more than they paid her for the first, after all. I was really annoyed, though; earlier today I read a review on the HP movie (which admittedly sucks), and the person said they had "leafed through Rowling's works" and declared them to be unrealistic and that "Rowling is filling an empty void [of children's literature] with an empty void..." The reviewer was comparing Hogwarts to the Protestant girls boarding school that she had attended and the strict religious boarding school her brother had attended, and complained how silly and childish they were.

I will certainly admit that Hogwarts is probably not at all like how religious boarding schools are run, but it's a made-up environment and can be dictated as the author wishes (and I don't think it comes off as a place of lax morals & childishness), and it is not a place where morals are dictated by hardship and suffering (as she stated that her and her brother's boarding schools had been like - typical religious institutes). The review was written very formally, and her writing is much better than mine, but still, I thought that the comment that her brother held the books in the same low esteem as "people who drive second-hand cars" was extremely snobby and in very poor taste.

I don't think "leafing through" is any good way at all to accurately judge the content of anything, and although we may all do it at some points, and the person certainly did it fairly often. She also wrote a review on Tokyo Crazy Paradise, a manga that I particularly alike, and she commented that though she had only read the first seven volumes (out of 18, please), she had flipped through a later chapter once and had been extremely annoyed that the author would have the main couple turn out to be "related", and this thus dropped her opinion of the series. Might I add that the couple is most certainly NOT related at all (she was talking about Tsukasa and Ryuji), and that I have no idea where she would have gotten that idea, unless it was a chapter talking about how Tsukasa is the daughter of a completely different Yakuza [mafia] group T_T what, did she think all Yakuza were related or something? I hate that sort of random approach. It reminds me of when my sister wanted to start an anime review site, and one of the reasons was because the sci-fi colony would have SO many reviews that summed up a, say, 43 episode anime after three episodes, tossing it off as another "typical so-and-so anime not really worth watching". How the sum of anything can be produced after so little is beyond me; that's like tossing off Austen in the first chapter because "all they talk about is marriage, how trivial".

A pet peeve of mine.

Augusto, I did buy "Spirited Away", too :) A few days after it came out.. Suncoast, for $19.99. I have a coupon for $4 off, so I think I want to buy "Castle in the Sky" & "Kiki's Delivery Service", too, should I ever acquire the money to do so. Such great movies :P really good. But what I really want right now is the first DVD of His & Her Circumstances; I was re-watching episode one, and I was getting so annoyed with the bad video quality and horrible subtitling ;_; it was really irritating.. methinks I'm getting too attached to HQ digital subbing. Anyway, SA is a great movie; I re-watched bits of the movie again - the scene with the train is exquisite, isn't it? Especially with the hippo-mouse and fly bouncing around.

Anyway, I've been re-reading the Harry Potter books again :P it's an ongoing theme in this entry, don't you think? They're such fun, light things, and they go by so quickly, even book four ^.^ I read an article that talked about how some travel industries in Britain released brochures with info on HP (such as, "This is where Harry leaves for school" and such and such), and by doing so, its failing travel industry jumped up :P what a weird thing to encourage visitors, but actually, should I visit Great Britain one day (and I certainly plan to), I would like to see some of the places in the HP books ^^ how dorky, but what fun it would be (although Hogwarts is deep in Scotland somewhere >.>). I'd like to visit King Cross Station (where some warrior queen named Boadicea or Bodicea, according to a Roman history book I have, is apparently buried, much to my amusement),

Also back to reading J.D. Robb. She's going to release her J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts (don't ask) book in fall of '03; amazon says it's coming out in October. :x I really want to read it. It lists the normal J.D. Robb that comes out in September as "Imitation in Death: The Brand-New Lt. Eve Dallas Novel", which is weird since it's not actually named that (just Imitation in Death, usually). And when will Eve Dallas be promoted to captain, for heaven's sake? They keep mentioning her getting her bars, and heaven knows she's solved enough cases (according to the books, she was only a uniform for a year, a detective for maybe two at most, and then lt. for seven - nearly eight now - since then :P promote her!) Speaking of wanting books... I'm thinking of buying the special edition HP #5, but it's fairly expensive. Amazon will ship it on June 21st, and B&N will have it at their stores that midnight (where I will definitely be), but is it worth it? And a British edition might be so much more fun :x So many books I want to read! ^.^ and what I want right now is Artemis Fowl, the Eternity Code ^^ it's book three! And it comes out May 6th ^^ just three days after my b-day. I'll go out and get it that Monday :P I look very forward to it. Summary sounds like typical Artemis being his typical teenage criminal self :P he keeps contacting Holly - he's in a bit of a pattern, there.

Right. I'm going to go snooze now. :P I need sleep, very badly.

Posted by Kylara @ 08:41 PM PST

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Subject | "Sexy, sexy, dear god help me nowwww---"

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You all know the dread. It lurks, at every family event. It seethes beneath the surface, waiting until the perfect moment to strike.

"Oh, you've grown so tall!" squeals the well-meaning relative. "Oh, how cute you are! And so much older!" [There is a reason why this so sounds like Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, you know. "Oh, what big teeth you have!"]

And so, the poor victim is forced to endure, pinches, and other little horrors. But no more will I dread such petty things.

I have a new fear. One that I hope never to relive after I saw my aunt today.

It started off normally. She looked at me, asked me what grade I was, and exclaimed that I was so much taller.

And then, dear god.

I want to die.

She said, "Oh, and you're very sexy, too!"

My aunt.

M-Y A-U-N-T.

::collapses into a tiny ball and mewls in pain::

I think my face started twitching. ::twitches::

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[break in broadcast]

At any rate, after I got home and decided to kill myself, I played with the Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets DVD. It's much better than the first DVD - it's a pity the movies don't live up to the books, isn't it? But there was an interesting interview with J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves (screenwriter). It made me think, actually, that he really does keep much of the stuff from the books and that it's the producers & directors, then, that go choppy-chop. Which means I can now hate Chris Colombus. At any rate, I can't wait for book 5, and I look forward to movie 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite book of them so far). :) Alfonso Cuaron (is that his name?) I hear is a good director. ::eager:: Anyway, I'm going to re-read CoS now, so ba-bye ^^

Posted by Kylara @ 10:48 PM PST

Friday, April 11, 2003

Subject | "Wow wow"

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Mood |

Just wanted to say that I watched the first episode of DN Angel... I was worried, because a lot of the new anime has been crap lately, but WOW. It's pretty good ^^ the manga is still better, but there are some improvements in how the characters act... Risa is not as annoying, which is not neccessarily a good thing since one of the things in the manga is to see how she grows, but Riku is shown pretty well, I thought. ^_^ The characters are cuter in the manga though, *sigh* they were going with some mystery theme with Hiwatari, but it worked well enough (they also cut out the shounen-ai hints). But, I also thought the beginning kicked ass (this would be Krad Vs. Dark, which blew my eyes open). Very neat, and enough unlike the manga that I didn't get bored. Although I like having the anime be just like the manga, sometimes if the anime isn't at all creative, it gets kinda boring (NARUTO! eh-hem). :) I like Dark's voice, and I think Hiwatari's is Xelloss/10th angel from Eva. It sounds like him, at least. I'd doublecheck, but why? ^.^ Anyway, reading the manga right now. Can't believe hanakimi got licensed.. how weird is that? HYD & Hanakimi.. --;

On another note, it's finally spring break. I'm going on a fanfic writing RUSH or something, I swear to god. Fanfics, my website - everything gets overhauled. I also get to practice an SAT program. Joy. (Are my darling friends prepping, too?) I also think Stacy should get a boyfriend. :> Then I can bother him and tell him embarassing facts about Stacy. (Yes, I know it's really random.)

Wow, blogging two days in a row :P truly shocking. (Actually I think it's the same day, just the first entry was too early in the morning/late at night.) Can't wait for Harry Potter to come out in about 70 days.. I'm wondering if I should purchase the collector's edition of book 5. It looks really cool :x But it's also a cool $40. With discounts and junk (B&N will tack off prob. 10% for it being a hardcover, and then another 10% from my card), it should be just over thirty, or something, but that's still kinda pricey, so I dunno. And it's not like the bookstore will have it June 21, anyway. But if it does, it's really tempting.

Augusto and I were discussing blogging on the way home (he was walking the same way as me, along with boy-with-the-orange-hair-of-doom [read: Andrew]) and neither of us have been blogging lately >.< either we aren't in the mood to blog or just too dang tired. For me, it's usually being tired and thus not being in the mood to do anything, much less blog. Anyway, must go now and read. I'm tempted to rant about swim team, but it wouldn't be constructive. ^_^ bye.

Posted by Kylara @ 08:45 PM PST

Subject | "Bleeeeck."

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Mood |

Man, it's like 2:05 in the morning as I write this... I'm doing a character sketch for English right now. Two pages, double spaced.. it's an okay assignment, but I don't wanna do this.

I'd apologize for not blogging lately, but what's the point? I looked over my last five or so and I seem to have some sort of excuse in each one. Therefore, hit archives if you really want to check :P

I was extremely bored earlier and took some quizzes at thespark.com... if you were curious, I'm going to die March 31, 2086. I'll be 98 (two short of 100, damn). ^_^ That was the death test. I took nearly all the tests on there ... ::is 12% pick-upable:: Disappointing to learn that I'm only 48% a b*tch. Did pretty well on the un-telligence test though ^^;

Who here shares my English teacher? Who here can't take BUSY WORK ANYMORE? ::has thirty flashcards to do:: Good thing I have late start tomorrow (class starts at 9). -.-

I watched some more Daa! Daa! Daa! these past few days.. man, that is a cute anime ^^ it isn't the most creative or anything, but it has some good moments. A particular one was in 13 when Kanata nearly punched Seiya (who deserved it). A little sappy, but all-around, pretty sweet, even though I didn't understand the purpose of Miyu running through the dark to find Ruu. But whatever goes.

Spirited Away DVD comes out in just a little while :) HP & the Chamber of Secrets is out on DVD already, and even though the movie stunk, I really do want to buy it.. might as well have everything.

Secret indulgence: I want the collector's edition of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. It's nice. You people seen it? Unfortunately, the sucker seems to cost about $40.. only way I'm getting this thing is if B&N sells it for at least 20% off. Combined with my handy-dandy B&N card, it'll drop about ten bucks off. I can afford a thirty dollar book...

Hey, J.K. Rowling had a cameo on the Simpsons. I wanna see that! :P This would be the second or third time they've done something with HP (one of their Halloween episodes has a sequence with Lisa and Bart attending Springsfield School of Magic or something like that.. Lisa turns a frog into a prince - Prince Charles, that is. ^^)

Oh. :) HP fans, see that summary of book 5 released? http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org [summary]? Maaaaan. I'd discuss it, but some of the people who might comment (and I do want you to comment, ever so much) might not want to see my thoughts ^^ the only thing spoilerish is who the new Gryffindor keeper is, though. ::is stunned:: On generally known HP news, though, I do look forward to an XX chromosome DADA teacher, as well as Harry vs. the Ministry of Magic (Hagrid did say that Fudge was a duffer, back in book one - wonder if he was a Hufflepuff?), since that's something that should truely be interesting.

I would blog more, but I have half a page of Cyrano angsting yet to write, so I will depart. ::takes a deep breath:: ONE DAY, AND I HAVE SPRING BREAK!! ::screams a great deal::

Oh, yeah. Watched Ice Age in Spanish class today (in English, though). ?_? It was okay.. I see why the twins liked it, but not why they love it so much :P I couldn't tell if the mammoth was the baby in the cave drawings or the daddy, though. Either way is depressing. I'm inclined to think daddy, though. ::still can't believe the mother died:: How stupid was that -.-

Flame of Recca is heating up in the last volumes from Snoopycool.com! I love reading it ^^ I was extremely annoyed at the lines that hinted at DomonxFuuko in volume 31, but whatever goes >.> I think I ship RaihaxFuuko.. Raiha is HOT, for one, and Domon is a nice guy, but just too stupid for Fuuko-sama. (I was considering MikagamixFuuko, but Mi-chan and Fuuko seem to just be very good friends, even if Tin's fanfic 'Blue Nights' gives an interesting perspective on that whole issue.) Can't wait for volumes 32 & 33.. Kurenai was such a lovely woman when she was alive. Really sucks that she got blown up. [Renge, btw, does not take after her cell donors. She's cuckoo.]

I need to start working on the Key Club bulletin. Eeep, eep, eep!

Found a decent Lily & James fic on ff.net... I should recommend it to Pretty Twin, since she seems to be fairly rabid about this sorta thing.

AH! CYRANO!

Posted by Kylara @ 02:33 AM PST