In Stars and Swirls

Books, Libros, Leabhair, llyfrau, Knihy, Kirjat, and all the rest

2010-04-25T20:12:00.001-07:00

Sooooo I know know how to say "books" in English, Spanish, Irish, Welsh, Czeck, and Finnish. Pronunciation, though . . . let's not go there! :P

Anyway, as you might've guessed, I spent my weekend (half of it, at least) at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. I went with my aunt, mystery/noir writer Denise Hamilton (who is totally awesome, by the way . . . you should check out her books!) and as such, I divided my time between the booths on the fairway, the requisite panels for English class extra credit, and the Green Room.

I went to two panels. One, that my aunt moderated, was with two young adult fiction writers, who were a lot of fun to watch. The second panel was about the art of literary criticism, and featured critics from Salon, the LA Times, and others.

The first panel was interesting because it was geared toward young adult readers, or writers who were interested in writing YA fiction. The two authors, David Levithan and John Green, were discussing their latest book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I really liked this panel because the authors were fun and relatable, and very engaging. I also very much enjoyed getting to hear them talk about how they wrote the book (each one wrote alternate chapters). Although I have not read the book, and probably won’t (it’s a highschool drama/comedy, and that’s not the type of books I usually read), the panel also provided some insights into how adult authors viewed the teenage world, and how those views help shape their novels.

The second panel, about literary criticism, was drier, but I still enjoyed it. It was more formal and structured, and all about how the critics went about reviewing their books. Most of the critics were self-assigning, meaning they picked their own books to review, and that, they said, was the best part of their job. As someone who writes her own, fun reviews of TV shows, movies, and books, I enjoyed seeing the perspective of those who wrote reviews for a living. A lot of what they talked about was not supremely interesting to me, but it was informative nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed hearing the panelists talk about what they do when they have to write a bad review, and what happens when they end up changing their minds about a book. I also came away from that session with several book recommendations.

Walking around the booths was amazing. I am never one to say no to a book, but I am forced to (repeatedly) here, since I usually end up wanting to buy one of everything. Nevertheless, I got to meet Nicholas Meyer (who directed several Star Trek movies) and have him sign his autobiography for me, and I bought a copy of one of Cara Black’s murder mysteries (she’s a really good friend of Denise’s, and her books are awesome!). I also rather inadvertently discovered the religion/spirituality section, and am the proud but somewhat confused owner of a Quran, six pamphlets about Islam, and two DVDs on interfaith cooperation.

But by far the best part of the day was the opportunity to meet all the other authors informally. I often found myself wondering why I had never gone to the book fair with Aunt Denise before . . . every twenty seconds, it seemed, she was pulling over Patt Morrison or Janet Fitch or someone equally as impressive. We had breakfast with Amy Alkon, the advice columnist, and I don’t think I’ll soon forget the thirtysomething writer giggling like a little girl as she related how she had told off one of her fellow authors for being on his cell phone. I also got to re-connect with one of Denise’s old friends, Naomi Hirahara (I had previously met her at a book reading/signing event for LA Noir 2), and spend some time chatting about college and writing with Cara, who writes a series of murder mysteries set in France that I love. While I loved listening to her stories about her trips to Paris, her efforts to improve my paltry French were somewhat futile :).

Between the Darkness & the Light

2010-04-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have been watching too much Babylon 5, as the title clearly shows. But it's also related to where I am in my life right now: pretty much done with high school, but not even sure where I'm going to college. I just want May 2nd to come. And there's the other set, the darkness of senioritis and the light of schoolwork. I think, to deal with being rejected by my top two choices, I wrapped myself in a cloak of don't-care, and sat around watching DVDs and blogging about politics. With the exception of a few classes that I genuinely care about, I have a hard time doing any work anymore . . . . but I'm starting to kick that habit now, thankfully.

But guess what! Over spring break, my family and I went on a ski trip, and I went down black diamond runs! We also got caught at the top of the mountain in a blizzard, and got to ride down in a snow cat . . . I was freaking out to no end at the time, but all I have now is a good story. So all is well :)

Also over spring break, I (rather stupidly) left my nice digital camera at school, so I went hunting for other cameras around the house. I found two: A Canon Elph LT 270, and a Minolta Freedom AF 35. The Elph uses APS (Advanced Photo System) film, which almost no one sells anymore, but is totally awesome, not least because it offers three different sets of dimensions. Awesome, yes, but hard to find, since the film Elphs were discontinued in the early 2000s and APS never really caught on. BUT Amazon sells anything and everything, so I found some Fuji film, ISO 400, 3 rolls of 25 exposures each. I can't wait to start taking pictures! Film for the Minolta is upcoming, I need to go to Samy's this week. I'll tell you all about the pictures, and maybe bully my scanner into working so you can see them.

Hm. I got a twitter account, if anyone cares. @AnyaPrynn . . . not that hard to find :) Mostly I use it to promote my politics blog and talk to Senators haha.

Babylon 5 is one of the best TV shows. Ever. I say that about every show I watch, but this is different. It's . . . devastatingly real. Everything is so perfectly imagined. I see parts of myself in every character. I laugh with them and cry with them and use them as examples on my religion tests (I got a 100%, so I'm not complaining!). It's so philosophical and adventurous and everything I could ever want in a TV show. So . . . go watch! I have 2 episodes left in the second season and all I can say is that it's getting better and better! I did a wallpaper . . . not the greatest, I don't think, or at least, it's not what I wanted, but it's nice. Oh, whatever, you decide :P

Full-size image & description on my website as usual.

Current Music:
Capercaillie
Battlestar Galactica soundtrack
Avatar soundtrack
Loreena McKennitt
Nightwish

Current Books:
"The People v. Bush", by Charlotte Dennett
"Iranophobia", by Haggi Ram
"Destiny: Child of the Sky", by Elizabeth Haydon
"Rapture of the Deep", by L.A. Meyer
"Sharp Teeth", by Toby Barlow
"Mrs. Dalloway", by Virginia Woolf
"The Wizard of London", by Mercedes Lackey

Current TV Shows:
Babylon 5 Season 2
Law & Order: SVU Season 2

Double Depression

2010-04-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Columbia rejected me.
So did Harvard.
I really don't know what to think now.
I was so convinced I'd get into one of those schools.
And I was waitlisted at my other top choice.
So.
I cried, threw stuff around, watched some Babylon 5, went for a 2 and a half mile run, and made a depressing (but pretty wallpaper).
I feel a bit better now. The only thing I can keep telling myself is "You couldn't have done anything different, or anything better." If those schools don't want me, I guess I don't belong there. It just makes me so mad that they love talking about "fit" and whatnot, and I'm obviously such a good fit! I guess there's six thousand equally as qualified people out there who are good fits too.
It's not like I don't have choices. I've gotten into colleges most people only dream of. But I'm still really upset.

Anyway, enough with my whining. Here's the wallpaper I made. It's Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson from Battlestar Galactica, aka my new favorite person. Made to celebrate me (finally!) finishing BSG Season 3 and because I wanted to do something with my loads of new screencaps (oh, and for the BSG-literate out here: Didi Cassidy? She is so the future me.)

Hm, so, in other news, the lineup for this year's Ballyshannon Folk Festival is up. Fidil, Eilidh Patterson, Lunasa, Eleanor McEvoy, The Dave Matthews Band, Andy Irvine, and Solas. Not the best it's been in recent years . . . I might end up at a different festival if I do go to Ireland this summer. Although, I have possible plans to meet up with some friends in Hong Kong, so that may happen instead.

I suppose I just have to remember that things happen for a reason. No matter where I end up -- for this summer, for college, for life -- I just have to remember to take every moment and make the best of it.

An Intense Love-Hate Relationship

2010-03-31T23:22:00.000-07:00

I can never quite figure out how I feel about the month of March. On one hand, it's St. Patrick's Day season, so it's dance dance dance never ending . . . but at the same time, that dance means I am overloaded with schoolwork and constantly tired and sore. Would I trade it for anything? Nope! Do I wish I had more time to sleep? Ohhhh heck yeah.

Anyway, that's why I've been gone for most of March. I've kept up mildly better with mine and Ashley's politics blog (then again, I have her constantly pestering me to update that). But I do have two movie reviews to post, and a recap of Battlestar Galactica's Season 3, which I just finished. Also upcoming: A Racetrack-based wallpaper, and a completed Minstralian Alliance story over at my website.

It's hard to cover a whole month of politics in a single post, but I'll try to hit the major points (to the non-politicos among my readers, you may breath a sigh of relief :P)

Jim Bunning filibustered a jobless benefits extension bill. He accomplished little except making a fool out of himself, flipping off a reporter, and providing me with excellent material for a mini-essay about the faults of the filibuster over at Double A Politics.
President Obama signed the healthcare bill, after the House passed the Senate version. Joe Biden became notorious for calling the bill "a big f***ing deal", and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me had a ton of fun pretending that America turned into a communist state.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff commissioned a study to look into the effects of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell and have made it harder to enforce.

What else happened in March? Well, my English teacher lost a couple of my assignments and blamed me for it . . . that was pleasant. I've decided that The Sound and the Fury is one of the best books ever written, but is most definitely the worst movie of all time. I'm heartily sick of my name after making 4 letterhead/business card/envelope sets as part of our corporate identity unit in Yearbook. I've been promised a Nexus by my dad if I write apps for it. Oh, and of course, I got into college! Not sure where I'm going yet, since I'm still waiting on a few decisions, but I'm really happy with where I've gotten in so far.

That's all for now . . . I'm going to try to steal some sleep now!

"Heaven Knows No Frontiers"

2010-02-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

I've had such a beautiful past few weeks.

School's been great; our yearbook is almost finished! I've made so many great friends this year . . . I don't want it to end. I want just one more year of high school . . . I even made up a dream schedule of classes :)

I love yearbook class so so much. At the risk of sounding cliche, it taught me a whole new way of looking at the world. I'm working on a photography series about seeing the world through raindrop-covered windows. And I can't look at fonts anymore without analyzing them. I learned that there really are no rules you can't bend, and no frontiers that are permanent. I'm actually seriously considering a graphics/photography minor in college now, and it's all cause of this class.

I've been watching the Olympics . . . started out with tragedy, but everyone has managed to come through. These athletes are so amazing and inspiring. Although I will say that I have been accused of being unpatriotic for not cheering for all Americans, all the time (notably, I was sooo rooting for the incredible, adorable, Shen/Zhou couple in pairs figure skating, I was so happy when they won!).

But the commercials get so overplayed. Gah. Especially Meg Whitman's "elect me!" commercial, which demonstrates an astounding lack of common sense and an unacceptable amount of pandering. She says she wants to create jobs, and follows that up immediately with saying she wants to cut government spending. I guess she missed the memo that we're just coming out of a recession and the economy is still shaky, and cutting spending is NOT what you do in a bad economy. Sheesh. I took a semester long economics course, and even I know that. My point is, she is saying exactly what her Republican constituents want to hear, while offering no real solutions. Gah.

I've been in a political and artsy mood lately. . . .go figure. I blame it on the rain. So I'm making campaign logos for all the Democratic senators running for re-election. I'll post them all when I'm done! Also, with the TV in my room for the Olympics, I've been watching The Rachel Maddow Show every night . . . sheesh, that lady is AWESOME. Especially when compared to the pretentious screamy git, Keith Olberman.

I spent last weekend in San Francisco with two of my beautiful, amazing, perfect Irish dance friends at the feis there. The 6 hour drive turned out to be really fun, even though the I5 through the central valley is boring, my friends never are! The stages were tiny and had no marlay down, but I managed to place in almost all my dances! Everyone else did great too . . . and, since I'm in a bragging mood, the two dancers from our school who went to All-Irelands brought back medals! Soooo proud of them! Anyway, we also got to see a lot of the town, which was really nice. Pictures are forthcoming.

I just spent a beautiful night watching the Olympics and doing henna tattoos with my two best friends. I love the weekend.

In yearbook, we're doing a corporate ID project, and it's really forcing me to look at myself and what I want, and I realized . . . I want everything. I am so many things. Computers, graphics design, astronomy, politics, photography, Irish dance . . . they're all such an integral part of me. I want to do so many things in life, and I worry that I won't have enough time to be everything I want to be.

I decided I'm re-starting the Minstralian Alliance series on my website. I just . . . had inspiration, all of a sudden. I don't know what happened. But I'm excited!

Current Music:
The Corrs
Sinead O'Connor
Midnight Oil
Maire Brennan
Sarah Brightman
Loreena McKennitt

Current Books:
"Madame Secretary", Madeleine Albright
"Light in August", William Faulkner

Current TV Show:
Battlestar Galactica, Season 3

Movies I Really Really Want to See Right Now:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Shutter Island
Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sorry for the really rambling post. There's been a lot going on lately, both in my life and in the wide world, and I wanted to write it all down.

Battlestar Música

2010-02-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

Apparently senioritis doesn't care if you want it around or not, it comes to visit anyway. But school has been pretty tame lately as second semester picks up, and I've been spending my days listening to music and catching up on TV shows, as well as cleaning the garage (yikes. you find straaaaaaaaaaaaange stuff in there!) and, yes, keeping up with schoolwork.

I suppose it's because it's been so awesomely rainy lately that I've been in a strange mood, musically at least, lately. I've been listening to four albums practically nonstop: Moya Brennan's Misty Eyed Adventures Sarah Brightman's Harem, The Corrs' In Blue, and Sinead O'Connor's Faith and Courage. Why? I'm not quite sure. They make me happy, I suppose. Make me want to go out and travel the world, get on a train & just see where I'll end up. I highly recommend all three of these albums.

And, my other current obsession: Battlestar Galactica. I'm 8 episodes into season 3 and have never loved it more! There's so much more intrigue now, so many battles (between ships and people). Everything is so intense, after the failed harmony experiment of New Caprica. I'm kind of wishing Baltar is a Cylon, just so I don't have to think that a human would betray his own race so horridly TWICE. Laura Roslin is reminding me why she's my favorite character (not that I need reminding) but ohhhhh boy, she does have ice water in her veins sometimes! I'm starting to like Sharon Agathon -- Athena -- more now, and Racetrack is epic pilot win, as usual. Tory is awesome even if she's a psychotic Cylon later on, Apollo is soooo much cuter now that he lost all that weight, I am so not surprised Ellen was a collaborator on New Caprica, Tigh as a drunk is supremely unattractive. Oh, and I hate all the Threes because Lucy Lawless is such a good actress she makes me feel sorry for them.

Oh, yeah, and I went to this store in Hollywood called "It's a Wrap" that gets all sorts of costumes/props from movies/tv shows/whatever, annnnnnnnnnnnd ......... I found outfits from BSG!!!! Soooooo excited ... I'm going to be watching all the episodes super closely looking for my new clothes :P

I am in love with the BSG soundtrack. Endofstory.

I downloaded the first half of the pilot for Caprica.
Ugh.
I swore I wouldn't get it/watch it.
But it was free on iTunes and I'm a sucker for free stuff.
I comfort myself by knowing that just because I have it, doesn't mean I like it.

So, take all the sex, drugs, and violence of Vegas, multiply it by a few thousands, and you have "V-World". Ew. I get the point -- the colonies are in love with themselves and headed toward destruction. And yeah, sex and violence sells in our pathetic little American TV culture. But really. The most interesting parts were the FX and the creepy priestess lady. I think I might have to watch the second half of the pilot, but not the rest of the series.

Will the Real Catholic Church Please Stand Up?

2010-02-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

So, I'm looking for the Catholic Church as it was meant to be. The Catholic Church that:

Preaches love for everyone
Supports tolerance
Is doing such a good job helping people in Haiti
Knows better than to get involved in politics and legal battles
Says everyone is equal in the eyes of God . . . and the Church

Not the Catholic Church that:

Seems less than interested in reaching out to other faiths
Threatens to stop social service operations in DC if the city legalizes gay marriage
Threw support behind the "yes on 8" campaign in California in 2008
Has forgotten that church and state are supposed to remain completely different entities

I might as well wish for Admiral Adama to swoop out of the sky in the Galactica and take me to Kobol, it seems.

The iPad: Uh-huh, Sure.....

2010-01-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

As you maybe can tell, I am less than impressed with Apple's new tablet, called (rather disingeniously) the iPad.

So The Onion did this really awesome satire bit, "Frantic Steve Jobs Stays Up All Night Designing Apple Tablet", in which Jobs frantically glues 9 iPods to a cafeteria tray and slaps a bit of masking tape on the whole thing. Unfortunately, that seems pretty close to reality here. The iPad is basically an iPod touch, except with a huge screen. The only thing that's new is the iBooks app . . . and hey, if I want to read books on the go, I'd rather have an actual eReader, like the nook.

So is it cool? Very. Are some people going to absolutely love it? Heck yeah. Am I one of them? Eh, no. I'll go for an iPod+Droid+nook combo any day.

Advertising Fail

2010-01-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Uh, I have no clue what this billboard for Caprica is supposed to be saying.

It's almost something that belongs on PhotoshopDisasters, but it's not really the retoucher's fault, it's the art director's fault. I'll admit that I'm commenting without having seen the pilot, but really now. Apart from the over-use of the Eve imagery and the blatant inappropriateness of having a girl who's supposed to be, what, sixteen, posing nude? Granted, the actress is twentysomething, but still. One thing is for sure, Caprica is going to be nothing like it's parent series, Battlestar Galactica. Wheres that was all about the darkness, the fight for life, Caprica is about . . . well, I'm not exactly sure, from the poster. The funny thing is, although I know perfectly well what the series is about, the poster tells nothing. There's none of the high-tech glitzyness that's supposed to define human society at this time evident. I dig the color scheme . . . the brushed chrome and gray are awesome . . . but, what does it have to do with anything? The poor girl looks like a vampire. The contrast is nice, I love the font, but otherwise, this poster is a complete fail. The future of humanity begins with a choice? Sure it does. A choice for horrid art direction!

Women Who are Positively Portrayed in the Media

2010-01-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

So. Either I'm being whiny and sleep deprived (entirely possible), or this list is my rebuttal against the entire concept of the Women's Studies class (also totally possible).

From The X-Files

Dana Scully
Margaret Scully
Teena Mulder
Marita Covarrubias
Monica Reyes
Dakota Whitney

From Babylon 5

Susan Ivanova
Talia Winters
Delenn
Lyta Alexander
Elizabeth Lochley
Na'Toth

From CSI and CSI: Miami

Sara Sidle
Catherine Willows
Terri Miller
Sofia Curtis
Calleigh Duquesne
Wendy Simms
Natalia Boa Vista
Alexx Woods

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy Summers
Willow Rosenberg
Faith
Kendra
Jenny Calendar
Cordelia Chase

From Warehouse 13

Myka Bering
Claudia Donovan
Leena
Mrs. Irene Frederic

From Fringe

Olivia Dunham
Nina Sharp
Astrid Farnsworth
Amy Jessup

From Roswell

Liz Parker
Maria de Luca
Isabel Evans

From NCIS

Abby Sciuto
Caitlin Todd
Ziva David

From Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU

Olivia Benson
Alexandra Cabot
Abbie Carmichael
Elizabeth Donnelly
Casey Novak
Jill Hennessey
Serena Southerlyn
Connie Rubirosa
Alexandra Borgia
Claire Kincaid
Monique Jefferies
Kim Greylek
Melinda Warner

From Battlestar Galactica

Laura Roslin
Tory Foster
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Anastasia Dualla
D'Anna Beirs / The Rest of the Threes
Sharon Agathon / The Rest of the Eights
Gina Inviere/ The Rest of the Sixes
Helena Cain
Kendra Shaw
Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson
Diana "Hardball" Seelix
Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Erin Matthias
Jean Barolay

From Stargate (SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe)

Samantha Carter
Janet Frasier
Vala Mal Doran
Elizabeth Weir
Teyla Emmagen
Kate Heightmeyer
Jennifer Keller
Laura Cadman
Katie Brown
Chaya
Helia
Alicia Vega
Camille Wray
Tamara Johansen
Jeannie Miller

Some of them are evil, sure, but they're all strong, complex characters who would never let men make them feel bad about themselves.

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Watch Out World, Anya's Bored!

2010-01-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

Semester break = time for me to catch up on all those wallpapers I promised people for Christmas and then never got around to. Ahem.

The Dark Knight. Batman. For 'Drea :)

Alice (The SyFy Miniseries). Alice. For Toria :)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Greg Sanders. For Marina :)

Battlestar Galactica. Laura Roslin & Tory Foster. For Laura :)

Mad Men. Don Draper. For Ashley :)

So . . . I know everyone whom I've dedicated these to have seen them already, but I thought I'd post them here so you all could see a wider sampling of my artwork. As always, full-size versions and detailed explanations of the thought processes behind all of these can be found at my website: http://www.anyaprynn.com/artwork.html.

"The Young Victoria" Movie Review

2010-01-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

I admit, The Young Victoria is not my usual fare, as far as movies go. On the rare occasions I do watch period movies, they're usually more along the lines of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, with enough war and court intrigue to keep me occupied for the two hour long movie. The Young Victoria, on the other hand, seems more like a movie my unimaginative history teacher from last year would show.

Regardless, I found it an okay movie. It wasn't great, it wasn't awful. It didn't bore me to death, but I'd never watch it again. It earns points for historical accuracy, the beautiful settings, and the performance of the ever-awesome Miranda Richardson, who I have mildly idolized ever since I saw her in The Phantom of the Opera and The Hours. What it loses points for: its utter forgettability.

The sets/locations are absolutely fabulous. They really capture the the grandeur of British royal palaces. The wide expanses, especially in the outdoor and coronation scenes, are used to great effect in wide angle shots to capture the all-encompassing nature of the monarchy, and how lost Victoria is in it. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it :P

The directing is, I'm sad to say, unimaginative for nearly the whole movie. It feels almost like a documentary, which is not helped by the fact that it breaks two of my golden rules for movies, namely, no text on screen, and no narration. There's the rare movie where narration works, but I have not yet found the movie where you can throw text up on screen and have it not look preachy or immature. The one element of the presentation that I really enjoyed was how so many of the important events (King William's death, Victoria's pregnancy) are shown, without words. So many directors fail at "show, don't tell", Jean-Marc Vallee doesn't.

The acting is solid but not amazing. Miranda Richardson and Mark Strong, as the Duchess of Kent and Sir James Conroy, respectively, steal much of the show. Emily Blunt is a passionate, intelligent young queen, but her performance just . . . it didn't have any real "spark" for me. And the guy who played Albert was just plain boring. Maybe it's the writing that bugged me -- the film focused a lot on Victoria's personal life, and less than I would have liked on her actual reign.

Overall, The Young Victoria is a good movie for someone who just wants to see a nice, pretty accurate historical romance/drama (the love story is a bit sweet at times . . . but way overly sweet at others). But for me, it was just a bit bland.

Photojournaling Our Way Thru LA, Part 2

2010-01-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

No school means you can generally find me and Ashley downtown, and semester break is no exception. We took the red line down from school again, this time (thankfully) with more knowledge of our cameras (ie, not spending 15 minutes trying to change Ash's film, and not thinking that 1/2000 of a second shutter speed actually works).

We were planning on going to the courthouse and sitting in on some trials, but, for various reasons, that didn't quite work out. So we ended up just hanging out at the food court in the Los Angeles Mall, talking about school, politics, life . . . .We got some very strange looks from the lawyer-type people who were sitting a few tables over, although we probably deserved most of them. Ashley for speculating that the government could overhear our conversation because our cell phones were on, me for my (rather long and loud) rant about why exactly Prop 8 is unconstitutional, backed with direct quotes from my pocket constitution. I really, really want to know what they were thinking . . .

Since I didn't have a dance lesson this time, we got to stay downtown a bit longer, so I got night photographs! None of them using flash, all of them using different apertures and shutter speeds. Although some of them (specifically the ones with 4 or 8 second shutter lapses) did come out quite blurry because I didn't have a tripod and my hands are notoriously unsteady.

Some People Shouldn't be Allowed to Talk

2010-01-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Well, that's not true. Everyone should be allowed to talk, we have a right to freedom of speech, and I cherish that right. It applies to everyone, no questions.

On the other hand, just because you can talk, it doesn't mean you should. And it for sure doesn't mean you should be allowed to broadcast your opinions to the world.

Take Pat Robertson. He says that the earthquake in Haiti was caused by the Haitians themselves, because they made a pact with the devil to throw out the French. That is so disgusting on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. He's dismissing the Haitian's religion, promoting colonization, ignoring the fact that things called natural disasters exist, and are called natural disasters for a reason, and he's implying that 50,000 people deserved to die. Excuse me. I take issue with that. You should be praying for those people, donating money to help them, promoting relief efforts. I didn't think it was possible for Robertson to offend me any more . . . he did. I am glad, at least, to see that the White House is responding to this, with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs calling his remarks "utterly stupid". Because, guess what, they are!

Or Rush Limbaugh. He, at least, is not blaming the Haitians for their tragedy. But he's matching Robertson in stupidity, by saying that Obama is using US relief efforts as a way to boost his credibility with the black community in the US. 'Scuse me? What happened to caring for your neighbor, and, um, the obligation to help people? I mean, Limbaugh is very Christian, right? Doesn't the Bible have very specific things to say about loving your neighbor? And doesn't "helping your poverty-stricken neighbors recover from a devastating earthquake" qualify as "loving"?

And then, when somebody actually points out what a hypocritical, lying, jerk he's being, he responds with . . . well, some unrepeatable sentiments. Watch here: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201001140046. I got exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds into the video before wanting to strangle him, and about 2 and a half minutes before I nearly cried at how simply horrific, disgusting, and completely un-defendable his statements are. Really. I don't care if you don't like the president, no one in their right mind would turn a humanitarian tragedy into a political game. Except, apparently, Rush Limbaugh. Way to make the world hate you.

By the way, it's also a good idea to check out some of the other videos on that page. And I know that Media Matters is a very liberal website, but keep in mind that there is no commentary on these videos. It's simply exactly what Limbaugh/Robertson said: their words from their mouths.

Kudos to Senator Claire McCaskill for posting this on her Twitter, that's where I found it :)

"Sherlock Holmes" Movie Review

2010-01-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

I feel like all I've been writing lately is movie reviews, but watching movies is pretty much what I've been spending my winter break doing (besides the mandatory schoolwork, of course).

But anyway. So Sherlock Holmes wasn't really what I expected . . . but it was pretty good! Bottom line, it's an action movie, not a mystery movie. Which is okay (I actually really like action/adventure movies, especially when they have a lot of humor thrown it), but I also don't think it really did the great detective justice.

Let me say that I am in love with the art department. From sets to props to the closing credits, this film had me completely convinced I was chasing around London with Holmes. His room was spot-on -- reminds me a lot of my room, actually, except with more explosives. The location filming is probably this film's strongest point, especially on in the cathedral in the opening and the inadvertently hilarious accidental launching of a steamboat on the Thames. The ending credits are hands-down the most awesome I have ever seen . . . remember how Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban did their ending credits with the Maurader's Map? Well, this is kind of like that. I'm not going to describe them, that would ruin the surprise, but . . . the whole film was worth it just for that.

Music. Hans Zimmer is like a god . . . his scores make any movie better (he did the score for Angels & Demons too, just FYI. It also features the Dubliner's version of "The Rocky Road to Dublin", giving parts of the film a very ordinary-man-on-the-street feel. Sometimes the music takes away from the story, sometimes it overwhelms the story, and sometimes . . . it just fits the story beautifully, like here.

Casting. Robert Downey Jr. is actually a very good actor, which surprised me . . . I hadn't seen any other movies of his, but I've had enough movie-going experience to say that the guys most girls my age swoon over can't act to save their lives. This is an exception :). While I loved loved loved Irene Adler's character, I can't help but think Rachel McAdams was . . . miscast, I suppose. She's a good actress, but she's too . . . modern? bland? I dunno. Something. Jude Law was a great foil for Holmes, Mark Strong was a creepy evil Lord Blackwood. While he was over-the-top, that fault lies with the writers.

Now, to the plot. Probably the weakest part of the whole movie, IMHO. The story is overblown, interesting parts are played down, and the occasional moments of inventive directing are weighed down by the less than spectatular writing. There's plenty of funny moments, notably any scene involving Homes's dog, and the whole steamboat-launching thing; unfortunately, those moments are too often lost in the rest of the jumble. The boxing scene, for one, makes me roll my eyes in annoyance, and if Blackwood was any more a stereotypical villain, he would . . . um, help me out here guys, I can't think of anything! Anyway, I wish they'd focus more on the magic and detective work, rather than have Holmes go around punching people and accidentally blowing stuff up. We need more scenes like the one in the midget's workshop.

On the plus side, Sherlock Holmes has one of the best opening sequences I've seen in a long time. Dark, suspenseful, and making full use of a variety of camera angles (crane shots = <3). I also really liked director Guy Rithcie's glimpses into Homes's brain during the fight scenes, breaking down each of his moves in slow motion before he finally explodes into action. It shows a bit of Holmes' intelligence that isn't always on display.

Overall, I recommend it. It's harmless fun, a summer movie with too little CGI and romance to actually be a summer movie, and a winter movie with too big of a budget and too much humor to actually be a winter movie. Go watch it, you'll like it! (If you can ignore the fact that the last 30 minutes are doing nothing but screaming "SEQUAL!" in your ear with a megaphone or two :P).

18 Best Movies of 2009, and 6 from 2010 That I'm Looking Forward To!

2009-12-31T19:00:00.000-08:00

Since I have exactly 5 hours left of the year 2009! The ten best movies of the year, that I saw, in order of release date.

Star Trek
Angels & Demons
Terminator Salvation
The Proposal
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Avatar
Sherlock Holmes

Oops. Those are all the films I saw this year . . . with the exception of New Moon, which doesn't deserve to be on the list even as a filler. Okay then, let's try this: The top ten movies of the year I wish I'd seen, in order of release date

Inkheart
Coraline
Push
Watchmen
The Soloist
Public Enemies
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
District 9
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
2012

Not included are The Road, The Lovely Bones, Invictus, and It's Complicated, because those are still in theaters and I can see them next year . . . :)

And, movies I'm very much looking forward to in 2010!

Salt
Knight and Day
Shutter Island
Letters to Juliet
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Alice in Wonderland

"Avatar" Movie Review

2009-12-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

This movie is . . .
Amazing.
Epic.
Beautiful.
Completely awe-inspiring.
One of the best movies I've seen in a very long time.
Totally groundbreaking in terms of production.
Epic.
Epic.
And apparently it's still doing a very good job of rendering me speechless.

Please please please do not go into Avatar expecting just an effects movie. I have to admit that I did, and I was proved so completely wrong. Sure, it might not be the most original story ever told, but is anything original these days? In any case, the characters are just as strong as the effects, thanks in no small part to the cast. My favorite characters by far were Trudy and Grace, and of course, they ended up dead (everyone always kills my favorite characters :(. Not fair >.<). But I still loved the movie. Now, that takes talent. The characters are all very real and believable, and I ended up caring more for the Naa'vi than the humans (I think that was supposed to happen, so yay :)).

The special effects. Ohmygosh. To quote from the LA Times' review "You've never seen anything like it. And neither has anyone else." I can totally see why Cameron needed to wait 14 years for technology to catch up. I saw Avatar in 3D, and I strongly encourage you to do the same. Pandora is perfectly real, everything from trees to floating mountains to strange creatures . . . even the Naa'vi. You can barely tell that this is all CG. You're thrust so seamlessly into the new world that there's never any issue of suspension of disbelief . . . you're just there.

Writing. Leaves a bit to be desired, sometimes, but that's easily overlooked because of the acting. Sigourney Weaver . . . I have to admit, this is the first time I've seen one of her movies, and she steals every scene she's in. I can't believe they killed her . . . sooooo pointless. But I suppose that's the point . . . Sam Worthington was not overly impressive as a human, I found him much more likeable as a Naa'vi. Zoe Saldana gives a remarkable, nuanced performance as Neytiri, which somehow all comes through even though Neytiri is 10 feet tall, blue, and completely CG. The Colonel and the businessman (whose names I've forgotten by now, probably 'cause I hated them so much :P) were absolutely freakish in their disregard for the natives lives. Brilliant performances. I loved Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon, and I have to admit, I think I saw a bit of myself in her (even though I don't plan on joining the Marines any time soon :P).

The anti-corporate, pro-environmentalist standpoint is obvious throughout the film. It might come off as heavy-handed to some, but I think we need to take a good, hard look at this film and say "We could end up like that." It's a frightening possibility, but very real.

One more thing. I don't cry at movies, as a general rule. Julianne and I sobbed through probably half of Avatar. This movie is so hard to describe . . . it left me speechless for a good ten minutes after it finished. All I can say is . . . go watch it. You won't regret it.

6 C's

2009-12-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

1. Cinema (Julianne & I watching "Avatar")
2. Caffeine (Drinking more iced tea than we probably should at the Cheesecake Factory until 11.40 at night)
3. Chemistry (Yep, we did our AP Chem homework at dinner. We are just that awesome)
4. Cold (Beautifully cold and windy outside. A truly lovely day to be out and about!)
5. Cairde (Irish for "friends")
6. Craic (Irish for "fun')

Full review on "Avatar" coming later, but for now, I'm exhausted!

Fox News is Not News, or, Why Glenn Beck Should Keep His Mouth Shut

2009-12-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

Oooh! Lookit what I dug up from last October!

Unless you've been living under a rock the past month (and I hope you haven't, that sounds awfully not-fun!) then you know all about the war of words that the White House is waging against Fox News. For me personally, I found it enjoyable to follow for the first few weeks, before I resorted to shaking my head and repeating Artie Neilson's line from Warehouse 13: "Children. I am working with children." Okay, I'm not working with them, but they sure are running the country! In any case, I think Anita Dunn & Co. are emerging as the clear winners in this, for several reasons.

1. When you get right down to it, well, the White House is right. Fox News is not news. I wouldn't go as far as Anita Dunn and call them the PR wing of the Republican party (although several people there do a very god job of being exactly that), but it's not news. It's commentary, plain and simple -- incredibly biased commentary, that likes to pass itself off as news.

2. Fox is populated by liars and hypocrites. Well, actually, that's not fair. The most vocal people on Fox (Sean Hannitty, Glenn Beck, et al) are hypocrites. For example, Glenn Beck calls Anita Dunn a communist for saying Mao Zedong is one of her favorite political philosophers. But . . . guess who one of his favorite authors is?! Yep, Adolf Hitler.

So . . . interesting, yeah?

By the way, before you accuse me of railing against Fox just because I disagree with their conservative position, consider this: Keith Olbermann says many things that I agree with. I still think he's a pretentious git, and MSNBC would never be my first choice for news, either.

"New Moon" Movie Review

2009-12-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have to say, if anybody but Julianne had asked me to go see this movie, I wouldn't have. But she's my best friend, so I felt I owed it to her . . . Anyway, you guys all know how much I hate the whole Twilight series, and why, so I'm going to try my absolute best to stay away from how awful the story is and just focus on the movie itself.

The best parts of the movie: The National Guard and Lovely Bones commercials/previews in the beginning, any scene that Victoria or Laurent were in, Bella jumping off the cliff, and the bit with the Volturi at the end.

The worst parts of the movie: Anytime Bella or Edward opened their mouths.

It's better than Twilight, and I think that's really the best I can say. Much of the movie looks like it was directed by a 12 year old. Chris Weitz seems to have started a love affair with slow motion that he definitely didn't have going on in The Golden Compass. Slow motion is used to add to the story, NOT to tell the story. There's a few scenes where it's used very well (the Victoria-in-the-forest-cliff-diving scenes come to mind) and some scenes where it's superfluous and childish (Bella running through the streets of Italy comes to mind). On the other hand, maybe I'm just overestimating the intelligence of the general audience of this movie.

Which brings me to another one of my least favorite scenes: Bella sitting in a chair, with the camera spinning around her, watching the view outside her window change as the months go by. Apart from the fact that the spinning camera is also way overused and all it accomplishes is making me dizzy, Weitz decided that he needed to have text onscreen saying the different months. Way to hit people over the head . . . I think that the view alone should explain that time is passing. Peh.

I do have to give credit where credit is due, however: the costume designers, the set people, and whoever designed the movie posters. They all do a great job of making the film seem more mature/creepy/interesting than it actually is. Apparently they're the only real professionals who worked on this whole movie.

There's very few characters in this film that I don't hate. In fact, I can list them all on one hand. Rosalie, Victoria, Laurent, the Volturi, and Jacob. Unfortunately, they are the characters who get almost nothing to do the whole movie! Rosalie is in like 2 scenes; Victoria gets enough time to come down out of a tree, scare a man to death, and cliff dive; Laurent just shows up to get killed, the Volturi are present but under-used and under-developed, and Jacob is in . . . my friend told me 30 minutes of a movie that's over 2 hours long. Now, I've never read the books, so I can't say if their screen time in the movie corresponds to their roles in the book, but I think it's a darn shame that they're not given more to do. That alone would have made the film better. Like Rosalie. We know pretty much nothing about her, except that she hates Bella. Why can't that dynamic be explored more? Or Victoria. She's easily my favorite character. Pretty, strong, and, like Rosalie, one of the very few characters who has no pretense at all.

So, I give this movie a 0.5 out of 5 stars. The movie itself is sloppily put together, the underlying story is pathetic, and most of the main characters are boring as anything. I watched it just to make fun of it . . . I suggest you do the same.

*hides from screaming horde of Twilight fans

"Once" Movie Review

2009-12-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

Once was the first R-rated movie I saw (and it doesn't deserve that rating anyway). For that alone, it would hold a special place in my heart, but I love it for many, many other reasons.

For such a small-budget indie film, Once is really professional. The director is obviously experienced, and knows how to bring out the best in his actors. For two people who are musicians who have never had a large role (or even any role) in a film before, they're remarkably natural and comfortable, both in front of the camera and with each other. This film makes great use of natural light/settings, for example, filming the party scene at the lead actor's own flat. It gives a sense of warmth to the scenes that fits perfectly with the story they're telling. They use a lot of medium close-ups, and a lot of really small sets (like in the Girl's flat) that make it clear that the film is almost just a window onto a very intimate and real friendship that develops over the course of the movie. There's also an amazingly beautiful crane shot at the end that is just . . . wow. It basically says everything the film is. You really have to see it to understand . . .

Another thing I love is that the music is so seamlessly integrated into the film. It doesn't even seem like a soundtrack at many points, it's more diegetic sound, such as when the Girl is walking down the street and starts singing along to one of the songs she's writing lyrics for. The music is beautiful by itself too. This is where the advantage of casting two professional musicians shows up: They wrote and recorded all their own songs. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are two extremely talented musicians, and their songs are beautiful and heartfelt . . . and occasionally very, very, funny, a la "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy".

And then, the story is just so unique. While I take pride in being one of five girls in the theater to see Transformers 2, and I usually avoid romance/drama films like the plague, Once is something else entirely. It's not a traditional romance at all. The two leads have such an easy camaraderie, it's so lovely to watch. The Girl is strong and independent, raising her child while working as a flower seller. One of my (many) favorite parts is when she totally flips out when the Guy asks her to spend the night, and then he realizes what an idiot he was. It's not about the sex and the drama, like so many other romance films are (The Other Boleyn Girl, which deserves an "R" rating far more than Once does, comes to mind), it's about the friendship and the respect.

Overall, I think Once is one of the best movies I've seen in a very, very long time. Its funny (I love the scene with the Girl dragging her broken Hoover down Grafton Street. It's just . . . perfect), warm, and realistic. The ending is sad, in a way, because the Guy and the Girl can't be together, even though they seem so perfect for each other; at the same time, the Girl has another shot at a real relationship with her husband and the Guy gets another chance with his girlfriend in London. Once is so hard to describe because so much of its power comes from the acting, rather than the storytelling. Just watch it :)

Lazy Amazing Days

2009-12-12T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's a cloudy, rainy day in December, and I'm in one of those funky, artsy, calm-but-hyperaware moods that the rain always puts me in.

I'm sitting in bed, doing AP Government homework and listening to Enya music.

But I'm also ripping some Stargate Atlantis episodes.

But I'm also dying to go out and dance in the rain.

But I'm also writing a story.

But I also just kind of want to curl up and go to sleep.

See what I mean? Southern California rains are just so rare, and real cold winter rains, complete with clouds and raindrops running down your window are just so rare. There's a big tree right outside my window and I can see individual raindrops on its leaves from across the room. I'm slightly in awe. I went outside and sat in my backyard for a bit, just watching the world turn. My backyard is huge and a bit wild, and when it rains I feel like I should see garden fairies or something. I'm normally a more analytical person, but fairies have always held a special place in my heart, and the rain brings out all the wild myths that I've always half believed in.

The rain washes LA clean, more, I think, than in other cities. All the colors are sharper, the air is more welcoming, the city is more alive. You feel like you should see plants growing in front of your eyes, and the world has a new soundtrack for a bit. That's why I love the rain, it's wild and powerful and beautiful and it brings you life.

Politics: The Next Generation

2009-12-12T00:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Ashley and I have started a new blog aimed at making politics fun & relevant for teenagers. It would be awesome if you would check it out and tell all your friends. We're trying really hard to get the word out, because we think this is something that could become really big over time. You can find it at http://doubleapolitics.blogspot.com. :)

Firefox vs. Opera vs. Safari vs. Camino vs. Shiira vs . . . Chrome?

2009-12-10T22:46:00.000-08:00

Now that Google has finally released a Chrome beta for Mac, I have of course downloaded it . . . and am now seriously considering making it my default browser. Now, I have to say that I happen to have every single web browser listed in the title. And I know that that's far more web browsers than any normal self-respecting person needs, but I have never claimed to be normal. And besides, how can I say that one web browser is the best when I haven't tried all of them?

Firefox. Well, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Widely regarded as the fastest, best, coolest browser, with thousands of add-ons (which other browsers don't come close to replicating). However, maybe because I feel like being a rebel, I find I don't use it that often.

Opera. I've used it as my default for a while. It has some definite shortcomings, including a tendency to freak out over my school's website and refusing to let me tag people in statuses on Facebook. However, those are more than made up for with its Speed Dial feature (which other browsers, like Safari and Chrome are starting to copy), the Widgets (I love playing Pandora through its widget, and any of the multiple "get lyrics" widgets), and the ability to save different groups of tabs as sessions. In the end, Opera suffers most from its relative anonymity (although I think it's used more as a mobile browser than on computers) because it's an excellent browser without the widespread recognition it needs to become the next Firefox.

Safari. Well, I know it's the default browser for Macs, but I have to admit that between Firefox and Opera, Safari has mostly shown up as a blip on my radar, and "oh, shoot, I need to update Safari to get x other application to work. That said, Safari 4 is nice. I don't really use it, but I like the Top Sites feature (though Opera's speed dial still wins in a debate between them, I think) and it does play videos (like on YouTube and Hulu) faster than either Firefox or Opera.

Camino. I'm kind of eh on this one. I mean, it's basically Firefox customized for the Mac without the add-ons. It's fast, it's pretty, but I really use it only when I'm testing my website in different browsers or when my dad wants a screenshot of it to add variety to one of his books.

Shiira. You know, it's a bit of a hassle to use because pretty much the entire development team is Japanese, which makes their website full of typos, but apart from that, I actually really like Shiira. It gets better with every release – and real, tangible improvements, like adding tab expose and RSS feed support in the latest version, not just an "oh it runs faster" update. Shiira is a web browser that I would love a lot more if I had more time to devote to exploring it, but I still highly recommend it.

Chrome. The new love of my life. Fast, sleek, pretty, with nice themes, a really cute home page that mimics Opera's Speed Dial while adding in what my recently closed tabs are. I think I'll be using Chrome a lot more in the future, but I'm still not giving up on Opera :)

Probably the most non-professional reviews of web browsers you've ever read, but it's nice to get a new perspective sometimes, yeah?

My Cameras :)

2009-12-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

I suppose you all have gathered by now that I'm a photography nerd. I'll be the first one to say that my knowledge is . . . well, not all that vast, but what I lack in that area, I make up in enthusiasm and a desire to learn more. I mean, I can tell you what ISO means, and I can tell you what a slow shutter speed means, but I'm not one of those people that obsesses over cameras. Either way, though, since I'm hoping to make my photgraphy a bigger part of my blog, I figured I'd write a little bit about my cameras.

Right now, the only camera I own (for sure) is a little Canon Powershot A590. And actually, it's not even my camera, it's the family camera and I'm the only one who takes good pictures. It's basically a really high end point & shoot, but I can adjust enough of the settings when I shoot on Manual or Program to make it worth my while.

It's got the basic ISO settings: 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. I generally try to shoot around 200 or 400 for everyday photos & school events, but I shoot on 80 or 100 when I'm doing city scenes (my pictures from downtown LA & Denver were all shot on either 80, 100, or 200.) My yearbook teacher actually told us not to shoot above 400 because it would "hurt her feelings". Well, I can say she's taught me well. My shutter speed goes from ... to ..., and aperture settings go from ... to .... Now, I have to say that I personally find dealing with shutter speed and aperture on the A590 a pain. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I need more practice, but I usually end up shooting on Program and letting the camera automatically adjust most of the settings.

On the other hand, I absolutely love my cousin's Canon EOS30D, and I found its light meter (to adjust shutter speed/aperture) really easy to work with. I only played with that camera for a few hours when I was over at his house for Thanksgiving, but I had sooo much fun. We went down to the pool at like 9.30 at night, and put the camera on a tripod. With 30 second shutter speed, we got pictures that looked just like they were taken during the day! We also had a lot of fun taking "ghost pictures": walking into the shot for 15 of the 30 seconds and half-appearing in the photo. Here's an example . . . I'm holding one of my cousin's other cameras up to my face, that's why it looks like there's a random hole where my face is supposed to be :P

Annnnnd . . . I've played a bit with Ashley's Leica film camera, not as much as I'd like too, but from what I've seen of it, it takes GREAT pictures. I love the focus . . . ^_^

One last camera . . . and this is the reason I said I only own one camera "for sure" is because my mom apparently has a BEAUTIFUL old Olympus camera from when she was in high school, complete with hugely long telephoto lens, that I am getting as soon as she gets it out of the garage. Unfortunately, our garage has more similarities than I'd care to admit to a black hole, so the odds of finding it anytime soon are pretty small. But I will for sure write a post devoted only to it once I find it.

I'm looking at different cameras to ask for for Christmas (preferably digital), that are high-quality and not point-and-shoots that aren't too expensive. Something like Canon's Rebel series. If you have any suggestions, please comment!

More politics posts coming soon, and stay tuned for a new, politics-only blog that Ashley and I are going to be launching over our Christmas break! =)

Itouch!

2009-12-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

I just updated my blog from my dad's iTouch! I feel like I just fulfilled a major life goal :)

"So if you jaywalk and the cops don't see you, is it still jaywalking?"

2009-12-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Ah, isn't that the million dollar question in Denver! Practically nobody waits for the light to be on their side before crossing the street, and even fewer actually bother to find the crosswalk.

So, I suppose you're wondering why I'm even talking about Denver, right? Well, I was there for the Irish Dance Western Regional Championships (Oireachtas), and I had brilliant fun . . . but more on that later. This post is about the city.

I went to Denver without any real expectations as to what the city would be like. My previous experience with Denver was 4 hours spent at a layover in the airport on a flight to Costa Rica with some kids from my school last April. It was so much cooler than I had thought! For such a big city, it has a wonderful fronteir town feel. Basically, it just feels small and home-y. It's not a place I would live . . . at least, the part where we stayed isn't. But it's an absolutely beautiful place to spend a few days.

It was pretty cold while we were there -- I don't think it ever got above 55 or so. I loved it! I'm such a cold weather nerd (when I was in Ireland, I teased my family for being such "tourists" because they were always wearing huge jackets), and the fact that there was snow on the ground was brilliant! I'd never actually seen snow in a city before, except for Mammoth (and that doesn't really count, 'cause we go up there to ski anyway in the winter). I was also glad that it wasn't actually snowing, because that would have made lugging dance gear around/enjoying the city so much harder!

We stayed in a 30+ story hotel that was right across the street from the Convention Center, where we were dancing. Just a block up was 16th street, which was full of shops. In fact, cars aren't even allowed there, there's so many people -- you have to take this really cool shuttle up and down the street. I must've rode that shuttle about 10 times, to different cafes, stores, etc. My dad and I found this amazing independent bookstore, called the Tattered Cover, during our explorations. It's this amazing 3 story brick building that, when you walk into it, just feels like home. There's a little coffee place inside that makes amazing pumpkin "steamers" (what coffee-free lattes are called) and nutella croissants (YUM!). They have books on every single subject, and magazines, and . . . pretty much everything! I got Madeleine Albright's Memo to the President, a Stargate magazine, and a copy of the latest Macworld. Yeah, that describes me in a nutshell.

We also went to Union Station to take pictures. As you might've realized from my last post on my photography trip with Ashley, I have a fascination with trains, train stations, etc. They're so beautiful and haunting, and even more striking when they're practically empty, as they were when I went. Except . . . guess what!? There was another guy there taking pictures too! He had a nicer camera than me, but when we saw each other, we smiled and, I think, recognized each other as fellow artists. Such a cool encounter. . . . Denver is a brilliant city to photograph. Not just in the more urban parts, but when we went down by the Platt river, there was no shortage of photos there either.

We ate at this awesome little Irish pub by the river called McLoughlin's that had these amazing little flatbread pizzas, among other things. Which brings me to another topic about Denver . . . the food! There's all sorts of cool little places to eat on 16th street (which was mostly where we were). There was a Cheesecake Factory, a chocolate factory, the pub, multiple Corner Bakery Cafes, about 30 different Starbucks, and so many more places! If you're ever in Denver, check out 16th street for the food.

We also visited the state capitol, which gets major points for having beautiful poetry all around the walls. The legislature wasn't in session, unfortunately, but we did get to see all the empty rooms. I would have loved to watch the House or the Senate meet . . .

So yeah. That's Denver. I feel like I have a really hard time describing it in words, so maybe some of my pictures will do the trick.

Roswell! Oh, and Happy December :)

2009-12-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

This started out as a comment on Tay's reveiw of Roswell (found here), but it got so long that it deserved it's own post.

I have to start out by saying that I've only seen the first seven episodes, so if I say anythng glaringly strange, considering how the show ends up, well, that's my excuse.

~Katherine Hiegl is brilliant
~The show is VERY unique. I've never seen anything quite like it before, even in the other scifi shows (Stargate, X-Files) that deal with the Roswell crash.
~Julie Benz's character, the guidance counselor/FBI agent is probably my favorite so far. Her drop-kicking the creepy sheriff has got to be my all-time favorite moment so far! Although, since I know her mostly as Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I always get creeped out whenever she's with any of the kids alone. I feel like she should be trying to eat them or something! :P
~I love how all the shots are set up to focus on the characters. It's very clear that they, and not the surroundings/action is the main focus. There's interesting uses of reflections/lens flares, not exactly normal, but then again, the whole premise of the show is that life is abnormal.
~Maria deLuca is one crazy amazing friend. Czechoslovakians, anyone?
~I love how Max just looks like a normal guy. No super-hottness, no idealized view. Just a normal kid I'd like to hang out with. That's so rare in shows, especially those targeted at the teen age group.

Overall . . . I am liking this show very, very much! I'll put up a recap at the end of season 1 with my final thoughts, it'll be interesting to see how my views have (or haven't) changed.

And finally . . . happy December you all! Make it an awesome last month of 2009!! :)

If I Can't . . .

2009-11-29T18:38:00.000-08:00

If I can't check out videos/CDs on my own library card 'till I'm 18, why can I drive when I'm 16?

If I can't text while walking without running into trees/tripping/etc, why do people need a law to tell them not to text while driving?

Just some stuff to think about, I suppose. Comment if you have any others :)

"Team awards during Oirechtas is the only time you'll see seventeen year old guys dancing to 'Barbie Girl' and feeling no shame."

2009-11-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

It's true . . . I promise you. I was trying to persuade my 12 year old friend to dance, and pointed out several guys who had to be between 15 and 18 years old to prove that there was nothing shameful in it at all (I was dancing too, I have to admit).

But anyway. From my previous post, you already know why I was in Denver for the weekend, and, odd as it may seem, I did get some dancing time in among all my city explorations! My sister danced with the younger age groups on Friday, in the traditional set competition. She placed 6th!! I'm so proud of her!! :) We also had 4 Nationals qualifiers and 3 Worlds qualifers from the younger kids. Saturday was team day, and all of our teams (U10, U12, Seniors, and Adults) made the top ten! This was brilliant . . . I honestly didn't think any of our teams would recall, since the U10 team had 2 six year olds, the U12 team had 2 new dancers, and the seniors were just dancing . . . well, not so great. The adults, well, they only had two teams in their competition, so they better have gotten first!! Sunday was a good day too. I danced then, and I think I did really well! My hardshoe round went brilliantly, and in the softshoe round, the girl I was dancing next to almost ran into me! I got places ranging from 84th to 48th (out of 85 . . . ) and ended up 62nd! I was sooo happy, considering that this was my first time dancing solos at Oireachtas! We only had 2 girls from our school recall, but everyone danced soooo well.

Irish dancing is pretty much all about the waiting. You wait for them to start the competition . . . you wait for your number to come up . . . you dance . . . you wait for the next round . . . you wait for the recall list . . . you get the picture. It was especially interesting dancing in Denver. The high altidue and 30 degree temperatures do not help when youre trying to warm up and stay warm. Okay, so the Convention Center wasn't 30 degrees, but it was still cold. It was pretty hard to dance 3 steps in the altitude, and most girls came off looking miserable. It was easier for me, I think, because we'd been practicing doing 6 steps (dances twice through without stopping) at class, but my throat was still really raw from trying to breathe once I came off the stage.

Overall, it was a brilliant trip, dancing-wise. We're a very close-knit school, so everybody saw at least a few of their teammates dance. We had a huge party Saturday night to celebrate how well everyone had been doing, and we would always try to hang out with each other, in the ballrooms or at dinner. I can't wait for the next feis in Palm Springs :)

Photojournaling Our Way Thru LA

2009-11-07T12:59:00.001-08:00

On Friday, we had a half day of school, so Ashley and I decided to get on the metro and see where we would end up. It wasn't entirely random . . . we had vague plans . . . and a timetable . . . and I knew we had to end up in North Hollywood for a dance lesson around 4.30-ish . . . but we had a grand adventure anyway!

We took the red line downtown to the Civic Center stop, and walked around the courthouse and City Hall and the Los Angeles mall. We were staring at the criminal courts building, wondering if we could/should go in, when a lawyer who was passing by told us that we could definitely go in, everything was open to the public .... aaaaaaaaaand he also told us where the best cases were argued. So, we have perfect plans for next time we go downtown!

We took a whole bunch of photos downtown, I loved the opportunity to play with all the aperture/exposure/etc. settings on my camera, which I generally don't have time to do when I'm taking pictures for yearbook. Downtown is such a great place to take pictures, mostly because of the buildings. Architecturally, it's one of my favorite cities. Ashley had a film camera (a beautifullll Leica, which has quite possibly the nicest focus I've ever seen on a film camera), which was great fun once we figured out how to rewind the film/switch rolls. Unfortunately, she only had a roll and a half of film (apparently her mother thought that since they had 40 exposures each, that would be enough. Um, no. I have 192 pictures from our trip ... way more than 60!). It was great fun while it lasted, though, and it is now my goal to get myself a film camera one of these days. Sure, they're more work, but they're also way more fun!

After that, we walked around the Ahmanson/Mark Taper/Dorothy Chandler/Music Center area. Apparently, Mary Poppins is/will soon be playing at the Ahmanson! That would be soooo much fun to go see! Plus, the fountain in front of the Taper is ridiculusly amazing. Ashley and I had a ton of fun being silly and taking pictures of each other in ridiculous poses around the fountain, while laughing at the huge tourist groups that were doing the exact same thing! :)

We then took the Red line all the way down to the North Hollywood station, for my dance lesson. We listened to our iPods on the way, and maybe . . . but probably didn't . . . annoy the other passengers by singing along (but quietly, and in the back of the car) (In case you're wondering, the artists that came up were Death Cab For Cutie, Taylor Swift, Lady GaGa, Modest Mouse, and The Corrs. Eclectic? Yes. Amazing? Completely.) I was way tired after walking all around downtown (plus it was my school's 10K walk in the morning, so I was way tired) but I had a good lesson overall.

Then, we had to meet my mom in Pasadena, so we rode down to Union Station, took a ton of awesome pictures, and then, after a bit of confusion about what train we needed/when it was coming (I realized too late I only had the schedules for the redline, oops) we ended up in Pasadena. We were originally going to meet one of our other friends to go to pilates, but she bailed on us (well, she had tickets for the taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me so I don't blame her . . . ). So my mom drove us to the Americana, where we had dinner and hung out at Barnes & Noble. The wait at the Cheescake Factory for a table for 2 was 45 minutes (yikes!) so we just got burgers at the diner instead. At the bookstore, we read magazines, and finished up the day by improving the “New Moon” display by layering it over with MacLife, Stargate Atlantis magazine, SciFi magazine, and Star Trek magazine. Overall, a beautiful day!

The full set of photos from this trip can be found at my Picasa web album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/col.starchild/PhotojournalingOurWayThruLA110609

'Tis Tuesday in November, So . . . Elections!

2009-11-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Hey, just 'cause it's an off-year election doesn't mean i'm not paying attention. Truth be told, I pay more attention to off-year/midterm elections because they're usually far more interesting than the presidential ones.

So, here's a quick recap of the night

Bob McDonnell (R) is the new governor of Virginia
Chris Christie (R) is the new governor of New Jersey
Bill Owens (D) won the congressional race in NY23 (New York's 23rd district, for you non-politics people)
Main voters overturned their legislature's law legalizing gay marriage
Michael Bloomberg (R/I) is still mayor of New York City
Democrats picked up another House seat, from Northern California

Writing this in the few days after the election, I can't say I'm surprised by any of it. Disappointed by a lot, sure. I would have liked to see the governor's races and the Issue 1 in Maine go down differently. But when you think about it, y'all should've seen it coming.

Jon Corzine, the incumbent in NJ, was hated, hated by so many people . . . even those of his own party. For such a small state, it has a ton of problems. I can completely see why he would lose. Even though Obama campaigned for him, Corzine has none of the glitz and glamour and excitement that the so-called "Obama surge voters" associate with the president.

Virginia, well, they have a history of being rather unhappy if their governor is from the same party as the president. Add to that the fact that they are historically a very Republican state, and, well, bye-bye, Mr. Deeds.

Maine's Issue 1 was California's Prop 8 all over again, right down to the same firm running the "yes" campaign's attack adds. And, yes, it makes me just as mad the second time round. When you have ultra-fundamentalists/conservatives running blatently false ads, you have little chance of people voting the sensible way. And yes, I'm aware that that's a generalization. Not everyone who voted "yes" is fundamentalist, and they're perfectly entitled to their own opinions. But this repeal is a disappointing setback to equal-rights activists everywhere. Not to mention that the ads that were run for the "yes" campaign were completely unture (there was nowhere in the law where it was stated that gay marriage would be taught in schools). They were purely playing on irrational fears, which leads me to believe, once again, that most Americans just don't think enough.

NY23's race was probably the one I was watching most closely, because the dynamics there were so interesting. It's a historically Republican seat, yet the Republican nominee here, Deirdre Scozzafava, was basically forced to withdraw from teh race by her own party, for being too liberal. I think she simply had a good head on her shoulders, but anyway. That left the Democrat running against the Conservative Party nominee -- who just so happened to pick up an endorsement from Sarah Palin (maybe that's why he lost!) Add to all that the fact that Scozzafava still walked away with 5% of the vote, AND threw her support behind the Democrat, and you have a fascinating election. I think this one went pretty well :)

As for Michael Bloomberg, all I can say is "duh". He goes to all the trouble to make himself eligible for a third term, then spends a ridiculous of his own money on the (entirely self-financed) campaign. It would be crazy if he wasnt elected. Although the margin of victory was much smaller than anyone (including me) had thought, seeing as how Bloomberg was leading the polls by double digits.

And Democrats picked up a second congressional seat, this one from California. So overall, an okay night.

So what does all this mean? I don't think it means as much as other people think. It's not really a reflection on Obama so much as it is a reflection on the party in power. And I think we Democrats did pretty well tonight. I also think that if the two gubernatorial races had been in, say, Texas and Alabama, that we would have been much less surprised to see two Republicans walk away with the seat. Theres so much hype here, in my opinion, because Virginia, although historically Republican, voted for Obama last year, so people were maybe half expecting that trend to continue. Also, NJ is a historically Democratic state where the Republican candidate won pretty handily. So that might have been a surprise to some people.

Okay, this post is getting way long now, and I'm tired. G'night everyone :)

Computer Updates + Halloween = Happy Anya!

2009-11-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

So, it turns out that when I'm bored with schoolwork, I become very productive with non-school related things. More to the point, updating pretty much everything on my computer!

A summary:

Mac OSX 10.5.2 to OSX 10.5.8. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference, maybe it runs a bit faster, and I can run Safari 4 and other stuff now. Reccommended in any case :)
Safari (something) to Safari 4. Okay, everyone needs to do this. Well, probably everyone already has, I feel like I'm a bit behind the times here, but it's much faster, much prettier, and has a ton of new features, like being able to browse your most-visited sites in cover-flow style, that are pretty cool.
iTunes 8 to iTunes 9.0.2. The whole reason I went through all of these updates in the first place! Now that I can actually use the iTunes store, I'm loving this particular upgrade much more than I was previously! To avoid turning into an Apple commercial, let me just say that if you haven't tried iTunes 9 yet, you are being deprived of LIFE! Haha, okay, not that extreme, but you should get this :)

And, on a totally random note, I'm sure the Vatican has better things to do than condemn Halloween as dangerous, pagan, and satanic. The main danger comes from kids crossing the street in the dark, pagan is not a bad thing, and Halloween originated as a harvest festival, which I do not think is satanic at all. What's next, trying to ban Dia de los Muertos because it celebrates dead people? Sheesh. Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely, safe Halloween, and happy November to you all :)

U's and Reviews

2009-10-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

Lame title, maybe, but just deal =) it'll all make sense, eventually, haha.

U2 is playing at the Rose Bowl tonight, and I'm not there! Life is so not fair sometimes. But on the plus side, I'm sitting here at my computer, watching the live stream on youtube. In a way, it's better than actually being there, becuase with the 90,000+ people there, I'm sure I wouldn't have seen a thing. Add to that the fact that U2 has lovely camera people (do you know how rare that is at concerts?) and that my little geeky self is loving the lens flares, you have a pretty happy Anya, all around. Bono is funny, the stage is amazing beyond words, and the band overall is perfectly top-notch. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll play "New Year's Day", but I was looking through old set lists and they haven't recently =( In any case, I can't wait for the DVD of this!

My friends got me totally, utterly, helplessly addicted to Law & Order: SVU. Thanks a lot, you guys . . . I won't be doing reviews for each individual episode (I wish I had that much free time!) but I'll do a recap at the end of each season, 'kay? 'Kay good. I watched the first four episodes this weekend . . . Olivia Benson is fast becoming one of my favorite TV characters, period.

I finally finished watching Atlantis Season 3!! So now I have three more episodes to review, and then I can cross something off my to-do list! =) Review for "Sunday" is finally up on my website, check here.

A few words of advice: naps are not just for little kids, they are lovely for everyone. Just don't take them on couches in hotel lobbies while waiting for your sisters to dance at a feis. The people who work there tend to be rather unamused. Um. Yeah. Story of my weekend . . .

Anyway, that's all for now, since I'm beyond tired, but check back soon for some more politics-related stuff, rather than just my random ramblings =)

Things Wrong With The World, Part 2

2009-10-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

This was originally going to be in honor of Banned Books Week, a rant about censorship and stupidity, and the futility of trying to keep knowledge from children. Well, I kinda missed that train (stupid.schoolwork.takes.over.my.life.) but I'll just incorporate that into a larger rant.

I was driving with my mom the other day (well, fine, my mother was driving, but hey) and I just happened to look out my window. The woman in the SUV next to us had about six bobby pins in her mouth and both her hands were occupied with putting up her hair. Going sixty miles an hour. On the freeway. Are you trying to get someone killed? I know people in LA can't drive, but this is really taking it too far.

Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For, um, making nice speeches about "hope" and "change" and being an optimist? Because that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure there were plenty of other people who have sacrificed much more and accomplished better things that this prize could have gone to. And as much as I love my country and think President Obama is pretty cool, I would have much rather have seen this be awarded to him in a few years' time, when he's made genuine progress on his Middle Eastern peace initiatives. This lovely New York Times columnist has written what I think to be the perfect speech for Obama to give at the ceremony in December.

NASA crashed a spaceship into the moon to look for water vapor. And practically no one cared. Except the scientists. And me. What's up with people? This is the future we're talking about!

Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck are pathetic excuses for human beings, just like FOX news is an insult to good journalism. Honestly, it's people and organizations like this that give all Republicans a bad name. I laughed when I saw that the White House was treating FOX like part of the "political opposition", because .... they so are. Really. And as for some of Anita Dunn's comments . . . wow, remind me to never get on her bad side!

I'm still shocked by the amount of incivility and childishness that our Congresspeople demonstrate. California's Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano thinks it's perfectly appropriate to yell "You lie!" at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with several other unreapeatable things. Sheesh, all the governor did was show up at a fundraiser. A Democratic one, to be sure, and he's certainly made many of us Democrats angry, but there's no excuse for saying what he did. And then a senator says that Republican opposition to healthcare reform just means they wan't people to "die slowly". True? Possibly. Inappropriate? Oh yes indeed. And if that wasn't enough, a representative finishes up his rebuttal against a House colleague by cussing him out. That's practically beyond ridiculous. I mean, no wonder Congress never gets anything done, everyone is too busy fighting. I cant believe people think that it's okay to say these things. Because it's not. I have the urge to go up to some of these people and shove a bar of soap in their mouths, because these people need a good mouthwashing.

And finally, Pepsi wins the Bad Taste award of the month for it's iPhone app, designed to help men "score" women. It's rude, it's degrading, it stereotypes women, and as a joke, it goes way too far. What happened to Apple's famed "app approval process" (oooh, alliteration skillz xD) which is criticized for being to harsh but lets something like this slip through? Not okay.

In Your Place: Randomz

2009-10-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

I made it my mission a bit ago to find Republicans With Brains (they get capital letters in their title 'cause they're just that rare, y'know?). Actually, Ash kinda inspired me to go on that search. I found two: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, two lovely senators from Maine who care about things like bailout packages, social equality, and affordable healthcare. Kudos to them for knowing when to drop the party line.

I want a Kindle. And an iPhone. And a tablet. Why do all the best things in life come with such huge pricetags? Apple should hurry up and release their tablet . . . but if it's just a large-scale iTouch, I will be quite unhappy. On the subject of computer-y things, I have a newfound respect for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator (we're using them a lot in designing our yearbook). I'll still take GIMP over Photoshop any day, but I haven't found anything to compare to Illustrator or InDesign (my dad thinks I'm a bit crazy. He says, "why would you want software you have to pay for?"

I love Nancy Pelosi. She doesn't stand stupidity from anyone, and when told by a senior army figure that she needs to be put "in her place" she responds with "I am in my place". And her place just so happens to be Speaker of the House of Representatives. I approve =) There needs to be more people like her in Congress. Maybe then things would actually get done in an orderly fashion.

Speaking of, I'm in my place right now . . . watching Stargate Atlantis and "doing schoolwork". I suppose I have to get back to the second part of that now (though the schoolwork is the reason I have to multi-task and watch SGA at the same time, because it's taking me three months to watch four episodes. Sheesh). Catch ya on the flip side! =)

Warehouse 13: "MacPherson" Review

2009-09-29T22:16:00.001-07:00

This episode was absolutely. bloody. brilliant. I have no idea how on Earth I am going to survive waiting MONTHS for Season 2!! (Watching shows on DVD has spoiled me, I'm afraid).

Some comments . . .

I was right all along. Leena was the mole! I knew it couldn't have been Claudia! Truth be told, I thought there was something odd with Leena way back in "Duped", when she a) couln't tell that there was a different consciousness inhabiting Myka's body and b) couldn't tell that the Myka in the mirror was alive. I excused the second one because I wasn't sure completely how the mirror worked, but the first part is bugging me even more now.
I really want to know why Leena decided to work for MacPherson. Or even if she's doing it voluntarily.
Warehouse security sucks. Majorly. If the Bronze Vault houses the worst of the worst, why is there a huge "reverse" button right next to the machine? Trust me, you're not going to put someone in there by mistake. Ahhh, plot devices, we love you.
The Phoenix is one of the most interesting items in the Warehouse so far. I'm so glad that this is a storyline that will be getting some attention, because I'm loving the moral/ethical issues that are being raised here. I think W13 is finally gaining some of the maturity it needs to handle these issues, and I can't wait to see where it leads!
So, um, someone hid about 1000 stairs pretty darn well, or the Warehouse is bigger/weirder than I had thought. Either that, or there's another warehouse that's been hiding in someone's back pocket for a bit.
The psychedelic glasses are so cool! It's totally awesome how Myka's the only one to be able to see the clues with them. Although I do wonder if they ever considered they might be walking into a trap?
"Children . . . I'm working with children . . ." 'nough said =)
Claudia needs to come back! I can't wait to see how that is wrapped up. I think Mrs. Frederic should go looking for her. She sooo owes her an apology.
That thimble . . . I'm so curious as to how it works! I really don't get it. I mean, if it can make you look like whoever you want . . . then . . . um . . . I dont know! I can't even properly explain what I don't like about it! Maybe it has something to do with how it can possibly make the huge muscular bodyguard look like short, fat Artie. What happens to all that body mass? And how did it fool the DNA/retina scanners on the different artifacts? Just a tad too convenient for my tastes, although super-cool.
MacPherson backstory! Yay!
Since Mrs. Frederic had that necklace on the whole time . . . could that possibly mean that she has that chemical in her blood, too? If so, what did she do to deserve that? If not, why does she have the necklace? Curious . . .

Okay, that's all for now. Im sure there's more that I've missed, but right now I'm too excited (plus I have about 30 thousand fanfic ideas in my brain that I need to sort through). So check for fic/art later on, and I can't wait for season 2!!

Things Wrong With the World

2009-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Call me insane, call me sleep-deprived, call me over-sensitive, but this stuff just shouldn't be happening.

I saw a ten year old reading New Moon at the feis this weekend. Absolutely disgusting and entirely not appropriate.

Obama dropped his demand that Israel cease building settlements in the Occupied Territories. Excuse me? Haven't those been declared illegal by pretty much everyone who matters? The settlements are one of the true roadblocks to Middle Eastern peace, and it's sad that Obama is willing to bend to pressure from the Israelis (because Prime Minister Netanyahu is the one being unreasonable here. Did anyone read his conditions for a Palestinian state that came out earlier this year?)

Iranian police are starting to order shopkeepers that any mannequins they have in their store windows be wearing proper hijab. This is how ridiculous this is: It showed up as a headline in the LA Times Twitter feed I have in my Google reader, and I thought I had accidentally hit the Onion's Twitter feed. So I started laughing. Until I realized it was real. Stuff like this leaves me speachless with shock over how badly women are treated, and how unable we are to put a stop to it.

Speaking of Iran, President Ahmadinijad has been denying the Holocaust. Again. How blind to you have to be to stare all that evidence in the face and say it's faked? Such hatred and such stupidity.

An off-duty police officer was driving drunk in NYC and killed a woman. How can you not know better?

Stuff like this makes me want to curl up in a corner with my eyes shut tight, waiting for things to improve. But if this is ever going to change . . . we have to get out there and make it change!

Rationalizations (Spoilers/Guesses for Warehouse 13's finale)

2009-09-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

I know the finale was last week for those of us in the States, and YES I watched it and YES it was amazing, but this is something I wrote up before and never got around to posting ('cause this is me, after all). So, for all of you who don't want to be spoiled for the finale . . . don't read any farther.

Anybody who's like me (aka a spoiler hound) knows that there's a mole in the Warehouse (Allison Scagliotti said so on an interview . . . that I don't have the link for anymore >.<) A lot of the discussion seemed to suggest Claudia was the mole, but I really can't see that. And before you ask, I'm not doing this just because she's my favorite character (but she is) but because I honestly can't see her being evil. This is my list.

Claudia loves the warehouse. Totally and absolutely. I have a very hard time seeing her wanting to leave.
More than that, she loves the people in the warehouse. She finally has a family besides Joshua: Artie is her dad, Pete's her big brother, Myka's her big sister/best friend. She would never hurt them.
When would MacPherson have contacted her? Between psych wards, foster homes, and searching for Joshua, she's been pretty hard to reach.

So who is the mole then? If you want my opinion, I think it's Leena. Why? Well, I just went through the reasons it wasn't Claudia. It's not Myka . . . not after MacPherson went after her parents in "Nevermore". It's not Pete . . . he is, for all his flaws, too good and loyal to switch sides. It's not Artie . . . MacPherson's been his nemesis for far too long. It's not Dickinson . . . he's been in three episodes and is too much a DC beaurocrat to get involved with strange things. It's not Mrs. Frederic . . . mysterious she may be, but she wants to catch MacPherson as much as Artie does. So that leaves Leena. Quiet, unassuming, very close to Artie, came to the Warehouse semi-recently (after MacPherson and Artie split up). She's been under-used this whole season, and although I like her, making her a mole will vastly expand her character and let her hold my interest for more than two minutes at a time.

Warehouse 13: "Nevermore" Review

2009-09-20T21:14:00.001-07:00

Well, I really didn't expect much of this from the previews. I was happily surprised. Although I don't have time to write a full review, I'll try to hit the most interesting points in a list (I should do this for all my reviews. It makes them so much easier!)

I totally expected more on Myka's family. Everything went from "I hate you" to "It's all good" really quickly. And I thought that was rather abrupt. What we did see was brilliantly acted on both sides. Joanne Kelly never ceases to amaze me, and Michael Hogan is always brilliant (though I'm not used to seeing him with two eyes, after watching him on BSG for years).
Claudia gets to go out into the field! This is what I want to see more of . . . the Myka + Claudia + Pete, or even just . . . anything that's not just Myka and Pete. Because we know a lot about their relationship already, I want to see some other pairs working together.
Pete could've Tesla's MacPherson and have been done with it. He was standing right there, fifteen feet away, with his Tesla out and a clear shot. I know it would have made for a far more boring story, but it still reflects poorly on Pete's character. In my opinion.
Mrs. Frederic appearing and disappearing will never cease to make me jump. And smile. And be very curious at the same time.
Myka's dad's bookstore is my idea of heaven. I could seriously live there.
I love when Pete and Claudia opened that locker and then jumped out of the way really quickly. And then nothing happened.
I've said this before, but it should be said again: Joanne Kelly is bloody brilliant.
All of the kids attending the school in "Oregon" are so . . . bland. And boring. And unlikable. And . . . the school takes the idea of being old-fashioned/creepy close to the point of being unrealistic. I mean, I suppose schools like that do exist, I just found it . . . odd. (It made so much more sense when I watched one of Allison Scagliotti's video blogs and saw it was actually the University of Toronto. See, a college should look like that . . . not a high school)
Although it does show in quite a sinister way exactly what artifacts can do to unsuspecting people. This episode is, I think, unique in that the character(s) affected by the artifact know that the object gives them power, but they don't know it's really an artifact. It makes for a much more interesting story.
The pendulum. Was a supremely amazing effect. I love how it just . . . disintegrated afterward. Although I wonder why it freed Claudia, and then Pete.
I actually quite liked that old English teacher. I wonder how you survive being buried alive inside a brick wall.
The first five minutes and the last five minutes are by far the best, writing-wise, but the directing is fantastic all the way through. Lovely set up on the location shots, especially in the bookstore. It makes it feel warm and home-y, while still managing to show that, from Myka's point of view, she still feels like an outsider.
Susan Hogan is utterly forgettable. Pity.
MacPherson is so. creepy. I can't wait for the finale now!!

P.S.: The guy in this comic was SO using Edgar Allen Poe's pen. xD

Obama, Healthcare, and Stuff You Really Shouldn't Say During Congress

2009-09-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican, if you love you president or hate your president, if you are a member of Congress, and the president is addressing a joint session on a televised broadcast, you do not jump out of your seat and yell "You lie!" at the president. Especially if he's well, not actually lying. And yes, Joe Wilson, I'm talking about you.

Now, I'll be the first person to tell you that I haven't been keeping too close of tabs on the whole healthcare debate. I am far and away more interested in international relations and foreign policy than domestic issues. But I do know a few things.

The current healthcare system is broken. Even most of the Republicans know that, even if they won't admit it. We need a new plan, and right now, Obama's is the best one out there. It provides coverage for the millions of Americans who can't afford insurance, and, after all, healthcare should be a right, not a privelege. For all of you who complain that Obama's a socialist, guess what: he's not. For all of you who think this plan covers illegal immigrants (*cough*joewilson*cough*), guess what: it doesn't. For all of you who bitch and moan about the increased taxes, try thinking beyond yourself for once. You might want to try reading and understanding something before you criticize it.

Now, on to the actual outburst. Grown peoples' ability to act like schoolchildren never ceases to amaze me, and apparently even congressmen aren't exempted from this. Basic manners say you don't talk while other people are talking. Don't you remember learning that in kindergarten? And while caning people on the Senate floor may have been perfectly normal in the 1800s, neither that nor its verbal equivalent is acceptable today. I agree with the House's decision to formally reprimand Wilson just as much as I roll my eyes at his "apology" and "resoning" behind the outburst. When even people from your own party join in condemming you, you've crossed a line.

Congress is supposed to represent what's best about America. Checks and balances, the people's elected representatives making laws, and all that. And no matter who currently occupies the position, the office of President of the United States should command some dignity and respect (there are those very few cases who make such a mockery of the office that I just throw my hands up in disbelief). Civil debate is what Congress is all about. This healthcare speech was a chance for Obama to explain his plan, to try to reach out to Republicans. Joe Wilson, therefore, made not only himself but the whole House look stupid. How is anyone supposed to take seriously a body that doesn't even afford the president the simple courtesy of silent attentiveness during a speech? Honestly.

Hopefully, this was a (relatively) unbiased look at this one issue. This is one case where my reaction would have been the same no matter who yelled at Obama. And now . . . off to bed!

This one's for you, Ash! Thanks for the idea =)

Warehouse 13: "Breakdown" Review

2009-09-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

So I finally realized that no matter how much I loved loved loved this episode, I would never have time to sit down and write a proper review. Instead, I'm going to list a few (a lot) of may favorite bits (and one or two not-so-favorites).

There's a manual for the warehouse. That Claudia and Myka have read. And that they will never stop teasing Pete about.
Myka picks probably the only non-artifact in the warehouse to save Pete from the typewriter: a broom.
The original B&B in the warehouse, and the painting. I wonder if it really was "Leena's" back then, since she hasn't been with the warehouse as long as Artie has.
The bedazzler. End. Of. Story. ^_^
Mrs. Frederic counting down 'till the destruction of the warehouse ("her voice gets really annoying when she's counting down seconds one at a time!")
The Baylor dodgeballs. Probably one of my favorite artifacts, not counting the Studio 54 disco ball. I especially like Myka's plan: "I run away and you get pummeled". Pete under the mountain of dodgeballs was absolutely hilarious
Claudia and Myka save the Warehouse. Now, they're going off to learn how to hack the grid (Myka) or learn kickass secret agent moves (Claudia). I soooo want to see this happen! I love the sister-relationship they have going on, now we just need MORE of it. And Myka still owes Claudia a hug from "Duped".
Claudia, Myka, and Pete pretending to throw Artie a "welcome home" party to disguise the fact that they almost blew up the warehouse.
The auto-vac and the zipline. A very bad combination if you are Claudia.
Silly string. I always knew there had to be something odd about it . . . seriously. Silly string is EVIL.
Mrs. Frederic. She's always awesome, but even more so when she's advocating . . . ehm, shall we say bending the rules a bit.
Okay, the Regents in the cafe is a bit too much like Oma Desala's cafe for all the ascended people in Stargate SG-1, down to the whole more-powerful-than-meets-the-eye waitress. It's a good idea . . . but it's been done before, and better.

So, there're the main points I want to hit. Overall, a very very good ep, that provides team bonding, danger, and foreshadowing in equal amounts :)

Warehouse 13: "Regrets" Review

2009-09-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

"Regrets" is the first dip in W13's pattern of wonderful episodes, but it still provides an hour of chaos, character development, and downright spookiness. I mean, I was jumping at little sounds for a good half hour after I turned the TV off.

Yeah, so, I started the review after I finished the episode, and (of course) I'm not posting until. . . the eleventh? Sorry! This episode just did not stick in my head at all.

It's not the best and it's not the worst, and it definitely has its share of moments. By far the best part of this was the end, when Myka and Pete finally had to face their demons. We got to see Myka's human side, and finally find out what happened in Denver . . . I was really expecting something huge, and then Sam's death was pretty anticlimactic. But I'm not really complaining, because Joanne Kelly's acting makes it ten times better. She plays the tortured agent so well . . . but still manages to hit the perfect combination of vulnerabilty and hard-ass that defines Myka so much. We finally get to see a more mature side to Pete, although his scenes with his dad had less impact on me, I think because Pete has had, what, thirty years to accept his father's death, while Myka's had months to accept Sam's. In any case, the whole episode shows the growing trust and friendship that's been developing between Myka and Pete, and that makes me happy.

Although. This is as good of a time as any to say that I will be extremely disappointed if that friendship turns into romance. I can't imagine the two of them together, at all. It would be awful in my opinion . . . and way cliche. I threatened to stop watching the show if that happened . . . I don't think I'll do that now, but I'll be really upset, in any case.

Apart from that, there's not too much to make "Regrets" stand out in my mind. For once, the artifact was the solution instead of the problem, which was a cool twist. Revered Hill was poorly underused, although the motif of the Orouborus was fascinating and, in my mind, connected to Myka's and Pete's constant vicious circles of guilt. The prison-in-lightning-storm idea was a it cliche, but definitely effective. And . . . what else . . . oh, Claudia-the-magnet in Alessandro Volta's lab coat was a lot of fun. And any solution involving crossbows and inflatable mattresses is, well, interesting, but apparently very effective. I almost felt sorry for Claudia by the end, having to rewrite "I must obey Artie" over again, this time, "like she means it". But Artie should really know better than to think that will stop her. I bet next week she'll be back making trouble again.

One thing that "Regrets" does that I absolutely love (and some other episodes have done this too) is throw in references to things that are actually happening. "Tropical Storm Jimena" is obviously a real hurricane that was going on about the time this episode aired. And earlier on, "Implosion" contained a dig at the economy ("Cash only. American credit's not what it used to be") that made me laugh probably more than any normal person would (then again I've never claimed to be normal).

Overall, good but not great. Definitely not on the same scale as "Implosion" or "Duped", but much better than some of the early episodes. It's not bad, but it's also not memorable.

iTunes 9 Is Love (Or It Should Be)

2009-09-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

Apple's September conference always has me running home from school a bit earlier than usual to read the news and see what new updates have come out. And I love most of the new updates this year. Emphasis on most.

I won't spend too much time on analyzing all the new iPod updates, since you can read those pretty much anywhere. Quick summary though: a new 64GB Touch, price cuts for the 8GB & 32GB Touches and the shuffle, video camera for the nano. What I really want to focus on (read: rant about) is iTunes 9.

So iTunes 9 is a wonderful update, I'm not disputing that. The new features are excellent. It looks pretty, it runs faster. And everything I've read about the re-designed iTunes store makes me excited.

Except. You need Safari 4 to use the iTunes store. And, well, me being me (tell me if I have anybody else who does this), I go back and forth between Opera and Firefox and never actually use Safari. So I don't have Safari 4, 'cause, hey, what's the point? And I can't actually download the update because (as usual) I've been lazy and haven't updated my OS recently, so I'm still running 10.5.2, while you need 10.5.7 to get Safari 4.

Now, really. I need two updates before I can use half of what makes iTunes so great. I know I partly have myself to blame, but seriously. The Safari download could be easier/still availible to us who don't have time to update to 10.5.x every month. Or . . . just . . . i dunno, make iTunes work with earlier versions of Safari?

The upshot of all this is, I'm very happy with almost everything new. Just that pesky iTunes store stops me from enjoying everything like I should.

My Pretties! (Warehouse 13: "Duped" Artwork)

2009-09-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

I love love love love the Warehouse 13 episode "Duped". Aaaand it just so happens that I took 261 screencaps while I was watching it on hulu (I blame Joanne Kelly. She's just too darn photogenic, whenever she comes on screen I just want to take a picture of her!). And if you've been to my website, you know I do a ton of graphic arts related to TV shows and movies that I like. But I haven't done any W13 artwork, mostly 'cause I'm lazy and screencapping from hulu is a pain (I take a snapshot of my desktop, hope the character wasn't moving too much, then go through all the pics, rename them from "Picture 12" or whatever, and crop out just the part that has the W13 bit.) and I hadn't actually had any pictures to work with 'till now.

What's this all leading up to? Lovely lovely new Warehouse 13 artwork, all based on 'caps from "Duped".

Summary: 1 animated icon (150 x 150px), 5 regular icons (100 x 100px), 2 banners (728 x 90px and 500 x 100px), 1 wallpaper (1280 x 800px).

You are more than welcome to download these for your own use, but please, please credit Anya Prynn and link back to either my website or this blog.

"Eagle Eye" Movie Review

2009-08-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

Soooooo this was one of the movies I was dying to watch in theaters when it first came out, but, for a variety of reasons, that never worked out. I finally got it from the library (my library is AWFUL, it takes them like 5 months to get new DVDs), and, more importantly, I finally had time to watch it. And my conclusion is, Eagle Eye gets a bad rap.

Okay, so the plot is a bit lame. The storyline gets a bit unbelievable at points. But the bottom line is, Eagle Eye is a dark, fast-paced action/adventure movie that caters to those who love high-tech gadgets and explosive special effects. And the writers/directors/producers know it, too. They never attempt to pretend this is the most intelligent, thought-provoking film out there, they just focus on making Eagle Eye the best movie in its genre, without ever slipping into the trap of making it silly, pathetic, or mindless. This film is remarkably unpretentious, leading to overall better acting, better writing, and better directing.

So, at school this semester, I'm taking a digital video production course. Two weeks into the class, and I'm already watching movies going, "Oh that was a brilliant shot! I wonder how they got that effect! No, no, no, the scene should be set up like this!" I was focusing a lot on the production aspects, which maybe made the plot a bit more acceptable. Some of the things I noticed: Eagle Eye follows the "show, don't tell" principle maybe better than any movie I've seen (or maybe I've just never payed attention before). Probably the most notable example is Ethan's funeral. We aren't "told" Ethan died, we aren't "told" that Ethan and Jerry were twins, but you get all that and more from the acting. As for the special effects (*cough*explosions*cough*) they are not the gratuitous, constant explosions you'll find in a Michael Bay film (not that there's anything wrong with those, but everything in its place). They're gritty, realistic, purposeful and well done. I'm thinking especially of the falling power lines here. By the way, car chases? So much more fun when one participant doesn't know how to drive her stickshift car ;)

As for the characters, we learn a surprising lot about them. Over the course of the movie – which is really only a few days, if that – we see the two leads slowly moving from hostility to trust to friendship, which culminates in a (slightly corny) birthday scene at the end. I'm actually starting to think that Shia LaBeouf has the potential to be a good actor now. Agents Tom Morgan and Zoe Perez might be a bit stereotypical, but the actors lend them crediblity, and I was actually quite liking them by the end. Overall, much more characterization than you get from, say, Transformers.

Last, but not least, the societal commentary. Sure, we have nothing close to Ariia now, but how soon until we do? Five years? Ten? And what happens then? How much do you trust the computer? How much do you trust the government to protect your privacy? How long until the computer does something you completely aren't prepared for? All very important questions that hit you after the movie is over. Oh . . . and don't watch this with your cellphone on! Mine rang during the movie, at one of the points where Ariia was trying to contact Jerry, and I jumped a foot!

Bottom line, if you love well produced, dark, effects-filled films that still manage to be intense action/adventure movies, go watch this. Even if you don't, watch it anyway. The societal commentary just might make it all worth it.

Warehouse 13: "Duped" Review

2009-08-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

Joanne Kelly is several thousand degrees of amazing. She has two totally opposite characters to play here: evil, flirty Alice and troubled, trapped Myka and she portrays both of them absolutely beautifully. And by the end, Alice/Myka looks a whole lot like Bellatrix Lestrange (or maybe that's just me).

All that aside, "Duped" is a really, really good episode, and makes me happy I've stuck with the series long enough for it to find its feet. It proves, thankfully, that last week's "Implosion" was not just a fluke, the series really is getting good =)

Character-wise, I could go on for paragraphs and not say enough good things. Leena is actually useful (yay!). Claudia is brilliant, and I love how she fights so hard to get to talk to Myka. She really cares for her fellow Warehouse agents now, which is touching to see. Oh, and Myka still owes her a hug.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that the Artie-drama from last week wasn't just dropped. I was half expecting it, to be honest, because shows tend to do that, but this was a very pleasent surprise. I have to say that Artie and Myka's conversation through the mirror is one of my favorite scenes so far, it was wonderfully touching and very real, a testament to the abilities of the actors.

From a directoral standpoint, "Duped" shines as well. I loved how in the breakfast scene and in the hotel room scenes, "Myka" is shown mostly in mirrors. It's something that only makes sense after the end of the episode, but after, it makes you say, "Huh. Now that makes sense!" There were several really nice pan shots of the casino floor, and I like the different effects that come into play whenever someone is seeing the future with the coin. Also, Alice/Myka slowly becomes less and less like Myka . . . which builds suspense until the end.

There's a few things that bothered me, though. Alice takes over Myka's body very easily . . . too easily, actually. She knows exactly how to act like Myka, she has fighting skills far beyond anything a girl her age should have . . . it was just odd for me, because my understanding of the mirror was that one essence fuses with another image or body. Which should mean that Alice would have no idea of who Myka was. It was confusing. And the music. I know, I know, part of the fun of W13 is that it has funny music, but in this case, the "Go Ask Alice" song when Claudia, Artie, and Leena are setting up the trap completely ruined the mood they were trying to set up. Like, completely completely. And, lastly, when Alice/Myka tesla's Gary, and Pete tells her he's dead . . . he's so not. His eyes are even moving. And I'm sure Alice/Myka knew the tesla wasn't high enough to kill him. And the tesla also doesn't do anything to their memories, so . . . anyway.

Overall, though, this was a brilliant episode.

~~~~~~~~~~

And I know I don't usually do this, but I want to pull a few of my favorite lines from this episode.

Myka (to Artie): "When I get out of here [the mirror] I'm hugging her [Claudia] and I'm kicking your ass."

Myka: "You do not treat me like some chess piece that you move around on a board only you can see."

Artie: "What kept you?"
Leena: "Three pumpkin pies, and a broken oven thermometer that you keep promising to fix."

Pete: "The real Myka would never kiss me. Not if her life depended on it."

Claudia (to Artie, on how to contact Pete): "Well, dude. He's in a big hotel."

Oh, and that disco ball? If it ever gets out of the Warehouse, it is becoming mine.

Housekeeping

2009-08-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted in a while, and I know that when I have, it's mostly been reviews of various and sundry things (*cough*Warehouse13*cough*). But school started and hit me like the metaphorical ton of bricks, which is why I'm writing this instead of a nice review for today's Warehouse 13 episode. This is basically, as the title says, a "housekeeping" post, so I can put down what some of my future plans are, and give you some updates.

New blog header. Duh, that's obivious, but I wanted to explain it a bit . . . it's my blog title and description, but I spiced it up with fonts and pretty brushes in GIMP, which is one of my absolute favorite computer programs, hands-down. Credits to ObsidianDawn.com for the circle, fairy, and glitter brushes.
As far as my website goes, I am spending all my time right now finishing watching and reviewing Stargate Atlantis Season 3. I have four more episodes, then . . . I actually don't know what I'll be doing. Maybe (probably) I'll be resurrecting my original scifi series Minstralian Alliance, which used to be my main focus.
I want to start doing a "this week in politics" section on this blog. I feel like I only do reviews, and don't get enough time to focus on other things.
The review for the next Warehouse 13 will be up by the end of the week. I wish I could be more definite, but . . .

So, that's my plans! Check back for more updates soon! :)

Warehouse 13: "Implosion" Review

2009-08-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

Best. Episode. Yet.

Forgive me if I sound too enthusiastic, but this is the best Warehouse 13 episode by far. It has backstory, foreshadowing, special effects, plot twists, witty dialogue, very good guest stars, and Leena actually does something useful. Okay, so maybe that last isn't quite on the same level as the others, but "Implosion" establishes once and for all that Warehouse 13 has credibility and potential, two things it desperately needs.

So, decapitations, implosions, and disintegrating bodies, among other things, definitely prove that W13 is earning its TV-14 rating. I was complaining about that earlier (I found a lot of things to complain about in the early episodes) but "Implosion" brings in a new, darker side that I cannot wait to see explored. And remember how I was complaining about how there could never be story arcs, due to the format of the show? Well, the writers found a way to do a story arc -- and pretty good one, if this is any indication -- despite all of that. The whole idea of a rogue Warehouse agent (is that what MacPhearson is) is really quite fascinating.

This all just goes to show you the potential that W13 has when it's not being X-Files for the twelve year olds. We get real background information, real conflict, and finally, finally, when the agents burst in on the bad guy with the weapon and scream "Federal agent! Drop your weapon!" they actually get shot. So maybe that's not necessarily a good thing, but I've always thought that that would be closer to what would happen in real life.

Guest stars. Well, I always always always love seeing CCH Pounder/Mrs. Frederick. "We're all human. As far as I know." (Best Artie line :D). I really hope we see more of her. She is probably the most fascinating character yet. Roger Rees is an awesome evil guy, and I'm excited to see MacPhearson's story evolve. I have no idea who that lady at the bar with Artie was, but I'm assuming she was part of the whole MacPhearson debacle. Again, there's so much story potential here.

I love the interdepartamental conflict brewing between Artie and Dickinson. I kind of thought it would be coming up, but not like this. I find myself fully on Myka's side here: Artie's treating the agents as expendable (which that beautifully timed first implosion grenade shows) and they're not. I said a bit ago that I wanted to see Artie and Myka talk a bit about their past losses, and I still want that, even more now.

Special effects are better than usual, and leaving aside the somewhat kooky music and a very eight-year-old Pete playing with the decoy sword in the beginning, the great directing, the real feeling on the part of the cast, and what is quite possibly the best Star Trek reference ever, combined with everything above, make this as close to a perfect 10 as I think we'll see out of W13. It's finally hitting its stride, and dang it's good!

P.S. I know this review is a bit late (I've been doing my summer reading, ugh), but at least my tardiness lets me add in this little tidbit: W13 has officially been renewed for a second season! Hopefully we got more episodes this time round :) Full story here.

Warehouse 13: "Burnout" Review

2009-08-14T18:31:00.001-07:00

Myka's coat is amazing. Sorry, that just had to be said.

Okay, fashion aside, "Burnout" was a really good episode. I (foolishly) thought I would be able to watch this episode while organizing my Irish dance makeup kit. Fat chance. "Burnout" had me hooked from the very beginning.

Storywise, this was a much more engaging, interesting, and suspenseful story than last week's "Elements". It got me thinking, once again, about how much of the artifact stories are actually true. Because if something like this spine were real . . . anyway, I know the truth-to-fantasy ration is probably something like 1:200086 (or something). But still. This falls into the category of "I love how W13 (my new abbreviation) blends past/present/future-ness". It's like steampunk, but not. Right? Maybe I'm making no sense. In any case, there are no points lost for the plotline here.

One aspect of the show I still cannot figure out. I may have asked this question before, but here it is again: how alive is the Warehouse? Rebecca says that the Warehouse doesn't let people go once it has a hold on them. There's certainly more going on with the whole preserving-the-rooms-of-the-deceased-agents-perfectly-in-the-warehouse thing than it looks like at first glance (I have no idea how that's possible, by the way, but it does look extremely cool to see how you get access to the rooms.)

Claudia is, as always (can I say "always" after 3 episodes? Oh well), brilliant, whether she's ribbing Artie's fashion sense or inventing holographic projectors. All in a day's work, I suppose. I am a bit worried though, that she'll turn into a perfect, always-saves-the-day character. I think that the writers have more sense, but that has yet to be seen. And as far as characters go, if they start a Pete/Myka romance, I will . . . I dunno. I threatened my friend I would stop watching the show, but that seems extreme now. Be very upset, I suppose.

I was sadly surprised when I realized that I didn't care at all if Pete died or not. I knew that I should care, obviously, I just didn't. Then I realized that it would completely traumatize Myka, losing two partners in such a short span of time, and reconsidered. But still, it was disturbing to figure out that I cared that little for one of the main characters.

But speaking of Myka being traumatized, that brings me to another interesting point. In six episodes, we already have a very defined and very interesting character here, and Joanne Kelly really does her justice, which makes me quite happy. The most powerful scene for me here was when Pete, fighting the influence of the Spine, was pleading with Myka to, basically, electrocute him. And she couldn't. Because, in my opinion (and I might be totally wrong here) Myka's forgotten what it's like to be willing and able to die for a cause, after she saw her former boyfriend die for what he believed in. She's still very scarred by that. But Rebecca, who also lost her partner to the spine, was able to do what Pete asked. Maybe it's because she had more time to adjust to losing her partner, or maybe it was just personality differences, but either way, I found it quite interesting.

In any case, this is a very good episode that has me looking forward to next week. I'm starting to like this show, and I think that one of its strongest points is that it's able to constantly get better (Uhm. Ignoring the thing that called itself "Resonance"). So I'm thinking there's high potential for next week.

Oh, and I also got some pretty pretty screencaps! (Hulu is murder to 'cap from. But anyway).

Google Caffeine: What's the Big Fuss?

2009-08-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

So, being the tech nerd that I am, I'm sitting here trying out the new & improved Google, Google Caffeine, instead of doing what others would surely term "more useful things" (like cleaning my room. Ahem. Anyway.)

But as of right now, I don't really get the hype. I ran searches in both Caffeine, the regular google.com, and my (heavily customized) google.ie. And, really I didn't see that much of a difference. Here's some of what I found.

Search: "stargate movie"
Number of Results: Caffeine~ about 5 million, Google.com~ about 1 million, Google.ie~ about 4 million
Time for Search: Caffeine~ .16 seconds, Google.com~ .45 seconds, Google.ie~ .12 seconds
Most Useful Results on First Page: probably Google.ie. The first 6 results were the same in all searches.

Search: "queen rania"
Number of Results: Caffeine~ about 7 hundred thousand, Google.com~ about 4 hundred million, Google.ie~ about 1 million
Time for Search: Caffeine~ .23 seconds, Google.com~ .15 seconds, Google.ie~ .48 seconds
Most Useful Results on First Page: probably Caffeine. Although it's interesting to note that Caffeine was the only search that didn't give image results, it was also the only search to give the Queen's facebook page in the top ten results.

Search: "blondie"
Number of Results: Caffeine~ about 10 million, Google.com~ about 9 million, Google.ie~ about 9 million
Time for Search: Caffeine~ .19 seconds, Google.com~ .18 seconds, Google.ie~ .36 seconds
Most Useful Results on First Page: probably Caffeine. It also featured a "news" results section, unlike the other two searches.

Search: "iran presidential election 2009"
Number of Results: Caffeine~ about 15 million, Google.com~ about 30 million, Google.ie~ about 30 million
Time for Search: Caffeine~ .23 seconds, Google.com~ .30 seconds, Google.ie~ .34 seconds
Most Useful Results on First Page: I would say it's a tie between Google.com and Google.ie. Caffeine's results were, I think, a bit substandard here.

I know it's nowhere near as thourough a job as someone who was really serious about finding the little picky differences, or who was reviewing Caffeine for a serious newspaper would do, but it's enough for me. I'll be glad of the update, certainly, although to be honest search technology is one of the things I pay less attention to in the computer-world. So is Caffeine faster? Sometimes. Is it better? Eh, again, sometimes (but when it still takes less than a second, most people aren't really going to care/notice xD). It's not a huge new update, but it seems nice enough.

On the topic of search engines, has anyone tried this BlindSearch webpage? It lets you run a query through the site, and returns the results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing searches, then gives you the results in three columns. Without telling you which column is from which search engine. Then you pick which column you think gives the best results, and then it will tell you what search engine each column is. So either my anti-Microsoft bias is giving me the ability to somehow know which column is Bing, or Bing really is not a great search engine, because I've probably tried 25+ different searches, and have never once picked the Bing results. Quite funny, actually.

Apparently I can only hide from room cleaning for so long. This is all for today, but check my website for more Stargate Atlantis reviews, and check here again on Wednesday for the latest Warehouse 13 review!

Warehouse 13: "Elements" Review

2009-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

While I didn't enjoy "Elements" as much as I've enjoyed some of the previous episodes, it was still a solid episode with a very interesting storyline and good effects.

The premise of this episode is actually quite interesting. Native American objects are often used in mystery/scifi shows because of the sense of mystery and magic that surrounds them. In that sense, "Elements" certainly doesn't fall short, mystery and magic abound. I love the idea of the four statues leading to the cave. And in Warehouse 13's usual ancient/modern mix, I love how Claudia figures out the cave's location with no trouble (or statues) at all, using the magnetic lay lines. The idea of world domination is not new (with such prevalence in scifi shows, it seems like some new person should be ruling the world every other week, but hey), however, I'm not sure I've ever seen it be domination through use of the four elements before. The story, overall, does not disappoint, although I wish there was some better resolution. We're not quite sure (or atleast I'm not quite sure) what happened to Radbum at the very end . . . I'm assuming he dies when the cave is destroyed, but the ending seems very unfinished.

The artifacts. Being able to walk through walls is so cool. Like Pete said, this is one artifact I totally wish would stick around. I can see him and Myka and Claudia using the cloak on some mission somewhere one day :).

The special effects. Well, they're not the most elaborate ones we've seen in the series, but turning people's hands into fire and rock surely deserves some credit. I like how each element was represented in the cave, and how Radbum completes his transformation, and is then (presumably) destroyed. The effects aren't too complex, but they're good, and that's what counts.

Character wise . . . well, I still don't like Pete. He's toned down the jerkiness a bit, but he still acts very much like a child, and it's annoying. Although, he did gain some sympathy by being thrown out of the steel wall of a moving truck (I wouldn't be too happy about that either). Leena continues her role as the "explainer" . . . she spends a good three minutes telling us every minute detail of Claudia's emotional state, something, I think, that Alison Scagliotti could have acted for us without much difficulty. On that topic though, Claudia is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. She's complex and guilty and funny and sarcastic, and beats Vegas without thinking twice. She's a much-needed addition to this show, and I'm so glad she's staying.

I liked how we got some resolution to the Claudia-Joshua story. However, it is a pity that with Joshua going off to CERN we don't get any more of the wonderful brother-sister sister moments like we did here (oh well, I suppose we need to leave that to Pete and Myka. Pete is so the annoying little brother!)

It was awesome to see Joe Flanigan again, but I have to say that after seeing him as John Sheppard on Stargate Atlantis for five years, it was a bit difficult to adjust to seeing him as a different character. But his acting is just as good here as in Atlantis, so I'm happy. He also provides a good excuse for Myka to relax a bit, but she doesn't hesitate to pull her gun on him when she thinks he's the bad guy.

Overall, a good episode with an interesting story and some fun character moments. Oh, and Artie's chess game against himself totally rocks.

(By the way . . . I wonder if Joshua knows that this is what they're really getting up to over at CERN. xP)

The Sounds/Katy Perry/No Doubt Concert Review

2009-08-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

So, after a few mishaps, including getting bitten by my friend's dog and taking a rather interesting detour due to a fire right by the freeway, I got my early birthday present and was able to see No Doubt performing at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheater in Irvine, with The Sounds and Katy Perry as opening acts. It was one of the most fun concerts I've ever been to. Our seats were far back and to the side (we were on the farrrrr left of the verrrry last section before the lawn), but we still had a great view! I took lots and lots of pictures =)

The Sounds

Well, due to the above circumstances, we only got to see two or three of their songs. And it did not help that their amps were up so high that they basically just sounded like noise. Nice noise, to be sure, that made me want to go home and look them up, but noise all the same. I spent more time wondering how Maja Iversson was managing to jump around, let alone stand, in her heels (which were five inches if they were a centimeter) than actually enjoying the music. I did feel a bit bad for them though, because they were playing to a half-empty theater (most people came in after they were done) and they are actually really really good. Maybe this just wasn't their best show, maybe I needed to hear more of it to actually judge. In any case, I enjoyed the few songs I heard.

Katy Perry

And this is one act that was so much better than I expected! Regardless of the fact that she was obviously trying to make her stage look like a garage sale -- I'm not quite sure why else someone would have two plastic flamingos, a white picket fence, and several blow-up strawberries on stage with her, and be joined by a blow-up lipstick later on -- but she was so much fun to watch. She never stopped bouncing around the stage, except when she was playing her guitar. Katy was fun, energetic, seemed to genuinely love being onstage, and made a real effort to include the audience in her show. I would have chosen a different color scheme -- hers was pink and white, which meant that all the guys wore pink and white suits, and Katy herself was in a pink leotard with red sequins, black ballerina flats, and a (very) short pink tutu/skirt. She managed to pull off the outfit, the guys . . . a bit less.
I'd heard she was not a great live performer, and I only knew a few of her songs, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I must say she was very impressive, topping her album performance on several occasions. She also covered Queen, another band I love, singing "Don't Stop Me Now", and it was actually a good cover! I had sworn I would never go to a concert to see just her, but now I have to reconsider . . . my estimation of her talent as a singer/guitarist has certainly risen after this show.
SETLIST: Fingerprints, One of the Boys, Hot N Cold, Thinking of You, Ur So Gay, Waking Up in Vegas, Don't Stop Me Now, I Kissed a Girl

No Doubt

No Doubt, on the other hand, I had high expectations for. I had never actually seen them in concert before, but I grew up listening to their music and could not wait for this concert. It was everything I had hoped for! My friend and I stood up right when the band came onstage and didn't sit down again for the next . . . hour and 45 minutes, which I think is about how long the band played.
The set was a nice mix of Tragic Kingdom, Return of Saturn, and Rock Steady songs, with a few fun covers thrown in. I can proudly say that, except for the covers, I could sing along to every single song. The show started off with an excellent performance of "Spiderwebs", and the show just got better and better from there. They hit pretty much all of my favorite songs, and, although some were a bit different from their album versions (notably "Excuse Me Mr.") there was not a single song I disliked!
Apart from the music, the artistic aspect (set, costumes, etc.) was also brilliant. If Katy's color scheme was all pink and white, No Doubt's was black and white: the whole stage was white, the guys all wore white with a little bit of black, Gwen Stefani's outfit was black and white (all three of them!), and Adrian Young even dyed his mohawk . . . you guessed it, black and white! I really loved the design of the stage, which featured a whole bunch of rams (5 or 6) all leading up to the drum set in the middle. It was fun to watch the band members run up/slide down the ramps, which they didn't do nearly enough in my opinion ;). For a moment, when all the main stage lights went out, only the ramps were lit by a few glittery lights, and they looked soooo much like the Star Trek chevron that I had to laugh. There was a big screen behind the band that showed video clips -- sometimes of the song's music videos, sometimes of the band, and, on "Different People", some really cool outer space/planets images. The band was in top form as entertainers, not just performers. Gwen talked to the crowd -- not too much, but that was kind of to be expected, since this was their 52nd (!) show of the tour. Still, she took pictures of herself with a few of the fans from the very front, she made us sing along (especially fun was when she made all the guys sing the chorus to "I'm Just a Girl"). In any case, it was a joy to see them back together and all onstage. They were all running all over the stage and just generally having a good time. And, for the second of three encores, they did "Stand and Deliver", an Adam and the Ants cover, and Katy Perry and all of The Sounds came out to sing too! This was some of the most fun I've ever had at a concert!
SETLIST: Spiderwebs, Hella Good, Underneath It All, Excuse Me Mr., Ex-Girlfriend, Tragic Kingdom, Simle Kind of Life, Bathwater, ?, New, Hey Baby, Running, Different People, Don't Speak, It's My Life, Just a Girl, ---, Rock Steady, Stand and Deliver, Sunday Morning. {The "?" is an instrumental the band did while Gwen Stefani changed clothes, the "---" is the break between the set & the encore}

"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" Movie Review

2009-08-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

Before you read, I have to warn you . . . spoilers abound here!

I had sworn I wasn't going to watch this movie. I had been seriously disappointed by the fifth movie (it was sooo lame!) and I had heard not-so-great things about HP6. But then I had to go, because I promised one of my friends I would take her. And you know what? It wasn't that bad.

I have to say, I think one of the reasons that I ended up liking the movie so much is that I read the book so long ago (Two years ago? Three?) that I wasn't constantly making book-to-movie comparisons in my head the whole time. I mean, I understood the really big things that had changed, a la burning the Burrow instead of having a huge final battle at Hogwarts, but I know there were other, numerous changes that just didn't even register on my mind. With the fourth and fifth movies, you would have been completely lost had you not read the book. Not so here, and the screenwriters deserve a lot of credit for that.

Let me just say straightaway that the best parts of this film are the scenes with Helena Bonham-Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange. She steals every scene shes in, and has the pretty-but-psychotic-and-evil witch character down with a close to scary perfection.

The other acting is pretty good, too. Bonnie Wright finally manages a decent performance as Ginny (I used to despise her, and her tiny roles in the past three movies didn't help that). Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood is also completely wonderful, she is the very definition of Luna and as much of a scene-stealer in her own way as Bonham-Carter is in hers. The three leads are, as usual, good actors, although my dislike for the characters somewhat hinders my appreciation for the acting. Tom Felton deserves special mention for his dead-on portrayal of Draco -- such a complex character to deal with, and Felton carries the role with ease.

The effects, the few that there were, were amazing. I was joking to one of my friends before the movie started that the main reason I wanted to watch HBP was to see the Millenium Bridge collapse (no offense to the bridge, but hey, I'm a CGI junkie xP). I also loved the new flying-Death-Eaters effect, which turns them into something like flying cannonballs with smoke tails. I spent a good while puzzling over how that would be possible, physically, before giving it up and just deciding "hey, it's magic." Other notable effects scenes are the numerous (okay, two or three) Dark Marks that appear in the clouds (I know it means evil is coming, but they look sooooo coooool!) and the whole end scene battling Inferi and getting pulled into lakes and conjuring fire, among other fun things. While the effects aren't on the same scale as, say, Transformers 2, they were carried out quite well.

Now, on to the not-so-great. I was worried from the beginning when I saw the movie was getting away with a PG rating (I'm one of those weird people who's of the belief that if it's a Harry Potter movie with a number from 3 - 7, you should have a PG13 rating or lose a lot of what the book is about). And I was even less happy when I heard from some of my friends that basically the entire battle scene at the end was deleted. And it is, really, Snape kills Dumbledore (basically, he walks into the room, says a few words, points his wand at Dumbledore, and says "avada kedavara"), then all the Death Eaters just leave. I mean, Harry throws a few curses at Snape, but that's not a battle, not really. Bellatrix's penchant for throwing fireballs around, a collapsing bridge, and a few zombie-like and regular dead people do not come anywhere close to the level of darkness in the book. Wider audience and all that . . . but it's a shame to see such good parts just left out.

Second, the film focuses on relationships a lot -- and I'll even go so far as to say too much. As the Harry Potter series progresses, its supposed to get darker, filled with more Death Eaters, more destruction, more death, more students leaving the school. Where was all of that? Instead of hearing of Amelia Bones' death, we get one more scene of Ron and Lavender snogging, is that it? That's certainly the trend this film takes. I don't want to see more teenage romance drama, there's enough of that on the TV these days. On the other hand, the Harry/Ginny romance was toned down, and I appreciated that (I hate hate hate that pairing. It's so contrived and Ginny is farrrrr too good for Harry, if you want my opinion).

Now, I understand that things must be cut (it's a 400+ page book, after all) but I think there could have been better choices made as to what to keep. The supporting characters -- and even some of the main characters -- fall by the wayside. How many scenes did Neville Longbottom appear in? One: he was serving food at Slughorn's party. Cormac McLaggen gets more screen time than that! Where's Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Seamus Finnigan, the Patil twins? Gone. And that's sad, because those are some of my favorite characters. Also notably missing is Dumbledore's funeral and his huge tomb, although I understand how budget constraints might have forced the tomb out of the movie ;). But the final salute to Dumbledore -- when every student and teacher raised their lit wands around Dumbledore's body -- was more than a fitting substitute, and intensely powerful . . . first time I've cried in a HP film, I have to say.

Overall, a pretty good movie that often delves into pure silliness but that stays far truer to the book than the past few movies have.

Common Sense Fail

2009-07-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

According to this Washington Post article, there has been a bill introduced in the Senate that will require states to prohibit people from texting while driving. Excellent idea! Right?

People, why do we need this law? Well, obviously because people are texting while driving, and thus getting into accidents. Which begs the question, WHY are people texting while driving??!! That is quite possibly one of the stupidest things you could ever do. It's in the same vein as the hands-free-phone-while-driving law, but at least that one, I understand. I know many people who are on their cell phones in the car, whether for their work, or because they're calling someone for directions. And honestly, even though I think it's better to not call people while you're driving, and you certainly need to have a headset on, responsible and mature people can talk on the phone while driving safely.

But texting. That is so different. Texting requires (unless you are one of the very few people who are texting wizards) two hands and total concentration. Which means that your driving lacks . . . well, what a surprise, two hands and any concentration! It is completely unfathomable to me why anybody would think that is acceptable. You guys, it's just not. I know I complain about people's stupidity sometimes, but this is a whole new level. We need laws to tell us what common sense should have made totally clear. That's just . . . wow. But since apparently we need these laws, I really, really hope this bill gets passed.

~~~~~~~~~~

On a totally unrelated note, check the Atlantis section of my website for new Season 3 reviews and some new artwork!

Warehouse 13: "Claudia" Review

2009-07-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm back from my summer program, I can actually watch the episodes when they air, as opposed to waiting for Hulu to have them. Although, my beautiful little MacBook has far superior image quality than my 20+ year old ancient, awful TV . . . but that's another story :)

So this started off a bit anticlimactically/non-linearly, considering that the hacker got into the warehouse at the end of the last episode, and this one starts with Pete and Myka coming back from what seems a normal mission, Artie's lack of sleep notwithstanding. I thought the opening scene here would follow on more directly from the end of last week's episode. But, as soon as Claudia came in, things got pretty interesting. To be honest, this episode had me riveted pretty much start to finish.

I was pleased that "Claudia" doesn't fall into the same trap as "Resonance" -- under-using it guest stars. Both Allison Scagliotti's Claudia and CCH Pounder's Mrs. Frederick are used to the fullest extent possible, providing for great character moments. I loved the glimpse into Artie's past, and, for once, the child actress who plays little-Claudia is actually a good actress. Also great to watch was Artie and Myka's conversation at the very end -- they both have scars from the past and it would be very interesting to see them actually get to sit down and talk about what happened, to Myka in Denver and to Artie in . . . well, we're not actually sure.

Mrs. Frederick is also an asset to whatever scene she's in. She's creepy and smart and knows, well, if not everything, then certainly a lot. She also sets up some interesting foreshadowing here, in terms of Artie's and/or Claudia's future. For right now, I'm forgiving her for being on obvious Cigarette-Smoking-Man-ripoff (much like Myka and Pete are Scully and Mulder) because she doesn't seem to have the pure evil that the Smoking Man does. And, she's a lot more helpful. I'm very interested to see where her character arc is going.

Leena, on the other hand, I'm growing to despise. She does nothing useful. Or if she does, I haven't seen it. She's basically and excuse for Artie to explain whatever's going on in the episode. No offense to Genelle Williams, because I'm sure she's a wonderful actress, but this character is just pointless. On a related note, however, I didn't want to punch Pete in the face once this whole episode, which is a nice change.

Luckily for us science/CGI nerds, "Claudia" does not sacrifice special effects or nerdiness for the sake of the characters. Rheticus' compass is supremely cool, and the idea that he was searching for a way to teleport, which is a kind of holy grail for many people (yes, I'm including myself in that category :D). The idea of being caught in an "in-between place" was done in The Next Generation with Ro Laren and Geordi LaForge being sucked out of phasse (sorry, I can't remember which episode off the top of my head) but it had a bit of a twist here, with Joshua being able to come back occasionally, and those arrivals steadily killing his sister.

Overall, I don't have any major complaints about this episode, it's certainly the best one so far. People are settling into their roles more, and the writers have a better idea of what they're doing. This is a solid early episode for a show that desperately needs as much credibility as it can get (because it's still an awful lot like an X-Files for the new generation at some points).

On a side note, I have surely been spoiled by Hulu's 15-30 second long commercials =)

Warehouse 13: "Magnetism" Review

2009-07-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

Okay so I really meant to post this Wednesday or Thursday, but it's the end of my summer program and things got super busy.

Anyway, just when I think I have Warehouse 13 all figured out as a decent enough show that's fun enough to keep you interested and that'll run for three or four seasons (maybe) the writers/producers spin around and give us something like "Magnetism" (not sure where they get that title, but oh well). Last week's episode, while a solid second episode for a series with pretty big shoes to fill, quality wise, had a disturbing propensity to be silly and sappy and a bit annoying. "Magnetism" starts off with Pete dangling upside down from a ceiling, stealing a guillotine blade, and the episode just gets better after that, turning into the ultimate "be careful what you wish for" tale.

With "Magnetism", we're finally starting to see some of the darker side of these artifacts. Throughout the first two episodes, I was thinking that there had to be something going on with this show that gave it its TV-14 rating as opposed to, say, Stargate Atlantis or The X-Files's relatively mild TV-G or TV-PG ratings. Now, we see that the artifacts aren't all fun and games. So, we saw a little of it in the pilot, but now Warehouse 13 is taking the time to actually explore issues prevalent in society today. Especially powerful was the end, which addressed the issue of suicide bombing in a truly scary way. The final confrontation in the church, with time running out and Myka scrambling between pews desperately trying to buy time for Pete to disable the chair was an extremely powerful scene . . . far better than I had thought. Here's hoping Warehouse 13 continues on this more mature line of storytelling. But, on the other hand, "Magnetism" had plenty of humor too, what I appreciate was that the writers were able to strike a good balance between the two. (I loved the very end scene where Myka and Pete played the joke on Artie about his car being destroyed).

Character wise, I'm beginning to get a bit frustrated with the -- again with this word -- maturity gap between Myka and Pete. "You're eight years old!" Myka yells at Pete in frustration, and really, she couldn't be more right. I'm getting sick of his stupid comments and constant mucking about with Myka's plans, and it's only the third episode. He says he has more experience and is the "natural choice" for a field leader, but he's not, and it's really annoying that he doesn't see his faults, at all. On the plus side, his arguing with Myka leads to both of them geting drenched with purple slime, which was quite amusing :). Myka, on the other hand, has a past with at least one major mess-up (we're still not quite sure what happened in Denver, although it was obviously bad) but she knows it. She understands her faults, knows what she does right and wrong and her strengths and limitations. Apart from her constant subconcious desire to punch Pete in the face (and really, who can blame her?) she has a type of self-awareness that lets her function much more effectively, even if she does have a "tortured" aura (or whatever Leena was saying, I can't quite remember).

Other than the increasingly improving writing, one thing that I'm really starting to love (and this is non-episode specific here) is the idea that the warehouse is, if not exactly alive, then at least it has some type of a mind of its own. The things in it are so full of energy and strange powers that it would be hard for it not to, but this will be an interesting idea to see developed a bit more.

I do wish Warehouse 13 would put a bit more effort into actually explaining what the artifacts actually do. I know the whole premise of the show is that Artie and his team have to find the artifacts and then neutralize them, but I think that just finding the artifacts will get pretty boring after a while. I mean, obviously they know what the effects of some of the artifacts are, or else they wouldn't have been able to find them. But it seems a total waste to just shove everything in a corner of the warehouse and never hear from it again. I know it's just the third episode, but it's something I'll be on the lookout for in the future.

Something else that Warehouse 13 does with great success is seamlessly blending modernity and antiquity to come up with almost futuristic technology. Video communication? A staple of scifi shows. Also developed right after the television. Artie's computer can do anything a modern computer can and more, but it looks for all the world like it got taken out of a junkyard. It's these little things that that make me think this show is going places after all.

So Warehouse 13 is keeping me coming back for more . . . and for the first time, I am actually excited for the next episode, after this (actually) really good cliffhanger.

Solar Eclipses and Other Things

2009-07-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

India and China are preparing for what is sure to be a truly spectacular total solar eclipse tomorrow. And while I am sitting here in the States wishing wishing wishing that I could be there for just the one day, many of people with the great good luck to lie in the eclipse's path are wishing that they didn't.

Sound crazy? Yeah, that was my first reaction too. Well, once you think about it, they have a reason. It might not be a good reason, but centuries of Hindu mythology and history have given many a deep dependence on superstition. They fear that this eclipse is a bad omen, portending wars, terrorist attacks, plagues, and many other disasters. Looking at the state of the world today, one might very well think that they have a point! It's true that the world is pretty depressing right now, but it's not because of the eclipse.

Now, I firmly support every person's right to belong to whatever religion they wish. If you want to be a Hindu, go ahead. I personally love all of the old Hindu myths. But there is a problem when a believer refuses to accept changes and modernity because of his or her religion. Science may be young, but science still knows a lot. I'm not bashing Hindus or their religion here. Please don't get me wrong. What I'm saying is that the only way that this eclipse will provoke the disasters portended is if people who firmly believe in the superstition go out and cause those disasters themselves. Is there a reason why a person can't be religious and a scientist at the same time? I personally can't see one. The gods and the planets and the sun and the moon do not control our destiny. Only we do.

Let me close by saying, once again, that I'm insanely jealous of everyone who gets to see this eclipse, and I hoe that people can see it for the beauty that it really is.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what the "reviews" tag is doing at the bottom of this, I posted my latest Stargate Atlantis review here. Also, check back here tomorrow for the next Warehouse 13 review =).

Twilight, Vampires, and Souls

2009-07-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Some of you might think it's odd that I write so much about Twilight when I hate it so much. But the idea from this blog post came out of an AIM conversation I was having with Taya, and then I just had to write about it.

So Taya said that the only thing she hated about Twilight was that Edward had a soul. I was really surprised at that . . . I had no idea (like I said before, I've only seen the movie and read like a chapter of the book). So Taya said, "Well, it was never said that he did, and that's what bugged me. Was that he wasn't evil. Vampires are monsters." And that got me thinking: I'm pretty sure Edward qualifies as a monster (all sparkling aside). I told her so. Her response? "Monsters don't love." Let me tell you something. Edward doesn't either.

From the beginning, Edward and Bella's relationship has been completely based on mutual dependency (in a very bad way) and lust. That's it. They are attracted to each other based solely on physical features, there is absolutely zero connection between them. Bella spends pages going on about how hot Edward is. I think we got the picture in the first sentence. Edward is attracted to Bella based on . . . guess what . . . the scent of her blood. I mean, ew!!. That is not a reason for attraction. Oh, I forget, he also thinks she's "mysterious" because he can't read her mind. Well, I'm sorry, but the only reason that he can't read her mind is because there's nothing in it! Leaving aside the whole idea that trying to read people's minds is completely unethical, I mean, really.

Then there's the whole idea of Edward-as-a-stalker. He sneaks into her room to watch her sleep. That's, like, what serial killers do to their victims. And then, there's the pedophilia issue. Physical appearances aside, Edward is a good hundred years (if not more) older than Bella. Their relationship is completely illegal. Add to that the fact that neither of them are emotionally mature enough to make the distinction between love and lust, and you have a problem. Another thing worth mentioning is that (correct me if I'm wrong) but they fall in "love" over the span of a few days (weeks at most). A relationship should take years to develop. Not weeks.

Now, on to the idea of mutual dependency. There's nothing wrong with being extremely attatched to your boyfriend/girlfriend. There's nothing wrong with being sad at the prospect of not being able to see said boyfriend/girlfriend for a long period of time. But these two take it to a very disturbing. Both Edward and Bella try to kill themselves when they're apart from each other. That is not the mark of a healthy relationship. Bella is clingy and her only goal is to keep Edward by her . . . she deludes herself into thinking that he is what makes her life worth living. Any relationship based on love does not include the idea that you will die without your boyfriend/girlfriend by your side (that's what also bothers me about Romeo and Juliet). And look at Edward's reaction when any other guy so much as looks at Bella, much less the fights he gets into with Jacob. He is disgustingly possessive, and so clearly views Bella only as an object. This dehumanization of women is a huge problem in our society, and I think it's awful beyond words that Stephanie Meyer makes it seem like such a wonderful thing. People who are really in love don't treat their partners like objects. End of story.

I know people who will point to New Moon as an example of Edward's true love for Bella, a validation of the "If you love someone enough, you'll know when to let them go" principle. That's not true. A real example of that can easily be found in the Odo/Kira relationship from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. This is quite different. Edward is acting in his own self-interest: he does not want to inadvertently kill or injure Bella, and then end up in a whole mess of trouble. As their suicidal tendencies after their breakup clearly show, they each think that their existence depends on a continued romantic relationship with the other. Excuse me? Since when did one person, let alone one relationship, define people's lives? I would be tempted to say, "since Stephanie Meyer", but there is a different, better answer. That idea is found all the time in high school flings, which is, when you get down to it, exactly what this relationship is.

Edward and Bella are not in a loving relationship. They are in a lust-based and probably mutually destructive one. It's true that monsters don't love. Edward Cullen doesn't love Bella either. And based on his horrifyingly creepy and disgustingly possessive actions toward Bella, I think there's plenty of evidence to show that he is, indeed, a monster.

So, agree/disagree? *Hides from swarm of rabid Twilight fans.* No, seriously. My exposure to these books/movies has been limited, and I welcome any civil debate. Emphasis on civil, you guys =)

Stargate Atlantis Reviews

2009-07-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

So, I won't be posting my Stargate Atlantis reviews here, because they're generally really long, and the belong in the nice Atlantis section on my website. But I will post whenever I update the reviews section there =)

For those who are curious:

Season 1: Review for episode 4
Season 2: Review for episode 2
Season 3: Reviews for episodes 1-9
Season 4: Reviews for episodes 14-17
Season 5: Reviews for episodes 1-2

Season 3 is my current project, and I've just posted a review for episode 9, "Phantoms". Enjoy!!

Priorities?

2009-07-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with the world, and why people (Americans especially) have such a hard time figuring out their priorities. For example, if you asked me to name some of the most important events going on over the past month or so, you would get a list that looks a bit like this:

The Costa Rican president is still trying to mediate between the two sides involved in the Honduras coup
India and Pakistan have agreed to resume negotiations over the Kashmir region; U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in India right now
Police are investigating a double suicide bombing in Indonesia
Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings are continuing in the Senate, she looks to be facing a clear road to being the first Latina Supreme Court justice
The CIA is under fire, again, for keeping secrets from Congress
California is still in a huge budget crisis.
Sarah Palin announced she would step down as governor of Alaska

Pop quiz, how many of you already knew about at least 4 of those? I bet you not very many. Now, wouldn't you expect stories like that to be dominating pages such as Google News? Well, okay, they're dominating my heavily customized news.google.ie page. Switch to a non-personalized news.google.com, however, and you get a much different sight. Suddenly the page is dominated by Michael Jackson (seriously, who cares anymore? Too many people!), Harry Potter, Jon Gosselin, and Walter Cronkite. Switch to charter.net, and suddenly the top searches are "Emmy Nominations", "British Open", and "Jessica Simpson".

People, really? No wonder Americans are regarded as idiots in so many other countries! We are, if this is all that's important to us! We need to start taking more of an active interest in the world around us. For one day (and then hopefully many more) put aside the celebrity news (which is just the same stories applied to different people over and over again, I hope you realize!) and read -- actually, attentively read some type of international news. Then go out, find one person, and tell them about whatever event you just read about. How many of you can say that you've done this before? Think about it. Think about where your priorities should be. I dare you.

Some Musings on Space

2009-07-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

Some musings on space stuff . . .

The space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday on the sixth launch attempt, carrying its crew on mission STS-127. Here's wishing them a successful and safe flight and a wonderful time up at the ISS =) Even though shuttle launches are pretty common, they've never been a routine event for me, I always follow them obsessively. It would be nice if one day launches into space became so commonplace that it would almost be impossible to cover them that thouroughly, because there would be so many of them. That would mean that humans have finally reached the stars, or, I suppose, come very close. But then, we have to remember that the increasing commonality of launches could -- and has -- led to disasters in the past. Safety must go hand in hand with any mission.

Anyway . . . getting off of the depressing track . . . best of luck to STS-127, and congratulations on establishing the largest off-planet group of people ever! 13 on the ISS once Endeavour docks, yay!

Also . . . celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission!! Follow along on NASA's super-cool interactive site, http://wechoosethemoon.org (I've been spending way too much time on there lately xD)

Photo credits: NASA

Warehouse 13: "Resonance" Review

2009-07-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Summary: Artie sends Pete and Myka to Chicago to investigate a string of odd bank robberies, while he tries to find someone who has hacked into Warehouse 13's computers

Let's start with one thing, first. Although it's premiering around the same time that our beloved Battlestar Galactica is ending, Warehouse 13 is in no way its replacement. It's whimsical where BSG is serious, it's light where BSG is dark (and I mean literally) and it uses wide sweeping shots where BSG uses extreme close-ups. That's not to say it's bad, it's just very different. Anyway, on to the real review.

I can happily (and with complete honesty) say that "Resonance" exceeded my expectations. It's not brilliant, but nobody could realistically expect that from the second episode of a new show. The (main) actors are still struggling to fit into their roles, and maybe this is me being nitpicky, but Pete & Myka seem to have grown awfully close in the very short time they have spent together (Pete admits they've been partners for "not very long"). In any case, they're turning into an okay team to watch. I'm having a very hard time liking Pete, since he's so constantly immature, but Myka is brilliant and has so much character potential (and is so good at putting Pete in his place, a definite plus) that she's quickly becoming one of my favorite characters.

The writing, now that we're past the necessary long exposition/introduction in the pilot, passes as decent, I suppose. My problem is that while it's good fun to watch, it, like Eureaka is not really good scifi. A song that makes people extremely happy is kind of, um, lame? Yeah, that's the word I want. Throw in some computer hacking, bank robberies, guys in Kull-warrior-esque suits with capes (if you've seen Stargate SG-1, you know what that means), a dying musician, and the FBI, and you suddenly get a much better show. Add in Myka's family drama, a completely unexpected turnaround at the end of the episode (sappiness is forgiven, at least a little, because of the total shock value), a camera that turns people into 2D images (or something like that), and a cliffhanger-ish ending, and all of a sudden, you're really liking the writing.

Character-wise, "Resonance" is pretty good, especially in exploring Myka's past, which was hinted at in the first episode, but still, all we have is pieces. And casting Tricia Helfer (from BSG again!) as the FBI agent was an excellent choice =). Saul Rubinek as Archie is a totally brilliant actor, and he, unlike the other two actors, seems to have no problem slipping into his role as the crazy-but-genius Warehouse proprieter. But by the end of the episode, Pete was, as I said before, just annoying.

I'm still going back and forth on the directing. The extreme slow motion scene of stealing Jed away from the FBI and Myka and Pete was rather cheesy, but oddly effective. It really showed the "altering" effect the music has on people. I also approve of how each act blinks out to a commercial break (or just blinks out, since I'm watching these on Hulu xD) as if it were one of those video communicators blinking off.

So "Resonance" wasn't great, and wasn't horrible. Warehouse 13 as a whole lacks the darkness that is so prevalent in many of the TV shows I enjoy (a la BSG or X-Files), and that makes it a lesser show in my opinion. But right now, it's keeping me waiting for the next episode, which is a good sign.

"New Moon" in 10 Minutes (ish)

2009-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

As anyone who knows me even a little knows, I hate Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series. It's a disgrace to good writing, provides the worst possible role model for young girls, and is such a waste of paper. I've never read the books . . . I tried, honestly, but Twilight is right up there with Angels&Demons in terms of books I just can't finish. So, based on hearing my friends talk and on seeing the pathetic trailer that was in front of The Proposal, here's all you need to know about New Moon!

One gloomy day in Forks, Washington, Edward the sparkly vampire says to Bella the klutzy idiot, "I love you more than anything else, you're mysterious and beautiful and the one girl I want to be with. But I'm too dangerous to be around you. So I'm leaving. Goodbye, my love!" He cries as he left to go . . . somewhere.

Bella stares after him and screams, "EDWARD!! Don't go!! You're the bestest person ever and my one true love, and all I want to do is stare at you and drop out of school and marry you and have lots of half vampire babies!! I can't live without you Edward, because I'm weak and pathetic and unintelligent and need a strong man in my life!!"

Edward really wants to stay, but he can't. Then Bella says desperately, "Edward, I can't live without you. I'm going to accidentally on purpose commit suicide by jumping off a cliff and all your family is going to help, 'cause they're just as stupid as me!"

So Edward thinks to himself, Uh-oh, she's going to kill herself! That's really bad!! What should I do?? He decided to go rescue her. So then, when Edward is hugging Bella (but not too hard, because he was a super strong vampire after all), he's like, "I was stupid to run away. You really do love me!"

Bella cheers and says, "YAY! Can I drop out of school and get turned into a vampire and be your stupid girlfriend now?"

But Edward pointed to the evil vampires behind them and was like, "Not quite yet, there's a war about to start."

And Bella cries 'cause she's sad, 'cause she has no goals in life. And Jacob's watching and he's like, "Why am I supposed to be in love with her again?"

Hope you enjoyed!! If you like Twilight, I hope you atleast have enough of a sense of humor to appreciate where I'm coming from with this =)

Warehouse 13: "Pilot" Review

2009-07-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

I'm cautiously optimistic for Syfy's new show, Warehouse 13. Well, considering that their other options include Stargate: Universe, which promises to be a disgrace to the franchise, and Caprica, which is I-don't-know-what, but it's certainly not Battlestar Galactica, I don't really have much choice.

So, the basic idea of Warehouse 13 is that two agents with wildly different styles who really don't get along at all are forced to work in this middle-of-nowhere warehouse in the middle of South Dakota, and they have to collect all these weird and dangerous things that promise to, as the proprietor puts it, "ruin the world's day". In other words, it's the X-Files with artifacts instead of aliens, and there's a bit of Indiana Jones and some other action movies thrown in. I mean, seriously, the two agents (Myka Berring and Pete Lattimer are just lesser versions of Mulder and Scully. They didn't even bother to swap the gender roles and make the girl agent the one with the crazy ideas).

It has some potential though, especially since both Rockne O'Bannon (from Farscape) and Jane Espenson (from Battlestar Galactica) worked on the pilot. It follows on the new "Syfy" theme of dumbing things down, but at least it's a sign that Syfy hasn't completely given up on good TV. Just mostly given up. But Warehouse 13 has promise and at least bothers to set up a nice mythology/history type mystery (I'm sorry, I just could not make that not rhyme), and I'll be following this for at least the first season. If nothing else, it's a chance to see some pretty funky objects, including a teakettle that grants wishes (or ferrets, if the wish is impossible to grant) and a wickedly fast football.

Hello~!

2009-07-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

So . . . if you already know me, you know I already have a website . . . so why have a blog? Basically, I want a place to put my movie/tv/book reviews somewhere, and I'm far too lazy and have far too little time to create sections on my website for every single movie/tv show/book that I like. Hence, the blog! I'll be updating as much as I can, so check back often both here and on my website (you can find the link somewhere on the page . . . I'm still getting used to blogger xD). I also hope to have a new layout for the blog soon, as soon as I figure out how . . .

So, a bit about me: I love scifi, computers, politics, Irish things, languages, astronomy, and music. So that's probably what most of my posts will be about. Enjoy!!

I have 2 more things I'm going to post tonight . . . but don't get excited, you usually won't get three posts in one day from me!!