The Week Before

I remember exactly what I was doing thirteen years ago at this very moment: sitting in front of a keyboard typing my heart out.

I was days from turning eleven, and for some reason this was absolutely the age I'd been waiting to turn since birth. I was very excited to be eleven. Things happened when you were eleven.

I was so excited in fact, that I remember not being able to sleep for the entire week leading up to August 8. But who needs sleep when your ten and 358 days old? Instead, I was up to the wee hours of the morning, every night that week, working on one of the first stories that I remember. I'm not going to share the story with you. It was something an eleven-year-old would write, and probably pretty stupid.

So as I sit here now (not exactly excited to turn 24, but with still another story on my fingertips), as the clock pushes 1am, on August 7, I am reminded of how things don't really change that much.

Well, except for the typewriter I had back then.

Twilight, Part... well, who really cares anymore?

It is August 3.

One day after the relase of the much-anticipated fourth book of the Twilight series.

Let the blood bath begin. (Yes, pun completely and totally intended. Please laugh.)

Book four left much to be desired. I'll probably just leave it at that. I was going to write up my thoughts on it, my disappointment with certain plot choices, the utilization of deus ex machina literary devices, and many, many dangling clues that were left unaddressed. But I just had to see what everyone else thought of it. Maybe it was just me. I was hesitant about the series anyway. Maybe the die hard fans loved it and I'm the weird one.

And maybe not. I read through the reviews on Amazon, and ouch. I think there were about 140 who had given it 5 stars. And 157 who had given it 1 star. Stars 2, 3, and 4 made up approximately 30 other people. Those are some pretty harsh reviews.

So now I just feel really ridiculously bad for the author, because this can't be a good day for her. The release of your last book in a series should be amazing... and I have a feeling it's just turning out very, very sad.

I think one reviewer put it best by saying that you should really just stop at book three and make up your own ending. I kind of whole heartedly agree.

It could have been so great. Oh well.

Twilight, Part Four

What happened to parts two and three, you ask? Well. Part two's theories would have been posted on Tuesday night, and Part three's guesses would have come early Thursday afternoon... if I could have put either of those books down long enough to boot up my laptop. But I couldn't, so I didn't, and so nothing of the past week of my life has been recorded yet, even though it's actually some good stuff (being on set, the Cheesecake Factory fiasco, and seeing Ryan Hansen LIVE! ON STAGE!). Meh. It'll all have to wait until I'm done with book four...

Which fortunately came out today. I really planned this well. Not even enough downtime in between book three and four to really start itching for it. I finished three around 11:30 last night, picked up book four at 1pm today. Why can't it always be this easy?

So, my thoughts on the series so far: I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm not in love with it yet. My roommates might try to contradict that, as they've been the ones who've watched me read for about four days straight, but really I just need to know the end of the story. Even if I don't like something, if it intrigues me enough, I have to know how it ends. Jenna's solution for that was to just thumb through to the end, but that's because Jenna is the very essence of what book-ruiners are made of. (Did you hear that, Jenna?) But I need to know the whole story, how we get to the climax, how they escape from certain death, all that good stuff. So here I am, hostage to the vampire love story that has taken over our nation today, August 2. Just think, there are millions of people reading this very book right now. Some started at midnight and were finished hours ago. The whole plot is probably detailed out on hundreds of livejournals. I need to stay off the internet.

Anyway, my thoughts on it (for real this time): Great plot. Excellent characterization. I mean, really, really good. Alice and Emmett are totally in the top of my favorite fictional characters. Everything moves the book forward, in a pace that doesn't let you stop to take a breath. I think the thing that's probably holding me back is that I'm just not much of a horror story kind of person, and these books are somewhere between suspense and horror. But then you throw in all the teenage drama and it seems pretty normal.

My predictions (in smaller lighter reading-- I just can't spoil it for anyone else either):

I don't think Bella will become a vampire. The only options we really have are 1) Bella becomes a vampire, 2) Bella decides against it, 3) Edward dies, 4) Bella dies, 5) Edward becomes human again. So far Bella's been on board for joining up for three books, so it's going to take something big for her to change her mind (her aversion to blood has yet to be addressed by any of them...). I don't think the author would kill off either of the main characters, though I think Jacob's definitely in jeapordy. My gut reaction, ever since the Romeo/Juliet/Paris line was brought up, is that Jacob will be taken out of the picture. And since there hasn't been anything said about any possible way for vampires to change back to humans, unless they stumble across something in this book, I don't see Edward's human chances being very good. My prediction now: Bella will not become a vampire. Not sure how or why yet. I still hold to my theory that there's something more to her, she's got some power about her, and I think it comes down through her mother's side somehow. Maybe Charlie isn't her real father?

And now off to read. Be back later.

Twilight, Part One

EDITED: This was originally written on Sunday night, but I posted it to the picture blog on accident. So here it is now. Pretend it's Sunday night, kay?

So I started reading Twilight. You know, the Mormon vampire book. Wasn't really sure what to expect out of it. I mean, really: what does one expect from a teenage vampire book, written by a Mormon, and gushed about by a good majority of both the Mormoms and Christians that I know/keep up with via blogs?

Exactly.

So I'm 101 pages in as of now, and I must say, it's definitely entertaining. Intriguing. Suspenseful. I think I've already got part of the plot figured out, but there's still like 400 pages to go, so I'm thinking it may be a part that you're supposed to figure out early so you think you're all smart and then WHAM! The real suprise hits you around page 350, because you weren't even looking for it. If you want to read Twilight and don't want any spoilers, don't read the next paragraph-- I'll make it easy to avoid by typing in small letters and a really light font. But here's my guesses so far:

Bella's mother is one of the vampires. That's why she seems so young for her age, Bella claims she is prettier than her (because the vampires in this book are characterized by their ageless beauty), and why she had problems staying with Bella's dad. This would make Bella a half-vampire, which explains why what's-his-face Cedric Digory-boy (Edward) is so drawn to her, why she's harder for him to see through, something about her weakness for blood, and would somehow make it so they could be a cute little vampire couple for eternity.

Or something. I really don't know. But it's good. Definitely going to be looking forward to all the down time on set tomorrow.

Dinner a'la Thursday

Brittany and Andy prep the chef's salad (a house favorite of Thursday night dinner if you will remember from here.)

A view of the nearly empty apartment on the eve of the eve of Ryan's last night.

Group shot #8? It took a little bit of time, and quite a few books stacked, to get all of our entire heads in the picture.

And this one... this one will have to be explained later.

Five on Friday

Because Ten on Tuesday is just too much.

1) Once Jenna and I locked ourselves out of the apartment and didn't realize for half an hour that we had the key in our hands the whole time. And I mean literally in our hands, not some metaphorical mumbo jumbo. Funny story, really. Maybe I'll tell it another time.

2) On Tuesday night, Jenna and I got ourselves locked in our apartment for the first time ever. Our screen door gets stuck all the time, and that day it decided not to unstick, despite the 100+ pounds of girl we were throwing at it. We finally had to have Jared come over and bust us out. And then we taped over that stupid hole so it couldn't happen again.

3) A claim to fame: For quite a while, I was the top ranked player on the Addicted to Veronica Mars trivia application on Facebook. Of the entire world of people who are addicted to Veronica Mars, I had a commanding lead for about two weeks. Then I remembered I have a life to live and stopped keeping up with it, but someday I'm going to go back and reclaim my title. Our team, which consisted of Brittany, Ryan, and Andy, was the top ranked team for quite awhile as well.

4) I am writing a book. No, you're not in it.

5) I kind of loathe Rock Band a little. I feel it's the popular kid's Guitar Hero. Or for kids who can't share. Either way, the guitar is different feeling and I don't like it.

Melancholy and Rock Stars.

Well, tonight we are at Ryan's for the last time. He's moving out of his bacheror pad, this nice little apartment with a jacuzzi, nestled into a nook of the 15 freeway.

We will miss it.

Currently, 3 Shades of Blue are playing Rock Band. 3 Shades of Blue is our band name cuz we're cool like that. It's 3 Shades, even though there are 4 of us, because 3's a cooler number apparently. And also, I only play like a third of the time so it really doesn't matter. (I don't find Rock Band very impressive.)

So they're playing, and I'm blogging, and Thursday nights are routine for one last night. After this we're sure to watch some television show Ryan's DVR'ed, so the last TV Thursday will be a very well-rounded experience.