It sucks…. ’nuff said

“Why haven’t you reviewed a book lately?”

I’ve been reading very often but I haven’t really liked many books. That means most of the books I’ve read have, in my own humble opinion, sucked.

The problem I find with a lot of books that don’t move me in any way is that I can’t really find words to describe why I hated it. It’s just something I know, not something I can analyze easily. This has ended up with me attempting to review it, only to end up with the words “idk, it just sucked” on my computer screen.

I will try, in my future, to write more reviews but you’ve got to understand that with me and my shallow brain, it’s gotten to be either “I liked it” or “it sucked”.

More reviews will hopefully come when I find more adjectives to describe my simple likes and dislikes.

~Ash

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Well, quite frankly, I felt we had to do this one. =)

This is essentially about Johnny Depp and Co. begging the general population’s forgiveness for Pirates 2 & 3 and trying to get back to the general awesomeness of Curse of the Black Pearl. 

I’ve forgive you. Awesomeness restored, though? The jury is out. Doubtless there will be another one, and at that point we’ll see if the franchise is back on the mend or in a kind of downward slide that repares itself slightly with the beginning of each trilogy.

But enough about the big picture stuff that keeps Disney execs up at night.

Book Order

I placed a book order with Barnes and Noble last week and it arrived last Friday! I was pretty excited because now I have more books to review! Sorry about that long stretch of no reviews. Our bad! But anyway, here’s what books I got that there will be a review on soon.

Writing in 2011

I’m one of those people that makes lists. And of course, I have a crazy list of “Stuff To Do This Year.” I make one every year, but considering that I’m graduating from high school and starting college and all that, my list is noticeably longer this year.

But, because I have nothing to do but homework, and part of that is revising my “Portal” half-novel, I’ve been thinking about writing and goals…

So I have a whole list just for writing! Don’t worry–it’s pretty short. =D

Kristine’s Writing List of 2011!

+ Finish a book!

+ Blog about some good stuff

+ Keep up with the creation of the Master document to all of my story ideas

+ Experiment and write a play/TV show/movie

+ Take some sweet college English classes (AP gets me out of lame ones =D)

The Banner

I figured this needs a little bit of explaining.

Basically, Ashlie told me that our old banner looked really lame so I started tinkering making a new one. Then she asked (demanded) that Prince Caspian/Ben Barnes be in it. Then she said that it would be really cool if we stuck our heads on bodies in pirate-period attire (but in an obviously-fake way so it looks funnier).

So I made the BEAUTIFUL banner than now adorns our blog, following that idea.

I think it’s pretty sweet…

Little bit of explaining: OVER.

~Kristine

One… Two… Three…

Ashlie and I went and saw Tangled yesterday (good movie go see it, but we did have one horrific experience I’ll let her tell you about. She enjoys it more) and I spent most of my pre-movie time chatting and, in the back of my mind thinking about my new story idea and some of my old story ideas…

I’m ALWAYS coming up with new books to write. Like the rest of the world, I dump most of them, or let them fester, unwritten, at the back of my mind, pulled out and dusted off when I’m at my most bored.

But I’ve had this one story that I work pretty much all the time, since I came up with it… A year ago? A year and a half? I dunno, the point is it’s been a long time.

An apology and a proposition….

Okay so I know I haven’t written lately… and I’m very sorry about that!

The reason for it is that I have been crazy busy. I know, it’s no excuse! I’M SORRY!!!

But… I did read a series that I liked and I’m gonna try to review it sometime this weekend.

Pottermania



EDIT (11/29/2010): I’ve been told to warn you that this post contains spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. You’ve been warned…

I spent most of my day blowing off homework to watch Potter Puppet Pals and A Very Potter Musical on YouTube and trying to explain The Deathly Hallows to my dad.

Because, let’s be honest: if you haven’t read the book/seen Part 2, there’s no chance you’re going to get anything except the obvious.

And my dad’s one of those people who calls Snape ‘Snipe.’ Which suits him just as well, really. (JUST BECAUSE HE WAS IN LOVE WITH HARRY’S MUM *SHUDDER* DOES NOT MEAN HE’S A GOOD MAN. STILL A CREEPER)

I was obsessed with HP for a large chunk of my childhood and the movie brought it back a little from the dark storage closet in my brain where I put all of that in my brain after Tonks, Lupin and Fred died. All my favorite people… Why JK Rowling? WHY?

But even with all of my shock/outrage, I didn’t really understand Book 7, and seeing the movie, I actually got some of it. And remembered a lot of stuff I just forgot.

I want to give a big thumbs up to the people that make those movies. I read an interview at some point where Daniel Radcliff said that it’s not just the books that make the movies a success: they’re actually decent movies. And they are. Especially as the books get more depressing, serious, deadly and confusing, the movies offer a decent step back from Harry’s brain (where everything makes sense) and force the writers to make so things really do make sense.

I loved (and totally understood!) the whole breaking-into-the-Ministry part, and Ron’s little melodrama (“oh, no! my wife’s down there all alone!” “Ron, you don’t have a wife.” “oh.”).

Although, why did Harry have a glass shard thing with Dumbledore’s face? Was it from that mirror Sirius gave him? How did it appear in his sock?

Percy Jackson and The French-Canadians’ Revenge

So, I read a whole bunch of stuff I theoretically shouldn’t be interested in. Like Percy Jackson. That’s aimed at kids in middle school. There’re five books in that series and now there’s a new series that’s starting or something… And I’ve read 1, 2, 4 and the second half of 5. And then I read The Lost Hero, which is the first one in the new series.

Although it follows the same basic outline (people meet, people find out they’re half-god, people go on a theoretically insane quest and somehow survive to come back and find out ‘hey! you’re not really done because there’s a bigger issue you”ll face in the vague but near future!’) I liked The Lost Hero a lot more. I mean, being in Percy’s head was funny but now there’s three people (all older than he was/closer to my age, too) that we get to see and (gasp!) they all have issues!

This is actually a good thing. Because it’s interesting.

I’m still mad that Beckendorf and Silena are dead, but Piper is a nice look into the Aphrodite cabin, and Leo living up to Beckendorf’s legacy is a nice shout-out to the fact that he WAS EPIC.

Classics And Modern Authors

The greatest thing about great books is that they don’t let you go. Most of the time, my ideas about it (sequels, new characters, etc) get tossed about in my brian and eventually tossed out. Some of them make it to fanfiction.net to float about with the other people’s…

But what I’m really jealous of is the people who get them published. I mean, DUDE!