Hilary Duffs new look

Hilary has ditched the teen Disney look entirely and i applaud her and the older more sophisticated look is really a big improvement and i can't wait to by her new CD: Dignity. the graphics are corny to be sure, but they're a big step up from her riding around Rome on a scooter, even if she's being stalked...

House, by frank Peretti and Ted Deckker

i went to Cambridge and i am beginning to think that the ivy league thing isn't going to be for me, but fortunately that is a couple years away and i still have time to procrastinate. anyway off topic, whole different post, the book i am going to review (judge) for you today is: House, by frank Peretti and Ted Decker. House is the story of four travelers who all get trapped in an old house out in the middle of no where and have to fend off a psycho-killer. the book is about the game that this serial killer has set up involving the already terrified passer byers (who all converged on the house because there tires were slashed). the house rules/ rules of the games are as follows: #1-God came to my house and i killed him, (i still fail to see how this is a rule,) #2-anyone who comes to my house will be killed, like i killed God, #3- give me one dead body and I'll let rule 2 slide... so the story revolves around these two couples being mentally manipulated and broken down to the last straw until of course they have a dead body and the threat remains...

Hangmans Curse, by Frank Peretti

this is the first (technically third) of many book reviews yet to come. i chose this book because, one i loved it, two all my friends loved it, and three because you will love it if you read it.
this book is the first book in the Veritas Project series (Veritas is Latin for truth). the main story line is that there have been odd mental/physical breakdowns among select students (athletes) who have all claimed to have seen the mysterious phantom, Abel Frye, a kid who went to the school they attend and hung himself in one of the stair ways, and as most phantoms do, haunts the school, anyone who he doesn't like, or has done him wrong. so kids are freaked out, parents are taking kids out of school, people are on the brink of death in psyche ward at hospital, because of some freak ghost, who on earth has any likely capability of helping the poor hopeless soles being followed around by the spirit of a dead child? the Springfields. a family of spys/government help who take on various projects seeking the truth out of sticky situations. after a drug bust the family is called to investigate the school by sending in there teenage twins: Elijah and Elisha. the two go undercover as students to find countless mysteries and questions about the school, witchcraft, bullying, and a diabolical weapon that no one would ever see coming. this book will definably keep you on the edge of your seat, although it's probably not what his adult readers were looking for, it is a great read for teens and young adults. to learn more about Mr. Peretti here is his webpage: Frank Peretti

spring is in the air and snow is on the ground

i just walked inside from picking up my sister and it is something like 50 degrees out there! it's warm and birds are singing, literally, i could hear them. the weird part is that it really does feel like spring now and not winter, even though it snowed all weekend at the winter retreat i went to (yes, Bex, i went and it was awesome, i swear some of the best worship i've ever heard, and the testimonies of our youth pastor and his wife were unbelievable) anyway the ice and snow are melting and the birdies are singing and whatever. i completely love this picture by Kathrine Dunn, here is her site: K.Dunn/Artist
i've decided to start writing more book reviews(prepare yourself) they will be biased and cutthroat, you have been warned...

Avril vs. Alfred (Weird Al)

this is the original Avril Lavgine video, here is Weird Al's version( i hate him):



that wasn't really him, but it was the first one that came up on youtube, all the same it's crude and disgusting.

help my mom pick a new publicity shot

help my mom choose between two pictures, i like the second one: Reasoned Audacity

Valentines was Yesterday and it took all the pink with it

as you can see i've disposed of the pink background and gone back to my nice clean white one. if you missed my festive pink background too bad it is not going back up. the next time i change my background will probably be my sister-the Diva's b-day or something fun.

beauty and a beast of a market

we live in a wonderful time when computers have the upper hand and anyone dumb enough to believe there manipulation have a beautiful bliss known as ignorance. this stage is later followed by as denial, then you have plain stupidity. but to counter act the manipulation of the modern age Dove has decided to fight fire-with-fire, by manipulting the public with propaganda as to why there compeators are horrible people for lowering the self-esteem of unsuspecting girls buying beauty products in ignorance. what i've just written makes no sense ( i do that a lot) since by pulling us out of ignorance we have only two choices: denial that our favorite beauty products are produced by cruel intended people (not true) or that we should go to there website, donate a lot of money or something in a hope to help young girls with pitiful self-esteems. Dove is really spinning there wheels and the worst part is that it's working, not to mention the fact that Oprah applauds them; there are at least 20 different commercials in 8 diiferent langauges, featuring young girls of different races feeling bad about themselves making us feel bad for not feeling bad about them. you are either for or agianst there do-good efforts, bet you can't guess which way i'm leaning. it just seems really stupid to watch 12 year old girls stare at a camera looking hopeless, like we're the only ones who could save them. then you realize that your self-esteem isn't that great either so you feel like you should be on there side, but then it comes to the real hitter: how is buying DOVE products going to help anyone?




touching isn't it... why is it that watching a pity-party reel can make us run to the nearest CVS and buy every DOVE product we can find, heres another one, this one is the Singapore version:



here is the original:

Mom on NBC, not the first time either

yay, for mom! she was on TV...again! she talked about Mitt Romney and his religion effecting him in the Presidental race.

tonights forcast

wet and freezing, in other words, just enough snow to make sitting in class miserable. light flurries, great, how about a BLIZZARD??? but no, lucky little us get to walk through the slush all afternoon. isn't life wonderful?

HAPPY VALENTINES WEEK!

i hope you all like the special background for the week- unless of course seeing pink all week drives me mad, then i'd go back to my white and black background! the picture is from Hearts that hate(?) it was the first picture that came up when i googled hearts under images, and think it fits very nicely to balence out the Barbie Pink.

bad day turned good!

today in school we had to submit our class choices for next year, which if there isn't enough room in the classes we chose then they pick for us, so basically they pick for us and if we end up in plumbing 101 it's not there fault, makes perfect sense. this would probably ruined my day if it had not immediately been salvaged by my World geo class, and English class, which had extremely fun class activities and homework that was actually appealing; we got to go around our W. Geo classroom examining photographs and describing there content, the different landscapes we looked at included: a coffee farm, a spiritual site in Peru, several birds-eye views of coastlines of more urban parts of Ecuador and a Sugar-cane farmer.
then in English we had to take a picture and describe it in a descriptive paragraph without using helping verbs, i really wish my teachers would make up there minds on whether or not they want short and brief sentences or long-winded paragraphs, because at my old school my teacher wanted short and choppy and here they naturally want long descriptive sentences. whatever. i like writing and the more feed-back and perspective you get on writing the better your writing is, so i consider the lack of consistency a challenge to be met! Back to the homework assignment, our teacher wants us to describe a picture, i chose the one above, and she wants a brief paragraph with no helping verbs, and a lot of action verbs. this would be a very easy project indeed if i didn't use had so much. here is my paragraph, that kind of turned into a one and a half page paper, single spaced:

Unplanned Murder
(i didn't like the name "the poor painters cupboard"-the name of the painting)

the blood dripped slowly from his finger tips, his heart beating wildly, stars danced and flashed before his eyes... he collapsed to the ground covered with the guilt of murder.
Morgan hadn't meant to kill her, but rage had gotten the better of him. his wife Loraine managed to steel several paintings he had done and sold them to an auction house, keeping the profits for her self. He reflected on the events of the night before, caring the evidence back into his private studio for hiding: the knife, the letters, the top-hat, and the painting-the painting he loved only days before now haunted him with memories of her fingers clasped tightly around his wrist, cold and lifeless things, sent shivers up his spine. the blood stained painting had to be burned, the evidence hidden, the guilt removed. he placed the freshly cleaned knife behind a collection of his favorite novels, the letters in a red portfolio underneath the book "lives of Painters", "i bet they never thought a painter would be capable of this..." he mumbled to himself. the top hat was then shoved in on top of it all. he quickly decided against finishing the croissant he had been eating before he had taken off on the unexpected chase and later murder of his wife, but the thought of eating at a time like this was sickening. he pulled a curtain concealing the incriminating articles. he threw the painting into the almost dark embers of the fire place and proceeded to the bathing room hoping to wash away the guilt.
the painter was found dead the next morning, if an autopsy had commenced there would have been evidence of cyanide poisoning taken in the middle of the night.

there wasn't much i could do witht the sea shell, maybe in a different story, but the crime scene evidence in hidding look hit me full in the face.

united 93

nothing bonds a family like watching the nation fall to pieces on one of the most terrible days in history. United 93 is about the terrorists taking over the countries airways and the heros aboard flight 93. it is by far the most inspirational movies i've ever watched. my three-year-old brother is hugging my mothers legs while Pnzr is sitting with my father, the Diva (my nine year old sister) is wrapped up in a blanket with my mom, and Sweetie (my six-year-old sister) is drifting in and out f sleep on the other couch. we're at the part were all the passengers are calling their families and i'm tearing up, the passengers just attacked. i swear the guys that did the music for this deserve some serious praise. God bless those passengers and their families, they were all true heros and heroines. the movie just ended, we all know the ending, and anyone who dosn't, needs to google 9/11 immediatly.

the looking glass wars

first of all if the people from TAB are reading this i am indifferent if it is a to be a favorite or not.
everyone has there own opinions, one person can find Shakespeare moving, while another can find it repulsive.

Alice in Wonderland, a beloved book with a new counterpart: Alyss in Wonderland, a twisted mockery of the funny and whimsical original book. i thought first that it was a great book, but then it began to sound really corny, seven year olds fall in love and some how hold onto i for thirteen years? albino tutors? seeing dead parents in a mirror (total jip from Harry Potter)? dancing at a masquerade ball with a long lost love (total jip from phantom of the opera)? the fantasy aspect was a total drag after reviewing it, turtle-birds and jaberwocky's? come on. Frank Beddor is strait out Hollywood ambition. he knows what he wants: roller coasters and patented comic books, and he has all the means to obtain them, he even took the time to share his ego with the rest of us by providing a site that displayed all these ideas of his(it is actually a very cool site and be sure to look at the art work): looking glass wars.
this story is all about the war between Alyss and her aunt who are struggling for power over the Wonderland throne, then after the war we don't get to see the repair of wonderland or anything. the ending it self too, Alyss has to go through the looking glass maze to become queen, dead give away to the ending; then when she wins the war the book is wrapped up quickly and nothing ever happens to the romance that has with stood thirteen years of waiting (i kidd you not absolutly nothing happens), there is no revelation point other then Alyss realizing that she can't let anger control her; the original cute and promising premise that sounded like such a good book isn't hardly followed up.
you have the bad parts now here are the brighter elements, few as they are: most of the history of Alice Lyndell was true! all hope is not lost, until of course you realize that he has set you up for sequel to clarify on the happenings of Redd(Alyss's aunt and villianess) and the Cat(the evil assassin sent after Alyss) and the would-be romance (as you can see i am very set off by this lack of romance) more some-what good parts: it is a very cute story if you can get past the gory war scenes, mass murders (which to be perfectly honest weren't necessary for the book), and orphan girl with terrible step parents, and the bad image that Lewis Carrol gets- he is seen as a wimp and anarchist from the very first page.
as a whole it is very good book if you like Hollywood-has-beens who are trying to expand there resumes by adding author to the list. but i liked it the first time i read it so that has to count for something, but i do think making four trailers for a book is a bit extreme. the website was well done even if the book wasn't so hot after all, and the art work is awesome and the merchandise isn't that bad either (not like i'm going to buy any of it though)
i realize the review i just gave was probably depressing for some who might have looked forward to reading the book(such as myself, who spent a chunk of time looking for it after a friend recommended it) and don't get me wrong it is good reading material, it just isn't original. the first time i read it i had no ideas or thoughts of the book, but flipping back through it the only true creativity in the writing was in only in the scenes that involved the pool of tears and then alot of dry spots followed. the characters were interesting they were what kept me from just giving up on the book, i wanted to see Alyss get her crown (and wouldn't you guess, the coronation is in the sequel, the book's ending literally falls off a cliff) i wanted for Dodge(the boy who Alyss falls unrealistically in love with) to get his revenge and everyone wants for Redd to die (all of these went unfulfilled). it was a good book, but i do wish that Beddor had taken the time to write something that had a real moment were you knew if you put the book down you would never forgive yourself (one night i actually fell asleep mid sentence, and i was nearing the end of the book too) on the other hand there are people who like books like that and this review shouldn't keep you from reading the book.
this book defiantly had it's ups and alot of downs, but it was fantasy so i'm not really sure if i should judge this book or not, in the end though it is still a book and all books should be given a chance to be read, unless it was written by Hillary Clinton or Paris Hilton, in this case it wasn't so enjoy!

HONK! part 2

Honk was a hit!! yay! tomorrow we get to perform it all over again! but kudos all around, the play was really great and everyones hair looked even better!

in the spirit of valentines day

i love this picture and it seems to fit the holiday, yes i realize that it is more then a week a way and that i will be acquiring metal fixtures on my teeth on that day, yes i am going to thoroughly hate that day from then on, and no i have not lost all of my sanity, yet. so here is the future picture of what this day will represent to me:
aren't they lovelly plastic teeth?

fun pictures that have nothing to do with each other!

i give you: Kiki Strike, lightening, an ice sculpture, and my favorite author: Agatha Christie!!

HONK!

the corniest theatre production known to man (and duck) is being performed at our school tonight, were my fabulous hair styles and make up artistry will be put to work along side with a true genius and one of the best artists i know, JiJi (said Gee Gee) (i hope she likes that screen name i'll change it later if she doesn't) who is basically makeup supervisor. the play is alot like the ugly duckling with more about the swans and a bullfrog (who's hair is done up in the most wreched style, yet still tastefully done, by JiJi)

Scoop!!

yay!! after waiting for months, watching the trailer on-demand, over and over again, we get to watch it tonight!!! of course Pnzr is acting up about not being able to watch Happy Gilmore tonight, but i want to make the point the last several movies we've watched were total guy films!!!!!

more projects: animalism and CD's

in our english class there is a project on George Orwell's classic novel Animal Farm, that is due in a week. we either had to create our own utopia, write commandments and make a flag or create a CD and booklet on how the songs we chose relate to the book and it's characters, i chose the latter.
here are the songs i have so far:
stab my back, All-American rejects
waiting on the world to change, John Mayer
too little, too late, JoJo
i won'tback down, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
it is you, the newsboys
and that it for now but i only need 5 more. i pulled these songs from my sisters, dad's, mom's and Pnzr's playlists, i have absolutly no idea who Tom Kelly is besides the fact that the song that i picked was in the movie Barnyard, and i was the one who was on the computer when my dad asked me to download it for him.
the weird part about this book that i'd seen it before and it had creeped me out and then when our teacher introduced it, the books had different covers so i was oblivous for a while before the name finally sank in, it was very odd, pigs taking over and humans being hopeless. i was thinking about reading some of his other work...