Tag Archives: reading

April 11, 2012 · 11:41 AM

You Look Pretty Today

I’ve decided I want to start a trend, and I can’t think of a better way to spread it than this.

You know how you get all dressed up one day because you have an event later, or you just felt like looking nice, or your mom made you?  Have you ever had someone say, “You look nice/pretty/handsome/splendid/attractive today?”  (If anyone said the last two to you, then they are probably creepers.  You should stay away from them)

I don’t know if it annoys you when that happens, but it does bother me.  Being an English major, I tend to analyze language almost religiously.  So here’s what “You look pretty today” means once it’s been analyzed: “Today you look good.  You never look good any other day.”  Now, 9 times out of 10 (I’d like to say 10 times out of 10, but you can never be sure), people aren’t trying to insult you when they say that.  What they’re trying to say is that they’ve noticed you’re looking extra special and they want to compliment you on your temporarily heightened good looks.

So here’s the trend I want to start: When someone looks especially pretty/handsome, tell them, “You look extra pretty/handsome today.”  That way your compliment will be 100% genuine, with no accidentally implied insult.  What you’re saying is, “Usually you look good, but today your good looks have been emphasized, and I’ve taken notice.”  Please start doing this.  I think it’d be awesome if I could change the world.

Note: If you totally meant to insult that person because they stole your girlfriend and then glued a picture of their butt onto your computer screen, but you can’t insult them outright because they’re the boss’ kid and they can get you fired, so you have to stick to backhanded insults that sound like compliments, then go ahead and disregard this post.  Or just use the “extra pretty” line with people you genuinely like.

Word of the Day: Implication (n) – something implied or suggested as naturally to be inferred or understood.

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March 24, 2012 · 1:12 PM

Finally Marr

So IMDb just informed me that The Host, a book by Stephenie Meyer, is being made into a movie.  I should have known, of course.  Meyer has made it quite obvious to the movie industry that she can make them a fortune, and they’ve run out of Twilight movies.  So, yeah, making The Host into a movie is the logical next step.  But now I’m conflicted!  Because, on the one hand, The Host was a legitimately good book that I enjoyed very much, and even bought in Spanish since I like practicing other languages by reading my favorite books in them.  On the other hand, it’s Stephenie “Women don’t need to be smart as long as they’re pretty” Meyer.  I don’t want her to make any more money.  I really don’t think she deserves it.  So I guess I won’t be seeing that movie in theaters, even though I’d like to.  Twilight just taints everything it touches…like the plague.  Only instead of causing black sores to appear all over the body, I think people just start oozing glitter.

(I miss not having my tablet.  It’s so much easier to make longer pieces of speech fit in the frame)

Anyway, my point is that I can’t, in good conscience, support Stephenie Meyer.  So I guess I’ll Netflix it or something.

The next order of business for today is my homage to Melissa Marr, which I’ve been putting off for way too long.  So here we go:

(She gets a big number four because everyone else got a big number.  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Then read this and this.)

Thanks MS Paint, for being there when I needed you.

So Melissa Marr wrote the Wicked Lovely series, which is mainly what I want to talk about.  Her more recent novel is called Graveminder, and while it was quite good, I don’t believe it was the same caliber as Wicked Lovely.  See those books are about fairies, but not the kind that wear tiny green dresses and run off to tell Captain Hook where your secret hideout is the moment they get mad at you.  These fairies are kind of deadly and scary-looking, and sometimes just plain crazy.  But on top of that, the books all address really deep issues about loyalty, friendship, right and wrong, etc.  Marr definitely doesn’t coddle you.  Her books can be frustrating and terrifying and sad in all the right ways.  I also wasn’t sure a lot of the time who I was supposed to be rooting for, which is kind of awesome.  And that’s why I like her.  She’s one of my favorite authors because she doesn’t pull punches, and she doesn’t take the obvious route for her stories.  And she reinvents the concept of “fairy” in very interesting ways, too, which is always fun.

Yay!  I finally got around to doing this!  I’m very happy.  I think that’s where I’ll leave off on this list, because I know if I say I’ll continue, then I never will and then I’ll feel bad for not upholding my promise.

You get two words of the day because I used two in this post that I really like.

Word of the Day 1: Homage (n) – respect or reverence paid or rendered.

Word of the Day 2: Caliber (n) – degree of merit or excellence; quality.

Note: Caliber can also be used to measure the barrel of a gun and other cylindrical, tube-like objects.  Obviously that wasn’t the use I was going for, so I didn’t define it in that way.  Just thought I’d point that out.

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March 13, 2012 · 2:26 AM

This is my brain on movies

Sometimes I wonder about my own brain and why I’m creative and why I want to write.

I just finished watching a movie you may have heard of called Stranger than Fiction.  I like it a lot because it’s about writing and the creative process.  It also happens to be the only one of Will Ferrell’s movies that I can actually stand.  I like him in this movie because he proves he can act, and not just as some ridiculous caricature of a person, but as a realistic, believable human being.

There are some movies out there that just set the creative part of my brain to whirring the moment they begin.  Stranger than Fiction is one of them.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because, as I said, it’s actually about writing.  But I really think that it’s just that type of movie.  It’s supposed to be thought-provoking, which for me means that I end up wanting to write really badly.  Unfortunately, it’s 1:52 AM right now, so writing is not something I can really do, at least not well, because sometime after 1:00 AM, my brain does this:

Despite that fact, my brain also feels the desperate need to write, and it’s very hard to convince it that maybe writing isn’t the best idea when it gets like this.  I’ve already forgotten what I was saying….OH right, okay, so what do I do when I want to write but my brain has shut down?  That’s right, I turn to blogging.  At least here I can be a little more informal, but I can also be writing and stuff, so maybe that’ll satisfy my creative urges.  (No I don’t know why I capitalized “bunny,” but maybe if you look at the picture of what my brain is doing right now, you’ll be able to forgive me for that small slip-up)

Here’s another thing about Stranger than Fiction: It’s all about an author whose main character is alive, and that character seeks out the author and they have a nice chat.  Now, not all authors want to meet their characters, (I’m sure Stephen King sleeps better at night knowing that his creations are going to stay firmly embedded in the paper) but I think I would love to see some of mine come to life.  It’s something I’ve often thought about.  What would I say to them?  What would they want to ask me?  How would we get along?  One of the requirements would be that they understand that they are fictional and that I am the author and that’s just how things go.  Otherwise there could be thoughts of rebellion, and I’m pretty sure most of my main characters could kill me quite easily.  There’s also the fact that I’ve killed some of their loved ones, so they might feel a little sore about that.  And then there’s Serrafiel.  I feel like he might be a little miffed that I knowingly brought him into a world of torment and servitude…

It’s a scary thought.  But also so cool!  Anyway, I think I’ve got the writing bug out of me, so I can finally go to sleep.

 

 

Shut up, brain.

Word of the Day: Trebuchet (n) – a medieval engine of war with a sling for hurling missiles.

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