Fang

I don't know if you're familiar with James Patterson's Maximum Ride series or not, but they're quite awesome. It's a science fiction series about these six kids who have been genetically engineered to have bird DNA, so they have wings. The narrative style (it's mostly first-person from Max's perspective) is humorous and action-packed and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, and they are just wonderful. Readreadread. The first book is called THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT, if you haven't read them. I think you'd like them. (Even you, CH, even though you don't read.)

Anyway, book six is called FANG. It's a relatively new release -- by which I mean around March 15 -- and I had the good fortune to borrow a copy from a good friend of mine. It was the large print version, which was kind of annoying since I felt like I was reading a children's book, but the story. Ohhhmygosh.

Basically, without giving too much away here, Angel makes a prediction that Fang will be the first to die, and soon. Meanwhile, a new birdkid, Dylan, shows up; he's been designed to be Max's perfect other half. So there's all sorts of action as she's trying to save Fang and tension between Dylan and Fang and meanwhile Dr. I-Don't-Even-Remember-What-It-Actually-Is (Max calls him Dr. God) is trying to do additional genetic experiments on the Flock and it was quite fantastic.

My thoughts right now, having read it, are "butbutbut that's not even okay!" and "I would really like to dropkick Angel out a window." More than that, I cannot say. But this series is amazing, and there was one part of the book where I cried (not gonna tell you where or why), and you should go read them. Likenow. And you can check out the website here. Also you should know that (even before this book came out) Fang is on that list of Amazing Fictional Guys.

(Saying "Fictional" is really kind of redundant. Most of the "Amazing" guys I've come across have been fictional. Unfortunately, even the fictional ones are taken. Actually, especially the fictional ones. End rant. More on the list of Amazing Fictional Guys later.)

Gotta go now. Catch ya later!

Love,
Bex

High School Landmarks

Last night was my high school's Prom. So, of course, several of my friends (AF, KD, CJ, and ES) and I spent a couple of hours getting ready and getting ready and taking pictures together, and then we headed off to a long evening of dancing, less-than-spectacular (read: mostly horrible) music, shouting to hear each other, and general insanity.

Of course, that's not to say that we didn't have any fun. I do believe we had quite a bit of fun. Of course, it wouldn't have been a school dance if there weren't any drama to go around; a certain freshman probably has a good buttkicking coming to him on Monday, because nobody hurts our JD like that and gets away with it. But I promised not to post any sort of angst on the blog, and on the whole I think we had a good time (although AF will disagree with me, but, then again, she's ridiculous ♥).

But it kind of got me thinking.

We went by ourselves. Five girls, and we met up with NG there, so six girls -- sans dates, because only one of us has a boyfriend and he lives several states away -- going to the Junior/Senior Prom together (even though one of us is a sophomore), and our afterparty consisted of changing out of our dresses, crashing on my living room floor, and then reading Dr. Seuss books all morning. Also STOP THAT BALL, which is a rhyming children's book by...um....somebody who is not Dr. Seuss. When you look at it all, it's really pretty atypical. We didn't even have friend dates, we spent more time wandering around on the porch than dancing, we didn't recognize more than 2 or 3 of the songs they played, and we did not get totally drunk/high or have sex before, during, or after prom.

Therefore, I would like to announce to the world that YES, people who are not stereotypical teenagers DO exist. Contrary to what the creepy old man from the bank seems to think. (Long story; basically, a creepy old man had some problems with AF and me being friends.)

Not, of course, that anyone was directionally questioning this. But really? This whole "teenage experience" thing is really not all it's cracked up to be. Seriously, where is the fun in getting so trashed you don't know what's going on? And having everyone assume that as a teenager, you're a part of it? Not even worth the trouble. And all the smash-my-body-so-close-against-yours-that-we-might-actually-be-one-person dancing and rented hotel rooms and whatever? Ick. In my (admittedly limited) experience, boys cause more trouble than they're worth. I think I'll wait until they're (/I'm) a bit more grown up.

End rant.

Apologies. That got a little rantier than it was supposed to. But there you go. Guess I'm a stereotypical teenager after all: three cheers for moodiness?

Okay, that wasn't coherent. Chalk it up to lack of sleep.

Meanwhile, today was absolutely the best Saturday I've had in a long while. Many thanks to AF and KD especially, as they were here for most of the day, but also to CJ and ES. I ♥ you all! Also, the first two episodes of Season 5 of LOST have caused me to completely and totally change my mind about Season 4. Season 4 was not weird. Season 5 is weird. AF was right. Also also, remind me to rant about FANG tomorrow. Because it was an amaaaazing book. Even if it did make me cry. And now, tis bedtime pour moi.

Much love,
Bex

OCD People with Messy Rooms

I think it's funny that two of the most obsessive-compulsively organized people I know - AF and myself - have the messiest rooms out of our group of friends.

We'll freak out if you put a book on our bookshelves in the wrong place (alphabetical by author's last name, for me). If things (books, games, etc.) are stacked, the corners must be lined up or something tragic will happen. Lines must be straight, everything has to be perfectly centered, stuff that's colored in must be colored in completely, and so on. Things all over the place are lined up in height order or color order or some sort of order that is inherently right, and if you mess with it, bad things will happen to you.

But if you take a look at my bedroom (or hers), you would never know it. Except from the bookshelf, that is. Because there is junk all over the floor, school crap and those little tubes of toothpaste from the dentist and a slinky that was in my Christmas stocking three years ago and ballpoint pens (tons of them) and letters from colleges and two gift bags, just to name a few, and it looks like a paper mill threw up in here. Seriously, there is paper everywhere. Poems and story scraps and to do lists and random doodles. Notebook paper and inserts from the church bulletin and handouts from school and sticky notes and notepads. I mean there is paper everywhere.

I find it slightly ironic, the mix of OCD and organized chaos.

However, I've spent most of this afternoon cleaning. The carpet? Yeah, I found out that it actually does still exist! My room almost looks organized...provided you ignore the closet and the small radius around the desk. But it's definitely an improvement.

Course, I also spent some of that time singing/dancing to my iPod. I have the song "Summer Nights" from the musical Grease stuck in my head....and I've sung it at least...um...lots of times today. If you don't know the song, you should listen to it. It's quite good, although I wasn't a huge fan of Grease on the whole because I didn't like the ending.

Also: You know you're a nerd when you have a ten-minute conversation with your dad and two of your classmates about the appropriate adverb form of the word "manly." I'm reasonably certain that it is not "manfully," but HC and FH might tell you otherwise.

Back to cleaning now. Love,
Bex

You Know You're A Nerd When... Round 2

...you don't pay attention in chemistry class, because you're too busy talking about chemistry. (SP, yes we are that awesome.)

...you and your friends find nothing at all strange about singing Disney songs or the theme songs of PBS kids shows in the hallways between classes, at lunch, or even during math class.

...you are planning to make a video of chemistry jokes and hoping to get extra credit if your teacher is amused, but you want to make the video with or without extra credit points.

...you can have an entire conversation about words that require the letters C, D, E, and F.

...you do not get tired of discussing your fictional molecular relationship advice column.

...the floor of your bedroom is a mess because you've been cleaning out and everything ended up in the middle of the room, but your bookshelf is still pristine and everything is in alphabetical order by author's last name.

...you are kind of freakishly excited about the visual aids for the oral presentation you have to give tomorrow. (Even if you're not ready at all for public speaking.)

...you have a strange fascination with sticky notes because they're so useful for storyboarding.

...the idea of wearing mascara to prom this coming Friday is kind of a big deal, because you don't even own mascara.

...you can recite, in its entirety, the Quagmires' poem from THE VILE VILLAGE. (Looking at SP again XD)

...you get really, really bothered when you can't remember one line halfway through Hamlet's "to be or not to be" monologue, because you know the rest of it and the gap is driving you crazy.

...you go out of your way to look for more things that could accurately complete the sentence "You know you're a nerd when..." so that it will describe you.

Love,
Bex

Pixies: No, I Don't Mean Tinkerbell

I finished a book this morning. It's a sequel, so I should probably start by recommending the first book. The first book is called NEED, it's by Carrie Jones, and it is fantastic.

Paranormal romance, with evil pixies, and it has a plot besides just the romance, and it does not have vampires. And the pixies are an interesting change. They leave gold dust. And they want Zara. It's been a while since I read the first one so I can't really give you a whole lot more details without accidentally giving you any spoilers, but you should DEFINITELY read it. Because I do remember that it was good. And the characters - Zara, Devyn, Issie, Nick, Ian, Megan, and Grandma Betty - are just fantastic. Readreadread.

But if I'm a little fuzzy on the details of NEED, I absolutely remember the details of CAPTIVATE. I finished reading CAPTIVATE this morning, and it was just fantastic. I really want the third book - now! Not sure how much I can say without giving away too much, but in this book, there's a new pixie king in town. His name is Astley, and he wants Zara to be his queen. And there's another new pixie king as well - an evil one, who wants to take over. Zara and all of her friends are in danger, and it's Zara's responsibility to fix it. Especially since Nick might not be able to.

I cannot emphasize enough how much you should read NEED first, but once you do I won't have to tell you that you should read CAPTIVATE. The books are fantastic, the lack of vampires/addition of pixies is quite refreshing, the characters are so intricate, it's just a wonderful series.

Still working out where exactly Nick - or Astley, for that matter - belongs on the List of Fictional Guys. I'll have to get CJ's opinion on that, once she reads these (because she will. CJ, I'm looking at you here, m'dear). But you should deeefinitely read these books. And you can find out more at Carrie Jones's website.

I must go now, because I've got to get some sleep tonight. But if you see any gold dust, watch out...

Love,
Bex

Castle (!!!)

Sooooo if you don't know this already (although if you've read more than a couple of my earlier blog posts, you do know), my favorite TV show is ABC's CASTLE.

The episode from two weeks ago, with bondage shops and "dominatrices" (scary stuff, I'm telling you), was a little off-putting, but this week's episode, the first in a two-part set -- ohhh my gosh.

The premise for these episodes is that there's a serial killer who's after Beckett. He's leaving coded messages for her, killing a string of victims, and he's after her. Also the FBI is involved and there is a ton of Castle/Beckett adorableness and it's just hilarious in some places and it was definitely also the CREEPIEST episode of the show EVER and (because I don't have enough "and"s in this sentence yet) I want more. Now.

The cliffhanger ending nearly gave my little brother (who at 12 is really probably too young to watch this show, but whatever) a heart attack. And it will absolutely leave you wanting the next episode RIGHTNOWTHANKYOUVERYMUCH.

Mhm yup.

Must go now, have a little bit of house(er, room)keeping to take care of plus some homework to finish. But that TV show definitely made a miserable barely-conscious day a lot better.

Love,
Bex

Blogs + Angst = BAD

I've spent most of my afternoon working on my Review of Literature for my senior thesis project (which is about writing screenplay adaptations of character-driven young adult fiction). And I have finally been able to find relevant sources, because, with my teacher's permission (which I requested based on the advice of Melissa Marr - if you see this, thanks very much!), I've been using nonacademic sources. Such as blogs.

Using blogs is allowed as long as I acknowledge that they are blogs and therefore informal and nonacademic and suchlike. This is great for me, because blogs and nonacademic internet sources are really all I have to go on with this topic. But it also gets me thinking.

I've known quite a few people in my time who have basically used their blogs as places to dump large amounts of angst on the internet at large. Long ago, before I realized the ramifications of posting everything I thought on the internet, I used to do the same thing. I have acquaintances from school who routinely vent all sorts of negative emotion on their blogs. And I'm reasonably certain that lots of professionals - writers, performers, publishers, PhDs, fill in the blank - have done it too. It's so easy; blogs are an easy way to put your opinions out there. You can just say "hey, this is what I think, and I'm entitled to my own opinion. Here it is!" without having to edit yourself. It's simple and it's stress-relieving, so why not?

Well, the "why not" is that people can quote you. "Look what so-and-so said!" It could end up in a thesis paper like mine. I'm trying not to use anything too emotional, mostly just using blogs as a source of facts (if opinionated ones) about the authors' role in adaptations, but not everyone would do the same. Someone could so easily find my(/your/their favorite author's/Billy Bob's/Random Person #42's) angst and cite it in a formal paper.

By posting on a blog or anywhere on the internet, you have to acknowledge that people will see what you write and may use it. That said, there are some people who really don't care. Still, though. Call me paranoid, but I'm quite terrified of the prospect of random strangers finding something that maybe I wrote while I was angry or grouchy or frustrated and taking it as gospel truth.

And this is why I intend to make every effort to always be careful of what I post on the internet.

End rant. (Yes, rant. But one that I'm okay with people reading.)

Love,
Bex