Gah

It's just so hard to keep this blog going what with the new vlog....

Sorry.

Anyway guys, I'm about to start a horror movie review thing... since I didn't have the patience for the video games. XD.

Hope there are no hard feelings about my decision to switch over. If anyone has a game, show, book, or movie of the non-horror genre, let me know and I'll see what I can do on this blog here.

Thanks!

Busy

I have been really busy lately. I joined a writing request shop, and it's actually been pretty awesome. I also have been trying really hard to listen and enjoy My Chemical Romance... as I shall be seeing them live soon. (bleck). I thought I had developed an appreciation for them, until today (when I heard their newest album and lost any appreciation I was able to fake until then)

Anyway, in other news.... I am working on some other projects lately. I am tuning up a few things for some songs I've written, working out the kinks and such. I have been looking into actually getting some kind of recording equipment on m computer and potentially producing an independent album. of course, a lot of the songs I have aren't about being a solo artist, they're about working as a band, but... Still, working toward the music thing.

I'm also of course working on my currently non existent gaming career. Upgrading consoles really just game me a new system, and I'm trying to perfect my gameplay techniques on both of them (although I really suck at the one....)

Totally stoked for Blink 182's new album, tentative release date for which is September 27th.

I guess that's everything... for those of you who are watching my videoblog as well, you're pretty much caught up on everything I think. For those of you who don't (you should) and also check out the IT crowd (which is like a cross between Coupling and the Big Bang Theory.)

Frabjous Day

It's finally arrived! After years of waiting American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns has finally arrived. I am about to install it now and will let you know as soon as I have some solid feedback on it, although, if what gameplay trailers imply is accurate it shall be epic! So, stay tuned and get ready for some madness.

Blink 182 CONCERT!!!!!!!!

Tickets went on sale today and I already have them. SO... September 13th I shall be at Blossom music center in a stadium with the most attractive man in the whole freaking planet. I love him....

Here' s a picture

(The hot one in the middle)

Sadly however it means I will also have to see Chemical Romance, but it's way better than 2009 when I had to see Fall Out Boy.

So, you guys know what this means..... dieting, hair dye, hair straightening and really expensive make-up. By September 12th none of you will even recognize me because of how freaking amazing I shall look. So be prepared.

Summer/Hatter Blog

So my summer vacation officially starts at 3:00 today and I'm totally stoked. Do you know what summer means? CHECK THIS PICTURE!!!!!!!!

YES, IT MEANS I CAN DRESS LIKE A TOTAL HO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol, no that's not what I meant, although, yes I could, if I wanted, just if you wondering. What it really means is that I'm going to Colossalcon Tomorrow to kick off this summer and the outfit above was my costme. I am going with my beautiful friend Rily, we are going as Alice and the Mad Hatter, and as you can tell from my outfit, I am course the Mad Hatter.

Those of you who know me are probably all shocked, as I have been comparing myself to Alice in Wonderland for years now, that I did not insist on being Alice for this one. To shock you more, it was my idea that Rily be Alice... and here's why:

1. I had an Alice dress that I bought from Hot Topic, and you know what that means..... if I wear it I look slutty and if Rily wears it, she's freaking adorable. Let's face it, Alice was adorable, not a slut, so Alice Point goes to Rily.

2. English accent. When I talk with an english accent it's bad, you can tell I'm faking. Rily on the other hand.... not so much. Lewis Carroll was English, the story takes place in England.... and let's face it: If between the Mad Hatter and Alice one was english and one was faking, Alice would be the real English one. Mad Hatter would be faking. Alice Point Rily.

3. Now, we actually had the idea of cosplaying together before we knew what we were doing for sure (we did our costumes in less than a week) and we chose Alice because it was the only thing we could do on such short notice. The Alice dress as I mentioned before, is mine. So one of us got to be Alice, and one of us got to scroung for a costume, and Rily had less time. She actually has a life.... This brings us to a set of sub points...... and here they are....

                                No time to find another costume: Sub-point Rily

                                Knows slightly less about the vital characters: Sub-point Rily

                                Freaking Adorable and fits the dress better: Sub-point Rily

4. I know a lot about Alice in Wonderland. I know the books, I know the movies, I know the plays, I know the spin offs, games and adaptations. Going from the butchered Disney movie to American mcGee's warped insane asylum approach. I've got it down. You think that would be Alice point Cat, but it's actually not. When you think about it, Alice is the one in just about every adaptation that doesn't know everything about Wonderland. It actually makes more sense that the Wonderland enthusiast be someone who actually comes from Wonderland :Alice point Rily. 

So that's pretty much an Alice is Rily Scenario. I did get one point though, in that Alice did not have brown hair (Okay... there are a few versions where she did actually) but the most Iconic Wonderlanders where not Brunetter. (They also didn't have blue hair... but w/e) I got the "Wouldn't  it be a whole lot easier for someone with brown hair to pull off being another character than what it would someone with bright blue hair to do" point.  But that's kind of pathetic.

We didn't actually tally points out loud when we were on the phone discussing the AiW cosplay idea, but it just made a mutual kind of sense that Rily go as Alice and I find something else.

So what made me land on Hatter? Chance.

My original idea was to go as the Red Queen, I already have the dress (lol.... I have an AiW themed dress collecting problem I think) but there were two problems with that....

1. What kind of Red Queen has Blue hair? None that I can think of. And I absolutely refuse to dye it back.

2. Rily actually likes the idea of being the Red Queen as much as I like the idea of being Alice, if we were each others characters that would just be sort of mean.

Rily actually thought it would be best if I were to be the Cheshire Cat. (Which I was all for) It makes sense, the Cheshire Cat knows all the mythos, is a cat, and kind of cryptic. Right down my alley.

While I was looking for a cheshire cat costume I came across the green bodice for a great deal (meaning free) I already had the green skirt, the green socks and the jacket which I was actually wearing at the time and it just clicked. I guess it's because when I see green I think of the Hatter, but something about it just made sense.

So, for those of you who were wondering what the Mad Hatter would look like if he were a girl and incredibly sexy, the answer is me on St. Patricks day. Lol.

I have a few more pictures for those of you who aren't convinced that the outfit looks very Hattery.

So... there we go. If you would like to see me in full make-up and wearing this awesome if slightly revealing Mad Hatter costume, stay tuned.

Popularity

So, while I have gained a few unofficial followers of the blog I still only have one person who's officially signed up to get it. So, other than the conceptual videoblog/movie review plan... anyone have any ideas on how to get people to read? Seriously, short of paying people I've got no idea.

Review: Easy A

Okay you guys, I have news for you. For a long time now people have been asking me to find a "chick flick" that I don't despise. That day has come, and the title of that breakthrough movie would be "Easy A." This is a girly movie, that I managed to sit all the way through, I laughed with, I would recommend, AND would be willing to watch again.

Featuring Emma Stone (who I know and Love from Zombieland) this movie is a cliche. As Shawn Spencer would put it "It's a rip off of a rip off." It was girly, the jokes often bad, it had the worst soundtrack ever (okay.... Twilight soundtrack as worse, seriously, who puts Muse and Paramore together? Anyway... not the point....) The plot was predictable, the characters pretty 2 dimensional and the acting in many places was just ok. So what made "Easy A." better than any other one of those movies that I hate with a fiery passion? Well.....

Part 1
(Admitting a cliche is cliche is also a cliche but nevertheless effective.)

It admits that it's bad. One of the first lines of the movie is about how the story has been told over and over and over again. This is nothing new. It tells you what it is right off the bat, and it's easier to like a movie when you know exactly what to expect. It's narrated by the main character Olive (Emma Stone) from her webcam and the whole tale is told in flashbacks. (I do have a thing for webcams, and quite frankly, flashbacks, so it starts off good.) She breaks her tale down into sections and reminds the viewer frequently that every technique used in the movie has been done before. There's one point where they're sitting in the class and they're talking about "The Scarlet Letter" and Olive mentions that in bad teenage movies such as this, the books they're reading in class always seem to relate to whatever's going in the main characters life. Still, a total cliche but it's much more effective to admit the device the writer's were using up front.

Part 2
(Character Depth past what we've all expected to see in movies that appeal to tennagers this days. E.I: Twilight saga, 27 dresses and Bridgette Jone's nonsense.)

Okay, so, I've already admitted that a lot of the characters were 2 dimensional, and it's true. But at least they have some personality. One of my biggest problems with Twilight is what a total Mary Sue Bella is. Seriously, it drives me crazy. She's smart enough to be in the advanced classes, and then she's like a total idiot for everything else. She's only smart enough for it to be convenient to Stephanie Meyer. In this Olive is smart, but she's actually intelligent. You can tell that she's smart by the way she talks, and it's subtle. They don't make a big deal out of it, they don't have her be such a brainiac that that's her whole personality, but you can tell she's smart, and that makes her seem a little more like a real person. Also she has quirks. (One of my favorite parts of Juno was how Bleaker liked orange tictacs, it's just so random, but it's a little insight into the character.) She takes payment throughout the movie in the form of giftcards, which I just found amazing.

Part 3
(This should have been part 1, but I didn't feel like it. So ha. aka, The Plot.)

I really should have started with the plot, because it would have made the first 2 sections make more sense, but I'm ordering these according to how big of a difference they make to the movie, and while the plot wasn't terrible, it was kind of generic. I put it on the list however because it wasn't so generic that it got lost in a tangle of other generic plots, so, here we go.

Pretty much what's going on is Olive Penderghast (I think.....) accidentally starts a false rumor that she slept with a boy from college. The rumor actually makes her more popular and she decides that being the campus slut isn't all that bad, (keeping in mind she's still a virgin.) So when a gay friend needs advice about not getting beat up, she tells him just to lie about being straight, because you can be whoever you want if you get through highschool he can be whoever he wants. So they spread the rumor that the two of them slept together. Then things get out of control when other boys on the campus start paying her to fake sleep with them as well. Predictably, she doesn't care until things go terribly wrong for everybody.

Part 4
(The allusions to old 80's movies.)

Yeah, all the way from 16 Candles to Judd Nelson, Olive is a sucker for old 80's movies. I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of a lot of things from the 80's but this sort of struck a cord. It was all very Shawn Spencerish, and you know how I feel about Shawn Spencer.

Part 5
(Overly Religious Antagonist)

Now, you all probably are aware that I don't buy into Christianity. I have nothing against most Christians, but sometimes they are really irritating. Sometimes they do try to shove their beliefs down other peoples throats, and isn't is great to see that played up in a movie with and overly religious antagonist? Seriously, the religion jokes were at times the highlights of them film.



In conclusion, I enjoyed it. I would watch it again, it was enjoyable. (Even though I still have pocket full of sunshine in my head.) SO if you ever feel like watching a chick flick with me, without me walking out, I recommend you try this one. Seriously, it was pretty good.

Optimist Articles.

Hey,

I want to make this blog better. I've been feeling down lately, I apologize for not working harder on this.

So, to start that I'll begin by not filling you in, a lot has happened and it's too much information to take in all at once.

I'll just tell you what pieces are relevant as they come up.

I applied a few weeks ago to be a writer for an online magazine about women, and I got it, I applied for two sections and have only heard back from one.... but still.

I'm going to be doing articles about improving self image, and they shall be optimistic. I know, it doesn't even sound like me. Still though, the magazine is growing in popularity and if they ever really take off it'll look really good for me.

So, I don't know when I start, but once I do I will start linking articles. I thought you all should know. :)

Review:Philosophy of a Knife pt 1

One question: Why the hell was this in the horror section? It was disgusting....yes....lots of violence.... it had rape, bondage, blood, guts, people boiling skulls, atrocious music and a massively high body count... pretty much hit all the key points of a horror movie today, even had a Japanese director. But why?

For those of you who know nothing about this movie (you lucky bastards) let me start by giving you the same first impression that I had... with these 3 rather misleading factors.

a) the movie's called Philosophy of a Knife
b) The movie is in the slasher section of things available for streaming on Netflix.
c) Cover of the movie (as seen to the left of text)

Now, this looks like your basic slasher flick right, maybe even a little J-horror? WRONG.

I will admit I missed a few things due to the late hour I watched this at.... for instance had I read the description of the movie as opposed to the reviews for it I may have been better prepared.... or had I read the review under it saying how much this movie sucked, but I walked in ready to be surprised by a cliche plot.

I was surprised. This was half documented- half reenacted failfest. It's about the Japanese medical experiments during WW2 (I think......)

It has interviews.... clips of footage from the time.... very disturbing photographs and illustrates a very serious point about the derangement of the entire situation and while I feel it had potential to be very good as a statement I have a few problems with the way it was executed. For instance... why market this as a horror movie when it is a historical documentary based off of pure fact? Horror fans don't want to see things that actually happened to people.... then we feel bad. My other problem with it.... it sucked.

Don't get me wrong.... it makes you feel very bad about the people who are in it..... as in the people who starred in it, not the people who this actually happened to because the people who died in horrific ways during the war were never exposed to this film.

The music.... was god awful. Musicians everywhere should weep for the clinks and clacks that were put to this film. There was a torture scene where a doctor put on a record before beginning the experiments and I honestly thought he was going to kill that poor soul with the soundtrack to this. I'm not even kidding.

Now the special effects..... Except for the interviews (and the one film clip.... but let's not get to that yet.....) all the movie was in black and white so...how bad can the special effects be? Answer: Pretty bad. The blood was gushing out in very unconvincing places..... and it was Kool-aid I think.... judging from the color it wasn't even dark enough to be red Kool-aid. There was one point where to show radiation damage they just used a black light..... I'm serious. There were parts that were very realistic..... I will give them that... but they were all things I didn't really need to see. (like them inserting bugs in......places *shudders*)

Anyway.... moving on... I think it's time to complain about the interviews. I was expecting terrible heartfelt confessions from survivors and all I got was "They didn't seem to be that bad of people.... I mean.... I never really talked to the doctors much but I was shocked when I found out what was going on in there." From 3 different old guys... none of them really had anything to do with the rest of the film. The only redeeming quality of the interviews is there was no background music.

Now... this is a two part movie and each part is 133 minutes (20 of which is credits) and most of it is reenactments of nothing. There were just random clips of people waiting around, and none of it amounted to anything. They used the same footage over and over and over again. I'll tell you what I think happened, they were going to edit it down but they had it all in there for the directors cut, and then they never made another version of the movie because nobody cared enough for that. While we're on the topic of repetitive film footage I guess I should tell you about the film clip (I told you I'd get to it.) There's a clip they have, maybe 30 seconds tops and it's of a reel of film going through a projector. This 30 second clip appeared so often it had to have been at least 10 minutes of this movie. There was also at least 5 minutes of watching it snow outside various points throughout the movie for no reason.

OH, I almost forgot... there are voice overs. Surprisingly not voice overs of the people talking in Russian, but a digital voice over to do scene transitions. It was super weird....

Are you ready for the worst part? I only watched part 1.... according to the time information on Netflix they run the exact same time. I'm only half way through. This has put me in a serious dilemma... while I would like never to think of this again.... I would like to do a follow up blog with the other half of this review.... and also I see a possible love interest with one of the prisoners and a guard so..... I have to stick around for that.

My point is, never watch this. Even if you have to, for school or something... fail the class. Working at McDonalds for life may be better than taking notes on this.

Boring

Life has been super boring lately so I haven't been posting lately, which I apologize for. But I do have a link that will make you all feel better (you all meaning mostly me.)

July 14th 2011.

This is the best news I haven't gotten in a while.

How sad is my life?

AGGHHHH!!! More D&D this weekend, I had no time to do anything I wanted to get done. I have a bunch of stuff that I wanted to do.... I guess that's not going to happen now. I need to fix my power cord because my computer is going to die soon and even though it's plugged in it's not charging.

My band, Exit Strategy, is doing a show-type thing. My family is having a karaoke party and we're doing the intermission for that. We have three pieces almost picked out and we're playing the 29th so I hope everything goes okay.

Working on finishing our album and then on promoting the band (probably by having copies of the album.....) I'm one guitar line, 12 bass lines and a drumset away from having our first album (Get A Life) finished. All of the lyrics are done. (As is the album art)

I guess that's about all I have to say, I know I promised to blog more but I have not much going on in my life right now. Maybe I should follow Hex's footsteps and do a blog for my D&D character, who actually is doing stuff (by stuff I mean getting knocked in to so many wells she takes a "design your well" ritual, and no, I'm not kidding.)

Hope you guys are all having a good time and that your life is a little easier than mine.

I have been playing so much D&D lately, it's not even funny. Also, i finally got around to watching season 4 of the guild, am making my dad watch seasons 3 and 4 today.

I don't have too much stuff to say but I thought I would let you know what was going on, I don't want you to think I've forgotten you.

Not much else to say, I'm about to eat.... and watch more guild.


btw...thinking about switching consoles, don't know to what though? Opinions?

Review.

I'm still thinking I want to do some sort of review blog, I just have to think about what I want to review, I could do movies, I loved reviewing movies when I had the zombie blog, it was just the 500 zombie movies I didn't like. I could do a B-horror kind of thing but I would rather spend some time watching decent movies. Anyway... if oyu have any idea email me.

Ah. I've been working on a story for the past three days, I am so happy I'm done. Not that I didn't enjoy working on it, it was just a lot of work.

Happy New Years to everybody by the way, sorry I haven't been on. I was sick and then I was typing. So....

I guess I really don't have much else to say.

Night.