Always late...

Another Vlog update! Late again....

Not quite August 1st.....

Okay...So I didn't update when I said I would...But to make up for it I have a treat! This is the first video of my vlog! I will still keep up with this blog of course. Actually, the purpose of my vlog is to update my blog quickly when I need to (because writing my posts sometimes takes too long because I over think a lot of things) and also it's just for fun :3
So enjoy this update: My First Vlog: Writing, Geek Party, Appa and KINGDOM HEARTS!

I'm a Kingdom Hearts fanatic and I don't care!

Hello readers! I am back with another late update!
I apologize for my lateness....it seems my New Year's resolution hasn't been going too well....
So I guess I should get you all caught up on my life since May.

So, in June...Hmm....I can't quite remember much...This is why I need to update more often...
All I remember of June was all the graduation parties I went to. Many of my friends are/were seniors so they all graduated this year. Exciting and sad at the same time.

What else happened in June? Oh yeah! The latest instalment of the Kingdom Hearts series (Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance...or KH3D for short) became available for pre-order for (I think) everyone else in the world except Japan! Why not Japan, you ask? Well, they already had it...So that's why....

Oh. I did pre-order it. If you didn't know, I'm a die hard KH (Kingdom Hearts) fan. I always will be.


(A Kingdom Hearts picture I found. It's just too cool!)

So the game was released in Europe on the 20th of July (two days ago) and it's being released in North America on July 31st! That means mine will get here between August 7th-11th!!! I'm hoping it will be a little earlier than that...but it probably won't...I didn't have enough money for overnight shipping...

So this Kingdom Hearts is special because it's the tenth anniversary of Kingdom Hearts! And in North America they're also releasing a special 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition of the game called The Mark of Mastery Edition! That's the one I ordered.

(KH3D Logo!)

It was expensive but also kind of a bargain when you think about it. The standard edition of the game which is just the game in its case costs about $39.99 and the special edition which comes with the game, 5 AR cards, 12 art cards reflecting the history of the KH series and a special Kingdom Hearts-branded 3DS protector case cost me $49.97...I think that's a pretty awesome deal! I mean if you're going to spend forty bucks on the game alone you might as well spend a little extra for some added coolness, right?

So I'm super excited about this game! There's only one problem...it has to be played on a 3DS...and I don't have a 3DS...

(KH3D Cover!)

Now before you start calling me an idiot I have a couple good reasons why I bought the game anyway!

Number one: IT'S THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION OF MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME SERIES!!! WHY WOULDN'T I WANT TO PLAY IT?!

...Ahem...

Number two: We did have a DS but it broke. It was old and sort of broken when we got it so it lasted way longer than I though it would. So we were planning on getting a new DS system anyway but we never got around to saving up for it. So once KH3D was announced I realized I had a good excuse to get my siblings to help me save up for one!

So once I have the game I still won't be able to play it for a while...But on the bright side maybe the price of 3DS systems will drop again before I buy one! They've already dropped a lot since they came out.


Now back to getting caught up.

I really can't remember anything else that happened in June...And I guess I already moved into July with my KH rant...So I'll move on to July.

On the 30th of June we left for our vacation. We went up north near Traverse City (Michigan) and stayed with our grandparents until the 5th of July (had and awesome time watching fireworks on the 4th, by the way) and after that we went and stayed at Boyne Highlands Resort because my dad had a Knights of Columbus meeting retreat thingy going on there. We got home on the 8th of July. I twas a lot of fun but I was worn out from all the traveling.

And then on the weekend of July 13th-15th my younger sister (Anna) and I went on a youth retreat with our youth group to Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio (the retreats happen in different places around the country every summer but four weekends out of the summer are always at the main campus). It was a blast! There were people from all over the country and even a few groups from Canada!

And now the rest of the month is going by pretty quick. My younger brother (Samuel) and younger sister (Anna) went back up north to stay with out grandparents for another week (we call it Grandma Grandpa Camp) and I stayed home to help my mom get ready for my my older sister's (Jessica's) baby shower! So exciting!

And I think that gets us caught up!

Just a few random bits of information: My younger brother (Samuel) and I watched The Woman In Black at night sometime in June....it scared the heck out of us for weeks! I was fine until a couple days ago and now I'm scared again! I don't know why!

Oh yeah! And yesterday (the 26th) I was a zombie for my brother-in-law's (John's) movie! It was fun but some of the pictures that my sister took look pretty freaky...

I started reading The Lord Of The Rings at last! I've been busy so I haven't gotten very far (the Hobbits haven't left the old forest outside the Shire yet) but I love it!

Oh yes! I forgot to talk about my writing!
It's going pretty well. My creative writing mentor hasn't gotten back to me about my characters description that I gave him to send out yet...So I'm trying to be patient.
And while we were on vacation I was looking through some of my notebooks. I used to write by hand all the time but now that I'm writing it all out like a screenplay I have to use scriptwriting software. Anyway, one of my notebooks had a really good beginning that I'd completely forgotten about. As I was reading it I remembered that I had wanted to use that beginning when I had started over last year (of course altering things here and there) but I'd forgotten about it! I realized the notebooks beginning was way better than what I had written off the top of my head last year so right now, before I can move forward again, I'm going back to rewrite the beginning!
Don't worry! This will be a much easier task than rewriting everything entirely! I just have some things to change around and add in but it won't be too hard! And the story will flow much better!

So, I think that's all I have for today. I really will try harder to update sooner!
How about I set a goal for myself? How about...August 1st? I'll update by August 1st! And maybe I'll have my Kingdom Hearts game by then! I'm allowed to have wishful thinking!

Until next time!
Good day to you and God bless you all!

What's in a name? Quite a lot, actually.

May 23. So...I have again failed at updating my blog....I have a semi-valid excuse though!
You see, last month was April, as I'm sure you were aware, and April means Script Frenzy!
I mentioned before that I'm writing a graphic novel and that means I have to write my story like a script. I discovered that this has it's pros and cons (like anything does) but I'm okay with that. I didn't switch to graphic novel because I thought it would be easier to write. I knew I wouldn't be able to write everything I saw in my head that way I saw it without making major changes...and I, being the stubborn person that I am, didn't like that. I feel like my story is so exciting and cool (in my own opinion) that it shouldn't have to suffer being watered down just because I can't explain things correctly! A graphic novel was my best option.

I do like graphic novels a lot! There's a really cool one I would recommend. It's called Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. Apparently it's for kids (I guess that means non-17-year-olds) but I don't care. It's fun and exciting!

I found out something interesting about the term "graphic novel". Apparently a lot of people think it's either a stupid name or an unneeded name for "comic books". They say that comic books and graphic novels are the same thing.
That isn't true at all.
If you're only referring to that fact that they both tell a story with pictures that's the only thing they have in common.

First, let's look at comic books. Most comic books really come from all of the newspaper comic strips or "the funnies" being compiled into large collections for people to read through. Some that you may know are Garfield, Family Circus, For Better Or For Worse, Baby Blues, etc etc.

These are comics. They tells small stories and jokes in a few panels but over all, in their comic book form, they don't tell a story with a constant plot from beginning to end. It's very rare (from what I've seen) that they will actually refer to something they did in a past strip. Comics and comic books are also much less realistic as they are usually based on cartoon like comedy so nothing serious is ever really serious. For example, if someone contracted malaria and was hospitalized this particular arc might go on for a few strips but, ultimately, it will be forgotten because after it's over it is never brought up and it doesn't affect anything that happens in their "future".

Now for the graphic novels. The definition of graphic is "Of or relating to visual art, esp. involving drawing, engraving, or lettering." (Googled this) and the definition of novel is "A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism." (Googled this too).
Some graphic novels are Amulet (as I mentioned before), the Bone series (another I recommend), Maximum Ride (yes, I know it's also a book series but I really like the graphic novels!), and others. I also put most manga into this category.

Graphic novels are what their combined definitions say they are. They are fictitious prose narratives of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism told with visual art involving, in this case, drawing and lettering. They are also more realistic because they are usually written to be like real life in some way. For example, somebody gets in a car crash and gets a severe injury that causes them to lose an eye. They won't ever get that eye back (unless magic or super-healing is part of the story) and the accident and the injury will have a lasting affect on the character and the story.

Summing it up a little: Comics and comic books have simpler plots (usually only involving a few panels and a punchline), little to no character development, and very little to no reference to anything that has happened previously thus making them less realistic because it seems nothing ever changes from "day" to "day" and anything "serious" has no affect on the plot whatsoever...also there isn't much of a plot to begin with. Graphic novels have complex plots and story arcs that you would expect to find in any novel, there is usually constant characters development, and almost always reference to past events making them more realistic because things are constantly changing in the story and serious things, large and small, have an affect on the plot.

Don't take any of this the wrong way. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just want to state that there is a difference and it really does matter what you call each of them. When I hear comic book I think of Garfield and the others I listed above. When I hear graphic novel I think of Bone and the others I listed above as well.

I don't see what the big deal is actually...I mean, people call animated movies just that, "animated movies", not cartoons. The two are very different. You can actually apply most of what I said about comic books to cartoons, and graphic novels to animated movies.

Anyway, I tend to prefer graphic novels because I really like in-depth stories and graphic novels are great for that!

And there are some graphic novels and comic books that sort of blur the line between the two.

I think the most obvious would be most of the Marvel (and others like it) comics and graphic novels.

With Marvel (and others) the stories have become rather inconsistent from the originals. Things get added on, taken out, changed entirely. I've read at least three different takes on how Spider-Man got the spider bite, two different takes on how Wolverine started out (both drastically different from each other!), and many other things!

They fit into the category of graphic novel but it bugs me how the story is always different (and the art changes all the time too) so I'm tempted to put them in the comic book category simply because of inconsistency (and the rare occasion that a serious event is forgotten completely). But they have all the criteria for a graphic novel...but they are also, I think anyway, referred to more often as comic books because they were some of the original comic books!

So I guess there are some that can't be sorted into categories. But that's fine. As I said, my point is just to explain why the different names matter.

So anyway, I'm writing a graphic novel, not a comic book, and I'm very excited because I know telling the story visually will be much more intriguing!

Oh, and one last thing...graphic novels are real literature! Reading graphic novels is not lazy reading, nor is writing them lazy writing. They should in no way replace books (especially not the classics!) but they shouldn't be looked on as something less than a real story. A committed writer gets their story out however they can whether it's a novel, graphic novel, a film or even a blog!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll update again soon! We're going on a vacation to Mackinac Island and I'll have some pictures to share! I actually need to finish packing! Aahh!!! So forgive any typos and/or grammatical errors...I'm writing this in a hurry because I know I'll forget again!

Until next time!
Thank you for reading and God bless you all!

The Hunger Games rule! All Twihards may now LEAVE! (P.S. Hunger Games Spoilers!!!)

Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

First of all, if you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins) then you really should! I'm not going to say you have to because...well, you don't HAVE to. But the books are truly great to read! My whole family enjoyed them! My mom, dad, younger brother, younger sister, and my oldest sister and her husband! ...Well...I guess not everyone in my family likes it. My second oldest sister, Katie, hasn't read them yet. But last I heard she was going to start. So I think it's safe to say that 99.9% of my immediate family likes them.

Anyway, the trilogy was was awesome! But don't ask me if I'm "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale". The first reason is because Finnick always wins (Haha!). The second, but more important, reason is that the whole "Guy Team" thing was started by all those "Twihards".

Let me say real quick that there is a difference between a Twihard and someone someone who has read/is reading the Twilight books for enjoyment and entertainment. Twihards will fight tooth and nail over why Twilight is better than anything else you could read or watch. The others may just be simple fans, but that's still a big difference.

In the Twilight "saga" (if you can call it that...look up the definition) the story revolves around a girl with an obsession over two guys, so the "Team Edward"/"Team Jacob" thing makes sense because that's what it's about.

In The Hunger Games, however, the "team" thing has no place. In the books, Katniss's worry (as well as most of the plot) is divided like this: about 50% percent worry about her family and friends safety, 45% worry about leading a revolution, and 5% worry about whether or not she even WANTS to be with either of her suitors at all because of everything she's been through!

Katniss has different reasons to like both of them and they're actually legit reasons: Gale has been my friend since I was twelve and helps take care of my family. Peeta saved my life and can relate to what I've been through and understands me. Both of them are loyal.
Bella's reasons for liking Edward: He's like a hot, undead, oh, I mean "FROZEN", sparkly statue with "liquid topaz" eyes. He came into my room without me knowing to watch me sleep and told me I was like heroin and that he has to use all of his willpower to keep from tearing me apart to eat me.
...Yay. Great, healthy, relationship you have there Bella...At least he's "hot" because, hey, that's all that matters.
I may go more in depth on the Twilight "saga" in a later post so I won't get too into it right now.

Summing it up:
Katniss = good, fictional female role model.
Bella = horrible, fictional female role model.

So my point is, this whole "Team Peeta"/"Team Gale" nonsense probably came from some Twihards that are starting to feel withdrawal because their series ended and the movies are almost over and they needed something else to occupy their minds. At least they chose a better series.
But people, please, for the love of all that is literature, STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE HUNGER GAMES A NEW TWILIGHT!!! Twilight doesn't come close The Hunger Games so just leave it alone!
And with that being said, all Twihards may now leave.

*clears throat* If you couldn't tell, I'm prone to being intense about certain things...
Now then, I shall continue.

My dad drove my younger brother (Samuel) and I to the theater at 8:00pm so we could be in line to save seats for the midnight premier. My brother dressed up as Peeta (he even dyed his hair!) and I dressed up as Katniss (and my brother and I went all out to make ourselves look fresh out of the Games).

When we got there we were practically the only people waiting in line! There was another group waiting in line for a different midnight showing of The Hunger Games (my friend, Brandon, among them) but until almost 9:00 my brother and I were the only ones standing in line for the 12:05 showing!
My mom and younger sister came later after they finished getting ready. My sister dressed up just as a random Capitol citizen but after being at the theater a few minutes she decided she was Effie Trinket.

I was surprised at how few people were dressed up! People were either wearing T-shirts with slogans on them like "District 1" all the way through to "District 12" and others had "Down with the Capitol", "Girl on fire" "Team Peeta" (grr...), and so on. One of them looked like a homemade football jersey that said "Finnick 65" which I thought was cool. (Finnick Was in the 65 Hunger Games.)
Sometimes the extent of someones costume was simply braiding their hair like Katniss or wearing her Mockingjay pin.
All of them were cool! But I was surprised, considering the books are so popular, that hardly anyone else went all out on their costumes!
Here's what my siblings and I looked like:

(That's real dirt, by the way!)
Yes, I know, I look rather short standing next to my younger brother and sister (especially my sister). But my sister is in heels and both of them have grown a lot recently. And I'm just kind of short....But I don't really care. Haha!

But anyway, back to the movie.
I thought the movie was fantastic! It stayed very true to the book which doesn't happen a lot with book-to-movie adaptations. For example: Eragon, The Tale of Desperaux
Eragon was one of the most disappointing for me.

In Eragon they changed practically everything but the names! They did everything from creating a different plot from the book to "forgetting" to give the elf character, Arya, pointed ears! The actors didn't even have their hair dyed!

I was very pleased with The Hunger Games. The plot was same as the book and I knew what was coming because it progressed in the same way. I could tell the screenplay was written by the author, Suzanne Collins. The characters were the same and acted the same way they did in the book. Some of the dialogue was even word for word! I was quoting it as the characters were saying it!

I've been reading a lot of negative comments about the movie which don't make much sense to me.
A lot of them are people complaining about things that were left out of the movie.
Now, if I haven't mentioned this before, I want to be a filmmaker (more specifically, a director/writer/actor) so I've started watching movies with that sort of mindset especially when it comes to book adaptations.
I took a film production class a couple years ago and I learned how much work goes into making a film. And the one we did in class only lasted about ten minutes! Imagine what it takes to produce a 2hr 22min. movie!

So as the movie approached I started making a mental list of what I would cut from the movie without reshaping it.
By the time the movie premiered I had cut everything that, in a filmmaking sense, was unnecessary.
The list included:
Most of Katniss's flashbacks,
Katniss's "friend", Madge (who actually makes a grand total of two appearances in the whole trilogy),
A majority of the train ride to the Capitol,
The entire remake process shortened to maybe a handful tiny clips,
Katniss searching for water and nearly dying of thirst (this is one of the major problems people seem to have. They seem to think this is a major plot point but, of you've read the book, you would see it's barely has much importance next to the main plot issues),
And a lot of what happens when Katniss finds Peeta.

These things can be left out without altering the actually story. As I said, the story and characters stayed the same.

Something that also seems to get people upset in the parts of the movie that show the Gamemakers controlling the game. I actually found this clever.
In the book Katniss spends a great deal of time thinking about the Games and how the Gamemakers watch them and control the different things that happen in the arena.
But that's the problem. The book is written in a first-person present-tense point of view (something very new and intriguing to me) so it's like being inside Katniss's head as everything is happening. In the movie we can't be inside her head, we're watching from a third-person point of view. So rather than awkwardly having her spout random facts such as "Oh! A giant wall of fire! This must be the Gamemakers trying to corral me near the other Tributes! Everyone knows they control random events in the Games!" to herself (this would be the only other alternative when you think about it) they just show what the Gamemakers are doing. I applaud the creativity of this! It's something that needs to be done for the movie to make any sense to those who may not have read the books.

And that's another thing. I've heard people say, and I can't remember where I heard this, that they thought the movie was "directed more towards people who had read the books".
....DUH!!!
I'm sorry but they make books into movies because the books are popular! If nobody read the Hunger Games it would have been much harder to get the ball rolling on a movie adaptation.
I know they're are a lot of people who went to see it just because Josh Hutcherson was in it, that's not a problem. I watched Time Bandits because Sean Connery was in it, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (after I'd seen it several times already, mind you) last year because some pointed out that David Tennant is Barty Crouch Junior! (Yes. I'm a major Doctor Who fan.)
So I don't consider it weird to watch a movie just because one of you're favorite actors has a part. I just dislike when those people start complaining about the fact that it seems like "you have to read the book to get the whole story".
Another duh. Sorry again.
The book is always better than the movie, no matter how close the adaptation is!

I did say the movie was great, even with things "left out". But the book is way better.

So...it's getting late. I should actually be in bed right now.
Thanks for reading!
I hope I'm updating faster now (even though this is only the first post after my resolution)!

Good night and God bless you all!

Happy New Year!

Wow. I haven't updated my blog since last year...Oops...
...Well I'm not very good at updating this as often as I should...but things have been busy. So how about a quick recap of what's happened since November, what I've learned, and what I resolve to do this year.

First of all, I did not win NaNoWriMo this year. It was a little disheartening at first but as soon as I got over it (the next day) I was writing again. NaNo motivates me, but that doesn't mean I can't write the rest of the year. So that's what I did and my novel is now 14,680 words and counting! But...I have also decided that my novel would probably be much more enjoyable as a graphic novel...So that means that I'll be writing my story out like a script! Soo...Script frenzy, anyone? Haha! I resolve to attempt to have at least a complete rough draft of this script by the end of the year.

Thanksgiving also came during November and for the first time since I was probably four years old we went away for Thanksgiving. We usually stay home and invite people to our house but this year we made the 2+ hour trek to Illinois to spend two days with some of my mom's side of the family: my aunt and uncle, two kid cousins and one adult cousin, great uncle, grandma, a cat, and a dog. We had a good time with lots of delicious food, fun games, and a cheesy British zombie movie (I watched it with my aunt and adult cousin). What I learned during Thanksgiving is that you should never put a sweet potato-marshmallow casserole in your oven's broiler...unless you're some spazzed out pyromaniac, in which case go ahead and do it. But don't blame me if your house burns down...just throwing that out there.

So then came Christmas! (The first green Christmas I've ever had, by the way! Where did my lovely winter go this year?!) We had lots of awesome family time and cool gifts. My younger brother, sister and I received an Xbox from our Grandma (thanks Grandma!) and some cool games from our oldest sister and brother-in-law. I got a Kindle from my great uncle (and a super awesome case for it from my second oldest sister) which has helped me a lot with reading the books I've been assigned for school and I can also play some rather addicting puzzle games on it when I get bored! Shhh...
(And that reminds me...I've been reading Oliver Twist and it is probably one of the saddest stories I've read in  a while! Just saying...)

And along with Christmas came the news from my oldest sister and brother-in-law that later this year (around September 1st) I will be an aunt! Yay! That's exciting to look forward to!


And what else? I got a part in a musical (Twinderella, if you've ever heard of it. I'm the countess/duchess), beat Fable III and Call of Duty: Black Ops (not really an accomplishment...but still...), have researched large amounts of steampunk related things for my graphic-novel, I turned 17 (woohoo!), I've done lots of school related things (biology, math, British literature, etc.), finally watched 'Walk The Line', started watching season 6 of Doctor Who, and have been counting the days until the premiere of The Hunger Games! I'm soo stoked for the movie and, yes, I will be dressing up (I have my Katniss costume from Halloween, complete with silver bow and arrows!).


So that brings us to today, March 8th. Oh yeah! For those of you who are interested, yesterday was the feast day of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity! Perpetua is my Confirmation saint so we had pie for dessert! Yummy!

Anyway, today is March 8th... And...I think that about wraps up my recap!

And like I said in the beginning about resolutions, I resolve to try harder this year to update my blog more often! This 4 month gap won't happen again!


Have an awesome year everyone!
God bless!