Becoming Mick (RE: The Fat A$$ Chronicles)

My dad is a copycat. You can find his blog here, where he plans to chronicle his weight loss in the New Year. And you all thought I got my writing talent from my mother. (Okay, so it's probably her too. But I digress.)

My opinion on New Year's resolutions: they're stupid. 

There. It's out in the open now.

I don't like New Year's resolutions because I believe that if you really want to change something about yourself, you'd change it now and not wait until January. However, I understand that in a lot of cases, it's a mental thing and there's this whole New Year New You mindset thanks to modern American culture. It's completely fine to have a New Year's resolution as long as you stick to it and don't just keep it up for a couple of weeks and then slowly revert back to your old ways and then think "Maybe it's just not my year". 

No. You're just afraid to make the change because staying the same is the easy thing to do. Your year is what you make it. There's no 2013 aura that determines how well your year is going to go; that's all on you. 

That being said, I arrive now at the purpose of this post. 

My dad wants to make a change for the better, and I know that he can do it, but not alone. So my New Year's Resolution is to make him stick to it. Cue the Rocky music, folks. 

While I'm not grizzled and hardened with age and I don't wear a black beanie and Mr. T hasn't pushed me down any stairs recently, I'm pretty confident in my ability to be inspiring and motivational. There will be running! And nutrition! And you're going to like it!

Since I haven't blogged in a long time, I suppose I'll use this experience as an excuse to log our progress. I need to work on some fitness, too, after all. That eight-and-a-half minute mile isn't going to happen by itself. 

So let's do this, man. See you in the New Year. 

Bakin'

Hello! I hope you all have had a lovely holiday and haven't missed me too terribly much. I haven't had any good ideas for a post in a while, hence my absence. That and I haven't had any time whatsoever. Anyway, today, we have a first in the Happenings history, in which I am going to make an attempt at a recipe.

Cream Cheese and Raspberry Tarts

1. Begin with the following recipe:
-2 8 ounce packages cream cheese
-1 cup of sugar
-2 eggs
-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2. Realize you only have 4 ounces of cream cheese.

3. Adapt accordingly.
-4 ounces of cream cheese
-1/4 cup of sugar
-1/8 tsp of vanilla extract
- ...1 egg?

4. Take your leftover Pillsbury pie dough out of the fridge. (By the way: you need leftover Pillsbury pie dough.)

5. Set the dough aside for now. You'll deal with that later.

6. Put your cream cheese in a bowl and beat it with a fork until it's smooth.

7. Non-commitally begin to add the sugar, just in case you got your measurements wrong.

8. Add all of the sugar, results be damned.

9. Stir the sugar in with the cheese and add the vanilla extract.

10. Become confident when it doesn't look like a disgusting mess.

11. Pause. Shouldn't you only need half an egg, technically? How the hell do you add HALF an egg?

12. Add a whole egg to the mixture, results be damned.

13. Combine it all until it's nice and smooth and slightly runny. Decide to begin photographic steps. It should look like this:

14. Stop neglecting your pie dough. Remove it from the package and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften it slightly.

15. Unroll the dough onto a cutting board or directly onto your counter, because you disinfected before this whole process, right?

16. Dig a rolling pin out of whichever drawer you keep your rolling pins in and use it to roll out the dough so it's a tad larger than it is right now.

17. Retrieve a cupcake tin and grease it.

18. Using a glass or a cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles of crust.

19. Realize that your circles are too small to fully cover your cupcake tin holes.

20. Adapt accordingly. Retrieve some cupcake papers.

21. Line the tin with the papers and place a dough circle within each one. It should look like this:















22. Stop neglecting your cream cheese mixture. Put a spoonful of it into each cup. Hopefully it will resemble this:

23. You pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees, right? Good.

24. Put the tin in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. Your timer should look like this after 2 seconds.

25. Once in the oven, your tarts should look like this through the oven window:

26. Realize that you have to go to the movies with Liz in approximately 20 minutes.

27. Clean up the awful mess you've no doubt created.

28. Go get dressed because you haven't done that yet today.

29. Wait a few minutes. When the timer goes off, remove your tarts from the oven. They should be pretty puffy and look something like this:

30. Go to the movies with Liz.

31. Come home. Now that your tarts have been sitting for 2 hours, they should look more like this:

32. Now it's time for the fun part!

33. Grab the smallest pot you own.

34. Doubt the size of your pot, but use it anyway, results be damned.

35. Fill your pot about halfway with water and boil it.

36. Think about doing your APUSH homework while the water is boiling, but don't actually do your APUSH homework. Ain't nobody got time for that.

37. When the water is boiling, worry about the next step because you don't want to break anything or screw anything up.

38. Google the next step and become more confident in your findings.

39. Place a glass bowl over your pot of boiling water.

40. Place a few good spoonfuls of raspberry jam in the bowl.

41. Stir.

42. Add a pinch of sugar and 1/4 cup of water.

43. Continue stirring.

44. THERE. The jam should be smooth and runny.

45. Remove--WAIT. It's hot. Get a towel or an oven mitt or something. Don't be burning yourself. NOW remove the bowl from the pot.

46. Turn off the stove so you don't set anything on fire.

47. Take your tarts out of the papers and arrange them on a plate.

48. Plan to decoratively drizzle the sauce on top of the tarts, but because you're just not that good, make a puddle instead.

49. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

50. Feed one to your mother. Accept lavish compliments.

See, that wasn't so hard! Only 50 steps! And they're damn tasty, too.

The New Normal

So, I went back to the One Million Moms website, just to see if they're still as crazy as they were the last time I posted about them.

They are.

I'm pissed off. You all know that censorship and sheltering are two of my biggest pet peeves, because if you cut your kids off to everything that might "desensitize" (OMM's term, not mine) them, they grow up to be socially challenged and overly dependent on their parents. Some of the "issues" OMM discuss are commercials with mildly suggestive language, and it kind of cracks me up, because the kids aren't going to get it anyway unless you explain it. Yesterday I watched a couple of Disney movies, and I realized how many of the jokes went right over my head when I was a kid just because I didn't understand the language used. So it's basically useless to bash companies who use jokes like that in their advertising because the ads aren't geared toward kids in the first place.

And as if that isn't ridiculous enough, OMM continues to attack anything that supports or depicts gay rights. IT'S 2012 FOR GOD'S SAKE. I'm not going to repeat everything I've already said on this subject, but I am going to throw a review in here. OMM is really pissed off at this new show called The New Normal, which is about a gay couple who are looking for a surrogate so they can have a baby. It's free on iTunes, so I downloaded it and watched and I LOVE IT. It's one of the most clever, adorable, and hilarious shows I've seen. It has this beautiful message that everyone deserves love and the right to have a family. It's produced and directed by Ryan Murphy, who is the director of Glee, and OMM don't like him because he's openly gay. Personally, I think Ryan Murphy is a genius who isn't afraid to confront stuff like this head on. Heck, Glee has addressed pretty much every political issue there is in three seasons, including gay rights. I think it's important that there are shows like this that present the issues rather than hide from them. It's refreshing.

So, One Million Moms, you can do whatever you want with your children, but know that I look forward to the day when I can tell my own kids that they are allowed to love whoever they want, because love is not defined by gender.

High School Writing 101

I'm sorry if you think that my handing out writing tips means that I am bragging about my personal prowess as a writer. This is not the case. At least, I don't want you to think it's the case. Also, I am very well aware that the writing demonstrated here (on my blog, that is) isn't my best writing. I often overlook grammatical/spelling errors and hardly ever proofread because this is for fun. If it were to be graded, I would want it graded on content, not on proficiency.

All that being said, I'd like to think that I'm good at this for a junior in high school, and I just feel like giving a few helpful hints that have gotten me through some of the more difficult essays in my time. Although, I'm sure the majority of you don't actually need these, because most of you are over forty. (Hello, parents.) But I digress. You get my tips anyway, whether you want them or not, so there!

1. Your voice is always important. Whether you're writing fiction, a memoir, an assigned essay, or a research paper, your voice needs to come through. Voice is important because it makes your essay different than everyone else's. You may have the exact same thesis and support as someone else, but your voice is what makes the paper interesting. It can show why the subject matters to you or establish familiarity. Effective voice should be like somebody reading your diary; don't be afraid to air your feelings.

2. BE CAREFUL with your support/research/facts. I had to do an enormous research paper for AP Lit last year, and I didn't get as high a grade as I had hoped because of citation issues. Make sure that you know EXACTLY what your teacher expects for citations BEFORE you turn in your paper. You don't want to accidentally plagiarize because you forgot to cite something that you thought was just common knowledge. If a bibliography/works cited page is required, take your time to do it carefully and don't just rush through it. After the research paper debacle, I took to finishing my bibliographies first to make sure my brain wasn't fried from writing so much and I missed things. In addition to watching citations, make sure that the information you gather is legit. That means no Wikipedia. Your best bet is to go to the library and try to find a book in addition to online research. Also watch out for bias and make sure you address it if it's obvious. Other people's opinions can get tricky when you're trying to convert them into your own work.

3. If you're writing something persuasive, DO NOT USE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. This is hard, because the paper is supposed to reflect your opinion, right? Right. But using personal pronouns isn't formal and it distracts too much from the content of the paper. Your audience becomes caught up in what YOU think rather than what you want THEM to think. It also makes your argument sound shaky and weak if you continually use phrases like "I think" or "I believe". Just eliminate those altogether. So if your argument is "I think turkey bacon is a much healthier and tastier alternative to regular bacon", change it to "Turkey bacon is a much healthier and tastier alternative to regular bacon". Remember that the audience is reading YOUR paper, so it's obvious that these are your opinions already.

4. Character development is key in writing fiction. I am not so great at writing fiction, but I can tell when it's done well. (Rhyming!) If you're writing from a first-person point of view, the reader should feel like the main character is his or her best friend. If you're writing a love story, the reader should understand perfectly why the main character loves whoever it is he or she loves. The antagonist should be just as developed. It should be apparent WHY he or she is against the hero/heroin. Take Voldemort. JK Rowling has 7 extremely thick books that develop characters beautifully. Voldemort is no exception. Her readers know exactly why he is so evil, because she takes the time to build his character and give him more dimensions than pure evil. I'm not saying you have to have 7 books to your name in order to establish effective character development or anything, just that it takes some time and some serious thinking.

5. Conclusions should "stick it". While I was watching the Olympic trials, it occurred to me that the gymnasts never looked happy with their performances unless they stuck the landing. No matter how flawless the routine had been, the landing is the most important part. The conclusion is often what the reader remembers the best. It can't just summarize everything you've already told them, because that's boring. A conclusion truly needs to hit home with your audience. It should explain the so-what of your thesis. Why is this important? What's the point? Conclusions are HARD. They take time to master. I suck at writing conclusions, because after writing an entire essay, I just want to wrap it up as quickly as possible so I can turn it in. Try to figure out the so-what before you write your paper. If you have multiple drafts to turn in, do your best the first time around and ask your teacher for help in making it more effective.

I hope that this was at least mildly helpful to someone out there. If you're over forty, hopefully you already know these things, but I appreciate you bearing with me anyway, as usual.

The Importance of Endings

Today, I am fueled by the three cups of very strong coffee I consumed with my breakfast and the literary insight that can only come from trying to do my AP Lang homework. (Two days in a row! Is this real life?)

Key word: trying(!) to do my AP Lang homework. Perhaps it's the three cups of coffee, but I'm finding myself very easily distracted by basically everything, including my portable lap desk. It has a very pleasant surface, you see, so I often find myself doodling in the corners of it when I get bored with my real work. Today, it started with scribbling down a song lyric that was stuck in my head, and led to the writing of my favorite quotes from novels. And it occurred to me that practically all of these quotes were the last lines of my favorite novels. So, I'll warn you now that if you think you can figure out the ending of a book from the last line, you should stop reading.

However. That warning is just dumb, because the last lines of a novel (when they're written really, really well) almost never give away the plot of the book. And maybe I only think this because I've read all of these books. But honestly, unless I told you, would you be able to guess where "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" comes from?

It's from The Great Gatsby. Now, if you've read this already, you understand how freaking awesome this last line is. But if you've never read it before, it just looks like a highly literary metaphorical-type statement. Which it is. But there's no way you can guess the plot of the book from it. Make sense? I don't know if I'm making sense. Blame the caffeine.

Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that the novel as a whole makes the last words important. If you read the last line first, it doesn't really mean anything until you read the whole book. So I'm not really giving out spoilers here, I'm just reflecting on the literary brilliance of last lines. Which you won't even really understand without reading the whole book anyways.

Anyway. Some of my favorite last lines come from the work of John Green (I mean, duh). He has this way of wrapping up the conflict of the main character in one sentence. Like at the end of An Abundance of Katherines, it reads: "And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way". HERE IS WHERE THERE ARE GOING TO BE SPOILERS. If you've read Katherines, you know that the main character struggles throughout with this desire to be special. He feels as if he's peaked and has nothing to offer other than his extensive knowledge of things that have already happened. He reflects upon the fact that most child prodigies, such as himself, never grow up to be geniuses. This last line summarizes how he has come to accept this. Go read the book, okay? It's a lot more awesome when you read the book.

I assume the majority of you have read The Book Thief, and if you have not you need to stop whatever it is you are doing immediately and go read it. I'm serious, stop it. Right now. Go. I'll wait.
For those of you that have read it, you know that it is narrated by Death. This makes the last line SO COOL. "I am haunted by humans." ISN'T THAT BRILLIANT? Sorry, is my nerd showing? Blame my enthusiasm on caffeine. But WHY is it brilliant? Because it's deliciously ironic, that's why! Is this a paradox? I'm pretty sure it's a paradox. I don't know, my vocabulary is a little rusty this time of the year. DEATH is haunted by HUMANS. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? It's genius even if you haven't read the book. But, of course, it's even more so when you have.

So what point am I trying to make here? I don't really think I am, actually. I just started geeking out about endings and thought I'd share it with you, Internet. I just love endings. All kinds of endings. Happy, ambiguous, melancholy. ALL THE ENDINGS. Also, endings are really difficult to write. Even when you're just writing an essay for English class, the hardest part is always the conclusion. How do you sum up everything you've already said without repeating what you've already said? It's hard! Endings just reveal the brilliance of the writer. Heck, I consider myself pretty good at this, and I still wrestle with endings for frakkin' blog posts. Like anybody actually cares that much. So let's just say that there is much to be appreciated in an ending, like there is much to be appreciated in the book as a whole.

...

The end.

HI I'M ALIVE

So it's like almost 4 o' clock in the afternoon and I've only been up for like 4 hours and I've done zero productive things today. Heck, I'm still in my pajamas. Hence the post.

HELLO! I am not dead or in a coma or anything tragic like that, I'm just a lazy ass who watches too much Sherlock and Glee reruns and spends too much time on tumblr and twitter and youtube. This is why there has been no posting for a while. Summer! I have also not been home for three weeks total this summer, though not all in a row or anything ridiculous like that. I went to New York with my youth group in June and I went to camp in mid-July, but I realize neither of those hiatuses (hiati? That's not right.) are good excuses for not posting. I also realize that all the Tom Daley tags on tumblr in the world should be keeping me from blogging, but like I said, I'm lazy.

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I spend my days doing during the summer, and I can't actually think of anything interesting. It's basically an endless cycle of internet/TV/other brain rotting media that is no doubt awful for me. Occasionally I do fun things like actually leave my house to go watch movies, but that costs money. OH YEAH! I have a job. That's what I do. But that's only like two days a week. But it's kind of productive. As a matter of fact I'm going to work in like an hour. So I should probably get dressed or something.

Um. I've also been running. Cross country every morning now, woot! (?) I'm team captain this year! Well, team co-captain, but we don't have to go there.

I've been trying to get at least some AP homework done, but I have an internet connection so it isn't working out too well. I know a lot of people like hang out with their friends in the summer and stuff, but not a lot of my friends drive yet and sometimes I feel like summer is a nice break from friends, where you have an excuse to be like "Yeah I love you and all but I don't really feel like talking to you or hanging out with you now that I'm not required to see you every day". Obviously that sounds a lot more harsh than I mean it to be. Bottom line: if we're friends, we're friends, and as much as I love spending time with you, I also love not having to get dressed all day.

Anyways. I'm going to go take a shower and all that jazz so I can go to work without being completely disgusting, and I'll try to post again later this week if I happen to do/read/see something interesting.

Rebelliousness.

So, it's 8:15 AM on a Tuesday, and that means this is my first official blog post from school. Now, before you (cough parents cough) get all concerned that I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I actually don't have anything to do. The work I have to do for this class is stuff I'm doing at home, and the stuff I have to do for my next class that I could be doing right now we're working on in my next class. So there's literally nothing for me to do. Except blog. Which I like doing, and as of this exact moment right now, that's a rare thing.
I am a very cranky person. I am all worked up and tense and stressed, and I don't even have an ostentatious amount of homework anymore. So why am I all grumpy? Well, I want this one chick in my class to shut the eff up, as usual, but that's not it right now. As a matter of fact, she could be a lot worse, but my extreme grumpiness is just making me want to smack her across the face with an octopus. Octopus? There's a girl next to me looking at pictures of octopuses. Octopi? Anyways. You guys have heard me talk about being in Forensics before and how much I love it and how awesome it is, right? Well, last night was our Forensics team showcase, in which most of the pieces performed for each other. Guess who didn't make the cut. That's right, me. After getting 12th place (meaning I FINALLY broke to semis) at State, I was stuck on the alternate list along with three other people who DIDN'T break to semis at State. So this pissed me off, obviously. But y'know what pisses me off more? I saw the program for it this morning (because I was too pissy to go last night) and a freshmen who DIDN'T BREAK TO SEMIS and WAS ON THE ALTERNATE LIST got to perform. And she was the THIRD STORYTELLER. There was absolutely ZERO PROSE on the lineup. I am just so frakking angry about this. And maybe this is teaching me a lesson. Maybe I should have stood up for myself and made the frakking coach put me on that frakking stage, but I didn't. And now I'm pissed off and having a pretty awful day, and I've only been awake for three hours.
Alright, now that I'm done bitching and feeling sorry for myself (here at least), I have an announcement of sorts. For a while I've been following a lot of vlogs on Youtube (video blogs, for you not-so-tech-savvy people), and they've always fascinated me. However, for the majority of the school year, I haven't been keeping up with them because I've had other stuff to do or whatever. Last night, though, I was watching an episode of Glee and waiting for it to buffer, so I decided to start catching up on them again. I had kind of forgotten how much I admire vloggers and how funny and cool they can be, and now I'm kind of inspired. So, today, after school, if I decide I have time, I'm going to film a vlog, and I'll edit it and post it here, on this site, for you all to see. This is kind of a trial run, because I'm too chicken to put anything up on Youtube yet and the only camera I have is my iPod, so we'll just see how it goes. It'll be a little ghetto, what with the iPod quality filming and Windows standard movie maker, but it might be fun. I don't get a whole lot of traffic here, and honestly, I'm sick of not being noticed. I keep going back to my favorite line in The King's Speech, when George VI is arguing with Logue and he says all awesomely "I HAVE A VOICE!" Because he does. And I do. And I think it's time I'm heard.

Zac Efron: The Movie

Oh, wait...it's called The Lucky One?

Oh yeah. Guess I was paying attention to...erm...other things.

So I've ranted about Nicholas Sparks movies before. It was a pretty decent post, if I do say so myself. But the fact that I find most of them extremely irritating and ridiculously unrealistic, there are a few gems. Like Zac Efron: The Movie. Or, The Lucky One.

I'm not saying that it was a great movie. Heck, as far as movies go, it doesn't even make what I would consider to be the top fifty best movies. But, as a 16 year old girl, there were some things I definitely enjoyed about it. Like Zac Efron, for instance. Never before have Levi's jeans looked so good. What was I talking about?

So anyways. The movie is about this marine named Logan who does like three tours in Iraq. He finds this picture in the dirt where he's stationed of a pretty blonde girl, and him stopping to pick it up keeps him from being blown up by a land mine. So he goes home, and he has this dog, which of course makes him like 50 times more attractive, and he's staying with his sister and her husband and two kids. Of course, these two kids are boys who like loud video games in which people shoot each other, and they also like waking up their uncle when he's not expecting it. Obviously, Zac Efron...er, Logan...has some PTSD, and he's having issues remaining normal. So he takes that picture he found, figures out where it was taken by comparing the lighthouse in the picture to one he finds on line, and freaking WALKS TO LOUISIANA. From COLORADO. I just looked that up on Google maps, and it takes TWO FREAKING WEEKS to walk to Louisiana from Colorado, and that's if you don't stop to like sleep and eat and stuff. This is where some of the Nicholas Sparks magic we all know and love comes in. Actually, it's pretty prominent throughout the whole movie. First of all, what are the chances that picking up a random picture saves your life? And how the heck did he find out where she was so fast? Seriously, there's exactly one scene of him looking at lighthouses on his computer, and the next thing you know, he's walking to Louisiana. And who WALKS TO LOUISIANA FROM COLORADO? Nobody does that. That's insanity. INSANITY. But I digress. So after he walks to Louisiana, he asks exactly two people where to find this girl, and the second guy tells him. Again with the ridiculous. I mean, it's not like I want to watch him ask like fifty different people where this girl is, because that takes up valuable time he could be spending with his shirt off, but seriously, the second guy he asks knows her! And I'm aware that this is a small town and stuff, but the whole opening of the movie is super rushed. So yeah. He finds the girl, they fall in love, et cetera, et cetera. There's an adorable little kid who Zac Efron...Logan...gets along really well with, which again boosts up his attractiveness meter by a good 50 points. Also he's a marine, sooo...100 points. And I gave him 50 points for the dog...we'll go with like 75 for the Levi's, 60 for being able to play the piano, and 5 berjillion for being Zac Efron.

Did I mention this movie has Zac Efron in it?

Exciting Things

Why hello there, all! I am hoping you had a much less frantic weekend and are currently not putting off doing your homework in favor of practicing chord progressions and blogging. This is just a basic update on all things Erin, because I know how much that thrills you all.

So what's first? Well, I suppose I haven't mentioned Forensics all that much in my blogging. It's pretty much the most exciting thing in my life currently. For the whole of the competition season, I was next to break basically every single tournament. For you people that are not so savvy with the lingo, that basically means that out of the twelve people that make it to semifinals, I was number thirteen. Have I talked about this before? I don't remember. Too bad, you get to hear it again. Anyways. So yesterday was out regional competition, and even though I only had to compete against three people, I was pretty ridiculously nervous about the whole affair. I figured that regionals might be the only chance I had to get any kind of recognition, so I was really hoping to win. AND I DID. It was one of the more fantastic moments of my life. And my excellent Polish prose sister got second! So we're pretty much awesome. Y'know, basically.

What else...what else...oh yeah, it was my birthday, and that was pretty great. Overall a quiet celebration, but enjoyable. And I'm currently waiting for my Pottermore acceptance e-mail. THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING THING THAT'S HAPPENED TO ME ALL DAY. Pottermore is live!!

And I went shopping. So that was cool.

Yeah, not the most inspiring post of all time, but I can only do so much. Enjoy your weeks!

Review: Sarah Dessen Books

So, I have several guilty pleasures. I watch Dr. Oz and 90210, I listen to One Direction, and I love Lifetime movies. I mean, it's not like that's all I watch or listen to. I do tend to have better taste in entertainment. Honestly, I do. Despite the aforementioned activities, I've always prided myself in having a pretty decent taste in books, all middle school Twilight obsessions aside. However, with the warm weather descending upon my life and all the springyness in the air, I'm starting to dig out my summer reads. Sarah Dessen writes my favorites.
Sarah's books follow a formula similar to that of a Nicholas Sparks movie, though I do enjoy her books a heck of a lot more. They're always (all ten of them) narrated my a girl who either falls in love right away and then falls out of love, or falls in love gradually and gets with her man at the end of the novel. The males in these novels tend to have quirky names and personalities (Sumner, Dexter, Norman) and are usually extremely attractive. (That's a big characteristic of Wes in particular). The plots usually range from lighthearted (Keeping the Moon, That Summer, Along for the Ride, This Lullaby, The Truth About Forever) to rather deep and dark (Dreamland, Someone Like You, Just Listen, Lock and Key). I've read nine out of ten of them, so I have a pretty good grasp on how they work, and I've even gotten to the point where I can tell some of her earlier stuff from her later stuff. So, I have decided for your reading pleasure, to review three (with no particular organization) or her books here.

That Summer (1996): I literally just finished reading this one about five hours ago. I bought it last night. I'm just going to admit bluntly that I really did not like this book. It's not like it was really awful or anything, but I've certainly read better from Dessen. The main character is a fifteen-year-old girl (my age!) who is almost six feet tall. Her sister is getting married, and so is her father, to the weather girl he had an affair with (which led to the divorce of her parents...obviously. Also many of these books contain the one-parent factor, or at least the daddy/mommy issue factor). I don't like it because it really doesn't have that much of a plot. Like, literally nothing happens. I know that I'm not enjoying a book when I find myself glancing to the next page to see if anything interesting starts happening. This is also the only Sarah Dessen book that has absolutely zero romance in it. I guess it disappointed me because it didn't follow the formula I'm familiar with, which is understandable, as this was her first novel. I just wanted something a little more memorable. And while the male hero, Sumner Lee, is adorable and charming and whatnot, he's built up to a lot of nothing. Like, the only real plot is the fact that the summer Haven (main character) was eight, her sister was in 10th grade or so and dating Sumner, and Sumner brought the family together because he was so dang charming. But then they break up, and Haven witnesses it but doesn't know why they broke up, but thinks that it's all her sister's fault. So when Sumner shows back up at the time the novel takes place, there's a lot of speculation as to why they broke up in the first place. And you don't find out until about four pages before the end. It's the most suspenseful part of the book, and the big conclusion is.....(spoiler alert)......he cheated on her. Big whoop! Ok, so I know cheating is bad, but it was SO built up that I was totally disappointed that he didn't do something like super sleazy and awful. However, I'll give Sarah a break, seeing as this was her first novel, and the first thing you ever write isn't going to be the best thing you ever write.
Overall grade: C+

The Truth About Forever (2004): I also just finished re-reading this a couple days ago. THIS IS MY FAVORITE. There. All out in the open now. I just love this book for some reason. The main character, Macy Queen, is a former runner who witnessed her father's death (one-parent...) and is now living with her control freak mother who sells real estate. She also has a crazy sister (also kind of a recurring theme in all the books. I think 4 or 5 of them include crazy sisters). And a crazy boyfriend, who is not so much crazy as ridiculously obnoxious. By obnoxious I mean a genius. He's also obviously socially awkward, because after he goes to brain camp he (spoilers) decides to go on a break with Macy because she ended an email to him with "I love you", and he thinks she's not spending enough time at the library job that she's filling in for him. Even though she totally is, the girls she works with are just catty smarty-pantses with sticks up their you-know-wheres. Macy's biggest issue throughout the novel is perfection, or rather lack thereof. Her control freak mother and her control freak boyfriend both expect a lot from her, and she's not happy with all the pressure and emptiness and boredom. So she gets a catering job with a bunch of excellent people, all of which are perfectly developed as characters. Like seriously, she goes from having seven or so poorly developed main characters in That Summer to having nine wonderfully developed characters in this. Seriously. It's hard to develop just one main character, let alone nine of them. Especially when one of them is dead. Yeah, that's right, she even develops the dead father beautifully. There's plenty of plot, plenty of romance with Hot Wes (okay, it's just Wes, but he's hot), and a great ending. All of the random details actually matter to the story, and I just love it. Absolutely.
Overall Grade: A

Someone Like You (1998): It's been awhile since I've read this one, but I wanted to cover one of her darker stories, and I can't remember Dreamland well enough. I liked this book. I thought it was quite good, as a matter of fact. So why is it darker? Well, for starters, the main character (Halley)'s best friend's boyfriend dies within the first five pages in a horrible motorcycle accident. And then a little later, we learn that the best friend (Scarlett) is pregnant. And then Halley falls in with the dead boyfriend's best friend, Macon (quirky name), who pressures her to sleep with him and is all around a dangerous guy to be with. And then (spoilers) he gets all cheesed off cuz she won't sleep with him and starts driving her home all angrily and then they get in a car accident. Nobody dies, but still. Okay. Review time. Halley's character was pretty well developed, but Macon's and Scarlett's characters could've been done a lot better. I would've really liked to see characterization of Scarlett's dead boyfriend, because there are only a couple of mentions of him throughout the book, and there's a big deal about how even though a lot of other girls dated him, he and Scarlett were really in love. I wanted to see that a little more. The plot was great, though, so that's good.
Overall grade: B

Other things I like about Sarah Dessen books: Almost all of them take place in the same area, so there are some characters and places that pop up in multiple books. For example, The Last Chance Bar and Grill from Keeping the Moon is mentioned in The Truth about Forever, the Lakeview Mall Models from That Summer are in Just Listen, Scarlett from Someone Like You is actually in This Lullaby briefly, etc. Also, I have never disliked a male hero (except for Macon and Rogerson, who you're not supposed to like anyways). And the majority of them take place in the summer time, which I love, because it puts me in a good summer mood.

Things I dislike: I don't always like the sidekick type people because they tend to have very little characterization. I also don't always like the main characters in all of them. I really couldn't stand Remy from This Lullaby, even though her male counterpart, Dexter, is my second favorite male character (after Wes). Haven from That Summer was kind of a brat, too. But really, that's about it.

Money Talks

Excuse me for maybe going off for a little bit on a snotty little teenage girl rant with all kinds of first world problems, but really, I need to get this out.
I don't ask for a lot. I really do not. I accept my position as a little sister most of the time. I understand that it's not all about me all the time. So I don't find myself to ever be demanding or greedy or anything like that.
But honestly. One day a year, I get a birthday, just like everyone else, and on that one day it gets to be all about me. It is my day. Mine. And this year, I'm turning 16, which is kind of an important age for a teenage girl. 16 is the age that everyone 15 and under aspires to. It's wired into our brains.
So forgive me if I'd like this one day to be special. I don't need a big old Sweet Sixteen celebration. I just want what I asked for, and that's still not a lot. I don't want everyone to be all obsessed with my brother's college next year and how it's going to cost a fortune and we'll probably be out on the streets and yada yada yada. I don't give a crap if that's all anyone thinks about the other 364 days of the year. But in less than a week, it is going to be my day. And I want it to feel like my day. In a school year where my brother is already getting the majority of the attention for getting the lead in the musical and being in show choir and auditioning for college and getting scholarships and graduating and all that crap, I want just this one day for all of the attention to be devoted to me. I already have to share it with the rising of the good Lord.
I don't know why I all of a sudden feel like an attention deprived four-year-old. Maybe it's the loss of The Boyfriend.
I just want my freaking birthday to be my freaking birthday. That's all.

Why Hello There.

Guess what? We are coming in on the one year anniversary of my blog!
Yay! Break out the party hats!
...you forgot the party hats?
Oh well.
It's gotten to the point where I haven't posted in so long that I totally forget what my last post was about. Sooo...I'm just going to ramble on for a little bit. And shut up Dad, if you want better blog posts then that's too fricken bad. *makes raspberry noises in your general direction*

Homework still sucks, but it's a new trimester, so it's only slightly lighter. I actually have a fun class this tri (if you consider health fun...), which involves a lot of work I don't really have to think about. Yay for required classes! And screw you, spell check, yay is totally a word.
I just finished a really lengthy and frustrating World War I project that involved a lot more work than I thought it did, so the fact that I started it at like 10 last night didn't help a whole lot.
What should I be doing right now? Reading Heart of Darkness for AP Lit. But that book is as dull as my aunt Mertyl's childhood, and I don't even have an aunt Mertyl.
Also Forensics season has started, and every week I am SO FRUSTRATINGLY CLOSE to moving on to semifinals. As in, out of the 12 competitors in my category that break, I am number 13. They should make an action movie about my Forensics life. It would be called I Am Number Thirteen, and I'd get to meet/gape at Alex Pettyfer. It would be about this girl who is pretty decent at performing her Prose piece and gets a lot of laughs from the audience, but she keeps getting beat by this girl who acts out getting raped in a closet. Okay, okay, she ALMOST gets raped in a closet. But then, Number Thirteen miraculously triumphs over Number Twelve and her closet rape, and beats that diva kid with the ridiculous name, AND WINS!
Because that would be a totally legit story.
Except for not really.
And the thing that really bugs me is that I put a lot of effort into this. I cut my piece myself (though I'd never have been able to get it where it is now without my coach, so props), and I really, really like it. Like I feel all connection-y with the characters. So yes. I should be breaking into at least semifinals. That would make me happy.

Lazy Days

I am so content right now.

Like I got up at way too early because my family decided going to breakfast was a good idea. And I guess it was, but I was really tired. But then I had like two or three cups of coffee. I think two. Yeah.

Since then I've been listening to my indie/alternative/hipster Pandora stations, browsing Pinterest and such, and just chilling. In sweatpants, with my hair up and no makeup. This is just so nice. It makes me really, really want summer to happen so I don't need to worry about actually being productive. Like there's a lot of other stuff I could totally be doing right now. But I'm not, because I'm currently in the process of thoroughly enjoying myself.

So what else is new? I was in the ER Saturday having basically the worst day of my life. I had this gushing nosebleed that drained down my throat and backed up into my left eye and lasted 40 minutes the first time. And then it happened again. And then a third time. Which was when I decided that a trip to the hospital was probably a good idea. So I spent Saturday covered in gore feeling terrible, because the silver nitrate they used to cauterize my nose burned like the dickens and I had to develop a new method of breathing.

But I am aaaaall better. So that's good. Now I think I'm going to try and get something done, because that would probably be a good thing. I hope you all have a wonderful President's Day.

I Really Wasn't Going to Rant, I Swear.

I promise you I was not. I didn't really feel like blogging today, even though I had something on my mind, but you know what? This is the last effing straw.

Because I have just visited the One Million Moms website, and I just really want to slap a bunch of people. Really. I do.

The "Issues":


JC Penney and Ellen: As many of you probably know, JC Penney has paired up with Ellen for their new advertising campaign and stuff like that. And One Million Moms are pissed off.

Because she's a lesbian.

That just makes me SO MOTHERLOVING ANGRY. Okay. Here's the thing. You call yourselves "One Million MOMS", which must mean that you are mothers who want to create a nice, wholesome world for your kids. YOU ARE BEING HATEFUL PEOPLE. YOU ARE CREATING HATE IN THE WORLD. YOU ARE DISCRIMINATING AGAINST GOD'S PEOPLE. If you think that being gay is against God, you obviously have not read the rest of Leviticus, because it also says that we can't play football. Might I direct you here, to a video shared with me when I brought up this issue on Facebook a couple months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXJzybEeJM
In which the West Wing proves that the rules in the Bible have changed with time. Also every time I watch that clip I say BAY-UM at the end, because seriously, it just makes me love America. And I've said it before, maybe not on here, but nevertheless: I believe in God, and I refuse to believe that he hates anyone, including gays, because my faith has taught me everything about love.
Also, OMM keeps talking about "remaining neutral in the culture war". I don't even know what that's supposed to mean, but I know it's really offensive. Also hypocritical, because OMM are certainly not remaining neutral in this so-called "culture war". They seem to have taken the "shove our bigoted beliefs down your throats" road.

The "Modern Family" episode where Lily swears (which was hilarious): OMM finds children swearing to be "disturbing behavior". What OMM does not know is that when children swear, they tend to not know what it means. They just think it sounds funny or enjoy their parents' reaction to it. Seriously. I didn't know what the f-word meant until I was in 7th grade. Yes, I knew it was a bad word before then, but not until the 2nd grade. The site for OMM says that when Lily swore (which was actually the word 'fudge' bleeped out), "she smiled every time knowing it was inappropriate". Or maybe she's just a little kid on a TV show who smiles all the time. And I imagine the director told her to smile because she thinks Cam's reaction is funny. So she's ACTING. Because she's an ACTRESS. Also the page for this "issue" unnecessarily mentions that she is the child of a homosexual couple. Way to just throw that in there, OMM. As if we didn't already know you were a bunch of ignorant [bleeps].

Oh Wait, every single one of their issues centers around them being bigots. They bashed Kathy Griffin for posting risque pictures for an LGBT magazine article. They bashed Target (NOT COOL.) for sponsoring an LGBT special on Teen Nick. They bashed Dancing With the Stars for having Chaz Bono (a transgender) as a contestant. They bashed Old Navy for selling Gay Pride shirts. A lot of their issues also revolve around things being "Anti-Christian".

So here's the thing. I took AP Government when I was fourteen. I know about separation of church and state, and I know that there is no national religion. Plus religion can't be taught or promoted in public schools. What OMM clearly fails to understand is that NOT EVERYONE ON THE PLANET IS A CHRISTIAN. They get pissed off a lot about "family companies" like JC Penney, Old Navy, Target, yada yada, for advertising during shows that have slight inapropriate content.

So here's the thing. I watch Mad Men. Also I dabble in the common sense department. So I know that advertising companies probably don't give a flying [bleep] about what shows or channels they are advertising on. They most likely just advertise during the time slots when they expect a lot of people to be watching TV. Modern Family is a popular show. Heck, it's trending on Twitter every time there's a new episode. I imagine that advertising companies have caught on to this and want as many people as possible to see their commercials. They're not in any way saying that they support the content of the shows.

And besides. The content isn't even that bad. When are the One Million Moms going to take the blinders off of their kids? And what can we expect from that generation? I don't want to live in a world where people are ignorant just because somebody is different or think that swearing is ridiculously offensive. I'm lucky to have grown up in a household where I can say what I want in front of my parents, which also tends to make me not want to abuse it. And when I was younger, they explained to me why swear words are considered offensive rather than pretend that they don't exist. When they taught me about gay people, they told me that it's natural and there's nothing wrong with it. So thank you, parents, for not turning me into a [bleep]ing ignorant [bleep].

For more rants, please continue your browsing of this blog, because they're kind of my thing.

Long and Contemplative Post Title.

I'm feeling a little...well, I don't really know.

I am feeling rather frustrated that my STUPID L KEY KEEPS STICKING. Stupid key. I was typing a lot today and every time I wrote "love" it said "ove", and then I kept thinking of the Ove Glove and I couldn't take anything seriously anymore. Of course now that I've yelled at it in blog form, it's stopped sticking as much as it has been. Eff you, L key.

So what's going on? A lot. Too much, maybe. I feel like I have a lot on my shoulders right now, and maybe you don't want to hear it. So if you don't want to hear me kind of complain about all this crap I'm dealing with, perhaps skip this and wait until I'm happy and talking about infomercials again.

For one thing, I have a ton and a half of stuff to do. Homework stuff. But I won't complain about that, because I just told you in my last post that you don't care about my AP Class complaints. Let's just leave it at two 300+ page novels due in a week. But hey, I can do it. I've power read stuff before. Heck, I read the majority of The Fault in Our Stars in four hours. And that was about 200 pages. Or so. Bah! I'll make it.

Speaking of The Fault in Our Stars, Forensics season is coming up, and I'm performing a portion of it as a prose piece. I'm kind of excited and kind of nervous, because I want to do it justice. It's a really important book to me, but it's also a little terrifying to think that I'll be interpreting my version of it to strangers. I don't know why that's terrifying. It just is.

And then there's just high school issues. High school comes with drama. Lots. Let this be a lesson to all of you middle-schoolers and freshmen: I don't give a crap and a half if you promised yourself that you wouldn't get involved in high school drama. It's going to happen whether you like it or not. So there.

Well, I guess that wasn't too complainy. I was going to talk more about drama stuff, but I don't want to go posting other people's business on the internet for the world to see. So I'll just leave it at that. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got stuff to do. (:

The Ugly Truth...

...about AP classes.
Well, I guess it isn't really all that ugly, but here are a few things I wish I knew before I took two of them this year.

1. They may not be that hard, but they're a ton of work. It depends on the class you take, but a lot of them are really pretty easy with straightforward material. The material is just given to you in a way that requires a lot of work. Expect to write a lot of papers. Like, a lot. Pretty soon the standard intro-2/3 body paragraphs-conclusion set up will be so second nature to you that you start to organize your thoughts in that manner.
2. The teachers vary a lot. You can end up with someone like my AP Lit teacher, who is still pretty nurturing and very ready to help students, or you can get someone like my AP Euro teacher, who is more or less a crotchety old man who is sometimes lovable and hilarious. A good example of this is the e-mail I sent to both of them the other day when I got sick that basically told them that I'd be missing school so it would be great if they could tell me what happened in class. The reply I got from my AP Lit teacher praised me for being responsible and checking in even when I'm sick and said that she hoped I felt better soon. My AP Euro teacher said "Do this and this and this. See you tomorrow." Get the picture? My AP Gov teacher last year was somewhere between the two of them; not quite nurturing and not crotchety. You'll also notice that they all have a very different style of teaching, which can be something along the lines of lecturing (Gov), trying to fit a bunch of material in with varied teaching styles (Lit), or holding a class discussion based on textbook reading (Euro).
3. Just because homework isn't assigned doesn't mean there isn't any. Mr. EuroTeacher is notorious for doing this. Then again, so is Ms. LitTeacher. In Euro, we usually have specific assignments about three times a week, and the rest of the time we're supposed to be reading our textbooks to prepare for class discussion. In Lit we get assigned a lot of long term projects all at once. Like I just finished the final draft of a research project assigned in November, and since then I've had to read a novel and a few plays. And now I have to read another novel. And a novel for Euro. 
4. Get used to setting your own deadlines. This is one I'm not quite used to yet. But it's really important. Usually the way it goes is: Here's a book. Here's when the book should be finished, usually a month or so from now. I am now not going to mention this book in class again until the week before it needs to be done. Until then, we're going to read this 20 page short story, write these essays, and read this play. That's exactly how my satire unit in Lit happened. I didn't finish the book. I...I didn't really...start...actually...
5. You're only allowed to complain to those who feel your pain. Feel free to bitch with your Euro friends about your thousand homework assignments and how pissy the teacher was that day, but quite frankly, nobody else cares. And here's the other thing about complaining about being busy: you need to remember that it's your choice. It especially grinds my gears when someone is saying how crappy their life has become because they have thirteen hours of theatre rehearsal and then basketball practice and then they have to stay up until three in the morning doing homework. You didn't have to audition for theatre or try out for basketball, now did you? So stop it, because I won't pity you. I'm being particularly vocal about this now because my school is currently in the thick of competition theatre season. And don't get me wrong, I love every single theatre kid to death, because I'm one of them in the offseason, but I am so sick of hearing about all the crap they have to do. Stick to complaining about your busying activities with the people you share them with, and a lot less people will be annoyed with you. 
6. Relax, gosh dangit. I know it's hard. Trust me, I do. But that doesn't mean that you need to try and force your life together. Usually, it just falls into place. Don't worry about trying to cram a social life into your schedule, because it'll just stress you out even more. AP classes kind of become your life, and you'll meet some really awesome people in them and get to bond over your assignments and what not. My Euro class is kind of like a really weird family that gets to share a bunch of awesome inside jokes. I've met some really great juniors and seniors in my Lit class that I normally wouldn't have gotten to know. So AP classes aren't always a big stress machine. So just breathe every now and then, because this is not going to last for the rest of your life.  

Fingers. Fingerfingerfingerfingerfingerrrrrs.

Sometimes when I actually practice my cello, I really enjoy it.

And then I can't stop fidgeting. Well, not really fidgeting, but I have this addiction to moving my fingers all of a sudden. So I like to cure this addiction by texting. And clicking pens. And blogging, of course, or I wouldn't be here, now would I?

So what else is new?

Basically nothing. I just feel like typing. Did I tell you about TFiOS yet? I think I did. Yeah, I did. Because it was really short and stuff, and I thought I had more to say but I didn't.

I bought a dress yesterday for the Sadie Hawkins dance. It's really called Holly Hop, but that's like the stupidest name in the history of the universe, so whenever I'm talking to people who don't go to my school, I usually just say Sadie Hawkins. And here's the thing about dances: I don't like them. You go into a super dark gym and in the middle is this HUUUUGE CROWD of people that are all more or less doing the horizontal tango while standing up, which is kind of an oxymoron. I think. And the music is either like ghetto rap that nobody knows or really bad remixes of already pretty bad songs. Then the white girls like me stand on the outside of the huge crowd of sex simulators and jump up and down and do the white guy overbite and generally look really stupid. Also, everybody makes waaaay too big a deal out of it. Seriously people, it's not the end of the world if you don't get a date or you see your ex-boyfriend dancing with some whore, and you don't have to spend a million and a half dollars on a dress and new shoes that you're just gonna take off anyway. For a while I didn't even want to go to this godforsaken event. But now that I do have a dress (that was reasonably inexpensive) and a new pair of shoes (from Payless) and I have a date (who doesn't like whores and isn't my ex), I'm kind of excited. KIND OF. Okay, more than kind of. Mostly because I get to hang out with my friends, and they're generally pretty cool people. So yes, I will be on the outskirts of the gym, doing the white guy overbite with the rest of my white and halfsican friends. It'll be a good time.

Oh! And announcements! At some point my mom and I are planning to start a blog together. It has yet to be named, because the name I came up with sounds really dumb out loud, but basically we're gonna read some books and write some reviews. Because we enjoy doing stuff like that for whatever reason.

Aaaaaand....yeah that's it. Kay bye.

[Insert Pretentious Title Here]

Because I'm feeling pretentious and literary and there are words that are formed in my brain that are desperately making their way to my fingertips to be hastily typed out here.

See? Pretentious. Literary.

One can only be in such a mood after reading an amazing, thought-provoking, beautifully written novel. Usually said novel is written by John Green.

So I've finished the much-awaited The Fault in Our Stars at long last, and I just have a few thoughts. No spoilers. Promise.

1. I am conflicted. I don't know whether to keep this book to myself or preach to the world that everyone needs to read it. I don't know whether laugh or cry, recover or stare out the window for a while.
2. It is simply beautiful. Every word oozes beauty, though oozes is not generally a word one associates with beautiful things.
3. It makes me feel psychologically complex.
4. This psychological complexity can only be cured by watching Disney movies and playing Temple Run.
5. I have nothing left to say. I thought I might have more, but I really do not. My apologies for the briefness of this particular post.

I Hate it When People Suck.

Ello.

I'm not really sure where I left off, because I didn't feel like going back to read my last post. Basically, I had a splendiferous Christmas break, where I thoroughly threw off my sleep pattern. As a matter of fact, since my brain knows I don't have to wake up early tomorrow, it's still up and wanting to blog. So I'm gonna blog, dammit. Also I'm bored. [Insert clever nickname for le boyfriend here] is at some church retreat with no cell phone reception. Dear goodness, no contact for an entire weekend?!? How will I ever survive?!? I hope you caught the heavy sarcasm. So anyways.

I'm gonna talk about books. Specifically The Hunger Games. And Twilight. I've never been good at the smooth transition thing.

As most of you know, The Hunger Games movie is coming out in a couple of months. It's generating a lot of buzz because the books were such an awesome series, and I'm guessing that a lot of people are starting to read the books before the movie comes out and that kind of thing. So it's a pretty big deal. (Also I just proofread that second sentence, and forgive me if it makes no sense. I'm listening to music and it's late. Deal.). The one thing that has always bothered me about books that are made into movies, specifically popular book series, is that they always seem to be compared to Twilight in some way. Harry Potter somehow managed to mostly avoid that dilemma, probably because it was cool before Twilight was even written. The Hunger Games is one of those movies/series that has been compared to Twilight. And it bugs me half to death. It bothers me because I've read the entirety of both series, and Twilight doesn't even come close to holding a candle to The Hunger Games. It really chapped my khakis the other day when I saw an article title that said "New Hunger Games Photo Shows Twilight-Esque Love Triangle". Give me a motherloving break. Just because a storyline contains a love triangle DOES NOT MEAN IT'S ANYTHING LIKE TWILIGHT FOR GOD'S SAKE. Especially since the love triangle in the Hunger Games is based on actual love and not just lust, like Twilight. I mean really, those of you who have read it know just how many times Stephanie Meyer goes into intricate detail about Edward's abs. And seriously, how is it even possible for a 400 something old man to fall in love with a 17 year old girl? They don't have a chance of having anything in common. It makes no sense. Never in that book do Edward and Bella talk about how they enjoy each other's personalities or company. They just have sex all the time, or want to have sex all the time, or are thinking about wanting to have sex all the time. THE HUNGER GAMES NEVER DEPICTS LUST. For God's Sake. Katniss doesn't even love Peeta at first. She doesn't even really love Gale. She is a strong, independent woman who doesn't need a man to complete her. (Anyone?). But really. Sure, she doesn't want to kill Peeta. But it's not because he's hot, it's because they both have grown really close and have trusted and saved each other countless times. The love in The Hunger Games is a two way street. Each person gives and takes. In Twilight, Bella basically complains about how she's not pretty enough, and then Edward obnoxiously assures her that she's perfect, and then she still never actually believes that she's pretty enough. Lust. As far as the female's final choice in the love triangle, it's greatly differed in both selections. (I love AP Lit.). Stephenie Meyer spends four four hundred plus page books drawing out a love triangle that was decided in the very first book. The readers always, ALWAYS knew that Bella would pick Edward. BECAUSE SHE SUCKS. Seriously, Jacob is the way to go in this situation, but I won't get into that. It'll bring out my seventh-grade fan girl, and there is no way I'm ever going back there. Suzanne Collins, however, draws it out until the last book, but the choice is never clear. At some points, especially in the 2nd and 3rd books, it could really end up either way. And, in my opinion, she made an excellent, justifiable choice that never had any reason to be creepy because he was several hundred years older than her. And, as a final point, the love triangle in the Hunger Games isn't the entire plot. It's almost a subplot, as a matter of fact. Actually, it is a subplot. Because Katniss is a strong, independent woman who doesn't need a man to complete her. She has more important things to do, like fight for her life, keep her family safe, and rebel against an overbearing Capitol. Y'know, that kind of thing. Like I've already said, Twilight spends over a thousand pages total talking about a love triangle. Sure, there are other parts to it, but none of those parts fit together into the bigger picture. It doesn't seem chronological to me at all. Each book has a seperate subplot that sorta kinda leads up to the last hurrah in the final book, but the love triangle thing overshadows it all. It's like "Oh yeah, weird demons have been invading my house and smelling my clothes, but did I mention how hard it is to choose between each of your rock solid, perfectly sculpted abs?" I could go on for pages upon pages explaining how different these two series are. I really could. Twilight is that bad, and The Hunger Games is that good. But I won't, because eventually you guys will get bored and stop reading my blog, and then I won't have anything to live for.

And might I point out a funny thing I found online the other day.

When the love of Hermione's life left her, she kept fighting to destroy all of the evil in the world.
When the love of Bella's life left her, she curled up in the fetal position in the middle of a forest.

I know I haven't been talking about Harry Potter, but I felt the need to reference it.

Damn, this is long. It took me a half hour to write. Enjoy it.