Saturday, April 28, 2012

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?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

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!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

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.

Monday, April 2, 2012

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.