Because 1) Edward isn't real, and 2) even though Robert says nice things like "I guess old-fashionedness now just equates with people being considerate. It's weird that it's considered an old-fashioned virtue," he's too young for me. (Not really, but I tell myself that.)
I'm going to be 25 relatively soon and the boys I meet, are just that - boys. Slobby, impatient, unconfident (or over-confident for stupid reasons), uncomfortable in nice clothes (or some kind of metro/trying too hard)... most seem to lack common sense. A lot of them, surprisingly, are pretty freakin' emo. And all of them expect sex. Except for the Mormons.
I'm sorry, but do you honestly think I'm going to all of a sudden decide that neither my future nor my self respect are all that important and have sex with a slimy undercooked chicken like you? No!
Fuck.
That's how most of them look to me - undercooked. Even (especially) Pattinson. Ugh, man, stop whining and get a GF, or some other motivation to cut your damn hair.
It's really sad, but I've noticed that I tend to find the older men in movies or on tv the most appealing - the ones I would never smooch IRL, bc, ew, they're old and I'm like a 12 year old hiding inside a "grownup." (But not hiding all that well, as my manager pointed out when I went out of my way to step in snow on the sidewalk and he laughed at me... but that was okay, because he hit me with a snowball and then promised not to fire me for getting him back. And I got him good. Looked like he had dandruff!) Case in point, my other other guilty pleasure, after Twilight and WoW, is NCIS... actually, it's USA's weekday 3 hour NCIS marathon... I really need more hours at work. Anyway. I think Gibbs and Duckie are the most appealing males on that show. I am totally not into either of them because of the age difference; however, while I find Tony and McGee cute, I woldn't smooch them either, because Tony is a jerkwad and McGee is just now growing a spine. (McGeek does have potential, though! Ahh, my dreams of playing WoW with my hubby...) Right, so, there's my problem(s?).
I've been told that what I want doesn't exist. I've also been assured that it does. Either way, I have little patience for crappy in-the-meantime options.
Really, the only thing to do is just get into school, be really busy, go on some adventures (Japan! Or like, somewhere else!), and eventually meet Mr. Actually All Right. And agree on basic values and beliefs (so maybe our kids will not be super confused and I won't end up single again and ranting about it on my blog). And then get married and NEVER HAVE TO DATE OR NOT-DATE AGAIN!!! And get old but not "old" together and do boring things, like playing checkers at Cracker Barrel, and non-boring things, like hiking in, I dunno, Indonesia when it's not being bombed or whatever by terrorists.
Now sleep.
Labels: books, boys, TV
I have a problem.
It started a few months ago when my neighbor asked if I had read the Twilight books. I'd actually seen an article in the paper about Stephenie Meyer, the author, so I sort of but only sort of knew what she was talking about.
"Oh, you should read them," said my disabled but spunky Polish grandma neighbor. "I think you'd like them! I wish I had the books to lend to you, but I gave them to someone else!"
So, I said, "Maybe I'll check it out one of these days."
And then I kinda forgot about it and read some C. S. Lewis and Dan Brown and other ish that's been lying around in my to-be-read pile.
And then I tried to read Austen's Northanger Abbey. This is not a thing to try to do at 11:30 while falling asleep, which is my reading time. So I decided to give up on that for a while until I'm less busy. But I was still in the mood for a teenagery romance.
And then they made the Twilight movie.
And I got curious. Sure, it might be totally stupid, I thought, but I might enjoy it.
So I picked it up at B&N this weekend, tucked it under my arm, and surreptitiously made my way to the checkout. And then, I bought it, after which I casually walked out, like, I did not just by a teenage vampire romance novel. Noooooo. Not me.
Anyway, um, long story short, I'm hooked. It's bad. I've only gotten sleep this week because I didn't have the second book to start Monday night.
OH, and I saw the movie. And I want to hurt the screenwriter. During how many scenes did I think, "It was NOT cheesey like that in the book!"? For example, the Edward in the sunlight scene. In the movie, he says something awful and random, like, "You need to see what I look like in the sunlight!" And then he whisks her up the mountain. Of course the movie needs to accomplish in half a minute what takes pages (and pages) in the book. But a couple more lines would have made it seem a little less weird, for example:
Edward: [says his line about taking her up into the mountain, above the clouds]
Bella: What, in the sun? Won't it burn you?
Edward: [chuckles despondently] It'll do something. You'll see. [pulls her onto his back and does his speedy vampire run]
See how much more natural (and Edward-like) that would be? And it would take about the same amount of time.
The worst is the "my own personal brand of heroin" line. In the book, Bella came up with the metaphor and stated it lightly, as a joke, to keep the mood from going down the tubes. In the movie, Edward's monologuing and and leans down from the tree branch he's sitting in to very dramatically utter this line.
I wanted to shoot something.
See, THIS is why I should be an editor. Because I won't let things suck.
Haha, she said suck... dammit. I hate vampires. But I love the Twilight books (so far).
I'm on page 360 something of the second book, New Moon, which I will probably never reread because it is painful (because, the way it's written, you FEEL Bella's depression), but that's also one reason I actually think it's pretty good.
More on that later. I need to eat. Bc I'm human. And I manage my addictions very well. Actually, I manage WoW a lot better than Twilight so far. Ugh. We'll see how far I sink into this fandom.
Labels: books, movies
Calormenes are not Muslims
They can't be. Calormenes are polytheistic. Muslims are monotheistic. And Lewis, being some kind of Oxford educated religious scholar professor, probably knew that.
So, let's all move on to what the Calormenes actually DO represent and have a civil and interesting discussion. (And let's also note that while Calormene culture is pretty messed up, with its tolerance for crappy behavior and slavery and ish, we need to look at individiual Calormenes, not just Calormenes as a whole. Let's definitely not be all like, "Calormenes are this and they represent that," because that's too simplistic.)
Labels: books
mrph
I dislike being single sometimes, particularly today. Nothing to say about that.
I also dislike when family members are in the hospital. It takes me a bit to unwind from that, even if I'm totally with it and helpful and things while it's going on. I really really hate it, because if I'm not worried about my mom, I feel like, damn, other people here must be so worried, and there are old people, and the end of their lives sucks for them. And then I feel OLD - like an ADULT, who's cynical and all these stupid things I said I wouldn't become when I was smarter/a kid.
Screw that, I'm going back to being hopeful. I'm not gonna shut things off or not think about difficult things, but I am NOT gonna be scared. I have gotten scared lately, like of going to the dentist. I wasn't THAT bad about it as a kid/pre-teen.
Of course, some of that may have to do with that misdiagnosis (I had good reason for not believing that I needed a root canal - because I didn't! Still don't!) And I'm not going to be afraid of getting some kind of new retainer thing (also financial worry there, meh! Do I have to decide between grad school and straight teeth? Not sure at this point).
Anyway, new challenges, new perspectives - and now I need to hit the refresh button and chill the F out.
Rereading Emerald House Rising by Peg Kerr. This might be my 4th time reading it all the way through. I like how she describes magic as the ability to see possibilities and discern which ones should be acted upon. The whole book is like, awesome plot interwoven with a simple but fairly revolutionary way of thinking. It's got substance. Sometimes I stop reading and just think about the ideas presented. I like that kind of book. I want to write a book like that.
Enough blah. Time to pick out tomorrow's clothes and/or (or, most likely) hit Azeroth for some elemental slaying.
Me smash rock!!!
Labels: books, life planning rambling
Save the Earth! Kill the people!
So I've been obsessively reading James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series, about a group of kids who have wings (thanks to their 2% avian DNA). The story, told mostly in first person by the main character, a 14 year old hybrid named Max, is a trippy ride - there's lots of escaping from mad scientists, searching for birth parents, getting clues from the "Voice" in Max's head and, of course, flying around and kicking butt. It's awesome, if a little stressful for the characters - Max never knows who she can trust, who's really working for whom, and whether or not her disappearing/reappearing "father" is manipulating her for some sciency save-the-world-who-knows-what. Speaking of which, there's the recurring theme of "saving the world": You have to save the world, Max, that's why you exist!
Interestingly, even the bad guys are all about "saving the world" - by killing off half the people on it. And by exacerbating the environmental problems they complain about in the meantime. Evil scientists are not known for their logical reasoning skills.
In the fourth book, after Max and the flock (her five hybrid friends who comprise her "family") have basically defeated the evil corporation that's been funding the scientists who made and tortured them, they find a new hobby in Antarctica - helping nice scientists look for evidence of global warming, which Max isn't sure she buys into.
By the end of the book, Max is a Kyoto disciple and goes before Congress to try to influence them to be better team players and make evil corporations stop killing the world, as global warming is apparently a result of such evil corporations.
Sidenote: there is no such thing as an evil corporation. There may or may not be evil people who may or may not run/benefit from corporations, but, as corporations themselves are not sentient, they cannot be evil in terms of being guilty of anything. It's people who sometimes suck, duh.
Anyway, as Max gave her little impassioned speech, relating all the crap she's been through to the US not signing the Kyoto thingy (I sorta skimmed that part) I thought, poor Max, being manipulated again.
I'm all about reducing, reusing and recycling, and not junking up the planet.
I also don't want our economy to collapse in the process of making things better.
I did a little reading at
http://www.cfact.org/, an environmental organization I found out about from a friend. Turns out some of the folks at the UN aren't what we would call team players themselves.
I'm not gonna freak out about this whole global warming thing or get an ulcer over being mad at "evil" polluting corporations (even if some of their CEOs may do really crappy things). What I am gonna do is research more about what little Ariah can do to be more environmentally friendly (already doing the things on the bulleted list at the back of the book) and like, tell other people about whatever good ideas I find out about. If they ask.
Labels: books
