Oh, hey, it’s Oklahoma.

Feb 6, 2010
family, this life thing, books
3 comments.

Wow, internet. I has it. Well, my grandma has it. I’ve been without for two weeks.

I’ve officially moved to Oklahoma yesterday. Nate came with me and he’s flying back to Colorado on the 16^th. Ray cried on our last day we hung out on Wednesday, but she agreed that it was for the best, even if it means she’ll only have Nate left as a friend to hang out with. Not that she gets to see Nate often, as Nate never drives down to Denver and she works full time and is in Wyoming with her parents on the weekends (the reason we hardly ever hung out). But the trip went well, that is nothing bad happened if you don’t include me having an extreme pain flare. Nate had to give me a massage last night and will probably have to give me another one tonight, because I’m still in a lot of pain and Tylenol can only help so much.

My body. So silly.

So far I’m really happy to be here, but we’ll really see how I feel when Nate leaves. My grandparents are happy I’m here. Rian, my kitty, is so far doing well, though grandmum’s dog—Benny—keeps growling at him. It’ll take Rian slapping him around before he stops, I suspect. That’s how things usually go for Benny.

Pre-move I read a lot of books. I honestly couldn’t write a review for all of them, so I’ll just give you a list of the good ones: Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (sequel to Cry Wolf, The Queen’s Bastard by CE Murphy (warning: this book has rape that is borderline glorified), Urban Shaman by CE Murphy. There were a couple more that I read, but they weren’t that good.

There isn’t much else to say. Right now I’m just trying to catch up on all my online stuff and rest up from the trip.

Of ninjas and life.

Jan 19, 2010
school, family, this life thing, reviews, movies
1 comment.

Let us start this entry off with a mini-review of the movie Ninja Assassin. Supposedly, this movie was supposed to have some of the best graphics for an action film of the decade. Did it? No. Did it have a good plot? Nope. Did it have good fight scenes? Well, if you could get past the gushing blood that looked more like Kool-Aid (Nate and I kept anticipating the Kool-Aid guy bursting through a wall, “Oh, yeah!!”), then the fight scenes were pretty darn awesome. Uhh, that is if you don’t mind “silent” ninjas making whispering noises when they “sneak” up on people. One phrase comes to mind in response to this movie: wtf?

So, movies aside, how about I talk about real life? I had to drop out of school, due to finances and various other things in my life. I miss it and I despise not being there, but there is nothing I can do about it.

I still haven’t found a job and, well, it’s looking like if I can’t find a job before middle of February, it might be best to try somewhere else. Meaning, I might be moving to Oklahoma to be with my family. I’m not as upset about the idea as I thought I’d be. I always loved living in Oklahoma more than Colorado, it’s where I belong I think. And this way I’ll be able to help take care of my grandparents on a day to day basis until I’m able to get my own apartment. If I can get a job down there. Shockingly, the market for a job is a little bit better in Tulsa than Denver at the moment, at least in retail/etc. Which a first since I’ve been born.

I don’t want to leave my friends, but to be honest…it’s not enough of an incentive to stay. I can’t hold myself back for Ray, who I barely ever see anymore, or Nate, who is hot and cold with me when it comes to our friendship. Amazingly, Nate is in full agreement with my idea to leave. He thinks it would be good for me. Ray hasn’t contacted me back about it when I told her, so I don’t know what she’s thinking. My mom, well, she’s refusing to say anything.

All in all, right now I’m leaning heavily toward moving to Oklahoma, unless I can get a job before February. That will change everything, then. Heh.

Questioning school & my future.

Jan 8, 2010
school, this life thing
2 comments.

I remember when I got into RMCAD, I was so excited and proud of myself. I’ll admit, I love that school. I feel happy there. But, I have to admit that I don’t know if it’s right for me as far as a future career goes. I love art, I would do art no matter what my job is. However, is it really practical?

Many, many people make it as artists in the world. But at the same time, there is that chance of failure. There’s that chance in every career, I’ll admit, but there is something about this plan that is giving me doubts. Again, I love the school and it is amazing. If you’re an artist and are determined to become one, I highly recommend Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

However, for myself… I don’t want to go to school for another four years before I can have a steady career. Okay, okay, I’ll admit it: I’m getting old. Not really old, but I’m going to be 25 years old next month. I want to have something to show for myself within the next couple of years. I want to make logical decisions about my life right now that will help me get out of my current debt and, well, lifelessness. I don’t really have the money for RMCAD. I don’t, there is no getting around that.

The thing is, while I love RMCAD and I was so happy to have gotten in…I kind of applied just to see if I could do it. Yeah, that was pretty much the sum of my reason for applying. But I got in and I felt like I had no other place to go but there. Everyone was so proud of me and I am really good at art, I know that. Growing up, until the point of going to art school, I always had three career tracks I wanted to take: art, history, or becoming a veterinary technician. I dropped the history idea because I didn’t think I was good enough at it to fight through the highly, highly competitive field. Before RMCAD I had dropped art, because I hate the idea of making a career of my hobbies.

I’m thinking maybe I want to try being a vet tech. I went to school for it once before, but I stupidly chose a place that was one of those “earn your degree in 9 months” and it was total shit. They wanted me to learn radiology without practicing on holding the animal hands-on in only two weeks. Ridiculous. So I gave up. But I’m back in Colorado now, less than five miles from a great vet tech school—Bel-Rea, and I can get a degree there in two years or less. That is much more realistic for my current financial status.

So, here is my plan. I’m going to stick with RMCAD this semester, but during the semester I’m going to take a tour of Bel-Rea, see about their tuition costs and what classes I’ve taken that will transfer. Then, I’ll decide what to do before the semester is up. I’m going to actually take my time with this, instead of jumping the gun like I did with RMCAD and so many other decisions I’ve made through my life.

Book Review: Twilight

Jan 5, 2010
books, reviews
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The Overall Storyline

I’ll admit to anyone reading this that I walked into Twilight expecting to hate it. First, I don’t normally like first=person novels. Second, the story itself just sounded ridiculous.

And, well, for the most part—I was right. The story was extremely lacking. While I understand that our main focus was meant to be Edward and Bella’s love for one another, it felt more like the author couldn’t make up her mind while writing the story until the very end. Everything, from the minor to major twists and turns, felt like random decisions of Meyer’s part in an attempt to keep us entertained until she figured out what the hell was going on.

Essentially, this book didn’t really have much of a story. The storyline only gets interesting at the end, when the hunter shows up. But there is no tension leading up to that, nothing to even hint at that being something we can expect. Sometimes a surprise is good, but not like this. The last 1/4^th of the book felt entirely out of place because there was no precedent for it. You can’t have a climax without a build up, so as a result—all we get is a little stumble over the curb instead of the wonderful tension and story build up that Meyer was possibly aiming for.

The Characters

This book was a character book, that is obvious. It wasn’t written to engage you with amazing dialog (if you are hoping for that, you’ll be seriously disappointed) or with a great story. It was written for the characters, that much is obvious.

Bella Swan
She’s supposed to be a strong female lead, who suffers through the awkward stages of teenhood while still managing to be every guy’s dream. What she actually is? A whining person that has very little personality beyond being a stubborn, weak, and pouty teen girl.

Bella is as far from a “strong” female character as you can get. She relies heavily on Edward, to the point that he could turn into an abusive boyfriend and her only response would be “Oh, Edward, you’re so beautiful.” She has no ability to stand on her own and is the worst role model I could ever imagine someone having. Needless to say, impressionable and stupid teenagers shouldn’t be reading this book.

On the other hand, she is a teenager and Meyer does a good job of reminding us of this fact. She’s not perfect and she’s struggling with life in the same manner most girls her age do. In that sense, Bella’s character is rather well formed. However, certain aspects of her character aren’t static. For example, her “clumsiness”. Meyers spends more time telling us about Bella being clumsy than she does showing us.

Edward Cullen
He’s a vampire with the personality of cardboard in serious need of a mood stabilizer. He has “abusive husband” written all over him. He’s controlling, moody, and manages to treat Bella like crap one moment and then like a princess the next, and yet still be considered the perfect guy. I don’t think so.

Basically, I wasn’t impressed with this guy. He’s a horrible character with a horrible personality. I don’t see the appeal and I can’t bring myself to want to talk about him any more than I have to.

The Cullens Finally, some interesting people. I love the Cullens. Carlisle and Esme could use a personality implant, just like Edward, but the other four? They were the only things that kept me reading. I love the fact that Rosalie is antagonistic toward Bella, because otherwise this family would be too perfect. I couldn’t get much of a hold on Emmett because we weren’t given much of him to go by. Alice and Jasper would be my favorites. Alice’s past was far more interesting than any of the others and made me wish the book was about her. And Jasper, well, I just liked Jasper. He’s the type of male character that I tend to lean toward.