Otra vez, nada que contar

Meh. Not much to say. Past couple of week have had friends over on Saturday and we've been playing RoboRalley. A great little game. Takes a lot of strategy and a little bit of luck. All-in-all great times have been had.

I will most likely not post anything next Sunday, because I will be traveling down to college. 2 days before classes start. (When I go down, not today.) It's cutting it a bit close, but oh well. It was the cheapest fares we could get. I might post something later this week, or maybe later next week. It depends on whether or not anything intereting happens between now and then.

One question I have is that why do people ALWAYS ask if you're excited? (I'm suddenly having a sensation of Deja Vu.) I just don't know. I guess I'm just not that excitable of a guy, but I don't feel very "excited" all that often for trips like this. All sorts of emotions run through me, but not "excited." (Especially since this isn't exactly the first time I'm leaving home for a short while.)

I'm trying to dedicate myself to reading more, both Scripture and fiction. I've slipped quite a bit this past summer. Last summer I went to the local library most every week. Every two weeks at the most infrequent. Speaking of which, Homer is getting a brand-spanking-new library. It's much larger, and is tricked-out with all sorts of cool stuff, like wi-fi internet connections, newer computers and, (most importantly,) more books! It should be pretty awesome. (It had better be, they raised our taxes a whole percent, supposedly to fund the library's construction and maintainence.) The only problem? It's grand opening will be two weeks after I leave.

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DAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Is anyone else seeing something wrong and unfair with this picture??? Oh well. Así es la vida, supongo.

Nacido de Niebla

I'm not sure if that's the best translation, or even a very good one, but hey.

Anyway, sorry for the late post this week again. I have a VERY good excuse though: Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. I've been reading it a lot. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books I have EVER read, and the reason I hadn't posted anything. It even pulled me away from playing City of Heroes.

Now, I loved Elantris. I could hardly put it down. Mistborn I just plain could not put down. I havn't had a book keep me up til 1 in the morning since the first time I read The Lord of Chaos. (my favorite book of the Wheel of Time series.) And even then... well, let's just say that I personally think that Mr. Jordan isn't quite as good as Brandon.

I use his first name because I do know the author. Not very well, but I have met him on several occations, and he and my brother were in at least one club together in college. He's a great guy, real nice.

But that's not the reason why I give such a glowing review. This book really is that good. The characters have depth; the action is quick-paced but not forced; the fight scenes are among the best I have ever read; etc. and so on. Much like in Elantris, the magic systems are well fleshed-out and are much like chess: Simple to learn, yet difficult to master. (For the characters in the story, not real people.) Plus the book has a little of everything: Thieving crews, fights between magic-users, plotical intrigue, suspense, and a cool little twist at the end. It took me to page 499 to figure it out, but I'd already been given all of the clues. But I'm slow that way. I'm sure other, more smarter people could figure it out faster than I did. (Yes, that was an intentional joke, not a typo.)

I figured Elantris would make a decent movie, I still do... but Mistborn, if done right, (like say, kinda what Peter Jackson did with LotR,) it could make for one of the best movie fantasy epics ever. I add the caveat because it's far too easy to take great source material and then completly violate it in the worst ways in order to turn it into a movie. (See any movie based on a video game, especially if "Ooh-Vey Bowl" is the directer. He's so horrible that I refuse to write his name correctly.) Anyway, Often when I read books I kind of "see" it in my mind as I read. Most books crate a bit of a fuzzy image and it just is something that accompanies the book. Other books, usually books I really like (not always, but usually,) invoke a much clearer image in my mind. Elantris is one of those books. But Mistborn... Mistborn felt like I was watching a movie, and the words were really just more like subtitles. You know? It's hard for me to describe, and it seems a bit paradoxical, but to me, the words created the images so clearly in my mind that it was almost like I wasn't even reading said words, but peering into Brandon's mind*. But that's just the way I read books.
(*disclamer: individual results may vary.)

If I were to give numbered results to my reviews, Mistborn would get the rather cliched "11 points out of a possible 10." But since I DON'T give numbered results, I'm just going to say: "Go out and buy as many copies of this book as you can. Then, if you don't want all of them, give some away to friends, so they can also share in the wonderful awesomeness that is this book."





So, did you hear about Pluto? A bunch of eggheads voted to make it no longer a planet. What's with that? What am I supposed to do with my Mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" phrase? End with "Nine"? Whatever happened to tradition? Sure, I don't think that they should be adding all of those extra "mini-planets" even though one of them is bigger than pluto. It's our solar system too! Don't we get a vote? I never voted to take out Pluto. I never even had the chance! Why not bring this up to a vote of the people, not eliteist eggheads who never give us a chance. We may not get everything they talk about, but I think we can understand talk about planetary size and whatnot.

Freeking eggheads. Think they knows everything. Thinks they's smarter than I is. I'ma show them! (Yes, once again this was a joke. Crud, ain't nobody can take a joke anymore.) (Well, the last paragraph was a joke, not the whole "voting about Pluto" thing.)

Mira eso

Hey, check this out.

Piratas del Caribe 2

Sorry, I am very sorry. I started writing this, and then had to do something else before finishing it. Then I just forgot to. Sorry.

Welcome back my adoring public. At least, I'm guessing that if you still read my junk after all this time you must be. Or I'm just dilusional. Or both. Who can tell? Anyway... I don't even know why I'm acting so strange today, I havn't had any caffene, so that's not it. If I had, it would explain everything. Anyway.

Pirates. They are cool, as we all know. Pirates of the Carribean 2 is also very cool. Now, most of you have probably already seen it, but I'm in Alaska cruddangit. We don't get anything on time where I am, so BACK OFF!
Anyway. I really like this movie. I'm having a difficult time comparing it to the first movie in terms of which one I like morewell, because it just feels like I watched only half of the movie. (Which, pretty much I did, considering that they obvioulsy made the movie with the intention of being followed by a sequel.) So, that much is frustrating. Also, there were a few parts in which they seemed to just try too hard to make references to the first movie. Don't get me wrong, some of the references were VERY cleverly done, but some of them were just strained. And some of Jack's more confusing lines weren't near as good as they were in the first movie. Also, I don't like some of the special effects they used. They just didn't fit in with the movie. Hombre, most of them did, but there were a couple scenes with special effects that just didn't belong in the movie.
Okay, that's what's wrong with the movie. Now on to what's good! The biggest thing that stand out in my mind is that they actually managed to make the scale of the movie so much larger. I mean, going into the movie I figured: "They fought Zombie-Pirates in the last movie, how could they possibly get bigger than that?" Oh, but they did! Davy Jones and his crew and the Kracken is just on a whole different level altogether. Plus, there's cannibals and voodoo priestesses along the way. Second, for the most part it captures the spirit and adventure of the first movie, and then adds even more. It adds even more pirate conventions and, dare I say, Fanservices? (Someone climbing the mast rigging with a dagger in his teeth, anyone? What about literally gambling with one's life? Or peg legs? Oooooh! And Buried Treasure! That's a pretty good staple.) It was great. The actors did an amazing job, the dialogue was pretty good, most of the time, and there were plenty of twists and turns that I certainly never saw coming. (Like the end of the movie.) I seriously cannot wait for the third movie. I get the shakes just thinking about it.
I heard it said that the people who made Superman Returns thought (for some reason) that it was going to start off a new franchise on the scale of Star Wars. (Nah, they don't have inflated egos. [/sarcasm]) Personally, I think that the Pirates of the Carribean could be the next Star Wars franchise. The movies are definately good enough for it.

I was going to also talk about Who Wants to be a Superhero!, but I think I'll wait until all six episodes have run before making any final judgements on it.

Well, it's not everything I meant to get to, but it'll do. Later.

Lo siento

I'm sorry, I've been very lazy this week. I meant to review Pirates of the Carribean 2 and a couple other things, but you'll just have to wait 'til next Sunday. Sorry.