Small Drawstring Bag

Mom suggested I make everyone's Christmas presents this year, so I'm going to try it! Today I made a little bag using this "fabric gift pouch" tutorial from A Spoonful of Sugar. I tweaked the directions slightly as I went along, so I'm going to show how I made it. (It's still very close to the original.) The bag took me about 2 hours overall, but a lot of that is from hand-sewing.

It's a little tinier than I expected ... 

The post is really image-heavy, so I'm putting it under a cut.

NaNo 2014 Results

I said I'd make a couple posts during November regarding NaNo and I never did ... Anyway! I managed to win NaNo for the second time this year, and I'm super proud of myself (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑ It was a little iffy at times because I had a lot less motivation than I did last year, but I pushed through!

I stayed pretty on-point this year, compared to last year's super mad dash. 

I wanted to focus more on the second part of the story this year, since I'd done the first part last time, but there are still a lot of holes I have to fill in from last year and I didn't have a very stable canon to work with. However, I did go through and write in some missing scenes from last year's when I got stuck, so I was at least productive. I'm expecting not to finish writing this part until after graduation because it's based on the characters' senior year, which I'm still in the process of experiencing myself. 

But the good news from all of this is that I finally feel ready to start getting feedback on the first part of the story! I printed out the first chapter for a friend to read, and I'm hoping to give it to another friend once I get it back. Hopefully this will be even more motivation to finish up the story, if they're waiting on me to get everything together to keep reading. 

One of these days I'll finally make a post about the story I'm writing. I feel like that would make it easier to talk about rather than having to be kind of vague like this ... 

TL;DR I won NaNo again and I'm getting closer to having a completely finished story I can share with the world! So that's exciting. 

Books I've Read -- November

This was a super slow month, mostly because of NaNo, I think. I have a bunch of new books for December, though, so I'm really hoping to get through those a lot faster!

Tides by Betsy Cornwell, finished 11/6. Tides is actually a really good book about selkies -- I can't say that I've read any books about mermaids / sirens / selkies before, so it was really nice to be able to read it. I really loved the depth of the characters, and the worldbuilding seemed pretty solid. I think the biggest thing I have to say is that it's slightly insta-love, but even then both Noah and Mara are kind of cautious at first. It's definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, and I really liked that. The ending is kind of open, but there's apparently a sequel book coming, so I'm looking forward to reading that even if it focuses more on Mara's pod than anything else.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, finished 11/13. So in re-reading my review for City of Ashes, I think I can safely say that at least some of the unresolved / unexplained issues were covered. That said, I think City of Glass was easier for me to read because I asked my friend for spoilers. It wasn't as frustrating to read. (Also, it kept me occupied at the MVA when I went to get my driver's permit.) I really like the way it ended, though, as if it was only just a trilogy, so I'm still kind of torn on whether I'll keep reading. I feel like the next books will just drag things out longer than they need to be -- and that's kind of how it seems from skimming some of the reviews on Goodreads. Overall, I don't really think the characters in general are all that realistic or believable, but I think they were a little better in City of Glass than what I remember from the first two books.

Prophecy by Ellen Oh, finished 11/18. Prophecy is an okay book. I actually don't have much to say about it either way other than that the narration seemed a little Middle Grade-ish. And that I kept confusing a lot of the character's names, but that's mostly just because I'm not used to Korean names. It's not a bad book; it just wasn't all that captivating. (A lot of the reviews on Goodreads say it's a classic example of "telling over showing" and tropes, so keep that in mind.)

The Hangman's Revolution by Eoin Colfer, finished 11/25. This was radically different from The Reluctant Assassin, I think, but it was just as good. The worldbuilding for the Box Empire (or whatever it's called) seemed pretty legit. I think the biggest issue I had was trying to keep the two Thundercats straight, since for some reason I never seemed to match the names to the characters. That's just an issue on my part, though. I really love the type of action-adventure-science that always seems to come with the Artemis Fowl and the WARP books, and I kind of wish I knew for certain if there's a third book in the series. I don't know what the plot would be, but I would really like to at least know what happens after the end of The Hangman's Revolution.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

At the end of August, my cousin gave me his old 3DS that he didn't use anymore. The first game I bought for it was Animal Crossing: New Leaf (after deciding that Pokemon XY was too expensive), and I'm really glad with my choice! AC:NL is my favorite Animal Crossing game ♥

I take a picture of my outfit and house when I start playing each day. It's really fun to see how everything progresses!

Basic town details:

Town name: Anderson

Mayor: Quinn

Other player characters: Nate, Fel, Sol

Native fruit: oranges

I decided to take a slightly different route than I usually did with my Animal Crossing games: my town and villagers are based off those of my NaNo, Aperture. For the past three games, the town name and players were just kind of random. I used my name in both Population Growing and Wild World, but used the name of an old OC for City Folk. It's really fun to see and work with my characters in a new universe!

I think New Leaf is the most fun of the Animal Crossing series! There's much more to do than in previous games, especially when you play as the mayor. I'm amazed with the possibilities for town customization! The island makes it really easy to earn money, especially if you play at night and get all the beetles, and the minigames are fun as well. (The island minigames are where I got most of my flowers, too, I'm not gonna lie.) I love the unlockable furniture customization and QR code reader. I've had a ton of fun looking up QR codes and fixing up furniture to give to the villagers. 

I earned a lot of money in the first three days I played...

There are a lot of cool little details, too. You can hang certain things on the wall of your house, like shelves or pictures or clocks, and the camera angle goes around 360 degrees. Fruit and non-fruit trees are slightly different colors, and there are, like, 20 different fruit types to get. The dirt patterns look slightly more realistic. The villagers themselves seem to be even more unique! I've received a couple letters from my villagers out of the blue, even when I hadn't written them anything first, which had never happened to me before. I wrote them back and got another response the next day! They wave when you leave their house and are always understanding if you have to turn down one of their requests or otherwise can't follow through. 

I went to Anime USA about a month after I got my 3DS, and I was able to streetpass at least 300 people. I also completely filled up my HHA showrooms! It's so much easier to order furniture through the model homes than have to wait for Nook / Timmy and Tommy to stock it, even though it can be a couple hundred bells more expensive. 

I just recently unlocked Dream Suite! I'm working on funding it. 

I know I'm definitely behind on the ACNL bandwagon since the game is over a year old, but I would definitely recommend it if you haven't played it yet! It's a very cute and lighthearted game with a lot of leeway in terms of game play. (◡‿◡✿)

Books I've Read -- October

I'm really debating doing individual reviews for some books. I feel like some books deserve more than a paragraph. I feel like I'm not finishing as many books as I used to, and I don't know if it's because of the books I'm reading or because of something else. It's a little worrisome.

While We Run by Karen Healey, finished 10/7. I definitely liked While We Run more than When We Wake. I don't know whether it's because of the different narrator, or because there was less exposition, or maybe a little bit of both. It's very dystopian-like, with the whole "our government sucks and we're going to do something about it". It's kind of an open end, though, and I'm not sure if there's a third book, so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. I also have to include content warnings for blood / violence, emotional / psychological abuse, and mentions of sexual abuse. This book series is definitely pretty dark, so if you have any issues with any of those things, I would really suggest avoiding the series.

Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, finished 10/8. Blood of Olympus was the only book in the PJO series that I had to wait for. And it killed me. But it was also the only book that I was able to speculate about with other people, without any of us knowing what was gonna happen, and the only book where I had to be careful what I mentioned after I finished it because not all of my friends were able to marathon it like I did. And I've gotta say, I think Blood of Olympus wrapped the entire series up really well. Kind of a fairy-tale, everybody-is-happy ending, but I appreciated it. I really appreciated being able to see how many people at school had copies of the book, and it's opened up conversation with a few people I wouldn't really have otherwise talked to. I really appreciate everything that I've experienced due to the Percy Jackson series, and I'm really glad I got into it before it ended.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, finished 10/15. Sci-fi survival isn't really anything I've read before, so These Broken Stars was kind of new for me. The copy from the library was a pretty big book with a lot of words per page, so I thought it would take me longer to read than it actually did. It also seems to kind of fall into paranormal romance, slightly, which could be hit or miss. The romance was kind of ... obvious? There's obvious character development, but the character development leading up into the romance was kind of glaring to me. Everything regarding the world Lilac and Tarver are on is really interesting, and I wish there was more information on it, since it seems like the next book in the series focuses on a new couple.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, finished 10/24. City of Ashes was a hot mess. I definitely wouldn't have finished it if my friend hadn't recommended it and lent me her personal copy. (So it was an obligation finish.) And I admit, I think part of my feelings about this book stem from reading negative reviews on goodreads for both it and City of Bones while I was reading. Not entirely the best idea in hindsight, and while I did enjoy reading the reviews, I admit that they probably influenced more of my opinion going into it than I usually want. I have to agree that the descriptions are too much purple prose-like and sometimes incredibly contradictory (including something like "shined blackly" -- how???), and there were at least a few different things where there were no explanations to how they managed to work completely around the established rules of the universe. Mainly, how vampires work. That's the biggest one I can think of. And runes. That too. And Clary and Jace are incredibly frustrating, both with their stupidity in general and their "oh we're apparently siblings but I still kind of like you" mentality. Like, ew. All of that said, though, I'm kind of curious to see if the next book manages to solve / answer anything, so I will be reading that. Hopefully it won't be as bad. (Even the friend that recommended City of Ashes said she threw it at the wall. So there's that.)

Towering by Alex Flinn, finished 10/29. Man, Towering was completely misleading. From the dust jacket synopsis, I assumed that Rachel would be the driving force of the book. She wasn't. Other than the opening chapter / prologue, she wasn't an apparent part of the book for a good portion of it. Even the Goodreads description is pretty misleading. The book seemed fairly normal for the first half, and then it took a really sudden (and unrealistic) turn in trying to explain what happened. Like, I know a Rapunzel retelling isn't going to be all that realistic, but whatever happened in Towering just didn't make sense, and almost kind of seemed like it was thrown into the plot. I mean, the explanations fit within the story, but they suddenly just appeared with really no warning. And then the insta-love was just ... it wasn't even insta-love. It was like they loved each other even before they met, and Rachel seemed awfully ok with kissing / physical contact with a boy she just met despite apparently not knowing any guy in real life ever. I really enjoyed A Kiss in Time, but I'm starting to wonder if it was actually a good book or if I just liked how fluffy it was.

Pre NaNoWriMo 2014

This year will be my fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and will hopefully be my second win. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

From their website: "National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30."

It sounds hard. And it is. But it's doable. I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world and hardly ever finish anything I start, and I managed to both write 70,000 words last November and finally finish the first draft of my novel about a week ago.

So it's definitely not impossible.

I really enjoy learning about other peoples' "weapons of mass creation", so to speak, so I figured I'd share mine as well.

I don't have a desk in my room, so I use my bed (or the floor) for just about everything. My laptop has been like a godsend. It was incredibly useful during the second half of November last year when I got it, and made it infinitely easier to write. I really should back up all of my documents from last year and clear them off the computer so I have more of a "fresh start" of sorts. 

I've been using the teal binder for the past two years, but it's definitely seen better days and I finally have binders I can replace it with. I just got a whole bunch of relatively unused office supplies from my grandparents and I'm really dying to start using them. 

I write on the blank backs of old school papers since I like to constantly re-organize and work better when I can see multiple things at once instead of having to flip back and forth. And it's eco-friendly. (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑ 

However, I do have an old composition notebook that I haul around at school and write in when I should be taking notes. (҂⌣̀_⌣́) It's really helpful to have since I come up with a bunch of "what ifs" and then forget them very quickly... And it's fun to color the cover in, too. 

I have a whole bunch of different writing utensils stashed about my room. I use the top pencil case the most since it's always with my sketchbook, but last year I relied heavily on the donut one on the bottom. (It smells like the chai tea chapstick I have in there. I opened it up a few minutes ago and the smell just reminds me of writing. So that's very good sense-association right there.) The Pentel pens in the middle are my go-to set when we peer edit in class, and are also what I've been using to color in the composition cover. They're awesome pens and have lasted for about four years at this point. 

However, I did cave a little and buy some brand-new supplies;; I've wanted a more varied set of pens recently, especially since I lost the purple Pentel pen shortly after I bought the set, so I bought an InkJoy set when I got a new sketchbook. I got the pencil case at Anime USA because it was cute and slightly ridiculous.

The pencil case reads: "Nothing happens until something 

moves actions produce genius magic and power."

The tag on it is in Korean. Despite the nonsense English, it still seems like a pretty inspirational message if you think about it. (Also, I have no idea if the InkJoy pens will all fit inside it. I really hope so.)

So those are my weapons of mass creation! I do all of the writing itself on the computer, but I brainstorm much better on paper. And stationery is a huge weakness of mine. If I were a dragon, I'd hoard stationery supplies. 

I'm hoping to do at least one other blog post regarding my NaNo attack methods, so please look forward to that! And prompt me if I forget to do it. Because I'll probably forget about it. 

Anime USA 2014

The con was three weeks ago, oops;;;

This year marked my third Anime USA! This was my first convention that I tackled completely on my own, without any adults, so AUSA is kind of like my "freedom con". It's easily accessible by metro, so I enjoy it for the fact that I didn't have to involve my parents (much) in going to the convention.

Pre-con was a little bit of a mess. There was a lack of planning on my part, and like last year, there was the threat that I wouldn't have anyone to go with. Thankfully everything worked out! I also finished my Hibiya vest in the week before the convention, which was really poor planning on my part. I'm very proud with how the vest turned out in the end, but two sewing machine needles died for the cause ;o;

The lack of planning kind of carried into the con itself. I ended up changing my Friday cosplay plans last minute after deciding I didn't like how it looked on me. There were a few issues regarding communication and synchronizing metro, also because there was track work on the Red line that weekend. (That always seems to happen.) I also didn't vlog as much as I wanted to :(

Other minor bad things that happened: I accidentally spilled my water bottle in my backpack on Sunday and soaked through my lunchbox and electronics bag. I was very fortunate that none of my electronics were ruined!! Seriously, it was a miracle. I did lose my short camera / phone charging cord, most likely in the "oh crap I got everything wet I have to assess the damage" panic, but I have a much longer cord as well. I'm hoping to re-buy the short cord since it's so portable, but since it came with my camera, I'm not entirely sure I can :|

Very good things: I got the Iwatobi Free! jacket I wanted, I got a lot of cool stuff (and still came home with money!), had lots of fun with my new 3DS and checking streetpasses, got to be part of the super cool impromptu Kagerou Project photoshoot and got a couple Hibiya hall photos taken, and I got to wear my Annabeth cosplay down to the Mall and the museums! (Even though my camera died right as we got there.)

I swear I'm going to get more Annabeth photos in the museums one day.

The only panel I really went to was the screening of the first few episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal. It was really fun to see my friend's reactions to such a girly anime (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑  I spent a good amount of time in Dealers / AA and got to play Portal with said friend (and played Streetpass while he played Diablo), and was lucky enough to play DDR twice.

I started calling AUSA "chillcon" last year, and it definitely was chillcon this year, too. I really just like the feeling of AUSA. It's much calmer than Otakon and was at a much nicer time of year than both Otakon and Katsucon. I think it's a wonderful way to break up the 6 months between Katsu and Otakon.

In reflection: I still haven't learned from bad planning and I didn't improve on my vlogging skills like I wanted to, but I still had a lot of fun. I probably don't have to make any new cosplays for Katsucon, so I'm expecting the next almost-year to be very chill. I'd love to start vlogging from home in that time; I just need to gather the nerve to.

Books I've Read -- September

I'm honestly really happy to get back into the habit of reading during school. It makes class a lot more interesting.

Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor, finished 9/5. At first, Searching for Sky reminded me of a book I read in elementary school. They both had to do with the narrator adjusting to living in society with other human beings. However, I don't think Searching for Sky was as great. My biggest problem was really just the kiss between Sky and River that seemed to come out nowhere and then a kind of romance, which I think really could've been done without. The ending didn't really seem to establish anything either -- it was a little too open-ended, I think.

Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, finished 9/13. I had checked this book out on my own and never got around to reading it, but then Gigi read it and passed it onto me as a recommendation. And it took me a while to get into. It was a really interesting concept, and I did kind of enjoy reading it, but the beginning was kind of hard to get past. I don't know if it was the amount of world-building needed, or the fact that the words were formatted onto the page so densely. I kind of wish there was an extension of the book, because I'm pretty curious about what happens to the characters after the end of Storm Thief, but it does a pretty good job with leaving an open-ended ending.

Hero by Alethea Kontis, finished 9/16. It took me at least 30 pages to realize Hero focused on a different sister than the first book did;; Which is entirely my fault, since there were definite differences between Saturday and Sunday. I think it's because the names are pretty similar (a difference of, like, four letters) and because it's been a little while since I read Enchanted. Still, I really liked it! I think my biggest issue would have to be with the "Does romance have to be part of the adventure?" on the cover,  since there is a romance by the end of the book, but it's mainly after the main problem has been solved.

The Falconer's Knot by Mary Hoffman, finished 9/24. I checked this out before because I really loved the Stravaganza series by the same author, but I didn't start it by the time I had to read it. So I gave it another chance. And honestly, I struggled with it a lot more than I did Storm Thief. I don't usually read historical fiction, especially not as far back as The Falconer's Knot was, so I didn't have too much interest in it. I really kept reading because I needed something to do in class. It did get more interesting as I got further into the book, but I'd say it was after the halfway mark that I stopped complaining about it;; It was a good book, just not something I usually read.

Earth Star by Janet Edwards, finished 9/27. I saved Earth Star for last out of my library books, and I figured I wouldn't finish it by the time they were due because the font size is tiny. But I was surprised! Despite the pages being so dense, I was able to read through it pretty quickly. I really love the world-building in the series. It was a lot easier for me to read Earth Star than Earth Girl, I guess because of the learning curve it took to get used to the world in the first book.

Books I've Read -- August

Sorry I'm like a week late! School started the last week of August and I honestly forgot about finishing this post until like two days ago;; But anyway, since school's started, I'm hopefully gonna have more books in the upcoming posts! I've already finished two books in school within the past two weeks, so that seems promising.

Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund, finished 8/4. I read this because I found it online for free. It was a little hard for me to get back into the world of For Darkness Shows the Stars, but I think it was interesting to show what Kai went through. That said, I wasn't all that impressed with the first book in the series, so the little novella / short story didn't seem all that impressive, either.

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund, finished 8/7. Surprisingly, I loved this book a lot more than I loved its prequel! Maybe it was just the setting and how it affected the storyline -- I really loved the tropical, Polynesian-like-ness of it. I also think the concept of both the main characters hiding secrets from each other worked out pretty well. I kind of wish that there was more to the book, especially since I think there's still so much of the world that could be explored, but I also think it ended nicely. The technology like flutternotes and the Helo Cure were pretty cool, too.

The Slanted Worlds by Catherine Fisher, finished 8/14. I liked that there was more of the concept of time travel in The Slanted Worlds, especially since in Obsidian Mirror it seemed like mostly world-building and angst. The way the book was set up was a little confusing, what with Alicia's diary and the split 3rd person narration, but it did work well in terms of creating suspense. There are still a bunch of things I'd like to know, though, so I'm hoping that the final book will cover that. Unfortunately, Goodreads lists its publication as 2015...

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier, finished 8/20. I've gotta be honest -- up until about halfway through Emerald Green, I kept wondering why I continued reading this series. That said, once I reached about the halfway point, it got good really quickly. Like, almost whiplash fast. There were at least two plot twists pretty close to each other. I really wish that sort of action had been spread throughout the other two books as well; the end of Emerald Green was the most captivating the series had been for me. All of the questions I had were wrapped up almost simultaneously, and I can kind of understand why it took two and a half books to get to that point, though it had been long enough between the past two books that I'd forgotten a bunch of details that had been established in them. I'm planning to go back and re-read the series at some point, hopefully all at once, because from what I can remember, the series was set up well. It just took a while for it to be apparent.

Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson, finished 8/23. Plausibility-wise, I'm pretty sure Catch a Falling Star is like 99.99% impossible, but it's a pretty cute, fluffy love story. Though honestly that's a little more depressing when you take into account that technically Carter is being paid to like him. I have no idea if any of the details about Hollywood business and stardom life are accurate; it did seem kind of weird for some random girl to just get paid to act as an actor's girlfriend. The character building seemed pretty good though, even if the story followed a typical fluffy-romance kind of setup. It wasn't exactly something to stand out, but I appreciated the fluff.

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil, finished 8/29. I wasn't actually expecting much when I picked this up, so I was really surprised by how much I ended up liking it. I honestly really loved how the romance was slowly built up, and that it wasn't even apparent by, like, halfway through the book. The characters were all really interesting and more multi-layered than I'd expected. It took me a little bit to figure out where it was set, but other than that, I don't think I honestly had any problems or complaints? I think I'd definitely read it again sometime. Also, I think it definitely deserves mentioning that one of the side characters identified on the LGBT spectrum and wasn't treated out of the ordinary. I really liked that.

Otakon 2014

This year marked my third Otakon! It fell the weekend before my birthday again, and I've gotta say it's really cool to consider such a con as a sort of "birthday gift" from whatever luck of fate landed it that weekend.

That said, that luck of fate didn't quite carry over into the first part of the weekend.

On Wed, Emily and I tried to do some last-minute cosplay prep for her. We tried dyeing two different white tops for her rave Snow White cosplay, and both turned out purple instead of the intended blue. Luckily, the one she initially wanted to use turned out indigo when we left both in the dye overnight, so she was able to use it.

Emily and I decided to try Thursday badge pickup this year. And in case you didn't hear, it really backfired for everyone this year. We ended up getting a late start up to Baltimore that evening, getting in line sometime around 8:30, and unfortunately we were one of the thousands of people in line at 10:30 when they announced they were closing the doors. That really wasn't executed well -- while I can't blame the con for computer problems, the staffers were just yelling the news from where they were standing, and we really only heard from word-of-mouth spreading through the line. There were even a few staffers standing in front of the main entrance that had megaphones in their hands but weren't using them. So that wasn't very cool.

So Emily and I woke up early on Friday morning and started again with our usual camp-out until the doors opened. And it went much better. We were much further in the line than in the previous years, most likely due to the people in our situation, so I was a little worried about how long we'd have to wait. However, staff was able to open up registration earlier than planned, so while we were in line since sometime around 7, we were inside with our badges around 9. We were really grateful for that.

All in all, Otakon felt a little more chill than the other two years had. My original cosplay plans had fallen through for the most part, so the most recognition I'd gotten was on Friday as Annabeth Chase. I had a lot more fun than I expected as Annabeth! A lot of people recognized the cosplay or at least that I was from Camp Half-Blood. I didn't complete my Hibiya and Isaac cosplays because I figured the wigs wouldn't come in time. So of course they showed up Saturday while we were at the con;; Saturday I wore my Sailor Moon wig and a cute dress I liked, and on Sunday I went as an OC from my novel using the wig for Hibiya.

While I didn't go to any of the Sailor Moon panels or get any autographs, I was lucky enough to get the special coin! It took me all three days;; The Sailor Moon cosplayer had given both Emily and I the stamp sheets on Friday, so I was carrying around her unwanted one in my bag. I was only able to get two of the scouts on Friday, so Saturday morning I asked Emily to grab the sheet off my desk and she grabbed her empty one instead .... Luckily I was able to get the two I'd missed on Saturday, and on Sunday they were all much closer to the Viz booth, so I finished pretty soon after they'd started the event for the day! I also got pictures of all five scouts. I didn't get any of the shirts that they supposedly had, but I got two different official artwork posters, so I don't really mind.

I also totally overspent on Friday but managed to come in under budget in the long run! On Friday, I really only bought the things that I knew I wanted from artists I followed before the con had even started. Saturday and Sunday I bought less. My haul consisted of mainly posters, but I also came home with a Luna plushie, a shirt with "fight like a magical girl" on it, and a little Tuxedo Mask figurine from a blind box!

TL;DR despite the slight rocky start Otakon had, it was still a really good con overall! My con vlogs can be found here, and hopefully I'll have a new video up every Thursday!

Now begins the prep for Anime USA...

Books I've Read -- July

Still not spending as much time reading as I expected. I ended up not finishing half the books I checked out at the beginning of the summer...

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery, finished 7/5. The premise of Anything But Ordinary was really interesting, but it didn't really live up to it. Bryce was kind of an idiot and all of the characters are kind of static. Her powers were never really explained and didn't really even affect the plot as much as they should have, considering the description of the book. And it has a really disappointing ending. I think it might've been interesting as a series, maybe, but it didn't solve anything with the way it ended. It just introduced a lot of problems and just kind of left them there.

Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, finished 7/11. This book series is going to be the death of me, I swear. I'd been trying not to read it in a hurry, especially because I still have a stack of library books from the start of the summer, but I ended up starting to read it again during an all-nighter and finished about half the book in one sitting this afternoon. And I loved it. I think part of that might've been finally learning to keep Google Maps open as I read. Even though I caught a couple little geographical inaccuracies, it was really helpful to build a more accurate mental map. And the geographical inaccuracies were really just because I'd been to Anchorage already and realized some of the street names in the book didn't match up exactly to real life. Anyway, I'm really glad I bought a copy of this book. And now I just want Mark of Athena. Right now. It ended almost the exact same way as The Lost Hero did and I really don't want to have to freaking wait to keep reading.

Vortex by SJ Kincaid, finished 7/14. You know, I don't think I ever wrote a review for Insignia. So I'll kind of combine them. I really like the premise of the series, since it's almost like Ender's Game but a lot closer to home -- also considering it takes place just across the Potomac. I've gotta admit, Tom is a complete idiot, but combined with the rest of the cast, his dynamic is super interesting. It's also kind of similar to Legend, I think, in the way of futuristic things and war and politics. Vortex did surprise me with what it pulled, so I'm really looking forward to reading Catalyst when it comes out.

Starglass by Phoebe North, finished 7/16. Starglass reminds me a lot of the Across the Universe series. It's mainly just because they kind of have the same premise, what with traveling in a spaceship to colonize a new planet. It was really interesting to read, and I've gotta say I did enjoy it more than I liked Across the Universe.  There was one part that tied in to the end of Starglass that's a little questionable, but I'm hoping it'll be explained more in the coming book. I also wish there was more of the diaries that were given to Terra, but that's just something small.

Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, finished 7/21. Mark of Athena, man. I think it might be my favorite so far. 600 pages, and I read it in 24 hours. That's a record. It was great. Annabeth is definitely my favorite character, and I'm super excited to cosplay her at Otakon. All of the characters are great, honestly, and there's so much more to everyone than I'd figured. Their dynamic is the best. They're so much stronger than I could ever be in the situations they've been thrown into. I didn't keep Google Maps open with this like I did for Son of Neptune, but they were moving out of my area of personal knowledge and more into what I'd learned back in, like, middle school, so I did pretty okay. I also didn't really have a computer handy for most of the time I was reading.

Allies by SJ Kincaid, finished 7/28. I was really only able to read Allies because the library happened to have a digital copy on Overdrive. And I really enjoyed it! I liked learning more about Wyatt, especially since it was kind of hard for me to remember what Insignia established about her. It was nice to learn things through her point of view, especially regarding her personal history.

House of Hades by Rick Riordan, finished 7/31. I ended up rating House of Hades a little lower than I had the first three books in the Heroes of Olympus series, but that is probably just because it came directly after Mark of Athena and I was still kind of reeling from that. It also was missing the dynamic that I had liked, since Annabeth and Percy were basically stuck in Hell and everyone was kind of struggling. It still was really interesting, though I have to say the ending wasn't as strong as the endings of the other books. I'm super excited for the final book to come out in the fall. I'm really curious as to how the series will wrap up. That said, I'm kind of torn as to how to feel about it ending so soon after I finally got into the series -- I'm glad that I'll be able to read the final book along with everyone else, but I've only been able to enjoy this for seven months, and it's ending.

Books I've Read -- June

I now have a lot of free time on my hands. And waste it doing anything but what I'm supposed to be doing. Sorry this is like a week late.

Champion by Marie Lu, finished 6/1. I think Champion was my favorite out of the entire series. It was also super stressful for me -- potentially because Allegiant kind of scarred me, and I was so afraid that the same thing would happen that would ruin the series for me. (It didn't.) I'm actually really happy with how the series ended, and I think it totally does the series justice. I'm also really glad I got to read it straight after Prodigy.

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, finished 6/2. The book was actually hard for me to get into at first. It just seemed kind of slow. It did pick up, but my feelings about it didn't really change. For a while I was enjoying it, and then Elise made some pretty stupid decisions. Which she tended to do a lot. I'm not sure the book is all that realistic, but I did enjoy reading about music and being a DJ. I don't think I'd read it again, though.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, finished 6/3. (Goodreads says I read this in a day. I'm not sure if that's true.) So, like Champion, I think that The Last Olympian did awesome with wrapping up the first part of the series. It did really well for a final battle that's been building up over 5 books. The only thing I can say is that it might have seemed like it wrapped up too well, but again, it's pretty MG. And there's also another series that comes right after it. Which I'm totally excited about.

The Boy on the Bridge by Natalie Standiford, finished 6/4. The Boy on the Bridge was new for me -- I don't think I've ever read about Russia outside of a fictional account of the last czar's family, and definitely not anything about the Cold War. So while that was interesting, I really wasn't impressed by the romance. It was definitely pretty insta-love and Laura was really dumb with her decisions regarding Alexei. She learns by the end, but I feel like that wasn't really worth reading the entire thing.

Blackout by Robison Wells, finished 6/8. I actually really enjoyed the concept of Blackout. More of the superpowers than the whole collapse of things because of terrorists, though the focus was of the book was on the superpowers anyway. It was kind of weird with all of the military involvement, though. I really don't think the military would act like it did in the book. So, it's definitely not realistic, but once I got into the book it was pretty fun to read. The description for Dead Zone isn't that helpful, though, so I'm not entirely sure if I'll continue reading.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, finished 6/10. I had to return this book back to my friend by the day of our last exam, and I timed it wrong, so I ended up finishing the last third of it well past midnight the morning of. And I don't regret that at all, honestly. I really enjoyed the new characters, and the fact that the chapters alternated perspectives between the new trio. I had to google more of the mythology than I had to for the first part of the series, but that was mainly because I have even less knowledge of anything that's not Greek or Norse. Also, while I had an idea what was happening because of Jason, I was completely surprised by what they ended up revealing at the end of the book. And I was extremely mad that I didn't have my hands on a copy of Son of Neptune. Because I'm really excited for that now. AND I CAN'T READ IT YET.

The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede, finished 6/15. I'm not sure I've read many books that deal with alternate histories, and it took me a while to realize it was actually set in what would be the US. I had figured it was a completely fictional world;; But I found it really interesting! I liked the whole concept of "frontier magic" (which is the name of the series). It took me a little bit to get into, but by the time that they moved west I was pretty intrigued. I'm planning to continue reading the series, though I'm not sure if the library will have Across the Great Barrier.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, finished 6/23. I really only started this series because I couldn't find Son of Neptune. I figured it had to be pretty similar to what I wanted, anyway. And it was! I liked that it dealt with Egyptian mythology (something I'd really only else found in The Chaos of Stars), but it still hinted that it was set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series. It also dealt almost entirely on familial relationships rather than friendship (or being stuck on a quest with someone). The formatting was a little hard to get used to, since it was told in a way like the two were recapping their adventure via a voice recorder, but it was still pretty interesting.

Vortex by Julie Cross, finished 6/30. I'd checked out this book once before and never got around to finishing it. It took me about 20 pages into it this time to remember that;; I really liked the concepts of the story, especially in the first book, but Vortex kind of seemed like a mess. Maybe it's just because of all the tense confusion that comes with time travel and doing things that end up not being in chronological order. And the fact that they totally started to undo events that happened. That said, I still don't know much about Eyewall (or whoever they're battling) other than that they've got a sucky future, and I'm really not sure the last book is really going to cover it. Also, the ending was definitely not what I expected and I just stared at the book when I finished it.

Otakon cosplay plans

I know it's still too early to really be posting about Otakon, but I wanted to talk about my cosplay plans. I've already got most everything planned out, and I've already ordered the two wigs I needed, so I really just needed something to funnel my excitement into.

Amamiya Hibiya from Mekakucity Actors

The song "Kagerou Daze" was what got me into the Kagerou Project fandom and the Mekakucity Actors anime, so I thought it'd be nice to honor my recent fandom by cosplaying the kid that got me into all of it in the first place. I also considered cosplaying Kisaragi Momo, but I decided to postpone that. Also, Otakon falls pretty close to the Heat Haze / time loop, so I figured it was relevant. He'll probably be my Saturday cosplay, since it'll be the most recognizable.

 Isaac O'Connor from Paranatural

Paranatural is my favorite webcomic right now. It's not all that big, but I love all of the characters and the premise of it. Isaac is pretty much my favorite character, and pretty much ever since he was introduced into the series I wanted to cosplay him. I'm not sure anybody would recognize me at the con, but I still want to do it anyway. (So he'll probably be my Sunday cosplay.)

art by burdge / coloring by juliajm15

Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series

I've been looking at a lot of Percy Jackson fanart recently, though I initially found the artists through coincidence. Annabeth would be really easy to cosplay and still pretty recognizable, I think, so I'll probably be her on Friday. Originally she was going to be a backup for my Chimecho cosplay, since that one is a little more revealing than I'd like, but honestly at this point I'd rather cosplay Annabeth than Chimecho. I'm still not sure what I'd put on the t-shirt, though, because I've seen a couple different fanart designs and I'm not sure which one I like the best. (Probably the one where "CHB" is in stick-like black letters so the C looks like <.)

I don't think my plans will change between now and Otakon. The only thing I can think of would be having to drop Hibiya because the wig is currently on backorder, but that's a worst-case scenario. I'm really looking forward to Otakon at this point! I have easy cosplays planned that are of characters I really adore, and hopefully I won't have to worry about the weather!

Don't read the book first

(Possible spoilers for TFIOS)

I recently finished reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and started on Heroes of Olympus. Even before starting the series, I'd heard that the movie The Lightning Thief was terrible. And was curious about it anyway. So when I finished The Last Olympian, I asked my friend for his opinion on the first movie. He told me I should've watched the movie before reading the book.

I have learned that this is very good advice. Because the book is almost always better than the movie.

Movies end up having to simplify the books a lot -- whether it's streamlining the plot lines or cutting out dialogue / entire scenes. In the case of the Percy Jackson movies, they made enough changes that they establish a canon different from the books. I think that's why people didn't like them -- they were expecting to see all of the book's battle scenes, and they didn't get it. They ended up watching someone's creative liberties, when that's not what they wanted to watch. However, I really don't think a more faithful adaptation would've been better. It would have been too long, or possibly more confusing. (Percy's narration was what made the books perfect for me, but I'm not entirely sure you can effectively add that into a movie.) I personally think that The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters movies are fine if you see them as removed from the books they were based off of. I'm used to dealing with different established canons, whether it's for the Pokemon series in all its different mediums or Rise of the Guardians and the almost completely different Guardians of Childhood book series.

But, of course, The Lightning Thief is not the only book that got a movie. The Fault in our Stars was super hyped, and it's a fairly simple book, so not much would be cut, right?

Not exactly. Personally, I thought the TFIOS movie did a wonderful job, but by watching it with a friend who absolutely adores the book, she called to attention everything that had been cut between the book and the screen. The movie plays up the "tragic love story" even more than the book does, and while the movie still kept most of the well-known quotes, they apparently changed some of the circumstances in which they were said. (I didn't notice.) Whether these are creative liberties or just to simplify / shorten the movie, I'm not entirely sure. I've only read the book once a few months ago and it wasn't a book that made me pay attention to every single little detail. I mainly went just because I'd promised to go with my friend, not because I necessarily wanted to see the movie.

The main reason we're getting all of these YA movies is because the YA genre is a huge audience that's willing to pay over $10 for each time they see their favorite book on the screen. YA books aren't restricted to just teenagers -- kids younger than us still read the books, and a lot of adults seem to be jumping the bandwagon, either because it's new and interesting to them or to give themselves an added "cool" factor. And I love the fact that suddenly we're getting all of these movies for books I've read, like Divergent and If I Stay and The Maze Runner. However, the people in charge of making these movies don't necessarily care about staying completely faithful to the books. That's not the reason why they decide to adapt them. In some cases, like Divergent and TFIOS, the movie adaptations are great. Depending on who you talk to.

Because if you talk to a die-hard fan, they might be upset about the changes. Which makes the movie seem like a disappointment, when really it was a great movie. The general consensus I've noticed is that "the book is always better".

So the conclusion I've come to is: watch the movie first. The book will always elaborate more than the movie can. Not to say that reading the book first is bad. I just think it'll save some disappointment in the series when you go for the condensed version first. Now, if you read the book before the movie was ever announced, it can't be avoided.

Another alternative is to just set the bar low when you go to the movies. It's easier to be impressed by a movie you don't have extremely high expectations for.

Books I've Read -- May

Sorry for not posting anything else during May!;; I really didn't do anything interesting to blog about other than read... I'll hopefully have at least a few cosplay posts coming up before Otakon this August!

The Fault in our Stars by John Green, finished 5/1. Reviewed in a separate post because I had a lot of thoughts about it.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White, finished 5/2. The Chaos of Stars was a pretty quick read -- I checked it out right around 7:00am and had it finished by 6:00pm at the latest, classes and going to the public library included within that time frame. I loved the concept of the book. I don't think I've ever read a book regarding Egyptian gods. It's always Greek or Roman. Never Egyptian. And I liked that sense of unknown, learning about a culture I'd only briefly googled and searched wikipedia for in context of references peppered through other series. One thing I can say is that Isadora is a very rebellious teenager. But stuck in that middle school mentality at an age where she should have gotten over it long ago. Whether this is due to her relative isolation to the rest of the world and actual human contact, I can't exactly say. But I thought the rest of the characters were pretty okay (even if Ry was pretty predictable). And I liked Isadora's sentiments about not needing romance in life and turning down Ry's advancements for most of the book, even if there was her dark "everything is finite and will end" mentality behind it. I liked being able to read about a girl who didn't fall for the guy at first. Whose relationship with him was more than just 'I like you like that but I'm not sure if I want to get with you'. The romance was fairly standard for a YA novel, though. It wasn't entirely unique. I really wish there was a sequel, though.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, finished 5/14. One of my friends was really surprised that I had only read the first book of the Percy Jackson series, and when I said it was because I couldn't find the second book at the library at all, he lent his copy to me. And I probably would've read it a lot faster if it weren't for the two AP tests I had soon after he gave the book to me. I really liked The Sea of Monsters! I think the Percy Jackson books are just unfamiliar enough that I can't really see what's coming, and I really like that. I also like that it incorporates something as old as Greek mythology with modern-day stuff. It makes it a lot easier for me to understand. (If only we could study this in school instead of the originals. I'd enjoy it more.) I was also caught off guard by the ending. The only negative thing I have to say about the book is the narration, as it is a little ... stiff? It is considered a "middle grade" book, so it's understandable. And it's not even so much as stiff, but it does sound like a stereotypical, reckless middle school boy telling a long but organized story. Which could be good or bad, depending on if you can tolerate that kind of storytelling.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr, finished 5/16. I don't have much to say about this book. It was honestly kind of boring -- I ended up putting it down a lot. It could just be the narration, which, according to goodreads, was a step out of the box for the author (using 3rd POV instead of a usual 1st). I also thought the relationships were a little weird, as well. The characters seemed out of character for themselves at some points through the book (like being soft / mean when they were usually the opposite), and Lucy's crushes on two different teachers was a little weird. I mean, the book's not terrible, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to read it again.

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, finished 5/19. I am enjoying this series a lot more than I expected to. I think I really needed to read about mythology and reckless middle-school aged kids after reading so many melodramatic YA books with so little action. I kind of wish there was a little bit more about the di Angelo twins, and that Bianca got a little more time, but I also hope that there'll be more in the next book. (Also, I found a geographical error, but that's just me being a nerd and has no impact to the story.) Again, I really liked how the mythology was worked with to fit in the 21st century.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman, finished 5/20. Someone in my English class recommended this to me, saying it was kind of like Harry Potter, but written for adults. He said he really liked it, and I trusted him, so I read it. Which took me a long time. (Just over two weeks.) It was ok, though it was really out of my genre range. I have a hard time reading books written for adults, especially when they're large books with really tiny print. (The library's copy was.) The book also covered a lot of time, at least six years, when in YA it probably would have been made into an entire series. Either the plot wasn't paced correctly, or I'm just not used to reading things outside YA. I wouldn't have finished it if it weren't for my classmate asking for what I thought about it whenever we saw each other.

False Sight by Dan Krokos, finished 5/21. There was a really big shift between False Memory and False Sight. The first thing I noticed was the narration, which really threw me off. I'm not used to first person present and there were often two or three simple sentences when they could've been combined together into one longer sentence. (That also made me self-conscious about my own writing. And I've been struggling to write since I realized it.) There were also huge elements of the plot that weren't really any part of False Memory, which was actually pretty annoying. There was no groundwork at all for what happened (to be spoiler-free) and it seemed to just come out of nowhere. I didn't feel any sort of attachment to the characters, and I really only finished it because of how much free time I've had in school recently.

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, finished 5/23. I forgot everything I had to say about the book;; I liked it, but basically everything I said in the past two reviews for the Percy Jackson series applies. I was surprised by one of the plot twists regarding the characters, though. Which could have been caused mainly by my lack of knowledge regarding the mythology around the labyrinth. I don't know. I'm a little nervous about the series ending with the next book.

Prodigy by Marie Lu, finished 5/26. I read Legend well over a year ago, so I struggled a little bit to pick up the series again. I really liked learning more about the Colonies, which is apparently something I'd wondered about when I wrote my review of Legend. It was also really easy to read, and I ended up reading around half the book in a day. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the military and politics (since those are about the same in the Republic), but I think the books have done a good enough job to include the terms but also make it easy enough to get by without a large understanding. I really liked the narration differences between June and Day, especially the font and colors used for each of them. It made it really easy to know when the perspective was changing. (*cough* Unlike Allegiant.)

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff, finished 5/26. Stormdancer took me a long time to finish, partially because of the small print of the paperback copy I had and partially because I carried it in my messenger bag and really only read it when I was outside of the house and bored. (I've had it since November.) And part of that could also be how slow the beginning seemed to be, which really wasn't compelling me to pick up the book instead of checking my iPod. But, as I got further into the book, things did pick up. (Though the frequent pick up / put downs I had with the book made it a little confusing when things were actually happening, because I'd lose my place on the page and forget what's happening.) I can say that the book would probably be confusing to someone who doesn't have a strong understanding of Japanese terms / language, though there is a glossary at the back that I hadn't noticed until the book ended with 15 pages left. I am glad I finished it, though. And I do feel a little bad about letting the book get some wear and tear before handing it over to Gigi (and for taking so long.)

Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair, finished 5/28. The goodreads summary for Leap of Faith was really interesting, but the book itself kind of wasn't. I don't know if it's just my lack of understanding regarding growing up in a broken family and drugs or what, but I really had trouble understanding Leah/Faith's reasoning. Kidnapping a baby is one thing. Trying to take care of the baby completely on your own and lying constantly to the people that are helping you out is completely different. I understood why she wanted to get Addy out of the situation she was born in, but she had plenty of opportunities to come clean to the family that was helping her, and she just took advantage of them instead. I started getting pretty annoyed with Leah/Faith by the end of the book. And it ends pretty poorly. If there was a sequel, that'd be one thing, but the ending didn't actually resolve anything at all.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, finished 5/31. I knew from the moment that I saw Fangirl at B&N that I wanted to read it. It was really my first time reading about a character that I felt I could entirely relate to. I've never really written any fanfiction, especially not anything as nearly as popular as Carry On, Simon supposedly is, but the absolute adoration for a series (dressing up, release dates, walls covered in posters and fanart) was something that I loved seeing printed in an actual book. And Fangirl had a lot more than just fandom-related problems -- there was the issue of adjusting to college life, and family problems, and relationships (which thankfully did not involve a triangle / V at all). I do wish that a little more attention had been put into Cath's reluctance to write original fiction instead of fanfiction, and her eventual finished final project, instead of her just putting it off. Also, it was really cool to have excerpts from the Simon Snow series and Cath's fanfictions. I would probably read the Simon Snow series, to be honest;; And I would probably also buy my own copy of Fangirl if I found myself with enough extra money to.

TFIOS

Many people know of John Green, whether it's through his books, or Vlogbrothers, or the nerdfighter community (who, contrary to popular belief, do not fight nerds, but are nerds who fight worldsuck. Or other such things). And, what with the upcoming The Fault in our Stars and Paper Towns movies, he's been getting a lot of attention.

My friend Emily introduced me to the nerdfighter community last spring break, when she "kidnapped" me for a gathering in DC. (Actually, she'd tried with the Vlogbrothers videos years ago, but they were lost on me then.) So while I became fairly active in the NotGDCA community, and kept up with the Vlogbrothers videos that published after my introduction, it took me over a year to actually get around to reading any of John Green's (in)famous books.

I say that because I've heard a very wide spectrum of opinions on his books, especially TFIOS. I've heard that TFIOS is the best book, or the saddest, or that people dislike it because Hazel and Gus do not sound like teenagers but adults with meta thoughts about the complexity of life. And it was specifically the "omg I cried the entire time" that kept me from reading it for so long. I do not do well with sad books -- If I Stay definitely impacted my decision to avoid TFIOS, since I had such a hard time dealing with that book and how depressing it was. (I have not talked to anybody else who has read If I Stay, which is sad. I think it is just as beautiful of a book, if not even more emotional than TFIOS.)

But, because I wanted to enlist Emily's help and make a TFIOS book trailer for Video Production, I had to suck it up and actually read the book.

I didn't cry.

At all.

(To be honest, back when I still went to youth group, we watched Passion of the Christ, and I was the only one in the room that did not turn into a mess. I think I'm just heartless.)

I texted Emily when I finished and asked if I was a bad person for not actually crying, and surprisingly, she replied "nah." She has her own signed copy of the book, and cried during the entire trailer tacked to the beginning of the Divergent movie, so I was curious as to how she'd respond when I wasn't such a wreck like everyone else said they were when they finished.

And I think that part of my not-crying is because I generally knew how it was going to end. I knew one of them was going to die, so I knew not to get overly attached to either of them (since I always forgot which one ended up dying). It also took me a while to warm up to the book, because I remembered more of the criticisms I'd seen of the book than "omg I loved it, it was perfect" reactions that didn't have a why attached.

I did feel sad about the ending, though, don't get me wrong. It still hurt to read that sort of loss. But I also enjoyed reading about Hazel and Gus's relationship, and how they got all sorts of meta with each other. And I also liked all of the quotes I've seen plastered everywhere on the internet, as well as the more unused ones. (I actually posted my favorites to my twitter while I read it in Video Production.) I enjoyed the fact that they had a relationship that wasn't entirely physical. Most YA books have tons of makeout and sex scenes, and while TFIOS did have some PDA, it wasn't often. They mostly just talked and spent time with each other. I could identify more with their relationship shown through deep statements and dry humor than many I've read that are all just "I want to touch you. Almost all the time. Because I like you." It wasn't like the two liked each other simply for physical attributes. They spent time with each other for more reasons than just "the other person was cute."

I'm probably going to cry while watching the movie, though, especially if I see it with Emily. Reading about love and loss and picturing the people distantly in your head is vastly different from watching actors make it real. And I'm going to have a hard time taking their relationship seriously when all I can picture right now is the two actors as siblings in Divergent. I have a stronger (albeit bipolar) relationship with the Divergent trilogy than TFIOS.

Bringing up criticisms I've often seen: as for the language of Hazel and Gus, yes, they don't sound like teenagers. This book was also written by an author removed from his teenager years by a good span of time. Besides, I'm almost entirely certain there have to be some teenagers that sound like those two -- whether they're likable people or not, that's up for discussion. I could hear a lot of the things those two said in Green's voice -- whether that's because I've truly heard him say them, or I can just picture it due to my familiarity with his speech, I don't know for sure. But I know as a writer that characters often reflect your own speech patterns, intentional or not. Now, Green could have definitely created unique voices for the two characters, but that would have removed all of the "deep" quotes that the book has that get plastered all over tumblr and everything else in the world. As for the plot and how "boring" it is: the point isn't to have an interesting, action-packed story. It's to show the progression of a relationship between the two. And relationships don't build steadily, they often stay exactly the same for a while before anything happens.

Criticisms I've seen but cannot comment on:  how the two could potentially be "carbon copies" of characters in other John Green books, as this is the only one I've read so far. However, I feel like the same sense of meta-ness / deep thoughts would apply to them as well, which accounts for the similarity. Also, there is the debate about how it handles the topic of cancer, but I have not read any other books dealing with a similar topic, nor have I really had any sort of experience with cancer in teenagers. But, if you have, I would really suggest looking into this aspect of TFIOS.

TL;DR TFIOS didn't exactly reflect what I was expecting based on what all I've heard. And I really liked that. I think it was a good book, and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. I also can say that it's not "perfect" like some people have claimed / implied; TFIOS has both strong points and weaknesses. So while I can't tell anyone whether it's truly a "cry" book or not, I think the lighthearted and banter-y part of the novel makes it worth reading.

(As a side note. I read some 1 or 2 star reviews on Goodreads, and while I can see their points as a whole, the examples they use are kind of poor. Hazel questioning why certain foods are only regarded as "breakfast" foods isn't pretentious -- that's just wondering out loud. I wonder about the reasoning behind things all the time. Does that make me pretentious? I don't think so. Then again, nobody's said anything about it to me. Also, I have not seen anybody refer to Hazel and Gus negatively while using a word other than "pretentious".)

Books I've Read -- April

My count for this month is entirely skewed because my school library got all of the Sailor Moon manga and I've been dying to finish the series.

Sailor Moon Vol 4, finished 4/8; Sailor Moon Vol 5, finished 4/9; Sailor Moon Vol 6, finished 4/10; Sailor Moon Vol 7, finished 4/12; Sailor Moon Vol 8, finished 4/23; Sailor Moon Vol 9, finished 4/23; Sailor Moon Vol 10, finished 4/28. The "Renewal Editions" manga are really good: they've been cleaned up and re-translated, meaning they're a lot better than the original editions I've seen that were westernized. They go really quickly compared to the anime, though, and most of the story arcs only last one or two of the volumes. I kind of miss the depth / time that the anime put into the arcs, but reading the manga is easier for me because it doesn't have that painfully obvious "90's quality" to it. That said, I'm super excited for Sailor Moon Crystal that's coming out this summer.

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards, finished 4/9. I really liked the concept and the worldbuilding of Earth Girl, and how most of the characters weren't flat. The only thing I really didn't like was Jarra's lie: I got about halfway through the book and started to wonder if I'd forgotten something, because the plot seemed to totally forget Jarra's actual background. The thing with Jarra's lies being (or becoming) true was a little strange, too. I can understand a resemblance between the past Jarra makes up and the past Jarra didn't know about, but they were almost entirely identical, and it just seemed to fairy-tale-like. The edition I had also had a really tiny font, so it was hard for me to make progress on the book. Earth Girl isn't all that bad; I just don't really have anything to recommend about it.

When We Wake by Karen Healey, finished 4/10. I didn't think When We Wake was all that interesting. The concept was pretty cool, but there wasn't really anything that made me want to keep reading other than the fact that it's a library book and I had other books to finish. It didn't really seem like anything was ever explained enough for me -- maybe I just wanted more detail than the book gave, or it's going to be covered in the second book, or something. But I don't have a compelling reason to read the second book.

Ivy by Julie Hearn, finished 4/22. To be honest, I can't really tell you what the plot of this book was. There didn't seem to be any sort of point to Ivy. It just seemed more like a string of events that didn't build up any sort of anticipation. There was some character development, but I wasn't even that interested in the characters for it to make any sort of difference. Maybe I just have a thing against historical fiction -- but who would voluntarily decide to be a vegetarian when their family can barely feed everyone as it is?

The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson, finished 4/25. The premise of The Lost Code was what made me finish the book. If I wasn't so interested in the Atlantean stuff, I would have put the book down as soon as I started to notice the narration. It wasn't all that bad, but there were a few times where I started to pay more attention to how the narration stuck out rather than what was going on. The book was also just kind of all over the place. The concepts of the Eden domes and the lost Atlantis culture was really the only reason I finished, and while I enjoyed the attention that those topics got, the rest of the book wasn't all that great. (Also, that kid on the cover does not look 15. At all.)

The Language Inside by Holly Thompson, finished 4/29. The Language Inside was a bit different for me, being written in poetry instead of with a full narrative like a novel. And I really liked it! It can be a little depressing at times, watching Emma struggle between wanting to return to Japan and staying in the US for the life she's beginning to establish. But it was really good. I'd totally buy it if I got enough spare money to. It was kind of a quick read, since it's mostly just a few words per line rather than full paragraphs of text, so it took like a day to read despite being 500+ pages. I would have kept it for longer if I didn't have to lug it around school. (For some reason, I thought the copy I'd found at the public library had a different title? But nothing on the internet indicates anything other than The Language Inside, so maybe I was just wrong.)

Sakura Matsuri 2014

For a bunch of years now, I've gone to the street festival that's part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It's changed since I first started going, including fencing the festival off and charging admission (and this year, doubling the price :| ), but it's still something I look forward to. It's at a good interval between Katsucon and Otakon and is around the time of year when I finally want to get out of the house. This year, I threw plans together very haphazardly, and they almost fell through. But we made it work.

I don't have any pictures actually in the street festival, but I made sure to vlog. (The playlist is here.)

We didn't get down to the street festival until sometime after noon;;

We also went to the Natural History Museum, which for me was my third time in three weeks;; I finally got to see the Dinosaur exhibit though, something I don't think I've ever done before! I'm really glad I got to see it before they closed it.

After the museum, Chris and I walked towards the Washington Monument in order to see the cherry blossoms. I hadn't actually seen the cherry blossoms themselves in a few years, so it was nice!

There were actually a few cosplayers having photoshoots underneath the cherry trees! I wonder what all the normal tourists thought...

I also got to see Jennifer, Alec, Carmen, and Deanna from DTP! I knew that Carmen and Deanna had been planning to go, but seeing Jennifer and Alec was a surprise! 

I got to have my taiyaki like I wanted, as well as teriyaki chicken that I bought as lunch for Chris (and he let me try). I also got to try daifuku for the first time, which was interesting! It was different than I was expecting, especially the black sesame one that came with the four-pack I bought. I also bought a stationery set and a plushie of Tuxedo Mask to hopefully bring with me whenever I cosplay Tsukino Usagi. So, despite the problems we had at first, I had a lot of fun!