I can admit, I stopped and went “Whua?” and had to watch it. Turns out it was actually pretty funny & at it’s core it’s an anti-Nazi video. But still. I Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many swastikas in one place…and if I ever hear “Heil Hiter!” again it’ll be too soon (assuming I didn’t re-watch it…)

Either way, despite the fact that anyone who attempted to make this cartoon in modern times would be eaten alive by…everyone – it definitely gets a point for Refuge in Audacity because let’s face it, this thing goes all out.

Donald saluting in his sleep cracked me up if you’re curious.

Anyway; found it. Had to share it. Simple. XD

They are freakishly adorable. My hands are covered in Elmer’s glue and I put off coloring WaM to make one of Hong Kong. So cute.

Make your own here!

So here’s your report & it’s a long one!

Friday -

Arrived around one o’clock due to a late start and traffic. Got registered & caught up with my bro. We hit the dealer’s room before meeting up with the rest of our crew. Caught the end of the AMV’s and then got some grub. Around 9 my brother and I went to stand in line for the Formal Dance and had fun in the line game. (I got to Salute Cobra Commander in a suit! And he saluted back! *Squee*). Dance itself was a bust. Got a free hug from a girl in a very cute Lolita outfit but otherwise didn’t stay long b/c I ended up being a wallflower. Spent the rest of the night reading & Introducing Hetalia to my unsuspecting buddy KGJ (Cagey Jay). I think I killed her brain with that one.

Saturday –

More dealers room, more AMV’s and went to Artists’ Alley. Spent too much money. XD Later that evening we went to catch the AMV & Masquerade Awards.

The Awesome? Tiffany & her guy Anthony (My roomies for the Con & friends from college( won best upbeat Video!! It’s called Boom, Boom, BOOM! And features various anime. Go check it out – it’s awesome.

And her friend also got an award for costume (JournyMan’s award I believe. But Tiff ended up modeling. Good stuff.)

Spent Saturday night looking for food and watching more Hetalia.

Well, after a very long Photoshoot with the costume winners and myself & KGJ (We were cosplaying as Mordred and Wiglaf. Expect pics of that to show up over at WaM XD)

Sunday –

Slept in…packed up. Checked out after one more romp in the dealer’s room. Hurrah! Long drive home and then procrastination.

But here’s what you really care about:

The Haul

Below are all the big items. I also got a bunch of little bleach charms and stuff in a mixed bag but I didn’t feel like photographing all of those. XD

The Book

Better than the first one.

Now granted, New Moon had it’s head banging moments and horrible scenes. But it had one or two good scenes and I actually enjoyed reading about Jacob & the Werewolf crew. So not a total loss. I think part of that is the fact Edward was missing for over half the book.

Edward alone I can handle.

Bella alone is almost tolerable.

Bella & Edward together gets near unbearable. I can’t even really put it into words but them together is some of the most unbelievable stuff I’ve ever read. It just pushes my suspense of belief out the window. Maybe it’ because I’ve never been in love or seen anyone in real life act like this. But the sheer level of obsession these two have with each other can not be healthy. It just can’t.

People date, they break up, they move on. Sometimes it’s harder than others – I realize that. I believe in love. But this sort of love that they describe almost has no basis. Why do they love each other? What really caused Bella to be near Catatonic for months? As far as I could tell the only thing Edward did (other than the save her life thing – which isn’t really a basis for a romance…) was be mean to her and mention she smelled really really good.

]Though, in New Moon towards the end, Bella refuses to believe Edward could love her so I ended up reading a page of Edward declaring why he loves Bella and I stared at the page – when did she show any of those behaviors? It was like he was describing a different person. I, it was just odd.

But I’ll move on. It’s almost baffling and I’m not sure I could keep up with it.

Let’s talk about things I liked instead. Because admitting there are things I liked in this book are good. I could go on forever about how Bella’s a selfish idiot (Her Vote to become a vampire? No. Just. No.) So let’s talk about good things:

Aro – I loved Aro. This is a vampire. He’s a total monster who still manages to be bright and cheery and keep his manners like a real gentleman. There’s a charisma there that I didn’t expect to find in this book.

Jacob – I’ve already stated he’s the only person in the book who not only seems believable but sympathetic. Plus, werewolves are cool. And her recreation of the classic myth for them isn’t nearly as intolerable as say, the sparkling.

And…that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. Overall, save for a few frustrating moments with Bella & Edward, I liked it.

Which brings me to -

The Movie

I’ve admitted it before and I’ll admit it again. I liked the New Moon Movie. There! I said it.

The directing was 100x improved and it was obvious with the new cinematography and pacing. It featured Jacob (one of the few who could act) and dare I say it – Jacob and Bella actually had chemistry on scene. I was actually drawn in a few times as they interacted.

Plus? I actually laughed when the joke was intentional. I can’t say that about the first movie (save for her dad pulling out the shot gun – that’s always gold.).

But yeah. Not many complaints about the movie, actually. Aside from the plot but that can’t be helped sometimes.

Now…for Eclipse.

At first? I thought this was pretty cool. Seemed like a neat thing.

So I went to post a buzz and realized that before you can post ANYTHING you have to update your Google Public Profile (I had one that showed me as my nickname ‘Liliy’). I noticed it had my real name attached but didn’t think too much on it b/c I had opted to not show my real name, but instead the nickname.

By agreeing it automatically makes your real name public and enters you into Goggle’s domain to be searched as a contact.

This is not acceptable.

My real name was plastered all over google Buzz to all of my contacts and to anyone who had my e-mail address (and since I offer that freely to anyone who visits my sites – that’s a lot.) My GMail account is for both private and web-related mail which means I deal with both people I know and total strangers. It worked for me. It doesn’t any more.

What’s worse? Google doesn’t seem to care. There are literally hundreds of posts screaming about this violation of privacy that are being ignored or brushed over with “It’s not a big deal.”

The icing on the cake? Google’s Official Reply to the backlash (bold added for emphasis):

“The first time you create a post or comment in Buzz, we ask you to create a limited public profile (at a minimum it’s just your first and last names).”

Has Google not realized that it’s that “first and last name” thing that’s gotten us all so upset? I don’t even have the OPTION to be seen as an alias or Nickname like I do for most of their other services. I’m so livid I don’t even think I can see straight.

I’ve changed my name on my profile and I will not being changing it back until this is fixed. They do not have the right to decide whether or not I want to be available to be searched or if I want everyone to know my RL alter ego.

Yours Truly,

“Liliy”

“I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly.”

-Edward Cullen, Twilight

I think the above quote summarizes my jump into Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I’m not actually sure what to quite think about this first book and will probably discuss it by just writing what comes to mind as I just finished reading the thing a few moments ago. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled or impressed by it either.

I think the best way I can think to describe Twilight is “Mediocre Fanfiction.” It’s like, what you read when your favorite author isn’t updating and your alternative is something literally unreadable. It’s not good, but it’s not bad either. It’s in the middle and writing wise it’s tolerable. As someone who reads a lot of fanfiction (good, bad and ugly) I can’t really say anything against the writing style without sounding too hypocritical because I’ve read worse for leisure more than I probably should have.

Plot wise, I think “Harlequin for Teenagers” seems appropriate. It’s about 70% Bella describing what Edward looks like (I think she used at least eight words to describe his eye color in the first three chapters alone…) and what he does to her on the inside. Her feelings, how much she loves and adores him, blah blah blah. It’s a ‘guilty pleasure’ at its best. To help things along? It’s written in first person so if you try just a little bit, the name “Bella” can be replaced with your own and it’s like reading your own little love story where the vampire’s in love with you.

While not a huge fan of first person writing in general (when I read fiction I want to read about someone else’s life…not pretend mine is different), it did put how this book got so popular into focus. The teenage girl audience it was aimed at can put themselves in Bella’s shoes and live her life.

Though why they would want to is beyond me. Bella is quite possibly one of the least likable women I’ve ever met. She’s cruel to her father (in the beginning, she improves eventually) for no discernible reason (a description of what exactly he did during his & her mother’s divorce might have been nice to fill that in. Because the man’s a little awkward, but there’s nothing wrong with him from what I could see…), she’s almost falsely modest (she described herself as being plain and blending into the background, yet on her first day of school she gets asked out by at least three guys) to the point where she’s constantly berating herself for being ‘uninteresting,’ and she’s well. She’s dumb as a brick for someone who gets straight A’s in all of her classes and reads Wuthering Heights for fun. She’s also a bit of a drama queen and constantly whining when she doesn’t get her way. Edward has every right to be mean to her half the time. She deserves it. (And she refers to her parents by their names in her head…what kid with a good relationship with her parents does that!?)

And I think this is where it gets into the ‘bad’ area that so many people complain about. 70% of Twilight is tolerable. About 10% is actually interesting and well, good. (Carlisle’s backstory, Alice’s backstory, basically all the Cullens sans Edward.)

The other 20% is just unforgivably awful.

It’s been a while since I stopped reading a book to just stare at it and go “Huh? What? No.” And then I reread the section to confirm that I had read what I read. There is a scene (mind you this is after Edward has displayed feats of super speed, super strength, and lots of cryptic hints about his soul being damned) where Jacob is describing the legends of his lands and he goes on to talk about “The Cold Ones” (Edward has been described as ‘cool’ and ‘cold’ and a million other things that describe his body temperature as being frigid) which should have been a big hint. But then he goes on to literally say “The Cullens are the Cold Ones who made a pact with my grandfather. They’re vampires.” – Now it’s not in those exact words, but he did name the Cullens and he did call them Vampires.

Bella does not put two and two together at this point.

Instead, she goes home and looks up Vampires on the internet. And comes to the conclusion that Edward doesn’t fit any of the characteristics of vampires, except…that he does. Instead, Bella compared him to Superman or Spiderman.

But I digress.

That’s just one of a few scenes that are well. Just bad. Not writing wise, just story and plot wise. It makes no sense and interrupts the story with its absurdness. But what’s worse than that? The good stuff!

Carlisle. Edward talks about his backstory (very, very briefly) and describes him as the son of a minister who instead of mimicking a salem witch hunt and killing innocents, goes to find the real monsters under the city. And you know what? Through careful work he does. And he manages to corner a vampire by himself – but unprepared for his super strength and powers, Carlisle finds himself being bitten. To his luck (or horror) his back up arrives and he’s dropped to the ground while his friends chase down the vampire. Forgotten, the venom flows through his veins and he realizes he’s turning. To save his own life he crawls behind a sack of potatoes and waits out his three day transformation. After that, he tries many, many ways to try and kill himself (and fail) before realizing that animal blood works as well as human to sustaining his life and body. From there, he starts making use of his eternity and meets up with others like himself and eventually gets tired of them trying to turn him over to human blood. Lonely, he gets it in his head that he wants to create a companion that can share his ‘vegetarian’ philosophy. Enter Edward, dying boy with flu.

You see that above paragraph? It’s interesting right? You’d like to know more about Carlisle and his transformation and what he did in more detail? Me too. But you know what? That above paragraph is basically all you get in the story. I’ve counted at least four to five pages of Bella describing Edward in near intolerable amounts of detail, and Carlisle’s entire backstory takes a page and a half. Alice suffers the same fate later on in the book.

It’s a very frustrating book, and I still have three more to go.

Well, any farther and I’ll be mostly repeating what you’ve all read before concerning this book. I’ll admit, it’s got its place in fiction and I can see where the appeal is. I did find myself smiling in parts (when Bella wasn’t describing Edward…) and kinda’ liked it at the end of the day. But before I go – I want to touch up on the movie.

The Movie

I saw the movie before I read the book (I heard that the movie was a fairly true adaption so I figured it was about the same) and afterwards found that the movie did mirror the book fairly well. There were a few minor changes that included Bella remembering who Jacob was (and Jacob not actually telling her the Cullens were vampires, they cut that out thankfully) but not much else I can remember at the moment. Mostly the cutting of her friends backstories. (And Bella getting asked out by like five guys…).

I liked the movie more than the book. Probably because while watching the awful movie, I was laughing. It was so bad it was hilarious – the book didn’t quite fit that description. When the book was bad, it was just bad. At least the movie I could find some joy in my sides hurting.

Plus? I loved the side cast. The Cullen family was amazing, I adored Charlie (Bellas’ dad was amazing) and Jacob Black was one of the best actors in the film. Anyway, in this case the movie > book.

Now then, moving on to New Moon! Wish me luck.

Well, my Christmas shopping took me to a toy store (because my friends and family like toys as much as I do! Yay!) – Toys R’ Us. And I managed to knock two people off my list.

And well, you know me. Can’t go into a toy section now a days without looking at the Transfomers section (Especially with a 1 in 1000 chance of seeing that exclusive Toys R’ Us Arcee figure). And what did I see? Tons of movie figures (Doesn’t surprise me; the movie figures are kinda ugly…though I did sort of like Barricade). Tons of the younger aged toys (the ones for 5 and under) and the big expensive ones.

Transformers Animated Deluxe? Gone. There was one figure left – Oil Slick.

So I bought it.

I love his Chain Barrel Weapon

It worked out well for me because I liked Oil Slick in his very brief appearance in the show, and of course he invented Cosmic Rust. Which is cool.

His Motor Bike Form Is Cool

And the Ram Head on his bike/arm is way cooler than the Cybertronian looking one from the series. I love the horns.

Well, after securing Oil Slick – I went back to browse the movie figures and realized that most of the somewhat attractive ones were gone (Dead End had promise.) So I resigned myself to leaving the store.

And saw the giant stack of Ultra Magnus & Bulkhead Leader Class figures. And there, wedged between them was a movie deluxe figure. I nearly squealed – It was Bumblebee!!

It took me forever to get him out of car mode. XD I suck.

I’ve never actually caught a Deluxe Bumblebee in a store. Out of all the BayVerse bots, Bumble bee is the only design I actually like. He’s cute, I like his mask and his door-wings are darling.

Anyway. I squee’d and snatched it up. So now you can adore his cute as well:

He is freaking adorable.

I need to stop looking at figures. XD This is getting as bad as my obsession with Gashapon figures…

We literally turned the corner onto the street and I gawked. This house was huge and decked out in lights from top to bottom all the way around. I’m sad only one picture really came out.

Second Christmas Early?

Skyfire

A gift from Mike that he wasn’t expecting to arrive for another week…and well it’s impossible for me to wait to open anything. And I was greeted with his wonderful Jet Form in a box.

I will not discuss how long it took me to get him to robot mode. The 5+ on the box hurts my pride.

More pictures!

Just for fun, I slid Blurr right up next to him. Ha ha. Not exactly accurate to scale. XD

Hot Rod however is probably closer to scale. And he’s not happy about it.

And that’s about it. I hope you’ve enjoyed yet another waste of time looking at my toys.

]]> http://liliy.net/blog/2009/12/christmas-early-skyfire/feed/ 1 http://liliy.net/blog/2009/12/twilight-attempting-to-read/ http://liliy.net/blog/2009/12/twilight-attempting-to-read/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:47:50 +0000 Liliy http://liliy.net/blog/?p=319 Recently, thanks to Amazon & Kindle I have acquired all four Twilight books for about $22.

Now, let me set this up for you – I’ve been going back and forth with reading Twilight. On the one hand – it seems like one of those things that seems so horrible you have to read it for yourself to prove it, however I had a bit of an issue:

1) If it was really that bad I didn’t want to pay for it.

2) I felt too guilty just downloading it.

3) I always conveniently forget there’s a library down the street.

So instead, I went to see the first movie instead. (You’ll get a real review of that later…).

It was horrible. But I enjoyed it because it was so bad that I laughed the entire way through (Much the same way I do watching YuGiOh! The Movie). So, I saw the second one for the same reason – and liked it.

Yes. I liked New Moon. It was still bad and had no plot, but it was actually funny when it was trying to be.

Point? I decided – I should read it before I go off about it.

I’m three chapters into book one and…I’ll save it for the first book/movie/combined review. To come!

Wish me luck! Gonna’ need it.

(And yes I realize I’m way behind and Twilight’s been out forever. Blah blah blah I’m slow. XD)

I digress. Today’s post is about – bum bum bum! GASHAPON!!!

I don’t usually go crazy over toys, but I really, really like these and they arrived today. In fact – I just finished putting them together about oh, maybe thirty minutes ago?

The Figures:

Above, you see from left to right: Kisaragi Honey (from re:Cutie Honey), Misato, Rei and Asuka (All from Evangelion) And I picked up all of them from Mugentoys.com

Now then. Let’s talk about them!

Kisaragi Honey:

re:Cutie Honey was ironically the first Cutie Honey series I watched. I missed out on all the references, I’m sure. But it was one mini series I adored to bits and pieces (which is odd for me considering there was like one male cast member…very odd for me.).

So, when I saw this figure of Honey I had to have it.  Especially when the pose comes from the incredible opening:

Rei & Asuka:

Rei & Asuka from Evangelion are a new one for me. Normally my brother’s the one collecting figures of these two. But – I finally found a set I thought was adorable.

There’s not much more to it than that for this one – I love winter gear and they’re cute.

Misato:

However – the piece de’ resistance had to be this figure of Katsuragi Misato. Misato has always been my favorite character from Evangelion and I have been looking everywhere for a figure that really grabbed me. This one – it grabbed me.

Let’s face it – this figure is sexy. I love everything about it from the pose (the foot on the footstool? Love.) to her jacket hanging off her arm. And she looks amazing next to my laptop on the desk.

Or even on the computer! She looks amazing everywhere~

AHH!!! Oh no! Rodimus Prime is jealous that he’s no longer the favorite figurine! Whatever will I do!?

Oh wait! I know:

There we go. Now Rodimus is happy because he’s got a pretty lady on his arm. She’s way better than that Arcee girl.

Other:

And just for fun, here’s a couple pics of the other Anime/Manga figures I have hanging out on my desk:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief waste of your time. Thank-you.