Good Morning! Good News!

Well, not exactly good morning, as it is the middle of the afternoon, but Good Afternoon! Good News! does not a pleasing post title make. Anyway, I'm absolutely 100% positive that in the future someone will be reading this in the morning.

Maybe it's you. Are you the one?

If you are, hi! If you aren't…still hi!

Despite the rest of my week being rather irritatingly crappy, or perhaps just irritating, today has been Le Awesomés.

==>End egregiously warped French.

Well, it might have something to do with the fact that NO SCHOOL FRIDAY! :) Yeah, teachers' meeting or something. Don't know, don't care. However, the fact that I got to sleep until, er, six thirty instead of six fifteen was incredibly pleasing. Also, I got to lay in bed with my laptop—

"Don't you do that every morning?"

I was about to say, I got to lay in bed with my laptop for much longer than usual. Also, I received a coffee from my dearest, darlingest mother.

Oh! And I went clothes shopping and didn't hate every last minute of it! That's incredibly unusual for me. Maybe it had something to do with my successful discovery of the missing pieces of my Rose Halloween costume. No, not Rose Tyler. Rose Lalonde. (Major spoilers there, though! Do not click link if you ever have the slightest urge to read Homestuck! It is an extremely spoilerific webcomic.)

"But Omnia," you might protest, "Halloween is a month away! Surely you could have waited a little while?"

"No," I would tell you. "No, I can't. Because Saturday, September 31st is Archon, and I will not be going to my first real con without a suitable costume."

Also, I got Coraline on DVD and Psychology for Dummies from the library. Today was a good day.

Bleh.

Friends! Readers! Countrymen! Lend me your ears…

Guess what I did this weekend! Feast of the Hunter's Moon. I'd put a link there but I am incredibly lazy today (more on that in a moment) and if you're reading this, you must have access to a search engine, right? Well, I meant to leave behind a long, meandering post on Friday to tide y'alls over until I got back, but I wasn't able to. Sadface. (By which I mean, I forgot.)

So, the Feast was pretty great. Bought a lotta stuff, ate three bowls of Noodleables over two days, slept in the car…oh, yeah, and now I am very sick. Like, pounding-headache, already-used-half-a-box-of-tissues, cannot-get-out-of-bed-or-I'll-fall-over-asdfghjkl kind of sick.

Not. Fun.

I would actually rather be at school, feeling well, than in bed, feeling like crap, even if I do have peanut butter cookies.

Which is why I am incredibly lazy and can't seem to do anything but watch Futurama and eat food and read fanfiction. (Somewhat warped alliteration!)

BUT I have a lot of free time today! Free time that I can spend on my new Ultra-Super-Secret-Awesome-Project! I have a schedule worked up and everything. If it's not done by next week, I will be sad and mopey for a few days before I come up with a new Ultra-Awesome-Project!!!!!1!!! 


Uh…yeah. What was the point of this post?

When The Walrus Walks At Midnight…

Yeech, I haven't updated all week! Well, I haven't had much to say in the past week. School was okay, but not great. I didn't do much other than that, other than watch movies and do homework. On Friday I went to a rally for a bunch of schools, including mine. Honestly, the parts that stand out the most was the pizza and singing Never Gonna Give You Up with Caroline on the bus ride there.

So now it's Sunday again, and I said last week that I was going to compare the Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang book to the movie. Not for any particular reason, though, and it's definitely not that I'm obsessed with something new this month and hopefully it'll last longer than the last thing aheheheheh. However, I can't find my copy of the book. However, I can get ahold of The Princess And The Frog and the book it was kinda-sorta-not really based on with minimum effort, so that is what I will do today. Because I am bored and the Internet connection is kind of &#^%ing me at the mo.

Ah, yes, The Princess And The Frog. It's not exactly common knowledge, but the recent Disney movie was actually based on a book by E.D. Baker. And by "based on," I mean that the idea is the same, but it, in truth, has next to nothing to do with the book.

I own a copy of the book, as well as the first two sequels, and they're pretty good. It's about a defiant princess named Emma who kisses a prince-turned-frog while wearing a magic-reversal bracelet from her aunt Grassina and subsequently gets turned into a frog. She and the prince, Eadric, have to find the witch who cast the spell in the first place and then get her to undo it if they ever want to be human again. A really average story, but it had great humor and, not to toot my own horn or anything, the sophisticated vocabulary and storytelling techniques really excited little me. I always was rather pretentious.

The movie holds the same basic idea, but deposits the characters in 1920s New Orleans, rather than the fantasy world of Greater Greensward (and, trust me, it's very green). And before you ask, no, I'm not going to tackle the politics around the film, because I'm more concerned with the story.

First off, Tiana and Emma are as different as windows and doors which is an expression that I just made up and rather like. Emma perfectly fits the tried-and-true "clumsy, rebellious princess" role so common to those types of stories, while Tiana is more like Mulan. By which I mean, she has a specific goal in mind and won't give up on it—no exceptions! (Before the character development fairy flies in and dusts the movie with her patented Character Development Fairydust.)

There were also several exceptions from the Disney tropes taken with the movie. Sure, Tiana only has one parent, but it's her dad that's missing, and we are given an explanation for that. (Charlotte is a different story.) Also, Dr. Facilier doesn't fall to his death like many, many Disney villains. Also, (spoilers hidden; highlight to see) Ray's death. Good Lord, Ray's death (Oh, the cries!). Perhaps they're building up to that Snow White and the Seven Warriors movie I've heard mentioned. It's also focused on the "work hard to make your dreams come true" Aesop, compared to other Disney princess films.

In fact, a lot of the movie deviates from set stereotypes. From the Aesop the rich, blonde Charlotte actually being a good person, instead of the antagonistic "Libby" we're so used to. Oh, but there's still a LOT of shout-outs to the classics, as Disney seems to be wisely trying to go back to their roots. Not that there's not more than a few shout-outs in any recent Disney or Pixar movie. I could spend half an hour reading through a complete list of 'em.

In conclusion (because my cat is demanding attention NAO and I'd rather like to wrap this up), the book and the movie are both great in different ways. I'd encourage avid fantasy fans to seek out The Frog Princess, but if you're not a fan of the Disney princesses, The Princess and the Frog isn't for you.

Avidly shipping Dr. Facilier with Mother Gothel,

Omnia <3

(DISCLAIMER: I am not an actual movie critic, I'm just a bored teenage blogger. Any resemblance to actual critics, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and stop looking at me like that!)

Me and my books

Bored Sunday Review

Let me share my opinions on a certain movie, I mean, book series.

I've been a massive fan of ancient Greek mythology from a very young age, although I couldn't pinpoint why. I seriously dislike it when movies and books much around with characters, especially Hades. Look, he's not Satan. That's one of my biggest berserk buttons. He had to rule over the Underworld because he lost at drawing straws. Practically the worst thing he did in the original myths was kidnapping Persephone, and even that turned out all right in the end. It's not like he maliciously tried to—ahem. I'll stop here.

Again, I'm a fan of Greek mythology. Of course, I liked the Percy Jackson books. Like Anatopsis, it had a pretty good representation of the Greek gods, and the books were well-written. The characters were interesting and the plot was great. They had a better-than-most descriptions of ADHD, too. Not my favorite book series EVAR, but I do have most of the books and I read all of them. And that's my review of the Percy Jackson series. Uh-huh, that's all of it.

"What about the movie?"

The movie—What movie? Um, there was a movie? Huh! Fancy that!

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, Omnia. You've seen it twice."

Fine, I'll talk about the movie now.

Yeah…the Percy Jackson movie. To put it simply, I didn't like it. It didn't follow the plot of the book at all, the characters were completely messed up, and they ruined continuity enough to ensure that a sequel movie would never be possible. The special effects were good, for the most part, but that still doesn't make up for the defecated canon.

First of all, the characters. I thought that many of the characters were well-cast, like Percy and Luke, but the Power Trio are supposed to be in sixth grade. That means twelve—well, except for Grover, but that doesn't count! Why, why, why, why are they driving around in a red truck? I admit, if they had returned them to their canonical ages and had them get around like they did in the book it would have taken a lot longer, but it would have been better. I'm not asking for a line-by-line representation of the book, but they could have done it better.

One of my favorite parts was Medusa. That scene was well done and I was cracking Weeping Angel jokes through the whole thing. Inversely, there were a lot of scenes that I didn't like. I didn't like the casino scene, I didn't like the Hades scene or Grover staying with Persephone (There are just so many things wrong with that, I don't even…), and I didn't like the scene at the motel.

The special effects were good, but the characters seemed rather flat and the new plot contrived. Going on a quest for mystical pearls, which are hidden in plain sight all across the country? Really? What was wrong with the original?

Okay, this is a really long post, so I'm just going to end it here. Scha-CHA!

"Omnia, dear, the readers can't see your giant Fate scissors."

Aw, poot. Well, so long for today, my good reader! If you liked this post, I'll do another one next week comparing the Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang book to the movie.

:)

Dream Dream

Had another dream this morning. I just woke up from it and I do not remember any sort of logical progression in it at all. It was basically me walking around for a while with my laptop, watching nonsensical AT4W videos and bemoaning the fact that my mom got a giant bowl of candy and the only thing I could eat were these tiny mauve triangles that tasted like crap. My cousins put in an appearance, but the only interaction I had with them was grabbing one of the boys and pushing him in front of me while I shouted "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?" and pointed at a tiny, ratty, yappy dog that was sniffing around next to my pool that I don't actually have. For some reason, my house was host to a lotta tiny, yappy dogs. Also they put makeup on my cat and my mom's nonexistent-in-reality boss was sleeping in my bed.

I couldn't have been asleep for too long, because when I fell asleep my alarm was still purring and it's now seven thirty, while my alarm clock goes off at seven fifteen. I'm also typing this blearily while trying to keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds at a  time, having just woken up. My apologies. Now I must go and… *thunk*

Just A Couple Of Things That I Wrote

"The clock is ticking!" Lindsay shouted. I tried to ignore her. I had enough to worry about right now. 

Wiping beads of sweat off my forehead, I crouched behind the display case. 

 "We've only got ten minutes left to got to the ostrich egg before the beer zombies do!" 

She rolled her eyes. "Duh, Mr. Exposition."

Somewhere deep inside the gift shop, a timer rang out. Not good.

"Oh, for—" 

 

Overanalysis Of and WMG About River Song

My dears, I am far overdue for another Doctor Who-themed post. I'm sorry if you do not watch or do not like Doctor Who—in the case of the former, it's a great show and you should give it a chance; in case of the latter, I cluck my tongue at you in disappointment (unless I've forced you to watch it, in which case I'm now spending a moment feeling sorry for you.) Later I'll post a very lazy post about some short stories I wrote a couple days ago while waiting to tour a brewery. Aw yeah.

The spoilers for series four, five, and the first half of six start here. I haven't seen any of the second half of series six yet, so these theories might already have been jossed. Please to not tell me. I'd like to stay in my fluffy cloud of frantic not-knowing for the next year until Netflix gets series six part two on streaming. Dayum.

Anyway, I've spent some time obsessively analyzing some of River Song's Doctor Who episodes, including the Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead and The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone two-parters, and most of series six part one. Wikipedia and other such sources contributed to my theories. By now, I've come to some conclusions.

• *ahemahem* SILENCE in the Library, FOREST of the Dead, and FLESH and Stone. Silence: series 6 baddies that look like the Slender Man. Forest: The only water in the forest is the river, a clue to River's true identity. Flesh: flesh avatars, otherwise known as a clever way to explain the fact that Amy has been pregnant for the entire sixth series without, like, doing another Amy's Choice thing. Clever, Moffat, clever. 

• Let's consider the background detail/nerd hook of the spacesuits from the Library episodes being in the dropship in The Time of Angels. This may imply that River goes to the Library soon after the Angel episodes, except that she's a doctor in that episode, not a professor. How long does it take to get a professorship? 

• Melody's life-support unit is a spacesuit. In the Library episodes, River wears a spacesuit. Foreshadowing/backshadowing/symbolism?

• Although an astronaut does shoot the Doctor, and Melody was living in a spacesuit at the time, I doubt that the killer astronaut is River. It seems a little obvious, and there are some details that just don't work out. 

• Related to the above, WHY did River shoot at the astronaut after it shot the Doctor? If she really was the astronaut, she would have been around eight or nine at the time. Little Melody probably would have remembered shooting the Doctor twice. Perhaps when she regenerated, she lost her memories for some reason. Maybe she knew/remembered that Eyepatch-Lady-I-can't-spell-her-name turned Melody into a weapon, but that still doesn't explain why she shot at herself. 

• In The Impossible Astronaut, what's with the picture of Amy and her daughter? Amy looks really happy, so I doubt it was taken around the time of A Good Man Goes To War. Logically, it must come from the future, most likely after the gang rescues Melody. ('Cause they're totally gonna.)
• Off-topic, but Moffat confirmed that River's sonic squareness gun from the Library episodes is Captain Jack Harkness' from his first episodes. Even if he left it in the TARDIS, it was probably lost when the TARDIS regenerated. Maybe Idris!TARDIS will return somehow, and for some reason she'll give River the gun. Maybe Jack and River meet, and she gets the gun from him. I'd like to see that episode. 

We know that Moffat was planning all this right from the beginning, the brilliant troll. Therefore, everything could mean something. Not every detail, but any detail. (<-- Obligatory Library reference)

In conclusion…this. Which also doubles as today's Awesome Thing. Does that still exist?

"What does it mean? What does it mean?"