Saturday, October 31, 2009

And away we go

Dear Friend,
As I announced on my facebook profile about two weeks ago, I'm doing National Novel Writing Month. Now, what that is, thousands of (lunatic) people are challenging themselves to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. You can start anytime after midnight November 1St and you need to finish before Midnight November 30Th. I can hear you thinking, "Do you win anything?" No, but you get a "novel" and a sense of accomplishment if you succeed. Again, you're asking, "Then why bother?" Because it's a challenge, that's why. And so many people have a goal to write a book that they're very likely to never get around to, and this is a way to just buckle down and do it! It's been going on for 10 years before now, and I'm joining in for year 11.
As I'm writing this, I have 45 minutes until midnight. I'm slightly concerned that as the clock strikes twelve I will feel all my ideas and plans rush out of my head, seemingly never to return. I have not outlined any of my plot. Frankly, all I have is a set of 4 characters (I need 6, so those other two better "show up" soon) and a few scenes that I'd like to write. I just need filler. I also need a title, but I suppose that will be easier to think up as the story goes along. At least, I hope it will.

If you want info, you can go to nanowrimo.org and check into all the madness.

Ha, last year I blogged about maybe joining in, but chickened out. This year I signed up before I could rethink it.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Many thing to review

Dear friend,
I just bought four Cd's and watched a movie. So, of course I've got lots of opinions rattling around in my head, and have decided to write them out.

I'll start with the film, as that will be easiest to sum up. I watched The Brothers Bloom a few days ago. I saw the previews last spring during a summer movie preview show. It looked quirky and pretty, right up my alley. The plot revolves around two brothers who happen to be Con men. The younger brother wants to quit this line of work, but the older brother wants him for just one more job. So their last victim is an eccentric, sheltered heiress.
It was an interesting movie, sometimes it was funny, and it was visually stunning at times. I just... well, I wanted to like it much more than I actually ended up liking it. As far as I can tell, they didn't want a rating of PG so they added in pointless language and a bogglingly unnecessary scene on a train in a thunderstorm to bump up the rating. It may also have been too impressed by it's own clever ideas. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. So I can't exactly recommend it. 2.5/5
It did, however, confirm to me that I think Adrien Brody is beautiful. Don't ask me to explain that, I don't get it, it doesn't make any sense, I just find him insanely attractive. (Also, dear brother of mine, who has a habit if bringing up strange topics I've blogged about in front of our parents, let's leave this one off the discussion table, ok? This would just be too weird to talk about with Mum and Pop)

Now, new music reviews. Lately I've purchased the newest offerings from Ayiesha Woods, Barlow Girl, Michael Buble, and Relient K. (Spell check loves all those names right now)

Ayiesha Woods, "Love Like This" is good. I wasn't expecting too much, but the Christian Book store had a coupon to buy two get one half off when I wanted to buy Barlow Girl and I enjoyed AW's first release so I went ahead and got it. It's pleasant and fun without inspiring any strong emotion in me at all. It's good background music, but not my newest worship experience music. 3/5

Barlow Girl "Love and War" is amazing. I was disappointed by their previous release. It did nothing to encourage me or lift my mood. In fact, the last Cd was depressing to me. They more than made up for it with this one. It's encouraging and great for leading me to look to God and see what amazing things He can do and has done. I love the sound of the music and their voices and feel a sort of Beatles kind of vibe from a lot of it. If, you know, the Beatles had been three women, or something. 4.5/5

Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" is pretty good. Same sort of thing from the Canadian Crooner. He's got a few new original songs, such as Just Haven't Met You Yet, which is awesome, but it's mostly covers. They're good, but not amazing. If you like Michael, you'll like the CD. 3/5

Relient K's "Forget and Not Slow Down" is great. Honestly I'd been worried about this release. It feels like RK and I are due for a dud. When I'd heard that this was essentially a CD full of breakup songs I was expecting to dislike it. I bought it anyway. I'm glad I did. Yeah, there are a few melancholy songs that you won't help to lift any mood, there are still great songs that you can listen to whenever you want, single or taken. The sound is great, though occasionally surreal and weird. It might be difficult to put these songs on playlists or in a shuffle since the intros and outtros are almost seamless despite being on different tracks. I still love the CD. 4/5

So, there are my reviews. Hope you enjoyed reading them!