For my next trick I shall post

Ha! Didn't see that one coming, did you? I actually posted! Well, to be perfectly correct, I'm in the process of writing the post but by the time you read this it shall be posted because I can control time that way. Yes.

Ellen just left (which might explain the hyperness) and made an AMAZINGLY-AWESOME-ZUKO-PLUSHIE-OF-WIN!!! It's not that trial one- it's peeeeeeeeeeeeerfect! Uwah, I luvs him so. Especially in green, right Ellen? Hint. ^-^ Btw THANK YOU!!!!

Okay. So all of you, every last one of you- yes, even you- must get into vlogbrothers, an amazing funny and brillinant youtube channel of two brothers who alternate posting videos on the same channel. One's a writer, the other a musician. It's been going on for a few years already, as those of you who've I've accosted and forced them to watch might be aware.

Here's a link to a video of the writer!brother that I think is best to start out on if you're trying to get into them. It gives a background on a term used in a lot of the videos and I feel is pretty need-to-know. And you all need to know.

youtube.com/watch?v=xy1M5VHF3no

(I fail right now and can't put in the link. Hope that works but if not just type into youtube search "How nerdfighters drop insults"

Enjoy!

Super Powers

I miss you all too! I know what you mean about your college friends. We can't go as crazy around them. Nick is pretty normal compared to the rest of you! (It's still scary to me how much he's like Ben) And yet he tolerated our weirdness pretty well, huh? Hahah! I hope Howl's Moving Castle didn't scare him now that I finally got him to watch a Miyazaki movie! I've been talking to him about those for 2 years!
I did do something where all of us had super powers! It was a small part of the X-Men story I wrote with Fern. I did finish writing it, but it's not fine-tuned. Did you want to read it?
I probably won't put it up on fanfic though.
>.<
But yes! Write a story with us! I'll be Fern again! (If we do the superpower thing). Ask me if you need details about her!
We got to pet a baby penguin at the zoo! It rocks knowing people who work behind the scenes!

I really do miss you guys during the school year.
TT-TT
I gotta talk to Angeles and Stephanie. Maybe Crystal and Kelly. WHo else is around during the school year? We should have movie night every weekend! That would make it a little better. Since I don't live on campus, I don't have as many college friends as I did high school friends.

Plushie

I made a plushie! Just a trial run to try out the pattern and make sure that felt would hold up. Here's a few pictures ^__^

Friends

Well a bunch of us hung out today. And I really missed all you guys >___<
We all need to get together more often and be random. I cant be as crazy around my friends at college. It's just not the same...

Anyway, cheers to all of you awesome people I've come to known over the years. You're all freaking awesome >______< yeah! :D I'm still a little hyper if you cant tell!!!! I need to make a story based off of you guys one day...actually maybe I'll make a short story about all of us...that'd be pretty cool. :D Yay! New project! ha ha ha!

Maybe I'll make up something about our lives though. Something to do with awesomeness...like we'll all have a special power (only one guys). ...Didnt Tara do somethign like this already? What happened to that? Well I'm gonna do it anyway. It'll be short, like a sped up novel without all of the boring bits. Or an anime that has no commercials and doesnt spend fifty chapters talking or fighting or whatever. Okey dokey I'll do that in my spare time...yeah...

Swords and an additional rant

Ok so I wanted to do a post, but I wasn't sure what to do it on. Kelly suggesting writing about a movie I saw the other day, but I didnt feel like it. Then I thought about writing about the Moon Dragon story Tara and I are writing, but I didnt feel like it. Then I thought, maybe I'll write about the zoo (which was really fun), but I didnt feel like it. So in my effort to post, I've decided to write about swords (in case you couldnt tell).

So I'll start with what I'm familiar with. Katanas. They're the swords that most people associate with Japan and samurai. It's one of the sharpest, if not the sharpets, blades in the world. The technique they use to make the sword super-sharp and strong is folding. The swordsmith has to fold the metal about fifteen times (too many and its too brittle, too little and its not strong enough). It's a long and grueling process and is usually very ceremonious at times.

There's a bunch of different sizes of japanese swords ranging from two inches to ridiculously huge ones. One thing that bugs me a lot though is when people wear them wrong or place them on the stands incorrectly. Technically they can flub their way through hanging or wearing a katana upside-down. The katana (everyday use) is worn blade up so it arcs like a rainbow. The tachi (a ceremonial sword) is worn blade down so it looks like a banana in a banana split. You also put them on sword stands this way, blade down for tachi, blade up for katana.

And now I don't feel like talking about katanas. So I'll talk about khopesh swords.

They were used in ancient egypt. I think they stopped making them in about 1300 BC. Anyway, the khopesh is a sickle-sword, and very cool looking. Even though it looks likes its used for bludgeoning, because it has a bulky blade, it's actually used for more slashinga attacks. I'm too lazy to post a picture of it so if you want to know what it looks like just google "khopesh" in images or something.

Oh and one more thing which has to tie in with my last post ranting about the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. Kimonos and the like you have to wear them a specific way. I can't complain about the ties and all the ridiculous things you have to do to wear it right, but one thing is extremely crucial. The lapels. The right side goes first, with the left overlapping it. That's the right way to wear it. If you happen to put the right overlapping the left, it means you're dead. Japanese dress the dead this way, specifically because they're dead. If you watch the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, you will notice that most everyone in that movie is wearing their shirts/kimono/robes (whatever) correctly. Everyone except for Katara. Apparently she's a corpse that's been brought back to life. Weird isnt it?

Mission to Mars

So, just watched Mission to Mars.
It's a good movie! I don't think it's really well known, but it's a great movie. Scifi, of course, if you can't tell from the name. It's sort of a first contact movie. At parts, it's frustratingly slow, but it's supposed to be. It will make you feel thoroughly creeped out about going into space.
And the finale's pretty awesome!
It's not an evil alien movie. And it has an awesome take on the origin of life on Earth.

Missed

O figured out why I didn't see your post down there! Because at the time you had it posted, I had my OWN post window open (It was open for a long time because I was stalling in searching for the videos).
Waah! I've never missed seeing a post on my blog before! I's so sad!
But Ellen actually posted on exactly the thing I wanted her to before I asked her! which makes me happy.
^-^
Good rant, Ellen.

Rant

So my rant, because I started it a few days ago is a couple of posts down. You cant really miss it. It's really long and has a nice numbered list, finishing with an overview. Enjoy ^__^

Movies: Last Airbender, Harry Potter

So, Ellen and Kelly and I went and saw the Last Airbender on Sunday. The movie. It was really bad. I'm not going to rave about it here. It would take too much space. But one thing I will say, the characters had no... character. Neither Aang or Sokka were funny, and they pronounced some of the names weird (Ellen says it's more of an Asian pronunciation). Maybe I'll ask Ellen to rave about it. I think she'd like that. And the finale was lame and and and...
Yeah.
The other movies I've seen by this director weren't this bad. I liked Lady in the Water, and the Village was pretty good. I saw the Sixth Sense a LONG time ago and don't remember too much about it, but I don't remember disliking it.

So, this week, I'm volunteering at a summer camp at a ranch I used to go to all the time as a kid. I was talking to some of the kids about said movie, and they started talking about the Harry Potter movies. They were really sad that they couldn't go see the movies because they were rated too high for kids to see. They said that it was almost all kids that read the books, so it's not fair that they shouldn't be able to see the movies too!
I'd never thought about that before. Never even noticed the ratings cause I'm old enough to watch them. But they're really right. That's not fair at all! Why do the movies have to be so dark and stuff, so that kids cant' go see them if they love the books? Stupid directors! Think about these things!
The first 2 movies were definitely the best...

Youtube

Me and Nicole were watching these the other day. I liked it, so I thought i'd put it up for a random change.





Oh yeah!
I put these up about a week ago. It took me a long time to get the stupid program working, so these took far too long to make, and I couldn't get them all into the same clip so I had to do each episode separately.
So, as I was reading FMA, I liked Ling/Lin, but He wasn't one of my favorite characters. Only as I watched Brotherhood did I find him absolutely hilarious!
So, Here's Ling Yao.
Spoilers involved!!

The Last Airbender Movie Rant

I had this almost done, but then I got kicked of the computer -___-
Anway here is my ridiculously long The Last Airbender movie rant.

I was reading reviews for "The Last Airbender" and some of the reviewer were saying that they "liked it", or it "wasn't the worst movie of the summer". I was going to write my own review, but because I lack and account I couldnt.

I know I've already ranted and raved at everyone about this movie, but why not have a record of it?

First off, I have to say I absolutely love the TV series as most of you know. But I can say, if you love Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV) do not, repeat NOT see this movie. Yes, the proceeds go to the creators and blah, blah, blah, but it just killed it.

It's not unreasonable to cut out a lot of the first season. I can understand why they cut out King Bumi, Jet and his Freedom Fighters, the people who now live at the Northern Air Temple, The Storm episode, The Fortuneteller episode, Jun the bounty hunter, the pirates, the episode with Hei Bai (the forest spirit), the fire temple and the winter solstice, meeting Avatar Roku, The Great Divide episode, meeting Bato (a member of the Southern Water tribe), meeting Jeong Jeong (Aang's first firebending teacher), Katara not being allowed to learn waterbending at first, and the Kyoshi warriors.

All those things being cut out, I can forgive.

Zuko having hair, I can forgive. The change in name pronounciation, is completely understandable (it throws me for a loop, but it's understandable). Having firebenders unable to create their own fire makes sense. I mean no one else can "make" earth or water or air. (I use the word 'make' loosely because katara learns to pull water from the air and plants, but that's later)

I can even look past the fact that in the TV series everyone is mainly your generic type of Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) and were replaced with Caucasians and Indians. That's fine.

And I completely understand why Sozen's comet needs to come in three years instead of a couple months. (cant have the actors age a few years in what's supposed to be less that a year in the movie)

What I cant get past is listed below

1. Iroh is not the fat jolly person we all know and love.
2. He only mentioned tea once...only once
3. Appa and Momo have no personality
4. You didnt even learn Momo's name until the siege on the Northern Water Tribe
5. Sokka wasnt sarcastic. At all.
6. He's the meat and sarcasm guy, that's all he is. He didnt have either.
7. Sokka was just kind of there, not really predominant. Sometimes I forgot he was in the movie.
8. The actor for Aang looked like Aang and sounded like Aang, but he didnt act like him
9. Aang stole Katara's "hope" speech
10. You cant steal Katara's "hope" speeches, it's her designated job
11. Katara only had one hope speech...but it was about responsibility.
12. Zuko was not as angry and did not have a one track mind of restoring his honor and capturing the Avatar. (Side note: When he did mention honor or capturing Aang, he sounded like Zuko which was good)
13. Haru was about seven or eight years old. (How's he supposed to grow a moustache later?)
14. The movie was not funny. I laughed...maybe once, and it wasnt a laugh out loud moment. More like a chuckle. I cant stop rolling on the floor with laughter whenever I watch the TV series.
15. Admiral Zhao wasnt as...cunning as he was in the show. He was going through the motions, but the hotheadedness and impatience wasnt there. (That being said he had some really good insults in the movie.)
16. In the spirit world, all Aang ever does is talk to a dragon spirit.
17. Aang was a lot more angsty and scared. (It's understandable if you look at it the way the movie portrayed it, but if you've seen the show you see how Aang tries ridiculously hard and usually his talent gets him through it)
18. There was no awesome koi fish water fighting.
19. The koi fish avatar state Aang was replaced by a giant wave. (I can kind of look past that if you think of how hard it would be to create with computer graphics)
20. The giant wave rose up, and did nothing. (Sure it's intimidating, but couldnt it have...I dunno crashed onto the battleships or something?)
21. The bending wasnt synched at all (The actors doing martial arts, that was fine. The CG, that was fine. But put it together and it looked silly)
22. The actors would go through their stances and it would look really cool, but then after they were done, the rock or water would go flying. It lacked the fluidity of motion that the TV series had when someone was bending. (The firebending was slightly better, if only because it's fire and movie people have more expertise with explosions)
23. The voice over narration. Was it really necessary?
24. Everything that didnt need to be explained with narration. It would have been easy and add maybe a few minutes to the length of the movie to show what was going on, instead of telling us. And either way we would've figured out most of what the narration covered.

Those are just the things that kind of nagged at me. Yeah I know it's a lot, and it seems like I'm more upset about those things than just miffed. But my ultimate number one reason for being super annoyed at this movie is Azula.

Ok so if you've seen Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV), then you know Azula. Evil fire nation princess. Here's a few words to describe her

Fire bending prodigy
Confident
Cruel
Rules with fear
Manipulative

I could go on, but I'd have to say those ones are pretty up there. Anyway the actress that plays Azula has about...five seconds air time right at the end of the movie. Fire lord Ozai is most displeased with Admiral Zhao's failed attack on the Northern Water Tribe. His banished son, Prince Zuko, and his brother General Iroh have disappeared and failed to capture the Avatar (Aang). He fears that the Avatar will learn earth and fire bending before Sozen's comet returns in three years time. The comet will give them the power to create their own fire, and nothing can stand in their way of ending the hundred year long war by total domination.

He turns to Azula, with whom he entrusts foiling the Avatar. Azula looks up at him, says "Yes, Father." Then smirks. But then her smirk twitches like she's going to stop, but then the smirk comes back, then it stops, then comes back.

And my face is like >:O WHAAAAA?

Azula is not supposed to falter. Never (at least till she goes crazy and stuff). but she's supposed to be full of confidence. That she can succeed where others have failed because she is the so freaking awesome. I mean come on! Where's that overly cruel and evil Azula I've come to consider the greatest villian of all time? Sure she's evil, but there's a person in there! If this actress cant live up to my expectations of Azula, I dont know what I'll do. Makes me wish I could have auditioned for the part myself. I can do an evil laugh like its nobody's business. I've been thinking that maybe I should audition for Toph for the second movie...

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. I thought that ultimately this movie failed to represent the plot, and the characters. Also I think it failed as a movie in general. It was way too rushed at the beginning, the characters were two-dimensional (when they originally werent), there was little if any character development, and the ending was long and drawn out.

And that's it for my ridiculously long rant. :D

Plastic

I've been drawing lots of concept sketches of Fern. I'm not gonna put one of them up for sure. And I'm gonna draw a few more, and then I'll post all of the others at once. Just so's ya know.
So, I'm gonna talk about something that bugs me.
Plastic packaging.
You know, when you buy a toy at the store, and it has a fortress of heavy duty plastic packaging around it, and you break the toy trying to break the plastic off of it?
Or like pringles (though not plastic), you have to buy a whole tube of metal had cardboard for a handful of stupid chips. The packaging costs more than the thing you're buying!
And then all that wasted plastic ends up i landfills, filling up space and leeching into our ground water. And need I remind you that plastic never breaks down. It gets smaller when it rips and stuff, but those small pieces are still plastic. There's a big spot IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN where there's tons of plastic floating in the water. There's more plastic there than there is plankton.
And then birds eat the plastic on the beaches, thinking it's food. And they fill their stomachs with plastic, but get no nutrition from it, so they starve to death.
Styrofoam's really bad too.
STOP MAKING AND WASTING SO MUCH PLASTICCC!!!!!!!!

Briena and Romka facing the Demon

I drew this a while ago. Briena and Romka are facing the demon in Darien's room. They're on he spirit level, so they're floating (not standing on tiptoe).

Dragon Sizes

OK, so I've been putting this off for a while. I wanted to do a chart of how large the different dragon species are compared to each other and to humans.
(Yes, the Phoenix dragon really is that small).
I think the Titan and Lash dragons are actually supposed to be bigger though... my bad. Just imagine them even bigger. I'll re-draw it later, I guess.

Wood Dragon redone

I redrew the Wood Dragon. So it's a bit better now.