Naming

I think this might be the first time I've had to think of a title for something that wasn't a story or poem.
I hope I can think of a name good enough that the zoo will want to use for the tours~



(A bear begging for food~)

I have too many hobbies XD
There's not enough time for them all.

Book Update

Time my next reading update. They seem to happen about once a year.
I've been listening to a ton of books on tape as I go to and from work. But I keep reading normal books as well. Most of my reading is done during the minutes I have off during work (before I start, and during lunch break, ex).
Anyway, here are some of the more interesting books I've gotten though in the past year.

I read Sabriel a while ago and liked it. I have since read Lirael and Abhorsen. They were interesting, but I liked the Sabriel book best.

American Gods
I think I was extremely lucky that my first Neil Gamian book was "Neverwhere," because I really haven't gotten into any of his other stuff. It's usually too much for me. And there were parts of this book that just left me going... why? Though the theme was fascinating - the old gods versus the "new gods."

I read The Book Thief too. A bit of an odd writing style, but it was a good book. A good movie as well.


Stardust: I mostly read this (listened to it on tape) because I saw the movie and know people that like it. It was okay. But I just told you how I feel about Neil Gaiman books. Not that he's not a good writer, but it's not my thing.


Let it Snow: It was fun to see how the different stories linked together. I always find these kind of interweaving tales fascinating.

Cress
Winter
I finished the Lunar Chronicles. The first book, Cinder, is my favorite. I loved how they paralleled parts of the original tale with the futuristic setting. At the end of book 3 (I think) we were introduced to Winter. Her introduction was fascinating (I think more so than Winter's actual book XD ).

Scythe
I have a signed copy of this book~
Definitely a fascinating concept. It's one of those books that makes you question the value of life and living forever and such. I recently found there's a sequel. I'll have to check that out.

Wish You Were Here
I've run onto these books before. At one point, I started the series, but didn't understand what was going on (turns out I hadn't started on the first book).
But it was fun! It's like a mystery where the cat and dog help to solve it. I think I'll read a bit further.

Turtles all the way Down
A good book. Though I read it when I was pretty stressed out, so it didn't help me much XP. As usual, his writing has fascinating ideas. It makes you think.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Whoa, I thought this would be something completely different!
I'll probably check out the later books in the series.

Whispers: Yggdrasil Children
I know the guy who wrote this. It's an e-book on Amazon.
It was a good book, but it could have cut out a lot of excess words. I hope the next book in the series goes well~

Earth Heroes: Champions of Wild Animals
This was a cool little book with brief biographies of some people who helped us understand or protect animals.

Twelve Kingdoms: The Aspired Wings
It took me far too long to find a translation of this one. Turns out I was just doing a very bad job of searching XP
We met this character briefly during Shoukei's journey. Now we get to see how such a young girl became queen. And I think with this, I've read all of the Twelve Kingdoms books. I liked this one~ These books always make you think about what it means to be a leader.


Origin
The newest of the Robert Langdon (Da Vinci Code) books. I liked this one. It took me a while, but I did figure out who the bad guy was a little before the official reveal XD There was a moment where I went, "Oh my god, it kinda looks like the motives match up @_@. MAybe this is the bad guy."
He's good at keeping the twist hidden though. That's not easy to do. He always tries to throw in several false twists.

Farside
A sci-fi book about a facility on the far side of the moon. This is the second book I read from this author. The first one was about a science facility on Jupiter. I liked that one more, but I'll have to check out more of his books. They've been interesting so far.

Coco: A Story about Music, Shoes, and Family
Books based off of movies are often bland. And in this case it's unfair to compare a book to the movie Coco, considering how vibrant every panel of this movie is. I also think the book must have been based off of the script, not the movie. Especially considering that it was released pretty near when the movie came out. So that makes it harder to fit the book to some parts of the film.
There was one main thing that bugged me about this book. And that was the scene where they go to see Chicharron. Because in the book. Hector doesn't seem concerned when he sees that his friend is disappearing. If that had happened in the movie, my love of Hector would have been half what it is @_@
But I loved that they looked more into Coco's life. And they spent more time on the rest of the Rivera family too.


Chestnut Street
Okay, seriously. How many people on one street can have affairs or unwanted babies?

From Russia with Love
I'm used to the James Bond movies being a bit silly at times. The books are way more intense and violent @_@


American Indian Myths and Legends
A great collection! The funniest is one of the human creation myths. The creator was baking humans, and Coyote was distracting him. So the first humans were left in the oven too long and became too dark. The second batch was taken out too soon, and their skin was too pale. And finally the third batch was left in just long enough, so their skin was the right brown color XD
I guess that makes me under-cooked.

Tru and Nelle
I got a signed copy of this book at an event. It's based off of a true story of the childhood friendship between two people who became famous writers (Nelle wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird").

Wings of Fire
Someone told me this was like Katani's story. But it really wasn't? Is it because there are different dragon species? That's been a thing since the Pern novels, which started decades ago.
I had trouble getting into this one. Half of it was them locked up in a colosseum thing. And the character.army motives confused the hell out of me.
I do like the concept of a prophecy which has been partly pre-empted. I wonder what they're going to do with it, though I probably won't read any further.
(I do love the cover art though)


Tara Road
After Chestnut Street, I kind of knew what to expect from this author. The only audio book I could find of this was abridged, which I always avoid. But in this case, I didn't care that much (I really only wanted to check it out because it has my name in the title). I don't think I needed more than the abridged version. The writing was fine, but I don't care about this type of story. I mostly just found it stressful.

The Search
One of Tom Brown Jr's books. I love his books, though I've only read three of them. I want to read all of them. They're fantastic and leave me feeling amazing.
You should check his stuff out.

Ki

Okay, another of those times where I'm in the middle of several longer posts which I won't be able to finish tonight.
So I'll pick a random topic.
Though not entirely related, since I have used some of my previous experience in this area as reference for Katani's story.

I took a couple semesters of aikido during college. I knew that what we learned there was pretty shallow, and I was always interested in going deeper. Aikido appealed to me because of the spirit of harmony and love. It's about redirecting energy, not about conquering your opponent. "Aikido" literally means "the way of love or harmony." And that lines up with a lot of my beliefs.
A couple weeks ago I finally went to a demo class at a dojo near my place. And yesterday I signed up for a month worth of classes. It's good timing, since my band is out for the summer. I'm not sure if I'll be able to balance both band and aikido, so I'll do aikido while I'm able to.
I enjoy it a lot. The fluid motions (if I get them right). And the rolling/being thrown XD (There's not enough floor space in my home to do much rolling).
I'm quite rusty since it's been a couple years between classes, but some of it is coming back after a couple sessions.
I feel pretty energetic right after (and then collapse into sleep after XP).
I want to go tomorrow, if my hip doesn't bother me. It's been a bit weird the last couple weeks, I guess from walking all day at the zoo. I probably need better shoes, but I didn't have a chance to get any the last couple "weekends (for me Monday and Tuesday). That's my next project.

Random zoo image!
Barn Owl~ I love their golden wings.

Just because I want to share a photo of the baby snow leopards~

(The photo sent out in their newsletter)
I can't wait to see them in person! Mom leopard probably won't bring them out for a few more weeks.

Angsty Characters

Ever since I started Evva's story, there's a part I've been worried about. I knew from the beginning that Evva ends up with some heart-break. And she is kind of a whiny, sulky jerk about it.
It makes sense. When people are upset, it can be hard not to affect those around you. Some people are openly hostile when they're in a bad mood. Some people end up rubbing off their bad mood on others, whether intentionally or not (I try like crazy not to let my bad moods affect others, though it's sometimes kind of hard around my parents XD ).
But at the same time it can be annoying to read about characters that are acting this way.

Are you willing to put up with some sulky whiny scenes that go toward character/plot development?
There have been times where it almost put me off of a story that I ended up liking a lot (I almost didn't make it past the first few episodes of Twelve Kingdoms because of the characters, but I love it now).
And there are times Steven Universe, where upset characters are definitely acting out of the ordinary.

It totally makes sense, in context. At least to me. But when my Dad watched it, he seemed kind of annoyed by it (even though he is so frustrating when he's in a bad mood @_@ ).

Eeeh. It just seems like a touchy subject to include. I guess because it's hard to get the right balance.

Tom Brown Jr

Every now and then I debate about my favorite book. The Slow Regard of Silent Things might hold that title. It's definitely up there.
I recently realized that when I'm thinking of my favorite book, I'm only thinking of fiction books. Nonfiction almost never enters my mind in that respect, though I've read many amazing nonfiction books.
A few weeks ago finished another of Tom Brown Jr's books. I forgot how much I love them. His experiences and insights are unbelievable. They've given me inspiration for my own stories (especially my grad story). I so want to go to one of his classes.

The books of his I've read are definitely in my top favorites.
I also just realized how many more books he's written. Now I want to get all of them @_@


And have some meerkats~

Is a Predictable Movie Still Good?

Dad wanted to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
I could predict nearly every dramatic moment in the entire movie. Although that didn't bug me as much as the pacing (you have to have a break from constant tension and action) and the fact that the animals often didn't act like animals (Animals running for their lives from explosions aren't going to stop to eat).

I think the most intense moment in the movie was when they were leaving the island.
Backtracking a bit (a lot). In the very first Jurassic Park movie, the most awe-filled moment is when they see a live dinosaur for the first time - the brachiosaurus. One of the largest, most well-known dinosaurs. Beautiful, and peaceful.


They remade that moment in this new movie, where those two younger people see their first dinosaur - the brachiosaurus - in the ruins of the old park.
Then as they escape the island, the brachiosaurus dies in fire. IT was as though she was pleading for help, and there was nothing the protagonists could do for her.
I guess her death was to symbolize that the wonder and awe the dinosaurs once gave is gone? Which kind of makes it seem like any sequels they're going to make from now on are going to be very dark. There wasn't much fun in this one either. At least I don't remember any fun moments?

As I mentioned, I was able to predict most of the movie. For example:
Oh, that guy escaped the t-rex, but the mosasaurus is going to eat him. Yep. There he goes.
That guy is so dead. Wait, he's still alive? Oh, there he goes. Yep. I knew that was the dinosaur that was going to eat him.
Well, this guy's going to show up and save her.
Well, obviously the dinosaur is going to show up and save all of them.

It's nice when a movie (or plot twist) is surprising. But that isn't necessary for me enjoying a movie.
Take Coco. The moment Hector and Miguel teamed up, I knew Hector would be the great great grandpa. But Coco is still my favorite movie.
(I went a whole week without watching any clips. Then I watched Poco Loco and melted all over again)

Panick!

I found an interesting article I thought I'd share, since I like looking at how people think.

When people are under pressure or afraid, they are often less eloquent. Or they may not be able to think of something that is usually obvious.
And it makes sense. When you think you're in danger, your brain goes into fight or flight. Your brain is focused on getting out of a sticky situation, not on digging up random bits of trivia from the back of your brain.
So yeah. When people are stressed, they may not be the clearest of communicators.
Probably a similar thing to stage fright.


(Stress like being treed by a bear!)

Learning More Makes it Worse

I think the more I learn Spanish and Japanese, the worse I get at both of them. Because I keep blending them, or thinking of responses in the wrong language.