So, apparently, I only read young adult novels now. It started with the Harry Potters and the Twilights, but it's moved on from there. I know I'm an "adult", or whatever, but something about these books as really been drawing me in .Thankfully, I look like I'm 16 most days, so I don't look quite as weird checking armfuls of YA novels out at the library. I highly encourage you to check out books that aren't written just for adults.

Like chick lit and/or romance? Sarah Dessen's there for you. She has a bunch of teen romance novels, with outcast, lonely girls and wounded, sad boys that you just want to save. They're sweet in their innocence and simplicity.

Like action/adventure? The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is excellent. I was flipping through the pages as quickly as possible to see what happened next. I read most of the series in a week. I can't wait for the movie.

A fan of Twilight? Try the Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. It's about werewolves, not vampires, and the quality of writing is a lot better (no murmuring) but a similar compulsive readability and love-at-first-sight plot line.

But nothing has prepared me for the sheer amazingness of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. They're about a dystopian North America, where the government pits young people against each other in a televised last man standing competition. I didn't expect to love these as much as I did. I've never even seen an episode of Survivor. But these books are so freaking good, I couldn't put them down. There's a great love triangle (I love Peeta. LOVE), awesome, breathtaking action, and fascinating look at what the future could hold. I can't wait until August when the third and final book comes out.

I'm doing this again because I love it:

Copied from Avitable:

1. Go to the "Random Article" link on Wikipedia. Write down the title of the article. This is the name of your band.

2. Go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days”. The third picture will be your album cover.

I've discovered something weird about myself.

Recently, Mike and I have been re watching Pushing Daisies. We watched all the discs in quick succession, until we reached the last disc and suddenly, I didn't want to watch anymore. I wanted to catch up on our tivo'd items, instead. Also, Mike keeps talking (incessantly) about the upcoming, final season of Lost. I'd rather it not come.

Even now, after reading the first four books of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series quickly, I have the final book sitting next to me. I'm listlessly web browsing instead of reading it.

I find myself doing this sort of thing all the time. If I really love a book, I'll read through it quickly, then put it down and it will take me days to finish reading the final chapters.

Why do I do this? Who knows. I guess I just don't like good things to come to an end. Then it's over, and I won't have it anymore. Sure, you can re read a book, or re watch the tv series, but it's not the same.

I'll only find out whether or not Percy can stand up to the Titans for the first time once. I'll only discover (hopefully) why there are two John Lockes, and what the hell the smoke monster is, and who Sawyer ends up with for the first time as the season unfolds. (Although I'm sure I'll watch Lost again on DVD once the whole boxed set is released)

You just can't rush that kind of satisfaction, for me.

To share with you how I'll be spending my Christmas:




I'll probably eat a lot of food, too. We have breakfast with Mike's parents, lunch with my mom and brother, and dinner with Mike's grandparents/extended family.

Seriously, whatever you do, whatever you celebrate, have an awesome day. Be good to yourself.

Okay, so I saw Avatar yesterday. Apparently my take on it was a lot different than most of yours. My review is spoiler free, aside from the summary from IMDB and I don't think there's anything in there that wasn't in the trailer.

First, here's a short summary via IMDB:

Yes, it was beautiful. Yes, it had amazing, unbelievable special effects. It definitely deserves credit for all that. We saw it in 3D, and I've never seen anything that amazingly beautiful on the big screen before. I definitely recommend seeing it in theaters, especially in 3D, while it's there because I think it will lose a lot at home on DVD.

However.

Avitable wrote in his review "Even with the basic plot and one-dimensional characters, the movie is phenomenal." And not just Avitable's review, pretty much every review I've read has said something like this.

I don't think the beautiful picture should make up for the complete lack of original plot. I mean, really, is that what filmmaking has become? We'll just recycle the same, overused plot but pretty up with groundbreaking special effects? Because I can tell you, I knew what was going to happen 30 minutes into it. I could tell how it was going to end, I could tell how the love story was going to go.

If it took James Cameron this long to make this movie, he should have had time to write an original story to go along with all that CG. I've seen this all a million times before, and at least then it didn't take almost 3 hours to tell the story.

So, I'm finally on winter break. This particular semester was a hard one for me, but I think that had more to do with lack of motivation than actual challenge from the work. We had a semester long project that I did the majority of in the week before it was due. This proved to be a very, very dumb thing to do. (I know, who would have thought?) I was so rushed towards the end that I made stupid mistakes, like forgetting to put my lighting fixtures on the board, and spelling the word porcelain wrong (Hint: there's no "e" at the end). But in the end, I recieved a solid B, so I'm more than comfortable with that. I think it also helped that I was the only one who did my boards on InDesign, so they looked a million times more professional than anyone else's.

I always have a sense of uneasiness when the semester ends. For so long (and especially at finals) I've poured all my extra time, effort, and energy into projects and homework, then suddenly I have nothing but free time.

That, and all my tv shows are on hiatus. That also frees up a lot of time.

I wasn't going to make cookies this year, but I've been awake for about two hours and I'm already bored. It's only the first day of break. So I guess it's cookie time!



Here's a few of my projects from this semester:

My semester long project (the floorplans anyway):





Computer Art Studio:

My first project in Illustrator: (to create a mechanical device)



My second project in Illustrator (Architectural Piece)

I stood up for myself, and the world didn't end.

It makes sense, really. Theoretically, people stand up for themselves all the time. They must, or nothing would get done.

I finally reached my breaking point. With the main boss out of the office for medical reasons, her stand in was on a complete power trip. An inefficient, poorly managed power trip. After repeatedly making mistake after mistake, then making other people clean up her messes, I had had enough.

Granted, all I did was put my foot down, and say No. No, I will not clean up your mess. This set off a chain reaction throughout my workplace (because if, heaven forbid, Amanda stands up for herself, it must really be bad.) which resulted in many people standing up to her, in a much louder and more confident manner. Not that much changed, but at least we all got apologies. We got apologies, then told to finish cleaning up the mess.

But at least I got that tearful apology, and the sense of satisfaction for not caving in for the first time in my life. It's a step.

So, oops. It's been two months since I posted. I am, indeed, alive and well. However, I am overwhelmingly, mind blowingly, headache inducingly busy with work and school. It's all good, though.

Other things I've been busy with:

1. We went to Farm Aid and saw Wilco, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson. We went because we both love Wilco, but in all honestly, I was super psyched when John Mellencamp performed. Now you all know my dirty secret. And man oh man did the middle aged ladies go CRAZY when John hit the stage.

2. As much as the middle aged ladies love John, the middle aged dudes love They Might Be Giants. These dudes were rocking out in their accountant outfits. We went to a show where they performed Flood in it's entirety. It's the 20 year anniversary or something like that. We were by far the youngest people there, which surprised me. I guess it makes sense though considering I was in kindergarten when it came out.

3. We went to a ton of festivals. Greek, Irish, Craft, Beer, Art, you name it, we went to it. It's been a beautiful fall here and we've been out enjoying it.

4. Work drama. Lots and lots of work drama.

5. Drinking. Wine.