Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in jill_rg's LiveJournal:

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
1:36 am	Pixar Sonnet A sonnet summarizing one Pixar film per line. I got this idea from reading a poem called “Shakespearean Sonnet” by R.S. Gwynn, which does this with 14 Shakespeare plays. To get 14 lines, I included the 4 movies currently in the works: Toy Story 3, Cars 2, The Bear and the Bow, and Newt. I wrote two versions in-between taking notes during my LONG night class – one with the movies in chronological order, and the other scattered. Version 1: A cowboy and an astronaut get lost. An ant feeds a grasshopper to a bird. A ripped toy fears being outgrown and tossed. Monsters celebrate when kids' screams are heard. A clownfish hunts an Australian dentist. A superhero fanboy seeks revenge. A big tie-breaking race is nearly missed. A new chef makes a health inspector cringe. A lonely robot gets a big surprise. Balloons help heal an old widower's grief. Will a daycare save toys from their demise? A racecar returns, to our disbelief. A girl finally gets to be the lead. Will efforts to get newts to mate succeed? Version 2: A cowoby and an astronaut get lost. A chef dies; a rat carries on his work. A monster saves a girl at any cost. A racecar learns not to be such a jerk. A retired hero fights a fanboy. A grasshopper is beaten by an ant. A newt has a mate she does not enjoy. One toy has to repeat another's rant. A clownfish hunts an Australian dentist. Old cars get a second chance to succeed. A college student will be sorely missed. A girl finally gets to be the lead. A lonely robot gets a big surprise. A man flies with his house into the skies. Current Mood: creative (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
7:17 pm	Back Up From avatar_fans A recurring theme I've come across in the Avatar fandom is that, apparently, Zutara shippers are also big fans of Pride And Prejudice because of the whole "hate=love" angle. I never really looked into it (I had no right to) since a) I am not a Zutara shipper, and b) up until a month ago, I'd never read Pride And Prejudice. (I have no idea why a bookworm like me took so long to read such a classic; maybe it was because I was such a big fan of the Little Women series, I saw no reason to look for another book about the lives and loves of a group of sisters in the nineteenth century.) When the inevitable happened and my current Lit class covered that book (which is one of the best I've EVER read!), I assumed fans seeing Zutara in Pride And Prejudice couldn't be as widespread as I thought, but just out of curiosity, I did some searches on Google and DeviantArt to check it out. It turned out, yes, it is that widespread and that sincere. Darcy/Elizabeth is Zutara's second-favorite ship. I'll present the pro-Zutara arguments like we learned how in Intro to Philosophy: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth started out hating each other, but they eventually fell in love. Zuko and Katara started out hating each other. Therefore, Zuko and Katara can/will/should fall in love. Or, to be more general: Arguing can be full of sexual tension, and hate can lead to love. Zuko and Katara fight/battle or argue a lot and appear to hate each other. Therefore, they are really in love. I've often seen people point out the fallacy of the second argument (that just because there can be sexual tension between people who appear to hate each other does not mean there always is, and just because people who are in love - in fiction, at least - mask it with hate does not mean everyone who hates each other always is), as well as the absurdity of comparing epic fantasy with Eastern mysticism to a Romantic novel. But I found all those arguments unnecessary after I actually read Pride And Prejudice. Nobody seems to notice the biggest fallacy with comparing Zuko and Katara to Darcy and Elizabeth.   ( You want to know the truth about Zutara's second-favorite ship? ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
4:11 pm	Big Read Meme The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicize those you intend to read. 3) Underline the books you LOVE. 4) Reprint this list in your own LJ. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman * (read the first and LOVED it before the last 3 chapters; no intention of reading the rest) 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34 Emma - Jane Austen 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding 69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte's Web - EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo   Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
10:01 am	All You Need To Know About Me My Personality   Neuroticism 87 Extraversion 17 Openness to Experience 58 Agreeableness 60 Conscientiousness 71 You often resist any cravings or urges that you have, but sometimes you give in, however you feel enraged when things do not go your way. You are sensitive about being treated fairly and feel resentful and bitter if you think you are being cheated. People generally perceive you as distant and reserved, and you do not usually reach out to others. You prefer the security and stability brought by conformity to tradition. You do not like to claim that you are better than other people, and generally shy from talking yourself up, however you generally see others as selfish, devious, and sometimes potentially dangerous. You are well-organized and like to live according to routines and schedules. Often you will keep lists and make plans. Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report. Myspace Layouts Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)
Friday, June 20th, 2008
11:20 am	Don't Be Afraid Of Loners! I got a rude awakening last night when I went to ask my college suitemates to turn the music down at 11 at night. Forget about the rude way one girl told me not to open their door without knocking (I knocked HARD two or three times with no answer). I find out "We all have issues with you, you know." I have rarely ever been so shocked and dismayed. I am the ideal roommate: I am quiet, not nosy, I do not blast music or the tv, I do not party and drink or do drugs, I do not have rowdy guests over, I do not leave a mess around, I don't even leave hair in the drain like my old roommate did! Okay, so I don't like loud music at night when I have work the next morning -- who will tell me that's unreasonable? Still not recovered from this bombshell that everyone apparently "has issues" with me that I cannot imagine over what, I ask, and instead of giving me a straight answer, the two girls just sit there exhcanging glances and nervous smiles, saying they don't want to gang up on me. But you don't have a problem driving me crazy by saying you're mad at me and not about what? What guys say about their girlfriends are true -- women expect everyone, not just guys, to be mind-readers! No, they let me sit there on the verge of tears and/or throwing up, begging to know what I've done wrong, until the RA arrives. What is their problem? They're "intimidated" by me because I'm a loner. Keep in mind that all other 3 girls that I live with are animal science-related majors who work in the stables; I am an English major who works in Human Resources. They all knew each other before we moved into the summer dorm. I was thrilled that they were all friends with so much in common so I could be free to do my own thing and hang out on my own. Turns out, I'm not. I have to actively make an effort to be their best friend, or they take it as an insult. People like my roommates just do not understand how loners are wired. We do not NEED to be a part of a group. I'm not trying to make them feel awkward or like they're excluding me; it never occurred to me (never, not once!) that it would bother them that I didn't seek out opportunities to interact with them. Leave me alone! I keep to myself because I LIKE IT - I'm not trying to insult or intimidate you! You know, there's a Students for Diversity Club on campus. It promotes tolerance of minorities like Muslims, African-Americans, and homosexuals. But the social nature of the majority of the human race makes loners/introverts a minority, too. Maybe people need tolerance classes on how to understand loners. We do not seek to be in a group by default. We don't consider an insult to the group as not associating with them. We and our alternative lifestyle deserve the same tolerance as homosexuals. But it should be easier because you don't have to be nice to us! Just LEAVE US ALONE! And if you want to remind me to always lock the door, even when the suite isn't empty, tell me! Communicate! Communicate with people who aren't your best friends! I shouldn't have allowed myself to get so scared last night. I didn't try to intimidate anybody, so if I intimidated anyone by being myself, that's not my problem. Unless I break any rules, nobody is going to tell me what to do or how to act just because they live with me. I am not mean, I am just a loner. People need to know the latter does not necessarily imply the former. Don't be afraid of us! Every loner is not a Virginia Tech Shooter waiting to happen. We're just wired differently. We're not trying to make you feel slighted by not joining your group. We do not have a hidden agenda. We just - as crazy as it may sound - really do honestly and truly like to be alone. Current Mood: annoyed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
4:44 pm	Why Can't I Just Keep My Mouth Shut?!! I had a major Asperger's attack in my Semantics class today; that's the only way to describe it. See, it really bugs me how other college students complain about studying and hard work. It's COLLEGE! It's supposed to be hard! Studying should not be considered a burden any more than breathing is! Go to a French college and try complaining about hard work; those students will laugh in your face (or if they don't, they have every right to). Professors who indulge this attitude bug me even more. Case in point: my test in Semantics and Semiotics today was a joke; some of the multiple choices are things like "Slim Shady" and "doublemint"- things that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject. So when a boy speaks up and talks about how difficult some of the questions are and the professor responds and the two keep conversing *while the test is still going on* just made me cringe in disgust. Questions are supposed to be hard and make you think! And I can safely say I found each question (outside of the essays) totally obvious and probably answered all of them right. So people kept talking (I repeat, *during a test*), I kept telling myself, "Don't say anything, keep your mouth shut, don't say anything, keep your mouth shut..." I didn't keep my mouth shut. I started with, "Hey if you're going to give him a freebie, give us one, too." Somewhere along the line, I implied I expected to get them all right. I ended with how talking during a test has been a reiterated, universal taboo in every school we've ever been in. When I handed in my test, the professor asked if she could expect a hundred percent. I mumbled, "I don't know," and practically ran from the room, saying, "I'm sorry." I was so embarrassed, imagining everyone thinking of me as a proud, arrogant, know-it-all who thinks she's smarter than everyone else. I was annoyed; I don't think anyone else is stupid or lazy, just... that was ridculous! I haven't felt so out of control with my anxiety and social ineptitude in weeks. The familiar fear of being judged and inability to put up with something I just can't fathom scared me all the more because I thought I was done with it. Apparently, my urge to speak my mind about everything is just part of who I am, but my social ineptitude due to Asperger's makes me ill-equipped to do it right. Fortunately, I may only learn things the hard way, but when I do, I learn them THOROUGHLY. It took an infected tooth and three months of nausea and dizziness to teach me to take care of my teeth. It took being reminded of the terrible results of speaking up when I know I shouldn't to teach me to keep my mouth shut. The whole world is not interested in what annoys me. When you have Asperger's, you have to learn to tolerate the things that just bug you and mind your own business. It also annoys me when people don;t mind their own business. Great, now I'm a hypocrite. Well, this is the last time. Current Mood: anxious (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
10:41 pm	My Conclusions About The Golden Compass When I first read online that they left the last three chapters out of the movie adaptation of "The Golden Compass," I was stunned. But now that I've read the whole book, I understand why, and I wish Philip Pullman had done the same. The last 3 chapters are like a completely different book. The tone changes abruptly and becomes hopeless instead of exciting and adventurous. Asriel takes the time to deliver a rant against Christianity with absolutely no subtlety; whatever objections Pullman to C.S. Lewis, there is no such equivalent speech against atheism in all the Chronicles of Narnia, even though Lewis would have been highly qualified to do so, being an ex-devout atheist. Throughout reading this book, I was wondering, what's all the fuss about? The author calls himself an agnostic, but many of his heroine's ideals and action (i.e. learning to have faith in something she can't fully comprehend and in someone whose power she can't fully fathom) are very Christian, and his issues with Christianity were mostly subtle. Then BAM! It's like someone got a hold of his final manuscript and snuck this in; that is how different the last 3 chapters, when everything goes to Hell for Lyra, feel. He wrote sucha  good book and got his point across and several I as a Christian can appreciate that he probably didn't intend. Why spoil it with a lecture and... all this misfortune that came completely out of left field? And if Coulter and the Magisterium represen the Church and evil, Pullman's written himself a big problem. Their opponent, Asriel, who gives the speech about how wrong and evil they are and believes their beliefs are wrong and holding him back, turns out to be just as evil a villain as Coulter! So how can we take what he says as moral or right? He's evil, he believes the Church is evil. According to Pan, anything the villains believe is bad must be good. Mr. Pullman, make up your mind! Is Asriel right or wrong about Christianity? If he was wrong, why was his speech important enough to include even though it ruined a magnificent book? If he was right, does that mean killing Roger to open a portal to another world and find the origin of Dust is okay, too? Are we supposed to believe and root for him (after all, our alternative is to root for the evil Church)? Making a villain the spokesperson for the author is either very stupid or... very creepy, if you know what I mean. Knowing they changed the ending, I want to see the film now, but I don't think I want to read the rest of the books. I have no desire to enjoy a story again only to have it ruined by the author hitting me over the head with an anvil... via a villain! Current Mood: indescribable (Comment on this)
9:01 pm	Thoughts on The Golden Compass Part 2 Chapter 9 * So there's no taboo against daemons touching other daemons? When Mrs. Coulter's touched the little boy's and then Lyra's, there was nothing odd about that? I've already heard of the taboo of humans touching others' daemons. Just makes how the whole system works all the more perplexing. * And I've wondered what it means when someone's daemon is the same gender. It must mean something, or Pullman wouldn't have mentioned it was odd. * So, the alethiometer is designed so that the readouts can mean whatever you want them to mean and say whatever you want them to say. * It's important she hears what Jacob has to report, but she's not to actually do any fighting or take any action? * Enemy's always one step ahead of them- could they have a mole in their midst? * If this Holy Object at Gabriel has any importance to the story or the mystery of the alethiometer, it was poorly introduced. * Sure, put a frail, ancient man in charge of mischief incarnate. He can handle her. * And the theme of the pain of change strikes again, nicely placed throughout, I might add. * Conversing with the alethiometer sounds like praying to me. Probably not his intention, unless it turns out to be evil, but it's one of the Golden Compasses like the Subtle Knife, which I'm pretty sure isn't evil. * So, I assume Lyra's power to instinctively know what the symbols mean and, therefore, how to ask questions and interpret answers, is unique. Why can she do it? * So they have to baby-sit this evil spirit for the rest of Lyra's life? What a drag. Chapter 10 * Now the story sounds like “Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” * So witches' daemons can separate farther from them and do more useful things like delivering messages or attack someone far away, like familiar spirits. Why was another witch's daemon trying to kill this witch, though? * Yes, it's no fun to change and find yourself not liking the change, but it's out of your control. So very true. * And the truth about Lyra's Destiny comes out. * From what I've read about Iorek and seen in movie trailers, he's pretty... pathetic. And drunk. What happened to him? * Sorry I asked. Chapter 11 * I recognize Lyra' insistence of the truth and inability to make others see (so would Lucy). Belief in absolute truth even when the facts suggest otherwise is quite a Christian concept. Pullman has said time and time again that he has no idea what the truth is. But absolute truth, right and wrong, exists here. * So, I guess lee Scoresby created a distraction with the card game so Lyra could go help his old friend. * This Iorek must be pretty impressive if he even scares Lyra. Yes, it reminds me of Lewis' descriptions of Aslan. * What about loners in their world? Do they like having daemons? Either there are no loners in their world, or if you're a loner, there's something wrong with you. Typical. * What exactly could Pan do to defend her? If he gets hurt, she feels it, and if he dies, so does she. Staying out of the fight, keeping himself as safe as possible, sounds better. But it creates a noble picture. * The girl talking down the beast. Classic. * Just what I was thinking, Tony. * I've got it! Mrs. Coulter must be a witch! That's why she could be in a different room than her daemon at the party. So, Lyra is at least half-witch... maybe she can fly! Assuming it works that way in their world... Chapter 12 * Oh, I hope that ghost isn't Roger. I already know he dies, but still... * Poor Lyra; thanks to Iorek, she actually has to as permission! Maybe this means Iorek will teach her a thing or two. Odd if Pullman has such hatred for “authority” that he would consider obedience an honorable thing. * Shouldn't it be Lyra that Iorek is bound to, since she's the one who helped him find his armor? * “Prayed with all her force...” to who, hmm? Chapter 13 * I feel Lyra's disgust and sadness. Good job, Mr. Pullman. * “Pay for that fish”?! You've got to be kidding me! * Couldn't these villagers see that Tony and the other children had no daemon? Why didn't they tell Iorek and Lyra? * Is this taboo just an arbitrary rule, or will something bad happen if someone else's daemon touched you? * How do they separate children from their daemon? Do they kill the daemon? Do they keep it locked up somewhere? Was there hope for Tony to be reunited with his if he hadn't died? If not, what do they plan to do with an army of half-children? * Aw, Lyra's burial ceremony is such a sweet, noble gesture. But it raises the question, what do they carve on coffins of children if their daemons haven't settled yet? Sadly, there are plenty of other ways for children to die besides intercision. * They pray; to whom? * Metalbending bears – sorry, I had to say it. * Lyra keeping this evil spirit on her person reminds me of Harry and his friends keeping Voldemort's locket Horcrux on them until they could destroy it. Chapter 14 * Two balloons? Prediction: Lyra's going to hijack one. * The alethiometer can't tell you the future, can it? * Great – they successfully avoid Mrs. Coulter and the Oblation Board, only to be jacked by a completely neutral nuisance of a third party! *...Or not. Experimental Station sounds like the place where intercision is done. * So she lost her boots. Did she lose the fake alethiometer with the evil spirit? * ...Never mind. * Intercision HQ Confirmed * So Lyra's on her own with a fortress full of children to save, her best friend possibly among them, with no help to expect from her allies. This is going to be good... to read. That doesn't mean things won't go very bad. Chapter 15 * How odd Mrs. Coulter didn't describe Lyra for her henchman and tell them to keep an eye out. They have no idea who she is. * I doubt they make holes in your head, too, but it's a valid comparison. * Good distraction with the snowballs, Lyra! * Magic spells with snow. Cool, no pun intended. * Severed daemons and their humans can't be restored? How horrible! What are they going to do with them? Chapter 16 * Lyra's only true fear = Mrs. Coulter. * “Did some other things”... that's code on crime shows for sexual molestation. Oh, my gosh! I doubt that's what she meant, but that's the scope of how awful these experiments are. * No, it's not her fault the Oblation Board is inflicting the cruelest and most sadistic torture possible on every child they can get their hands on. It's a good thing Lyra hid in that wardrobe, or there'd be no one to stop them. * Crawling through ceilings and walls; see “The Magician's Nephew.” * Way to go, Lyra! * Someone else touching your daemon sounds like Mind Rape. The whole “touching where hands have no right to be” gives a very sexual image. * I wasn't expecting the first villain to violate the daemon taboo to be a nameless mook. Very effective shock-inducer. I keep reading that passage over and over and it scares me anew each time. * Lyra's right; daemons shouldn't want their humans to separate others from their daemons, but can they disobey their humans? * Favorite chapter Chapter 17 * So the procedure is too horrific for her daughter but not for everyone else? WHAT IS UP WITH YOU, MRS. COULTER?! * Mrs. Coulter's monkey touched her; guess she's too out of it to register what that feels like. * So this isn't Mrs. Coulter's and the Magisterium's interpretation of the truth. They don't really believe the operation is for the kids' good; it's a Lie, or so Lyra believes, and I trust her. That would make them hypocrites in the real Church, liars who give true Christians a bad name. The problem is, in this world, there are no true followers who haven't warped their ideas into evil, only the hypocrites. * The snowball war idea is made of win. Go, Lyra! Last notes I'll make because there's too much action now to keep stopping and writing. Later Okay, so Lyra and Coulter aren;t witches, Coulter's just that creepy, but you can't blame me for guessing. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
4:09 pm	Thoughts on The Golden Compass Part 1 I checked "The Golden Compass" out of the library today and read 124 pages in one sitting. I must be losing my touch; I've read an entire Harry Potter book in one sitting, several times, once all night without sleeping (because my idiot roommate brought a boy over at 3 in the morning without telling me, and he snored like a buzzsaw). I know that the "real" title of the first book in the trilogy is "The Northern Lights," but this edition is called "The Golden Compass," and so was the movie, so that's probably how my mind will always think of it. I haven't seen the movie, of course; I couldn't call myself a true bookworm if I knowingly saw a film based on a book without reading the book first. So far, I'm intrigued, and I'm enjoying it. Here are my thoughts as they came to me: Chapter 1 * Colleges do make the perfect setting for a fantasy story; they're big and mysterious and hard to navigate and easy to get lost in and full of complicated history and mysterious buildings. I've often found passages in my own dorm I never knew about and wondered how perfect it would be to write about students finding a door to another world among them. * What I've read online is true; takes hardly no time at all for the wardrobe to appear. * I thought daemons were supposed to represent characters' souls, but then why are Pan and Lyra so different? Is her subconscious thoughts that she likes to ignore? Her conscience? Maybe he's just more of an animal companion spiritually linked to her. I would love more explanations about the nature of deamons, not just how they work (i.e. you feel your daemon's pain, they lose their shapeshifting ability as you grow up, you can't be separated from them for too long... the last part, which btw, reminds me of heart crystals from I believe the fourth season fo Sailor Moon). * If Lord Asriel's an abusive jerk, and they're not exactly close, why did she save his life? Maybe deep down she didn;t want to, and that's why Pan (her soul) argued against it? It established her as a hero for me, though. Chapter 2 * Her uncle has disocvered Dust that makes portals to other worlds (see "The Magician's Nephew") * I've read online that Asriel is something of a villain, so I don't know what to make of The Master. * Un-Subtle Argument Against Chrstianity #1- Heaven and Hell "Unfortunately for the Magisterium, there seem to be sound mathematical arguments for this other world theory." Looks like he's getting at Christianity being fond of ignoring or trying to quash scientific proof against it. Considering there are no sound mathematical arguments for a multiverse in the real world, odd example. Maybe that's just how Pullman wishes it would be. * Ending is pretty funny and witty. Chapter 3 * I like the style of starting by portraying a scene for the reader with little explanation so we have no idea what everything means yet, followed by exposition on the college and Lyra's lifestyle and a bit about the conditions of their world. * I know by the monkey daemon the woman must be Mrs. Coulter, the main villain, but changing black hair to blonde in the movie? Dark and light, especially hair and especially for women, are symbolism that shouldn't be lost! If there was an uproar when fans worried Sue Storm's hair would be changed from blonde to Jessica Alba's brown, this is worth a riot. * Does someone else's daemon touching yours hypnotize you or lower inhibitions or make you trusting of them, or what? well, clearly, it's not a good thing. * Villains always lie. Satan is the great deceiver, and the villain here is a shameless liar, too. * I already know they separate the kids from their daemons, and by referring to that "entire child" in the photograph, the Scholars and Asriel must know something, but what? And do they just know about it, or are they in on it? Chapter 4 * "Female scholars... poor thing"? Oh. * I already know Mrs Coulter is Lyra's mother and Asriel is her father, but I don't know who else knows. Does Asriel? Does Mrs Coulter? Does The Master or any of his peers? Who knows what about all the mysteries? That's important even if you the reader know the mysteries. * Does The Master know Mrs Coulter has evil intentions for Lyra (I only know that from what I've read online; i have no idea what happens between them)? * Apparently, yes. * I was wondering if she'd notice how easily she forgot about Roger. That's the first thing female villains often do; flood you with kindness and good fortune to make you forget. Chapter 5 * I guess I should be happy things are going so great for Lyra, but A) I know that the better things are this ealry in the story, the worse they get later, and B) it's weird. She never struck me as the kind of girl who would enjoy this rich, fancy, pampered, yuppie lifestyle and love things like makeup and shopping and cocktail parties. * And what's Mrs. Coulter's goal through all this any way? Is Lyra some kind of "Chosen One," and Mrs. Coulter has to keep her happy and content to ignore the mysteries of Dust and the Gobblers so she won't find out about her destiny to stop them or something? * Ah hah! So Pan was thinking B, too. * post daemon-on-daemon attack Red alert! Outed as a villain! Don't trust her! * I have a feeling that journalist is going to be important later. She was around for too long. * So, now I know what Lyra's job was supposed to be, but why Lyra? Because she's Mrs. Coulter's daughter? But nobody at this party knows that. Chapter 6 * Did she allow herself to be picked up by a pedophile? * Yeah, brandy with a side of GHB, I bet. * Half-killed? Cue image of Dementor's Kiss. Chapter 7 * Answer to my previous question: Everybody except Lyra knows everything about Lyra. Typical. * So, only Asriel could protect Lyra from mrs. Coulter, and The Master wanted to protect her from Mrs. Coulter, but he wanted to kill Asriel because he suddenly decided Lyra would be safer away from the college? What triggered that? Maybe Asriel wanted to use her for somehting dangerous. But then he wouldn't have rebuffed her request to join him. Maybe The Master recommended Lyra to Mrs. Coulter because, since he cares about Lyra, he'd rather her be her assistant than end up another random victim of the Gobblers' experiments. * And why does Mrs. Coulter need an assistant? She seems to be catching plenty of children on her own. Well, maybe The Oblation Board has several, and she didn't think there was anything special about Lyra. * So Lyra is some kind of Chosen One or at least something special that they need to defeat the Oblation Board, but what, how, and why? True, John Faa didn't say that, but they must have a reaosn for keeping her around and hidden despite the risk. * IMO, that alethiometer is pretty inefficient, and it would be easier to just figure out the truth by traditional means. Chapter 8 * So, is the reason they're still hiding and protecting Lyra just because she needs protection, out of the goodness of their hearts? Nice, but too simple. * Glad someone brought up the imbalance of gender roles in the plan and the question of To Rescue Or To Kill? Trditional heroes' primary objective is To Rescue, but from what I've read about Pullman, his "good guys" and "bad guys" aren't traditional (which is good). I like John Faa's response: To Rescue And To Kill If We Can Spare The Time Afterwards. * Tony echoes Asriel's rebuff; I bet Lyra's getting really frustrated. * Okay, now I'm frustrated for her with all these people content to protect her without letting her do anything or thinking she can help because she's just a kid. NEVER say that to a kid hero and expect them to comply. Overall: * In the preface to a wonderful novel I just read called "Ceremony," with a male protagonist, the female author writes that she finds it hard to write female characters. So did Louisa May Alcott. Joss Whedon writes excellent female characters. As far as female protagonists go, Lyra is unorthodoxly competent and strong and self-reliant. Do all authors write members of the opposite sex better than they can their own? Can't wait to see how Lyra gets around all this adult interference. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
2:42 pm	Mourning for the Rockies' Wolves I read several news articles online today that broke my heart and very nearly made me cry. Wolves in Idaho, Wyoming, and other states in the Rockies being removed from the Federal Endangered Species List should be a good thing. There are 1300 some wolves now where there were none 30 years ago. But now all everyone wants to do is kill as many as they can as quickly as they can to "protect" their livestock and children. Reading about laws allowing wolves to be killed for so much as "annoying" livestock, bumper stcikers that call wolves "Terrorists," planned trophy hunts, and jokes by the governor about being the first to sign up for a permit is literally making me sick. It baffles me how they plan the cold-blooded systematic execution of beautiful, majestic, innocent wolves whose existence incoveniences them and in the same breath accuse their victims of being killers. The only Terrorists in this area are the humans who want to kill these stewards of the elk and deer population and thus the entire ecosystem for... no reason! Profit, I suppose. But their cattle will have nothing to graze on if the wolves aren;t around to curb the even-now booming deer population. And Yellowstone and other parks will only lose profits without the wolves, too. I don't know if it started from visiting the Timber Wolves at Living Treasures Animal Park with my family every year when I was little or after reading Julie of the Wolves when I was a teenager, but for as long as I can remember, I have been in love with wolves. How can the government allow this to happen? How can hunters justify this, I mean, who eats wolf meat? This is too painful for me to think about, I exaggerate not. Lord, protect the wolves until Earthjustice or someone finds a way to save them. Current Mood: sad (Comment on this)
Friday, March 7th, 2008
8:15 pm	For My Own Benefit In case they ban my DeviantArt account for harmless copyright infringement, I still want to be able to find all my Favorites, so I'm compiling a list for myself here: CubieJ Rawles http://ephemeralflutter.deviantart.com/art/Minus-A-Planet-77859300 http://winnie-beatles.deviantart.com/art/Together-for-Tomorrow-78870013 http://booter-freak.deviantart.com/art/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-AVATAR-34578952 http://k-chan.deviantart.com/art/Where-I-Belong-69377255 http://doxeh.deviantart.com/art/Zuko-s-Rant-76725435 http://karnimolly.deviantart.com/art/Kataang-is-ttlly-not-Canon-79087923 http://avatarded.deviantart.com/art/Wait-for-it-pt-2-73465554 http://blissfuldesire.deviantart.com/art/Helpless-38880524 http://luigihann.deviantart.com/art/Q-A-Letter-no-Longer-38745410 http://amazonite.deviantart.com/art/The-Big-Planet-Club-38724019 http://supergrouper.deviantart.com/art/Setsuna-s-Predicament-40004538 http://kagehyo.deviantart.com/art/Pluto-s-not-a-planet-zomg-38682956 http://taigan.deviantart.com/art/Zukanakin-Mild-Spoilers-68392917 http://tobuishi.deviantart.com/art/SWvsAtLA-Little-Coincidences-72222619 http://ayuffers.deviantart.com/art/He-s-MY-BFF-74843778 http://mondlil-chan.deviantart.com/art/Maiko-again-68052692 http://wishsong214.deviantart.com/art/Jet-s-Lament-49107599 http://finni.deviantart.com/art/Avatar-Ozai-s-Angels-32165827 Current Mood: annoyed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
3:47 pm	Why can't people mind their own business? So I rode my bike to the library today to vote for Avatar for the Kids' Choice Awards (I couldn't, as it turns out, but that's another story). I knew it wouldn't take long, so I didn't go to the trouble of bringing my lock and chain along to lock my bike up. When I was ready to leave, I went out to get my bike, and there was a woman standing by the bike rack talking on her cell phone. As I pulled my bike out, barely noticing her presence, she condescendingly said to me, "Very trusting not locking your bike up there, girl." I was stunned speechless at the audacity of lecturing a stranger like that. I do not know her! Never seen her before! Maybe it's because I have Asperger's, but I would never have the nerve to address a stranger like that. You know, if I still lived in the city, nobody would take the time to tell a stranger that (of course, I *would* have locked my bike up in the city, but that's not the point). How is it her busienss if someone she doesn't even know locks their bike up? People, if no one's getting hurt, mind your own business! Current Mood: cranky (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
9:44 pm	Ezekial 18 One night, at an all-time spiritual low, I randomly found and read the most WONDERFUL Bible verses: Ezekiel 18:23- "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" Ezekiel 18:32- "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" What does this mean to me? It means when I pray to the Lord for forgiveness and mercy and for Him to take me back after I've doubted and sinned, He doesn't shake His head in disappointment and say, "Sorry. You had your chance. Nice knowing ya'." It means He wants me, just like the people of Israel,to come and be forgiven and changed. He doesn't want to me to live in guilt and despair, separated from Him even though I deserve it. Isn't the love of the Lord incredible? I've been a Christian my whole life and forget things like this. Reverend McGuiness was right; there are some places, some times, when you feel more sensitive to the Holy Spirit than others. And then there are the times when you feel so low that the most basic truths elude you. Thank you, Lord, for not giving me up! Current Mood: hungry (Comment on this)
Friday, February 29th, 2008
4:40 pm	Can you teach a fish quantum physics? The summer I turned sixteen, between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I attended a program for three weeks at the University of Miami in Florida, getting credits in Marine Biology. The creatures of the sea fascinate me -- always have, always will. Not just beautiful, majestic creatures like Orcas ("The Wolf of the Sea") and polar bears. Tiny, little, mundane fish can be pretty interesting, too, when you think about it. What do all those chain e-mail factoids say about the intelligence of fish? Goldfish have a memory span of eight seconds... can't feel pain or fear or sadness... brain smaller than their eye... Well, most of what we hear about fish agrees on one thing: they're stupid. Okay, that's rude. What we mean is, while fish may know enough to be fish and live like fish, compared to humans, they're stupid. There are things we as humans know that you could never teach fish. It would be impossible- *IMPOSSIBLE* - to teach a fish anything about quantum physics, the study of the electrons of an atom as waves instead of particles. In fact, I'm sure there are some humans out there who are thinking, "Hey, it would be impossible to teach *me* anything about quantum physics." Compared to how much smarter we as humans are than fish, how much smarter is God than us? A lot more. I have my days when I feel desperate, confused, broken... wishing God would just explain how this could possibly all fit together and what's going on. But like fish could never understand quantum physics, there are some things about God that I as a human just don't have the capacity to fathom. I can't know, but I can trust that God knows. Current Mood: hungry (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
10:34 pm	Testimony of a Loner I once had this epiphany (I get them a lot). I had problems like any teenager growing up. My dysfunctional family wasn’t rich; in fact, we were poor. Our house was a sea of tension. My siblings and I got into dangerous fist fights. My father is an Adult Child of Alcoholics who never hit my mother but brutally emotionally abused her and broke her down almost on a nightly basis. I used to wonder why I didn’t turn to the popular teenage channels: drugs, drinking, sex… I get it now. It’s because I am a loner. I never turned to any such outlets because fitting in and/or companionship would not have made me feel better. Being a loner is a survival mechanism given to me by God that made me turn to books and daydreaming to cope instead of sex. God protected me by making me a loner, and I will not run from it. Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
10:00 am	Snow Day I fell asleep with a completely dry, clear ground (okay, so it was a little muddy) and woke up to SNOW - and lots of it - everywhere. So college was clsoed for the first time this winter. No Environmental Lit class- this is good (since I didn't do the reading and was planning to wing it in discussion). But I work in 2 offices on campus, and Human Resources and the Tutoring Center are closed, too- this is bad... four hours worth of a paycheck forfeited. Current Mood: creative (Comment on this)
Friday, February 15th, 2008
11:00 pm	Possibly Temporarily Incommunicado My college decided to use the President's Day holiday to do some "emergency" electrical repair work, which will mean a campus-wide power shut-off on Monday. So I decided to book myself a train trip home to visit my family for the weekend- up in the rmeote mountains of central PA with the slowest dial-up in the galaxy. I spend too much tiem online anyway. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
9:47 pm	Thank you, Dr. Freud Having trouble in English class? Well, I am going to give you some foolproof advice to help you out whenever you get put on the spot during a discussion. As a college senior, I have lived, sleeped, and breathed Lit(erature) classes for the past three years since changing my major to English. This consists mostly of reading literature, writing about what you read, and sharing your thoughts in class. Almost immediately, I noticed a pattern whenever a professor tried to get us to see "what the author really means here." Apparently, nothing is literal; everything is symbolic of something deeper, and everything has subtext. I got sick of being told I was wrong whenever I said something didn't mean anything more than what it said on the page. So I almost jokingly developed a rule in my mind that I have used to get me through many a tricky class discussion without fail. To my surprise, this rule still always works. I am not exaggerating- this rule always always works: Whenever a teacher asks you, "Now, what does this really mean?" and you have absolutely no idea, just say, "It's about sex." Not in those exact words, just come up with some way how the poem or scene or image or whatever could be symbolic of something sexual or have sexual subtext. You will be right every time. Not once since I have used this strategy have I been told, "Now, that's a stretch," or had someone laugh and not take me seriously. They always take it perfectly seriously and find it completely plausible. Sometimes someone else says it before I do (or wrote it in an essay we're about to read a sample of next). Here's the most recent case: last week, my Minority Lit class was discussing the 3rd chapter of The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. This chapter, "Shaman," was a story-within-a-story. The narrator, a Chinese girl born and raised in America, is telling the story her mother told her about attending medical school in China, including an incident of being attacked by the Sitting Ghost while sleeping in her dormitory. This isn't exactly a fantasy novel, so one girl, not thinking the scene could possibly be taken literally, asked, "What's the deal with the Sitting Ghost?" I thought the most obvious answer was the mother made it up, but no, that's not enough. What does it really mean? (I HATE those words.) Out of ideas, my mind jumped to my old defense, and the wheels started turning. Being attacked in your room while sleeping sounds like rape. She could have been raped and found it so traumatizing, she's blocked it out and replaces the memory with some less threatening, something not even real- an attack by a ghost that she expelled the next morning in a ritual with her friends. Even I had to admit that was a stretch, though, so I only said, "Something else really bad must have happened to her- she was attackd or something- but she doesn't want to remember it, so she makes up an exciting tale about fighting a ghost." What does my professor say to that? "Sure- for all we know, she could have been raped." I rest my case. When you have no idea "what this really means," just say it has something to do with sex. You will be right every time. Thank you, Dr. Freud. Apparently, you're not the only one who thought everything human beings say and do is really related to sex. Current Mood: discontent Current Music: L&O SVU (1 Comment |Comment on this)