The Last Airbender

I have seen a clip.

I want to cry, it was that bad. No way would I ever, EVER go see this. I'm actually horrified with what they've done to it; or, you know, specifically what M. Night Shyamalan has done to it.

Let's go through this in order:
Okay, so to start, Katara looks dead, and Aang looks like a baby. This would be acceptable if they could act, which they can't. I'm not sure why Aang is reading his dialogue like that, but it's broken and choppy and generally sounds like an amateur movie. Next, "You are powerful and amazing people." That's what it sounds like he just said. That's not....the grammar....just...WHAT? Is English not your first language in this movie? (Actually, that would explain why he talks so oddly...) AND THEY'RE SURROUNDED BY EARTH AND STONE, WHO THE HELL THOUGHT OF THAT? WHAT KIND OF IDIOTS ARE THESE PEOPLE? WHAT KIND OF IDIOTS ARE THE FIRE NATION?? WHY WOULD YOU PUT PEOPLE WHO CAN MANIPULATE EARTH IN AN AREA WHERE THEY ARE SURROUNDED BY EARTH???
Ah, and now the names. You know, I've heard that Shyamalan purposefully had them all mispronounced. Again, this might (might) be acceptable - if the entire thing didn't suck so much.
And again, Sokka and Katara look dead. Yay for conveying emotion!
"I ran away. But I'm back now." A sixth grader could write a better dialogue.
Aaaaaand then there's some seriously weird head moving...(who's he talking to? The fire nation? The earthbenders?)
(....this dialogue is slowly killing me, send help....)
Oh Sokka. You're...mildy funny. The only thing that hasn't vastly upset and horrified me in this 3 and a half minute clip.
And then the firebender looks constipated...(also, yet another thing I've heard: the firebenders can only bend fire if they have one near them. WHY. THE. FUCK. WOULD. YOU. LEAVE. IT. BURNING. You have a waterbender! Just have her put it out!)
Why is it this is a fight scene, and yet everyone takes their turn, one by one, to fight? The people are rallying, and you aren't doing anything? You're not even shocked - you're just standing there!
Oh nice, we gave Katara her scroll. How you knew it came from her tribe, I don't know. I can't rewatch the rest of it. This is too painful. I'm going to go rewatch the entire first and second seasons of the original TV show to get this blasphemy out of my mind...

My Family Vacation

My mom's side of the family (or some of them, at least, though I'll get to that later) decided that this year, we'd do a little family thing together, and it would be to rent a house in Charlevoix, MI. We spent the last week there; me, my mom, and sister, my dad for half of it (he had to come home in the middle for an inspection on our house), my mom's two sisters and one of their husbands (the other came late, and stayed only for a day because he wasn't feeling well...we think he had E. Coli), and all their children.
To be honest, while I love my family, they are hard to deal with. I'm pretty sure this is true for everyone. We have all sorts of tensions that go on among the adults, not helped by the five young children running around the place and screaming. And of course, being the eldest cousin, the really used to enjoy doing things to me - sort of, "Let's all gang up on the big kid" thing. They've gotten better - now I only have the youngest hanging around all the time, and she's absolutely adorable, so I'm okay with that.
Anyway, so we were up by Charlevoix. It really is beautiful up there in Nothern Michigan. Like, breath-takingly beautiful. It's the second time I've been there, it turns out - when I did the bike trip through my camp two years ago, we biked right through it. We also visited a couple other towns we went through - though it took us far less time by car. Leland, known for its historic fishtown (...yeah. It was actually pretty nice), and Traverse City, which was hosting the...National Cherry Festival. *cough*
I leave for Ohio this Wednesday, where I will be for my dad's family reunion on Saturday, and moving on to my YMCA camp on Sunday, for two weeks. When I get back, I will have one day, and then I will be going to another camp, at which I will be teaching disabled kids to ride horses. The day I get back, I have a French exchange student as well as family coming over.

It's going to be a busy summer.

Books read this year: 61
Times I've been to the beach: 5

The Last Airbender

I just saw a behind-the-scenes clip with Jackson Rathbone, who is playing Sokka in the movie.
And he can't pronounce his own characters name.

There may be spoilers in this blog post.

Maybe. Except not, because really, how can they kill off Maid Marian in Robin Hood? She's CANON. She HAS to live, there's no way she dies, I know she doesn't die, but HOW THE HELL CAN SHE BE ALIVE IF THEIR¹ ALL SAYING SHE'S DEAD? Because it's not one of those, "Oh, well they must have died, but we didn't actually see them die, they just fell off a cliff/were there when that thing blew up/have no pulse and seem dead²/were shot/got hit by a bus. And it's not "They're lying to the main character for his own protection/to hurt him" because the main character went to check!

(this post took me two hours to finish because I got sidetracked at TV Tropes)


¹ Oh look at how my grammar leaves me when I'm angry...
² Actually, that might be what they're using here...except for unlike the examples, she didn't take anything to make it look like she died. She just died...and will now come back to life somehow, because her heart didn't really stop, or something like that.

Book #49

So, I was reading Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, and I stumbled across not only a reference to Dr. Faustus and the parade of the seven deadly sins, BUT ALSO a reference to the conspiracy theory that they were the same person.
(While we're on the subject of this book, I might as well mention that if Melissa Marr is going to continue using love triangles in all of her books, I just may have to stop reading them, because I hate love triangles. They make me angry.)

(Oh, and as the title would suggest, this is book #49 of this year)

Is this weird?

Sometimes I really just want to post little blogs that are only a sentence.

I almost forgot a title...

I get nervous about things a lot. Not written tests, surprisingly, but everything else? Yeah. Oral exams or presentations, in English or French, first days of school, first days of anything else, lifeguarding, playing solos, talking to waiters/salespeople in general, swimming/diving in meets, interviews, diving in practice, walking the dog¹, driving.
There is, however, one thing which tops all others in terms of jitters: camp. Every year, without fail, I am so excited/nervous I can't sleep the night before. I start figuring out a packing list months in advance. I have actually made myself sick due to lack of sleep and general stress because of it.
I love camp. So much. I've been going to it for 6 years now, and it's always one of the highlights of my summer.
That being said, it also makes me excessively nervous, especially as time goes on and two things have happened:
a) the original group of friends I went to it with no longer go to it/do different programs or sessions than me. ²
b) I gain more responsibility as years go by.
Culminating in this year, where I will be going with no one I know, and living in a cabin with the campers as a Counselor-In-Training. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE A COUNSELOR WAAAAAAAH!!!
Ok. I need to calm down now, so we'll move onto other internet things.

1. These really cool reimaginings of the Disney princesses by Jeffrey Thomas. My favorite's the Sleeping Beauty one:

2. Saw the A-Team. Was hilarious. Also saw Dirty Dancing, and I love '80's movies.

3. For anyone who cares:
Books read - 45 (100 is my goal, so I'm pretty much on track)

4. Terry Pratchett is amazing and I love his books.
That's all for tonight folks!

¹Walking the dog sounds like something that would be really easy and stupid to be nervous about, but our dog has yet to go to obedience school, and therefore barks at everyone and everything, and quite frankly, it's embarassing.
² To be honest, I don't know how much of a difference it would make if my friends were still doing it, seeing as I pretty much don't talk to them at all during the school year...they all live in Evanston, IL, and I now live in St. Paul, MN. They've becoming closer to "people who used to be friends" than "current friends" at this point...